A system for utilizing a pressurized fluid includes first, second, and third coaxially disposed body members, each having a cylindrical shape. The third body member is movable relative to the second body member. The second body member has walls that define a cavity between the first and second body members and a passage within the second body member that directs pressurized fluid from a cavity to the third body member. A method of utilizing a pressurized fluid includes providing a coupling and a housing having a cavity defined therebetween, supplying pressurized fluid to the cavity, and providing a first passage that extends from the cavity to a first axially-facing surface of the non-rotating component. The cross-sectional area defined perpendicular to a local flow direction is configured for choked flow within the first passage.

This invention relates generally to fluid systems for lubricating and cooling components and, more particularly, to utilizing pressurized fluids within such systems.
In the context of mechanical assemblies, in particular rotatable assemblies, fluid systems often include cavities containing pressurized fluid. Seals or, in other cases, tightly-controlled gaps or interference fits, retain a substantial amount of pressurized fluid. Some of the pressurized fluid escapes, leaking through the seals or gaps. Mechanical vibrations can exasperate the fluid leakage by causing perturbations of the mechanical assembly components that periodically increase the pressure of the fluid within the cavity and/or increase or introduce a seal gap. To counteract fluid leakage, additional fluid is supplied to the mechanical assembly, increasing the size, weight, and complexity attributed to scavengability of the system. Moreover, in light-weight or space limited applications, integrating fluid systems within mechanical assemblies drives smaller component sizes while increased fluid supply necessitates additional and/or larger components to manage the pressurized fluid.
Therefore, a need exists to minimize the leakage from fluid systems utilized in mechanical assemblies in a manner in which the functions of individual components can be combined, enabling the fluid system to be integrated into smaller, light-weight mechanical assemblies.

Integral oil damper and jet for lubrication of bearings and seals


An apparatus for surface blasting gas turbine blades in the area of their blade roots includes a vibrator with an oscillating surface oriented so that the oscillating surface extends essentially in the horizontal direction. A processing chamber for receiving the blade root adjoins the oscillating surface. The processing chamber is embodied such that the turbine blade is orientable, during the blasting, with a profiled support surface of the blade root extending at least temporarily essentially parallel to the oscillating surface of the vibrator.

The invention relates to a method and an apparatus for the surface blasting, especially the ultrasonic shot peening, of gas turbine blades in the area of their blade roots.
Gas turbines, especially aircraft engines, have a rotor that is fitted with rotating rotor blades especially in the area of their compressor as well as their turbine, whereby the rotating rotor blades of the gas turbine are anchored via profiled blade roots in corresponding recesses of the gas turbine rotor. According to the state of the art, it is possible to profile the blade roots either according to the so-called fir tree design or according to the so-called dovetail design and to anchor the blade roots in correspondingly profiled recesses of the gas turbine rotor. The preferably fir tree profiled or dovetail profiled surfaces of a blade root of a gas turbine blade are also referred to as carrier or support surfaces.
During the operation of a gas turbine, the blade roots are strongly loaded or influenced especially by frictional wear on their profiled support surfaces. The wear rate in the area of the blade roots can be reduced in that the blade roots are hardened on their support surfaces by special surface treatment or processing methods. In this regard, preferably the shot peening is applied. In the conventional shot peening, a considerable surface roughening can arise on the support surfaces of the blade roots, whereby the fitting accuracy of the blade roots is negatively influenced or impaired.
In order to improve the treatment or processing quality arising during shot peening on blade roots of gas turbines that are to be processed, it is already known from the state of the art according to U.S. Pat. No. 6,536,109 B2, to harden the blade roots in the area of their profiled support surfaces by so-called ultrasonic shot peening. Thus, the U.S. Pat. No. 6,536,109 B2 discloses a corresponding apparatus with an ultrasonic sonotrode, whereby the ultrasonic sonotrode comprises a level or horizontally extending, vibrating or oscillating surface, and whereby a processing chamber extends above this oscillating surface. Gas turbine blades are arranged standing with their blade roots in the processing chamber for the processing thereof in the area of their support surfaces. In that regard, according to the U.S. Pat. No. 6,536,109 B2, the gas turbine blades to be processed are oriented standing in such a manner so that the profiled support surfaces of the blade roots that are to be processed extend essentially perpendicularly to the oscillating surface of the ultrasonic sonotrode. Herewith only an insufficient quality can be achieved in the shot peening of the profiled support surfaces of the blade roots.

Method and device for surface blasting gas turbine blades in the area of the roots thereof


In a first aspect, a coated film includes a polyimide film, a curable resin coating composition and an adhesion-promoter. The curable resin coating composition includes a curable oligomer and first nanoparticles. The adhesion-promoter includes a polyamic acid composition and is on a surface of the polyimide film that is in contact with the curable resin coating composition. In a second aspect, an electronic device includes the coated film of first aspect.

Polymer films, having polyimides, polyamide imides or polyester imides, can potentially replace rigid glass cover sheets and other substrates which are currently used in display applications, such as organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays. For example, aromatic polyimides are typically very thermally stable, with glass transition temperatures (Tg) of greater than 320° C., and have excellent foldability and rollability, a critical property needed for next-generation flexible displays. However, these polymer films generally do not have the hardness or scratch resistance required for the cover sheet of a display, and thus must incorporate an outer coating layer to protect the polymer films. These outer hard coat layers are often silicon-based and often incorporate silicon oxide nanoparticles to improve hardness and scratch resistance. Such hard coat layers protect the underlying substrate from mechanical abrasion and wear, and optionally enhance the self-cleaning properties of the surface.
Many polyamide imides (PAI) are very soluble in polar, non-protic solvents, and PAI films will form a specific interface with a hard coat formulation which is likely a combination of the hard coat and PAI film components. By comparison, a hard coat formulation containing non-protic solvents interacts to a lesser degree with most polyimide films, and partly for this reason, the interface between the hard coat film and polyimide film is not well formed. Thus, there is a need to design an interface between a hard coat film and a polyimide film with improved adhesion.


Various embodiments of the invention provide methods, systems, and computer program products for selecting a first telephone number associated with an account for a targeted party and dialing the first telephone number to place an outbound call to the party. Accordingly, in particular embodiments, the first telephone number may be dialed to place a subsequent call after a first predetermined period of time as a result of detecting a busy signal for the initial call. Likewise, in particular embodiments, the first telephone number may be dialed to place a subsequent call after a second predetermined period of time as a result of detecting an automated answering device for the initial call. Furthermore, in particular embodiments, a second telephone number associated with the account for the party may be selected and dialed to place a subsequent call as a result of detecting a no-answer condition for the initial call.

Call centers may originate telephone calls (known as outbound calls) to targeted parties for various purposes. For instance, outbound calls may be made by call centers for the purpose of surveying individuals for a political campaign, notifying customers of suspicious charges on their credit card accounts, inquiring about repayment of past due loan amounts, soliciting donations for a non-profit organization, or offering new products for sale. In many instances, the call center may encounter a number of different results (e.g., outcomes) in placing a particular outbound call besides reaching the intended (e.g., targeted) party. For example, the called telephone may be busy or disconnected, automated answering may answer the call such as voice mail or an answering machine, or the call may continuously ring until the call is terminated. Regardless of the result, a call center typically continues on with the next number in a calling list and may eventually try to reach the intended party at a later time by making a subsequent outbound call to the party. As a result of this practice, many call centers encounter decreased efficiency and effectiveness in conducting outbound call campaigns. Thus, a need in the art exists for improved procedures for handling instances in which the intended party is not reached when conducting outbound calls. It is with respect to these considerations and others that the disclosure herein is presented.

Customized dialing procedures for outbound calls


A method for decoding a codeword in a data stream encoded according to a low density parity check (LDPC) code having an m×j parity check matrix H by initializing variable nodes with soft values based on symbols in the codeword, wherein a graph representation of H includes m check nodes and j variable nodes, and wherein a check node m provides a row value estimate to a variable node j and a variable node j provides a column value estimate to a check node m if H(m,j) contains a 1, computing row value estimates for each check node, wherein amplitudes of only a subset of column value estimates provided to the check node are computed, computing soft values for each variable node based on the computed row value estimates, determining whether the codeword is decoded based on the soft values, and terminating decoding when the codeword is decoded.

One issue common to many data communications technologies is the corruption of data by noise in a communication channel. Thus, error detection and correction techniques are applied to reduce the data corruption. Many such techniques are implemented using forward error correction, i.e., redundant coding of the data prior to transmission. In general, forward error correction involves inserting data bits into the transmitted data stream that indicate whether an error is present in the received data stream. More complex codes provide the ability to deduce the true transmitted data from a received data stream despite the presence of errors.
Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) codes are error correction codes currently used in many high-speed communication standards, such as DVB-S2 (Digital video broadcasting), WiMAX (IEEE 802.16e standard for microwave communications), 10 GBase-T Ethernet (802.3an) and G.hn/G.9960 (ITU-T Standard for networking over power lines, phone lines and coaxial cable). The LDPC codes used are binary linear block codes with a sparse parity-check matrix H, i.e., the matrix includes a low number of non-zero elements. The parity check matrix H is an m×n matrix, where n is the number of bits in a codeword and m is the number of redundancy bits (i.e., parity bits) of the coding scheme. Further, the location of a 1 in the parity-check matrix H indicates that a bit is involved in a parity check. The code rate R of an LPDC code is a unit of measure based on the number of information bits k and the number of parity bits m that may be contained in a generated codeword. More specifically, a code rate R is a ratio of the number of information bits k in a codeword to the total number of bits n in the codeword, i.e.,R=k/n For example, a code rate of ½ refers to a codeword in which half of the bits in the codeword are information bits and the other half are parity bits. Further, if the codeword length is 576 bits, the number of information bits k in a codeword generated with a code rate of ½ would be 288 and the number of parity bits m would also be 288.
A Tanner graph, which is a specific type of bipartite graph, may be used to represent a binary LDPC code. The Tanner graph representation has two kinds of nodes, variable nodes which represent the bits of a codeword and check nodes which represent the set of parity-check constraints, i.e., a parity check equation, defining the LDPC code. Each column of the parity check matrix H represents a variable node, and each row represents a check node. A variable node and column of H are referred to interchangeably as are a check node and row of H. Edges in the graph connect variable nodes to check nodes and each pair of nodes is connected by at most one edge. The number of edges in the graph equals the number of ones in the parity check matrix H.
Many of the communication standards specify structured LDPC codes. Instead of specifying a large m×n parity check matrix H, the design of a structured LDPC code starts with a smaller mb×nb base matrix Hb, makes z copies of the base matrix Hb, and interconnects the copies to form an m×n parity check matrix H, where m=mb×z and n=nb×z. A parity check matrix H is derived from the base parity check matrix Hb by replacing each 1 in the base parity check matrix Hb with a z×z permutation submatrix and each 0 with a z×z submatrix of all zeroes. In essence, each edge in the base parity check matrix Hb is mapped to a vector edge of length z in the parity check matrix H, each variable node of the base parity check matrix Hb is mapped to a vector variable node of length z in the parity check matrix H, and each check node of the base parity check matrix Hb is mapped to a vector check node of length z in the parity check matrix H. Each z×z permutation submatrix is defined as a circular shift of the columns of a z×z identity matrix by some amount.
By using different values of z, i.e., the expansion factor, LDPC codes of rate kb/nb, where kb=nb−mb, can be specified for different information bit sequence sizes k=z*kb from a single base parity check matrix Hb. In addition, a parity check matrix H can be represented in implementations of encoders and decoders by an mb×nb base parity check matrix Hb in which a −1 denotes a z×z all-zero submatrix, a 0 denotes a z×z identity matrix, and any other number denotes a z×z permutation matrix that is a z×z identity matrix circularly shifted by that number. Further, encoding and decoding can be performed based on the smaller mb×nb base parity check matrix Hb and vectors of z bits.
In general, decoding algorithms for LDPC codes are iterative, message passing algorithms in which at each iteration messages representing estimates of bit values of the codeword being decoded are passed from variable nodes to check nodes and from check nodes to variable nodes along the edges of the graph. The messages passed from variable nodes to check nodes are computed based on the observed value of the variable node and some of the messages passed from neighboring check nodes to the variable node. Further, a message sent from a variable node to a check node must not be based on the message sent in the previous round from the check node to the variable node. Similarly, a message sent from a check node to a variable node must not be based on the message sent in the previous round from the variable node to the check node. Messages are exchanged, i.e., the decoding process iterates, until a codeword is detected or a maximum number of iterations is performed.
One message passing algorithm used frequently for LDPC decoding is belief propagation. In belief propagation, the messages transmitted along the edges of the graph represent probabilities, i.e., beliefs. More specifically, a message from a variable node to a check node represents the probability that the variable node, i.e., the bit of the codeword represented by the variable node, has a certain value given the observed value of the variable node and all the values in the messages passed to the variable node from check nodes in the previous iteration. Further, a message from a check node to a variable node represents the probability that the variable node has a certain value given all the messages passed to the check node from other variable nodes in the previous iteration.
In operation, the belief propagation algorithm initially assigns each variable node in the graph a received value that is an estimate of the value of the associated bit as determined by observation of the communications channel. During an iteration of the algorithm, bit probability messages are passed from the variable nodes to the check nodes, updated, and sent back and summed at the variable nodes. The computations in each iteration involve both a row update and a column update of the parity check matrix. The row update involves processing an equation for each edge that enters a check node and permutation of the data after it is read from memory. The column update involves summing the check nodes to form the variable nodes and storing the permutated data in a unique order as defined by the encoder generator matrix. The iterations are repeated until the parity check matrix is satisfied, i.e., all parity check rows are zero, or some other convergence criteria is reached, or until some maximum number of iterations is executed.
Thus, LPDC decoding is computationally complex. In addition, the number of check nodes and variable nodes may be on the order of hundreds or thousands. Further, LDPC decoders may need to process many iterations. Decoding termination algorithms using matrix mathematics may also be required, which involve additional computations and resources. Accordingly, improvements in decoding LDPC codes are desirable.

Method and system for decoding low density parity check codes


A fluorometric system for on-line monitoring of biological processes uses a plurality of light sources, each with a different spectral width, to illuminate a sample, the light sources selected to produce emission of fluorescent light, and usually also dispersed light, from the illuminated sample. One of the light sources has a wide spectral range. The light sources are operated sequentially or in combination. Spectra acquired from the emitted light are combined and processed to evaluate properties of the sample, such as concentration of the fluorescing components or particle concentration. The system preferably uses an electro-optical probe in which excitation optical energy is transmitted to the sample directly from the light sources, typically LEDs, without an optical waveguide.

External perturbations as well as population variability often result in broad fluctuations of growth and production rates of microorganisms. Close monitoring of a bioprocess is required to maximize process efficiency. Because of a lack of reliable on-line monitoring techniques, most often on-line bioprocess monitoring is limited to biogas analysis for oxygen and carbon dioxide content, while such key process parameters as substrate and product concentrations are only measurable off-line. Consequently, the results are available with a significant delay from the time of sampling. This delay leads to untimely process diagnosis as well as limits process control to pre-programmed feed strategies.
Recently developed on-line monitoring methods use flow injection analysis (FIA) techniques as well as near- and mid-infrared spectrometry (Tosi et al, Biotechnol. Prog., 19, 1816-1821 (2003)). While these techniques have been used successfully at the laboratory scale, high equipment cost is prohibitive for most industrial applications.
The use of fluorometry for rapid detection of fermentation imbalances and metabolic activities has already been demonstrated. Most often, fluorescence is measured by illuminating the sample at one wavelength and measuring fluorescence at another (higher) wavelength, i.e. a single excitation—single emission technique is used. In particular, NADPH-dependent fluorometry has been used for monitoring fermentation as well as aerobic and anaerobic wastewater treatment processes. However, bioreactor broth contains large amounts of proteins, amino acids, and other fluorescent compounds that interfere with NADPH-related fluorescence thus limiting industrial applications of single excitation—single emission fluorometry. The quality of monitoring can be improved by using multiple-excitation multiple-emission fluorescence measurements (e.g. Tartakovsky, B.; Lishman, L. A.; Legge, R. L., Water Research, 30 (12), 2941-2948 (1996)). In this technique, both excitation and emission wavelengths are varied to obtain two-dimensional spectra For this reason, this technique of fluorometric measurement, also employed herein, is often called two-dimensional fluorometry. The spectra are often processed using multivariate statistical analysis methods, such as Partial Least Square (PLS) regression, which provides a linear relationship between analytical measurements and multi-wavelength spectra.
To select a desired excitation wavelength, the light should pass through a monochromator or a filter wheel. The fluorescence signal (emission spectrum) can be measured by using a second monochromator or a filter wheel followed by a spectrometer. Alternatively, a close caption detector (CCD) array spectrometer can be used. Notably, the use of a monochromator or a filter wheel increases the setup cost and dimensions as well as it increases the scan time.
Light emitting diodes (LEDs) produce high intensity light in a narrow range (20-30 nm) of wavelengths. Thus, LEDs can be used for sample illumination at a fraction of the cost of conventional light sources equipped with monochromators or filter wheels. Indeed, some LED light sources are commercially available (LS-450, Ocean Optics Inc., Dunedin, Fla., USA). While LEDs are often used for illumination in the visible range of wavelengths, the use of LEDs for UV applications is relatively new. The UV LEDs are constantly improving with some newer LEDs emitting light at 350 nm (RLT350-30, ROITHNER, LASERTECHNIK, Vienna, Austria).
Fluorometers or similar devices have been described in patent literature as well. Some of the devices use LEDs. U.S. Pat. No. 6,825,927 (Goldman et al.) and U.S. Pat. No. 6,873,417 (Bahatt et al.) are examples of the prior art in this respect.
It is also known to use various optical waveguide arrangements to transfer light from the light source to the sample to be illuminated and to transfer the light (also fluorescence light) emitted by the sample to the measuring instruments. Exemplary patents are U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,791,687 and 6,166,804.
While the use of LEDs has reduced the cost of the fluorometric apparatus, there is still a room for improvement of the accuracy and reliability of the on-line monitoring of bioprocesses, e.g. food processing or wastewater treatment.

Multi-wavelength fluorometric system and probe for monitoring of bioprocesses


A door structure includes a handle whereon an engaging part, a sunken part, and a baffle part disposed nearby the sunken part are formed. The door structure further includes a cover connected to the handle. The cover includes a main body, a hook disposed on a side of the main body, a rib disposed on the side of the main body for installing inside the sunken part, and a protruding part disposed on the side of the main body for blocking the baffle part so as to fix the handle on the cover with the hook and the rib.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a door structure, and more specifically, to a door structure with easy assembly and low assembly cost.
2. Description of the Prior Art
People have to take apart computers when replacing broken components or upgrading instruments inside the computer. So computers capable of being disassembled easily are necessary. For example, as for mechanical design of a home server, a door structure is often installed in front of a casing of the home server for covering and protecting connector slots on the casing or for maintaining aesthetic feeling of outward appearance. For enhancing combination strength of a cover and a handle of the door structure, the handle and cover are often combined with glue or other tools so as to increase cost and complexity of assembly. There is a problem of overflowing or hardened glue as gluing the handle with the cover. It is an important issue to design a door structure with easy assembly and low assembly cost for mechanical design of a computer casing.


An imaging member includes a substrate, a charge transport layer, a charge generator layer, and a charge transporting or photoconductive overcoating layer.

The present disclosure relates to photoreceptors, and methods for making and using such photoreceptors, which photoreceptors are positively chargeable and provide a long useful life. More particularly, the disclosure relates to photoreceptors having, in order, at least a substrate layer, a charge transport layer, a charge generating layer, and a charge transporting or photoconductive overcoat layer.
In electrophotography, also known as Xerography, electrophotographic imaging or electrostatographic imaging, the surface of an electrophotographic plate, drum, belt or the like (imaging member or photoreceptor) containing a photoconductive insulating layer on a conductive layer is first uniformly electrostatically charged. The imaging member is then exposed to a pattern of activating electromagnetic radiation, such as light. The radiation selectively dissipates the charge on the illuminated areas of the photoconductive insulating layer while leaving behind an electrostatic latent image on the non-illuminated areas. This electrostatic latent image may then be developed to form a visible image by depositing finely divided electroscopic marking particles on the surface of the photoconductive insulating layer. The resulting visible image may then be transferred from the imaging member directly or indirectly (such as by a transfer or other member) to a print substrate, such as transparency or paper. The imaging process may be repeated many times with reusable imaging members.
An electrophotographic imaging member may be provided in a number of forms. For example, the imaging member may be a homogeneous layer of a single material such as vitreous selenium or it may be a composite layer containing a photoconductor and other materials. In addition, the imaging member may be layered in which each layer making up the member performs a certain function. Current layered organic imaging members generally have at least a substrate layer and two electro or photo active layers. These active layers generally include (1) a charge generating layer containing a light-absorbing material, and (2) a charge transport layer containing charge transport molecules or materials. These layers can be in a variety of orders to make up a functional device, and sometimes can be combined in a single or mixed layer. The substrate layer may be formed from a conductive material. Alternatively, a conductive layer can be formed on a nonconductive inert substrate by a technique such as but not limited to sputter coating.
The charge generating layer is capable of photogenerating charge and injecting the photogenerated charge into the charge transport layer or other layer. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,855,203 to Miyaka teaches charge generating layers comprising a resin dispersed pigment. Suitable pigments include photoconductive zinc oxide or cadmium sulfide and organic pigments such as phthalocyanine type pigment, a polycyclic quinone type pigment, a perylene pigment, an azo type pigment and a quinacridone type pigment. Imaging members with perylene charge generating pigments, particularly benzimidazole perylene, show superior performance with extended life.
In the charge transport layer, the charge transport molecules may be in a polymer binder. In this case, the charge transport molecules provide hole or electron transport properties, while the electrically inactive polymer binder provides mechanical properties. Alternatively, the charge transport layer can be made from a charge transporting polymer such a vinyl polymer, polysilylene or polyether carbonate, wherein the charge transport properties are chemically incorporated into the mechanically robust polymer.
Imaging members may also include a charge blocking layer(s) and/or an adhesive layer(s) between the charge generating layer and the transportive layer. In addition, imaging members may contain protective overcoatings. These protective overcoatings can be either electroactive or inactive, where electroactive overcoatings are generally preferred. Further, imaging members may include layers to provide special functions such as incoherent reflection of laser light, dot patterns and/or pictorial imaging or subbing layers to provide chemical sealing and/or a smooth coating surface.
Imaging members are generally exposed to repetitive electrophotographic cycling, which subjects the exposed charge transport layer or alternative top layer thereof to mechanical abrasion, chemical attack and heat. This repetitive cycling leads to a gradual deterioration in the mechanical and electrical characteristics of the exposed charge transport layer.
Although excellent toner images may be obtained with multilayered belt or drum photoreceptors, it has been found that as more advanced, higher speed electrophotographic copiers, duplicators and printers are developed, there is a greater demand on copy quality. A delicate balance in charging image and bias potentials, and characteristics of the toner and/or developer, must be maintained. This places additional constraints on the quality of photoreceptor manufacturing, and thus, on the manufacturing yield. In certain combinations of materials for photoreceptors, or in certain production batches of photoreceptor materials involved in the same kind of materials, localized microdefect sites (which may vary in size from about 50 to about 200 microns) can occur, using photoreceptors fabricated from these materials, where the dark decay is high compared to spatially uniform dark decay present in the sample. These sites appear as print defects (microdefects) in the final imaged copy. In charged area development, where the charged areas are printed as dark areas, the sites print out as white spots. Likewise, in discharged area development systems, where the exposed area (discharged area) is printed as dark areas, these sites print out as dark spots in a white background. All of these microdefects, which exhibit inordinately large dark decay, are called charge deficient spots. Such charge deficient spots can also occur in negatively charging photoreceptors, where a hole can be injected into the structure through the ground plane and carried up through the charge generating and charge transport layers.
Various protective coatings have been applied to both organic and inorganic photoreceptors. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,397,982 discloses an electrostatic imaging device comprising a photoconductive layer containing an inorganic glass material, and a photoconductive layer with an overcoating comprised of various oxides, such as germanium oxides, vanadium oxides, and silicon dioxides.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,655,377 discloses the use of an arsenic selenium alloy as an overcoating on a tellurium selenium alloy photogenerator layer. U.S. Pat. No. 4,420,547 discloses a layered photoreceptor having an ultraviolet light absorbing top layer.
Furthermore, there is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,886,434 processes for protecting selenium photoconductive substances with a thin, transparent film of a material having electrical characteristics comparable to selenium. Examples of materials disclosed as protective layers in this patent include zinc sulfide, silica, various silicates, alkaline earth fluorides, and the like.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,096,795 and 5,008,167 disclose electrophotographic imaging devices, where the exposed layer has particles, such as metal oxide particles, homogeneously dispersed therein. The particles provide coefficient of surface contact friction reduction, increased wear resistance, durability against tensile cracking, and improved adhesion of the layers without adversely affecting the optical and electrical properties of the imaging member.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,707,767 discloses an electrophotographic imaging member including a supporting substrate having an electrically conductive surface, a hole blocking layer, an optional adhesive layer, a charge generating layer, a charge transport layer, an optional anticurl back coating, a ground strip layer and an optional overcoating layer. At least one of the charge transport layer, anticurl back coating, ground strip layer and overcoating layer includes silica particle clusters homogeneously distributed in a film forming matrix.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,869,982 discloses an electrophotographic photoreceptor containing a toner release material in a charge transport layer. From about 0.5 to about 20 percent of a toner release agent selected from stearates, silicon oxides and fluorocarbons is incorporated into a charge transport layer.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,784,928 discloses an electrophotographic element having two charge transport layers. An outermost charge transport layer or overcoating may comprise a waxy spreadable solid, stearates, polyolefin waxes, and fluorocarbon polymers such as Vydax fluorotelomer from du Pont and Polymist F5A from Allied Chemical Company.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,664,995 discloses an electrostatographic imaging member utilizing a ground strip. The disclosed ground strip material comprises a film forming binder, conductive particles and microcrystalline silica particles dispersed in the film forming binder, and a reaction product of a bi-functional chemical coupling agent that interacts with both the film forming binder and the microcrystalline silica particles.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,717,637 discloses a microcrystalline silicon barrier layer.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,678,731 and 4,713,308 disclose microcrystalline silicon in the photoconductive and barrier layers of a photosensitive member.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,675,262 discloses a charge transport layer containing powders having a different refractive index than that of the charge transport layer excluding the powder material. The powder materials include various metal oxides.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,647,521 discloses the addition of amorphous hydrophobic silica powder to the top layer of a photosensitive member. The silica is of spherical shape and has a size distribution between 10 and 1000 Angstroms. Hydrophobic silica is a synthetic silica having surface silanol (SiOH) groups replaced by hydrophobic organic groups such as —CH3.


Information indicating whether or not a printhead of a printer has been replaced or detached is obtained. Before the start of printing on the printer, a message is displayed prompting for print position adjustment of the printer if it is determined, based on the obtained information, that the printhead has been replaced or detached. The information indicating whether or not a printhead has been replaced or detached is initialized based on a response to the displayed message.

In an inkjet printer, a printhead (including a head cartridge which combines an ink tank and a head in a single unit) which ejects ink is configured to be detachable from a printer body. In the case of a head cartridge which combines an ink tank and head in a single unit, in particular, when an ink level becomes low, it is necessary to replace the cartridge including the head with a new one.
Generally, ink cartridges and inkjet heads are fastened to the cartridge by clamping levers, and thus always mounted in fixed positions. However, recent inkjet printers offer increasingly higher resolutions with extremely small nozzle spacing. Consequently, if a printhead is replaced, variations in outside shapes due to fabrication errors of cartridges or slight misalignment between cartridges and heads can cause dot positions of ink ejected from nozzles to deviate from dot positions produced by the printhead before the replacement. Such deviations in dot positions can result in quality loss of printed images. A print position adjustment function is provided to compensate for such deviations in dot positions.
There is a conventional technique according to which the printer automatically adjusts print position when a printhead is detached and attached. This technique has a problem in that the printer cannot be used for printing until the adjustment of the print position is completed. To deal with this problem, PC printer driver utilities are equipped with a function to adjust the print position on instructions from the user. However, general users do not know of the print position adjustment function or do not understand its meaning and they end up doing printing without adjusting the print position.
It is conceivable to bring up a pop-up dialog box at the start of printing or during printing, informing the user that the print position has not been adjusted yet. However, if such a warning message appears each time the user intends to do printing, it will seem obtrusive to the user, and may be even annoying especially if the user does not have any problem with printing results.

Print control apparatus and control method thereof and printer control program and printer


A system creates a content-based mapping of a physical space based on data received from beacons positioned at various locations in a physical space. Each beacon transmits a unique beacon identifier. When a mobile device detects a beacon identifier, the mobile device may also detect the signal strength of the transmitted identifier. If, with or shortly after detecting the beacon identifier, the mobile device is used to view content that is present in the physical space, the system may use the content information, the beacon identifier and the signal strength to build content-based floor map of the physical space.

To continue to engage consumers who visit commercial properties, many property operators often change the property's layout in order to keep the consumer experience exciting and fresh. For example, retail stores often rotate various products in and out of inventory, such as may happen when a seller of clothing rotates styles and seasonal clothing in and out based on current consumer tastes. A grocery store may move certain products to an end cap of an aisle for promotional purposes for a limited period of time. Other commercial properties change their layout by necessity. For example, the layout of a convention facility or conference center may change depending on the particular event that the property is hosting at the time.
Commercial property owners and operators, as well as the manufacturers of products sold in those properties, present many marketing and product information messages to consumers within the property. The messages may be in the form of signs, audio messages, video screens, and location-based digital messaging on mobile devices. However, these messages require manual labor and scheduling to change as the property's layout and content changes.
Some property owners and operators do not keep digital records of the property layout, keep only paper records, or do not keep records at all. In order to allow location-based digital messaging, digital property layouts are often required. Creating, maintaining, and updating such records for a single location can become cumbersome; maintaining hundreds or thousands of property locations can be overwhelming or prohibitive.

Method and system for automatically developing a content-based floor map


In a magnetic resonance method and system for automatic generation of a selective MR image from a first MR image (corresponding to raw data acquired at a first echo time after excitation pulses) and a second MR image (corresponding to raw data acquired at a second echo time after the same excitation pulses), wherein at least one raw data measurement point was measured in the absence of gradient fields, a time constant prevailing in the depicted imaging space is calculated from the measurement data measured during readout of the raw data measurement point measured in the absence of gradient fields. Weighting factors for the first and/or the second MR image are determined depending on this time constant. The selective MR image is generated by weighting the first and/or second MR image with the calculated weighting factors and subtraction of the weighted MR images from one another.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention concerns a method to automatically generate a selective MR image as well as a correspondingly designed magnetic resonance system, a corresponding computer program product and a corresponding electronically readable data medium.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Imaging by means of nuclear magnetic resonance, i.e. magnetic resonance tomography or MR tomography, has found an ever broader field of application in medical diagnostics.
Magnetic resonance technology (in the following the abbreviation MR stands for magnetic resonance) is a known technique with which images of the inside of an examination subject can be generated. In simplified form, the examination subject is positioned in a comparably strong, static, homogeneous basic magnetic field (field strengths of 0.2 Tesla to 7 Tesla or more) in an MR apparatus so that nuclear spins in the subject orient along the basic magnetic field. For spatial coding of the measurement data, rapidly switched gradient fields are superimposed on the basic magnetic field.
To trigger nuclear magnetic resonance signals, radio-frequency excitation pulses are radiated into the examination subject, the triggered nuclear magnetic resonance signals are measured and are stored as raw data in k-space, on the basis of which raw data MR images are reconstructed. MR imaging enables image contrasts that result from the combination of multiple parameters. Important MR parameters are, for example, the density of the excited nuclear spins (primarily hydrogen protons), the relaxation times for magnetizations (T1, T2, T2*) of the examined tissue, the magnetization transfer, and diverse other contrast mechanisms.
Magnetic resonance tomography lends itself to new fields of use through the acquisition of MR data with very short echo times TE (for example TE<500 μs), wherein the echo time corresponds to the time period between the excitation of the nuclear spins and the measurement of the nuclear magnetic resonance that is thus triggered. It is thereby possible to show substances or tissue that cannot be depicted by means of conventional sequences for example a (T)SE ("(Turbo) Spin Echo") sequence or a GRE ("Gradient Echo") sequence, since their T2 time (the relaxation of the transverse magnetization of the substance or tissue) is markedly shorter than the echo time, and thus a corresponding signal from these substances or tissues has already decayed at the point in time of acquisition. With echo times that lie in the range of the corresponding decay time, it is possible, for example, to show bones, teeth or ice in an MR image even though the T2 time of these objects lies in a range from 30-80 μs.
According to the prior art, sequences are known that enable a very short echo time. One example is the radial UTE ("Ultrashort Echo Time") sequence as described in, for example, the article by Sonia Nielles-Vallespin "3D radial projection technique with ultrashort echo times for sodium MRI: Clinical applications in human brain and skeletal muscle", Magn. Res. Med. 2007; 57; P. 74-81. In this sequence type the gradients are ramped up after a wait time T_delay after a non-selective or slice-selective excitation, and the data acquisition is begun at the same time. The k-space trajectory scanned in such a manner after an excitation proceeds radially outwardly from the k-space center. Therefore, before the reconstruction (by means of Fourier reconstruction) of the image data from the raw data acquired in k-space, the raw data must first be converted into a Cartesian k-space grid (for example by regridding).
An additional approach in order to enable short echo times is to scan k-space in points with the free induction decay (FID) signal being detected. Such a method is also designated as a single point imaging because essentially only one raw data point in k-space is acquired per RF excitation. One example of such a method for single point imaging is the RASP method ("Rapid Single Point (RASP) Imaging", O. Heid, M. Deimling, SMR, 3rd Annual Meeting, Page 684, 1995). According to the RASP method, one raw data point in k-space, the phase of which was coded by gradients, is read out at a fixed point in time after the RF excitation at the "echo time" TE. The gradients are modified by means of the magnetic resonance system for each raw data point or measurement point, and thus k-space is scanned (filled) point by point as is shown in FIGS. 1a and 1b.
There are many applications of magnetic resonance tomography in which it is desired to differentiate different tissue types.
For example, in the case of tissue types with different chemical shifts, a different magnetic field results at the nucleus, which leads to different resonance frequencies. In the signal acquisition this leads to different phase angles of the two components. The most prominent representatives of two different tissue types in the magnetic resonance signal are fat and water, but other applications are also possible. The resonance frequencies of fat and water differ by approximately 3.3 ppm (parts per million). One method for separation of the signals of two different tissue types (for example fat and water) is the utilization of the phase information of acquired MR signals.
Furthermore, there is the possibility to differentiate various tissue types based on their different time constants, for example T2 or T2*. For this purpose, it is known to acquire two MR images such that the first MR image corresponds to raw data which were acquired at a first echo time TE1 after the at least one excitation pulse of the imaging sequence and that the second MR image corresponds to raw data which were acquired at a second echo time TE2 (with TE1≠TE2, for example TE1<TE2) after the same excitation pulse or, respectively, the same excitation pulses of the imaging sequence. Each of the MR images includes signals of tissues with a time constant of the decay of the transversal magnetization (T2) for which it applies: T2 (tissue)≧TEi (i=1 or 2).
Two MR images are thus acquired, wherein the MR image that corresponds to raw data which were acquired at the echo time TE1 (given TE1<TE2) can include signals of more tissues than the MR image that corresponds to raw data which were acquired at the echo time TE2 (since TE1<TE2≦T2 (tissue)). For example, by pixel-by-pixel subtraction of the two MR images from one another, the tissue that is contained only in the MR image with the shorter echo time can be shown separately or masked out, and thus the tissue types can be selectively displayed.
However, it should to be noted that the two MR images have different intensities (signal strengths) due to the different echo times, depending on the T2 values of the imaged tissue. Therefore, before a subtraction of the MR images from one another, it is necessary to compensate for these intensity differences (for example by weighting factors) in order to be able to actually erase the signals of the unwanted tissue.

Magnetic resonance method and system to automatically generate a selective MR image


The systems and methods provided herein are directed to a system of modular mobile autonomous vehicles that can selectively connect in order to combine dining experiences of different passengers. Passenger preferences, trip details, and food logistics can each be factors in determining optimal matches for combined dining.

The advent of autonomous vehicles dramatically changes the in-car experience. In an autonomous vehicle, people can divert attention to activities that were previously considered too distracting for safe operation of the vehicle by a driver, allowing them to restructure how they spend their travel time. One such activity is dining.
The present disclosure describes methods and apparatus for matching passengers in multiple autonomous vehicles in order to create a communal dining experience. Embodiments are described by which modular vehicles and/or vehicle compartments can be combined to optimize the shared space.
In some aspects of an exemplary embodiment, a computer-implemented method includes identifying a first vehicle including a first dining experience; identifying a second vehicle including a second dining experience; and controlling at least one of the first and second vehicles to attach the first and second vehicles and combine the first and second dining experiences.
In one embodiment, identifying the first and second vehicle can include determining the compatibility of the first dining experience with the second dining experience. A start and/or end times of both dining experiences can be compared. The start times of the first and second dining experiences may be within a predetermined range.
In some aspects of the foregoing embodiment, determining the compatibility of the dining experiences can include comparing a travel route of the first vehicle with a travel route of the second vehicle. An overlap portion between the two routes can be determined. The overlap portion may be determined based on modifying at least one of the travel routs to increase its overlap with the other travel route.
In some aspects of the foregoing embodiment, determining the compatibility of the dining experiences can include comparing a food selection of the first dining experience with a food selection of the second dining experience. The food selections may share ingredients and/or food preparation.
In some aspects of the foregoing embodiment, determining the compatibility of the dining experiences can include identifying a personal connection between one or more individuals associated with the first dining experience and one or more individuals associated with the second dining experience.
In some aspects of the foregoing embodiment, determining the compatibility of the dining experiences can include comparing an entertainment selection of the first dining experience with an entertainment selection of the second dining experience.
In some aspects of an exemplary embodiment, a mobile modular dining system includes a first autonomous vehicle comprising a first passenger dining compartment and a second autonomous vehicle comprising a second passenger dining compartment. The first and second autonomous vehicles are configured to connect to form a combined passenger dining compartment from the first and second passenger dining compartments.
In some embodiments, a third autonomous vehicle having a third dining compartment can be configured to connect to form a larger combined passenger dining compartment with the first, second, and third passenger dining compartments.
In some embodiments, an autonomous vehicle having a food preparation area can be configured to connect to join the food preparation area with one of the above-described combined passenger dining compartments.


The access control device comprises a first interface (IF) which receives access requests from a host device, and a second IF which respectively accesses one or a plurality of access destination candidates in an external device. The second IF attempts to access a particular access destination candidate if the first IF has received an access request, and outputs a judgment result indicating that a recovery has been performed if it is determined that a recovery has been performed after the access attempt has failed. The first IF detects whether there has been a recovery in the access path to the particular access destination candidate by referring to the judgment result output by the second IF.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the control of access to data, and more particularly, to technology for detecting recovery from a failure after it has been judged that the failure has occurred due to the fact an access control device has been unable to access another access control device, for example.
2. Description of the Related Art
For example, one type of access control device is a storage control device provided with a storage device. A storage control device can be connected in a communicable fashion with a host device which transmits data and with another storage control device provided with other storage devices. The storage control device receives data from the host device and writes the received data to a storage device, and by transmitting this data to the other storage control device, it is also able to write the data to the other storage device (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2002-351703).

Access control device and interface installed in same


A liquid crystal display device includes a liquid crystal panel, gate and data drivers providing the liquid crystal panel with gate and data signals, and a timing controller receiving input signals that include an image signal, a sync signal, a data enable signal and a clock signal, wherein the timing controller includes a gate control signal generator controlling the gate driver, a data control signal generator controlling the data driver, a data processor supplying the image signal to the data driver, and a vertical enable signal generator generating a vertical enable signal according to the data enable signal and controlling the gate control signal generator and the data control signal generator.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display device and a driving method of the same, and more particularly, to a timing controller of a driving circuit for an LCD device and a driving method of the same.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Liquid crystal display (LCD) devices have been widely used for monitors of personal computers or notebook computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and wall-mounted televisions because of their thin thickness, light weight and low power consumption.
A related art LCD device will be described in more detail with reference to accompanying drawings.
FIG. 1 is a view of schematically illustrating a related art LCD device. In FIG. 1, the LCD device includes a liquid crystal panel 10 and a driving system 20. The liquid crystal panel 10 displays images, and the driving system 20 generates and provides signals for driving elements of the liquid crystal panel 10.
The liquid crystal panel 10 includes gate lines 12 and data lines 14 that cross each other and define pixel regions. A thin film transistor T, a liquid crystal capacitor CLC and a storage capacitor CST are disposed in each pixel region. The thin film transistor T is connected to the gate and data lines 12 and 14. The liquid crystal capacitor CLC and the storage capacitor CST are connected to the thin film transistor T.
The driving system 20 includes a timing controller 22, a gate driver 24 and a data driver 26. RGB data and control signals are input from an external system (not shown) to the timing controller 22. The timing controller 22 re-arranges the RGB data and generates gate control signals and data control signals for controlling the gate driver 24 and the data driver 26, respectively. The timing controller 22 provides the gate driver 24 with the gate control signals and the data driver 26 with the data control signals and the re-arranged RGB data.
The gate driver 24 supplies gate signals VG to the gate lines 12 of the liquid crystal panel 10 according to the gate control signals from the timing controller 22. The data driver 26 provides data signals Vdata to the data lines 14 of the liquid crystal panel 10 according to the data control signals and the RGB data from the timing controller 22.
Therefore, the liquid crystal panel 10 displays images in accordance with the gate signals VG and the data signals Vdata.
The timing controller 22 is connected to the external system through an interface, and the RGB data and the control signals are transmitted through a transistor-transistor logic (TTL) signaling. However, since a large number of transmission paths are necessary to transmit the RGB data and the control signals through the TTL signaling, a large number of cables and connectors are also needed. Accordingly, the transmission paths are more easily exposed to external noises, and the RGB data and the control signals are directly or indirectly influenced by the external noises, whereby images may be abnormally displayed.
To solve such a problem, a low voltage differential signaling (LVDS) has been proposed for the interface. The LVDS is a high-speed digital interface technology, in which two different voltages having opposite polarities are generated and data is transmitted by comparing the voltages. Accordingly, the data can be transmitted at low voltages, and the LVDS has advantages of low power consumption and high transmission speed. In addition, the LVDS is relatively highly resistant to the external noises.
A related art timing controller using the LVDS technology will be described in detail with reference to accompanying drawings.
FIG. 2 and FIG. 3 are views of schematically illustrating a related art timing controller. FIG. 2 shows connections of the timing controller with other systems, and FIG. 3 shows a structure of the timing controller.
In FIG. 2 and FIG. 3, the timing controller 30 includes a LVDS receiver (LVDS Rx) 32 and a logic unit 34.
The LVDS receiver 32 is connected to a LVDS transmitter (LVDS Tx) 40. The LVDS receiver 32 includes a phase locked loop (PLL) 32a. The PLL 32a keeps phases of output signals and input signals uniform.
The logic unit 34 is connected to gate and data drivers 54 and 56. The logic unit 34 includes a fail safe 34a, a gate control signal generator 34b, a data control signal generator 34c and a data processor 34d.
The LVDS transmitter 40 converts RGB data and control signals into a LVDS-type. The LVDS transmitter 40 provides the LVDS receiver 32 with the LVDS-type signals. The control signals includes a vertical sync signal Vsync, a horizontal sync signal Hsync, a data enable signal DE and a clock signal CLK.
Next, the LVDS receiver 32 converts the LVDS-type signals into a TTL-type and provides the logic unit 34 with the TTL-type signals.
The gate control signal generator 34b and the data control signal generator 34c, respectively, generate gate control signals and data control signals according to the TTL-type signals and supply them to the gate and data drivers 54 and 56. In addition, the data processor 34d re-arranges the TTL-type RGB data and provides the re-arranged RGB data to the data driver 56.
Here, the gate control signals include a gate start pulse (GSP), a gate output enable (GOE) and a gate shift clock (GSC). The data control signals include a source output enable (SOE), a source sampling clock (SSC), a polarity reverse (POL) and a source start pulse (SSP).
The fail safe 34a decides whether signals from the LVDS receiver 32 are normal or abnormal and controls abnormal operations of the gate control signal generator 34b, the data control signal generator 34c and the data processor 34d. When abnormal signals are input, the fail safe 34a gets a black image displayed on the liquid crystal panel 10 of FIG. 1.
FIG. 4 is a timing chart showing input and output signals of a related art timing controller. FIG. 4 shows output gate start pulse GSP and gate shift clock GSC according to input clock signal CLK and data enable signal DE. Here, a frame frequency is fixed at 60 Hz.
In FIG. 4, signals are input and output at each of frames F1 and F2. The clock signal CLK and the data enable signal DE are input to the timing controller 30 of FIG. 2 from an external system (not shown). The gate start pulse (GSP), the gate shift clock (GSC) and other control signals (not shown) are generated according to the clock signal CLK and the data enable signal DE and are input to the gate driver 54 of FIG. 2.
There exists a vertical blanking interval VBI between first and second frames F1 and F2, that is, between after outputting data corresponding to a last gate line of the first frame F1 and before inputting data corresponding to a first gate line of the second frame F2. During the vertical blanking interval VBI, data is not applied.
As stated above, the LCD device has been used for various devices, and portable devices have limitations on using time because images are displayed within restricted power. Recently, various methods have been sought to increase the using time by reducing power consumption. As one of these methods, a method of displaying images with a low frame frequency has been proposed by decreasing the frame frequency during the vertical blanking interval VBI in case that the images are not moving pictures or moving images, for example, still images.
However, when the frame frequency is changed, flickering of the images may occur.
Table 1 shows measurements of display states when the frame frequency is changed according to the related art. Here, a setting time means a point when the frame frequency is changed, and a measuring time indicates a point when the display states are measured. At this time, a point when a frame finishes is used as a reference. Accordingly, the setting time corresponds to a period between the point when the frame frequency is changed. The measuring time corresponds to a period between the point when the previous frame finishes and the point when the display states are measured.
TABLE 1interval0151020304050607080100Setting4041□s45□s50□s60□s70□s80□s90□s100110120140time□s□s□s□s□sMeasuring—68□s74-8880-9690-106100-114110-126122-134134-148148-158158-170176time□s□s□s□s□s□s□s□s□s□sDisplay state—abnormalabnormalabnormalabnormalabnormalabnormalabnormalabnormalabnormalabnormalabnormal
As shown in Table 1, in the related art, when the frame frequency is changed, abnormal images are displayed.
A more detail explanations follows with reference to FIG. 5.
FIG. 5 is a timing chart showing input and output signals of a timing controller when a frame frequency is changed according to the related art. The frame frequency is changed from 60 Hz to 40 Hz. FIG. 5 shows the data enable signal output from the LVDS receiver 32 of FIG. 3, which is referred to as output DE hereinafter, and the gate control signals GSP and GSC output from the logic unit 34 of FIG. 3 according to the clock signal CLK and the data enable signal input to the LVDS receiver 32 of FIG. 3, which is referred to as input DE hereinafter.
In FIG. 5, the frame frequency can be changed during the vertical blanking interval as occasion demands, and for example, the frame frequency may be changed from 60 Hz to 40 Hz.
At this time, a frequency of the clock signal CLK is also changed, and the PLL 32a of FIG. 3 of the LVDS receiver 32 of FIG. 3 is unlocked. More particularly, the PLL 32a of FIG. 3 generates a signal that has a fixed relation to a phase of a reference signal. The PLL 32a of FIG. 3 compares a frequency of an output signal with a frequency of an input signal by using feedback of the output signal and locks the frequency of the output signal when the frequency of the output signal is the same as the frequency of the input signal. By the way, when the frequency of the clock signal CKL is changed, the frequency of the output signal is different from the frequency of the input signal. Therefore, the PLL 32a of FIG. 3 unlocks the frequency of the output signal, and a predetermined time is needed until the frequency of the output signal is fixed at the changed frequency. Accordingly, the output DE from the LVDS receiver 32 of FIG. 3 is not parallelized with the input DE to the LVDS receiver 32 of FIG. 3 and has an unknown state. Accordingly, the output DE has a glitch.
The output DE having the glitch is input to the logic unit 34 of FIG. 3, and since the control signals are generated on the basis of such an output DE, the control signals also have unknown states. Therefore, the gate control signals such as the gate start pulse GSP or the gate shift clock GSC may be unknown. This causes flickering of the images, and a black image is disposed by the fail safe 34a of FIG. 3.

Liquid crystal display device and driving method of the same


An apparatus for supplying start fuel for a carburetor in which an internal combustion engine has a fly-wheel with a magneto incorporated therewith. An intake air passage has an electromagnetic valve and this valve is actuated by an output signal of a primary coil of the fly-wheel magneto. In one embodiment, the electromagnetic valve is actuated by an output difference between an output signal of a primary coil produced when a start motor is rotated and an output signal of the primary coil produced when the engine is rotated.

A start electric motor is mounted even on a small internal combustion engine such as a portable working machine to facilitate a starting operation. The present applicants have previously filed a Japanese patent application, Ser. No. 166473/1988, which discloses an apparatus wherein an ambient temperature is detected by a temperature switch in order to supply a rich mixture to the engine at the time of cold start, and when the ambient temperature is low, an electric fuel pump is driven to supply start fuel to an air intake passage of a carburetor. However, it is preferable that the addition of the electric fuel pump and the temperature switch be avoided, since these increase the cost and the apparatus becomes larger in size with a weight increase.
In view of the aforementioned problems, an object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for supplying start fuel for a carburetor which is low in cost and small and light weight wherein start fuel is automatically supplied to a carburetor in correspondence to the starting conditions of the engine without using a temperature switch.
For achieving the aforesaid object, the present invention provides an arrangement, in an internal combustion engine, which is provided with a fly-wheel magneto for supplying start fuel from a fuel chamber of a carburetor to an air intake passage via an electromagnetic valve. The electromagnetic valve is actuated by an output signal of a primary coil of the fly-wheel magneto.

Apparatus for supplying start fuel for a carburetor


An image processing system includes a mobile terminal and an image processing apparatus. The mobile terminal includes a display controller and a notification transmitting unit. The display controller obtains display data related to an electronic document from the image processing apparatus and performs control to display the obtained display data. If an unauthorized operation is performed when the display data is displayed, the notification transmitting unit transmits an unauthorized operation notification to the image processing apparatus. The image processing apparatus includes a memory, a providing unit, and a reporting unit. The memory stores an electronic document and a contact address in association with each other. The providing unit provides the mobile terminal with display data related to the electronic document. In response to receipt of the unauthorized operation notification, the reporting unit transmits a report to the contact address associated with the electronic document related to the display data.

(i) Technical Field
The present invention relates to an image processing system, a mobile terminal, an image processing apparatus, a non-transitory computer readable medium, and an image processing method.
(ii) Related Art
There are an increasing number of image processing apparatuses, such as multifunction peripherals (apparatuses having functions of a copier, a printer, a scanner, and so forth) that are available based on a charging system, installed in public places such as convenience stores. Also, a service called a "Net print service" is becoming popular. In this service, a user registers an electronic document to be printed in a server via the Internet, accesses the server from an image processing apparatus nearest to the user, downloads the registered electronic document to the image processing apparatus, and prints the electronic document.
With the recent proliferation of smartphones and radio communications, it has become possible to provide, from an image processing apparatus to a mobile terminal such as a smartphone carried by a user, a user interface (UI) screen for operating the image processing apparatus.

Image processing system, mobile terminal, image processing apparatus, non-transitory computer readable medium, and image processing method


The magnetic powder for validity determining ink is composed of magnetic oxide powder having a Curie temperature between xe2x88x9250xc2x0 C. and 150xc2x0 C. and a mean powder particle diameter of 10 xcexcm or less.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to magnetic powder for validity determining ink, a manufacturing method for magnetic powder for validity determining ink, magnetic ink for validity determination, a printing member for validity determination, a detecting device for the printing member for validity determination, and a validity determining device which are applied to printing of, for example, health insurance cards and ID cards having intrinsic numbers respectively, Shinkansen reserved tickets issued by travel agencies and ticket centers, tickets having the value printed on specific forms such as concert tickets, and securities such as bank tickets, bills, stocks, and gift certificates.
2. Description of the Related Art
Forgery preventive measures for notes as money, securities, and cards having the value equal to cash are taken. Particularly, an art for printing a certain kind of information on a paper sheet with magnetized ink and magnetically detecting the information is easy in recording and erasing information and used widely. Further, recently, for example, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,533,759 (Jeffers, Jul. 9, 1996), an objective document is printed using magnetic ink including a magnetic pigment having a Curie temperature lower than 130xc2x0 C. and the printed part is magnetized in an optional magnetic pattern. The magnetized part is heated at least up to 130xc2x0 C. using a heat lamp. The validity of the document is determined depending on whether the magnetic pattern is destroyed by heat in the temperature region beyond the Curie point or not. However, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,533,759 mentioned above, the particle diameter of the magnetic pigment included in the magnetic ink is not disclosed. When the particle diameter of the magnetic pigment is larger than a predetermined value, the magnetic pigment cannot respond sufficiently to the high resolution like printing by an ink jet printer. Further, when the particle diameter of the magnetic pigment is larger than a predetermined value and the magnetic pigment is printed on a paper sheet, particularly the magnetic information recorded on the surface is gradually torn off due to friction with the magnetic detection head during reading and it is anxious that the SN ratio may be reduced during reading of the information.
On the other hand, as input-output devices such as scanners, printers, and copying machines, personal computers, and image processing software have been highly advanced recently, even devices on sale can commit highly precise forge. In order to respond to this situation, various forgery preventive arts are applied to securities and individual authentication ID cards. Particularly, from the viewpoint of that information is invisible to a human, arts using a magnetic material are widely used. For example, in securities, an art for printing a predetermined area with magnetic ink with magnetic powder mixed and determining the validity by detecting the existence of magnetism or the magnetic pattern itself is known. Further, in IC cards, it is known to magnetically record information on a magnetic stripe, reproduce it, and authenticate an individual.
As mentioned above, generally, output detection by magnetism can respond to determination of the validity by high-speed reading comparatively easily, so that it has been used in various fields. However, the conventional method determines the validity depending on judgment of whether there is magnetic information in a predetermined position or not, so that using a material of Fe3O4 or others which can be obtained comparatively easily, forging arts using the latest printing art are generated frequently.
In the aforementioned magnetic forgery preventive art, a recording and reproducing apparatus can be prepared comparatively simply and can read recorded information easily, so that an art having weak resisting force to forgery and a high security property is required.
An object of the present invention is to obtain magnetic powder for validity determining ink which is satisfactory in output and durability, applicable to various printing arts, and high in the reliability, determining speed, and forgery preventive effect.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a manufacturing method for magnetic powder for validity determining ink which is satisfactory in the durability, applicable to various printing arts, high in the reliability, determining speed, and forgery preventive effect, and easily capable of obtaining a desired particle diameter.
Furthermore, still another object of the present invention is to provide magnetic ink for validity determination that is satisfactory in the durability, applicable to various printing arts, and high in the reliability, determining speed, and forgery preventive effect.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a printing member for validity determination that is satisfactory in the durability and high in the reliability, determining speed, and forgery preventive effect.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide a detecting device for a printing member for validity determination that is high in the reliability, determining speed, and forgery preventive effect.
Yet a further object of the present invention is to provide a validity-determining device for a printing member for validity determination that is high in the reliability, determining speed, and forgery preventive effect.
According to the present invention, magnetic powder for validity determining ink comprising magnetic oxide powder having a Curie temperature between xe2x88x9250xc2x0 C. and 150xc2x0 C. and a mean powder particle diameter of 10 xcexcm or less is provided.
Furthermore, according to the present invention, a manufacturing method for magnetic powder for validity determining ink is provided and the manufacturing method comprises the steps of dissolving a magnetic oxide and a glass forming material to obtain a mixture thereof; cooling the mixture rapidly to make the amorphous magnetic oxide; heat-treating the amorphous mixture to crystallize the magnetic oxide; and removing the glass forming material from the crystallized mixture to obtain magnetic oxide powder having a mean crystal particle diameter of 10 xcexcm or less.
Further, according to the present invention, magnetic ink for validity determination including first magnetic powder having a first Curie temperature between xe2x88x9250xc2x0 C. and 150xc2x0 C. and a mean powder particle diameter of 10 xcexcm or less is provided.
Furthermore, according to the present invention, a printing member for validity determination is provided and the printing member for validity determination comprises a base; a first magnetic image printed on the base with the first magnetic ink including first magnetic powder having a first Curie temperature; and a second magnetic image printed on the base with second magnetic ink including second magnetic powder having a second Curie temperature higher than that of the first magnetic powder.
Further, according to the present invention, a detecting device for a printing member for validity determination is provided and the detecting device comprises means for conveying a printing member for validity determination having the first magnetic image printed with the first magnetic ink including the first magnetic powder having the first Curie temperature and the second magnetic image printed with the second magnetic ink including the second magnetic powder having the second Curie temperature higher than that of the first magnetic powder; a heater for heating the printing member for validity determination to a temperature higher than the first Curie temperature and lower than the second Curie temperature; and magnetic characteristic detecting means for detecting magnetic characteristics from the heated printing member for validity determination.
Furthermore, according to the present invention, a validity determining device is provided and the validity determining device comprises means for conveying a printing member for validity determination having the first magnetic image printed with the first magnetic ink including the first magnetic powder having the first Curie temperature and the second magnetic image printed with the second magnetic ink including the second magnetic powder having the second Curie temperature higher than that of the first magnetic powder; a heater for heating the printing member for validity determination to a temperature higher than the first Curie temperature and lower than the second Curie temperature; a first magnetic detecting section installed at the preceding stage of the heater for detecting magnetic characteristics from the printing member for validity determination; a second magnetic detecting section installed at the later stage of the heater for detecting magnetic characteristics from the printing member for validity determination; and a validity determining section for determining the validity of the printing member for validity determination from a first detected magnetic pattern detected by the first magnetic detecting section and a second detected magnetic pattern detected by the second magnetic detecting section.

Validity determination using magnetic ink having magnetic powders with different Curie temperatures


A modular building system wherein two profiled tubular members are connected to each other by two first cores which are slidably received in one of two elongated channels of one of the members, by two second cores which are received in the two channels at one end of the other member, by two non-circular posts which extend into sockets of first cores, through one wall of the one member and into sockets of the second cores when the one end of the other member is placed against the outer side of the one wall of the one member. First pins are used to secure the first cores to the one member and to the posts in their sockets, second pins are used to secure the second cores to the respective posts, and threaded fasteners are used to secure the second cores to the other member and/or to the posts.

The invention relates to modular building systems in general, and more particularly to improvements in structural frameworks of the type wherein profiled tubular members can be assembled with panels, windows or analogous parts to form temporary or permanent walls, display fixtures, shelving racks and/or other relatively simple or complex modular systems. The components of the improved structural framework can be made of a lightweight aluminum alloy or another suitable metallic material.


A system and method for delivering shared electrical power between two or more electronic devices is provided. The system connects directly to an electrical power source and provides a continual power connection between the power source and one or more primary electronic device(s), and simultaneously, provides a switched power connection between the power source and one or more secondary electronic device(s). The system includes a power sensing system for sensing power drawn by a primary electronic device, and upon sensing that the primary device is drawing a power level below a predetermined threshold (e.g., 200 watts), the system connects a secondary electronic device to the power source (while leaving the primary electronic device still connected) so that it also may draw power. Example primary electronic devices include an electric clothes dryer, and example secondary electronic devices include a Type 2 electric vehicle charger.

In most residential and/or commercial buildings, electrical power is provided via one or more circuit breakers connected to an electrical power grid. The various electrical outlets and/or dedicated electrical power lines within the buildings are electrically connected to the circuit breakers to receive power.
The power provided by the electrical grid to the circuit breakers is typically regulated, and the various electrical outlets and dedicated electrical power lines are each connected to specific circuit breakers with known power providing capacities. In this way, the power consumption within the building may be generally balanced and accounted for.
However, buildings may oftentimes include limited available power circuits, and a home or business owner within the buildings may require additional power.
In addition, high-power electronic devices (e.g., appliances such as an electric clothes dryers, electric stoves, etc.) may draw high power when in full operation and lower power during other operating modes. However, when a high-power appliance is not in full operation, and therefore not drawing high power from a circuit breaker, any surplus power is typically not available for use by other appliances, including appliances that may benefit from having additional charging time, such as electric vehicles, smartphones, smartwatches, or any other type of device/appliance that the user may want to have charged.
Accordingly, there is a need for a system and method that enables the sharing of a single circuit breaker between two or more electrical appliances. There also is a need for a system and method that enables the sharing of a single circuit breaker between two or more electrical appliances while prioritizing a first electrical appliance's power needs over a second electrical appliance's power needs.

Electrical power sharing system and method


An image forming apparatus includes a fixing unit to fix an image formed on a recording material, first open-close means capable of releasing a conveying path to convey the recording material to the fixing unit, and second open-close means releasable upward in a vertical direction together with the intermediate transferring member, and when the first open-close member and the second open-close member are opened, the fixing unit is disposed on the image forming apparatus main body. In this manner, the effect of the weight of the fixing means can be reduced at the opening and closing time of any of the open-close means.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as a full color copying machine, a printer and the like adopting an electrophotographic system.
2. Related Background Art
In recent years, in general, as a plural color or full color image forming apparatus using an electrophotographic system, as shown in FIGS. 7A and 7B, an in-line type of the image forming apparatus has been disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-242680, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-202728, and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-85899, in which a photosensitive member drum 1000 is lined up in a plurality according to each color, and the toner image of each color formed on each photosensitive member drum 1000 is superposed in order on an intermediate transferring belt 1010 to form a color image, and after the secondary transfer of the toner image on a sheet (recording material) to be conveyed, the toner image is heat-fixed by fixing means 1050, and is discharged into a discharge tray 1020. These constitutions, in which an exposing apparatus is disposed at the underside, can shorten a moving distance from the intermediate transferring member until the toner image is transferred on the recording member, and are effective in reduction of a first copy time.
In such image forming apparatus, in the image forming apparatus having the above described constitution, to remove a sheet jammed (sheet cogging) in a sheet conveying path, a unit retaining the sheet conveying path is rotatably constituted as a front door unit 1040, and the sheet conveying path from a cassette to the fixing apparatus device is made releasable.
On the other hand, since the intermediate transferring belt 1010 has also frequent entangling of the recording material occurred to it, it is desirable to open the intermediate transferring belt 1010. Particularly, in Japanese Patent No. 02865893, it is disclosed, an apparatus having a door to release the conveying path and a door to exchange an image forming unit. It, however, is difficult to remove the recording material from the intermediate transferring member effectively since the intermediate transferring member is not sufficiently opened.
To cope with this situation, as shown in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-85899 as shown in FIG. 7B, to easily process the entangling of the sheet to the intermediate transferring belt 1010, an upper door unit 1030 having a discharge tray 1020 and the intermediate transferring belt 1010 is rotatably constituted for the image forming apparatus. As a result, because of the opening of the front door unit 1040, it is easy to access the conveying path, and by pivoting the upper door unit 1030 toward above the main body (in the direction to an arrow C in FIG. 7), an access to the intermediate transferring belt 1010 is made easy. As a result, jam processing of the conveying path of the sheet can be improved.
However, in the constitution where an open-close member to open the conveying path and an open-close member to open the intermediate transferring member are provided respectively in this manner, if fixing means is attached to either of the open-close members, there arises a following problem. That is, if the fixing means is attached to the open-close member capable of opening and closing upward in the vertical direction, there arise a problem of a lack of stability at the releasing time due to the weight of the fixing means, and also a problem of the constitution becoming complicated due to the necessity of enhancing rigidity of an open-close cover so as to be similarly endurable with the weight of the fixing means when the fixing means is attached to the open-close cover of the side surface.


An image forming apparatus having: a toner image carrier; a transfer member; a transfer voltage applying device which applies a bias voltage to the transfer member; a voltage controller which performs constant voltage control on the transfer voltage applying device; a transfer contribution current detecting device; an antistatic member for removing static electricity from the record medium after transfer of a toner image; and an antistatic voltage applying device which applies an AC voltage to the antistatic member. The transfer contribution current detecting device measures current values during a current detection time, which corresponds to an integral multiple of a period of the AC voltage applied to the antistatic member, and detects a transfer contribution current value from the measured values, and the voltage controller controls the bias voltage applied to the transfer member based on the transfer contribution current value.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, and particularly relates to an image forming apparatus, such as a printer or a copier, which transfers a toner image onto a record medium such as paper by an electrophotographic method.
2. Description of Related Art
Generally, in an image forming apparatus that forms a color image by an electrophotographic method, monochrome toner images of Y (yellow), M (magenta), C (cyan), and K (black) are transferred onto an intermediate transfer belt and combined into a composite image (primary transfer), and the composite image is transferred onto a record medium (secondary transfer). At the time of secondary transfer, a transfer bias having a reverse polarity to the toner is applied to a secondary transfer roller in order to form an electric field between the intermediate transfer belt and the secondary transfer roller so that the toner can be moved from the intermediate transfer belt to the record medium. This transfer bias is preferably subjected to constant voltage control which enables favorable transfer regardless of the coverage (ratio of toner in a fixed printed area) of an image to be printed.
As for such constant voltage control, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2008-275946 discloses that while a secondary transfer current is monitored, an applied voltage is controlled so that the secondary transfer voltage will not exceed a predetermined and stored upper limit and will not come below a predetermined and stored lower limit.
Meanwhile, it is necessary to separate the record medium from the intermediate transfer belt immediately after the secondary transfer, and for smooth separation of the record medium, an antistatic needle that removes an electric charge from the record medium is provided immediately after the transfer roller, and a DC voltage is applied to the antistatic needle. Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2010-249872 discloses that a value obtained by subtracting a detected antistatic current from a detected secondary transfer current is taken as a transfer contribution current and that a bias voltage applied to the secondary transfer roller is controlled such that the transfer contribution current will be kept within a predetermined range.
Incidentally, for separation of the record medium from the image carrier (intermediate transfer belt) after the transfer and especially for separation of thin paper, it is effective to apply a superimposed voltage of an AC voltage and a DC voltage to the antistatic member. However, when a current flowing through the transfer roller with an AC voltage applied to the antistatic member is measured, a conventional DC measuring device, which instantaneously measures a current, performs erroneous operations because the current flowing through the transfer area during transfer fluctuates in accordance with the period of the AC voltage applied to the antistatic member. Therefore, when the antistatic member to be applied with an AC voltage is employed in an apparatus that is controlled in a manner as described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2008-275946, a transfer voltage will be set higher gradually, thereby resulting in excess transfer.

Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.


A data transmission cable having at least one unit of at least four conductors twisted into sets of conductors, which sets are quads or pairs, each conductor set being twisted at a pitch that is different from the pitch of any other conductor set, and each conductor being insulated by an insulating sheath. The unit being covered by at least one assembly structure, wherein the material used for the insulating sheath of any conductor in a given set of conductors has a relative dielectric constant that is different from that of the material used for the insulating sheath of any conductor in another set of conductors, such that the propagation time differences between the conductors of the set of conductors and the conductors of the other set of conductors is less than 2 ns/100 m.

European patent EP-B-0 599 672 describes a high frequency signal transmission cable comprising at least one conductor unit. Each unit has at least two sets of conductors, such as a quad of twisted conductors, each conductor being insulated by a first insulating sheath. The unit, or a plurality of said units, are surrounded by a second sheath constituted by a thin extruded covering of insulating material situated in contact with the conductors or the set of conductors without said conductors being embedded in the sheath constituted by the covering. The insulating material simultaneously provides sufficient stiffness to hold said conductors in a determined position while said cable is being handled, and sufficient elasticity to make such handling possible.
Unfortunately, to obtain a level of cross-talk that is compatible with good transmission in a cable comprising at least one unit of at least four twisted conductors in the form of sets of conductors that are pairs or quads, the twist pitches of said sets of conductors must be different. The problem for data transmission is that given that each set of conductors has a different electrical length, signals applied simultaneously at one end of the cable to each of said sets of conductors reach the other end of the cable with relative time shifts. The problem becomes particularly troublesome when data transmission rates are high.
At present, this difference is compensated by active equipments associated with passive buffer memories or "buffers". These memories are expensive, and the storage capacity they require is becoming ever greater.
Thus, the problem which arises is that of mitigating the transmission time differences between conductors in a given set of conductors, and the conductors in another set of conductors, said sets of conductors being situated in a unit of a data transmission cable. The object of the present invention is to make a data transmission cable which solves the problem posed in that it enables propagation time differences between the conductors of said sets of conductors to be reduced considerably, i.e. it makes it possible in general to obtain such propagation time differences that are less than two nanoseconds per hundred meter length of cable (2 ns/100 m).


A method for providing treatment recommendations for a patient to a physician is disclosed. The method includes receiving health information associated with the patient, determining a first risk score for the patient based on the health information using a trained predictor model, determining a second risk score for the patient based on the health information and at least one artificially closed care gap included in the health information using the predictor model, determining a predicted risk reduction score based on the first risk score and the second risk score, determining a patient classification based on the predicted risk reduction score, and outputting a report based on at least one of the first risk score, the second risk score, or the predicted risk reduction score.

The present invention relates to systems and methods for analysis and management of heart failure populations. Heart failure (HF) has a lifetime prevalence of 1 in 3 in the United States and is responsible for approximately 1 million hospital discharges annually and 1 in 8 deaths in the United States. The estimated annual cost of HF in the United States is $30.7 billion and that amount is expected to more than double to $69.7 billion by 2030, costing every United States citizen an average of $244 annually.
In response to these rising costs, new models of healthcare and reimbursement are being developed. In these "value-based care" models, management of many chronic conditions like heart failure is extending beyond singular patient-physician encounters to instead treat disease at a population scale. The general goal of such models is to improve patient outcomes while reducing/containing costs by delivering care that keeps patients efficiently managed and reduces the frequency of high cost/high acuity encounters. Optimizing this kind of management at a population level requires an effective means to identify and stratify patients in need of intervention and, ideally, identify appropriate interventions to deploy. At present, there is a critical lack of validated, data-driven models to support these population health goals.
Data science approaches, including machine learning, are well-suited to assist with these tasks. For example, one of the first papers on this subject in 1995 showed that a neural network could utilize echocardiography data to predict 1-year mortality in 95 heart failure patients with accuracy that was superior to a linear model or clinical judgement. Since then, numerous additional studies with thousands of patients have shown significant promise for machine learning to predict hospitalization, readmission, or death in patients with heart failure.
Previously published models using machine learning for risk predictions in patients with heart failure have two primary limitations with regard to their utility in optimizing clinical population health management. First, most models have used small, systematically collected and annotated datasets (e.g., as from a clinical trial) or focused on an important, but narrow, clinical setting (e.g., in-hospital mortality during heart failure hospitalization for acute decompensation). Such approaches, while valid and appropriate within their respective constraints, are not necessarily generalizable to a broad and heterogeneous heart failure population, as characterized in "real world" clinical data. The second limitation is that none of the published findings using machine learning models have led to clinically-relevant, actionable results.
Thus, what is needed is a system for providing clinically-relevant, actionable treatment recommendations for patients who should be but are not receiving evidence-based care generalizable to a broad and heterogeneous heart failure population.

Systems and methods for machine learning approaches to management of healthcare populations