A process cartridge detachably mountable on the main body of an electrophotographic apparatus, integrally supports a photosensitive drum for bearing toner images, and an intermediate transferring belt having a contact part with the photosensitive drum. The moisture amount of the intermediate transferring belt at 23xc2x0 C./50% RH is less than 1% by weight and the sum of the surface roughness Ra of the photosensitive drum and the surface roughness Ra of the intermediate transferring belt is less than 0.8 xcexcm. The present invention also provides an electrophotographic apparatus having the process cartridge and an image forming method using the electrophotographic apparatus.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a process cartridge, an electrophotographic apparatus and image forming method.
2. Related Background Art
As a type of a color image forming apparatus (color electrophotographic apparatus) of an electrophotographic system, there is an electrophotographic apparatus with an intermediate transferring member (intermediate transferring belt or intermediate transferring drum).
As for that apparatus, operation scheme will be described with reference to FIG. 1.
In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a photosensitive drum (drum-shaped electrophotographic photosensitive member) as a first image bearing member, which is rotatably driven at a predetermined rotation speed (process speed) in the direction of an arrow. In addition, the photosensitive drum 1 undergoes electrifying processing uniformly at a predetermined polarity and potential with an (primary) electrifying means 2 during the rotation process, then receives exposure light 3 by an unillustrated exposing means (for example, laser beams or LEDs). Thus, an electrostatic latent image is formed corresponding to the first color component image (for example, the yellow color component image) of the target full color image. Subsequently, the electrostatic latent image is developed with the toner (yellow toner) of first developing means (yellow color developing means 41) so that a toner image (yellow component image) is formed.
The intermediate transferring belt 5 is rotatably driven at a surface speed almost equal to that of the photosensitive drum (for example, 97 to 103% based on the rotation speed of the photosensitive drum) in the direction of an arrow.
While the above described first color toner image (yellow component image) formed on the photosensitive drum 1 passes through the contact part between the photosensitive drum 1 and the intermediate transferring belt 5, transfer (primary transfer) is carried out to the external circumference face of the intermediate transferring belt 5 from the photosensitive drum 1 by a primary transferring bias applied onto the intermediate transferring belt 5 via the primary transferring means 6 from the bias battery 30. The primary transferring bias is, for example, 100 to 3,500 V.
After transferring a toner image to the intermediate transferring belt 5, transfer residual toner is removed from the photosensitive drum 1 with photosensitive drum cleaning means 13 so as to get prepared for electrifying, exposing, developing, transferring steps of the next color component.
In the same way as in the first color toner image, the second to the forth color toner images are sequentially transferred and superimposed onto the intermediate transferring belt 5. In the primary transfer step of the first to the third color, the secondary transferring means (secondary transferring roller) 7 and the electric charge producing means 9 are apart from the surface of the intermediate transferring belt 5.
After the synthesized color toner image corresponding to the target color image is formed onto the intermediate transferring belt 5, the secondary transferring means 7 is brought into contact with the intermediate transferring belt 5, a transfer medium P is conveyed to the gap between the intermediate transferring belt 5 and the secondary transferring means 7 from a sheet feeding roller 11 at a predetermined timing and that toner image is transferred to the transfer medium P (secondary transfer).
In addition, the transfer medium P having the toner image transferred thereto is introduced into a fixing means 15 to undergo heat fixing.
After completing the image transfer onto the transfer medium P, the electric charge providing means 9 is brought into contact with the intermediate transferring belt 5. For the apparatus shown in FIG. 1, a roller is used as the electric charge providing means 9.
A voltage (for example, a direct voltage+an alternating voltage) of a reverse polarity to the surface potential of the photosensitive drum 1 is applied to the roller so that transfer residual toner on the intermediate transferring belt 5 is charged to a reverse polarity opposite to the polarity of the photosensitive drum 1. The transferring residual toner charged to the reverse polarity is electrostatically transferred onto the photosensitive drum 1 from the intermediate transferring belt 5 in the contact part in contact with the photosensitive drum 1 (contact part) and in the vicinity thereof. As a result, the intermediate transferring belt 5 is cleaned (electrostatic cleaning). The foregoing is the operation scheme of the electrophotographic apparatus using an intermediate transferring belt.
In recent years, the full color electrophotographic apparatus has started spreading rapidly, but a full color electrophotographic apparatus requires more disposals as compared with a conventional monochromatic electrophotographic apparatus, giving rise to a problem of a certain inferiority in maintenance performance.
In order to solve this problem, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-292812 proposes such a trial that an electrophotographic photosensitive member and an intermediate transferring belt are combined together into one unit to reduce the number of disposals to improve the user""s jam handling performance or efficiency of replacement work of respective units. And already, process cartridges in which the electrophotographic photosensitive member and the intermediate transferring belt are combined together have been put on the market.
However, electrophotographic photosensitive members mounted on these process cartridges are belt-shaped (photosensitive belts), and therefore the size of a process cartridge itself gets larger and none can be said to be easy to replace. In addition, it is disadvantageous in reducing the size of the main body of an electrophotographic apparatus.
Therefore, the present inventors investigated a process cartridge integrally supporting an intermediate transferring belt and a photosensitive drum (an intermediate transferring belt-photosensitive drum integrated process cartridge) using a photosensitive drum.
However, in the intermediate transferring belt-photosensitive drum integral process cartridge, it was found that there was such a problem that the image density at the time of operation of the part where the photosensitive drum and the intermediate transferring belt were in contact with each other (contact part) when they were left standing was different from the image density of the other part (non-contact part) (hereinafter referred to as contact irregularity).
Moreover, it was found that the contact irregularity was apt to occur in the case of using a drum-shaped electrophotographic photosensitive member (photosensitive drum) more than in the case of using a belt-shaped electrophotographic photosensitive member (photosensitive belt).
The reasons therefore are deemed as follows.
Firstly, the following are deemed to be the reasons why the contact irregularity takes place.
Moisture in an intermediate transferring belt intensifies sensitivity in the contact part on an electrophotographic photosensitive member, giving rise to a sensitivity difference from the non-contact part, which causes dense longitudinal belts in the image to appear in a cycle corresponding to the peripheral length of the electrophotographic photosensitive member.
In addition, the following is deemed to be the reasons why the contact irregularity is apt to occur in the case of using a photosensitive drum more than in the case of using a photosensitive belt.
In the case of a photosensitive drum, the thickness of its supporting member (an aluminum cylinder is frequently used) must be made comparatively thick (for example, 0.5 to 3 mm) for maintaining its shape as a rigid material, and the electrophotographic photosensitive member cannot allow the moisture received from the intermediate transferring belt to escape through the supporting member of the electrophotographic photosensitive member.
To the contrary, the supporting member of the photosensitive belt is comparatively thin (polyester resin etc. having a thickness of 0.05 to 0.2 mm is frequently used), and hence can allow the moisture received from the intermediate transferring belt to escape through the supporting member without difficulty.
That is, if a photosensitive drum is used, it tends to be influenced directly by the moisture of the intermediate transferring belt, but if a photosensitive belt is used, the moisture is discharged to the air to a certain level through the thickness direction of the photosensitive belt, and therefore, the influence of the moisture in the contact part can be alleviated.
As described above, the present inventors have found that a photosensitive belt is more advantageous than a photosensitive drum from the contact irregularity viewpoint.
However,
(1) an intermediate transferring belt-photosensitive drum integrated process cartridge is more advantageous for miniaturization,
(2) but it is difficult to drive a photosensitive belt at a constant speed with an inexpensive system, and therefore in the case of using a photosensitive belt, drive irregularity is apt to appear as density irregularity (banding) of longitudinal lines in half tone images.
On the other hand, in the case of a photosensitive drum, it is comparatively easy to keep the surface speed stable, and therefore banding is hard to cause.
Therefore, the present inventors tried to solve the problem of the contact irregularity with an intermediate transferring belt-photosensitive drum integrated process cartridge.
An object of the present invention is to provide a process cartridge in which an intermediate transferring belt and an electrophotographic photosensitive member are integrally held together, which is more miniaturized, but does not bring about image defects such as banding or coarseness, and prevents the contact irregularity from occurring to provide uniform image density, an electrophotographic apparatus having the process cartridge and an image forming method using the electrophotographic apparatus.
The present invention provides a process cartridge detachably mountable on the main body of an electrophotographic apparatus, comprising
a photosensitive drum for bearing a toner image; and
an intermediate transferring belt having a contact part with the photosensitive drum;
which are integrally held together,
wherein the moisture amount of the intermediate transferring belt at 23xc2x0 C./50% RH is less than 1% by weight and
the sum of the surface roughness Ra of the photosensitive drum and the surface roughness Ra of the intermediate transferring belt is less than 0.8 xcexcm.
In addition, the present invention provides an electrophotographic apparatus comprising:
a photosensitive drum for bearing a toner image;
a charging means for charging the photosensitive drum;
an exposing means for forming an electrostatic latent image on the photosensitive drum charged with the charging means;
a developing means for developing with a toner the electrostatic latent image formed on the photosensitive drum with the exposing means and forming a toner image onto the photosensitive drum;
an intermediate transferring belt having a contact part with the photosensitive drum for secondarily transferring onto a transfer medium the toner image having been primarily transferred from the photosensitive drum; and
a primary transferring means for primarily transferring the toner image from the photosensitive drum to the intermediate transferring belt at the contact part; and
comprising a process cartridge which integrally supports at least the photosensitive drum and the intermediate transferring belt and is detachably mountable on the main body of the electrophotographic apparatus,
wherein the moisture amount of the intermediate transferring belt at 23xc2x0 C./50% RH is less than 1% by weight, and
the sum of the surface roughness Ra of the photosensitive drum and the surface roughness Ra of the intermediate transferring belt is less than 0.8 xcexcm.
Further, the present invention provides an image forming method comprising:
an electrifying step of charging a photosensitive drum;
an exposing step of forming an electrostatic latent image on a photosensitive drum charged in the charging step;
a developing step of developing the electrostatic latent image formed on the photosensitive drum in the exposing step with a toner to form a toner image on the photosensitive drum;
a primary transferring step of primarily transferring the toner image formed in the developing step with a primary transferring means from the photosensitive drum to the intermediate transferring belt having a contact part with the photosensitive drum, and
a secondary transferring step of secondarily transferring the toner image primarily transferred in the primary transferring step onto a transferring material, and
using an electrophotographic apparatus having a process cartridge which integrally holds at least the photosensitive drum and the intermediate transferring belt and is detachably mountable to the main body of the electrophotographic apparatus,
wherein the moisture amount of the intermediate transferring belt at 23xc2x0 C./50% RH is less than 1% by weight and
the sum of the surface roughness Ra of the photosensitive drum and the surface roughness Ra of the intermediate transferring belt is less than 0.8 xcexcm.

Image forming apparatus having process cartridge with intermediate transfer belt


A cable fastener with cable management function is revealed. The cable fastener is a hollow frame formed by two first side walls disposed at an interval along the length direction and two second side walls. The frame has an opening perpendicular to a length direction and two convex bodies arranged symmetrically on inner surfaces of the second side walls. A plurality part of a cable with equal length is respectively mounted into the opening of each cable fastener, passed through the convex bodies and secured in the frame. A plurality of bend points is formed on the cable along the length direction so that the cable is bent into bundles. The cable management and positioning is achieved.

1. Fields of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fastener, especially to a cable fastener with cable management function.
2. Descriptions of Related Art
There are various types of cables used in our daily lives such as phone lines, power lines, appliance cords, network cables, etc. The cables generally have flexibility. While the cable is not in use or too long, a part of the cable is folded for storage otherwise the cables are twisted, tangled or stretched to occupy the additional area. Moreover, the folded cables may look like a mess or get tangled.
Take a hair dryer as an example. As shown in FIG. 1, a cable 20 of a hair dryer 100 is usually wrapped around the hair dryer 100. Refer to FIG. 2, the cable 200 is wound freely. Or as shown in FIG. 3, the cable 200 can also be folded over in a back and forth pattern several times.
However, the shortcoming of the folded cable in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 is in that the cable occupies too much space and the cable is easy to get tangled. This affects the aesthetics of the hair dryer 100. The disadvantage of the folded cable in FIG. 3 is in that the length of the cable 200 between two adjacent bend points is not equal after the cable being folded. Thus the cable 200 looks messy and irregular.

Cable fastener with cable management function


The tuning device also includes an input unit for inputting a sound of an instrument to be tuned or a musical sound signal, a conversion information storing portion in which a plurality of pieces of information on filters for tuning are stored, a control unit for extracting the piece of information on an arbitrary one of the filters from the conversion information storing portion, and a conversion unit for converting a signal of the input unit into a signal of an arbitrary frequency band in response to a signal from the control unit. Owing to this structure, even if ambient noise has mixed with a sound of the instrument to be tuned, the sound is filtered into a signal component of a target scale or a target pitch name. By extracting a pitch from this signal component, the number of erroneous tuning operations can be reduced.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a tuning device for measuring and displaying a difference between a fundamental frequency of an instrumental sound or a musical sound signal and a reference frequency serving as a criterion for comparison.
2. Description of the Related Art
It has been generally known to remove a certain quantity of unnecessary components such as noise and harmonic components outside a range enabling the tuning of an instrument sound or a musical sound signal (i.e., a range from low pitch sounds to high pitch sounds) by means of a passive filter composed of a resistor and a capacitor, an active filter constructed of an operational amplifier, or the like, as disclosed in JP 9-6341 A (page, 4 FIG. 1).
A conventional tuning device is a fixed filter designed to remove noise and harmonic components outside a tuning-permitting range (i.e., a tonal range from low pitch sounds to high pitch sounds) and thus cannot exercise a filtering effect on unnecessary sounds within a range enabling the tuning of sounds other than those of an instrument to be tuned. As this phenomenon, it is possible to mention tuning in an environment surrounded by many instruments as in the case of, for example, a brass band. In such an environment, the tuning device is susceptible to the influence of ambient sounds and quite often makes an erroneous determination as a response to sounds of an instrument to be tuned.
Further, there is also a method of performing tuning by attaching a piezoelectric pickup to an instrument to avert the influence of ambient sounds and inputting an output signal from the piezoelectric pickup. However, the piezoelectric pickup may pick up not only the musical sounds to be tuned but also the sounds of other instruments in the neighborhood, including brass instruments resounding at high volume, as conductive noise. This constitutes a factor behind erroneous determinations made by the tuning device.
Still further, in the case of Taisho harps or in school lessons, there are often several performers lined up along a single desk to play instruments. In tuning the instruments in such situations, the above-mentioned conductive noise or vibrating sound causes erroneous determinations noticeably.


A method is disclosed for severing a continuous reinforcement from a print head at conclusion of an event during fabrication of a composite structure. The method may include moving the print head a distance away from the composite structure that provides clearance for a cutting mechanism between an outlet of the print head and the composite structure, and responsively causing the cutting mechanism to make a first cut of the continuous reinforcement at a boundary of the composite structure. The method may also include moving the print head to a waste discard location, and responsively causing the cutting mechanism to make a second cut of the continuous reinforcement at a desired distance offset from the outlet of the print head.

Continuous fiber 3D printing (a.k.a., CF3D®) involves the use of continuous fibers embedded within a matrix discharging from a moveable print head. The matrix can be a traditional thermoplastic, a powdered metal, a liquid resin (e.g., a UV curable and/or two-part resin), or a combination of any of these and other known matrixes. Upon exiting the print head, a cure enhancer (e.g., a UV light, an ultrasonic emitter, a heat source, a heat sink, a catalyst supply, etc.) is activated to initiate and/or complete curing of the matrix. This curing occurs almost immediately, allowing for unsupported structures to be fabricated in free space. When fibers, particularly continuous fibers, are embedded within the structure, a strength of the structure may be multiplied beyond the matrix-dependent strength. An example of this technology is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 9,511,543 that issued to Tyler on Dec. 6, 2016 ("the '543 patent").
Although CF3D® provides for increased strength and free-space fabrication, the continuous fiber discharging from the print head may need to be severed at the end of each fabrication pass. An exemplary mechanism for severing the fiber is disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/382,054 that was filed on Apr. 11, 2019 (the '054 application), which is incorporated herein by reference. The disclosed fiber management arrangement and method are directed to facilitating and controlling severing of fibers via the mechanism of the '054 application and other fiber cutting mechanisms.

Fiber management arrangement and method for additive manufacturing system


A method of installing a rotor assembly in a generator stator including a central bore is provided. The method includes coupling at least one of a first rotor section and a second rotor section of the rotor assembly to a conveyor such that at least a portion of the rotor assembly is supported by the conveyor. The method also includes moving the rotor assembly into position within the stator bore using the conveyor.

This invention relates generally to generators, and more particularly, to methods and apparatus for installation and removal of a generator rotor assembly.
During at least some known methods of installation and removal of a rotor assembly within a generator stator bore, the rotor assembly is slid along a track using straps attached to the rotor assembly. However, sliding the rotor assembly may subject the core of the rotor assembly to the full weight of the rotor assembly.
At least some known field assemblies include a core that is fabricated from steel and copper that provides enough strength to the core to enable the core to withstand the weight of the rotor sections. However, other known rotor assembly cores are fabricated from materials that generally lack the material strength to withstand the weight of the rotor sections. Accordingly, such rotor assembly cores limit the installation and removal methods that may be used.
Generally, known methods of installing and removing a rotor assembly require a tremendous amount of effort and manipulation on the part of the technicians. Specifically, known methods may require the rotor assembly to be manipulated at several different angles with respect to the stator bore. Moreover, known methods may require the rotor assembly to be repeatedly manipulated and/or repositioned several times before it can be installed or removed.

Methods and system to facilitate installation and removal of a generator rotor assembly


A device for electro-optical monitoring of angular and lateral deflections of a moving carriage relative to a stationary track along which it moves, including a transmitting unit mounted on the moving carriage and including a light source illuminating a pattern, a receiving unit mounted on the track in light receiving relationship with the transmitting unit and including optical sensor apparatus for sensing the light transmitted from the transmitting unit and providing an output signal corresponding thereto, and a micro computer arranged to receive the output signal from the receiving unit and to determine the angular and lateral deflection of the carriage utilizing the information derived from the signal.

Measuring dimensions of a shaped three dimensional body is done today using coordinate measuring machines (C.M.M.). These systems are built using accurately manufactured and assembled mechanical parts.
This dependence on mechanical precision in order to acquire and maintain the measuring accuracy has severe drawbacks.
1. The cost of the C.M.M. is high due to the high cost of its accurate mechanical parts and the complexity of construction. PA1 2. Accuracy of the coordinate measuring machine can be maintained only under controlled environmental conditions, usually in a clean, air-conditioned room. PA1 3. Keeping the accuracy of the system in time calls for periodical calibration actions which are complicated and expensive.
These drawbacks restrict the use of the traditional coordinate measuring machines only to post process quality control applications, because C.M.M. machines are used only in environmentally controlled rooms, physically separated from the production line.
The underlying concept of the present invention is to continuously measure the inaccuracies of the measuring system in all dimensions. In doing so, the accuracy of the measuring system no longer depends on the inherent accuracy of the mechanical construction, hence the C.M.M. can be produced using less accurate and therefore less expensive components. The C.M.M. has further built in accuracy monitoring and calibration. The system can be put in the manufacturing plant next to the production line without any reduction in its operational accuracy.
The method used to monitor the inaccuracies of the C.M.M. is electro-optical. And the principle of operation is based on measuring and calculating all angular and lateral misalignments of each moving axis of the C.M.M. in all of its six degrees of freedom. By using electro-optical measuring methods combined with computer based analysis of the measurement results, an accurate position analysis of the measuring probe, used by the C.M.M. is generated and results in a long lasting, in process, accurate measurement of manufactured parts.

Electro optically corrected coordinate measuring machine


Audio signal processing techniques are described which are employed within a circuit of a speech dereverberation system. The amount of data or number of samples input to a reverberation coefficient determination unit is determined, taking into account information about the background noise in the acoustic space and information about energy of reverberant sound in the acoustic space.

Sound waves that are emitted from a source travel in all directions. Sound that is captured by a microphone in a given space will therefore comprise sound waves that have traveled on a direct path to reach the microphone, as well as sound waves that have been reflected from surfaces of the walls and other obstacles in the space. The persistence of sound waves after the sound source stops, and as a consequence of reflections, is called reverberation.
It will be appreciated that reflected or reverberant sounds captured by a microphone will have traveled on a longer path compared to the direct path and will therefore arrive after sound waves which have traveled on the direct path and at an attenuated level due to power being absorbed by surfaces and the extra distance traveled through the air. Thus, sound signals that are captured by a microphone in a real-world environment will contain multiple delayed and attenuated copies of the signal obtained via the direct path. Reverberations can be considered to be correlated delayed reflections of the source signal.
Speech signals derived from sounds that are captured by a microphone are used for many purposes including voice communication, recording and playback. Furthermore, applications which rely on voice control as a method of interacting with hardware and associated functionality are becoming more prevalent and many of these applications rely on Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) techniques.
A typical ASR system configuration is illustrated in FIG. 1. Firstly, acoustic features which characterise essential features present in an input speech signal are extracted by an extraction unit 22 from a time frame of the speech signal. Then, on the basis of these features, the most likely text is identified by a decoding unit 23. The decoding unit may use a model, stored in a model storage unit 24, which comprises the knowledge required to decode the features into phonemes. The model is typically trained on a set of acoustic features that are extracted from an undistorted speech signal. Therefore if the input signal to the ASR system is corrupted by reverberant signals, then the recognition performance of the system is degraded.
It is therefore known that reverberation can result in a degradation in the intelligibility of speech signals that are captured by an acoustic sensor such as a microphone. Further, whilst speech recognition systems may perform well in conditions where the source to microphone distance is relatively small, the performance of speech recognition tends to degrade as the distance increases. In the field of home automation for example, where a smart home device operable to receive and process speech commands is typically placed within an acoustic environment such as an indoor room at some distance (e.g. 0.5 m to 6 m) from a user, the need for dereverberation of audio signals detected by the microphone of the device is particularly apparent.
Mitigating the effects of reverberation is therefore an important consideration in any application which utilises speech signals i.e. electric signals derived by an acoustic sensor in response to incident sounds which include speech. Reducing the effects of reverberation is therefore for important for improving the quality of voice calls and also in the context of applications utilising speech recognition systems.
A number of approaches to dereverberation have been proposed. For example, inverse filtering methods have been considered which are based on the principle of obtaining an inverse filter for the room or space, which is the cause of the reverberation, and deconvolving the captured signal with the inverse filter in order to recover the direct signal component. It will be appreciated that if the room impulse response (RIR) which describes the linear relation between the source and the microphone is known, then the inverse filter of the RIR can accurately recover the source signal. In most speech applications, however, the RIR is not known and must be estimated. The problem of estimating the RIR is compounded by the fact that the acoustic properties of the environment are potentially changeable i.e. not fixed.
A number of so-called "blind" dereverberation methods have been proposed in which attempts are made to estimate the inverse filter without prior knowledge of the room impulse response. In particular, some previously proposed reverberation techniques involve using a linear prediction based reverberation algorithm to estimate reverberant coefficients, wherein reverberant components may be from the input signal based on the estimated coefficients. Those in the art will understand that linear prediction refers to a mathematical operation in which future values of a discrete time signal are estimated as a linear function of previous samples.
Details of previously proposed linear prediction based dereverberation is described, for example, in:
1) "Speech dereverberation based on variance-normalized delayed linear prediction", T Nakatani et al, IEEE Trans. Audio, Speech and Language Processing, vol. 18, no. 7, pp. 1717-1731, September 2010. In this document an approach for blind speech dereverberation based on multi-channel linear prediction (i.e. a multichannel autoregressive model (MCLP)) has been proposed.
2) "Blind speech dereverberation with multi-channel linear prediction based on short time Fourier transform representation", T Nakatani et al, Proc. International Conference on Acoustics Speech and Signal Processing, Las Vegas, USA, May 2008, pp. 85-88. This paper describes an autoregressive generative model for the acoustic transfer functions and models the spectral coefficients of the desired clean speech signal using a Gaussian distribution. Dereverberation is then performed by maximum likelihood estimation of all unknown model parameters.
3) "Suppression of late reverberation effect on speech signal using long-term multiple-step linear prediction", IEEE Trans. Audio, Speech and Language Processing, vo. 17, no. 4, pp. 534-545, May 2009. In this paper a further delayed linear prediction method has been proposed.
It will be appreciated that in most real-world applications, for example in the context of a smart home device operable to receive and process speech commands, the level of background noise will vary over time. Unfortunately, despite improvements in the performance of dereverberation systems, previously considered techniques struggle to maintain a good performance in noise. Furthermore, previously proposed dereverberation systems, may experience issues such as speech suppression and distortion when subject to time-varying, noisy conditions. The low frequencies of speech are especially affected as this is where the longest reverberation times occur and where the lowest signal to noise ratios (SNR) arise.
Aspects described herein are concerned with improving the quality of speech signals derived by a dereverberation system. In particular, aspects described herein are concerned with improving dereverberation performance in noisy environments or in environments which experience time varying noise levels.
According to an example of a first aspect there is provided a signal processing circuit of a speech dereverberation system, the signal processing circuit comprising: a reverberation coefficient determination unit configured to determine one or more reverberation coefficients of a portion of an input signal generated by an acoustic sensor provided in an acoustic space; and
a determination unit operable to determine a number of past samples of the portion of the input signal to be passed to the reverberation coefficient determination unit, based on:
i) information about the background noise in the acoustic space; and
ii) information about energy of reverberant sound in the acoustic space.
The information about background noise in the acoustic space may comprise information about the SNR or NSR. The information about the energy of the reverberant sound may comprise the decay in the energy of the reverberant sound in the acoustic space. The information about the energy of reverberant sound may be determined from a representation of the room impulse response (RIR) for the acoustic space. The representation of the RIR may be estimated.
According to at least one example the determination unit may be operable to determine a threshold time at which a level of the reverberant energy falls below a predetermined value relative to a respective level of the noise. Alternatively or additionally, the determination unit is operable to determine a threshold time at which a level of the energy of the decaying reverberant sound is substantially equal to a level of the NSR. The threshold time may be selected to be the time at which the ratio of the level of reverberant sound energy to the level of the NSR is at or above a predetermined value. The number of past samples input to the dereverberation coefficient determination unit may thus be calculated based on the threshold time. The determination unit may be beneficially configured to determine a number of samples that will maintain or achieve a positive reverberant sound energy to NSR level ratio.
According to one or more examples the signal processing circuit further comprises a selection mechanism operable to select the number of samples of the input signal to be passed to the reverberation coefficient determination unit based on the number of samples determined by the determination unit. The selection mechanism may comprise an adjustable length buffer. Alternatively, the selection mechanism may be operable to cause adjustment of the number of samples that a processed by a correlation unit of the signal processing circuit.
According to an example of a second aspect there is provided a signal processing circuit comprising:
a determination unit operable to determine a number of samples of an input signal to be passed to a reverberation coefficient determination unit that will maintain or achieve a positive reverberant sound to noise ratio.
The signal processing circuit may further comprise a reverberation coefficient determination unit configured to determine one or more reverberation coefficients of a portion of an input signal generated by an acoustic sensor provided in an acoustic space.
According to one or more examples an inverse filter may be obtained from the reverberation coefficients determined by the reverberation coefficient determination unit. The inverse filter may be convolved with the portion of the input signal to obtain an estimate of the reverberant component of the portion. Furthermore, the estimate of the reverberant component of the portion may be subtracted, or deconvolved, with the input signal to give a dereverberated signal dn,k.
A signal processing circuit as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the reverberation coefficient determination unit determines the reverberation coefficients based on a linear prediction algorithm.
According to one or more examples the signal processing circuit may further comprise a delay unit configured to apply a delay to the input signal.
According to one or more examples the signal processing circuit may further comprise a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) operable to the determine the amplitude of the input signal generated by the acoustic sensor in a plurality of frequency ranges, wherein the reverberation coefficient prediction unit is operable to determine the reverberant coefficients in one or more of the frequency ranges.
According to one or more examples the signal processing may be provided in the form of a single integrated circuit.
A device may be provided comprising the signal processing circuit according to an example of one or more of the above aspects. The device may comprise, inter alia: a mobile telephone, an audio player, a video player, a mobile computing platform, a games device, a remote controller device, a toy, a machine, or a home automation controller, a domestic appliance or a smart home device. The device may comprise an automatic speech recognition system. The device may comprise one or a plurality of microphones.
According to at least one example the signal processing circuit further comprises a beamformer configured to time align the plurality of microphones in a direction of incident speech sound.
According to an example of a further aspect there is provided method of signal processing comprising:
determining a number of samples of a portion of an input signal generated by an acoustic sensor provided in an acoustic space based on:
i) information about the background noise in the acoustic space; and
ii) information about energy of reverberant sound in the acoustic space.
The method may comprise estimating at least one reverberation coefficient of the portion of the input signal.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a computer program product, comprising a computer-readable tangible medium, and instructions for performing a method according to the previous aspect.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon that, when executed by processor circuitry, cause the processor circuitry to perform a method according to the previous aspect.

Signal processing for speech dereverberation


A holder and optical element device includes a holder having a substantially cylindrical interior shape and an optical element fitted in the holder along an inner surface of the holder. The holder may have a step on the inner surface thereof. This step has a surface that is inclined downward and inward from the interior surface of the holder. The optical element may have a convex optical surface section on a surface thereof and a flat surface section around the optical surface section, the flat surface section being disposed on the downward-inclined surface. The optical element is disposed on the inner surface of the holder in such a manner that the step is in contact with the peripheral surface of the optical element.

Optical elements such as lenses for pick-up heads of CD players or lenses for collecting signal light in optical communications need to be mounted with high accuracy. Therefore, to achieve such high mounting accuracy, generally a holder and optical element device is mounted by adjusting the position thereof with a holder, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,567,224. This type of optical element device is formed by softening an optical element material disposed inside a cylindrical holder by heat, and press-molding the softened optical element material with a die. The optical element is in contact with the inner surface of the holder and thus integrated therewith.
Generally, an optical surface section having an optical function is disposed on a surface of the optical element and a flat surface section is disposed around the optical surface section. When the convex optical surface section is formed, an optical element material is pressed by a die having a concave optical-surface-molding section, which corresponds to the convex optical surface section, and a flat-surface-molding section, which corresponds to the flat surface section. The flat-surface-molding section presses the optical element material towards the center of the optical element. However, the optical-surface-molding section cannot be filled with a sufficient amount of the optical element material, resulting in a defect in the molded optical surface section.


A thin-film transistor panel comprises an insulative substrate, a plurality of thin-film transistor elements arranged at predetermined intervals on said substrate, and wirings electrically connecting the thin-film transistor elements characterized in that the thin-film transistor element comprises a gate electrode, a gate-insulating film, an i-type semiconductor layer to face the gate electrode through the gate insulating film therebetween, an n-type semiconductor layer, source and drain electrodes electrically connected the portions of the i-type semiconductor layer through the n-type semiconductor layer, and an anodically oxidized film located between the source and drain electrodes to electrically isolate, said source and drain electrodes.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a thin-film transistor of an inverse stagger type or the like and a method of manufacturing the thin-film transistor.
2. Description of the Related Art
Known as a thin-film transistor for use as, for example, one of the active elements of an active matrix liquid-crystal display is one having an inverse stagger structure. The thin-film transistor of this type comprises a substrate, a gate electrode formed on the substrate, a gate-insulating film formed on the gate electrode, an 1-type semiconductor layer formed on the gate-insulating film, an n-type semiconductor layer formed on the i-type semiconductor layer, a source electrode formed on one end portion of the n-type semiconductor layer, a drain electrode formed on the other end portion of the n-type semiconductor layer.
The method which is commonly employed to manufacture a thin-film transistor having the inverse stagger structure will be described, with reference to FIGS. 18A to 18E.
FIGS. 18A to 18E are cross-sectional views explaining the method of manufacturing the conventional thin-film transistor, which is formed on one of the transparent substrates of an active matrix liquid-crystal display and used as an active element for a pixel electrode.

Thin-film transistor having source and drain electrodes insulated by an anodically oxidized film


A cable harness assembly is provided, which has a low profile, is shielded, and can be constructed at low cost. The assembly is of the type that includes a board (12, FIG. 2) coupled to a connector frame (14) that holds multiple contacts (52) and coupled to a cable (16), wherein insulated wires (24) of the cable run along the board and have bared front ends (50) connected at joints (74) to tails at the rear of the contacts. An underlayer (72) of electrically insulative material lies over the wire-to-tail joints and any other exposed areas of the wires and tails lying on the board, the underlayer having undulations (78, FIG. 3) that follow the contours under it. An overlayer (80, FIG. 2) of electrically conductive plastic material lies over the underlayer and the rest of the board, wires, and cable front portion. The overlayer is connected to the cable shield (30) and provides EMI/ESD shielding, provides tough mechanical holding together of the harness assembly parts, and forms the outline of the assembly rearward of the connector frame.

Miniature cable harness assemblies are commonly used to connect to input/output ports at the rear of IC (integrated circuit) Cards. A common design for a harness assembly includes a connector frame holding multiple contacts, a circuit board extending rearward of the connector frame, and a stripped cable held to the rear of the board. A row of conductive traces lie at the front of the board, and insulated wires of the cable extend to the traces. The bared front end of each wire is soldered to a trace, and tail of each contact is also soldered to a trace, to form a joint that connects them. After the joints are made, the assembly is placed in mold and insulative plastic is molded around the joints and wires to form a first molded layer. Then a layer of copper foil is wrapped round the first layer and the braided shielding of the cable is soldered to the foil. Finally, the assembly is placed in an overmold in which insulative plastic is injected to surround the foil and shielding and to form the outline of the harness assembly. The need to apply three layer over the initial assembly of board, wires, contact tails, and joints, with two of the layers being injection molded and one of them being a foil wrap, add to the cost and bulk of the assembly. Each of the two injection molding steps adds to the cost due to the dies and injection molding time, while the handling of foil wrapping adds additional costs. A compact cable harness assembly which could be constructed at low cost would be of value.


The present invention comprises a drilling tool including a retractable pilot drilling unit driven by a fluid operated motor, the motor comprising a stator mounted on the interior of a tubular outer housing and a rotor mounted on the exterior of a tubular inner housing axially supported in said outer housing and rotationally free with respect thereto. The pilot drilling unit is rotationally fixed within the inner housing, but axially moveable therewithin so that pressure of drilling fluid used to drive the motor will also act on reaction surfaces of the pilot drilling unit to urge it axially forward. The top of the pilot drilling unit includes a fishing head for retracting the pilot drilling unit from the drilling tool, and reinserting it therein.

With a known drilling tool of this type as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,875,531 for drilling pilot cores, the deep well drilling motor to drive the core barrel of the core drilling unit is designed as a Moineau motor and is a retractable part of the core drilling unit. The stator of the deep well drilling motor is supported so it can move axially but cannot rotate in the longitudinal guides of the outer casing, and the core barrel of the core drilling unit is rotationally mounted in the lower end area of the stator of the deep well drilling motor and is connected to the output shaft of the deep drilling motor. A similar drilling tool is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,518,050, where a turbine that forms a component of the retractable core drilling unit is provided as the drilling motor.

Drilling tool with retractable pilot drilling unit


In a known composite material with a fused silica matrix there are regions of silicon-containing phase embedded. In order to provide a composite material which is suitable for producing components for use in high-temperature processes for heat treatment even when exacting requirements are imposed on impermeability to gas and on purity, it is proposed in accordance with the invention that the composite material be impervious to gas, have a closed porosity of less than 0.5% and a specific density of at least 2.19 g/cm3, and at a temperature of 1000° C. have a spectral emissivity of at least 0.7 for wavelengths between 2 and 8 μm.

The invention relates to a composite material with a matrix of fused silica, in which regions of silicon-containing phase—"Si phase"—have been embedded.
The invention further concerns a heat-absorbing component composed of the composite material, and also a method for producing it by forming a porous shaped body from a powder mixture comprising amorphous fused silica powder and a silicon-containing powder—"Si powder"—and/or from a mixed powder of amorphous fused silica interspersed with silicon-containing phase—"Si—SiO2 powder"—and compacting the shaped body to give the composite material.

Composite material, heat-absorbing component, and method for producing the composite material


A new friction modifier system is described. It has the capability of establishing and maintaining a substantially constant static breakaway coefficient of friction between a pair of friction surfaces that are periodically frictionally engaged with each other. Also this system is capable of maintaining a substantially constant ratio between (i) the low speed dynamic coefficient of friction of such friction surfaces, and (ii) the (midpoint) dynamic coefficient of friction of such friction surfaces. The additive composition yielding these results comprises at least the following components: a) a hydroxyalkyl aliphatic imidazoline in which the hydroxyalkyl group contains from 2 to about 4 carbon atoms, and in which the aliphatic group is an acyclic hydrocarbyl group containing from about 10 to about 25 carbon atoms; and b) a di(hydroxyalkyl) aliphatic tertiary amine in which the hydroxyalkyl groups, being the same or different, each contain from 2 to about 4 carbon atoms, and in which the aliphatic group is an acyclic hydrocarbyl group containing from about 10 to about 25 carbon atoms.

There are numerous situations in which it is necessary or desirable to employ friction modifiers in lubricant compositions in order to beneficially control frictional characteristics between the two sliding surfaces that are frictionally engageable with each other. For example, the useful life of automatic transmissions can be improved by selection and use of lubricants containing suitable friction modifier systems. However, despite improvements made in the art of friction modification, a need exists for improved friction modifier systems that have the capability of establishing and maintaining a substantially constant frictional characteristics between a pair of friction surfaces that are periodically frictionally engaged with each other such as occurs in the operation of automatic transmission shifting clutches, and like power transmission apparatus. In particular, a need exists for friction modifier systems which have the capability of establishing and maintaining a substantially constant static breakaway coefficient of friction (.mu..sub.s) of such friction surfaces. Moreover another need is for friction modifier systems which have the additional capability of also maintaining a substantially constant ratio between (i) the low speed dynamic (.mu..sub.0) coefficient of friction of such friction surfaces, and (ii) the (midpoint) dynamic coefficient of friction (.mu. .sub.d) of such friction surfaces.
The static breakaway coefficient of friction reflects the relative tendency of engaged parts, such as clutch packs, bands and drums, to slip under load. If this value is too low, the slippage can impair the driveability and safety of a vehicle in which such apparatus is utilized. Likewise, for maintaining proper shift-feel durability, the ratio of the low speed dynamic coefficient of friction (or the coefficient of friction at the end of engagement of friction surfaces) to the (midpoint) dynamic coefficient of friction between the engaged parts should be kept substantially constant during long periods of service in vehicles equipped with such apparatus. The ratio is often called as "static to dynamic ratio" or "rooster tail" in lubrication industry.
The development of effective friction modifiers is an empirical art where few if any guidelines exist, and where predictions concerning the operability of new untested systems are unreliable. Therefore, only after a proposed new system has been tested and found to be effective for its intended usage can valid predictions be made as to the effect of reasonable variations in the makeup of that system.

Friction modifier compositions and their use


A device comprising two conductive spaced apart components (3, 4) and a blade (5) in the form of a conductive segment mobile between a position closing the circuit wherein it is in contact with the two conductive components and a position opening the circuit, wherein it is spaced apart from said components. The blade is mounted locked in translation on a rod (7) axially mobile in the box between a retracted position in the box wherein the blade (5) is in contact with the conductive components and a projecting position wherein the blade is spaced apart from the conductive components, means being provided to maintain the rod stable in those two positions.

It is known to produce isolatable electrical contact devices having two conducting components located at some distance from each other, each one of which can be connected to a conducting element, it being possible to establish an electrical connection between these two conducting components via a blade in the form of a conducting strip which can be moved between a closed position of the circuit in which it is in contact with the two conducting components and an open position of the circuit in which it is separated from these components.
Generally, the blade is mounted so that it can pivot between its closed position and its open position.
Isolatable electrical contact devices are often used in difficult environments, which are difficult especially in terms of vibration, dust or corrosive atmosphere.
The aim of the invention is to provide an isolatable contact which is highly reliable, including in difficult environments.
To achieve these objectives, the invention relates to an electrical terminal block comprising, inside an insulating casing:
two conducting components (3, 4) located at some distance from each other, each of which can be connected to a conducting element, for example via a wire;
a blade (5) in the form of a conducting strip which can be moved between a closed position of the circuit in which it is in contact with the two conducting components and an open position of the circuit, in which it is separated from these components;
a rod (7) translationally connected to the blade (5) and which can be moved axially in the casing (2) between an xe2x80x9cinsertedxe2x80x9d position in the casing in which the blade (5) is in the closed position of the circuit and a xe2x80x9cwithdrawnxe2x80x9d position in which the blade (5) is in the open position of the circuit;
means for holding the rod in a stable manner in one or the other of the two withdrawn or inserted positions.
According to the invention, the terminal block is characterized in that:
the means holding the rod (7) in the withdrawn position comprise a spiral spring (11) inserted between the casing and the rod (7); and
the means holding the rod in the inserted position are associated with the rod (7) itself.
In some applications, several contacts are juxtaposed and must be actuated in a coupled manner. In such a case, the rods associated with the various contacts are parallel and their free ends are connected by a bar-shaped element on which a drive rod acts, which drive rod, parallel to the rods of the various blocks, is equipped with means for holding the contacts in the closed position.
According to a first possibility, the means holding a rod in the closed position of the electrical contact comprise a finger extending perpendicularly from the rod and engaged in a groove made in the casing for guiding the rod, oriented parallel to the rod and comprising, at its end located closest to the contact, a 90xc2x0 return.
To close the contact, it is appropriate to slide the rod in a direction in which it is inserted into the casing, then to make it rotate when the finger extending from the rod butts against the lower end of the groove. In order to ensure proper locking of the rod in the closed position of the contact, the return of the groove for guiding the finger itself comprises, at its end, a notch for locking the finger.
To open the contact, it is appropriate to release the finger from the locking notch in which it is engaged, then to make the rod pivot until the finger is located in the groove made parallel to the axis of the rod. The spring then returns the rod to the open position of the contact. To actuate the rod in rotation, it is possible to provide the end thereof with a slot allowing the blade of a screwdriver to be engaged.
According to a second possibility, the means holding a rod in the closed position of the electrical contact comprise a finger extending perpendicularly from the rod and engaged in an inclined groove made in the casing for guiding the rod and having a notch for locking the finger in the position in which the rod is most engaged in the casing.
Advantageously, the groove is continuous and the casing in which it is made comprises, on its periphery, several successive groove portions successively corresponding to the movement of the rod toward the closed position of the contact and toward the open position of the contact.
In this case, the translational movement of the rod is accompanied by a rotational movement thereof. Insofar as the groove extends continuously over the periphery of the bore of the casing in which it is made, it is possible to make the rod pass from a withdrawn position to an inserted position then from an inserted position to a withdrawn position while always rotating the rod in the same direction.
According to yet another possibility, the means holding a rod in the closed position of the electrical contact comprise a ring which, engaged around the rod and mounted so that it is free in rotation and blocked in translation in the insulating casing, has two sawtoothed edges, the various teeth being defined by an inclined portion followed by a portion parallel to the axis of the ring, all the inclined portions being inclined in the same direction, the ring having axial grooves opening out in its inner wall, made alternately with the recessed regions of the sawtoothed profile, while the rod has two radially protruding lugs which are offset axially by a value at least equal to the width of the ring, in order to be located on either side thereof, the two lugs being offset circumferentially by a value substantially equal to the length of a tooth, the lug located on the side of the free end of the rod serving, by pressing against the inclined faces of the teeth of the ring, to produce the rotational drive of the ring, in order successively to bring the other lug pressing in the recess of a tooth, with an axial position of the rod corresponding to the closure of the contact, and on the inside of a groove, with an axial position of the rod corresponding to the opening of the contact. Any pressure exerted on the rod causes the notched ring to pivot, and the rod to pass from the closed position of the contact to the open position of the contact and so on and so forth.
In the embodiments in which the rod pivots when passing from the closed position to the open position of the contact and vice versa, the blade is mounted so that it can rotate freely on the rod which is associated with it and which is guided in translation, with rotational locking, in the insulating casing.

Isolatable electrical contact device, especially for electrical terminal block


A system and method are shown for performing cool, on-column sample injection into a chromatographic device having a capillary column which injection is achieved through the use of a syringe having a needle. The column diameter is minimized by the provision of an inlet assembly connected to the inlet end of the column, a sealing member disposed in the inlet assembly, for forming a fluid tight seal in the inlet end when the sample is injected onto the column to prevent the sample from escaping and for reducing the effective length of the needle at the point of insertion of the needle into the column and a guide member for reducing the effective length and for supporting the needle during insertion into the column. A temperature controller for controlling the temperature of the column in the region where the sample is injected is also disclosed. The sealing member is shown to include an elastomeric member and further the system includes a mechanism for continuously cooling the elastomeric member. The elastomeric member is shown to include a septum having a bore formed therein for passage of the needle therethrough. A new sample vial closure is also shown for use in the system, which closure applies only a minimal axial force on the needle. In such a system and method the need for a long syringe is obviated. The column inner diameter can be minimized by the system and method which permits the needle of the syringe to having a minimum outer circumference.

In analytical chemistry, liquid and gas chromatography techniques have become important tools in the identification of chemical sample components. The basic principle underlying all chromatographic techniques is the separation of a sample chemical mixture into individual components by transporting the mixture in a moving fluid through a porous retentive media. The moving fluid is referred to as the mobile phase and the retentive media has been referred to as the stationary phase. One of the differences between liquid and gas chromatography is that the mobile phase is either a liquid or a gas, respectively.
In the analysis of a sample compound using a gas chromatograph, typically, a supply of inert carrier gas (mobile phase) is continually passed as a stream through a heated column containing porous sorptive media (stationary phase). In the past, chromatographic systems have incorporated columns formed as hollow capillary tubes having an inner diameter in the range of few hundred microns. In such systems, a sample of the subject mixture is injected into the mobile phase stream and passed through the capillary column, which column is typically positioned within an oven. As the subject mixture passes through the capillary column, it separates into its various components. Separation is due primarily to differences in the volatility characteristics of each sample component with respect to the temperature in the column. Column temperature is primarily regulated by oven temperature. A detector, positioned at the outlet end of the capillary column, detects each of the separated components as they exit the column.
Column efficiency (typically referred to in terms of theoretical plates) of capillary columns is dependent on both column length and width. A column having a larger inner diameter must be longer than a column having a smaller inner diameter in order to achieve comparable efficiency. As will be appreciated greater column length results in longer analysis times which can effect sensitivity. However, shorter columns with relatively narrower column inner diameters have, until the present invention, been limited in relation to the techniques available for sample injection. Consequently, certain prior gas chromatographic analyses have been a compromise between sensitivity and efficiency in relation to the column and injection technique utilized.
Moreover, it has been found for the analysis of particular compounds that the technique used to inject the sample compound and carrier gas into the column can have an effect on the qualitative and quantitative precision of the chromatographic analysis. So-called split and splitless injection techniques have been developed for the injection of a sample compound. Split injection techniques are used when it is desired to inject only a portion of the sample compound into the column, for example, when a sample containing high volume concentrations such as an undiluted material is to be analyzed. Splitless injection is used when it is desired to inject the whole sample, i.e., for trace analysis. The problems with both split and splitless techniques are irreproducibility and molecular weight discrimination which can occur in the sample vaporization step.
In Schomburg, G., et al., Sampling Techniques In Capillary Gas Chromatography, Journal of Chromatography, 142 (1977), Amsterdam, pps. 87-102 various GC injection or sampling techniques are studied and compared, including split and splitless injection. It is emphasized that technical difficulties involved in GC sampling are increased when quantitative analyses of trace components in complex mixtures are desired. It was observed that for optimal quantitative and qualitative analysis of complex mixtures, split and splitless techniques proved undesirable. It was concluded that through the use of on-column or direct sample introduction, improvements could be attained in both quantitative and qualitative analysis.
An on-column injection technique results in the sample compound being injected directly onto the column. Such direct injection can, however, result in the loss of volatile components which after rapid vaporization could be ejected from the inlet end of the column due to the pressure created by the injection. One solution to the ejection problem was the development of the cool, on-column injection technique.
In Grob, K., et al., On-Column Injection Onto Glass Capillary Columns, Journal of Chromatography, 151 (1978), Amsterdam, pps. 311-320, on-column injection is discussed in relation to precision and accuracy of qualitative analysis. An on-column injection apparatus is described as including a long narrow needle which is inserted into the column a preferred distance such that the needle tip lies approximately 10 mm within the oven. It is suggested that by removing the input septum, the precision of the analysis will be improved. In prior techniques, the input septum served to seal the inlet and the needle was required to pierce the septum in order to access the column. Grob et al. suggests cooling the injector assembly thereby establishing the cool on-column sample injection technique. In cool on-column sample injection the column in the region of the injection is cooled in relation to the boiling point of the sample in question in order to prevent vaporization and subsequent ejection of components from the column. In such an injection technique, any sample which is flushed from the oven back to the injector is deposited in the injector.
As used herein, quantitative precision refers to the relative standard deviation of the percent area count. Qualitative precision refers to the relative standard deviation of the retention time period.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,269,608 - Sisti et al. discloses an inlet system which provides a cooling gas stream for such a cool on-column injection technique. In Sisti the inlet apparatus is shown, in one embodiment, to have a coil which is said to be capable of drawing heat from, i.e. cooling, the inlet by passing a fluid at a suitable temperature therethrough. However, the disclosed design necessitates the use of long slender syringe needles to ensure that the needle tip is well within the oven region for deposit of liquid sample inside the capillary column. This necessity for long needles has inhibited an otherwise well accepted inlet design from ever being easily or robustly automatable.
In sum, it will be understood from the above that for certain analyses narrow capillary columns and cool on-column injection techniques are preferred. Such a combination, however, will require syringes having needles which are narrower than the column and as shown by Grob et al. are of sufficient length to extend at least 10 mm into the oven. Unfortunately, the combination of needle length and small diameter heretofore has resulted in undesirable bending and buckling, causing system failure. Such phenomena can be predicted in relation to the Euler Formula: ##EQU1## where:
P.sub.cr =Critical Load
A=Cross-Sectional Area
L=Effective Length
R=Radius of Gyration
E=Modulus of Elasticity and
for L/R>150.
One attempt to reduce column diameter and yet allow the use of wider diameter needles has been the development and use of so-called butt connectors. A butt connector can be used to join for example a 530 .mu.m diameter pre-column with a 320 .mu.m diameter analytical column. Unfortunately, the use of butt connectors can result in sacrifice of both efficiency, precision and ease of use.
It will be noted that one advantage of split and splitless techniques is that they can be readily automated. The automation of these techniques, particularly split injection, has significantly improved the precision and non-discrimination of chromatographic analysis. U.S. Pat. No. 4,615,226 - DiNuzzo et al. incorporated herein by reference discloses methods and apparatus for such automation. Automation also dramatically decreases the cost of analysis. Such automated injection devices are commercially available, for example, the HP 7673A, manufactured and sold by the Hewlett-Packard Corporation of Palo Alto, Calif.
Cool on-column injection still has unique advantages in relation to thermally labile or reactive compounds, very volatile compounds and/or wide boiling point mixtures. However, to fully utilize cool on-column injection as a technique, it must be robustly and reliably automatable. Current art limits cool on-column automation to capillary columns having inner diameters of 530 .mu. or larger, thereby greatly limiting the efficiency of the technique. Consequently, a need exists for an automated chromatographic apparatus and method which maximizes robustness and performance of cool on-column injections onto columns having inner diameters of less than 530 .mu.. It will be noted that a practical lower limit of cool on-column injection is approximately under 200 .mu.. This limit is dictated by the need for a syringe needle having a presently manufacturable wall thickness to also have an inner diameter large enough to permit liquid transfer into the inlet (approximately 100 .mu. minimum for most samples). A system that can address this 200-530 .mu. column inner diameter range can greatly broaden the applicability of the cool on-column technique.

System and method for automated cool on-column injection with column diameters less than 530 .mu.m


A moving-magnet type linear d.c. brushless motor having plural moving elements on a traveling track, and including a stator armature on the traveling track; n moving elements, each including a thrust-generating field magnet having P contiguous magnetic poles of alternating N and S polarity, where n is an integer greater than 1 and P is an integer of at least 1, the moving elements having one side facing the stator armature and traveling separately and independently along the traveling track; a plurality of position-detecting magnets, each corresponding to a different one of the moving elements and having P magnetic poles of N and S polarity at in-phase positions of substantially the same pitch relative to the poles of the thrust-generating magnets; and position detecting means including a group of position sensors corresponding to each position-detecting magnet for generating an electric current in the stator armature to move the moving elements in predetermined directions separately and independently, each position sensor detecting the magnet poles of only the corresponding position-detecting magnet.

1) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a moving-magnet type linear d.c. brushless motor, which is one linear d.c. brushless motor in itself, but has plural moving elements.
2) Description of the Related Art
In small-size and high-precision linear d.c. brushless motors, there are moving-magnet type linear d.c. brushless motors having one moving element provided with a field magnet, which has P (P being an integer of 1 or higher) contiguous magnetic poles of alternating N and S polarity, and a stator armature arranged on a position of the stationary side facing the field magnet of the moving element through an air gap and a position sensor, which is a magnetoelectric transducer as a pole-discriminating sensor for the field magnet and is disposed on the stator armature.
As a result of a recent technical demand, not only one moving element but plural moving elements have however been required in some instances.
However, this is not so simple as a plurality of moving elements can be caused to travel separately and independently under control if the number of moving elements is only increased to a plurality in order to satisfy such a demand.
Namely, it is necessary to servocontrol the plural moving elements separately and independently with respect to different-speed moving, positioning and the like so as to drive them. However, since a position sensor provided on the stator armature detects the predetermined magnetic pole of field magnets in the plural moving elements, the plural moving elements will simultaneously travel arbitrarily if electric currents should be fed to their corresponding armature coils at the same time, resulting in troubles such as their collision.
When an attempt to make use of electric circuits is made in order to avoid such troubles, systems for a positioning control circuit, software of a microcomputer, etc. for such a purpose become very complex, so that the final cost becomes greatly higher and besides, such systems are unsuitable for practical use.
In addition, since the plural moving elements are required to be driven separately and independently under control, in some cases, they may be caused to travel in separate and independent traveling modes different from one another or alternatively, some of them may be caused to travel and the remainder may be caused to stop. In such cases, it is necessary to consider a sufficient counterplan for the above troubles.
Here, in order to separately detect the position and speed of the plural moving elements, it is necessary to provide a plurality of displacement detecting means such as encoders for detecting the movement of the moving elements corresponding thereto.
Incidentally, if the above-described encoders, power circuits and microcomputer are used upon driving the individual moving elements, the plural moving elements can be driven separately and independently under servocontrol by feeding electric currents to a group of armature coils of the stator armature, which face the field magnets of the plural moving elements, in predetermined directions even if no group of position sensors are present.
The linear d.c. brushless motor of the type making no use of any position sensors as described above is useful because groups of position sensors such as many expensive Hall elements can be omitted and it can hence be fabricated economically.
The linear d.c. brushless servomotor of the type making no use of any position sensors has the abovedescribed merits. On the other hand, it is however accompanied by defects due to the absence of position sensors groups compared with the linear d.c. brushless motor making use of the position sensors.
Namely, compared with the linear d.c. brushless motor making use of the position sensors, the linear d.c. brushless servomotor of the type making no use of the position sensors is little in reliability from a viewpoint of starting characteristics due to the absence of the position sensors. In addition, it is also accompanied by the same defect as described above from the influence of load characteristics. Accordingly, such a brushless servomotor is yet in the stage where a further improvement must be brought about.
Moreover, in the case where a plurality of moving elements are present, the linear d.c. brushless servomotor of the type making no use of the position sensors becomes very complex in electric circuit or software compared to the case of single moving element. It is hence accompanied by a defect that difficulties are encountered on the achievement of the desired purpose.
This is due to the fact that the linear d.c. brushless servomotor of the type making no use of the position sensors is not yet thoroughly studied and developed at this point of time.
Therefore, in order to control separately and independently the plural moving elements, the present inventor has used a system making use of position sensors in a moving-magnet type linear d.c. brushless motor of a polypolar polyphase system making use of plural moving elements, which have each a polypolar field magnet, and of numerous armature coils even if such a system is somewhat expensive in mechanical construction only for the cost of the position sensors.
In the case of the linear d.c. brushless motor making use of the position sensors as described above and having the plural moving elements, if the motor should be of the conventional type, the plural moving elements will move arbitrarily, resulting in a cause of troubles. Accordingly, the present inventor attempted first of all to use two moving elements and to provide with a first group of position sensors for detecting only a magnetic pole of a field magnet in a first moving element and a group of second position sensors for detecting only a magnetic pole of a field magnet in a second moving element so as to avoid the simultaneous movement of the first and second moving elements.
In one example thereof, it was possible to avoid the simultaneous movement by switching the first group of the position sensors and the second group of the position sensors from each other by a mechanical change-over switch in accordance with signals from a controller. However, such a method was accompanied by a defect that the mechanism of the change-over switch becomes complex and the cost of the motor hence comes high. In addition, when the number of the moving elements is at most 2, this method becomes possible because two groups of the position sensors can be arranged respectively on both sides of a stator armature. However, when the number of the moving elements becomes three or more, such a motor is accompanied by improper operation because some groups of the position sensors, which are used respectively for plural moving elements, must be arranged on the same side. It was hence difficult to construct a linear d.c. brushless motor having plural moving elements as a matter of fact.

Moving-magnet type linear d.c. brushless motor having plural moving elements


An object that has attracted a viewer's interest is determined using head pose and distance information. In one example a viewer's head is detected at a camera of a computing system. A distance from the head to the camera is determined. A pose of the head is determined as a yaw angle of the head. A location is determined using the distance and the yaw angle, and an object of attention is determined using the location.

Eye contact is a key part of human interaction. People look in each other's eyes to determine interest and distraction. A human interaction with a machine can feel more natural or more human, when the machine is able to determine what the human is looking at. This may be used primarily to determine where the human's attention is directed. If a person is looking at a machine interface, then the machine can use this information to provide an appropriate response. When the person is looking away, then the machine can wait for the person's attention to return or can call to the person to return. If the person is looking at a particular object, then the machine can present some interaction with that object.
In several systems, a person's direction of attention is determined by observing the person's eyes through a camera and then analyzing images of the eyes to determine a direction for the person's pupils. Since eyes generally have a white background with a dark iris and even darker pupil, the position of the pupil can be determined with relative ease. The eye direction or gaze direction may then be used as in input into a user interface or used as a user interaction.

Head pose determination using a camera and a distance determination


A flywheel energy storage system incorporates various embodiments in design and processing to achieve a very high ratio of energy stored per unit cost. The system uses a high-strength steel rotor rotating in a vacuum envelope. The rotor has a geometry that ensures high yield strength throughout its cross-section using various low-cost quenched and tempered alloy steels. Low-cost is also achieved by forging the rotor in a single piece with integral shafts. A high energy density is achieved with adequate safety margins through a pre-conditioning treatment. The bearing and suspension system utilizes an electromagnet that off-loads the rotor allowing for the use of low-cost, conventional rolling contact bearings over an operating lifetime of several years.

The present disclosure relates generally to the field of kinetic energy storage. More specifically, it relates to flywheel energy storage for stationary applications where cost, is of high importance, in some cases, of higher importance than weight. These applications include frequency-regulation, time-of-use, uninterruptible power supply (UPS), demand response, and smoothing of renewable energy generation sources, among other applications.
Flywheels have been used as energy storage devices or for smoothing mechanical or electrical power for hundreds of years. Recently, there have been significant advancements in the field of flywheel energy storage because of the availability of high strength-to-weight (the specific strength) materials, like composites. The kinetic energy stored per unit mass of flywheel material can be shown to be directly proportional to the specific strength (strength divided by density) of the material. Because some composite materials have very high specific strength, composites make attractive candidates for flywheels having a high energy storage potential per unit mass. As an example, a high-strength carbon fiber composite (e.g., T700 at 70% volume fraction) has a fracture strength of 3430 mega-pascals (MPa), or 490,000 pounds per square inch (psi) and a density of 1845 kilograms per cubic meter (kg/m3), or 0.067 pounds per cubic inch (lb/in3). Compare that to a non-composite material, such as a high strength alloy steel, which has yield strength of 1400 MPa (200,000 psi) and density of 7870 kg/m3 (0.285 lb/in3). On a strength-to-weight basis, therefore, composites have more than ten times higher specific strength, and, therefore, are able to store more than ten times the energy per unit mass compared to steel. This potential has led inventors to pursue designing flywheels based on composite rotors.
However, composite materials have not been cost-effective in stationary applications (i.e., applications in which weight is not the primary concern) where the primary goal is maximum energy stored per unit cost, rather than maximum energy stored per unit weight.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method for producing a kinetic energy storage system


The present invention relates generally to the field of molecular biology. More particularly, it concerns methods and compositions for detecting, evaluating, and/or mapping 5-hydroxymethyl-modified cytosine bases within a nucleic acid molecule.

I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of molecular biology. More particularly, it concerns methods and compositions for detecting, evaluating, and/or mapping 5-hydroxymethyl-modified cytosine bases within a nucleic acid molecule.
II. Background
5-Methylcytosine (5-mC) constitutes approximately 2-8% of the total cytosines in human genomic DNA, and impacts a broad range of biological functions, including gene expression, maintenance of genome integrity, parental imprinting, X-chromosome inactivation, regulation of development, aging, and cancer. Recently, the presence of an oxidized 5-mC, 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5-hmC), has been discovered in embryonic and neuronal stem cells, certain adult brain cells, and some cancer cells.
There is a need for methods and compositions for detecting and evaluating 5-hmC in the genome of eukaryotic organisms.

Composition and methods related to modification of 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5-hmC)


A plug connector assembly includes an insulated housing, and a flexible flat cable assembly. The flexible flat cable assembly includes a first flat cable, a second flat cable, and a reinforced board. The reinforced board is sandwiched between the first flat cable the second flat cable. An inner shielding layer is disposed between conductors of the first flat cable and the reinforced board, and between conductors of the second flat cable and the reinforced board, respectively. A positioning plate protrudes outward from each of two sides of the reinforced board. The insulated housing has a displacement-preventing mechanism formed on an inner side thereof for blocking the positioning plate, so as to limit the displacement of the reinforced board along the inserting direction.

Electrical connectors have been widely used to transmit signals or electrical power. As sizes of the electrical connectors have decreased and demand for faster signal transmitting speed have increased, some transmitting conductors of the electrical connectors have been designed to be disposed on printed circuit boards (i.e., card-edge connectors). However, a manufacturing process of a card-edge connector disposed on a printed circuit board is complicated, time-consuming, and costly.
In addition, after the printed circuit board is manufactured, the printed circuit board is required to be connected to a cable so as to transmit signals or electrical power. However, even if the printed circuit board and the cable are respectively compliant with requirements of impedance matching, an assembling process of the printed circuit board and the cable would result in some impedance mismatching. To reduce an occurrence of the impedance mismatching, more studies on materials of assembling media and an increased accuracy upon the assembling process are needed. As a result, a production cost is increased.
Furthermore, power consumption of equipment connected to the electrical connectors has increased. Phenomena such as sparking or electric arcing (i.e., arc discharge) may occur while hot-plugging the electrical connectors, which may result in damage to components of the equipment.

Plug connector assembly, flexible flat cable assembly thereof, and flexible flat cable thereof


The present invention provides a method for the treatment and/or prevention of bacterial infection caused by Enterobacteriaceae bacteria in central nervous system and/or peripheral blood circulation in a mammal by administering effective amount of outer membrane protein A (OmpA) or its derivatives to a mammal. Also provided are a method for vaccinating a mammal to produce an antibody against bacterial infection caused by Enterobacteriaceae family in central nervous system and/or peripheral blood circulation and a method of detecting or diagnosing bacterial infections caused by Enterobacteriaceae family in central nervous system and/or peripheral blood circulation in a mammal. An antibody and a kit on the basis of the vaccinating method and detecting/diagnosing method are also provided.

In general, the central nervous system (CNS) is well defended against infection. The spine and brain are sheathed in tough, protective membranes. The outermost membrane, the dura mater, and the next layer, the arachnoid, entirely encase the brain and spinal cord. However, these defenses are not absolute. In some cases, bacteria gain access to areas within the CNS. Bacterial infections can be pyogenic infections (e.g., meningitis; brain abscess; subdural and epidural abscesses), tuberculosis, neurosyphilis, or leprosy. Typically, bacterial invasion results from the spread of a nearby infection; for example, a chronic sinus or middle ear infection can extend beyond its initial site. Bacteria may also be conveyed to the CNS from distant sites of infection by the bloodstream. In rare cases, head trauma or surgical procedures may introduce bacteria directly into the CNS. However, the source of infection cannot always be identified.
The goal of treatment of a bacterial infection is to stop the infection, relieve symptoms, prevent complications, and, if necessary, provide life support. A two-pronged approach is taken to treat bacterial infections. First, antibiotic therapy against an array of potential infectious bacteria is begun. The second stage involves surgery to drain the infected site. Once the bacterial species is identified, drug therapy can be altered to a more specific antibiotic. However, surgery may not be an option in some cases, such as when there are numerous sites of infection or when infection is located in an inaccessible area of the brain.
Outer membrane protein A (OmpA) was initially described by Henning and coworkers in 1975. It has 325 amino acid residues and exhibits heat-modifiable electrophoretic mobility on SDS-PAGE. The N-terminal domain of OmpA is comprised of 177 amino acids and is believed to traverse the outer membrane eight times. OmpA is involved in maintaining the shape of bacteria, serves as a phage receptor and a receptor for F-mediated conjugation, and has limited pore-forming properties. OmpA enhances uptake of LPS into macrophages and has been reported to be involved in E. coli invasion of the central nervous system. WO 9201001 provides a method for producing pure cloned outer membrane proteins, and to provide a method for their renaturation so as to regain biologically or immunologically active epitopes which are capable of eliciting the production of antibodies in animals. Pascale Jeannin et al. reports that outer membrane protein A (OmpA) is a class of protein highly conserved among the Enterobacteriaceae family throughout evolution and OmpA appears as a new type of pathogen-associated molecular pattern (PAMP) usable as a vector in anti-infectious and therapeutic anti-tumor vaccines to elicit CTLs (Vaccine, Volume 20, Supplement 4, 19 Dec. 2002, pages A23-A27).
However, there are no reports relating to the new use of an outer membrane protein A and its derivatives in the treatment and/or prevention and/or diagnosis of bacterial infection in central nervous system and/or peripheral blood circulation.

Detection and therapy of bacterial infection caused by


The invention relates to a seat, in particular a vehicle seat, with an operating device for setting seat parameters, wherein the operating device comprises at least one multifunction operating element having at least one selection element, by means of which at least two operating levels can be selected, wherein the multifunction operating element is movable in at least five switching directions, wherein each switching direction can be assigned to a specific function which is associated with the selected operating level and changes a seat parameter.

In motor vehicles, especially in commercial vehicles, such as tractors or trucks, it is important to offer the driver the highest possible seating comfort because of the sometimes long travel times. To make this possible, the drivers can set a variety of seat parameters according to their needs. Such seat parameters may be, for example, the seat height, the seat position in the longitudinal direction (X), the position and orientation of individual components of the seat, such as the backrest, headrest, seat cushion section, or even adjustment of a spring and/or cushioning device. Furthermore, corresponding seat parameters may relate to a seat comfort device, for example a seat air conditioning device, a seat shape adjustment device or a massage device.
Usually, a corresponding actuating part, such as a switch or a push button, is provided for setting each seat parameter. This has the consequence that a large number of such actuators is necessary, whereby on the one hand, the operation becomes confusing for the driver, and on the other, a large amount of space is taken.


A method and system for providing time division multiple access communications is disclosed. The disclosure includes sending a first message in a time slot. The time slot has a slot length. The first message has a first time associated therewith. The first time includes the time required to send the first message and the propagation delay associated with the reception of the first message by a second transceiver. The disclosure also includes determining time remaining in the time slot for sending a second message. The time remaining is based on the first time and the slot length. The disclosure also relates to sending a second message in the time slot if the length of the second message plus the length of the propagation delay associated with the second message is less than the time remaining in the time slot.

Conventional time division multiple access (TDMA) networks are used to provide communications between a plurality of ratio frequency transceiver devices. In such systems, slices of time (or time slots) typically have a pre-defined slot length (time). Conventionally, individual slots are allocated to individual terminals during which time the individual terminal is allowed to transmit data. The length of each slot must be greater than the sum of the largest possible transmitting time plus the maximum possible propagation delay to ensure that each terminal has the opportunity to receive the transmitted data during the slot.
Because there may be unused time during a particular time slot which occurs after a message is sent and after a propagation delay associated with the sent message as received by another transceiver, there may be unused bandwidth in conventional TDMA networks during which time it may be possible to transmit other data.
Accordingly, there is a need for a method and apparatus which utilizes unused bandwidth in a TDMA network. Further, there is a need for a system and method for determining whether unused bandwidth may be used by a transceiver. Yet further still, there is a need for a radio frequency (RF) TDMA system in which unused slot time is filled with data transmissions.
It would be desirable to provide a system and/or method that provides one or more of these or other advantageous features. Other features and advantages will be made apparent from the present specification. The teachings disclosed extend to those embodiments which fall within the scope of the appended claims, regardless of whether they accomplish one or more of the above-mentioned needs.

Time division multiple access system and method for using available TDMA slot time to transmit additional messages