A sealing bellows made of an elastomeric material includes: a first end face; a second end face; and a casing having a central axis, the casing being arranged in an axial direction between the first and second end faces, the casing including at least one torsion-compensating element for absorbing torsional movements introduced into the sealing bellows substantially without torsional stress. The first end face includes a first static seal and the second end face includes a second static seal. The sealing bellows is made of a TPE material.

Such a sealing bellows, which forms part of a sealing arrangement, is known from DE 24 36 062 A1.
The previously known sealing bellows is provided in order to be able to execute relatively large torsional movements directed in opposite directions and/or relative axial movements and/or angular movements—in each case between the end faces of the sealing bellows—without being damaged or destroyed.
The torsion-compensating element of the previously known sealing bellows comprises first folds which in a plan view of the sealing bellows extend at an angle to the central axis, substantially diagonally between the end faces of the sealing bellows.
Axial movements of the end faces of the sealing bellows relative to one another are absorbed by second folds which are designed to be self-contained in the circumferential direction, in a similar fashion to a conventional bellows.
Further details of the material from which the sealing bellows is made are not provided.
Sealing bellows made of elastomeric materials seal dynamically with respect to a ball pivot.

Sealing bellows and sealing arrangement comprising the sealing bellows


A three-dimensional semiconductor memory device may include a substrate comprising a cell array region and a connection region, an electrode structure including a plurality of gate electrodes sequentially stacked on a surface of the substrate and extending from the cell array region to the connection region, a first source conductive pattern between the electrode structure and the substrate on the cell array region, and a cell vertical semiconductor pattern and a first dummy vertical semiconductor pattern that penetrate the electrode structure and the first source conductive pattern and extend into the substrate. The cell vertical semiconductor pattern may contact the first source conductive pattern. The first dummy vertical semiconductor pattern may be electrically insulated from the first source conductive pattern.

Semiconductor devices may be highly integrated for satisfying high performance and low manufacture costs. Since integration of the semiconductor devices may be an important factor in determining product price, high integration may be increasingly requested. Integration of typical two-dimensional or planar semiconductor memory devices may be primarily determined by the area occupied by a unit memory cell, such that it may be greatly influenced by the level of technology for forming fine patterns. However, the extremely expensive processing equipment needed to increase pattern fineness may set a practical limitation on increasing the integration of the two-dimensional or planar semiconductor memory devices. Therefore, there have been proposed three-dimensional semiconductor memory devices having three-dimensionally arranged memory cells.

Three-dimensional semiconductor memory devices


A printing screen for and method of printing elongate structures on substrates (S), the printing screen comprising first and second layers (3, 5) of different material, the first layer (3) providing a surface over which a printing element is in use traversed and including a plurality of elongate first printing apertures (7) across which extend a plurality of bridges (9) at spaced intervals, and the second layer (5) in use overlying the substrate (S) and including a plurality of elongate second printing apertures (15) through which printing medium is in use printed onto the underlying substrate (S), each of the second printing (15) apertures being located in registration with respective ones of the first printing apertures (7) in the first layer (3).

In silicon photovoltaics, a significant barrier to continued development is the shadowing of the surface of the silicon wafer by the frontside metallisation grid, which will typically block light from reaching about 8% of the wafer. This shadowing loss cannot simply be mitigated by reducing the number of conductors or by spacing the conductors more widely, as this would result in further efficiency losses, primarily due to the increase in resistance across the silicon between the conductors. Although this trade-off between shadowing and resistance seems to leave little room for improvement, the present inventor has recognized that refinements can still be made to give credible efficiency gains.

Multi-layer printing screen having a plurality of bridges at spaced intervals


The present disclosure relates to the field of communication technologies, and discloses a polar coding/decoding method and apparatus, to improve sequence lookup efficiency. The method includes: obtaining a first sequence from a polar code construction sequence table based on a coding parameter, where the polar code construction sequence table includes at least one coding parameter and at least one sequence corresponding to the at least one coding parameter, the at least one coding parameter is mapped to the at least one sequence in a one-to-one manner, the first sequence is one of the at least one sequence; selecting serial numbers of K polarized channels from the first sequence based on a rate matching scheme and/or a reliability order; placing to-be-coded bits based on the selected serial numbers of the K polarized channels; and performing polar coding, to obtain a coded bit sequence.

As the most basic radio access technology, channel coding plays an important role in ensuring reliable data transmission. In an existing wireless communication system, the channel coding is generally performed by using a turbo code, a low density parity check (LDPC) code, and a polar code. The turbo code cannot support information transmission that is performed at an excessively low or high bit rate. However, for transmission of medium-size and short packets, it is difficult for the turbo code and the LDPC code to achieve ideal performance in a limited code length due to coding/decoding characteristics of the turbo code and the LDPC code. In terms of implementation, the turbo code and the LDPC code have relatively high calculation complexity in a coding/decoding implementation process. The polar code is a good code that has relatively simple coding and decoding complexity, and it is theoretically proved that a Shannon capacity can be obtained if coding is performed by using the polar code. Therefore, the polar code is increasingly widely applied.
However, with rapid evolution of the wireless communication system, communication systems such as a 5th generation (5G) communication system will have some new characteristics. For example, the most typical three communication scenarios include enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), massive machine-type communications (mMTC), and ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC). These communication scenarios impose higher requirements on coding/decoding performance of the polar code.


The present invention provides compounds, or derivatives or prodrugs thereof, that comprise a methyllysine mimic, and an α-ketoglutarate mimic that are attached through a linker and methods for using and producing the same. In some embodiments, compounds of the invention are of the formula: M-L-K, or a derivative or a prodrug thereof, wherein M is a methyllysine mimic, L is a linker, and K is an α-ketoglutarate mimic.

The covalent attachment of functional groups to chromatin, including DNA methylation and histone modifications, are associated with heritable changes that regulate cellular transcriptomes without altering DNA sequence. Histone methylation is one of the most important chromatin marks; these play important roles in transcriptional regulation, DNA-damage response, heterochromatin formation and maintenance, and X-chromosome inactivation. A recent discovery also revealed that histone methylation affects the splicing outcome of pre-mRNA by influencing the recruitment of splicing regulators. Histone methylation includes mono-, di-, and tri-methylation of lysines, and mono-, symmetric di-, and asymmetric di-methylation of arginines. These modifications can be either an activating or repressing mark, depending on the site and degree of methylation. Without being bound by any theory, two classes of enzymes are believed to regulate the maintenance of histone methylation: histone methyltransferases (HMTs) and histone demethylases (HDMs). HDMs are the most recent family of histone-modifying enzymes discovered. Since the human HDM, LSD1, was first detected in 1998 and characterized in 2004, over a dozen HDMs have been discovered that modify histone H3 lysine 4 (H3K4), H3K9, H3K27, H3K36, H3R2, or H4R3 methylations. However, HDMs that specifically modify H3K79 and H4K20 methylation have not yet been identified. Recent studies have shown HDMs often display tissue-specific expression and play critical roles in gene expression, meiosis, and embryonic stem cell self-renewal.
HDMs can be categorized into two classes based on their enzymatic mechanisms: flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD)-dependent HDMs and Jumonji C domain-containing HDMs (JHDMs). There are two FAD-dependent HDMs, both of which are monoamine oxidases and can demethylate mono- and di-methylated H3K4 and H3K9. Compared with FAD-dependent HDMs, JHDMs are much more versatile in terms of their substrate scope. They can modify not only lysine and arginine residues at many different positions (e.g., H3R2, H3K4, H3K9, H3K27, and H3K36) on histone proteins, but also lysine and arginine at all methylation states. JHDMs are iron(II)- and α-ketoglutarate-dependent hydroxylases, which use molecular oxygen and α-ketoglutarate to generate the reactive iron(IV)-oxo species, which may in turn hydroxylate the methyl groups of N-methyl lysine residues. It is believed that the resulting hemiaminals collapse under physiological conditions to give the demethylated lysine and formaldehyde as a byproduct.
Small-molecule modulators of histone-modifying enzymes not only play important roles in understanding the structures and functions of these enzymes, but also provide unique opportunities for treating diseases such as cancer. Small molecules specifically inhibiting FAD-dependent HDMs have been discovered recently. A modified histone H3 peptide containing propargyl amine functionality was shown to be a specific inhibitor of LSD1 in vitro, and cyclopropylamine-containing lysine analogs were reported as cell-active specific inhibitors of LSD1. In addition, polyamine analogues have also been reported to inhibit LSD1 in cells, which resulted in re-expression of aberrantly silenced genes. As with other iron(II)- and α-ketoglutarate-dependent hydroxylases, JHDMs are inhibited by nickel(II), desferoxamine (DFO, an iron chelating agent), and α-ketoglutarate mimics such as N-oxalylglycine (NOG) and pyridine 2,5-dicarboxylate in vitro. The dimethyl ester of NOG (DMOG) has been proven to inhibit HDMs in vivo. Very recently, small-molecule inhibitors that show in vitro specificity for JMJD2 HDMs have been reported. Unfortunately, cell-active specific inhibitors of JHDMs have not been reported.
Since cell-active specific inhibitors of JHDMs can be used in a variety of therapeutic uses, there is a need for cell-active specific inhibitors of JHDMs.

Histone demethylase inhibitors and methods for using the same

The Regents of the University of Colorado, a body corporate


To have a much better usable pragmatic manner of HDR video encoding and decoding, the inventor invented a high dynamic range video decoder (500) arranged to receive an encoding (Im_COD) of a high dynamic range video and to decode and output a set of temporally successive images (Im_RHDR) comprising: An input (502) to receive three weight values (kRY, kGY, kBY); A video decoder (501) arranged to decode the encoding (Im_COD) into an intermediate image (Im_RLDR) being in a Y′CbCr color representation; A brightness index calculation unit (503) arranged to calculate for each pixel of the intermediate image (Im_RLDR) a brightness index (J′) being defined as J′=Y′+MAX{kRY*(R′−Y′), kGY*(G′−Y′), kBY*(B′−Y′)}; A brightness mapper (505) arranged to receive a specification of at least one one-dimensional function F_ct, and to apply it with the brightness index (J′) as input, to obtain an output brightness index (J*); A multiplication factor calculation unit (506) arranged to calculate a multiplicative factor (g) being equal to the output brightness index (J*) divided by the brightness index (J′); Three multipliers (509, 510, 511) to multiply the respective color components (Y, Cr, Cb) of each pixel of the intermediate image (Im_RLDR) with the multiplicative factor (g), to obtain an output color (Y′H, Cb′H, Cr′H) for that pixel in the output dynamic range image (Im_RHDR) of the set of temporally successive images being currently decoded.

Until a couple of years ago, all video was encoded according to the so-called low dynamic range (LDR) philosophy, also called standard dynamic range (SDR). That meant, whatever the captured scene was, that the maximum of the code (typically 8 bit luma Y′=255; or 100% voltage for analog display driving) should by standardized definition correspond to, i.e. be rendered on, a display with a peak brightness PB (i.e. the brightest white color it can render) being by standard agreement 100 nit. If people bought an actual display which was a little darker or brighter, it was assumed that the viewer's visual system would adapt so that the image would still look appropriate and even the same as on the reference 100 nit display, rather than e.g. annoyingly too bright (in case one has e.g. a night scene in a horror movie which should have a dark look).
Of course, for practical program making this typically meant maintaining a tight control of the scene lighting setup, since even in perfectly uniform lighting the diffuse reflection percentage of various objects can already give a contrast ratio of 100:1. The black of such a SDR display may typically be 0.1 nit in good circumstances, yet 1 nit or even several nits in worst circumstances, so the SDR display dynamic range (the brightest white divided by the darkest viewable black) would be 1000:1 at best, or worse, which corresponds nicely to such uniform illuminated scenes, and an 8 bit coding for all the required to be rendered pixel grey values or brightnesses, having a gamma of approximately 2.0, or encoding inverse gamma 0.5. Rec. 709 was the typically used SDR video coding. Typically also cameras had problems capturing simultaneously both very bright and rather dark regions, i.e. a scene as seen outside a window or car window would typically be clipped to white (giving red, green and blue additive color components R=G=B=max., corresponding to their square root coded values R′=G′=B′=255). Note that if in this application a dynamic range is specified firstmost with a peak brightness (i.e. the brightest rendered or renderable luminance) only, we assume that the lowest luminance value is pragmatically zero (whereas in practice it may depend on viewing conditions such as display front plate or cinema screen light reflection, e.g. 0.1 nit), and that those further details are irrelevant for the particular explanation. Note also that there are several ways to define a dynamic range, and that the most natural one typically used in the below explanations is a display rendered luminance dynamic range, i.e. the luminance of the brightest color versus the darkest one.
Note also, something which has become clearer during the HDR research, and is mentioned here to make sure everybody understands it, that a code system itself does not natively have a dynamic range, unless one associates a reference display with it, which states that e.g. R′=G′=B′=Y′=255 should correspond with a PB of 100 nit, or alternatively 1000 nit, etc. In particular, contrary to what is usually pre-assumed, the number of bits used for the color components of pixels, like their lumas, is not a good indicator of dynamic range, since e.g. a 10 bit coding system may encode either a HDR video, or an SDR video, determined by the type of encoding, and in particular the electro-optical transfer function EOTF of the reference display associated with the coding, i.e. defining the relationship between the luma codes [0, 1023] and the corresponding luminances of the pixels, as they need to be rendered on a display.
In this text it is assumed that when a HDR image or video is mentioned, it has a corresponding peak brightness or maximum luminance for the highest luma code (or equivalently highest R′, G′, B′ values in case of an RGB coding e.g. rather than an Y′CbCr encoding) which is higher than the SDR value of 100 nit, typically at least 4× higher, i.e. the to be rendered maximum display luminance for having the HDR image look optimal may be e.g. 1000 nit, 5000 nit, or 10000 nit (note that this should not be confused with the prima facie complex concept which will be detailed below that one can encode such a HDR image or video as a SDR image or video, in which case the image is both renderable on a 100 nit display, but importantly, also contains all information—when having corresponding associated metadata encoding a color transformation for recovering the HDR image—for creating a HDR image with a PB of e.g. 1000 nit!).
So a high dynamic range coding of a high dynamic range image is capable of encoding images with to be rendered luminances of e.g. up to 1000 nit, to be able to display-render good quality HDR, with e.g. bright explosions compared to the surrounding rendered scene, or sparkling shiny metal surfaces, etc. And simultaneously relatively dark pixel colors or their luminances can be encoded (even if not rendered on display). So for avoidance of doubt, when the present text talks about high dynamic range (created original) images, or codings of those images, we mean that the coding can at least handle a luminance range greater than what the standard rec. 709-based SDR coding could handle, i.e. whatever the brightest code is actually mapped to on a display as rendered luminance, the coding would be capable of encoding a luminance range of at least larger than 1000:1, and preferably much larger to enable coding of scenes with even higher illumination contrasts.
In practice, there are scenes in the world which can have very high dynamic range (e.g. an indoors capturing with objects as dark as 1 nit, whilst simultaneously seeing through the window outside sunlit objects with luminances above 10,000 nit, giving a 10000:1 dynamic range, which is 10× larger than a 1000:1 DR, and even 100 times larger than a 100:1 dynamic range, and e.g. legacy TV viewing may have a DR of less than 30:1 in some typical situations, e.g. daylight viewing). When one would like to be able to render at least in theory the most realistic images to humans, one can debate about what a human would like to see simultaneously as contrasting pixel luminances on a display, or the simpler question of what he is able to see well. On both aspects there has been debate, perhaps somewhat wanting to prove a particular point, and sometimes it is said that 10,000:1 luminance contrast ratio should be sufficient, but if a person walks in a dark street he sees both dark pixels well below one nit, and bright lights which can be several 1000s or 10,000s of nits, and this is not necessarily unwatchable. So although there may be pragmatic choices as to what luminances should or can easily be rendered, in the present text for the elucidation of the concepts, we don't want to limit ourselves too much on what an upper limit of dynamic range for any HDR scene would necessarily always need to be.
Since displays are becoming better (a couple of times brighter PB than 100 nit, with 1000 nit currently appearing, and several thousands of nits PB being envisaged), a goal is to be able to render these images beautifully, and although not exactly identical to the original because of such factor like different viewing conditions, at least very natural, or at least pleasing. And this needs what was missing in the SDR video coding era: a good pragmatic HDR video coding technology, and, the good use of such video, e.g. when rendering it optimally.
The reader should also understand that because a viewer is typically watching the content in a different situation (e.g. sitting in a weakly lit living room at night, or in a dark home or cinema theatre, instead of actually standing in the captured bright African landscape), there is no identity between the luminances in the scene and those finally rendered on the TV (or other display). This can be handled inter alia by having a human color grader manually decide about the optimal colors on the available coding DR, i.e. of the associated reference display, e.g. by prescribing that the sun in the scene should be rendered in the image at 5000 nit (rather than its actual value of 1 billion nit). Alternatively, automatic algorithms may do such a conversion from e.g. a raw camera capturing to what in the text will be (generically) called a (master) HDR grading. This means one can then render this master grading on a 5000 nit PB HDR display, at those locations where it is available. Even if we say that a pragmatic good version for the peak brightness of a coding (PB_C) may be typically e.g. 5000 nit, it doesn't mean than one cannot encode any higher dynamic range scenes, in any chosen coding specification, and then render them optimally on whatever display one has available with whatever display peak brightness (PB_D), the latter being a question of optimal display tuning of the HDR image(s). I.e. there is no particular need to encode any image in a fully display-referred manner, let alone to ultimately fix the creation of any content to any particular display (e.g. a 5000 nit, or even worse a 1000 nit PB_D display).
This being indicative of how one could encode any master HDR image (per se), at the same time however, there will for the coming years be a large installed base of people having a legacy SDR display of 100 nit PB, or some display which cannot make 5000 nit white, e.g. because it is portable, and those people need to be able to see the HDR movie too. So there needs to be some mechanism to convert from a 5000 nit HDR to a 100 nit SDR look image of the same scene. There exists however a problem, which is the mirror problem of the fact that we needed HDR video coding because one cannot just keep rendering SDR video which is intended for SDR displays of PB_D of around 100 nit on ever higher peak brightness displays. Because that image when rendered will look far too bright, the mood of e.g. a night scene in a thriller may be totally lost, as if one switches on a battery of lights like on the ceiling of a supermarket. If one was then to conclude one could just make a single kind of HDR graded images, those may look in many circumstances way too dark for direct SDR rendering. That is because, if we look at the pixel luminances in a relative [0.0-1.0] representation, the darkest pixel luminances will be a very small fraction of the brightest ones. E.g. consider a night scene with a criminal moving through the shadows (may be barely visible), when there is also some bright light somewhere in the image. E.g., in a 1000 nit graded coding for rendering on a 1000 nit display, we may consider that the criminal is well rendered with pixel luminances up to 10 nit, whilst the light should be nicely bright if rendered at 1000 nit. That means there is a contrast ratio of 100:1 between those two pixel regions in the image. If we now use the classical paradigm of the relative rendering of the SDR-era, namely map the brightest white (or PB_C) of the coding to the display brightest white (PB_D), then for a 100 nit SDR display this means that the relevant action of the criminal will fall below 1 nit. This could be below the front glass reflections on the display, so instead of nicely watching the movie, the SDR viewer may be straining his eyes to try to see what's happening. One can imagine that "some brightening" of that darkest pixels would be advantageous to get at least some better SDR image, but one can also imagine that preferably this is not done arbitrary, but rather content dependent. So one needs a second image grading always, and a way to communicate it somehow to any receiver.
FIG. 1 shows a couple of illustrative examples of the many possible HDR scenes a HDR system of the future (e.g. connected to a 1000 nit PB display) may need to be able to correctly handle, i.e. by rendering the appropriate luminances for all objects/pixels in the image. E.g. ImSCN1 is a sunny outdoors image from a western movie, whereas ImSCN2 is a nighttime image. What makes HDR image rendering different from how it always was in the LDR era which ended only a couple of years ago, is that the LDR had such a limited dynamic range (about PB=100 nit, and black level+−0.1 to 1 nit), that mostly only the reflectivities of the objects could be shown (which would fall between 90% for good white and 1% for good black). So one had to show the objects independent of their illumination, and couldn't at the same time faithfully show all the sometimes highly contrasty illuminations of the scene that could happen. In practice that meant that the highly bright sunny scene had to be rendered with approximately the same display luminances (0-100 nit) as a dull rainy day scene. And even the night time scenes could not be rendered too dark, or the viewer would not be able to well-discriminate the darkest parts of the image, so again those night time brightnesses would be rendered spanning the range between 0 and 100 nit. So one had to conventionally color the night scenes blue, so that the viewer would understand he was not looking at a daytime scene. Now of course in real life human vision would also adapt to the available amount of light, but not that much (most people in real life recognize that it's getting dark). So one would like to render the images with all the spectacular local lighting effects that one can artistically design in it, to get much more realistic rendered images at least if one has a HDR display available.
So on the left axis of FIG. 1 are object luminances as one would like to see them in a 5000 nit PB master HDR grading for a 5000 nit PB display. If one wants to convey not just an illusion, but a real sense of the cowboy being in a bright sunlit environment, one must specify and render those pixel luminances sufficiently bright (though also not too bright), around e.g. 500 nit. For the night scene one wants mostly dark luminances, but the main character on the motorcycle should be well-recognizable i.e. not too dark (e.g. around 5 nit), and at the same time there can be pixels of quite high luminance, e.g. of the street lights, e.g. around 3000 nit on a 5000 nit display, or around the peak brightness on any HDR display (e.g. 1000 nit). The third example ImSCN3 shows what is now also possible on HDR displays: one can simultaneously render both very bright and very dark pixels. We see a dark cave, with a small opening through which we see the sunny outside. For this scene one may want to make the sunlit objects like the tree somewhat less bright than in a scene which wants to render the impression of a bright sunny landscape, e.g. around 400 nit, which should be more coordinated with the essentially dark character of the inside of the cave. A color grader may want to optimally coordinate the luminances of all objects, so that nothing looks inappropriately dark or bright and the contrast are good, e.g. the person standing in the dark in this cave may be coded in the master HDR graded image around 0.05 nit (assuming HDR renderings will not only be able to render bright highlights, but also dark regions).
It can be understood that it may not always be a trivial task to map all the object luminances for all these very different types of HDR scene to optimal luminances available in the much smaller SDR or LDR dynamic range (DR_1) shown on the right of FIG. 1, which is why preferably a human color grader may be involved for determining the color transformation (which comprises at least a luminance transformation, or luma transformation when equivalently performed on the luma codes). However, one can always choose to use automatically determined transformations, e.g. based on analyzing the color properties of the image content such as its luminance histogram, and this may e.g. be a preferred option for simpler kinds of HDR video, or applications where human grading is less preferred e.g. as in real-time content production (in this patent it is assumed that without limitation grading could also involve the quick setting of a few color transformation function parameters, e.g. for the whole production quickly prior to the start of capturing).
Applicant has designed a coding system, which not only can handle the communication (encoding) of merely a single standardized HDR video, for a typical single kind of display in the field (with every end viewer having e.g. a 1000 nit PB display), but which can at the same time communicate and handle the videos which have an optimal look for various possible other display types with various other peak brightnesses in the field, in particular the SDR image for a 100 nit PB SDR display.
Encoding only a set of HDR images, i.e. with the correct look i.e. image object luminances for a rendering on say a 1000 nit HDR monitor, in e.g. a 10 bit legacy MPEG or similar video coding technology is not that difficult. One only needs to establish an optimal OETF (opto-electronic transfer function) for the new type of image with considerably larger dynamic range, namely one which doesn't show banding in the many compared to white relatively dark regions, and then calculate the luma codes for all pixel/object luminances.
Applicant however designed a system which can encode images of a first dynamic range actually as images of a second dynamic range, e.g. communicating HDR images actually as LDR images, i.e. then actually LDR (or SDR, i.e. referred to a 100 nit PB reference display, and often optimally color graded on such a reference display) images are communicated to a receiver, which then can already immediately be used for rendering the correctly looking SDR look on legacy 100 nit PB SDR displays (without wanting to lose generality, in the description below we assume to have such an embodiment, in which HDR images with a content peak brightness of say PB_C=1000 nit are actually communicated as 100 nit PB_C i.e. SDR images, with in addition the necessary color transformation functions to reconstruct the PB_C=1000 nit look images from the received 100 nit SDR images being received as metadata). So one should understand that these SDR images are also an important component of actually HDR correct artistic look images being communicated.
Thereto, a set of appropriate reversible color transformation functions F_ct is defined, as is illustrated with FIG. 2. These functions may be defined by a human color grader, to get a reasonably looking SDR image (Im_LDR) corresponding to the HDR master image MAST_HDR, whilst at the same time ensuring that by using the inverse functions IF_ct the original master HDR (MAST_HDR) image can be reconstructed with sufficient accuracy as a reconstructed HDR image (Im_RHDR), or, automatic analysis algorithms may be used at the content creation side for determining suitable such color transformation functions F_ct. Note that instead of relying on a receiving side to invert the functions F_ct into IF_ct, one can also send already the needed functions for calculating Im_RHDR from the received and decoded intermediate SDR image Im_RLDR. So what the color transformation functions actually do is change the luminances of the pixel in a HDR image (MAST_HDR) into LDR luminances, i.e. the optimal luminance compression as shown in FIG. 1 to fit all luminances in the 100 nit PB LDR dynamic range DR_1. Applicant has invented a method which can keep the chromaticities of the colors constant, effectively changing only their luminances, as will be elucidated below.
A typical coding chain as shown in FIG. 2 works as follows. Some image source 201, which may e.g. be a grading computer giving an optimally graded image, or a camera giving a HDR output image, delivers a master HDR image MAST_HDR, to be color transformed and encoded. A color transformer 202 applies a determined color transformation, e.g. a concave bending function, which for simplicity of elucidation we will assume to be a gamma function with coefficient gam=1/k and k a number larger than 2.0. Of course more complex luminance mapping functions may be employed, provided that they are sufficiently reversible, i.e. the Im_RHDR image has negligible or acceptable banding. By applying these color transformation functions F_ct comprising at least luminance transformation functions, an output image Im_LDR results. This image or set of images is encoded with a legacy LDR image encoder, which may potentially be modified somewhat, e.g. the quantization tables for the DCT-ed transformations of the prediction differences may have been optimized to be better suited for images with HDR characteristics (although the color transformations may typically already make the statistics of the Im_LDR look much more like a typical LDR image than a typical HDR image, which HDR image typically has relatively many pixels with relatively dark luminances, as the upper part of the range may often contain small lamps etc.). E.g., a MPEG-type encoder may be used like HEVC (H265), yielding an encoded SDR image Im_COD. This video encoder 203 then pretends it gets a normal SDR image, although it also gets the functions F_ct which allow the reconstruction of the master HDR image, i.e. effectively making this a dual co-encoding of both an SDR and a HDR look, and their corresponding set of images (Im_RLDR, respectively Im_RHDR). There may be several manners to communicate this metadata comprising all the information of the functions F_ct, e.g. they may be communicated as SEI messages. Then a transmission formatter 204 applies all the necessary transformations to format the data to go over some transmission medium 205 according to some standard, e.g. a satellite or cable or internet transmission, e.g. according to ATSC 3.0, i.e. packetization of the data is performed, channel encoding, etc. At any consumer or professional side, a receiver 206, which may be incorporated in various physical apparatuses like e.g. a settopbox, television or computer, undoes the channel encoding by applying unformatting and channel decoding. Then a video decoder 207 applies e.g. HEVC decoding, to yield a decoded LDR image Im_RLDR (this is the intermediate image which can be used for directly driving a legacy SDR display if available, but which must still be color transformed to obtain from it a HDR or MDR image as required for displays with higher display peak brightness PB_D). Then a color transformer 208 is arranged to transform the SDR image to an image of any non-LDR dynamic range. E.g. the 5000 nit original master image Im_RHDR may be reconstructed by applying the inverse color transformations IF_ct of the color transformations F_ct used at the encoding side to make the Im_LDR from the MAST_HDR. A display tuning unit 209 may be comprised which transforms the SDR image Im_RLDR to a different dynamic range, e.g. Im3000 nit being optimally graded in case display 210 is a 3000 nit PB display, or a 1500 nit or 1000 nit PB image, etc.
FIG. 3 shows how one can design such a chromaticity-preserving luminance re-calculation, taken from WO2014056679, which applicant believes would be the closest prior art for understanding the present invention. One can understand this processing when seen in the gamut normalized to 1.0 maximum relative luminance for both the SDR and the HDR image (i.e. assuming that the SDR and HDR have the same e.g. Rec. 2020 primaries, they have then exactly the same tent-shaped gamut; as shown in FIG. 1 of WO2014056679). If one were to drive any display with e.g. the cowboy having in the driving image a luma code corresponding to a luminance of 10% of peak brightness of the display, then that cowboy would render ever brighter the higher the PB of the display is. That may be undesirable, as we may want to render the cowboy with (approximately) the same luminance on all displays, e.g. 60 nit. Then of course his relative luminance (or the corresponding 10 bit luma code) should be lower the higher the PB of the display is, to get the same ultimate rendered luminance. I.e., one could represent such a desire as a downgrading mapping e.g. from luma code 800 for the SDR image, to e.g. luma code 100 for the HDR image (depending on the exact shape of the EOTF defining the codes which is used), or, in luminances one maps the 60% SDR luminance to e.g. 1140th of that for a 4000 nit HDR display or its corresponding optimally graded image. Downgrading in this text means changing the luma codes of the pixels (or their corresponding to be rendered luminances) from a representation of higher peak brightness (i.e. for rendering on a higher PB display, e.g. of 1000 nit PB) to the lumas of an image of the same scene in a lower PB image for rendering on a lower PB display, e.g. a 100 nit SDR display, and upgrading is the opposite color transformation for converting a lower PB image into a higher PB image, and one should not confuse this with the spatial upscaling and downscaling, which is adding new pixels respectively dropping some pixels or some color components of those pixels. One can do that for any color, in which a (RGB) triplet corresponds to some chromaticity (x,y) in the display or encoding code gamut, in a manner which will automatically scale to the maximum luminance available (renderable) for that chromaticity Lmax(x,y), by the apparatus of FIG. 3.
We see that FIG. 3 consists of two parts, which should be well understood. The upper track consists of processing to determine a multiplicative factor g, which can be determined in various manners. In particular, one could do so in a linear or non-linear representation of RGB (the non-linear R′ being e.g. the square root of the linear R), but we will assume for now that the RGB components are linear. In practice, one could just use some Lookup table to get L*=LUT(L). But it is important to understand that with the geometrical shape of the function which is represented as the LUT, the creation side (e.g. a human color grader, or an automatic image analysis system that proposes e.g. a function composed of three linear parts) determines how exactly particular HDR luminances (of their possible values between 0.0X nit and e.g. 5000 nit which are codeable in the HDR coding) are to correspond with equivalent SDR luminances, i.e. to be calculated if a SDR image is needed for an input HDR image. If one knows that a luma of a pixel color (i.e. the coding of the luminance) is related in a precise functional manner to the pixel color luminance, one can equivalently specify a functional relationship between two luminances (e.g. the SDR luminance of the SDR grading corresponding to the HDR luminance in the M_HDR original master HDR grading), one can also specify the desired luminance transformation as a luma transformation, with a somewhat different function shape. Sometimes there may be an advantage to specify a luma transformation, e.g. if the luma domain is more perceptually uniform the grader may get quicker to his desired look, but for the present description and its teachings we will assume a decoder receives a luminance transformation specification in case no specific codification of the transformation function is required (some apparatuses may easily transform the specification to whatever color space they use internally). So the upper track consists of establishing which kind of luminance changing behavior is needed for calculating a second image with a different dynamic range than the input image, and more precisely, this transformation is summarized as a multiplication value for each pixel, depending at least on that pixel color (and in more advanced versions the multiplication factor could also depend e.g. on the pixel position).
The lower part shows how the apparatus can actually implement the luminance transformation of each pixel color in e.g. the HDR image to its SDR equivalent (or for a decoder we assume in the elucidations that the transformation typically transforms a received SDR image into some HDR image, or some medium dynamic range (MDR) image for serving a display with a particular display peak brightness PB_D which lies between the content peak brightness of the master HDR image M_HDR, and the 100 nit PB_C of the SDR corresponding grading). The luminance (or "brightness") of a color is given by the length of the vector, so if again we have e.g. linear components RGB, one can scale the vector by multiplying with the appropriate value g, representing the luminance transformation from HDR-to-LDR, or alternatively LDR-to-HDR for that color. But one can technically find that also this lower branch can be equivalently realized on some other color representations, e.g. Y′ CbCr, with Y′ a typical luma as e.g. defined in Rec. 709, and Cb and Cr corresponding chrominances.
Actually, one can demonstrate that this 3-component color transformation corresponds to applying a similar luminance mapping, which on the achromatic axis (i.e. of colors having no particular hue) maps the input luminance L of the color in the SDR image, to the needed relative output luminance L* of the optimal HDR graded image. Without diving into details, what is relevant from this teaching, is that the corresponding color transformation can then be realized as a multiplicative transformation on the (in the prior art preferably linear) RGB components, on each component separately, by a multiplier 311, with three times the same constant g larger or smaller than 1.0, which corresponds to whatever shape of the luminance transformation function L_out=TM(L_in) one chooses (e.g. a human color grader on the creation side, or some artificial intelligent automatic re-grading algorithm), which can also be formulated as a functional transformation of the maximum of the input red, green and blue color values of a pixel. So for each input color (R,G,B), the appropriate g-value is calculated for applying the desired color transformation which transforms Im_RLDR into Im_RHDR (or in an appropriately scaled manner into any other graded image, like Im3000 nit), when luminance mapper 307 gets some SDR-luminance to HDR_luminance mapping function, e.g. a parametrically specified loggamma function or sigmoid, or a multilinear curve received as a LUT. The components of the exemplary embodiment circuit are: 305: maximum calculator, outputting the maximum one (maxRGB) of the R, G, and B values of a pixel color being processed; 301: luminance convertor, calculating the luminance of a color according to some color definition standard with which the system currently works, e.g. Rec. 2020; 302: divider, yielding Lmax(x,y) as L/max(R,G,B); 307 luminance mapper actually working as a mapper on maxRGB, yielding m*=TM(maxRGB), with TM some function which defines the luminance transformation part of F_ct; 308: a multiplier, yielding L*=(m*)×Lmax(x,y) and 310 a gain determination unit, being in this embodiment actually a divider, calculating g=L*/L, i.e. the output HDR relative luminance divided by the input SDR relative luminance L; and 311 is a multiplier arranged to multiply the three color components R, G, B with the same g factor.
This circuit may be appropriate for some color encodings. However, one would ideally like to work in typical SDR encodings as they are typically used. Im_LDR as it would come out of HEVC decoder 207 in any typical receiving-side apparatus, would typically be in a non-linear Y′CbCr encoding (wherein we can assume the non-linearity to be a square root approximately). In particular, if one wants the HEVC decoded Y′CbCr images to be directly usable for legacy SDR displays, they would be Rec. 709 interpretable.
One can also design equivalent color mappings, which even if not exactly the same mathematically, i.e. not mapping the various SDR colors to exactly the same HDR colors under the various alternative HDR video decoder embodiments, at least provide a reasonably similarly looking image, e.g. with at least the same colors for the darkest parts of the image. An example where one could deviate is when clipping or soft-clipping some bright values (the second being possible if the image is not needed for further change of those clipped values, e.g. in case the processing circuit is used to derive a SDR secondary grading when receiving a communicated HDR image) instead of keeping them sufficiently below the upper color gamut boundary of the RGB-encoding, but that would typically be a choice of the creation side, e.g. the color grader being responsible for the final look.
An example of what is possible compared to the max(R,G,B)-circuit of FIG. 3 is elucidated with FIG. 4.
The nice property of using a max(R,G,B)-based luminance mapping (or the MAXRGB being the index which looks up in the luminance mapping function shape which corresponding output luminance Luminance_Im_LDR should be used), is that the color transformation will never run out of gamut. E.g., if we have a blue pixel which is near its maximum brightness (near the top of the gamut of possible RGB colors), then the MAXRGB measurement of this pixel's brightness will be close to 1.0, as shown in FIG. 4A. Suppose we have a typical HDR-to-SDR re-grading luminance mapping function of the convex shape as shown. The multiplication factor to use will then be (if the image creation side specified the curve so that an output luminance Lum_LX corresponds to the MAXRGB input value): g=Lum_LX/MAXRGB, which will be slightly above 1.0. B will be the biggest color component, so the other two will be smaller, and no out-of-range mapping can occur for them. B will be mapped to B*g=MAXRGB*Lum_LX/MAXRGB, i.e. this happens to be the same value numerically on a relative 0.0-1.0 scale as the desired luminance Lum_LX, and, within the range of possible B values, i.e. <=1.0.
If one now however one uses another luminance-characterizing value, namely the luminance itself, one can get for this highly saturated color the following. Since L is much smaller (e.g. 0.5), L being the luminance of e.g. that blue color as can be seen in the 2D gamut section shown in FIG. 4B, one will have a relatively larger value for the function output, namely Lum_LL. G=Lum_LL/L will then be approximately 2.0. If one uses the same multiplicative factor scaling of the RGB components with a strategy which is so luminance-specified, one will get for B approximately 1.0 multiplied by g=2.0 an out of range value which is clipped to 1.0. This will typically reduce the saturation of those colors. That may of course be a desired behavior for those colors determined by the creation side (e.g. a human grader), but in this case it is no longer so that all colors are within gamut. However, the grader can specify a curve to be equivalently used for such a luminance-defined color transformation, or in particular luminance transformation. The behavior may yet be different again if one doesn't use the exact luminance L of the pixel color, but the luma Y′, because this luma doesn't exactly contain the correct luminance information (some luminance information for saturated colors has leaked into the chrominance components).
However, in that philosophy the creation side, and in particular a human color grader may not have sufficient control of the behavior of what he desires, i.e. how the colors should behave in the SDR look corresponding to the master MAST_HDR image (which he may have artistically created previously, or this image may be straight from camera in other embodiments or applications, etc.).
The inventor aimed at producing a good pragmatic encoding or decoding core circuit incorporable in such a practical Y′ CbCr signal path, and also versatile enough given the creator's needs.


A finder optical system is shown which includes a photo-taking lens, a mirror reflecting light rays passed through the photo-taking lens upward, a focusing screen on which a first object image is formed, a relay lens system through which the first object image is reformed as a second object image smaller than the first object image, and an eye piece which enlarges second object image. The relay lens system is located above the focusing screen and parallel to an optical axis of the photo-taking lens. The finder optical system allows for compactness in both depth and height.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a finder optical system for a single-lens reflex camera.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Among TTL-type finder optical systems which utilize the light rays traversing the photo-taking lens as rays for the finder, an optical system employing a relay optical system allowing the inverted image formed by the photo-taking lens to be observed as an erect image has been proposed. In this finder optical system, an erect image can be obtained by re-forming the primary image, which is an inverted image formed by the photo-taking lens, into a secondary image by means of a relay optical system. However, because a relay optical system requires a considerably lengthened light path, mounting a finder optical system with a relay optical system into a camera has entailed the necessity of increasing the height or depth of the camera.
A trimming system has also been recently proposed. As shown in FIG. 6(a), a trimming system is a system wherein trimming information that specifies a certain area A (trimming area) of film 5 is stored in a prescribed location 51 of the film at the time of photographing. Based on the trimming information, only the trimming area A is enlarged and printed on the photographic paper shown in FIG. 6(b) at the time of printing. (This mode in which trimming information is stored is hereinafter referred to as the "pseudo focal length mode".) Where the above-referenced finder optical system is mounted in a camera equipped with a pseudo focal length mode, it is possible to use the variable power of the relay optical system in order to enlarge the trimming area to an area as large as the finder field frame. However, in order to change the magnification in the relay optical system, space to allow movement of the relay optical system on the optical axis is needed, which entails the necessity of further increasing the camera size.
In addition, when a finder optical system other than that referenced above is mounted in a camera equipped with a pseudo focal length mode, the problem described below occurs. Namely, in the case of photo-taking lenses where the location of exit pupil changes (i.e., exchangeable lenses and zoom lenses), if the power is changed in the finder optical system, vignetting may occur depending on the location of the exit pupil of the photo-taking lens (details are explained in the DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS). This is because the position of the entrance pupil of the finder optical system changes with the change of power; so far, no prior art is known to consider this point.
Further, let us examine the conventional light-measuring optical system of a single-lens reflex camera. Normally, the light-measuring optical system is structured so that a portion of the light rays transmitted through the finder optical system is utilized; however, it has been impossible to perform precise light measurement while maintaining the brightness of the finder image (details are explained in the DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS).
Finally, let us examine the in-finder display of a camera equipped with a pseudo focal length mode. It has already been mentioned that the variable power of the finder optical system is exploited in a camera equipped with a pseudo focal length mode. Because an in-finder display is generally performed by means of a display device located close to the primary image, if the magnification of the finder optical system is changed, vignetting may occur in the periphery of the display, or the display may not be seen in an appropriate location and/or size in relation to the field frame. On the other hand, the magnification of the display of the focus detection area and light-measuring area, which exist in fixed relation to the primary image, must change in response to the change in magnification of the finder optical system.

Finder optical system for pseudo focal length


The invention relates to a hydrostatic multi-motor drive (1) with a hydraulic pump (2) and at least one first pair of hydraulic motors. The two hydraulic motors (6, 7) of the first pair of hydraulic motors are connected to one another in series by means of a first working line section (12). A bypass line (15) is provided which connects a first connection (11; 10) of the hydraulic motor (7; 6), which is upstream in relation to a volumetric flow generated by the hydraulic pump (2), to a second connection (9; 8) of the downstream hydraulic motor (7; 6). A first valve unit (18) which interrupts the first bypass line (15) is arranged in the bypass line (15). A first minimum pressure maintaining device (25; 26) for maintaining a minimum pressure at the upstream connection (11; 10) of the downstream hydraulic motor (7; 6) is also arranged in the bypass line (15).

The invention relates to a hydrostatic multi-motor drive.
A hydrostatic multi-motor drive is known from FR 2 709 454 A. The hydrostatic multi-motor drive comprises a total of four adjustable hydraulic motors. To subject the hydraulic motors to pressure medium, a hydraulic pump connected to a driving engine is provided. Depending on the direction of travel, the likewise adjustable hydraulic pump delivers to a first and a second working line. In order to synchronise the hydraulic motors with one another in pairs, the hydraulic motors are connected to one another in series in pairs. A first hydraulic motor pair is connected to one another via a first working line section. Likewise, the second hydraulic motor pair is connected to one another via a second working line section. When there is a flow through in each case both hydraulic motors of a hydraulic motor pair, the two hydraulic motors of the hydraulic motor pair are synchronised with one another, since a constant volume flow flows through both hydraulic motors.
In order to improve the efficiency during normal driving, where, for example, only one hydraulic motor of each hydraulic motor pair is to be driven, there is a bypass line, by which the respectively downstream hydraulic motor of each hydraulic motor pair is bypassed. The pressure medium flowing through the respectively upstream hydraulic motor is thus led past the downstream hydraulic motor, with the result that the counterpressure for the upstream hydraulic motor falls. The efficiency of the upstream hydraulic motors thus increases. In order to be able to switch between a locked operating state and the optimised-efficiency state, a valve unit which can interrupt the bypass line is provided.
In the case of the multi-motor drive known from FR 2 709 454 A, it is a disadvantage that, owing to the simple short-circuiting of the two connections of the downstream hydraulic motor of each hydraulic motor pair, the inlet-side pressure of the downstream hydraulic motor falls practically to the suction pressure of the hydraulic pump. The respectively downstream hydraulic motor of each hydraulic motor pair therefore has to be coupled to the drive train of the vehicle, again resulting in losses. These losses have an adverse effect on the overall efficiency of the multi-motor drive.
It is therefore the object to provide a hydrostatic multi-motor drive having an improved efficiency.


A game apparatus may include a plurality of polygonal tiles. Each tile may include a set of indicia positioned adjacent each side of the tile, and each set of indicia may include at least one pip, and at least one non-pip. Each side of a tile may include an identical number of indicia.

The present invention relates to an apparatus for a tile game. More particularly, the present invention relates to an apparatus for a polygonal tile game.
Several known tile games include domino tile games that use a plurality of dominos. In the original domino game, each domino may be generally rectangular shaped, and may include two sets of indicia, one on each side of the domino. The indicia may range from one to six dots in the traditional game, and may range from one to twelve dots in a "Mexican train" version of dominos. In one method of play, several players each select a predetermined number of dominoes and take turns playing one domino at a time so that at least one indicia of their domino is adjacent and identical to the indicia of a previously played domino. Other geometries of tile games include triangles and hexagons, with similar methods of play.
In such prior art, the complexity of the games and the skill required to play the games have been minimal. In addition, the indicia patterns in the previous tile games have only required minimal logic to derive a set of tiles for game play.
What is needed, then, is an apparatus for deriving tiles with indicia and methods of playing with such tiles that addresses the issues discussed above.


The invention relates to a process for manufacturing a single-piece cooling channel piston, where a piston blank produced by forging is furnished with a circumferential ring-shaped recess between the piston skirts and the piston crown and with an open-bottomed cooling channel in the area of a piston ring belt, where to increase the surface guidance area of the piston skirts it is envisioned that a component extending this piston ring belt is welded on below the piston ring belt.

The invention relates to a process for manufacturing a one-piece cooling-channel piston and a piston in accordance with the primary claim of the independent patent claims.
From DE 44 46 7216 A 1 a process is known for manufacturing a one-piece cooling channel piston, in which a piston blank is produced by forging and an ring-shaped recess is introduced between a piston crown and the attached piston skirts by machining. Then an open-bottomed cooling channel is created in the piston crown by machining. After this, the wrist pin bores are created and the outside contour of the piston is machine finished. Following these steps the cooling channel, which is still open to the bottom, is closed by a cover ring so that the cooling medium circulating in the cooling channel (specifically engine oil) remains in the cooling channel to cool the piston crown.
As part of this process for manufacturing the cooling channel piston it is necessary that the axial height of the ring-shaped recess be at least equivalent to the axial height of the cooling channel. Because of the gap between the piston skirts and the piston crown (also called the piston top), undesirable instability results during operation of the cooling channel piston, the consequence of which is that the guidance of the cooling channel piston within the cylinder is inadequate.
The object of the invention is therefore to propose a process for manufacturing a one-piece cooling channel piston and a piston by which the said disadvantages are eliminated.
Under the invention it is envisioned that a component is welded on below the piston ring belt, extending the piston ring belt. This component supplements the guidance surface area, where the entire guidance surface area now consists of the surfaces of the component and also of the piston skirts. The guidance surface area is increased overall, so that instability in the cooling channel piston is eliminated, since the component contributes to rigidity, and the operating characteristics of the cooling channel piston inside the cylinder are considerably improved. The geometric dimensions of the component, specifically the axial extent between the piston crown (piston top, specifically the lower edge of the piston ring belt) and the upper edge of the piston skirt are determined by the design constraints, where the component can extend over any axial length whatever between the two edges, and it is also conceivable that the lower edge of the component extends as far as the upper edge of the piston skirt or even seats against it.
To further increase stability it is even conceivable that the lower edge of the component is also welded to the upper edge of the piston skirt.
In a further development of the invention, the component has an inward facing flange, which extends at least over a partial area of the open-bottomed cooling channel. The forces impinging on the surface guidance area of the component are absorbed by this inward facing flange so that stability is thereby further increased. A side effect of this inward facing flange can be seen in the fact that the open-bottomed cooling channel is at least partially closed so that the available cooling medium collects in the cooling channel and contributes to the cooling of the piston crown. With this arrangement, the inward facing flange can cover the open-bottomed cooling channel completely, thereby creating a closed cooling channel. As an alternative, the inward facing flange can only partially cover the open-bottomed cooling channel so that the cooling channel remains at least partially open at the bottom. This has the advantage that cooling medium can continue to flow into and out of the cooling channel through the open areas.
In a further development of the invention, the downstanding flange of the component (in the direction of the upper edge of the piston skirt) and the inward facing flange are positioned at an angle, specifically at an approximate right angle, to each other. This means that the component with its flange is manufactured in such a way that the latter are positioned approximately at right angles to each other. This component can, for example, be manufactured by casting, although other manufacturing methods are also conceivable. For example, both flanges can be manufactured as stamped or formed components and then welded together.
In a further development of the invention, the flanges are either of the same thickness or are of different thicknesses. The thicknesses to be employed are determined specifically by the load on the component, that is, in order to produce the desired stability, the flanges must be sized in such a way that they are able to absorb and dissipate the forces that are generated.
In a further development of the invention, the component is located at least in the area above the piston skirt. Since the piston skirts have so far assumed the task of guiding the cooling channel piston and the component is intended to increase the surface guidance area, it is advantageously located above the piston skirt, viewed in the direction of motion of the cooling channel piston. This means that the component extends in the area between the lower edge of the piston ring belt and the upper edge of the piston skirt and at least within the area between the longitudinal edge of the piston skirt (viewed in the direction of motion of the piston), where it is also conceivable that the component projects beyond the longitudinal edges of the piston skirt.
In a further development of the invention, the component consists of at least two halves which are held in position in the area of the ring-shaped recess and are welded below the piston ring belt, as part of which the abutting portions specifically are welded together. The result is a component that is rigidly attached to the cooling channel piston, which increases the surface guidance area and can absorb the forces introduced there. The inward facing flanges can, as also in the case of the previously described embodiments, seat against the body of the cooling channel piston, although this is not absolutely necessary, so that an opening can remain between the circumferential edge of the inward facing flange and the body of the cooling channel piston. Manufacturing the component from at least two halves has the advantage that after the circumferential ring-shaped recess and the cooling channel have been introduced, they can be placed around the cooling channel piston in the area of the recess so that the welding procedure can then be carried out to join the component to the piston ring belt.

Process for manufacturing a one-piece cooling-channel piston


An exemplary camera module includes a lens holder (10), a lens module (20), a position detecting mechanism (30), and an image pick-up module (40). The lens module includes a lens barrel (22) and one lens received in the lens barrel. The lens barrel is axially movable received in the lens holder. The position detecting mechanism includes a conductive strip (32) disposed on outer periphery of the lens barrel along an axial direction, a number of conductive terminals (36), a number of electrical sources (34), and a processor (38). The conductive terminals are securely arranged on an inner periphery of the lens holder parallel to each other. A cathode of each electrical source is electrically connected to a corresponding conductive terminal. The processor is electrically connected with an anode of each electrical source. The image pick-up module is arranged so as to receive the light from the lens module.

There are many camera modules with auto-focusing function or vari-focus lenses built into cameras and camcorders. For camera modules with an auto-focusing function, the camera lens projects an image onto an image sensor, an AF module retrieves a portion of the image for a CPU to process the contrast information, the CPU then activates an auto-focus motor to move the lens into focus. This process is repeated until the object is accurately focused on. For camera modules with vari-focus lenses, the camera module generally includes at least two lens modules received in a lens holder. One of the two lens modules is driven to move back and forth to change a distance between the two lens modules so as to vary the focal length of the camera module.
The lens module may move back and forth a distance in the camera module in the above-described camera modules. To precisely control the movement of the lens module in the camera module, it is necessary to detect a position of the lens module in the camera module. Nowadays, it is common for a lens module system to evaluate a movement value for the lens module, and then for the lens module to be driven to travel through this movement value by a step motor. However, since the moving of the lens module is not monitored in real-time, the moving of the lens module cannot be precisely controlled. The result being that there is a difference between desired movement and real movement, and therefore there may be cases where a required focus cannot be achieved properly.
What is needed, therefore, is a camera module which overcomes the above-described problems.

Camera module with position detecting mechanism


This invention provides an Mg-based ferrite having a high dielectric breakdown voltage and a saturation magnetization suitable for electrophotographic development, a carrier containing the ferrite, and an electrophotographic developer containing the carrier. The Mg-based ferrite material of this invention comprises Li, Na, K, Rb, Cs, Ca, Sr, Ba, Y, La, Ti, Zr, Hf, V, Nb, Ta, Al, Ga, Si, Ge, P, Sb, Bi or a combination thereof. The Mg-based ferrite material has a saturation magnetization of 30 to 80 emu/g, and a dielectric breakdown voltage of 1.5 to 5.0 kV. The Mg-based ferrite material can realize high image quality, and be in compliance with environmental regulations.

Electrophotography is a method comprising forming an electrostatic latent image on a photoreceptor; depositing a toner onto the image to form an imagewise pattern; and transferring the toner to an object. Electrophotography includes two major categories: two-component development and one-component development. In the two-component development, a developer contains two components of a carrier and a toner, and a magnetic carrier is often used as a carrier.
In the two-component development with a magnetic carrier, a developer is stirred and mixed in a developing vessel such that a toner is electrostatically charged to a desired extent by friction between the carrier and the toner. The mixed developer is then fed to a magnet roll (hereinafter, referred to a roll), and spikes of the developer are formed along magnetic lines. The spikes are called magnetic brushes. The magnetic brushes are allowed to come into contact with a surface of a photoreceptor, and thereby the charged toner is deposited onto the surface in conformity with the electrostatic latent image to form a desired image.
While the toner is transferred onto the photoreceptor, the magnetic carrier remains on the roll, and is recovered and reused. Hence, the carrier preferably has a high longevity.
Electrophotography is utilized in a wide range of fields including a copying machine, a printer and a facsimile. In these fields, there is a need to improve image quality, resolution, gradation properties, and reproducibility of fine lines. Deterioration of image quality is partially due to a leak of the potential of the electrostatic latent image via the carrier. With the lower electric resistance of the carrier, the leak phenomenon is more likely to occur. However, even for a carrier initially having a high electric resistance, the electric resistance may be reduced by dielectric breakdown when a high voltage is applied. In such a case, the carrier may contribute to a leak.
Recently, a high bias potential is often applied between a photoreceptor and a roll to achieve high image quality. At such a high bias potential, a conventional carrier tends to cause dielectric breakdown. Hence, there is a need for an electrophotographic development carrier having a high dielectric breakdown voltage and a high longevity.
In order to improve image quality, it is necessary to adjust the saturation magnetization of a magnetic carrier into a certain range, as well as to enhance dielectric breakdown voltage. When the saturation magnetization is too small, the image quality is deteriorated because carriers are scattered and undesirably deposited on an object. When the saturation magnetization is too large, the spike becomes too hard to maintain image quality.
As a conventional ferrite carrier having a high dielectric breakdown voltage, a Cu—Zn-based ferrite (for example, see Japanese Patent No. 1,688,677) and an Mn—Mg-based ferrite (for example, see Japanese Patent No. 3,243,376) have been used. Under recent environmental regulations, however, it is desired to reduce the amount of heavy metals used such as Cu, Zn, Mn, Co and Ni. For example, under Title 22 of the State Law of California, Ni, Cu, Zn and the like are control subjects. Moreover, under the PRTR system, Mn compounds are designated as compounds that may be harmful to the health of human beings and an ecosystem.
Magnetite (Fe3O4) has been conventionally known as a magnetic carrier in compliance with environmental regulations; however, magnetite has a problem of a low dielectric breakdown voltage. Moreover, magnetite has a low electric resistance. Due to this low electric resistance, when alternating voltage is applied, a leak phenomenon occurs upon development even if insulating properties are improved by coating with various resins. In order to achieve a high electric resistance for magnetite, there has been an attempt to heat a material in air to form a non-magnetic phase having a high electric resistance (Fe2O3 phase), which co-exists with magnetite. With the increased percentage of the Fe2O3 phase in the carrier, the dielectric breakdown voltage becomes higher. However, coercive force is disadvantageously increased. The increased coercive force causes agglomeration of carrier particles, resulting in lowered flowability. The lowered flowability raises a new problem that it is difficult to obtain image quality comparable to that for the ferrite carrier. In addition, since magnetite has a relatively high saturation magnetization, the spike of the magnetic brush becomes too hard.
As an oxide carrier capable of being controlled to have a desired saturation magnetization and meeting environmental regulations, Mg—Fe—O based powder and a method of producing the powder are reported (see Japanese Patent No. 2,860,356). According to this method, a binder is added as a reducing agent, and then sintered in an inert gas atmosphere. Therefore, the valence of Fe can be kept low. As a result, various phases such as magnetite phase and MgO phase co-exist in the resulting powder. Hence, there still remains a problem of a low dielectric breakdown voltage derived from magnetite.
An Mg-based ferrite in the form of a single phase of Mg and Fe is obtained by sintering a stoichiometric composition in air. While this Mg-based ferrite has a high dielectric breakdown voltage, it has a low saturation magnetization from 20 to 25 emu/g.
Accordingly, there still remains a need to realize both a proper saturation magnetization and a high dielectric breakdown voltage simultaneously.

Mg-based ferrite, an electrophotographic development carrier containing the ferrite, and developer containing the carrier


A device for receiving a tool or support element in a machine tool or spindle has a tool carrier receiving member arranged in a machine tool or spindle and a tool carrier having a tool receiving member for a tool as well as a clamping device for securing the tool carrier in the tool carrier receiving member. The tool carrier has two areas, wherein a first area includes the tool receiving member and wherein a second area is designed to be received in the tool carrier receiving member. The second area includes the clamping device. The two areas are merged with one another in the axial direction of the device by overlapping the areas.

The invention relates to a device for accommodating a tool or a support element in a machine tool or spindle, the device comprising a tool carrier receiving member arranged at the machine tool or spindle, comprising a tool carrier having a tool receiving member for the tool as well as a clamping device for fixation of the tool carrier at the tool carrier receiving member.
Known devices for receiving a driven or stationary tool (for example, a cutting tool) or any other parts (for example, a support element for a measuring device) in a machine tool or spindle have a tool carrier receiving member which is either arranged as a separate part at the machine tool or is a part of the machine tool itself. Furthermore, a tool carrier is provided which has a tool receiving member for the tool. In order to be able to securely connect this tool carrier receiving member with the tool carrier in a permanent manner, a clamping device is provided. For this purpose, the tool carrier is divided into two areas, i.e., a first area for the tool receiving member and a second area to be received in the machine part or spindle part whereby in this second area the clamping device is arranged in the interior of the tool carrier. This arrangement of the clamping device results in the total length of the tool carrier being the sum of the two aforementioned areas. As a result of machine tools that have been recently introduced into the market and have a more limited work space the large constructive size of the tool carrier is disadvantageous.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a tool carrier of a short length.

Device for accomodating a tool or a support element in a machine tool or a spindle


An articulated railroad car, which includes an articulated connector, rail truck and car body units, has at least one standard short-travel railroad car side bearing which is designed to permit down travel of the car body unit of at least 5/8 inch. In a preferred embodiment, one rail truck portion includes a long-travel railroad car side bearing. The long-travel side bearing includes a top cap member and a bottom member with a resilient member interposed therebetween. The long-travel side bearing permits roll axis movement of one car body unit relative to another car body unit to reduce forces on the rail truck which would tend to prevent its successful negotiation of curves.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to side bearings used in railroad cars and, more particularly, to a long-travel side bearing for use with articulated railroad cars to permit a controlled torsional flexibility across the articulation joint connecting the car body units.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A variety of constant contact side bearings have been developed for use in railroad cars. On a standard railroad car, the side bearing units are typically located directly on the rail truck bolster. On an articulated car, the side bearing units are typically located on a bracket mounted on the truck bolster.
Such a standard constant contact side bearing unit is commonly used in an attempt to control hunting of the railroad car. Hunting is a phenomenon caused by yaw axis rotation of the railroad car truck. As the cone-shaped wheels ride along the track, a yaw axis motion is induced in the truck. As the truck yaws, an upper portion of the side bearing is made to slide across the underside of the car body. The resulting friction produces an opposing torque which acts to prevent yaw motion. A further purpose of the standard side bearing is to limit the total roll motion of the car body.
In order to control or limit the roll axis rotation of the railroad car, the side bearings of the prior art are designed to provide a roll stop or motion limitation action. Some prior art side bearings act simply as roll limitation pads or stops which provide a simple roll prevention or limitation device. These side bearings do not necessarily continuously contact the car body and do not attempt to restrain yaw axis movement of the truck.
Other prior art side bearings typically consist of a housing containing spring loaded steel elements or elastomeric materials. These bearings bear continuously against the car body throughout the compression of the spring. The spring or elastomeric material acts essentially to keep the upper element in contact with the car body to prevent or restrict yaw axis motion of the truck. The maximum travel of such a standard side bearing is specified by the appropriate Association of American Railroads (A.A.R.) standard (Standard M-948-77) to be limited to 5/8 inch.
Each of these prior art devices is therefore directed to the restraint of yaw axis motion of the truck and limitation of roll axis movement of the car body units. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,712,487 discloses a standard side bearing with a housing containing an elastomeric device. The device is made of polymer material and has a non-linear compressive spring rate which increases exponentially as the device is compressed. The patent specifically teaches a limitation of roll axis movement to 1/2 inch.
Another example of a standard side bearing is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,080,016. This bearing includes a pair of elastomeric blocks spaced apart by a saddle block. An upper surface of the saddle block has a cusp to separate a pair of roller bearings. Again, the patent teaches a mechanism to limit roll axis movement.
None of the prior art side bearings allows long-travel of the bearing to permit the necessary roll axis movement of the rail car body which has been found to be needed with an articulated rail car. This presents a problem in the use of certain articulated rail cars. In articulated rail cars, the extreme length of the rail car requires free torsional movement of the car body units, particularly as the units traverse a curved or banked portion of the rail. At such a curve, the outer rail is raised (or super-elevated) in relation to the inner rail to form a banked curve. In the approach to such a curve, there is a transition from the straight (not super-elevated) track to the curved (super-elevated) track. This causes a twisting of the rail car as it traverses this section of the track. The restriction of roll axis movement by the side bearings of the prior art prevents relative roll axis movement of one car unit with respect to another car unit. The restriction in roll axis movement can result in high twist loads being imposed at the articulation joint. This can apply such forces to the rail truck as to prevent the yaw axis rotation necessary for the car to successfully negotiate the curve.
The need for a long-travel side bearing has arisen as the units of articulated rail cars have become stiffer in torsion. This increase in stiffness is a by-product of the increasing load-carrying capacity of the units. The increased capacity units have exhibited a tendency to derail upon the entry to curves by forcing over the inner or low rail.
In such circumstances, as an articulated car enters a curve, the entire five unit car is twisted in the banking of the curve. On these cars, the connection of one unit to another is through an articulated connector. The connector has a female part that sits in the truck bowl in the same manner that the center plate of a standard freight car sits in the truck bowl. The male portion of the connector is fabricated into the adjacent unit. The connection is formed by the male portion fitting into the female portion. The male portion does not necessarily make contact with the truck bolster.
During the turning of the car on the banked rail curve, the short travel of a standard short-travel bearing prevents the rotation of the male portion within the female portion. The result is the placement of a very high load on the side bearing. This high side bearing load applied at a significant distance from the center of yaw rotation of the truck causes the application of a large yaw moment to the truck as it enters the curve. This yaw moment interferes with the proper yaw motion of the truck. Under certain conditions, particularly those where rail lubrication is present only on the upper or high rail, the result is excessive force on the low rail and the potential rolling over the low rail.

Long-travel side bearing for an articulated railroad car


An image forming apparatus includes a latent image forming device that forms a latent image, a latent image carrier that carries the latent image, a development device that develops the latent image, and a controller. The development device includes a developer carrier that faces the latent image carrier and carries toner on a rotary surface thereof that rotates in a rotation direction perpendicular to a width direction of the developer carrier, and a regulation member that regulates the thickness of a layer of the toner on the surface of the developer carrier. The controller moves the toner on lateral end regions in the width direction of the surface of the developer carrier toward the latent image carrier. The end regions are located outside a maximum image forming region within a regulation member facing region of the surface of the developer carrier facing the regulation member.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus equipped with a development device using toner.
2. Related Art
In recent years, an image forming apparatus equipped with a development device using toner has been widely used in home offices and by general users. Functional components and techniques employed in the image forming apparatus used in such environments are desired to adjust to reduction in size and cost and extension in life of the image forming apparatus.
For example, components employed in the image forming apparatus have been reduced in size to adjust to the reduction in the overall size of the image forming apparatus. It is therefore more difficult to install the functional components in the size-reduced image forming apparatus than in a large-sized image forming apparatus.
Further, to adjust to the extension in life of the image forming apparatus, the functional components employed in the image forming apparatus are desired to be as abrasion-resistant as possible over an extended period of time. For example, in the case of a photoconductor serving as a latent image carrier, surface abrasion due to contact with components used in charging, development, transfer, and cleaning processes should be taken into account. To minimize the surface abrasion of the photoconductor, a lubricant applicator for applying a lubricant to the photoconductor may be provided. If the photoconductor is reduced in size to adjust to the reduction in size of the image forming apparatus, however, it is difficult to install the lubricant applicator. Therefore, an external additive containing a lubricant such as silicone oil may be added to the toner to reduce friction on the surface of the photoconductor.
Functional components other than the photoconductor, such as a development roller, have also been extended in life for the life extension of the image forming apparatus. Further, as a recent trend, in an image forming apparatus including a process cartridge housing functional components such as a photoconductor and a development device, the functional components of the process cartridge have been improved in durability to reduce running costs. With the functional components thus improved in durability, the frequency of manual replacement of the process cartridge has been reduced, thereby reducing running costs.
If the toner is stored in the process cartridge in an amount corresponding to the lifespan of the durability-improved functional components, however, the size of the process cartridge is increased, thereby increasing the overall size of the image forming apparatus. According to a recent method, therefore, the process cartridge stores a relatively small amount of toner and is resupplied with toner from a toner cartridge. Accordingly, the process cartridge is not required to be filled at one time with all the toner corresponding to the lifespan of the functional components. If the toner cartridge runs out of toner, the toner cartridge is manually replaced with a new toner cartridge to supply toner. Accordingly, the image forming apparatus is reduced in both size and running cost.
If the toner is added with the above-described external additive containing a lubricant, however, the adhesion of toner particles is increased, thereby reducing the fluidity of the toner. The toner with reduced fluidity accumulates in the development device and continues to be subjected to stress. As a result, the toner is thermally fused and may adhere to functional components contacting the toner. Such toner adhesion occurs prominently when the toner has a relatively small particle diameter or a relatively low glass transition temperature Tg. Particularly in a development device including a regulation member that regulates the thickness of a layer of toner carried on the outer circumferential surface of a development roller serving as a developer carrier, toner with reduced fluidity tends to accumulate in a region in which the thickness of the toner layer is regulated by the regulation member. Moreover, the internal pressure (i.e., powder pressure) is increased in the toner accumulating region. Therefore, the toner tends to adhere to end portions of the regulation member in a width direction perpendicular to the moving direction of the outer circumferential surface of the development roller. The toner thus adhering to the end portions of the regulation member may cause an abnormal image such as a striped image.
If the image forming apparatus uses a process cartridge having a relatively short life, the toner adhesion to the end portions of the regulation member in the development device does not pose a serious issue. However, if the image forming apparatus is equipped with a development device using a regulation member and a development roller improved in durability and supplied with toner from a toner cartridge, the development device is used for an extended period of time. In this case, therefore, the toner adhesion to the end portions of the regulation member is prominent.

Reducing toner adhesion to a development device of an image forming apparatus


An exemplary method includes displaying a graphical user interface configured to facilitate identification of one or more defects within a software instance, receiving data representative of at least one instruction via the graphical user interface to assign a severity risk value, an impact risk value, and a likelihood risk value to each of the one or more defects, and generating a defect risk factor corresponding to each of the one or more defects that indicates a risk level of each of the one or more defects, the generating based on a combination of the severity risk value, the impact risk value, and the likelihood risk value corresponding to each of the one or more defects.

Quality assurance is often an integral part of software development. For example, quality assurance personnel may test newly-developed software, identify defects contained within the software, and determine whether the software is of high enough quality to be released to end users.
Unfortunately, conventional quality assurance tools suffer from several shortcomings. For example, it is often difficult to prioritize the order in which identified defects are to be addressed (e.g., remedied) by software developers. Moreover, it is often difficult to objectively quantify the relative risk of addressing some defects over others.

Methods and systems of determining risk levels of one or more software instance defects


A cleaning device is used in an image forming apparatus to remove residual attachments including toner and paper powders from a surface of a movable intermediate transfer element onto which toner images are transferred from an image carrier. The cleaning device includes a cleaning brush that contacts the surface of the intermediate transfer element to apply a bias having a predetermined polarity to the toner adhered onto the surface of the intermediate transfer element so as to make uniform a polarity of the toner. The cleaning device further includes a pressing member that contacts the surface of the intermediate transfer element with a predetermined pressure. The pressing member is disposed at a position upstream of the cleaning brush in a direction of movement of the intermediate transfer element.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cleaning device used for removing residual attachments from a surface of an intermediate transfer element onto which toner images are transferred from at least one image carrier. The invention also relates to an image forming apparatus including the cleaning device. The present invention further relates to a method of removing residual attachments from a surface of an intermediate transfer element.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
In the related art, there are two types of image forming apparatuses: a mono-color image forming apparatus, and a multi-color image forming apparatus. In a multi-color image forming apparatus, multi-color images are formed by two types of multi-color image forming methods, for example: (1) toner images of different colors are transferred from respective image carriers onto a transfer material while being each superimposed thereon, and (2) toner images of different colors are sequentially transferred from at least one image carrier onto an intermediate transfer element while being each superimposed thereon, and then a superimposed color toner image is transferred from the intermediate transfer element onto a transfer material.
In the case of using an intermediate transfer element, substances, such as toner, paper powders, or various types of additives, typically adhere onto a photoreceptor functioning as an image carrier or an intermediate transfer element after toner images are transferred therefrom. For example, if paper powders remain on an intermediate transfer element, a surface of a photoreceptor that contacts the intermediate transfer element may be damaged by the residual paper powders. As a result, background fouling typically occurs on the resultant images due to bad cleaning of the photoreceptor.
Some devices use a cleaning blade that contacts a surface of a photoreceptor or an intermediate transfer element to remove residual attachments remaining on the surface of the photoreceptor or the intermediate transfer element. For example, Japanese Utility Model Publication No 3-58668 and published Japanese patent application No. 5-323846 each describe a cleaning device including a cleaning blade that contacts a surface of a photoreceptor, and an elastic plate. An edge portion of the elastic plate periodically slides on an edge portion of the cleaning blade to remove attachments accumulated on the edge portion of the cleaning blade.
Japanese patent No. 2759813 describes a cleaning device including a cleaning blade that contacts a surface of a photoreceptor, and a rotary brush member that contacts an edge portion of the cleaning blade to remove attachments accumulated on the edge portion of the cleaning blade. Moreover, in some conventional systems, the polarity of residual toner remaining on a surface of a photoreceptor or an intermediate transfer element is uniformed by using a cleaning brush to enhance a removability of the residual toner. By doing so, an electrostatic transfer efficiency of toner may be enhanced in a subsequent cleaning process.
It is known that if a bias having a predetermined polarity is applied to the residual attachments on the intermediate transfer element by using a cleaning brush, the removability of residual toner may be enhanced, but the removability of the residual attachments other than toner, such as paper powders, may be unchanged. If such attachments remain on the intermediate transfer element and if the linear velocity of the intermediate transfer element is different from that of a photoreceptor, a surface of the photoreceptor is rubbed against the attachments remaining on the intermediate transfer element, and is damaged.
If the surface of the photoreceptor is damaged, a cleaning device may not effectively clean the damaged surface of the photoreceptor, thereby causing background fouling on the resultant images due to bad cleaning of the photoreceptor. If residual attachments are removed from a photoreceptor by contacting a leading edge portion of a cleaning blade to the surface of the photoreceptor, toner blocked by the cleaning blade accumulates on the leading edge portion of the cleaning blade. When an impacting force is applied to the accumulated toner, the accumulated toner easily falls from the leading edge portion of the cleaning blade by gravity, and may fall on an image carried on an intermediate transfer element. As a result, an abnormal image typically occurs due to mixture of the fallen toner and the image carried on the intermediate transfer element.
In some conventional systems, a releasing agent is applied onto a surface of a photoreceptor or an intermediate transfer element to prevent foreign substances from adhering onto the surface thereof by decreasing a coefficient of friction of the surface thereof. However, it may be difficult to uniform a coefficient of friction of a surface of a photoreceptor or an intermediate transfer element in a short period of time, and the coefficient of friction of the surface thereof may change with time. Considering the cost consumed for providing a releasing agent application device, a desired advantage may not be obtained.
Therefore, as discovered by the present inventors, it is desirable to provide a cleaning device and an image forming apparatus including the cleaning device that can exert a good cleaning performance on residual attachments on an intermediate transfer element and can control occurrences of background fouling and an abnormal image.
Further, it is desirable to provide a method of removing residual attachments from a surface of an intermediate transfer element while exerting a good cleaning performance on residual attachments on an intermediate transfer element and while controlling occurrences of background fouling and an abnormal image.

Cleaning device and image forming apparatus including the cleaning device that controls occurrences of background fouling and abnormal image


A method for adjusting the position of a steered wheel of a vehicle includes detecting a steering position value of a steering control device of a vehicle such that the steering position value corresponds to an angular position of the steering control device; calculating a traction speed breakpoint at or above which steering desensitization may occur; and defining a maximum commencement steer angle at or below which steering desensitization may commence. The method also includes determining if the angular position of the steering control device or an angular position of the steered wheel is equal to or less than the maximum commencement steer angle; detecting a traction speed of one of a traction motor or a traction wheel of the vehicle; determining if the traction speed is equal to or above the traction speed breakpoint; and calculating, by the processor, a steering desensitization value when the angular position of one of the steering control device or the steered wheel is equal to or less than the maximum commencement steer angle and the traction speed is equal to or above the traction speed breakpoint.

Forklifts and other types of industrial vehicles are expected to operate under a variety of different conditions. Further, such vehicles typically include a number of different functional systems such as a traction system to control a travelling speed of the vehicle and a steering system to control a direction in which the vehicle travels.
Under various vehicle operating conditions, it may be beneficial to vary the manner in which the traction wheel and steered wheel of the vehicle are controlled to reduce an effect on steering control caused by floor imperfections and the like.

High speed straight ahead tiller desensitization