A drive apparatus for an adjusting device for adjusting a vehicle part, in particular a window lifter, comprising a carrier element, a transmission element which can be driven by means of a motor unit, and a drive housing which is arranged on the carrier element and which has a bearing element for rotatably bearing the transmission element about an axis of rotation. The carrier element has at least one first positive-locking element and the drive housing has at least one second positive-locking element, which are in engagement with one another for a rotation-preventing securing action, wherein an elastic dampening element is arranged between the at least one first positive-locking element and the at least one second positive-locking.

Vehicles may include one or more drive devices to adjust a vehicle part. A drive apparatus of said type may include a carrier element, a transmission element, for example a drive gear, which can be driven by means of a motor unit, and a drive housing which is arranged on the carrier element and which has a bearing element for rotatably bearing the transmission element about an axis of rotation.
A drive apparatus of said type may in particular be a constituent part of a window lifter device, and thus serve for adjusting a window pane. A drive apparatus of said type may however also serve for adjusting some other adjustable element, for example a cover element in the form of a sliding roof or the like, in a vehicle.
In the case of a window lifter, it is for example possible for one or more guide rails to be arranged on an assembly carrier of a door module, on which guide rails there is guided in each case one driver which is coupled to a window pane. The driver is for example coupled by means of a flexible traction cable, which is designed for transmitting (exclusively) tensile forces, to the drive apparatus, wherein the traction cable is arranged on the cable drum such that, during a rotational movement of the cable drum, the traction cable is, with one end, wound onto the cable drum and is, with another end, unwound from the cable drum. A displacement of a cable loop formed by the traction cable thus occurs, together with a corresponding movement of the driver along the respectively associated guide rail. Driven by the drive apparatus, the window pane can thus be adjusted, for example in order to open or close a window opening on a vehicle side door.

Acoustically decoupled drive device for a window lifter

Brose Fahrzeugteile GmbH & Co. Kommanditgesellschaft, Bamberg


A method for item storage and distribution to a user, each stored item associated with a storage identifier, the user associated with a user identifier, the method including associating a set of storage identifiers with the user identifier, in response to receiving a description for a first storage identifier from a user device associated with the user identifier, storing the description as an storage description for the first storage identifier, setting a fill status of the first storage identifier to packed, and removing storage identifiers having an empty fill status from the set of storage identifiers associated with the user identifier.

Conventional storage systems suffer from several drawbacks. In particular, conventional storage systems, such as the PODS storage system, require a user to rent relatively large storage containers. While these containers can be suitable for bulk storage, these containers are typically too large for seasonal or situational storage, wherein small quantities of items need to be stored. Examples of seasonal or situational storage can include winter clothes, snow gear, sports gear, camera gear, and art supplies. This leads to storage inefficiencies for the user, wherein the user is paying for extra (i.e., unutilized) storage space. Furthermore, the relatively large size of the containers precludes the user from dynamically adjusting the amount of storage space that is rented, based on the volume of items that the user desires to store. Additionally, since a user is typically associated with only one storage unit, and rents a larger container when more volume is needed, conventional storage methods only permit users to identify their storage unit according to the storage unit number or the user identifier within the system, and does not allow the user to identify the storage unit according to the storage unit contents.
Conventional storage methods can additionally be inefficient for storage systems. First, the unused space in the storage container is wasted space that can be rented to another user, thereby increasing the storage system user base and potentially increasing profits. Second, the relatively large containers require specialized equipment for movement and transport, such as specialized lifts and trucks.
Thus, there is a need in the physical storage field to create a new and useful method and system of storing and tracking physical items.

System and method for storage container tracking and delivery


Disclosed structures and methods inhibit atomic migration and related capacitive-resistive effects between a metallization layer and an insulator layer in a semiconductor structure. One exemplary structure includes an inhibiting layer between an insulator and a metallization layer. The insulator includes a polymer or an insulating oxide compound. And, the inhibiting layer has a compound formed from a reaction between the polymer or insulating oxide compound and a transition metal, a representative metal, or a metalloid.

One of the main issues confronting the semiconductor processing industry is that of the capacitive-resistance problem in metallization layers. An industry-wide effort has undertaken to address the problem. Since the beginning, the semiconductor processing industry has relied on aluminum and aluminum alloys to serve as metallization layers. Silicon dioxide was selected as the insulator of choice although polyimide, a polymer, was used in a number of products by IBM for a number of years. With each succeeding generation of technology, the capacitive-resistance problem grows. Because each generation requires that the dimensions of the semiconductor structure be reduced, the minimum line-space combination must also decrease. As the line-space combination decreases, the capacitance and resistance of the semiconductor structure increases. Thus, these increases contribute to the problem.
Copper metallurgy has been proposed as a substitute for aluminum metallurgy as a material for the metallization layers since copper exhibits greater conductivity than aluminum. Yet several problems have been encountered in the development of copper metallurgy. The main issue is the fast diffusion of copper through an insulator, such as silicon dioxide, to form an undesired copper oxide compound. Another issue is the known junction-poisoning effect of copper. These issues have led to the development of a liner to separate the copper metallization layer from the insulator. The use of titanium nitride as a liner was proposed by C. Marcadal et al., "OMCVD Copper Process for Dual Damascene Metallization," VMIC Conference Proceedings, p. 93-7 (1997). The use of tantalum nitride as a liner was proposed by Peijun Ding et al., "Copper Barrier, Seed Layer and Planarization Technologies," VMIC Conference Proceedings, p. 87-92 (1997). The use of titanium as a liner was proposed by F. Braud et al., "Ultra Thin Diffusion Barriers for Cu Interconnections at the Gigabit Generation and Beyond," VMIC Conference Proceedings, p. 174-9 (1996). The use of tungsten silicon nitride as a liner was proposed by T. Iijima et al., "Microstructure and Electrical Properties of Amorphous W—Si—N Barrier Layer for Cu Interconnections," VMIC Conference Proceedings, p. 168-73 (1996). The use of zirconium, hafnium, or titanium as a liner was proposed by Anonymous, "Improved Metallurgy for Wiring Very Large Scale Integrated Circuits," International Technology Disclosures, v. 4 no. 9, (Sep. 25, 1996). The use of titanium as a liner was proposed by T. Laursen, "Encapsulation of Copper by Nitridation of Cu—Ti Alloy/Bilayer Structures," International Conference on Metallurgical Coatings and Thin Films in San Diego, Calif., paper H1.03 p. 309 (1997). The use of tantalum, tungsten, tantalum nitride, or trisilicon tetranitride as a liner is currently favored by the industry. See Changsup Ryu et al., "Barriers for Copper Interconnections," Solid State Technology, p. 53-5 (1999).
Yet another solution to the problem of fast diffusion of copper through an insulator was proposed by researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (hereinafter, RPI). See S. P. Muraka et al., "Copper Interconnection Schemes: Elimination of the Need of Diffusion Barrier/Adhesion Promoter by the Use of Corrosion Resistant, Low Resistivity Doped Copper," SPIE, v. 2335, p. 80-90 (1994) (hereinafter, Muraka); see also Tarek Suwwan de Felipe et al., "Electrical Stability and Microstructural Evolution in Thin Films of High Conductivity Copper Alloys," Proceedings of the 1999 International Interconnect Technology Conference, p. 293-5 (1999). These researchers proposed to alloy copper with a secondary element, which is either aluminum or magnesium. In their experiments, they used copper alloys with at least 0.5 atomic percent aluminum or 2 atomic percent magnesium. When the copper alloy is brought near the insulator, silicon dioxide, the secondary element and silicon dioxide form dialuminum trioxide or magnesium oxide. The formed dialuminum trioxide or magnesium oxide acts as a barrier to the fast diffusion of copper into the silicon dioxide.
Along the same technique as proposed by RPI, Harper et al. discuss in U.S. Pat. No. 5,130,274 (hereinafter, IBM) the use of a copper alloy containing either aluminum or chromium as the secondary element. As above, the secondary element with the insulator, such as silicon dioxide or polyimide, forms a barrier to the fast diffusion of copper.
Semiconductor products with some of the discussed solutions to the fast diffusion of copper have begun to ship, on a limited basis, and yet the problem of reducing the resistivity in ever smaller line dimensions is still present. It has been shown by Panos C. Andricacos, "Copper On-Chip Interconnections," The Electrochemical Society Interface, pg. 32-7 (Spring 1999) (hereinafter Andricacos), that the effective resistivity obtainable by the use of barrier layers was approximately 2 microhm-centimeters with a line width greater than 0.3 micrometer. The effective resistivity undesirably increases for lines narrower than that. The alloy approach investigated by RPI had similar resistivity values as found by Andricacos. RPI also found that the use of 0.5 atomic percent aluminum, in the copper, was apparently insufficient to give complete protection from copper diffusion into the silicon dioxide although a significant reduction in the rate of copper penetration through the silicon dioxide was achieved. It should be noted that the maximum solubility of aluminum in copper is 9.2 weight percent or approximately 18 atomic percent whereas the maximum solubility of magnesium in copper is 0.61 weight percent or approximately 0.3 atomic percent. Thus, the alloys used by RPI were saturated with magnesium but far below the saturation limit when aluminum was used as the secondary element in the alloy.
Other researchers have focused on the capacitive effect. The capacitive effect has been studied with respect to polymers, such as polyimide, which are used to substitute for silicon dioxide as insulation in semiconductor structures. Some of these polymers have dielectric constants that are considerably lower than silicon dioxide, and a presumption can be made that the use of these polymers should lessen the undesired capacitive effect. Yet, when one of these polymers is cured to form an insulator near the vicinity of the copper metallization layer, the polymer reacts with the copper metallization layer to form copper dioxide, a conductive material. See D. J. Godbey et al., "Copper Diffusion in Organic Polymer Resists and Inter-Level Dielectrics," Thin Solid Films, v. 308-9, p. 470-4 (1970) (hereinafter, Godbey). This conductive material is dispersed within the polymer thereby effectively raising the dielectric constant of the polymer and in many cases even increasing its conductivity. Hence, the undesired capacitive effect continues even with the use of lower dielectric polymer materials.
Andricacos points out that the use of copper along with cladding offers a significant improvement in conductivity over the titanium/aluminum-copper alloy/titanium sandwich structure now in widespread use throughout the industry. Andricacos also noted that as the line width decreases even a thin liner would undesirably effect the line resistance. The proposals by RPI and IBM attempt to address this problem by forming the liner using a copper alloy. The liner formed using a copper alloy displaces a portion of an area that was occupied by the insulator.
However, in solving one problem, RPI and IBM introduce another problem. The copper alloys used by RPI and IBM essentially lack the desirable properties of copper that initially drove the industry to use it. As was pointed out by RPI, the use of an alloy containing aluminum, even at a concentration so low as to not be completely effective in preventing the diffusion of copper, shows a measurable increase in resistance. IBM used only one layer of the alloy. Yet, that one layer has a high concentration of aluminum and will undoubtedly have an undesired effect on the resistivity.
As the minimum dimensions shrink, the use of even a twenty-Angstrom layer of an alloy with higher resistivity will have a significant effect on the total resistivity of the conductor composite. For example, a 200-Angstrom film on both sides of a 0.1 micron trench is 40 percent of the total trench width. Therefore, at the same time that the dimensions of the metallization layer decrease, the specific resistivity undesirably increases.
It has also been shown that there is a significant difference between the amount of the undesired copper oxide compound that is formed when a polyimide insulator is used if the acidity of the polymer solution is low. This is the case if the precursor used in the formation of the polyimide is an ester instead of acid. In the case of PI-2701, which is a photosensitive polyimide that starts from an ester precursor, the amount of oxide formed is reduced by a factor of approximately four as compared to films with a similar final chemistry. See Godbey. It is thought that the slight acidity of PI-2701 may come from the photo-pac or the process used to form it. The films in the study by Godbey were all prepared by curing the liquid precursor in air or in an approximately inert environment. It is also well known that copper oxide will not form in and can be reduced by a high purity hydrogen atmosphere.
Muraka opines that the use of titanium as a barrier layer was found to increase the resistivity of the copper film significantly when heat-treated at temperatures of 350 degrees Celsius or above. If the heat-treatment was carried out in hydrogen, no increase in resistivity was reported. As this temperature is above the eutectoid temperature of the titanium-hydrogen system, the formation of titanium hydride is assumed to have occurred. Muraka also asserts that a similar increase in resistivity is seen with zirconium and hafnium containing copper alloys, yet Muraka provides no data to support the assertion.
Other research results weaken the conclusion of Muraka. See Saarivirta 1; see also U.S. Pat. No. 2,842,438 to Matti J. Saarivirta and Alfred E. Beck (Jul. 8, 1958). If one looks at the equilibrium phase diagrams of the copper-titanium and copper-zirconium systems, it can be seen that the solubility of zirconium in copper is more than ten times less than that of titanium. See Metals Handbook, v. 8, p. 300-2 (8th Ed.). It should also be noted that a series of copper-zirconium alloys have been disclosed that have quite good electrical conductivity.
It has been shown that alloys containing more than about 0.01 weight percent zirconium have a significant loss of conductivity in the as-cast state. See Matti J. Saarivirta, "High Conductivity Copper-Rich Cu—Zr Alloys," Trans. of The Metallurgical Soc. of AIME, v. 218, p. 431-7 (1960) (hereinafter, Saarivirta 1). It has also been shown that the conductivity of even a 0.23 weight percent zirconium alloy is restored to above 90 percent of IACS when the alloy, in the cold drawn state, is heat-treated above 500 degrees Celsius for one hour. This shows that a significant amount of the zirconium, which was in solid solution in the as-cast state, has precipitated as pentacopper zirconium. From this data, it can be seen that if the zirconium content in the copper is kept low the conductivity of the resulting metallurgy can be above 95 percent of IACS. If it is desired to deposit a zirconium layer on top of a copper layer the temperature of deposition of the zirconium should be kept below 450 degrees Celsius, such as between 250 degrees Celsius and 350 degrees Celsius. Such deposition may occur in a single damascene process or at the bottom of vias in a dual-damascene process. The term "vias" means the inclusion of contact holes and contact plugs. When the deposition temperature is kept in this range, a thin layer of pentacopper zirconium tends to form initially thus inhibiting the diffusion of zirconium into the copper. While even at 450 degrees Celsius the solubility is low enough to give very good conductivity, and although zirconium and titanium have many properties that are very similar, their solubility in copper differs by more than a factor of ten. Therefore, the use of zirconium is much preferred over titanium for this application.
What has been shown is the need of the semiconductor processing industry to address the issue of interconnecting devices in integrated circuits as these circuits get smaller with each generation. Although aluminum was initially used as the metal for interconnecting, copper has emerged as a metal of choice. However, because of the fast diffusion of copper into the semiconductor insulator, the capacitive-resistive problem becomes an important issue that must be addressed. One solution is to use a liner, but with the reduction in the geometry of the circuits, the dimensions of the liner become inadequate to prevent the fast diffusion of copper. Another solution is to form a barrier material from the insulator and a copper alloy; this solution seems promising at first, but because the copper is alloyed, the desirable conductivity property of copper is diminished.
Thus, what is needed are structures and methods to inhibit the fast diffusion of copper so as to enhance the copper metallization layer in a semiconductor structure.

Structures and methods to enhance copper metallization


The present disclosure provides a cooking appliance that includes a cooking cavity body, in which a cooking cavity is formed; a heating plate, movably mounted in the cooking cavity; and an adjusting device, mounted to the heating plate and used for driving the heating plate to continuously reciprocate in the cooking cavity. According to the technical solution, the heating plate can continuously reciprocate up and down or left and right in the cooking cavity under the action of the adjusting device, and when the cooking appliance is specifically used for heating food, the height of the heating plate can be adjusted according to the category and height of the food to adjust the distance between the heating plate and the bottom wall of the cooking cavity.

When a quick barbecue device is used, a lower heating plate and a magnetron are arranged below a cooking cavity and immobilized, the position of an upper heating plate can be adjusted according to the height of food so that the heating plate is in contact with the food or kept a short distance from the food, and an upper heating plate adjusting device in the prior art is locked at different positions via a positioning pin to adjust the distance between the heating plate and the food. However, in the prior art, the height of the heating plate can only be set at several fixed positions, and the position of the upper heating plate cannot be continuously set, so that the requirement for accurately positioning the heating distance of food having different heights cannot be met. Furthermore, in the existing structure, when the height of the heating plate is adjusted, the positioning pin needs to be unscrewed by means of a tool and then mounted into another positioning hole, so that the operation is complex and long time is needed. Besides, by adopting the existing adjusting device, after the height of the heating plate is adjusted, a user cannot know the food accommodating height of the cooking cavity, so that the user cannot accurately adjust the height mounting position of the upper heating plate according to the height of the food, and the user experience is poor.
Therefore, the problem to be solved at present is how to provide a cooking appliance such as a quick barbecue device which can allow the height of an upper heating plate to be adjusted simply, quickly and continuously and display the food accommodating height of a cooking cavity.

GUANGDONG MIDEA KITCHEN APPLIANCES MANUFACTURING CO., LTD.


The present invention relates to a stereoscopic content service system and method, and more particularly to a stereoscopic content service system and method which defines a Scene Descriptor (SD) including information required for stereoscopic contents, displays the stereoscopic contents based on the information of the defined SD, and thereby may perform a two-dimension (2D)/three-dimension (3D) display conversion through user interaction and display a stereoscopic text based on information about a left and right text and disparity information.

A three-dimensional (3D) image may represent reality of a real physical world, and have advantages of presence feeling, reality, naturalness, vividness, and the like.
Techniques for representing a 3D image may include a stereoscopic method and holographic method. The stereoscopic method uses a left side and a right side, that is, two two-dimensional (2D) images, and the holographic method uses diffusion of an object.
The holographic method aims to represent a 3D image more graphically using light diffused from an object. However, the holographic method in the present stage may not embody a 3D image in real time using current transmission systems due to a great amount of 3D information and a limit of related elements.
The stereoscopic method uses a principle of a human visual system (HVS). Specifically, humans perceive different images of an object from each eye due to a location difference of the left and right eye, and perceive the object in three dimensions, which is used in the stereoscopic method. That is, parallax associated with the fact that both eyes of human are apart from each other by approximately 65 mm is a critical point of cubic effect of human.
The stereoscopic method enables the left and right eye to each see different 2D images using a plurality of display devices, or enables different 2D images to be repeatedly displayed at regular intervals using a single display device. Accordingly, the stereoscopic method enables a user to synthesize two light sources reflected from an object, and thereby may create perspective and reality.
Thus, the stereoscopic method requires two 2D images different from each other.
In general, an Initial Object Descriptor (IOD), Scene Descriptor (SD), Object Descriptor (OD), and media data are required to create an image based on a Moving Picture Experts Group-4 (MPEG-4). An IOD is information to be first transmitted to compose an MPEG-4 scene, and defines a media profile and level. Also, an IOD includes an Elementary Stream (ES) descriptor about an SD stream and OD stream. An OD is a set of ES descriptors describing information about media data included in a scene, and provides information about a connection between an SD and ES of media data.
An SD is for embodying a real-time two-way video data service or interactive data broadcasting, and enables a two-way service interoperated with a program. Accordingly, SD is capable of interactive service according to users' needs.
In a conventional art, a technology to provide stereoscopic contents is disclosed in Korean Patent Unexamined Publication No. 10-2004-0090523 entitled 'System and Method of Internet Broadcasting for MPEG-4 based Stereoscopic Video'. In the patent, an Internet (Internet Protocol-based network) broadcasting system which provides an MPEG-4 based stereoscopic 3D movie service, and Video On Demand (VOD) and live service via Internet may be provided. The technology may enable a user to enjoy contents of a 2D or 3D image via the Internet.
The technology in a conventional art provides a receiving/transmitting system and storage format to provide a stereoscopic video service based on an MPEG-4 system. However, the technology in a conventional art may not perform a 2D/3D display mode conversion using an SD and provide a stereoscopic text, video, and still image. Accordingly, a technology to overcome such disadvantages is required.

Stereoscopic content service system and method

Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute


An ink jet apparatus includes a plurality of actuators that discharge a liquid from a discharge port according to a driving signal input to an input terminal; a driving selector that outputs a drive switch control signal; a plurality of drive switches that connect or disconnect the input terminal of the actuator and a driving signal source according to the drive switch control signal for the actuator, and allow the driving signal to pass therethrough and input the driving signal to the input terminal when the input terminal and the driving signal source are connected; a detection circuit that detects a voltage of the input terminal when being connected to the input terminal; and a plurality of detection switches that connect or disconnect the input terminal of the actuator and the detection circuit on the basis of the drive switch control signal or the driving signal passed through the drive switch.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink jet apparatus and a method for controlling the ink jet apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Ink jet apparatuses that form an image on an object to be printed on, using an ink jet head discharging a liquid from a plurality of discharge ports, have been widely used. The ink jet apparatuses change the volume of a pressure chamber communicating with a discharge port to thereby discharge the liquid stored in the pressure chamber from the discharge port. As a type in which the volume of the pressure chamber is changed, there is a type using an actuator that displaces a wall surface of the pressure chamber. A type using a piezoelectric element or the like as the actuator is referred to as a piezoelectric type, and a type using an electrostatic actuator is referred to as an electrostatic type. In addition, hereinafter, the discharge port, the pressure chamber, and the actuator are also collectively referred to as a nozzle.
In such ink jet apparatuses, an abnormality may occur in the nozzle such that bubbles are generated within the discharge port or the pressure chamber, or a contaminant adheres to the inside of the discharge port or the pressure chamber. In this case, a printing failure may occur such that the nozzle is clogged or the liquid is not discharged, or the liquid is discharged in directions different from usual. In order to reduce such a printing failure, there are known ink jet apparatuses that have the function of recovering the nozzle to a normal state when the state of the nozzle is determined and an abnormality has occurred in the nozzle.
For example, in an ink jet apparatus using actuators, it is known that a vibration pattern of damped vibration called residual vibration generated in an actuator immediately after the actuator is driven to displace a wall of a pressure chamber changes according to the state of a nozzle. Since a voltage applied to the actuator changes if the actuator vibrates, it is possible to detect this voltage to thereby determine the state of the nozzle from the detected voltage.
However, since a determination circuit that detects the voltage applied to the actuator to determine the state of the nozzle is relatively large, if the determination circuit is provided at every nozzle in order to determine the state of each of a plurality of the nozzles, the size of the ink jet apparatus becomes too large.
In contrast, in order to reduce the size of the ink jet apparatus, ink jet apparatuses that determine the state of a plurality of nozzles, using one determination circuit, are disclosed in International Publication No. WO2004/076180 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-305992.
The ink jet apparatus described in International Publication No. WO2004/076180 has a switch to connect an actuator to a drive circuit outputting a driving current for driving the actuator or to a determination circuit that determines the state of a nozzle. In this ink jet apparatus, after a driving current is supplied from the drive circuit to the actuator, the switch is switched to connect the actuator to the determination circuit to detect a voltage applied to the actuator. In addition, the ink jet apparatus having one switch common to all nozzles is disclosed in FIG. 27 of International Publication No. WO2004/076180, and the ink jet apparatus having a plurality of switches corresponding to the nozzles, respectively, is disclosed in FIG. 30.
Additionally, in the ink jet apparatus described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-305992, one end of each of a plurality of actuators is connected to a drive circuit that outputs a driving signal, and the other end of the actuator is connected to a residual vibration detection circuit that detects residual vibration from a voltage applied to the actuator. In addition, the residual vibration detection circuit determines the state of a nozzle from a vibration pattern of the detected residual vibration. Additionally, in this ink jet apparatus, one switch is provided between the plurality of actuators and the residual vibration detection circuit, and it is possible to connect the plurality of actuators to one residual vibration detection circuit.
However, the ink jet apparatus disclosed in FIG. 27 of International Publication No. WO2004/076180 has a problem in that the operating speed of the ink jet apparatus decreases when the apparatus has a large number of nozzles.
In this ink jet apparatus, a driving current for driving a plurality of nozzles flows to a switch that connects actuators to the drive circuit. Since this driving current becomes larger as the number of nozzles to be driven increases, when a large number of nozzles are driven, an analog switch capable of handling a high current is required.
However, this ink jet apparatus should connect the determination circuit and an actuator to detect the voltage of the actuator immediately after a driving current is passed, and then connect the drive circuit and the actuator again until a driving current is output. For this reason, the analog switch needs to start a switching operation sufficiently earlier than the head of the driving signal of the drive circuit, and complete the switching operation before the head of the driving signal to pass the current of the driving signal therethrough. Additionally, the analog switch needs to start a switching operation at a rear end of the driving signal and determine the state of a nozzle through the determination circuit after the completion of the switching operation. When the state of the nozzle is determined by the determination circuit after the completion of the switching operation at the rear end of the driving signal, there is a problem in that the residual vibration is already attenuated and precise determination is difficult.
Allowance of the precise determination is limited to an ink jet nozzle designed so that the residual vibration of an actuator lasts a relatively long time. However, it is difficult for the ink jet nozzle in which the residual vibration of the actuator lasts a long time to be driven at a high frequency. Moreover, since the analog switch should start a switching operation sufficiently earlier than the head of the driving signal of the drive circuit, the driving signal is unable to be sent in a short cycle. Therefore, the operating speed of the ink jet apparatus decreases.
In contrast, it is considered that an analog switch with a fast operating speed is used by dividing actuators into a plurality of groups and driving the actuators in a time-sharing manner for every group to make the driving current small.
However, in the ink jet apparatus illustrated in FIG. 27 of International Publication No. WO2004/076180, a portion of a wiring line connecting an actuator to the drive circuit and a portion of a wiring line connecting the actuator to the determination circuit are shared. For this reason, it is necessary to provide most of the drive circuit driving the actuators for every group, and the scale of the circuit increases.
Additionally, in the ink jet apparatus disclosed in FIG. 30 of International Publication No. WO2004/076180, the plurality of switches are provided corresponding to the actuators, respectively. Therefore, it is possible to drive the actuators at a high speed. However, since a large-scale circuit that generates signals for switching the switches apart from a circuit that generates signals for driving the actuators is required, the circuit scale increases.
Additionally, in the ink jet apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-305992, the residual vibration detection circuit and the actuators are unable to be individually connected to each other or disconnected from each other. For this reason, in this ink jet apparatus, the actuators should be driven one by one only in order to detect a voltage according to residual vibration apart from printing processing, and the operating speed of the ink jet apparatus decreases.
In addition, in the ink jet apparatus in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-305992, the potential of one end on a grounding side of an actuator connected to the residual vibration detection circuit is detected by being isolated from the grounding side during residual vibration detection. For this reason, this method also has a problem in that the application range thereof is limited to an ink jet apparatus of the structure capable of electrically isolating one end on the grounding side of the actuator from the other.

Ink jet apparatus and method for controlling ink jet apparatus


A molding method for manufacture of a resin molded part having one or more flexibly movable, pushbutton-shaped thick projections formed integrally with a base through the intermediary of thin wall portions continued from the peripheral edges of the projections, wherein a thermoplastic elastomer is used as a molding material, and wherein the thick projections, the thin wall portions, and the base are integrally molded by supplying a mass of the molding material into a mold through a gate provided adjacent the center of a portion corresponding to each of the projections. The method requires no vulcanization and permits efficient production. Furthermore, it allows well balanced flow of the molding material and eliminates the possibility of burrs and sink marks being produced.

1. FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a molding method for manufacture of resin moldings and, more particularly, a resin molded part having movable projections suitable for use in such applications as, for example, a remote control unit or the like control element for a TV set or video tape recorder, and a keyboard for a portable electronic calculator.
2. DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART
Such control element or keyboard has a number of push-buttons and is generally of such arrangement that the push-buttons, upwardly biased by internally provided springs, are depressibly seated in corresponding holes provided in a base. However, such arrangement has a drawback that it requires a large number of parts, which often leads to a high cost of manufacture.
In view of this problem, some users have been employing molded parts in which a base and pushbuttons are integrally formed. Molded parts of this type use rubber as a molding material therefor and they are such that one or more pushbutton-shaped thick projections are formed integrally with a base through the intermediary of thin wall portions continued from the peripheral edges of the projections so that the projections are flexibly movable.
True, such rubber moldings involve less number of parts; on the other hand, however, the fact that they require vulcanization poses a problem that the process of molding takes considerable time, which means lower producting. In an attempt to solve this problem, it has been proposed to use a resin which requires no vulcanization and which permits ease of molding and to carry out integral molding by employing a conventional side-gate type mold, for example. However, such attempt has not been successful, since they involve high possibility of burrs and sink marks being produced because of unfavorable heat balance between thick projections and thin wall portions.

Molding method for manufacture of a resin molded part


A device may communicate with a peer-to-peer (P2P) network prior to associating with that network. The communications prior to association may include information about whether the P2P network is persistent or non-persistent. The information may include a persistent group intent field that identifies whether a device would prefer to join a persistent P2P network and allows a P2P network to advertise whether it is persistent.

Wireless network deployments, such as wireless local area networks ("WLANs"), allow mobile devices to access network and Internet services when within proximity of wireless communication signals of those wireless networks. Peer-to-peer ("P2P") networks allow connectivity between individual devices. In one example, a P2P network may be referred to as a group and include a group owner (GO) that is the master device for the group that may manage signaling, timing, clock synchronization, etc., and establish certain group settings (e.g., the group may be set as a persistent group or a non-persistent group). A non-persistent group only lasts (i.e., remains intact as a group) as long as a device is in communication range of the group and other devices within the group. A non-persistent group treats a device that wants to re-join as if the device is a new device joining the group for the first time. In contrast, a persistent group is a group in which the group owner and/or other devices within the group are able to store persistent information related to the group. In other words, the term "persistence" when used in reference to a persistent or a non-persistent group implies the ability (or lack of ability) of a group owner and/or group member to store information associated with that group as well as information associated with the devices that join the group. Therefore, information for joining the group may persist (i.e., remain stored) within a device for a persistent group. In one embodiment, the P2P network may utilize either wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) or Wireless LAN (WLAN) between wireless devices. For example, the Wi-Fi Alliance (WFA) established guidelines for peer to peer connectivity between Wi-Fi enabled devices that is referred to as "Wi-Fi Direct" and outlined in the Wi-Fi Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Technical Specification from 2010.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Persistent network negotiation for peer to peer devices


A system and a method for generating a respirable dry powder aerosol (15) from a liquid solution or liquid suspension at a respirable dry powder aerosol volume flow (91). A liquid aerosol generating nozzle (3) generates from the liquid solution or liquid suspension a liquid aerosol (13) that is diluted by dilution gas (4) and dried in a cylindrical evaporation chamber (6) to generate a dry powder aerosol (14) that is subsequently concentrated by a cylindrical single linear slit aerosol concentrator (9). The system and method may include heliox as a gas, specifically dilution gas (4), for enhancing both the drying process in the cylindrical evaporation chamber (6) and for enhancing the concentration efficiency, but also as a nozzle gas (2) for enhancing generating the liquid aerosol (13) from the liquid solution or liquid suspension.

The acute respiratory distress syndrome, ARDS, occurs in approximately 200,000 Americans each year. A recent worldwide study indicated that ARDS is an underdiagnosed with 10.4% of all patients admitted to the intensive care unit, ICU, fulfilling the ARDS criteria. The pathology includes atelectasis, pulmonary edema, elevated pulmonary dead space and hypoxemia. Despite sophisticated intensive care, many patients with milder hypoxemia (PaO2/FiO2 between 200 and 300 mmHg) deteriorate to ARDS with a PaO2/FiO2<200 mmHg. Despite improved low tidal volume ventilation maintenance the mortality rate still remains at 30-40%.
Although the etiology of ARDS is often multifactorial, common to patients with ARDS is impaired surfactant function and continued inflammation-induced degradation of surfactant's surface tension lowering activity. The volume of aerated lung available for gas exchange and mechanical insufflation is reduced as a result of dense atelectasis predominantly in dependent lung regions. Surfactant's low surface tension helps maintain the patency of the conducting airways and enables the alveoli to open with a reduced work of breathing. Thus aerosol surfactant replacement therapy may provide a life saving treatment regime.
Clinical trials with surfactant aerosols for the treatment of ARDS however, have not shown the anticipated clinical benefit of surfactant administration. Contributing factors to this outcome include:                Insufficient surfactant delivery rate to the lungs        Surfactant not being administered throughout the prolonged surfactant abnormality.
The delivery of surfactant in a non-invasive manner would allow physicians to provide improved life support and potentially a marked improvement in survival.
Aerosol delivery of surfactant to the lungs may benefit other patients with compromised lung function. This includes the treatment of patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis that has a prevalence rate of 13-20/100,000 population or ˜60,000 patients in the US. In addition, aerosols of surfactant may have therapeutic benefits in patients with neonatal respiratory distress syndrome, NRDS, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, cystic fibrosis, and pneumonia. Hospital acquired respiratory infections are a major heath issue and cost an estimated $6B annually. Treatment of such respiratory infections with anti-infectives by respirable aerosol delivery by systems such as SUPRAER™ could reduce these health costs. Also, it would be an improvement over the prior art if epoprostenol, mucoactive agents and other medications which form solutions or suspensions could be delivered at high delivery rates with viscosities up to at least 39 cSt in a clinical setting. In addition, co-delivery of surfactant with drugs may augment the effectiveness of these drugs.
Biologics are 50% of the drug development pipeline. At least 60 of these are in development for the treatment of lung diseases that are targeted to be delivered intravenously rather than by aerosol. The IV route is most often chosen for the treatment of lung disease with biologics due to the limitations of present aerosol delivery systems and inbuilt perceptions within the pharmaceutical industry. However, intravenous administration not only has considerable patient resistance, but its own attendant complications. Intravenous administration is likely to require a 10 to 100 times higher dose than if it were administered by aerosol inhalation. The ability to deliver these agents directly to the lungs in form of respirable aerosol markedly reduces the total dose of the agent, the cost of therapy, as well as systemic toxicities.
Non-small-cell lung cancer is treated with cocktails of drugs delivered intravenously.
Twenty four biologics for lung cancer are in clinical trials and 12 in the market.
With IV administration:                2-15% treats the lungs        >85% exposes other organs        Dose 10-100 times that of aerosol inhalation
Aerosol delivery results in;                Lower doses administered        Less systemic side-effects
Lower treatment costs and potentially better outcomes.
An estimate of effective dose of surfactant delivered by aerosol in patients with ARDS provides guidance as to the dose rate and total dose of surfactant aerosol that is necessary to be delivered by an aerosolizing device. Delivery of 2-7.5 mg/kg of surfactant aerosol has been shown to be effective in neonatal lambs. Windtree Therapeutics delivered 100 mg/hour or 0.03 mg/s of aerosolized surfactant to neonates but it is considered likely that only a small percentage of this was delivered to the lungs. In ARDS there is inactivation of the surfactant by proteins and phospholipases and thus a higher dose delivered to the lungs may be desirable. The mass of surfactant in healthy lungs has been estimated to be 5-10 mg/kg. Thus total surfactant replacement in a 70 kg patient will require 350-700 mg to be deposited in the lungs. Thus, clinically relevant therapeutic doses between 300 mg and 1 g of surfactant aerosol deposited in the lungs are likely required for efficacy. Due to continued inflammation-induced degradation of surfactant in this aerosol surfactant replacement therapy may be required to be repeated on multiple occasions.
Delivery of a sufficient mass of aerosolized surfactant of aerosols between 1.5 μm and 4 μm mass median aerodynamic diameter to penetrate to and deposit in the peripheral lung to treat surfactant abnormalities and its continued depletion has been a recalcitrant problem for many years. There are several issues to be overcome related to aerosol particle size, dose rate and uniformity of dose rate as well as the concentration of the aerosol and total dose output.
The output of jet-type nebulizers that produce 3 μm particles and rely on the Venturi effect for the fluid feed to the orifice produce is low (≤0.3 ml/min) and decreases with increasing fluid viscosity (surfactant concentration). The concentration of surfactant in the device increases with atomization time. In addition, foaming can further reduce their output.
The viscosity of surfactant suspensions increases rapidly with surfactant concentration. High concentrations of surfactant have viscosities considerably higher than some mesh-type nebulizers can aerosolize (4 cP) It took 3 hours to deliver 72 mg of a surfactant aerosol at 1.9 μm MMAD.
An aerosol delivery system has been used by Windtree Therapeutics to deliver aerosolized surfactant to neonates. In this system, described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,234,167 B1, a surfactant suspension is heated and vaporized as it passes through a capillary tube. The condensate forms the aerosol to be delivered. In clinical trials of this system in neonates it produces 100 mg/hour (0.03 mg/s) surfactant aerosol at a flow rate of 3 l/min, i.e. 0.6 mg/l.
A method of generating high concentrations of fine particle aerosols has been described in the U.S. Pat. No. 8,596,268 B2 which is incorporated by reference in its entirety. Briefly, a syringe pump is used to feed an aqueous solution/suspension to an aerosolizing nozzle. This nozzle aerosolizes 100% of the fluid to form a liquid aerosol with a narrow size distribution (σg<2). This aerosol plume is arrested with a co-axial counter-flow of gas. The fluid is evaporated from the particles using a combination of warm compressed gas, and dilution gas together with infrared radiation whose wavelength is optimized for the absorption band of water. The resultant dry particle aerosol is concentrated using a multiple slit virtual impactor with radially aligned acceleration and deceleration nozzles. The particles gain momentum as they pass through the acceleration nozzles. They cross a small gap and lose momentum as they pass through the deceleration nozzles to form a low velocity aerosol. Most of the gas exits the aerosol stream through the gap between these nozzles. As a consequence, the low velocity aerosol is comprised of a considerably higher concentration of particles in a much smaller volume of gas. This aerosol flows through port at 3 cm of water pressure where it can be inhaled on demand. However, for deep lung deposition in patients with compromised lung function aerosols with even smaller diameters at higher delivery rates and high total payloads are desirable to treat patients with ARDS and other lung syndromes and diseases. It is therefore an object of the invention to produce smaller particles at higher concentrations at higher efficiencies together with high clinically relevant payloads.
Heliox, a mixture of helium and oxygen, typically 80% helium and 20% oxygen or 70% helium and 30% oxygen, has been used to improve the effect of bronchodilators and gas exchange in patients with compromised lung function and enhance aerosol deposition in the peripheral lung and thus offers an attractive option for the delivery of therapeutic aerosols. In studies using 70/30 heliox at constant atomizer gas flow to generate aerosols showed that the heliox generated larger particles than air at all tested flow rates However, using the invention described herein accomplishes a marked decrease in aerosol particle size with heliox compared to air at the same compressed gas pressure.
A number of virtual impactors have been described to concentrate aerosols. For example, some linear slit concentrators use a converging channel with a rectangular "v" shaped design as noted above. The mass loading of an aerosol being concentrated can decrease the efficiency of the concentrator and lead to nozzle clogging above concentrations of 1 mg/l. To deliver very high payloads, the aerosol is likely already at a high concentration prior to it being further concentrated. Aerosol deposition on the surfaces of the concentrator must not impair its function during the generation and delivery of this designated payload. Aerosol concentrators that meet the performance of the incident invention have not been described.
As virtual impactors are dependent on the inertia of the aerosol particles, high efficiencies for concentrating particles less than 4 μm MMAD have be difficult to attain, especially with low pressure differentials. For simplicity and clinical utility, it is desirable when concentrating an aerosol using virtual impaction, that this is accomplished at a small positive pressure together such that it can be delivered to the patient at a slight positive pressure without the use of pumps to remove the exhausted gas. This requirement essentially eliminates the use of virtual impactors with high flow resistance such as those using round orifices. Slit orifices have a much lower resistance to gas flow and are thus used in the incident invention. Aerodynamically designed acceleration and deceleration nozzles reduce resistance to flow and improve the concentrator efficiency. U.S. Pat. No. 8,375,987 meets these requirements and is hereby included in its entirety. However, the incident invention provides for the generation and processing of smaller particles with less wall losses and higher aerosol concentrations that can be delivered at higher payloads.
As noted above, the technology for the delivery of surfactant aerosols for inhalation neither incorporates the technologies of the incident invention nor provides the aerosol concentrations and delivery criteria present in the incident invention.

Two-stage apparatus and method for generating and concentrating fine particle aerosols


A method for generating a set of analytical redundancy relations representative of a system with which a plurality of sensors is associated for the observation of variables indicative of operating conditions and adapted to enable detection and discrimination of faults. A complete set of analytical redundancy relations of the system is built from a set of intermediate relations established between observable and non-observable variables of the system, wherein each intermediate relation is generated by combining two predetermined relations Rj, Rk, each of which is expressed in an implicit form as a tuple (i) of a subset Sj of system variables, (ii) of the set Cj of the support components for said relation, and (iii) of the set Tj of the primary relations used to derive said intermediate relation.

The operation of a plant—in this description and in the attached claims this term means industrial plants, manufacturing or research equipment, various types of vehicles (e.g. aircraft)—is controlled usually by means of complex diagnostic systems able to detect and isolate faulty operation conditions as soon as they happen.
In the last few decades research in the field of model-based diagnostics has developed mainly along two different approaches: the first one (FDI, Fault Detection and Isolation) is based on automatic control theory and statistical decisions, while the second, called DX, is based on artificial intelligence techniques. The basic principle of model-based diagnostics is to compare the nominal or expected behavior of a system, provided by a model of the system, to the actual behavior shown by measurements on the system. An Analytical Redundancy Relation, ARR, also known as residual or parity equation, used in the FDI approach, is a relation among measured parameters of the system. Any unsatisfied ARR would represent a discrepancy between the expected and the actual behavior of the system. The DX approach is based on the concept of conflict, which is a set of assumptions on the modes of some components that is not consistent with the model of the system and the measurements. Recently a unifying framework has shown the equivalence of both approaches. The link between the concepts of ARR and of conflict is that the support of an ARR, i.e., the set of components involved in that ARR, is a possible conflict, i.e., there is a possible scenario of measurements on the system which produces that set as a conflict.
The Analytical Redundancy Relations have an important role not only in system diagnostics, but also in analysis and optimization of the systems of sensors used for diagnostic purposes.
The quality and efficiency of a diagnostic system depends on the availability and relevance of the information that said system can obtain from the system under diagnosis. The quality of the measurements is expressed by the diagnosability degree, i.e., given a set of sensors, by which faults can be discriminated. There is no simple relation between the number of sensors and the diagnosability degree of a system. Just increasing the number of sensors does not necessarily guarantee a higher level of diagnosability, while on the other hand it is desirable to achieve a desired degree of diagnosability at the lowest possible cost.
The structural properties of the plant under control and the potential information carried by each sensor are presented in the set of ARRs. The information from the set of all ARRs can be summarized in a signature matrix.
The problem of sensor optimization can therefore be formulated as a combinatorial problem applied to the signature matrix, or as an integer programming problem involving said matrix.
Analytical Redundancy Relations and Fault Signature Matrix
In the following the concepts of Analytical Redundancy Relations (ARR) and Fault Signature Matrix (FSM) will be introduced and briefly explained. For clarity and simplicity, the case of a single fault of a system will be assumed.
The System Model (SM) is defined to consist of the Behavioral Model (BM) and the Observation Model (OM) The Behavioral Model BM is a component-based description of the system and consists of a set of Primary Relations (PRs). Each component is described by the function that it performs, i.e., by one or more PRs, and its inputs and outputs, such a component-based description also includes the topology of the system. The OM is the set of relations defining the observations that are performed on the system and the sensor models.
FIG. 1 shows an example of a polybox system consisting of three Multipliers (M1, M2, M3) and two adders (A1, A2).
The Behavioral Model BM for this system, representing a component-based description and the topology, is given by a set of PRs and their associated components as:                PR1: x=a c; M1         PR2: y=b d; M2         PR3: z=c e; M3         PR4: f=x+y; A1         PR5: g=y+z; A2
The set of variables (V) of the system can be decomposed into the set of unknown (unobserved) variables (X) and the set of observed variable (O), i.e., V=X∪O.
A Redundancy Relation (ARR) is a constraint deduced from the system model (SM). ARRs can be derived from SM by eliminating the unknown (unobserved) variables from the PRs. Therefore, an ARR contains only, and hence can be evaluated from, observed variables.
An associated concept is the support of an ARR, that is, the subset of components that are involved in the derivation of the ARR.
For the system of FIG. 1, if the sensors are placed at outputs f and g, and with known inputs a-e, then O={a, b, c, d, e, f, g} and X={x, y, z}.
The resulting ARRs are given in following Table:
TABLE 1ARR, support components, and sensorsfor the polybox example in FIG. 1SupportARRsComponentsSensorsARR1: f = ac + bdM1, M2, A1fARR2: g = bd + ceM2, M3, A2gARR3: f − g = ac − ceM1, M3, A2, A1f, g
ARRs are used to check the consistency of the observations with respect to SM. That is, the ARRs are satisfied if the observed system behavior satisfies the model constraint. Under single-fault exoneration assumption, if a component of an ARR support is faulty, then that ARR is not satisfied. In fact, coupled with the concept of support set, this forms the foundation of model-based diagnosis approach in the FDI community
Let us consider the Fault Signature Matrix (FSM), resulting from the derivation of ARRs. The FSM is defined as a binary (0-1) matrix whose rows are ARRs and columns are faults (components). An element FSij of this matrix is assigned 1 if component Ci is part of support of ARRj, otherwise FSij=0. The i-th column corresponding to component Ci is defined as the fault signature vector of Ci and it is denoted as FSi=[FSi1, . . . , FSin]t.
For the polybox system of FIG. 1, the FSM can be derived from Table 1 and is given in Table 2.
TABLE 2Fault Signature Matrix for Polybox System of FIG. 1A1A2M1M2M3ARR110110ARR201011ARR311101
The model-base diagnosis approach in FDI is based on evaluation of ARRs given a set of system observations.
If an ARRi is satisfied based on the observation, then ARRi=0, otherwise ARRi=1. The ARRs are instantiated with the observed values providing an observed signature. The signature of i-th observation is defined as a binary vector OSi=[OSi1, . . . , OSin]t, where OSij=0 if ARRj is satisfied by the observations, and OSij=1 otherwise.
Table 3 shows the diagnosis of the polybox system of FIG. 1 based on different observation signatures.
TABLE 3Diagnosis of polybox system of FIG. 1 usingARRs for different Observation SignaturesObsARR100111ARR201011ARR301101Fault DiagnosisnoneA2; M3A1; M1M2none
The diagnosis is then based on the faults accounted for in the fault signature matrix. That is, an observed signature OSi=[OSi1, . . . , OSin]t is consistent with a fault signature FSi=[FSi1, . . . , FSin]t if FSij=OSij for all j.
As an example, for the polybox system of FIG. 1, the observation signature [0,1,1]t is equivalent to the fault signature of components A2 and M3. Note that this indicates that, due to the system sensors, the faults of A2 and M3 cannot be discriminated, as is the case for A1 and M1.
The criteria of fault detection and isolation (faults discrimination) can be described in terms of FSM.
All faults can be detected (full detection) if there is no all zero column (i.e., no zero fault signature vector) in FSM. That is, for a given faulty component Ci at least one ARR is affected. The isolation is assured by requiring that no two columns of FSM be identical since it implies that the two fault signature vectors are identical and hence cannot be distinguished.
The above discussion allows a straightforward description of the sensors analysis approach. Given an SM and a set of deployed sensors, derive the corresponding set of ARRs and form the corresponding FSM. The analysis of the resulting FSM can reveal the degree of detection, i.e. the number of all zero columns, which implies faulty components with zero fault signature vectors, and the ambiguity sets, i.e., the number and groups of faulty components with identical signature vectors, which implies the sets of components whose fault cannot be distinguished.
Considering what written above a preliminary statement of sensor optimization problem can be also given as follows. Starting with a SM, assign a hypothetical sensor to any point in the system which can be, physically and practically, measured (i.e., a sensor can be deployed at that point). Assign a cost function to any hypothetical sensor. Then derive the set of ARRs for this set of hypothetical sensors and form the corresponding FSM, called the Hypothetical Fault Signature Matrix (HFSM).
The optimization process can now be described as follows. Eliminate the subset of sensors with maximum cost (i.e., retain the subset of sensors with the minimum cost) while achieving maximum detection and isolation. Mathematically, this process is performed as follows: For a subset of sensors to be deleted, eliminate the ARRs which are affected by these sensors. Check the resulting FSM for detection and isolation, i.e., for no zero columns and no two identical columns.
It can be seen that this process does not represents a rigorous formulation of the optimization problem. And, in fact, current approaches to sensor optimization, based on the concept of FSM, are based on exhaustive searches which can be only applied to small systems.
It can be concluded that a key step and challenge in both sensor optimization and analysis is the derivation of ARRs to form the FSM.
Complexity of Derivation of Analytical Redundant Relations
A key problem in the application of ARRs is the efficient derivation of the complete set of ARRs. In the following, we discuss some key issues regarding the complexity of the derivation of ARRs.
Possible Number of ARRs
The first issue is actually the possible number of Analytical Redundant Relations. Consider a system described by n Primary Relations (usually this means that the system has n components, but in general this could imply that the system has at most n components) and m sensors (observations) where, for most practical cases, n>m.
If one considers the ARRs only as functions of all possible combinations of observations, then one would conclude that the total number of ARRs would be of the order of O(2m). On the other hand, if one considers that ARRs are obtained from combination of PRs, through elimination of unknown variables, this would then imply an upper bound of O(2n) for the number of ARRs.
The key point, which the inventors believe has not received sufficient attention in the technical note, is that ARRs can involve all possible combinations of PRs and observations.
In fact, a same set of PRs can lead to different ARRs, that is, ARRs with same set of support components but with different set of observations.
One can also consider cases wherein a same set of observations could lead to different ARRs which differ in their support components.
Taking this view, it can then be concluded that the upper bound on total number of ARRs is in fact of the order of O(2n+m). Note that for any practical system of interest the number of ARRs would be finite due to the system's structural constraints. In fact, an infinite number of ARRs implies that the system is not diagnosable!
Completeness of Set of ARRs and Redundant ARRs
A key fundamental issue in application of ARRs for both diagnosis and sensor placement is the completeness of the set of ARRs.
More precisely, it seems that the issue of minimal complete set of ARRs has not received enough attention.
In the literature the two concepts of d-completeness (completeness for detection of faults) and i-completeness (completeness for isolation of faults) have been discussed. However, these two concepts can be applied for analysis of applicability of a given set of ARRs for diagnosis. And, it seems that there is no discussion of the derivation of complete set of ARRs in the literature. It is quite obvious that completeness is a fundamental issue in both diagnosis and sensor placement since maximum available information provided by ARRs is needed.
It is also obvious that any application of an incomplete set of ARRs for both diagnosis and sensor placement might lead to wrong and/or suboptimal results.
Let's consider the definition of ARRs: "an ARR is a constraint deduced from the system model which contains only observed variables, and which can therefore be evaluated from any observer". Following this definition, then any trivial combination of any existing two ARRs can be then consider as a new ARR. Therefore, such a definition can lead to derivation of redundant ARRs.
In order to assure the completeness, we should consider all possible combinations of PRs in an exhaustive and complete fashion. In fact, if the focus of a method is only on searching the common variables and their elimination, as is the case for the known algorithm, then this would lead to an incomplete set of ARRs and, depending on the ordering in variable elimination, to ARRs sets with variable size.
We consider a set of ARRs as a complete set if it can be shown that any new ARR is just a trivial combination of existing ARRs.
We define a redundant ARR as one that can be obtained by trivial combination of existing ARRs, e.g., addition of two existing ARRs without eliminating any unknown variables.
An interesting example is the system of FIG. 1.
While ARR3 of Table 1 seems to be a simple subtraction of ARR1 and ARR2, indeed it has been obtained through elimination of unknown variables at several steps. However, a simple addition of ARR1 and ARR2 will lead to a redundant ARR which does not provide any information for diagnosis.
The problem with redundant ARRs is that they can significantly increase the complexity of the derivation of ARRs, even leading to an exponential complexity.
To see this, consider a system with L ARRs. If any trivial combination of any existing ARRs is consider as a new ARR, then this would lead possibly to a total number of O(2L) ARRs and hence the exponential complexity in the derivation.
The key point is that, a given algorithm might also derive redundant ARRs, even though it avoids trivial combination of existing ARRs, thus resulting in an exponential complexity in the derivation.
Consider a basic definition for derivation of ARRs as "ARRs can be obtained from the system model by eliminating the unknown variables". However, eliminating a common unknown variable between two ARRs might lead to a redundant ARR. To see this, note that as we stated before, we also define an ARR based on the set of PRs used for its derivation. If two ARRs have a common unknown variable but also a common PR in their derivation, then the elimination of the common variable would lead to an ARR which is a trivial combination of previous ARRs, i.e. a redundant ARR.
Complexity of Derivation of ARRs
An ARR is obtained as a result of combination of a set of Primary Relations through elimination of unknown variables. Such a process is associative and hence can be performed in any order. Consider an ARRi resulting from combination of k Primary Relations. Neglecting the first combination of two PRs in its derivation, and considering all possible ordering in the derivation, it then follows that the same ARRi might be obtained, possibly, in at most k!/2 ways. In fact, if a given algorithm performs an exhaustive search for finding common unknown variables and derive new ARRs by eliminating the common variable, then the same ARR might be derived many times, potentially in a factorial time in the number of PRs, which might lead to an algorithm with time complexity factorial in the number of primary relations. Indeed, it seems that the exponential complexity of known algorithm, which is based on finding and eliminating common variables, is due to this fact. Given the associative nature of derivation of the ARRs, it seems that the repetition in the derivation of an ARR cannot be avoided.
Currently, although the concept of ARRs provides a powerful framework for sensors optimization and system diagnosability, the inventors believe that the development of efficient systematic approaches for their generation has not received sufficient attention. The current processes for the generation of analytical redundancy relations are in fact dependent on the system they describe, and the derivation of a complete set of ARR depends essentially on the experience and knowledge of an expert programmer to manipulate analytical equations, and can not be extended easily to a large number of systems or plants of interest.

Method for the generation of analytical redundancy relations for system diagnostics

Fondazione Istituto Italiano di Technologia


Technology is disclosed herein for executing multiple gaming applications on a computing device. According to at least one embodiment, a computing device receives requests for network connections with remote servers from multiple gaming applications running on the computing device. The computing device further establishes a network connection with a proxy server. The proxy server initiates and maintains proxy network connections with the remote servers. The proxy server batches network messages received from the remote servers, where the network messages includes gaming content. The proxy server aggregates network messages received in a time period into a single batch, where a time length of the time period is determined based on one or more game events of the games being played on the computing device. Further, the proxy server batches network messages such that the computing device stays at a high power consumption state for a shorter time period than an overall time period required without batching.

There are many applications running on computing devices, e.g., mobile phones, tablet computers, laptop computers, etc., that can receive push notifications and messages from remote servers. Instead of a pull messaging transaction that is initiated by a receiving application, a remote server (e.g. an information publisher) initiates a push messaging transaction. Through a setting interface provided by an application or an operating system of a computing device, a user can adjust the preference and the subscriptions regarding the push and pull messaging transactions.
For instance, the Apple Push Notification Service is a push service. The Apple Push Notification Service forwards notifications from remote servers of applications to the Apple devices through a constantly open Internet Protocol (IP) connection. Such notifications can include badges, sounds or test alerts. Developers of applications can take advantage of the push service by using application programming interface (API) calls provided by Apple, Inc. The size of each notification message is usually restricted to a predetermined size, e.g. 256 bytes. Cloud-to-Device Messaging (C2DM) is a push service that allows remote servers to send messages to mobile applications on computing devices. Remote servers can use this service to notify mobile applications to contact the server and fetch updated data.
These message push services can create serious drains on the batteries of the computing devices, particularly for computing devices maintaining wireless network connections (e.g. WiFi or cellular networks). Every time a new message notification is pushed to a computing device, the computing device switches from a low power conservation state to a higher power consuming state for a period of time. Once entering the higher power consuming state, the computing device has to remain in the state for at least a fixed time period before the device can return to a low power conservation state. When push notifications reach the computing device at different points in time, the computing device needs to enter the higher power consuming state numerous times (and overall for a long period of time) to receive and process the push notifications, resulting in draining the battery of the computing device.

Optimization of gaming application execution using proxy connection


An inkjet head selectively ejects recording ink droplets and refresh ink droplets. The recording ink droplets are deflected so as to impinge on target locations on a recording medium, thereby forming recording dots thereon. On the other hand, the refresh ink droplets are deflected so as to impinge on an ink absorbing member. The ink clinging on the ink absorbing member is collected into an ink tank and reused. The ink absorbing member functions as a filter for preventing impurities being collected into the ink tank along with the ink.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a high-speed inkjet recording device that reuses refresh ink.
2. Related Art
Line-scan inkjet printers are a type of high-speed inkjet printer capable of printing on a continuous recording sheet at high speeds, and include an elongated inkjet recording head formed with rows of nozzles for ejecting ink droplets. The head is arranged in confrontation with the surface of the recording sheet across the entire width of the recording sheet. The head selectively ejects ink droplets from the nozzles based on a recording signal and impinges the droplets on desired positions across the width of the recording sheet. At the same time, the recording sheet is transported rapidly in its lengthwise direction, which serves as a main scanning operation, so that images can be recorded at any place on the recording sheet.
Various types of line-scan inkjet printers have been proposed, such as printers that use a continuous inkjet type recording head and printers that use a drop-on-demand type recording head. Although drop-on-demand type line-scan inkjet printers have a slower printing speed than do continuous inkjet type line-scan inkjet printers, they have an extremely simple ink system and so are well suited for a general-purpose high-speed printer.
Because the drop-on-demand inkjet recording device ejects ink droplets only when needed, non-ink-ejection periods occur during printing operations. During such non-ink-ejection periods, the ink clinging around nozzles may get dense. Condensed ink prevents proper ink ejection, and in a worse case blocks off the nozzles, thereby disabling ink ejection.
Although such a problem does not occur in the continuous-type inkjet recording device, this is a serious problem in the drop-on-demand type inkjet recording device.
Japanese Patent-Application Publication (Kokai) No. HEI-11-334103 discloses an inkjet recording device that reuses ink, which was removed and collected from an ink ejection surface of an inkjet head.
However, when collecting ink from the ink ejection surface of the inkjet head, impurities, such as dust, are also collected along with the ink. Reusing ink containing such impurities easily causes nozzle blockage, degrading reliability of ink ejection.
In the view of foregoing, it is an object of the present invention to overcome the above problems, and also to provide an inkjet recording device capable of ejecting refresh ink during printing operations and reusing the refresh ink by collecting the same.
In order to attain the above and other objects, the present invention provides an inkjet recording device including an inkjet member that ejects an ink droplet, an ink tank that stores ink, wherein the ink is supplied to the inkjet member, an ink receiving member that receives the ink droplet, a deflecting means for deflecting the ink droplet so as to impinging the ink droplet on the ink receiving member, and a collecting means for collecting ink from the ink receiving member and supplying the collected ink to the ink tank.

Inkjet recording device that reuses refresh ink


A diaphragm valve for compressed or liquefied gases, comprising a valve body which forms an inlet which can be associated with a pressurized gas cylinder and forms a gas outlet port. A closure port is provided between the inlet and the outlet port, and a gasket acts on the closure port and is supported by a flow control element, which engages the internal face of a diaphragm, on the outer face whereof there acts a pusher piston, which can be actuated by means of an external knob. Between the diaphragm and the pusher piston, at least one metallic disk being arranged which is not retained at its edges.

As is known, a problem which is currently strongly felt in the production of diaphragm valves for compressed or liquefied gases relates to the wear of the diaphragm that occurs after a certain number of actuations.
These valves, generally speaking, have a valve body which can be associated with a cylinder of pressurized gas and defines a gas outlet port. A closure port is formed internally, and the gas that arrives from the cylinder passes through it; a gasket acts on said closure port and is supported by a flow control element, which engages in an upward region a diaphragm which in practice closes hermetically the region where the closure port is located.
A pusher piston acts on the diaphragm and can be actuated externally by means of a knob or the like, so as to achieve the translational motion of the flow control element in order to open and close the valve.
The action of the pusher piston on the diaphragm inevitably produces folds and wrinkles arising from the variation of the shape assumed by the diaphragm in the various steps of actuation, and therefore leaks can occur over time.
In order to try to solve the problem, U.S. Pat. No. 4,760,990 discloses a solution in which a plastic washer is provided which, by moving together with the pusher piston, allows to compensate for the major discontinuities but not to eliminate them completely.
Another problem further arises from the fact that rotation of the pusher piston actuation rod inevitably causes rotation of the pusher piston and therefore introduces friction and wear, which are very dangerous for the integrity of the diaphragm.

Diaphragm valve for compressed or liquefied gases


A method for forming a plastic composite bowling pin includes removing the surface skin of a foam core, mounting a plastic base ring on such core, and molding a relatively thick elastomer shell around the prepared core and the base ring so that the hardening of the shell interlocks the shell, core and base ring. A pin made by this method is easily refurbished by removing the base ring and part of the shell and re-molding the surface of the shell.

1. Field of the Invention:
This invention relates to bowling pins formed of plastic.
2. Description of Related Art:
Short supply of suitable woods make important the development of plastic bowling pins, whose performance in competition must be equivalent to approved wood pins.
Experimental bowling pins have been made with plastic shells over wood or foam cores. Such pins have experienced serious problems of separation of the shell from the core. There have been some attempts, as in U.S. Pat. No. 3,971,837 to Hasegawa, to solve this problem by forming grooves in the exterior surface of the core, and casting the plastic shell thereabout to fill and hold to the grooves.
Plastic base rings have been customarily used on wood pins to avoid excessive sliding on the lane. Hasegawa used three pre-formed plastic base rings on a composite pin, but Hasegawa does not teach any method to prevent the separation of the ring from the composite pin.
Wood pins have an added disadvantage in that once a pin is damaged it cannot be refurbished for use. A composite pin which can be refurbished is highly desirable.

Bowling pin with interlocking shell to form core and base


A variety of cutout surfaces are formed on trunnions by cutting out parts of a spherical surface of each of the trunnions, to which no torque is applied. The cutout surfaces comprise a pair of opposite flat surface sections, bores, recesses or wide flat surfaces, and curved surface sections, for example.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a constant velocity universal joint for connecting a first shaft as one transmission shaft and a second shaft as the other transmission shaft, for example, in a driving force-transmitting section of an automobile.
2. Description of the Related Art
Constant velocity universal joints are commonly used in motor vehicle applications. The constant velocity universal joint is disposed in a driving force-transmitting section of an automobile for connecting a first shaft as one transmission shaft and a second shaft as the other transmission shaft so that a rotary force is transmitted to respective axles.
The present applicant has proposed a constant velocity universal joint and an assembling method thereof in U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 09/456,488 and 09/984,898, now U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,454,655 and 6,497,621, respectively. According to the constant velocity universal joint, induced thrust performance and durability are improved by reducing slide resistance generated when one transmission shaft is tilted and a trunnion is displaced along a guide track. The present invention has been made in relation to this proposal.
A general object of the present invention is to provide a constant velocity universal joint which makes it possible to easily assemble a trunnion and an annular member. The trunnion has a spherical surface along the circumferential direction thereof. The spherical surface is partially cut out into a variety of shapes. The annular member has a spherical recess having an inner circumferential surface corresponding to the spherical surface.
A principal object of the present invention is to provide a constant velocity universal joint which makes it possible to assemble a trunnion and an annular member regardless of orientation of assembling components.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a constant velocity universal joint having improved lubrication performance on a sliding plane between a spherical surface of a trunnion and a spherical recess of an annular member.
The above and other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which a preferred embodiment of the present invention is shown by way of illustrative example.


A thin film transistor array substrate applied to a liquid crystal display device is provided with at least two storage capacitance lines electrically connected with each other. These electrically connected storage capacitance lines, which belong to two adjacent pixels at two sides of a scanning line, are connected with contact holes and conductive layer, and may eliminate the lateral crosstalk of the liquid crystal display device.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a thin film transistor array substrate, and more especially, to a thin film transistor array substrate for a liquid crystal display device.
2. Background of the Related Art
Presently, the displays of portable communication terminals and personal computers are composed principally of liquid crystal panels. For displays of the next generation as alternatives to the liquid crystal panels, organic electroluminescence panels and inorganic electroluminescence panels have been a focus of recent attention. Such displays are provided with pixels disposed in a matrix, and are driven chiefly by two types of driving systems, such as an active matrix driving system or a passive matrix driving system.
An important issue concerning the displays is the occurrence of horizontal or vertical crosstalk. A crosstalk phenomenon refers to one in which a fixed pattern such as a window is displayed with brightness variations in areas horizontally adjoining the pattern. The brightness variations are considered to result from voltage drops on electrode lines, the voltage drops occurring from high currents flowing through the lines. For example, lateral crosstalk usually occurs on a liquid crystal display panel which is with brightness at the pattern of in the order of light and dark line background and black window and may be derived from the voltage drops of common electrodes. Thus, how to reduce crosstalk for enhancing grade of display panel is one of important issues for liquid crystal display device.

Thin film transistor array substrate and liquid crystal display devices