A system and method for the identification, analysis, attribution, and graphical display pertaining to the effectiveness of public relations is described. The methodology is based on a massively quantitative approach suitable for numerical processing. This method provides a computer-based means of consolidating both internal and external data and producing a graphical representation of the quantitative results to attribute individual contributions of separate data sources.

The invention pertains to the attribution to and effectiveness of single known data points and their effect on other single, but unknown data points, in a massive secondary, tertiary or higher linked system. One example of this is the attribution to and effectiveness of public relations or other marketing events on revenue. It is commonly accepted that public reputation and consumer awareness are key drivers of corporate revenue and brand value. However, the effects of particular public relation or marketing events on the reputation or public awareness of a firm or product is difficult to attribute quantitatively.
Traditionally, public relations and marketing professionals analyze paper or electronic sources to determine what effect, if any, their efforts to drive company reputation and consumer awareness through the media can have any measurable effect. And any subsequent measured effects deduced have been limited to a narrow set of metrics such as share-of-voice, number of impressions, etc. No further conclusions have been made to quantitatively link these already limited set of metrics and its effect on sales or revenue—the ultimate measure of corporate health.
Whereas earlier ages were hampered by the lack of paper sources, current analysts may be overwhelmed by the amount of data that are electronically available through search engines or third-party aggregated press databases. This information overload has made it harder, rather than easier to determine the cause and effect of public relations and marketing efforts and the effect of reputation and consumer awareness campaigns have in driving corporate revenue. Further, current methods of measuring PR and marketing performance have been limited to efficiencies on a per-impression acquisition or per-campaign basis. For example, cost per impression or cost per click through various media channels. A company with a far larger market share (or indeed PR and advertising budget) will naturally have wider media exposure than a smaller competitor, yet this in itself does not quantitatively indicate how effectively the available resources to impart consumer awareness in the media are being utilized as contributor to corporate revenue. There is a need, fulfilled by this invention, to resolve this massive data dump into coherent, graphical results.


In a method of controlling different lighting functions in a vehicle, activation of another one of the lighting functions is dependent on an actual speed of the vehicle, when manually switching from a currently activated one of the lighting functions to the other one of the lighting functions. In particular, when a low beam is automatically activated and a predefined speed is exceeded, activation of a parking light is barred while the low beam remains activated.

The present invention relates to the field of controlling lighting functions in a vehicle.
The following discussion of related art is provided to assist the reader in understanding the advantages of the invention, and is not to be construed as an admission that this related art is prior art to this invention.
Modern vehicles have driver assist systems to alert the driver when, e.g., the driver has not buckled up or when the fuel tank is on reserve. More sophisticated systems can warn the driver about a danger condition near the vehicle and can involve an acoustic signal or a warning light in the event of, e.g., a pedestrian walking in a dark street.
To date, driver assist systems are developed to further provide comfortable driving conditions for the driver. For example, there are systems which recognize not only that the surroundings are dark but also that the vehicle negotiates a curve at a certain speed so that the light cone of the light is adjusted by the driver assist system, i.e. the light cone on the left side of the vehicle is for example enlarged to better illuminate the curb. This requires however that the driver has switched on the low beam, for example when the driver selects the function "Auto", which means that the low beam is switched on or off depending on the ambient environmental conditions. This may be realized using e.g. a rotary light switch having a rotary knob to alternate between the various modes.
FIG. 1 shows an exemplary rotary light switch having various lighting functions. Reference numeral 1 indicates "Light Off", reference numeral 2 indicates "Auto", reference numeral 3 indicates "Parking Light", reference numeral 4 indicates "Low Beam", and reference numerals 5 or 6 indicate in combination with low beam 4 the mode "Low Beam +Fog lamp". Such a rotary light switch may be integrated in a module 7, as shown by way of example in FIG. 1 or may be attached to the steering wheel. Operation of such a rotary light switch in a conventional manner is problematic in certain circumstances. For example, when the setting "Auto" is selected and the low beam is activated, there may be circumstances that require the driver during travel at night or because of other conditions to switch on the fog lamps. For that purpose, the rotary light switch has to be switched from the position "Auto" to the position "low beam +fog lamp", i.e. the driver has to turn the rotary light switch from the position 2 "Auto" past the position 3 "Parking Light" to the position 4 "low beam". The rotary knob 9 of the rotary light switch is then pulled out and moved to either the position 5 or 6. The arrangement or sequence of the lighting functions as shown in FIG. 1 is required by law so that activation of the low beam is always preceded by activation of the parking light. As a result, a switching from "Auto" to "Low Beam" or "Low Beam +Fog lamp" involves also activation of the parking light so that for a certain time period the bright low beam is replaced by a substantially darker parking light. Regardless how brief this time period is, this situation involves risk.
It would therefore be desirable and advantageous to address this problem and to obviate other prior art shortcomings.

Operating device and method of implementing lighting functions


Provided are a color conversion film that maintains sufficient converted light intensity over a long period of time without increasing its thickness and a multicolor light-emitting organic EL device that includes the color conversion film. The color conversion film contains a conjugated high molecular weight copolymer having a structure of formula (1) that has alternating fluorene group-containing repeating units and arylenevinylene repeating units, and has phenylene groups inserted as spacers on both ends of the fluorene groups

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a color conversion film in the form of a solid-state, thin film that has fluorescence or phosphorescence, that can be processed by a coating process, and that is formed using a conjugated high molecular weight copolymer having high color conversion efficiency. Moreover, the present invention relates to a multicolor light-emitting organic EL device that is formed to include the color conversion film.
2. Background of the Related Art
Considerable research has been conducted on practical application of organic EL elements in recent years. Organic EL elements are expected to realize high photoluminescent brightness and photoluminescent efficiency since they are capable of realizing high current density at low voltages. Particularly high expectations are being placed on practical application of high-definition organic multicolor EL displays capable of multicolor or full-color display. An example of a method for realizing multicolor or full-color organic EL displays consists of using a plurality of types of color filters that allow transmission of light of a specific wavelength regime (color filter method). In the case of applying the color filter method, the organic EL element used is required to emit so-called "white light" comprising a proper balance of light of the three primary colors (red (R), green (G) and blue (B)) as multicolor light.
A method for obtaining multicolor light-emitting organic EL element is proposed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2000-243563 (Patent Document 1) in which a light-emitting layer containing a plurality of luminescent pigments is used to simultaneously excite the plurality of luminescent pigments. In addition, U.S. Pat. No. 5,683,823 (Patent Document 2) proposes a method for causing energy transfer to a guest material and light emission simultaneous to causing excitation and emission of light from a host light-emitting material by using a light-emitting layer that contains a host light-emitting material and a guest light-emitting material.
However, the above-mentioned multicolor light-emitting organic EL elements depend on either simultaneous excitation of a plurality of types of light-emitting materials or energy transfer between a plurality of types of light-emitting materials. In such devices, the balance of emission intensity between the light-emitting materials has been reported to change as drive time elapses or accompanying changes in applied current, thereby resulting in the risk of a change in the resulting color hue.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2002-75643 (Patent Document 3) and Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2003-217859 (Patent Document 4) propose a color conversion method that uses a monochromatic light-emitting organic EL element and a color conversion film as another method for obtaining a multicolor light-emitting organic EL element. The color conversion film is a layer containing one or a plurality of color conversion substances that absorb light of a short wavelength and convert it to light of a long wavelength.
However, when a color conversion film is formed with a single color conversion substance, a phenomenon referred to as concentration quenching occurs. Concentration quenching refers to dissipation (quenching) of light without being emitted while energy absorbed by a color conversion substance repeatedly moves between molecules. In order to suppress this phenomenon, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2000-230172 (Patent Document 5) proposes a medium dispersion type of color conversion film that lowers the concentration of a color conversion substance in a color conversion film by dissolving or dispersing the color conversion substance in some type of medium. This medium dispersion type of color conversion film is able to inhibit contact between color conversion substances accompanying a decrease in concentration of the color conversion substance.
In this case, if the concentration of the color conversion substance is lowered, the absorbance of light to be absorbed decreases, preventing the obtaining of sufficient converted light intensity. In response to this problem, the thickness of the color conversion film is increased to increase absorbance and maintain color conversion efficiency. In the case of using a thick color conversion film (having a film thickness of about 10 μm) in this manner, problems occur such as a large level difference, difficulty in achieving high definition and residual moisture or solvent in the film. The presence of a large level difference results in the occurrence of wire breakage in the electrode patterns at the locations of level differences in the case of attempting to form an organic EL element on the color conversion film. In addition, the presence of residual moisture or solvent in the color conversion film causes deterioration of the organic EL layer by the residual moisture or solvent when combined with an organic EL element, thereby resulting in display defects.
Moreover, in a medium dispersion type of color conversion film as described above, the color conversion substance frequently diffuses into the medium and gathers to form aggregates with the passage of time, thereby causing concentration quenching. Thus, the use of this type of color conversion film makes it difficult to maintain high color conversion efficiency over a long period of time.
Therefore, in order to realize a color conversion film that is capable of maintaining sufficient converted light intensity over a long period of time without increasing thickness, a material is desired that has suitable absorption and emission spectra, has high fluorescent quantum yield, and does not cause concentration quenching when thickness is reduced. In the past, few materials were found that were able to efficiently absorb ultraviolet light or blue light and convert it to green, light, and there are particularly few materials useful for multicolor light-emitting organic EL devices using a color conversion film that are capable of efficiently absorbing blue light and converting it to green light. Thus, there was a strong desire to find such a color conversion film or material for realizing a multicolor light-emitting organic EL device using that color conversion film.
Moreover, in order to produce such a color conversion film at low cost, it is desirable to use a wet process such as a coating process that uses a solution of a color conversion material after dissolving the color conversion material in a suitable solvent. However, the color conversion substance is required to be soluble in order to achieve this. Moreover, from the viewpoint of the process, it is desirable that viscosity be able to be easily adjusted to a viscosity that is suitable for the apparatus used. In order to achieve this object, it is desirable to use a color conversion substance composed of a polymer material that offers a wide selection range of applicable solvents and enables viscosity to be easily adjusted by changing the molecular weight thereof.
Conventional examples of color conversion films using a polymer material include a color conversion film containing a polymer material having a polyarylenevinylene group as a repeating unit thereof proposed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2000-26852 (Patent Document 6), and a color conversion film containing a polymer material having fluorene as a repeating unit thereof proposed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2006-169265 (Patent Document 7). In addition, as described in Appl. Phys. Lett., 61, 2793 (1992) (Non-Patent Document 1) and Nature, 365, 628 (1992) (Non-Patent Document 2), polyarylenevinylene derivatives have been widely researched as candidates for light-emitting materials of polymer EL elements due to their comparatively high fluorescent quantum yield and high solubility. Color conversion films using polymer materials are also required to have high fluorescent quantum yield. However, the fluorescent quantum yields of polyarylenevinylene derivatives in the form of thin films that have been reported thus far have been on the order of 10 to 40%, thus demonstrating values that are inadequate for use as color conversion films.
An object of the present invention is to provide a green light-emitting color conversion film capable of maintaining sufficient converted light intensity over a long period of time without increasing thickness, and being able to be produced by a low-cost, wet process. In addition, another object of the present invention is to provide a multicolor light-emitting organic EL device using the color conversion film that has superior viewing angle dependency and demonstrates stable emission properties over a long period of time without a change in hue with the passage of drive time or accompanying a change in applied current.

Color conversion film containing a conjugated high molecular weight copolymer and multicolor light-emitting organic EL device including the same


Among other things, one or more semiconductor arrangements and techniques for forming such semiconductor arrangements are provided herein. A semiconductor arrangement comprises a cap wafer, a microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) wafer, and a complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) wafer. The MEMS wafer comprises a thermal insulator air gap formed between a sensing layer and a membrane. An ambient pressure chamber is formed between the CMOS wafer and the membrane of the MEMS wafer. The ambient pressure chamber is configured as a second thermal insulator air gap. The thermal insulator air gap and the second thermal insulator air gap protect portions of the semiconductor arrangement, such as the MEMS wafer, from heat originating from the CMOS wafer, which can otherwise damage such portions of the semiconductor arrangement. In some embodiments, one or more buffer layers are formed over the cap wafer as stress buffers.

Complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) is a technology used in constructing integrated circuits, such as image sensors, data converters, communication modules, etc. Many integrated circuits or semiconductor arrangements thus comprise CMOS wafers or at least one or more portions of a wafer whereon CMOS technology is implemented. Heat from a CMOS wafer, such as from outgassing, can damage other portions of a semiconductor arrangement. A semiconductor arrangement can also be damaged from stress, such as printed circuit board stress. For example, stress-induced solder joint failure can occur from such stress.

Semiconductor arrangement with thermal insulation configuration

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited


A method of determining a path in an optical server network (31) comprises obtaining an indication of an amount of premium traffic from a client network (21). The method further comprises considering paths (48) utilising an elastic capability of one or more network elements (30) of the optical server network, and selecting a path from the considered paths, wherein the path is selected based at least partially on having at least a capacity to carry the amount of premium traffic.

Elastic optical networking (EON) provides for flexible bandwidth channels that match an allocated bandwidth with a traffic demand. For example, elastic optical networking provides for the changing of modulation format and/or symbol rate of a transmission. This allows the occupied bandwidth, which depends on the symbol rate, and reach of the transmission, to be changed. Elastic optical networking is described in Jinno et al "Spectrum-efficient and scalable elastic optical path network: architecture, benefits, and enabling technologies", IEEE Communications Magazine, November 2009.
The Elastic optical network may control a spectrum allocation using a flexible grid, as described in Proietti et al "Adaptive Spectrum Control and Management in Elastic Optical Networks", IEEE JSAC, January 2013.
Rate-tunable optical interfaces allow different optical line rates between working and protection paths, as described in Soso et al "Rate-Varying Optical Protection: Performance Analysis for Pre-planned Structured Data Traffic, proc. Fotonica (Milan, Italy) May 2013.
Elastic optical networking may provide for power saving, as described in Morea et al, "Datarate Adaptation for Night-Time Energy Savings in Core Networks" IEEE JLT March 2013. Elastic optical networking may provide for a reduction of, as described in Morea et al, "Efficiency gain from elastic optical networks", Proc. of ACP November, 2011.
The prior art does not provide for fully utilizing the advantages of elastic optical networks.

Method and apparatus for elastic optical networking


A shift lever assembly for a vehicle transmission can include an escutcheon body having a first guide rail and a second guide rail where the first and second guide rails are spaced apart from each other and are substantially parallel to each other. A slider body can be provided and can be movable with respect to the escutcheon body and include at least one spring member. The at least one spring member can include a contact structure, and a compression force can be applied via the contact structure to maintain the contact structure in compression with the guide rails.

1. Field
The presently disclosed subject matter relates to shift levers for vehicle transmissions and, more particularly, to a system and method for reducing or eliminating vibration and/or rattling in the shift lever assembly of a vehicle transmission.
2. Brief Description of the Related Art
In most vehicles, a transmission assembly is provided in the drive train between the engine and the driven wheels. A transmission assembly typically includes a plurality of gears which are selectively engaged to provide various speed reduction gear ratios between the input and the output of the transmission. A control member within the transmission is moved (automatically in an automatic transmission) through a plurality of gear ratio positions for selecting the desired speed reduction. As a result, acceleration and deceleration of the vehicle can be achieved in a smooth and efficient manner.
The control member that is located within the vehicle is typically configured as a gear shift or automatic shift lever type structure. An escutcheon body (also referred to as an ESCN body) can be provided to house or at least cover a portion of the gears, linkage, and/or other components of the gear shifter. A slider body is typically formed over the escutcheon body and includes the above-noted shift lever type structure which can be displaced by a driver to change the transmission settings. In one type of automatic transmission, the shift lever is coupled to a lower member which moves within the gear shifter. Thus, when the shift lever is displaced, the slider body moves over the escutcheon body and the lower member engages the transmission components so that the transmission settings are changed. An escutcheon cover may be formed over both the escutcheon body and the slider body to seal and/or cover the components of the transmission assembly.
The escutcheon body typically includes a guide rail on which a portion of the slider body rides when the shift lever is moved. There can be a small gap between the slider body and the escutcheon guide rail to prevent shift load increases due to friction and to generally allow the shift lever to slide freely into various positions.
When the vehicle is operated, the transmission and other components of the drive train of the vehicle vibrate to a certain extent. In addition, vibrations are generated by the vehicle engine itself during operation, and due to operation/actuation of the lever itself. The gap interface between the slider body and the escutcheon body sometimes creates additional rattling and/or squeak noises. These vibrations can possibly be sensed by the vehicle driver in some circumstances and are deemed undesirable noise. To reduce the amount of this undesirable noise, the driver compartment of the vehicle can be lined with acoustical insulating material. However, the vibration and/or rattling at the interface of the escutcheon body and the shift body may still be transmitted through the shift lever and into the driver compartment, thus defeating the acoustical insulation.
Thus, it would be desirable to provide a transmission assembly and shift lever system that is inexpensive in construction and which reduces and/or eliminates the rattling caused at the interface of the escutcheon body and the slider.


A color image forming apparatus provided with a developing device for developing an electrostatic latent image formed on a latent image bearing member. The developing device comprises a plurality of developing units and supporting members for supporting the developing units thereon, and an arrangement is such that any developing units can be installed detachably on any supporting members each other. Then, the developing units have a developer supplying mechanism for feeding a developer each, and a supplemental developer container can be connected to each developer supplying mechanism. Then, the supplemental developer container is connected to one developing unit, and the developing unit provided with the supplemental developer is installed on a predetermined supporting member. The remaining developing units free from the supplemental developer container are then installed on the remaining supporting members. Accordingly, by connecting the supplemental developer container to a developing unit of the color to be consumed relatively more than the others and installing such developing unit on a predetermined supporting member, the developer of a desired color can be contained highly satisfactorily without constructing the color image forming apparatus entirely in a large size.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a color image forming apparatus such as color electrophotographic copying apparatus, color printer or the like. More particularly, it is concerned with a color image forming apparatus including a developing device comprising a plurality of developing units, the developing units developing an electrostatic latent image formed on a latent image bearing member. In the invention, developing means of the color image forming apparatus is applicable not only to a full-color development but also to a two-color or multicolor development. However, a full-color copying apparatus will be exemplified in the following description.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The full-color copying apparatus normally has a developing device provided with developing units containing four kinds of developers, black, magenta, yellow and cyan each. However, documents are mostly printed in black, and hence the black developer is consumed considerably much as compared with those of other colors.
Meanwhile, each developing unit of the developing device is constructed to contain the developer equally in quantity, therefore the black developer must particularly be supplemented more frequently than those of the other colors, which is something that takes a great deal of time for operators to accomplish.
A prior art attempt to solve such disadvantages, features a color image forming apparatus having a developing device wherein a developing unit for containing a black developer is larger than those for containing other color developers. An arrangement of this sort is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 143070/87.
However, according to the prior art color image forming apparatus, users who use a developer of color other than black (e.g., magenta or yellow developer) more than the black developer will never be satisfied thereby.
On the other hand, if all the developing units are enlarged so as to each contain a large volume of developer, then the developing device gets large in size as a whole, and thus the color image forming apparatus becomes inevitably large.


Presently disclosed are a method and apparatus for predicting a failure in an electronic assembly by detecting an incremental change exhibited by a sacrificial sensor that is integrated into the electronic assembly and by monitoring environmental conditions that the electronic assembly is exposed to. A failure prediction is that made according to the detected incremental change exhibited by the sacrificial sensor and according to the monitored environmental conditions.

The term "prognostics" refers to a particular field of science wherein failure of an apparatus can be predicted by monitoring various operational parameters, including, but not limited to environmental conditions, related to the operation of that apparatus. We are all familiar with prognostics to one degree or another. For example, prognostics are commonly used in automobiles. By monitoring the pressure at which oil is circulated throughout the engine, an indicator can be developed which will identify when the oil pump in the car is on the verge of failing. As a user, we can appreciate that when the oil pressure falls below what we consider a normal level, there must be something wrong with the oil pump. A prudent user will then have the oil pump serviced by a technician. Of course, this is a very simplistic example of how prognostics are used to predict a failure.
A somewhat more sophisticated example of prognostics can be found on an airplane. Various sensors continuously record temperature and vibration, along with other factors, that a jet engine experiences during operation. It is not practical to require a pilot to make a maintenance decision, for example for a jet engine, based on a wide assortment of temperature, vibration and other factors. In an actual aircraft system, this information is monitored by a computer system. The computer system consults a failure prediction model in order to predict when the jet engine either requires maintenance or is on the verge of failure. There are two predominant forms of failure prediction models used to support prognostic analysis. One type of failure prediction model is a purely theoretical failure prediction model. A purely theoretical failure prediction model is developed by analyzing the various components included in an assembly and applying specialized knowledge with respect to how these components might fail when subjected to various environmental stress factors. Another form of failure prediction model is known as an empirical failure prediction model. An empirical failure prediction model is developed by subjecting a qualification version of an assembly to various environmental stress factors. As the qualification version of the assembly is subjected to these various environmental stress factors, stress factors are recorded and various actual failures that may occur are recorded and correlated with the amount of environmental stress factor to which the assembly has been subjected.
Yesterday, in a co-owned application, Palmer et al. described a method and apparatus for predicting failure through the use of a sacrificial sensor. Using the sacrificial sensor, the sensitivity of failure of an assembly is correlated with failures exhibited by a sacrificial sensor as an entire assembly is exposed to various environmental stress factors. The use of a sacrificial sensor is clearly a vast improvement when considering the field of prognostics as a whole. However, even the use of the sacrificial sensor has its drawbacks.
A sacrificial sensor is typically sensitive to varying degrees of exposure to an environmental stress factor. In order to improve a failure prediction based on changes exhibited by a sacrificial sensor, the sacrificial sensor must be capable detecting numerous discrete levels of exposure to a particular environmental stress factor. Again, this is an important advance in the field of prognostics. However, in order to achieve even higher levels of predictive fidelity, a sacrificial sensor may need to be sensitive to hundreds, if not thousands of distinct fragility levels.

Method and apparatus for failure prediction of an electronic assembly using life consumption and environmental monitoring


A magnetic recording medium high in storage stability and excellent in running properties and durability over a wide range of temperature and humidity, which comprises a non-magnetic support having a magnetic layer formed thereon, in which the magnetic recording layer contains a tertiary branched chain fatty acid ester represented by the following general formula ( I ): ##STR1## wherein each of R.sup.1, R.sup.2 and R.sup.3 independently represents a hydrocarbon group having 1 to 18 carbon atoms, and R.sup.4 represents a hydrogen group having 1 to 24 carbon atoms, provided the total number of carbon atoms in the ester is 12 to 40.

For magnetic recording media, demands toward high density recording have increased, and it has been known that the surfaces of magnetic layers can be smoothened as a means for attaining higher density recording capability.
However, when the surfaces of the magnetic layers are so smoothened, the coefficient of friction between the magnetic layer and contacted parts of the running system is increased. This results in damage to the magnetic layer of the magnetic recording media including even the separation of the magnetic layer in extreme cases after only a short period of time of usage thereof.
In order to cope with this problem of reduced running durability, lubricating agents such as fatty acids, fatty acids esters, hydrocarbons and silicone compounds have previously been used.
When the surfaces of the magnetic layers become very smooth, the amount of such lubricating agents existing on the surfaces of the magnetic layers is required to be strictly controlled. Namely, the excess lubricating agents directly lead to an increase in running friction. On the other hand, an insufficient amount of lubricating agents cause deterioration of durability. The lubricating agents have therefore been used in a manner optimizing the addition amount for each kind of lubricant thereof. In particular, the fatty acid esters improve fluid lubricating characteristics, and it is important to control the amount thereof on the surfaces of the magnetic layers.
Recently, with the popularization and expanded usage of flexible disk drive units for civilian use such as for video tape recorders (VTR), personal computers and word processors, environmental conditions under which magnetic recording media are used have been expanded. For example, there is an increased use of the media under conditions of low temperature and low humidity or under conditions of high temperature and high humidity. The magnetic recording media are nonetheless still required to be stable in running durability and storage stability, even under the severe environmental conditions under which they are expected to be used. However, the lubricating agents previously known in the art are not sufficient for such purposes.
For example, JP-A-58-218038 (the term "JP-A" as used herein means an "unexamined published Japanese patent application") and JP-A-63-261526 disclose the use of fatty acid esters as lubricating agents in coating type magnetic recording media comprising non-magnetic supports provided with magnetic layers mainly composed of ferromagnetic powders and binders. However, the fatty acid esters described in these Japanese patent applications are easily hydrolyzed under the severe environmental conditions of high temperature and high humidity which, as a result, introduces the problems that storage durability is deteriorated and that sufficient running durability can not be obtained. Further, a problem is encountered in that sufficient running durability cannot be obtained under the severe environmental conditions of low temperature and low humidity.
The above-described problems become even more serious in thin metal film type magnetic recording media having thin ferromagnetic metal layers. These thin ferromagnetic metal layers are formed by vapor deposition methods such as vacuum deposition, sputtering and ion plating, or plating methods such as electroplating and electroless plating, as magnetic layers, are free of binders, and are excellent in characteristics for high density recording.
The thin metal film type magnetic recording media are also put in a high-speed motion relative to magnetic heads in the course of recording, reproduction and erasing modes. In that case, the magnetic recording media have to run smoothly and stably. At the same time, wear or breakage due to the contact with the heads needs to be avoided. However, the thin metal film type magnetic recording media have smoother, thinner magnetic layers than the above-described coating type magnetic recording media, so that the problem of providing adequate running durability becomes more significant.
As described above, in common to both the coating type magnetic recording media and the thin metal film type magnetic recording media, it has been strongly desired to develop novel lubricating agents which are both higher in storage stability and more improved in running durability over a wide range of temperature and humidity conditions as compared to the conventional lubricating agents.

Magnetic recording medium comprising a magnetic layer having ferromagnetic powder, a specified binder and a lubricant composition which includes a specified tertiary branched chain fatty acid ester


A novel method is described for growing tall fescue sods on a solid base in large rolls. Whole culm straw is placed 1-2 inches deep over the solid base, typically plastic sheeting. Thirty to forty cubic yards of composted sewage sludge are then applied to the straw, filling the voids and interstices to produce a coherent matrix. This is seeded with tall fescue, then irrigated, fertilized, and mowed in a conventional manner. Unharvested wheat seed left in the straw germinates along with the tall fescue and forms a vigorous primary rooting system which rapidly effects a bona fide sod about one-half inch thick and aproximately one-half the weight of a conventional mineral sod. The synthetic sod is harvested in large rolls typically as much as five feet wide and comprising 20-50 square yards. These big rolls are laid at the installation site by the grading tractor, obviating the need for a fork lift, pallets, and laying crew as used in conventional sodding.

The concept of growing grass sod over a solid or impermeable base such as concrete or plastic sheeting goes back, as far as I know, to experiments conducted by the O. M. Scott Co. in Marysville, Ohio, starting in the summer of 1965. Bluegrass sod was grown over concrete on the front yard of the publisher of the local newspaper. It was grown successfully this way for several years, widely publicized, and used in O. M. Scott Co. advertising.
I started experimenting with and expanding the concept shortly thereafter at nearby Ohio Wesleyan University and demonstrated very shortly that it had several attractive features and advantages compared to the conventional system of growing sod on soil. First, and probably foremost, my research indicated that if grass seed was germinated in a suitable medium placed over a solid or impermeable base, typically 1-6 mil polyethylene sheeting or film, and given optimum growing conditions, the turfgrasses would begin to grow in such a manner that the primary rooting system of the grasses would quickly bind the growing medium into a sod. The sod, complete with the young rooting system, could be peeled or rolled intact and coherent after only a few weeks off the plastic sheeting or impermeable base. Various types of nettings could also be inserted into the growing medium which, as in conventional sodding, enhanced even further the speed with which the sod would be ready to harvest.
The quick formation of the sod was an obvious advantage over the conventional system of producing sod on soil in which 1-2 years or even more are required before the sod is knitted sufficiently to remain coherent when harvested with a sod cutter.
Conventional sod on soil requires the formation of rhizomes, tillers, secondary roots, and stolons, and the intertwining of these growth processes which take a relatively lengthy amount of time to bind the grasses and soil into a sod. The extensive primary rooting system is essentially lost in conventional sod production since it goes deep into the soil and is of little or no consequence in the binding of the sod.
On the other hand by germinating the seed over a solid base such as plastic sheeting the primary rooting of the seedlings is trapped, so to speak; and since the primary rooting is quite extensive (one rye seedling has been reputed to produce 17 miles of roots) it runs along the solid base through the growing medium and quickly binds it into a sod in a matter of a few weeks.
The feature of using the primary rooting system of grasses to speed the formation of sod seemed at the time useful and valid, and I incorporated the research into a patent disclosure (#012097) in July of 1972 followed a year later by a patent application (Ser. No. 371,462). During the time, however, that the patent was being reviewed it became apparent that the methods did not translate well into the large scale type production demanded by the U.S. sod industry. I could not make the transition from the greenhouse bench, laboratory, or small plot to a field scale production. I subsequently abandoned the patent application as being premature, but I did publish my observations in the trade magazine, Weeds, Trees, and Turf. The methods as they existed at that time were simply not cost effective in competition with the U.S. sod industry which by the 1970's had become large in scale, efficient, and highly mechanized.
Other workers in Great Britain such as Goodall, Dawson, and Loads, faced similar difficulties and also the disadvantage that they were not familiar with the U.S. sod industry. All of their processes failed the test of practicality and cost effectiveness. As a result none of these inventions became commercially significant in the U.S. because of inherent problems that at the time were difficult or even impossible to solve. The problems are discussed below:
First, and probably the main problem, has been the availability of an inexpensive, yet plentiful growing medium. Hundreds of things appear to work in a greenhouse or small plot until one considers the weight, cost availability, ease of handling, trucking, spreading, and the expense to bring the growing medium up to nutritional minimums.
Second, the amount of growing material required to cover an acre sheet of plastic one inch deep translates into 134 cubic yards or over 20 single axle dump truck loads per acre! Quantities of rooting material of this dimension, their handling and manipulation, are obviously too expensive to be competitive with the conventional sod on soil process.
Third, placing an exact amount of growing material (such as one-fourth inch as proposed by Loads) evenly over acres of plastic film proved very difficult. While it worked "indoors" under controlled conditions in a greenhouse flat, it could not be readily obtained on a field scale. Furthermore, one-fourth inch of material outdoors was an insufficient amount of rooting material under the best conditions. Even one inch of material was not successful: it could not be spread or maintained evenly. A slight thunderstorm of the type prevalent in the Midwest would sheet erode the growing medium, washing it off the plastic film or other base, causing gaps that prevented continuous rooting and hence sod formation.
Fourth, some provision had to be made to eliminate or at least reduce the effect of thunderstorms or heavy rains on the early stages of the sod development. Any upsetting of the thin patina of growing material over the base produced gaps and distortions that prevented continuous rooting and hence sod formation.
Fifth, another important consideration is damping-off disease. Since the primary rooting of the seeding will functionally knit the sod (rather than the secondary rooting, rhizomes, stolons, tillers of conventional sod), the seeding rate is increased which in turn increases the incidence of damping-off. This devastating disease is expensive, often impossible, to control with fungicides.
Sixth, the use of foams, of containers as proposed by Dawson, or of curbs as proposed by Loads, or of burlap as proposed by Goodall, or of rolling up the plastic film to transport the grass as in Blackburn were all too expensive to be considered. The process had no validity whatsoever unless the plastic film could be used over and over again.
And finally seventh, conventional sodding is very labor intensive. Significantly reducing the amount of hard labor involved has to be a prime attribute of any alternative sodding system.
These major problems, then, had to be solved before any alternative sodding system could literally get off the ground. Starting in the 1982 season several things began to make an alternative sodding system more feasible. In essence it became possible to solve the problems.
First, around the country the Beltsville system of composting sewage sludge has begun to catch on. Suddenly, at least in Central Ohio, there is a readily available source of growing materials which in large quantities is being offered at an attractive price. This "Comtil", as is it called in Columbus, Ohio, was quickly determined to support the growth of turfgrasses without amendment. It was not only charged naturally with the right nutrients for grass culture, but it was also established that it retarded the development of damping-off and other fungal diseases! Problems No. 1 and 5 above then were solved in one step.
Next I made the important discovery that wheat straw could be used not only to protect the solid base from truck and tractor traffic but also to keep the growing medium in place in a thunderstorm. Furthermore, in the right condition, I discovered that the straw actually substituted for additional growing media, that is conferred some unidentified biological property in the mix that encouraged the growth of turfgrasses. Thus, the straw made it possible to drastically reduce the amount of expensive growing medium required to effect a sod. In addition it eliminated the problem of having to spread the medium on a solid base with a uniform thickness that was impossible to obtain. These new uses for straw were the most important discoveries made and effectively solved Problems No. 2, 3, and 4.
Another recent important development in the turf industry has made an alternative sod more feasible: this is the introduction of turf-type tall or coarse fescues. These new turf cultivars have several advantages over bluegrass: They are more drought, insect, and disease resistant. They are more durable on playing fields, and they germinate and root more quickly, more vigorously than bluegrass. On the other hand the tall fescues do not produce rhizomes and stolons and hence do not lend themselves to conventional sod production. In practice these drawbacks are compensated for by growing the sod for a longer than usual period, by laying sod netting, and by adding bluegrass to the tall fescue seeding. The netting, however, is expensive and difficult to use, and the bluegrass in time is much more aggressive than the tall fescue. Eventually it takes over the turf with the new lawn becoming heterogeneous and the tall fescue scattering into unsightly clumps.
These apparent disadvantages to growing a tall fescue sod in a conventional manner turn out to be strengths when tall fescue is considered as the main ingredient of an alternative sod grown on a solid base. The vigorous and rapid primary rooting gives the tall fescue cultivars a distinct advantage over the less vigorous bluegrass.
The tall fescue cultivars have one more subtle but very important advantage over other turfgrasses which I will explain: In the past it has been impossible to find wheat straw that was totally free of unharvested wheat seed. In the production of an alternative bluegrass sod this wheat seed would germinate much more quickly than bluegrass, obscure it, and retard its development. As well, wheat seedlings are much more coarse than fine turf premium bluegrasses and do not readily mow out; and then the new sod quickly becomes ragged, unattractive, and in fact unsaleable.
When tall fescue turf is grown, however, the wheat seed germinates at about the same speed. Furthermore the width and coarseness of the wheat blades is more comparable to that of the tall fescue when mowed close, and hence the new turf looks more uniform. As well the wheat also has a vigorous primary rooting system which aids the rapid development of the sod. Initially at least the annual wheat withstands close mowing even to an inch or less and acts in fact as a beautiful nurse crop.
Another advantage to the tall fescue/wheat seeding is that it germinates quickly, in a matter of days, and hence lends to the new sod a more rapid resistance to thunderstorms than when bluegrass constitutes the primary seeding.
Technically speaking, it is important to my alternative system to start not just with wheat "straw" but in fact with the whole culm including the inflorescence. Even a rotary combine will leave enough mature caryopses in the spikelets to benefit the early formation of the alternative tall fescue sod. No longer objectionable, the unharvested wheat seed is now desirable.
In summary, then, the tall fescue/wheat seeding germinates much more quickly than bluegrass; its coarse texture is homogeneous and not unattractive; and coupled with quick germination is a very rapid, extensive primary root growth. I have discovered that this tall fescue/wheat primary root growth is so vigorous that nettings, gels, absorbents, or any supplemental bluegrass seed is obviated. Furthermore, the new sod can be produced in much less time, at considerable savings in weight, than conventional tall fescue sod on soil.
The whole culms are spread about two inches deep over the solid base and now only 30-40 cubic yards of growing material/acre are required. This is spread over the straw and seeded conventionally. The rooting material fills the voids and interstices of the straw making a coherent, thunderstorm resistant, germinating matrix.
I discovered that in a few weeks the initial two inches of straw will compress and decompose into a mat or sod approximately one-half inch thick. The binding quality of the straw plus the external primary rooting system of the grasses combine to make a bona fide sod of high quality.
Harvesting the alternative sod has a distinct advantage over conventional sodding techniques. The sod is rolled up off the plastic base with the primary rooting intact rather than being cut off the soil by a sod cutter. Since it is slightly lighter and more tightly bound, it is possible to produce the sod in rolls much larger than conventional sod harvested by a Ryan or Brouwer sod cutter--even as wide as a truck bed with each roll comprised of 20-50 square yards. The rolls are loaded directly; no pallet is required. At the laying site the rolls are unloaded and installed by the grader and the raker obviating both a fork lift and a laying crew. This is a significant reduction in labor.
The solid base alternative sodding system is now competitive.

Alternative method for producing tall fescue sod


An improved apparatus and method for self-service dispensing of purified water with enhanced efficiency and safety. Personal injury and property damage caused by inadvertent impact of the movable dispensing spout is prevented by use of an adjustable slip clutch connected to the spout drive motor. Additionally, intermittent delivery of small quantities of purified water i.e. "topping off", is achieved without a motorized pump through manual tapping of an accumulator tank of variable storage capacity, containing a pressurized internal bladder. When emptied, the accumulator tank activates a motorized pump to provide for refilling the tank.

A variety of devices have long been utilized to treat and dispense purified water. Such devices typically include a variety of filters, adsorption mediums and reverse osmosis membranes to remove organic and inorganic substances. Some also include ultraviolet light sources which are used to irradiate the treated water as another means of destroying microorganism that would contaminate the water. As purified water has become more widely used new apparatus and methods have been developed to purify and dispense it to a broader range of locations. One particular type of system allows municipal or approved potable well water to be purified and dispensed to grocery store customers and the like who fill a container at a stationary dispensing unit located on or about the store premises.
In some self service type dispensers, the dispenser spouts are often moveable up and down to accommodate a variety of container sizes having different heights that must fit beneath the spout. In the past it has been possible for the customer to be injured if they placed their fingers between the moving spout and the container mouth as the motor which drives the spout comes down to engage the container mouth to avoid spillage.
Customers will also often intermittently activate or adjust for low flow the control valve which controls the flow of water through the spout while "topping off" the fill of their container. This requires a constant cycling of the dispenser pump and requires the pump to cycle on and off while pumping water out of the spout at a low flow rate. Such dispensing usage has been known to cause undue wear and tear on the pump as it constantly starts up and shuts down. Dispenser inoperability may result if the pump fails and costly non-scheduled maintenance visits may result. This in turn will result in lost revenue and customer frustration until the normal maintenance intercession occurs.

Purified water dispensing apparatus and method


A packet transmission apparatus and method may divide data into a plurality of packets and transmit the packets. At a transmitting end, a context identifying number, identifying a data stream, is selected based on a relationship between a sequence number of a packet that is to be transmitted and a sequence number in an immediately preceding packet. A sequence number denoting an order of a packet divided on a per context basis is compressed, and transmission data assigned to the context identifying number with the compressed sequence number is transmitted on a per packet basis. At the receiving end, the compressed sequence number is decompressed on a per context basis. The context is separated based on the context identifying number, and data is combined by reassembling a packet into the order of a decompressed sequence number.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a packet transmitting/receiving apparatus and packet transmission method, and more particularly to a packet transmitting/receiving apparatus and packet transmission method that are suitable for use in wireless communication.
2. Description of the Related Art
Among the most common protocols (communication rules) presently used to transmit packets on the Internet are the RTP (Real-time Transport Protocol), UDP (User Data Protocol), and IP (Internet Protocol). In packet transmission, these protocols are commonly used in combination, and besides, these protocols have been standardized by the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force).
In each of the above protocols, information is appended as described below to transmission data for a header to form a packet. That is, by RTP, a sequence number (hereinafter "SN" when necessary), which denotes the data order, and a time stamp (hereinafter "TS" when necessary), which is the time information, are appended to data to form an RTP packet.
Next, by UDP, the port number of the receiving end is appended to an RTP packet to form a UDP packet. Furthermore, by IP, the Internet address (IP address) of the receiving end is appended to a UDP packet to form an IP packet, which then will be transmitted to the receiving end.
Of these headers appended thus by RTP, UDP, and IP, the TS and SN vary every time a packet is transmitted and therefore are dynamic information, whereas the rest of information is static information (STATIC information) that becomes invariant once transmission begins.
A header like this is given by each protocol, and so when several protocols are used in communication, the header portion becomes long and the packet transmission rate decreases. For this reason, there are header compression methods that compress the header and then transmit a packet to improve the packet transmission rate.
The compression method for each header appended by RTP, UDP, and IP is prescribed by the IETF in RFC (Request for Comments) 2508. The header compression methods prescribed in RFC2508 are principally for packet transmission over wired networks such as the Internet.
In contrast to this, one header compression method presently proposed by the IETF for wireless packet transmission such as used in a cellular phone network is the ROHC (RObust Header Compression). This header compression method, noting that the rate of error occurrence tends to be higher in a wireless network than in a wired network, features a high error resiliency for the errors that occur during transmission.
Also, because the band frequency that a wireless network can make use of is narrower than that of a wired network, ROHC sets a higher header compression ratio than the compression methods prescribed in RFC2508. Incidentally, the ROHC is standardized under RFC 3095.
In the ROHC, there are two types of headers as shown in FIG. 1A and FIG. 1B, each respectively refereed to as the uncompressed (IR) packet and compressed (SO) packet. The header of an IR packet shown in FIG. 1A contains the parameters that do not vary in the course of communication (IP addresses, port numbers, etc.: static information), parameters that do vary in the course of communication (SN, TN, etc.), and CRC (Cyclic Redundancy Examine) bits that examine as to whether the header, when decompressed on the receiving end, has been correctly decompressed.
These static information, TS, and SN are often transmitted at predetermined intervals. The compressed packet shown in FIG. 1B does not contain an IP address, port number, TS, or ΔTS (TS increase), but does contain a compressed sequence number (hereinafter "SN′" when necessary) and CRC bits. The SN′ is manifested with the lower several bits of the original 16-bit SN.
To be specific, ROHC compresses a header as follows. That is, an uncompressed header containing an IP address and a port number is transmitted not by every transmission unit, but at predetermined intervals. If a consistent pattern appears between the SN increase and TN increase, the SN alone will be transmitted, and the TS increase will be calculated from the SN increase on the receiving end.
With respect to the SN, furthermore, only several lower bits are transmitted in an SO packet, and only when a carry occurs will the complete bits of an SN be transmitted. In this case, the transmitting end compresses a header with reference to referential information called the context, whereas the receiving end decompresses the header by using the same context as the one used by the transmitting end. The referential information here refers to previously transmitted header information.
When an uncompressed packet or a compressed packet described herein is transmitted, a CID (Context Identifier) that identifies the type of data is appended to the top of a packet.
A packet is transmitted with a CID thus appended thereto, and the receiving end makes reference to this CID appended to the packet at the transmitting end and identifies the packets with the same CID to be the packets of the same media type, thus distinguishing packets by the media type, and transmit the data of a plurality of media types by using one channel.
For instance, when two media types of data are transmitted using one channel, the voice data and image data each have separate contexts and are appended a different CID on a per data stream basis and transmitted.
FIG. 2 is a drawing showing a sample CID. In FIG. 2, each RTP packet to be transmitted has separate context for each media type such as video and audio. In other words, the static information and dynamic information used upon sending data differ between the video data and the audio data.
Static information herein refers to the information that does not vary when certain data is sent, and specific examples are the transmission source IP address, destination IP address, transmission source port number, transmission destination port number, and so on. On the other hand, the dynamic information here refers to information that varies on a per packet basis when certain data is sent, and specific examples are the SNs in packets and so on.
FIG. 2 shows a case where the data of two different media types, video and audio, are transmitted from varying IP addresses to one same IP address. Here the transmission source IP address for the video data is "184.108.40.206," while the transmission source IP address for the audio data is "18.104.22.168." The transmission source IP addresses thus vary. However, the destination IP address is "18.104.22.168" for both video and audio data.
The transmission source port numbers vary, with "56" for the video data and "60" for the audio data. Also, the transmission destination port numbers vary, with "120" for the video data and "122" for the audio data.
The video data and the audio data are each divided into a plurality of packets and transmitted, and an SN is appended to each packet to denote the order of packets. Furthermore with respect to the SN, a different number is assigned per CID.
For instance, for the video data with a CID="2," SN="1," "2," "3," "4," . . . is applied, and for the audio data with a CID="5," SN="64," "65," "66," "67," . . . is applied.
A case where a fixed CID is appended to a packet will be described. FIG. 3A and FIG. 3B is a pattern diagram showing the configurations of a packet. FIG. 3 shows the content in each bit per packet byte in the horizontal direction, and packets on a per byte basis in the vertical direction.
Regardless of a compressed packet or an uncompressed packet, one-byte header that contains a CID is appended to the top of a packet. FIG. 3A is a sample configuration in which a 4-bit CID is contained in a one-byte header. In FIG. 3B, the lower bits in the one-byte header become the CID field that stores a CID. For example, when a CID is "5," "0101," which is a binary form of "5," is accommodated in the CID field. FIG. 3B shows a case of a packet with a CID="5." A packet is accommodated after the second byte. A packet to be accommodated may be either a compressed packet or an uncompressed packet.
Next, tile configuration of a compressed packet will be described. FIG. 4A, FIG. 4B, and FIG. 4C show the content in each bit per packet byte in the horizontal direction, and packets on a per byte basis in the vertical direction.
FIG. 4A is a pattern diagram showing a sample configuration of the UOR-0 packet. In FIG. 4A, a "0" is accommodated in the 0 bit of the 1st byte, an "SN" in the 1st through 4th bit, and a CRC in the 5th through 7th bit.
FIG. 4B is a pattern diagram showing a sample configuration of the UOR-2 packet. In FIG. 4B, "110" is accommodated in the 0 through 2nd bit of the 1st byte, a TS in the 3rd bit of the 1st byte through the 0 bit of the 2nd byte, an M in the 2nd bit of the 2nd byte, an SN in the 2nd through 7th bit of the 2nd byte, "0" in the 0 bit of the 3rd byte, and a CRC in the 1st through 7th bit of the 3rd byte.
FIG. 4C is a pattern diagram showing a sample configuration of an extended UOR-2 packet. In FIG. 4C, "110" is accommodated in the 0 through 2nd bit of the 1st byte, a TS in the 3rd bit of the 1st byte through the 0 bit of the 2nd byte, an M in the 2nd bit of the 2nd byte, an SN in the second through the 7th bit of the 2nd byte, "1" in the 0 bit of the 3rd byte, and a CRC in the 1st through the 7th bit of the 3rd byte.
As shown in FIG. 4, with compressed packets, the SN size varies on the basis of the packet format, and the field for an expressible SN also varies. So, in the packet format where an expressible SN is minimal, only an SN′, and not an SN, is transmitted.
Next, communication using compressed packets will be described. FIG. 5 is a sequence diagram showing the exchange in compressed-packet communication.
With reference to FIG. 5, the exchange between the compressing end that compresses and transmit packets and the decompressing end that receives and decompresses packets will be described.
When a packet with an SN=50 is transmitted first and a packet with an SN=51 is transmitted next, the latter packet is transmitted with an SN greater by 1 than the SN in an immediately preceding packet and can be compressed using UO-0 with the SN size of 4 bits.
Similarly, when a packet with an SN=51 is transmitted first and a packet with an SN=52 is transmitted next, the latter packet is transmitted with an SN greater by 1 than the SN in an immediately preceding packet and can be compressed using UO-0 with the SN size of 4 bits.
Next, when a packet with an SN=52 is transmitted first and a packet with an SN=3 is transmitted next, the latter packet is transmitted with an SN smaller by 49 than the SN in an immediately preceding packet, and the change in the SN can not be expressed using UO-0 with the SN size of 4 bits. So, extended UO-0 is used for compression and transmission.
Next, when a packet with an SN=3 is transmitted first and a packet with an SN=53 is transmitted next, the latter packet is transmitted with an SN greater by 50 than the SN in an immediately preceding packet, and the change in the SN can not be expressed using UO-0 with the SN size of 4 bits. So, extended UO-0 with the SN size of 4 bits is used for compression and transmission.
Thus the header size is reduced by selecting a header compression format capable of expressing a range of SN changes.
Here the SN ranges that UOR-0, UOR-2, and extended UOR-3 are capable of expressing will be described.
To compress a packet with an SN=v (V is an optional whole number), the ROHC prescribes that v be within the range of function f in equation (1).f(v_ref, k)=[v_ref−p, v_ref+(2k−1)−p]  (1)
V_ref here refers to the SN in an immediately preceding packet. When the SN is less than 4, p becomes 1, and when the SN is greater than 4, p is expressed as 2bits(SN)−1, with bits(SN) denoting the bit number that expresses the SN.
Thus with UO-0, an SN is expressed using 4 bits, and v needs to be within the range of equation (2).f(v_ref, 4)=[v_ref−1, v_ref+14]  (2)
With UO-2, an SN is expressed using 6 bits, and v needs to be within the range of equation (3).f(v_ref, 6)=[v_ref−1, v—ref+62]  (3)
With extended UO-2, an SN is expressed using 14 bits, and v needs to be within the range of equation (4).f(v_ref, 14)=[v_ref−511, v_ref+(214−1)−511]  (4)
However, with a conventional apparatus, when the order of packets varies and the SN value decreases, instead of increasing on a constant basis, or increases by a large value, transmission is performed using a packet format with a large range that an SN can express. As a result, data is transmitted in a packet format that requires a large field for an SN, and the compression efficiency decreases.

Packet transmitting/receiving apparatus and packet transmission method

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


Large scale instance recognition is provided that can take advantage of channel-wise pooling. A received query image is processed to extract a set of features that can be used to generate a set of region proposals. The proposed regions of image data are processed using a trained classifier to classify the regions as object or non-object regions. Extracted features for the object regions are processed using feature correlation against extracted features for a set of object images, each representing a classified object. Matching tensors generated from the comparison are processed using a spatial verification network to determine match scores for the various object images with respect to a specific object region. The match scores are used to determine which objects, or types of objects, are represented in the query image. Information or content associated with the matching objects can be provided as part of a response.

As computing technology continues to advance and an increasing amount of data is stored electronically, there is a corresponding increase in the demand to be able to locate data in ways that were not previously possible. For example, a user might submit an image that includes a representation of an object for which the user would like to obtain information. Various types of objects can be identified using computer vision techniques, but conventional techniques are limited by the data available for comparison or verification. While machine learning approaches can be used, these are still limited in large part by the training set used, as well as the set of data available for verification.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A stage control device including a position detection portion which detects a position deviation of a support plate relative to a reference position regulated by a convex portion provided in a stage, from an image of a scope including the support plate on which a sample is disposed and which is mounted on the stage; and a stage control portion that presses the stage, which is moved and controlled in a surface direction of the support plate so that the sample is in an imaging scope of an imaging element, from a position of a detection point in time in a direction corresponding to a position deviation at a pressing speed, and returns the stage up to a position of the detection point in time at a return speed slower than the pressing speed, when the position deviation of the support plate relative to the reference position is detected.

The present application relates to a stage control device, a stage control method and a microscope, and is suitable for being applied to, for example, a field of observing a biological sample.
The biological sample is maintained after a tissue slice or the like subjected to dyeing as necessary is processed to an examinable state and is fixed to a preparation slide. Generally, when a maintenance period is extended, visibility in the microscope relative to the biological sample deteriorates due to deterioration, discoloration or the like of the tissue slice. Furthermore, the biological sample is also diagnosed in facilities other than the hospital where the sample is created or the like, the sending and the receiving of the biological sample is generally performed by post and a fixed time is necessary.
In view of the circumstances and the like, a device is suggested which images and preserves the biological sample as image data (for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-222801).
In such a device, a biological sample image acquisition system is suggested which sequentially loads a plurality of preparation slides, which is stored in a cartridge provided outside the microscope, in the microscope and performs the imaging (for example, Japanese Patent Application No. 2009-244736).
In the biological sample image acquisition system, an arm automatically mounts the preparation slide of the imaging target from the cartridge on a stage of the microscope, and when the imaging is completed, the arm accommodates the preparation slide from the stage in the cartridge again.

Stage control device, stage control method and microscope


The present invention provides a transitional telescoping plenum apparatus that is intended to facilitate the interconnection of HVAC equipment to duct systems. The unit expands in length, width and height directions, and is composed of modular tier sections. Each modular tier includes at least four corner sections, with each corner section being interleaved with two adjacent corner sections to complete a single modular tier. Each modular tier includes a tier-connecting flange that communicates with a tier-connecting flange on another modular tier, such that the modular tiers can be interconnected to form a finished transitional telescoping plenum apparatus. Clips are also taught for connecting modular tiers to each other.

The present invention generally relates to a plenum apparatus for interconnecting heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) equipment or connecting HVAC equipment to ductwork. More particularly, the present invention relates to a transitional telescoping plenum apparatus that is able to expand in length, width and height dimensions to fit virtually any particular application that may be encountered in a given installation.
Over the past decade or so, many products have been developed to help contractors in time-savings efforts, and to provide them with quick-connect applications for installations of HVAC equipment. Products such as corrugated stainless steel tubing, electrical xe2x80x9cwhips,xe2x80x9d pre-charged refrigeration lines, and many other devices have been developed to help reduce instillation time on the job.
Sheet metal products have been the only types of products that have not followed in this push for labor savings. Although there are currently many types of pre-fabricated return airdrops and fixed size plenums, a general problem exists for wholesales in that they have to carry numerous sizes to accommodate the various equipment with which they are to be installed. This often translates into inventory problems for wholesalers and availability problems for contractors. Additionally, field technicians must cut and bend and fold, by hand, an incredible amount of variations to fit these pre-fabricated plenums to a given application.
The transitional telescoping plenum apparatus of the present invention addresses these problems by providing a xe2x80x9cone size fits allxe2x80x9d plenum apparatus for HVAC equipment installations.
In general, the present invention provides a transitional telescoping plenum apparatus having a first tier including at least first, second, third, and fourth corner sections interleaved to provide the first tier with an at least four-sided configuration that is adjustable in width and length dimensions, the first tier providing a mounting flange at a first edge thereof and a tier-connecting flange at a second edge thereof; and a second tier including at least first, second, third, and fourth corner sections interleaved to provide the second tier with an at least four-sided configuration complimentary to the at least four-sided configuration of the first tier and adjustable in width and length dimensions, the second tier providing a tier-connecting flange at a first edge thereof communicating with the tier-connecting flange of the first tier to connect the first and second tiers, wherein the height of the transitional telescoping plenum apparatus is adjustable according to the distance maintained between the tier-connecting flanges of the first tier and the second tier.
As will be show below, in other embodiments, three or more tiers are employed, with each additional tier providing a structure that is complimentary to the tier or tiers to which it is to be attached, so as to create a complete transitional telescoping plenum apparatus comprised of multiple modular tiers.

Transitional telescoping plenum apparatus


The invention provides pharmaceutical compositions comprising a dry medicament. The dry medicaments can be rapidly dissolved, solubilized, and/or reconstituted to deliver to a subject. The present invention provides methods of preparing a medical solution. The medical solution can be prepared from mixing the pharmaceutical composition as described herein with a first liquid.

Individuals who suffer from certain medical conditions are often required to keep an auto-injector or prefilled syringe nearby in order to address a medical need. A few examples of this are insulin pens for people with diabetes, epinephrine autoinjectors for those with food and insect stings allergies, and antidotes for soldiers at risk of exposure to chemical and/or biological toxins in the field.
Exposure to certain substances, such as, for example, peanuts, shellfish, bee venom, certain drugs, toxins, and the like, can cause allergic reactions in sensitive individuals. Such allergic reactions can lead to anaphylactic shock. This can cause a sharp drop in blood pressure, hives, and/or severe airway constriction and can be a life-threatening condition. The response of a sensitive individual to an allergen can either gradually or abruptly increase or decrease over time, making a large portion of those sensitive individuals needful of a solution to mitigate the effects of anaphylactic shock. Responding rapidly to mitigate the effects from such exposures can prevent injury and/or death. For example, in certain situations, an injection of epinephrine (i.e., adrenaline) can provide substantial and/or complete relief from the allergic reaction.
With regards to allergies, for example, an allergic reaction may occur in a location physically distant from the nearest hospital or medical facility. For example, bee stings are more likely to occur outside than indoors. Food containing peanuts are more likely to be supplied to the individual away from a controlled home environment like at a baseball park.
Because emergency medical facilities may not be available when an individual is suffering from an allergic reaction, some individuals carry a medicament delivery device, such as, for example, an auto-injector, to rapidly self-administer the epinephrine in response to an allergic reaction. Having an epinephrine auto-injector nearby enables emergency intervention after an exposure to an allergen to reduce and/or reverse the side-effects of life threatening anaphylaxis.
For patients that are required to carry epinephrine autoinjectors with them, the thermal stability profile of the medication can present an issue. Patients must care for their medications in a way that prevents them from being exposed to excessive heat or cold outside of controlled room temperature. Not doing so can degrade the medication rapidly and result in a drug that doesn't have the recommended potency to deal with the onsets of anaphylactic shock.

Method and compositions for dissolving or solubilizing therapeutic agents


Disclosed herein is a wear-resistance alloy consisting essentially of about 10 to 40 wt % of Zn, about 3 to 10 wt % of Al, about 0.1 to 4 wt % of Cr, and optionally not more than about 8 wt % of Mn and not more than about 2 wt % of Ni, with the balance, Cu.

The present invention relates to a wear-resistance copper alloy for a sliding member such as a bearing and a sliding plate and, more particularly, to a wear-resistance copper alloy which exhibits excellent friction and wear properties under low-speed and high-load conditions.
The following copper alloys have conventionally been proposed: a wear-resistance copper alloy having improved wear-resistance and mechanical strength so as to be usable under high-speed and high-load conditions, produced by adding not more than 1.0 wt % in total of at least one selected from the group consisting of Cr, Ti, V and Zr to an alloy containing 55 to 67 wt % of Cu, 1.0 to 6.0 wt % of Mn, 0.1 to 1.2 wt % of Si, 0.1 to 6 wt % of Al, 0.1 to 3.0 wt % of Pb and the balance Zn [Japanese Patent Publication No. 44-28789 (1969)]; a wear-resistance copper alloy having an improved wear-resistance at a high temperature, produced by adding not more than 10 wt % in total of at least one selected from the group consisting of Mn, Cr, Bi to an alloy containing 60 to 85 wt % of Cu, 6 to 13 wt % of Al, 3 to 20 wt % of Ni, 1 to 10 wt % of Co as the main ingredients [Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 49-66527 (1974)]; a copper alloy for a valve seat with excellent anti-seizing property and wear-resistance at a high temperature, comprising 25 to 40% of Zn, 1 to 8% of Al, 1 to 5% of Mg, 0.3 to 2% of Si, 0.8 to 3% of Cr, 0.3 to 1% of P, not more than 5% of impurity elements and the balance Cu [Japanese Patent Publication No. 50-7010 (1975)]; a wear-resistance aluminum bronze for a sliding member having excellent cohesive wear-resistance and anti-seizing property, characterized in that the amount of iron silicate dispersed in the Cu-Al alloy is not smaller than the eutectic composition in the quasibinary phase diagram of a Cu-Al phase and an iron silicate phase [Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 51-133127 (1976)]; and an age-hardening copper alloy for a bearing or a gear of a clock, which comprises 5 to 35% of Zn, 1 to 20% of Ni, more than 1 and not more than 8% of Al and the balance substantially Cu, wherein an intermetallic compound of Ni, and Al is mainly separated out by heat-treatment [Japanese Patent Publication No. 52-50724 (1977)].
As a copper alloy for a sliding member used under low-speed and high-load conditions, a high-strength brass alloy regulated by JIS H 5102, which comprises not less than 60.0 wt % of Cu, 2.5 to 5.0 wt % of Mn, 2.0 to 4.0 wt % of Fe, 5.0 to 7.5 wt % of Al, not more than 0.2 wt % of Sn and the balance Zn, and a brass alloy regulated by ASTM B22 C 86300, which comprises 60 to 66 wt % of Cu, 22 to 28 wt % of Zn, 5 to 7.5 wt % of Al, 2.5 to 5 wt % of Mn, 2 to 4 wt % of Fe, 1.0 wt % of Ni, not more than 0.2 wt % of Sn and not more than 0.2 wt % of Pb are known.
Such a copper alloy is used for a sliding member by supplying a lubricating oil such as grease and oil to the sliding surface, or burying a solid lubricant such as graphite and molybdenum disulfide in the sliding surface or covering the sliding surface therewith.
The sliding member made of such a high-strength brass alloy is provided with a sufficient mechanical strength as a sliding member but cannot be said to have sufficient friction and wear properties. Particularly, the wear-resistance is disadvantageously lowered when the sliding member is used for a long time.
As a result of investigation and experiments of each of the ingredients of a high-strength brass alloy as a sliding material with a view to solving the above-described problem, the present inventors have found that the amount of Fe added has a great influence on the wear-resistance.
That is, in the case where the amount of Fe added is small, the wear-resistance is improved, while a further increase in the amount of Fe added reduces the wear-resistance.
Reduction in the amount of Fe added, however, impairs a fine alloy structure and lowers the mechanical strength of the alloy, which makes it difficult to use the alloy for a sliding member.
As a result of studies undertaken by the present inventors so as to achieve an object of providing a copper alloy which is capable of improving the wear-resistance without impairing the mechanical strength of the sliding member of a conventional high-strength brass alloy, it has been found that a copper alloy obtained by adding Cr to a composition of a conventional high-strength brass alloy in place of Fe, exhibits an excellent wear-resistance, especially, under low-speed and high-load conditions without impairing the mechanical strength as a sliding member. The present invention has been achieved on the basis of this finding.


A microscopy device, particularly for use in an imaging fluorescence lifetime microscopy method is provided. The microscopy device comprises an illumination means for generating an illumination beam, an imaging detector for spatially resolved acquisition of an emission radiation emitted by an object to be examined, an illumination beam path between the illumination means and the object to be examined, and a detection beam path between the object to be examined and the detector. The illumination beam path comprises illumination optics which are designed to generate a light sheet of illumination radiation extending transverse to the axis of the illumination beam path, wherein the axis of the detection beam path is oriented substantially perpendicular to a section plane of the light sheet and of the object to be examined. The illumination means comprise a pulsed laser.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a microscopy device, in particular a microscopy device for the imaging acquisition of fluorescent light.
2. Description of Related Art
It is known in the field of microscopy to use fluorescent light when generating two-dimensional or three-dimensional images of an object to be examined, e.g., a biological sample. In so doing, the fluorescence intensity in particular can be detected. Further, it is possible to use the individual fluorescence lifetimes of fluorophores to generate contrasts. This latter procedure is known as FLIM (Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging Microscopy). The fluorescence lifetime of a fluorophore that can be deliberately introduced in an object to be examined or is a natural component of the object to be examined is largely dependent on the molecular environment of the fluorophore and, therefore, can be used to show the environmental parameters of a fluorophore within the framework of an imaging method. These environmental parameters can include, for example, the fluorophore concentration, pH, temperature, or viscosity. Further, the detection of fluorescent light can be used in analyzing energy transfer processes, e.g., by means of a FRET (Fluorescent Resonance Energy Transfer) mechanism so that it is possible, for example, to obtain information concerning the bonding or convolution characteristics of proteins.
Basically, there are two different known methods for imaging fluorescence lifetime microscopy. A first type of method works in the frequency domain. In this case, an excitation light source which is time-modulated at a frequency in the kilohertz range to the gigahertz range is used. The fluorescent light emitted by the object to be examined in response to the excitation light is acquired in a phase-sensitive manner so that, e.g., a mean fluorescence lifetime can be derived from the phase shift of the acquired fluorescent light. A second type of method works in the time domain. In this case, a pulsed laser with a pulse duration in the femtosecond range to the picosecond range is used to generate the excitation light, and the fluorescence decay curve is acquired at every image point. A time-correlated photon counting can be used in this case, for example.
Microscopy devices suitable for imaging fluorescence lifetime microscopy methods working in the frequency domain are known for raster scanning microscopy methods, i.e., having a single-channel detector, and for widefield microscopy methods, i.e., in conjunction with cameras. However, the problem with raster scanning methods generally is that they are relatively time-consuming with typical image recording times in the range of seconds. Widefield methods typically employ time window-controlled image intensifiers, known as gated image intensifiers, in which a multichannel plate (MCP) whose voltage can be modulated is arranged in front of a CCD (Charge Coupled Device) camera. In this way, time resolutions in the range of 100 ps can be achieved, which is sufficient for many applications. Typically, at least three image recordings are required to determine the phase shift. In multiexponential decay processes, the quantity of required image recordings increases further. This results in problems with respect to the time expended on measurements. Further, problems can arise with respect to possible bleaching processes in the fluorophores. Another problem occurring in the known methods working in the frequency domain is the impossibility of an efficient discrimination of the excitation light or autofluorescence light of the object to be examined with respect to the fluorescence radiation of interest. Signal components of excitation light or autofluorescence light in the detected emission radiation typically lead to a falsification of the determined mean fluorescence lifetime and should therefore be avoided as far as possible.
Microscopy devices for imaging fluorescence lifetime microscopy methods working in the time domain are based, for example, on the combination of confocal or multiphoton laser scanning microscopes and single photon counting and, in this case, can also afford the possibility of generating optical sections. In so doing, the arrival time of individual fluorescence photons relative to a pulse of the excitation light are measured by fast TDC (Time-to-Digital Converter) electronics. Light sources with pulse durations in the femtosecond range to the picosecond range are used for this purpose. The achievable time resolutions are in the range of a few picoseconds. Further, there are known microscopy devices for imaging fluorescence lifetime microscopy methods working in the time domain which use widefield detection and offer the possibility of generating optical sections. A microscopy device of this kind is described, for example, in "High speed optically sectioned fluorescence lifetime imaging permits study of life cell signaling events", D. M. Grant et al., Optics Express, Vol. 15, No. 24, 15656 (2007). The objects to be examined are excited focally and afocally in this case, although only the focal excitation is actually used, so that there is a problem with excessive bleaching of fluorophores.
Further, the use of SPIM (Selective Plane Illumination Microscopy) is known in connection with fluorescence microscopy methods. This technique is described, for example, in "Optical Sectioning Deep Inside Live Embryos by Selective Plane Illumination Microscopy", H. K. Stelzer et al., Science 305, 1007 (2004), in "Resolution enhancement in a light-sheet-based microscope (SPIM)", H. K. Stelzer, et al., Optics Letters, Vol. 31, No. 10, 1477 (2006), and in DE 102 57 423 A1, and WO 2004/0530558 A1
Similar to confocal laser scanning microscopy, SPIM allows the three-dimensional recording of objects in the form of optical sections, but in the framework of a widefield technique. In contrast to fluorescence microscopy using incident light or transmitted light, the fluorophores in the object to be examined are excited by laser light in the form of a light sheet in this case. The use of SPIM in imaging fluorescence lifetime measurements is described in "4D Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging Using Selective Plane Illumination Microscopy", K. Greger et al., Abstract Book, Focus on Microscopy (Jena, 2005), page 225. A CW (Continuous Wave) laser in the form of an Ar-Ion laser whose output radiation is modulated by a downstream acousto-optical modulator is used in this case.

Device for microscopy having selective illumination of a plane


A hybrid powertrain has an engine, a starter motor, and a gear train that connects the starter motor with the engine, and a motor/generator. A belt drive train connects the motor/generator with the engine. The powertrain has a first energy storage device with a first operating range of voltage and a second energy storage device with a second operating range of voltage at least partially in common with the first operating range of voltage. A controller places a switching device in an on-state so that the first energy storage device is connected with the second energy storage device or in an off-state in which the first energy storage device is disconnected from the second energy storage device. The controller causes the switching device to be in the off-state and the starter motor and the motor/generator to be powered with energy from the first energy storage device to restart the engine.

Hybrid electric vehicles offer reduced fuel consumption and emissions by utilizing both an electric motor/generator and an internal combustion engine and an onboard controller programmed to vary use of each of the engine and motor/generator during different driving conditions to achieve peak efficiency.
One type of hybrid electric vehicle is referred to as a belt-alternator-starter hybrid vehicle. This type of vehicle has a motor/generator operatively connected to an engine crankshaft by a belt and pulley system. The motor/generator is used to start the engine from a key start and may be recharged by the engine during regenerative braking "Key start" or "first start" refers to the engine being started for the first time after the engine has been completely shut off for an extended time. A key start is typically initiated by a vehicle operator inserting a key into the ignition and turning the key to a key-up or further to a key-crank position. This is in contrast to the "quick start" or "restart" which occurs after the engine has been temporarily shutdown by the electronic controller as driving conditions allow, such as when the vehicle is stopped at a stop light. This helps to reduce emissions and increase fuel economy. A high voltage battery (e.g., a 120 volt battery) is typically used to provide sufficient power to accomplish a restart and is also used during regenerative braking.
Most hybrid vehicles also employ a low voltage battery (e.g., a 12 volt battery) to run typical motor vehicle accessories, such as headlights, an audio system, the ECU and other electronic components. The low voltage battery may also be recharged by the high voltage battery (via an auxiliary power module ("APM"), also referred to as a DCDC converter, that converts power from the high to the low voltage) assuming the APM has been activated (which is only after the engine is running). As used herein, "activating" the APM means causing the APM to begin converting voltage from the high voltage level to a lower voltage level, or vice versa.
Different hybrid motor vehicles may utilize the high and low voltage battery systems differently in performing a key start of the hybrid motor vehicle. In one configuration of a hybrid motor vehicle, the high voltage battery is used to perform the key start and the low voltage battery is retained for powering vehicle accessories but is not utilized in the key start process. In another configuration, the low voltage battery is utilized in a key start by supplying power to a starter motor to start the engine, with the high voltage battery utilized for restarts but not for key starts. The low voltage battery also powers the motor vehicle accessories after the key start. In yet another hybrid vehicle configuration, the starter motor initially turns the engine to a first speed during the key start and the motor/generator is powered by the high voltage battery and is then employed in tandem with the starter motor to assist in turning the engine to a final start speed. In some configurations, the APM converts energy stored in the high voltage battery to the voltage level of the low voltage battery when the low voltage battery is used in a key start.

Hybrid powertrain with geared starter motor and belt alternator starter and method of restarting an engine


The sheet feeding apparatus includes a feeding roller that includes an arc-shaped friction portion and a notch portion, and causes the friction portion to feed the sheet; a feeding motor rotationally driving the feeding roller; a separation pad that presses the sheet fed by the friction portion on a surface other than a surface at the friction portion, and separates a double-fed sheet; and a feeding spring that causes the sheet supporting portion to wait below the feeding roller such that the sheet supported on the sheet supporting portion is not in contact with the friction portion until the friction portion reaches the separation pad, and, when the friction portion reaches the separation pad, moves up the sheet supporting portion to an abutting position at which the sheet supported on the sheet supporting portion is pressed against the friction portion and the friction portion feeds the sheet.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sheet feeding apparatus and an image forming apparatus including the same, and more specifically, to a sheet feeding apparatus that separates sheets one by one and feeds the sheets and an image forming apparatus including the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, an image forming apparatus includes a sheet feeding apparatus that separates sheets stacked on a sheet stacking plate one by one from the top of the stack and feeds the sheets to the image forming apparatus. The sheet feeding apparatus urges the sheet stacking plate, which is provided to be movable up and down, against a feeding roller by a coil spring to thereby contact the top surface of the stacked sheet with a feeding follower roller rotatably supported about the same axis as the feeding roller. Subsequently, the feeding roller rotates, thereby contacting the friction portion provided on the feeding roller with the sheet, which is fed while being separated one by one by a separation pad provided in a manner pressed against the friction portion. This technique is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H07-257765.
In recent years, demands for a thin sheet of paper (hereinafter referred to as a "thin sheet") containing small amount of pulp (low basic weight) has increased because of increase in awareness of the environment. However, the thin sheet has a low rigidity. Accordingly, there is a problem of easily causing a jam because of difficulty in feeding in a case of using the sheet in a conventional, compact, low-cost image forming apparatus.
Here, a jam of a thin sheet is described with reference to FIGS. 16A to 16C. As illustrated in FIG. 16A, in a conventional image forming apparatus, even if the sheet is subjected to double feeding according to a dragging phenomenon due to a frictional force between sheets in an immediately previous feeding step, the sheet is separated at a separation pad 19. Accordingly, a sheet S1 sometimes remains between the separation pad 19 and the feeding follower roller 18.
In this state, when a feeding roller 15 rotates in the direction of an arrow R1 and a sheet supporting portion 3 rotates in the direction of an arrow R2 by an urging force of a feeding spring 5 according to a feeding signal from a control part, the sheet S1 is sandwiched between a sheet stack T and the feeding follower roller 18 as illustrated in FIG. 16B. When the feeding roller 15 rotates from the state illustrated in FIG. 16B in the direction of arrow R1, the tip of a friction portion 15a of the feeding roller 15 abuts against the sheet S1 as illustrated in FIG. 16C.
At this time, as illustrated in FIG. 16D, the sheet S1 is subjected to a frictional force in the direction of an arrow F1 at an abutting position P1 where the sheet abuts on the tip of the friction portion 15a of the feeding roller 15, and the tip is subjected to a frictional force in the direction of an arrow F2 from the separation pad 19. Accordingly, if the rigidity of the sheet S1 is low, the frictional forces cause buckling of the sheet S1. With buckling of the sheet S1, the image forming apparatus easily causes a jam.
In particular, a compact and low-cost image forming apparatus (sheet feeding apparatus) easily causes the dragging phenomenon. Accordingly, with a thin sheet for which the demand is assumed to increase, there is a possibility that a jam due to buckling causes a problem more than the present state. On the other hand, it can be considered that the problem of a jam due to buckling is solved by providing a sheet separation device for preventing the dragging phenomenon of a sheet. However, the device requires a complicated mechanism. Accordingly, it is difficult to realize the device with an inexpensive configuration, and it is difficult to mounting the device on a compact and low-cost image forming apparatus.

Sheet feeding apparatus and image forming apparatus