A biological sample reaction vessel comprising a reagent storage portion and a push rod movable relative to the reagent storage portion is provided. The reagent storage portion comprises at least one reagent containing cavity, and the reagent containing cavity is sealed by a sealing element; and the push rod is connected to the sealing element, and the push rod is used for cooperation with an external test device to separate the sealing element from the reagent storage portion. In reaction, the biological sample reaction vessel cooperates with a test cassette. By inserting the biological sample reaction vessel into the external device, the reagent in the reagent storage portion can be released rapidly.

Medical in vitro diagnosis plays a quite important role in today's medical industry, by means of which changes of various biological indicators in body fluid can be qualitatively or quantitatively measured so as to provide advice on disease diagnosis or treatment indicators and the like, for example, the test of glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) in blood is essential for the diagnosis and control of diabetes.
The glycosylated hemoglobin is a binding product of hemoglobin and blood glucose in erythrocytes in human blood, and when the glucose concentration in the blood is high, the content of HbA1c formed by the human body is also relatively high. The average lifetime of the erythrocytes in the human body is 120 days, and before death of the cells, the content of HbA1c in the blood remains relatively constant, therefore the glycosylated hemoglobin test can usually reflect the blood glucose control condition of a patient in the past 8 to 12 weeks, and is not affected by occasional elevation or reduction of the blood glucose.
A variety of designs are also available in the prior art for testing the concentrations of analytes, for example:
As shown in FIG. 1, U.S. Pat. No. 1,562,237 discloses a reaction vessel. The reaction vessel includes a reaction channel and a liquid reagent storage portion, wherein a drying reagent is deployed on the reaction channel; the liquid reagent storage portion is used for storing a buffer solution or other liquid reagent; the liquid reagent storage portion includes a storage body 30′ which is sealed by a sealing element or a thin film 32′; and the thin film 32′ has a distal end 33′, from which the thin film can be directly torn to separate the thin film from the storage body so that the reagent in the storage body is released into the reaction channel.
To release the liquid reagent, it needs to separate the thin film 32′ manually which is originally sealed on the storage body 30′, and then remove the thin film. Although the thin film can be torn off in the above manner to release the liquid reagent, it is very difficult to tear off the thin film from the storage body 30′ through a segment of extended distal end 33′, and the thin film is likely to be broken or incompletely torn off in the case of manual tearing with an excessive or insufficient force, such that the liquid reagent cannot be completely released, and the liquid reagent is insufficient during the test, resulting in a deviation of a test result; and on the other hand, in a non-test period, the thin film 32′ is exposed to the air, thereby being prone to the risk of tear-off or damage by human or other factors.
As shown in FIG. 2, U.S. Pat. No. 5,272,093 discloses a "reagent container and delivery method thereof". The reagent container includes a reagent storage cavity 12′ and a sealing element 40′ sealed on the reagent storage cavity, wherein the sealing element is configured to be a folded arrangement of two layers, one layer being used for sealing the reagent storage cavity, the other layer extending to the outside of the reagent storage cavity to form an extension segment 42′, and the extension segment 42′ being used for tearing off the film and releasing the reagent in the reagent storage cavity. To release the liquid reagent, it needs to manually separate the sealing element 40′, which is originally sealed on the reagent storage cavity 12′, and the thin film is likely to be broken or incompletely torn off in the case of an excessive or insufficient force, such that the liquid reagent cannot be completely released, and the liquid reagent is insufficient during the test, resulting in a deviation of a test result.
As shown in FIG. 3, U.S. Pat. No. 8,846,380 discloses a "reaction vessel for testing glycated hemoglobin concentration". The reaction vessel includes a first area used for containing a blood sample of a kit, a second area used for containing a washing solution, a test area and a reagent bag, wherein a reagent and the washing solution in the reagent bag are separately stored and are sealed by an aluminum foil 120′. When the reagent bag is inserted into the reaction vessel, the aluminum foil is torn off by the reaction vessel, the reagent and the washing solution in the reagent bag are temporarily stored in a first reaction area and a second reaction area of the reaction vessel respectively, and sequentially react with the blood sample through rotation of the reaction vessel, thereby solving the storage and distribution problems of the reagent.
During testing with the reaction vessel, firstly, a release portion 130′ on the aluminum foil needs to be manually folded, so that the release portion 130′ is aligned with a holder in a test cassette, and the aligned reagent bag is inserted into the test cassette, so that the test cassette can cut off the release portion to separate the aluminum foil from the reagent bag. This design is relatively complex, the operation steps are troublesome, and moreover, manual alignment is required for the insertion, and failure of insertion into place is liable to occur which entails repeated insertion. On the other hand, the reaction vessel and the reagent bag are of a separate design, and due to the open design of the reaction vessel, in the case of improper operation, a foreign matter is very likely to drop into the reaction vessel, which affects the accuracy of the test result. Furthermore, in the non-test period, the release portion 130′ is exposed to the air, thereby being prone to the risk of tear-off or damage by human or other factor.
The reaction vessel in the prior art includes a sampling needle, a reagent storage device, a reaction portion, a test area and the like. In a test reaction of the reaction vessel, the reagent in the reagent storage device is released to the reaction portion to participate in the test reaction. During the process of releasing the reagent to the reaction portion, as the reaction vessel is relatively small and structurally compact, and the distance between the reagent storage device and the wallboard of the reaction vessel is relatively small, an adsorption force for the reagent liquid is likely to be generated between the wallboard and a reagent release opening of the reagent storage device, such that a part of the reagent is left in a gap between the reagent release opening and the wallboard. In addition, in order to enable the reagent to enter the reaction portion more smoothly, a flow directing tip is further designed at the position of the reagent release opening of the reagent storage device, so that the reagent is guided by the flow directing tip after being released from the reagent release opening and finally enters the reaction portion under the action of gravity. Although the flow directing tip can better achieve flow guide, the flow directing tip is prone to a liquid suspension phenomenon when the reagent is released, so that a part of the reaction reagent is left on the flow directing tip. Furthermore, as the distance between the flow directing tip and the wallboard is relatively small, there is also a part of the reagent absorbed between the flow directing tip and the wallboard. Due to the partial residue of the reaction reagent, the reaction is not sufficient enough, resulting in reduced accuracy of the test result.


A clock generation circuit on each circuit board of a computer system and which removes board-to-board system skew in clock signal distribution. A phase-locked loop is employed to maintain synchronization between the system reference clock signal distributed to each board and the outputs of the distribution gate array in the generation circuit on each board. A 2X frequency clock is provided by combining the clock signal with a delayed version of itself. A second order loop is employed to monitor the duty cycle of the 2X frequency clock and to adjust the duty cycle of the regular frequency clock to provide cycle-to-cycle symmetry for the 2X frequency clock.

In general, most computer system clock distribution is provided by a master oscillator signal driving a large fan out tree to create the required number of clocks to drive the entire system. However, the clock distributions for most systems require a very small time delay (skew) between the clock signal transitions at different chips on different circuit boards, as well as the ability to start and stop various groups of clocks. Multiple copies of the clock signals may be provided by a gate array on each board to "fan out" the copies of the clock. The process variations of the gate array will typically cause different arrays and therefore each circuit board to have different propagation delays, while maintaining a small variation of delay between similar paths in the same array. As a result, the clock cycle is lengthened to accommodate the expected variations in propagation delay.
The problems of clock skew errors accumulate, ultimately offsetting or limiting the improvement possible in a computer system. Techniques for clock frequency multiplication have been used which delay the master reference and XOR the delayed clock with the original. Unfortunately, the rise/fall time effects as well as previously mentioned variances of tolerances of the gate array cause the resulting signal to be nonsymmetric (i.e., each consecutive pairs of cycles not having the same period).
Moreover, computer systems frequently require clocking signals at frequency multiples of the reference or master clock signal, and the previously mentioned clock signal distribution problems are exacerbated at higher frequencies.

Apparatus for low skew system clock distribution and generation of 2X frequency clocks


The digital copying machine (11) obtains an image data by reading a document, applies a character recognition process on its URL, and transmits an HTML file transfer request to the Web server (20) corresponding to said URL. If it receives an HTML file from the Web server (20), it generates the image data of the Web page from said HTML file and outputs the image data; if it fails to receive an HTML file from the Web server (20), it outputs the document image data. It compares the document image data with the Web image data. It outputs the Web image data if the images match; it outputs an image specified by the user, if the images do not match. It applies a character recognition process on the printing date, and retrieves from the hard disk the HTML file related to said URL received later than said printing date. It generates an image data for the Web page identified by the detected HTML file and outputs it, if it succeeds in detecting said HTML; it receives a new HTML file from the Web server (20) of said URL, generates an image data, and outputs it, if it fails to detect said HTML file.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an image-processing device for recognizing characters of a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) obtained by reading a printout of a Web page and generating the image data of the Web page to be outputted by connecting to its Web server.
2. Description of Related Art
As the use of personal computers have becomes popular and the number of users of the Internet has increased in recent years, the chance of printing Web pages as well as the chance of copying Web page printouts have increased due to the fact that the information exchange by means of printed media is still very popular. Unfortunately, however, the image quality deterioration produced as a result of copying Web page printouts tends to be conspicuous due to the fact that Web pages are normally designed as color pages. Therefore, various image-processing devices have been proposed (JP-A-10-283313 and others) for obtaining printouts of Web pages based on the images with least quality deteriorations using various methods of reading the URL recorded on the document footer and elsewhere by character recognition, obtaining the HTML file by accessing the Web server identified by the URL, generating the image data of the Web page, and printing it out.
However, those proposals have a universal shortcoming that they fail to consider and consequently cannot cope with a situation where connection cannot be made with an intended Web server due to reasons such as URL recognition errors, relocation or deletion of Web pages, congestions or operation interruptions of Web servers, etc.
Moreover, even if the HTML file is obtained by accessing the Web server, these proposals may still end up producing Web page image data different from the document due to reasons such as updates of the Web page.
Moreover, the user may not always want a newly downloaded image from the intended Web page, but rather want the quickest way of outputting while maintaining the needed picture quality, or the best image quality while preferring the fastest outputting speed. Moreover, the user may wish to obtain high quality printouts by image downloading only in cases where fainting of thin lines and smearing of characters are expected to occur when the documents produced by the N-in-1 method, i.e., printing the reduced images of multiple Web pages into one page, are copied. Furthermore, the user may wish to obtain outputs in color by downloading from Web pages, if the output device is capable of color printing, while existing documents are available only in monochromatic, as they can only result in monochromatic copies. The abovementioned image processing devices cannot cope with those requests by the user as well.
The present invention is made to address the abovementioned problems of the prior art, and one objective of the invention to provide an image-processing device capable of outputting a document image data automatically when the image processing device, which normally generates and outputs Web page image data by reading a Web page printout, recognizing characters of its URL, and connecting to a Web server, fails to be connected with the Web server for a certain reason.
Another objective of the present invention is to provide an image-processing device capable of outputting an intended image data by specifying a proper image data when a Web page image read from a document is different from a generated Web page image.
Yet another objective of the present invention is to provide an image-processing device capable of outputting an intended image data by properly selecting it between a document image data and a downloaded Web page image data based on the user's requirement prioritizing either quality or speed.
another objective of the present invention is to provide an image-processing device capable of outputting a high quality Web page image without any smeared characters by using downloaded Web page image data only when the particular document is an N-in-1 document.
Yet another objective of the present invention is to provide an image-processing device capable of outputting in color even if a provided document is a monochromatic document by means of using a downloaded Web page image data only when the provided document is a monochromatic document and the output device is capable of outputting in color.

Data processing device, data processing method, and data processing program for recognizing characters in a URL


A high-temperature fiber-reinforced carbon-carbon composite material of essentially uniform density, is fabricated by the following sequence of steps:

The present invention relates to high-performance, high-temperature fiber-reinforced structural composites with carbon matrices.
Fiber-reinforced composites consist of two distinct components, fibers and matrix. Fibers, either continuous or in the form of short segments, are normally oriented in preferred directions in composites to utilize as much as possible the fiber""s great strength and stiffness properties. However, for low performance applications the fibers can be randomly placed to lower the cost of fabrication. Because fibers are heavily drawn and stretched during manufacture, they have properties superior to those of the same material in its undrawn and unstretched state; i.e., their bulk properties.
The matrix consists of material surrounding the fibers and has two purposes. The first is to fill the space between the fibers, which increases density and physically holds the reinforcing fibers in the preferred direction. The second is to transmit forces applied to the overall composite structure to individual fibers in such a manner as to distribute any applied forces, or loads, as nearly as possible to all fibers simultaneously. In this fashion, the high-performance fiber properties are retained by the composite since fibers bear more-or-less equal loads and hence do not break individually. This is accomplished with greatest success when all void spaces around fibers are filled in with matrix material. The void spaces are usually referred to as xe2x80x9cporosity.xe2x80x9d
For elevated temperature applications, high-temperature fiber-reinforced composites (HTFRC""s) are employed. These composites have excellent high-temperature strength retention, high strength-to-density ratio, and possess fracture toughness. In addition, the carbon-carbon (Cxe2x80x94C) composites have high specific modulus, good thermal conductivity and thermal shock resistance. High-performance HTFRC""s are used for structural applications in aerospace and rocket propulsion, such as, heat shields, leading edges and nozzles. To fabricate a high-performance HTFRC it is necessary to employ a high volume fraction (volume occupied by fibers/volume of composite) of the proper type and orientation of high performance reinforcement fibers that are held together in the composite by a high-density, high-quality matrix material.
Two categories of commercial processes have been developed to manufacture High-temperature Fiber-reinforced Composites (HTFRC) such as carbon matrix composites. These processes differ principally in the techniques used for the deposition of matrix materials around reinforcing fibers that have already been oriented and positioned into the locations they will occupy in finished products. One technique is vapor-phase in nature and is called xe2x80x9cinfiltration.xe2x80x9d The other is liquid-phase in nature, and is called xe2x80x9cimpregnation.xe2x80x9dBoth of these existing techniques share a common initial step. That is the formation of a xe2x80x9crigid-preformxe2x80x9d. This process can involve the holding of the fibers in the desired orientation and position in a mechanical frame and coating them with a suitable binder material, but usually involves the more simple steps of coating reinforcing fibers with a binder, which may be the same material as used to form the matrix, and then forming them into the desired shape by filament winding, hand lay-up, weaving, braiding, or some other means. This coated fiber preform is then heated to high-temperatures, with appropriate means taken to prevent loss of preform shape. The result of the heat treatment is the conversion of the binder to an inorganic cement. At this point any mechanical means of holding the fibers may be removed. The purpose of this cement, which can be produced from either a vapor or liquid hydrocarbon precursor, is to hold the reinforcing fibers in the shape desired for the final product. The ensemble of cemented fibers is called the rigidzed-preform, which is then subjected to subsequent processing. The task of heating the binder, or other materials used in HTFRC fabrication, to high temperatures to effect a change in chemical composition is usually referred to as xe2x80x9cpyrolysis.xe2x80x9d In most cases, this modification of the binder is from an organic to an inorganic substance. The cement formed by pyrolysis of the binder is very porous because of the relationship between pyrolysis efficiency and binder physical-property requirements. As mentioned previously, great care must be taken when handling high-performance fibers or the resulting damage will greatly diminish composite properties. This means that forces encountered by the reinforcing fibers during coating and positioning must be minimal. This can only occur if binder viscosity is low and care is taken in handling. Unfortunately, pyrolysis efficiency (the weight percent of binder remaining after pyrolysis) is usually found experimentally to increase only when binder viscosity is high. One solution to this dichotomy is the following current manufacturing methodology: keep rigid-preform performance potential high by utilizing low viscosity binders, and adjust for the resulting high initial porosity with subsequent processing. This subsequent processing to deposit material between the fibers in the preform is usually referred to as xe2x80x9cdensification,xe2x80x9d and is usually repeated many times.
As mentioned above, densification using existing technology takes one of two forms. The first is vapor-phase-based and involves placing the rigid-preform in an oven containing gases which decompose at high temperatures inside the preform to form carbon matrices. This process is referred to as chemical-vapor infiltration (CVI). The decomposition reaction is usually referred to as xe2x80x9ccrackingxe2x80x9d, since the splitting-apart of gas molecules is involved. However, it is also sometimes called pyrolysis, the same term used previously to describe similar thermal decomposition reactions occurring in solids and liquids. CVI has a number of problems associated with its use, the two most critical being pore closure at the surface leading to non-uniform densification, and poor matrix quality due to existence of multiple decomposition reaction-pathways leading simultaneously to multiple phases. Pore closure is detrimental because it denies access of infiltration gases to the preform interior. It occurs because cracking occurs more easily at solid surfaces. Thus, as gases attempt to enter rigid-preforms, decomposition takes place almost immediately on or near the hot exterior surfaces. This results in a density gradient through the sample, with a higher density matrix near the surface. This density gradient also limits the thickness of a high-performance part to less than 2xe2x80x3. The preferential deposition on or near the surface ultimately leads to the sealing off of the surface pore entrances in a relatively short period of time. Multiple phases are also harmful in most instances because they do not join together or consolidate well, making the matrix weak. These problems are both minimized to some extent by slowing down the CVI process. Also, partially-densified composites can be periodically removed from the CVI oven and have their surfaces machined away enough to reopen sealed pore entrances. This is, of course, very time consuming and adds expense. For carbon matrix composites, prior to or subsequent to machining, the partially-densified preform is heated to about 2400xc2x0 C. for long periods of time to convert the carbon matrix to a graphitic matrix. This process takes days to weeks and has associated high energy costs. The result of the steps described is processing times of many months, severe quality control problems, and associated high costs in both labor and energy.
The second densification process using existing commercial technology is liquid-phase-based. It involves impregnating rigid-preforms with liquid matrix-precursors and subsequently heating to high temperatures to initiate pyrolysis. It is in many ways similar to formation of rigid preform themselves, and suffers from the same drawbacks. Ease of impregnation and gentleness of handling are aided by lowered viscosity, but pyrolysis efficiency and matrix quality are enhanced by elevated viscosity. This is because the high viscosity matrix precursors produce a low porosity (high density) matrix which maximizes the physical integrity of the matrix thereby utilizing more and more of the reinforcing-fiber""s performance potential. Ideally, for maximum mechanical properties there should be zero matrix porosity.
However, because high viscosity liquid matrix-precursors do not easily enter and flow through pores in rigid-preforms, manufacturers of Cxe2x80x94C composites have enhanced entry and flow by immersing rigid-preforms in liquid matrix-precursor, heating the precursor to lower the viscosity, and applying pressure. This is necessary because these traditional liquid matrix precursors do not wet the perform as described below. This processing methodology does in fact help impregnation. However, it requires that heated pressure vessels be employed, which are very costly, and causes fiber breakage if pressures are changed too rapidly.
As with rigid-preform formation, the goal of attaining composite performance as high as possible presents a dilemma: use low-viscosity liquid matrix-precursors and obtain good impregnation, but poor pyrolysis efficiencies; or use high-viscosity liquid matrix precursors and obtain poor impregnation but high pyrolysis efficiencies. In either case, multiple liquid-densification steps will be needed because conversion of the matrix precursor normally results in a reduction of the matrix volume.
Because of the polymeric nature of these liquid matrix precursors, low viscosity can be achieved in the unadulterated state (i.e.; no solvents present) only by having the molecular weight low. This, in turn, reduces pyrolysis efficiency and affects matrix quality negatively, as explained earlier. Adding solvents to high-molecular-weight liquid matrix-precursors can certainly aid impregnation and result in improved matrix quality. But this approach actually increases the number of impregnation-plus-pyrolysis steps needed due to the high dilution ratios required to get acceptably low viscosities. Solvent rather than actual liquid matrix-precursor fills up most of the void space within preforms, and it must be removed prior to pyrolysis. This is a very time-consuming process. If solvent is not completely removed, any residual amount will turn into gas at temperatures far below those needed for pyrolysis. This results in either destruction of the preform (it literally explodes) or the expelling of high molecular-weight liquid matrix-precursor impregnated with the solvent.
In summary, manufacturers of carbon-carbon composites using a liquid phase precursor have therefore been faced with two choices. They can employ a low-viscosity liquid matrix-precursor and obtain good impregnation under pressure, filling most larger pores completely, but resulting in a small amount of low-quality matrix due to low molecular weight and poor pyrolysis efficiency. Alternatively they can utilize a high-viscosity liquid matrix-precursor forced in with higher pressure, which results in a small amount of better-quality matrix due to its higher molecular weight and good pyrolysis efficiency. However, on the down side, this high viscosity precursor does a poorer job of filling the porosity and will degrade composite properties resulting from the increased fiber breakage.
In addition, like CVI processes, current liquid phase processes seal off the surface pores and preferentially close off small pores, producing a billet with non-uniform density. In addition, these processes also require machining to open up the surface pore structure and graphitization to enhance the properties of carbon matrixes and open up internal pore structure. The result is again processing times of many months for high-matrix-density high-performance composites. It is the deficiencies of the long processing times, high costs, and non-uniform matrix density of such liquid-phase based processing which this invention addresses.
It should be noted that liquid binders used in rigid-preform formation and liquid matrix-precursors employed in densification can be, but usually are not, the same chemical substance. In Cxe2x80x94C composites, for example, the former is almost always phenolic in a solvent, while the latter is typically a refined petroleum or coal-tar pitch such as A240 or 15V. The fundamental chemical characteristic common to both liquid binders and liquid matrix-precursors used in all carbon matrix composites is that they are polymers. This fact explains why low-viscosity binders and precursors have low pyrolysis efficiencies and produce poor-quality matrices. In order to have low viscosity, polymers must possess a limited number of repeat units, otherwise entanglements between polymer chains occur during fluid flow limiting mass transport. During matrix formation by pyrolysis, the desired reaction is the loss of certain light constituents atoms, such as hydrogen, from polymer repeat units with no cleavage taking place between repeat units at all. However, in practice there is always unwanted but unavoidable side reactions in which there is the complete cleavage of individual repeat units off the ends of the polymer molecules thereby forming higher-molecular-weight gases. Since chain ends break off in cyclic fashion (i.e., one after another in rapid succession), pyrolysis yields are much lower in low-molecular-weight polymers than in high-molecular-weight polymers. High-molecular-weight polymers simply have far fewer chain ends to begin with, so there is much less end-breakage and associate gas evolution during pyrolysis. Gas evolution is detrimental because it pushes liquid matrix-precursor out of rigid-preforms before matrix formation by pyrolysis takes place and reduces the pyrolysis yield.
Moreover, high-molecular-weight polymers are better at aligning segments of their chain together than are low-molecular-weight polymers. The latter simply have too much mobility to stay aligned together for very long periods of time, especially at the high temperatures needed for pyrolysis to take place. They therefore tend to form poorly oriented or amorphous matrices. These typically have lower density and inferior physical properties. As stated before, the ideal liquid binder or liquid-matrix precursor should have high viscosity, at least from the viewpoint of pyrolysis efficiency and matrix quality. In light of the preceding observation, this would be due primarily to their having high molecular weights.
Two additional considerations, which are pertinent to understanding the negative aspects of existing liquid-densification techniques discussed above, are pressure impregnation, and wettability. Knowing that high viscosity liquid matrix-precursors do not easily enter and flow through pores in rigid-preforms, manufacturers of HTFRC""s have enhanced entry and flow by immersing rigid-preforms in a liquid matrix precursor and applying pressure. This does in fact help impregnation. However, it requires that heated pressure vessels be employed, which are very costly, and cause fiber breakage if pressures are changed too rapidly.
In contrast to industry thinking for the past 30 years, viscosity is not the dominant issue in impregnation. Rather, it is the lack of wettability that is principally responsible for the fact that pressure is needed to force precursors into the perform independent of their viscosity over certain ranges. That is, if a liquid wets a surface, it will tend to spread out on the surface and will automatically fill pores in the material. In contrast, if a liquid does not wet a surface, liquid droplets will sit on the surface and liquid will not spontaneously enter pores in the material. The pressure, P, needed to force a non-wetting fluid into a pore or capillary of radius, r, is given by the equation:
P=2xcex3 cos xcex8/r
where xcex3 is the surface tension of the fluid and xcex8 is the contact angle that the fluid makes with the surface. It can be seen from this equation that as the radius of the pore or void in the material decreases more pressure is required to force the non-wetting fluid into that pore. Thus, larger pores are filled first at lower pressure.
If pressure is employed, care must be taken not to break the fibers; consequently, pressure must be applied slowly. This will force the precursor into the larger pores in the perform preferentially and, depending upon the thermal treatment of the precursor while forcing the material in, smaller pores can be blocked and remain unfilled. In addition, as the precursor is converted to carbon, shrinkage occurs creating additional void space. In many cases, this void additional space is too small to be filled by the applied pressure and it therefore remains unfillable becoming closed porosity.
It is known from work in our laboratory that during fabrication of Cxe2x80x94C composites, for example, high-molecular-weight liquid matrix precursors do not wet fiber surfaces, whereas some low-viscosity low-molecular-weight liquid matrix-precursors at least partially wet fiber surfaces. In general, our work has shown that, for a particular series of pitches, the lower the molecular weight, the better liquid matrix precursors wet fiber surfaces, as measured by contact angle. However, it should be stated that low molecular weight and low viscosity do not guarantee wetting of the matrix material on a particular surface. Whenever liquid matrix-precursors possess good wetting properties impregnation is greatly aided because the precursors readily soak into rigid-preforms in much the same fashion as water soaks into cotton fabric.
In contrast, if the matrix precursor does not wet the fibers as in current processing technology, pressure will be needed to force the matrix precursor into the preform. This will produce an uneven distribution of matrix precursor in the preform. The result being a higher density near the surface than the center of the preform as well as the closure of surface pores. To try to compensate for these two shortcomings, i.e., inability to density the billet uniformly and the associated surface pore closures, manufacturers of carbon matrix composites, for example, machine the outside of the billet to open up the pore structure and then re-impregnate, carbonize, graphitize and machine up to eighteen times. This is an extremely time consuming, labor intensive and costly process that can take up to eighteen months for a large billet.
The commercial manufacture of carbon-carbon composites has taken place for more than 30 years and is a rather mature field. Both chemical vapor infiltration (CVI) and liquid phase impregnation techniques (or a combination of the two) have been used to place the carbon matrix in the rigidized preform.
During this time the goal has remained the same: to be able to produce a thick ( greater than 2xe2x80x3) billet with uniform density at low cost. This objective not been obtained to date commercially due principally to the matrix precursor employed. Conventional gas phase chemical vapor infiltration processes using hydrocarbon precursors are not able to uniformly densify a large-thick billet of complex shape because of the preferential deposition on the outer portion of the billet and the inability to control concentration and temperature gradients in the gas phase. In addition, this family of processes is very expensive due to the expensive equipment and the long processing times required. Attempts to solve the surface deposition problem have involved using a pressure gradient alone or in conjunction with a temperature gradient (hotter on side opposite gas entry) through the part to be densified In addition, a temperature gradient through the part utilizing a heater in the center in conjunction with surface cooling involving a liquids latent heat of vaporization has been employed. All three approaches have met with some success. However, these techniques are still very costly and limited to relatively small and thin parts with little shape complexity. However, it should be mentioned that the combination of forced flow and a reversed temperature gradient has increased the thickness that can be densified with reasonable uniformity to nearly two inches. Liquid-phase matrix precursors have included neat organic resins, particulate loaded resins, as well as all types of petroleum and coal tar pitch materials. The patent literature contains many processes that utilize various organic resins, coal tar pitches, petroleum pitch solvent-refined pitches, particulate loaded resins, and super-critically-refined pitches.
The ability to produce low cost composites with uniform density using liquid-phase carbon precursors has been hindered by the conflicting demands of high char yield and low viscosity. Processes using various organic resins as well as coal tar and petroleum pitch suffer from the fact that these materials have low char yield and high viscosity unless solvated. In addition, these materials do not meet the critical criteria of wetting the fiber preform surface. Processes that involve the use of solvent-refined pitches, super-critically-refined pitches, and mesophase liquid-crystal polymer have increased the char yield but have not addressed the wettability issue. Thus, they still require many costly processing cycles to produce a composite that is not uniform in density. The use of carbon particulate loaded resins again increases the char yield. However, these processes suffer from the same problems as non-loaded resins and in addition are not able to density a thick composite. In fact, they actually produce a lower quality composite because the particles block the pore structure on the first cycle and limit subsequent densification.
Currently, the matrix precursor material of choice is a mesophase liquid crystal polymer made from petroleum pitch using various proprietary temperature-pressure cycles. The use of mesophase pitch brings up one last factor which is pertinent to the understanding of the shortcomings of some existing liquid densification techniques for carbon matrix composites. This is the polymerization pathway used to form the matrix precursor. Since the high-char-yield mesophase pitch, for example, is too viscous to use for impregnation and does not wet the preform surface, the preform is impregnated with low-viscosity, low-char-yield isotropic pitch, which is able to wet the preform surface. This pitch is then converted to mesophase pitch inside the preform using various temperature-pressure cycles. The problem with this technique is that it involves a two-phase addition polymerization process since the mesophase is not miscible in the isotropic pitch from which it is made. Thus, when the size of the liquid crystal mesophase spheres formed in the isotropic pitch within the preform exceeds the size of the space they occupy, they are expelled and replaced with the isotropic pitch material which forms a lower quality matrix.
In contrast to current densitication processes, using isotropic petroleum pitch, with the present invention there is only a single phase present within the perform because mesophase is produced directly from the monomer without any phase change. That is, after the low-molecular-weight wetting monomer coats the preform and fills the voids, it is polymerized into a miscible high-molecular-weight polymer. Although, this high-molecular-weight condensation polymer does not wet the surface, it is not expelled if there is a single phase because it is highly viscous.
The historical evolution of carbon matrix precursors from as-received pitch materials to mesophase pitch, has developed to try to improve the quality of the matrix microstructure and to attempt to solve the problem of uniform through-the-thickness density in the finished billet. Over the years the matrix microstructure has been improved but no process to date has been able to uniformly densify a thick preform. This is because the universal criteria for efficient impregnation of the preform has been viscosity. No one has used the more important criteria of wettability in selecting the best matrix precursor. Thus, all the processes in the patent literature rely on temperature to lower the viscosity, and pressure or a combination of vacuum and pressure to force the non-wetting matrix precursor to into the rigidized preform. This is a very inefficient process that preferentially fills larger pores, seals off smaller pores, and densities the exterior of the preform at the expense of the interior. As a result of using a non-wetting matrix precursor or matrix material, many impregnation-carbonization-graphitization-machining-cycles are required to reach a density of 1.9 g/cc. This equals many months of processing at a cost that keeps the market for carbon-carbon small. To add insult to injury, even though the final product is very costly, it does not have uniform density through the billet. It is clear that there is a great need for a low-cost impregnation technology that produces a billet with uniform density and good mechanical properties.
Currently, cost is the main factor that limits the application of carbon-carbon in many areas. Approaches to lower cost have included using low cost fiber, low cost matrix material, adding particulate fillers to the matrix, using random orientation of fibers, as well as molding and hot-pressing techniques. However, in an attempt to lower cost, performance has been degraded to such an extent that it precludes the use of carbon-carbon composites made by these processes in many high-performance structural applications. What is needed is a means to significantly lower the cost of carbon-carbon composites while maintaining or enhancing the composite properties and performance. Since the main cost of carbon-carbon composite fabrication is associated with the densification process, there is a need for a low cost liquid phase densification technique.
Although this invention only addresses liquid phase impregnation, it should be stated that all gas phase infiltration techniques known to date suffer from the same drawbacks as just stated for liquid phase infiltration. That is, they are very time consuming, very costly and are not capable of producing a thick billet with uniform density through the thickness. In fact, CVI processes are even more inefficient than liquid phase processes in densifying the center of a billet. As a result, CVI processing is not normally used to attempt to densify thick preforms. Therefore, there is a more general need. That is, for a densification process that will produce carbon composites at low cost and with uniform density and excellent mechanical properties.
We have found that carbon-carbon composites can be fabricated in a manner that is not only economical, but overcomes most, if not all, the drawbacks of the techniques discussed hereinbefore. We have found that high-performance HTFRC""s can be fabricated by impregnating composite preforms with liquids, i.e., monomers, which wet the fibers and subsequently undergo polymerization and carbonization reactions in the perform to create carbon matrices. These preforms include, but are not limited to: externally mechanically constrained performs; performs rigidized with a binder; and performs internally constrained by weaving, braiding, flocking, or entanglement.
The use of a monomer that wets the preform and the partially-densified preform surface is a distinctive point of this invention. Although lower viscosity increases the rate of impregnation into the perform, it is not the key factor that it is in other processes. In the densification process of this invention viscosity does not determine whether or not the impregnant will go into the perform but only the rate at which it enters. Thus, the required viscosity of the wetting monomer is based on economic and schedule constraints rather than technical requirements. Once the monomer has been drawn inside the preform, another feature of this invention is the initiation of polymerization of the monomer molecules, which we refer to as xe2x80x9cIn Situ Densificationxe2x80x9d. After polymerization takes place, the resulting liquid matrix-precursor will acquire the high molecular weight needed to produce a superior matrix (upon pyrolysis) with high efficiency. The molecular weight of the polymer can also be controlled in this invention in order to tailor composite properties. Thus, this invention combines the low viscosity of the monomer and the high char yield of the polymer along with the wettability of the monomer to produce a high quality uniform matrix without the need for costly pressure vessels and long processing times with associated high costs.
In the wetting or nonwetting of solids by liquids, the criterion employed is the contact angle between the solid and the liquid, as measured through the liquid. A liquid is said to wet a solid if the contact angle is between 0 and 90xc2x0, and not to wet the solid if the contact angle lies between 90xc2x0 and 180xc2x0. A mundane example of the wetting/nonwetting phenomenon may be seen on a dirty/clean automobile during a rain shower: on a clean automobile the rain droplets bead on the surface, an example of nonwetting, while on a dirty automobile the rain droplets spread out, an example of wetting.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a high-temperature fiber-reinforced composite with essentially uniform density and an insignificant amount of closed porosity.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a carbon-carbon composite with high density, high strength, high modulus and high thermal conductivity without graphitization.
Yet another object of the present invention to provide a process for making a high-temperature fiber-reinforced composite with essentially uniform density and an insignificant amount of closed porosity.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a process for making a carbon-carbon composite with high density, high strength, high modulus and high thermal conductivity without graphitization.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and attained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.
In accordance with the present invention there is provided a process for manufacturing a high-temperature fiber-reinforced carbon composite material of essentially uniform density, which comprises the steps of:
(a) selecting a fiber/matrix material combination;
(b) providing a fiber preform of desired shape and fiber placement;
(c) selecting at least one low-viscosity pre-carbon monomer material that wets the surfaces of the fiber preform;
(d) impregnating the fiber preform with the monomer;
(e) polymerizing the monomer material in-situ in a single phase process into a pre-carbon polymer of desired molecular weight;
(f) pyrolyzing the pre-carbon polymer to form a carbon matrix material; and
(g) repeating steps (d)-(f) to further densify the preform.
The resulting composites consist of a high volume fraction of high-performance carbon reinforcement fibers that can have any number of dimensions (1-D, 2-D, 3-D, . . . n-D) of orientation that it is possible to construct by felting, weaving, braiding, lay-up, etc. In general, what constitutes a high-fiber-volume-fraction depends on the number dimensions of fiber reinforcement, but an average value for a high performance composite is 45%. These composite materials are unique in that they have a uniform density through the composite and the smallest voids are completely filled preferentially by capillary action and remain filled during processing. This means that in one densification cycle the voids within the fiber bundles or tows are completely filled with matrix tightly bonded to the fibers allowing highly efficient transfer of load between the fibers. The result of this complete fiber bundle filling is that after one densification cycle, even though the matrix pockets have not been completely filled, these composites can have the properties of multi-cycle heat-treated (graphitized) composites of similar density. Thus, it is not required (although this is optional) to go through the costly and time-consuming graphitization process in order to achieve desired properties.
As used herein, the term xe2x80x9chigh-densityxe2x80x9d means at least 80% of theoretical density.
It is also within the scope of this invention to use more than one monomer to densify the preform. These monomers can be introduced into the preform together during the same cycle in order to ultimately form a hybrid matrix material or they can be introduced during different cycles to form a layered structure for additional fracture toughness. With this technique one can also tailor the molecular weight and make it whatever desired. The minimum molecular weight is that required to form mesophase liquid crystals which are three dimensional molecules composed of non-linear planar molecules that are not cross-linked.

Carbon matrix composites fabricated by a rapid and low-cost process incorporating in-situ polymerization of wetting monomers

Abstract: (f) pryolyzing the pre-carbon polymer to form a carbon matrix material; and

The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Air Force


Embodiments of the disclosure relate to archiving data in a storage system. An exemplary embodiment comprises making a flash copy of data in a source volume, compressing data in the flash copy wherein each track of data is compressed into a set of data pages, and storing the compressed data pages in a target volume. Data extents for the target volume may be allocated from a pool of compressed data extents. After each stride worth of data is compressed and stored in the target volume, data may be destaged to avoid destage penalties. Data from the target volume may be decompressed from a flash copy of the target volume in a reverse process to restore each data track, when the archived data is needed. Data may be compressed and uncompressed using a Lempel-Ziv-Welch process.

The disclosure relates generally to data storage systems, and more particularly to archiving and restoring data in a storage system.
Users of data storage disk systems often offload or archive less frequently used data to tape storage systems as tape systems provide far larger capacity and lower cost per data unit. When the users need to access the archived data again, a tape archive library system mounts the tape cartridges containing the archived data into the system and restores the archived data from the tape cartridges. Such a tape archiving process may lead to a delay in accessing the desired data as the data is not readily available in disk storage when it is needed.
As the cost of disk storage per data unit continues to decrease, disk storage is becoming an attractive medium for data archiving. Current data archiving solutions using disks often have a substantial amount of metadata associated with data compression and uncompression, which impacts system performance. In addition, metadata adds complexity to the implementation of storage management functions in the system.
"Remote copy" is another technology that may be used for archiving by replicating data at a remote storage facility. Remote copying transfers data from the main or local storage facility to the remote storage facility each time data is written or updated to a storage device of the local facility. However, remote copy, as well as implementations of backup and restore technologies introduce additional problems in the areas of security and management of data recovery.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Data archiving using data compression of a flash copy

International Business Machines Corporation


A method for generating a high-resolution surface topology map of a surface using surface profiling data combined with data collected from a surveying instrument. The system and method involve collecting a plurality of survey sample points and collecting a plurality of profile sample points of the surface. The profile sample points are then correlated with the survey sample points in the Z direction. Once the correlation is performed, the correlated profile sample points are merged or “filled-in” between the survey sample points. The high-resolution surface topology map is generated from the merging of the survey and profile sample points. In various embodiments, the survey data may be generated using an inertial profiler, an inclinometer based walking device, or a rolling-reference type profile device.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to a method for generating high resolution surface topology maps, and more particularly, to a method for generating high resolution surface topology maps using surface profiling data combined with data collected from a land surveying instrument, such as either a total station or a Global Positioning System with Real Time Kinemetic (RTK) surveying device, such as a Carrier-Phase Enhancement GPS System (CPGPS) using a single reference station or a Virtual Reference Station (VRS) using a group of networked reference stations.
2. Description of Related Art
Land surveying instruments are used to generate three-dimensional topography maps of surfaces at grade for use in civil engineering and construction projects. Currently two types of surveying instrument systems are in common use, total stations and radio transmitted Real Time Kinematic ("RTK") correction devices. In various configurations, both types of surveying instruments may be used with GPS data.
A total station is an optical instrument used in modern surveying. A total station system includes a base station equipped with a computer, a laser, and an optical receiver. The total station is designed to work in cooperation with a prism, which is moved to various points on the surface to be mapped. During operation, the prism is moved from point to point within the area to be surveyed. At each point, the laser transmits a signal from the base station to the prism, which reflects the signal back to the optical receiver at the base station. The computer at the base station then calculates the X, Y and Z coordinate of the location of the prism. The X and Y coordinates are calculated by the round-trip travel time of the laser. The Z coordinate is determined by the angle of the return laser signal. By calculating the X, Y and Z coordinate of many surface sample points, an accurate topological map of the area to be surveyed may be generated. One disadvantage of conventional total stations is that they require a line of site between the base station and the prism at the point to be surveyed. Without a line of sight, the aforementioned angle and distances cannot be determined. Any resulting surface topology map will therefore be incomplete. To address this issue, more advanced total station devices use GPS information instead of line of sight measurements. The disadvantage of GPS information, however, is generally inferior accuracy in the vertical or Z direction.
Real Time Kinematic ("RTK") surveying devices rely on Global Positioning System ("GPS") technology to improve the accuracy of sampled survey data points. With RTK systems, a static base GPS unit is used in cooperation with a roving GPS unit. The static base GPS unit accurately measure its position relative to one or more GPS satellites or a Virtual Reference System (VRS), which is a group of networked base stations located in the general vicinity of the area to be surveyed. In either case, the static base unit measures atmospheric and other disturbances that may cause positional errors. Once the static base station locks-in and accurately determines its position, it transmits a corrections factor signal to the roving GPS unit, which compensates for any measured atmospheric or positional errors.
During the surveying process, the roving GPS unit moves across the surface to be mapped, sampling and measuring the X, Y and Z coordinate of multiple points within the survey area. The correction factor signal from the static base GPS unit is then applied to the measured X, Y and Z coordinate of each sample point, correcting for any inaccuracies due to atmospheric and other disturbances. The compensated X, Y and Z coordinate for the sampled points are therefore more accurate than if the correction factor was not applied. Again, by computing the X, Y and Z coordinate for multiple sample points across the area to be surveyed, an accurate surface topology map may be generated. A disadvantage of both GPS and VRS systems is their inability to function in areas of overhead cover (wooded areas, urban areas, inside buildings, etc.), where clear access to the GPS satellite is either partially or fully blocked.
In the road construction industry, inertial profiling systems are increasingly popular devices used for quality assurance and quality control purposes. The most common use of inertial profilers is to test the surface ride quality or "smoothness" of the top layer of asphalt or concrete pavement on road surfacing construction projects. Transportation agencies also commonly use inertial profiling systems for pavement management and maintenance applications. Roads are periodically analyzed for condition assessment and for making decisions with regard to rehabilitating or resurfacing of the roadway.
The profile of a surface generated by an inertial profiling system is a relative profile, not an absolute or true profile. Inertial profilers generate only a two-dimensional surface profile along a longitudinal surface in the X and Y dimensions, along the path traveled by the profiler. Inertial profiling systems, however, do not generate a true profile since they do not record absolute elevation readings in the Z dimension, as do RTK or total stations surveying instruments. Thus while an inertial profiling system can accurately detect the changes in the surface profile contour between points A and B on a given road surface, they cannot detect the absolute change in elevation from point A to point B.
Inertial profiling systems are typically vehicle mounted devices generally consisting of laser sensors for measuring vertical displacement from a fixed point on the vehicle to the ground underneath, accelerometer sensors to measure the vertical acceleration of the vehicle, and a distance measurement interface to record the vehicle's longitudinal movement in the direction of travel. Commercially available inertial profiling systems typically have a very high degree of resolution. Many commercially available profilers are capable of acquiring valid samples at one-inch (25 mm) increments along the traveled surface and can detect changes in surface profile conditions on the order of 0.001 inches. Inertial profiling systems can collect data samples at one inch (25 mm) at speeds up to 70 mile per hour (112 kilometers per hour). In contrast, both total stations and RTK surveying devices have a lower resolution than inertial profiling systems if only relative profile data is considered, but those devices have a much higher resolution in capturing the Z dimension necessary to generate an absolute or true profile. While the resolution of both total stations and RTK surveying devices is sufficient for some applications, the resolution of these devices alone is not adequate or optimal for other applications, such as high tolerance surface design, construction project progress monitoring, or precision machine control, where a highly accurate and more resolute surface topology is desirable.
For the above reasons, a method for generating high-resolution surface topology measurements using surface profiling data combined with data collected from a surveying instrument, such as either a total station or a Real Time Kinematic (RTK) surveying device, including either a total station RTK surveying device used with either GPS or VRS, is needed.

Method for generating high resolution surface topology map using surface profiling and surveying instrumentation


A card reader reads data stored on a card. A contact signal is produced whose state is indicative of the presence or absence of electrical contact between the card and the card reader. A high state indicates the presence of electrical contact and a low state indicates the absence of electrical contact. Upon insertion of the card into the card reader, vibrations and other mechanical perturbations of the card cause the state of the contact signal to fluctuate rapidly between high and low states. The state of the contact signal is periodically sampled for a predetermined period of time and the number of samples for which the contact signal was high are counted. If the number of high samples exceeds a threshold then stable electrical contact is deemed to have been established between the card and the card reader and a system reset is performed.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to systems utilizing cards for storing data, particularly including set-top-boxes for use in pay-television systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
A smartcard is a card with an embedded microchip that can be loaded with data. Smartcards are often used in the field of pay-television where a card may be loaded with data including the viewing rights of the card holder. The card may then be inserted into a set-top-box to allow access to particular services. Smartcards also have extensive use in many other applications.
In many smartcard based systems, the detection of an inserted smartcard is used to trigger particular system processes. For example, for security reasons, insertion of a smartcard into a set-top-box may cause a system reset prior to reading data from the card. Detection of a smartcard is often performed by means of a contact signal that is generated when the smartcard makes electrical contact with a card reader. The state of a contact signal thus allows a smart card to be detected. However, smartcard interfaces are mechanical in nature and this can result in certain problems. For example, at the moment of insertion, the electrical contact between the card and the card reader may be temporarily unstable due to small vibrations and other mechanical perturbations of the card, sometimes referred to as bouncing. This causes noise to occur in the contact signal and rapid fluctuations between high and low signals. During this period, it is difficult to determine when stable electrical contact between the card and card reader has been made.
To overcome this problem, in some prior systems a long period of time is allowed to pass to ensure that card bouncing has ceased before the contact signal is analyzed. In other prior systems, a resistor and capacitor filter arrangement is provided to smooth the contact signal and remove noise over a long time period of time. However, in pay-television systems, it is desirable to perform a system reset in as short a time as possible after inserting a smartcard. If a long time delay is present between inserting a smartcard and performing a system reset, as occurs with the prior methods described above, the system may be vulnerable to hacking prior to the system reset.
One known technique for determining when a sufficiently noise-free contact signal is present is to periodically sample the contact signal. If successive sampled signals have the same value, then the signal is assumed to be stable. One problem associated with this technique is that brief periods of transient stability in the contact signal may result in multiple erroneous system resets.
We have appreciated that it is desirable to provide a means for determining when a stable signal has been established in as short a time as possible. We have also appreciated that it is desirable to eliminate erroneous resets.


Disclosed is a printhead having at least one ink drop generator region, which includes an ink chamber, an orifice through which ink drops are ejected, and a heating element positioned below the ink chamber. The heating element includes a resistor defined therein and a nano-structured surface that is exposed to the ink fluid supplied to the ink chamber. The nano-structured surface takes the form of an array of nano-pillars. The printhead is fabricated by a method that includes: forming a heating element having an oxidizable metal layer as the uppermost layer; forming an aluminum-containing layer on the oxidizable metal layer; anodizing the aluminum-containing layer to form porous alumina; anodizing the oxidizable metal layer so as to partially fill the pores in the porous alumina with metal oxide material; and removing the porous alumina by selective etching to produce a nano-structured surface.

Thermal inkjet printers typically have a printhead for generating ink drops and ejecting them onto a printing medium. The typical inkjet printhead includes: a nozzle plate having an array of orifices that face the paper; ink channels for supplying ink from an ink source, such as a reservoir, to the orifices; and a substrate carrying a plurality of heating resistors, each resistor positioned below a corresponding orifice. Current pulses are applied to the heating resistors to momentarily vaporize the ink in the ink channels into bubbles. The ink droplets are expelled from each orifice by the growth and subsequent collapse of the bubbles. As ink in the ink channels is expelled as droplets through the nozzles, more ink fills the ink channels from the reservoir.
The objects and features of the present invention will be better understood when considered in connection with the accompany drawings. Note that the drawings are schematic, unscaled illustrations and like reference numbers designate like parts throughout.

Printhead and method of fabricating the same

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


A print control device manages a print job and a printer based on an instruction from a client terminal. The print control device accepts a print instruction to the printer from the client terminal and authentication information about the client terminal, confirms the validity of the authentication information to an authentication unit configured to issue and manage the authentication information, registers the print job as an execution job together with the authentication information if the authentication information is valid, and accesses the authentication unit during registration of the execution job to thereby update the expiration date/time of the registered authentication information.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a print control device, a print control method, an information processing system, an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and a storage medium. In particular, the present invention relates to a print control device, a print control method, an information processing system, an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and a storage medium that update the expiration date/time of authentication information required for printing by a printer.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, the publicizing of services on the Internet as cloud services has become an expanding business. Along with this, the function of a print server needs to be provided as a print service on the Internet. For example, providing print services as cloud services has various advantages such that the need for hardware management for each customer can be obviated by installing print servers in a large-scale data center, and a resource can be easily added in accordance with the load on the server.
Since a print service needs to collectively manage multiple user information, more robust user management is provided using an external authentication service. A user performs his/her authentication by means of an authentication service and uses an authentication token issued upon authentication to thereby be able to receive a print service. A print service deployed as a cloud service on the Internet resides in an environment where the print server communicates with a printer over a firewall. Thus, a printer acquires print data from the print server via the Internet to perform pull type printing. At this time, the authentication token of the user who has already been authenticated for print execution by the authentication service is registered in the printer. The printer can acquire print data through a request which has been properly authenticated by using the authentication token.
However, a typical authentication service sets an expiration date/time to an authentication token to be issued in order to use resources efficiently and improve security. More specifically, the authentication token becomes invalid after the elapse of a predetermined time from the last accessed time. Thus, if a user who executes a printing operation does not execute any other operation after providing a print instruction to a printer, the authentication token may become invalid until the printer acquires print data from a print server. If the authentication token becomes invalid, the printer cannot acquire print data, resulting in occurrence of a print error against a user's intention.
In order to avoid such circumstances, as an prior art, a client system which performs batch job processing for a long time sets an expiration date/time update time for an authentication ticket to be issued from an authentication system prior to the start of batch job processing. The system includes an expiration date/time update unit that updates the expiration date/time when the expiration date/time update time is reached after the start of batch job processing (e.g., Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-330953).
In the method disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-330953, when expiration date/time information is managed by the authentication system, the client system makes an update request to the authentication system upon reaching the update time. In the case of cloud services, client systems (printers) and the authentication system (authentication server) are connected via the Internet and the number of client systems is too many, resulting in a heavy load on the network. Therefore, the method disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-330953 is not practical.

Print control device managing a print job based on an instruction from a client terminal


A latch assembly for a closure member is provided. The latch assembly includes a housing and a ratchet pivotally coupled to the housing for selectively retaining a striker to secure the closure member. A cinch lever assembly is coupled to the housing and includes a cinch lever for engaging the ratchet. The cinch lever cinches the striker in the ratchet in response to the cinch lever being actuated by a cable coupled to the cinch lever assembly to move the closure panel from a partially closed position to a fully closed position. A cinch subassembly is operatively coupled to the cinch lever assembly with the cable coupled to the cinch lever assembly. The cinch subassembly is configured to freely move between a plurality of positions relative to the housing to accommodate a plurality of orientations of the cable coupled to the cinch lever assembly.

This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art.
A typical motor vehicle door is mounted in a door frame on the vehicle and is movable between open and closed positions. Usually the door is held in a closed position by a latching engagement between a spring-biased ratchet pivotally mounted inside the door latch and a U-shaped striker secured to the door frame. The ratchet is most often spring-biased toward the unlatched position to release the striker and is maintained in the latched position to hold the striker by a spring-biased pawl or other mechanical structure. The ratchet cannot pivot to release the striker until the pawl is moved.
Power assisted door latch assemblies have been developed to overcome problems associated with latching doors with lightweight construction and hard door seals. Power assisted door latch assemblies allow low internal energy or soft closure of the lightweight doors without the need to slam the door even with increased seal pressure resulting from relatively hard door seals.
Designing a latch assembly with a cinch function to provide soft closure has proven difficult because of the position and the orientation of the soft close Bowden cable and the Bowden cable attachment on the latch frame plate or housing. Current state of the art systems orient the Bowden cable downward because, when placed in a door, the soft close latch assembly is most often close to the window trim line and there is limited space on the door to place a soft close remote actuator above the latch.
In addition to this, it has also proven difficult to package soft close latch assemblies because of the extension of the latch in the Z and Y directions. Some current latch assemblies position the ratchet above the fish-mouth while other systems position the ratchet below the fish mouth. In both instances, finding a convenient Bowden cable position and attachment point while satisfying the above mentioned packaging requirements is difficult.
Accordingly, there remains a need for improved latch assemblies with a cinch function providing for flexible ratchet and Bowden cable orientation without complicating the packaging requirements of the latch assembly.

Automotive latch with pulley for flexible cable routing


The present invention is a telemetry system, and more specifically is a rapidly deployed modular telemetry apparatus which utilizes of SDR technology and the FPGA programming capability to reduce the number of hardware components and programming required to deploy a telemetry system.

Software Defined Radio (SDR) and Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) devices are technologies which allow enormous flexibility in the design of communications components and systems.
Despite the widespread availability of these technologies, they have not been systematically integrated into telemetry system design processes to increase efficiency and reduce cost associated with customizing telemetry systems.
For example, a transponder for a NASA communication system costs more than $500,000. There is currently a need to reconfigure countless hardware components for a specific telemetry application.
Software Defined Radio (SDR) is a term used to refer to technologies which minimizes the amount of analog and radio frequency components needed to convert radio frequencies into digital frequencies. The SDR concept and principles of design use a minimum amount of analog/Radio Frequency components to up/down-convert the RF signal to/from a digital format. Once analog signals are converted to digital signals, all other processing (filtering, modulation, demodulation, etc.) can be done in software rather than with hardware.
A field programmable gate array (FPGA) is an integrated circuit designed to be configured by a user after manufacturing and is a simplified and economical alternative to an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC). In theory, an FPGA can be used to implement any logical function that an ASIC can perform. For example, a user can embed various programming languages, processing functions and FEC error checking protocols into an FPGA.
Error checking protocols are critical to all telemetry systems. Error detection, correction and control enable reliable delivery of digital data over unreliable communication channels without requiring retransmission of data. Error detection techniques allow detecting such errors, while error correction enables reconstruction of the original data.
Error checking protocols are used for both uplink and downlink communications. FEC protocols, in a particular are used for controlling errors over unreliable communication channels.
There are several protocols for telemetry systems that comply with standards developed by the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS), and which may be used in conjunction for specific telemetry applications. Examples of CCSDS protocols related to telemetry include Reed-Solomon (forward error correction), ASIC BCH (error detection), and Pseudo-Randomization (required for synchronization). These protocols are typically programmed onto microchips and embedded processors that are combined into telemetry systems. Each FEC or detection code may be considered an intellectual property (IP) block that can be added or removed from the design to support mission requirements using proven IP.
There is an unmet need for an optimized telemetry transponder device and system that utilizes the efficiencies and flexibility of SDR and FPGA technology to meet all of NASA's telemetry needs and minimize the cost of expensive reconfiguration.
There is a further unmet need for telemetry systems which can be modularly reconfigured with various CCSDS compliant error checking protocols to accommodate diverse telemetry systems without requiring a complete redesign of a transponder.

Rapidly deployed modular telemetry system

The United States of America as Represented by the Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration


An improved ocular mounting assembly having a pair of ocular support arms which can be extended by sliding out of a box-section assembly housing for supporting a pair of ocular devices attached to the ends of the support arms. The improvement is a pair of stabilizers disposed inside the assembly housing and providing stability against rotational motion when the arms are extended. In one embodiment, the stabilizers are interference-fitted balls, retained in position by retainer holes in the assembly housing, and receding into recess cut-outs at the end of the support arms when the arms are fully retracted. In an alternate embodiment, the stabilizers are L-shaped, and can be either an integral part of the housing or bonded to it with adhesive.

Telemicroscopic instruments are used for magnifying the work area during precision work such as microsurgery, dental work, inspection of circuit board solder joints, and assembly of miniature parts. Such instruments, typically including a pair of microscopic loupes, are adjustably mounted to an eyeglass frame or head mount by an ocular mounting assembly.
As one example, the ocular mounting assembly disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,381,263 allows the mounting of a pair of ocular devices to an eyeglass frame, or head mount, and is linearly or rotationally adjustable through five degrees of freedom. An adjustable ocular support assembly with slidably extendable arms provides interpupillary distance, convergence angle and view adjustment of the ocular devices, which are rotatable attached to the support. An adjustable clamp assembly is rotatably attached to the ocular support assembly and provides height and view angle adjustment of the ocular devices. When the slidable arms of the ocular support assembly are extended, however, some rotating motion may occur, in particular with heavier oculars and with fully extended support arms. The rotating motion causes vertical misalignment, or divergence, of the axes of the ocular devices. Excessive divergence can cause eyestrain, discomfort and even headaches.


A magnetic head according to one embodiment includes at least two write transducers for writing to a magnetic medium; and a shield structure having at least two magnetically connected shields which at least partially cover two opposite sides of the writer. A magnetic head according to another embodiment includes at least two write transducers for writing to a magnetic medium, the at least two write transducers being positioned adjacent each other and aligned along a line; and a shield structure having shields adjacent at least three sides of each of the at least two write transducers, the shields being formed of a magnetically permeable material. Additional devices, systems, and methods are also presented.

The present invention relates to data storage systems, and more particularly, this invention relates to magnetically shielded write transducers and systems implementing the same.
In magnetic storage systems, data is read from and written onto magnetic recording media utilizing magnetic transducers commonly. Data is written on the magnetic recording media by moving a magnetic recording transducer to a position over the media where the data is to be stored. The magnetic recording transducer then generates a magnetic field, which encodes the data into the magnetic media. Data is read from the media by similarly positioning the magnetic read transducer and then sensing the magnetic field of the magnetic media. Read and write operations may be independently synchronized with the movement of the media to ensure that the data can be read from and written to the desired location on the media.
An important and continuing goal in the data storage industry is that of increasing the density of data stored on a medium. For tape storage systems, that goal has led to increasing the track density on recording tape, and decreasing the thickness of the magnetic tape medium. However, the development of small footprint, higher performance tape drive systems has created various problems in the design of a tape head assembly for use in such systems.
In a tape drive system, magnetic tape is moved over the surface of the tape head at high speed, where multiple writers operate at the same time to write data to the tape. However, as the spacing between the writers becomes smaller and smaller, problems, such as crosstalk, bit flipping, etc., tend to emerge more frequently.
Crosstalk is a phenomenon that occurs when two adjacent writers perform writing operations at about the same time. Particularly, crosstalk is present where the written portion for a first writer is affected by the magnetic flux created by an adjacent second writer, thereby degrading or otherwise adversely affecting the written information from the first writer. The writers do not need to be active simultaneously; crosstalk may emerge even upon performing writing operations within a few nanoseconds of each other, depending on the write gap of the particular head being used.
It would be favorable to reduce or eliminate crosstalk between adjacent write transducers to improve writing operation efficiency and accuracy.


A non-circular sliver container (1) is used for transporting sliver (2) to a spinning machine having a support table (3) fixed to one of its rounded ends at its upper edge. A groove (31) for receiving a reinforced introducing point (4) of the sliver (2) is provided. A recess (32) is provided in the groove (31) for allowing the point (4) of the sliver (2) to be gripped and inserted int a spinning machine.

Field of Art
The present invention relates to a non-circular sliver container.
Containers for receiving and transporting sliver shaped as circular cylinders, known as textile cans, into which the sliver is deposited by a coiler of a sliver producing machine are commonly found in the textile field. Other known modifications of textile cans consist of a sliver end holder located on the can and adapted to grasp a non-adapted end of the sliver at a predetermined location along the circumference of the can in such a manner that the sliver end hangs vertically for sliver processing.
Drawbacks of the known devices exist in that they are not very suitable for automated processes for can exchange and sliver insertion into a spinning unit. Also, these devices do not utilize the space afforded under rotor spinning machines.


A system and method of determining the quality of a received facsimile signal is provided herein by measuring the received signal from a digital modem receiver 60. The end of a scan line is detected by looking for the special code of eleven logic 0s followed by a logic 1. The distance value between the position value of the received signal elements and the standard reference position is determined and if this distance exceeds a given threshold that is recorded and the percentage of those that exceed this threshold distance identifies the quality.

Alexander Bain received a patent on an early facsimile machine a hundred and fifty years ago. The telegraph and facsimile came on the scene about the same time and had many things in common such as contact switching of metal patterns and interrupted current from the battery to convey information and both were received by marking on paper. In 1843, Bain obtained English patent number 9,745 for recording telegraph "facsimile unit" recorded on electrolytic paper. Bain used a pendulum for driving power and also to provide the clocking for timing operations. Casselli, in 1865, is believed to have used the first commercial facsimile which was sent over a long distance telegraph circuit. A satisfactory overall facsimile performance took many years with many people contributing to both the facsimile and other communication arts. Dr. Arthur Korn of Germany combined the tuning fork and synchronous motor and also started the optical scanning and photographic recording which are still used in today's fax systems. With the addition of vacuum tube amplifiers on telephone lines, telephone lines then became used for sending facsimile. AT&T provided a telephotography service which transmitted newspaper pictures by facsimile transmission. This has formed the basis for AT&T's telephoto equipment which was used by Associated Press, United Press International and Reuters. The Times Wide World Photo Service contacted Austin Cooly who worked on a facsimile for years to developed for them a semi-portable facsimile system. The resulting Cooly system demonstrated that good quality pictures could be sent even over regular unconditioned long distance telephone lines. A photographer taking a picture at one location could made a print of the picture for a facsimile operator. He then mounted it on a cylinder of a portable facsimile transmitter about the size of a small suitcase, a radical reduction of the size from a room of equipment used by Associated Press. A regular telephone call was placed to the Times picture darkroom from any telephone including the coin operated phone. A standard automobile battery served as a power source for the transmitter. The Times Facsimile Corporation (TFC) then began manufacturing and selling facsimile units to others. The military used it for weather map fax transmissions. The U.S. Army Air forces used the facsimile for weather map transmission during World War II and set up a world wide standard for weather facsimile. The International Telegraph and Telephone Consultive Committee (CCITT) initially adopted somewhat different standards, but abandoned them for use of those set at TFC. After the war, networks were set up for the broadcasting of facsimile weather charts over the telephone lines and over HF (High Frequency) radio. In the years that followed the war, various new facsimile equipment were specialized applications were designed and manufactured. The Electronics Industry Association (EIA) established a technical committee TR-29 on facsimile systems and equipment in the early 1960's. However, it was not until October 1966, before an EIA standard RS328 message facsimile equipment for operations switch voice facility using data communication equipment was published. This was the first U.S. "standard" on office fax. In 1967, with the AT&T Carterphone decision, permission was granted to allow direct connection to the PSTN (Public Switch Telephone Network) or the regular Bell telephone lines. The first group standard was Group 1 facsimile. This was generally better than earlier fax copies, facsimile units were still unreliable taking six minutes per page and were analog units. Users that accepted the quality of the Group 1 needed a faster system and the faster system became the Group 2 facsimile. This standard referred to as the three minute facsimile units already became the world wide acceptable system. Quality facsimile started with a digital facsimile. The earliest digital facsimile units used the adaptive run-length coding algorithm. Run-length coding removes redundancy from the page being sent and thus shortens the transmission time. In this system, a digital code word represents the number of successive white picture elements along a scanned line before the next black picture element (pixel or pel). The next code word represents the number of black pixels (picture elements) following a run of white picture elements. In 1980, the CCITT adopted a standard for digital facsimile which is referred to as Group 3. Although V.29 modem was intended to be used on 4 wire digital, facsimile units were used successfully using the V.29 modem with half-duplex on the PSTN and became an option in the Group 3 standard.
The standards for the Group 3 are Recommendations T.4 and T.30 in the CCITT Blue Book, including revisions completed in November 1988 and later. The main revisions of T.4 and T.30 are the addition of an optional error-free method of transmission and for two smaller-page versions of Group 3 fax.
Referring to FIG. 1, marked prior art, there is illustrated a conventional Group 3 facsimile unit. A scanner, such as a CCD (Charge Couple Device) scanner, reads the page being sent. The output is a series of picture elements (pels or pixels), and the amplitude of each pulse represents the brightness of the image on each element of the CCD chip or scanner. The scanner reads a very narrow line which may be in the order of 0.01 or 0.005 inch high, across the width of the page being sent. Scanning across the with of the page results in 1,728 pixels which results in a generation of 1,728 bits per line. A two-line memory stores the adjacent lines. The output from the scanner is in the analog signal and is converted by an A/D converter which produces one bit per picture element. The output from the A/D converter is digital and is passed through a Modified Huffman (MH) or Modified Read (MR) compression device that acts to compress the picture elements information to a small fraction of the number of bits. The Modified Huffman is a run-length coding and the modified read is a two-dimensional coding which further compresses the pixel or pel information. This coding is well known and is standard and is specified in CCITT Recommendation T.4 for Group 3. In a scanning line each sensor element has one bit of information to represent a black or white pixel or pel. Instead of sending a white line across a page as 1728 bits, the MH sends a 9-bit code word representing this. Since 1728, code words would have to be used to cover all run lengths the runs are grouped in multiples of 64 pels or pixels in a make-up code table. More detailed description of the code tables, etc., may be found various texts and in a book entitled "FAX: Digital Facsimile Technology & Applications" by Kenneth R. McConnell et al., published by Artech House, Inc., 685 Canton St., Norwood, Mass. 02062 and, in particular, this is shown in Section 2.5. This text is incorporated herein by reference. These codes are well known to those of ordinary skill in the art. The modified read is a relative addressing code uses vertical correlation with two adjacent lines on a page. For example, a black pel run on one line and a black pel line on the adjacent line uses one bit to provide that condition. The compressed digital output from the MH/MR compression, is stored in a buffer memory for use by the modem. The modem converts these signals into analog signals that can be sent over the regular telephone lines or PSTN. The modem is a modulation-demodulation device that accepts digital information and modulates it into the analog signal that is received by the telephone line. Of course, at the receiver, the analog signal is converted back to a run length coded binary data sent at the transmitter which is then expanded using a MH-MR expander and printed. The modem takes 4 bits at a time, for example, when operating at 9600 b/s, and represents them as one of 16 different states. CCITT recommendation V.29, V.27 ter specifies the modulation and demodulation schemes and the necessary portions of the CCITT modem built into the Group 3 facsimile unit. Recommendation V.27 ter is required for facsimile data at 4800 and 2400 b/s. Recommendation V.21 channel 2 (return channel) is required for the 300 b/s signaling. Recommendation V.29 is optional for facsimile data at 9600 and 7200 b/s for use on point-to-point four-wire leased type telephone channels and high-quality switched telephone channels. The Group 3 will usually try at first for 9600 b/s and if that is not successful will step down to 7200 b/s and attempt that. If necessary, this process can be repeated for the 4800 and 2400 b/s. When in the V.29 operating state at 9600 b/s the sampling of the incoming data facsimile signal is in 4-bit segments. As stated previously, there are 16 different analog signal states at the modem output which represents every possible arrangement of the 0s or 1s of the 4-bit segments at its input. FIG. 2 illustrates a V.29 signal space diagram at 9600 b/s. There are 16 different analog signal states at the modem output which represents every possible arrangement of the 0s or 1s of the four bit segments at its input. In the diagram Q represents the vertical coordinate and I represents the horizontal coordinate. Note that the phase is counter clock wise going from 0 to 360 about this coordinate axis and the amplitude is represented by the distance from the center of the diagram. From 0 to 90 degrees represents the first quadrant, 90 to 180 degrees represents the second quadrant, 180 to 270 degrees represents the third quadrant and 270 to 360 or 0 degrees represents the fourth quadrant. Each of the 16 dots represents a different signal state of the amplitude and phase. At 90 degrees, for example, the signal state 1010 has an amplitude of 3 and state 0010 has an amplitude of 2 as shown in FIG. 2. At 9600 b/s, the modem output changes 2,400 times per second for a baud rate of 2,400. The received PSTN analog signal from the network at the received modem compares the received signal dots to these standard dots in FIG. 2 and if the transmission is perfect these dots should coincide. Transmission impairments, such as phase jitter and noise can cause the received signals dots to move around form their assigned position and be taken to an adjacent signal state. This represents errors. A typical receiver an output of the modem is then converted to the expansion of MR/MR expansion to reproduce the binary midstream which represents the black and white pixels or pels from the CCD scanner for example. A terminal printer converts the bit stream into a printed copy of the original page. The thermal printer has closely space wires touching temperature responsive paper and heat is generated in a small spot on each wire when high current representing a black mark is passed to the wire.
In the middle of the 1980's, the growth of facsimile began to increase rapidly and the more the faxes became present the more the demand for storing the facsimile information became evident. The storage devices are sort of a facsimile mail boxes which receive data while party is away or receiving other facsimile requests and retrieved or discarded when the party returns or otherwise able to receive the facsimile. The party can receive multiple messages at the same time. The facsimile mail box systems do not actually print the expansion data and therefore have no need for the MH-MR expansion or to decode the scan lines and print the information.
It has also become desirable for the telephone central office to transmit the PSTN digitally using pulse code modulation where the amplitude of sampled voltage levels of the analog signal are represented by eight bit binary data.
It is desirable to determine the quality of the received signal at these facsimile mail boxes and to communicate when there is bad quality to the sender so that the rate may be slowed down or sent at another time or some other means may be done to improve the transmission quality. The transmission quality is normally determined as the percentage of bad scan lines. As discussed in the background facsimile machines use an encoding scheme (CCITT T.4) that sends a fixed number of picture elements per scan line. The copy quality of a Fax document is usually measured in the prior art as the percentage of bad scan lines. A line is considered bad if the decoded run-lengths in the scan line do not add up to 1728 picture elements or pixels. This implies that the scan lines must be at least partially decoded. This decoding in terms of decoding time and/or in terms of memory usage is expensive in terms of CPU (Central Processor Unit) resources. It takes a lot of memory space to store the decoding tables and cycle time to do the decoding.

Method and apparatus for determining facsimile quality and system using same


A link chain comprises an inner link plate, an outer link plate, a bushing and a pin that form a chain link, and a labyrinth seal between the outer link plate and the inner link plate. The labyrinth seal comprises at least one lug having lug length and at least one groove having a groove depth, the lug length and groove depth being between 10% to 50% of an average respective link plate thickness, wherein in response to an overload of the link chain, the flow of force within the link chain is partially diverted across surfaces of the labyrinth seal formed by the at least one lug and the at least one groove.

A link chain, in particular, a bushing chain, is composed essentially of two elements that are lined up next to one another in an endless manner. These elements are also referred to as an inner member and an outer member. An outer member usually consists of two outer link plates that are securely connected to one another by two pins. An inner member is usually made up of two inner link plates and two bushings, which form one chain link each with the pins of the adjacent outer members. These links allow the link chain, for example, to wrap around the sprockets, located in the drive train.
A key criterion for using a link chain is the tension that it can transmit. In principle, a suitable transmittable tension can be achieved by, for example, the choice of material, the heat treatment and the material thickness of the individual components of the link chain. However, the choice of material and/or the dimensioning is/are constrained, for example, by the available installation space and ultimately also by the justifiable costs for a link chain.