A motor controller including a position control section that generates a speed command based on a position command and a motor position, a speed control section that generates a torque command based on the speed command and a motor speed, and a motor driving section that generates a motor current based on the torque command. The motor controller has a speed feed forward command generating section that generates a speed feed forward command by differentiating the position command. A model control section generates a model torque command based on the speed feed forward command and a model speed. An inertia identifying section identifies inertia based on the ratio of an integrated value of a motor torque command obtained by time-integrating the motor torque command in a prescribed section to an integrated value of the model torque command obtained by time-integrating the model torque command in a prescribed section, from a prescribed position command.

FIG. 2 shows a control structure of a related motor controller. Reference numeral 21 designates a motor control section, 22 designates a model control section, 23 designates a speed control proportional gain, 24 designates a differentiator, 25 designates an integrator, 26 designates a speed control proportional gain of the model control section, 27 designates an integrator showing inertia of the model control section and 28 designates an integrator. Further, Vref designates a speed command, Vfb designates a motor speed, Tref designates a torque command, STref designates a time integrated value of the torque command, Vfb′ designates a model speed and STref′ designates a time integrated value of the model torque command.
The related motor controller includes the motor control section for controlling the motor speed and the model control section for simulating a speed control by a model to identify the inertia by the ratio of a value STref obtained by integrating the torque command of a speed control section by a time to a value STref′ obtained by time-integrating the torque command of the model control section (see Patent Document 1). Further, a related motor controller also includes a motor control section for controlling a motor speed and a model control section for simulating a speed control by a model to identify inertia J by the ratio of a time integrated value of the torque command STref obtained by time-integrating a filtered value of the torque command Tref of the motor control section in prescribed sections [a,b] shown in FIG. 4 to a time integrated value of the model torque command STref′ obtained by time-integrating the torque command Tref′ of the model speed control section in the same sections, and adjust the speed gain Kv of the motor control section based on the identified inertia J (see Patent Document 2).    Patent Document 1: International Patent Application Laid-Open No. 1996/37039 pamphlet (see page 6, FIG. 1)    Patent Document 2: JP-A-2001-218488 (see page 2, FIG. 1)

Motor controller and control method thereof


A vehicle-side connector (10) is connectable to a charging connector (1) for charging a battery in a vehicle and includes a housing (30) on the vehicle such that the charging connector (1) can fit therein from the front. Terminal fittings (11) connected respectively to wires (20P, 20S) are drawn out from the interior of the vehicle including the battery. Terminal accommodating chambers (40) are provided in the housing (30) and the respective terminal fittings (11) are inserted therein from behind. Each terminal fitting (11) is a round pin terminal (12) with a terminal connecting portion (13) on one end for connection to a charging terminal in the charging connector (1) and a wire connecting portion (14) on the other end to be crimped to an end of the wire (20P, 20S). The terminal connecting portion (13) is retained in the terminal accommodating chamber (40).

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle-side connector to be connected to a charging connector during charging.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, an example of a vehicle-side connector of this type is known from Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2011-249039. This connector is structured such that a plurality of terminal accommodating chambers are aligned and formed in a housing to be mounted to face a power supply port open on a body and terminals, e.g. round pin terminals, connected to ends of wires drawn out from the side of a battery are inserted and accommodated into the corresponding terminal accommodating chambers from behind, and the battery is charged by connecting a charging connector connected to a power supply to this vehicle-side connector.
However, in recent years, an engine compartment has become overcrowded due to a higher capacity of a battery and the like particularly in plug-in hybrid vehicles, and a sufficient space for drawing out wires cannot be ensured on the rear surface of a vehicle-side connector in some cases. Thus, it is considered to realize space saving by bending the wires drawn out to the rear surface of the vehicle-side connector at a right angle. However, there is a limit due to a possibility of breakage or the like if the wires are bent at a large curvature (at a small radius of curvature) and it has been actually impossible to realize sufficient space saving.
The present invention was completed based on the above situation and aims to realize further space saving in wire routing on a rear surface side of a housing.


A contact center network including a contact center unit connected via a communication network to a plurality of agents and to a plurality of IoT devices, wherein each one of the plurality of IoT devices is equipped with sensor devices adapted to measure predetermined IoT measurement data, and at least one actuator device adapted to control the IoT device remotely, wherein the contact center unit is connectable to the sensor devices and the actuator devices via a IoT middleware unit adapted to receive an incident notification, if sensor measurement data matches a predetermined criterion indicating an incident, and wherein the contact center unit includes a routing unit adapted to route a contact based on the incident information comprised in the incident notification to an agent. Further, embodiments relate to a method for establishing a communication session in a contact center network.

The field of information technology is developing fast in every business sector. Nowadays, it is common practice to connect physical devices, like sensors or wearables, to the Internet. This is called the Internet of Things (IoT) and the connectable devices are referred to as IoT devices. With connection of IoT devices to the Internet or to another computer network, these devices can be monitored and controlled remotely. The control can be carried out manually or in an automatic manner. However, some emergency or exceptional situations or scenarios need immediate attention of an expert who takes care of the situation, analyzes the cause for it, for example, on the basis of data collected by sensor devices, and who then decides on what to do and takes the corresponding actions so as to solve the problem which triggered the emergency state. If these steps are taken rather quickly, in most cases, damage can be prevented or at least minimized.
Also, scenarios are conceivable according to which data is collected, monitored, and analyzed over a period of time. For example a certain value or parameter is monitored and, although still being in an acceptable or uncritical range, the value or parameter might reveal a trend, e.g., indicating that it will exceed a threshold value and, thus, might be out of the uncritical range soon, then an expert monitoring the data might take appropriate steps even before a critical or emergency situation occurs.
However, a problem exists in prior art that experts for handling such situations need to be found and contacted immediately upon detecting an emergency or exceptional situation in, for example, in an IoT device.

Contact center network and method for establishing a communication session in a contact center network


A method and apparatus for resolving floating point and integer ambiguities in a satellite position navigation system is disclosed. A rover station is periodically positioned at unknown locations and has a satellite receiver capable of receiving the navigation signals. By calculating relative position coordinates between a base station in a known location and the rover station, and by calculating other position parameters relative to the satellite position, a geometric constraint based on a measured elevation angle between the rover and base station can be incorporated into data computations and processing to help resolve carrier phase ambiguities. The elevation angle is measured by transmitting multiple laser beams to an optical sensor on the rover station. This technique results in greater precision in determining the location of the rover.

This invention relates generally to satellite navigation receivers and more particularly to estimating and resolving integer and floating point ambiguities of a navigation satellite carrier wave.
Satellite navigation systems, such as GPS (USA) and GLONASS (Russia), are well known in the art and are intended for highly accurate self-positioning of users possessing special navigation receivers. A navigation receiver receives and processes radio signals transmitted by satellites located within line-of-sight distance of the receivers. The satellite signals comprise carrier signals that are modulated by pseudo-random binary codes. The receiver measures the time delay of the received signal relative to a local reference clock or oscillator. These measurements enable the receiver to determine the so-called pseudo-ranges between the receiver and the satellites. The pseudo-ranges are different from the actual ranges (distances) between the receiver and the satellites due to various noise sources and variations in the time scales of the satellites and receiver. Each satellite has its own on-board atomic clock, and the receiver has its own on-board clock. If the number of satellites is large enough, then the measured pseudo-ranges can be processed to determine more accurately the user location and coordinate time scales.
The requirement of accurately determining user location with a high degree of precision, and the desire to improve the stability and reliability of measurements, have led to the development of differential navigation (DN). In differential navigation, the task of finding the user position, also called the Rover, is performed relative to a Base station (Base). The user may be mobile or immobile. The location coordinates of a moving Rover are continuously changing, and should be referenced to a time scale. The precise coordinates of the Base station are known and the Base station is generally stationary during measurements. The Base station has a navigation receiver which receives and processes the signals of the satellites to generate measurements. These signal measurements are transmitted to the Rover via a communication channel (e.g., wireless). The Rover uses these measurements received from the Base, along with its own measurements taken with its own navigation receiver, in order to precisely determine its location. The accuracy of a Rover location determination is improved in the differential navigation mode because the Rover is able to use the Base station measurements in order to compensate for the major part of the strongly correlated errors in the Rover measurements.
Various modes of operation are possible while using differential navigation (DN). In post-processing (PP) mode, the Rover's coordinates are determined by co-processing the Base and Rover measurements after all measurements have been completed. This allows for highly accurate location determination because more data is available for the location determination. In real-time processing (RTP) mode, the Rover's coordinates are determined in real time upon receipt of the Base station information received via the communication channel.
The location determination accuracy of differential navigation may be further improved by supplementing the pseudo-range measurements with measurements of the phases of the satellite carrier signals. If the carrier phase of the signal received from a satellite in the Base receiver is measured and compared to the carrier phase of the same satellite measured in the Rover receiver, measurement accuracy may be obtained to within several percent of the carrier's wavelength. The practical implementation of those advantages, which might otherwise be guaranteed by the measurement of the carrier phases, runs into the problem of ambiguity resolution for phase measurements.
The ambiguities are caused by two factors. First, the difference of a first distance from a satellite to the Base in comparison with a second distance from a satellite to the Rover is usually much greater than the carrier's wavelength. Therefore, the difference in the phase delays of a carrier signal received by the Base and Rover receivers may substantially exceed one cycle. Second, it is not possible to measure the integer number of cycles from the incoming satellite signals; one can only measure the fractional part. Therefore, it is necessary to determine the integer number of cycles, which is called the "ambiguity". More precisely, we need to determine the set of all such integer parameters for all the satellites being tracked, one unique integer parameter respectively associated with each satellite. One has to determine this set of integer ambiguities along with other unknown values, which include the Rover's coordinates and the variations in the time scales.
At a high level, the task of generating highly-accurate navigation measurements is formulated as follows: it is necessary to determine the state vector of a system, with the vector containing nΣ unknown components. Those include three Rover coordinates (usually along Cartesian axes X, Y, Z) in a given coordinate system (sometimes time derivatives of coordinates are added too); the variations of the time scales which is caused by the phase drift of the local main reference oscillator in the receiver; and n integer unknown values associated with the ambiguities of the phase measurements of the carrier frequencies. The value of n is determined by the number of different carrier signals being processed, and accordingly coincides with the number of satellite channels actively functioning in the receiver. At least one satellite channel is used for each satellite whose broadcast signals are being received and processed by the receiver. Some satellites broadcast more than one code-modulated carrier signal, such as a GPS satellite which broadcasts a carrier in the L1 frequency band and a carrier in the L2 frequency band. If the receiver processes the carrier signals in both of the L1 and L2 bands, a so-called dual-frequency receiver, the number of satellite channels (n) increases correspondingly. Dual-frequency receivers allow for ionosphere delay correction therefore making ambiguity resolution easier.
Two sets of navigation parameters are measured by the Base and Rover receivers, respectively, and are used to determine the unknown state vector. Each set of parameters includes the pseudo-range of each satellite to the receiver, and the full (complete) phase of each satellite carrier signal. Each pseudo-range is obtained by measuring the time delay of a code modulation signal of the corresponding satellite. The code modulation signal is tracked by a delay-lock loop (DLL) circuit in each satellite tracking channel. The full phase of a satellite's carrier signal is tracked by a phase-lock-loop (PLL) in the corresponding satellite tracking channel. An observation vector is generated as the collection of the measured navigation parameters for specific (definite) moments of time.
The relationship between the state vector and the observation vector is defined by a well-known system of navigation equations. Given an observation vector, the system of equations may be solved to find the state vector if the number of equations equals or exceeds the number of unknowns in the state vector. Conventional statistical methods are used to solve the system of equations: the least squares method, the method of dynamic Kalman filtering, and various modifications of these methods.
Practical implementations of these methods in digital form may vary widely. In implementing or developing such a method on a processor, one usually must find a compromise between the accuracy of the results and speed of obtaining results for a given amount of processor capability, while not exceeding a certain amount of loading on the processor.
One general scheme comprises the following steps. The measured values of the pseudo-ranges and full phases at specific (definite) moments of time, along with an indication of the satellites to which these measurements belong and the time moments of the measurements, are transmitted from the Base to the Rover. Corresponding values are measured in the Rover receiver. The processing includes the determination of the single differences of the pseudo-ranges and full phases between the Base and Rover measurements for each satellite. The strongly correlated errors are compensated (i.e., substantially cancelled) in the single differences. Then, the residuals of the single differences are calculated by subtraction of calculated values from the measured results. The processing of residuals allows one to linearize the initial system of navigation equations (sometimes several subsequent iterations are necessary), which makes possible the use of the well developed body of mathematics for solving systems of linear equations. The components of the state vector, with the n ambiguities included, are found as a result of the solution.
But the calculated values of the ambiguities are not necessarily integer numbers, and are often floating point numbers. Because of this, they are called float ambiguities, or floating ambiguities, at this stage of the solution. To find true values of the integer ambiguities one uses the procedure of rounding off the float ambiguity vector to the nearest set of integers. This process is called the ambiguity resolution. Only after the ambiguity resolution has been done is it possible to determine the true values of residuals and then, by solving the system of equations again, to find the coordinate values for the baseline connecting the Base and Rover, and consequently to determine the exact coordinates of the Rover and the correction to its clock drift.
The above described general scheme of computations is well known in the art and is described in further detail, for example, in, Bradford W. Parkinson and James J. Spilker Jr., Global Positioning Theory and Applications, Volume 163 of Progress In Astronautics and Aeronautics, published by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc, Washington D.C., 1996.
However, the task of measuring carrier phase is difficult to accomplish. In practice, we must use non-ideal receivers to measure the phases, with each receiver having a different clock offset with respect to the GPS time, and with each receiver having phase errors occurring during the measurement process. In addition, at the present time it is not practical to individually count the carrier cycles as they are received by the receiver's antenna since the frequency of the carrier signal is over 1 GHz. This creates the "integer cycle ambiguity" problem that necessitates the solution provided by the present invention. Resolving the cycle ambiguities efficiently and with reasonable precision is an important aspect in successfully using the phase information to improve the estimated coordinates of the baseline.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Estimation and resolution of carrier wave ambiguities in a position navigation system


A mechanism to acquire and deploy (“bootstrap”) software files, particularly testcase files, across multiple hosts and platforms is provided. A software package is created and a predetermined bootstrap executable file is built into the package. A process on each host on which the software files are to be deployed extracts the bootstrap file and executes it. Each bootstrap executable builds corresponding software files into the software package. The process then extracts the files corresponding to its particular process from the software package.

Software applications in modern enterprise data processing environments typically constitute many thousands of lines of source code and implement complex functionality. For example, the Apache web server, a widely available, open source web server, comprises at least 80,000 lines of source code. The Linux operating system, exceeds 1.6 million lines of source code. Testing such software products is a time-consuming task. Testing of software involves the invocation of the program functionality, and, typically, validating the correctness of the results of that functionality.
The testing of software includes the execution of one or more testcases which are designed to exercise the operations that implement the functionality of the software under task. The testcases are run to verify that the software under test does not fail for the testcase conditions, and additionally verify that the output generated is correct.
Generally, software testing includes activities that are performed by members of the software development team, and other activities that are automated, that is, performed by another software program.
Data processing systems, particularly in an enterprise environment, typically constitute a networked data processing system in which a set of commonly-accessed resources provide services to a multiplicity of users attached to the network. These services may include electronic mail (e-mail) services, Internet access, distributed computing services, input/output services, such as printing, etc. Moreover, the software deployed to provide such services as well as to access those services may be deployed across a multiplicity of platforms, that is, operating systems. Corresponding thereto, in the testing of a software product, may be desirable to run testcases across multiple hosts and platforms. Such a multihost testcase includes multiple testcase processes. Additionally, multiple testcase processes may run on a single host.
The testcases typically include multiple software files containing executable code and data. The set of files to execute the testcase on a particular host may depend on the host and runtime environment. The runtime environment may include the operating system deployed on the particular host, program environment (byte-code interpreted, such as Java or native) and the results of prior testcase runs.
The acquisition and deployment of the files to effect a particular testcase run on each host may represent a substantial effort in the software test cycle.
Consequently, there is a need in the art for systems and methods to automate the acquisition and deployment of software testcase files, particularly across multiple hosts and runtime environments.

Systems and methods for a bootstrap mechanism for software execution

International Business Machines Corporation


A method and device for providing a plurality of fire pulses in an ink jet printer, which includes a production of a plurality of fire signals. Each fire signal of the plurality of fire signals are asserted at a different timing than the other of the plurality of fire signals. The plurality of fire signals are combined to form a composite fire signal that maintains the different timing.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to printhead fire signals in ink jet printers, and, more particularly, to composite printhead fire signals.
2. Description of the Related Art
A printhead in an ink jet printer can include an array of nozzles, and associated actuators, that expel ink onto a printing medium according to an image to be produced on the printing medium. Signals are provided to the printhead that control the actuators and nozzles, including fire signals that energize the actuators for a sequence of durations. The array of nozzles can be divided into two or more groups of nozzles that are addressed separately and driven by separate fire signals. The separate fire signals can each require an input to the printhead, and printhead input/output (I/O) are relatively expensive in ink jet printhead design and manufacturing.
What is needed in the art is a method and device that combines printhead fire signals while at the same time minimizes printhead I/O requirements.


An apparatus to provide an oxygen concentrator that is a pressure swing adsorption-type oxygen concentrator equipped with; at least one adsorption bed filled with an adsorbent capable of selectively adsorbing nitrogen relative to oxygen, an air supply device to supply compressed air to the adsorption bed, a flow channel switching device to repeat at a predetermined timing an adsorption step to supply air from the air supply device to the adsorption bed to isolate concentrated oxygen and a desorption step to depressurize the adsorption bed to regenerate the adsorbent therein, and a flow rate setting device to set a volume of concentrated oxygen supplied to a user; comprising an exhaust pipe channel equipped with a leak valve in a flow channel between the air supply device and the adsorption bed to release a part of compressed air that is to be supplied to the adsorption bed into atmosphere.

In recent years, the number of patients suffering from chronic respiratory diseases such as pulmonary emphysema, pulmonary tuberculosis sequelae, chronic bronchitis and the like has tended to increase because of progress in aging and deterioration in living conditions. Oxygen inhalation therapy to inhale highly concentrated oxygen has been used as an effective treatment method for such patients. Oxygen inhalation therapy is a treatment method for patients with diseases described above to inhale an oxygen gas or oxygen-concentrated gas. A supply source of oxygen gas or oxygen-concentrated gas used in treatment includes a high pressure oxygen cylinder, a liquefied oxygen cylinder, an oxygen concentrator and the like, but the case using the oxygen concentrator has been increased because of durability in continuous use for a long period of time, easiness in use and the like.
The oxygen concentrator is an apparatus capable of separating oxygen from air to concentrate. As such an apparatus to separate and concentrate oxygen, an adsorption-type oxygen concentrator, equipped with a single or plural adsorption beds filled with adsorbents capable of selectively adsorbing nitrogen in air is widely known and used in hospitals and at homes from a standpoint of generating highly concentrated oxygen of 90% or higher. Among them, a pressure swing adsorption-type oxygen concentrator using a compressor as a pressure swing apparatus is widely used. Such an apparatus is an apparatus to generate highly concentrated oxygen continuously by repeating, at a certain cycle, an adsorption step to obtain unadsorbed and concentrated oxygen by supplying compressed air from a compressor to single or plural adsorption beds filled with adsorbents capable of selectively adsorbing nitrogen and adsorbing nitrogen on the adsorbents under the conditions in which inside of the adsorption beds is pressurized, and a desorption step to desorb nitrogen from the adsorbents by reducing the inner pressure of the adsorption beds to an atmospheric pressure or to a vacuum level for regeneration.
Measures to fine-tune a setting range of a volume of air to be supplied from a compressor to the adsorption beds or correct an adsorption-desorption sequence to tolerate a change of surrounding conditions, particularly temperature dependency of the adsorbents to maintain the oxygen concentration are adopted to respond to a decrease of an oxygen concentration in an oxygen-concentrated gas generated, which is caused by a change of environmental conditions such as variation in used temperature or barometric pressure in the oxygen concentrator or a decrease of the oxygen concentration in an oxygen-concentrated gas generated, which is caused by deterioration of the equipment with time.
Such an apparatus to maintain a product oxygen concentration is known, wherein a change of the oxygen concentration with time is corrected or a decrease of the oxygen concentration caused by deterioration of the equipment with time is compensated and the oxygen concentration of an oxygen-concentrated gas is maintained at a constant value by detecting the oxygen concentration of the oxygen-concentrated gas by using an oxygen sensor and performing feedback controls on an airflow volume of a compressor, a cycle timing of adsorption-desorption and the like (Japan Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-516854 and Japanese Patent Laid-open publication No. Laid-Open H09-183601).


A device for the radio stimulation of an antenna includes at least one transmission sub-assembly formed by an array of radiating elements and an array of photoelectric receivers; as well as a generator that synthesizes a set of electrical signals that are intended to excite each radiating element. The electrical signals are transmitted to the transmission sub-assembly in the form of modulated light waves that are multiplexed to form a composite laser beam that illuminates the array of photoelectric receivers. Each of the photoelectric receivers receives a light wave. The array of photoelectric sensors and the array of radiating elements have substantially identical arrangements. Each photoelectric receiver is connected to a radiating element in its array at a position identical to the one that said receiver occupies within its own or a position symmetrical thereto.

In order to stimulate a radio reception system once installed on its carrier platform without making any changes thereto, one solution is to resort to conventional generation of a radio signal remote from said radio reception system. The distance then imposes a certain level of radiated power in the direction of said radio reception system, and solutions similar to those of operational transmitters, in which said radio reception systems are designed to receive signals, are of course candidates.
There is a fallback for example on radar architectures limited to transmission (reception not having any benefit here since only the transmitted signal is desired) and, in particular, on radar architectures with electronic scanning, which has the benefit of not requiring mechanical means to point the beam from the test antenna at the radio reception system to be tested.
These architectures define devices that are generally compact. However, for some applications, it is sometimes useful to be able to separate the part generating the stimulation signal with its phase law from the part that radiates said stimulation signal, while at the same time as far as possible keeping a simple structure thereof since, for the needs of some applications, it may be multiplied.
In this context, one technical problem consists in finding a hardware solution for transporting the stimulation signal with its phase law so as to transmit the desired radio signal in the desired direction.
Insofar as existing stimulation devices are very generally compact, the prior art does not offer any solution for separating the part generating the stimulation signal from the radiating part.
The known devices are in particular based on architectures such as those illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2.
FIG. 1 shows a conventional structure for generating a phase law by way of controlled phase shifters 11 connected to transmission modules 12.
FIG. 2 shows a conventional structure for generating a phase law directly by way of waveform generators 21 that are also controlled in terms of phase (MIMO structure for multiple inputs multiple outputs), connected to transmission modules 12.
One solution in order to be able to separate the part generating the stimulation signal with its phase law from the part that radiates said simulation signal consists, as illustrated in FIG. 3, in splitting the structure of the transmission modules that radiate the stimulation signal into two, at the output of the phase-shifted signals, just at the input of the power amplification stage.
This division leads to the elements that form the set of phase-shifted signals that carry the phase law of the stimulation signal to be radiated being grouped together, in terms of hardware, into a first signal generator assembly 31, and to the elements that amplify the power of the signals and their radiation being grouped together, in terms of hardware, into a second assembly 32, remote from the first one. Such a solution, illustrated by FIG. 3, is in particular equally applicable to the structures illustrated by FIGS. 1 and 2.
However, using such a solution involves controlling the routing of the microwave signals produced by the first assembly 31, which signals may reach several tens of GHz, to the second assembly 32, the two assemblies possibly being spaced from one another by several tens of meters. This routing 33 specifically has to be performed without loss or alteration of the relative phases of the signals that are conveyed.
Since routing very high frequency signals from one apparatus to another remote apparatus by way of fiber-optic links is well known, one solution for routing the microwave signals produced by the first assembly 31 to the second assembly 32 is naturally that of using an offset 41 by way of optical fibers. Such a solution is illustrated by FIG. 4.
Such a solution may be implemented using various variants known from the prior art. It is in particular possible to use a number of optical fibers lower than the number of signals to be routed. For this purpose, a plurality of signals carried by laser waves of different wavelengths may be multiplexed on one and the same optical fiber; this wavelength multiplexing obviously involving demultiplexing on arrival.
However, the problem with such a solution is that of maintaining, in spite of everything, a physical link between the two hardware units 31 and 32, which constitutes a difficulty for some applications.
Another solution based on an optical offset between the two assemblies 31 and 32 consists, as illustrated in FIG. 5, in routing the signals produced by the assembly 31 through a composite laser beam, each component sk,l(t) of the radiated stimulation signal being carried by a laser wave of a different wavelength. The laser beam is directed toward a set of optoelectronic receivers arranged in a plane, a matrix-array of photodiodes for example, each laser wave being intended to be received by a dedicated optoelectronic receiver, connected to the transmission module ei intended to radiate said component.
However, in order to be able to guarantee that the desired phase law is maintained, such a means generally has to be accompanied by means for measuring and correcting the phase bias introduced by the distance and the direction of incidence (D,α,β) of the composite laser beam with respect to the plane of the optoelectronic sensors, so as to transmit a signal having the phase shift required to form the radiated signal to each of the transmission modules. Adding such means makes it more difficult to implement such a solution and reduces the advantages that it provides in terms of eliminating the physical link between the assembly that generates the signals forming the stimulation signal and the assembly that amplifies and radiates these signals.

Device for radioelectric stimulation by self-referenced radiant panel


An in vivo screening assay for identifying an agent that interferes with T cell activation and/or -differentiation and/or modulation of other inflammatory effector cells.

Continuous wave (CW) and quasi-CW UV lasers have been successfully utilized in microelectronic fabrication operations, for example, for inspection of wafers, microcircuits and masks. An advantage of using UV wavelengths is that a spatial resolution can be achieved that is comparable to the feature size of circuits. A CW laser is preferable, as such a laser provides the highest average power, power which is necessary for high throughput of the operation, while exposing a sample being operated on to the lowest possible peak intensity. The lower peak intensity is desirable in order to reduce damage to the sample during the operation.
CW UV lasers having adequate average power (several Watts) are not commercially available. There are commercial UV lasers available that involve frequency converting the output of a so-called quasi-CW laser. Such a laser is a pulsed laser that operates at a very high pulse-repetition frequency (PRF), for example, greater than about 10 megahertz (MHz) and typically 50 or more MHz. The pulse repetition frequency can be sufficiently high that, in certain operations on certain targets, the pulsed radiation beam from such a laser can be regarded as a continuous beam. Lasers including neodymium (Nd) doped host crystals, in particular yttrium vanadate (YVO4) or yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG) can be operated, mode-locked, at a PRF between 70 MHz and 120 MHz, with a pulse-duration of between about 10 and several 100 picoseconds. Such lasers have a fundamental output-wavelength of about 1064 nanometers (nm). This wavelength can be tripled, quadrupled, or quintupled by optically nonlinear crystals to provide, respectively, third-harmonic, fourth-harmonic, or fifth-harmonic, radiation, all of which are at UV-wavelengths. Having short (picosecond) pulses with relatively high peak-power facilitates frequency conversion into the UV range. By way of example, a Paladin™ (frequency-tripled Nd:YVO4) model laser available from Coherent®, Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif., the assignee of the present invention, can provide, at a wavelength of 355 nm (the third-harmonic wavelength), an average power as high as about 8 Watts (W) at a PRF of about 80 MHz. Pulse-duration (FWHM) is about 15 picoseconds.
While a relatively high peak-power of fundamental-wavelength pulses is advantageous for frequency (wavelength) conversion of the fundamental radiation, a relatively high power for UV-radiation pulses so produced can be disadvantageous for reasons discussed above. An increased average power for the UV radiation pulses, however, would be advantageous for increased operation throughput.
One approach to reducing peak-power in the UV radiation is to increase the PRF of the frequency-converted pulses by using a pulse-dividing arrangement to divide an original pulsed beam into two or more new pulsed beams, temporally separated by a submultiple (one-half, one-third, one-fourth, etc) of the repetition period of the original pulsed beam, then recombine these new beams on a common path or on a target. The pulses in the recombined beam will have a fraction of the peak-power of pulses in the original beam but will be delivered at a higher (twice, three-times, four times) PRF than those in the original beam. The average power in the new beam will be the same as that in the original beam less any losses incurred in the dividing and recombining operations. Examples of this approach are described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,275,514. Pulses in such a recombined beam will also, however, have only a fraction of the energy of pulses in the original beam. This could be a problem in operations for which pulse energy must exceed a threshold value.
Another approach to reducing peak-power in pulses without significantly reducing energy in the pulses is to temporally "stretch" the pulses without effectively changing the pulse-repetition frequency. In this approach, an optical delay loop having a round-trip time on the order of the duration of the original pulse is used to divide an original pulse into a plurality of replica pulses temporally spaced apart, peak to peak, by about one or two pulse-durations of the original pulse. These replicas of the original pulse are recombined on a target or along a common path as discussed above. The close temporal spacing of the replica pulses provides that the effect of the replica pulses in most operations is the same as a single pulse having an energy equal to the sum of the energy in the replica pulses. It is for this reason that the combination of the replica pulses is usually referred to in the prior-art as a stretched pulse.
This pulse-stretching approach is commonly used to reduce peak-power in UV radiation pulses delivered by excimer lasers. Such pulses have a duration of between about 20 nanoseconds (ns) and 80 ns and are usually delivered at a PRF between 100 Hertz (Hz) and 5 kilohertz (kHz). Examples of this approach to stretching excimer-laser pulses are taught in U.S. Patent Publication No. 2006/0216037 and in U.S. Pat. No. 7,035,012, which are assigned to the assignee of the present invention. Examples are also taught in U.S. Pat. No. 6,535,531. Imaging delay loops described in these documents have a round-trip length of about 6 meters or greater, depending on the duration of pulses being stretched. In most examples described, reflective imaging optics "fold" the delay loops into a space having a length as short about one-fourth of the round-trip length
Mode-locked lasers described above, however, provide pulses having a duration of only several picoseconds. A delay line in accordance with the teachings of the above-reference documents, for a 15-picosecond pulse, would be required to have a length of only about 4.5 millimeters. Making and aligning components for an imaging delay line of this short length is impractical. Accordingly, there is a need for a different approach to stretching multi-picosecond pulses from frequency-converted mode-locked lasers.

Quasi-CW UV laser with low peak pulse-power


A method of printing comprising the steps of marking the surface of a test preprinted media with a first marking material; placing the media adjacent to a transfer media; disposing the test media and the transfer media into the nip of a fuser roller assembly to thereby apply predetermined heat and pressure thereto; removing the test media and the transfer media from the nip of the fuser roller after a predetermined time; and, measuring the density of the first marking material which has been offset to the transfer media.

Electrographic printing (also referred to as electrographic marking, electrostatographic printing or marking, and electrophotographic printing or marking) has become the prevalent technology for modern computer-driven printing of text and images, on a wide variety of hard copy media. One type of such media is preprinted media, wherein the supplied media has print marking material already deposited thereon. Typical preprinted marking material includes inks, toners, paints, powders and the like.
One issue encountered with electrographic printing on preprinted media is that the preprinted marking material has a tendency to transfer to the fusing roller in the electrographic printer, thereby causing reliability issues.
Efforts regarding such printers or printing systems have led to continuing developments to improve their versatility practicality, and efficiency.

Indicator of properly cured ink for electrophotographic equipment


A tip for dispensing liquid for mounting on a container. A valve includes at least two elements that are mobile in relation to one another, each mobile element including a bearing zone against the other mobile element. One of the mobile elements bears anti-microbial material on or in the immediate proximity of a part of its bearing zone forming a blocking barrier and all surfaces of the dispensing tip in contact with the inside are free of anti-microbial material.

The current trend is to supply products, especially ophthalmic products, that do not contain preservatives. The sterility of the product must thus be guaranteed throughout the use of the bottle containing the liquid to be delivered.
From document WO92/01625, various devices are known that enable the delivery of drops of product contained in a reservoir and which prevent contamination of the liquid remaining in the bottle.
According to one example, such a liquid dispensing device includes a reservoir and a dispensing tip mounted on the reservoir, provided with a liquid dispensing opening. The dispensing tip comprises a valve which allows liquid to exit but prevents it from entering, which limits the risk of introducing bacteria or contaminating substances into the bottle. Such a valve is also referred to as a "check valve". The user applies pressure to the reservoir causing it to become deformed and, under the effect of pressure, a drop passes through the valve and forms on the surface of the dispensing opening. The valve closes once the desired quantity of drops is delivered.
A problem with this type of device is that although the valve closes, a small residual quantity of product remains on the surface of the tip after the dosed drop or drops are delivered and this small residual quantity of product may be the point from which contamination may spread into the bottle.
This propagation is a surprising phenomena which contradicts the operating principle of the valve, but which the inventors behind this invention have highlighted.
A posteriori, the inventors explain this phenomenon by the fact that the position of the boundary between the inside and the outside of the bottle is not fixed on the valve, but moves, over the course of successive openings and closings, around an average position. As a result, in the areas surrounding this boundary, there are adjacent areas that are sometimes inside or outside the bottle, i.e. outside the boundary, and sometimes included within this boundary.
After several opening-closing manoeuvres, the contaminations can find a path of slow migration via these adjacent zones, first from the outside of the bottle toward the boundary, then from the boundary toward the inside of the bottle.

Nozzle and container for dispensing a liquid


First delay mechanisms to delay a beam-detect signal by different lengths of time in synchronization with a first clock signal. The beam-detect signal is generated responsive to one or more beams being output towards a rotating polygonal mirror having facets and directed towards a sensor. One or more second delay mechanisms each correspond to one of the beams to delay a second clock signal, resulting in a beam-clock signal to align the beam over successive reflections by the facets. A mechanism determines a delay by which each second delay mechanism is to delay the second clock signal, based on the beam-detect signal as differently delayed by the first delay mechanisms.

An electrophotographic printing device commonly employs one or more laser beams to selectively expose, on a scan line-by-scan line basis, positions on a photosensitive surface in correspondence with an image to be printed. For any given laser beam, the spot at which the laser beam illuminates the photosensitive surface within one scan line should be aligned with the corresponding spot at which the laser beam impinged the photosensitive surface within the previous scan line. Furthermore, for a group of laser beams, the spots at which the laser beams impinge the photosensitive surface within a given scan line should be aligned with one another (i.e., deskewed). If either or both of these conditions are not satisfied, image quality can be degraded.

Aligning beams over successive reflections by facets of rotating polygonal mirror

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


A user's address book includes a first group of email addresses. Those email addresses are used to identify address books that include another group of email addresses. Multiple iterations may be used to identify several groups of email addresses, representing a user's social network. When an email message addressed to the user is received, the message is trusted if the sending email address is within the user's social network. Otherwise, the message is flagged as junk mail. Varying trust levels may be applied to messages that are received based on a distance within a social network between the sending email address and the user and/or how often the sending email address appears within the social network.

As more and more individuals are utilizing electronic mail as a tool for communication, unsolicited junk email has become a problem. To enable users to reduce the amount of junk email ("spam") that they receive, many email filtering tools have been developed. One of the most effective email filters is an exclusive filter based on entries in a user's email address book. For example, an exclusive email filter identifies as junk mail, any email received from an email address not found in the recipients address book.
While this is an effective filtering technique, it is likely that many email messages may be identified as junk mail when, in fact, they are email that the recipient would like to receive. For example, if a user has the email address of a friend in their address book, emails from that friend will be received. However, if the friend passes on the user's email address to another friend, any emails received from that individual will be classified as junk mail until the user adds the new friend's email address to their address book.
Accordingly, a need exists for an email filter that classifies an email received from a friend of a friend as being a trusted email rather than a junk email.


In an apparatus for controlling an air/fuel ratio of a general-purpose internal combustion engine using mixed fuel containing alcohol and gasoline and operated at a desired engine speed inputted by the operator while a throttle opening is regulated such that a detected engine speed converges to the inputted desired engine speed, a fuel injection amount for mixed fuel determined based on fuel injection amount characteristics is increased/decreased when a load is kept constant and the output air/fuel ratio (at which an output of the engine becomes maximum) is estimated. And the fuel injection amount is corrected based on the estimated air/fuel ratio, thereby enabling to estimate the output air/fuel ratio without using an expensive air/fuel ratio sensor and to feedback-control the fuel injection amount such that the engine is operated at the output air/fuel ratio.

Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an air/fuel ratio control apparatus for a general-purpose internal combustion engine.
Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, as one type of air/fuel ratio control of an internal combustion engine, air/fuel ratio feedback control is known which uses an air/fuel ratio sensor installed in an exhaust pipe to detect an air/fuel ratio of exhaust gas and corrects a fuel injection amount such that the detected air/fuel ratio converges to the stoichiometric air/fuel ratio, as taught, for example, in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2002-122035.

Air/fuel ratio control apparatus for general-purpose engine


In one embodiment, attack observations by a first node are provided to a user interface device regarding an attack detected by the node. Input from the user interface device is received that confirms that a particular attack observation by the first node indicates that the attack was detected correctly by the first node. Attack observations by one or more other nodes are provided to the user interface device. Input is received from the user interface device that confirms whether the attack observations by the first node and the attack observations by the one or more other nodes are both related to the attack. The one or more other nodes are identified as potential voters for the first node in a voting-based attack detection mechanism based on the attack observations from the first node and the one or more other nodes being related.

Low power and Lossy Networks (LLNs), e.g., sensor networks, have a myriad of applications, such as Smart Grid and Smart Cities. Various challenges are presented with LLNs, such as lossy links, low bandwidth, battery operation, low memory and/or processing capability of a device, etc. Changing environmental conditions may also affect device communications. For example, physical obstructions (e.g., changes in the foliage density of nearby trees, the opening and closing of doors, etc.), changes in interference (e.g., from other wireless networks or devices), propagation characteristics of the media (e.g., temperature or humidity changes, etc.), and the like also present unique challenges to LLNs.
One type of network attack that is of particular concern in the context of LLNs is a Denial of Service (DoS) attack. Typically, DoS attacks operate by attempting to exhaust the available resources of a service (e.g., bandwidth, memory, etc.), thereby preventing legitimate traffic from using the resource. A DoS attack may also be distributed, to conceal the presence of the attack. For example, a distributed DoS (DDoS) attack may involve multiple attackers sending malicious requests, making it more difficult to distinguish when an attack is underway.

Ground truth evaluation for voting optimization


A thin film capacitor including a first electrode having on its surface a (100) face of cubic system or a (001) face of tetragonal system, a dielectric thin film epitaxially grown on the first electrode and exhibiting a crystal structure which inherently belongs to a perovskite structure of cubic system, and a second electrode formed on the dielectric thin film. Further, the dielectric thin film meets the following relationship V/V.sub.0 .gtoreq.1.01 where a unit lattice volume of true perovskite crystal structure belonging to the cubic system (lattice constant a.sub.0) is represented by V.sub.0 =a.sub.0.sup.3, and a unit lattice volume (lattice constant a=b.noteq.c) which is strained toward a tetragonal system after the epitaxial growth is represented by V=a.sup.2 c, and also meets the following relationship c/a.gtoreq.1.01 where c/a represents a ratio between a lattice constant "c" in the direction thicknesswise of the film and a lattice constant "a" in the direction parallel with a plane of the film.

This invention relates to a thin film capacitor which is useful as a thin film capacitance element in a semiconductor integrated circuit or in the peripheral circuit of semiconductor integrated circuit.
There has been a rapid progress in the integration of LSI, in particular DRAM (Dynamic Random Access read write Memory) whose integration has been increased by four times as compared with that of three years before. This trend of increasing the integration is expected to be further advanced in future in the same rapidness as in seen in the past few years. However, since it is required in the case DRAM to retain a prescribed capacitance in view of assuring the sensitivity of a sense circuit as well as in view of preventing a soft error by a radiation, the effective area of a capacitor within a memory cell cannot be diminished in proportion to an increase in integration of semiconductor elements. As a result, as long as a silicon oxide film is employed as a dielectric material, it is inevitable that the area occupied by a capacitor in a memory cell becomes increasingly larger as the integration is further advanced.
On the other hand, there has been extensively studied to employ a thin film having a high dielectric constant as a dielectric film of capacitor in a memory cell of DRAM. The purpose of using the thin film having the high dielectric constant as a dielectric film of capacitor is to minimize the area of capacitor so as to miniaturize a high integrated memory cell. If a thin film having the high dielectric constant is to be employed as a dielectric film of capacitor in a memory cell of DRAM, the quantity of electric charge that can be stored per unit area is required to be large and at the same time a leakage current is required to be small. Furthermore, for the purpose of operating a memory at a high speed, it is desired that both charging and discharging can be performed at a sufficiently high speed.
Under the circumstances, the employment of Ta.sub.2 O.sub.5 (relative dielectric constant: about 28) has been studied for the application thereof to a memory cell of DRAM in place of the conventional dielectric films, i.e. silicon oxide (SiO.sub.2) film (relative dielectric constant: about 4) and silicon nitride (Si.sub.3 N.sub.4) film (relative dielectric constant: about 7). However, the magnitude of the dielectric constant of Ta.sub.2 O.sub.5 is still insufficient to meet the demand for increasing the integration by minimizing the area of capacitor.
Accordingly, the employment of strontium titanate (SrTiO.sub.3) or of barium strontium titanate (Ba.sub.x Sr.sub.1-x TiO.sub.3) has been extensively studied as a candidate for a dielectric material having a higher dielectric constant. The (Ba, Sr) TiO.sub.3 is formed of a solid solution comprising BaTiO.sub.3 and SrTiO.sub.3, forming a perovskite crystal structure. It is known that SrTiO.sub.3 is a paraelectric material, and BaTiO.sub.3 is a ferroelectric substance having a Curie temperature of about 120.degree. C.
Since Sr and Ba are less evaporable as compared with Pb or Bi, the control in composition of (Ba, Sr) TiO.sub.3 is relatively easy in the formation of a thin film of (Ba, Sr) TiO.sub.3. Moreover, when these BaTiO.sub.3 and SrTiO.sub.3 are crystallized, there is a little possibility of these crystals take any other crystal structure (such as pyrochlore structure) than the perovskite crystal structure.
There is a problem however in (Ba.sub.x Sr.sub.1-x TiO.sub.3) that when this compound is formed into a thin film of not more than 100 nm in thickness, the dielectric constant thereof is lowered, thus making it impossible to store a sufficient electric charge therein.
Meanwhile, a memory device employing a ferroelectric substance as a capacitor (ferroelectric memory) is now being developed as a memory medium. As a matter fact, some ferroelectric memories have been actually put into practical use. Since the ferroelectric memory is non-volatile, the memory once stored in the memory would not be dissipated even after a power source is turned off. Moreover, the ferroelectric memory is featured in that the inversion of spontaneous polarization is very fast if the film thickness thereof is sufficiently thin, so that a high speed writing and reading which is comparable to that of DRAM is possible. Furthermore, since the ferroelectric memory cell of one bit can be constructed with a single transistor and a single ferroelectric capacitor, it is suited for manufacturing a large storage device.
It is also studied to operate a ferroelectric memory in a manner of DRAM. Namely, in this case, the ferroelectric substance is employed as a memory cell capacitor of the DRAM without allowing the spontaneous polarization of the ferroelectric substance to be inverted in the ordinary operation. However, the ferroelectric memory is used, by taking advantage of a residual polarization of the ferroelectric thin film, as a non-volatile memory only at a moment prior to the turn-off of the power of apparatus. This method is effective in minimizing the effect of a phenomenon (fatigue) that the ferroelectricity of the ferroelectric memory is gradually deteriorated with a repetition of the polarization inversion, which has been considered to be most the serious problem of the ferroelectric memory.
It is required for a ferroelectric thin film suited for use in a ferroelectric memory to have various features, such as being large in residual polarization, low in temperature dependence of residual polarization, minimal in deterioration (fatigue) of residual polarization resulting from the repetition of polarization inversion, and capable of maintaining the residual polarization for a long period of time (retention). Additionally, for the purpose of actuating the memory at a high speed, the inversion of spontaneous polarization is required to be sufficiently rapid.
At present, lead zirconate titanate (PZT) has been mainly employed as a ferroelectric material. This PZT is formed of a solid solution comprising lead zirconate (PbZrO.sub.3) and lead titanate (PbTiO.sub.3). In particular, a PZT which is formed of a solid solution comprising lead zirconate and lead titanate at a ratio of approximately 1:1 in molar ratio is considered to be large in spontaneous polarization and capable of inverting even at a low electric field, and hence considered to be excellent as a memory medium. Since the transition temperature (Curie point) between ferroelectric phase and paraelectric phase is relatively high, i.e. about 300.degree. C., there is little probability that a data stored in the memory is vanished by heat as long as the memory is kept within a range of temperature (not more than 120.degree. C.) which the ordinary electronic circuit would encounter.
However, the manufacture of a thin film of the PZT which is excellent in quality is known to be difficult. First of all, since lead (Pb) constituting a main component of the PZT easily evaporates at a temperature of 500.degree. C. or higher, an accurate control of the composition of PZT is very difficult. Secondly, although it is known that the PZT exhibits a ferroelectricity only when the PZT takes a perovskite crystal structure, it is very difficult to obtain a PZT film having a perovskite crystal structure. Instead, it is easy to obtain a PZT having a pyrochlore structure, which however does not exhibit ferroelectricity. In order to obtain a PZT film of perovskite crystal structure, a treatment at more or less high temperature (about 500.degree. C.) is required. However, if the PZT film is treated at such a high temperature, Pb is caused to evaporate or diffuse as mentioned above, thereby making it difficult obtain a PZT film of desired composition.
Recently, research on SrBi.sub.2 Ta.sub.2 O.sub.9, which is one of Bi series layer perovskite compounds, is being extensively performed in an effort to apply it to a ferroelectric memory, etc. However, although Bi is an element having a low melting point just like Pb, it is required to be sufficiently crystallized for attaining a hysteresis, i.e. it is required to be heat-treated at a high temperature (700.degree. C.). The heating of the compound at such a high temperature cannot be carried out without inviting various problems that Bi would be evaporated or diffused into electrodes or other portions of device. Additionally, in spite of the fact that this compound is highly anisotropic in crystallinity, when this compound is desired to be used in the form of a non-orientated polycrystalline film, the problem of non-uniformity in ferroelectricity among the finely processed films would be raised.
In spite of such a difficulty as mentioned above in the manufacture of a PZT thin film or Bi series layer compound thin film of high quality with good reproducibility, these thin films are still extensively studied as a candidate for a memory medium (capacitor), because there is no other ferroelectric material other than PZT and Bi-based compounds which is suited for use as a memory capacitor.
Except for PZT, barium titanate (BaTiO.sub.3) is known to exhibit ferroelectricity at room temperature. This BaTiO.sub.3 is known as having the same perovskite crystal structure as that of PZT and a Curie point of about 120.degree. C. Since Ba is less evaporable as compared with Pb, the control of composition in the manufacture of a thin film of BaTiO.sub.3 is relatively easy. Moreover, once this BaTiO.sub.3 is crystallized, there is little possibility that this BaTiO.sub.3 takes any other crystal structure (a pyrochlore structure) than the perovskite crystal structure.
In spite of these advantages, the BaTiO.sub.3 for use as a thin film capacitor has not been seriously taken up for study as a candidate for a memory medium of ferroelectric memory. One of the reasons for this can be ascribed to the facts that the residual polarization thereof is small as compared with PZT and the temperature dependence of the residual polarization is relatively large. In other words, the reason may be ascribed to the facts that the Curie temperature Tc of the BaTiO.sub.3 is inherently relatively low (about 120.degree. C.), and the coercive electric field of the BaTiO.sub.3 is relatively low. In this case, the Curie temperature Tc means a temperature at the moment of phase transition from the ferroelectric phase to the paraelectric phase, which is inherent to a ferroelectric material so that a material, even exhibiting ferroelectricity at room temperature, would not exhibit ferroelectricity at a temperature higher than the Curie temperature. Therefore, when a ferroelectric memory is manufactured by making use of a thin film capacitor consisting of BaTiO.sub.3, not only there is a probability that the data stored therein may be vanished when the memory is once exposed to a high temperature (120.degree. C.) for some reason, but also the temperature dependence of residual polarization is relatively large even at a temperature range (85.degree. C. or less) to which an electronic circuit is generally exposed, thus making the operation of the memory unstable.
Therefore, it has been considered that a thin film capacitor formed of a ferroelectric thin film consisting of BaTiO.sub.3 is not suited for use as a memory medium of a ferroelectric memory.
Meanwhile, it has been recently reported a phenomenon that when a BaTiO.sub.3 film was epitaxially grown to a thickness of 60 nm on a Pt/MgO single crystal substrate, the Curie temperature thereof was raised up to 200.degree. C. or more (K. Iijima, Appl. Phys., Vol.62, No.12 (1993), pp.1250-1251). This document reports that this phenomenon is assumed to have been brought about by a shrinkage of a-axis and an extension of c-axis of BaTiO.sub.3 perovskite lattice, since the BaTiO.sub.3 film has been epitaxially grown in conformity with the lattice constant of Pt. This document further goes on saying that this phenomenon can be observed only when the thickness of the BaTiO.sub.3 film is not more than 60 nm, and that if the thickness of the BaTiO.sub.3 film exceeds over 60 nm, the lattice constant of the BaTiO.sub.3 film would be relaxed to that inherent to the BaTiO.sub.3 due to a misfit dislocation (due to an increase of film thickness to larger than the critical film thickness).
On the other hand, it is known that if a thickness of a ferroelectric thin film is not more than 1 .mu.m, the residual polarization becomes smaller with a decrease in film thickness of the ferroelectric thin film. As a matter of fact, the aforementioned document reported that when the film thickness of the BaTiO.sub.3 epitaxial film was 100 nm or less, the residual polarization thereof was limited to not more than 2 to 3 .mu.C/cm.sup.2. Therefore, even if it is possible with the employment of a BaTiO.sub.3 epitaxial film having a thickness of 60 nm or less to raise the Curie temperature, it is impossible to attain a sufficient residual polarization for practical use as a ferroelectric thin film.
Because of these reasons, it has been considered that even if it is possible with the employment of the conventional BaTiO.sub.3 thin film capacitor to raise the Curie temperature by way of epitaxial effect, it is very difficult to actually use it as a memory medium for use in a ferroelectric memory.
With a view to solve the aforementioned problems involved in the conventional ferroelectric thin film, the present inventors have discovered that, if a dielectric material (for example, Ba.sub.x Sr.sub.1-x TiO.sub.3) having a lattice constant which is relatively close to that of a lower electrode (for example, Pt) is employed and at the same time if an RF magnetron sputtering method which is comparatively effective in avoiding misfit dislocation during the deposition of film is adopted as a method of forming a film, it is possible, even if the thickness of the film is as thick as about 200 nm, to maintain a state of film where the lattice constant is extended in the direction of film thickness (c-axis) while the lattice constant in-plane of film (a-axis) is shrunk as compared with those of the inherent lattice constant which can be obtained through an epitaxial effect. As a result, it has been confirmed that it is possible to shift the ferroelectric Curie temperature Tc toward a higher temperature side and hence to obtain a ferroelectric thin film which is capable of exhibiting a large residual polarization at room temperature and maintaining a sufficiently large residual polarization even if the temperature of the film is raised up to about 85.degree. C.
For example, it has been experimentally confirmed by the employment of Pt (lattice constant a=0.39231 nm) which is hardly oxidized as a lower electrode and strontium barium titanate (Ba.sub.x Sr.sub.1-x TiO.sub.3 : as BST; x=0.44 to 0.90) as a dielectric substance that this dielectric substance is capable of exhibiting ferroelectricity even if the composition thereof is shifted to a compositional region (x.ltoreq.0.7) where ferroelectricity is not expected to be exhibited inherently at room temperature, and that when this dielectric substance is in the compositional region where ferroelectricity can be inherently exhibited at room temperature, the Curie temperature thereof can be further raised beyond the inherent Curie point (which is higher than room temperature), indicating that preferable ferroelectric properties for practical use can be realized.
The present inventors have further found out that a method of introducing a strain to a ferroelectric substance by taking advantage of mismatching in lattice constant between a lower electrode and the ferroelectric substance is also effective for improving a dielectric constant of paraelectric thin film. Namely, it has been found out that when a thin film of Ba.sub.x Sr.sub.1-x TiO.sub.3 (where x (the content of Ba)=about 0.24) is epitaxially grown on a Pt layer, a phenomenon of a prominent increase in dielectric constant can be observed even though no ferroelectricity can be observed. Therefore, it is possible by taking advantage of this phenomenon to greatly increase the accumulation of electric charge in a dielectric film to be employed for a memory cell of DRAM.
However, it has been found by the latest experiments made by the present inventors that when an epitaxial film of Ba.sub.x Sr.sub.1-x TiO.sub.3 as a dielectric substance is deposited on a lower electrode so as to obtain the aforementioned epitaxial effects by taking advantage of mismatching of lattice constant, i.e. to provide a paraelectric material with ferroelectricity; to provide a ferroelectric material with an enhanced ferroelectricity; or to provide a paraelectric material with an increased dielectric constant, various problems would be raised in the operation of device at a high speed.
Namely, it has been found that when a film is formed of a ferroelectric substance, the D-E hysteresis depicted with a higher frequency may indicate a lower residual polarization as compared with that where the D-E hysteresis is depicted with a lower frequency. Further, when a film is formed of a paraelectric substance, the frequency dependence of a dielectric constant becomes larger, so that a phenomenon that dielectric constant is lowered with an increase in frequency may be seen.


An anti-balloon device, to be placed downstream of a weft feeder for weaving looms, comprising a structure which forms a substantially tubular through cavity, preferably substantially frustum-shaped; the cavity is crossed by an unwinding thread that arrives from the weft feeder and controls the passage of the thread, by opposing the centrifugal force that affects it. The structure is shaped like a bottomless basket which is formed by rods lying longitudinally between end elements which connect the rods; the end elements are end rings which are mutually angularly spaced so as to surround the cavity in order to control the passage of the thread.

The present invention relates to an anti-balloon device or the like, typically but not exclusively for weft feeders for weaving looms, and particularly for pre-measuring weft feeders for air jet looms.
As is known to the expert in the field, weft feeders are devices which are inserted between the spool and the loom and have the specific task of feeding the thread to the loom at each weft insertion, releasing it from a weft reserve accumulated by the device in the form of turns wound on a drum of the device; they also have the task of restoring the reserve by winding again onto the drum a number of turns equal to the unwound ones. Pre-measuring feeders furthermore have the task of measuring the length of thread released at each insertion, and for this purpose a pre-measuring feeder typically comprises a variable-diameter drum, on which a swiveling arm winds the turns that form the weft reserve, a weft braking finger for stopping the thread, which is associated with the drum and is actuated electromagnetically in order to release the thread, allowing it to unwind from the drum, and stop its unwinding once the pre-measured amount is reached, means for counting the turns released at each insertion, and means for counting the turns wound again in order to restore the weft reserve.
In devices of this type, due to the speed with which the turns of the reserve unwind from the drum, which is particularly high in pre-measuring feeders when the weft braking finger moves to the release position, the thread, urged by centrifugal force, arranges itself immediately downstream of the drum along the generatrices of a solid of revolution which is commonly known as xe2x80x9cballoonxe2x80x9d, whose dimensions increase as the speed of the weaving process increases and as the mechanical tension of the thread decreases. It is well-known that the presence of the balloon causes severe problems in the weaving process, since it facilitates the formation of tangles of thread, knots and other discontinuities which interfere with the correct travel of the thread, often causing it to break.
In order to avoid these drawbacks, the above weft feeders are equipped with anti-balloon devices placed downstream of the drum on which the weft reserve is wound and having the task of restraining the thread as much as possible, thus reducing its tendency to expand radially due to centrifugal force.
Known anti-balloon devices are typically constituted by shield-like elements having a preferably frustum-shaped continuous lateral surface or skirt and forming a through cavity for the thread, the shield-like elements being arranged with their major base directed toward the drum; the shield-like elements receive the unwinding thread and guide it toward a terminal thread guiding ring, from which the thread is sent to the loom. Inside said frustum-shaped shield-like element, the thread rotates like the hand of a clock and remains, due to centrifugal force, in contact with the internal lateral surface of said shield-like element; this entails a double drawback. Firstly, the friction generated by contact between the thread and the lateral surface brakes the thread, subjecting it to an undesirable mechanical tension which increases as travel speed of the thread increases and as the friction between the thread and the lateral surface increases; secondly, rotation like the hand of a clock and the consequent sliding of the thread in contact with the lateral surface of the shield-like element generates lint and dust, which in turn jam the correct advancement of the thread, damaging the correct execution of the weaving process.
In an attempt to obviate these drawbacks and particularly to reduce the mechanical tension generated on the thread by its sliding against the internal lateral surface of the frustum-shaped shield-like element, it has been suggested to give a profile to said surface by providing it, for this purpose, with raised ridges protruding radially inside the lateral surface.
According to the prior EP-A3-449068, an anti-balloon device is provided in which the ridges protruding from the internal lateral surface of the frustum-shaped shield-like element trace a spiral shape around the longitudinal axis of the element. Additionally, according to the EP-0737161, the internal lateral surface of the shield-like element of the anti-balloon device is instead provided with straight protruding ridges which are orientated along the generatrices of said surface.
However, both these known solutions have failed to give the expected results.
With the spiral ridge arrangement, the thread in fact remains in any case in contact with the ridge and the braking action produced by friction does not vary significantly, owing to the fact that the decrease in contact surface between the ridge and the thread is mostly compensated, for an equal centrifugal force, by the increase in the specific pressure urging the thread against the ridge. Even with the straight-ridge arrangement, the total braking action applied by the anti-balloon device to the thread does not vary significantly, owing to the fact that in passing from one ridge to the next the thread slides at least over part of the lateral surface separating one ridge from the next, so that as a whole the friction between the lateral surface and the thread does not vary appreciably.
The aim of the present invention is to eliminate the above drawbacks.
Within this general aim, an important and particular object of the present invention is to provide an anti-balloon device for weft feeders as specified, which is suitable to effectively contain the unwinding thread and at the same time significantly reduce the friction applied to the thread and the mechanical tension accordingly generated thereon, particularly so as to make the friction adjustable according to the operating requirements.
Another important particular object of the present invention is to provide a self-cleaning anti-balloon device, i.e., an anti-balloon device which does not accumulate dust, lint and the like generated by the sliding of the thread and by its interaction with the anti-balloon device.
Another object of the invention is to provide an anti-balloon device which has a simplified structure, with replaceable components, reduced weight and bulk and suitable to allow effective and broad adjustment of the braking action applied to the thread, thus making the device suitable for threads of any count and type.
According to the present invention, this aim and these and other objects which will become better apparent from the detailed description that follows are achieved with an anti-balloon device, typically but not exclusively for textile thread feeders, particularly pre-measuring weft feeders as specified, having the specific characteristics defined in the appended claims.
Substantially, the invention is based on the concept of providing an anti-balloon device in which the continuous lateral surface of the frustum-shaped shield-like element is replaced by a bottomless basket-like structure comprising a set of cylindrical rods which are arranged, according to one of the embodiments, along the generatrices of an ideal frustum-shaped solid, are mutually angularly equidistant, and are connected by end elements and, in particular, removably connected to a pair of axially spaced end rings which have appropriate diameters and define the ideal frustum-shaped solid.
According to another embodiment of the invention, the ideal solid can be cylindrical or oval and cut in half along its maximum diameter.
According to still another embodiment, the basket can be provided starting from a single continuous rod or bar which is bent into a coil with straight formations running longitudinally, preferably substantially along the generatrices of the ideal geometric solid formed by the bottomless basket and with end formations, with respect to the basket, which are bent in a U-shape and are joined to the contiguous straight formations and are an integral part thereof.
According to still another embodiment of the invention, the cylindrical removable rods interposed between the end rings are straight, variable in number and chosen according to the friction that the device is allowed to apply to the type of thread being unwound without said thread being subjected to damage and breaks.
The invention might also be used in the front unwinding of the textile thread from a cross-wound spool.

Anti-balloon device for weft feeders for weaving looms


A substrate and method for growing a semi-conductive crystal on an alloy film such as (AIN)x(SiC)(1-x) without any buffer layer is disclosed. The (AIN)x(SiC)(1-x) alloy film can be formed on a SiC substrate by a vapor deposition process using AlN and SiC powder as starting materials. The (AIN)x(SiC)(1-x) alloy film provides a better lattice match for GaN or SiC epitaxial growth and reduces defects in epitaxially grown GaN with better lattice match and chemistry.

The development of modern electronic devices places an ever increasing demand on the quality of the semiconductor materials used in these devices. However, the epitaxially grown semiconductor crystals produced with today's technology are highly defective and adversely affect the performance and reliability of the device employing the crystal.
The poor quality of the epitaxially grown semiconductor crystals is generally due to the unavailability of a lattice matched and chemically matched substrate. When a film is grown on a substrate or an underlying layer such that the crystal structure of the substrate or underlying layer is reflected on the film, the thus-grown film exhibits microstructural discontinuity at the interface between layers formed of different semiconductor materials. Since the thickness of the film is considerably smaller than that of the substrate, the difference in lattice constant between the film and the substrate causes generation of strain and defects in the film.
For example, when a crystal of a nitride semiconductor such as gallium nitride (GaN) is grown on a starting substrate made of silicon (Si) or the like and then cooled to the ordinary temperature, a large number of dislocations and cracks occur in the nitride semiconductor layer because of stress caused by the difference in thermal expansion coefficient or lattice constant. If a large number of dislocations and cracks occur in the growth layer (nitride semiconductor layer), lattice defects or a large number of dislocations, deformations, cracks, etc., occur in a film when the film is epitaxially formed on the growth layer. This causes deterioration of the film characteristic.
To improve lattice match, a buffer layer can be formed on a substrate, and subsequently a crystal of a semiconductor is grown on the buffer layer. The buffer layer can lower the adverse effect of defects in the surface of the substrate on the crystal, and reduce propagation of lattice defects contained in the substrate. However, in some cases, because of microstructural discontinuity at the substrate/buffer interface, defects are newly generated at the interface.
Therefore, demand has arisen for an epitaxially grown compound semiconductor film of reduced crystal defect density.

Solid solution wide bandgap semiconductor materials


A shipping pallet having strong lightweight recyclable support surfaces and rigid reusable support stringers incorporated within. The pallet uses corrugated cardboard sheets that are precision cut and scored to be formed about the rigid reusable support stringers. A cardboard reinforcing surface sheet is secured by adhesive bond to the enclosed support stringers defining a completed pallet.

1. Technical Field
This invention relates to shipping pallets that are used for material handling and shipping of palletized loads in the shipping industry.
2. Description of Prior Art
Prior art shipping pallets have traditionally been made of wood planks that are nailed to spaced wood supports. The wood planks are nailed to the top and bottom surfaces of the wood supports defining a self-supporting elevated platform on which loads can be placed. The wood planks and supports are typically spaced in relation to one another and allow access for a forklift to slide under the upper planks in two access channels formed between the wood supports. While wood pallets are durable and easy to manufacture, they have a limited useful life due to the abuse during use. High quality wood pallets are repairable and reused, if possible, until they are significantly damaged and must be discarded.
Low quality or standard wood pallets are most often used for limited reshipping purposes or one-way shipping environments wherein the receiver of the palletized goods has no specific need for the pallet once received and thus becomes a disposal liability. Attempts to recycle the standard wood pallet have met with various degrees of success due to the labor involved in disassembly the damaged pallets and safety issues for workers handling wood with rusty nails, etc.
A solution to the problem associated with the disposal of wood pallets have been the introduction of the paper or cardboard pallets. Paper pallets have been made out of a variety of paper construction elements such as honeycomb, corrugated cardboard and pre-formed paper shapes such as cylinders and tubes. By use of paper pallets, allows for the total recycling of the pallet by shredding, baling and disposal as recycled paper. Paper pallets introduce a new series of problems, such as moisture, durability and load capacity versus fabrication costs. Thus the only lightweight load bearing paper pallets have been successful in the marketplace for certain load and weight requirements such as air freight or limited indoor or inter-plant shipping.
Such examples of paper pallets can be seen in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,001,991, 5,076,176, 5,129,329, 5,195,440, 5,493,962 and 5,528,994.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,001,991 a corrugated pallet construction can be seen having a plurality of cross support tubes engaged through stringers of tri-folded cardboard construction.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,076,176 is directed to a corrugated cardboard pallet having platform slats made of multiple layers of cardboard glued together. Transversely extending cross slots define support stringers with a plurality of spacer blocks all formed of laminated layers of corrugated cardboard.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,129,329 is a modified form of U.S. Patent ending in 176 that introduces an alternate construction wherein the top and bottom paper slats are to be formed of wood.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,195,440 discloses a paper pallet formed from sheets of foldable material. Support stringers are formed from tubular construction having tubular reinforcing vents provided within.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,493,962 claims a lightweight paper pallet having honeycomb load supporting surface structure secured to support beams made of channels of corrugated cardboard with spacer support blocks within.
A cardboard pallet can be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 5,528,994 having a sandwich and glued cardboard sheet construction and interdisposed support and spacing slots and blocks formed of laminated corrugated cardboard products.
Finally, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,601,035 a cardboard pallet is shown made of multiple layers of corrugated cardboard bonded together forming load supporting surface sheets and intersecting cross cardboard beams.


A system of determining a composition of print production resources in a print shop may include a plurality of print production resources, an electronic device in communication with one or more of the print production resources, and a computer-readable storage medium in communication with the electronic device. The computer-readable storage medium may include one or more programming instructions that, when executed, cause the electronic device to identify real-time print job requests for print jobs, prioritize the clients, update a queue file based on the prioritization, identify as a highest priority client the client associated with a highest priority in the queue file, categorize the print jobs associated with the highest priority client into a large job category or a small job category, determine a composition of print production resources, route print jobs to the print production resources in the determined composition, and control operation of the print production resources.

Large transaction operations, such as large-scale print shops, commonly experience demand spikes in volume. To handle these demand spikes, such operations usually must employ overtime and temporary labor to meet service level agreements. The current production approach involves prioritizing jobs using a policy, and then printing the jobs, staging the jobs in a staging area, gathering raw materials, and performing a quality check prior to shipping. However, this approach is costly and time-intensive.

Print job production methods and systems in a large transaction print environment


Dialysis apparatus including a blood treatment unit having a dialysate chamber and a blood chamber separated by a semipermeable membrane, a dialysate circuit presenting a supply line and a discharge line connected to the blood treatment unit, a preparation device for preparing a dialysate containing a substance present in the blood too and a regulator regulating the concentration of the substance in the dialysate. A blood circuit to circulate extracorporeal blood through the blood chamber; a controller that determines a value representative of the concentration of the substance in the blood and are programmed for driving the regulator as a function of the determined value representative of the substance concentration in the blood such that the substance concentration in the dialysate tends towards the substance concentration in the blood.

The kidneys fulfil many functions, including the removal of water, the excretion of catabolites (or waste from the metabolism, for example urea and creatinine), the regulation of the concentration of the electrolytes in the blood (sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium, bicarbonates, phosphates, chlorides) and the regulation of the acid/base equilibrium within the body, which is obtained in particular by the removal of weak acids (phosphates, monosodium acids) and by the production of ammonium salts.
In individuals who have lost the use of their kidneys, since these excretion and regulation mechanisms no longer work, the body accumulates water and waste from the metabolism and exhibits an excess of electrolytes (in particular sodium), as well as, in general, acidosis, the pH of the blood plasma shifting towards 7 (the blood pH normally varies within narrow limits of between 7.35 and 7.45).
In order to overcome renal dysfunction, resort is conventionally made to a blood treatment involving extracorporeal circulation through an exchanger having a semipermeable membrane (haemodialyser) in which the patient's blood is circulated on one side of the membrane and a dialysis liquid, comprising the main electrolytes of the blood in concentrations close to those in the blood of a healthy subject, is circulated on the other side.
Furthermore, a pressure difference is created between the two compartments of the haemodialyser which are delimited by the semipermeable membrane, so that a fraction of the plasma fluid passes by ultrafiltration through the membrane into the compartment for the dialysis liquid.
The blood treatment which takes place in a haemodialyser as regards waste from the metabolism and electrolytes results from two mechanisms of molecular transport through the membrane.
On the one hand, the molecules migrate from the liquid where their concentration is higher to the liquid where their concentration is lower. This is diffusive transport or dialysis.
On the other hand, certain catabolites and certain electrolytes are entrained by the plasma fluid which filters through the membrane under the effect of the pressure difference created between the two compartments of the exchanger. This is convective transport.
Three of the abovementioned functions of the kidney, namely the removal of water, the excretion of catabolites and the regulation of the electrolytic concentration of the blood, are therefore performed in a conventional blood treatment device by the combination of dialysis and blood filtration (this combination is referred to as haemodialysis).
As regards the regulation of the acid/base equilibrium inside the body, the approach adopted to overcome renal deficiency is to act on a mechanism by which the acid/base equilibrium inside the body is regulated, this mechanism consisting of the buffer systems of the blood, the main one of which comprises carbonic acid, as a weak acid, associated with its alkali salt, bicarbonate. This is why, in order to correct acidosis in a patient suffering from renal insufficiency, he is administered with bicarbonate via the vascular route, directly or indirectly, during a haemodialysis session.
The administration is indirect when the bicarbonate is involved in the composition of the dialysis liquid and passes into the blood by diffusion.
One drawback of this method is connected with the fact that bicarbonate precipitates with calcium and magnesium, which belong to the conventional components of a dialysis liquid.
In order to limit this reaction, an acid (acetic acid) is added to the dialysis liquid in order to lower its pH, which has the side effect of increasing the partial pressure of carbon dioxide in it, and has the undesirable consequence of inducing in the patient the discomfort resulting from the excess of this gas in his blood. Furthermore, in view of the maximum acceptable concentration of acid in the dialysis liquid, calcium deposits are produced in the circuits of the dialysis machine, and these need to be removed.
The administration of the bicarbonate is direct when the dialysis liquid is free of bicarbonate and the patient is infused with a sodium bicarbonate solution. This method has the benefit that it avoids having to combine, in the same treatment liquid, the substances which precipitate in the absence of acid.
However, it poses the problem of regulating the sodium concentration in the dialysis liquid so that the patient's body tends towards a determined sodium concentration. This is because, when the patient is infused with sodium bicarbonate with a view to reaching a determined bicarbonate concentration inside the patient's body, an amount of sodium is introduced therein which has not to date been taken into consideration, or has been taken into consideration only empirically, when the sodium concentration of the dialysis liquid is fixed.
In other words, with the above cited existing systems used for implementing the method which has just been described, no provision is made for regulating both the infusion flow rate of the sodium bicarbonate solution and the sodium concentration of the dialysis liquid such that the patient's body tends towards a precise predetermined concentration both of bicarbonate and of sodium.
To solve the above mentioned drawbacks, the prior art comprises dialysis apparatus wherein the dialysate conductivity is controlled in order to reach a desired post-dialysis plasmatic conductivity, i.e. conductivity (or sodium concentration) of the patient's blood at the end of the dialysis treatment.
It is known, for example from EP 1389475, a dialysis apparatus provided with a conductivity system that computes the dialysate conductivity (corresponding to the dialysate sodium concentration) from periodic measurements of the sodium blood concentration allowing the sodium level of the patient to reach a prescribed end-of-session value.
This dialysis apparatus includes a device for preparing a dialysis liquid containing sodium having a pump for regulating the sodium concentration and a dialysis liquid circuit with a feed line and a discharge line; the feed line has one end connected to the device for preparing a dialysis liquid and another end connected to a dialyser.
The discharge line has, as well, an end connected to the dialyser, it is also provided a bag and a pump for infusing a patient with an infusion solution containing sodium at a determined and known concentration.
A structure for determining the sodium concentration [Na+]dial of the dialysis liquid is also provided so that the patient's body tends towards a desired sodium concentration [Na+]des, as a function of the dialysance D for sodium of the dialyser, of the desired sodium concentration [Na+]des inside the patient's body, of the infusion flow rate and of the sodium concentration [Na+]sol of the infusion solution.
A control unit drives the pump for regulating the sodium concentration of the dialysis liquid such that this concentration is equal (tends towards) to the determined concentration [Na+]dial.
One of the problems of the dialysis apparatus of the prior art is presently the choice of the appropriate post-dialysis plasmatic conductivity target.

Dialysis apparatus and method for controlling a dialysis apparatus