An improved system and method for retrofitting telecommunications infrastructures of existing buildings with new telecommunications services. The present invention allows new telecommunications services to be provided over existing telephone lines with reduce cost. The present invention also includes an improved system and method for providing a plurality of telephone connections and data traffic over a single communications channel. The present invention also provides improved telephony line interface module and telephony device embodiments which effectively implement line card functionality in the telephony line interface module and/or telephony device, respectively.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to telecommunications and data systems, and, more particularly, to providing telephony and data network traffic over a single communications channel, such as a single two-wire telephone line.
2. Description of the Relevant Art
As newer telecommunications services have become more prevalent, existing buildings such as hotels, apartments and office buildings desire to offer these services to their inhabitants, e.g., hotel guests, apartment dwellers or office workers. However, existing buildings such as hotels and apartments have generally been unable to offer these newer telecommunication services due to the high cost of adding additional communications lines. The present cost of retrofitting existing buildings is $400 per room or more in many cases.
For example, the majority of hotels are wired such that only a single copper pair is provided to each room for a single telephone line. However, this is inadequate for standard services such as Ethernet, or simply providing two or more telephone lines to a room.
Even some recently built apartment complexes find that the wiring for their telecommunications services is underground with buried runs of several hundred feet, too far to provide Ethernet service. For example, consider an apartment complex comprising twenty small building with four to eight units per building. All wires for the telephones come to one collection point and then travel underground for about 300-m (1000-ft) to the clubhouse building. The 300-m run is in excess of the 100-m limit for Ethernet. The complex is pre-wired for telephones and cable but not high speed Internet access.
Additionally, many apartment complexes are now in the business of reselling primary telephone services using an in-house PBX. Many times, the apartment complex overcommits its telephony resources by leasing a small number of telephone lines for the PBX and providing telephone service to a larger number of apartments at a price slightly less than direct service would cost. As xDSL does not cross a PBX, being a direct connection from the central office to the end-user, the apartment complex is unable to provide xDSL to each apartment using the same method used to provide telephone service.
FIG. 1xe2x80x94PBX Telephony System 100
FIG. 1 illustrates a basic analog two-wire telephone connection setup 100 in the prior art. The public switched telephone network (PSTN) lines 105 are provided from the central office to a main wiring distribution facility 110 in the general vicinity of an end-user. As illustrated, the end-user is shown at a location 130A. Generally speaking, the illustrated embodiment is that of an office, hotel, or apartment complex, where the locations 130 comprises offices, hotel rooms, or apartments. Each location 130 receives telephone services through a local PBX 112.
As shown, FIG. 1 includes a main wiring distribution facility 110 including a PBX 112 coupled to receive digital telephony signals from the public switched telephone network (PSTN) 105. Line 120, shown here becoming line 120, coupled the main wiring distribution facility 110 to a first one of a plurality of user locations, including user location 130A. User location 130A, as shown, includes a junction box 132, e.g. a station jack 132, coupled to line 120. Station jack 132 couples to a first telephone 134A and a second telephone 134B. A modem jack 136 splits off of the wiring of station jack 132 to a data processing unit 138, e.g. computer 138.
Telephone signals from the PSTN 105 are routed from the PBX 112 as separate communications channels 120. Each communications channel 120 comprises one telephone line, usually with dial tone and frequently with additional telephony services such as last number redial, call waiting, etc. The individual telephone lines 120 are typically cross-connected through so-called 66 boards (or 110 boards) to a two-wire telephone line 120. The two-wire telephone line 120 runs from the main wiring distribution facility 110 to the end-user site 130A. The two-wire telephone line 120 typically comprises two copper wires that meet the requirements of Category 3 of the ANSI/TIA/EIA-568-A Standard entitled xe2x80x9cCommercial Building Telecommunications Cabling Standardxe2x80x9d, and are often referred to as xe2x80x9cCat 3xe2x80x9d wires.
At the end-user site 130A, the two-wire telephone line 120 terminates at a telephone outlet 132, including a junction box (usually a J box) and a telephone jack (usually an RJ-11 socket). Typically, an RJ-11 socket in the J box 132 receives an RJ-11 plug that connects a line to the end-user telephone 134. A modem 136 is often also connected into the same line, either through an extension outlet in a duplicate J box, or by unplugging the telephone 134 and plugging in the modem 136. The modem 136 provides data communications to a computer 138 over the telephone line 120. It is noted that while newer telephony installations may include four-wire telephone lines (so called cat5 defined by the ANSI/TIA/EIA-568-A Standard referenced above), many existing telephone lines are still two-wire telephone lines 120 (cat3).
In a general way, the prior art system of FIG. 1 operates as follows. Power for the communications over the communications channel are provided over the two-wire telephone lines 120 over which the communications are transmitted. To announce an incoming communication (i.e. a telephone call) coming in over the PSTN 105, a ring voltage (such as 48 V DC) is sent from the central office to the PBX 112. The PBX 112 sends ring voltage through the 66 box 114A, over the two-wire telephone line 120, through the RJ-11 socket in the J box 132, and into the telephone 134, which then rings. A ring may be mechanically or electronically generated. When the end-user answers the telephone call, the telephone 134 goes off-hook, and a full duplex communications stream of up to 64 kbps may be transmitted over the two-wire telephone line 120 back to the switching location 110, through the PBX 112, to the calling party.
Data communications between the computer 136 and an external network are over the same two-wire telephone line 120 as voice telephone communications. In general, data and voice are not multiplexed over the two-wire telephone line 120, although this may be performed, usually through the computer 136. The modem typically transfers data using the V.90 protocol, although other protocols (V.34, etc.) are also used. Data transfer rates are generally limited to 56 kbs downstream to the computer 136 and 53 kbps upstream.
Recent developments have led to some merging of multiple communications lines onto fewer numbers of communications channels. For example, ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) communications provides for simultaneous voice and data connections over the existing telephone infrastructure.
Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) provides for POTS telephony communications in the lower frequency band coupled with digital communications in the upper frequency bands. In Digital Subscriber Line communications (generally designated as xDSL), the communications channel is pinged to characterize the channel, typically a four-wire telephone line. The frequency spectrum of the channel is then divided into sub-channels or bins for data transmission. The number and division of the sub-channels may be determined by the channel response, up to the limits of the particular communications scheme chosen. The maximum data throughput on xDSL ranges from 128 kbps duplex using IDSL (ISDN DSL) to 52 Mbps downstream and 1.5 Mbps upstream using VDSL (Very high bit rate DSL). It is noted that SDSL (Symmetric DSL), also called HDSL (High bit rate DSL), uses a two-wire telephone line to deliver up to 2.0 Mbps duplex.
As another example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,844,596 teaches that two pairs of telephone wires may be used, along with a low pass filter and a high pass filter, to route a telephone line and a video connection to a desired location. This method has the advantage of routing two different communication lines onto a single communications channel consisting of a two-wire telephone line. This disclosure teaches that the voice data is segregated into a sub-channel in the voice frequency band. Video or other data are transmitted over a higher frequency range different and separate from the voice frequency range. The data throughput taught is less than 64 kbps total.
Applicant is aware of several systems from Tut Systems which also purport to provide voice and data connectivity over existing wiring.
FIG. 2xe2x80x94Telephony System 200 with POTS and DSL
FIG. 2 illustrates an example of a prior two-wire telephone line communications channel 220, including one telephone line and data signals. The single telephone line is provided by a POTS line from the PBX 112, while the data signals are provided through DSL transceiver 236A at a main wiring distribution facility 210. The DSL signals from DSL transceiver 236A are added to telephone line 120 in the higher frequency range while the POTS telephone signals are transmitted in the lower frequency range. The POTS line and the DSL signals are provided to the user location 230A, which may be one of a plurality of user locations 230.
As shown, FIG. 2 includes a main wiring distribution facility 210 including a PBX 112 coupled to receive digital telephony signals from the PSTN 105. PBX 112 is coupled to POTS splitter 214 through line 120. DSL transceiver 236A couples network signals from the network 205 to the over line 216 to the POTS splitter 214. The main wiring distribution facility 210 is coupled to the user location 230A by a two-wire telephone line 120. At the user location 230A, a station jack 232 receives POTS telephone signals and the DSL signals, providing the POTS telephone signals to a telephone 134 and the digital DSL signals to a DSL transceiver 236B. The digital transceiver 236B is coupled to a computer 138.
Telephone signals from the PSTN 105 are routed from the PBX 112 as separate communication channels 120. Each communication channel 120 comprises one telephone line, usually with dial tone and frequently with additional telephony services, as mentioned above, over a two-line telephone line 120. The DSL transceiver 236A operates to convert network traffic coming over network 205 into DSL traffic routed over line 216 on to cat 3 telephone line 120 at POTS splitter 214.
At the end-user site 230A, the two-wire telephone line 120 terminates at a station jack 232. Station jack 232 typically includes a junction box (usually a J box) and a telephone jack (usually an RJ-11 socket). Typically, the RJ-11 socket in the J box receives an RJ-11 plug that connects a line to the end-user telephone 134. The second DSL transceiver 236B is coupled to two-wire telephone line 120 at station jack 232. The DSL transceiver 236B is a separate device outside the station jack 232 and couples typically only to the computer 138. The use of DSL transceiver 236B typically replaces the use of a modem in the computer 138.
In a general way, the prior art system 200 of FIG. 2 operates as follows. As with the system of prior art FIG. 1, POTS telecommunications are provided from the PSTN 105, through the PBX 112, over the two-wire telephone line 120, to the station jack 232, to the end-user telephone 134. Data communications between the computer 138 and an external network 205 are over the same two-wire telephone line 120 as the POTS voice telephone communications.
What is needed is a system and method for retrofitting buildings with improved telecommunications services over the existing telephone wiring. Also desirable is a system and devices for providing a plurality of voice telephone sub-channels and a network data sub-channel over a single two-wire telephone line. The total bandwidth would preferably exceed 4 Mbps of throughput and possibly be as high as 100 Mbps.
The present invention provides an improved system and method for retrofitting telecommunications infrastructures of existing buildings with new telecommunications services. The present invention allows new telecommunications services to be provided over existing telephone lines with reduce cost. The present invention also includes an improved system and method for providing a plurality of telephone connections and data traffic over a single communications channel. The present invention also provides improved telephony line interface module and telephony device embodiments which effectively implement line card functionality in the telephony line interface module and/or telephony device, respectively.

System and method for retrofitting existing building telecommunications infrastructures


A fuel supply device for a fuel returnless system is disposed in a fuel tank and includes: a fuel pump that draws, pressurizes, and discharges fuel in the fuel tank; a pressure regulating valve that regulates the pressure of the pressurized fuel and drains a surplus of the pressurized fuel into the fuel tank; an intake filter that removes foreign matters contained in fuel drawn into the fuel pump; and a pressurized fuel return passage through which a part of the pressurized fuel is returned to a fuel intake passage extending from an interior of the intake filter to a pump intake port of the fuel pump.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fuel supply device for a fuel returnless system that supplies an internal combustion engine (hereinafter also referred to simply as the engine) with fuel in a fuel tank mounted mainly in a vehicle such as an automobile. In this specification, the fuel returnless system refers to a system that is constructed so as to treat a surplus of fuel in the fuel tank and prevent it from returning from the engine side to the fuel tank.
2. Description of the Related Art
A known fuel supply device for a fuel returnless system of this kind will be described. As shown in FIG. 10, a fuel supply device in a return system is disposed within a fuel tank 101 and is constructed as a module including a fuel pump 110, a high-pressure filter 112, a pressure regulating valve 114, and an intake filter 116.
The fuel pump 110, which is a motorized pump of an in-tank type, draws fuel from a reserve cup 103 installed in the fuel tank 101 through the intake filter 116, pressurizes the fuel, and discharges the fuel to the high-pressure filter 112. The high-pressure filter 112 removes foreign matters contained in pressurized fuel discharged from the fuel pump 110 and discharges the pressurized fuel to the pressure-regulating valve 114. The pressurized fuel will also be referred to hereinafter as "high-pressure fuel".
The pressure regulating valve 114 regulates the pressure of the pressurized fuel discharged from the high-pressure filter 112 and discharges a surplus of pressurized fuel into the reserve cup 103 through a pressurized fuel return pipe 118. The pressurized fuel whose pressure has been regulated by the pressure-regulating valve 114 is discharged to a fuel supply passage 105 outside the fuel tank 101. The fuel supply passage 105 leads to injectors via a delivery pipe of an engine (not shown). The intake filter 116 removes foreign matters contained in fuel drawn into the fuel pump 110 from the interior of the reserve cup 103.
In the fuel supply device in the aforementioned fuel returnless system, when the fuel pump 110 is driven, fuel within the reserve cup 103 is drawn through the intake filter 116, pressurized, and discharged into the high-pressure filter 112. Fuel that has passed through the high-pressure filter 112 is supplied to the fuel supply passage 105 via the pressure-regulating valve 114. The fuel supplied to the fuel supply passage 105 is supplied to the injectors via the delivery pipe of the engine. FIG. 11 shows how fuel flows in a known fuel supply device (see FIG. 10).
Referring to FIG. 11, "QE" represents an amount of fuel passing through the intake filter 116, that is, an amount of fuel supplied to the engine or a fuel consumption amount at the engine. "QR" represents the amount of a surplus of pressurized fuel (a so-called surplus fuel amount) drained from the pressure-regulating valve 114. "P" represents the pressure in the fuel tank 101, which is equal to the atmospheric pressure when P=0. "PSYS" represents the pressure of the pressurized fuel supplied into a pipeline of an injector or a high-pressure pump provided in a direct injection engine, that is, a so-called system fuel pressure (more specifically, 300 to 600 kPa). "−ΔP" represents a pressure (negative pressure) in the intake filter 116 generated by drawing fuel via the fuel pump 110.
The fuel supply device in the fuel returnless system as described above is disclosed in, for example, JP 9-32672 A.
In the aforementioned fuel supply device, the intake filter 116 provided on the intake side of the fuel pump 110 presents at least some passage resistance (referred to also as "intake resistance"). Thus, a negative pressure environment is created in the intake filter 116 due to a suction force generated by the fuel pump 110 to draw fuel. Accordingly, for example, in the case where fuel containing low-boiling components such as alcohol or the like is used, the low-boiling components contained in the fuel are decompressed and boiled at a high temperature, in a low-pressure environment, etc., so that steam bubbles or vapors v (see FIG. 10) are generated. The fuel pump 110 draws in the vapors v, which may cause a decrease in the flow rate of fuel discharged from the fuel pump 110 and consequently from the fuel supply device.

Fuel supply device for fuel returnless system


Provided is a control apparatus for an internal combustion engine which controls the internal combustion engine in such a manner as to prevent excessive overshoot of an actual phase angle at a time of phase angle feedback control. The control apparatus for an internal combustion engine includes: a unit for detecting an actual phase angle of a camshaft based on a crank angle signal and a cam angle signal; a unit for setting a target phase angle of the camshaft based on an operational state; and a unit for performing phase angle feedback control calculation such that the actual phase angle coincides with the target phase angle, to calculate an amount of operation for the hydraulic pressure control solenoid valve, in which: the phase angle feedback control calculation is started for a first time after a KEY is turned ON with an initial value of an integral term set to a predetermined value; the phase angle feedback control calculation is performed using a control gain obtained by multiplying a control gain at a time of normal control when a control difference is equal to or larger than a preset value during the phase angle feedback control; and the phase angle feedback control calculation is performed using the control gain at the time of normal control when the control difference is smaller than the preset value during the phase angle feedback control.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a control apparatus for an internal combustion engine for controlling operation timings of an intake valve or an exhaust valve of the internal combustion engine.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a valve timing control apparatus for an internal combustion engine changes a phase angle of a camshaft with respect to a crankshaft of the internal combustion engine, thereby changing timings for opening and closing an intake valve or an exhaust valve. This valve timing control apparatus is equipped with a crank angle sensor for outputting a crank angle signal when the crankshaft is at a reference rotational position, and a cam angle sensor for outputting a cam angle signal when the camshaft is at a reference rotational position. The valve timing control apparatus detects an actual phase angle of the camshaft based on detection signals from the crank angle sensor and the cam angle sensor, and performs phase angle feedback control such that the actual phase angle coincides with a target phase angle set based on an operational state of the internal combustion engine.
A variable camshaft phase mechanism, which is supplied with a hydraulic pressure controlled by a hydraulic pressure control solenoid valve, changes the phase angle of the camshaft with respect to the crankshaft.
The hydraulic pressure control solenoid valve, which is designed as a duty solenoid valve, controls the duty ratio of the voltage supplied to a solenoid to control the value of a current flowing therethrough, and selectively supplies a hydraulic pressure to an advancement chamber or a retardation chamber of the variable camshaft phase mechanism, so the camshaft is shifted to an advancement side or a retardation side. When the duty ratio assumes a holding duty value in the neighborhood of a median, the hydraulic pressure control solenoid valve simultaneously closes the advancement chamber and the retardation chamber, and controls the position thereof to a neutral position for simultaneously shutting off the supply of hydraulic pressures to the advancement chamber and the retardation chamber, so the phase angle of the camshaft is held.
In order to compensate for variations in the holding duty value for holding the hydraulic pressure control solenoid valve at the neutral position, which result from a tolerance, aged deterioration, and the like of the hydraulic pressure control solenoid valve, it is known to learn the holding duty value or store the learning value thereof into a backup RAM.
It is also known to use a fixed value stored in advance in a ROM as an initial value when the holding duty value is not learned at all, or when the learning value is lost by, for example, turning a battery OFF (disconnecting a terminal of the battery).
As a matter of course, however, owing to a certain variation width of the tolerance and aged deterioration, the fixed value of the holding duty set as described above may not coincide with the learning value for compensating for the tolerance and aged deterioration. In the case of such a deviation, therefore, when the fixed value of the holding duty value is used as the initial value, for example, during the battery being turned OFF, the actual position of the hydraulic pressure control solenoid valve in a holding state thereof deviates from the original neutral position. In consequence, the controllability of subsequent cam phase control also deteriorates.
Especially in a case where this deviation occurs on the advancement side and the target phase angle is set on the advancement side where the amount of valve overlap between the intake valve and the exhaust valve is intrinsically large, it is also known that the amount of valve overlap becomes excessively large, that the amount of internal EGR thereby becomes excessively large, with the result that a deterioration in combustibility may be caused.
Thus, this valve timing control apparatus sets the learning value of the holding duty as an initial value of an integral term of feedback control, and limits the target phase angle in a case where the holding duty has not been learned yet (e.g., see JP 2001-234765 A).
In this valve timing control apparatus for the internal combustion engine, however, the holding duty fluctuates due to changes in the resistance value of the hydraulic pressure control solenoid coil, which result from changes in oil temperature, or changes in battery voltage. Therefore, the actual value of the holding duty value deviates from the learning value thereof when the temperature of the hydraulic pressure control solenoid coil and the battery voltage in learning the holding duty are different respectively from the temperature and the voltage in setting the learning value of the holding duty as the initial value of the integral term at the beginning of phase angle feedback control.
In such a case, the actual position of the hydraulic pressure control solenoid valve in the holding state thereof deviates from the original neutral position when the learning value of the holding duty is set as the initial value of the integral term at the beginning of phase angle feedback control following the start of the internal combustion engine. Especially in a case where this deviation arises on the advancement side and the target phase angle is set on the advancement side where the amount of valve overlap between the intake valve and the exhaust valve is intrinsically large, the amount of valve overlap becomes excessively large. In consequence, the amount of internal EGR (amount of exhaust gas recirculation) becomes excessively large, so a deterioration in startability of the internal combustion engine is caused.
The target phase angle is limited in the case where the value of the holding duty has not been learned yet, so there is a limit to the control on the advancement side. In an internal combustion engine equipped with a valve timing control apparatus for changing timings for opening and closing an intake valve, the timing for closing the intake valve is retarded when the timings for opening/closing the intake valve are shifted too much to the retardation side in starting the internal combustion engine. Thus, the mixture sucked into a combustion chamber flows back into an intake pipe.
When the sucked mixture flows back into the intake pipe at the time of cranking, which is associated with an extremely low rotational speed of the internal combustion engine, a decrease in actual compression ratio is caused, so it becomes difficult to start the internal combustion engine. In particular, there is a problem in that the mixture is not sufficiently compressed despite cranking and hence a further deterioration in startability is caused when the internal combustion engine is at a low temperature, namely, when the mixture is small in volume.

Control apparatus for an internal combustion engine


In a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus member, paths that may become a discharge path between a wafer and a cooling device are a first path and a second path. The first path is the shortest path from a hole to a hole across a plug. The length of the first path is larger than the thickness of the plug. The second path is the shortest path that extends from one of holes to an outer peripheral surface of the plug along an adhesive layer, and the shortest path from a hole in a bonding sheet to the outer peripheral surface of the plug along the bonding sheet. The sum of the lengths of these respective paths is larger than the thickness of the plug.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus member.
2. Description of Related Art
To date, semiconductor manufacturing apparatus members in which an electrostatic chuck having a wafer placement surface is disposed on a cooling device have been known. In some of such semiconductor manufacturing apparatus members, a backside gas such as helium (He) is supplied to the back surface of a wafer placed on the electrostatic chuck in order to dissipate heat from the wafer. Some of such semiconductor manufacturing apparatus members include a gas supply hole that extends through the cooling device from a joint surface of the cooling device that is joined to the electrostatic chuck to a surface of the cooling device that is opposite to the joint surface, a non-through hole that is formed in the electrostatic chuck from a surface of the electrostatic chuck that faces the gas supply hole toward the wafer placement surface, a narrow hole that extends through the electrostatic chuck from a bottom surface of the non-through hole to the wafer placement surface, and an air permeable plug that is fitted into the non-through hole (see, for example, Patent Literature 1).
[PTL 1] JP 2000-315680 A

Semiconductor manufacturing apparatus member


An electrophotographic method and apparatus for developing and printing color images by the electrostatic projection of dry powder color toners onto a photoconductive member. A plurality of color toner projection units are spaced from the photoconductive member and are AC and DC biased to sequentially project each of the cyan, yellow, magenta, and black color planes onto the photoconductive member. The photoconductive member is directly driven against an intermediate transfer member which sequentially receives and stores each of the color planes to thereby form a composite color image, and each color plane is transferred from the photoconductive member before the next color plane is received thereon. The composite color image is then directly transferred to the print medium, whereby the use of the intermediate transfer member eliminates the problems of counter potentials at the surface of the photoconductive member and enables dot-on-dot (DOD) formatting to be utilized for achieving the maximum resolution and print quality of the printed image.

In the field of electrophotographic color printing, liquid color toners have been frequently used to successively develop selected color images, such as images in cyan, yellow, magenta, and black color planes, on a photoconductive drum and superimposed thereon, one upon another. The composite color image is then transferred to the adjacent print media passing between the photoconductive drum and a transfer roller of known construction. Liquid color toners have certain advantages over dry color toners in electrophotographic color printers where the liquid color toners were transferred directly by physical contact between the photoconductive drum and the sources of liquid color toners. Image development systems of the above type which use liquid color toners are described, for example, in my copending application Ser. No. 07/701,926, entitled "Method And Apparatus For Preparing Liquid Toner To The Media During Electrostatic Printing" filed May 17, 1991, also in my copending application Ser. No. 07/704,572, entitled "Electrostatically Assisted Transfer Roller And Method For Directly Transferring Liquid Toner To A Print Medium" filed May 17, 1991, and also in my copending application Ser. No. 07/748,120 entitled "Improved Conditioning Roller and Method of Operation For Use With A Photoconductive Drum In An Electrophotographic Printer" filed Aug. 21, 1991, all assigned to the present assignee and incorporated herein by reference.
Certain of the above types of liquid toner color development systems are characterized by several distinct disadvantages, among which include many problems associated with managing the carrier fluid, e.g. an isopar, for the color toner particles. In addition, when dot-on-dot (DOD) formatting was chosen over dot-next-to-dot (DND) formatting to obtain the highest possible resolutions, complicated algorithms were required in order to compensate for the undesirable counter potentials which were developed when one liquid toner was developed directly upon previously developed different liquid toner on the surface of the photoconductive drum. This latter compensation had the effect of reducing the net charge on the toner, and the reduction of the net charge on the toner, in turn, had the resultant effect of degrading the image quality of the developed image, since the net charge on the toner would otherwise assist in holding the developed image in place.
In order to overcome the above problems associated with liquid color toner development systems, a new and improved dry color toner projection system was developed and is described and claimed in my copending application Ser. No. 07/847,445 entitled "Non-Magnetic Dry Toner Color Printer and Method of Operation", filed Mar. 6, 1992, assigned to the present assignee and incorporated herein by reference. This dry color toner projection system represents a significant advance in the field of electrophotographic color printing for reasons set forth in detail in this copending application. However, in order to avoid problems associated with the above counter potentials produced when dot-on-dot formatting is used, the color development system in my above identified copending application chose dot-next-to-dot formatting for its preferred embodiment in order to avoid the use of complex algorithms to compensate for the above counter potentials produced using DOD formatting. However, but for this latter consideration and the various problems associated with the DOD counter potentials, DOD formatting would have been preferred over DND formatting as a means for optimizing the resolution of the developed image.

Method and apparatus for developing color images using dry toners and an intermediate transfer member


A user engages in spoken voice or messaging platform-based natural language dialogues with an automated bot. The bot identifies actions and subjects of the actions from the dialogues and processes Application Programming Interfaces (API) to perform travel-related queries or process travel-related transactions with travel services. Real-time responses to queries or completed transaction notifications are provided back to the user by the bot during the dialogues.

Businesses provide their own service-based online interfaces and mobile-based applications for purposes of making their customer-based services available to customers from devices operated by the customers, such devices can include: tablets, mobile phones, laptops, etc.
Furthermore, businesses integrate and provide their services to customers through existing messaging platforms, such as email, text messaging, instant messaging, social media, browsers, etc.
Essentially, businesses want to have a presence and be accessible to customers on any customer-operated device at any time and within any desired platform most-often utilized by their customers. This maximizes customer participation in the business services, increases customer loyalty with the brands of the businesses, increases business revenues, and reduces business expense associated with providing human-based assistance to the customers.
However, customers are being inundated with mobile applications all of which have their-own proprietary interfaces. These applications clutter a customer's mobile device and often times the customer is unaware that they have a specific-business's mobile application on his/her device when it is needed. Customers are also unlikely to be able to successfully navigate the mobile application's interface and/or remember logon credentials when the customers need the services of the application even when they find the appropriately installed application on their devices.
These problems are exacerbated when time is of the essence to a customer, such as within a travel context. For example, a typical airline traveler is often required to remember a variety of travel-related information, such as flight number, seat number, boarding time, gate number, departure time, arrival time, connecting flight details, and the like. Printed boarding passes are being phased out in the industry and even when a printed boarding pass is obtained by the traveler, the traveler has to remember where the customer put it to view it, since the traveler is managing carry-on baggage, photo identification, the airport security gates, departure gates, and luggage while the traveler is experiencing stress as a result of the travel environment. Still further, obtaining a printed boarding pass at the airport may entail waiting in long lines at kiosks or at clerk assistance terminals, neither of which is appealing to any traveler.
Consequently, even with all the available technology many travelers still struggle with airport travel and travelers consistently list, in consumer surveys, that travel is one of the most frustrating, stressful, and generally problematic experiences faced by travelers.

Messaging-enabled travel integration processing


A heat treatable coated article including an infrared (IR) reflecting layer (e.g., of or including Ag), the coated article being able to attain a xcex94E*ab (glass side) no greater than about 3.0, more preferably no greater than 2.5, and even more preferably no greater than 2.0, following or due to heat treatment (e.g., thermal tempering). Accordingly, low-E (i.e., low emissivity) coated articles of certain embodiments of this invention appear from the glass side thereof visually similar to the naked eye both before and after heat treatment. Coated articles herein may be used in the context of insulating glass (IG) window units, vehicle windshields, or any other suitable applications. In certain embodiments of this invention, an exemplary layer stack includes: glass/Si3N4/NiCr/Ag/NiCr/Si3N4. Other materials may instead be used without departing from the scope and/or spirit of the instant invention which is a low-E matchable product.

This invention relates to low-E coated articles that have approximately the same color characteristics as viewed by the naked eye both before and after heat treatment (e.g., thermal tempering), and corresponding methods. Such coated articles may be used in insulating glass (IG) units, windshields, and other suitable applications.
Solar control coating systems are known. For example, commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 5,688,585 discloses a solar control coated article including: glass/Si3N4/NiCr/Si3N4. One object of the ""585 patent is to provide a sputter coated layer system that after heat treatment is matchable colorwise with its non-heat treated counterpart. While the coating systems of the ""585 patent are excellent for their intended purposes, they suffer from certain disadvantages. In particular, they tend to have rather high emissivity values (e.g., because no silver (Ag) layer is disclosed in the ""585 patent).
Low-emissivity (low-E) coating systems are also known in the art. For example, commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 5,376,455 discloses: glass/Si3N4/NiCr/Ag/NiCr/Si3N4. Low-E coating systems such as this are typically designed for maximum visible transmission. For this reason, the NiCr layers are made rather thin. This enables high transmission and low-E characteristics, but less than desirable solar control (e.g., shading coefficient) characteristics. Thus, the low-E coating system of the ""455 patent is unfortunately not sufficiently color matchable after heat treatment with its non-heat treated counterpart, and lacks superior solar control characteristics such as shading coefficient (SC).
Accordingly, when it is desired to provide an insulating glass (IG) unit with both low emissivity (low-E) and solar control characteristics, it has often been necessary to combine the solar control coating of the ""585 patent with the low-E coating of the ""455 patent in a single IG unit. For example, the solar control coating of the ""585 patent is placed on the #2 surface of the IG unit while the low-E coating of the ""455 patent is placed on the #3 surface of the IG unit. The need for these two separate and distinct coatings in an IG unit is undesirable, for both cost and processing reasons.
The need for matchability (before heat treatment vs. after heat treatment) is also known. Glass substrates are often produced in large quantities and cut to size in order to fulfill the needs of a particular situation such as a new multi-window and door office building, vehicle windshield needs, etc. It is often desirable in such applications that some of the windows and/or doors be heat treated (i.e., tempered, heat strengthened or bent) while others need not be. Office buildings often employ IG units and/or laminates for safety and/or thermal control. It is desirable that the units and/or laminates which are heat treated substantially match their non-heat treated counterparts (e.g., with regard to color, reflectance, and/or the like, at least on the glass side) for architectural and/or aesthetic purposes. In addition, it is sometimes desirable that certain windows, doors, windshields, etc. be of a substantially neutral color, preferably tending to the blue-green side of the spectrum.
It has in the past been possible to achieve matchability in systems other than those of the aforesaid ""585 patent, but only between two different layer systems, one of which is heat treated and the other is not. The necessity of developing and using two different layer systems to achieve matchability creates additional manufacturing expense and inventory needs which are undesirable.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,014,872 and 5,800,933 (see Example B) disclose a heat treatable low-E layer system including: glassTiO2/Si3N4/NiCr/Ag/NiCr/Si3N4. Unfortunately, when heat treated this low-E layer system is not approximately matchable colorwise with its non-heat treated counterpart (as viewed from the glass side). This is because this low-E layer system has a xcex94Eab* (glass side) value of greater than 4.1 (i.e., for Example B, xcex94a*G is 1.49, xcex94b*G is 3.81, and xcex94L* is not measured; using Equation (1) below then xcex94E on the glass side must necessarily be greater than 4.1 and is probably much higher than that).
In view of the above, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that there exists a need for a coating or layer system that could satisfy both solar control and low-E requirements (e.g., so a solar control coating and a separate low-E coating need not be used together on different surfaces of the same IG unit). In addition to and/or instead of the above need, there also exists a need in the art for a low-E coating or layer system which after heat treatment substantially matches in color and/or reflection (as viewed by a naked human eye from the glass side) its non-heat treated counterpart. In other words, there exists a need in the art for a low-E matchable coating or layering system.
It is a purpose of this invention to fulfill any and/or all of the above-listed needs, and/or other needs which will become more apparent to the skilled artisan once given the following disclosure.
An object of this invention is to provide a low-E coating or layer system that has good color stability with heat treatment.
Another object of this invention is to provide a low-E matchable coating or layering system.
Another object of this invention is to provide a coating or layer system that has improved IR reflectance characteristics relative to those of the coating systems described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,688,585.
Another object of this invention is to provide a coating or layer system that when heat treated is substantially matchable to its non-heat treated counterpart.
Another object of this invention is to fulfill one or more of the above-listed objects.
It has been surprisingly found that silver in rather substantial thicknesses may be employed while still achieving color stability with heat treatment (e.g., thermal tempering, bending, or heat strengthening). The layer systems of the invention may be utilized, for example, in the context of IG units, vehicle windows and windshields, or the like.
According to certain exemplary embodiments of this invention, one or more of the above-listed objects or needs is/are fulfilled by providing a coated article comprising:
a layer system supported by a glass substrate, said layer system comprising an infrared (IR) reflecting silver layer located between first and second dielectric layers; and
wherein said coated article has a xcex94E*ab value (glass side) no greater than 3.0 (more preferably no greater than 2.5) after or due to heat treatment.
Further embodiments of this invention fulfill one or more of the above-listed needs or objects by providing a coated article comprising:
a substrate;
a layer system provided on the substrate, said layer system comprising from the glass outwardly, a first silicon nitride inclusive layer, a first Ni or NiCr inclusive layer, an IR reflecting metal layer, a second Ni or NiCr inclusive layer, and a second silicon nitride inclusive layer;
wherein each of said first and second Ni or NiCr inclusive layers is at least about 20 xc3x85 thick; and
wherein said coated article has a hemispherical emissivity (Eh) of no greater than 0.25 before heat treatment, a sheet resistance RS no greater than 20 ohms/square before heat treatment, and a xcex94E*ab value (glass side) no greater than 2.5 after or due to heat treatment.
Other embodiments of this invention fulfill one or more of the above-listed needs or objects by providing a method of making a coated article, the method comprising:
depositing a layer system on a glass substrate, the layer system including an infrared (IR) reflecting metal layer located between first and second dielectric layers, wherein prior to heat treatment the glass substrate with the layer system thereon has a sheet resistance RS no greater than 20 ohms/square; and
heat treating the substrate with the layer system thereon so that due to said heat treating the resulting substrate with the layer system thereon has a xcex94E*ab value (glass side) no greater than 2.5.

Low-E matchable coated articles and methods of making same


A method of modulating signal transduction and/or cleavage in Tumor Necrosis Factor Receptors (TNF-Rs) is provided. Peptides or other molecules may interact either with the receptor itself, or with effector proteins interacting with the receptor, thus modulating the normal functioning of the TNF-Rs. Such peptides or other molecules may be employed for prophylactic and therapeutic applications in TNF associated diseases.

TNF, a pro-inflammatory cytokine produced primarily by macrophages, contributes to the defense of the host against pathogens as well as to various detrimental manifestations of inflammation through a variety of different effects on cell function (Old, 1990; Beutler and Cerami, 1989). These effects are initiated by the binding of TNF to specific, high affinity cell surface receptors (TNF-Rs), expressed on most kinds of cells (Baglioni et al, 1985; Beutler et al, 1985; Kull et al, 1985; Tsujimoto et al, 1985; Aggarwal et al, 1985; Israel et al, 1986). The receptors provide the intracellular signals for cell response to TNF (Engelmann et al, 1990a). Two molecular species of the TNF-Rs, the p55 and the p75 TNF-R, expressed differentially in different types of cells, have been identified (Engelmann et al, 1990b; Brockhaus et al, 1990).
One of the most distinct characteristics of TNF compared to other immune system mediators is its ability to elicit cell death. In many severe diseases, such as autoimmune disorders, rheumatoid arthritis, graft rejection and graft-versus-host disease, TNF seems to be a major cause for pathological tissue destruction. Blocking TNF activity in these conditions is therefore of the highest importance for the development of new therapies for these diseases.
On the other hand, in certain other situations it is advantageous to augment the function of TNF, e.g., in situations where its anti-tumor or antibacterial activities are beneficial.
The main mediator for the cytotoxic effect of TNF on fibroblastoid and epithelial cells is the p55 TNF-R, which also is the prevalent TNF-R type on these cell lines. Blocking this receptor species abolishes the cytocidal effect of TNF, while inducing aggregation of the receptor molecules can mimic the cytocidal effect of TNF.
The soluble form of this receptor, as well as the soluble form of the other (p75) TNF-R, have been shown to have inhibitory effects on TNF function. Evidence was presented that these soluble forms are derived proteolytically from the cell surface forms, (Nophar et al, 1990; Porteu and Nathan, 1990; Porteu et al, 1991).
Both the signaling by the receptors and the cleavage of the receptors appear to reflect interactions between the receptor and some cellular effector proteins; the cleavage—by interacting with regulatable proteases, and the signaling—by interacting with proteins having some signaling activity.


A method and system for drawing directed graphs including receiving data coordinates associated with nodes for graphing, performing a constrained stress minimization, and outputting results of the constrained stress minimization and displaying the results on a visual medium. The described method may take the form of instructions residing on a computer readable medium. The described method and system may be utilized for drawing directed graphs in a very wide range of applications ranging from gene networks, to flowcharts, to display of relational characteristics of breakfast cereal and so on.

Techniques for drawing digraphs are known. For example, FIG. 1A illustrates a graph drawn with one known algorithm by Sugiyama. [See K. Sugiyama, S. Tagawa and M. Toda, "Methods for Visual Understanding of Hierarchical Systems", IEEE Trans. Systems, Man, and Cybernetics 11 (1981), 109-125]. In the Sugiyama algorithm, the y-coordinates are computed by dividing the y-axis into a finite number of layers and associating each node with exactly one layer. Edges between nodes on the same layer are not allowed and edges spanning multiple layers are split into chains of dummy nodes. Layer assignment is usually computed with the goal of minimizing edge-length (and hence the number of dummy nodes). The layer assignment methods used are generally incapable of handling cyclic-digraphs and so preprocessing is required to make the graph acyclic by reversing a minimal number of edges. Assigning the x-coordinates is normally done in two stages: first ordering nodes within layers to minimize crossings and then exact placement subject to the computed ordering to optimize aesthetic criteria such as minimizing edge bends. Each of the optimization problems outlined above has been shown to be NP-hard so heuristic approaches have been designed that offer reasonable results in most cases.
Carmel et al. see e.g., L. Carmel, D. Harel and Y. Koren, "Combining Hierarchy and Energy for Drawing Directed Graphs", IEEE Trans. Visualization and Computer Graphics 10 (2004), 46-57, is an other known approach to drawing digraphs. In this approach, the nodes are associated with continuous y-coordinates, in a way that can be applied to any kind of digraph, whether cyclic or acyclic, and which requires no graph modification or preprocessing. These y-coordinates are the unique minimizer of the hierarchy energy, which strongly reflects the directional information of the digraph. The x-coordinates are the minimizer of another energy function that disregards all directional information. The main characteristics of this method are its ability to deal with cyclic graphs, the fact that nodes are not partitioned into horizontal layers and the very fast execution. However, although solutions are defined for graphs with cycles, so-called symmetric nodes within cycles are by definition considered to be at the same hierarchy level and are thus assigned the same y-coordinate. The resulting drawings make such cycles difficult to see, see, e.g., FIG. 5B.
Currently, a need exists for an improved method and system for constructing graphs including digraphs.

Dig-Cola: directed graph layout through constrained energy minimization


A tunable loadline is disclosed. In an exemplary embodiment, an apparatus includes an amplifier configured to output an amplified signal having a selected power level and a first impedance network coupled to receive the amplified signal at an input terminal and generate a first output signal having a first power level at a first output terminal. The first impedance network being configured to load the amplified signal to convert the selected power level to the first power level. The apparatus also includes a second impedance network configured to selectively receive the first output signal and generate a second output signal having a second power level at a second output terminal. The second impedance network being configured to combine with the first impedance network to load the amplified signal to convert the selected power level to the second power level.

1. Field
The present application relates generally to the operation and design of transmitters, and more particularly, to the operation and design of area efficient transmitters.
2. Background
Wireless devices are becoming increasing more complicated and now routinely provide multi-mode and multi-band operation. To support such operation, a typical wireless device may include multiple power amplifiers to amplify signals for each mode/band. For example, a multi-mode multi-band wireless device may be configured for wireless communications using multiple communication technologies, such as Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), Classroom 2000 (C2K), and Long Term Evolution (LTE). In a typical implementation, a wireless device may include one amplifier for low band (LB) GSM, one amplifier for LB WCDMA/LTE/C2K, one amplifier for medium band (MB) GSM, and one amplifier for MB WCDMA/LTE/C2K. Unfortunately, this four power amplifier configuration utilizes significant circuit area.
Therefore, it would be desirable to have a way to amplify signals in a multi-mode multi-band transmitter that utilizes less circuit area than conventional configurations comprising multiple amplifiers.


A pedal value sensor arrangement for a motor vehicle includes a pedal movable between an idle position and an end position, a bearing for the pedal, and a spring configured to apply a restoring force to the pedal towards the idle position. In an intermediate position between the idle position and the end position, the spring is configured to apply a restoring force to the pedal toward the idle position that is greater than before and/or after the intermediate position, wherein the greater restoring force of the spring is brought about by a contact of a first section of the spring with a second section of the spring.

In motor vehicles, in particular in motor vehicles with automatic transmission, it is frequently necessary for an electrical shift signal to be generated on firm pressing of a pedal as a gas or drive pedal. In particular on firm pressing of the drive pedal, with the desired strong acceleration of the motor vehicle, thereby the automatic transmission should automatically downshift to the next lower gear stage. For this a corresponding shift signal is required in an intermediate position of the pedal between a rest position and an end position. To avoid undesirable downshifting of the automatic transmission, at the position—i.e. the intermediate pedal position—at which the electric shift point is to be triggered, a mechanical resistance perceptible to the driver should be present, i.e. a clearly perceptible increase in the force at the drive pedal. Such a shift point or shift region in the intermediate position of the pedal is also known as kick-down shift.
DE 10 2005 038 750 A1 shows a kick-down device of a drive pedal module of a motor vehicle which contains a drive pedal which is mounted on a bearing block and can be displaced between a rest position and an end position, wherein the kick-down device has at least one activation element which is axially guided in a recess of the drive pedal or bearing block and has at least one active edge. Furthermore the kick-down device is fitted with a key element which is axially guided in the recess and cooperates with the activation element via at least one roller body and is loaded by at least one compression spring, wherein on activation of the drive pedal up to a defined point, the activation element can be pressed axially into the recess and by its active edge the at least one roller body can be pressed radially out of a transverse recess of the recess and against the key surface of the key element.
DE 100 10 432 A1 shows a kick-down element for a drive pedal module of a vehicle with a housing and an activation element which is axially guided in the housing and is axially displaceable against the force of a return spring and carries two diametrically arranged roller bodies which, on insertion of the activation link into the housing, to increase the displacement force, are pressed away against the force of a U-shaped curved leaf spring over an over-pressure edge, wherein the roller bodies are held in diametrically opposed bearing shells, wherein the leaf spring with two longitudinal spring legs and a cross web connecting these is fixed with its cross web on the floor of the housing and lies with its spring legs under pretension on the bearing shells so that on insertion of the activation element, the roller bodies slide on the outsides of the spring legs facing away from each other, and wherein the over-pressure edges are formed on the face leg ends of the spring legs.
DE 199 18 119 A1 discloses a pedal value sensor arrangement with a pedal which is mounted on the chassis of a motor vehicle and is displaceable between a rest position and an end position. In an intermediate position between the rest position and the end position of the pedal, a tensioning return spring arrangement presses the pedal in the direction of the rest position. Furthermore the pedal value sensor arrangement has a force change device.
DE 10 2004 060 482 A1 discloses a kick-down element for a drive pedal sensor. This comprises a carrier and a housing arranged displaceably in relation to the carrier, wherein between the carrier and the housing is provided an arrangement to generate a force step with a first arm and a second arm, with an allocated first contact surface and an allocated second contact surface, wherein the contact surfaces have different contours.


A method for forming bundles from stackable objects includes supplying the stackable objects with a first conveying apparatus from above to a shaft of a stacking device to form bundles of the stackable objects inside the shaft of the stacking device. The bundles are transported from a lower section of the shaft of the stacking device with a second conveying apparatus.

The invention relates to a method for forming bundles from stackable objects, involving at least one stacking device provided with a shaft, a conveying apparatus for feeding the stackable objects to the stacking device, and an additional conveying apparatus for transporting away the formed bundles. The invention furthermore relates to a device for forming bundles assembled from stackable objects.
Print products such as books, magazines, and brochures frequently must be combined into bundles and palletized. For the palletizing, it is important to ensure that a predetermined height is not exceeded and the formed stack is stable.
European Patent document EP 1 348 653 discloses a method for forming and palletizing bundles containing print products, for which partial bundles are lifted with the aid of a hoisting device from a conveying element and are subsequently lowered back down into the same plane. The completed bundles are supplied to a palletizer and deposited with a predetermined pattern on a pallet.
European patent document EP 1 491 477 A, commonly owned by the assignee of the present application, also discloses a method and a device for forming bundles, wherein the bundles are formed by lifting individual products with the aid of a stacking device from a conveying element, staggering these products with the aid of two lifting elements, and finally lowering the formed bundle once more to the plane of the aforementioned conveying element and transporting it away with a different conveying element.

Method and device for forming bundles of stackable objects


A method of improving a high-speed downlink operation in CELL_FACH state for a network terminal of a wireless communications system includes using a first function but not using a second function when a user equipment, hereinafter called UE, initiates a cell update procedure. The network terminal wirelessly communicates with the UE, and the network terminal and the UE both support the high-speed downlink operation in CELL_FACH state. The first function is used for allocating a dedicated HS-DSCH radio network transaction identifier (H-RNTI) to the UE, so as to manage the UE to perform the high-speed downlink operation in CELL_FACH based on the dedicated H-RNTI. The second function is used for not allocating the dedicated H-RNTI to the UE.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for improving a high-speed downlink operation for a wireless communications system and related communications device, and more particularly to a method for improving a cell update procedure used for a high-speed downlink operation in a CELL_FACH state for a wireless communications system and related communications device.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The third generation (3G) mobile telecommunications system has adopted a Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) wireless air interface access method for a cellular network. WCDMA provides high frequency spectrum utilization, universal coverage, and high quality, high-speed multimedia data transmission. The WCDMA method also meets all kinds of QoS requirements simultaneously, providing diverse, flexible, two-way transmission services and better communication quality to reduce transmission interruption rates. Through the 3G mobile telecommunications system, a user can utilize a wireless communications device, such as a mobile phone, to realize real-time video communications, conference calls, real-time games, online music broadcasts, and email sending/receiving. However, these functions rely on fast, instantaneous transmission. Thus, targeting at the third generation mobile telecommunication technology, the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) provides High Speed Package Access (HSPA) technology, which includes High Speed Downlink Package Access (HSDPA) and High Speed Uplink Package Access (HSUPA), to increase bandwidth utility rate and package data processing efficiency so as to improve uplink/downlink transmission rate.
On the basis of HSDPA, the 3GPP launches High Speed Downlink Shared Channel reception in CELL_FACH state, which is abbreviated to HS-DSCH reception in CELL_FACH state, and CELL_FACH state is well known as one of radio resource control (RRC) states. HS-DSCH reception in CELL_FACH state allows a user equipment (UE) monitoring the HS-DSCH for downlink data reception with cooperation of related control channel, namely Shared Control Channel for HS-DSCH (HS-SCCH), so as to improve peak data rate, signaling delay, state transition delay and flexible cell capacity.
A UMTS radio access network (UTRAN) enables HS-DSCH reception in CELL_FACH state by means of the system information broadcast, and related parameters correspond to HS-SCCH and HS-DSCH configuration and a common HS-DSCH radio network transaction identifier (Common H-RNTI).
The parameters corresponding to the common H-RNTI provides multiple common H-RNTIs values for the UE to select. For the UE in idle mode, the parameters are obtained from a "Downlink HS-PDSCH system information" information element (IE), included in a system information block (SIB) type 5/5bis. For the UE in the RRC connected mode, the parameters are obtained from a "Downlink HS-PDSCH system information for connected mode" IE, included in a SIB type 6. On the other hand, the UE includes a common H-RNTI variable for storing the selected common H-RNTI. Each common H-RNTI is shared by several UEs for grouping the UEs in the same cell, and also represents an identity of the UEs in the same group.
In addition to the common H-RNTIs, the UE may use a dedicated H-RNTI for HS-DSCH reception in CELL_FACH state. Each dedicated H-RNTI only represents the identity of a specific UE. Through an cell update procedure initiated by the UE, the UTRAN can determines to use a first function or a second function for allocating a dedicated H-RNTI to the UE or not.
When the UE reselects a new cell and settles in the cell, the UE has to initiate a cell update procedure and enter CELL_FACH state for notifying the UTRAN of related changes of the communications circumstance. The exchange of RRC messages related to the cell procedure is described as follows. Firstly, the UE sends a CELL UPDATE message to the UTRAN. In addition to cell reselection, several situations, such as radio link failure and an RLC unrecoverable error, also require the UE to initiate the cell update procedure. If the CELL UPDATE message notifies the UTRAN that the reason of procedure initiation is radio link failure, the UTRAN sends an RRC CONNECTION RELEASE message to indicate the UE to re-make an RRC connection. IF the procedure is initiated due to other reasons (i.e. cell reselection), the UTRAN sends a CELL UPDATE CONFIRM message via a dedicated control channel (DCCH) or a common control channel (CCCH). The CELL UPDATE CONFIRM message may includes different configuration data, and the UE feedbacks with different messages according to the configuration data, so as to perform radio bearer reconfiguration or releasing, mobile information update or transport channel reconfiguration.
If the UTRAN uses the first function for the cell update procedure, a New H-RNTI IE is set with a dedicated H-RNTI and then included in the CELL UPDATE CONFIRM message. On the other hand, the UE owns an H-RNTI variable for storing the settings of the dedicated H-RNTI. If the UTRAN uses the second function, no New H-RNTI IE is included in the CELL UPDATE CONFIRM message, and the UE continues using the original common H-RNTI.
The UE can activate or deactivate the HS-DSCH reception in CELL_FACH state by determining a HS_DSCH_RECEPTION_CELL_FACH_STATE variable. When the UE enters CELL_FACH state and also activates HS-DSCH reception, the UE uses the dedicated H-RNTI if the H-RNTI variable is set. Otherwise, the common H-RNTI is used. Thus, if the UE selects a new cell, the UE keeps using the common H-RNTI for HS-DSCH reception in CELL_FACH state.
For a transmission packet header, except for the headers mapped to HS-DSCH or enhanced dedicated channel (E-DCH), a media access control (MAC) layer defines five fields as follows: Target Channel Type Field (TCTF), C/T, UE Id, UE Id Type and MBMS Id. The UE Id and UE Id Type fields are both used for providing an identifier of the UE so that the UE can identify the packets belonging to it.
In the MAC layer of the UTRAN, a MAC-d protocol data unit (PDU) adopts different header formats based on the different transport channels, and thereby is formed into a MAC-d service data unit (MAC-d SDU).
In addition, a MAC-ehs PDU includes a plurality of concatenated MAC-d PDUs and is transmitted on HSDSCH. A header of the MAC-ehs PDU consists of Logic channel identity (LCH-ID), Length (L), Transmission Sequence Number (TSN) and Flag fields. In general, the MAC-ehs PDU is applied to the UE in CELL_DCH state for the HSDPA operation and thereby each UE has a dedicated H-RNTI. Therefore, the MAC-ehs PDU can be sent to the targeting UE without including any UE identity information.
In the prior art, the UE using the common H-RNTI has to identify the received MAC packets with the headers and thereby determines to discard the packets or take a next process for dissembling the packets. On the contrary, the UE using the dedicated H-RNTI does not need the packet-identifying step. However, as can be seen from the above, the UE Id and UE Id Type fields, which carry identifiers of the targeting UE/UEs, are included neither in the MAC-d PDUs nor in the MAC-ehs PDUs. In this situation, the UE, who uses the common H-RNTI for HS-DSCH reception in CELL_FACH state, has no way to identify the received MAC packets. Thus, the reception of the MAC packets in MAC-d PDUs is impossible.
In brief, the UTRAN of the prior art can use the first or second function during the cell update procedure, so as to manage the UE to use the dedicated or common H-RNTI for HS-DSCH reception in CELL_FACH state However, the UE using common H-RNTI fails in reception of MAC packets in MAC-d PDUs sent on the HS-DSCH.

Method for improving high-speed downlink operation in CELL


According to one aspect of the present inventive concept there is provided a method for forming images, comprising: providing a plurality of images, each image including a first image part and a second image part, and each image depicting a respective partial view, wherein there is an overlap between partial views depicted in pairs of consecutive images, forming a first combined image from said first image parts, which first combined image depicts a first continuous view, and forming a second combined image from said second image parts, which second combined image depicts a second continuous view, wherein the first and the second continuous views overlap.

The availability of user friendly and capable digital cameras has made photography more popular and widely spread than ever before. The digital image format of the captured images allows both professionals and personal users to perform sophisticated editing and manipulation using e.g. computer software or in-camera functionality and thereby produce images which were difficult or impossible to achieve during the analog era of photography. Meanwhile, it has been decreasingly common to actually develop (i.e. print) images. As display technology has become both cheaper and more advanced, images are today mostly being displayed and viewed on a screen (e.g. a TV screen, a computer screen, a screen of a portable device such as a mobile phone, a portable media player, a portable gaming device etc.) A screen is much more versatile in terms of displaying images than a traditional print is and thus enable displaying and viewing of image content in entirely new ways, for example viewing of "three-dimensional" images. It also enables a beholder to interact with images, e.g. by zooming into an image, panning within an image etc.
These new ways for presenting image content has created a need for new ways of forming and capturing images which utilize the versatility of current display technology more fully. More specifically, there is a need for new ways of forming images without the need for specialized and expensive camera equipment.


A centrifugal microfluidic device having a microfluidic mixing element with a microfluidic mixing chamber in which at least two flows emerging from channels into the chamber at separate places are redirected to land at substantially the same place on a mixing surface provides efficient mixing of two or more fluids in the chamber.

Microfluidic devices are having an increasing impact on biomedical diagnostics and drug development. Centripetal (or centrifugal) microfluidics in particular can deal with very small volumes of liquid, usually in the microliter range. At such a small scale, the surface to volume ratio of flowing liquids increases drastically, while at the same time the specific Reynolds number becomes very small (typically less than 1). In such Reynolds number regimes the flow is always laminar, turbulences of any kind being completely forbidden. This is a serious drawback for mixing two or more liquids since, in the absence of any turbulence, diffusive mixing is the only available mechanism. This is an inherently very slow process. At the microfluidic scale, diffusion lengths of at least hundreds of microns are necessary, and for diffusion constants on the order of 10−12 (e.g. for DNA molecules (Robertson 2006)) corresponding diffusion times of about several tens of minutes are unavoidable. Consequently, the aim of any microfluidic mixing scheme is to enhance performance of the mixing process and achieve certain mixing performance within a minimum footprint and time.
There are few recent and good review articles for the state of the art in microfluidic mixing (Suh 2010; Capretto 2011; Lee 2011). As pointed out by these articles, while classical continuous microfluidics has been the field of several advancements and innovations in this matter, there is much on-going research and unsolved problems in centrifugal microfluidic mixing field. For the most part, mixing applications are designed by directly transferring knowledge from traditional microfluidic mixing to centrifugal microfluidics. In a recent example (Grumann 2005), a centrifugal microfluidic platform is achieved by magnetically stirring beads in a mixing chamber or by generating inertia effects trough sudden accelerations and decelerations of the platform. In another example (Noroozi 2009), Coriolis force and alternate spinning is used for the same purpose. In a relatively different approach, mixing in the channels can be achieved by generating vortices through appropriate twisting the flow with various ridge- and herringbone-structures (Stroock 2002). However, in principle, any other method of mixing used in traditional microfluidics either active (acoustic, ultrasonic, dielectrophoretic, electrodynamic, electrokinetic, etc.) or passive (lamination, zigzagging, 3D serpentines, etc.) can be used. The price to pay for this simple transfer of technology from traditional to centrifugal microfluidics is the complexity of both actuation and handling and the final fabrication cost per unit device. These approaches are generally not appropriate for centrifugal microfluidic devices and do not take advantage of several features these platforms may offer.
In recent work (Coleman 2006), a sequential (active) injection of liquids in the same channel followed by an expansion chamber for enhancing diffusive mixing may be employed. Similarly, the ability to generate very small liquid droplets by simply terminating microfluidic channels with a large reservoir (chamber) and putatively alternating liquid layers may be employed (Burger 2009). However, this approach results in inefficient mixing. As a consequence, the mixing time obtained is too long.
There remains a need for efficient mixing of fluids in a centrifugal microfluidic device.

Centrifugal microfluidic mixing apparatus with deflection element, and method of mixing


The photoresist barrier layer of an inkjet printer printhead is processed to enable channels narrower than a predetermined width in the barrier layer to be created without blockage. Relatively large volumes of photoresist which form a wall of the channel are exposed to a partial exposure of electromagnetic radiation to yield a reduced concentration of photoresist barrier layer in the large volume.

The present invention is generally related to a photoresist barrier layer capable of reproducing fine details and more particularly related to a barrier layer in an inkjet printer printhead that utilizes small dimensions to produce reduced drop weight ink drops.
Inkjet printers operate by expelling a small volume of ink through a plurality of small orifices in an orifice plate held in proximity to a medium upon which printing or recording marks are to be placed. These orifices are arranged in a fashion in the orifice plate such that the expulsion of drops of ink from a selected number of orifices relative to a particular position of the medium results in the production of a portion of a desired character or image. Controlled repositioning of the orifice plate or the medium followed by another expulsion of ink drops results in the creation of more segments of the desired character or image. Furthermore, inks of various colors may be coupled to individual arrangements of orifices so that selected firing of the orifices can produce a multicolored image by the inkjet printer.
Several mechanisms have been employed to create the force necessary to expel an ink drop from a printhead, among which are thermal, piezoelectric, and electrostatic mechanisms. While the following specification is made with reference to a thermal ink ejection mechanism, the present invention may have application for the other ink ejection mechanisms as well.
Expulsion of the ink drop in a conventional thermal inkjet printer is a result of rapid thermal heating of the ink to a temperature that exceeds the boiling point of the ink vehicle to create a vapor phase bubble of ink. Such rapid heating of the ink is generally achieved by passing a pulse of electric current through an ink ejector that usually is an individually addressable heater resistor, typically for 1 to 3 microseconds, and the heat generated thereby is coupled to a small volume of ink held in an enclosed area associated with the heater resistor and that is generally referred to as a firing chamber. For a printhead, there are a plurality of heater resistors and associated firing chambersxe2x80x94perhaps numbering in the hundredsxe2x80x94each of which can be uniquely addressed and caused to eject ink upon command by the printer. The heater resistors are deposited in a semiconductor substrate and are electrically connected to external circuitry by way of metalization deposited on the semiconductor substrate. Further, the heater resistors and metalization may be protected from chemical attack and mechanical abrasion by one or more layers of passivation. Additional description of basic printhead structure may be found in xe2x80x9cThe Second-Generation Thermal InkJet Structurexe2x80x9d by Ronald Askeland et al. in The Hewlett-Packard Journal, August 1988, pp. 28-31. Thus, one of the walls of each firing chamber consists of the semiconductor substrate (and typically one firing resistor). Another of the walls of the firing chamber, disposed opposite the semiconductor substrate in one common implementation, is formed by the orifice plate. Generally, each of the orifices in this orifice plate is arranged in relation to a heater resistor in a manner that enables ink to be expelled from the orifice. As the ink vapor bubble nucleates at the surface of the heater resistor and expands, it displaces a volume of ink that forces a volume of ink out of the orifice for deposition on the medium. The bubble then collapses and the displaced volume of ink is replenished from a larger ink reservoir by way of an ink feed channel in another of the walls of the firing chamber.
As users of inkjet printers have begun to desire finer detail in the printed output from a printerxe2x80x94especially in color outputxe2x80x94the technology has been pushed into smaller drops of ink to achieve the finer detail. Smaller ink drops means lowered drop weight and lowered drop volume. Production of such low drop weight ink drops requires smaller structures in the printhead. Thus, smaller firing chambers (containing a smaller volume of ink), smaller ink ejectors, and smaller orifice bore diameters are required.
A majority of the size of the firing chamber is determined by a layer of photoimagable polymer sandwiched between the heater resistor-bearing semiconductor substrate and the orifice plate. This layer is traditionally known as a barrier layer and has often been described, see for example, xe2x80x9cDevelopment of High-Resolution Thermal Inkjet Printheadxe2x80x9d, by William A. Buskirk, et al., the Hewlett-Packard Journal, October 1988, pp. 55-61. The barrier layer is honeycombed with cavities that, when bounded by the substrate on one side and by the orifice plate on the other, become the ink firing chambers and connecting inkfeed channels that route ink into the ink firing chambers. The dimensions and architecture of the ink firing chambers, the ink feed channels, and other features which control and filter ink are typically defined and created by photoimaging techniques. These techniques are capable of creating relatively small features in the barrier material.
A problem that occasionally manifest itself in inkjet printheads is that of occlusion or narrowing occurring in an ink feed channel or in the orifice of the printhead. Microscopic particles can become lodged in the channel leading to the ink firing chamber, causing premature failure of the heater resistor, misdirection of ink drops, or diminished ink supply to the firing chamber resulting in greatly diminished ink drop size. A single orifice, which does not fire an ink drop when it is commanded to do so, leaves a missing portion from a printed character or creates a band of missing drops from a printed image. The end result is perceived as a poorer quality of printed matter, a highly undesirable characteristic for an inkjet printer. To resolve this undesirable result, others have used spare or redundant orifices to eject ink, multiple inlets to the ink firing chamber, and pillars or islands formed in the barrier layer and disposed in the ink path to filter particles from the ink.
As the size of the firing chamber, ink feed channels, and filtering features become smallerxe2x80x94for example approximately the same dimensions as the thickness of the barrier layerxe2x80x94the conventional barrier layer photoimaging process is unable to resolve the finer details of the desired architecture. This inability places a limitation on the smallest size of the architectural features and will limit the reliability of the ejection of ink when the smallest features are not properly formed.
An inkjet printhead having fine details in a barrier layer includes a photoresist layered to a predetermined thickness on a substrate. A first volume a second volume, and a third volume of the photoresist are selected to remain after development of the photoresist. When the first volume and the second volume are spaced apart by a distance less than a predetermined distance, the first volume is exposed to less than a full exposure of electromagnetic radiation. The third volume of the photoresist is exposed to a full exposure of electromagnetic radiation. The exposed photoresist is then developed.


Fluid circulation tube and heat exchanger equipped with tubes of this type are disclosed. The tube (6) is produced by bending, and, once its wall has been bent, has a base portion (12) prolonged laterally by two linking portions (13) leading to two top portions (14) turned toward one another, which terminate in end legs (15) turned toward the base portion (12), forming at least two parallel longitudinal internal channels (16) into which the two systems (20) of bends (21) of a corrugated disrupter (17) can be inserted, these systems being interconnected by a central part (23) inserted into a gap left between said legs and the base portion.

The present invention relates to a fluid circulation tube and to a heat exchanger including tubes of this type.
The heat exchangers in question are intended, although not exclusively, to be fitted to vehicles, and in a preferred application they form the condensers provided in the air conditioning loops or circuits of vehicles. However, the use of these exchangers as radiators of engine cooling loops or circuits could also be envisaged without departure from the scope of the invention.
Briefly, and in general terms, the air conditioning loop for the interior of a vehicle is primarily composed of the following members, considered in the direction of circulation of the coolant (such as Freon, CO2, or 1234yf) flowing through it: a compressor which converts the fluid into superheated high-pressure steam, a condenser which receives the fluid and cools it to high-pressure liquid at its outlet as a result of its design in the form of a bundle of parallel tubes and the flow of external air which sweeps it, an expansion valve which reduces the pressure, and an evaporator where the expanded and condensed fluid is cooled and exchanges heat with the flow of external air to be directed into the vehicle interior. The fluid is converted to the vapor phase at its exit and is then sent to the compressor for a further cycle, and the same sequence is repeated, while the flow of external air passing through the evaporator is cooled to provide the conditioned air for the vehicle interior.
In structural terms, the condenser forming the heat exchanger comprises a bundle of parallel tubes and two headers (or header boxes) to which the corresponding ends of the parallel tubes are connected in a fixed and fluid-tight way. Thus the coolant in the loop can flow from the upstream header facing the compressor toward the downstream header facing the expansion valve, through the tubes, the fluid being made to pass from the vapor phase to the liquid phase by the external air which sweeps the tubes, whose large surface area optimizes the heat exchange.
Two main processes are used to manufacture these tubes before their assembly with the headers. These processes are extrusion, which is costly (requiring special dies for each type of tube) but produces tubes which are easily brazed because they are naturally fluid-tight, and bending, which offers other benefits, but produces tubes which are more difficult to braze.

Fluid circulation tube and a heat exchanger comprising such tubes


It is an object of the present invention to provide a back scattered electron detector suitable for implementing a method for determining beforehand in which region of a sample an X-ray detector can obtain an accurate X-ray detection image and perform an appropriate analysis. A Coax-BSE detector which is a back scattered electron detector includes a BSE element, a support member that supports the BSE element, and a fixing member to fix the support member to the X-ray detector, in which the fixing member fixes the support member by clamping a side portion on the distal end side which is an X-ray receiving side of a housing that covers the X-ray detector.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a back scattered electron detector used together with an X-ray detector included in a charged particle beam apparatus and a charged particle beam apparatus including this back scattered electron detector.
2. Description of the Related Art
When performing an X-ray element analysis using a charged particle beam apparatus typified by a scanning electron microscope, a secondary electron detector and a back scattered electron detector are used in addition to an X-ray detector. A back scattered electron detector (also referred to as "BSE detector") is disposed between an objective lens and the surface of a sample. Using the secondary electron detector and the back scattered electron detector, an analysis position can be optionally determined while acquiring an image. The X-ray detector is disposed at an angular position different from those of the secondary electron detector and the back scattered electron detector to detect and analyze characteristic X-rays.
In a sample surface analysis using the scanning electron microscope, the surface of a sample to be observed is normally not a completely flat surface, but includes many projections and depressions. For this reason, when there are obstacles such as projections and depressions resulting from the sample surface shape and surface roughness between the X-ray detector and the analysis position on the sample surface, characteristic X-rays generated from the analysis position are blocked by the projections and depressions and the spectral intensity obtained by the X-ray detector decreases. Furthermore, when there is a significant difference in the energy of a detected spectrum (e.g., Al—K and Cu—K), the decreasing rate of the spectral intensity on the low energy side increases and a peak intensity ratio is detected differently.
Therefore, when there are projections and depressions on the analysis surface, it is not possible to perform an accurate analysis in locations hidden behind the projections and depressions when viewed from the X-ray detector. Moreover, when a normal X-ray element analysis is performed, an analysis range is determined while viewing a back scattered electron image from which a composition contrast is obtained in addition to a secondary electron image obtained by a secondary electron detector. However, it is difficult to distinguish locations where the spectral intensity decreases from a back scattered electron image obtained by the back scattered electron detector disposed right above the sample surface. When performing an X-ray element analysis using such a method, an analyzer determines an analysis range by estimating the concavo-convex shape of the sample surface from the secondary electronic image obtained by the secondary electron detector including shape information and evaluates the analysis result obtained from experiences. If there are parts where it is judged that X-rays cannot be detected due to projections and depressions in the analysis range or that a decrease of intensity of X-rays affects analysis data, it is necessary to readjust a positional relationship between the sample and the X-ray detector and recollect (rework) data. Note that if the positional relationship between the sample and the X-ray detector cannot be readjusted, there is no choice but to consider the analysis result by taking into account the concavo-convex condition of the sample surface from the analysis data obtained, and accurate data interpretation may not be possible.
A technique described in WO2012/016198 proposes to dispose a back scattered electron detector in the vicinity of an X-ray detector and eliminate misalignment between an X-ray detected image and a back scattered electron image.
The present inventor et al. discovered a method of disposing, when there are projections and depressions on an analysis surface, a back scattered electron detector in the vicinity of an X-ray detector, using a back scattered electron image detected by the back scattered electron detector, and determining beforehand in which region of a sample the X-ray detector can acquire an accurate X-ray detection image and perform an appropriate analysis. In the process of examining an apparatus suitable for such an analysis technique, the inventor et al. discovered that enabling a back scattered electron detector to be mounted on an existing X-ray detector would significantly expand an application range of this analysis technique.
The present invention has been implemented in view of the above-described problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a back scattered electron detector that can be mounted on an existing X-ray detector and suitable for implementing a method for determining beforehand in which region of a sample the X-ray detector can obtain an accurate X-ray detection image and perform an appropriate analysis. Furthermore, a charged particle beam apparatus provided with the back scattered electron detector is also provided.


A hand-held viral inhibitor and related methodology which transfer between space exposed electrodes an electric current signal of reversing polarity through the viral-laden tissue are disclosed.

The presence of a virus in the body manifests itself various as fever blisters, genital affliction, lesions, warts, growths, etc., with the attending pain, burning, irritation, swelling, itching, and embarrassment.
Because viral infections are often long term and repetitive, providing technology to inhibit the same, immediately and continuously available to the afflicted person, would be a valuable benefit to the individuals specifically and to mankind generally.