A power system and method for supplying power to a wireless X-ray detector utilizes a detachable handle for a wireless X-ray detector. The handle carries a battery which, when the detachable handle is coupled to a wireless X-ray detector, provides the wireless X-ray detector with a mobile supply of power. A detachable handle charging station may recharge a plurality of detachable handles, providing a swappable supply of power for a wireless X-ray detector. Charging stations for such handles, or for entire detectors are also disclosed.

The invention relates generally to supplying power to a wireless digital imaging detector, and more particularly, to supplying power to a wireless X-ray detector.
In medical diagnostic applications, digital X-ray imaging systems offer exceptional versatility and rapid reconstruction of radiographic images. A digital X-ray imaging system consists of at least a radiation source, a detector, and an image data processor and display. Radiation from a source is directed toward a subject, typically a patient, and a portion of the radiation passes through the subject and impacts a detector, which transforms the radiation into useful image data. After receiving the image data, an image data processor translates the data into a radiographic image for display.
As digital X-ray imaging systems have become increasingly widespread, digital X-ray detectors have become more portable for even greater versatility. Rather than remaining fixed against a table or wall, some digital X-ray detectors may be moved freely, remaining tethered only to a host computer and power supply. Such a configuration, however, may prove limiting in many applications. The tether may not allow the wireless detector to reach or turn as desired. Also, the tether may become tangled, and may present a tripping hazard to those in the vicinity. Moreover, recoiling the tether while connected to the detector may prove cumbersome to medical personnel. To overcome such limitations, attempts have been made to allow for wireless operation of digital X-ray detectors.
Though a wireless X-ray detector may offer greater mobility, its emancipation requires a power system as mobile as the wireless X-ray detector itself. Such a power system must further endure a strenuous medical environment in which a wireless X-ray detector may be deployed, as well as accommodate wireless X-ray detectors throughout a range of varying applications. Additionally, it may be desirable to allow the wireless X-ray detector to remain in position while a depleted power supply is replaced.

Battery powered X-ray detector power system and method


A camera which includes a film cartridge whose spool is adapted to be set in different rotational positions with respect to a film cartridge main body between unused state and used state of the film cartridge, and a camera body having a film cartridge accommodating portion, and is arranged to show that the film cartridge is in the used state when the used film cartridge is inserted in the accommodating portion of the camera body.. The film cartridge is provided with shaped portions having different shapes from each other corresponding to the two rotational positions, while the film cartridge accommodating portion of the camera body is provided with an ejecting member, a detecting member for detecting the state of use of the film cartridge through its movement controlled by the differently shaped portions of the film cartridge upon insertion of the film cartridge into the film cartridge accommodating portion, and a display member for detection to be shown at a predetermined position in responsive movement to the detecting member, upon detection that the film cartridge is in the used state by the detecting member.

The present invention generally relates to an arrangement for a film cartridge for use in a photographic camera, and more particularly, to a camera of the above described type arranged to show different modes when a film cartridge of an unused state and that of a used state are loaded therein.
Conventionally, there has been shown in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication Tokka 2-114248, a camera system employing a film cartridge of a new type, in which different from a known film cartridge, the film is entirely accommodated in the film cartridge main body, and loading of the film onto the camera is automatically effected by rotating a fork and a spool engaged therewith by a motor. Therefore, it is difficult to judge, from external appearance, whether the film cartridge is in an unused state or in a used state. Accordingly, there is a possibility that photography is effected with a cartridge in the used state being loaded on the camera, thus undesirably resulting in double exposure.
In order to avoid such a disadvantage, it has been proposed to give different indications on the film cartridges between the used state and the unused state thereof. However, in the case where a user is unaware of such indications, etc., the possibility of double exposure can not be completely eliminated. Therefore, there has also been proposed an arrangement in which, by setting rotational angle positions of the spool to be different between the used film cartridge and the unused film cartridge, the spool is adapted not to engage the fork at the camera body side in the case of the used film cartridge (based on an assumption that an initial position of the fork is normally set to be at a predetermined rotational angle position, i.e. at the position corresponding to the spool of the unused film cartridge).
In the above arrangement, however, it has been still possible that the user forces the used film cartridge into a film cartridge accommodating chamber of the camera body, thereby damaging associated mechanisms or parts, etc. Furthermore, for preventing such damage, it has been necessary to preliminarily improve mechanical strength of the parts such as the fork, etc., which may result in higher cost.

Film cartridge accomodating device which prevents previously used cartridges from being employed in a camera or the like


A handheld device and a homescreen management method thereof are provided. The handheld device comprises a touch screen and a processor electrically connected to the touch screen. The touch screen displays a user interface, and senses a long pressing of an object and generates a first touch signal. The processor executes a homescreen management program according to the first touch signal, and enables the touch screen to display a homescreen management interface corresponding to the homescreen management program. The homescreen management interface comprises a page navigation area and a candidate object area. The page navigation area comprises a first page image and the candidate object area comprises an object image. The touch screen further senses a pressing of the object and generates a second touch signal, and the processor adds the object image into the first page image according to the second touch signal.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a handheld device and a homescreen management method thereof; and more particularly, the present invention relates to a handheld device and a homescreen management method thereof for managing homescreens of a user interface.
2. Descriptions of the Related Art
Currently, handheld devices used by the general consumers (e.g., smart phones, tablet computers and notebook computers) have a plurality of homescreens for placement of objects by users. These objects are applications (APPs), widgets, shortcuts and the like. However, when a new object is to be added into such a handheld device, the new object is usually added into the last homescreen or inserted in some other homescreen having a blank block, and then manual ordering is performed by the user. For example, if the user's handheld device has seven homescreens in total and only the seventh homescreen has a blank block available for accommodating the new object, then the new object will be placed in the seventh homescreen having the blank block. Thereafter, if the user desires to move the new object to the first homescreen, then the new object must be moved from the seventh homescreen to the first homescreen all the way through the second to the sixth homescreens. Therefore, homescreen management in the conventional handheld devices is still not so user-friendly and intuitive.
Accordingly, an urgent need exists in the art to provide a solution of managing homescreens of a handheld device more user-friendly to improve the convenience in use.

Handheld device and homescreen management method thereof


The present invention provides a method for producing erase bands of varying width between tracks of information on a recording medium. In accordance with the invention, a magnetic head having a write gap and trailing pole with non-parallel portions is produced. In the preferred embodiment, the magnetic head combines an inductive write head with a magneto-resistive read head in a single head structure. The inductive head includes a leading write pole and a trailing write pole which are separated by a recording gap. The write gap is formed with a central portion writing data in a desired orientation, positioned between two non-parallel side portions having divergent angles with respect to the central portion. In the recording process, the side portions write transitions on the recording medium which are oblique or angled with respect to the data transitions written on the medium by the central portion. These angled transitions produce erase bands between adjacent tracks of information represented by the data transitions recorded by the central portion of the write gap.. The width of the non-parallel side portions is advantageously selected in accordance with the expected servo position error of the drive.

In typical magnetic recording systems, data is recorded onto a magnetic medium, such as a tape or a disc, by means of a magnetic recording head housed in a drive. The data is recorded onto the medium in tracks, whose width and spacing determine the density, and thus the amount, of the data which can be recorded onto the medium. The head "reads" data signals from the recording medium having a particular acceptable range of orientation, and disregards signals having an orientation which is sufficiently oblique or angled relative the coherent data signals.
Problems with reading the data recorded on the medium can occur when the drive is subjected to external forces, such as mechanical vibrations resulting from jarring or jolting the drive. In addition, thermal variations within the drive, such as the temperature rise which accompanies warmup, and mechanical and electrical resonances produced by internal mechanisms and circuitry, also produce vibrations within the drive. When such a vibration occurs, the head moves off track and can move partially over other tracks, thereby reading mixed data from the two tracks. In addition, because most drives do not erase unwanted data, but instead, overwrite the existing data with new data, the problem is intensified when the heads write new data over existing data. As will be appreciated, if the recording head is offtrack when overwriting the old data and is later repositioned ontrack to read back the new data, what the head in actuality reads back is a composite of old data signals and new data signals. Since the proper signal on the old data track is the new data signal, the old data signal is considered "coherent noise." Coherent noise is defined as unwanted signals within the bandwidth of the recording code, and is differentiated from broadband thermal noise. Said coherent noise is typically locked in a coherent phase with respect to the desired data signals. If this noise were sufficiently angled from the orientation of the new data signals, it would be disregarded by the head. Unfortunately, all too often the improperly written data is of an orientation similar to that of the desired data track and is mistakenly identified by the head as the desired data signal, or modulates the timing of the desired data signal.
Naturally, vibration during the read operation causes similar problems. That is, even if the data is written on the proper track, vibration will often cause the head to drift partially offtrack during the read operation. Although data is generally written with sufficient density to be read by the head even if the head is partially offtrack, head performance will fall off dramatically if the head picks up sufficient coherent noise from the portions of the recording medium surrounding the desired track. Depending upon track density and the amount of head drift, the coherent noise could include the data from the edge of the adjacent track.
To prevent the head from reading data from two adjacent tracks, areas of the medium, known as guardbands, are commonly positioned between the tracks. Essentially, the guardbands are "strips" of the medium located between information tracks where no data is written. Thus, if the head moves off the desired track during the read operation, no other data from adjacent tracks will be read, and the amount of coherent noise experienced by the head will be drastically reduced.
Guardbands are limited in their capacity to compensate in disc drive failure, however, by their inability to correct for data which has been initially written offtrack. When mechanical vibrations occur which cause the head to move offtrack during the write process, data will be written partially onto the track, as well as onto a portion of the guardband adjacent the track. Later, during the read operation, vibrational head drift will cause the head to read data from both the track and the adjacent guardbands. When the medium is only used for a single write operation, the only coherent data on the guardbands will be the data recorded on the track. When the medium is written over numerous times, the random head drift will cause the guardbands to be filled with a nonsensical combination of misplaced writes and this coherent noise will severely compromise head performance.
To overcome this problem, bands on either side of the information tracks can be erased with each write operation. Because the erase bands are created with each write operation, the bands do not become filled up with misplaced writes and head performance is improved. Some prior art methods of forming erase bands consisted of erasing the data on either side of an information track and then recording data along the track in a separate operation. U.S. Pat. No. 4,644,421 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,290,088 are examples of such methods. While these methods provide for erase bands between adjacent tracks, the process is time consuming and requires multiple operations to achieve erasure.
Magnetic heads have been developed which create erase bands between tracks on the information medium as data is written onto the medium. U.S. Pat. No. 3,155,949 discloses a magnetic transducer assembly comprising a read/write element and an erase element located immediately downstream of the read/write element. The read/write gap and erase gap are of equal widths. However, the erase gap is interrupted by a tunnel or notch. The erase element is activated during the write operation to erase both lateral edges of the written information. This design, however, requires precise and separate machining of the tunnel at increased manufacturing costs so that the desired recording and track widths are obtained.
In the IEEE publication "THIN FILM FLOPPY DISK HEAD", Chang, et al. disclose a magnetic head in which straddle erase of data tracks on a floppy disk is accomplished using the same coil layers as those of the read/write head. As two main pole pieces of the head write data onto the medium, separate erasure poles located on both sides of the write poles write a magnetization pattern which is perpendicular to the direction of the data magnetization. However, this design is also expensive to manufacture due to the extra maskings required to produce the head structure. Further, the width of the erase bands created by this head structure is limited by the width of the gaps between the main write poles and erasure poles.

Magnetic recording head which produces variable erase bands


An active matrix substrate (5) is provided with: a plurality of source wiring lines (S) and a plurality of gate wiring lines (G) which are arranged in a matrix; and pixels (P) having thin film transistors (25) disposed in the vicinity of the intersections of the source wiring lines (S) and the gate wiring lines (G), and pixel electrodes (26) connected to the thin film transistors (25). In the active matrix substrate (5), a base material (5a) is disposed in such a manner that the source wiring lines (S) and the gate wiring lines (G) intersect each other, and on the base material (5a), auxiliary capacity electrodes (28), which are provided on the pixel basis, are made of transparent electrodes, and generate an auxiliary capacity, and auxiliary capacity wiring lines (29), which are connected to the auxiliary capacity electrodes (28) and are made of an aluminum alloy, are provided.

In recent years, for example, liquid crystal display devices are used widely for liquid crystal TVs, monitors, mobile telephones, etc. as flat panel displays having features such as thinness and light weight, compared with conventional Braun tubes. In such a liquid crystal display device, it is known that an active matrix substrate, which is provided with a plurality of data wiring lines (source wiring lines) and a plurality of scanning wiring lines (gate wiring lines) arranged in a matrix, and pixels arranged in a matrix, each having a switching element such as a thin film transistor (TFT) disposed in the vicinity of the intersection of the data wiring line and the scanning wiring line and a pixel electrode connected to the switching element, is used for a liquid crystal panel as a display panel.
Further, in such an active matrix substrate, in order to enhance the display quality in the liquid crystal display device, there is a demand that a sufficient auxiliary capacity be added to the pixel electrodes and the opening ratio of the pixels be increased.
Further, in the conventional active matrix substrate, for example, as described in the following Patent document 1, it is proposed that first and second transparent conductive patterns be provided so as to sandwich a gate insulating film, and an auxiliary capacity be generated between the first and second transparent conductive patterns. Further, in the conventional active matrix substrate, an auxiliary capacity line (auxiliary capacity wiring line) is connected to the second transparent electrode pattern, and an end of the first transparent electrode pattern is directly laminated on a source electrode of the thin film transistor without providing a contact hole. Further, in the conventional active matrix substrate, a contact hole for bringing the pixel electrode and the first transparent electrode pattern into conduction is provided at a portion where the second transparent electrode pattern and the auxiliary capacity line overlap each other, and an island-shaped pattern including a semiconductor layer is provided on the gate insulating film. Then, the conventional active matrix substrate enables a sufficient auxiliary capacity to be ensured and the opening ratio of the pixels to be increased.

Active matrix substrate and display device


A method and apparatus for improving the quality of an image that is developed by a liquid carrier is disclosed. The invention relates to image blotting and is directed to reducing disruptive forces on the wet image during blotting. The invention relates to the conditions under which liquid carrier is removed from the surface of an image supportable member.

Generally, the process of electrostatographic copying is initiated by exposing a light image of an original document to a substantially uniformly charged photoreceptive member. Exposing the charged photoreceptive member to a light image discharges its surface in areas which correspond to non-image areas in the original document while maintaining the charge in image areas. This selective discharging scheme results in the creation of an electrostatic latent image of the original document on the surface of the photoreceptive member. This latent image is developed into a visible image by a process in which developer material is deposited onto the surface of the photoreceptive member. Typically, this developer material comprises carrier granules having toner particles adhering triboelectrically thereto, wherein the toner particles are electrostatically attracted from the carrier granules to the latent image for forming a powder toner image on the photoreceptive member. Alternatively, liquid developer materials comprising a liquid carrier material having toner particles dispersed therein have been utilized. In a liquid developing process, the developer material is applied to the latent image with the toner particles being attracted toward the image areas to form a liquid image. Regardless of the type of developer material employed, the toner particles of the developed image are subsequently transferred from the photoreceptive member to a copy sheet, either directly or by way of an intermediate transfer member. Once on the copy sheet, the image may be permanently affixed to provide a "hard copy" reproduction of the original document or file. The photoreceptive member is then cleaned to remove any charge and/or residual developing material from its surface in preparation for subsequent imaging cycles.
The above described electrostatographic reproduction process is well known and is useful for light lens copying from an original, as well as for printing applications involving electronically generated or stored originals. Analogous processes also exist in other printing applications such as, for example, digital laser printing where a latent image is formed on the photoconductive surface via a modulated laser beam, or ionographic printing and reproduction where charge is deposited on a charge retentive surface in response to electronically generated or stored images. Some of these printing processes develop toner on the discharged area, known as DAD, or "write black" systems, in contradistinction to the light lens generated image systems which develop toner on the charged areas, knows as CAD, or "write white" systems. The subject invention applies to both such systems.
The use of liquid developer materials in imaging processes and the art of developing electrostatographic latent images formed on a photoconductive surface with liquid developer materials are well known. Indeed, various types of liquid developing systems have heretofore been disclosed. Liquid developers have many advantages, and often produce images of higher quality than those formed using dry toners. For example, images developed with liquid developers can be made to adhere to paper without a fixing or fusing step, thereby eliminating a requirement to include a resin in the liquid developer for fusing purposes. In addition, the toner particles can be made to be very small without resulting in problems often associated with small particle powder toners, such as airborne contamination which can adversely affect machine reliability and can create potential health hazards. Development with liquid developers in full color imaging processes also has many advantages, including, among others, production of a texturally attractive output document due to minimal multi-layer toner height build-up (whereas full color images developed with dry toners often exhibit substantial height build-up of the image in regions where color areas overlap). In addition, full color imaging with liquid developers is economically attractive, particularly if surplus liquid carrier containing the toner particles can be economically recovered without cross contamination of colorants. Further, full color prints made with liquid developers can be processed to a substantially uniform finish, whereas uniformity of finish is difficult to achieve with powder toners due to a need for thermal fusion, in addition to variations in the toner pile height and other factors.
When using liquid toners, there is a need to remove the liquid carrier medium from the photoconductive surface after the toner has been applied thereto. This prevents the liquid carrier from being transferred from the photoreceptor to the paper or to the intermediate medium during image transfer. Removing the liquid carrier also allows it to be recovered for recycle and reuse in the developer system. This provides for additional cost savings in terms of printing supplies, and helps eliminate environmental and health concerns which result from disposal of excess liquid carrier medium. Furthermore, removing the liquid carrier increases the mechanical strength of the image which prevents it from being damaged during subsequent processing steps.
One way to remove excess carrier fluid is to place a blotting member in rotatable contact with the image while it resides on the photoreceptor or intermediate imaging member. A vacuum associated with the blotting member causes the liquid to be pulled from the photoreceptor surface. Removal of carrier fluid results in an increase in solid particle content, thereby allowing for greater efficiency of the process of transferring the image from the imaging member to permanent media. The most efficient conditioning of an image to increase the percentage of solids residing therein obviously requires preventing the solid toner particles from leaving the image while the carrier liquid is being removed. This process must be completed without disturbing the toner image.
Typical methods of removing excess fluid using a blotting member require passing the imaging member directly under the roll to absorb the contacting liquid carrier fluid. The strength of the vacuum associated with the roll is determined by the speed at which the imaging member moves past the roll. Specifically, faster process speeds require a higher vacuum to be applied to the image in order to remove a sufficient amount of fluid. Vacuum systems that are capable of supplying a sufficient amount of suction are often quite large and take up too much space within the printing machine. In addition, significant costs can be associated with purchasing and operating a high capacity vacuum system. Thus, it is advantageous to devise a system which can remove excess carrier fluid from the surface of an imaging member without requiring the application of a high vacuum.
The following disclosures may be relevant to various aspects of the present invention:
U.S. Pat. No. 5,332,642 to Simms et al. Issued Jul. 26, 1994 discloses a device for increasing the solids content of an image formed from liquid developer wherein absorption material is contacted with a liquid carrier laden image and the absorbed liquid carrier is vacuumed out of the absorption material. The absorption material preferably is a conductive cover on a porous roller biased with an electrical charge which is the same as the charge of the toner particles.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,352,558 to Simms et al. issued Oct. 4, 1994 discloses a device for increasing the solids content of an image formed from liquid developer which includes an absorption material containing small pores to absorb dispersant from a dispersant laden image and a pair of rollers bearing the belt. The belt on one of the rollers contacts a dispersant laden image bearing portion of an image carrying member such as a photoreceptor drum or an intermediate sheet
U.S. Pat. No. 5,047,808 to Landa et. al issued Sep. 10, 1991 discloses an image system including an image bearing surface and an intermediate transfer member operative for transfer of liquid toner images from the image bearing surface to a substrate. The system provides for first transfer engagement between the intermediate transfer member and the image bearing surface for transfer of an image from the image bearing surface to the intermediate transfer member at a first pressure, and then provides for second transfer engagement between the intermediate transfer member and the substrate for transfer of the image from the intermediate transfer member to the substrate at a second pressure. Application of the first pressure produces deformation of the intermediate transfer member to a first deformation degree, while the second pressure application produces deformation of the intermediate transfer member to a second deformation degree.
All of the references cited herein are incorporated by reference for their teachings.
Accordingly, although known apparatus and processes are suitable for their intended purposes, a need remains for method and apparatus for reproducing images that have been developed using a liquid developer material.
Further, there is a need for methods and apparatus for removing excess carrier fluid from the surface of a liquid developed image, to allow for a more efficient system of reproducing these types of images.

Method and apparatus for removing fluid from the surface of a liquid developed image


In a method and apparatus for manufacturing ceramic green sheets, first and second long ceramic green sheets are selectively drawn out by means of first and second draw-out rollers into a commonly used punching station. In the punching station, predetermined areas of the long ceramic green sheets are punched, so that ceramic green sheet cut pieces having predetermined sizes are formed. A cut piece held by a punching head is conveyed to a lamination station adjacent to the punching station, where lamination and press-bonding are carried out.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lamination apparatus and a lamination method for a ceramic green sheet and more particularly, the present invention relates to a lamination apparatus and a method of laminating a ceramic green sheet cut piece having a predetermined size which is formed by punching a long ceramic green sheet.
2. Description of the Related Art
For production of laminated ceramic electronic components, a process of laminating plural ceramic green sheets is carried out. In many cases, at least two kinds of ceramic green sheets are laminated in a lamination process. For example, for production of a laminated ceramic capacitor, ceramic green sheets having conductor films formed thereon, which function as internal electrodes for producing electrostatic capacitances, and ceramic green sheets having no conductor films formed thereon, which constitute outer layers, are laminated.
For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication Nos. 2002-151350 (Patent Document 1) and 2003-17365 (Patent Document 2) disclose lamination apparatuses suitable for lamination of two kinds of ceramic green sheets as described above.
The lamination apparatus described in Patent Document 1 is formed so that two kinds of ceramic green sheets, i.e., a first ceramic green sheet and a second ceramic green sheet are processed. The lamination apparatus contains a lamination station in which ceramic green sheet cut pieces having a predetermined size formed by punching predetermined areas of the first and second ceramic green sheets are laminated, and first and second punching stations in which the first and second ceramic green sheets are punched, respectively. The first and second punching stations are arranged in opposition to each other via the lamination station.
Moreover, the lamination apparatus contains a punching head for cutting the first and second long ceramic green sheets so as to form cutting lines enclosing predetermined areas of the first and second ceramic green sheets, the punching head being movable to convey the cut pieces from the first or second punching station to the lamination station while holding the formed ceramic green sheet cut pieces.
Patent Document 1 describes the structure in which two punching heads are provided as the above-described punching head. The first punching head can be moved between the first punching station and the lamination station. The second punching head can be moved between the second punching station and the lamination station. The first and second punching heads can be simultaneously moved by rotation of one ball screw. Thereby, while one of the punching heads conducts the punching operation in one punching station, the other punching head can carry out the lamination operation of a ceramic green sheet cut piece in the lamination station. Thus, the cycle time for the lamination process can be reduced.
According to the lamination apparatus described in Patent Document 2, two kinds of ceramic green sheets are processed. One of the two kinds of ceramic green sheets is a long ceramic green sheet, and the other, which is not long, is a card-shaped ceramic green sheet.
Moreover, in the lamination apparatus described in Patent Document 1, only one punching head is provided, which is different from the lamination apparatus described in Patent Document 1. This punching head punches a long ceramic green sheet or a card-shaped ceramic green sheet to form a ceramic green sheet cut piece having a predetermined size in the working station. Also, the punching head has a function to laminate the punched ceramic green sheet cut piece. The long ceramic green sheet and the card-shaped ceramic green sheet are conveyed from their opposite positions into the above-described working station for the punching head.
However, the lamination apparatuses described in patent Documents 1 and 2 have the following problems to be solved.
That is, in the lamination apparatus described in Patent Document 1, the first and second punching stations are arranged in opposition to each other via the lamination station. Thus, the ball screw for driving the punching head must have a length such that the screw can extend at least from the first punching head to the second punching head. Thus, the ball screw must be long, so that the inertial moment of the mechanism for causing the movement of the punching head becomes large. The punching head is unsuitable for high speed movement. Thus, the reduction of the cycle time has a limit.
Moreover, in the lamination apparatus described in Patent Document 1, the cost of the punching head is relatively high. Thus, when two punching heads are provided, the cost of the whole lamination apparatus becomes high.
In the case where the ceramic green sheet cut pieces formed by punching the first long ceramic green sheet, and the ceramic green sheet cut pieces formed by punching the second long ceramic green sheet are alternately laminated one by one, for example, the lamination process can be efficiently carried out, since the two punching heads are provided.
However, in the case where the ceramic green sheet cut pieces formed by punching only one kind of the long ceramic green sheets are laminated in succession many times, i.e., in the case where fifty ceramic green sheet cut pieces formed by punching the first ceramic green sheet are laminated, and thereafter, fifty ceramic green sheet cut pieces formed by punching the second ceramic green sheet are laminated, only one punching head is required during this particular time period. Therefore, the constitution having two punching heads is not necessarily suitable for the above-described use.
For example, for production of laminated ceramic capacitors, ceramic green sheet cut pieces formed by punching a long ceramic green sheet having no conductor film formed thereon are laminated in succession a plurality of times, and thereafter, ceramic green sheet cut pieces formed by punching a long ceramic green sheet having a conductor film formed thereon are laminated in succession a plurality of times. Thus, the constitution having two punching heads is not necessarily effective for a highly efficient lamination process.
On the other hand, the lamination apparatus described in Patent Document 2 is provided with only one punching head, and moreover, the punching head is used for lamination of ceramic green sheet cut pieces thereon. Thus, the problems which the lamination apparatus described in Patent Document 1 encounters, i.e., a limit in reduction of the cycle time and the relatively high cost of the whole lamination apparatus can be solved.
However, one of the ceramic green sheets which are processed with the lamination apparatus described in Patent Document 2 must be a card-type. Accordingly, with this lamination apparatus, two kinds of long ceramic green sheets can not be processed.
To carry out the punching operation with one punching head in one working station, as conducted with the lamination apparatus described in Patent Document 2, while two kinds of long ceramic green sheets are processed as conducted with the lamination apparatus described in Patent Document 1, a mechanism is required by which two kinds of long ceramic green sheets can be selectively supplied to one working station, without interfering with each other. However, it has been difficult to realize this mechanism.

Lamination apparatus for ceramic green sheet and lamination method


A control circuit of a DC/DC converter includes: a pulse modulator configured to generate a pulse signal; and a driver configured to switch a switching transistor based on the pulse signal. The pulse modulator includes an on signal generator to generate an on signal. The on signal generator includes: a bottom detection comparator configured to compare a voltage of one end of an auxiliary winding with a predetermined threshold voltage and generate a bottom detection signal; a first time-out circuit configured to generate a first time-out signal asserted when the bottom detection signal is not asserted; a second time-out circuit configured to generate a second time-out signal asserted when the bottom detection signal is not asserted; and a logic part configured to generate the on signal based on the bottom detection signal, the first time-out signal and the second time-out signal.

Appliances including televisions, refrigerators and so on are operated with external commercial AC (Alternating Current) power. Electronic apparatuses including laptop computers, mobile terminals, PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants) and so on are also operated with commercial AC power and their internal batteries may be charged with the commercial AC power. Such appliances and electronic apparatuses (hereinafter collectively referred to electronic apparatuses) may contain a power supply (inverter) for converting commercial AC power into DC (Direct Current) power. Otherwise, an inverter may be incorporated in an external power adapter (AC adapter) of the electronic apparatuses.

DC/DC converter, control circuit and control method thereof, power supply, power adapter and electronic apparatus using the same


A magnifier panning system is described that creates a panning region at the edges of a magnified view. When a user moves the cursor into the panning region, the system pans the magnified view. When the user is not in the panning region, the user can interact with objects in the magnified view without the view shifting around. The objects appear magnified, but they do not behave or move any differently than they would if they were not magnified, providing the user with a familiar and comfortable user experience. Thus, the magnifier panning system provides the user with a much more natural view for interacting with the displayed objects while still allowing an efficient way to pan the view to move the magnified view to a different area of the screen.

Accessibility and assistive technology is an area that is rapidly gathering momentum for users and in governments worldwide. In the United States, the American's with Disabilities Act (ADA) Section 508 and similar legislation in the European Union provide that government procurement officers choose the most accessible software when selecting from multiple options. Recent studies indicate that over 57% of computer users have some kind of impairment and vision impairments make up a significant chunk of that percentage. With the large aging baby boomer population, easy access to technology, and people remaining in the workforce longer and longer, low vision is becoming a growing problem. Providing a way for users to see things on the screen bigger and better is just one step towards addressing this issue.
Screen magnifiers are a type of assistive technology used by visually impaired people with some functional vision. By magnifying areas of the screen, the screen magnifier allows people that would otherwise not be able to see areas of the screen that are too small to enlarge these areas. Screen magnifiers are software applications that present a computer's graphical output in an enlarged form. Many screen magnifiers act similar to a physical magnifying glass that a user can move around over the screen to magnify a specific area, except rather than a physical object the screen magnifier is software and the user moves the displayed glass or lens with the mouse or other input device. The most common method of magnification is to present an enlarged view of a portion of the original screen content that covers a portion of or the entire screen. The enlarged view often tracks the pointer or cursor as the user moves a mouse or other input device around the screen so that the user can magnify different areas. Screen magnifiers may work with a single application or across multiple applications at the operating system level. For example, Microsoft Windows Vista includes a magnifier application for magnifying the entire desktop and any applications displayed on it.
Because the view is enlarged, screen magnifiers provide a way to move the lens, or magnified area, to different areas of the desktop or application. For example, at a magnification factor of 4 times (4×), only one-eighth of the desktop can be shown in a full screen magnifier at a time. Thus, to see the other three-fourths of the desktop a user moves the magnified area around in a process called panning. Although panning often refers only to horizontal movement (and scrolling or other terms refer to vertical movement), panning as used herein refers to movement of the magnified viewport in any direction, whether horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. There are several major existing methods of panning. In the first method, the magnified view is locked to the cursor. As the mouse or other input device moves, the cursor appears to stay centered in the magnified view and the magnified view moves to show different areas of the desktop or applications. In the second method, sometimes called static panning, the cursor moves within the magnified view, but when the cursor hits an edge of the view it "bumps" the view and moves it over a little in the direction the cursor was moving. In a third method, the cursor stays in the same relative position in the magnified view and moves in a scaled fashion as the user moves the input device. For example, as the user moves the magnified view to the upper-left of the screen, the cursor appears in the upper-left of the magnified view. The cursor moves slower within the magnified view than its actual movement over the screen (i.e., scaling) so that the cursor will reach the edge of the magnified view at the same time as the magnified view reaches the edge of the screen. Likewise, the cursor will reach the center of the screen at the same time as the magnified view is centered over the screen.
Implementations that follow the cursor continuously make it difficult for users to pay attention to the task at hand because the view is always shifting, often creating a feeling of motion sickness. For example, as the user moves the input device left, the view moves right. If the user is trying to perform a task, such as drawing a circle, this can become very disconcerting. Static panning implementations create a bad user experience because the cursor is stuck at the boundary of the panning region until the user pans all the way to an edge. Static panning implementations also generally require the user to repeatedly bump in the direction the user wants to go with no ability to control the speed of panning, and do not generally allow diagonal panning. The side of the magnified view that the user bumps (e.g., left, right, top, or bottom) determines the direction that the view pans. If the user wants to go diagonally to the upper-right, the user may have to repeatedly bump the mouse into different sides of the magnified view, creating a slow process of navigation and adding to the user's frustration.

Screen magnifier panning model with dynamically resizable panning regions


Traffic passing between remote terminals and corporate intranets through an access server provider network can encounter security and addressing problems. Intercepting and manipulating this traffic can overcome these, as well as other problems. For such traffic that is being transported over a plurality of Network Based Tunnels (NBT), this manipulation can be performed by manipulation equipment that may reside in the access server provider's network between an Access Gateway (AGW) and a Border Gateway (BGW). The manipulation equipment may manipulate received NBT packets by parsing the original packet that is encapsulated in the NBT packet, manipulating the original packet and reconstructing the NBT packet with the manipulated data of the original packet.

Conventionally, companies have networked geographically dispersed intra-corporation networks together through the use of private lines. This technique allowed for the formation of a network system that was isolated from external networks and thus, had some level of assurance that the network would be secure. However, when intra-corporation communication is conducted over the Internet, thereby taking advantage of the low cost associated with such connectivity, the enterprise communication is done through the use of a Virtual Private Network (VPN). The use of a VPN for such a solution results in virtually building private networks through the Internet by using the Internet Protocol (IP) facilities provided by IP networks and the facilities of lower layer protocols below the IP. This art enables building a safe network that is isolated from external networks and can provide quality assurance service of any level, even through the Internet.
Today, the workforce continues to migrate towards mobility and thus, the requirements for employees to have remote data access generates an increasing need for communication through Mobile VPNs (MVPN) that are spread over wire line networks and wireless data networks. A MVPN may use a combination of data packets, radio protocols on the mobile side (dynamic side) and tunneling protocols on the plane side (fix side, static side). A static tunnel between the wireless operator's premises and the intranet of a corporation, connecting through the Internet Service Provider (ISP), is called a Network Based Tunnel (NBT). An exemplary NBT may be a "Compulsory Tunnel" (CT). Throughout this description, the terms Network Based Tunnel and Compulsory Tunnel may be used interchangeably and/or have the same meaning. An exemplary protocol for packet communication over wireless data networks is the General Packet Radio Service (GPRS). Other wireless protocols may include, but are not limited to, HDR (High Data Rate), CDPD (Cellular Digital Packet Data), etc., as well as others not listed.
An NBT may be used by multiple peers of the same corporation and may be active even without any current transportation. The NBTs are based on protocols such as, but not limited to, the IPSec, LSP/IPSec, L2TP, GRE, IEEE 802.1Q (VLAN Tagging, or VLAN TAG, both terms are used interchangeably herein), IP over IP protocols, as well as other protocols not listed. The wireless operator has an Access Gateway (AGW), which converts NBT traffic coming through the Internet, or over a direct connection from the corporation's intranet, via a Border Gateway (BGW), into an appropriate wireless protocol and vice-versa. One example of an Access Gateway is the Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN). Another example of an Access Gateway is a Packet Data Serving Node (PDSN) such as those used in CDMA2000 Radio Access Network (RAN).
In intra-corporation networks, private IP addresses are often used. IP addresses are divided into public IP addresses and private IP addresses. Public IP addresses are globally defined unique addresses, whereas private IP addresses can be freely defined by a corporation. Thus, it is desirable for private IP addresses to be used when corporations use VPN service. If a plurality of VPNs are employed, and private IP addresses are used over the VPNs, it is possible that a private IP address used in one VPN is also used in another VPN during the same time over the wireless operator network.
To improve services, an operator may want to add Manipulation Equipment (MEq) that operates to interrupt the communication between a remote client and its final destination, and then perform some manipulation on the data. An exemplary MEq may be a personalization server that operates to add personal banners to the communication being directed towards the remote client. Another exemplary MEq may be a front-end content server such as the MS Exchange Server. Other MEq may operate to improve the speed of the communication and reduce the volume of data over the wireless lines. Generally, the MEq is located between the Access Gateway and the Border Gateway or Router. An MEq may manipulate the data in internal layers, such as: the Transport layer (TCP), in the application layer (HTTP, MAPI etc.) and in the content (html, gif etc.). Within the context of this description, the terms manipulation, optimization and acceleration may be used interchangeably and at times, may have the same meaning.
In the case of using a VPN, the communication between the Access Gateway and the Border Gateway is done through an NBT. Therefore there is a need to break the NBT at the input to the MEq and reconstruct (re-tunnel) the tunnel at the output of the MEq. Moreover, the tunnel between the operator's network and the corporation's intranet(s) may comprises a plurality of connections from a plurality of mobile peers, some of them may use the MEq and others may not. Furthermore, the communication from/to a client using the MEq may contain information that is not handled by the MEq. These are some of the difficulties that a system, which splits the NBT, needs to overcome in re re-constructing, or re-tunneling, the tunnel. In addition to these difficulties, the data that returns from the MEq may be different than the data that was sent to the MEq.
The transportation over the VPN may be protected by mechanisms such as Remote Authentication Dial In User Service (RADIUS) in the plane section. Another mechanism may be to encrypt the data flow. These methods operate to protect the confidentiality of the connection. The splitter system, which reads, processes and manipulates the transportation, needs to inter-operate with these methods.
Therefore there is a need for a system and a method for splitting a plurality of VPN tunnels, in between the Access Gateway in the operator's network and a plurality of corporate intranets over a data network (like the Internet or via private connection), decrypting the data, redirecting the data to a manipulation server, manipulating the data, receiving the manipulated data, encrypting the manipulated data and reconstructing the appropriate tunnels (re-tunneling) again.

Method and system for connecting manipulation equipment between operator's premises and the internet


The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for controlling data traffic in a time-division duplex (TDD) system that uses multi-component carriers. The method for controlling data traffic in a TDD system that uses multi-component carriers according to one embodiment of the present invention comprises the steps of: a base station transmitting, to a user equipment, a wireless signal including data through one or more component carriers among a component carrier group including a first element carrier which is a primary cell (PCell) and a second element carrier (SCell) which is a secondary cell, wherein the Pcell and the Scell consist of uplink and downlink subframes in a time division duplex system; and the base station receiving, from the user terminal, a wireless signal including response control information for the data through the second component carrier.

1. Field
The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for controlling data traffic so as to enable the transmission of response control information through several component carriers in a Time Division Duplex (TDD) system using one component carrier or multiple component carriers.
2. Discussion of the Background
With the progress of communication systems, consumers such as companies and individuals have used a wide variety of wireless terminals. Current mobile communication systems such as 3rd Generation Partnership Project Long Term Evolution (3GPP LTE) and 3GPP LTE Advanced (LTE-A), need to develop a technology for a system capable of transmitting a large amount of data coming close to that transmitted through a wired communication network, as a high-speed and high-capacity communication system capable of transmitting and receiving various data such as images and wireless data beyond voice-oriented services. Data can be efficiently transmitted through multiple component carriers in a scheme for transmitting a large amount of data. Meanwhile, a TDD system which uses a particular frequency band to transmit and receive data can transmit and receive data in such a manner that the particular frequency band is divided into time slots. In this case, in the TDD system, a timing of transmitting response information to the transmission and reception of data may change according to a scheme for setting uplink (UL) and downlink (DL). Meanwhile, the setting of a scheme for transmitting the response information in the TDD system using multiple component carriers may affect the efficiency of an overall network. Accordingly, the TDD system using multiple component carriers needs to precisely set the scheme for transmitting the response information.

Method and apparatus for controlling data traffic in a TDD system that uses multi-component carriers


A rail assembly for maintaining trays for temporary storage. The rail assembly features a plurality of support members and a plurality of post attachment members. The plurality of support members include a plurality of raised edges and a plurality of shelf members, each of the plurality of shelf members extend from a corresponding raised edge of the plurality of raised edges. The plurality of post attachment members extend outwardly from the plurality of support members. Each of the plurality of post attachment members includes a first connection arm configured for attachment to a first side of a vertical post and a second connection arm configured for attachment to a second side of the vertical post.

In many establishments, such as restaurants, bakeries and grocery stores for example, food items may be cooked in advance of customer orders. Examples of such food items include baked goods (e.g., breads, muffins, cookies, pies, etc.), which are baked on trays. After the food items are baked, the trays are removed from an oven and placed onto a food tray cart for cooling. During cooling, the baked goods remain temporarily on the trays until packaging and/or placement into display areas for sale.
Typically, conventional food tray carts are manufactured with permanent, metal shelving upon which the trays rest. Given the conventional food tray carts are designed with permanent shelving, workers are unable to customize their food tray carts based on need and to minimize costs. For instance, many conventional food tray carts are unable to add shelves as a greater amount of food storage is needed. Likewise, this monolithic structure (i.e., lack of modular components) makes the cleaning of these food tray carts extremely difficult, in contrast to a modular design that would allow certain modular components to be placed into a sink or even into a dishwasher for cleaning.


An electrophotographic photoreceptor including an electroconductive substrate and a photosensitive layer on the electroconductive substrate, wherein the photosensitive layer includes at least a compound having a substituted or unsubstituted alkylamino group and a charge transport material, and wherein an oxidation potential (Eox1) of the substituted or unsubstituted alkylamino group and an oxidation potential (Eox2) of the charge transport material satisfy the following relationship (I):Eox1−Eox2≧−0.2.  (I)

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrophotographic photoreceptor, and an image forming method, an image forming apparatus and process cartridge for image forming apparatus using the electrophotographic photoreceptor.
2. Discussion of the Background
Recently, information-processing systems using an electrophotographic method are making a remarkable progress. In particular, laser printers and digital copiers which record data with light by changing the data into digital signals make remarkable improvements in their printing qualities and reliabilities. Further, technologies used in these printers and copiers are applied to laser printers and digital copiers capable of printing full-color images with high-speed printing technologies. Because of these reasons, photoreceptors are required both to produce high-quality images and to have high durability.
Photoreceptors using organic photosensitive materials are widely used for these laser printers and digital copiers due to their cost, productivity and non-polluting properties. The organic photoreceptors are generally classified to a single-layered type and a functionally-separated type. The first practical organic photoreceptor, i.e., PVK-TNF charge transfer complex photoreceptor was the former single-layered type. In 1968, Mr. Hayashi and Mr. Regensburger independently invented PVK/a-Se multi-layered photoreceptor. In 1977, Mr. Melz, and in 1978, Mr. Schlosser disclosed a multi-layered photoreceptor whose photosensitive layers are all formed from organic materials, i.e. , an organic-pigment dispersed layer and an organic low-molecular-weight material dispersed polymer layer. These are called as functionally-separated photoreceptors because of having a charge generation layer (CGL) generating a charge by absorbing light and a charge transport layer (CTL) transporting the charge and neutralizing the charge on a surface of the photoreceptor. The multi-layered photoreceptor has much more improved sensitivity and durability than the single-layered photoreceptor. In addition, since materials can be separately selected for a charge generation material (CGM) and a charge transport material (CTM), a choice range of the materials is largely expanded. Because of these reasons, the multi-layered photoreceptor is now prevailing in the market.
A mechanism to form an electrostatic latent image in the multi-layered photoreceptor is as follows:
the photoreceptor is charged and irradiated with light; the light passes through the CTL and is absorbed by the CGM in the CGL to generate a charge; the charge is injected into the CTL at an interface of the CGL and the CTL; and the charge moves in the CTL by an electric field and neutralizes the charge on the surface of the photoreceptor to form an electrostatic latent image.
However, the photosensitive layers of the organic photoreceptor are easily abraded due to repeated use, and therefore potential and photosensitivity of the photoreceptor tend to deteriorate, resulting in background fouling due to a scratch on the surface thereof and deterioration of density and quality of the resultant images. Therefore, abrasion resistance of the organic photoreceptor has been an important subject. Further, recently, in accordance with speeding up of the printing speed and downsizing of an image forming apparatus, the photoreceptor has to have a smaller diameter, and durability thereof becomes a more important subject.
As a method of improving the abrasion resistance of the photoreceptor, methods of imparting lubricity to the photosensitive layer, hardening the photosensitive layer, including a filler therein and using a high-molecular-weight CTM instead of a low-molecular-weight CTM are widely known. However, another problem occurs when these methods are used to prevent the abrasion of the photoreceptor. Namely, an oxidized gas such as ozone and NOx arising due to use conditions or environment, adheres to the surface of the photosensitive layer and decreases the surface resistance thereof, resulting in a problem such as blurring of the resultant images. So far, such a problem has been avoided to some extent because the material causing the blurred images are gradually scraped off in accordance with the abrasion of the photosensitive layer. However, in order to comply with the above-mentioned recent demand for higher sensitivity and durability of the photoreceptor, a new technique has to be imparted thereto. In order to decrease an influence of the material causing the blurred images, there is a method of equipping the photoreceptor with a heater, which is a large drawback for downsizing the apparatus and decreasing the electric power consumption. In addition, a method of including an additive such as an antioxidant in the photosensitive layer is effective, but since a simple additive does not have photoconductivity, including much amount thereof in the photosensitive layer causes problems such as deterioration of the sensitivity and increase of residual potential of the resultant photoreceptor.
As mentioned above, the electrophotographic photoreceptor having less abrasion by being imparted with abrasion resistance or a process design around thereof inevitably produces blurred and low-resolution images, and it is difficult to have both of high durability and high quality of the resultant images. This is because high surface resistance of the photosensitive layer is preferable to prevent the blurred images and low surface resistance thereof is preferable to prevent the increase of residual potential.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2000-231204 or 2002-313111 discloses a method of including at least a compound having a dialkylamino group in a photosensitive layer to solve the above-mentioned problem such as blurring of the resultant images due to a blur generating material such as an oxidizing gas. The reason why the compound is effective for maintaining quality of the resultant images after repeated use is not clarified at this time. However, it is supposed that the dialkylamino group having a strong basic neutralizes the oxidizing gas which is considered to cause the blurred images. However, the compound has an effect on image quality after the repeated use, but the resultant photoreceptor does not have high sensitivity and cannot comply with high speed printing because of having a low charge transportability. Therefore, an addition amount thereof has a limit, and a method of combining the compound with a CTM to increase sensitivity and repeated use stability of the resultant photoreceptor is disclosed therein.
On the other hand, it is described that a stilbene compound having a dialkylamino group disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 60-196768 and Japanese Patent No. 2884353 has an effect on the blurred images due to the oxidizing gas on page 37 of Konica Technical Report Vol. 13 written by Itami, etc. and published in 2000. However, since the compound has a substituted dialkylamino group having a strong mesomeric effect (+M effect) at a resonance portion in its triarylamine structure, which is a charge transport site, total ionization potential is extremely small. Therefore, the compound has a critical defect of being quite difficult to practically use because charge retainability of a photosensitive layer in which the compound is used alone as a CTM largely deteriorates from the beginning or after repeated use. In addition, even when the above-mentioned stilbene compound is used together with other CTMs as it is in the present invention, the compound has a considerably smaller ionization potential than the other CTMs and becomes a trap site against a charge transport, and therefore, the resultant photoreceptor has quite a low sensitivity and a large residual potential.
Because of these reasons, a need exists for an electrophotographic photoreceptor having high durability against repeated use for a long time, preventing deterioration of image density and blurred images and stably producing quality images.

Electrophotographic photoreceptor, and image forming method, image forming apparatus and process cartridge for image forming apparatus using the electrophotographic photoreceptor


The invention provides a method for indicating that a link on a web page is to an external link previously this was done by the webmaster. The current method carries this out by the client software comparing the domain name of the current document's URL with that of the link in question, and applying a visual indicator to the link if it is external.

The World Wide Web is the distributed system of communication and information transfer over the Internet made possible by the widely supported hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP). Client side web browsers implement the client side of the HTTP protocol and utilize Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) to locate a specific resource on the World Wide Web. The syntax and semantics of URLs, the formalized information for location and access of resources on the Internet, is specified in RFC 1630, a document written by the URI working group of the Internet Engineering Task Force. at http://www.w3.org/Addressing/URL/Overview.html. The URL allows resource locations to be described by a simple string. URLs can point to resources on a local server or they can point to resources on an external server. In the following disclosure, an external link is a link whose URL has a domain name that differs from the URL used to retrieve the current document.
Web pages are written in HyperText Markup Language (HTML), the publishing language of the World Wide Web. The HTML 4.01 Specification, found at http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/ defines the HyperText Markup Language (HTML). Web pages generally contain both internal links and external links. It is useful to indicate to the client that a link is an external link so the client will know that linking to that URL will require leaving the current server. In HTML pages, webmasters sometimes manually highlight external URLs by manually coding adornments such as images around links to external URLs as a visual warning to the user that they are leaving the current site. For example a common image used for this purpose is a small image of a globe to the right of the link. The image is presented as a visual clue to the user that the link leaves the current site. The webmasters also commonly have external links open in a new window. However it would be simpler to place the responsibility for providing such visual clues onto the client software, since the client software has enough information to determine this.
There is therefore a need for a method for using client software to provide a visual or other indication that a link on a web page is an external link.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,924,104 discloses a method and apparatus for displaying interdocument links in a computer system. A document is parsed to identify links. The identified links are parsed to identify interdocument links and the identified interdfocument links are displayed in a first presentation style. Other links are displayed in a second presentation style.
Patent Cooperation Treaty publication 0033213A consists of a system spidering a web document and summarizing the document structure and links in a new document. The system does not provide an indication in the original web document.

Method systems and computer program products for indicating links to external URLs

International Business Machines Corporation


A tube inside passage height (Tr) is set within a range of 0.35–0.8 mm. Thereby, sum of radiation performance reduction due to pressure loss inside tube and radiation performance reduction due to air flow resistance is reduced, thereby attaining high radiation performance. Especially, when the tube inside passage height (Tr) is set within a range of 0.5–0.7 mm, the radiation performance is further improved.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a refrigerant condenser, through which gas-liquid two phase refrigerant flows, suitable for use in a automotive air conditioner.
2. Description of Related Art
U.S. Pat. No. 4,998,580 discloses a multi-flow type refrigerant condenser including a plurality of tubes and fins laminated between a pair of header tanks. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,998,580, equivalent diameter of a refrigerant passage inside tube is set within a particular range for improving the radiation performance of the multi-flow type refrigerant condenser. U.S. Pat. No. 4,932,469 discloses a rib formed on a plate of a tube. The rib protrudes toward the inside of the tube. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,682,944, 6,003,592 and 5,730,212 disclose that a condensing length is set within a particular range.
However, in these prior arts, only heat transfer efficiency inside the tube is considered. That is, neither air flow resistance nor pressure loss inside tube are considered for improving the radiation performance of the refrigerant condenser.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Refrigerant condenser used for automotive air conditioner


The present invention provides acidic fibroblast growth factor (aFGF) composition, comprising: (i) aFGF of SEQ ID NO: 1, (ii) aFGF of SEQ ID NO: 1 having an N-terminal phosphogluconoylation, (iii) aFGF of SEQ ID NO: 1 having an N-terminal gluconoylation, (iv) aFGF of SEQ ID NO: 2 and (v) aFGF of SEQ ID NO: 3, or a combination thereof. Also provided is a modified acidic fibroblast growth factor (aFGF) which has an N-terminal phosphogluconoylation or gluconoylation.

Acidic fibroblast growth factor (aFGF), which influences the proliferation and differentiation of various cell types in vitro, were originally isolated as single chain proteins from neural tissue, including whole brain and hypothalamus. aFGF is a heparin-dependent mitogen and it can strongly bind on all four known FGF receptors and their spliced form. It can be localized within specific subsets of neurons associated with motor and sensory functions, and can be purified from the adult brain. Purified aFGF is a mitogen for neuroblasts and promotes the neuritis extension from spinal cord neurons. In addition, aFGF was proved to promote the expression of nerve growth factors on astrocytes in culture.
It was reported in several studies that FGFs had a wide spectrum of effects on neurophysiological activities that were distinct from their mitogenic action within the central nervous system (CNS) in vivo. For instance, when administered into the brain, aFGF provided a protective effect against the degeneration of hippocampal CA1 neuron that was induced by brain ischemia (Sasaki K. et al., Brain Res. Bull. 33: 505-511, 1994). FGF1 was reported to have an effect in protecting selective neuronal populations against the neurotoxic effects of molecules involved in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease (Guo, Z., and Mattson, M., Cereb. Cortex 10, 50-57, 2000) and HIV encephalitis (Everall, I. P. et al., J. Neuropathol. Exp. Neurol. 60, 293-301, 2001).
Native human aFGF polypeptide consisting of 154 amino acids was isolated from a human brain. However, the 19 amino acids from the N-terminal of the human aFGF were identified homogenous with human interleukin-1 (IL-1). The 19 amino acids from the N-terminal of the native human aFGF in common with or similar to the amino acids of IL-1 might cause the same endogenous immuno-response, including activation of macrophages, and modulate cells growth arrest (G. Venkataraman et al., P.N.A.S., 96:3658-63, 1999). Furthermore, it was reported that the pro-inflammatory cytokine IL-1 and FGF-1 (aFGF)/FGF-2 (bFGF) shared the same structural scaffold and competed against the same receptor binding site of tyrosine kinase domains (A. J. Minter et al., J. Cell Physil., 167:229-37, 1996).
Several versions of recombinant human aFGF are commercially available and widely used in various bioassays. For example, recombinant human aFGF having 140 amino acids (R&D, aa 16-155, Catalog Number: 232-FA/CF), recombinant human aFGF having 154 amino acids (R&D, aa 2-155, Catalog Number: 231-BC/CF), recombinant human aFGF having 141 amino acids (Sigma, natural sequence with an additional methionine residue attached to the N-terminus, Catalog Number: F5542). See also, Osakada F et al., Nat Protoc. 2009;4(6):811-24, and Christina Krabbe et al., J. Neurochem. (2009) 110, 1908-1920.
Furthermore, U.S. Pat. No. 7,956,033 (issued in 2011) discloses a modified human aFGF having 135 amino acids exhibiting improved stability, which comprises a native human aFGF shortened by a deletion of a deletion of 20 amino acids from N-terminal of the native human aFGF, and an addition of Alanine (Ala) before the shortened native aFGF.

Modified acidic fibroblast growth factors and composition thereof


A heating element CVD system wherein one or a plurality of connection terminal holders is placed in the processing container, and each of the connection terminal holders holds a plurality of connection terminals. Each of the connection terminals connects the heating element to the electric power supply mechanism electrically such that a connection region of the heating element connected to the connection terminal is not exposed to a space in the processing container.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a heating element CVD system in which a heating element kept at a specified temperature is disposed in a vacuum chamber (processing container) and in which a raw material gas is decomposed and/or activated by the above-mentioned heating element to deposit a thin film on a substrate placed in the vacuum chamber (processing container) and to a structure for connecting a heating element to an electric power supply mechanism in a heating element CVD system.
2. Description of the Related Art
In manufacturing various kinds of semiconductor devices including an LSI (large scale integrated circuit), an LCD (liquid crystal display) and the like, CVD (chemical vapor deposition) methods have been widely used for forming a predetermined thin film on a substrate.
For example, in a plasma CVD method, a raw material gas is decomposed and/or activated in discharged plasma to form a thin film. In a thermal CVD method, a substrate is heated to induce a chemical reaction to form a thin film, and so on. In addition, there exists a CVD method in which a raw material gas is decomposed and/or activated by a heating element kept at a predetermined high temperature to form a thin film (hereinafter referred to as a heating element CVD method).
In a film forming system for performing the heating element CVD method (hereinafter referred to as a heating element CVD system), a heating element made of a refractory metal such as tungsten or the like is disposed in a processing chamber which can be evacuated to a vacuum. A raw material gas is introduced into the evacuated processing chamber while the heating element is kept at high temperatures from about 1000° C. to 2000° C.
The introduced raw material gas is decomposed and/or activated when it passes over the surface of the heating element. Then, the decomposed and/or activated raw material gas reaches a substrate to deposit a thin film of the material, which is a final objective material, on the surface of the substrate. In this connection, in the heating element CVD methods, a CVD method using a wire-shaped heating element is called as a Hot Wire CVD method, and a CVD method utilizing a catalytic reaction of a heating element for decomposing and/or activating the raw material gas by the heating element is called a catalytic CVD (or Cat-CVD) method.
In the heating element CVD method, the raw material gas is decomposed and/or activated when it passes over the surface of the heating element. For this reason, this method has an advantage of reducing the temperature of the substrate as compared with a thermal CVD method in which reaction is induced only by the heat of the substrate. Further, in the heating element CVD method, plasma is not produced, as it is produced in the plasma CVD method. For this reason, there is no worry that plasma causes damage to the substrate. Accordingly, the heating element CVD method is thought to be a promising candidate as a film forming method for a semiconductor device, a display device and the like of the next generation in which high integration and high functionality have been increasingly developed.
FIG. 7 shows a conceptional view of a conventional heating element CVD system. In a processing container 1, a predetermined processing of forming a thin film is performed on a substrate (not shown). An evacuation system 11 for evacuating the processing container 1 to a vacuum and a specified raw material gas supply system 21 for supplying a raw material gas into the processing container 1 for forming a thin film are connected to the processing container 1. In the processing container 1, a heating element 3 is disposed such that the raw material gas supplied into the processing container 1 passes over the surface of it. An electric power supply mechanism 30 for supplying electric power is connected to the heating element 3, thereby the heating element 3 is heated and kept at a predetermined temperature (a high temperature of about 1600° C. to 2000° C.) required for the heating element CVD method. Further, in the processing container 1, a gas supply unit 2 is arranged in a manner opposite to the heating element 3.
Further, in the processing container 1, a predetermined thin film is formed on the substrate (not shown) by the raw material gas decomposed and/or activated by the heating element 3 that is kept at the predetermined high temperature described above. For this reason, in the processing container 1, a substrate holder 4 is provided for holding the above-mentioned substrate (not shown).
In FIG. 7, it is a gate valve for carrying the substrate into or out of the processing container 1 that is denoted by a reference character 5. Further, the substrate holder 4 is provided with, as is conventionally known, a heating mechanism for heating the substrate, but this heating mechanism will not be shown or described because it is not important in the present invention.
In this connection, in the embodiment shown in FIG. 7, although it is not shown, the raw material gas supply system 21 includes a cylinder filled with the raw material gas, a supply pressure regulator, a flow regulator, a supply/stop switching valve, and the like. The raw material gas is supplied by the raw material gas supply system 21 into the processing container 1 via the gas supply unit 2 provided in the processing container 1.
Further, in a process using two or more kinds of raw material gases, the raw material gas supply systems 21 of the number equal to the number of kinds of gases used are connected in parallel to the gas supply unit 2.
The gas supply unit 2, as described above, is arranged in face with the heating element 3 in the processing container 1. Further, the gas supply unit 2 has a hollow structure and many gas blowing holes 210 on a surface facing the substrate holder 4.
On the other hand, the evacuation system 11 is connected to the processing container 1 via a main valve 12 having an evacuation speed regulating function. The pressure in the processing container 1 is controlled by this evacuation speed regulating function.
In the heating element CVD method, the substrate (not shown) is a substance to be subjected to a predetermined processing of forming a thin film. This substrate (not shown) is carried in and out of the processing container 1 via the gate valve 5.
The above-mentioned heating element 3 is generally formed of a wire-shaped member and is bent in the shape of sawtooth and is held by a support body 31, the surface of which is at least made of an insulator. Further, a power supply line 32 from the electric power supply mechanism 30 is connected to the heating element 3 by a connection terminal 33. An electric power is supplied to the heating element 3 via this connection terminal 33 to heat the heating element 3 to the predetermined temperature required for the heating element CVD method and to keep it at the predetermined temperature.
Usually, a direct current power source or an alternating current power source is used as the electric power supply mechanism 30. The heating element 3 is supplied with electric power from the power source and is set at the predetermined temperature by the passage of the electric current. By heating the heating element 3 to a high temperature, the raw material gas is decomposed and/or activated to effectively form a thin film.
Usually, the heating element 3 is heated to a predetermined temperature (usually, in a film forming process, a high temperature of about 1600° C. to 2000° C.) by the passage of the electric current, so a refractory metal is used as the material for the heating element 3 and, in general, tungsten is used.
A case where a silicon film is formed and a case where a silicon nitride film is formed will be described as examples of forming a thin film by the heating element CVD system shown in FIG. 7. The processes are proceeded as follows.
First, a mixed gas of silane (SiH4) and hydrogen (H2) is used in the case where the silicon film is formed. A mixed gas of silane and ammonia (NH3) is used in the case where the silicon nitride film is formed. The pressure in the processing container 1 is about from 0.1 Pa to 100 Pa. In both cases, the temperature of the heating element 3 is set at a predetermined temperature (usually, a high temperature of about from 1600° C. to 2000° C. in a film forming process), and the temperature of the substrate (not shown) held by the substrate holder 4 is set at a temperature of about from 200° C. to 500° C. by a heating mechanism (not shown) in the substrate holder 4.
In the case where the silicon film or the silicon nitride film is formed under predetermined film forming conditions by the use of a conventional heating element CVD system described above, the following phenomenon is produced. A refractory metal used for the heating element, for example, a tungsten wire described above or the like sometimes reacts with the silane gas to form a silicon compound (hereinafter referred to silicide formation).
A silicide formation mentioned above proceeds from near a connection terminal 33 that is the connection part by which electric power is supplied from the electric power supply mechanism 30 (that is, the connection region of the heating element 3). In the above-mentioned connection region of the heating element 3, the temperature of the heating element 3 becomes lower than 1600° C. at the film forming process. Further, in the above-mentioned connection region of the heating element 3, the reaction speed of the raw material gas with the heating element 3 is faster than the desorption speed of decomposed and/or activated gas species of the raw material gas and raw material gas itself.
The above-mentioned silicide formation changes the composition and the diameter of the heating element 3 and reduces the resistance thereof. As a result, the heating power is reduced and the whole heating element is finally deteriorated. Also, it reduces a film forming speed as hours of use of the heating element is elongated. Further, since the products of the silicide and the like have high vapor pressures in general, they contaminate the deposited film and degrade the quality of the silicon film formed or the silicon nitride film formed as the deterioration of heating element is proceeding.
Therefore, it is necessary to break the vacuum in the processing container 1 to the atmospheric pressure and to change the heating element 3 when a predetermined number of substrates are processed. This change of the heating element 3 results in a problem in productivity.
FIG. 8 is a view showing a part of a support body 31 of a conventional embodiment. In the part of the support body 31 of the conventional embodiment, the heating element 3 is supported by the support body 31 by means of a wire 34 (usually, made of molybdenum) to reduce a contact area of the heating element 3 thereby reducing thermal conduction. The conventional embodiment shown in FIG. 8 is intending to prevent silicide formation, which proceeds from the part of the heating element 3 where its temperature is slightly low.
However, even in this method, the temperature of the heating element 3 at the part in contact with the wire 34 drops inevitably, so that the silicide formation at and from the above-mentioned portion is caused, depending on film forming conditions such as a high silane gas pressure in case of forming the silicon film or the like.
Further, even in this method, it is impossible to eliminate connection to the electric power supply line 32, so that the silicide formation is also caused at the part of the connection terminal 33 as is the case shown in FIG. 7. Therefore, even in a heating element CVD system adopting the constitution shown in FIG. 8, it is necessary to break the vacuum in the processing container 1 to the atmospheric pressure and to change the heating element 3 when a predetermined number of substrates are processed. The change of the heating element 3 results in a problem in productivity.
On the other hand, if films are repeatedly formed in the heating element CVD system, the films are deposited also on the inside of the processing container and are peeled off and results in the cause of the particulate problem. The inventors of the present application proposed a method of effectively removing a film deposited on the inside of a processing container, which becomes an origin of particulates, and an in situ cleaning method of a heating element CVD system (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 2001-49436).
According to this disclosed method, the gas supply unit 2 of the conventional heating element CVD system shown in FIG. 7 is provided with a cleaning gas supply system having the same constitution as the raw material gas supply system 21, and when cleaning the system, instead of a raw material gas used in forming a film, a cleaning gas is introduced into the processing container 1 via the gas supply unit 2. That is, after the processing container 1 is evacuated, a heating element 3 disposed in the processing container 1 is heated to and kept at a temperature of 2000° C. or more, and a cleaning gas which is decomposed and or activated by the heating element 3 to produce activated species which in turn react with a deposited film to change it into a gaseous substance is introduced into the processing container 1, and the produced gaseous substance is exhausted from the processing container 1 to remove the deposited film from the inside surface of processing container. This method has been made based on findings that when the heating element 3 is kept at a temperature of 2000° C. or more, the heating element 3 itself does not react with the cleaning gas but remains stable.
However, after the above-mentioned method was made, it turned out that even if it was tried to keep the heating element 3 at a temperature of 2000° C. or more, a part near the connection terminal 33, which is the connection part of electric power supply from the electric power supply mechanism 30 to the heating element 3, became low in temperature, and that as the deposited film was being removed, the part was etched by the cleaning gas and was gradually reduced in diameter and finally broken by the reaction of the said part with the cleaning gas. Thus, it is necessary to replace the heating element at a certain time, which results in a problem in productivity.
Further, it was found that in the case where a film was deposited on a large-area substrate of over 1 m by the use of the heating element CVD system shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, there was a room for improvement in the uniformity of thickness of a thin film deposited.
To be more specific, in the Cat-CVD method, in the case where in order to form a film on a large-area substrate by the use of the heating element CVD system shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, a conventional technique is adopted in which a sawtooth heating element 3 droops due to a large-size support frame as large as the substrate, there is presented a problem that the heating element 3 is drooped by thermal expansion. That is, since the sawtooth heating element 3 is thermally expanded by about 1% when it is heated to 1800° C., if the heating element 3 having a length of 1 m is used to form a film on the large-area substrate, the heating element 3 is drooped by 70 mm at the maximum by a thermal expansion of 1%. In the worst case, it is estimated that the heating element 3 is drooped more than the distance between the substrate and the heating element 3, which is usually set at about 50 mm. According to the inventor study, it is found that the gap (distance) between the heated heating element 3 and the substrate subjected to a film forming process greatly affects the uniformity of a film thickness when the film is formed.
At present, it is anticipated that the size of a next-generation glass substrate will be larger than 1 m. For example, it is planned to use a large substrate of 1100 mm by 1250 mm for an LCD and 900 mm by 455 mm for a solar cell. In order to form a film on such a large-area substrate, it is necessary to reduce the degree of drooping of the heating element 3 caused by the thermal expansion mentioned above and to ensure the uniformity of thickness of the film formed on the large-area substrate, so that the present applicant already proposed an improved heating element CVD system (International Publication No. 02/25712 Pamphlet=U.S. Pat. No. 6,593,548 B2.)
This improved heating element CVD system makes it possible to prevent the heating element from being degraded by the raw material gas in a connection region of the heating element connected to the electric power supply mechanism in the heating element CVD system in which the raw material gas introduced into the processing container (vacuum chamber) is decomposed and/or activated by the heating element to deposit the thin film on the substrate arranged in the processing container (vacuum chamber). Also, this improved heating element CVD system makes it possible to prevent the heating element from reacting with the cleaning gas at the time of cleaning for removing the deposited film on the inside of the processing container in the connection region of the heating element connected to the electric power supply mechanism in the heating element CVD system. Then, this makes it possible to provide a heating element CVD system excellent in mass production in which the life of the heating element can be elongated and in which a film forming environment can be stabilized.
Further, this makes it possible to respond to forming a film on a large-area substrate more than 1 m and to provide a heating element CVD system that can ensure the uniformity of the film thickness even in a case where the film is formed on such a large-area substrate.

Heating element CVD system and connection structure between heating element and electric power supply mechanism in the heating element CVD system


Usability of a face detecting apparatus is improved, by enabling selection of a detecting mode optimal for an intended purpose, when detecting facial images from within images. During detection of images of forward facing faces, switching of the detecting mode to one of: a detection rate mode; a false positive detection rate mode; and a processing speed mode is enabled. Face detection focused on optimizing detection performance for each detecting mode is performed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a face detecting apparatus and a face detecting program, for discriminating whether human faces are included in images.
2. Description of the Related Art
The basic principle of face detection, for example, is classification into two classes, either a class of faces or a class not of faces. A technique called "boosting" is commonly used as a classification method for classifying faces. The boosting algorithm is a learning method for classifiers that links a plurality of weak classifiers to form a single strong classifier. Edge data within the planes of multiple resolution images are employed as characteristic amounts used for classification by the weak classifiers.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20020102024, S. Lao et al., "Fast Omni-Directional Face Detection", MIRU2004, pp. II271-II276, July 2004, and S. Li and Z. Zhang, "Float Boost Learning and Statistical Face Detection", IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, Vol. 26, No. 9, pp. 1-12, September 2004 disclose methods that speeds up face detecting processes by the boosting technique. In these methods, the weak classifiers are provided in a cascade structure, and only images which have been judged to represent faces by upstream weak classifiers are subject to judgment by downstream weak classifiers.
A detection rate, a false positive detection rate, and processing speed are three criteria when evaluating the detection performance of the aforementioned classifiers. In order to improve the detection performance of classifiers, it is desired for the detection rate to be increased, the false positive detection rate to be decreased, and the processing speed to be increased. Here, the "detection rate" refers to the percentage of correct discriminations regarding whether an image represents a face. The "false positive detection rate" refers to a percentage of erroneous detections, when images that do not represent faces are detected as faces. The "processing speed" refers to the speed at which discrimination is performed after an image is input. These three evaluative criteria are correlated. If the detection rate is increased, the false positive detection rate increases, and the processing speed decreases. If the false positive detection rate is decreased, the detection rate decreases, and the processing speed increases. If the processing speed is increased, the detection rate decreases, and the false positive detection rate decreases.
Meanwhile, face detecting processes are performed for a variety of purposes, such as skin color correction and red eye correction. Different detection performances are desired for each purpose. Accordingly, there is a problem that a face detecting apparatus having a detection performance suited for general use cannot perform optimal face detection suited for each purpose.

Apparatus and program for detecting faces


A debris filter for a nuclear reactor installation is provided. The debris filter comprises a plurality of plates arranged side-by-side in a spaced relationship and delimiting between them flow passages extending through the debris filter from a lower inlet face to an upper outlet face of the debris filter, each passage having an intermediate section offset with respect to an inlet section and an outlet section. At least one of the plates is formed with debris catching features distributed along the plate and protruding into at least one passage delimited by the plate.

A nuclear fuel assembly for light water reactor conventionally comprises a bundle of elongated fuel rods extending parallel to each other. In use, the fuel assembly is oriented vertically in a nuclear reactor core and a coolant fluid is caused to flow upwardly between the fuel rods.
Debris might be present in the coolant fluid and damage the fuel rods thus requiring removing or replacing the fuel assembly or damaged fuel rods. In a known manner, a debris trap or filter is placed upstream the bundle of fuel rods to trap debris.
EP 0 455 010 discloses a debris filter having a plurality of plates having a wave shape delimiting between them flow passages. The curvature of the passages allows trapping debris whilst limiting flow resistance of the debris filter.
Nevertheless, thin and short debris oriented perpendicular to the flow direction may pass through the filter and flexible longer elongated debris may also pass through the filter.

Debris filter for nuclear reactor installation and nuclear fuel assembly comprising such a debris filter


A vehicle apparatus mounted on a vehicle measures data of the vehicle, a roadside apparatus provided correspondingly to a moving region where the vehicle is to move, and a center station for receiving the data processed at the roadside apparatus. The roadside apparatus comprises a road-to-vehicle communicating section for receiving the measurement data from the vehicle apparatus, a measurement-data storing section for storing the measurement data received at the road-to-vehicle communicating section, a measurement-data summarizing section for summarizing the measurement data stored in the measurement-data storing section, and a roadside-to-center communicating section for sending the summarization measurement data summarized by the measurement-data summarizing section to the center station.

Conventionally, there is known a roadside apparatus of this kind described in the publication of JP-A-7-334786, for example.
In the roadside apparatus described in this document, the measurement data from a traveling vehicle, or mobile, is received by a road-to-vehicle communicating means. The measurement data received from each traveling vehicle is immediately sent directly to another road-information summarizing apparatus, e.g. center apparatus.
However, with such a conventional roadside apparatus, when sending the measurement data received from each mobile to the road-information collecting apparatus such as a center apparatus, no process is made to reduce the amount of data. In the event of a spread of the mobiles to send measurement data to a roadside apparatus, there encounters an increase of the data to be sent from the roadside apparatus to the road-information collecting apparatus in proportion to the increase in the number thereof. This raises a problem of transmission trouble in terms of the speed and capacity of transmission.

Apparatus and system for processing measurement data

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.