The end portions of a number of optical cables each having one or more optical fibers are fixed onto the conical surface of a supporting frame. The end portion of a movable cable with one or more optical fibers is rotated about the axis of the conical surface so that its end portion is aligned with one of the fixed cables and so that the fibers in the movable cable are optically aligned with the fibers in such fixed cable. The movable cable is rotated by a stepping motor to accomplish the switching action.

This invention relates in general to optical switches, and more specifically, to a conical fiberoptic switch.
With the advance of fiberoptic technology, information signals have been increasingly transmitted through optical fibers. Signal transmission through optical fibers has significant advantages over electrical transmission methods. Signals transmitted optically are not disturbed by electromagnetic noise. Use of optical fibers is advantageous in many environments where the use of metal electrical conductors is undesirable, such as in chemically active and corrosive environments.
As in electrical signal transmission, it is frequently necessary in optical signal transmission to change the transmission path of information signals by switches. In some applications, it is necessary to have the option of connecting one fiber with either one of two other fibers. In other applications, it may be necessary to exchange the connection between two input fibers and two output fibers. In still other applications, it may be necessary to select a connection between one fiber and a number of other fibers. Therefore, it is desirable to provide a wide variety of optical switches capable of performing different functions.
Two types of optic fibers have been used: multimode and single mode. While multimode fibers have good light-gathering ability, the wider diameter of the multimode fiber allows diverse internal zigzag paths which may cause mode dispersion. The mode dispersion caused limits the useful bandwidth transmitted. With narrower diameters than the multimode fibers, single-mode fibers can transmit very wide bandwidths. Multimode fibers, however, are less disturbed by misalignment than single-mode fibers. Therefore, while a misalignment of a few microns may cause negligible transmission loss in multimode fibers, the same misalignment may cause irretrievable information loss when single-mode fibers are used. Therefore, one common problem of conventional optical switches is misalignment of the fibers connected by the switches. It is therefore desirable to provide fiberoptic switches which can accurately align input and output fibers. It is also desirable to provide fiberoptic switches that are inexpensive and easy to use.
One conventional optical switch is described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,834,488 and 4,896,935. As shown in FIGS. 9 and 11 of these two patents, one conventional design envisions the use of a number of fixed fibers and one movable fiber which may be rotated to be in optical alignment with one of the fixed fibers. The movable fiber and the fixed fibers are all located in the same plane. In some applications, it may be cumbersome to have to rotate the movable fiber by large angles. This is particularly true where it is desirable to align, not just one movable fiber with one fixed fiber at a time, but to align a group of fibers with another group of fixed fibers amongst a number of groups of fixed fibers at one time.
Another type of fiberoptic switch is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,378,144 to Duck et al. Duck et al. discloses an optical switch in which a number of output fibers is arranged parallel to the axis of a stepping motor and around a pitch circle centered at the axis of the motor. An input fiber is rotated about the axis of the stepping motor to be at one of a number of switching positions along the pitch circle so as to be aligned with one of the output fibers. The above-described design by Duck et al. is disadvantageous for many reasons. Since the output fibers are arranged parallel to the axis of the stepping motor and surround the stepping motor and since the input fiber is rotated along the circumference of the pitch circle to be aligned with the output fibers, Duck et al.'s device occupies considerable space and may be impractical for switching applications requiring a physically small device. Furthermore, in such an arrangement, the diameter of rotation of the input fiber by the stepping motor becomes a limiting factor in regard to the accuracy of alignment. Since the input fiber is spaced apart from the axis of the motor at a distance that must be at least as great as the radius of the stepping motor, any variations in angular displacement of the stepping motor will cause significant alignment errors.
In view of the reasons above, it is desirable to provide an improved optical switch in which the above-described difficulties are alleviated.


A fixing member, a power detector, and a controller are included. The fixing member is heated by a heating unit that generates heat when power is supplied by a commercial power and a capacitor. The power detector detects energy of power stored in the capacitor. The controller performs an identical control to reduce number of copies of an image formed (fixed) per minute (CPM) to a predetermined number (40 CPM) in any of three cases in which the energy is less than a threshold for starting electric discharge when a plurality of recording mediums is continuously passed through the fixing member, in which a cardboard paper is continuously passed, and in which an amount of data of an image to be transferred on the recording medium is large.

1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus that includes a fixing-unit system with a capacitor that supplies electric power to a heating section.
2) Description of the Related Art
In copy machines, printers, and facsimiles nowadays, it is a common technique to fix a toner image on a recording medium by heating toner in the toner image with a fixing unit. The toner image is formed by an electrophotography on the recording medium such as a transfer paper, and then, the recording medium is passed through the fixing unit.
In such a fixing unit, a roller or an endless belt is heated by heat from a heating section that is supplied with electric power. A fixing member such as the roller or the endless belt is allowed to make a contact with the recording medium to heat the toner. In this case, so far, the power has normally been supplied to the heating section by a commercial ac power supply. However, a fixing-unit system that supplies the power to the heating section together with a capacitor has been developed recently. An example of such a fixing-unit system is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Publication No. 2002-174988.
In an image forming apparatus, shortening of a total copying time from a start up of the apparatus up to an end of copying, has been sought after. While starting up by putting a main power supply ON when the fixing-unit system is at halt, if a power stored in the capacitor is not less than a threshold for starting electric discharge, the power can be supplied to a plurality of heating sections by respective commercial ac power supply and capacitor and a temperature can be raised up rapidly up to a reload temperature, thereby shortening a waiting time till the apparatus can be used, which in turn enables to shorten the total time required for copying.
However, even in such an image forming apparatus, the apparatus is structured to perform control by giving priority to securing an image quality. Therefore, while passing the paper continuously, if energy of power stored in the capacitor is less than the threshold for starting electric discharge, a CPM (copies per minute) down control in which number of images formed per minute or number of images fixed per minute (CPM) are reduced, i.e. paper-passing speed is reduced to a speed slower than a normal speed, has been performed for preventing defective fixing.
Apart from this, while passing a cardboard paper or passing a paper with a large image data to be transferred, due to a very big drop in a temperature of the fixing member, in a case of the cardboard paper for example, the CPM down control called as a board-paper mode is performed to prevent the defective fixing and to secure the image quality.
Therefore, an image forming apparatus that includes a capacitor, has been provided with a control mode for normal CPM conditions, the CPM down control mode for a shortage of power stored in the capacitor, and a CPM down control mode for passing the cardboard paper. In order that each mode is use appropriately, the structure of the control system has been complicated.
Moreover, while passing the cardboard paper, a drop in temperature of the fixing member is detected while the cardboard paper is being passed and for reducing the CPM, a time is required to adjust the CPM in the image forming apparatus, thereby resulting in more time required for copying.


An expander circuit may be configured to control a plurality of driver circuits for driving light emitting diodes (LEDs). The expander circuit may comprise a bus interface circuit configured to receive control signals from a processor over a communication bus, and a plurality of modulation signal generators configured to generate modulation signals based on the control signals. The expander circuit may be configured to provide the modulation signals to the plurality of driver circuits for driving the LEDs.

Drivers are often used to control a voltage, current, or power at a load. For instance, a light emitting diode (LED) driver circuit may control the power supplied to a string of light emitting diodes. Some drivers may comprise a direct current (DC) to DC power converter, such as a buck-boost, buck, boost, or another DC to DC (DC/DC) converter. Such DC/DC power converters may be used to control and possibly change the power at the load based on a characteristic of the load. DC/DC power converters may be especially useful for LED drivers to regulate current through LED strings. Other LEDs, however, may require lower power, in which case a linear current source may be used to drive such LEDs based on a supply voltage.
Some LED circuits include a large number of individually controllable LEDs arranged in a two-dimensional matrix. The individually controllable LEDs can be driven so as to provide advanced lighting effects. Advanced vehicle headlamp systems, for example, are one example application of such LED circuits, whereby advanced lighting effects associated with vehicle operation can be used to improve the driving experience and to promote vehicle safety. Vehicle lighting that uses LED technology may include vehicle headlamps, interior vehicle lighting, exterior vehicle lighting, or any vehicle setting or feature where lighting is used. Other settings may have lighting features ore functions that are similar to that used in vehicles.
In automotive settings, a processor, such as a microprocessor, a graphics processing unit (GPU), an electronic control unit (ECU), or other clock-based processing circuit may provide control signals to the driver circuits in order to control the driver circuits and thereby control lighting functions and effects. Automotive lighting, however, can utilize a wide variety of lighting features and functions, and such lighting features and functions often vary between different vehicle makes and models. The wide variety of lighting features and functions presents challenges that are sometimes addressed by different software routines that operate on the processor.

Interface expander circuit for light emitting diode (LED) driver circuits


A self-defense weapon in the form of a glove having retractable blades proximal the fingertips in which the retractable blades are activated by a trigger mechanism remote from the fingertips. The blades are retractable so that the weapon may be safely worn on a wearer's hand while occupying a minimal space and permitting continuation of normal activities. The weapon may be rapidly converted from its reposed condition to its activated position when required.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to miniaturized bladed weapons that are particularly useful for purposes of self defense by a person against attackers, and more particularly to a glove-type bladed weapon that may be safely carried and stored in a collapsed condition within a small space yet be rapidly activated when needed to repel an attacker.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the over-populated cities of present day society, people have increasingly become exposed to danger from rapists, muggers, etc., and in many cities, are in constant concern and fear of being alone and unprotected at night, even when indoors.
For self protection of such persons, conventionally available weapons, such as ordinarily available knives and handguns, do not provide a satisfactory solution, since the use of handguns is outlawed in many cities; and even where permitted, requires a certain degree of training and skill in usage that many people do not have and prefer not to acquire. Conventional knives, billy clubs, and other common weapons, on the other hand, are not generally useful devices for people since they are of the wrong shapes, sizes, and configurations to be easily carried in the pocket or purse, as well as often requiring some degree of strength, or skill, or training in their effective uses that many people do not possess; and, like the handguns, do not wish to acquire.
Various manual weapons, such as knives, daggers, swords, rods, darts, and the like have been used for many centuries for self defense. Of these, a knife or a dagger is probably the most suitable weapon for use in close quarters. The knife and dagger may be used both for stabbing and for slashing. Knives and daggers have the disadvantage that they must be grasped tightly during an encounter. If the user's grip should loosen, the knife may slip or may be dropped. Further, knives and daggers have only a single point. If the point misses the target, the opponent may not be stopped and the user is at risk of being injured by a counter-attack from the opponent.
In the past, many non conventional knives and blades have been proposed for different purposes that are carried by and supported by the human hand, arm, or fingers, with many being used for cutting, scraping, or tearing. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,895,139 issued Jul. 21, 1959 to Compton discloses a glove having bladed structures attached to the finger areas. U.S. Pat. No. 4,096,629 issued Jun. 27, 1978 to Levine discloses a multi-bladed weapon having means to retract the blades upon the pressing of a button. U.S. Pat. No. 5,058,278 issued Oct. 22, 1991 to Colvin discloses a self-defense weapon which fits over the hand, and has retractable blades. However, no remote actuator is disclosed. U.S. Pat. No. 3,587,591 issued Jun. 28, 1971 to Satterwite discloses a glove having a blade structure which can be slidably controlled by an actuator. None of these devices disclose the cable actuated remote actuating means of the present invention.
There exists a need therefore for a small, portable knife or bladed weapon that can be carried with safety and convenience by the user and that can be rapidly activated when needed to repel an attack and protect the attacked person. Most importantly, there exists a need for such a weapon that can be effectively used by anyone needing a protective weapon, without the need for having any particular degree of skill, degree of strength, or advanced training in order to render the weapon effective for its intended purpose.


An apparatus and method for controlling weeds and undergrowth, as well as insect infestation, as are typically encountered in agricultural environments is disclosed. The apparatus is characterized by its construction to include a heater whereby liquid spray material is first heated to a temperature of from about 100.degree. F. to about 240.degree. F. and then sprayed on the substance to be controlled. The apparatus is further characterized by its construction to include an insulating apron for maintaining the heated spray material in close contact with the substance onto which it is sprayed, while at the same time insulating the heated spray and treated substance from ambient conditions. A variety of fluid conduits and controls are provided so that a variety of spray liquids may be applied in predetermined fashion. The apparatus is constructed so that it can be attached to a standard tractor for ease of use. The method of this invention is characterized by its utilization of agricultural chemicals in amounts from virtually 0% to about 50% of their current recommended dose rate.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to both an apparatus and a method for controlling weeds and undergrowth in agricultural settings. In a first preferred embodiment, the invention utilizes a spray of heated water for controlling the undesirable substances, and is particularly characterized by its construction to include an apron, or blanket, which serves to insulate the heated spray from ambient conditions, thereby increasing the efficacy of the spray in controlling undesirable weeds and undergrowth. According to a second embodiment, the invention utilizes spray solutions including active ingredients in the range of about 10% to about 50% of the normal, recommended dose rate. As is set forth in greater detail below, it has been discovered that effective control of the undesirable substances can be obtained utilizing from zero to one-half the normally required chemical treatment materials by first heating the liquid spray material to a temperature of from about 100.degree. F. to about 240.degree. F. before spraying.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Within the agricultural industry, various methods are known and recognized as being effective for controlling the growth of weeds and other undesirable substances. Many such methods involve the application of aqueous solutions of treatment chemicals onto the undesirable substances. Over the past years, as we have become more aware of our environment and the delicate balances that must be maintained in order to preserve a healthy environment, much care and concern have arisen over the utilization of toxic chemicals for weed and undergrowth control as well as for insect control. One merely has to read the labels of numerous commercially-available insecticides and herbicides to appreciate the caution which must be exercised in their proper use.
Utilization of herbicides and insecticides not only subjects the user to personal danger, but also may damage desirable crops if the treatment materials are not applied properly. Furthermore, accumulations of treatment materials in the soil and in water sources are now recognized as further dangers to the environmental balance.
In recognition of the dangers attendant to the use of herbicides and pesticides, manufacturers of such products maintain elaborate and expensive testing facilities. Both local and national governments also expend large sums of money and resources for the purpose of determining and monitoring safe and effective dose rates for such chemicals. In fact, most efforts for making the use of herbicides and insecticides safer to our environment involve efforts to formulate "safer" chemicals.
Nevertheless, prior patent literature does disclose at least one apparatus for eliminating undesirable vegetation growth which is relatively safe to the environment. U.S. Pat. No. 213,255 to Simpson discloses an apparatus which uses steam and/or hot water to kill vegetation on railroad beds. According to the disclosure of that patent, the application of steam and/or hot water provided by the steam locomotive engine is efficacious for killing vegetation which might seek to grow along the tracks and railway bed.
Other prior art devices such as, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,242,098, to Andrews, are also known in the prior art. However, the Andrews patent discloses an apparatus for generating a vapor or fog for purposes of concealment, for controlling atmospheric temperature, for disseminating insecticide or other materials into the outside atmosphere or into confined spaces, etc. A vehicle-mounted spray apparatus is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,817,870, to Dalton. However, the device of the Dalton patent is primarily concerned with spraying materials onto a road or highway. U.S. Pat. No. 3,986,670, to Syveson discloses a hand held thermal electric fogging device for dispensing a fog, or cloud, of insecticide. Other similar devices are also known in the art, and virtually all such devices that involve heating the material before spraying apply sufficient heat and pressure so that the material is dispensed as a fog. It is clear that the use of such vapors or fogs would be quite inefficient in that they would clearly be subject to drift onto plants which should not be treated and to significant dispersion into the atmosphere because of the gas-like nature of the fog. Furthermore, if active ingredient chemicals are included in such fogged sprays, hazardous conditions for both the operator and the surrounding environment may be created because of the wide dispersion of the fogged material.
It is, therefore, clear that there is a great need in the art for an new apparatus and method for controlling undesirable vegetation growth and insect infestation in a manner which would not result in the addition of new and increased levels of chemical poisons to our environment.

Apparatus and method for controlling weeds and undergrowth


A modular target system with interchangeable parts which can be used to make a variety of different targets. The basic system consists of a foot, stand, and head. The universal attachment designs for the various components allows for changing the stand height or head plate style, and makes possible the addition of an optional "swinger" or "rocker." The result is a system which is versatile to use and economical to produce and maintain.

Other target systems that are commercially available suffer from one or more disadvantages which this present invention helps remedy. These disadvantages include being larger, heavier, less portable, relatively complex, more difficult to manufacture, less versatile, and more expensive to maintain. This present invention provides a unique modular target system which has a number of interchangeable components which can be bolted together to provide almost any type of traditional target configuration desired.
A universal mounting system allows the assembly of targets which not only provide a variety of different heads, but also portable or permanent footings and optional "rockers" or "swingers." The result of this design is that a wide variety of traditional stationery and moving targets can be assembled from a few basic components, giving significantly greater versatility than any other commercially available design.

Modular target system with interchangeable parts


The present invention provides a connector including: an approximately box-shaped housing having an insertion opening for the insertion of an FPC; forked contact members provided within the housing; and a lever which is provided so as to face the insertion opening of the housing, and which is turnably held by the housing. With such an arrangement, the forked contact member includes a base, an upper arm and a lower arm, and a forked engaging arm. The tip of the lower arm is held by the housing. The lever includes a holding portion, a rotational shaft, and first plate cams. Upon raising the lever, the distance between the tips of each of the forked engaging arms is increased by the actions of the first plate cam, thereby increasing the distance between the upper arm and the lower arm of each of the forked contact members.

An FPC includes a great number of terminals in parallel. The FPC having such a structure is detachably connected to a printed board using a connector including a great number of contacts provided in parallel. Conventional connectors are known as disclosed in Patent Documents 1, 2, etc., in which the contact members and the terminals of the FPC are pressed in contact with each other through an operating member so as to connect the great number of terminals with the contact members all at the same time, thereby the FPC is held in a sure manner.
A connector disclosed in Patent Document 1 includes a housing having a structure in which an FPC insertion opening is formed on one face thereof for the insertion of an FPC, and a cover insertion opening is formed on the other face thereof for the insertion of a cover. On the other hand, each contact member includes a pressing piece provided so as to face the cover insertion opening, which is elastically deformable by insertion of the cover, and a pressure-contact piece provided so as to face the FPC insertion opening, which contacts to the FPC corresponding to the elastically deformation of the pressing piece during the insertion of the cover.
With such an arrangement, upon inserting the cover into the cover insertion opening formed on the other face of the housing after the insertion of the FPC into the FPC insertion opening formed on one face of the housing, the pressing piece of each contact member is elastically deformed. This action presses the pressure-contact piece of the contact member into contact with the FPC. Thus, the FPC is pressed into contact with, and is connected with, the contact members.
On the other hand, a connector disclosed in Patent Document 2 includes: an insulating housing; and a cover provided at the upper portion of the rear end of the insulating housing, the cover can turn in the back and forth direction of the insulating housing. The insulating housing has a structure in which an insertion opening is provided at the front end thereof for the insertion of a flat flexible cable. Furthermore, multiple electroconductive terminals (contact members) are provided in parallel within the housing such that contact beams thereof face the insertion opening. Each of the electroconductive terminals (contact members) has a base beam and a U-shaped contact beam connected with one another through a connection portion so as to form a single unit. An engaging arm is provided at the rear end of each base beam. Alongside, a lever arm is provided at the rear end of each contact beam. An engaging portion formed of the engaging arms of the multiple electroconductive terminals (contact members) provided in parallel and another engaging portion of the cover are engaged with one another in a manner which allows the cover to turn. Furthermore, the lever arm and the cover are provided such that the lever arm and the inner face of the cover face one another at the rear end of the cover. Such a structure allows the portion facing the U-shaped contact beam to be opened and closed by turning the cover using the lever arm.
With such a structure, upon turning the cover, the inner face of the cover moves the lever arm. Then, the movement of the lever opens or closes the contact beams of the electroconductive terminals (contact members). After the opening of the contact beams, the user can insert the connection terminal of a flat flexible cable into the insertion opening with zero insertion force. Upon closing the contact beams, between the contact beams and the flat flexible cable a certain contact pressure is produced due to the elasticity of the contact beams. With such an arrangement, the opening and closing of the contact beams are performed by actions of the lever arms. This enables the user to turn the cover without large insertion force.    [Patent Document 1] Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Registration Application Publication No. 7-18386    [Patent Document 2] Japanese Registration Utility Model No. 3019279
However, the connector disclosed in Patent Document 1 has a problem as follows. With the connector disclosed in Patent Document 1, the pressing piece of each contact member is elastically deformed. This elastic deformation presses the pressure-contact piece of each contact member into contact with the FPC. This means that stress is applied to each contact member during connection of the FPC with the connector. This causes creep, for example, leading to deterioration in the durability of the connector. Furthermore, since the cover is inserted into the cover insertion opening from above the housing for elastically deforming the pressing portions, the upper wall of the housing has an increased thickness. This leads to an increase in thickness of the upper wall of the connector.
On the other hand, the connector disclosed in Patent Document 2 has a problem as follows. The cover is turned while engaging the engaging portion, which is formed of lever arms disposed in parallel on the rear side of the electroconductive terminals (contact members), with the engaging portion of the cover. With such a structure, stress is applied to the lever arms disposed at the rear side of the electroconductive terminals (contact members) every time the user opens or closes the cover. This causes deterioration in the durability of the connector. In addition, the cover is not engaged with the housing. In some cases, this leads to undesirable disengagement of the FPC from the connector. Furthermore, the contact member has a structure in which a lever arm and an engaging arm are formed on the rear side thereof. With such a structure, upon turning the cover with the engaging arm and the engaging portion of the cover being engaged with other, the cover presses down the lever arm. Such a contact member requires a three-layer structure in which three components are arranged one above another, leading to an increased mounting height of the connector.
In particular, the use of connectors in cellular phones, digital still cameras (DSC, DVC), etc., in recent years has required a small mounting height of around 1 mm, for example.
In view of the aforementioned problems, it is an object of the present invention to provide a connector with a reduced mounting height, i.e., reduced-height connector having a function of maintaining the opening and closing states of a back lock lever serving as a cover in a sure manner while improving the durability of contact members.

Connector having a lever for opening and closing upper and lower arms of forked contact members


A device for the storage, shipment and display of merchandise is provided. The device comprises a display bin and a frame disposed under the display bin. The frame comprises top and bottom supports and a cavity between the top and bottom supports. At least one storage bin disposed in the cavity of the frame and a sleeve comprising walls is disposed around at least a portion of the frame.

It is often desirable for a manufacturer or supplier to provide retailers with a separate display stand, customized to display and promote its merchandise to retail customers. This is particularly true for bulk merchandise such as fruits and vegetables, which are typically stacked by the retailer, often indistinctly, on existing counters in the produce section of the grocery aisle.
Significant drawbacks exist, however, to providing separate displays stands for merchandise. For example, the costs associated with shipping both merchandise and a separate display stand are often significant, particularly in cases where the merchandise is perishable. This is because shipment costs are typically determined by factors such as the weight and dimensions of the products shipped and, in the case of perishable items, refrigeration and shipment deadlines.
To reduce costs associated with shipment, unassembled promotional display stands may be provided to the retailers. After assembling the promotional display stand, merchandise may be stacked or otherwise arranged on the display stand. This, however, suffers the disadvantage in requiring complete assembly and stocking of the promotional display at the retail site, a task which is often complicated and time-consuming.
Accordingly, a need exists for ready-made display stand, which is both cost and labor efficient, to promote merchandise at the point-of-sale location.

Device for storage, shipment and display of merchandise


Disclosed are an electrode material for a non-aqueous solvent secondary battery, which comprises a composite carbonaceous material in which to the surface of a graphite carbonaceous material is attached a carbonized material of an organic substance in an amount to give a carbon residue of 12 parts by weight or less and 0.1 part by weight or more based on 100 parts by weight of the graphite carbonaceous material, and a process for preparing an electrode material for a non-aqueous solvent secondary battery, which comprises the steps of introducing a slurry obtained by adding an aromatic organic solvent to a mixture of graphite carbonaceous material particles and an organic substance and adjusting viscosity to 10000 cp or lower into a mixing and stirring apparatus having a reaction room which has a paddle rotatable by a shaft in an inner portion thereof, the inner wall surface of the reaction room being formed substantially along the outermost line of rotation of the paddle and also, being provided a mechanism of deaerating a solvent, heating it to a temperature of the boiling point of the solvent or higher and lower than 600.degree. C. while stirring to prepare a solid intermediate and heating said intermediate to 600.degree. C. or higher under inert gas atmosphere to effect carbonization. According to the non-aqueous solvent secondary battery electrode material of the present invention, there can be provided a non-aqueous solvent secondary battery in which good electric characteristics that while maintaining discharging capacity which is as high as graphite, irreversible capacity can be suppressed to extremely low and charging efficiency is excellent can be obtained and further stability to an electrolyte is improved. Also, according to the preparation process of the present invention, a composite carbonaceous material having such high characteristics and uniform characteristics can be prepared stably with good efficiency.

In recent years, accompanied with miniaturization of electronic equipments, a secondary battery having high capacity has been required. Attention has been paid particularly to a non-aqueous solvent secondary battery having higher energy density as compared with nickel-cadmium and nickel-metal hydride batteries. As a negative electrode material thereof, a metal, graphite, etc. have heretofore been studied. However, in a metal electrode, there is a problem that when charging and discharging are repeated, a metal in a solvent is precipitated in a dendrite form and both electrodes are short-circuited finally. Further, in graphite, metal ions can go in and out between layers thereof so that there is no problem of short circuit, but there are problems that it decomposes a propylene carbonate type electrolyte and also charging and discharging cycle characteristics are bad in an ethylene carbonate type electrolyte. On the other hand, use of a carbonaceous material having a multiphase structure has been also studied. This is based on a thought that advantages (high capacity and small irreversible capacity) and disadvantages (decomposition of a propylene carbonate type electrolyte) of a carbonaceous material having high crystallinity and advantages (excellent stability in an electrolyte) and disadvantages (small capacity and large irreversible capacity) of a carbonaceous material having low crystallinity are combined to compensate the disadvantages while maintaining both of the advantages. For example, in Japanese Provisional Patent Publication No. 370662/1992 which the present inventors have proposed previously, there has been disclosed use of carbonaceous material particles which comprise a nucleus comprising a highly graphitized carbonaceous material and a surface layer comprising a lowly graphitized carbonaceous material. However, in said conventional technique, it has been considered that from limitation in preparation, if it is not a relatively thick surface layer, a uniform layer cannot be obtained. Thus, it has been considered that a composite carbonaceous material having a relatively thick surface layer and clearly comprising plural phases is preferred as shown in, for example, an example in which the ratio of a nucleus to a surface layer is 50 parts by weight:50 parts by weight (Example 1), an example of 53:47 (Example 2) and an example of 65:35 (Example 3) as specific examples thereof.
However, the present inventors have studied electrode materials having various physical properties intensively and consequently found that contrary to a conventional technical concept that a composite carbonaceous material having a relatively thick surface layer and clearly comprising plural layers is preferred as a secondary battery electrode material, by using an electrode material in which to a graphite-like carbonaceous material is attached a carbonized material of an organic substance in an extremely minute amount (thin) to give a specific range of a carbon residue, there can be obtained unexpectedly a non-aqueous solvent secondary battery having extremely good electric characteristics such as high electric capacity and lowly suppressed retention and also having high safety to an electrolyte as compared with graphite alone and a conventional composite carbonaceous material clearly comprising plural phases, to accomplish the present invention.
Further, they have found a specific preparation process for obtaining such a specific electrode material and found that by such a method, an electrode material having more uniform characteristics can be prepared stably and efficiently, to complete the present invention.

Non-aqueous solvent secondary battery electrode material and process for preparing the same


A semiconductor device capable of reducing element sizes exceedingly and a mask alignment accuracy in lithography is provided. This device has a pair of semiconductor layers for source/drain electrodes formed on the field insulating film so as to be respectively partially projected in a "overhanging-shape" over the active area. For example, using an MBE method, a selectively epitaxial growth is made with these semiconductor layers as nuclei, so that first and second semiconductor layers at the interface of which a channel is formed and a pair of semiconductor layers for source and drain electrode connections can be formed. Accordingly, the semiconductor heterojunction and gate electrode can be formed in self-alignment on the active area with the semiconductor layers pair for source/drain electrodes as the reference, so that a reduction in transistor size can be realized. It is preferable that the first semiconductor layer and second semiconductor layer making a heterojunction are made of an undoped monocrystalline SiGe layer and a monosilicon layer inverse in electroconductive polarity to the substrate, respectively. The semiconductor layers for source/drain electrode connections are preferable to have a two-level structure made of a polycrystalline SiGe layer and a polysilicon layer.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a semiconductor device and its production method and more particularly, to a high mobility field effect transistor utilizing a two-dimensional electron gas or two-dimensional hole gas formed at a heterojunction interface thereof and its production method.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A conventional high mobility field effect transistor having a heterojunction interface is shown in FIG. 1, which is, excepting a gate electrode, disclosed in the Extended Abstracts of the 21st. Conference on Solid State Devices and Materials, Tokyo, 1989, pp. 373-376. In that abstracts, the gate electrode is not shown and as a result, the operation of the field effect transistor itself is not made clear. However, if a gate electrode 7 is disposed between ohmic electrodes 6 on a cap layer 5 as shown in FIG. 1, this transistor operates as a junction field effect transistor utilizing a two dimensional hole gas.
In FIG. 1, on a Ge substrate 1 of the (100)-direction, a SiGe layer 2 as a buffer layer, a Ge layer 3 as a channel layer, a Ga-doped Si.sub.0.5 Ge.sub.0.5 layer 4 and a cap layer 5 are formed in this order. On the cap layer 5, the two electrodes 6 are formed at spaces in an ohmic contact, which respectively become a source electrode and a drain electrode, and a gate electrode 7 is formed between the ohmic electrodes 6. The two dimensional hole gas is formed at the interface between the Ge layer 3 and Ga-doped Si.sub.0.5 Ge.sub.0.5 layer 4.
With the conventional field effect transistor as shown above, when to be produced, the source and drain electrodes and the gate electrode are required to be positioned using different masks in respective lithography processes. As a result, when the transistor is intended to be produced smaller in size, it is limited by the mask alignment accuracy in each lithography, thus arising such a problem that the size cannot be reduced so as to exceed that accuracy.
Thus, an object of this invention is to provide a semiconductor device capable of reducing the size of elements so as to exceed the mask alignment accuracy in lithography and a production method of the same.


Provided is a recording method for performing recording by ejecting liquid to a recording medium, the recording method including: preparing a liquid ejection head including an ejection orifice array in which multiple ejection orifices for ejecting the liquid are arranged; and ejecting multiple liquid droplets from the multiple ejection orifices while the recording medium and the liquid ejection head are relatively moved at a speed of 40 inch/s or more to fill a predetermined pixel area on the recording medium with the multiple liquid droplets. A relationship A/12≦b≦25−A/5 is satisfied, where A (inch/s) represents the speed of the relative movement and b (pl) represents an amount of a liquid droplet ejected by one ejection.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording method for performing recording by ejecting a liquid droplet such as an ink droplet from multiple ejection orifices of a liquid ejection head.
2. Description of the Related Art
An ink jet recording apparatus is a recording apparatus which can output a high-quality letter or image at low cost. As an example, an air bubble generated when a pulse signal is input to an electrothermal converter causes a liquid droplet of black ink or a liquid droplet of color ink of cyan, magenta, yellow, or the like to be ejected from an ejection orifice.
Black ink is often used for, in addition to recording of letters and the like, solid filling of an entire surface of a predetermined region, that is, so-called solid printing. When solid printing is performed by ejecting minute liquid droplets, the number of the ejection times tends to be large and the time required for the recording tends to be long. Therefore, there has been proposed a liquid ejection head in which a liquid droplet of black ink is formed so as to be larger than a liquid droplet of color ink when ejected, which is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-154208.
In the liquid ejection head disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-154208, by increasing the moving speed of a carriage having a liquid ejection head mounted thereon, the speed of ink jet recording including the above-mentioned solid printing can be further increased. However, there is a high risk that high-speed movement of the carriage involves image quality deterioration. Generally, a liquid droplet ejected from an ejection orifice includes a main droplet and an accompanying satellite. As the moving speed of the carriage becomes higher, the travelling distance of the carriage from the impact of a main droplet on a medium surface to the impact of its satellite on the medium surface becomes larger. Therefore, there is a tendency that, as the moving speed of the carriage becomes higher, the distance between a main droplet and its satellite becomes larger. As a result, a satellite impacts away from the main droplet which forms a letter, and thus, the image quality at the edge of the letter is conspicuously deteriorated. In the following, defected impact at the edge is described with reference to FIGS. 10A to 10G and FIGS. 11A and 11B. FIGS. 10A to 10G illustrate states from the ejection of an ink droplet to the impacts of the ink droplet on a recording medium. FIGS. 11A and 11B illustrate image quality deterioration involved in high-speed movement of a carriage. FIG. 10A illustrates a state immediately after a main droplet 110 and a satellite 120 are ejected from an ejection orifice 10. FIGS. 10B and 10C illustrate states in which the main droplet 110 and the satellite 120 impact on a recording medium 15 when the moving speed of the carriage is 25 inch/s (0.635 m/s). FIG. 10D illustrates the main droplet 110 and the satellite 120 illustrated in FIG. 10C seen from above. FIGS. 10E and 10F illustrate states in which the main droplet 110 and the satellite 120 impact on the recording medium 15 when the moving speed of the carriage is 40 inch/s (1.016 m/s) or more. FIG. 10G illustrates the main droplet 110 and the satellite 120 illustrated in FIG. 10F seen from above. The ink droplet ejected from the ejection orifice 10 toward the recording medium 15 is divided into the main droplet 110 and multiple satellites 120a and 120b (see FIGS. 10B and 10E). After that, the ink droplet impacts on the recording medium 15 separately as the main droplet 110 and one large satellite 120 which is an aggregation of the multiple satellites 120a and 120b (see FIGS. 10C and 10F). The impact deviation in position of the satellite 120 from the main droplet 110 is caused by the movement of the carriage. When the moving speed of the carriage is about 25 inch/s (0.635 m/s) as in a conventional case, as illustrated in FIG. 10D, an impact deviation L is small and no problem is presented. On the other hand, when the moving speed of the carriage is 40 inch/s (1.016 m/s) or more, as illustrated in FIG. 10G, the impact deviation L becomes larger. Therefore, a non-image area is formed between an area on which the main droplet 110 impacts and an area on which the satellite 120 impacts. The non-image area is recognized more as a lack of sharpness of letter quality, that is, roughness of edges 51, as the area of white, which is the color of the medium surface, becomes larger (see FIGS. 11A and 11B).
Therefore, conventionally, it has been difficult to accomplish high-speed recording and high-quality recording at the same time.


A variable rate transmission system wherein a packet of variable rate data generated by a variable rate data source is modulated on traffic channel by traffic channel modulator if the capacity of the traffic channel is capable of transmitting the packet. And where the packet of variable rate data is modulated onto traffic channel by traffic channel modulator and at least one overflow channel by traffic channel modulator, if the capacity of the traffic channel is less than required to transmit the packet. A receiving system for receiving variable rate data transmitted in accordance with the above.

I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to communications. More particularly, the present invention relates to a novel and improved communication system wherein a user transmits variable rate data on an allocated traffic channel, however, when the user's transmission exceeds the capacity of the allocated traffic channel, the user is provided temporary use of an overflow channel for use in conjunction with the allocated traffic channel.
II. Description of the Related Art
The present invention is concerned with multiple users utilizing a communications resource such as a satellite transponder. Specifically we are concerned with making the allocation of the communications resource more efficient. The problem, in the context of a satellite transponder, is to efficiently allocate portions of the transponder's fixed communications resource to a large number of users who seek to communicate digital information to each other at a variety of bit rates and duty cycles.
The use of code division multiple access (CDMA) modulation techniques is one of several techniques for facilitating communications in which a large number of system users are present. Other multiple access communication system techniques, such as time division multiple access (TDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA) and AM modulation schemes such as amplitude companded single sideband (ACSSB) are known in the art. However, the spread spectrum modulation technique of CDMA has significant advantages over these modulation techniques for multiple access communication systems. The use of CDMA techniques in a multiple access communication system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,901,307, entitled "SPREAD SPECTRUM MULTIPLE ACCESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM USING SATELLITE OR TERRESTRIAL REPEATERS", assigned to the assignee of the present invention and incorporated by reference herein. The use of CDMA techniques in a multiple access communication system is further disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,103,459, entitled "SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR GENERATING SIGNAL WAVEFORMS IN A CDMA CELLULAR TELEPHONE SYSTEM", assigned to the assignee of the present invention and incorporated by reference herein.
CDMA by its inherent nature of being a wideband signal offers a form of frequency diversity by spreading the signal energy over a wide bandwidth. Therefore, frequency selective fading affects only a small part of the CDMA signal bandwidth. Space or path diversity is obtained by providing multiple signal paths through simultaneous links from a mobile user through two or more cell-sites. Furthermore, path diversity may be obtained by exploiting the multipath environment through spread spectrum processing by allowing a signal arriving with different propagation delays to be received and processed separately. Examples of the utilization of path diversity are illustrated in copending U.S. Pat. No. 5,101,501 entitled "SOFT HANDOFF IN A CDMA CELLULAR TELEPHONE SYSTEM", and U.S. Pat. No. 5,109,390 entitled "DIVERSITY RECEIVER IN A CDMA CELLULAR TELEPHONE SYSTEM", both assigned to the assignee of the present invention and incorporated by reference herein.
An additional technique that may be used to increase the efficiency of the allocation of the communication resource is to allow the users of the resource to provide data at varying rates thereby using only the minimum amount of the communication resource to meet their service needs. An example of variable rate data source is a variable rate vocoder which is detailed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/004,484 which is a continuation application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/713,661, now abandoned, entitled "VARIABLE RATE VOCODER," assigned to the assignee of the present invention and incorporated herein by reference. Since speech inherently contains periods of silence, i.e. pauses, the amount of data required to represent these periods can be reduced. Variable rate vocoding most effectively exploits this fact by reducing the data rate for these silent periods.
In a variable rate vocoder of the type described in the aforementioned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/004,484, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,414,796 approximately 40% of the speech packets are coded at full rate. In the vocoder described in the patent application, the encoding rate is selected in accordance with the packet energy. When the packet energy exceeds a full rate threshold the speech is coded at full rate. In U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/288,413, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,742,734 entitled "METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SELECTING AN ENCODING RATE IN A VARIABLE RATE VOCODER," assigned to the assignee of the present invention and incorporated herein by reference, a method for reducing the number of full rate packets with a minimum of sacrificed quality is disclosed.
A variable rate speech encoder provides speech data at full rate when the talker is actively speaking, thus using the full capacity of the transmission packets. When a variable rate speech coder is providing speech data at a less that maximum rate, there is excess capacity in the transmission packets. A method for transmitting additional data in transmission packets of a fixed size, wherein the source of the data for the data packets is providing the data at a variable rate is described in detail in copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/171,146, U.S. Pat. No. 5,504,773, which is a continuation application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/822,164, filed now abandoned entitled "METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR THE FORMATTING OF DATA FOR TRANSMISSION", assigned to the assignee of the present invention and incorporated by reference herein. In the above mentioned patent application a method and apparatus is disclosed for combining data of differing types from different sources in a data packet for transmission.

Method and apparatus for providing variable rate data in a communications system using statistical multiplexing


A method for producing a semiconductor device using an improved trench isolation technique includes, first, forming a masking layer over a device layer. A first portion of the masking layer and an underlying portion of the device layer are removed to form at least one trench. A second portion of the masking layer is then selectively removed from a region adjacent the trench and above the device layer. A dielectric layer is formed in the trench so that the dielectric layer at least partially fills the trench and the region adjacent to the trench and above the device layer. The dielectric layer includes a trench cap above the trench isolation region and the device layer. The trench cap extends laterally and longitudinally above and beyond the trench isolation region, in accordance with the second portion of the masking layer which was removed. This enlarged trench cap permits the removal of a portion of the dielectric material from the trench cap during subsequent processing without the consequent formation of substantial voids between the dielectric material in the trench and the device layer.

Over the last few decades, the electronics industry has undergone a revolution by the use of semiconductor technology to fabricate small, highly integrated electronic devices. The most common semiconductor technology presently used is silicon-based. A large variety of semiconductor devices have been manufactured having various applications in numerous disciplines. Such silicon-based semiconductor devices often include metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) transistors, complimentary MOS (CMOS) transistors, bipolar transistors, bipolar CMOS (BiCMOS) transistors, etc.
Each of these semiconductor devices generally include a semiconductor substrate on which a number of active devices are formed. The particular structure of a given active device can vary between device types. For example, in MOS transistors, an active device generally includes source and drain regions and a gate electrode which modulates current between the source and drain regions. In bipolar transistors, an active device generally includes a base, a collector, and an emitter.
Semiconductor devices, like the ones mentioned above, are used in large numbers to construct most modern electronic devices. As a larger number of such devices are integrated into a single silicon wafer, improved performance and capabilities of electronic devices can be achieved. In order to increase the number of semiconductor devices which may be formed on a given surface area of a substrate, the semiconductor devices must be scaled down (i.e., made smaller). This is accomplished by reducing the lateral and vertical dimensions of the device structure.
One important step in the formation of semiconductors is the process of forming isolation regions, i.e., regions in the substrate which are used to electrically isolate adjacent active devices. Two common techniques for isolating active devices on a semiconductor substrate are LOCOS (for LOCal Oxidation of Silicon) isolation and trench isolation. Trench isolation techniques, and many LOCOS isolation techniques, generally involve the formation of a trench in the substrate. In most cases, an oxide layer is grown in the trench to form at least part of the isolation region. In trench isolation, a second layer of oxide may be deposited over the grown oxide layer to completely fill the trench.
The isolation region resulting from trench isolation techniques (and those LOCOS isolation techniques which involve trenches) is often associated with a number of limitations. For example, the sidewalls of the isolation region are often etched away during subsequent processing steps, resulting in voids at the edges of the trench. Such voids impact device parameters by, for example, increasing the non-uniformity of those parameters. This problem becomes more significant as devices become smaller and trenches become shallower. A more detailed discussion of LOCOS and trench isolation techniques can be found in S. Wolf, Silicon Processing For The VLSI Era, Vol. 2: Processing Integration, Chap. 2, pp. 28-58, 1990.

Process for forming an isolation region with trench cap


A model for predicting fracturing in shale can minimize surface disruption, protect groundwater, maximize efficiency of hydraulic fracturing, and manage fluids used in unconventional gas development. The model provides a more comprehensive understanding of the geological, geophysical, and geomechanical properties of shales and imbeds these properties in geomechanical computer simulations to predict both the reservoir performance from the fracturing, and the associated microseismic events generated by fracturing. Since the geological and geophysical properties can be estimated from surface seismic, well logs, and geologic concepts with regional context; the performance of the fracturing can be predicted and optimized. Since the microseismic events can be predicted with the model, the simulations can be verified and the model can be updated to be consistent with the observed microseismic.

Currently, there is little understanding of how shales fracture. At best, empirical models based on very simplified physics are used, but there is no way to relate geophysically observable properties of the shale to its geomechanical properties. Moreover, even given a geological model, there are also no computer models that can reliably predict the microseismic response of the shale fractures. Finally, existing methods of analyzing microseismic data utilize only a very small amount of the information in estimating the origin of the microseismic events.
A number of difficulties have led to such poor understanding of how shales fracture. Primarily, understanding shale fracturing requires compiling together a great deal of information. For example, the porosity and mineralogy of the shale may need to be known at multiple scales to understand shale fractures and the geomechanical response. Additionally, the coupled contributions of fractures, variable pore types, microporosity, and mineral heterogeneity to geophysical response in shale may need to be understood. Other difficulties lie in properly estimating the errors involved in predicting factures in shale and in the possibility that the data can have pronounced anisotropy, which would affect the accuracy in locating fractures in the shale. Some computational tasks (such as source scanning, modeling of synthetic waveforms, etc.), may be cumbersome and may require significant resources and time to complete.
Due to these difficulties, current stimulation techniques of areas having shale are based on little knowledge of how the shale is fracturing. Additionally, current production profiles merely indicate that active fractures in shale are at least 100 meters apart. In the end, such currently used techniques in the industry have low efficiency and use a protocol developed with only rudimentary knowledge of what is going on. In the end, operators are unable to explain or predict their results.
Because of the poor knowledge available in the industry about fractures in shale, more understanding about the fracturing of shale in an area of interest can increase both the reserves and production associated with the area. In fact, increases in both reserves and production may be possible by an order of magnitude if more accurate understanding about the fracturing of shale can be determined.
The subject matter of the present disclosure is directed to overcoming, or at least reducing the effects of, one or more of the problems set forth above.


An apparatus for the hot and moist cleaning of floors is disclosed, having an elongate body including a handle at a proximal end thereof and a water reservoir; and a cleaning head flexibly disposed at a distal end of the elongate body and having a heating plate and a cleaning pad, wherein the heating plate forms a planar underside of the cleaning head and includes a heating element to heat the planar underside. The water reservoir is adapted to moisten the cleaning pad when the planar underside is above 85 C. The cleaning pad is removably attached against and in thermal communication with the planar underside such that the cleaning pad is moistened and heated to a temperature between 85 C and 100 C, inclusive. And the heating plate does not substantially heat water from the water reservoir prior to the moistening of the cleaning pad.

From EP 1795109 is known a steam generator comprising an external casing with an opening that enables the inner space to communicate with the space outside. Moreover, the steam generator can be equipped with a feeding element that supplies water to said inner space, with a heating element foreseen in the opening to generate steam, an exhaust pipe whose one end is connected to the outside space to discharge steam, and a means for the control of the steam discharge on the other end to open and close the pipe outlet depending on the presence or absence of the steam to be discharged.
From EP 0842631 A is known a steam-operated cleaning device comprising a boiler equipped with heating means, steam release means connected to said boiler, and a cleaning tool comprising a foot and a handle so that said boiler and said steam release means are positioned in said foot.


A cam follower includes a shaft and a hub rotatable with respect to the shaft via at least one bearing. A flanged tire is affixed to the outer peripheral surface of the hub, the flanged tire having a main body portion and a flange portion extending radially outwardly therefrom. The main body portion and the flange portion are integrally formed from a polymeric material, and the hub, the main body portion and the flange portion are disposed so as to define a generally planar outer surface. A flange support plate, having a support plate outer diameter that is generally equal to or greater than the flange diameter, is positioned abutting the generally planar outer surface and is rigidly affixed to the hub, the flange support plate being formed from a metal material, thereby providing structural support to the flange portion for axial forces applied to the flange portion.

Flanged cam followers are used for a variety of purposes, such as to enable linear motion of an object on a rail. They are generally used in pairs for such applications, each mounted on the opposing side of the object, with the flanges running on the side of the rail, preventing the object from sliding off the rail. The flanges are designed to carry any side load (i.e., generally axial to the cam followers) that might develop when the object is moving.
Traditional flanged cam followers are made of metal in order to provide the structural integrity needed to withstand repeated and potentially substantial axial loads. Attempts to create polymer flanged cam followers have generally resulted in the flanges being prone to being sheared off when significant axial loads are applied thereto, particularly when those loads are repeated over time.
Metal flanged cam followers, however, suffer from various disadvantages of their own. Metal flanged cam followers are subject to wear as a result of repeated contact with a rail. A conventional camming arrangement includes a metal rail and one or more mating pairs of metal flanged cam followers, each having one or more contact surfaces. As the flanged cam followers contact the rail, the metal of the cam followers, as well as the metal of the rail, become worn and both the flanged cam followers and the rail need to be replaced. The replacement of the rail and the flanged cam followers requires a prolonged down time, and consequently involves significant direct and indirect costs.
In addition, metal rails and metal flanged cam followers require lubrication, such as grease, oil, or other lubricating substances (i.e., lubrication on the rail to prolong its life and internal lubrication of the cam follower). In clean applications (e.g., food processing, pharmaceutical processing, etc.), this lubrication can damage, corrupt and/or contaminate the material being processed (e.g., food, medicine, packaging, etc.) or other components or machines in the process. Thus, the maintenance, replacement and repair of metal flanged cam followers requires a substantial amount of time because the lubrication material needs to be properly applied, and even then, this does not completely solve the problem of excess lubrication causing problems with the process.
Over-greasing of the metal flanged cam follower is also a common occurrence. When the inside of the cam follower is packed with too much grease, the cam follower has a very high resistance to rolling and tends to slide on the metal surface of the rail. This causes excessive rail wear as well as the development of a flat surface on the flanged cam follower. Metal cam followers that develop a flat surface will not turn and have to be replaced.
In addition, over time, the lubrication decreases and a contact surface of the rail begins to rub directly against a contact surface of the metal flanged cam follower. This may result in noise (e.g., squeaking), decreased performance (e.g., slower operating speed, higher operating temperature), or even complete failure. Moreover, even if the failure is not catastrophic, metal particles may be formed, thereby leading to the potential for particulate contamination.
Furthermore, as is well known, metals are, in general, excellent electrical conductors. While this may, of course, be desirable in some circumstances, in the context of rails and their associated flanged cam followers, a high degree of electrical insulation is often preferred instead. Thus, provision of a polymer cam follower, which are generally excellent electrical insulators, would be advantageous.
The present invention, therefore, aims to provide a flanged polymeric cam follower, with its attendant benefits (e.g., reduced or no requirement for lubrication on the rail or the bearings, reduced or no rail wear, reduced noise, excellent electrical insulation), while at the same time ensuring the structural integrity needed to withstand repeated and potentially substantial axial loads, particularly on the flange portion of the cam follower.


Deflection recessed in a bow shape at the axial central portion in the longitudinal direction of the transfer member is avoided to prevent failure in image caused by the transfer nip being improperly forming at the central portion. The pressing force of the transfer member against an image bearing member resulting in failure in transfer is made uniform in the longitudinal direction. The transfer member forming the transfer nip are pressed toward the photosensitive drum at the central portion in the longitudinal direction or in the positions which are spaced apart toward the center from the ends to avoid the deflection of the transfer member.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus which includes a transfer member for transferring toner on an image bearing member and presses the transfer member toward the image bearing member to form a transfer nip.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, as a color image forming apparatus such as a printer and copier, there has been disclosed a technique in which toner images formed on respective photosensitive drums are sequentially superimposed on an intermediate transfer belt and the toner images superimposed on an intermediate transfer belt are collectively transferred onto a recording material to form a color image. In addition, there has been disclosed a technique in which toner images formed on respective photosensitive drums are sequentially superimposed onto the recording material on a conveying transfer belt using the conveying transfer belt which conveys the recording material while the recording material is electro-statically adhered, to form a color image.
A transfer member transferring the toner images on the photosensitive drum is arranged at a position where the respective photosensitive drum faces toward the intermediate transfer belt or the conveying transfer belt. The transfer member is pressed against the photosensitive drum by a press member such as a spring to form a transfer nip. A transfer roller rotating to follow the intermediate transfer belt or the conveying transfer belt is generally used as the transfer member.
However, the transfer roller is pressed by the press member at both axial ends of the transfer roller to produce a deflection recessed in a bow shape at the axial central portion. This causes the nip pressure of the transfer nip to be lower at its both axial ends than that at its central portion, making the nip pressure uneven particularly in an image forming region (an image bearing region where the toner images are borne), which may cause a failure in transfer. In order to cope with the problem, there is known a technique in which the outer diameter of the roller is made larger at its central portion than that at its both axial ends to uniform the nip pressure of the transfer nip even if the axis is deflected.
However, the transfer roller is provided with an elastic member around its axis. An elastic force of the elastic member may vary the transfer nip secular change with time. The transfer roller is originally manufactured such that the outer diameter thereof is axially varied, complicating the production process.

Image forming apparatus with transfer member for transferring toner on image bearing member


The present invention includes: a hydraulic pump 10 that is driven by a driving motor; a travel motion motor 12 that is driven with pressure oil supplied from the hydraulic pump 10; a travel motion control valve 11 that controls a flow rate of the pressure oil supplied from the hydraulic pump 10 to the travel motion motor 12; a means for operation 22a with which the travel motion control valve 11 is operated; a means for rotation rate detection 95 that detects a rotation rate N of the travel motion motor 12; and a means for motor over rotation prevention 14, 17, 32 that reduces the rotation rate of the travel motion motor 12 if the means for rotation rate detection 95 detects a rotation rate equal to or higher than a predetermined rotation rate upper limit Nmax.

There are hydraulically driven vehicles such as wheel hydraulic excavators in the known art that are made to travel by controlling with a control valve the flow rate and the direction of pressure oil output from a hydraulic pump that is driven by a driving motor and by driving a travel motion variable displacement hydraulic motor with the controlled pressure oil. The motor speed in this type of vehicle is controlled through the control valve which is switched as the operator steps on the accelerator pedal and also through an adjustment of the displacement volume of the travel motion motor, which is increased as the load pressure of the travel motion motor rises. Japanese Laid Open Patent Publication No. H8-270788, for instance, discloses a travel motion control apparatus for such a hydraulically driven vehicle.
The apparatus disclosed in the publication mentioned above adopts the structure described below. The operating state of a travel motion control valve is detected and also, the switch-over position of a travel motion transmission that can be switched to a high-speed setting or a low-speed setting is detected. Then, if the control valve is detected to be at a neutral position and the transmission is detected to be at the high-speed setting, the displacement volume of the travel motion motor is increased to the maximum displacement volume. As a result, the motor displacement volume increases to the maximum level to achieve a great braking force when the vehicle travels downhill with the control valve at the neutral position without the operator stepping on the accelerator pedal.
However, the apparatus disclosed in the publication does not increase the displacement volume of the travel motion motor and thus, a sufficient level of braking force cannot be achieved if the vehicle is made to travel downhill while the operator is stepping on the pedal. For this reason, the risk of an over rotation of the travel motion motor arises.

Travel motion control apparatus for hydraulically driven vehicle, hydraulically driven vehicle and wheel hydraulic excavator

Hitachi Construction Machinery Co., Ltd.


A queue management method and system manages queued cells in such a way that higher priority cells are always served first, the low priority cells are dropped when the queue is full and, within the same priority, any interference is prevented. Four different architecture designs for such queue management are presented and their implementation feasibility and hardware complexity are compared and contrasted. A departure sequence is assigned to each cell in the novel architecture to implement the queue management. The sequence applies the concepts of fully distributed and highly parallel processing to schedule cell sending or dropping sequences. Preferably, a sequencer is provided such that the queue size and the number of priority levels can grow flexibly and without limit.

Broadband integrated service digital networks (B-ISDN) provide end-to-end transport for a broad spectrum of services flexibly and efficiently via the asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) technique. Information is packetized and carried in fixed length "cells." Each cell consists of 53 octets including 5-octet header and 48-octet information fields. Due to the natural random-ness of the broadband traffic, queues are required at various placed in ATM networks to absorb instantaneous traffic bursts that may exceed the network bandwidth temporarily.
Various architectures for ATM switches, also called fast packet switches, have been proposed. Among them, switches with output queues (including shared output buffers) have been proven to give the best delay/throughput performance.
FIG. 1 shows a prior art ATM switch fabric with output queues which I have previously proposed and which is an improved version of a prior art knockout switch. It is capable of accommodating more than 8,000 input ports to achieve a Terabit/sec throughput. Cell filtering and contention resolution functions are performed in parallel in small switch elements (SWE) , located at the intersection of cross-bar lines.
The SWE examine incoming cells from horizontal lines and route them properly to one of the L links of each output port. The L can be chosen as 12 in order to have less than 10.sup.-10 cell probability caused by contention among the L routing links. The ATM switch fabric will route higher priority cells to output ports when congestion occurs among the L routing links. At any given cell time slot (about 2.83 .mu.s) , if there is more than one cell arriving at an output port, all except one will be stored in the output queue waiting to be sent to the transmission link.
Under normal traffic conditions, most of the queued cells will be transmitted on the link and a simple first-in-first-out (FIFO) queue discipline will provide acceptable cell loss/delay performance. However, under congestion, a queue management algorithm is essential to discipline the queued cells in such a way that higher priority cells will always be sent to the outputs before the lower priority ones, the low priority cells will be dropped when the queue is full, and within the same priority any interference on others' reserved network resources is prevented by setting up some policies and disciplines (or firewalls).
Since different traffic has different service requirements, real-time traffic such as video and voice should be assigned high priorities to satisfy its stringent delay requirements while data traffic may be handled at lower priorities tolerating longer delay. A simple FIFO queue won't be able to handle the prioritized cells nor prevent the interference of one connection with another.
For instance, consider a situation in which a conventional FIFO is used for each output queue of the switch as shown in FIG. 1. When long cell bursts from a misbehaving user are queued up in the FIFO, the other regular arrival cells will be delayed or even dropped when the FIFO is full.
Round-robin disciplines are believed able to provide fairer service than the FIFO discipline when the network is congested. Their throughput/delay performance comparison can be found in the article entitled "Queuing Disciplines And Passive Congestion Control In Byte-Stream Networks" by S.P. Morgan, IEEE INFOCOM '89, 1989, pp. 711-720. The round-robin discipline usually operates by maintaining a separate FIFO queue for each connection, which is identified by a 2-octet VCI (virtual channel identifier) in each cell header. The queues are visited in a cyclic order and thus, when congestion occurs, light-traffic and short-burst users are protected by evenly cutting back all user's throughput to approximately the same level.
Three hardware implementations for the round-robin discipline were presented in the article entitled "Fast Switching And Fair Control Of Congested Flow In Broadband Networks" by M. G. H. Katevenis, IEEE J. Select Areas Commun., Vol. 5, No. 8, pp. 1315-11325, Oct. 1987. However, their hardware complexity increases as either the number of connections (VCIS) or priority levels increase. Especially, as the number of VCIs approaches 64K, the hardware circuitry grows considerably to the point that per VCI processing speed limitation may become the system's bottleneck. Furthermore, each connection may request different transmission rates at the initial call set up and thus the round-robin discipline may not serve all users "fairly" in the sense that every user shares the remaining resource equally, rather than sharing the resource proportionally to the transmission rates that they have requested.

Method and system for managing queued cells


An oxide semiconductor device includes a gate electrode on a substrate, a gate insulation layer on the substrate, the gate insulation layer having a recess structure over the gate electrode, a source electrode on a first portion of the gate insulation layer, a drain electrode on a second portion of the gate insulation layer, and an active pattern on the source electrode and the drain electrode, the active pattern filling the recess structure.

1. Field
Embodiment of the present invention relate to oxide semiconductor devices, methods of manufacturing oxide semiconductor devices, display devices having oxide semiconductor devices, and methods of manufacturing display devices including oxide semiconductor devices. More particularly, embodiments relate to oxide semiconductor devices including gate insulation layers having recess structures, methods of manufacturing the oxide semiconductor devices including the gate insulation layers having the recess structures, display devices including the oxide semiconductor devices, and methods of manufacturing display devices having the oxide semiconductor devices.
2. Description of Related Art
A conventional bottom gate type thin film transistor (TFT) includes a gate electrode disposed on a substrate, a gate insulation layer located on the gate electrode, a source electrode and a drain electrode positioned on the gate insulation layer, and an active layer contacting the source and drain electrodes and the gate insulation layer between the source and drain electrodes.
In manufacturing the conventional bottom gate type thin film transistor, a metal layer is formed on the gate insulation layer to form the source electrode and the drain electrode, and an internal stress may be generated in the gate insulation layer while forming the metal layer on the gate insulation layer. When an active layer is formed on a gate insulation layer having internal stress, voltage-current characteristics of the transistor may be deteriorated. Additionally, etching damage is easily generated on a surface of the gate insulation layer while patterning the metal layer for forming the source and drain electrodes. Furthermore, the gate insulation layer is frequently contaminated by etching such as metal compounds and metallic particles generated in an etching process for the metal layer. Thus, an interface between the active layer and the gate insulation layer may be irregular, thereby deteriorating electrical characteristics of the transistor. For example, the transistor may have poor electrical characteristics such as increased variation of threshold voltages (Vth), decreased charge mobility, reduced operation current (Ion), etc. When an oxide semiconductor device includes a gate insulation layer having an internal stress, etching damage, and/or etching by-products remaining thereon, the oxide semiconductor device may have deteriorated electrical characteristics, such that the oxide semiconductor devices having the deteriorated electrical characteristics may not be suitable for use in display devices such as a liquid crystal display (LCD) device or an organic light emitting display (OLED) device.

Oxide semiconductor devices, methods of manufacturing oxide semiconductor devices, display devices having oxide semiconductor devices, methods of manufacturing display devices having oxide semiconductor devices


A toroidal type continuously variable transmission; in which a rolling member for mediating the transmission of a torque is clamped between at least a pair of rotary members; and in which a clamping force for clamping the rolling member in the direction not to let the rolling member be released from between the rotary members is applied to the rolling member, comprises: a detector for detecting temperature rise of either, a temperature of a rolling face of the rotary members for clamping the rolling member, or a temperature of the rolling member; and a rolling member controller for reducing the clamping force in case a temperature rise is detected by said detector.

A continuously variable transmission of this kind is constructed with, e.g., clamping a disc-shaped roller between a pair of discs arranged opposed to each other. The portion of the pair of discs where the outer side from a predetermined radius has an arcuate plane congruent with the arc centered on the center point of opposed planes of those discs, and such arcuate plane is leading to circumferential direction. The plane thus incurved three-dimensionally is a toroidal plane. The toroidal plane functions as a rolling face and the roller is clamped therebetween. The roller is a disc-shaped member and its sectional figure along in-depth direction of the outer circumferential portion is congruent with the arcuate figure of the rolling face of the discs. Accordingly, the roller is rotated by means of rotating one of the discs, and the other disc rotates sequentially. Then, the roller is inclined to move the radial position of the contact portion against one of the discs, i.e., the radial position from the center axis of the disc outward, and also to move the radial position of the contact portion against the other disc to inner circumferential side, so that the speed change ratio corresponding to the proportion of the radii of each contact portions is thereby set.
The amount of the torque to be transmitted by the continuously variable transmission of this kind is varied in accordance with the load to clamp the roller by the discs. The bigger so-called clamping force of the discs for clamping the roller becomes, the more the transmittable torque increases consequently. On the other hand, in case of the full toroidal type continuously variable transmission for example, it is constructed to execute speed change with acting the inclining force on the rollers by moving the rollers backward and forward on the plane in parallel with the center axis of rotation of the discs. Accordingly, in the toroidal type continuously variable transmission of this kind, the load is acted in the direction that the roller is released from between the discs by the clamping pressure of discs; therefore, the load to counteract against such load is acted as the holding force in order to hold the roller at the predetermined position between the discs. Namely, it is constructed to ensure predetermined torque transmitting capacity with balancing the clamping force of the discs and holding force for the roller.
In the toroidal type continuously variable transmission, a heavy load is acted on the contacting boundary face between the disc and the roller as mentioned above, therefore, in the prior art, an oil film is formed between the disc and the roller in order to prevent abrasion or deformation due to direct contact between the disc and the roller, and the torque is transmitted with utilizing a shearing force of the oil film. However, the oil film is restricted in its function according to the temperature, therefore, there is a possibility for the oil film to be broken and causes the direct contact between the disc and the roller.
In this connection, according to the invention disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open 9-229152, therefore, the construction is made to restrict the range of movement of the roller based on the temperature of the traction oil for forming the oil film. Namely, the shearing force acts on the oil film becomes bigger if the radius of the contact position of the roller against the discs is small in comparison with the case that such radius is big, and breakage of the oil film is easy to be occurred. Therefore, the inclining range of the roller (range of movement) is restricted based on the temperature of the traction oil, in order not to let the radius of contact position of the roller against both input and output discs become small. Accordingly, relative excess of the shearing force acts on the oil film, and breakage of the oil film arising from such are thereby prevented.
According to the invention disclosed in the aforementioned Laid-Open, the temperature rise of the oil is suppressed if the energy inputted to the continuously variable transmission is not changed, because the shearing force acts on the oil film is restricted. However, the oil temperature is not exactly lowered in case of the energy to be transmitted by the continuously variable transmission is not changed, even if the temperature rise of the oil is suppressed. The oil temperature rises gradually in case of that the energy acts on the continuously variable transmission is relatively big, and there is a possibility of occurring the breakage of the oil film in the end. Aforementioned continuously variable transmission according to the prior art cannot cope with such problem, therefore, there is a possibility of occurring breakage of oil film, and damaging of discs and rollers arising from such breakage of the oil film.
This invention has been made in the view of the aforementioned technical problem, and its object is to provide a toroidal type continuously variable transmission, which can avoid to cause mechanical damage with preventing the temperature rise to exceed a predetermined temperature at the contacting boundary face between the rotary members such as discs or the like and the rolling members such as rollers or the like held by the rotary members, or at the lubricating oil for forming the oil film on the contacting boundary face.

Toroidal type continuously variable transmission


A user device prompts a user to provide button input to use for causing the user device or an application on a user device to perform a function. The user device associates the button input with the function and store the association in a headset profile. When the button input is later received from the headset, the user device accesses the headset profile and identifies the function associated with the button input. The user device performs the identified function.

A large and growing population of users enjoys entertainment through the consumption of media items, including electronic media, such as electronic books (also referred to herein as ebooks), electronic newspapers, electronic magazines and other electronic reading material, digital music, and digital video. Users employ various electronic devices to consume such publications. Among these electronic devices (e.g., user devices) are electronic book readers, cellular telephones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), smart phones, portable media players, tablet computers, electronic pads, netbooks, desktop computers, notebook computers and the like.
Users often use headsets in conjunction with the electronic devices (e.g., user devices such as smart phones, table computers, electronic book readers, etc.). The headsets may allow users to hear audio data (e.g., music, speech or voice, etc.) from the electronic devices or may allow users to provide audio data (e.g., speech or voice) to the electronic devices. For example, a user may use a headset to listen to a digital music file on a smart phone. In another example, a user may use a headset to speak with another person during a voice call. The headsets often include input mechanisms such as buttons (e.g., mechanical buttons or touch screen buttons), inline controls, slide bars, and control wheels, etc., that users may use to control the electronic devices. For example, the user may use a button on the headset to increase the volume or decrease the volume of a voice call.

Managing and using headset profiles for different headsets


Disclosed are methods, kits, and components for detecting small RNA molecules, such as microRNA and siRNA, in a sample. The methods utilize primers and reporter molecules comprising non-natural bases. The disclosed kits may include one or more components for performing the disclosed methods.

MicroRNA (miRNA) are small RNA molecules that are expressed as pol II transcripts in eukaryotic organisms. These molecules have been shown to regulate gene expression, mRNA splicing, and histone formation. They also have been shown to have tissue-specific and developmental-specific expression patterns. Thus, these small RNA molecules are of interest in the elucidation of biological processes, disease states, and development.

Methods for detection and quantification of small RNA


The invention relates to a sensor system for determining the moisture content in a gas to be measured. On the basis of two current saturation ranges during the determination of the moisture content with the aid of a zirconia sensor, according to the invention two spatially separated sensors are provided, which are operated at different voltages corresponding to the individual saturation current ranges. By further evaluation of the signals, this permits a very precise, on-line determination of the moisture content of the gas to be measured.

The invention relates to a sensor system located in a measurement casing according to the preamble of claim 1.
A comparable sensor system is e.g. known from EP 0 166 530 B1 or DE 37 02 838 A1.
The principle of these known sensor systems makes it possible to measure the oxygen partial pressure in a gas or in a gaseous mixture and in addition the moisture content of the gas can be determined.
These sensor systems have an oxygen-conducting plate for the individual sensor and which is in particular made from zirconia (ZrO.sub.2). When a voltage is applied to the electrodes on said plate the oxygen is pumped out of the interior of the diffusion casing. This pumping effect resulting from the applied voltage is greater than the quantity of the oxygen entering through the gas diffusion opening of the sensor. The current flowing through the zirconia plate is therefore dependent on the rate of the oxygen ions diffusing through the zirconia plate. However, as the oxygen flow quantity is limited due to the gas diffusion opening, there is initially a current saturation at a given voltage and in this phase the number of oxygen ions diffusing through the zirconia plate corresponds to the oxygen quantity entering through the gas diffusion opening.
When the aim is to establish the moisture content of a corresponding gas or air using such a sensor system, it must be borne in mind that primarily the oxygen partial pressure is reduced by the water content of the gas to be measured. Therefore the current saturation range is formed at a lower current intensity.
On further increasing the voltage between the electrodes on the zirconia plate, due to the diffusion of oxygen through the gas diffusion opening the current flow initially remains constant until, as a result of the higher voltage, the water vapour or steam decomposes into oxygen and hydrogen. This oxygen resulting from the dissociation of the steam now brings about an increase of the current flow. Thus, a further current saturation range forms, which in absolute values is above the current flow of the same gas without moisture.
Thus, for calculating the moisture content of a moist, oxygen-containing gas two saturation current ranges are obtained, whose current difference makes it possible to determine the moisture content in the gas to be measured.
In known sensor systems operating with the two aforementioned different current levels, an important disadvantage occurs in that on modulating the zirconia sensor to the two different voltage or current levels overshoots occur, so that no details on the corresponding moisture content can be obtained until there is a stable build-up.
It has also been found that the determination of an optimum modulation function is relatively difficult in the case of different moisture contents and consequently the known sensor systems suffer from a considerable time loss when calculating the moisture content.


Methods and apparatus for testing a striking-type sports implement such as a bat is disclosed. In terms of apparatus, a system according to the invention includes a bat-swinging module, a ball-delivery module, and one or more programmed computers. The bat-swinging module includes means to grip a bat at its handle end, and an independent, computer servo-controlled motor to swing the bat. The ball-delivery module includes a ball support and a second, independent, computer servo-controlled motor to place the ball into the swing of the bat along a delivery path such that the bat is able to strike the ball and cause the ball to travel along a precise trajectory path. Various sensors are disposed to measure swing speed, "pitch" speed and exit velocity, with the computer(s) being operative to construct a database of bat performance characteristics based upon swing speed, pitch speed and exit velocity, and display selected portions of the database in accordance with a user input.

There is an outstanding need in professional sports to quantify the performance of the equipment involved, and to provide tools to evaluate the performance of existing devices. At the present time, for example, the evaluation of bats, balls, and so forth, is almost completely dependent on the experience and observations of the players who use such equipment. These observations are supported only by an imperically derived historical database of performance statistics. Other than radar guns to measure ball velocity and video cameras for player viewing, there are no quantitative measures of ball movement(s), bat performance, etc. The need remains, therefore, for an analysis and testing system which may be used to monitor the swing of a striking type sports implement such as a bat as it strikes a ball, and to gather information as to swing speed, projectile delivery, and exit velocity. Such information may be used to create performance databases for a variety of analytical and/or statistical evaluations. When used as an input into implement manufacturing, the results obtained from the system may also be used to maximize player safety, for example, by ensuring that exit velocity does not exceed a predetermined threshold.

Sports implement testing methods and apparatus


The present invention provides a two-stage process for production of high-octane naphtha range isoparaffins from a feed rich in normal and/or slightly branched paraffins. In the first stage, the normal and/or slightly branched paraffins are selectively converted to multi-branched paraffins and then cracked in a second stage to yield naphtha range isoparaffins which can be blended into a high-octane gasoline pool.

Because of environmental concerns there is a great demand to develop a process for producing high octane isoparaffins for blending in the gasoline pool. Isoparaffins are conventionally produced by isomerization. In isomerization, as conventionally operated, low molecular weight C.sub.4 to C.sub.6 n-paraffins are converted to isoparaffins in the presence of an acidic catalyst such as aluminum chloride or an acidic zeolite, as described in G.B. Patent No. 1,210,335. Isomerization processes for pentane and hexane which operate in the presence of hydrogen have also been proposed using acidic catalysts. See Maxwell, I.E., "Zeolite Catalysis in Hydroprocessing Technology," Catalysis Today. 1, 385-413 (1987) and Meyers, R.A., Handbook of Petroleum Refining Processes, 5-3 to 5-24 (1986).
High octane isoparaffins are also produced by acid catalyzed alkylation of an isoparaffin with an olefin. Industrial alkylation processes have historically used hydrofluoric or sulfuric acid catalysts. For a general discussion of sulfuric acid alkylation, see the series of three articles by L.F. Albright et al., "Alkylation of Isobutane with C.sub.4 Olefins," Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., 27, 381-39, (1988). For a survey of hydrofluoric acid catalyzed alkylation, see Handbook of Petroleum Refining Processes, 23-28 (1986).
The process of the present invention avoids several disadvantages over prior art processes as the process of the present invention is not limited to C.sub.7 --feeds or the use of a corrosive acid catalyst.

Process for the selective hydrocracking of distillates to produce naphta range high octane isoparaffins