An aircraft flight control disconnect mechanism between the pilot and co-pilot controls, including a pair of concentrically positioned opposed circular jaws, each jaw having either mating tapered teeth or mating tapered openings, which when the jaws are axially separated, disconnects one pilot control from the other and a rotating control sleeve concentrically aligned with and rotatably attached to one of said jaws, the sleeve including a helical cam slot surrounding a fixed roller whereby rotation of the control sleeve moves the said connected jaw toward or away from the adjacent jaw so that the two jaws are free to rotate independent of each other.

Roll control of the Wright brothers aircraft was achieved by warping each wing in an opposite direction, that design was later transformed into ailerons at the ends of opposite wings, which are basically hinged flight surfaces along the trailing edge of the wing. When ailerons are moved in opposite directions, one wing files up while the other wing files down causing the aircraft to roll to the right or left. While conventional ailerons are still used in current aircraft designs, there are additional roll control devices used in the form of spoilers and speed brakes. Spoilers are flat surface devices, which extend out of the top surface of one wing or the other and cause the aircraft to roll by separating the airflow across the top surface of one wing thus destroying that wings lift. Speed brakes are similar flat surface on the top of the wing, which extend equally out of both wings into the airflow in the same manner as the spoiler. Speed brakes produce drag causing the aircraft to reduce its speed and reduce lift equally on both wings. Speed brakes in current aircraft designs have a separate control for extension and retraction, while ailerons and spoilers can be controlled together since they both affect roll control of the aircraft. The prior art teaches combining the effects of spoilers and ailerons in a single control. Also, the concept of tying the pilot and co-pilot controls together so that they both can work the ailerons, elevators and rudders is commonly done. The concept of connecting and disconnecting the pilot and co-pilot controls together is also old in the prior art as taught in the patent to Hegg (U.S. Pat. No. 5,456,428).


Embodiments of the invention describe a system utilizing at least one camera and a display to create an object and context aware system. Embodiments of the invention may utilize the camera to sense a system's surroundings and use recognition logic or modules to detect and recognize objects on and around the system. System applications may further act on the sensed data and use the display of the system to provide visual feedback and interactive elements as a means to interact with the system user.

The increasing processing capabilities of mobile computer systems have created the improved ability to understand and react to physical objects near said systems. System users' contexts may also be used to provide a richer interaction experience.
Creating a system with the ability to track objects, act upon them, and provide feedback would significantly increase the value of mobile computers to end users. Tabletop systems have been proposed and developed over the years to provide many of these benefits; however, these systems are typically large and thus not mobile nor personal. One of the reasons for the limitations of prior art solutions such as tabletop systems is the requirement of a large device footprint; such devices utilize additional hardware beneath the tabletop surface in order to process activity on the surface as interactions with the system.
Thus, no current solutions exist for providing enhanced user and object interaction for a mobile computer system that do not require additional display capabilities (e.g., an additional screen, a projector), wherein the mechanisms to enhance user and object interaction do not affect the nomadic characteristics of the mobile computing system.
Descriptions of certain details and implementations follow, including a description of the figures, which may depict some or all of the embodiments described below, as well as a discussion of other potential embodiments or implementations of the inventive concepts presented herein. An overview of embodiments of the invention is provided below, followed by a more detailed description with reference to the drawings.

System for portable tangible interaction


A cable strain relief module assembly for securing a cable and providing strain relief is described. The cable strain relief module assembly includes a module and a twist nut. The module has a male threaded portion and the twist nut has a female threaded portion. A portion of a cable may be captivated between the male threaded portion of the module and the female portion of the twist nut when the module and twist nut are engaged.

In general, cable retention devices utilize a liquid-tight fitting to compress onto a cable radially. Typically, in order to obtain good cable retention force (e.g., greater than 20 lbf), a liquid-tight fitting must be torqued onto an installed cable with at least 10 in-lbf of force. One problem that exists with utilizing such liquid-tight fittings is that excessive tightening onto a fiber optic cable can induce radial compressive stresses onto the glass optical fibers of a fiber optic cable. This mechanical stress can attenuate the amount of light and corresponding signal propagating along the glass optical fiber. Therefore, cable retention devices utilizing liquid-tight fittings can cause attenuation of the fiber optic signal. Thus, there is a need for a cable strain relief module assembly that does not cause attenuation of the signal.
This application describes an apparatus and method for securing a cable and providing cable strain relief to a cable, such as a fiber optic cable or a copper cable. The apparatus and method secure a cable by retaining a portion of the cable. Advantageously, the cable strain relief assembly does not compress onto the cable radially and does not attenuate a fiber optic signal.


A zoom lens comprising, from front to rear, a first lens group of negative power, a second lens group of positive power and a third lens group of negative power, wherein as zooming from the wide-angle end to the telephoto end is performed by moving the first, second and third lens groups, the second and third lens groups both are directed forward and the speed of movement of the third lens group is faster than that of movement of the second lens group, the zoom lens satisfying the following conditions: EQU 1<S1w/S2w<3.2 EQU 0.15<.vertline.f3.vertline./FT<0.43 EQU 2<FT/FW<5. where S1w and S2w are air separations between the first and second lens groups and between the second and third lens groups in the wide-angle end respectively, f3 is a focal length of the third lens group, and FW and FT are shortest and longest focal lengths of the entire lens system respectively.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to zoom lenses suited to photographic cameras or video cameras and, more particularly, to zoom lenses having three lens groups of which the first counting from front is of negative power and in which these three lens groups are moved to vary the image magnification. Still more particularly, it relates to zoom lenses of high range with a short total length and excellent optical performance.
2. Description of the Related Art
The zoom lens having three lens groups of which the first counting from front is of negative power, the second is of positive power and the third is of negative power and in which at least two of these are made to move to vary the image magnification has been proposed in, for example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Applications Nos. Sho 55-11260 and Sho 56-159614, Japanese Patent Publication No. Sho 58-50327 and British Patent No. 398307.
This type of zoom lens, because being relatively amenable to increase the angle of view, has been utilized in many wide-angle photographic systems.
However, the zoom lenses of Japanese Patent Publication No. Sho 58-50327 and British Patent No. 398307 have a relatively long total length (the distance from the front vertex to the image plane) and their front lens members have also a large diameter. To achieve a minimization of the bulk and size of the camera, they are not always adequate.
The zoom lenses of Japanese Laid-Open Patent Applications Nos. Sho 55-11260 and Sho 56-159614 are adapted to be objective lenses for copy machines and have no positive aim to vary the focal length. These zoom lenses each are used in such a way that the lens system is inverted as a whole as the magnification changes between lower and higher values, or operates two modes in so-called conjugate relation. The values of the focal length at the minimum and maximum magnifications are nearly equal to each other, and the focal length is made to vary in a range between this value and its half. Hence, these zoom lenses are not suited to photographic cameras, video cameras, etc..
Apart from these zoom lenses, a zoom lens of the same type as that described above but suited to the photographic camera, or video camera is proposed in a Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. Sho 58-200208. In the same document, of the three lens groups of minus-plus-minus power arrangement in this order from the front, the first and second groups are moved in a particular relation when performing variation of the magnification, and particular rules of design for the three lens groups are set forth. Owing to these features, a zoom lens well corrected for good stability of aberrations against zooming, or having high optical performance is achieved. As the related art, there is U.S. patent application Ser. No. 187,277 filed on Apr. 28, 1988.


A photographing apparatus and method prevent a resolution of a peripheral portion of an image from being degraded with a simple structure. These employ an in-focus state detector for detecting evaluation values for auto in-focus operation representing an in-focus state of an image from a first in-focus state detection region disposed on a center portion of the image, and at least one second in-focus state detection region disposed on a peripheral portion of the image, a flat subject determiner that determines whether a subject is flat based on the detection result of the evaluation values for auto in-focus operation, a flat subject focusing position calculator that calculates a final focusing position based on the evaluation values when the subject is determined as being flat, and a three-dimensional subject focusing position calculator that calculates a final focusing position based on the evaluation value when the subject is not flat.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a photographing apparatus and a photographing method, and more particularly, to a photographing apparatus and a photographing method that can prevent a resolution at peripheral portions of an image from being degraded.
2. Description of the Related Art
In auto-focusing (AF) cameras which can perform auto-focus adjustment, when the focusing is performed based on a center of a photographing region, defocusing of peripheral portions of the photographing region can become worse due to aberrations in a photographing lens. Therefore, in Japanese Laid-open Patent No. 2006-189580, an average field curvature ratio, that is an average value of field curvature ratios with respect to an entire region of a photographing surface, is calculated, and the photographing lens is moved according to the average field curvature ratio.
However, in a case where a principal subject does not exist on the peripheral portion of the image, for example, when a general three-dimensional subject is photographed, there is no need to focus on the peripheral portion. In this case, defocusing of the peripheral portion can be required in order to emphasize the perspective of the subject. When the method of calculating the average field curvature ratio disclosed in the Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2006-189580 is applied, the processing needed to perform the photographing is excessively increased, and it thus requires much time to photograph the subject.
Also, in a case where a sheet of paper on which letters are printed is photographed, the center of the photographing region and the peripheral portion of the photographing region must be clearly focused, and thus, it is desirable to restrict degradation of resolution at the peripheral portions.

Photographing apparatus, photographing method and a computer readable medium of instructions for controlling the photographing apparatus


A tape cartridge has a print tape accommodated in a cartridge case, a slit-like reel-off port through which the print tape is sent out, and first and second sub display sections which are provided on the wall surface of a forward peripheral wall of the cartridge case where the reel-off port is formed, and in which the type of the print tape is displayed in letters. In the first and second sub display sections, the type of the print tape is displayed in the form of at least one of normal letters formed according to the reel-off port as a horizontal reference and inverted letters formed by inverting the normal letters upside down.

Technical Field
The present invention relates to a tape cartridge which accommodates a print tape and which has a display section where the type of the accommodated print tape is displayed, and a tape printing device.
Background Art
According to the related art, a tape cassette having a tape arranged therein and a tape printing device for printing on the tape reeled off from the tape cassette are known (see JP-A-2000-62251).
The tape cassette includes a case made up of an upper case and a lower case, and a film tape (print tape) and a thermal ink ribbon arranged inside the case. A tape specifying display section where the tape width of the film tape is displayed in letters is bonded to the surface of the upper case.
Meanwhile, the tape printing device produces a desired lettered tape (label) on the basis of a print command from a personal computer to which the device is connected. The tape printing device includes a device main body, a cassette loading section which is arranged inside the device main body and in which the above tape cassette is loaded, and an open/close lid which opens and closes the cassette loading section.
The top surface of the device main body is formed as a convex arcuate surface, and to follow this surface, the open/close lid is formed in a convex arcuate shape. A window covered with a transparent cover is formed in the open/close lid, and the tape specifying display section provided on the top surface of the tape cassette is visible through the window. Also, a slit-like tape discharge port extending in an up-and-down direction is provided on the forward side of the device main body. Moreover, the cassette loading section is inclined so as to be lower on the forward side at an inclination angle of 20°. Thus, the tape cassette can be easily loaded and the film tape after printing can be easily discharged from the tape discharge port.


A method and system for improving automatic engine stopping and starting is presented. In one example, the method adjusts conditions for engine stopping in response to operating conditions that are evaluated according to one or more cost functions. The method may improve vehicle fuel economy and limit driver annoyances.

An engine can be automatically stopped to conserve fuel. A controller may judge to stop an engine based on a combination of monitored vehicle operating conditions. For example, an engine may be stopped when vehicle speed is zero and while a driver is depressing a vehicle brake actuator. Stopping the engine during such conditions may conserve fuel. However, the driver may also release the vehicle brake shortly after the engine is stopped such that little if any fuel may be conserved. Additionally, the short engine stop may be an annoyance to the driver. On the other hand, if the engine is allowed to idle for an extended amount of time before the engine is stopped, only a small amount of fuel may be conserved by stopping the engine. Consequently, it may be a challenge to realize significant fuel saving for some drivers and some driving conditions.
The inventors herein have recognized the above-mentioned disadvantages and have developed a method for operating an engine, comprising: automatically stopping an engine in response to one or more vehicle operating conditions meeting engine stopping criteria; and adjusting the engine stopping criteria in response to engine stopping conditions being evaluated via one or more cost functions.
By adjusting engine stopping criteria in response to weighing engine stopping conditions against one or more cost functions, it may be possible to improve vehicle fuel efficiency while limiting driver annoyance. For example, if a driver exhibits a characteristic of releasing vehicle brakes shortly after stopping a vehicle to allow the vehicle to creep, it may be desirable to increase an engine idle time after a vehicle stop to reduce the possibility of stopping the engine while the driver releases the brake. On the other hand, if the driver routinely waits several minutes before requesting vehicle acceleration after vehicle stop, it may be desirable to stop the engine just when the vehicle stops so that more fuel may be conserved.
The present description may provide several advantages. Specifically, the approach may improve vehicle fuel efficiency of an automatically stopped and started vehicle for a larger group of drivers. Additionally, the approach may reduce driver annoyance by stopping an engine when a driver expects the engine to be stopped. Further, the method may improve engine stopping and starting consistency.
The above advantages and other advantages, and features of the present description will be readily apparent from the following Detailed Description when taken alone or in connection with the accompanying drawings.
It should be understood that the summary above is provided to introduce in simplified form a selection of concepts that are further described in the detailed description. It is not meant to identify key or essential features of the claimed subject matter, the scope of which is defined uniquely by the claims that follow the detailed description. Furthermore, the claimed subject matter is not limited to implementations that solve any disadvantages noted above or in any part of this disclosure.

Method and system for improving automatic engine stopping


A cytoplasmic male sterile cybrid plant of the genus Lactuca, a progeny thereof, or a part thereof having a gene derived from the mitochondria of a plant of the genus Helianthus in its cytoplasm and methods of producing first filial generation seeds using such a cybrid plant.

Conventionally, true breeding and first filial generation (hereinafter referred to as F1) varieties have been generated as plant varieties. Among them, F1 varieties have become popular for staple crops. F1 varieties have major advantages including high growth rates, high yields, etc., as a result of high growing vigor due to hybrid vigor (heterosis). Additionally, they may be expected to have improvements in resistance to diseases and pest insects, and/or in adaptability to the environment, such as cold and heat resistance. Moreover, plants of an F1 variety have the same genotype, while they are heterozygous, and show very high uniformity in their phenotypes, increasing marketability of products from them. Furthermore, F1 varieties have increased probability of accumulating favorable traits that are governed by a dominant gene(s), enabling rapid breeding. Also, they provide a major advantage of protecting breeder's rights by raising the necessity of producing F1 seed every year for seed production, as their progeny will loose the uniformity in quality from the next generation as a result of segregation of the traits.
F1 varieties have become mainstream cultivated varieties for staple crops for the aforementioned reasons. For large scale production of F1 seed for commercial purposes, however, an economical and non-laborious method for emasculation is required. For plants that allow production of many seeds upon a single cross, including vegetables such as tomato, melon, cucumber and pumpkin, and flowering plants such as petunia and eustoma, economical production of F1 seed can be achieved by manual emasculation and crossing. However, there are still many crops that are very difficult to emasculate efficiently because of their flower structures. Crops that produce only a little amount of seed upon a single cross are difficult to produce hybrid seed in large quantities by manual crossing, making the production of F1 seed uneconomical. For seed production of such crops, it is crucial to develop a method using male sterility for seed production, because the laborious and expensive process of emasculation can be omitted by employing a male sterile plant as a seed parent, thus taking advantage of the genetic characteristics of male sterility.
Male sterility has been found in many plant species. And, methods for producing male sterile plants using protoplast fusion techniques have been established in many useful crops (Patent Documents 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, and 19). There are various mechanisms for male sterility, which may be classified into two categories, the genetic male sterility and the cytoplasmic male sterility. Genetic male sterility is caused by a nuclear gene(s). On the other hand, cytoplasmic male sterility involves the interaction between a cytoplasmic genetic factor(s) and a nuclear gene(s).
Lettuce is produced in every country in the world. It is a vegetable of a very large market size, and the creation of its F1 varieties is highly desired. Non-patent Documents 1 and 2 describe the expression of heterosis in lettuce. The expression of heterosis is investigated by comparing F1 plants produced by using a genetic male sterile lettuce with conventional true breeds. At the conclusion of the investigation the investigators reported that the F1 plants exhibited outstanding heterosis. Consequently, a strong demand has been raised to establish a seed production technique using male sterility of lettuce to produce F1 seed efficiently. Yet such technique has not been established. For example, although Non-patent Document 3 revealed the mode of inheritance of genetic male sterility in lettuce, the practical application of genetic male sterility has remained problematic as it is unstable in male sterility and even female fertility appears to be defective (Non-patent Document 7). The author of Non-patent Document 3 also reported similar results in Non-patent Documents 4 and 5. Actually, while an F1 variety created by using genetic male sterility has been brought to market, it is unstable in male sterility and remains unable to replace the conventional true breed (Non-patent Document 6).
More recently, a novel type of genetic male sterile lines has been found. For example, the line "MS1024" described in Patent Document 1 and Non-patent Document 1 was found among progeny of plants selected for disease resistance. The line is superior to the genetic male sterile plants described in Non-patent Document 3 and the like in that it produces no pollen grain at all in its male sterility and that it provides a higher yield of seed.
However, the commercial F1 seed production using genetic male sterile plants still has a problem in the production cost. In lettuce, genetic male sterility results from homozygosis for a recessive gene in the cases observed so far (Non-patent Document 7). Because the male sterile plants resulted from homozygosis for a recessive gene are not able to reproduce by themselves, in order to maintain and reproduce a male sterile line it is necessary to cross them with individuals that are heterozygous for the male sterile gene, and screen their progeny for the individuals that are homozygous for the male sterile gene. Because the cross will result in 1:1 phenotypic segregation into fertile plant individuals and sterile plant individuals, about 50% of the hybrid progeny will be male sterile plant individuals. Therefore, for commercial F1 seed production the plants in seed farms must be screened to find and remove the fertile plant individuals in some way. In the case of lettuce this removing process is especially troublesome because it has small flower organs, making it difficult to distinguish sterile plant individuals and fertile plant individuals, and it produces many flowers on slender flower stalks.
Furthermore, the blooming stage is different for each individual so it is very laborious to remove fertile individuals completely based on the appearance of flowers, and the purity of F1 seed may be lowered by errors in the removing process, which may cause a problem by reducing the seed quality.
Additionally, breeding of genetic male sterile plants is inefficient and requires a long period of time because the individuals with the male sterile gene are visually indistinguishable from others except at the blooming stage. To facilitate the distinction between fertile plants and sterile plants, it is necessary to develop a method to select only the male sterile plants either by finding and making use of a gene that is linked to the morphology of seed in an early stage of growth, or by developing a DNA marker that is linked to the male sterile gene. Such a technique has not yet been established for lettuce, although studies for that are still under way.
Although it has been a long time since the mode of inheritance of genetic male sterility in lettuce was revealed, many problems in the development of F1 varieties using a genetic male sterile lettuce still remain unsolved as described above, and the creation of F1 varieties with high marketability is still difficult.
On the other hand, the production of F1 seed using cytoplasmic male sterility has been in practical use for a long time in sunflower, sugar beet, potato, rice, wheat, carrot, onion, and allium, etc., and commercial production systems for those crops have been established. Also in cole crops such as cabbage, broccoli, radish, and Chinese cabbage, in which F1 seed production using self-incompatibility has been widely used, use of cytoplasmic male sterility for F1 seed production has become popular recently due to the demand for seed of higher quality.
In general, once a cytoplasmic male sterile plant with stable male sterility is produced, cytoplasmic male sterility can be introduced into many desirable lines by repeated backcrossing and breeding of seed parents for F1 varieties becomes possible. Because cytoplasmic male sterility is transmitted by cytoplasmic inheritance, the progeny will be all male sterile. Cytoplasmic male sterile lines can be maintained and proliferated easily by crossing with a maintainer line that has the same nuclear genome and normal cytoplasm. Since there is no need of removing fertile individuals from seed parents in seed farms as in the seed production using genetic male sterility mentioned above, the seed production using cytoplasmic male sterility is efficient, and without the problem of the decreased purity of F1 seed due to errors in the removing process.
Based on these facts, a method for F1 seed production using a cytoplasmic male sterile plant is expected to be much more useful in an economical and commercial sense compared to those using genetic male sterility.
Despite the expectation that such a method would be highly useful as described above, a method for F1 seed production using a cytoplasmic male sterile plant in lettuce has not yet been developed. This is because, for lettuce, there is no crossable plant of the same species or genus that has cytoplasm with the ability to cause cytoplasmic male sterility when introduced into the cytoplasm of lettuce.
On the other hand, for sunflower cultivated species (Helianthus annuus L.) of the genus Helianthus of the family Asteraceae, many cytoplasmic male sterile plants have been found from the interspecific hybridization and F1 varieties are in practical use. Non-patent Documents 9-13 and other documents have reported on these. As an example of the production of a cytoplasmic male sterile vegetable in the family Asteraceae, it is known that cytoplasmic male sterile chicory can be produced by protoplast fusion of sunflower and chicory. Such techniques are disclosed, for example, in Patent Documents 2 and 3, and Non-patent Documents 14 to 17.
Non-patent document 14 was the first report of the production of cytoplasmic male sterile chicory, and revealed that cytoplasmic male sterile chicory can be produced by introducing cytoplasm of sunflower into chicory using the protoplast fusion technique. Non-patent documents 14 reported also that the mitochondria genome in the produced cytoplasmic male sterile chicory resulted from the recombination of the mitochondria genomes of chicory and sunflower. Furthermore, Non-patent Documents 16 and 17 reported the results of the analyses on the expression of cytoplasmic male sterility and on mitochondrial DNA structure in the progeny of the aforementioned cytoplasmic male sterile chicory.
Patent Document 2 describes a cytoplasmic male sterile plant of the family Asteraceae and a method for obtaining such a plant. The only cytoplasmic male sterile plant that was shown to be actually produced in Patent Document 2 is cytoplasmic male sterile chicory as in Non-patent Document. 14. Although Patent Document 2 refers to cytoplasmic male sterile lettuce, it only states methods for culturing and fusing protoplasts with sentences in the present tense, and neither method nor experiment result of the actual production of cybrid lettuce or cytoplasmic male sterile lettuce has been described. In the protoplast fusion technique, the process is relatively easy until the step of isolating and fusing protoplasts. For example, it is even possible to isolate and fuse plant protoplasts and animal cells. However, the steps of culturing the fused cells between phylogenetically distant species to have them divide, and further regenerate a plant are technically very difficult. This is because of the increased technical difficulties due to the stress during the fusing process, which may suppress the cell division of the fused cells, and the genetic incompatibility between the nuclei and cytoplasm from heterologous origins. To overcome these difficulties to regenerate a plant, it is necessary to develop a method for fusing cells without hurting their cell membrane, and a culturing method that allows the fused cells with new genomic combinations to divide and regenerate into a plant. Therefore, the techniques of culturing fused cells and subsequently regenerating a plant from the fused cells are the core techniques of the protoplast fusion technique. Furthermore, for having the expression of male sterility, the recombination or rearrangement of the mitochondrial genomes between different species in an adequate phylogenetic distance is necessary to occur. Thus, even after it becomes possible to produce a cybrid plant from two distantly related species, it is not predictable if it will be possible to produce a plant that expresses male sterility, and therefore, the step of actually producing cybrid plants and selecting an individual that exhibits male sterility is essential. Thus, crucial techniques to produce cytoplasmic male sterile lettuce are not disclosed in Patent Document 2. For these reasons, even after Patent Document 2 there are no reports of the successful production of cytoplasmic male sterile lettuce despite that there has been a strong demand for developing a method for producing cytoplasmic male sterile lettuce for a long time.
Patent Document 3 discloses a method of producing cytoplasmic male sterile chicory by introducing orf522, a gene that is thought to be a causal gene for cytoplasmic male sterility in sunflower, into a plant of the genus Cichorium by asymmetric protoplast fusion.
Non-patent Document 15 describes the production of cytoplasmic male sterile chicory by a new research group, which, in recent years, has been conducting studies to produce cytoplasmic male sterile chicory suitable for practical use, in continuation of the work.
As described above, there are many reports of the production of cytoplasmic male sterile chicory by introducing a part of sunflower mitochondrial DNA by protoplast fusion. However, there are no reports of the production of cytoplasmic male sterile lettuce in spite that lettuce and chicory are both in the family Asteraceae. The difficulty of producing cytoplasmic male sterile lettuce using cytoplasmic male sterile sunflower may be due to low genetic compatibility between the lettuce nuclear genome and the sunflower mitochondrial genome, compared to the genetic compatibility between the chicory nuclear genome and the sunflower mitochondrial genome.
Furthermore, one may consider introducing cytoplasmic male sterility into lettuce by crossing it with cytoplasmic male sterile chicory that is produced by introducing the sunflower cytoplasmic male sterile gene into chicory. However sexual hybridization between lettuce and chicory is difficult because they are in different genera and distantly related. There are no known reports of the successful production of cytoplasmic male sterile lettuce using such a method.
As described above, the production of cytoplasmic male sterile lettuce is technically very difficult, and it has not been successful yet. However the creation of F1 varieties of lettuce using cytoplasmic male sterile lettuce will be very beneficial. Therefore, the creation of cytoplasmic male sterile lettuce has been highly desired.
Patent Document 1 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-110623
Patent Document 2 European Patent No. 0771523
Patent Document 3 International Publication No. WO97/45548
Patent Document 4 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 62-232324
Patent Document 5 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 63-79548
Patent Document 6 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 02-303426
Patent Document 7 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 63-36776
Patent Document 8 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 64-20041
Patent Document 9 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 01-218530
Patent Document 10 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-052185
Patent Document 11 U.S. Pat. No. 5,254,802
Patent Document 12 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-108676
Patent Document 13 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-108677
Patent Document 14 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-145497
Patent Document 15 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 02-138927
Patent Document 16 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 01-206931
Patent Document 17 International Publication No. WO99/55143
Patent Document 18 International Publication No. WO95/09910
Patent Document 19 International Publication No. WO97/09873
Patent Document 20 U.S. Pat. No. 3,635,036
Non-patent Document 1 Takada, Katuya and Fujino, Masatake (1987) "Study on F1 seed production in Lettuce (1): Heterosis of F1 plants using male sterile lines as seed parents (in Japanese)" 1987 Spring Conference of Japanese Society for Horticultural Science, Research Abstract 208-209.
Non-patent Document 2 Takada, Katuya and Fujino, Masatake (1986) "Development of techniques using male sterility in lettuce (1): Expression of heterosis in F1 hybrids (in Japanese)" National Institute of Vegetable and Tea Science, Morioka Research Station, Annual Research Report No. 1, 87-93.
Non-patent Document 3 Edwrd J. Ryder (1967) A recessive male sterility gene in Lettuce (Lactica sativa L.) Pro. Am. Soc. Hortic. Sci. 91, 366-368.
Non-patent Document 4 Ryder, E, J Proceeding of the American society for horticultural Science 1963 Vol. 83585-589 An epistatically controlled pollen sterile in Lettuce (Lactica sativa L).
Non-patent Document 5 Ryder, E, J Science 1989 vol. 114(1) 129-133 Studies of three new genes, linkage, and epistasis in Lettuce.
Non-patent Document 6 Variety Registration Application "Fine" (in Japanese), Kaneko Seeds, No. 1745.
Non-patent Document 7 Serizawa, Hiroaki, "Recessive male sterile gene in lettuce (in Japanese)" Journal of Japanese Society for Horticultural Science, vol. 73, Supl. 2, p. 566.
Non-patent Document 8 Matsumoto, E., Plant cell reports 1991. vol. 9(10) Interspecific somatic hybridization between lettuce (Lactica sativa) and wild species L. virosa
Non-patent Document 9 L. H. Rieseberg, C. Van Fossen, D. Arias, and R. L. Carter, The journal of heredity 1994: 85(3), 233-238 Cytoplasmic male sterility in Sunflower: origin, Inheritance, and Frequency in Natural Populations.
Non-patent Document 10 R. Horn Theor Appl Genet (2002) 104: 562-570 Molecular diversity of male sterility inducing and male-fertile cytoplasms in the genus Helianthus.
Non-patent Document 11 S. Sukno, J. Ruso, Euphytica (1999) 106: 69-78 Interspecific hybridization between sunflower and wild perennial Herianthus species via embryo rescue.
Non-patent Document 12 R. Horn, W. Friedt, Plant Breeding 116 (1997) 317-322 Fertility restoration of new CMS sources in sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.)
Non-patent Document 13 Horn, R., Plant molecular biology; an international journal on fundamental research and genetic engineering July 1991 v17(1), 29-36 A mitochondrial 16 kDa protein is associated with cytoplasmic male sterility in sunflower.
Non-patent Document 14 C. Rambaud, J. Dubois, J. Vasseur (1993) Male-sterile chicory cybrids obtained by intergeneric protoplast fusion, Theor Appl Genet 87: 347-352
Non-patent Document 15 S. Varotto, E. Nenz, M. Lucchin, P. Parrini (2001) Production of asymmetric somatic hybrid plants between Cichorium intybus L. and Helianthus annuus L., Theor Appl Genet 102: 950-956.
Non-patent Document 16 C. Rambaud, A. Bellamy, A. Dubreucq, J.-C. Bourquin and J. Vasseur (1997) Molecular analysis of the fourth progeny of plants derived from a cytoplasmic male sterile chicory cybrid, Plant Breeding 116: 481-486
Non-patent Document 17 A. Dubreucq, Theor Appl Genet (1999): 1094-1105 Analyses of mitochondrial DNA structure and expression in three cytoplasmic male-sterile chicories originating from somatic hybridization between fertile chicoly and CMS sunflower protoplasts.
Non-patent Document 18 Mizutani, Takayuki (1989) "Plant regeneration and protoplast fusion using protoplasts of lettuce and related Japanese wild species (in Japanese)" Bull. Fac. Agr., Saga Univ 67: 109-118.


A technique for establishing security in a publish/subscribe data processing broker network is presented. The technique includes providing a security extension module from a publisher to a broker of the network, wherein the security extension module is for a topic asset of the publisher. The broker employs the security extension module, responsive to receipt of a request from a subscriber for the topic asset, to authenticate the request at the broker before pushing the topic asset of the publisher to the subscriber. In addition to authenticating the request, the security mode extension can be employed to authorize the request, and to automatically forward messages to the publisher providing information on when topic asset access by a subscriber begins and ends.

Publish/subscribe data processing systems have become very popular in recent years as a way of distributing data messages from publishing computers to subscribing computers. The increasing popularity of the Internet, which has connected a wide variety of computers all over the world, has helped to make such publish/subscribe systems even more popular. Using the Internet, a World Wide Web browser application (the term "application" or "process" refers to a software program, or portion thereof, running on a computer) can be used in conjunction with the publisher or subscriber in order to graphically display images. Such systems are especially useful where data supplied by a publisher is constantly changing and a large number of subscribers need to be quickly updated with the latest data. One example of where this is useful is in the distribution of stock market data.
In such systems, publisher applications of data messages do not need to know the identity or location of subscriber applications which will receive the messages. The publishers need only connect to a publish/subscribe distribution agent process, which is included in a group of such processes making up a broker network, and send messages to the distribution agent process, specifying the subject of the message to the distribution agent process. The distribution agent process then distributes the published messages to subscriber applications which have previously indicated to the broker network that they would like to receive data messages on particular subjects. Thus, the subscribers also do not need to know the identity or location of the publishers. The publishers need only to connect to a broker's distribution agent process.
In order to allow a broker network to determine which published messages should be sent to which subscribers, publishers provide a broker with the name of a distribution stream for each published message. A distribution stream (called hereinafter a "topic") is an ordered sequence of messages having a name (e.g., "stock" for a stream of stock market quotes) to distinguish the stream from other streams. Likewise, subscribers provide the broker with the name of the streams to which they would like to subscribe. In this way, the broker keeps track of which subscribers are interested in which streams so that when publishers publish messages to such streams, the messages can be distributed to the corresponding subscribers. Subscribers are also allowed to provide filter expressions to the broker in order to limit the messages which will be received on a particular stream.
The above-described publish/subscribe broker network architecture advantageously centralizes coordination of published messages. Authentication of a subscriber for a particular topic could require that the subscriber's identity (digital certificate) be passed back to the publisher in order to validate the subscriber. This process of requiring authentication at the publisher can degrade performance of the distributed system depending upon where the publisher and subscriber may be located relative to each other. In many cases, the broker may be much closer to the subscriber than the publisher. In such a situation, requiring authentication at the publisher can limit how fast the subscriber can start to receive the requested topic.
Therefore, a need exists in the art for an enhanced technique for ensuring security in a publish/subscribe data processing broker network, which facilitates a valid subscriber's timely obtaining of requested information.

Distributed method, system and computer program product for establishing security in a publish/subscribe data processing broker network

International Business Machines Corporation


An EL display device free of a dispersion in the brightness caused by deterioration in the EL elements. The display device uses pixels of the current-controlled type to suppress a change in the current flowing through the EL elements caused by the deterioration in the EL elements. The display device further uses elements capable of short-circuiting or opening three nodes simultaneously. No bank is used for dividing the EL layers into separate colors. EL elements of the mixed junction type are used. A reverse bias voltage is applied to the EL elements at regular intervals. The display device suppresses dispersion in the brightness caused by the deterioration in the EL elements.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display device in which a light-emitting element is provided in each of the pixels. In particular, the invention relates to a display device of the active matrix type in which a transistor is provided for each of the pixels to control the emission of light from the light-emitting elements. The invention further relates to electronic devices using the display device.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has been proposed a display device of the active matrix type in which a light-emitting element and a transistor are arranged for each of the pixels to control the emission of light from the light-emitting element. In particular, attention has been given to the display device of the active matrix type using thin-film transistors (hereinafter referred to as TFTs) as transistors.
The light-emitting element has a first electrode and a second electrode, and changes its brightness depending upon the amount of current that flows across the first electrode and the second electrode. As the light-emitting element, attention has been given to an element (referred to as EL element) which utilizes electroluminescence. Attention has been given particularly to a display device (hereinafter referred to as EL display device) using the EL elements (EL element utilizing an organic substance is also referred to as an organic EL element or an OLED (organic light-emitting diode) element (OLE Device, OELD).
Here, the EL element stands for the one having an anode, a cathode and an EL layer held between the anode and the cathode. The anode and the cathode correspond to a first electrode and to a second electrode. Upon applying a voltage across these electrodes, a current flows between the electrodes. The EL element emits light depending upon the amount of electric current that flows.
The EL layer can be constructed in a stacked layer structure. A representative example may be a stacked layer structure "positive hole transporting layer/light-emitting layer/electron transporting layer" proposed by Tang et al. of Kodak Eastman Co. Here, the electron transporting layer is the one made of a material (hereinafter also referred to as electron transporting material) exhibiting a higher electron mobility (electron transporting function) than a positive hole mobility. The light-emitting layer is the one made of a material having light-emitting property (light-emitting function)(hereinafter referred to as light-emitting material). The positive hole transporting layer is the one made of a material (hereinafter referred to as positive hole transporting material) exhibiting a higher positive hole mobility (positive hole transporting function) than an electron mobility. There can be further employed a structure in which positive hole injection layer/positive hole transporting layer/light-emitting layer/electron transporting layer, or positive hole injection layer/positive hole transporting layer/light-emitting layer/electron transporting layer/electron injection layer, are stacked in this order on the anode. The light-emitting layer may be doped with a fluorescent coloring matter. Here, the electron injection layer is the one made of a material (hereinafter referred to as electron injection material) having electron injection property (electron injection function) for receiving electrons from the cathode. Further, the positive hole injection layer is the one made of a material (hereinafter referred to as positive hole injection material) having positive hole injection property (positive hole injection function) for receiving positive holes from the anode. The layers formed between the cathode and the anode are all referred to generally as EL layer. When a predetermined voltage is applied from the pair of electrodes (anode and cathode) to the EL layer having the above structure, carriers undergo the recombination in the EL layer to emit light. The layers held between the anode and the cathode of the EL element are generally described as the EL layer.
The EL display device has such advantages as excellent response characteristics, operates at a low voltage and offers a wide viewing angle, and is drawing attention as a flat panel display of the next generation. In the EL display device of the active matrix type, the method of controlling the brightness of EL elements in-the pixels by flowing a predetermined current between the anode and the cathode of the EL elements, is called current-controlled type.
Described below is a constitution of the pixel of the current-controlled type. Namely, described below is a pixel of the current-controlled type in which the signal lines (source signal lines) of pixels are served with a current signal (hereinafter referred to as signal current) that linearly corresponds to brightness data expressed by a video signal.
Each pixel has a TFT which receives a signal current as a drain current and a capacitor unit for holding a gate voltage of the TFT. Namely, the pixel has a function for converting the input signal current into a voltage (gate voltage) and for holding the voltage. Further, each pixel has a function for converting the voltage stored in the capacitor unit into a current again, and continues to flow the converted current into the EL element even after the signal current is no longer input from the source signal line. The current flowing into the EL element changes upon changing the signal current input to the source signal line, whereby the brightness of the EL element is controlled to express the gray scale.
FIG. 10 illustrates a conventional pixel of the current-controlled type, and its driving method (see, for example, patent literature 1). In FIG. 10, a pixel is constituted by an EL element 709, a select TFT 704, a drive TFT 707, a current TFT 706, a capacitor element (holding capacitor) 708, a holding TFT 705, a source signal line S, a first gate signal line G, a second gate signal line GH and a power line W (Patent literature 1: JP-A-2001-147659).
Either the source terminal or the drain terminal of the TFT is called first terminal, and the other one is called second terminal.
The gate electrode of the select TFT 704 is connected to the first gate signal line G. A first terminal of the select TFT 704 is connected to the source signal line S, and a second terminal is connected to a first terminal of the current TFT 706 and to a first terminal of a holding TFT 705. A second terminal of the current TFT 706 is connected to the power source line W. A second terminal of the holding TFT 705 is connected to one electrode of the holding capacitor 708 and to the gate electrode of the drive TFT 707. The holding capacitor 708 is connected to the power line W on the side that is not connected to the holding TFT 705. The gate electrode of the holding TFT 705 is connected to a second gate signal line GH. The first terminal of the drive TFT 707 is connected to one electrode 709a of the EL element 709, and the second terminal thereof is connected to the power line W. Another electrode 709b of the EL element 709 is maintained at a predetermined potential. The value of the signal current input to the source signal line S is controlled by a video signal input current source 777. The electrode 709a of the EL element 709 is called pixel electrode and another electrode 709b is called opposing electrode.
Here, the drive TFT 707 and the current TFT 706 have the same polarity, and it is considered that the Id-Vgs characteristics of the drive TFT 707 are equivalent to the Id-Vgs characteristics of the current TFT 706. There is further illustrated a pixel of a constitution in which the select TFT 704 and the holding TFT 705 are the N-channel TFTs, the drive TFt 707 and the current TFT 706 are the P-channel TFTs, and the pixel electrode 709a is the anode.
How to drive the pixel of the constitution of FIG. 10 will now be described with reference to FIGS. 11A–C and 12. In FIGS. 11A–C, the select TFT 704 and the holding TFT 705 are expressed as switches so that their on/off state can be easily understood. The pixel states (TA1) to (TA3) are corresponding to the states of periods TA1 to TA3 in the timing chart of FIG. 12.
In FIG. 12, G-1 and G-2 denote potentials of the first gate signal line G and of the second gate signal line GH. Further, |Vgs| is an absolute value of the gate voltage (gate-source voltage) of the drive TFT 707. IEL denotes a current flowing through the EL element 709, and Ivideo denotes a current determined by the video signal input current source 777.
In the period TA1, the select TFT 704 and the holding TFT 705 are turned on due to signals of the first gate signal line G and of the second gate signal line GH. Thus, the power line W is connected to the source signal line S through the current TFT 706, holding TFT 705 and select TFT 704. The current Ivideo determined by the video signal input current source 777 flows into the source signal line S. When a steady state is assumed after the passage of a sufficient period of time, therefore, the drain current of the current TFT 706 becomes Ivideo. Thus, the gate voltage corresponding to the drain current Ivideo of the current TFT 706 is held by the holding capacitor 708. Then, in the period TA2, a signal on the second gate signal line GH changes and the holding TFT 705 is turned off. The drain current Ivideo flows into the drive TFT 707. Thus, the signal current Ivideo flows into the EL element 709 from the power line W through the source and drain of the drive TFT 707. The EL element 709 emits light maintaining a brightness corresponding to the signal current Ivideo.
In the constitution shown in FIG. 10, a current flows from the anode 709a of the EL element 709 to the cathode 709b owing to the above method. When the EL element 709 emits light, the second terminal of the current TFT 706 corresponds to the source terminal, and the first terminal corresponds to the drain terminal. Further, the second terminal of the drive TFT 707 corresponds to the source terminal, and the first terminal corresponds to the drain terminal.
In the next period TA3, the signal on the first gate signal line G changes, and the select TFT 704 is turned off. Even after the select TFT 704 is turned off, the signal current Ivideo continues to flow into the EL element 709 from the power line W through the source and drain of the drive TFT 707, and the EL element 709 continues to emit light.
A series of operations of periods TA1 to TA3 are called signal current Ivideo writing operation. In this case, the signal current Ivideo is varied in an analog manner to change the brightness of the EL element 709 and to express the gray scale.
In the above current-controlled display device, the drive TFT 707 operates in the saturated region. Here, the drain current of the drive TFT 707 is determined by the signal current input from the source signal line S. That is, if the current characteristics are the same between the drive TFT 707 and the current TFT 706 in the same pixel, the drive TFT 707 automatically varies its gate voltage to continuously flow a constant drain current irrespective of dispersion in the threshold voltage and in the mobility.
In the EL element, a relationship (I-V characteristics) between the electric current that flows and the voltage across the anode and the cathode, varies depending upon the environmental temperature at which the EL element is used and upon the deterioration of the EL element. However, the pixel of the current-controlled type is capable of maintaining the current flowing into the EL element nearly constant irrespective of the environmental temperature at which the EL element is used and the deterioration of the EL element.
FIG. 9 illustrates a change in the deterioration of the EL element with the passage of time of when the current flowing into the EL element is maintained constant, and wherein the ordinate represents the brightness L of the EL element and the abscissa represents the time t. A curve 900 represents a change in the brightness of when the current flowing into the EL element is maintained constant. When the time is t0, the brightness L of the EL element is supposed to be 100%. The EL element undergoes the deterioration depending upon the time in which a predetermined current continues to flow. Accordingly, the brightness decreases even while the same current is flowing between the anode and the cathode of the EL element.
In the current-controlled type pixel, therefore, a problem arises concerning the dispersion in the brightness due to deterioration of the EL element.

Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.


A substantial amount of the light emitting surface area of a wavelength conversion element above a light emitting element is covered by a reflective thermal conductive element. The light that is reflected by this reflective element is ‘recycled’ within the light emitting structure and exits the structure through the smaller area that is not covered by the reflective element. Because the thermal conductive element does not need to be transparent, a relatively thick metal layer may be used; and, because the thermal conductive element covers a substantial area of the wavelength conversion element, the thermal efficiency of this arrangement is very high. The reflective thermal conductive element may be coupled to thermal conductive pillars, which may be mounted on a thermal conductive submount.

Continuing improvements in the technology associated with solid-state light emitting devices (LEDs) has enabled light emitting devices to be used in applications requiring high brightness, such as vehicular and home lighting, outside area lighting, and so on.
A limitation to the amount of luminance that can be produced by a light emitting structure is the ability to dissipate the heat generated by the structure, particularly if the light emitting structure includes a wavelength conversion element, such as a phosphor layer. Excess heat produced in the light emitting structure may cause the elements in the structure to degrade prematurely, and may significantly affect the efficiency of the wavelength conversion, consequently generating additional heat. In some applications, even though the light emitting element may be able to produce very high brightness, it must be operated at a lower current, and consequently lower brightness, to avoid thermal damage.
FIGS. 1A-1B illustrate a prior-art light emitting structure that includes heat-dissipation features, as disclosed in USPA 2014/0167087, "LIGHT EMITTING DEVICE AND MANUFACTURING METHOD FOR THE SAME", published 19 Jun. 2014 for Wada et al., and incorporated by reference herein.
The top-view of FIG. 1A illustrates that the light emitting structure has a light extraction area 15 above a light emitting element 10. The light extraction area 15 is surrounded by a heat conductive frame 27, which is mounted on a heat dissipating submount 33.
The cross-section of FIG. 1B, illustrates a wavelength conversion plate 7 that extends over the light emitting element 10. A transparent heat-conducting film 21 covers the wavelength conversion plate 7, and provides the light extraction area 15. The heat-conducting film 21 is coupled to the heat-conductive frame 27 via solder 26. Heat from the wavelength conversion plate 7 is spread by the heat-conducting film 21, then dissipated by the heat-conductive frame 27 and the heat dissipating submount 33.
Although the structure of FIGS. 1A-1B is well suited for dissipating the heat generated by the wavelength conversion plate 7, the requirement for the film 21 to be transparent as well as thermal conductive limits the capabilities of the film 21 to do both, because increasing the thermal conductivity reduces the transparency, and vice versa. Also, the cost of producing such a transparent thermal conductive film is relatively high.

Peripheral heat sinking arrangement for high brightness light emitting devices


This invention is a wall fastener to join abutting surfaces such as affixing a bracket to a wall. The L-shape arms of the fastener are attached with hinges to a shell or to a slidable nut enclosed in a shell which is inserted in a preformed hole or aperture in the wall. The fastener with arms attached to the slidable nut is adjustable for use with walls of varying widths. A screw holding the object to be attached is inserted in the shell and threaded through the nut (FIG. 4). The screw then engages the arms of the fastener and forces them to pivot into a clamping position (FIG. 5). The screw is turned until the arms are clamped against the wall (FIG. 6). The fastener with the arms attached to the shell is similar in operation to the adjustable fastener except its use is for walls or surfaces of the same width as the device.

This application is for an improved wall fastener that facilitates the process of clamping two adjoining surfaces together, such as to attach brackets or other objects to a hollow wall.
There are various wall fasteners in use. The one commonly used is the "toggle bolt." It employs anchor arms mounted with springs on a bolt or screw. The arms are compressed in a retracted position for insertion in a hole or aperture in a wall. After insertion the arms expand outward and, by turning the screw, the arms are pulled backwards against the wall or surface to which an object is to be attached. The shortcomings of the toggle bolt are that the arms, by expanding outward, cannot begin to open until the retracted arms are well clear of the backside of the wall. This can restrict the use of a toggle bolt when the arms must expand in a cavity formed by the space between two walls or surfaces. The arms cannot expand unless the width of the cavity exceeds the length of the arms. The device is also awkward to install because the bolt has to be grasped and be held firmly with one hand at the same time as it is being turned by the other.
A variation of the toggle bolt is the "molly bolt." Instead of arms the bolt has a shell surrounding it which is supposed to act as an anchor by collapsing against the wall when the bolt is turned. However, because significantly more force is required to collapse the shell than to just turn the bolt, the shell, rather than collapsing, tends to yield to this force as the bolt is turned by rotating ineffectually unless the shell is inserted firmly in material that is rigid enough to hold the shell in place or is held by some mechanical device. In addition, neither a toggle bolt nor a molly bolt can be removed once installed.


A developing agent leakage preventing member is provided that is attached to the developer housing and that has a housing attaching face which contacts with the developer housing, a front side face which opposes the housing attaching face, and two side faces each of which connects to each other end portions of the housing attaching face and the front side face in the longitudinal direction of the opening of the developer housing. At least one of the side faces of the developing agent leakage preventing member is formed as an inclined side face that is inclined in a predetermined direction relative to the housing attaching face when pressed from the front side face side. In a developing apparatus, developing agent (toner) leakage is avoided.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a developing apparatus, a process cartridge, and a developer cartridge for performing development using a developing agent composed of charged particulates. Further, the present invention relates to an image forming apparatus provided with any one of them.
2. Description of Related Art
In a developing apparatus that performs development by electrostatically adhering toner serving as a developing agent composed of charged-particulates onto an electrostatic latent image, an unavoidable problem arises that the toner leaks from the developing apparatus. The toner having leaked from the developing apparatus pollutes the inside of an image forming apparatus body employing this developing apparatus. This has caused problems that poor printing occurs and that the hands and the clothes of an operator become dirty at the time of changing the developing apparatus.
In particular, in a developing apparatus of nonmagnetic single component development system in which a thin layer of toner is formed on a developing roller having the function of carrying and conveying toner by a layer thickness control blade so that development is performed by causing the layer to oppose an electrostatic latent image, toner leakage easily occurs from the vicinity of the rotating developing roller.
Thus, in the prior art, a developing agent leakage preventing member described below has been attached to a developing apparatus housing and a layer thickness control blade so that toner has been prevented from leaking from the vicinity of the developing roller. Specifically, for example, in a prior art disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-134080, a side seal is attached to both end portions in the longitudinal directions of an opening in a housing of a developing apparatus so that toner is prevented from leaking from both end portions of the developing roller. Further, in the prior art described above, an upper seal is attached to a layer thickness control blade attaching portion in the developing apparatus housing, along the longitudinal direction, while a rib sponge and a rear surface side blade side seal are attached to a surface opposing the layer thickness control blade attaching portion in the layer thickness control blade. According to such configuration in the prior art described above, toner is prevented from leaking from a gap formed above the developing roller between the developing roller and the opening of the housing of the developing apparatus.
Nevertheless, in the prior art described above, side faces of the developing agent leakage preventing member for connecting an attaching face (housing attaching face) that attaches the developing agent leakage preventing member to the housing of the developing apparatus or an attaching face (layer thickness control member opposing face) that attaches the member to the layer thickness control blade to a surface opposing each attaching face is formed in a state orthogonal to the attaching face. Thus, when the developing agent leakage preventing member is pressed from the above by the developing roller or the layer thickness control blade, depending on the assembling state of the developing roller or the layer thickness control blade or alternatively the attaching state of the developing agent leakage preventing member, the direction becomes indefinite in which the side faces of the developing agent leakage preventing member is inclined and compressed. As a result, depending on the attaching accuracy of the developing agent leakage preventing member, problems can arise that a gap is generated in a portion in a member which should intrinsically oppose and contact closely with the developing agent leakage preventing member and that a passage for the developing agent is blocked. This causes leakage of the developing agent.

Developing apparatus, process cartridge, developer cartridge, and image forming apparatus including leakage preventing member


A lateral electric field type liquid crystal display (LCD) device comprises a first substrate formed with a plurality of first electrodes and at least one second electrode, a second substrate and a liquid crystal layer disposed between the two substrates. Each first electrode comprises an array of electrode segments and every adjacent first and second electrodes have a minimum spacing smaller than a maximum spacing in between. Each second electrode is a strip electrode or also comprises an array of electrode segments. Each electrode segment is a V-shape electrode rotated with an angle or an electrode segment having at least an extruded portion and at least an intruded portion. The array of electrode segments may be a sinusoidal electrode. The first and second electrodes are oriented in parallel with or at a specific angle with respect to the data line of the lateral electric field type LCD device.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display (LCD) device, and more particularly to the electrode structure of a lateral electric field type LCD device.
2. Description of Related Arts
An LCD device controls the light transmittance by using the characteristic that liquid crystal (LC) molecules present different light polarization or refraction effects under different alignments so as to produce images. A twisted nematic (TN) LCD device has good light transmittance but an extremely narrow viewing angle as influenced by the structure and optical characteristic of the LC molecules.
To solve the transmittance and viewing angle problems, a twisted vertical alignment (TVA) model has been proposed so as to provide the high transmittance and the wide viewing angle. However, because the LC molecules are aligned in a vertical alignment manner, when the LC molecules are applied with a low voltage and the LCD device is watched at an inclined viewing angle, a gray-level inversion problem occurs, which causes the problem of color shift at an inclined viewing angle and influences a normal presentation of images of the LCD device.
Another approach to solving the problems is to use in-plane switching (IPS) technology in which inter-digital electrodes are formed on only one substrate to produce an electric field essentially parallel to the substrate. An IPS LCD device has the advantages of better image quality, improved viewing angle, and more brightness as compared to the TN LCD device.
In a conventional IPS LCD device, the two electrodes formed on one substrate are usually disposed in parallel with each other. The critical voltage required to drive the IPS LCD device is higher and the contrast is also worse. There is a strong need in developing new electrode structure to lower the critical voltage and improve the contrast of the LCD device.

Lateral electric field type liquid crystal display device having non-uniform spacings between two electrodes


Systems and methods provide management of a program of correctional supervision via a stored-value card. Through a stored-value card issued to a criminal offender in a program of correctional supervision, the offender's transactions are compared to a rule set for the program, and it is determined whether an alert condition has occurred as a result of the transaction. Monies owed by the criminal offender may be collected using the card and the stored-value card provides a criminal offender a card for purchases and other transactions usually unavailable to the unbanked.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to management of correctional supervision programs, and more specifically, to monitoring of criminal offenders in correctional supervision programs.
2. Description of the Related Art
Billions of dollars are spent annually on the world's prison systems. In addition to hard costs, much time and money are spent on tracking criminal offenders in programs of correctional supervision, such as probationers and parolees.
Several inefficiencies contribute to the costs associated with corrections programs, due in large part to the structure of correctional supervision. For example, parolees and probationers are monitored by corrections officers on an individual basis, using enforcement tactics that often are not effective, such as telephone calls to confirm an offenders' location. This monitoring requires extensive investigation and follow up, for example confirmation of employment on a regular basis.
In addition, the collection of monies owed by an offender, including supervisory fees, court-ordered fines, and/or restitution payments usually is the responsibility of the corrections officer. Thus, corrections officers must balance their time between their supervisory and collections roles, often leading to conflicts in management of their caseload.
In addition, the current system of monetary exchange between a correctional facility, a probationer or parolee, and/or a recipient of restitution is administratively costly to the correctional facility and forces the facility to assume the risk of check fraud resulting from keeping an inventory for paper checks. Further, often parolees and probationers are unbanked individuals, often as a result of their criminal record.
Therefore, there is a need for a method of correctional supervision that is less time consuming for corrections officers, allows for easier collection of monies owed by offenders, and is more cost effective for correctional facilities.

Correctional supervision program and card


A lithographic apparatus has an illumination system that conditions a beam of radiation. A patterning support supports a patterning device, which serves to impart the beam of radiation with a pattern in its cross-section. A substrate support holds a substrate. A projection system projects the patterned beam of radiation onto a target portion of the substrate. A particle detection system detects a particle on a surface of an object. The particle detection system has a radiation source, which generates an illumination beam of radiation. The illumination beam of radiation is directed along a first optical path to a detection area at the surface of the object. A radiation detector receives a detection beam of radiation from the detection area along a second optical path. The length of the first optical path is made substantially equal to the length of the second optical path.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a particle detection system, and to a lithographic apparatus provided with such a particle detection system.
2. Description of the Related Art
A lithographic apparatus is a machine that applies a desired pattern onto a substrate, usually onto a target portion of the substrate. A lithographic apparatus can be used, for example, in the manufacture of integrated circuits (ICs). In such a case, a patterning device, which is alternatively referred to as a mask or a reticle, may be used to generate a circuit pattern to be formed on an individual layer of the IC. This pattern can be transferred onto a target portion (e.g. including part of, one, or several dies) on a substrate (e.g. a silicon wafer). Transfer of the pattern is typically via imaging onto a layer of radiation-sensitive material (resist) provided on the substrate. In general, a single substrate will contain a network of adjacent target portions that are successively patterned. Conventional lithographic apparatus include so-called steppers, in which each target portion is irradiated by exposing an entire pattern onto the target portion at once, and so-called scanners, in which each target portion is irradiated by scanning the pattern through a radiation beam in a given direction (the "scanning"-direction) while synchronously scanning the substrate parallel or anti-parallel to this direction. It is also possible to transfer the pattern from the patterning device to the substrate by imprinting the pattern onto the substrate.
The imaging of the pattern including small structures is very sensitive to dust and other contamination of the patterning device, possibly protected by a pellicle, and the substrate. Therefore, before imaging, the patterning device (and/or the pellicle protecting the small structures thereof) and substrate are tested for contamination, in particular for particles. If a particle is detected on the patterning device or on the substrate, the particle may be accepted (thereby accepting a fault area on the substrate), or it may be removed, or the patterning device or substrate may be rejected.
In conventional lithographic apparatus, a particle detection system directs a beam of radiation, in particular (but not necessarily) monochrome radiation, i.e. radiation having substantially one wavelength, on a surface of an object, for example, but not limited to, the patterning device or the substrate. The object and/or the beam move in order to scan the surface of the object. When the beam of radiation engages the surface of the object, the radiation is partially reflected according to physical laws of reflection (an exit angle is identical to an angle of incidence with respect to a fictitious line perpendicular to the surface (the normal)). Another part of the incident radiation may enter the object, such as the patterning device or substrate, and is refracted (according to Snell's law). In both cases, the beam is anisotropically redirected. When the beam of radiation engages a contaminating particle, the radiation is scattered, i.e. reflected isotropically.
A radiation detector is positioned with respect to the surface and the beam of radiation such that radiation reflected on the surface is not incident on the detector, but a part of the radiation scattered, i.e. being reflected in substantially every direction, by a particle or other contamination is incident on the detector. Thus, the detector receives radiation only when the beam of radiation is scattered by a particle or other contamination. The beam of radiation towards the surface (hereinafter: the illumination beam) and the beam of radiation received by the radiation detector (hereinafter: the detection beam) follow separate paths in the radiation detection device to prevent crosstalk between the two paths. This is necessary because the illumination beam intensity usually is many orders of magnitude higher than the detection beam intensity.
Because of the limited space available, a particle detection system according to the prior art has optics which are folded to fit the particle detection system into the available space. A rotating faceted polygon is used for scanning the surface of an object along a scan line, while the object moves parallel to the plane of the surface in a direction essentially at right angles to the scan line. In the path of the illumination beam, optical components like one or more mirrors and one or more lenses, such as a scan lens, are used to produce an almost telecentric illumination of the surface of the object. In the path of the detection beam, optical components like one or more mirrors and one or more lenses, such as a cylinder lens for focusing the detection beam on or near the polygon for reduction of beam size, and another cylinder lens near the detector for making the detection beam stigmatic, are used to produce light on a detector when a particle is present on the surface of the object in the illumination beam. The illumination beam and the detection beam may use the same facet of the polygon, though at different places. Accordingly, although the illumination beam produces a spot on the surface of the object moving along the scan line, the detection beam is static after reflection on the polygon facet. As a result, a small detector can be used for the detection of particles on the scan line. The detector detects an amount of light scattered by a particle, which amount is processed in calibrated detection circuitry to produce a signal indicating the presence of a particle or not, and to give an indication of the particle size. Since the detector just collects light, the performance of the particle detection system is independent of a spot size on the detector.
A part of the radiation incident on the surface of the object enters the object and is refracted, as above mentioned. Inside the object, the beam may be refracted and/or diffracted by the pattern and/or reflected one or more times. Depending on a number of parameters, such as the material, the size, the geometry, and the like, a part of the radiation that entered the object will leave the object again in the direction of the detector. In that case, the detector detects radiation not being scattered by a particle. As a result a detection circuit receiving a signal from the detector determines that a particle is present, although no particle is actually present. Such a detected, but not actually present particle will hereinafter be referred to as a ghost particle.
Due to the continuing increase in density of the patterns on the objects as used in the semiconductor component manufacturing industry, such as a reticle, the occurrence of ghost particles becomes more probable, and presents a new and growing problem. Thus, there is a need for a particle detection device that is able to discriminate accurately between physically present particles and ghost particles.
The optical components used in the particle detection system are to be cost effective, meaning that the desired function must be performed while at the same time accepting optical aberrations to a degree which does not impair the functionality of the system. These aberrations result in a certain detection spot size on the detector. Besides that, in combination with an asymmetry of the optical layout that is desirable for a compactness of the particle detection system, the aberrations cause the detection spot to move slightly over the detector in a scanning process. This detection spot movement adds to the spot size on the detector, i.e. the used area of the detector, and thus undesirably makes the particle detection system more sensitive to ghost particles (since the ghost discrimination is based on spatial filtering requiring a small spot size).

Particle detection system, and lithographic apparatus provided with such particle detection system


An aspect of the present invention provides a design environment in which a floorplan of a semiconductor device is optimised by taking into account activation or access frequency information to and from resources. Since segmented bus architecture is also a good alternative approach for the power consumption of the network, the floorplanning approach for energy optimization of the communicating network is adapted for such architectures in embodiments of the present invention. The provided method comprises both architecture optimizations as well as physical design optimizations.

Currently, the semiconductor industry is continuing to develop and implement smaller technology nodes, enabling a host of new and more powerful applications. However, as technology sizes continue to decrease, interconnect, i.e. wiring layers joining elements of a semiconductor device, is becoming a main design constraint and dominate in terms of system power consumption and performance due to its poor scaling capabilities. As shown in [D. Liu, C. Svensson, Power consumption estimation in CMOS VLSI chips, IEEE J. Solid-State Circuits, vol. 29, no. 6, pp. 663–670, June 1994], interconnects consume a significant fraction of total circuit power. Moreover, global wire length, is becoming a major hindrance, since its relative delay to the gate delay deteriorates as technology continues to shrink. Hence, wire buffer insertion has become popular [J. Cong, A interconnect-centric design flow for nanometer technologies, Proc. IEEE, vol. 89, no. 4, pp. 505–528, April 2001.]. However, this in turn has increased the portion of circuit power consumed by communication resources.
The memory communication network consists of a number of long wires. As a result its power consumption is becoming significant. The physical design plays an important role in power efficiency because the design determines the final wire length. Once the network influences the chip power consumption, the physical design should play an important role in power efficiency. As the first step of the physical design, floorplanning decides the relative position of the modules, so it is determining the interconnection cost to a large extent.
With the increasing of complexity of the VLSI chip, the physical design time also becomes longer. To get a layout in reasonable time, hierarchical floorplanning can contribute by cutting the solution space into smaller ones. In data dominated applications, the distributed memory organization distributes the application data into smaller memories, hence reduces the energy per access of each data elements [L. benini, L. Macchiarulo, A. Macii, M. Poncino, Layout driven memory synthesis for embedded Systems-on-Chip, IEEE Trans. on VLSI sysystems, vol. 10, no.2, April 2002]. However, more smaller memories means more blocks and more interconnections among the blocks. Hierarchical floorplanning is a good and fast solution to get the layout of the chip with a small overhead in power and delay. Another advantage is that it enables hard-IP reuse, which makes it very useful for incremental designs.
Most floorplanning strategies consider chip area and total wirelength as the optimization criteria. Although the interconnection cost has been paid more attention to, the activation frequencies of the wires are rarely taken into account at the physical design stage. However, in order to minimize the energy consumption of the communication network, the wire length of the most active wires has to be minimized.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,668,337 B2 a method for designing integrated circuits based on a transaction analysing model is disclosed, wherein floorplanning steps are performed, in a context of power consumption optimisation.

Resource activity aware system for determining a resource interconnection pattern within an essentially digital device and devices created therewith

Interuniversitar Microelektronica Centrum (IMEC)


A circuit block assembly is provided that includes circuit blocks that each include a circuit board and a semiconductor element that is disposed on a first main surface of the circuit board. Moreover, each of the circuit blocks includes a metal heat spreader that is connected to the semiconductor element directly or by a thermally conductive member interposed therebetween. A thermally conductive sheet is provided that is thermally connected to the heat spreader. The thermally conductive sheet has a specific electrical resistance higher than a specific electrical resistance of the heat spreader.

The structure of an electronic device, such as a mobile device, that has been used in recent years includes printed circuit boards (i.e., circuit blocks) that are modularized for every function and that are connected to each other with a flexible cable as discussed, for example, in Patent Documents 1 and 2 (identified below). Such a structure enables arrangement of each circuit block to be changed and increases the degree of freedom of design. Accordingly, the structure is useful for flexibility of an electronic device such as a wearable device.
With such existing structures, however, heat that is generated in each circuit block remains in a small circuit block. Accordingly, generation of heat is likely to be a problem unlike an existing mother board that has a relatively large size. This problem is particularly conspicuous in a circuit block in which a power system is also equipped with a semiconductor element.
Patent Document 1: U.S. Pat. No. 9,324,678.
Patent Document 2: U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2015/0062840.
Patent Document 3: International Publication No. 2016/151916.
In order to solve the above problem, it is necessary to improve the heat dissipation of each circuit block. For example, Patent Document 3 discloses the use of a heat spreader composed of a metal. In some cases, however, the use of a common heat spreader of the circuit blocks causes a radio frequency noise to be transmitted from one of the circuit blocks to another circuit block via the heat spreader.


An object of the invention is to increase efficiency in an operation of joining an upper shell and a lower shell and to enhance reliability of a fuel tank against leakage.

A technique related to the fuel tank described above is disclosed in JP-A-2004-19507.
As illustrated in FIG. 7, the fuel tank is constituted by a fuel tank body 100 that stores fuel, a fuel supply device 120 that is installed in the fuel tank body 100, and a fuel vapor treating apparatus 125. The fuel tank body 100 is configured by joining an upper shell 101 and a lower shell 102 to each other at the positions of their respective flange portion 103 and 104. The fuel vapor treating apparatus 125 is configured to enable adsorption of fuel vapor in the fuel tank body 100, and is mounted to the ceiling portion of the upper shell 101. In addition, the fuel supply device 120 is mounted to the bottom portion of the lower shell 102, and a fuel pressure-feeding pipe 122 of the fuel supply device 120 and a power cable 124 for a motor are connected to a pipe joint 123 and a connector 127 that are provided in the side surface of the lower shell 102.
In the fuel tank described above, the pipe joint 123 and the connector 127 to which the fuel pressure-feeding pipe 122 of the fuel supply device 120 and the power cable 124 are respectively connected are provided in the side surface of the lower shell 102. That is, points that need sealing are at positions lower than that of the joining surface between the upper shell 101 and the lower shell 102, and points that need sealing occur even in a case where the feel liquid level is lower than the joining surface. Therefore, reliability against leakage is reduced.
When the pipe joint 123 and the connector 127 described above are provided in the upper shell 101 in order to improve the aspects, the fuel pressure-feeding pipe 122 and the power cable 124 are installed to be suspended between the upper shell 101 and the lower shell 102. Therefore, the fuel pressure-feeding pipe 122 and the power cable 124 act as obstructions during joining of the upper shell 101 and the lower shell 102, and efficiency in the joining operation is reduced.
Accordingly, there has been a need for improved fuel tank in order to increase efficiency in an operation of joining an upper shell and a lower shell and to enhance reliability of a fuel tank against leakage.

Abstract: The fuel tank according to the present invention includes: a fuel tank body (10m) which is constituted by an upper shell (12) and a lower shell (14); a fuel supply device (30) which is installed in the fuel tank body (10m) and pressure-feeds fuel in the fuel tank body (10m) to an internal combustion engine (E) of a vehicle; and a fuel vapor treating apparatus (20) which is configured to enable adsorption of fuel vapor, wherein the fuel supply device (30) and the fuel vapor treating apparatus (20) are mounted to the upper shell (12), and pipe (20a), (20p), (20t), (43), and (31) and wires (44) and (32) of the fuel supply device (30) and the fuel vapor treating apparatus (20) are configured to penetrate a wall of the upper shell (12).


A resist scattered on and attached to unwanted portions is stably detected. A target inspection region including the unwanted portions to which the scattered resist should not be attached is illuminated with white light to obtain a color image, and a region having the same hue and chroma as a resist is detected. The target inspection region may be illuminated with light containing a first wavelength light exhibiting high reflectance for the unwanted portions and high absorbance for the resist and a second wavelength light exhibiting high reflectance for the unwanted portions and high transmittance for the resist to detect a color image obtained with the second wavelength light from the images of the target inspection region which are obtained by illumination with the illumination light. The resist attached to the unwanted portions may be detected on the basis of the contrast of the image obtained upon illumination with only the first wavelength light. The image of a resist-attached portion is extracted as a portion having lightness not more than a predetermined value from the images of the target inspection region which are obtained by illumination with the first wavelength light, and there is extracted the image of the scattered resist attached to the unwanted portions which are common to both the image of the unwanted portions having no scattered resist thereon, said image being obtained upon illumination of the target inspection region with the second wavelength light, and the image of the resist-attached portions.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for detecting a resist scattered on and attached to unwanted portions of a TAB tape (tape automated bonding) or circuit board.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A resist material is generally printed to form an insulating or protective film on a TAB tape or circuit board. This printing is performed by silk printing or the like.
In printing a resist material by silk printing or the like, the resist material may scatter on and attach to unwanted portions. The resist so scattered and attached will cause unsatisfactory turning on electricity in an electronic circuit. Even if the amount of resist scattered on and attached to the unwanted portions is small, it is necessary to detect such resist in order to prevent such a fault.

Apparatus and method for the inspection of scattered resist


An optical receiver including a photo detector for converting a light signal into an electrical current signal and a preamplifier circuit for receiving the electrical current signal and outputting a corresponding voltage signal. In one example, the preamplifier circuit includes a first transistor having: (i) a high impedance node connected to an input node connected to receive the electrical current signal from the photo detector, and (ii) a control terminal connected to receive active negative feedback proportional to the electrical current signal received at the input node.

This disclosure relates to optical receiver circuits.
In fiber optical receivers, a photo-detector is generally used to capture an input optical signal and convert it into electrical current signal that is provided to an electronic receiver circuit that includes a pre-amplifier. Semiconductor P-I-N and P-N diodes are generally used as photo-detectors and they exhibit parasitic capacitance to the electronic receiver circuit due to their reverse bias junctions. The photo-detector and the receiver circuit comprise the optical receiver front-end.