Apparatus for supporting a camera includes an elongated support member having an elongated hollow interior for receiving the forearm of a person using the apparatus. A stabilizing strap extends from the elongated support member about the neck of the user of the apparatus. Mounts are provided for mounting a camera and related equipment such as a video monitor on the elongated support member and the user can grasp a handle in the hollow interior of the elongated support member to resist relative movement between the elongated support member and the user's forearm.

Many systems are known in the prior art for supporting cameras and related equipment. Some of these prior art approaches are for the purpose of supporting a camera at a fixed position on a support surface while others are of a portable nature more particularly adapted to provide for support of a camera by a person.
The following patents are believed to be representative of the prior art: U.S. Pat. No., 5,121,147, issued Jun. 9, 1992; U.S. Pat. No. 4,208,028, issued Jun. 17, 1980; U.S. Pat. No. 2,007,215, issued Jul. 9, 1935; U.S. Pat. No. 4,474,439, issued Oct. 2, 1984; U.S. Pat. No. RE. 32,213, dated Jul. 22, 1986; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,946,272, dated Aug. 7, 1990.
While some of the above-identified patents disclose arrangements having the objective of stabilizing a video camera, a motion picture camera or other type of camera supported by an individual, prior art approaches are generally characterized by their relative complexity and relatively high expense, as well as by their bulky, cumbersome nature. Furthermore, some of the arrangements do not lend themselves for use with equipment other than the camera per se. Many prior art arrangements are not particularly useful or appropriate when using lightweight video cameras, such as those commonly employed by amateurs, which are particularly prone to inadvertent movement by the user.


An engine lubrication oil flow control system and control method for an engine in a hybrid electric vehicle powertrain is disclosed. An engine lubrication oil pump is powered by a lubrication oil pump motor. Provision is made to start the lubrication pump motor at the initiation of engine cranking upon a transition from an engine-off driving mode to an engine-on driving mode. An engine oil pressure signal is used to indicate engine filter maintenance is needed. The oil pump motor may be powered by a vehicle powertrain traction battery.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a vehicle powertrain having an internal combustion engine with an engine oil lubrication pump powered by an electric motor.
2. Background Art
A hybrid electric vehicle powertrain typically has two electric machines and an internal combustion engine. In one operating mode, the engine and the electric machines define two power flow paths to vehicle traction wheels. One electric machine functions as a generator in one operating and as a motor in another operating mode. Likewise, the other electric machine operates as a motor or as a generator depending upon the operating mode. The electric machines are electrically coupled to a high voltage traction battery.
In a so-called divided power hybrid electric vehicle powertrain, a first power source is established as the engine output power is divided into two paths by controlling the first electric machine, which in this instance would be functioning as a generator. A mechanical power flow path extends from the engine through a gear system to a gearing arrangement, which delivers driving power to the traction wheels of the vehicle. An electrical power flow path extends from the engine to the generator and to the second electric machine, which in this instance would function as a motor. The output torque of the motor is delivered to the traction wheels through the gearing. The engine power is divided by controlling generator speed to effect a so-called positive power split. If the generator functions as a motor, power input to the gearing from the generator will establish a so-called negative power split. The generator in this powertrain configuration can be braked so that the engine can deliver torque through a solely mechanical path as an electric power flow path is established by the motor, which is powered by the battery.
When the powertrain is configured to provide a second power source, the motor alone, using battery power, can provide driving torque to the traction wheels independently of the engine for both forward and reverse operation of the vehicle. The generator alone acting as a motor can propel the vehicle forward using battery power with the engine off.
It is apparent from the foregoing description that the engine must be started or stopped each time the powertrain transitions from one operating mode to another.
The engine, as in the case of conventional powertrain systems, requires a lubrication oil pump, which typically is driven by the engine as lubricating oil is circulated from an engine oil sump through moving components of the engine. It then is drained back to a sump. The oil sump in this configuration is referred to as a wet sump.
An example of an engine with a wet sump may be seen by referring to U.S. Pat. No. 5,606,946 (FIG. 7a). If the engine is provided with a so-called dry sump, the engine driven oil pump must transfer lubricating oil rapidly through the engine from an auxiliary oil reservoir. Such a lubricating oil flow circuit is illustrated, for example, in FIG. 7b of U.S. Pat. No. 5,606,946.
In a hybrid electric vehicle of the type described above, frequent engine stops and starts will reduce fuel consumption, but before each start there is a low oil pressure in the lubrication system. The frequent engine start/stop cycles can increase engine wear due to thin oil films on surfaces between relatively movable elements of the engine, which potentially affects adversely engine life. In a typical hybrid electric vehicle powertrain, the unique duty cycles for the electric machines can vary based on environmental and engine usage profiles. It also is difficult to detect when an oil change in the engine should be made for routine engine maintenance.

Electric oil pump system and controls for hybrid electric vehicles


An ultra-thin low noise axial flow fan is provided for office automation machine. The center line along the blade from its root portion to its tip portion is circular arc form and it is perpendicular to the central hub. The leading edge skew angle at the tip portion of the blade is 47 degrees. The blade angle of each blade ranges from 57 to 63 degrees, which is first directly proportional to the radius of the blade and then inversely proportional to the radius of the blade from the root portion to the tip portion of the blade. The pitch-chord ratio of each blade is inversely proportional to the radius of the blade from the root port to the tip portion of the blade. The blade of the fan thereby generates high air flow and high pressure, and has advantages of low noise and ultra-thin outer casing.

The present invention relates to an axial flow fan, and more particularly to an axial flow fan with improved blades having advantages of ultra-thin dimension, low noise level high air flow, and high fan pressure, which is especially suitable for use in office automation Machines.
In a conventional axial flow fan, it is generally, composed of a driving motor, a cylindrical central section, a plurality of blades, and an outer casing for casing the fan. Each of the blades extends radially outward from the cylindrical hub section of the fan. A motor shaft the driving motor is attached to the hub section at a central aperture of the hub and thus the hub section may be rotated by the driving motor via the motor shaft. In such an arrangement, the hub section together with the blades may rotate about an axis of the outer casing in order to force air flow from inlet area to outlet area of the fan. The motor rotates the blades of the fan via the motor shaft so as to make the blades generate lift force which is in a form fan pressure and air flow.
It is known that the attack angle, camber angle, blade angle, pitch-chord ratio, and the shape of the blades are possible factors of affecting the lift force of the blades described above. In addition, the outer shape dimension of the blades also effects the features of the axial fan
In the prior art, the above mentioned problems caused by the improper design relating to the lift force of the blades are as follows:
1. Improper Attack Angle
The different designs of the blade shape may result in different effective ranges of the attack angle and different lift factor of the blade. If the attack angle exceeds a proper value, it is highly possible to result in stall and greater noise. On the contrary, if the attack angle is improperly designed less than a proper value, it will be affect the lift force of the blade and correspondingly result in lower performance efficiency.
2. Improper Camber Angle
In theory, the larger the camber angle, the greater the lift force under a condition of constant attack angle. However, in practice, the attack angle will be correspondingly decreased in accordance with the increase of the camber angle. Consequently, the attack angle and the camber angle must be balanced to a proper value therebetween to get a best lift factor.
3. Improper Blade Angle
Under a condition of constant rotation speed, the blade angle exceeds or less than a proper value may result in the loss of the lift force.
4. Improper Chord-pitch Ratio Distribution
The improper design of the pitch-chord ratio may result in loss of the lift force of the fan. In practice, the chord-pitch ratio is less than 1 in order to be more convenient to be manufactured. It is found that the improper chord-pitch ratio distribution may result in fluid interference to the air flow. In addition, improper chord-pitch ratio also causes lower performance efficiency of the fan and make it difficult to minimized the outer casing of the fan.
Various prior U.S. patents had been developed in this field. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,971,520 and No. 4,569,631 disclosed an axial fan. However, the prior art patent can not effectively overcome the problems described above, especially the difficulty of minimizing the thickness of the outer casing.

Ultra-thin low noise axial flow fan for office automation machines

Industrial Technology Research Institute


A semiconductor device comprises a plurality of groups of colored cells controllable by electronic circuitry. Each group of colored cells absorb or reflect specified wavelengths of visible light. The electronic signals control the pathways on which each individual cell reflects incident light. A first process for manufacturing such a color spatial light modulator ("SLM") includes aligning a dye-bearing substrate over the spatial light modulator and causing specified portions of the dye to sublimate off of the substrate and condense onto particular cell elements of the spatial light modulator. A second process for producing a colored spatial light modulator places an electrostatic charge in a dye cloud and introduces the charged cloud to the SLM. The dye migrates to those selected cells containing an opposite electrical charge.

Spatial light modulators are active devices having on them at least one row of individually controllable cells. The cells typically reflect along one of two pathways, or select between transmitting and not transmitting light. Electronic signals determine in which mode they operate. Spatial light modulators may also be manufactured with several individual rows of cells or with many rows of tightly spaced cells. The latter format, because of its cell density, is capable of producing images comparable in resolution to monochrome cathode-ray tubes.
The introduction of color to spatial light modulator systems has been problematic to date. One approach to full color systems is to use three spatial light modulators, each with a different primary color source or color filter. The three monochrome modulator images are combined into a single image to produce the desired three color picture. This system has the disadvantages of complex modulator alignment, output convergence, and excessive cost and package size of the related optic system.
The preferred approach to color light modulation, therefore, is to use a single modulator modified to produce the desired color image. Simply aligning a matrix of colored windows above the matrix of individual cells, however, is not satisfactory. The unmodulated light striking a reflective modulator is supplied externally to the individual cells and off of the final viewing optical axis. Incident light therefore passes through the filter window structure twice before being observed by the human eye. The modulated light therefore passes through two different colored window elements. The requisite geometry is prohibitively complex. In transmissive modulator systems similar problems occur. The color filters are typically sandwiched between the transparent panels during manufacture, making the already complex problem even more difficult and lowering yields.
Therefore a need has risen for a single modulator color system which is non-stressing to the individual elements, provides precise and accurate placement of the dye material relative to the cells, and whose dyes have acceptable optical and mechanical properties, and does not affect the steps of the monochrome modulator process.

Color spatial light modulator and method of manufacture


The work environment provider provides a user with work environment for creating a search formula, creates the search formula in accordance with a user instruction received by the operation receiver through the operation device in the work environment, and causes the search formula storage device to store the created search formula. The determination device determines whether or not a log stored in the log storage device agrees with a search condition of the search formula stored in the search formula storage device. The notification device performs notification to a previously registered contact destination through the communication device upon determination by the determination device that the log agrees with the search condition. The notification device performs notification to a previously registered contact destination through the communication device upon determination by the determination device that the log agrees with the search condition.

This disclosure relates to an electronic device and an image forming apparatus which save logs.
An electronic device such as a copier, a facsimile device, a printer, or a multifunction peripheral combining together a plurality of functions respectively included in the aforementioned devices typically stores, therein as logs, for example, an event history at a time of user log-in or setting change.
For the logs stored in the electronic device, the logs are subsequently transmitted to an external device such as a server and analyzed, thereby making it possible to investigate the presence or absence of unauthorized access or unexpected operation by an operator. For example, known is a technology for preventing erroneous change in setting items by the operator.

Electronic device and image forming apparatus providing user with work environment for creating search formula whose search is targeted on log


This invention provides a heat treatment apparatus for an oxide superconducting wire that is easy to control atmosphere during baking and can realize a high manufacturing speed. A heat treatment apparatus (1) comprises a heat treating furnace (4) and a cylindrical rotator (5), rotatable about a horizontal rotating axis, provided within the heat treating furnace (4). The rotator (5) in its cylindrical body (5a) have a number of through-holes (5b) formed evenly over the whole surface of the cylindrical body (5a). One end of the cylindrical body (5a) is hermetically sealed by a lid. On the other end, a gas discharge pipe (7) for discharging gas within the cylindrical body to the outside of the heat treating furnace (4) is connected to the lid. A plurality of gas supply pipes (8) are symmetrically provided separately from each other on the outer surface of the cylindrical body (5a). A number of gas jet holes are formed in each of the gas supply pipe (8) so as to jet atmosphere gas toward the surface of the cylindrical body. A tape-shaped wire (6) formed of a precursor film of a YBCO superconducting layer is wound around the rotator (5) for heat treatment for superconductor formation.

Among the oxide superconducting wire, YBa2Cu3O7-x (YBCO) superconducting wire has the structure that a biaxially-oriented thin film of one layer or plural layers comprising the inorganic material is formed onto the metallic substrate, and that the superconducting film and the stabilized layer are formed in sequence onto the biaxially-oriented thin film of the inorganic material. Because this wire has the biaxially-oriented crystal, the critical current (Ic) value is higher than the bismuth type silver sheathed wire, and the magnetic-field property is superior in the liquid nitrogen temperature. Therefore, by using this wire, it is expected that the superconducting equipment which is used in the low temperature at present can be used in the high temperature state.
The characteristic of this YBCO superconductor is affected strongly by the orientation of that crystal. Therefore, the characteristic of this YBCO superconductor is affected strongly by this substrate which constitutes the lower layer and by the orientation of the crystal of the intermediate layer.
That is, a crystal system of the YBCO superconductor is an orthorhombic crystal. Therefore, in order to bring out the characteristic of the material in conducting property, it is required that not only a CuO face of the crystal but also an in-plane crystal orientation is aligned. The reason is that because a little mismatch of the orientation generates grain boundaries of the twin crystal, the conducting property deteriorates.
Various methods are studied now for the film formation of the YBCO superconducting wire. IBAD (Ion Beam Assisted Deposition) method or RABiTS (Trade Mark: Rolling Assisted Biaxially Textured Substrate) method is known as the manufacturing technology of the biaxially-oriented metal substrate that the in-plane oriented intermediate layer is formed onto the tape-shaped metal substrate. And many YBCO superconducting wires are reported. These YBCO superconducting wires have the intermediate layer whose in-plane orientation degree and orientation are improved, and the intermediate layer is formed onto non-oriented or oriented metal tape. For example, the following rare earth-containing tape-shaped oxide superconductor is known. As the substrate, that rare earth type tape-shaped oxide superconductor uses the substrate which consists of Ni or Ni based alloy having oriented texture by heat treatment after strong rolling process. And the oxide intermediate layer of the thin film of Ni oxide, CeO2 and so on which is formed by MOD method and the YBCO superconducting layer are formed in sequence onto the surface of this substrate. (for example, refer to Patent document No. 1).
Among the background arts, the method using IBAD substrate has the highest characteristic. The superconducting wire by this method is formed by using following steps. Onto the tape-shaped Ni based substrate (hastelloy and so on) having nonmagnetism and high strength, the intermediate layer (CeO2, Y2O3, YSZ and so on) or the intermediate layer having two layer structure (YSZ or Gd2Zr3O7/CeO2 or Y2O3 and so on) is formed by depositing the particles generated from the target using laser evaporation during irradiation of ion from the diagonal direction for this Ni based substrate. These intermediate layers have high orientation and inhibits the reaction with the elements which constitute the superconductor. And after forming the CeO2 film onto that layer by PLD method, the YBCO layer is formed by PLD method (for example, refer to Patent document No. 2).
However, in this method, because all layers are formed by vacuum process of gas phase method, there is advantage that the dense and smooth intermediate layer film can be obtained. But there are problems that the film formation speed is slow, the equipment cost becomes high and the wire cost rises. Although some film formation methods have been studied other than this IBAD method, the available methods for solving about the problems of the cost and the formation speed have not been reported.
Chemical vapor deposition method (CVD) has the problem that although manufacturing speed is fast than other vapor phase methods, it is difficult to increase the film thickness for obtaining high Ic value. The most effective method to actualize the low cost is MOD method (Metal Organic Deposition Processes) which forms the oxide layer by using the metal organic acid salt or the organic metallic compound as the raw material, and by giving the heat treatment after coating the raw material.
Because this process does not use the vacuum process, there are advantages that the equipment cost and the maintenance cost are low. Therefore, it is expected that this process provides the low cost superconductor. In this case, if the film of the intermediate layer also can be formed by MOD process, it is possible to decrease the cost furthermore.
The important point in the film formation process of the YBCO superconducting layer by this MOD process is the atmosphere control at the time of baking. Especially, it is that the baking process is established so that the uniform gas flow can be sprayed on the surface of the calcination film.
Heretofore, for the purpose of forming the stable atmosphere in the axial direction of the tubular furnace, the atmosphere control type furnace for heat treatment which has the following structures is known. That is, the tube of furnace-core is double structure. And two pairs of gas-supplying-channels and gas-discharging-channels are formed by arranging the four partition boards between the outer tube and the inner tube. Besides, the plural gas-outflow-holes in gas-supplying-channels and the plural gas-inflow-holes in gas-discharging-channels are arranged (for example, refer to Patent document No. 3).    Patent document No. 1: Japanese Patent Publication No. 2004-171841    Patent document No. 2: Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei04-329867    Patent document No. 3; Japanese Patent Publication No. 2003-121076

Heat treatment apparatus for oxide superconducting wire

International Superconductivity Technology Center, The Jurdical Foundation


A packaging tray for an automotive vehicle having a passenger compartment and a cargo area. The cargo area is separated from the passenger compartment by a structural support extending between a rear seat assembly and a rear windshield. The packaging tray includes a first component having interior and exterior surfaces and a second component. The second component includes a base portion and a plurality of standoff portions formed integrally as a one piece structure. An outer surface of the base portion conforms to a shape of the interior surface of the first component. The plurality of standoff portions extend outwardly from an inner surface of the base portion to contact the structural support. The plurality of standoff portions space the base portion apart from the structural support to reduce noise and vibrations from the cargo area entering the passenger compartment.

Modern automotive vehicles have put an increased focus on isolation of the passenger compartment from noise and vibrations. Previously it has been known to provide insulation in boundaries between the passenger compartment and cargo areas to dampen noise and vibration. However, the addition of insulation increases the number of parts required for assembly, thereby, increasing the assembly time of the automotive vehicle, which consequently increases the overall cost.
It has been known in the art to provide assemblies that are provided over a structural support extending between a rear seat assembly and the rear windshield with insulation against noise and vibration. As seen in FIGS. 7A and 7B, the previously known assemblies 10′ include a substrate 12′ and a separate mat 14′ which is provided on the structural support 16′ that defines a barrier between the passenger compartment and the cargo area (trunk space). Once the mat 14′ is placed on the structural support 16′ a plurality of individual spacers 18′ are then provided on top of the mat 14′ to space apart the substrate 12′ from the structural support 16′.
However, the previously known assembly 10′ requires the installation of multiple parts which increases the assembly time required for the automotive vehicle. Moreover, the increase in the number of parts increases the overall cost of the parts. Increased assembly time and part cost consequently increases the overall assembly cost of the automotive vehicle. Further, the previously known assemblies leave room for additional improvement in the prevention of noise and vibrations, such as roars and exhaust noise, of the cargo areas from entering into the passenger compartment.
Thus, there exists a need in the art for a packaging tray which reduces the required assembly time, the number of assembly parts, and the overall weight and cost, while providing an increase in the prevention of noise and vibrations from entering into the passenger compartment.

Packaging tray having integrated noise and vibration reduction features

Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc.


A thermo spray gun (10) includes at least one of; at least one removable nozzle tip (20) for spraying a coating material, at least one replaceable nozzle tip (20) for spraying a coating material, and at least one interchangeable nozzle tip (20) for spraying a coating material. A thermo spray gun system (1000) includes a thermal spray gun (10) and at least one mechanism (30/40) at least one of; storing at least one nozzle tip installable on the thermal spray gun and being structured and arranged to install at least one nozzle tip on the thermal spray gun. A method of coating a substrate (S) using a thermo spray gun (10) includes mounting at least one nozzle tip (20) on the thermo spray gun (10) and spraying a coating material with the at least one nozzle tip (20).

With the advent of plasma guns having wide operating ranges through the use of different plasma forming nozzles (see, e.g., ITSC 2005 technical paper on plasma forming nozzles for Triplex), the ability of a plasma gun to produce a wide array of thermal spray coatings became possible. One example is the application of thermal barriers where two coating layers are required. In such barrier coatings, the first layer is a bonding layer typically comprised of an MCrAlY type superalloy material that is applied at high particle velocities and relatively low particle temperatures. The second coating is a ceramic thermal barrier applied at low particle velocities and high particle temperatures. In applying such coatings, two different plasma nozzles are utilized. One nozzle is a high enthalpy straight bore nozzle. The other is a high velocity laval type nozzle.
In order to produce such a complete coating system, either two separate guns are required or two spray cells must be utilized, or, at best, the gun hardware needs to be manually changed—which requires interrupting the coating process. In fact, current systems require manual disassembly of at least part of the gun to change the hardware, and more specifically the nozzle, in order to change the operating regime of the gun. Also known in the art is the ability to automatically change entire guns with each gun configured with the appropriate gun hardware for the required operating regime. This method entails considerable additional hardware and capital expense for switching the high energy and gas utility feeds to the "active" gun.
What is needed is a thermo spray gun with interchangeable nozzle tips and/or a method for automatically changing plasma gun nozzles (or nozzle tips) to facilitate changing the operating regime of the gun to suit the various applications for multi-layer coating systems.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Thermo spray gun with removable nozzle tip and method making and using the same


The present invention is a process for controlling the intake of a direct fuel injection four-stroke engine in at least two combustion chambers. A diferent intake for at least two cylinders or groups of cylinders is used in order to reduce exhaust emissions. A first cylinder or group of cylinders is operated with an air/fuel ratio greater than or equal to one, and a second cylinder or group of cylinders (21, 24) is operated in under-stoichiometric conditions.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of four-stroke internal-combustion and direct fuel injection engines. More particularly, the present invention uses intake control in order to reduce the consumption as well as the emissions of such engines.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A high reduction in the cosumption of fuel requires a diluted charge combustion which is generally not compatible with after-treatment of the gaseous effluents.
A large reduction in the consumption of spark-ignition engines requires diluted charge combustion (air and/or EGR) in order to decrease pumping losses of the charge and to increase the polytropic coefficient of the gases, and consequently the efficiency of the four-stroke engine cycle.
However, engines with a highly diluted combustion mixture cannot use an after-treatment of the gaseous effluents by trifunctional catalysis in order to meet the current regulations concerning emission levels, because the fuel/air ratio at the exhaust is below 1 wherein a ratio of 1 represents a stoichiometric mixture with a ratio above 1 being a rich mixture and a ratio below 1 being a lean mixture.
First-generation concepts have already been introduced into the market by automotive manufacturers; these are lean-burn engines (Honda VTE, Toyota Carina, . . . ). They allow urban driving consumption gains of the order of 10% in relation to conventional engines. However, in order to meet emission regulations, these lean-burn engines are generally operated under conventional stoichiometric conditions during cold start-up phases and accelerations. This strategy controls emissions of the vehicle by using a conventional trifunctional catalysis depollution system, but it suppresses any consumption gain of the vehicle during these operating phases.
The second-generation solutions that have followed the first-generation solutions are linked with the development of direct fuel injection. Second-generation systems, coupled with stratified combustion control, allow urban driving consumption gains of the order of 20% by suppressing pumping losses of the four-stroke engine cycle.
Like the first concepts, these engines cannot be subjected to trifunctional catalysis at the risk of nullifying the expected consumption gains.
Generally speaking, the two main problems linked with removing pollution from direct fuel injection engines with stratified combustion are as follows:
Nitrogen oxides emissions cannot be readily subjected to after-treatment by No.sub.x catalysis and they must therefore be low in quantity in the exhaust.
The temperature of the exhaust gases is too low for fast initiation of the oxidation catalyst for conversion of the carbon monoxide and of the unburned hydrocarbons.
Concerning the second problem, heating systems, notably electric systems for heating the oxidation catalyst, have already been considered. However, these systems are costly in energy, which poses problems notably during start-up of the vehicle.

Process for controlling the intake of a direct-injection four-stroke engine


The invention relates to a method for controlling the operation of a short-range wireless terminal capable of operating in a first beacon-based network and in a second beacon-based network, and having an active state and a power save state in the first beacon-based network. For seamless operation in the two networks, the terminal moves to a power save state with respect to the first beacon-based network if operation in the second beacon-based network is required. However, the first beacon-based network is only informed that the terminal moves to a power save state and instead of powering down, the terminal becomes active in the second beacon-based network.

The current development towards truly mobile computing and networking has brought on the evolvement of various access technologies that also provide the users with access to the Internet when they are outside their own home network. At present, wireless Internet access is typically based on either short-range wireless systems or mobile networks, or both.
Short-range wireless systems have a typical range of one hundred meters or less. They often combine with systems wired to the Internet to provide communication over long distances. The category of short-range wireless systems includes wireless personal area networks (PANs) and wireless local area networks (WLANs). They have the common feature of operating in unlicensed portions of the radio spectrum, usually either in the 2.4 GHz Industrial, Scientific, and Medical (ISM) band or in the 5 GHz unlicensed band.
Wireless personal area networks use low cost, low power wireless devices that have a typical range of about ten meters. The best-known example of wireless personal area network technology is Bluetooth, which uses the 2.4 GHz ISM band. It provides a peak air link speed of one Mbps, and power consumption low enough for use in personal, portable electronics such as PDAs and mobile phones. Wireless local area networks generally operate at higher peak speeds of 10 to 100 Mbps and have a longer range, which requires greater power consumption.
Wireless LAN systems are typically extensions of a wired network, providing mobile users with wireless access to the wired network. Examples of wireless local area network technology include the IEEE 802.11a, which is designed for the 5 GHz unlicensed band, and uses orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) to deliver up to 54 Mbps data rates; the 802.11b, which is designed for the 2.4 GHz ISM band and uses direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) to deliver up to 11 Mbps data rates; and the HIPERLAN Standard, which is designed to operate in the 5 GHz unlicensed band.
In wireless LAN technology, two basic network topologies are available for network configuration: an ad-hoc network and an infrastructure network. An ad-hoc network is formed by two or more independent mobile terminals without the services of a base station, i.e. in an ad-hoc network the terminals communicate on a peer-to-peer basis. An ad-hoc network is normally formed for temporary purposes. The infrastructure network, in turn, comprises one or more wireless base stations, called access points, which form part of the wired infrastructure. In a typical network of this type, all traffic goes through the access points, regardless of whether the traffic is between two terminals or a terminal and the wired network, i.e. the mobile terminals do not communicate on a peer-to-peer basis. The mobile terminals are provided with wireless LAN cards, whereby they can access the wired network or set up an ad-hoc network. In an infrastructure network an access point and at least one terminal is said to form a Basic Serving Set (BSS), while an ad-hoc network is also termed an Independent BSS (IBSS).
When a wireless terminal tries to access an infrastructure network, the user of the terminal is authenticated before the terminal may become a member of the infrastructure network. After the authentication has been performed and the terminal has associated itself with the infrastructure network, the user may start to use the services available through the relevant access point.
When using the services available through the access points of various networks, such as corporate or home networks, the user may also wish to establish or join an ad-hoc network. For example, the user might wish to download content, such as music, from a near-by terminal or play a game with a user of another terminal while simultaneously being associated with an infrastructure network. A drawback related to the current networks is that if the user enters the ad-hoc operation mode, the existing association in the infrastructure network is removed. In other words, the user of the terminal has to be authenticated again and a new association has to be created when the user leaves the ad-hoc mode and re-enters the infrastructure network. This drawback relates to the fact that in a beacon-based system the terminals have to monitor the information broadcast in the beacon frames. In the infrastructure networks, each access point sends beacon frames at regular intervals, and the terminals synchronize their operation with the rhythm of the beacon transmissions. The beacon transmissions include, for example, timing information and information about the capabilities of the transmitting access point. At present, simultaneous operation in two different beacon-based networks is not possible, but an existing association in one network is lost if another network is entered.
The present invention seeks to accomplish a solution by means of which the above drawbacks of wireless beacon-based networks may be alleviated.

Control of a short-range wireless terminal


An ordering structure scintillator of scintillator and fabrication method is disclosed. The ordering structure scintillator of scintillator comprises: a tubular template, which consists of a plurality of thin film oxidized metal tubes; a plurality of scintillators, filled in the thin film oxidized metal tubes; and a package layer, formed on the surface of the tubular template for protecting the tubular template. In addition, through the fabrication method, the ordering structure scintillator of scintillator can be made by anodic treatment and die casting technology with low cost and rapid production; moreover, the film oxidized metal tubes of the tubular template can be further manufactured to nano tubes by adjusting electrolyte composition, electrolysis voltage, and processing time of anodic treatment, and the aperture size, the thickness and the vessel density of the nano tube can be controlled and ranged from 10 nm to 500 nm, 0.1 μm to 1000 μm, and 108 to 1012 tube/cm2, respectively.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a scintillator structure and a manufacturing method thereof, and more particularly, to a scintillator with sub-micron column structure and a manufacturing method for making the same, wherein the manufacturing method is used for making the scintillator with sub-micron column structure, and the scintillator with sub-micron column structure is able to transform the X-ray to a visible light for being applied in medical equipments, nuclear medicine, and security detection technologies.
2. Description of Related Art
Scintillator is a product of high-energy physics technology, which is used for transforming X-ray to an electronic signal or a visible light; therefore, the visible light transformed from X-ray can be further converted to an electronic signal by conventional optics device, for example, charge-coupled device (CCD). The scintillation occurring in the scintillator is a fluorescence induced by radiation. When a high-energy wave irradiates the scintillator, the ground state electrons in the scintillator would be excited and then migrate from ground state to excited state. Therefore, those excited electrons can further migrate to light-emitting excited state through non-light-emitting way, and then decay to lower energy state or base state for emitting photons (400˜1100 nm). Since crystalline scintillator includes high energy gap, the photons still cannot be effectively emitted although large electrons in conduction band migrate to valence band, or, the emitted photons cannot become visible light due to there high energy. Therefore, for increasing the emitting efficiency of visible light, a small amount of the activator is doped into crystalline scintillator for reducing the energy gap.
Because scintillator is able to transform X-ray to visible light, it is widely applied in medical equipments, nuclear medicine, and security detection technologies. Currently, Scintillators are divided into CsI scintillator, CsI(Na) scintillator and CsI(Tl) scintillator, wherein the CsI scintillator has been became the most conventionally used scintillator for its advantages of easy to be process, large size, sensitive to radiation, and high light-emitting efficiency. Generally, a good scintillator includes the following properties:
(1) transforming a radiation wave to a detectable light by high scintillation effect;
(2) linear transform;
(3) the production of the detectable light is proportional to energy of the radiation wave;
(4) including transparency and low self-radioactivity; and
(5) short light-decaying time.
Moreover, various application fields demand different requirements to the scintillators on incident radiation energy (keV), reaction time (ms), thickness (μm), area (cm2), and spatial resolution (lp/mm), and these requirements are listed in following table 1.
TABLE 1crystalToothNon-destructivestructurologyMammographyImageinspectionAstronomyincident 8~2020~3050~7030~400 30~600radiationenergy(keV)reaction<0.5<0.1<1<0.1<0.05time(ms)thickness30~50100~150 70~120 70~1000 70~2000(μm)area30 × 3020 × 252.5 × 3.510 × 1030 × 30(cm2)spatial1015~20 7~105~104~5resolution(lp/mm)
So that, according to above table, it can know that the incident radiation energy, the thickness and the spatial resolution will affect the light-outputting quality of the scintillator. Moreover, the signal to noise ratio (SNR) of scintillator increases with the incensement of the thickness thereof, and the SNR can be calculated by formula of SNR2=N0×[1−exp(−α×d)], where the No, α, d respectively present the incident photon number, incident energy, and thickness of scintillator.
In addition, anodic treatment is conventionally applied in surface corrosion resistance, painting, electrical insulation, electroplating, and wear resistance. The anodic oxide film made by anodic treatment usually includes porous structure, therefore a post sealing process must be applied to the anodic oxide film for facilitating the anodic oxide film become a dense membrane. Anodic treatment has the advantages of low cost and rapid production, and capable of being applied in producing large area products, such as dye-sensitized solar cells, thermal conductive sheets and thermal insulating components. Besides the anodic treatment, die casting process is also a low cost, rapid production technology.
On the other hand, traditional CsI scintillator process would cause some drawbacks in the CsI scintillator, for example, yellow discolouration, air pores, cloudiness, etc., and the yellow discolouration, the air pores and the cloudiness would impact the output of visible light and further reduce the efficiency of the CsI scintillator. In scintillator, the yellow discolouration is resulted from the combination of oxygen ions and thallium ions in the surface of scintillator, the air pores are caused by air or impurity remaining in the scintillator, and the cloudiness is an atomization induced by gathering of small oxygen bubbles.
According to the traditional CsI scintillator process includes many drawbacks, the semiconductor process technologies are used for manufacturing the scintillators, which includes the steps of: firstly, forming micron tube array on a silicon substrate by way of deep reactive ion etching (DRIE) or laser drilling, wherein the micron tube array is used as a waveguide film, and includes an aspect ratio of 20˜25 and a tube diameter of few microns. Next, vapor (or liquid) deposition is used for filling CsI material into the micron tube array, so as to complete a CsI scintillator. However, the mask, lithography, exposure, etching, and crystal growth equipments adopted in semiconductor process technology result in high manufacturing time and cost to CsI scintillator.
Accordingly, in view of the traditional CsI scintillator process and the semiconductor process technology for making CsI scintillator still have shortcomings and drawbacks, the inventor of the present application has made great efforts to make inventive research thereon and eventually provided a scintillator with sub-micron column structure and a manufacturing method thereof, wherein the anodic treatment and the die casting technology having the advantages of low cost and rapid production are utilized for manufacturing a high-value scintillator with sub-micron column structure, and this scintillator with sub-micron column structure can also be applied in medical equipments, nuclear medicine, and security detection technologies.

Ordering structure of scintillator and fabrication method

NATIONAL CHUNG-SHAN INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY


A lubrication system for a bearing assembly includes a fan shaft with a plurality of conduits, a first bearing rotatably supporting the fan shaft, and a second bearing rotatably supporting the fan shaft where the second bearing is axially spaced from the first bearing. The plurality of conduits includes at least a first conduit aligned with the first bearing and a second conduit aligned with the second bearing. A spray bar includes a plurality of supply orifices that direct lubricating fluid to the first and second bearings via at least the first and second conduits.

This disclosure relates to a lubrication method and apparatus for lubricating fan shaft bearings in a gas turbine engine.
A gas turbine engine includes a fan section with a fan shaft that is mounted on bearings to rotate fan blades. The fan shaft is rotatable about an axis and the bearings include a fore bearing and an aft bearing that is spaced rearwardly from the fore bearing along the axis. A seal plate is fixed to the fan shaft and is positioned forwardly of the fore bearing. A bearing spacer is fixed to the fan shaft and is positioned between inner races of the fore and aft bearings. Inner surfaces of the bearing races and the bearing spacer, and an outer surface of the fan shaft, include axial slots that are formed to extend in a direction along the axis.
A spray bar is positioned within the fan shaft and includes a pair of supply jets. A supply dam is formed on the fan shaft and is positioned between the pair of supply jets. The fan shaft also includes holes that provide fluid to the spacer and to the aft bearing. The holes are staggered with the slots in the fan shaft and bearing spacer to distribute lubricating fluid to the fore bearing and the seal plate.
The supply dam and supply jets cooperate to direct fluid toward an inner surface of the fan shaft and the supply holes; however it is difficult to control apportionment of the lubricating fluid. Further, apportionment can change with different engine operation points, which is not desirable. Thus, some holes may not receive enough lubrication fluid while other holes may receive too much.
Also, the amount of lubricating fluid supplied is determined by the number of slots and the number and size of the holes. When the amount of lubrication needs to be varied, the fan shaft and bearing spacer have to be reconfigured to adjust the number of slots and holes, and/or the size of the holes. Further, it is difficult and time consuming to properly clock the slots relative to the holes during assembly of the bearing spacer onto the fan shaft.
Accordingly, there is a need to provide an improved lubrication system that can precisely lubricate the bearings and seal plate, as well as addressing the other short comings discussed above.

Method and apparatus for fan shaft bearing lubrication


A lock portion is formed on an end portion of an outside wall portion of a glass run which has a channel body portion and which is to be attached to a groove portion formed in a window frame of a vehicle. A detachment preventing protrusion portion is formed on an outside wall surface of the outside wall portion. Pressure-contact portions which are brought into pressure-contact with car-exterior-side and car-interior-side wall inner surfaces of the groove portion are provided on the outside surfaces of the base end portions of the outside and inside wall portions, respectively. The lock portion is brought into contact with a car- exterior-side outer edge of the window frame, and the body portion is rotated around the lock portion so as to be fitted into the groove portion.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a glass run and its attachment structure for attaching the glass run to a window frame which is formed on a vehicle door or the like.
The present application is based on Japanese Patent Applications No. Hei. 11-339172, 2000-19293 and 2000-41625, which are incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of the Related Art
As shown in FIG. 21, in a front door of a vehicle, a window frame 513 is provided in an upper portion of a door body 512.
The front door 511 is provided with a window opening portion 514 which is opened and closed by a window glass 516. Along the opposite side portions and the upper side portion of the window opening portion 514, for example, there is formed the window frame 513 having a substantially U-shape in section, in which an inner side wall, an outer side wall and a bottom wall are formed to be bent. Along this window frame 513, a channel-like glass run 515 is disposed to surround the window glass 516. The glass run 515 is fitted into a groove portion which is formed at the inner circumference of the window frame 513. Thus, when the window glass 516 is moved up and down, the window glass 516 is guided by car-interior-side and car-exterior-side glass seal portions of the glass run 515 while the outside and inside of the cabin is sealed from each other.
The glass run 515 includes a body portion which is constituted by a bottom wall portion, an outside wall portion located on the car exterior side of the bottom wall portion, and an inside wall portion located on the car interior side of the bottom wall portion. The inside and outside wall portions are formed so that the inside wall portion is substantially as high as or a little higher than the outside wall portion.
Recently, a glass run in which such an inside wall portion is set to be two to four times as high as such an outside wall portion has been used to make the door attractive (Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei. 8-295134). A structure for attaching such a glass run to a window frame will be described with reference to FIG. 22.
FIG. 22 shows a cross section of an upper horizontal frame portion of the window frame 513, which is taken along line Axe2x80x94A in FIG. 21. A channel-like body portion 515a of a glass run 515 is fitted into a groove portion 525 which is provided in the window frame 513. The body portion 515a is constituted by a bottom wall portion 515b, an outside wall portion 515c and an inside wall portion 515d. Glass seal portions 515h and 515i are formed on the outside and inside wall portions 515c and 515d, respectively, so that the window glass 516 is slidably guided. A lock portion 515j which is to be locked in an outer edge 526 provided on the car-exterior-side wall of the window frame 513 at the groove portion 525, and a holding lip 515k which is to be locked in an inner surface of a car-interior-side wall of the window frame 513 at the groove portion 525, are integrally formed pm the body potion 515a.
An extended inside wall portion 515g is formed integrally with the inside wall portion 515d of the glass run 515. On the other hand, a protrusion 515o is attached on a receiving portion 530 of the window frame 513 with positioning and regulating, and a shield lip 515q is made to abut against a terminal portion 31 of a car-interior-member such as a garnish 24. Height H2 of the extended inside wall portion 515g from the bottom wall portion 515b is approximately three times as large as height H1 of the outside wall portion 515c.
A conventional glass run, which has not such an extended inside wall portion 515g, and has an inside wall portion being substantially as high as an outside wall portion, is adopted such an attachment method that the body portion of the glass run is moved up from underneath in a straight line so as to be fitted into the groove portion 525 of the window frame 513. In this method where fitting is attained by straight-line movement, however, there is a problem that the work of fitting is not performed smoothly at the glass run structure in FIG. 22 because it is very difficult to give the same pressure at an end of the outside wall portion 515c and an end of the inside wall portion 515d, respectively, and the outside wall portion 515c and the inside wall portion 515d are pressed toward the glass seal portions 515h and 515i respectively so as to come close to each other.
As a result, there arises a problem that the glass seal portions 515h and 515i interfere with each other so that the operation of fitting becomes very troublesome.
Further, as such a conventional glass run 515 in FIG. 22, for example, there is another problem as follows.
When the door 511 is opened or closed hard in the state where the window glass 516 is opened slightly, the upper end portion of the window glass 516 may be shaken by inertia force. Then, if the upper end portion of the window glass 516 exists in a position which is in the region of the glass run 515 and out of the glass seal portions 515h, 515i, the upper end portion of the window glass 516 collides with the extended inside wall portion 515g partially. Here, the glass run 515 is, for example, formed of solid rubber of ethylene-propylene-diene ternary copolymer (EPDM). Then, because the extended inside wall portion 515g of the glass run 515 has predetermined rigidity, the extended inside wall portion 515g cannot absorb the shock caused by the collision of the window glass 516 entirely. Thus, extended inside wall portion 515g further collides with the aforementioned inner side wall of the window frame 513 which is made of metal. There is a problem that an unpleasant collision sound is generated at this time. This problem is apt to be generated near the front end of the upper portion of the window frame 513 in the front door or near the rear end of the upper portion of the window frame 513 in the rear door because the shaking of the window glass 516 is great there.
In addition, the car-interior-side wall of the window frame 513 has the receiving portion 530 which projects in the direction of the car interior side. And the garnish 24 is covering the cat-interior-side wall of the window frame 513 and the protrusion 515o of the glass run 515.
The aforementioned garnish 24 is subjected to termination treatment in which the terminal portion 31 is brought into close contact with the protrusion 515o of the glass run 515 fitted to the groove portion 525 of the window frame 513.
As such a termination treatment structure, as shown in FIG. 22, there is generally adopted a structure in which the receiving portion 530 for bearing the forward end of the inside wall portion 515d is formed at the car-interior-side wall opening end of the groove portion 525 of the window frame 513, while a recess groove 540 is formed at the forward end of the inside wall portion 515d of the glass run 515 so as to be located between the shield lip 515d and the car-interior-side wall opening end of the groove portion 525, so that and end of the terminal portion 31 of the garnish 24 is fitted into the recess groove 540.
However, in the aforementioned terminal treatment structure, there is a possibility that when the end of the terminal portion 31 of the garnish 24 is lifted up to be fitted into the recess groove 540, the shield lip 515q of the glass run 515 may be fitted in between end of the terminal potion 31 of the garnish 24 and the car-interior-side wall opening end of the groove portion 525 so that desired fitting cannot be done. Accordingly, the termination treatment is difficult to be done, and not necessary to consume time.
It is a first object of the present invention to provide a glass run and a glass run attachment structure in which the work of attaching a glass run to a window frame can be achieved easily, and the attachment state of the glass run can be held stably.
In order to achieve the above object, there is provided a glass run attachable to a window frame of a vehicle, comprising: a channel-like body portion having an outside wall portion, a bottom wall portion and an inside wall portion; a lock portion formed in an end portion of the outside wall portion; a detachment preventing protrusion portion formed on an outside wall surface of the outside wall portion; and at least two pressure-contact portions respectively provided on base end portions of the outside wall portion and the inside wall portion corresponding to both ends of the bottom wall portion so as to be brought into pressure-contact with a car-exterior-side wall inner surface and a car-interior-sidewall inner surface of the groove portion of the window frame, wherein the inside wall portion is larger than the outside wall portion, wherein the lock portion is brought into contact with a car-exterior-side outer edge of the window frame, while the body portion of the glass run is rotated around the lock portion so as to be fitted into the groove portion.
Further, there is provided a glass run attachment structure for attaching a glass run to a window frame of a vehicle, the glass run having a channel-like body portion corresponding to a groove portion formed in the window frame, the structure comprising: a lock portion formed in an end portion of an outside wall portion of the glass run; a detachment preventing protrusion portion formed on an outside wall surface of the outside wall portion; and pressure-contact portions respectively provided on outside surfaces of base end portions of the outside wall portion and an inside wall portion corresponding to a bottom wall portion so as to be brought into pressure-contact with a car-exterior-side wall inner surface and a car-interior-sidewall inner surface of the groove portion of the window frame; wherein the inside wall portion is larger than the outside wall portion, wherein the lock portion is brought into contact with a car-exterior-side outer edge of the window frame, while the body portion of the glass run is rotated around the lock portion so as to be fitted into the groove portion.
In the glass run attachment structure, the pressure-contact portions preferably include an outside holding lip and an inside holding lip which are elastically deformed when the body portion of the glass run is rotated to be fitted into the groove portion.
In the glass run attachment structure, compression-direction force is preferably given to at least the outside holding lip of the outside and inside holding lips when the outside and inside holding lips are elastically deformed, whereupon the body portion is urged to a bottom side of the groove portion by compression-direction restoring force of the outside holding lip after the body portion is fitted into the groove portion.
In the glass run attachment structure, a rough surface is preferably formed in a tip end portion of at least the outside holding lip of the outside and inside holding lips.
Preferably, in the glass run attachment structure, the body portion is constituted by the bottom wall portion, the outside wall portion and the inside wall portion, and is extruded so as to be developed by car-exterior-side and car-interior-side bent portions between the outside and inside wall portions and the bottom wall portion; a gap is established between an outer surface of the car-exterior-side bent portion and a bottom wall surface of the groove portion; the car-interior-side bent portion is brought into pressure-contact with the bottom wall surface; and a sealing lip is provided on the car-exterior-side bent portion so as to abut against the bottom wall surface.
In the glass run attachment structure, the groove portion of the window frame is preferably formed so that a width thereof is smaller than a distance between tip end portions of the pressure-contact portions.
In the glass run attachment structure, a gap is preferably established between the detachment preventing protrusion portion and a lock step portion provided in the car-exterior-side wall inner surface of the groove portion.
Preferably, in the glass run attachment structure, a receiving portion is formed as a lock portion with positioning and regulating in an inner circumference of an inner reinforce which constitutes the window frame; a terminal portion is formed as a lock portion in a garnish; and a lifting and holding lip is provided on an extended inside wall portion of the glass run so as to be brought into pressure-contact with the receiving portion, while a locked protrusion portion is formed as a locked portion which is to be locked by the terminal portion.
It is another object of the present invention to perform termination treatment between a glass run and a garnish of a window frame surely and with a good workability, and to stabilize a terminal treatment portion.
In order to achieve the above object, according to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a glass run attachment structure comprising a glass run having a body portion substantially U-shaped in section and seal lips extending from opposite side wall portions of the body portion so as to hold an outer circumference of a door glass from opposite sides of the door glass, the glass run being fitted into a groove portion of a window frame, and further comprising a garnish covering a car-interior-side surface of the window frame, a terminal portion of the garnish being brought into close contact with a forward end of the inside wall portion of the glass run, wherein inside wall portion of the glass run has a lip portion formed at the forward end so as to extend from the forward end down below a car-interior-side wall opening end of the groove portion of the window frame, and the terminal portion of the garnish is fitted in between the lip portion and the car-interior-side wall opening end.
In the above glass run attachment structure, preferably, a receiving portion is formed at the car-interior-side wall opening end of the groove portion, and the lip portion is made to extend down below the receiving portion, and wherein another lip portion is formed at the forward end of the inside wall portion of the glass run so as to be closer to an outside surface of the side wall than the first-mentioned lip portion and to extend from the forward end of the inside wall portion to thereby press on the receiving portion when the glass run is attached to the window frame.
According to the present invention, a lip portion is formed at the forward end of the car-interior-side side wall of the glass run so as to extend down below the car-interior-side opening end of groove portion of the window frame. Accordingly, if the terminal portion of the garnish is lifted up along the lip portion, the terminal portion is fitted in between the car-interior-side wall opening end and the lip portion surely. In addition, if another lip portion is formed at the forward end of the inside wall portion of the glass run, the lip presses onto the receiving portion of the opening end while the lip is bent. Accordingly, the forward end of the inside wall portion of the glass run is stabilized so that the terminal portion of the garnish engaged therewith is also stabilized.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a glass run which can reduce a collision sound caused by the opening and closing of a door in the condition that a window glass is opened slightly.
There is provided a vehicle door sealing structure for sealing off the inside of a cabin from the outside thereof with the glass run fitted in the window frame formed in a vehicle door; wherein shock absorbing means is provided in at least one of an inner circumferential surface of an upper portion of the window frame and an inside wall portion of the glass run.
The shock absorbing means is preferably provided to absorb the shock when the window glass collides with the glass run. It is therefore possible to reduce a collision sound generated by this collision.
Preferably, the glass run is constituted by a bottom wall portion and inside and outside wall portions so as to have a substantially U-shape in cross section, and glass seal portions are provided in the inside and outside wall portions, at least one of the glass seal portions being formed to extend from a middle of inside wall portion, an extended inside wall portion being formed between a base end portion of the glass seal portion and a forward end of the inside wall portion, the shock absorbing means being provided in at least one of the extended inside wall portion and the car-interior-side wall inner surface of the groove portion of the window frame corresponding to the extended inside wall portion.
In the above glass run, when the window glass is moved down slightly, it is possible to reduce a collision sound effectively, particularly in the glass run which is apt to be detached from the glass seal portion in the region of the glass run.
Preferably, the shock absorbing means is provided at least at a front end of an upper portion of a window frame of a front door, or in a vicinity of the front end of the upper side portion, or in the extended inside wall portion of the glass run corresponding to the front end of the upper portion of the window frame or the vicinity of the front end of the upper portion of the window frame.
In the above glass run, preferably, the shock absorbing means is provided at least at a rear end of an upper portion of a window frame of a rear door, or in a vicinity of the rear end of the upper portion, or in the extended inside wall portion of the glass run corresponding to the rear end of the upper portion of the window frame or the vicinity of the rear end of the upper portion of the window frame.
The shock absorbing means is preferably provided in a portion where the quantity of movement of the window glass increases when the door is opened or closed hard, so that it is possible to reduce a collision sound more effectively.
Preferably, the shock absorbing means is constituted by a hollow portion formed in the side wall portion of the glass run.
Preferably, the shock absorbing means is constituted by a lip portion formed in the inside wall portion of the glass run.
The operation of the invention can be attained with a simple structure.
Preferably, the lip portion is provided so that a forward end portion of the lip portion is released in a free state before the glass run is attached to the window frame, and the forward end portion abuts against a side surface of the inside wall portion so as to form a hollow portion in at least one of occasions when the window glass moves toward the car interior side and when the glass run is variously attached to the window frame.
The glass run in which shock absorbing means formed by a hollow portion is provided in the inside wall portion can be realized with a simple mold structure.
The shock absorbing means is preferably constituted by a sponge layer molded on at least one of surfaces of the inside wall portion of the glass run so as to be integrated with the inside wall portion.
The sponge layer is provided in the inside wall portion of the glass run, so that the operation of the invention can be attained with a simple structure. In addition, the sponge layer can be formed to be close to the forward end portion of the inside wall portion with respect to the open and close direction of the window glass. Accordingly, even if the window glass collides with the forward end of the inside wall portion of the glass run, the collision sound generated by the collision can be reduced.
The shock absorbing means may be a sponge member bonded onto at least one of a surface of the inside wall portion of the glass run and an inner circumferential surface of the window frame.
The sponge member is bonded onto at least one of the inside wall portion of the glass run and the inner circumferential surface of the window frame, so that the operation of the invention can be attained with a simple structure. In addition, a collision sound can be reduced more surely and effectively by adjusting the size and bonded position of the sponge member. Further, it is possible to use a common sponge member regardless of the shapes of the glass run and the window frame. In addition, when the sponge member is bonded onto the inside wall portion of the glass run, the work of bonding is so easy that it is possible to restrain the labor of a worker from increasing at the time of the work of assembling the glass run.
Features and advantages of the invention will be evident from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments described in conjunction with the attached drawings.

Glass run and attachment structure therefor


An image output apparatus and a camera each include a light source for illuminating an image recorded on a developed film drawn out from a loaded cartridge containing the developed film, an image reading device for reading information of the image through photoelectric conversion, and an image information output device for displaying the information of the image on an image display device. The image reading device is a two-dimensional photoelectric conversion device, which has a size approximately equal to or larger than a size of an image area on the developed film, is disposed in the proximity of the developed film, and receives light beams carrying the information of the image that have passed through the developed film or have passed through the developed film and imaged through an imaging lens system.

The present invention relates to an image output apparatus and a camera, and more particularly, to an image output apparatus having an image output function capable of displaying the image information of a developed photographic film and to a composite function type camera having this image output function built therein.
In recent Advanced Photo Systems (APS) having a new standard and using a silver halide film provided with a magnetic recording area, when a photographer takes a picture using a film of this new standard and requests a photo-labo to develop the film after it is exposed, the film having been developed is returned to the photographer in a state it is accommodated in a cartridge together with a print called an index print from which the photographer can get a glimpse of all the images recorded on the film. Thus, if the photographer loses the index print, he or she cannot confirm the photographing contents of the developed film.
The apparatus proposed by the applicant in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 5-75922 (Japanese Patent Application No. 3-190127 titled xe2x80x9cFilm Image Input Apparatusxe2x80x9d) can be exemplified as a technology for avoiding this drawback, the apparatus being capable of being loaded with a film cartridge as it is and reproducing the images recorded on the film accommodated in the film cartridge on a video monitor. That is, this apparatus is loaded with the cartridge in which a developed film is accommodated and reproduces the images recorded on the film drawn out from the cartridge on the video monitor.
This apparatus is dedicated for the reproduction of the images recorded on a film accommodated in a film cartridge on the video monitor as is apparent from its name. Further, the image reproducing mechanism of the apparatus is such that the images recorded on the film drawn out from the film cartridge loaded thereon are projected onto and formed on an image reading unit such as a CCD or the like using a lens system, and a result of photoelectric conversion of the images executed by the image reading unit is outputted to the video monitor as an image signal.
Further, the applicant proposed a camera having a photographed image reading unit built in the camera in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 10-301198 (Japanese Patent Application No. 9-111404 titled xe2x80x9cCameraxe2x80x9d). The camera can easily confirm the photographing contents of a developed film, independently from the above film image input apparatus. The camera includes, in addition to an ordinary photographing function, a photographed image reading unit for reading, when a loaded film is a developed film, the image information recorded on the developed film through photoelectric conversion and an image display unit for displaying images based on a signal outputted from the photographed image reading unit.
The camera according to the above application is additionally provided with a function for determining four states of a loaded film from the displays on a film cartridge, that is, a state in which the film is not yet used, a state in which the film is being used, a state in which the film has been used for photographing (not yet developed), and a state in which the film has been developed, in addition to that the camera effectively utilizes a film transportation mechanism which is intrinsically provided therewith such as a function for feeding the film, a function for winding the film and further a function for feeding the film frame by frame. Further, the camera is additionally provided with the above photoelectrially reading unit for reading a developed film, the above display unit for displaying the information of the read film, and a control function for automatically operating these units.
That is, when the camera according to this application is loaded with the above-mentioned film of the new standard, the camera determines a state of the film by the above determining function: when the film is not yet used, the camera functions as an ordinary camera, whereas, when the camera determines that the film has been developed, it can function as an image output apparatus instead of functioning as a camera. Thus, it is possible for the camera to output the images recorded on the developed film to the image display unit by the function of the camera as the image output apparatus. Note that when the film is being used or when images have been recorded on the film, the camera finishes processing.
The camera according to the above application also has a function as an image display apparatus (an image output apparatus) in addition to its intrinsic function as a camera, which can provide a novel, effective method of use of the camera such as a method of confirming the contents of a film cartridge even if only the film cartridge is available, a method of showing the contents of the film accommodated in the film cartridge to other persons, and the like, in addition to its use for coping with the above-mentioned case in which the index print is lost.
The former of the above conventional arts, that is, the film image input apparatus proposed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 5-75922 is an apparatus dedicated for reproducing images recorded on a film accommodated in a film cartridge onthe videmonitor. However, it is difficult to conceive that ordinary consumers purchase the apparatus which is by no means less expensive only for a purpose of viewing images recorded on a film. Further, since the film image input apparatus projects and forms images recorded on a film on the image reading unit such as the CCD or the like using the lens system, the apparatus has a problem in that an increase in size of the apparatus cannot help being avoided because a certain degree of distance must be secured from a film to the image reading unit such as the CCD or the like, in addition to a problem that the lens system is indispensable. This problem is a large bottleneck when, for example, it is intended to manufacture the film image input apparatus at a low cost so that it comes into widespread use in ordinary users.
In contrast, the latter of the above conventional arts, that is, the camera proposed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 10-301198 does not have the problem mentioned above because it directly reads images recorded on a film using a line CCD or an area CCD. However, when an ordinary camera is caused to function as an image output apparatus, there is another problem that a quantity of light which is necessary for illumination is insufficient to read the images recorded on a film.
Accordingly, it is a first object of the present invention, which was made in view of the circumstances of the above conventional arts, to provide an image output apparatus which is less expensive, the size of which can be easily reduced and which has a more practically usable image output function by further improving the above-mentioned image output apparatus and camera.
Further, second and third objects of the present invention are to provide a composite function type camera having the above-mentioned image output function built therein.
More specifically, the first object of the present invention is to provide an image output apparatus which does not need a lens system, the size of which can be reduced to a possible minimum size by setting a very short distance from a film to an image reading unit such as a CCD or the like, and which can effectively read images and is more practically usable.
Further, the second object of the present invention is to provide a composite function type camera having the above-mentioned image output function built therein.
Furthermore, the third object of the present invention is to provide a composite function type camera which can effectively read images by assembling a light source therein and includes an image output function having a higher degree of a practical use and built therein.
The inventors have completed this invention by examining to further improve the camera proposed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 10-301198 and by diligently performing studies to achieve the first, second, and third objects.
In order to attain the first object described above, the first aspect of the present invention provides an image output apparatus, comprising: a film transportation device for drawing out a developed film from a loaded cartridge containing the developed film, for stopping the developed film at a predetermined position, and thereafter for rewinding the developed film into the cartridge; a light source for illuminating an image recorded on the developed film; an image reading device disposed in a proximity of a transportation path of the developed film for reading information of the image recorded on the developed film through photoelectric conversion; and an image information output device for displaying the information of the image on an image display device, wherein the image reading device is a two-dimensional photoelectric conversion device having a size approximately equal to or larger than a size of an image area on the developed film, and light beams emitted from the light source pass through the developed film, are directly received by the image reading device, photoelectrically converted by the image reading device, and outputted to the image information output device as the information of the image.
Preferably, the light source is a parallel light source disposed on an opposite side of the image reading device with respect to the developed film.
Preferably, the light source is a spot light source disposed on an opposite side of the image reading device with respect to the developed film.
Preferably, the spot light source comprises a nonspot-shaped light source and a pinhole.
It is preferable that the image output apparatus further comprises a low-pass filter interposed between the light source and the image reading device.
Preferably, the image display device is any one of a home TV monitor, a CRT monitor, and a liquid crystal monitor.
In order to attain the second object described above, the second aspect of the present invention provides a camera, comprising: a film transportation device for drawing out an unexposed film or a developed film from a loaded cartridge containing the unexposed film or the developed film, for stopping the unexposed film or the developed film at a predetermined position, and thereafter for rewinding the unexposed film or the developed film into the cartridge; an image exposing device for recording images on the unexposed film being drawn out or being rewound frame by frame; a light source for illuminating an image recorded on the developed film; an image reading device disposed in a proximity of a transportation path of the developed film for reading information of the image recorded on the developed film through photoelectric conversion; and an image information output device for displaying the information of the image on an image display device, wherein the image reading device is a two-dimensional photoelectric conversion device having a size approximately equal to or larger than a size of an image area on the developed film, and light beams emitted from the light source pass through the developed film, are directly received by the image reading device, photoelectrically converted by the image reading device, and outputted to the image information output device as the information of the image.
Preferably, the light source is a parallel light source disposed on an opposite side of the image reading device with respect to the developed film.
Preferably, the light source is a spot light source disposed on an opposite side of the image reading device with respect to the developed film.
Preferably, the spot light source comprises a non-spot-shaped light source and a pinhole.
Preferably, the spot light source introduces light beams from an outside of the camera through a minute light transmission device.
It is preferable that the camera further comprises a low-pass filter interposed between the light source and the image reading device.
Preferably, the image display device is any one of a home TV monitor, a CRT monitor, and a liquid crystal monitor.
In order to attain the third object described above, the third aspect of the present invention provides a camera, comprising: a film transportation device for drawing out an unexposed film or a developed film from a loaded cartridge containing the unexposed film or the developed film, for stopping the unexposed film or the developed film at a predetermined position, and thereafter for rewinding the unexposed film or the developed film into the cartridge; an image exposing device for recording images on the unexposed film being drawn out or being rewound frame by frame, a light source for illuminating an image recorded on the developed film; an image reading device disposed in a proximity of a transportation path of the developed film for reading information of the image recorded on the developed film through photoelectric conversion; and an image information output device for displaying the information of the image on an image display device, wherein the image reading device is a two-dimensional photoelectric conversion device, and light beams emitted from the light source pass through the developed film and an imaging lens system, are received by the image reading device, photoelectrically converted by the image reading device, and outputted to the image information output device as the information of the image.
Preferably, the light source is a parallel light source disposed on an opposite side of the image reading device with respect to the developed film.
Preferably, the light source is a spot light source disposed on an opposite side of the image reading device with respect to the developed film.
Preferably, the spot light source comprises a non-spot-shaped light source and a pinhole.
Preferably, the spot light source introduces light beams from an outside of the camera through a minute light transmission device.
It is preferably that the camera further comprises a low-pass filter interposed between the light source and the image reading device.
Preferably, the image display device is any one of a home TV monitor, a CRT monitor, and a liquid crystal monitor.


A probe head includes sensors having, in each instance, a pressure-sensitive surface, electrical signal being producible by the sensors when pressure forces are acting. Furthermore, the probe head has mechanical transmission elements and a holding element for positioning the transmission elements with respect to the sensors. The holding element is fixed in a stationary manner relative to the sensors and is configured such that the transmission elements are movable relative to the sensors in a direction having a directional component orthogonal to the surface. Furthermore, the probe head includes a probe element, which is deflectable relative to the sensors. The probe element, the sensors and the transmission elements are arranged in a mechanical operative connection such that by contacting the probe element, a change in the level of the electrical signal is producible by at least one of the sensors.

A probe system normally includes a mobile probe head and a stationary part. Such a probe head is often used in the form of a probe switch or a switching probe having a deflectable probe element which generates a switching signal in response to a deflection out of its rest position. Such probe heads are used particularly for determining the position of workpieces. These may be clamped into material-working machines, machine tools, for example. In this context, the rest position of the probe element or a stylus is understood as a position in which the stylus has no contact with the workpiece to be probed. When the stylus contacts the workpiece, the probe element is deflected from its rest position, even if only minimally, and an electrical signal is produced by a suitable transducer if the deflection or the force exerted on sensors in the probe head exceeds a specified threshold. The electrical signal is then frequently converted into an infrared signal such that a contactless and wireless signal transmission to the stationary part of the probe system is achieved in this manner.
A probe head of the kind mentioned above is described in European Published Patent Application No. 0 423 307, in which arms of a probe element or stylus holder cause deformations in the so-called seat elements when making probing contact, the deformations being measured and being able to trigger corresponding probe signals. For this purpose, the seat elements are arranged slanted or arched in diametrically opposed pairs. Such an arrangement is believed to have several disadvantages. For example, following repeated deflection of the probe element, a precise position of the introduction of force into the sensors cannot be ensured in a reproducible manner.


An apparatus for transferring data in a time-sharing mode includes a plurality of modules connected to a common bus line for transferring data therethrough, a bus controller for controlling a time-sharing transfer of data between the modules, and a system controller connected to the modules and bus controller through a bidirectional command line. The system controller is operable, upon receipt of a data transfer request or data transfer completion notice from certain of the modules, to command the bus controller to generate or eliminate a bus slot. Then, the bus controller sets a new bus slot to a bus cycle, or eliminates a designated slot from the bus cycle, thereby to vary the number of slots constituting the bus cycle. Slot enable signals corresponding to the respective slots are transmitted to the modules through the bus line. Each module successively compares a slot number and slot enable signals, and exchanges data with the bus line upon agreement between the slot number and slot enable signals.

(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a time-sharing data transfer apparatus for a data processing system including a plurality of modules interconnected through a common data bus, in which the modules use the data bus in a time-sharing mode for data transfer.
(2) Description of the Related Art
The following methods have heretofore been proposed for utilizing a common data bus in a time-sharing mode to transfer data among modules constituting a system:


Synthetic derivatives or intermediates of xylomollin are identified which can be used as insect feeding deterrents. The identified derivatives or intermediates exhibiting antifeeding activity include glutaraldehyde and carbocyclic or heterocyclic dialdehydes wherein the aldehyde groups are positioned on adjacent carbons of the carbocyclic or heterocyclic rings. The active compounds also include the hemiacetal hemiacetal equivalents, the acetal hemiacetal equivalents and the vinyl ether equivalents of the dialdehydes.

The present invention relates to the identification of compounds which deter feeding by insects and in particular such compounds which are structurally related to xylomollin, a naturally occurring feeding deterrent.
Heavy use of insecticides presents environmental dangers and promotes the development of resistant insect populations. One alternative to present practices relating to insecticide use involves the application on crops of chemicals which inhibit or deter feeding thereon by insects. Use of naturally occuring feeding deterrants and their derivatives for crop protection is appealing because such compounds do not need to be toxic to work and therefore the additional concerns of toxicity to other animals, and in particular to mammals, are avoided. Folklore and stories of traditional farming practices are replete with references to feeding deterrent or repellent properties of plants. A well known practice involves the placement of hedge apples in the corners of basements or root cellars to repel crickets and other insects, spiders and even some rodents.
Extracts from plants known to exhibit antifeeding activity have been used in compositions developed for commercial utilization. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,290,557 to Mason et al. discloses the use of saponin containing extracts of Yucca schidigera as an antifeedant to control terrestrial molluscs. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 4,676,985 to Gould et al. discloses a process of protecting crops from damage by coating seeds or seedlings with an extract from plants having feeding deterrent activity such as extracts from butterfly milkweed, English ivy, santolina, bergamot, clary and swamp milkweed.
Others have focused on identifying derivatives of naturally occuring insect feeding deterrants which also exhibit feeding deterrant activity and which can be synthesized commercially. U.S. Pat. No. 5,047,242 to Klocke et al. identifies derivatives of azadirachtin which exhibit antifeedant activity. Azadirachtin is a naturally occuring feeding deterrant which can be isolated from the seeds of the neem tree and from the fruits of the chinaberry tree. U.S. Pat. No. 4,960,791 to Klocke et al. identifies antifeedant derivatives of salannin which is a naturally occuring insect antifeedant related to azadirachtin. U.S. Pat. No. 4,855,319 to Mikolajczak et al. discloses use of asimicin as a feeding deterrent. Asimicin is a derivative of tetrahydrofuranoid acetogenins, which are characteristic of the Annonaceae plant family and known feeding deterrants.
As of yet, it does not appear that any of these compositions have achieved wide-spread commercial use or success. The lack of commercial success of such compositions may be due to the relative high cost in obtaining large quantities of the specified plant extracts or in synthesizing the relatively complex chemical derivatives of naturally occuring antifeedants identified to date. Derivatives of naturally occurring feeding deterrents still provide a promising avenue for alternatives to currently available insecticides for use in integrated pest management programs. The compounds should be ecologically sound and non-toxic to mammals. The synthesis of these compounds should be relatively inexpensive and result in the production of relatively stable compounds with the minimal structural components necessary for relatively high activity.
Xylomollin, which has the following chemical formula: ##STR1## is found in the unripened fruit of the East African tree Xyloccarpus molluscensis (Meliaceae) and has been previously identified as a potent feeding deterrent. However, due to the complexity of xylomollin's chemical structure, currently known methods of synthesizing xylomollin are prohibitively expensive for commercial purposes.

Xylomollin derivatives for use as insect feeding deterrents


A computer-implemented technique is described herein for retrieving at least one recommended output image. In one implementation, the technique uses a generator component to transform first-part image information, associated with a first-part image selected by a user, into one or more instances of second-part generated image information. Each instance of the second-part generated image information complements the first-part image information. The generator component is trained by a computer-implemented training system using a conditional generative adversarial network (cGAN). The technique further includes: retrieving one or more second-part output images from a data store based on the instance(s) of second-part generated image information; generating a user interface presentation that presents the first-part image and the second-part output image(s); and displaying the user interface presentation on a display device. In one example, the first-part image and the second-part output images show complementary apparel items.

Computing systems often employ recommendation engines to suggest one or more digital items, given a user's selection of an initial digital item. In a common strategy, a recommendation engine may regard digital items as related based on a consideration of click count information. For example, the recommendation engine can determine that two digital items are related if many users who click on (or otherwise interact with) a first digital item also click on a second digital item. This measure of relatedness, however, is noisy because it encompasses a variety of reasons why users have interacted with the digital items. This measure of relatedness is therefore not sufficiently nuanced to pinpoint those occasions in which a user is attempting to find two complementary digital items, e.g., as when the user is attempting to find images of complementary items of apparel.

Finding complementary digital images using a conditional generative adversarial network


Methods, systems, and apparatuses for defending against cryptographic attacks using clock period randomization. The methods, systems, and apparatuses are designed to make side channel attacks and fault injection attacks more difficult by using a clock with a variable period during a cryptographic operation. In an example embodiment, a clock period randomizer includes a fixed delay generator and a variable delay generator, wherein a variable delay generated by the variable delay generator is based on a random or pseudorandom value that is changed occasionally or periodically. The methods, systems, and apparatuses are useful in hardware security applications where fault injection and/or side channel attacks are of concern.

Many computing systems use cryptography to implement secure communication between entities. Modern cryptographic systems typically rely on keys, some of which must be kept secret from the outside world in order to maintain security. Numerous approaches have been proposed and implemented for extracting these keys clandestinely.
Two categories of cryptographic attacks are side-channel attacks and fault injection attacks. In a side-channel attack, the attacker monitors the device executing the cryptographic algorithm. For example, during execution, the device's power consumption, electromagnetic radiation, and/or acoustic emission may provide an attacker with information regarding data processed and instructions executed because instructions may provide a characteristic signature when operating on particular data. If the attacker has access to the device and iteratively varies the inputs, information regarding the private key can be gleaned. Knowing the particular cryptographic algorithm and its weakness to a fault injection attack, with only a feasible amount of repetition, the attacker may be able to deduce the cryptographic key.
In a fault injection attack, the attacker injects a fault into execution and monitors the outcome. Fault injections include varying the power supply, altering the device's clock period, altering the temperature, or using light, laser, x-rays, or ions to cause a fault. For example, varying the power supply may cause a glitch resulting in an instruction skip. Skipping a conditional jump instruction could bypass an important security check. Varying the clock may result in a data misread (e.g., reading a value from the data bus before memory had provided the appropriate value to the bus) or an instruction miss (e.g. a circuit begins executing an instruction before the processor finishes completing the previous instruction). In another example, because RAM may have one temperature tolerance for a write and a different temperature tolerance for a read, changing the temperature to a number between these two temperature tolerances will put the device in a state where data can be written to, but not read from, RAM, or vice versa, depending on which temperature tolerance is higher.
If a cryptographic attack is able to extract the secret key from a device, the device's security is compromised. Therefore, it is desirable to make the attack process as difficult as possible.

Clock period randomization for defense against cryptographic attacks