Provided herein are the long-acting injection compositions of β3 adrenoreceptor agonists like mirabegron or their pharmaceutically acceptable salts or esters thereof. The present invention also relates to methods for preparing long-acting injection compositions and methods of using these dosage forms for the treatment of obesity, metabolic diseases, and other diseases as described herein. The long-acting injection compositions as per the present invention have desirable pharmaceutical technical attributes.

Obesity is becoming a growing concern in modern life due to its negative health effects on individual life. Obesity may be defined as abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that may impair health and body normal functions. Body mass index (BMI) is one of the index which is used as an indicator to define the measure of obesity in adults. Obesity is associated with increased risk of morbidity and mortality due to its associated chronic diseases such as metabolic diseases, hypertension, diabetes, patients at risk of having diabetes (pre-diabetes), cardiovascular diseases, hyperglycemia, gallbladder diseases, and even some types of cancer.
As a treatment option for obesity, both surgical and non-surgical methods are available. Surgical procedures in the treatment of obesity include various procedures such as biliopancreatic diversion, adjustable gastric banding, vertical banded gastroplasty, gastric plications, gastrostomies (stomach portion removal), stomach stapling and gastric and intestinal bypasses, and like. However, such surgical procedures involve a variety of complications and risks, during surgery as well as post-surgery.
Under non-surgical methods, the first line of treatment is to offer diet and lifestyle advice to patients such as reducing the fat content of their diet and increasing their physical activity. However, many patients find this difficult and need additional help from drug therapy to maintain results from these efforts. Currently, many drug therapies are approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) for the treatment of obesity such as orlistat, lorcaserin, liraglutide, phentermine hydrochloride, phentermine-topiramate combination, and naltrexone-bupropion combination. These drug therapies usually work with their associated mechanism of action such as reducing the amount of fat absorption from food, acting on the serotonin receptors, decreasing energy intake by suppressing appetite through stimulating the central nervous system, etc. However, these drug therapies do not provide long-term benefits and are accompanied by potentially harmful side effects. Thus, other efficient alternative approaches to overcome obesity are a need of an hour.
One area of focus for the treatment of obesity can be the promotion of energy expenditure through activation of a β3-adrenergic receptor on brown adipocytes. There are two types of adipose tissue that exist in mammals, white adipose tissue (WAT), which is specialized in the storage of excessive triglycerides, and brown adipose tissue (BAT), which plays a central role in metabolizing glucose, fatty acids, and other chemicals to produce heat. The activation of brown adipose tissue (BAT) can increase energy expenditure which makes brown adipose tissue (BAT) a promising new target for obesity and other metabolic diseases including type 2 diabetes. However, none of the anti-obesity drugs including β3-adrenergic receptor agonists have been approved in the USA for the treatment of obesity and its related metabolic disorders through stimulating brown adipose tissue (BAT) activity.
Mirabegron is one of the β3-adrenergic receptor agonist approved for the treatment of overactive bladder and its associated symptoms. Presently, Mirabegron is approved in the form of solid oral dosage forms in the US market as extended-release tablets in strengths of 25 mg and 50 mg. Mirabegron is chemically known as (R)-2-(2-aminothiazol-4-yl)-4′-{2-[(2-hydroxy-2 phenylethyl)amino]ethyl}acetanilide. It is represented with the following chemical structure:

Mirabegron compound is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,346,532. Further, U.S. Pat. No. 10,842,780 disclose sustained-release, hydrogel-forming oral formulations of mirabegron. U.S. Pat. No. 8,835,474 and RE44,872 disclose methods of using mirabegron for the treatment of overactive bladder (OAB). U.S. Pat. No. 8,772,315 disclose combinations of mirabegron and solifenacin and methods of using such combinations for the treatment of OAB.
The use of β3-adrenergic receptor agonists including mirabegron in the treatment of obesity and metabolic disease is known in the literature. Effect of mirabegron to stimulate the activity of brown adipose tissue (BAT) thermogenesis was recently disclosed in 2015 (Cypess et al., "Activation of human brown adipose tissue by a beta3-adrenergic receptor agonist," Cell metabolism 21:33-38 (2015)). Since then, the clinical use of mirabegron and other β3-adrenergic receptor agonists in the treatment of obesity and its related metabolic disorders has become a topic of interest.
However, till date, no β3-adrenergic receptor agonist is approved in the USA market for the treatment of obesity, fat reduction/removal, and its related metabolic disorders. Moreover, the determination of critical parameters of various clinical candidates or molecules associated with drug development needs to be successfully optimized such as selection of suitable dose, suitable dosage form, suitable route of administration, suitable dosing regimen, effect in animals and humans Thus, there is an unmet need to provide an effective drug delivery system of an β3-adrenergic receptor agonist such as mirabegron.
Mirabegron is soluble in water between neutral to acidic pH. Moreover, the bioavailability of mirabegron is affected by the presence of food in the GI (Gastro-Intestinal) tract. Therefore, to prevent this food effect, the commercially available pharmaceutical formulations of mirabegron are in the form of extended-release tablet formulation based on an orally controlled absorption system (OCAS®) technology. These properties of mirabegron may pose multiple challenges for formulation scientists in the dosage forms development. Moreover, the use of oral dosage form in the treatment of obesity and its related metabolic disorders may not be a suitable approach due to a number of factors such as frequent dosage administration, long treatment period, patient compliance, and low bioavailability.
The bioavailability of the β3-adrenergic receptor agonists can be improved via the injectable route of administration, more particularly a long-acting (extended or sustained release) injectable formulation may provide a higher level of bioavailability after intramuscular or subcutaneous administration than the oral route.
U.S. Patent Publication No. 2018/0326080 assigned to Purdue Research Foundation discloses the utilization of novel polymer-based systems that allow controlled generation of brown/beige adipose tissues for the treatment of obesity and diabetes. This publication also discloses making a microsphere polymer-based drug delivery system via combining a drug with a polymer matrix system. However, the said patent publication fails to exemplify any long-acting injection composition of mirabegron.
In addition to the benefits of increased medication compliance attained through the long-acting injection dosage form, an injectable formulation may also increase the bioavailability of β3-adrenergic receptor agonists particularly mirabegron. The increase in bioavailability of an injectable formulation can provide therapeutic plasma concentration levels with a dose that can be administered intramuscularly or subcutaneously daily, once in every three days, weekly, once in two weeks, once in three weeks, monthly, once in two months, once in three months or once in six months. The total injected dose can be considerably lower than the oral daily dose required over the same time period, thus reducing toxicity and improving patient compliance.
Therefore, in view of the advantages associated with long-acting formulations, there is an unmet need to develop long-acting parenteral formulations of mirabegron, which would provide a higher compliance rate along with maintaining therapeutic levels of the drug in the patient's system for a long period of time (days, weeks, months, or even years) for the treatment of obesity and its related metabolic disorders or diseases as described herein.

Long-acting injection dosage form of beta 3 adrenoreceptor agonists


An example method for service insertion in a network environment is provided in one example and includes configuring a service node by tagging one or more interface ports of a virtual switch function to which the service node is connected with one or more policy identifiers. When data traffic associated with a policy identifier is received on a virtual overlay path the virtual switch function may then terminate the virtual overlay path and direct raw data traffic to the interface port of the service node that is tagged to the policy identifier associated with the data traffic.

Data centers may host applications and store large amounts of data for an organization or multiple organizations. An enterprise data center may be privately owned and discretely provide services for a number of customers, with each customer using data center resources by way of private networks. In addition, these data centers provide server and desktop virtualization that is dramatically changing the enterprise network by creating many virtual "networks" which connect virtual machines and the physical networks through virtual switches. In this new network paradigm, many new network service requirements are imposed on modern Information Technology (IT) network infrastructure.
The service requirements (e.g., load balancing, wide area network (WAN) acceleration, network security, etc.) have traditionally been provided by inline network appliances, referred to as service nodes. These inline network appliances do not scale well in a virtualized network environment in which end point applications are provided by virtual machines. At any given point in time, virtual machines are being instantiated, stopped, and dynamically migrated to another physical host. In a virtual network, the network services should support this dynamic provisioning scalability, and virtual machine mobility.

Architecture for agentless service insertion


A measuring gauge includes a rotatable LED pointer having a light output. As the pointer is rotated about a lens at a constant rate, the output of the LED pointer appears as an arc of light to a user. The arc of light represents a quantity of a desired display unit. A brushless motor and a rotary transformer are magnetically coupled to the LED pointer. A high speed controller is coupled to the motor and the rotary transformer. The controller receives an indication of the quantity and is responsively programmed to actuate the rotary transformer in order to illuminate the LED pointer as it rotates radially about a face of a graduated lens at a substantially constant speed and to activate and deactivate the LED pointer so as to adjust the length of the arc of light and thereby to indicate the quantity of the desired display unit to the user.

The typical motors used for gauges in vehicles to indicate engine revolutions per minute (RPM) are of the cross-coil type and are sometimes referred to sine/cosine, air core, or D'Arsonval meters/motors. In addition, some gauges use a stepper motor to provide the drive force to position a pointer to indicate a reading to the vehicle operator.
In many of the previous systems, the pointer has a limited rotation angle due to the type of meter or motor used. Another limitation of previous systems is that the pointer often has a nonlinear position movement in relation to the input voltage. In some previous systems, lookup tables have been used to attempt to correct for this non-linearity while, in other systems, microprocessors have been employed in an attempt to calculate offset correction values.
Even with the use of correction tables and microprocessors, these previous systems can not indicate an accurate value for RPM or any measurement better than plus or minus one and one-half percent of the correct value across the full tachometer RPM range. This equates to over 180 RPM error at a 12,000-RPM full scale reading. Also, since this error is not constant and is much larger at the extreme ends of the angular rotation, the lowest and highest RPM values typically have the most display error.
Still another shortcoming of the air core meter is the acceleration capability of the air core meter to rapidly swing the pointer so that the RPM pointer does not lag behind the actual engine RPM. Many meter movements have limited position acceleration rates to avoid pointer jitter at low engine RPM when the input RPM data is at a low repetition rate.
In some previous systems a constant light source was used to illuminate the meter pointer. For example, in some previous systems, several light sources were embedded in a translucent material to conduct light to the center pointer shaft, which caused light to reflect along the pointer shaft. In other previous systems, rotating springs were connected to the pointer shaft to apply a power input to the pointer, which contained an embedded light source. Still other systems used a translucent material to mount both the light source and the drive circuit, thereby illuminating the faceplate and pointer. In yet other systems, multiple LEDs were used to backlight a tachometer or other gauge, which also illuminated the pointer in the center of the illuminated display.
However, in all of these previous systems, no control of the light source was provided. Moreover, the systems often had complex arrangements for providing and maintaining the light source and these arrangements were difficult and/or costly to construct and maintain.
Furthermore, in many previous systems, external switches were used for functions such as peak RPM reset and RPM switch function programming. However, these approaches led to complex devices requiring a cable from the tachometer to a switch module, mounts for the switch module, and frequent noise interference coupled into the external module or cable connecting the tachometer and switch module. Moreover, these mechanical switches were often subject to vibration, electrical and mechanical wear, and/or damage to the interconnecting cable or possible interference by the cable and other system components.

System and method for providing a display utilizing a fast photon indicator


A blasting apparatus and a blasting method enable a processing pattern to be enlarged or modified in a suction type blasting apparatus by using a relatively simple composition, and also permit stable, continuous ejection of an abrasive in the enlarged or modified processing pattern. A nozzle (42) of a blast gun (40) of a suction type blasting apparatus is surrounded by a nozzle cover (49) with a predetermined gap provided therebetween, and a passage (43) which is opened in an abrasive ejecting direction between the outer periphery of the nozzle (42) and the inner periphery of the nozzle cover (49) is communicated with a supply source of compressed air. An abrasive dispersion chamber (52) serving as a dispersing nozzle is connected to an ejection port (47) of the blast gun (40).

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a blasting apparatus used for ejecting at high speed an abrasive or grinding material composed of natural silica sand, alumina or silicon carbide powder, glass beads, fine steel balls, etc. with a fluid such as air in order to form a satin finish pattern or other pattern on a workpiece, or to perform precision engraving of glass, silicon wafers, etc., engraving of the ribs of plasma displays, coating engraving, the surface treatment such as coating pretreatment, or blasting for surface processing and, more particularly, to a blasting method and a blasting apparatus which make it possible to enlarge or modify a processing shape (herein after referred to as "processing pattern"), which is to be formed on the surface of a workpiece, by ejecting an abrasive and also to ensure uniform blast density of the abrasive in the processing pattern.
2. Description of Prior Art
Hitherto, as a suction type blast gun for this type of blasting apparatus, a blast gun 10 shown in FIG. 9, for example,has been used. The blast gun 10 is equipped with a gun main body 11 which has an abrasive intake chamber 12 into which an abrasive is introduced through an abrasive introducing inlet 24 via an abrasive hose 31 from a recovery tank of a blasting apparatus. The abrasive intake chamber 12 has a conical inner surface 16 at the front end thereof, a nozzle 14 being provided at the conical inner surface 16.
The distal end of a jet 13 having the rear end thereof in communication with a supply source of compressed air, not shown, is inserted in the conical inner surface 16 from the rear of the abrasive intake chamber 12 so that compressed air having a relatively high pressure supplied from the supply source of compressed air, may be injected through the injection outlet at the distal end of the jet 13.
A cylindrical holder 15 has a tapered inner peripheral surface. The tapered portion of the outer peripheral nozzle 14 is fitted to the tapered portion of the inner periphery of the holder 15 and the threaded portion formed on the outer periphery of the holder 15 is screwed, for example, to the gun main body 11 so as to secure the nozzle 14 to the gun main body 11.
In the blast gun 10 constructed as described above, when high pressure air is injected through the distal end of the jet 13, which is in communication with the supply source of compressed air, via the hose 32, negative pressure is produced in the abrasive intake chamber 12. The negative pressure causes the abrasive in the recovery tank, not shown, to be sucked into the abrasive intake chamber 12 via the abrasive hose 31.
The abrasive in the abrasive intake chamber 12 is drawn into an annular gap between the conical inner surface 16 and the outer periphery of the jet 13, then it rides on an air stream injected from the jet 13 so that it is sprayed while conically dispersing outside the nozzle 14 to form an approximately circular processing pattern on the surface of a workpiece.
In such a conventional suction type blast gun 10, the inside diameter of the ejection hole of the jet 13 is made small in order to permit high speed air stream released from the jet 13; therefore, the effective injection range wherein uniform processing by an abrasive ejected with an air stream, which is emitted from the jet 13 and which has a small sectional area, can be achieved is determined by the inside diameter of the ejection hole of the nozzle 14, and the processing pattern is accordingly limited.
Hence, in order to carry out blasting on a workpiece to a desired pattern, it is required to move the blast gun 10 and/or the workpiece or to take other similar measures to continue the intended pattern formed by the blast gun.
In the processing method described above, however, if a blast gun for a relatively small processing pattern is used, then the blast gun and/or the workpiece must be moved over a large area This requires relative long time to finish one processing cycle and also requires that the blast gun or the workpiece be moved accurately at a constant speed and at constant intervals in order to perform uniform processing on the workpiece, thus making the blasting difficult. For this reason, there has been a demand for developing of a blast gun which permits a larger processing pattern and also a uniform blast density of an abrasive in the processing pattern.
The suction type blast gun, however, cannot meet the demand for a larger processing pattern by using such a simply method in which the inside diameter of the ejection hole, i.e. the nozzle diameter, of the nozzle 14 of the blast gun 10 is increased.
If the inside diameter of the jet 13 is made larger to provide a larger processing pattern, then the injection speed and the injection pressure of the air stream emitted from the jet will decrease; therefore, in order to maintain the injection speed and the injection pressure at constant levels, it would be necessary to employ a larger compressor or the like with a larger capacity as the supply source of compressed air, inevitably making the apparatus larger and more expensive. If the inside diameter of the nozzle or the jet is increased to provide larger processing patterns, then the abrasive blast density in a processing pattern would be uneven, resulting in uneven blasting effects.
In view of the shortcomings of the prior art described above, the applicant has already applied the invention on a method and apparatus for increasing the width of a processing pattern by ejecting two air streams toward nearly the same positions with respect to the center of an injection stream of a mixed fluid composed of an abrasive and compressed air emitted from a blast gun in such a manner that they hold the jet stream of the mixed fluid therebetween (Japanese Patent Application No. 7-79163 applied on Apr. 4, 1995 not laid open before the convention date on which the present application is based).
According to the method and apparatus disclosed under Japanese Patent Application No. 7-79163, the processing pattern can be made significantly wider than that of a conventional blast gun and a uniform blast density of an abrasive in the processing pattern can be achieved.
The processing patterns produced by the aforesaid method is limited to circular or elliptic patterns, and it is difficult to change the processing patterns according to the material of the workpiece, the processing conditions, processing shape, etc., thus limiting the enlargement of the processing patterns.
In addition to the suction type blasting apparatus, there is a straight-hydraulic type blasting apparatus. In this straight-hydraulic type blasting apparatus, fine particles are sealed in an abrasive tank, compressed air is supplied into the tank, and the fine particles ejected through an outlet connected to the bottom of the tank are ejected with the compressed air through the nozzle; therefore, this type of blasting apparatus does not have the member corresponding to the jet of the suction type blasting apparatus, making it possible to easily enlarge the processing patterns by increasing the inside diameter of the nozzle. The straight-hydraulic blasting apparatus, however, has shortcomings such as the need for stopping the blasting apparatus to supply the abrasive when the tank has run out of the abrasive, making it unsuitable for continuous processing based on continuous blast of an abrasive. In addition, the amount of injected abrasive varies, depending on the amount of the abrasive present in the abrasive tank, leading to such problems as variations in the processing accuracy as time elapses when an abrasive is ejected continuously for a predetermined time. Thus, the straight-hydraulic blasting apparatus is unsuitable especially for forming ribs or barriers of plasma displays or precision machining and micro-machining of sapphire, glass, silicon wafer, ceramics, or other materials used for semiconductors and other electronic equipment parts.


The invention provides a novel 3-phase electronic tap changer commutation and related device. In one embodiment, the invention includes firing a commutation silicon controlled rectifier (SCR), removing a gating signal from a first SCR connected to a first of the plurality of taps, firing a second SCR connected to a second of the plurality of taps, and removing a gating signal from the commutation SCR.

(1) Field of the Invention
This invention applies to voltage regulators, and more particularly to a 3-phase alternating current (AC) electronic tap-changing voltage regulator. The present invention provides a specific transformer winding topology and commutation technique that improves performance and reduces cost compared to conventional methods.
(2) Background Art
Tap changing transformers are commonly used to regulate AC voltage in both low power, low voltage applications, and high power applications at distribution level voltages. Distribution level regulators typically consist of a multi-tapped transformer winding coupled to a mechanical tap changer so that regulation within +/−10% of nominal voltage is possible. These tap changer designs incorporate various mechanisms to ensure that, when transitioning from one tap to the next under load conditions, load current is not interrupted and arcing and inter-tap short circuit current are minimized.
In low voltage (e.g., less than about 1000V) and lower power applications (e.g., less than about 1 MVA) mechanical tap changers are often implemented using a simpler design incorporating a sliding commutation brush which can be positioned at arbitrary points along an exposed transformer winding in order to achieve the change in effective turns ratio. This technique has much lower cost than a discrete tap changer of the type used at higher power levels, but does not provide the same performance and also requires more maintenance.
Electronic tap changers are also commonly used in low voltage and low (e.g., less than about 1 kVA) to moderate (e.g., about 500 kVA) power levels. Referring now to FIGS. 1-3, three known devices are shown. In FIG. 1, an electronic tap changer 10 comprises an electronic switch 20, 22, 24 connected to each tap 12, 14, 16 of a multi-tapped transformer 40 or auto transformer. Typically, each switch 20, 22, 24 includes back-to-back connected silicon controlled rectifiers (SCRs) 30, due to their low cost, simplicity, and ruggedness. By actively selecting which SCRs 30 are firing (e.g., by using appropriate sensing and gating controls, for example), the effective turns ratio of the transformer 40 can be controlled, so that the output voltage may be varied for a constant input voltage (as supplied by an AC voltage source 50), or, in the case of a regulator, the output voltage may be made constant within a certain tolerance under conditions of varying input voltage. Tap changer 10 may include other components, as would be recognized by one of ordinary skill in the art, including, for example, ground connections 32, loads 34, etc.
An alternative implementation to the basic electronic tap changer 10 (FIG. 1) is shown in FIG. 2. Here, a series transformer secondary winding 60 reduces the current through the electronic switches 20, 22, 24, while increasing the voltage withstand capability of each switch.
In any SCR-based on load tap changer, provisions must be made to avoid both load current discontinuity and high inter-tap circulating current when commutating the load current from one set of active SCRs to another (i.e., making a tap change). This is the same fundamental problem which must be addressed in the design of high power, discrete mechanical-on-load tap changers. The unique problem in the case of SCR based tap changers is a result of the gating characteristics of SCRs. That is, SCRs may be turned on at any arbitrary time, but will only cease to conduct when the load current naturally falls to zero (normally once each electrical half cycle).
When commutating from an 'old' tap to a 'new' tap, if the new tap SCR is fired before the old tap SCR has ceased conducting, short circuit current will potentially flow between the two taps until the old tap SCR current flows through current zero. This current overload is potentially damaging to the SCRs and transformer windings, and may result in a voltage drop as the short circuit current flows through the source impedance. Conversely, if a delay is used such that the old tap SCR is allowed sufficient time to turn off and regain its voltage blocking ability before the new tap SCR is activated, the current discontinuity which exists during the delay period may result in damaging or unacceptable voltage transients for inductive loads.
Referring now to FIG. 3, this problem can be solved by adding a commutating current path 70 through an impedance element (e.g., commutation resistor 80). This is a basic representation of one of many methods commonly utilized in high power, mechanical tap changers. In a device according to FIG. 3, when commutating from tap 12 to tap 14, for example, the SCR pair 26 connected to the commutation resistor 80 is first gated, resulting in short circuit current between the two taps 12, 14, which is limited by resistor 80 to an acceptable level. After the tap 12 conducting SCR 20 has naturally ceased to conduct, the tap 14 SCRs 22, 26 may be fired after some delay but with no concern for a current discontinuity as the load current may continue to flow through the resistor 80 until the tap 14 SCRs 22, 26 are conducting, at which time the gate signals of SCR pair 26 are removed.
The wiring scheme of FIG. 3, or one of its known derivatives, could be implemented on each tap in a 3-phase regulator in order to implement an acceptable commutation scheme for all possible tap changes. The additional complexity of this scheme, however, results in a substantial additional cost which may render the entire device impractical, and the additional control complexity and parts count reduces the reliability of the device.

3-phase electronic tap changer commutation and device


A sliding door with reversible hand configurations can include a plurality of mounting locations along a top and a bottom edge thereof. The plurality of mounting locations can be configured to allow the sliding door to selectively hang and operate according to multiple orientations in order to satisfy site-specific handedness requirements. In one implementation, the sliding door includes a door frame and mounting hardware for selectively mounting the sliding door to a roller track affixed near the upper portion of a doorway.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates generally to door systems and components, such as door systems and components for use with movable walls.
2. Background and Relevant Art
Office space can be relatively expensive, not only due to the basic costs of the location and size of the office space, but also due to any construction needed to configure the office space in a particular way. An organization might purchase or rent a large open space in an office complex, and then subdivide or partition the open space into various offices, conference rooms, or cubicles, depending on the organization's needs and size constraints. Rather than having to find new office space and move as an organization's needs change, it is often necessary to have a convenient and efficient means to reconfigure the existing office space. Many organizations address their configuration and reconfiguration issues by dividing large, open office spaces into individual work areas using modular walls and partitions.
In particular, at least one advantage of modular systems is that they are relatively easy to configure. In addition, another advantage is that modular systems can be less expensive to set up, and can be reconfigured more easily than more permanently constructed office dividers. For example, a set of offices and a conference area can be carved out of a larger space in a relatively short period of time with the use of modular systems. If needs change, the organization can readily reconfigure the space.
In general, modular office partitions typically include a series of individual wall modules (and/or panels). The individual wall modules can either be free-standing or rigidly attached to one or more support structures. In addition, the wall modules are typically designed so that they can be assembled together to form a range of different configurations. In particular, a manufacturer or assembler can usually align and join the various wall modules together in almost any particular design, and then secure the design in place with any number of fasteners. These designs can include anything from large conference spaces to individual offices. A "finished" look is generally completed by adding gaskets or trim pieces in the joints between wall modules.
In addition, one will appreciate that many modular wall partitions will need to implement a closure apparatus, such as a door. Doors are manufactured for use in a variety of settings including both exterior as well as interior settings. Manufacturers fabricate doors to suit the end uses found in the various applications in which the doors are to be used. In turn, doors provide a convenient way to enter and exit structures or interior spaces as well as to selectively open and close entrances. The necessary configuration of a particular door is determined by the specific requirements of the site where the door is being installed. These requirements may dictate the direction a door is to be opened, the type of door to be used, the configuration of mounting hardware, and how the door is to be installed, among other aspects.
One particular use for doors is in conjunction with modular wall systems used to reconfigurably divide interior spaces. Of course, there are many types of doors from which to choose. In some cases, a manufacturer or designer will opt for a conventional swinging door, while in other cases, the manufacturer might opt for a sliding door configuration, whether for various aesthetic or space saving purposes. Regardless of the specific style or layout of the door, a manufacturer will typically need to fabricate a given door to suit a specific end-use found in the various applications in which the doors are to be used. One common consideration that will usually need to be taken into account is whether the door is a "left-handed" or "right-handed" door.
Manufacturers of sliding doors often fabricate doors with handles located on a selected side in order to allow the door to be opened in a desired direction. The door's hand is determined by the location of a door handle and the direction a door is opened. In general, the handedness of a door tends to be an important consideration since a door's hand may limit the situations in which the door may be used.
Specific situations where a sliding door is going to be installed dictate the hand required for a particular door. Those wishing to install a sliding door must know, prior to purchasing the door, what hand and other aspects of the door are required and purchase a sliding door that has been manufactured in accordance with the site specific requirements where the door is to be installed. One will appreciate, therefore, that, if the particular handedness of a door is incorrect for a particular layout, the assembler may need to replace the given door with another door that is configured for a different handedness. Specifically, if the hand of a door is wrong, the contractor must then switch the door for one with the correct hand.
One will appreciate, however, that precisely predicting whether a sliding door should be right-handed or left-handed in a given construction site may be in flux, even during installation of the doors and wall modules. This is particularly true of modular partition assemblies, where the partition layouts may change during installation, or even sometime later during a remodeling phase. Furthermore, changes to a project may require corresponding changes in the hand of a door and mistakes may result in the purchase of doors with the wrong handedness. All of the foregoing can delay and burden projects in which the installation of doors is necessary.

Configurable sliding doors with reversible hand configurations


Method, apparatus, and programs for recommending websites. Information related to a user's browsing history of a plurality of websites is obtained. A browsing co-occurrence of at least some of the plurality of websites in one or more time periods is determined based on the obtained information related to the user's browsing history. The plurality of websites are assigned to a plurality of website groups based on the determined browsing co-occurrence. Each of the plurality of website groups is associated with one of the one or more time periods. At least one of the plurality of website groups is presented to the user based on their associated time periods.

1. Technical Field
The present teaching relates to methods, systems, and programming for Internet services. Particularly, the present teaching is directed to methods, systems, and programming for recommending websites to a user.
2. Discussion of Technical Background
Most major web browsers implement the function of websites recommendation or navigation recommendation, which automatically provides a list of websites that a user of the web browser is most likely to visit before the user enters the website address. For example, GOOGLE CHROME's default page shows the most-visited-sites every time when the user opens the browser or a new tab of the browser. In addition to the default page, some web browsers, such as CHROME and FIREFOX, automatically show the most-visited-sites in their address bars when the user starts to type in the address bar. The recommendation is made based on visit frequency, visit recency, and website bookmarks saved by the user.
However, when making the recommendation, the known solutions consider each website individually and do not take their temporal relationship into consideration. For example, none of the known solutions aggregates different websites that were frequently visited in the similar time spans when making the recommendation. In other words, the known solutions do not perform temporal studies of user activities or multiple website suggestions for quick navigation. Moreover, users have to manually bookmark and open up the recommended frequently visited websites one by one even after the known solutions have made the recommendation.
Therefore, there is a need to provide an improved solution for recommending websites to a user to solve the above-mentioned problems.

Method and system for recommending websites


Racket string tension-maintaining means includes a plurality of surface areas between the string receiving openings in the frame of said racket, the surfaces incorporating frictional means engagable with the bights of said strings to prevent the movement thereof relative to said frame.

It is well known to those skilled in the art that rackets of various types, such as tennis rackets, rapidly lose the string tension which is created during the stringing of the racket. Such loss of tension occurs during a tennis match and results in a series of deleterious conditions, including excessive vibration, string wear, and loss of ball control because of the deterioration of the striking surface resulting from the loosening of the strings.
In addition, as tension is lost, the consequent vibration causes considerable physical damage to the wielder of the racket, resulting in such negative phenomena as the tennis elbow and rotator cuff syndromes.

Devices and method for maintaining string tension


A decorative grip system including a decorative grip having a label with decorative indicia located thereon, the label being formed in a generally closed shape. The decorative grip system further includes an underlay layer located generally inside of the label and a generally translucent overlay layer located generally outside of the label and having a thickness of less than about 5/32 inch.

Golf grips are typically made of wrapped leather, molded natural leather or molded solid colored synthetic materials. Such materials limit the ability to incorporate graphics and color into the grips due to the relatively dark color of the materials, as well as the difficulties of printing on such materials. As an alternative, the outer surface of golf grips may be etched or molded to form a recess and the recessed area may be filled with paint or other colorants to provide basic designs and patterns. However, this method for forming decorative patterns is difficult to implement, expensive to manufacture, and lacks durability.
Another method for creating a golf club with graphics displayed in the grip area involves attaching a printed label directly to the club shaft and sliding a clear (i.e. "water-clear"—which has a lower light tranmisivity than, for example "ultra-clear") thermoplastic grip shell over the attached label such that the attached label is visible through the clear thermoplastic grip. However, this type of decorative grip is cumbersome and difficult to assemble. In particular, in order to assemble such a grip, the golf club shaft must first be cleaned to a like-new condition such that the shaft is free of all tape and residue from any previous grips. A label-type sticker bearing the decorative features is then wrapped over the clean shaft, and great care must be taken at this time to align the sticker so that the sticker is properly centered in relation to the central vertical axis of the shaft. Care must also be taken not to wrinkle the sticker during such application.
The sticker is then sprayed with a sealant such as hairspray or the like, and the sealant is also sprayed onto the inside of a clear thermoplastic grip shell. The clear grip shell is then slid over the label, while taking care not to move or wrinkle the label underneath. The walls of the grip shell must be relatively thick to ensure that the grip shell does not rupture during the assembly process and to provide the necessary thickness to the finished grip.
This multi-step process for assembling a decorative grip is labor intensive and inefficient. Furthermore, a drawback to a golf grip assembled in this manner is that the grip shell is relatively thick which limits the visibility of the decorative label, distorts the graphics, and thereby reduces aesthetic appeal. Specifically, the thickness of the water-clear thermoplastic grip creates a hazing effect, thereby reducing aesthetic appeal. Additionally, the thickness of the grip wall can produce an angle of refraction thereby distorting the visible features of the decorative label.
Accordingly, there is a need for a grip for a component, such as a golf club, which has decorative features yet which is durable and robust. There is also a need for a method for forming such a grip.


Disclosed is an intermediate transfer member disposed between an image forming body and a recording medium, for transferring and holding a toner image formed on a surface of the image forming body onto a surface of the intermediate transfer member once and then transferring the toner image onto the recording medium, the intermediate transfer member including: a rubber composition, wherein the state of occurrence of cracks in the rubber composition after the rubber composition imparted with 20% of elongation has been exposed for 120 hours to an environment with an ozone concentration of 10 ppm and with a temperature of 40.degree. C. is specified such that no crack is seen, or the number of cracks and the depth of cracks satisfy a specific evaluation standard.

The present invention relates to an intermediate transfer member used for an electrophotographic device or electrostatic recording device such as a copying machine or printer, wherein a toner image, which is formed by supplying a developer on the surface of an image forming member such as a latent image holder holding an electrostatic latent image, is once transferred and held on the surface of the intermediate transfer member and is then transferred on a recording medium such as a paper sheet; and an intermediate transfer device using the intermediate transfer member.
In an electrostatic recording process using a copying machine, printer or the like, there has been adopted a printing method including the steps of uniformly electrifying the surface of a photosensitive body (latent image holder), forming an electrostatic latent image on the photosensitive body by projecting light from an optical system on the photosensitive body to erase electrification of a portion where the light is irradiated, supplying a toner to the electrostatic latent image by a developing means such as a developing roller to form a toner image by electrostatic adhesion of the toner, transferring the toner image on a recording medium such as a paper sheet by a transferring means such as a transfer roller, and heating and fixing the transferred image on the recording medium by a fixing means such a fixing roller, to thus obtain a printed image.
In a color printer or a color copying machine, printing is basically performed in accordance with the above process; however, in the case of color printing, a color tone is reproduced using four kinds of toners corresponding to four colors (magenta, yellow, cyan and black), and consequently, there are required steps of obtaining a necessary color tone by superimposing these toners at a specific ratio. To achieve these steps, there have been proposed various methods.
As a first method, there is known a multiple developing method in which, to visualize an electrostatic latent image formed on a photosensitive body by supplying toners, development is performed by sequentially superimposing toners of four colors (magenta, yellow, cyan and black) to form a color toner image on the photosensitive body. This method allows the printing apparatus to be made relatively compact; however, it is disadvantageous in that control of color gradation is very difficult and thereby a high quality image cannot be obtained.
As a second method, there is known a tandem method using four photosensitive bodies aligned in a line. In this method, latent images formed on these photosensitive bodies are developed using toners of four colors (magenta, yellow, cyan and black) to form four toner images (magenta toner image, yellow toner image, cyan toner image, and black toner image), and the toner images are sequentially transferred on a recording medium such as a paper sheet in a superimposing manner, thereby reproducing a color image thereon. This method is advantageous in that a desirable image can be obtained; however, it is disadvantageous in that the printing apparatus has the four photosensitive bodies aligned in line, each being additionally provided with an electrifying mechanism and a developing mechanism and thereby it is enlarged in size and also increased in cost.
As a third method, there is known a transfer drum method using a transfer drum around which a recording medium such as a paper sheet is wound. Such a transfer drum revolves on its axis four times, and toner images of four colors (magenta, yellow, cyan, and black) formed on photosensitive bodies are sequentially transferred on the recording medium for each revolution of the transfer drum, to thereby reproduce a color image thereon. This method is advantageous in that a relatively high quality image can be obtained; however, it is disadvantageous in that there is a difficulty in winding a thick medium such as a post card, that is, there is a limitation to the kind of the recording medium.
In addition to the above multiple developing method, tandem method, and transfer drum method, there has been proposed an intermediate transfer method for ensuring a high quality image without enlargement of the size of the apparatus and also without limitation to the kind of the recording medium.
The intermediate transfer method adopts an intermediate transfer member formed into a drum or belt-like shape on which a toner image on a photosensitive body is transferred and held thereon once. To be more specific, the intermediate transfer method is carried out by forming toner images of four colors (magenta, yellow, cyan, and black) on four photosensitive bodies, sequentially transferring the four toner images from the four photosensitive bodies onto the surface of the intermediate transfer member to form a color image on the intermediate transfer member, and transferring the color image on a recording medium such as a paper sheet. In this method, since color gradation is adjusted by superimposing toner images of four colors, a high quality image can be obtained. Also, since the photosensitive bodies are not required to be aligned in a line like the tandem method, the size of the apparatus is not enlarged. Further, since a recording medium is not required to be wound around a drum, there is no limitation to the kind of the recording medium.
Such an image forming apparatus for forming a color image by the intermediate transfer method is shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, wherein FIG. 1 shows a type using a drum-like intermediate transfer member, and FIG. 2 shows a type using a belt-like intermediate transfer member.
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, reference numeral 1 indicates a drum-like photosensitive body which revolves in the direction shown by an arrow. The photosensitive body 1 is electrified by a primary electrifier 2, and is subjected to image exposure 3 for erasing electrification of an exposed portion. Thus, an electrostatic latent image corresponding to a first color component is formed on the photosensitive body 1. The electrostatic latent image is then developed with a magenta toner M as a first color toner using a developer 41 to form a magenta toner image as a first color image on the photosensitive body 1. The toner image is transferred on an intermediate transfer drum 20a (FIG. 1) or an intermediate transfer belt 20b (FIG. 2) (hereinafter, referred to as "an intermediate transfer member 20a or 20b") rotating in a state being in contact with the photosensitive body 1. In this case, the transfer of the image from the photosensitive body 1 to the intermediate transfer member 20a or 20b is performed by applying a primary transfer bias from a power supply 61 to the intermediate transfer member 20a or 20b at a nip portion between the photosensitive body 1 and the intermediate transfer member 20a or 20b. After the magenta toner image as the first color image is transferred on the intermediate transfer member 20a or 20b, the surface of the photosensitive body 1 is cleaned using a cleaning device 14. The first development/transfer operation by the initial rotation of the photosensitive body 1 is thus completed. Thereafter, the photosensitive body revolves on its axis three times, and a cyan toner image as a second color image, a yellow toner image as a third color image, and a black toner image as a fourth color image are sequentially formed on the photosensitive body 1 using developers 42, 43 and 44 for each revolution of the photosensitive body 1. The four toner images are sequentially transferred on the intermediate transfer member 20a or 20b in a superimposing manner for each revolution, to form a synthetic color toner image corresponding to the target color image on the intermediate transfer member 20a or 20b. It is to be noted that in the apparatus shown in FIG. 1, the developers 41 to 44 are sequentially exchanged for each revolution of the photosensitive body 1 to sequentially perform development by the magenta toner M, cyan toner C, yellow toner Y, and black toner B.
Next, a transfer roller 25 is abutted on the intermediate transfer member 20a or 20b on which the above synthetic color toner image is formed, and a recording medium 24 such as a paper sheet is fed from a paper cassette 9 into a nip portion therebetween. At the same time, a second transfer bias is applied from a power supply 29 to the transfer roller 25 so that the synthetic color image is transferred from the intermediate transfer member 20a or 20b to the recording medium 24 and is thermally fixed, by a fixing device 15, thereon as the final image. After the synthetic color image is transferred to the recording medium 24, the toner remaining on the surface of the intermediate transfer member 20a or 20b is removed by the cleaning device 35, and thereby the intermediate transfer member 20a or 20b is returned to the initial state to ready for the next image formation.
Such an intermediate transfer member 20a or 20b used for the intermediate transfer type image forming apparatus, which is in direct-contact with the photosensitive body 1, toner image, recording medium 24 and the like, is made from a soft elastic material. Further, in the case of the intermediate transfer member 20 a formed into the drum-like shape shown in FIG. 1, it is known that a conductive rubber-like elastic body 201 is laminated on a metal made drum base 200; and in the case of the intermediate transfer member 20b formed into the belt-like shape shown in FIG. 2, it has been known that a conductive rubber-like elastic body 201 reinforced by a canvass or a spirally wound thread (not shown) is formed into a belt-shape as shown in FIG. 4. As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, there has been proposed a technique in which a surface layer 202 made from a resin is formed on a surface of the rubber-like elastic body 201 for preventing contamination of the photosensitive body, preventing adhesion of toner, and reducing a friction coefficient.
Incidentally, in the electrophotographic process or electrostatic recording process using such an image forming apparatus, ozone at a high concentration is produced in the electrifying and transfer steps, and accordingly, each of members constituting the image forming apparatus requires a high durability to ozone.
In the case of the above-described intermediate transfer member, however, it has been not apparent how the intermediate transfer member should be tested to judge whether or not the intermediate transfer member has a sufficient durability to ozone or it has been not apparent what kind of material should be used for the intermediate transfer member to ensure a sufficient durability to ozone.
Thus, a measure to shield members from ozone by covering the members with a metal material has been made; however, such a measure leads to the increased cost, and further a power supplying condition of the image forming apparatus has been restricted to suppress occurrence of ozone, causing a problem in design of the apparatus.
The intermediate transfer member might be also exposed to a high temperature upon fixing of an image, resulting in the thermal deterioration together with the above-described deterioration due to ozone. In particular, a rubber material used for an elastic layer is severely deteriorated due to these heat and ozone effects, and to cope with such an inconvenience, the rubber material has been added with an ozone-deterioration preventive agent and a thermal aging preventive agent.
The addition of an ozone-deterioration preventive agent and a thermal aging preventive agent in a rubber material, however, may contaminate a photosensitive body, toner, a paper sheet and the like, with a result that image formation becomes defective. To prevent such contamination, the above surface layer made from a resin has been formed on an elastic layer made from a rubber material. In this case, however, to ensure a sufficient contamination preventive effect, a surface layer having a relatively large thickness of several tens to several hundreds .mu.m must be formed, and the formation of such a thick surface layer makes higher a surface hardness of the intermediate transfer member. This presents problems in causing wear of a photosensitive body in contact with the member and fusion of toner.
The intermediate transfer member also requires a resistivity in a medium resistivity range of 10.sup.8 to 10.sup.14 .OMEGA.cm for applying a suitable vias voltage to an objected to be applied with a voltage such as toner or a paper sheet without occurrence of leakage and also breakage of a member due to the voltage. In this case, for an intermediate transfer member having a surface layer, the resistivity of the member becomes generally higher by the presence of the surface layer, and consequently, an elastic layer of the member requires a volume resistivity lower than that of an elastic layer of a member having no surface layer, more specifically, a volume resistivity in a semi-conductive range of 10.sup.4 to 10.sup.9 .OMEGA.cm.
However, it is very difficult to control a volume resistivity of a rubber material for an elastic layer in the above semi-conductive range. That is, it is extremely difficult to obtain a specific volume resistivity by addition a general conductive carbon material in a usual rubber material, so that there occur large variations in resistivity among and in each of elastic layers of intermediate transfer members obtained. This makes it difficult to stably obtain a member having an elastic layer having a uniform resistivity. On the basis of a graph (called percolation curve) obtained for rubber compositions whose volume resistivities are adjusted by addition of carbon, in which the abscissa indicates added amounts of carbon and the ordinate indicates volume resistivities of the rubber compositions, the volume resistivity is rapidly dropped at a specific added amount of carbon, and then kept constant. From this percolation curve, it becomes apparent that the variation in volume resistivity of a rubber composition is due to the rapid change in the percolation curve.
Accordingly, it is expected to develop an intermediate transfer member which is excellent in resistance to ozone and heat resistance,, and which is capable of stably exhibiting a preferable performance for a long period, of relatively easily adjusting a resistivity, and of reducing a variation in resistivity.
On the other hand, in the case where the surface layer 202 formed on the surface of the above intermediate transfer member is made from a resin material, the surface layer 202 may be peeled from the rubber-like elastic layer 201 or cracked because a resin material is generally harder than a rubber material and is difficult to follow elastic deformation of the rubber material. In this case, it may be considered to use a soft resin material; however, the soft resin material cannot be actually used for the surface layer 202 of the intermediate transfer member because the soft resin material is large in plastic deformation and also large in viscosity and friction coefficient. Besides, a urethane resin having a specific composition can preferably follow elastic deformation of a rubber material, and it has been proposed to use such a urethane resin for the surface layer 202; however, this urethane resin has a problem that the resistivity is large varied depending on an environment, to thereby make large the dependence of environment on the resistivity of the intermediate transfer member.
An intermediate transfer member has been also proposed in which the entire resistivity thereof is adjusted in a preferable medium resistivity range of 10.sup.3 to 10.sup.14 .OMEGA.cm by a method wherein the rubber-like elastic layer 201 is made from a rubber material whose volume resistivity is set at a relatively controllable value in a range of 10.sup.3 to 10.sup.9 .OMEGA.cm and the surface layer 202 is made from a resin having a relatively high volume resistivity. However, in the case where the resistivity of the intermediate transfer member is adjusted by controlling the volume resistivity of the surface layer 202, there occurs a problem. That is, since a general resin material has a high volume resistivity, such a high resistivity is required to be lowered typically by addition of a conductive material such as carbon. This requires complicated steps, for example, a step of preparing a paint in which a conductive material is uniformly dispersed, a step of forming a coating film in which the conductive material is uniformly dispersed, and the like, to degrade the production efficiency and increase the production cost.
Accordingly, it is expected to develop a surface layer which is capable of preferably following elastic deformation of an elastic layer, of easily adjusting a resistivity of the member, and of satisfying functions of preventing contamination of a photosensitive body or the like, preventing adhesion of toner, and reducing a friction coefficient.
Further, for an intermediate transfer member for transferring and holding a toner image formed on an image forming body such as a photosensitive drum onto its surface once and transferring the toner image onto a recording medium such a paper sheet, both in a step of holding a toner image transferred from the image forming body onto the surface of the intermediate transfer member and in a step of transferring the toner image from the intermediate transfer member onto the recording medium, a toner retention force for holding toner on the surface of the intermediate transfer member is an important factor exerting a large effect on a transfer performance.
The toner retention force on the surface of an intermediate transfer member, however, has been judged by testing the intermediate transfer member mounted on a copying machine or a printer, although it is an important factor exerting a large effect on the transfer performance, and the intermediate transfer member in terms of the toner retention force has been suitably designed by repeating try-and-error on the basis of the test results. And, at present, it is not apparent what kind of material should be selected and how the material should be used to obtain a desired intermediate transfer member.
Accordingly, it is expected to develop an intermediate transfer member used for an electrophotographic system or an electrostatic recording system such as a copying machine or a printer, which is capable of ensuring a preferable toner retention force by certainly evaluating the toner retention force without the need of carrying out any actual test.

Intermediate transfer member and intermediate transfer device


A social networking system selects a set of groups for presentation to a user of the social networking system. To select groups, the social networking system determining scores for various groups representing a likelihood of the user interacting with the groups. When determining a score for a group, the social networking system accounts for a likelihood of the user providing content to the group as well as the user accessing or viewing content associated with the group. Based on the scores, one or more groups are selected and presented to the user. Additionally, the social networking system may apply one or more diversity rules so that the selected groups have a variety of characteristics.

This disclosure relates generally to social networking systems, and more specifically to identifying groups of users to a social networking system user.
An online system, such as a social networking system, allows its users to connect to and communicate with other online system users. Users may create profiles on an online system that are tied to their identities and include information about the users, such as interests and demographic information. The users may be individuals or entities such as corporations or charities.
Additionally, a social networking system may maintain groups of users, allowing a user to provide content to a group for presentation to each user included in the group. A group may be associated with a topic, a location, or with any other suitable characteristic, so a user included in the group may more easily view or share content associated with the characteristic associated with the group. However, as a social networking system may maintain a large number of groups, a user may expend significant time identifying groups associated with characteristics of interest to the user. This decreases the likelihood of the user identifying groups of interest to the user, which may decrease the amount of interaction between the user and the social networking system.

Identifying groups for a social networking system user based on group characteristics and likelihood of user interaction


An electric field is formed between an ink jet recording head and a recording medium on a platen so that a certain intensity of force effective in the direction oriented toward the recording medium is applied to an ink droplet in the presence of the electric field. Whereby, the ejected ink droplet is prevented from being shot onto a dislocated position from a normal position.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink jet head of the type wherein ink droplets are ejected from an ink liquid plane by utilizing the effect of collective concentration of a series of waves propagating in ink. Further, the present invention relates to an ink jet apparatus having the foregoing type of ink jet head used therefor.
2. Description of the Prior Art
An ink jet recording apparatus, which is one of the most widely known as apparatuses using an ink jet head, has many advantages that it generates little noises, it can be operated at a low running cost, it can be constructed with small dimensions, and a color printing operation can easily be performed therewith. Owing to the aforementioned advantages, many ink jet recording apparatuses of the foregoing type are put in practical use as information output units each constructed in the form of a printer, a copying machine, a facsimile apparatus or the like.
The ink jet head generally used for the ink jet recording apparatus includes a plurality of ejecting ports (hereinafter referred to also as orifices) each having a diameter ranging from 20 .mu.m to 300 .mu.m. In this connection, reduction of the reliability which may occur in the ink jet head has been mostly attributable to malfunctions of the orifices as noted below. Typically, the malfunctions of the orifices arise such that each orifice is clogged with foreign materials such as dust particles or the like, the viscosity of ink is increased in each orifice inclusive of the peripheral part thereof, and each orifice is deformed. In such case as mentioned above, there additionally arises another malfunction in that a quantity of ink to be ejected from the orifices is reduced, and moreover, the ink is incorrectly ejected from the orifices.
In view of the conventional ink jet head constructed in the above-described manner, a proposal has been made with a so-called nozzleless head having no orifice used therefor. An example of the nozzleless head is constructively realized in the form of an acoustic ink jet head such that ink droplets are ejected from an ink liquid plane in the ink jet head by utilizing the effect of collective concentration of a series of waves propagating in ink. A basic principle of ink ejection of the foregoing type has been disclosed, e.g., in IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, Vol. 16, NO. 4, September 1973, p. 1168.about..
A so-called acoustic ink jet head of the foregoing type is constructed such that a series of pressure waves propagating in the ink are collectively concentrated at a specific spot in the ink jet head. With this construction, the number of dots capable of being simultaneously recorded on a recording medium such as a sheet of recording paper or the like by ejecting ink from the foregoing spot is limited only to one. For this reason, in contrast with other type of ink jet recording apparatus, it is necessary that the acoustic ink jet head is displaced relative to the recording medium at a higher speed.
However, in the case that a high speed recording operation is achieved by shooting onto the recording medium ink droplets ejected from the ink jet head while the recording medium which is immovably wound around a platen (drum) is rotated at a high speed, there sometimes arises an occasion that an air stream generated by the rotation of the platen for the displacement of the ink jet head relative to the recording medium causes the deflection of flying of ejected ink droplets each having a very small volume to be deviated away from the normal direction. This induces a problem that the position where the ink droplets are shot onto the recording medium is dislocated away from the normal position, resulting in a quality of each of recorded items such as characters, images or the like being degraded.
Since the number of dots capable of being simultaneously recorded on the recording medium with the ink droplets ejected from the ink jet head is limited only to one as mentioned above, it is necessary that the ink jet head is displaced relative to the recording medium during each recording operation at a high speed much more than that of other type of ink jet recording apparatus. Due to the foregoing necessity, a specially designed mechanism for displacing the ink jet head relative to the recording medium at a high speed is additionally required, resulting in a product of ink jet apparatus being unavoidably constructed with larger dimensions.

Acoustic ink jet head and ink jet recording apparatus having the same


A method for compressing measurement data which is transmitted from sensor control units via a data bus to a primary control unit of a battery management system for vehicles, includes transmitting a rate of change/slope of the measurement data to the primary control unit at a start of measurements. The method further includes transmitting deviations/differences in the measurement data from a current slope, and reconstructing, without loss of information, correct measured values from the rates of change/slope and the received deviations/differences with the primary control unit.

DE 103 33 989 A1 relates to a method for digital data transmission from a sensor to a control unit. Sensor values of a sensor are divided for data transmission at different resolutions. The sensor values form a first range of values having successive sensor values, in which the division of the first range of values for data transmission is carried out as a function of a variable relevant for the control unit. The variable is a second range of values of threshold values of a triggering algorithm for restraining means, the sensor values in the second range of values being transmitted from the sensor to the control unit at a higher resolution. The second range of values is in particular selected from the lower half of the first range of values.
DE 10 2004 001 293 A1 relates to an apparatus and method for data transmission with a reduced data volume. A method is proposed for sending multimedia data which is transmitted in time blocks, selection of at least one first time block being initially carried out as the basis for an extrapolation. Selection of at least one second time block of data which is to be estimated is then carried out, followed by sending the data in the at least one first time block and sending representative data for the extrapolation, which has a reduced data volume compared to the data which is to be estimated, during at least the second time block. DE 10 2004 001 293 A1 is also directed to a method for receiving multimedia data which is transmitted in time blocks, data initially being received in at least one first time block and representative data being received in at least one second time block. This is followed by the extrapolation of the data of the at least one second time block based on the data of the at least one first time block and the representative data.
Electronic control units are increasingly used today in the automotive sector in applications such as engine control units, ABS, airbag triggering systems, ESP, and the like. The development of a battery pack having an associated battery management system is required for vehicles which are equipped with an electric drive. A battery management system generally includes control units having software for monitoring the battery functionality. Depending on customer requirements or existing installation spaces, the topologies of battery packs vary widely with respect to the number of cells, modules, sensors, and so forth. Typical battery management systems ensure that cells and packs function safely and reliably. They monitor and control currents, voltages, temperatures, insulation resistances, and other variables for the cells and the entire battery pack. These variables make possible the implementation of the management functions which must be ensured by the battery management system, thus increasing the life span, reliability and safety of the battery system.
Battery management systems generally include a plurality of control units, on which individual software functions run. Depending on the number of cells, the number of sensors, and the distribution of the battery modules in various installation spaces in the automobile, a control unit topology results having a primary control unit and a plurality of subordinate sensor control units for detecting the measurement data directly at the individual battery modules. For example, the measurement data includes the voltages, temperatures, currents, and the like of the individual battery modules. The detected data is generally exchanged between the control units via a communication bus, for example, a CAN bus.
The use of a communication bus having a defined bandwidth limits the total data traffic which can be transported on the bus in a specified time interval. A low maximum bandwidth of the communication bus minimizes the probability of malfunctions caused, for example, by EMC irradiation. However, the use of a large number of battery modules and associated sensor control units makes it necessary to communicate all measurement data to the master control unit on the bus at a high frequency. The measurement frequency is therefore limited by the bandwidth of the communication bus and the number of battery modules.

Data transmission method for a battery management system


A method for providing communication services for the hearing-impaired includes establishing a communication link between a hearing-impaired party and a communication assistant. The communication link may be a full duplex link. The communication assistant may also establish a voice link with a hearing party. The hearing-impaired party and the hearing party may then communicate, with the communication assistant acting as a conduit for the conversation. For example, the hearing party may send a voice message to the communication assistant. The communication assistant may then convert the voice message into a text message and transmit the text message to the hearing-impaired party. The communication assistant may also convert text messages received from the hearing-impaired party into voice messages for the hearing party.

A conventional telecommunication device for the deaf/teletype (TDD/TTY) enables people who are hearing-impaired or deaf to communicate with other parties via standard telephone lines. For example, one way in which a deaf party may communicate with another party is if both parties use a TDD. In this case, a calling party may type using a standard keyboard included with the TDD and the called party reads the message on a display associated with his/her TDD. The called party may similarly type a message using his/her TDD and the calling party may read the message using his/her display.
A second way in which a hearing-impaired/deaf person may communicate via standard telephone lines is referred to as relay. In this case, a conference call is established between a first party, a communication assistant (CA) (also referred to as a relay operator) and a second party. The first party may be a deaf person who has a TDD/TTY and the second party may be a person with normal hearing who does not have a TDD/TTY device.
When the deaf party wishes to make a call, he/she dials a telephone number for the CA and tells the CA the telephone number to which he/she would like to be connected. The CA may dial the number and provide a greeting to the hearing party. When the hearing party speaks, the CA types what is said and the deaf party reads the text using the TDD/TTY's display. The deaf party may respond to the message on the display by typing on his/her TDD/TTY. The CA reads what is typed to the hearing party in a normal manner. In this manner, the deaf party may communicate with hearing and hearing-impaired parties over the public switched telephone network using conventional TDD/TTY equipment.
One problem with the communication methods described above is that a TDD/TTY is required in order for the hearing-impaired party to communicate. This may prevent the hearing-impaired party from being able to communicate with others at various times due to the lack of an available TDD/TTY device. For example, if the hearing-impaired party is not at home, the hearing-impaired party may not have access to a TDD/TTY device.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method and system for providing communication services for hearing-impaired parties


One or more embodiments of the invention is a program that is executed on an electronic device, the program causing the electronic device to execute: holding data points indicated by values on a first axis and values on a second axis, obtained on the basis of touch events; terminating the holding of a data point for which a predefined holding period has expired among the held data points; determining the slope of a regression line on the basis of the held data points; determining an amount of rotation by which the determined slope of the regression line is to be rotated, on the basis of a displacement direction of the set of the held data points; and determining an angle by which the user controls an object being operated in a virtual space, on the basis of the determined slope of the regression line and the determined amount of rotation.

With recent improvements in touchscreen technology, electronic devices of the type in which user inputs are performed via a user interface on a touchscreen have become widely used. Furthermore, with games that are executed on an electronic device, instead of user inputs via a conventional physical controller, the form in which user inputs are performed via a touchscreen provided on an electronic device becoming widely used.
In particular, compact portable electronic devices, such as smartphones, have rapidly become popular, and a large number of games that are executed on such portable electronic devices have been released. In this situation, various technologies have been proposed concerning methods of operating a virtual object displayed on the touchscreen, such as a player character, including, for example, the technology relating to virtual pads, disclosed in Non-Patent Literature 1.
For example, Patent Literature 1 discloses a game device equipped with a touchscreen, as well as a program, that make it possible to set an origin in accordance with a touch operation by a user and that enables an operation simulating a joystick. The game device sets reference coordinates on the basis of coordinates at the time when detection is started in the case where a touchscreen makes a transition from a state in which a touch has not been detected to a state in which a touch has been detected, and in the case where touch detection is to be continued, sets instruction coordinates on the basis of coordinates detected after the transition. Then, the game device recognizes the direction of a vector from the reference coordinates to the instruction coordinates as the direction in which a joystick is tilted and the magnitude of the vector as the degree by which the joystick is tilted, thereby realizing a virtual joystick, whereby the operation of a virtual object is realized.

Program, electronic device, and method for simulating a joystick in a virtual space


A seasonal insulative cover for an outdoor faucet includes at least two layers formed from a weatherproof material. A first and a second of the at least two layers are further connected to define a space there between. The first and second layers include a plurality of air chambers. A valve is included on the cover for inserting air between the at least two layers. Air inflated into the insulative cover at the valve urges the first of the at least two layers to partially conform to the outdoor faucet. The air further creates the space surrounding the outdoor faucet between the at least two layers. The space contains a volume of stationary air, which prevents a movement of air current from transferring heat from the outdoor faucet to an outdoor environment.

The present disclosure is related to an inflatable faucet insulator and, more specifically, to an insulator including at least one weatherproof layer and at least one air chamber, which defines a space for containing a volume of stationary air.
An outdoor faucet is a controllable valve for selectively delivering a water supply to a region outside a structure. The outdoor faucet typically includes exposed components attached to a water line. The water line is often not easily accessible as it may be situated in crawl spaces or walls of the structure. During warmer seasons, water travels through the water line for delivery at the faucet head. Water left in the water line or faucet can freeze during colder seasons. The frozen water can cause the water line or pipe to expand, thus resulting in potential cracks and breakage of the pipe or water line. When the temperature warms again, the breakage causes leaks that damage the walls and other spaces of the structure. Trapped moisture from a leak that finds its way inside these walls may cause the paint to bubble, peel, and crack. The trapped moisture may aid in mold growth.
Replacement of the pipe is both a costly and a timely project. The project requires, at a minimum, an access first be created to the pipe and then the access be resealed after the pipe is replaced.
In many structures, the water line or pipe is insulated or contained within an insulated space. The faucet, however, is exposed to outside weather conditions. The faucet is often metal and conducts heat well. If the faucet becomes very cold, it may draw heat from the water line, thus causing the faucet to freeze even if it is otherwise insulated. Because the water pipes are prone to freeze when faucets are chilled, it is desirable to insulate the exposed faucet components.


Disclosures of the present invention describe an unlimited multiplexing testing system for press type switch, which mainly consists of a main board, a plurality of fixing bases, a test controlling module, a first interface unit, a button punching module, and a host device. Particularly, this novel unlimited multiplexing testing system is able to apply at least one button punching test procedure to a great quantity of mechanical switch components, keyboards or computer mice, thereby completing any one type of standard button punching test, such as life cycle test, loading test or endurance test. On the other hand, this unlimited multiplexing testing system can also be adopted for achieving any one of the foregoing standard button punching tests on the mechanical switch components, keyboards and computer mice, simultaneously.

It is well known that an electronic device certainly has a switch unit that is configured for a user to press, thereby powering the electronic device ON or OFF. In addition, the electronic device also commonly has a plurality of functional key-press buttons or a keyboard for the user to input at least one operation signal or command to a main controller or a microprocessor of the electronic device. It is worth explaining that, in spite of the fact that touch panel has been widely applied in various commercial electronic devices, keyboard and computer mouse does still be a necessary inputting device of the commercial electronic devices.
Engineers skilled in development and manufacture of keyboards and computer mice have known that, mechanical switch is the most essential component for manufacturing one keyboard and/or one computer mouse. As described more in detail below, there is one mechanical switch component disposed below each button of the keyboard, and two respective micro-switch components are disposed below the left mouse button and the right mouse button of the computer mouse. Therefore, for effectively controlling the product quality of computer mice and keyboards, provider of the mechanical switch components is demanded by manufacturer of the computer mice and keyboards in guaranteeing that each one of the provided mechanical switch components has been passed all standard button punching tests, including life cycle test, loading test and endurance test. Of course, after using the mechanical switch components to manufacture the computer mice and keyboards, each of the computer mice and keyboards is also required to pass the standard button punching tests.
However, since the mechanical switch, the keyboard and the computer mouse all have an exclusive button (switch) testing machine thereof, there is a lack of a particularly-designed multi-function button (switch) testing machine for use in simultaneously applying any one type of the standard button punching tests to the mechanical switch, the keyboard and the computer mouse. On the other hand, in practical use, the exclusive switch testing machine is found showing a main drawback that is the exclusive switch testing machine can merely apply one type of the standard button punching test to a limited number of the mechanical switches. Moreover, the exclusive button testing machine for the keyboard or the computer mouse also exhibits the same shortcoming in practical use.
From above descriptions, it should know that there is room for improvement in the conventional button (switch) testing machine. In view of that, inventors of the present application have made great efforts to make inventive research and eventually provided an unlimited multiplexing testing system for press type switch.

Unlimited multiplexing testing system for press type switch


A computing cluster operated according to a resource allocation policy based on a predictive model of completion time. The predictive model may be applied in a resource control loop that iteratively updates resources assigned to an executing job. At each iteration, the amount of resources allocated to the job may be updated based on of the predictive model so that the job will be scheduled to complete execution at a target completion time. The target completion time may be derived from a utility function determined for the job. The utility function, in turn, may be derived from a service level agreement with service guarantees and penalties for late completion of a job. Allocating resources in this way may maximize utility for an operator of the computing cluster while minimizing disruption to other jobs that may be concurrently executing.

Computing clusters are used to perform large processing jobs. The clusters contain multiple processing resources, which could be physical processors or virtual processors. A cluster also includes a scheduler that allocates the processing resources to jobs submitted to the cluster. The policy under which a scheduler operates impacts overall performance of the computing cluster.
Jobs may contain multiple computational tasks that can be assigned for execution to multiple computing resources. For most large jobs that are "data-parallel jobs," some tasks can be executed in parallel, while others are dependent on data generated from other tasks. As a result, some tasks cannot be executed until execution of other tasks is completed. For data-parallel jobs, allocating multiple processing resources to a job may allow more tasks to be executed in parallel, thereby improving execution time of the job. However, for each job, execution time may not improve linearly in relation to the number of processing resources allocated to the job. Despite the fact that there may be many tasks left to execute, at any given time, there is a limit on the number of tasks that are ready to execute.
Moreover, in a computing cluster, multiple jobs may be pending for execution at one time. Allocating too many of the processing resources of the cluster to a single job may impact the performance of other jobs. Accordingly, a scheduler of a cluster may operate according to a policy that seeks to distribute processing resources in a reasonable fashion across jobs. As an example of a policy, some minimum amount of processing resources may be allocated to each job ready for execution. Any remaining resources may then be allocated to jobs as they have tasks ready to execute.
Allocating processing resources to jobs can be particularly challenging for an operator of a computing cluster when, through service level agreements with customers who have agreed to buy computing services from the cluster operator, the operator has committed to complete execution of certain jobs within a specified amount of time. Such a commitment may be regarded as a service "guarantee," and the service level agreement may entail a significant financial penalty if the job is not completed in accordance with the guarantee.
A service guarantee may create a high priority job for an operator of a computing cluster. Scheduling policies that account for high priority jobs are known. In some scenarios, manual intervention is employed. As the job executes, the operator tracks progress. When the progress appears to be too slow to finish in time, more resources are added to the job. In other policies, the scheduler is simply controlled to allocate to such a job a large amount of resources. In some approaches, a separate compute cluster, containing enough processing resources to complete the high priority job by the guaranteed time, is dedicated to the job. Other policies preferentially allocate processing resources to the high priority job. Another approach is to model execution of the job to determine an amount of processing resources that seems likely to result in execution of the job prior to the guarantee time, and this level of resources may be allocated to the job from the outset.


An image detail enhancement method and apparatus that is suitable for different types of digital images, regardless of their signal frequency range or noise level. The detail enhancement apparatus has multiple filters termed, detail filter bank. A detail filter can be e.g. a high pass filter (HPF) or a band pass filter (BPF). In a detail filter bank, each detail filter has a pass band covering a specific frequency range and can therefore be used to obtain the detail signal in the corresponding frequency range from the original signal. The detail signals from those detail filters can then be processed before added back to the original signal as enhancements. This provides image detail enhancement that is suitable for different types of digital images (regardless of their signal frequency range or noise level).

Improving image sharpness is important in image detail enhancement processing. FIG. 1 shows a system block diagram for a conventional image detail enhancement system 10 using a low pass filter (LPF) 12, which is typically known as "unsharp" filter. An input signal f (representing at least a portion of a video image formed by pixels), is processed and output as a signal g. The signal f is provided to the low pass filter (LPF) 12 to generate an unsharp signal f1. Then the difference between the signals f and f1 is determined in a difference junction/node 14, as a detail (difference) signal, (f−f1). The detail signal is then multiplied by a constant K (K>1) for enhancement in a multiplication junction/node 16, and summed with the signal f in a summing junction/node 18, to generate the output signal g. As such, the relationship between the output signal g and the input signal f can be expressed in the following equation:g=(f−f1)*K+f  (1)
In equation (1), the term (f−f1)*K, is the detail enhancement term, and when there is a non-zero difference between the signals f and f1, there are details which may be enhanced in the detail enhancement process.
However, the images to be enhanced may have different types of characteristics. Some images may contain rich high frequency, indicating many fine details or textures. Some other images may contain less high frequency, and so appear relatively smooth. Therefore, a problem with such a conventional detail enhancement system is that it is very difficult to design a LPF that can properly process different types of images with different characteristics. When the highest frequency of a signal is not much higher than the cutoff frequency of the LPF, the detail signal f−f1 would be too weak to provide noticeable enhancement to the original signal. As a result, images containing less high frequency may be enhanced poorly by conventional systems.
In order to solve this problem, other methods using a few filters have been proposed. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,001,573 ('573 patent) two LPFs are used to obtain two low passed versions of the original signal. The signal from the LPF with a lower cut-off frequency is termed as unsharp signal, U, the signal from the other LPF with a relatively higher cut-off frequency is termed as middle signal, M, and the original signal is denoted as S. According to that '573 patent, image detail enhancement depends on the difference signals S−U, M−U and S−M. The enhanced image signal ES can be expressed in a general form:ES=S+k1(S−M)+k2(S−U)+k3(M−U)  (2)
wherein k1, k2 and k3 are all constant coefficients which may have either positive or negative values. If a constant coefficient takes a positive value, the corresponding difference signal is an enhanced term which is added to the original signal. If a constant coefficient takes a negative value, the corresponding difference signal is a suppressed term which is deducted from the original signal. A constant coefficient may also equal to zero if the corresponding difference signal is not taken into account in the detail enhancement process. The '573 patent also states some conditions about k1, k2 and k3 that should be met for a detail enhancement system so that the high frequency component of the original image is always suppressed to eliminate granular noise while the mid frequency component of the original image is enhanced.
The '573 patent provides an extension of the traditional image detail enhancement system of FIG. 1. However, the invention in the '573 patent is too simplistic for the task of detail enhancement on different types of images available today. For example, with the introduction of digital TV, the quality of TV images may vary significantly. High definition images may have rich high frequency but very low level noise. In this case, the suppression of the high frequency component of the original image is not desirable because it simply degrades the image quality and introduces blurring. In another case, when a standard definition image is scaled up to fit a high definition TV screen, the scaled image may only have very low frequency component because of scaling. Therefore, even the LPF used for obtaining unsharp signal in the '573 patent may have too high a cut-off frequency for such images. As a result, the difference signals, S−U, M−U and S−M may all be too weak to bring any significant enhancement to the original image.
As such, there is a need for a practical image detail enhancement method and apparatus suitable for processing different types of digital images, regardless of their signal frequency range or noise level.

Method and apparatus for image detail enhancement using filter bank


An object is to provide a nitride semiconductor light emitting device capable of attaining high light emission output while lowering Vf, as well as to provide a manufacturing method thereof. The invention relates to a nitride semiconductor light emitting device, including at least an n-type nitride semiconductor, a p-type nitride semiconductor and an active layer formed between said n-type nitride semiconductor and said p-type nitride semiconductor, wherein the n-type nitride semiconductor includes a multi-layered nitride semiconductor layer having at least twice repeated stacked structure consisting of a first nitride semiconductor layer and a second nitride semiconductor layer, the multi-layered nitride semiconductor layer is formed in contact with the active layer, the first nitride semiconductor layer is a layer containing an n-type impurity, and the second nitride semiconductor layer is an undoped layer or a layer containing said n-type impurity to a concentration lower than said first nitride semiconductor layer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a nitride semiconductor light emitting device suitably applied to a light emitting device such as a light emitting diode (LED) or a laser diode (LD), as well as to a method of manufacturing the same.
2. Description of the Background Art
When a light emitting diode (LED) is used as an illuminating light source or a backlight for a display, it is necessary that the device has high light emitting efficiency and low forward voltage (hereinafter denoted as Vf). Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2000-244072 proposes a technique for improving light emission output of an LED, by forming an n-side first multi-layered film layer having at least two pairs of two different types of nitride semiconductor layers, that is, a nitride semiconductor layer doped with an n-type impurity and an undoped nitride semiconductor layer not doped with the n-type impurity. Further, Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2000-244072 describes that Vf is lowered by providing an n-side second multi-layered film layer, formed by stacking a first nitride semiconductor layer containing In and a second nitride semiconductor layer having a composition different from the first nitride semiconductor layer, between the n-side first multi-layered film layer and an active layer.
It is noted, however, that the n-type contact layer is formed by selecting at least one of the method involving increased carrier density and a method involving smaller band gap, in order to decrease contact resistance to lower Vf. Therefore, the layer tends to contain much dislocation and defects. When the n-side first multi-layered film layer is stacked in contact with the n-type contact layer, it would undesirably be influenced by the dislocation or defects, and sufficient effect of improving light emission output would not be attained. Further, in Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2000-244072, the second multi-layered film layer is stacked to the side of the active layer than the n-side first multi-layered film layer. When two different types of multi-layered films are grown, manufacturing process becomes complicated and the manufacturing cost increases. In addition, stacking of a nitride semiconductor layer containing In on the n-side of the active layer induces dislocation and defects of In, which affects crystallinity of the active layer and possibly causes decrease in light emission output.

Nitride semiconductor light emitting device and manufacturing method thereof