The invention relates to safety components/modifications for a firearm barrel for preventing discharge of live ammunition from the firearm. The invention includes one embodiment of a modified barrel including a rod member transversely positioned within a portion of the bore of the barrel adjacent to the chamber to prevent chambering or loading of a live round. The modified barrel further includes a standard blank-firing adapter (BFA) fixedly coupled to the distal or muzzle end of the barrel.

Firearm safety is an increasingly important issue. Generally, the overall purpose of firearm safety is to eliminate or minimize the risks of unintentional death, injury, or damage caused by improper possession, storage, or handling of firearms. One major area of concern is the prevention of inadvertent discharge of a firearm loaded with real, or live, ammunition, particularly in instances in which the firearm was thought to be either unloaded or loaded with blank ammunition. This is an ongoing concern in fields in which the handling and use of firearms is routine, such as the military and law enforcement.
Military forces, for example, conduct drills, simulated combat, and training exercises using live-fire firearms loaded with blank ammunition in place of live ammunition, so as to provide a realistic element to the situation. The term "live-fire" as used herein refers to the ability of the firearm to discharge live ammunition. The military is aware that extra precaution is required so as to ensure that the firearm is loaded only with blank rounds (e.g., cartridges, shells, etc.) during these exercises. However, blank-fire operations are inherently dangerous because a live cartridge, or round, may be inserted, either mistakenly or intentionally, into a firearm, creating the possibility that a user will discharge the live round, which may injure or kill another participant.
For example, in order to simulate combat against an enemy, blank-fire training often calls for a participant to "fire" a blank-loaded weapon at other participants in the training exercise who are acting as opposing forces. When a live round is introduced into the weapon and fired at a participant, serious injury and death may result.
In some training exercises, the military utilizes civilian personnel and equips them with weapons that are live-fire capable, but loaded with blank ammunition. The inclusion of civilians in training exercises has proven to be very useful, as civilians provide the necessary diversity, friction and realism required. However, even with screening and background checks, the issue remains that one or more of the civilians may be a rogue individual trying to bring harm to the personnel being trained and may thus intentionally load a weapon with live ammunition so as to cause harm to other participants. Furthermore, an improperly trained civilian may inadvertently load a weapon with live ammunition, thus presenting a situation in which the discharge of a live round may result, which may injure or kill another participant.
There are currently a variety of different safety systems that are directed to reducing the risk of unwanted discharge of live ammunition, particularly in training situations. For example, some firearms are manufactured solely for the purpose of firing non-standard blank cartridges, such that they are not live-fire capable. However, such "training-only" firearms take away from realistic training, are limited in their use (e.g., not live-fire capable), and may be costly. Some systems include blank-firing adapters (BFA) positioned at the end of a barrel of a firearm. The BFA generally allows blank cartridges to cycle with most automatic firearms. The BFA is designed such that if a live round is mistakenly fired, most of the energy is spent colliding with and smashing through the BFA, reducing both the range and damage inflicted by the live round. However, trainees may forget to check whether the weapon has been loaded with live ammunition. If the weapon is loaded with a live round and fired, artillery from the magazine will strike the BFA, causing the gun to explode in the hands of the operator.

Live-round prevention with built-in blank firing adapter


It is intended to provide a vacuum pump so that without upsizing the vacuum pump, noise and vibration are reduced, heat dissipation property is secured, and the casing is downsized. Therefore, at least one turning part is provided in an exhausting path formed in a casing body. The casing body is formed of a material whose thermal conductivity is higher than that of a rotor and vanes, and a cylinder part where the vanes slide is press fitted in the casing body.

Generally, a vacuum pump (compressing device) which includes rotary compressing elements in a casing is known. In this kind of vacuum pumps, a vacuum can be obtained by driving the rotary compressing elements with a driving device such as an electric motor.
A vane-type vacuum pump is known as the compressing device. In this kind of vacuum pumps, a vacuum can be obtained by driving rotary compressing elements with a driving device such as an electric motor.
Generally, it is known that the vacuum pump includes a casing attached to the wall surface of the driving machine, a rotor which is rotationally driven by the rotary shaft of the driving machine in the casing, and a plurality of vanes which are extendably accommodated in the rotor. In this kind of vacuum pumps, a vacuum can be obtained by driving the rotor and the vanes in the casing with a driving machine such as an electric motor.
The vacuum pump is carried, for example, in an engine room of an automobile and is used to produce a vacuum to operate a brake boosting device (for example, refer to a PTL 1).
Further, it is known that a vacuum pump includes a casing attached to a driving machine, a hollow cylinder chamber which is formed in the casing and has openings at the two ends of the casing, a rotor which is provided at the rotary shaft of the driving machine and which is rotationally driven in the cylinder chamber with the rotary shaft, and a pair of side plates which block the openings of the cylinder chamber. This kind of vacuum pump is used to produce a vacuum to operate, for example, a brake boosting device of an automobile, and the vacuum can be obtained by driving the rotor in the cylinder chamber of the casing with the driving machine such as an electric motor (for example, refer to a PTL 2).

Vacuum pump having rotary compressing elements


A powder metal tooth part and a method of producing a toothed sintered metal part by uniaxially compacting an iron or iron-based powder having coarse particles in a single compaction step, subjecting the part to sintering, and subjecting the part to a surface densifying process.

There are several advantages by using powder metallurgical methods for producing structural parts compared with conventional matching processes of fully dense steel. Thus the energy consumption is much lower and the material utilisation is much higher. Another important factor in favour of the powder metallurgical route is that components with net shape or near net shape can be produced directly after the sintering process without costly shaping such as turning, milling boring or grinding. However, normally a full dense steel material has superior mechanical properties compared with powder metallurgy (PM) components. Therefore, the goal has been to increase the density of PM components in order to reach values as close as possible to the density value of fully dense steel. At relatively high sintered densities the occurrence of porosity in a powder metallurgical body has mainly negatively influence of the dynamic mechanical properties, the fatigue properties. Additives and processing routes giving small pore sizes and round pores in the sintered body may diminish the negative effects of the porosity.
One area of future growth in the utilization of powder metal parts is in the automotive industry. Of special interest within this field is the use of powder metal parts in more demanding applications, such as power transmission applications, for example, gear wheels. Presently the most commonly used material for producing gear wheels for demanding automotive applications are based on wrought steel of the type 16MnCr5, 15CrNi6, or SAE 8620.
Problems with gear wheels formed by the powder metal process are that powder metal gear wheels have reduced bending fatigue strength in the tooth root region of the gear wheel, and low contact fatigue strength on the tooth flank compared with gears machined from bar stock or forgings. These problems may be reduced by plastic deformation of the surface of the tooth root and flank region through a process commonly known as surface densification. Products which can be used for these demanding applications are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,711,187, 5,540,883, 5,552,109, 5,729,822, 6,171,546 and U.S. Patent Application Publication US 2004/0177719.
The U.S. Pat. No. 5,711,187 (1990) is particularly concerned with the degree of surface hardness, which is necessary in order to produce gear wheels, which are sufficiently wear resistant for use in heavy-duty applications. According to this patent the surface hardness or densification should be in the range of 90 to 100 percent of full theoretical density to a depth of at least 380 microns and up to 1,000 microns. No specific details are disclosed concerning the production process but it is stated that admixed powders are preferred as they have the advantage of being more compressible, enabling higher densities to be reached at the compaction stage. Furthermore it is stated that the admixed powders should include in addition to iron and 0.2% by weight of graphite, 0.5% by weight of molybdenum, chromium and manganese, respectively.
A method similar to that described in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,711,187 is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,540,883 (1994). According to the U.S. Pat. No. 5,540,883, bearing surfaces from powder metal blanks are produced by blending carbon and ferro alloys and lubricant with compressible elemental iron powder, pressing the blending mixture to form the powder metal blank, high temperature sintering the blank in a reducing atmosphere, compressing the powder metal blanks so as to produce a densified layer having a bearing surface, and then heat treating the densified layer. The sintered powder metal article should have a composition, by weight percent, of 0.5 to 2.0% chromium, 0 and 1.0% molybdenum, 0.1 and 0.6% carbon, with a balance of iron and trace impurities. Broad ranges as regards compaction pressures are mentioned. Thus it is stated that the compaction may be performed at pressures between 25 and 50 ton per square inch (about 390-770 MPa).
The U.S. Pat. No. 5,552,109 (1995) concerns a process of forming a sintered article having high density. The patent is particularly concerned with the production of connecting rods. As in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,711,187, no specific details concerning the production process are disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,552,109, but it is stated that the powder should be a pre-alloyed iron based powder, that the compacting should be performed in a single step, that the compaction pressures may vary between 25 and 50 ton per square inch (390-770 MPa) to green densities between 6.8 and 7.1 g/cm3 and that the that the sintering should be performed at high temperature, particularly between 1270 and 1350° C. It is stated that sintered products having a density greater than 7.4 g/cm3 are obtained and it is thus obvious that the high sintered density is a result of the high temperature sintering.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,729,822 (1996), a powder metal gear wheel having a core density of at least 7.3 g/cm3 and a hardened carburized surface is disclosed. The powders recommended are the same as in the U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,711,187 and 5,540,883, which discuss mixtures obtained by blending carbon, ferro alloys and lubricant with compressible powder of elemental iron. In order to obtain high sintered core density the patent mentions warm pressing; double pressing, double sintering; high density forming as disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,754,937; the use of die wall lubrication, instead of admixed lubricants during powder compaction; and rotary forming after sintering. Compacting pressures of around 40 tons per square inch (620 MPa) are typically employed.
Also the U.S. Pat. No. 6,171,546 discloses a method for obtaining a densified surface. According to this patent the surface densification is obtained by rolling or, preferably, by shot peening of a green body of an iron-based powder. From this patent it can be concluded that the most interesting results are obtained if a pre-sintering step is performed before the final densification and sintering operations. According to this patent the sintering can be performed at 1120° C., i.e. at conventional sintering temperatures, but as two sintering steps are recommended the energy consumption will be quite considerable.
The U.S. Patent Application Publication US 2004/0177719 describes a method of forming powder metal materials and parts, such as gears and sprockets, having surface regions that are uniformly densified to full density to depth ranging from 0.001 inches to 0.040 inches, and core regions that can have at least 92 percent theoretical density and further can have essentially full density, i.e., 98% and above.
The surface densification of sintered PM steels is discussed in, e.g., the Technical Paper Series 8202 234, (International Congress & Exposition, Detroit, Mich., Feb. 22-26, 1982). In this paper a study of surface rolling of sintered gears is reported. Fe—Cu—C and Ni—Mo alloyed materials were used for the study. The paper reveals the results from basic research on the surface rolling of sintered parts and the application of it to sintered gears. The basic studies includes surface rolling with different diameters of the rolls, best results in terms of strength were achieved with smaller roll diameter, lesser reduction per pass and large total reduction. As an example for a Fe—Cu—C material a densification of 90% of theoretical density was achieved with a roll of 30 mm diameter to a depth of 1.1 mm. The same level of densification was achieved to a depth of about 0.65 mm for a 7.5 mm diameter roll. The small diameter roll however was able to increase the densification to about full density at the surface whereas the large diameter roll increased the density to about 96% at the surface. The surface rolling technique was applied to sintered oil-pumps gears and sintered crankshaft gears. In an article in Modern Developments in Powder Metallurgy, Volume 16, p 33-48 1984 (from the International PM Conference, Jun. 17-22,1984 Toronto Canada), the authors have investigated the influence of shot-peening, carbonitriding and combinations thereof on the endurance limit of sintered Fe+1.5% Cu and Fe+2% Cu+2.5% Ni alloys. The densities reported of these alloys were 7.1 and 7.4 g/cm3. Both a theoretical evaluation of the surface rolling process and a bending fatigue testing of surface rolled parts is published in an article in Horizon of Powder Metallurgy part 1, p. 403-406, Proceedings of the 1986 (International Powder Metallurgy Conference and Exhibition DOusseldorf, 7-11 Jul. 1986).
According to the prior art above many different routes have been suggested in order to reach a high sintered density of a powder metallurgical component. However the suggested processes all includes steps adding additional costs such as warm compaction, double pressing-double sintering, die wall lubrication, high temperature sintering etc. Furthermore, for high load applications such as gear wheels, dynamic mechanical properties such as bending fatigue strength and contact fatigue strength needs to reach the same level as gear wheels produced from full dense steel. A simple and cost effective method for the preparation of gear wheels and similar products having dynamic mechanical properties equal to wrought gear wheels, would thus be attractive.

Sintered metal parts and method for the manufacturing thereof


A baby bottle cleaner is provided including a base and a plurality of bottle cleaning assemblies situated on the base and adapted to emit water therefrom. Such assemblies are adapted to accept the baby bottle thereon for cleaning purposes. Further provided is a nipple cleaning cover adapted to be removably coupled to the base such that the nipple cleaning cover encompasses the bottle cleaning assemblies. The nipple cleaning cover further includes a mesh basket positioned in the cover for supporting a plurality of nipples therein such that the nipples are cleaned.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to bottle cleaners and more particularly pertains to a new baby bottle cleaner for cleaning both baby bottles and the nipples thereof.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of bottle cleaners is known in the prior art. More specifically, bottle cleaners heretofore devised and utilized are known to consist basically of familiar, expected and obvious structural configurations, notwithstanding the myriad of designs encompassed by the crowded prior art which have been developed for the fulfillment of countless objectives and requirements.
Known prior art bottle cleaners include U.S. Pat. No. 5,419,348; U.S. Pat. No. 5,435,036; U.S. Pat. Des. No. 271,532; U.S. Pat. No. 5,425,385; U.S. Pat. No. 4,115,891; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,265,628.
In these respects, the baby bottle cleaner according to the present invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art, and in so doing provides an apparatus primarily developed for the purpose of cleaning both baby bottles and the nipples thereof.


Disclosed is a soap making split mold composed of a set of splits 1A and 1B adapted to be assembled together to form a molding cavity 1C. The split 1A has a larger surface area in its recess 11A defining part of the cavity 1C than the other split 1B does in its recess 11B defining the other part of the cavity 1C. The ratio of the surface area of the recess 11A of the split 1A to that of the recess 11B of the split 1B ranges from 52:48 to 66:34. Otherwise, the split 1A has a larger surface roughness Ra in its recess 11A defining part of the cavity than the other split 1B does in its recess 11B defining the other part of the cavity. The difference of the surface roughness Ra between the recess 11A and that of the recess 11B is 0.1 to 30 μm.

Applicant has previously proposed a method of producing aerated soap which does not invite defects such as chipping on removal from the mold thereby to provide soap bars with an excellent appearance (see JP-A-2002-121599). The method comprises cooling and solidifying molten soap poured into a mold until the soap surface temperature falls to 5° to 30° C., elevating the temperature of the solidified soap until the surface temperature becomes higher by 2° to 15° C. than the surface temperature at the end of the cooling, and removing the soap bar from the mold. The mold used in the method has a surface roughness Ra of 0.1 to 30 μm on its inner side.
The method allows for successful removal from the mold even though the soap is more liable to chipping than ordinary soap because of air bubbles. At mold opening, however, the solidified soap bar tends to fall without being secured to a split of the mold. The soap bar very easily breaks up if dropped, which results in contamination of the production equipment. A soap bar should therefore be held in a split without fail. Apart from that issue, which split a soap bar holds to when the mold is opened tends to differ from cycle to cycle. This means that the step of removal from the mold with a handling unit tends to be complicated, which can reduce the productivity.
It has been proposed to apply a coating providing different releasability to the recess of a split of a mold so that adhesion of soap may differ between splits (see JP-T-2001-525881). However, the coating gradually comes off with the number of shots, eventually resulting in no difference in adhesion. It is therefore necessary to apply the coating to the split periodically, which makes the molding operation complicated and increases the production cost.


Non-disruptive server replacement for session-based clients. An embodiment of a method includes establishing a first session between a first storage server and a client, the first storage server comprising a data component coupled to a data storage, a network component, and a session data structure in the network component for the first session. Transferring an operation of the first storage server to a second storage server during the first session with the client, wherein the second storage server is a replacement storage server for the first storage server.

A storage server is a special-purpose processing system used to store and retrieve data on behalf of one or more client processing systems ("clients"). A file server is an example of a storage server. A file server operates on behalf of one or more clients to store and manage shared files in a set of mass storage devices, such as magnetic or optical storage based disks or tapes. The mass storage devices may be organized into one or more groups of Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks (RAID). In a storage area network (SAN), a storage server can provide clients with block-level access to stored data, rather than file-level access. Some storage servers are capable of providing clients with both file-level access and block-level access, such as certain filers produced by Network Appliance, Inc. of Sunnyvale, Calif.
In certain circumstances, a storage server may require replacement. The reasons for replacement may include failure or other operational problems, necessary maintenance, or installation of an upgrade. However, the operations of the server may require continuation during the replacement of the server.
In conventional operations in a session-based environment, sessions will terminate in a transfer to another server because the session information isn't propagated to or available for the replacement server. Further, the replacement of one server with another may result in an interruption in service if the change does not occur quickly enough. In such an environment, a communication from a client may be made during a replacement process. If there is a sufficient delay in a response to the communication, this delay may cause the session to be terminated.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


The number of correction values used when carrying out a darkness correction line by line is decreased, thereby making it possible to reduce the storage capacity of a storage section storing those correction values. At least one set of correction values determined based on darkness measurement values of lines of a correction pattern printed using a given processing mode is stored, wherein an integer multiple of the number of lines formed in one period is taken as one set, and a darkness correction is carried out through repetitive, sequential correlation with each correction value of said at least one set when printing an image using that processing mode.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to printing methods, printing apparatuses, printing systems, and correction patterns for inhibiting darkness non-uniformities in an image.
2. Description of the Related Art
Inkjet printers that form dots by ejecting ink onto paper serving as a medium are known as printing apparatuses for printing images. Such inkjet printers repeat a dot formation operation of forming dots on the paper by ejecting ink from a plurality of nozzles, which move in a predetermined movement direction, and a carrying operation of carrying the paper in an intersecting direction that intersects with the movement direction (hereinafter, referred to as the "carrying direction") with a carry unit. Thus, a plurality of raster lines each made of a plurality of dots extending in the movement direction are formed in the carrying direction, thus printing an image.
Now, with such a printer, darkness non-uniformities extending parallel to the movement direction can be occasionally observed in such images made of a multitude of raster lines. That is to say, there may be raster lines that macroscopically look darker and raster lines that macroscopically look lighter.
Such darkness non-uniformities are mainly caused by the manufacturing precision of the nozzles, and more specifically the following two causes can be given. A first case is that there are variations in the ink ejection amount among the nozzles. A second case is that the positions at which dots are formed on paper by ejecting ink from the nozzles (referred to as "dot formation positions" in the following) deviate in the carrying direction from the target positions.
The following is a conventional method for inhibiting darkness non-uniformities in the first case: First, a correction pattern is printed with the printer for which darkness non-uniformities are to be inhibited, the darkness of the correction pattern is measured with a darkness measurement device and a correction value with which a target darkness is attained is calculated for each nozzle, and the correction values for the nozzles are stored in a storage section of the printer. Then, when the user carries out actual printing of an image, the printer corrects the ink ejection amount using the correction values correlated with the nozzles, thus inhibiting the darkness non-uniformities.
However, the darkness non-uniformities of the second case are caused by the spacings between the raster lines R periodically becoming wider and narrower, as shown in FIG. 25. That is to say, adjacent raster lines R with a wide spacing between them macroscopically appear light, whereas raster lines R with a narrow spacing between them macroscopically appear dark. Thus, the state of the spacing depends on the combination of nozzles forming the adjacent raster lines. Consequently, in order to inhibit the darkness non-uniformities of the second case, it would appear to be possible to correct the darkness non-uniformities caused by the state of the spacings more directly by storing a correction value in correlation with each of the raster lines rather than storing a correction value in correlation with each of the nozzles in the storage section.
However, the number of raster lines constituting the image is extremely large, and a storage section of an enormous capacity would be necessary in order to store correction values for all of the raster lines, which would entail higher costs for the printer.
Moreover, as a method for obtaining the correction values, it is conceivable to form a large number of raster lines over the entire paper in the carrying direction as a correction pattern, and to determine the correction values by measuring the darkness thereof raster line by raster line. However, depending on the processing mode, which determines the dot formation operation and the carrying operation, there are also cases in which it is possible to obtain the correction values that are minimally necessary for correction by forming raster lines not over the entire region but only a portion thereof. In such a case, it is possible to achieve savings in the ink amount that is consumed during printing of the correction pattern.

Printing method, printing apparatus, printing system, and printed medium


The invention relates to a device and a method for trimming a float glass strip that has a normal or structured surface, comprising the following features: a) a cutting slide having a lower running rail and a cutting slide having an upper running rail for a bottom cut for a structured surface or a top cut for a normal surface, wherein both running rails are arranged at an acute angle to the running direction of the glass strip and this angled position can be adjusted; b) a number of counter pressure rollers for the lower cutting slide; c) a hold-down apparatus (6) having a breaking roller (20) and a front hold-down roller (21) for a bottom cut; d) a hold-down apparatus (15) having a breaking roller (14) and a rear hold-down roller (18) for a top cut; e) apparatuses (10, 11, 12) for measuring the advance speed of the glass strip (11) and the current length of the glass strip.

Float glass is usually manufactured by continuously pouring the molten glass onto a tin bath, which is heated in an elongate tub, and the thus resulting glass strip.
The subsequent making up of float glass is carried out by longitudinal cutting and transverse cutting of the glass strip which emerges from the float glass production at a particular feed rate. The longitudinal cutting in this case is effected by longitudinal cutting wheels which are located in corresponding positions above the glass strip. The transverse cutting, or cutting to length, occurs with the aid of cutting bridges and transverse cutting wheels which are moved transversely on said cutting bridges across the glass strip. The glass panels to be cut are usually cut from float glass having a length of 6 m and a width of more than 3 m.
In the shaping of the glass strip, usually a somewhat different distribution of thickness is formed on the edges than in the center or the later net useable area as a result of surface tensions, temperature gradients and viscosity gradients and on account of mechanical conveying tools, for example rollers. The edge region on both sides of the glass strip here is referred to as the border region.
The object forming the basis of DE 102 37 478 B4 is thus to carry out the usual method for cutting a glass strip in respect of the applied cutting force in such a manner that the border region and also the net region are sufficiently scored in order to achieve a correct fracture process and simultaneously a premature breaking apart of the glass strip.
According to claim 1 of said document, the solution to this problem proceeds from a method for cutting a continuous glass strip in the manufacturing of flat glass, which has an inhomogeneous distribution of thickness across its width, in which further a cutting tool is moved across the width of the glass strip with a cutting force, which is predetermined by a control unit, creating a notch at an angle in relation to the conveying direction, and the glass strip is subsequently mechanically fractured along the notch. In such a method, protection is claimed for the cutting force to be actively predetermined by the control unit in a manner adapted to the thickness of the glass.
In another technical field, glass having particular optical functions, for example glass having as defined precise surface structuring, is often demanded, Such a structuring is inter alia demanded for display screens for flat screen monitors, referred to as channel plates.
DE 198 47 549 C1 discloses a shaping tool having a structured surface for creating structures on glass for manufacturing such display screens and the use of said shaping tool in the structuring of channel plates. This known shaping tool has a roll cylinder which consists of a metallic hollow cylinder on the outer sleeve of which a shaping sheet, which has recesses according to the negative of the glass structures to be applied, is attached in close two-dimensional contact. Furthermore, said tool has a shaft for the continuous drive of the roll cylinder, said shaft extending through the metallic hollow cylinder, wherein, level with the end face of the metallic hollow cylinder, two dogs which are in operative engagement in a form fitting manner with the hollow cylinder are fixedly attached to the shaft. The known tool further has an electric heating, which is located in an electrically isolated manner between the shaft and the metallic hollow cylinder and has an additional thermal insulation in relation to the shaft.
In the meantime, further possibilities for manufacturing glass having a structured surface on a float glass line have emerged; however, no printed documentation pertaining to them is available.
If there is now the requirement for one and the same float glass line to alternatingly produce and out to length glass having a smooth surface and glass having a structured surface, different installations are required for manufacturing glass having such differences. However, if an existing installation is used in this event, said installation, for example when changing over from normal glass to glass having a structured surface, needs to be equipped with a corresponding additional unit. Moreover, the old molten glass has no first cool down and the melting process then has to be started over again. In addition, glass having a structured surface has to be cut in a different manner than normal float glass.

Method for cutting to length a float glass strip having a normal or structured surface


An apparatus includes a wagering game table having a sensory area configured to recognize a touch of a wagering game player and to create player touch data in response to the touch of the player. The wagering game table includes an input device configured to receive identification data that provides identification of the wagering game player. The apparatus includes a camera configured to capture an image during a time of the touch of the wagering game player at the sensory area of the wagering game table. The image comprising an image of at least part of the sensory area of the wagering game table and an image of at least part of the player. The apparatus includes an authentication module configured to define an association of the identification of the wagering game player with the at least one image of the at least part of the player.

Wagering game tables (e.g., black jack, roulette, baccarat, etc.) have been a cornerstone of the wagering game industry for many years. Electronic wagering game tables ((a.k.a. e-tables) can combine the best of traditional table games (e.g., black jack, roulette, baccarat, etc.) and wagering game machines because a live dealers can facilitate play while wagers are placed electronically through electronic wagering interfaces. An e-table provides an electronic wagering interface for players participating in a game. The electronic wagering interfaces present wagering options to the players and allow the players to place wagers. For example, an e-table configured for roulette comprises a roulette wheel and an array of electronic wagering interfaces that present the numbers to each player. A player places bets by selecting numbers using an input area (e.g., a group of buttons, a touch screen, etc.) on the electronic wagering interface, rather than placing chips on numbers on the table.

Camera for player authentication and monitoring of wagering game tables


A method for programming a failsafe control system comprises the steps of defining logical interconnections between input signals of the failsafe control system and of assigning interconnection products to output signals of the failsafe control system. The steps of defining and assigning take place on the basis of predefined function-specific program modules, which are selected from a set of such program modules. According to one aspect, each selected program module is uniquely assigned to a defined functional group, with a first functional group containing program modules which pick up input signals of the failsafe control system and provide first interim variables in response thereto, a second functional group containing program modules which logically interconnect the first interim variables to one another and provide second interim variables in response thereto, and a third functional group containing program modules which assign the second interim variables to the output signals of the failsafe control system. A corresponding programming device is also disclosed.

The present invention relates to a method of programming a failsafe control system, and in particular to a method of programming a failsafe control system comprising the steps of:                defining logical interconnections between input signals of the failsafe control system and        assigning interconnection products to output signals of the failsafe control system,
with the definition of the interconnections and the assignment taking place on the basis of predefined function-specific program modules, which are selected from a set of such program modules.
The invention furthermore relates to a device for programming a failsafe control system, and in particular a device having a first part for selecting and parameterizing predefined function-specific program modules, by means of which logical interconnections can be defined between input signals of the failsafe control system and interconnection products can be assigned to output signals of the failsafe control system.
For the purposes of the present invention, a failsafe control system is a unit or a device which picks up the input signals supplied by sensors and generates output signals there from by logical interconnections and, under some circumstances, some further signal- or data-processing steps. The output signals can then be fed to actuators, which specifically effect actions or reactions in the surroundings in response to the input signals. A preferred field of application for such failsafe control systems is in the area of machine safety, and in particular the monitoring of emergency-off buttons, two-hand controls, protective doors or light curtains. Such sensors are used for example to make safe a machine which, when operated, gives rise to a risk to people or property. When the protective door is opened or when the emergency-off button is actuated, a respective signal is generated and fed to the failsafe control system as an input signal. In response to this, the failsafe control system then shuts down the dangerous part of the machine by means of an actuator for example.
In contrast to a "normal" control system, it is characteristic of a failsafe control system that, even when a malfunction occurs in it or in a device connected to it, the failsafe control system must always ensure a safe state of the dangerous installation or machine. Therefore, failsafe control systems have to meet extremely high requirements in terms of intrinsic failsafety, which has the consequence of considerable expenditure on development and production. Failsafe control systems generally require special authorization from responsible supervisory authorities before they are used, such as for example in Germany from the employers' liability insurance associations or what is known the TÜV (technical inspection and testing organization). The failsafe control system must in this case conform to predetermined safety standards, which are laid down for example in European Standard EN 954-1. Therefore, a failsafe control system is understood hereafter as meaning a device which conforms at least to safety category 3 of said European standard or an equivalent standard.
A programmable failsafe control system offers the user the possibility of individually defining logical interconnections, and if appropriate further signal- or data-processing steps, according to his needs with the aid of software, known as the user program. This results in great flexibility compared to earlier solutions, in which the logical interconnections were produced by defined wiring between various safety modules. One problem in the programming of a failsafe control system is, however, that the user program to be created is itself a safety-critical element, since an error in the user program can cause an uncontrolled situation and consequently a dangerous state in the case of the monitored machine or installation. Additionally, for monitoring of a large machine installation with many safety devices, the user program can become very complex and confusing, which makes it considerably more difficult to ensure the required failsafety. In this case, serious errors in the user program may be caused not only by human error in the programming but also by programming aids which are not failsafe. If, for example, the user program for the failsafe control system is created by means of a non-failsafe, commercially available personal computer (PC), memory errors of the PC could lead unnoticed to serious falsification of the user program.
In WO 98/44399, a method is disclosed according to which a commercially available PC can be used to program a safety-oriented control system, i.e. a failsafe control system. For this purpose, function-specific program modules in the form of what are known as software macros are stored in the failsafe control system. To create the user program, the user generates program-module function calls with the aid of the PC, which function calls are subsequently transferred to the failsafe control system. With the aid of the program-module function calls, the required program modules in the failsafe control system are called up and linked to form the actual user program. The programming device, i.e. the PC, merely serves for the purpose of selecting and linking the required program modules. The program modules themselves cannot be changed, and consequently the PC cannot exert any influence on them.
The known method simplifies the programming of a failsafe control system. Moreover, a certain safety is additionally achieved by the fact that the program-module function calls transferred to the failsafe control system have to be read back into the programming device and reconfirmed there by the user. However, the known method is not yet optimal with regard to failsafety in the creation of a user program.

Method and device for programming a failsafe control system


A cleaning member for mounting around a support in an electrophotographic machine, the support being located peripherally adjacent at least one electrophotographic process device having a surface cleanable by the cleaning member, the cleaning member including a substrate supporting a cleaning agency. The cleaning member is activatable to clean via motion, which can include longitudinal movement and/or rotary movement around the support's longitudinal axis. The cleaning agency can include one or more cleaning agents selected from the following categories: brush, pad, blade, woven material, fabric, cloth, rubber, sponge, and foam. A surface cleanable by the cleaning member can be located on one or more of the following: lens array of a LED writer, charger grid, corona wire, blade, erase lamp, developer pickup scavenger device, densitometer or electrometer sensor, or retractable rotatable process device adjacent the support.

It is well known that certain surfaces of components included within an electrophotographic machine are susceptible to contamination by airborne contaminants. These airborne contaminants, including airborne particulates, fibers, aerosols, or chemical compounds, are typically generated as a result of operating the machine. Contamination tends to gradually accumulate on such surfaces so that periodic cleanings are necessary, even when concentrations of contaminants in the ambient air are low. The present invention relates to providing simple and economical means for cleaning certain surfaces that are adjacent to rollers utilized for forming toner images on receiver members.
In an electrophotographic machine a toner image is typically formed on an imaging member, transferred in a first transfer operation from the imaging member to an intermediate transfer member, and subsequently transferred in a second transfer operation from the intermediate transfer member to a receiver member (e.g., paper), whereupon the toner image is fixed to the receiver in a fusing station.
For full color high quality electrophotographic printing, it is known to employ a modular machine typically including four modules arranged in tandem fashion. Each module produces a respective single color toner separation image, e.g., a cyan, magenta, yellow, or black toner image. A receiver member is moved successively through the modules such that the respective single color toner images are sequentially transferred in registry to the receiver member. The receiver member, e.g., a paper sheet, can be electrostatically adhered to a transport belt, which transports the receiver member through the modules. After passing through the last module, the receiver member is moved through a fusing station where the unfused toner is fixed to the receiver member by heat and/or pressure. Each module can include a primary imaging roller (imaging cylinder) and a compliant intermediate transfer member (blanket cylinder). Arranged around the imaging cylinder in the direction of rotation are typically a charging station which can utilize a gridded corona charger, an exposure station for image-wise exposing the charged imaging cylinder so as to produce an electrostatic latent image, a development station for toning the latent image so as to produce a respective single color toner image, a primary transfer station wherein the respective single color toner image is electrostatically transferred to the blanket cylinder, and a cleaning station for cleaning the imaging cylinder prior to the next charging operation. A pre-clean corona charger may be mounted between the primary transfer station and the cleaning station, and additionally a pre-clean erase lamp may be mounted between the pre-clean corona charger and the cleaning station. The cleaning station can include a cleaning blade, a brush, or a rotatable member for contacting the surface of the imaging cylinder so as to remove residual untransferred toner particles therefrom. It is known to mount a sensor included in a densitometer immediately after the development station, which densitometer is used for monitoring toner coverage in a test patch located outside of the imaging area on the imaging cylinder. In the primary transfer station, the imaging cylinder forms a primary transfer nip with the blanket cylinder, and in a secondary transfer station, the blanket cylinder forms a secondary transfer nip for transferring the respective toner image to a receiver member, e.g., with the receiver member adhered to a transport belt such that the secondary transfer nip is formed by action of the blanket cylinder and an associated transfer roller or backup roller located behind the transport belt. A cleaning mechanism for the blanker cylinder is typically located after the secondary transfer station.
In an electrophotographic machine, image-wise exposure of an imaging cylinder can be done using a rastered laser beam and an associated polygon, as is well known. Periodic cleaning of such a polygon is typically required. It is possible to reliably clean the polygon inside the machine, e.g., by using an air jet or a cleaning roller, as disclosed for example in the Koguchi patent (U.S. Pat. No. 6,327,067). However, this requires a complicated apparatus. Alternatively, a LED writer including an array of lenses can be used for image-wise exposure, as disclosed for example in the Flynn, et al. patent (U.S. Pat. No. 4,947,195). It is noteworthy that such a LED writer is inherently much more amenable to cleaning than is the polygon apparatus, because the lenses of the writer which require the periodic cleaning are typically disposed in a rectangular arrangement, i.e., all the lenses can be cleaned at essentially the same time. However, there is a need for a simple and convenient way to clean such a lens array in situ, i.e., without requiring partial disassembly of the machine.
It is known to provide a removable replaceable sleeve member for an imaging cylinder or a blanket cylinder, as disclosed in the Chowdry, et al. patents (U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,456,816; 6,541,171; and 6,605,399), which are hereby incorporated by reference. A double-sleeved imaging cylinder or blanket cylinder is disclosed in the Chowdry, et al. patent (U.S. Pat. No. 6,377,772), which is hereby incorporated by reference.
The Shifley, et al. patents (U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,259,873; 6,263,177; and 6,484,002), which are hereby incorporated by reference, disclose a roller (such as a photoconductive roller or an intermediate transfer roller) which has a removable replaceable sleeve and a disconnectable supportive member which is disengaged and moved away from the roller so as to provide a free end for sleeve removal or replacement, the roller being supported in cantilevered fashion at the opposite end. With a new sleeve in place the supportive member is re-engaged to support the roller for operation. A mechanism can be provided for disconnecting/reconnecting supporting members from an imaging cylinder as well as from an associated blanket cylinder, thereby simultaneously leaving both cylinders supported in cantilever fashion, e.g., for sleeve replacement.
The Cormier, et al. patent (U.S. Pat. No. 6,394,943), which is hereby incorporated by reference, describes an image transfer drum inclusive of a mandrel having an air bearing to facilitate loading and removal of a resilient sleeve. The air bearing is provided with a pair of cooperating plates, one of which is scored with equally spaced and radially extending grooves. When urged together, the plates define a central air chamber and a plurality of radially extending passages serving to direct pressurized air radially from one end of the mandrel, at which end the sleeve can be removed and replaced. The pressurized air is conveyed to the central chamber via a pipe passing into the mandrel at the other end of the mandrel, at which other end the mandrel is supported in cantilever fashion during removal or replacement of a sleeve.
The Cormier, et al. provisional patent application (U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/523,619), which is hereby incorporated by reference, discloses a double-sleeved roller inclusive of a mandrel similarly supported in cantilever fashion during replacement of a sleeve member. The mandrel provides an air bearing to facilitate removal or replacement of an outer sleeve. For replacement of an inner sleeve, a sleeve-replacement fixture is reversibly attached to the free end of the cantilevered mandrel. With the sleeve-replacement fixture attached, three air bearings are available to facilitate removal/mounting of the inner sleeve.
As is commonly known, contamination of certain critical surfaces of subsystem apparatus can result in reduced performance of an electrophotographic engine. Such contamination can include various types of particulates, e.g., toner dust, carrier dust, paper dust, hairs, and fibers. Moreover, aerosols such as fuser oil aerosols and the products of corona chemistry from corona chargers can contaminate surfaces. Despite a prevailing use of contamination control mechanisms, e.g., airflow systems, air conditioning systems, air purifying filters, and the like, the problem of lowered performance caused by contamination remains a fact of life in commercial electrophotographic machines, including modular electrophotographic color printing machines.
Thus, over a period of time of operation of a modular electrophotographic color printing machine employing, in the modules, LED writers having lens arrays, the lens surfaces of the lens arrays typically become contaminated, e.g., with particulate matter. The contamination reduces the amount of transmitted imaging light and thereby adversely affects image-wise exposure of corona-charged imaging cylinders. As a result, the lens surfaces typically require periodic cleaning. This can be a cumbersome process in a modular electrophotographic color-printing machine, where each LED writer is disposed close to the respective imaging cylinder. Typically, the LED writer is fixedly and precisely positioned with respect to the surface of the imaging cylinder, i.e., in practice the LED array is not retractable from the imaging cylinder. Were it in fact retractable, very little available space would typically be available for providing a suitable amount of retraction for a cleaning device to be inserted between imaging cylinder and lenses. Therefore, the imaging roller (which can be bulky and heavy) must be removed from the machine in order to clean the LED lenses. This is time consuming and also introduces a risk of damage to the roller, to the LED array, or to other subsystem elements.
The grids of gridded corona chargers can typically become contaminated by an accumulation of corona chemistry byproducts, which byproducts can desorb from the grids and cause blurring of images on the imaging cylinder. Or, the grids can be contaminated by particulate matter or by fibers, which can cause image defects as well as electrical arcing defects on an imaging cylinder surface. Thus each grid requires periodic cleaning, e.g., via wiping. While the inner surfaces of the grid can readily be cleaned by periodically wiping with a wiping mechanism internal to the corona charger, it is considerably more expensive to also clean the exterior surface of the grid by a mechanical device incorporated into the charger. In order to clean the exterior surface of a grid manually, e.g., by using a suitable cloth or a pad, the charger is typically removed from the machine.
Periodic cleaning of the corona wires of non-gridded corona chargers, sometimes used for the pre-clean charging function for imaging and blanket cylinders, can also be desirable. The low cost of such chargers can make it impractical to use a mechanical wiper integral with the charger. Non-gridded corona chargers are usually removed from the machine from time to time for manual cleaning of the corona wires.
Cleaning blades, which can be employed in cleaning stations, can become dirty after prolonged usage. As a result they require periodic cleaning, which typically necessitates removal of the blades from the machine. Other types of blade, such as for example doctor blades, scrapers, or skives, may similarly require periodic cleaning.
An erase lamp can be mounted prior to a cleaning station so as to illuminate an imaging cylinder for the purpose of regenerating the imaging cylinder between images, i.e., to remove ghost images. However, the erase lamp can accumulate exterior particulate or other contamination, thereby reducing the amount of transmitted light and thus compromising erase efficiency. Periodic cleaning of erase lamps is therefore usually necessary.
It is well known that iron carrier particles, which typically are a component of an electrophotographic developer, can be deposited on a photoconductor during toning of an electrostatic latent image via a magnetic brush. This type of deposition is sometimes referred to as "developer pickup" (DPU). It is known that in order to remove such iron particles from the photoconductor, a DPU scavenger device can be provided immediately after the toning station. The surface of the DPU scavenger device, which faces the photoconductor, requires periodic cleaning.
A sensor included in a densitometer for measuring toner lay-down can be located after the development or toning station and prior to the transfer station. Such a sensor can have a transparent protective surface that can gradually become dirty, e.g., by particulate contamination. For proper functioning of the densitometer, periodic cleaning of the transparent protective surface is typically required.
It will be evident that an electrophotographic machine is typically required to be partially disassembled for periodic cleanings of, for example, LED lens arrays, exterior surfaces of corona grids, corona wires, blades, sensors for densitometers, DPU scavengers, and erase lamps. These procedures can be cumbersome, time consuming, and therefore costly, especially for high speed modular printers where productivity is paramount.
It will be evident that there is a general need to provide in a (modular) electrophotographic engine a mechanism or apparatus to periodically clean, in situ, certain surfaces of subsystem components mounted around the periphery of a roller upon which a cleaning sleeve is mountable, e.g., to remove dust particles or other debris or contamination from these components. There is a particular need to be able to periodically clean the lens surfaces of a LED writer lens array such that the associated imaging roller remains supported in situ in the machine with the LED writer remaining unmoved from its operational position. Additionally, there can be a need to provide a mechanism or apparatus for easy periodic cleaning of other devices typically associated with an electrophotographic roller, such as erase lamps, sensors for densitometers, cleaning blades, doctor blades, DPU scavengers, charger grids included in gridded corona chargers, charger wires included in open-wire corona chargers, or rotatable members associated with the roller for operational use therewith. These needs can be met simply and cheaply by the subject invention.


A process for forming single piece metal alloy panel structures includes both superplastic forming and braze bonding steps, and is particularly adapted to superplastically formable materials which are not particularly diffusion bondable, such as aluminum alloys. The process involves constructing a worksheet assembly from a plurality of worksheets which are associated with a brazing alloy capable of brazing the worksheets. At least two of the worksheets are joined in facing contact with each other by welding in a preselected pattern. The perimeter of the joined worksheets is then sealed, with the provision of means for permitting the admission of pressurized gas therebetween, after which the worksheet assembly is placed in a forming die. The actual structure forming process begins by heating the die and its associated worksheet assembly to a temperature suitable for superplastic forming, and simultaneously applying gas pressure at the means for admission of pressurized gas. The pressurized gas is applied to cause expansion of the sheets until the desired geometry of the structure has been attained. Following the superplastic forming step, the structure is braze bonded by ensuring that the die temperature is at or above the minimum brazing temperature of the brazing alloy for a specified period of time, thereby bonding at least some of the contacting surfaces of the structure together.

This invention relates to the production of superplastically formed metal alloy panel structures, and is more particularly directed to a novel superplastic forming and braze bonding process which permits the use of a broader range of metal alloys than is feasible with the superplastic forming/diffusion bonding processes of the prior art.
The fabrication of a built-up panel structure by mechanical assembly of multiple metal parts is costly, and typically requires joining hardware which adds considerable weight and complexity to the structure. This is a particularly critical issue in the aerospace industry, where weight is an extremely important consideration. Panel structures fabricated by superplastic forming and diffusion bonding (SPF/DB) processes such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,217,397 and 5,141,146, both assigned to McDonnell Douglas Corporation, for example, have offered significant reductions in both cost and weight. However, aluminum and some other alloys are limited in their diffusion bonding capabilities due to surface oxidation or other metallurgical phenomena, and have thus not been suitable for fabrication of SPF/DB panels.
What is needed, therefore, is a novel and unique process which will permit the production of single piece structures using aluminum or other diffusion bond resistant alloys in a manner similar to that of the SPF/DB process, such that the fabrication cost will be relatively low and the part weight can be significantly reduced with respect to comparable built-up structure.

Method of superplastically forming and braze bonding a structure


A multicarrier modem has a plurality of carriers over which data is transmitted. By assigning, foe example, one or more different margins to the individual carriers the data rate and impairment immunity can be increased.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to communications technologies. In particular, this invention relates to multicarrier modulation systems having multiple margins.
2. Description of Related Art
Multicarrier modulation, or Discrete Multitone Modulation (DMT), is a transmission method that is widely used for communication over difficult media. Multicarrier modulation divides the transmission frequency band into multiple subchannels, i.e., carriers or bins, with each carrier individually modulating a bit or a collection of bits. A transmitter modulates an input data stream containing information bits with one or more carriers, i.e., bins or subchannels, and transmits the modulated information. A receiver demodulates all the carriers in order to recover the transmitted information bits as an output data stream.
Multicarrier modulation has many advantages over single carrier modulation. These advantages include, for example, a higher immunity to impulse noise, a lower complexity equalization requirement in the presence of multipath, a higher immunity to narrow band interference, a higher data rate and bandwidth flexibility. Multicarrier modulation is being used in many applications to obtain these advantages, as well as for other reasons. These applications include Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) systems, wireless LAN systems, power line communications systems, and other applications. ITU standards G.992.1 and G.992.2 and the ANSI T1.413 standard specify standard implementations for ADSL transceivers that use multicarrier modulation.
Discrete multitone modulation transceivers modulate a number of bits on each subchannel, the number of bits depending on the Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) of that subchannel and the Bit Error Rate (BER) requirement of a link. For example, if the required BER is 1×10−7, i.e., one bit in ten million is received in error on average, and the SNR of a particular subchannel is 21.5 dB, then that subchannel can modulate 4 bits, since 21.5 dB is the required SNR to transmit 4 QAM bits with a 1×10−7 BER. Other subchannels can have a different SNR and therefore may have a different number of bits allocated to them at the same BER. Additional information regarding bit loading can be found in copending U.S. application Ser. No. 09/510,773, incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
In many DMT systems, an additional parameter is used to determine the number of bits allocated to each subchannel. This parameter is called the SNR "margin," or simply the "margin." The margin specifies an extra SNR per subchannel, in addition to what is required to maintain the specified BER requirement. As an example, a DMT system with a 6 dB margin would require a 21.5+6=27.5 dB SNR on a subchannel in order to transmit 4 bits on that subchannel with a 1×10−7 BER. This is 6 dB more than required by the example in the previous paragraph because now a 6 dB margin is added to the system. Another way of looking at this is that in the example of the previous paragraph, where 4 bits were allocated to a subchannel with 21.5 dB SNR, the margin was 0 dB.
DMT transceivers use a margin to increase the system's immunity to various types of time varying impairments. Examples of these impairments in DSL systems are: changes in the levels of crosstalk from other transmission systems, impulse noise, temperature changes in the telephone line, or the like. When a DMT system is operating with a positive SNR margin, the noise can change instantaneously by the level of the margin and the system will still maintain the required BER. For example, if the system is operating at a 6 dB margin, e.g., 4 bits are allocated to carriers with 27.5 dB SNR for BER=1×10−7, the crosstalk levels can increase by 6 dB and the system will still be operating at the required 1×10−7 BER. Obviously the penalty for this increase in robustness is a decrease in the data rate, since with a 0 dB margin, a subchannel with 27.5 dB SNR can modulate 6 bits at 1×10−7 BER.
Therefore, there is a tradeoff between the robustness of the channel, such as a phone line, and the achievable data rate. The margin can be used to quantify this tradeoff. A higher margin results in a higher level of immunity to changing channel conditions at the expense of the achievable data rate. Likewise, a lower margin results in a higher data rate at the expense of a lower immunity to changing channel conditions.
Current DMT systems allocate a fixed margin to all subchannels. For example, ADSL systems typically use a 6 dB margin on all subchannels carrying data bits. This 6 dB margin is constant on all subchannels and is independent of the type of impairment that the margin is trying to protect against.

Systems and methods for a multicarrier modulation system with a variable margin


A method for detecting a cytokine in a biological fluid sample with a high sensitivity is provided. A time-resolved fluoroimmunoassay (TR-FIA) method including a step of forming on a solid phase a composite in which a cytokine is captured and which includes a fluorescent structural portion which has been complexed with a lanthanoid metal ion, and measuring fluorescence of the fluorescent structural portion. The composite is formed of a structure in which (a) a first antibody including a portion bound to a solid phase and a region bindable to a cytokine; (b) the cytokine; (c) a second antibody including a region bindable to the cytokine and a portion to which biotin is bound; (d) a conjugate including streptoavidin or avidin and a fluorescent structural portion capable of being complexed with a lanthanoid metal ion; and (e) the lanthanoid metal ion are bound. The fluorescent structural portion is represented by General Formula (I): R—Ar—C(═O)—CH2—C(═O)—CnF2n—X.

The concentration of free cytokines or chemokines present in a normal biological fluid such as human plasma is near or below the detection limit of conventional ELISA assays. For example, it has been reported that a conventional ELISA assay whose detection limit is about 6 picomols (pM) cannot detect IL-8 from within normal human plasma (Leonard et al. (Document 1)). Enhancement of measurement sensitivity and reduction of the non-specific background associated with the biological fluid sample are chief problems to be solved in order to attain accurate measurement of chemokine concentration in a biological fluid sample.
In recent years, a time-resolved fluoroimmunoassay method which utilizes a europium complex has been developed, and is being used in clinical applications (Kropf et al., (Document 2)). The radiation wavelength (615 nm) of a free, complexed europium ion (Eu3+) is not influenced by the excitation wavelength (340 nm) or by a transient background fluorescence (350 to 600 nm) associated with a certain type of protein, which is convenient. One type of analysis method which is based on this principle is commercialized as DELFIA (dissociation-enhanced lanthanoid fluoroimmunoassay; Pharmacia), and is utilized in assays of TNF α and IL-6. However, DELFIA has not been successful in accurately measuring the concentration of such cytokines in plasma (Ogata et al. (Document 3)).
Recently, a group led by Matsumoto has developed a 4,4′-bis(1″,1″,2″,2″,3″,3″,-heptafluoro-4″,6″,-hexanedion-6″-yl)-sulpho-o-terphenyl(BHHCT)-Eu3+ complex as a labeling compound. This complex is capable of directly binding to proteins, and allows for highly sensitive analysis via a time-resolved type fluorescence measurement (Yuan et al. ('97)(Document 4) and Yuan et al. ('98)(Document 5)). BHHCT has a β-diketone structure, and has a binding stability constant with respect to Eu3+ as high as 1010M−1. A resultant Eu3+ complex exhibits quite excellent properties, as evidenced by a lifetime which exceeds 400 microseconds (μs), and absorption and emission wavelength maximals of 330 nm and 615 nm. This complex has been indicated to be useful for the detection of α-fetoprotein (Yuan et al. ('98)(Document 5) and immunoglobulin E (IgE) Yuan et al.('97)(Document 4)), which are tumor markers in human plasma. However, no instances are known in which such an Eu3+ complex has been applied to the detection of cytokines in a biological fluid sample.
Stromal cell-derived factor-1 (SDF-1) is a cytokine belonging to the chemokine family, which was first cloned from a stromal cell line in 1993 (Tashiro et al. (Document 6)). SDF-1 is a chief ligand for a CXCR4 receptor (Bleul et al. (Document 7) and Oberlin et al. (Document 8)). This receptor is known to function as a CD4 co-receptor for a subgroup of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1). Furthermore, recent study has shown that polymorphism of the SDF-1 gene is involved in slowing of the progression of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) (e.g., Winkler et al. (Document 9) and Martin et al. (Document 10)). However, its functional mechanism admits of several theories, and is yet to be established.
It has also been pointed out that SDF-1 plays an essential role in embryogenesis of the hematopoietic, cardiovascular, and nervous systems (e.g., Zou et al. (Document 11) and Tachibana et al. (Document 12)). On the other hand, many of the biological functions of SDF-1 in adult tissue are still unknown.
As described above, it is extremely important for advancement of the understanding of SDF-1 to develop a technique for accurately quantifying and monitoring SDF-1 in a biological fluid sample. It is needless to say that an accurate measurement method in biological fluid samples would similarly make academic and clinical contributions in other chemokines and cytokines as well. From this perspective, an assay method for detecting cytokines with a higher sensitivity is desired.

Japan Science and Technology Corporation


A mobile communication apparatus is provided, which permits highly efficient communication even between mobile units that cannot communicate directly because of signal-shielding communication obstacles.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a communication apparatus used to communicate movement-related information between mobile units such as vehicles.
2. Description of Related Art
For instance, one such conventional apparatus used for sending and receiving signals between mobile units such as vehicles is described in Patent Document 1. With this apparatus, when a vehicle detects information regarding traffic flow and emergencies, etc., the vehicle can transmit the information to all vehicles within range of possible wireless transmission.
However, high-frequency signals are normally used for wireless communication in car-to-car communication systems. Consequently, the problem is that when there are communication obstacles, such as, for instance, buildings, etc., that shield high-frequency signals, communication with cars in their shadow is rendered impossible.
On the other hand, a well-known mobile communication technology, called multi-hop wireless network technology, permits communication between mobile units that cannot communicate with one another directly by relaying signals via a plurality of mobile units. In addition, routing protocols have been developed for building routes in various multi-hop wireless networks. In other words, communication between mobile units and a mobile unit to which signals cannot be sent directly is made possible by relaying signals via other mobile units (e.g., see Patent Document 2).
Patent Document 1: JP 2001-283381A (paragraph 0077 through Paragraph 0079, see FIG. 9).
Patent Document 2: JP 2001-237764A (pages 3 through 7, see FIG. 1, FIG. 4, and FIG. 6).
However, due to the fact that hopping in multi-hop wireless networks of mobile units happens in a disorderly fashion, the problem is that route convergence requires more time, which degrades communication efficiency.

Mobile communication apparatus used to communicate information between mobile units

Abstract: The mobile communication apparatus 10 includes transmission means 11, reception means 11, surrounding environment detection means 13, 14 for detecting whether or not there are communication obstacles in the surroundings of a mobile unit, communication state decision means 15 for making decisions as to the quality of the communication state of the mobile unit based on detection results of the surrounding environment detection means 13, 14, and control means 16 for controlling transmission, via the transmission means 11, of information received by the reception means 11 based on decision results of the communication state decision means 15.


Disclosed are systems and methods for identifying bleedthrough in an image in which a reference tone point of a first image is determined, putative bleedthrough pixels in the first image are identified as a function of the reference tone point, the putative bleedthrough pixels are mapped into a putative bleedthrough representation of said first image, and the putative bleedthrough pixel mapping is analyzed to determine if bleedthrough is present in said first image. Also disclosed are systems and methods for removing bleedthrough from an image in which a document is scanned to provide an electronic first image and an electronic second image, a putative bleedthrough pixel mapping for the first image is generated, the putative bleedthrough pixel mapping is processed using information with respect to said second image, and pixels of the first image corresponding to putative bleedthrough pixels of said mapping are replaced.

Electronic capturing and processing of images, whether textual, graphic, monochrome, and/or color, has been widely used for a number of years. For example, personal computer systems with optical scanners attached thereto, operable under control of an image scanning and/or image processing application program, have become readily available for business and individual use. Paper documents are converted into electronic documents through the use of a scanning device such as a desktop scanner, digital camera, all-in-one device, etcetera, Scanning is often followed by text or image processing steps such as optical character recognition (OCR) for the conversion of bitmapped text into ASCII/Unicode text, or vectorization of graphics (e.g., to Bezier or scalable vector graphics (SVG) format).
However, the technology implemented in capturing and processing such images is not without disadvantage. Scanned images often include anomalies in the electronic image that are not present in an original scanned copy or that do not accurately represent the original scanned copy. For example, an electronic image captured using a typical personal computer-based scanner may include anomalous bits associated with the phenomena of "bleedthrough," resulting in an electronic image that does not accurately represent the original scanned copy. Bleedthrough results from images on the back side of a document that are visible, or partly visible, during scanning of the front side of the document. Accordingly, a mirrored "ghost" of the image from the back of the document may appear in the document's scanned front image as a result of bleedthrough. Typically, the ghost image is particularly prevalent in "background" areas of the scanned front image. However, such a ghost image typically does not directly correspond to the image from the back of the document due to such things as scattering (light dispersion associated with the document media), level of darkness of the back image, level of darkness of the front image, irregularities in the document media, and the like.
The presence and/or extent of bleedthrough present in any particular situation may be affected by a number of variables. For example, the quality and/or thickness of the paper comprising the document, the particular optics used in scanning the document, the intensity of the light illuminating the document for the scan, and the light angle may all affect the extent to which bleedthrough is present in any particular scanned image.
In the past, image scanning has been user interface-centric. That is, scanning has typically been accomplished through a user placing one sheet of a document to be scanned upon a scanner and the user selecting scanning parameters for the specific image to be scanned. For example, the user may select the region or regions to be scanned, the type of image to be scanned, the intensity level of the scan, etcetera. After an image has been acquired, the user may further manipulate the scanned image to provide a desired result, such as to crop unwanted image areas. In extreme situations, the user may elect to discard the scanned image and reattempt to acquire a scanned image, such as by adjusting one or more of the aforementioned scanning parameters.
Such user interface-centric scanning has been acceptable for many situations in the past. However, as image processing technology has matured over the past decade commercial, high volume, and/or more automated scanning has become desirable. For example, it is not uncommon for document scanning to involve the need to scan many numbers of pages at a time, such as in commercial publishing. Accordingly, if scanning is to be accomplished in a reasonable amount of time and for a reasonable cost, it has become desirable to automate the process, thereby reducing the level of user input with respect to specific individual documents to be scanned. Moreover, the uses to which such scanned images are to be put often demand reliable, high-quality scans, such as to provide accurate optical character recognition and/or to avoid the need for substantial proofing/manipulation of a scanned image by an operator.
Attempts have been made to automatically detect bleedthrough present in scanned images. However, it is very difficult to determine what is bleedthrough and what is not. A determination of which portions of a scanned image are the result of bleedthrough may be based upon those areas of the image containing pixels of a certain range of intensity, i.e., gray scale values. Bleedthrough determinations based solely upon such criteria often will result in desired portions of the scanned image, i.e., the image from the front side of the document, that have similar intensity characteristics being identified as bleedthrough. For example, a bleedthrough detector based upon this technique may misidentify background features of the front image as bleedthrough. Similarly, pixels associated with a transition from one feature in an image to another feature in the image may be misidentified as bleedthrough, as there is typically not an instantaneous transition from one feature in an image to another feature in an image.
Utilization of the above-mentioned bleedthrough determination techniques in automated manipulation of the scanned image can result in undesirable results. For example, pixels surrounding text characters, wherein a character edge transitions to an image background, may be identified as bleedthrough and, therefore, removed and replaced with white or blank pixels. However, this has been found to result in the characters being surrounded by white, providing an effect where the characters appear to have been cut out and pasted in the image much like a ransom note.
Other techniques for removal of bleedthrough also have less than desirable results. For example, where an image includes only text characters, it may be possible to binarize the image to remove bleedthrough. Specifically, an image may be binarized by making it all black and white with no gray, i.e., a bit depth of 1 instead of 8 or 24. When an image is binarized, unless the original document presents particularly poor bleedthrough characteristics such as a magazine page, substantially all of the bleedthrough will be turned to white. However, the gray information, such as in the transition areas along the edges of the text characters will be lost, often providing undesired results, e.g., binarization may result in thin character attributes being removed along with the bleedthrough. For example, if the letter "T" appeared in the scanned image, binarization may result in the loss of the cross bar and, thus, the character may be identified by an OCR application as the number "1" or a lowercase rendition of the letter "L".

System and method for scanned image bleedthrough processing

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


Phase is adjusted by using an analog to digital converter to convert an analog signal to a plurality of digital samples. A filter is used to filter the plurality of digital samples to obtain a plurality of phase adjusted samples.

In some systems, an analog signal is converted to digital samples using an ADC. The frequency and/or phase at which the analog signal is sampled may be "off" and a variety of techniques are used to ensure the digital samples are taken at the proper frequency and/or phase. In one such system, a timing loop is used to adjust the phase and/or frequency of the sampling clock. One drawback to using a timing loop is that a minimum number of samples (cycles) is needed for the timing loop to operate properly. However, this may not be possible in all cases. For example, some applications or systems have a shorter preamble portion (e.g., prior to a payload section) than other applications. It would be desirable to develop techniques that are able to operate robustly in such applications.


A printed circuit board for high speed processing devices such as RAMBUS is disclosed. Adhesive means are interposed between a plurality of both-face copper clad laminates, and each of the adhesive means consists of a clad laminate and prepreg layers formed on both faces of the clad laminate. The sum total of the thicknesses of the clad laminates and the prepreg layers is smaller than that of the conventional printed circuit board. Therefore, when carrying out a pressing to attach the copper foils, the thickness deviations are decreased compared with the conventional case, and therefore, the occurrence of impedance defects can be prevented.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printed circuit board. Particularly, the present invention relates to a printed circuit board for a high speed processing, in which a plurality of both-face copper clad laminates with circuits formed thereon, and a plurality of clad laminates with circuits not formed thereon are alternately stacked together, whereby impedance defects due to the non-uniformity in the inter-layer insulating distances are eliminated.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Recently, there has been developed the RAMBUS DRAM which shows a transmission rate 10 times as fast as that of the existing high speed synchronous DRAM. This RAMBUS DRAM is mostly used in electronic apparatuses requiring a large capacity graphic memory such as work stations, personal computers, digital televisions and the like. In this RAMBUS DRAM, the bank interleaving function is adopted, and therefore, the data processing capability is drastically improved. Thus it is expected that this RAMBUS DRAM will be used as the main memory of the personal computer as well as the graphic memory.
This RAMBUS DRAM shows not only a high operating speed compared with other kinds of DRAM, but also a large transmission rate. For example, the 144M RAMBUS DRAM which is the concurrent version shows an operating speed of 700-800 M Hz and a transmission rate of 700 M bytes. If this is compared with other kinds of DRAM, the EDO (extended data-out) DRAM shows a transmission rate of 80M bytes, and the synchronous DRAM shows a transmission rate of 133M bytes, while the SGRAM (synchronous graphic RAM) shows a transmission rate of 400M bytes. Thus it is seen that the RAMBUS DRAM gives a large capacity transmission rate.
The RAMBUS DRAM has the prerequisite that it has to transmit a largest amount of data within a shortest period of time. If a large amount of data is to be transmitted at a high speed, the designed impedance of the component has to be matched with the designed impedance of the printed circuit board. If they are not matched to each other, then the signals are reflected, and time delay occurs in transmitting the signals, with the result that an accurate transmission is not realized, thereby making it impossible to carry out a high speed transmission. Accordingly, in manufacturing a printed circuit board for use in a communication equipment or the like, it is an important matter that the impedance of the circuit board be exactly controlled.
FIG. 1 illustrates the structure of the conventional multi-layer printed circuit board which is used for a high speed processing device such as RAMBUS DRAM. As shown in the drawing, the printed circuit board consists of 8 layers. As shown in the drawing, in the structure of this conventional printed circuit board, a first copper clad laminate 1 has a copper foil on each of the both faces, and the copper foils are etched to form circuits 3 and 5. A first adhesive layer 7 is disposed on the top face of the first copper clad laminate 1, and a second adhesive layer 9 is disposed on the bottom face of the laminate 1. The first adhesive layer 7 and the second adhesive layer 9 are made of prepreg. Then a second copper clad laminate 11 and a third copper clad laminate 15 are stacked on the top face and on the bottom face of the above structure, and then, a pressure is applied, so that the second copper clad laminate 11 and a third copper clad laminate 15 can be attached onto the first copper clad laminate 1.
Like the first copper clad laminate 1, the second and third copper clad laninate 11 and 15 are made to respectively have circuits 12, 13, 16 and 17 on both faces of them, which are formed by etching the copper foils of the both faces of them.
On the outer faces of the second and third copper clad laminates 11 and 15, there are respectively stacked a third adhesive layer 20 and a fourth adhesive layer 24 with a copper foil attached on each of them, and then, a pressure is applied on them, so that the copper foils would be attached onto the third and fourth adhesive layers 20 and 24. These copper foils are also etched to form circuits 21 and 25 on the third and fourth adhesive layers 20 and 24.
In the above printed circuit board, when the copper foils are attached on the insulating sheets, the copper foils and the insulating sheets are pressed together, thereby manufacturing the circuit board. Generally, a plurality of the printed circuit boards are manufactured in a single panel. At the most, 24 printed circuit boards are manufactured in a single panel. The pressing is carried out with a plurality of the panels stacked together. That is, under a vacuum within a vacuum chamber, the stacked panels are heated and pressed together.
Each of the circuit board panels has an area much larger than that of the printed circuit board. The prepreg which constitutes the adhesive layers is made of a glass fiber and an epoxy resin, and therefore, has a flow property. Accordingly, when the copper foils are attached onto the circuit board panels by applying a pressure, even if a uniform pressure is applied, a thickness difference occurs between the central portion and the peripheral portions due to the flowing property of the prepreg. This thickness difference remains after the manufacture of the printed circuit boards are completed. Accordingly, when the copper foils are etched to form circuits, insulating distance differences are formed between the copper foils, with the result that the impedance control for the printed circuit board becomes difficult.
The present invention is intended to overcome the above described disadvantages of the conventional technique.
Therefore it is an object of the present invention to provide a printed circuit board for a high speed processing, in which a plurality of both-face copper clad laminates with circuits formed thereon, and a plurality of clad laminates with circuits not formed thereon are alternately stacked together, whereby, when applying a pressure to attach copper foils, impedance defects due to the non-uniformity in the inter-layer insulating distances are eliminated.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a printed circuit board for a high speed processing, in which on both of the outermost faces of a structure consisting of copper clad laminate with adhesive layers interposed therebetween, there are formed thinner copper clad laminates, whereby, when pressing the stacked structure, impedance defects due to the non-uniformity in the inter-layer insulating distances are eliminated.
In achieving the above objects, the printed circuit board for a high speed processing according to the present invention includes: a plurality of copper clad laminates with copper foils attached on both faces thereof and with circuit formed at least on one faces thereof by etching; a plurality of copper non-clad laminates with copper foils on neither of their faces; and a plurality of adhesive means such as adhesive layers spread on faces of the copper non-clad laminates.
On outermost ones of the copper clad laminates, there are disposed either adhesive layers with circuits formed thereon, or there are disposed both-face copper clad laminates with circuits formed thereon.
Generally, the adhesive layers of the adhesive means are thinner than the both-face copper clad laminates, and therefore, when pressing the laminate structure, the thickness deviations can be decreased, thereby preventing impedance defects.
In another aspect of the present invention, the printed circuit board for a high speed processing according to the present invention includes: a plurality of copper clad laminates with copper foils attached on both faces thereof, with circuit formed at least on one faces thereof, and with adhesive layers interposed between the copper clad laminates; a pair of thinner adhesive layers spread on outermost faces of the copper clad laminates; and a pair of one-face copper clad laminates with circuits formed on copper foils and attached on the thinner adhesive layers.
Accordingly, compared with the general printed circuit board in which the circuits are formed directly on the adhesive layers, the thickness of the outermost adhesive layers is reduced, and therefore, the thickness deviations can be decreased when pressing the copper clad laminate structure.


Various embodiments herein provide system, method, and software solutions to facilitate not only timely, compliant monitoring of individuals housed within facilities, such as detention facilities, but also solutions that discover visible and latent behavior and mental conditions, among other potential issues that may be easily overlooked. Some embodiments focus on data collection and other embodiments focus on applying analytics to collected data to discover conditions and states of individuals, groups, a facility or portion thereof, staff, and procedures. Yet further embodiments include both data collection and analytic discovery. Some embodiments may also include messaging and other data processing and communication mechanisms implemented to facilitate compliance, safety, and monitoring accuracy.

Monitoring behaviors, including movements, of individuals within a facility, such as prisoners within a detention facility, is challenging. Laws, regulations, generally accepted best practices, insurance policies, and local policies often dictate intervals and conditions for individual behavior monitoring. Further, for organizations supervising individuals within their facilities, certain duties of care for those individuals are required. The larger the facility, the greater the challenges in meeting these requirements. Further compounding such challenges is that employees who monitor and supervise individuals within a facility during certain times may not be the same employees monitoring the same individuals at a different time.

Systems and methods for behavior monitoring and identification


A portable telephone with flashlight that includes a portable telephone that is powered by a battery and has a front face, a back face, a top face, a bottom face, and a pair of side faces, and a flashlight disposed on the portable telephone. The flashlight extends axially from the top face of the portable telephone, in proximity to one side face of the pair of side a faces of the portable telephone. The flashlight includes a reflector that is substantially flush with the top face of the portable telephone, a bulb that is cradled axially in the reflector of the flashlight so as to project a beam of light axially of the portable telephone, and an ON/OFF switch that is disposed on the one side face of the pair of side faces of the portable telephone, in proximity to the top face of the portable telephone. The portable telephone functions as a handle for the flashlight to be gripped in the palm of a hand, with the flashlight being activated, and projecting a beam of light axially of the portable telephone, when the portable telephone is gripped in the palm of the hand and a finger of the hand depresses the ON/OFF switch of the flashlight.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a portable telephone. More particularly, the present invention relates to a portable telephone with flashlight.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Numerous innovations for illuminated telephones have been provided in the prior art that will be described. Even though these innovations may be suitable for the specific individual purposes to which they address, however, they differ from the present invention.
FOR EXAMPLE, U.S. Pat. No. 4,618,917 to Lee et al. teaches a phone light accessory comprising a light producing element and a conductor element which is integrated into the hand set apparatus of many standard telephone designs.
ANOTHER EXAMPLE, U.S. Pat. No. 5,029,205 to Archer teaches a telephone handset that has a light bulb disposed on it and has a special switch that allows the light to automatically illuminate upon using the phone. The switch changes from an open position to a closed one upon a change in the orientation of gravity. One embodiment of the switch includes a hollow chamber having two separate contact plates disposed at one end and a freely sliding conductive manner that comes into contact with the contacts upon picking up the phone. A second switch embodiment includes three parallel pins with a central one of the pins having a hanging pivoting member that serves to contact one of the other pins upon a change in gravitational orientation. Also included is a removable socket member to facilitate replacement of the bulb.
STILL ANOTHER EXAMPLE, U.S. Pat. No. 5,237,607 to Diamantis teaches a dial illuminating assembly that allows for minimum power operation while maintaining uniformity of illumination in a telephone dial. The dial illumination assembly includes a plurality of fiber optic light guides for receiving light rays emanating from a light source and for directing these light rays to a plurality of translucent buttons. Illumination of the translucent buttons is achieved by creating multiple abraded surfaces on the light guides for dispersing the light rays in the vicinity of each translucent button. The light guides are routed along opposed sides of the translucent buttons with abraded surfaces on the light guides being positioned next to each button for providing the desired illumination. The dial illuminating assembly directs light rays so efficiently that only one light source is needed to provide uniform illumination in standard telephone dials.
FINALLY, YET ANOTHER EXAMPLE, U.S. Pat. No. 5,587,645 to Sciammarella et al. teaches a battery charger having a night light for use with a cordless telephone. The battery charger is energized by being plugged into a standard AC outlet and includes a cradle for receiving a cordless telephone handset having rechargeable batteries. The battery charger includes a photo transistor for detecting the level of light impinging on the battery charger and a lamp for providing illumination. When AC power is cut off and the photo transistor detects that the light level is below a predetermined level, the lamp is powered by the handset battery to provide illumination and to enable a user to locate the handset during low light conditions while it is being charged.
It is apparent that numerous innovations for illuminated telephones have been provided in the prior art that are adapted to be used. Furthermore, even though these innovations may be suitable for the specific individual purposes to which they address, however, they would not be suitable for the purposes of the present invention as heretofore described.