A method for controlling the output of an internal combustion engine includes opening an intake valve on a cylinder; receiving air from an intake manifold into the cylinder during an intake stroke of a piston in the cylinder; returning excess air from the cylinder back into the intake manifold during the initial portion of the compression stroke of the piston, wherein a quantity of combustion air or air/fuel mixture necessary for a desired engine power output remains in the cylinder; and then closing the intake valve. A control device includes a control camshaft rotatively coupled to the crankshaft having a control cam with lobes that engage the intake valves for holding one or more intake valves open; a cam phaser to vary the phase of the controlled cam relative to the main camshaft; and a cam phase controller linked to the cam phaser, wherein advancing the phase of the control cam increases the power output of the internal combustion engine.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to four-stroke spark ignition internal combustion engines and more particularly, to methods and devices for efficiently controlling the power output of a spark ignition internal combustion engine.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a four-stroke internal combustion engine, a single cycle of operation occurs over four strokes of a piston within its cylinder, made during two crankshaft revolutions. Engines having more than one cylinder generally evenly stagger the cycles of the cylinders for smooth operation, with each cylinder completing the four-stroke cycle within two consecutive engine revolutions.
The four strokes of the piston that occur in a single cycle of operation are the intake, compression, power and exhaust strokes. Generally, at the beginning of the intake stroke when the piston is at or near the top of the cylinder, the intake valve opens and the descending piston draws air into the cylinder. The position of the piston at the top of its movement toward the valves is called top dead center (TDC). At or near the bottom or end of the intake stroke, the intake valve closes. The position of the piston at the bottom of its movement away from the valves is called bottom dead center (BDC). From this position, and with the intake and exhaust valves closed, the piston starts upward on its compression stroke until it reaches TDC. The piston compresses the air or air-fuel mixture captured within the cylinder upon closure of the intake valve into a small space at the top of the cylinder and adjacent to the valves. Usually just before the piston reaches TDC on its compression stroke, the spark plug fires to ignite the air-fuel mixture, causing the mixture to burn quickly. The rapidly expanding gases of the burning mixture force the piston down and away from the valves on its power stroke. As the piston reaches the bottom of the power stroke (BDC), the exhaust valve opens for the exhaust stroke of the piston. During the exhaust stroke, the piston moves back toward TDC and forces the combustion products, mainly carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and some unburned hydrocarbons, out of the cylinder through the exhaust valve and into the exhaust manifold.
The intake valves and exhaust valves are typically operated by cam lobes on one or more camshafts. The valves are generally spring-biased toward their closed or seated positions. As known in the art, a simple engine may have one camshaft with multiple cam lobes that operate both the intake and exhaust valves, while more complex engines may have multiple camshafts that can operate more valves per cylinder, such as, for example, a double overhead cam arrangement in a four-valve-per-cylinder engine. A cam lobe is rotated by a camshaft to apply force to the top of the valve stem, either directly or through a rocker arm, and operates the valve to open and close as the camshaft rotates. The camshaft rotates in a phased relationship with the crankshaft of the engine, usually through a belt, chain or gears, and is synchronized with the crankshaft so that the valves open and close at the proper times during the engine's cycle. Typically the camshaft is designed to turn at one-half the angular speed of the crankshaft.
Parasitic losses occur throughout an internal combustion engine and are caused, for example, by friction, valve operation, exhaust backpressure and the throttling of intake air across the throttle valve. Such losses decrease the fuel efficiency of the engine, thereby increasing fuel consumption and exhaust emissions that result from the increased fuel consumption. The automobile industry has developed many useful solutions to reduce these parasitic losses, but there still exists an ongoing need to improve engine efficiency and to further reduce losses.
One industry solution to the problem of parasitic losses has been the implementation of optimized camshaft profiles and valve timing. When an engine is operating at low speed, such as when idling, the optimal camshaft profile is close to the "theoretically normal" intake valve opening and closing points, i.e., 0 degrees after top dead center (ATDC) and 180 degrees ATDC on the intake cycle. Such camshaft and valve timing may be considered "slow speed" or "conservative" and results in a steady, smooth, and strong idle.
However, at high engine speeds, usually above 2000 rpm, the optimal intake valve opening time is earlier, for example, 15 degrees before top dead center (BTDC), and the optimal intake valve closing time is later, for example, 220 degrees ATDC. A "high speed" cam profile providing this valve timing maximizes the quantity of air captured within the cylinder and provides more torque and power at high rpm, but also cause rough idling and increased exhaust emissions at low speed.
To optimize an engine's performance both at high and low speeds, systems have been developed that vary the timing of the opening and/or closing of the valves relative to the angular position of the crankshaft by advancing or retarding the valve timing. Other systems have been developed that vary the length of time that the intake valves remain open. Such methods may be implemented separately or jointly.
For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,502,536 issued to Lee, et al., which is fully incorporated by reference, a two-step roller finger follower is disclosed that provides for selecting between two separate, fixed cam profiles. Switching between different cam profiles enables a selection of a high lift/long duration or a low lift/short duration operation of an intake valve. Lee discloses that for efficient low-speed operation of the engine, the low lift and short duration cam profile for the intake valves is implemented, and at high speed, the high lift and long duration cam profile for the intake valves is implemented. Lee further discloses that the angular position of the camshaft relative to that of the crankshaft may be varied. Such camshaft control is known as cam phasing.
Cam phasing varies the timing of the opening and/or closing of the valves relative to the angular position of the crankshaft by advancing or retarding the valve timing. Cam phasing may be used to control intake and exhaust valve overlap as a function of engine speed and provides a finer control of the engine's operation by modifying the mechanical linkage between the camshaft and the crankshaft to modify the intake valve profile. Valve overlap refers to the condition in the four-cycle engine when both the intake and the exhaust valves are open at the same time. At idle and low engine load, overlap is at its minimum to improve idle quality, while at higher engine speed and greater load, the overlap is increased to provide higher power. Cam phasing technology can be used to control the overlap event by shifting both the intake valve profile and the exhaust valve profile, one relative to the other, and both relative to the crankshaft.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,600,989 issued to Sellnau, et al., which is hereby fully incorporated by reference, a method for early intake valve closing (EIVC) is disclosed. Sellnau discloses an intake valve cam phaser that enables optimization of the timing of the intake valve relative to the engine crankshaft. The cam phaser enables the opening and closing of the intake valves to be controlled relative to the rotational position of the crankshaft. Sellnau discloses an EIVC system and method utilizing a two-step cam profile switching device and an intake valve cam phaser to achieve variability in the intake valve lift profile of an internal combustion engine in response to engine operating parameters. Sellnau's EIVC systems shift the entire intake valve profile so that the intake valve closes earlier than it would otherwise close relative to the piston motion; that is, when the engine is in EIVC mode, the intake valves may close before the pistons reach BDC. According to Sellnau, early closing of an intake valve reduces the amount of air and fuel in the cylinder to satisfy the decreased power demand. Sellnau discloses that reducing the amount of fuel used increases engine efficiency and decreases emissions as compared to conventional intake valve operation.
There are many different cam phasers known in the art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,622,677 issued to Simpson, et al., which is fully incorporated by reference, discloses a cam phaser for adjusting the angular relationship between a camshaft and a crankshaft. Simpson discloses a cam phaser having a worm gear mounted on an inner housing meshed with the internal teeth of an outer housing. The inner housing is connected to the camshaft. The worm gear is connected to one or two drive wheels, which are rotated by contact with stationary plates. The plates are moved by electromagnetic coils to contact the drive wheel or wheels, and turn them in one direction of the other.
Another cam phaser disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,203,291 issued to Suga, et al., which is fully incorporated by reference, shows an outer housing containing internal gear teeth, which are turned by small gears. The small gears are driven by a pin on the spiral cam, which is in turn disposed on the gear shaft. A pair of stopper pins is also present to restrict the rotation of the gear when necessary.
While these valve phasing techniques may optimize the timing of valves to the power demand of the engine, they do little to address one of the largest parasitic losses that robs the engine of power and efficiency, especially at low engine speeds. Even cam phasing methods designed to optimize valve operation at low engine speeds do nothing to alleviate power losses attributable to the throttling of intake air across the throttle valve. In conventional spark ignition internal combustion engines, control of engine power and speed is obtained by throttling the intake air to the cylinders using a throttle valve, which is typically a butterfly valve. The accelerator is linked to the throttle valve to control the amount of combustion air that enters the engine cylinders through the intake valves. Engine power output is increased by pushing on the accelerator and opening the throttle valve to allow more air to enter the cylinders, and increased air can be used to burn more fuel per combustion event.
The operation of the throttle valve and the pumping action of the pistons create a vacuum in the intake manifold. When the throttle valve partially closes, a pressure drop is imposed on the air flowing into the intake manifold and across the throttle valve. The vacuum created in the intake manifold limits the amount of air that can be drawn into a cylinder during the intake stroke of the piston, thereby limiting the amount of fuel that can be burned to drive the piston on its power stroke. As the throttle valve closes, the vacuum in the intake manifold increases, and as the throttle valve opens, the vacuum decreases. As used herein, a pressure stated in terms of inches of Hg means absolute pressure unless otherwise stated. A typical vacuum in the intake manifold of an internal combustion engine at mid-range speed is between about 16 to 22 inches of Hg (8 to 14 inches Hg below ambient at sea level).
Using a throttle valve to control the engine speed while generating a vacuum is inefficient and costly because the resulting vacuum wastes power and energy. While the vacuum enables power control by controlling the air charge introduced into each cylinder on the intake stroke, the vacuum also retards the crankshaft rotation by resisting piston movement during its intake stroke. This parasitic power loss is most severe at low engine speed.
The vacuum generated in the intake manifold reduces the power output of the engine because less fuel is being burned and because the engine is forced to produce substantial amounts of vacuum whenever the throttle valve is not wide open. The energy cost of producing this vacuum is approximately equal to the cost of producing an equal volume of compressed air at the same flow rate and at the same differential pressure relative to ambient. Power availability is diminished as a result of the produced vacuum.
What is needed is a method for controlling an internal combustion engine that reduces the parasitic loss resulting from the vacuum generated by pulling the intake air across the throttle valve. Furthermore, an internal combustion engine configuration is needed on which such a method may be implemented.


A client connected to a network switch is continuously authenticated to a network switch by using biometrics, wherein the client and the network switch exchange Ethernet/802.3 frames associated with a client application, and wherein the client and the network switch are coupled by a full-duplex Ethernet/802.3 communication channel. A biometric data sample of a user of the client is captured. Biometric data is encapsulated in an authentication protocol message frame. The authentication protocol message frame is separated into a sequence of a plurality of fragments, each fragment having a predetermined number of bytes. Respective sequence numbers are assigned to each of the fragments. Each of the fragments is inserted with its respective sequence number in a respective preamble of a respective one of a plurality of Ethernet/802.3 frames associated with the client application that are being transmitted from the client to the network switch.

The present invention relates in general to security of a computer network, and, more specifically, to transmission of substantially continuous biometric data within a local area network (LAN) for securing a port on a LAN switch without reducing available bandwidth of a network link.
Biometric authentication involves the use of physical and/or behavioral characteristics of individuals to identify them and to control access to places or things, such as ATM's or other computerized equipment, or more specifically, applications running on that equipment. Biometrics has certain advantages over conventional authentication techniques (e.g., user IDs and passwords, PIN codes, and encoded identification cards) since there is nothing to remember or to carry which might be stolen. Among the many biometric technologies in use are fingerprint analysis, hand geometry analysis, retina scanning, iris scanning, signature analysis, facial recognition, keystroke analysis, and voice analysis.
Based on an original measurement of a biometric characteristic (i.e., enrollment), a person's identity can thereafter be verified automatically when requesting access to a computer application or other resource by re-sampling the characteristic and comparing the biometric data with the enrollment data. If a sufficiently close match is found, then the identity is verified. In addition to verification of an identity, biometric systems can also be employed to compare biometric data from an unidentified person with a database of biometric samples of a group of individuals in order to potentially identify that person from the group.
After a biometric sensor acquires raw data of a desired characteristic, the data is typically processed mathematically in order to extract and format the meaningful features and to compress the data. Comparison of the processed verification or identification data with previously processed and stored enrollment data typically involves a mathematical analysis to quantify the "closeness" of the two data samples. A sensitivity threshold is chosen to delineate how close the samples must be in order to call them a match.
As described in co-pending application Ser. No. 10/306,582, biometric authentication is used to secure a network resource connection itself (e.g., a connection to an Ethernet switch or a wireless access point) so that no network activities involving the network resource other than the authentication activities (e.g., biometric authentication) of the present invention may be conducted from the access point. After this initial authentication is successfully completed, the switch or access point allows other traffic through the port. The authenticated client typically launches a client application that involves network communication.
In certain types of network applications, it may be desirable to periodically (i.e., substantially continuously) monitor the user to ensure that a different person is not substituted for the authenticated user, such as is shown in copending application Ser. No. 10/274,934, filed Oct. 21, 2002, entitled "Verification of Identity and Continued Presence of Computer Users," now U.S. Pat. No. 6,810,480, issued Oct. 26, 2004 incorporated herein by reference. When substantially continuous biometric re-authentication is performed, however, increased processing and/or network traffic loads are created. In the local area network link between the client and its LAN switch or wireless access point, for example, the bandwidth needed for sending continuous biometric sample data together with the bandwidth used by the client application could exceed the bandwidth capability of the link, which may noticeably impair performance of the client application.

Continuous biometric authentication using frame preamble for biometric data


Disclosed are methods for providing wafer parasitic current control to a semiconductor wafer (1240) having a substrate (1240), at least one active layer (1240) and at least one surface layer (1240), Current control can be achieved through the formation of patterns (1240) surrounding contacts (1215), said patterns (1240) including insulating implants and/or sacrificial layers formed between active devices represented by said contacts (1215). Current flows through active regions (1260) associated with said contacts (1215) and active devices. Methods of and systems for wafer level burn-in (WLBI) of semiconductor devices are also disclosed. Current control at the wafer level is important when using WLBI methods and systems.

Solid-state semiconductor devices are found in most electronic components today. For example, semiconductor lasers are important devices in applications such as optoelectronic communication systems and high-speed printing systems. It is common for more than 60,000 semiconductor laser components to be fabricated on a single wafer.
There continues to be increased interest in vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs). VCSELs are typically made by growing several layers of reflective material on a substrate material. VCSELs include a first mirrored stack, formed on the substrate by semiconductor manufacturing techniques, an active region, formed on top of the first mirrored stack, and a second mirrored stack, formed on top of the active region. By providing a first contact on top of the second mirrored stack, and a second contact on the backside of the substrate, a current is forced through the active region, thus driving the VCSEL. VCSELs can be fabricated/grown with combinations of gallium, arsenic, nitrogen, aluminum, antimony, phosphorous and/or indium placed within or about a typical GaAs substrate.
Historically, the manufacturing of semiconductors has been a very elaborate and expensive multi-step process. Component burn-in generally refers to the process of thermally and/or electrically testing newly fabricated semiconductor components. Burn-in allows for the individual identification of faulty components coming for a lot or batch. Currently, components are burned-in at the "package level", which means that the individually-packaged devices are typically tested after being derived from a wafer. Each component is tested and placed in sockets to be burned-in either as a packaged unit or to be tested as bare die (before packaging). Either die or package level burn-in can be costly for manufacturers because it is labor intensive. Each component has to be tested, requiring plenary human intervention.
Although wafer level burn-in (WLBI) methods and systems are currently being explored by the semiconductor industry, proposed systems and methods generally require that a plurality of electrical probes contact a plurality of electrical contacts on a wafer. Such systems can be complex and require extra care with regard to probe and contact alignment. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,339,329 issued to Nakata et al., entitled "Method of testing electrical characteristics of multiple semiconductor integrated circuits simultaneously", is typical of the technological direction being taken in the industry for WLBI. The Nakata et al. patent teaches simultaneous testing of a plurality of semiconductor integrated circuit elements by bringing a plurality of probe terminals into contact with a plurality of testing electrodes associated respectively with a plurality of semiconductor integrated circuit elements on a wafer and applying a voltage to each of the testing electrodes from the common voltage supply line via a plurality of positive temperature coefficient elements.
The semiconductor fabrication industry needs methods and systems for reducing the costs and associated labor currently required to carry out device burn-in. Further, the semiconductor industry needs WLBI methods and systems that can be used in the manufacturing and test of semiconductor components having front and back contacts, such as VCSELs, diodes, LEDs, and other semiconductor devices.
The present inventors have recognized that it would be advantageous to remedy current burn-in procedures by describing methods and systems of accomplishing WLBI of components. During WLBI operations, however, the present inventors have discovered that lack of current and/or photonic control between devices borne by a single wafer can be problematic, resulting in inaccurate burn-in and/or damaged devices. The present inventors have therefore invented systems and methods to control current flow between wafer borne electronic devices during wafer level burn-in processing. Accordingly, the present invention is described and presented as novel systems and methods to address the shortcomings currently found with WLBI processes.

Providing current control over wafer borne semiconductor devices using overlayer patterns


A process for preparing storable vegetable juice comprising crushing vegetables to extract juice, adding an organic acid to the vegetable juice, and treating this vegetable juice with a weakly basic anion exchange resin on which an organic acid has previously been adsorbed and a food containing a vegetable juice prepared by the process. The process can produce vegetable juice which can be stored at room temperature, produces no bad odor when stored at room temperature, and is free from a resin odor which has been unavoidable when a weakly basic anion exchange resin was used.

Along with increased health consciousness among consumers in recent years, the desire for vegetable drinks which can be easily consumed is growing.
However, presently available vegetable drinks are a mixed tomato juice made from about 90% tomato and about 10% other vegetables, a mixed juice made from vegetables which are comparatively odorless, such as carrot and spinach, and a major portion of fruit juice, and the like. With the exception of tomato juice and carrot juice, there are no vegetable juices which are true vegetable juices commercially available at the present time.
When a juice extracted from some vegetables belonging to the Brassica family, such as cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, and kohlrabi, which are reported to exhibit the capability of preventing cancerous growth, or other vegetables, such as radish, onion, or egg plant, is provided as a drink, as is, or mixed with a fruit juice, this juice produces a distinct odor when stored at room temperature. Such a juice cannot be used as a raw material for manufacturing canned juice or products aseptically filled in paper receptacles to be distributed at room temperatures.
The inventors of the present invention have previously found that a vegetable juice at close to a neutral pH with no objectionable vegetable or other unusual odor can be produced by adding an edible acid such as an organic acid to vegetable juice and treating this juice with an weakly basic anion exchange resin by a batch method or circulating the juice through a column packed with a weakly basic anion exchange resin. The inventors found that the resulting juice is suitable as a raw material for producing drinks which can be stored at high temperatures. The inventors then filed a patent application (Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 79351/1995).
However, because the weakly basic anion exchange resin used in this method contains amine as an active group, the treatment of vegetable juice with this resin easily causes imperfect binding sites of the amine to be exposed and to shift into the recovered fluid, leaving an unpleasant odor which is called an objectionable resin odor.
Although it is possible to kill this unpleasant odor to "a degree that this resin odor is not specifically noticed" by diluting the treated vegetable juice to produce a drink with a vegetable juice concentration of about 10-20%, by mixing the vegetable juice with a fruit juice, or by adding a perfume possessing an aroma which exceeds this objectionable resin odor, incorporation of an amine compound in food is not desirable from the viewpoint of food hygiene. Improvements in this method are therefore desired.
Accordingly, the development of a process for preparing vegetable juice without an amine odor due to a weakly basic anion exchange resin while utilizing the superior odor removal action of this resin has been desired. An object of the present invention is to provide a vegetable juice overcoming the problems in conventional vegetable juices.

Process for producing preservable squeezed vegetable juice


An apparatus suspending a detachable accessory adjacent a vertical wall defining a swimming pool is disclosed. The apparatus includes a pair of U-shaped arms having base ends fixed outside the swimming pool and cantilever ends supported inside the swimming pool below the base ends. A support bar is rotatably mounted between the arms and includes a plurality of mounting tubes within which a plurality of accessories are detachably mounted.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to recreational equipment and, more particularly, to an apparatus for suspending a plurality of detachable accessories adjacent a vertical wall defining an aquatic body, such as a swimming pool.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A swimming pool is a popular recreational feature of many homes and a wide variety of accessories are available to promote an individual's enjoyment of a swimming pool. One type of accessory is a floating chair which allows an individual to sit in the chair and float with his or her body partially submerged in water.
While such chairs have found widespread use, they have many inherent disadvantages. One disadvantage with prior art floating chairs is their tendency to float in a random manner. The individual within the chair may often wish to remain in a fixed location and orientation for a number of reasons, including, improving his or her suntan or socializing with others in the pool. Further, many individuals find floating chairs uncomfortable because of their bobbing movement in response to waves present in the pool water.
In response to the problems associated with floating chairs, chairs supported by the structure of the swimming pool have been proposed. While these structure supported chairs address many of the problems outlined above, they lack versatility in that additional swimming pool accessories may not be conveniently attached thereto. For example, it would be advantageous to have a table adjacent the chair upon which an individual could place items, such as refreshments, suntan oil and towels. Further, many individuals would appreciate an umbrella adjacent the chair for providing an area of shade. Additionally, it would be advantageous to have a baby seat adapted to support an infant which could be supported by the structure of the swimming pool.
Another limitation with prior art structure supported accessories is that they are not detachably mounted wherein an accessory, e.g. a chair, may not be interchanged with a different type of accessory, e.g. a table, an umbrella, a baby seat or a toy. Further, the prior art fails to disclose an apparatus for supporting a plurality of detachable, interchangeable, accessories adjacent a pool structure. Such a device would allow an individual to customize the arrangement of pool accessories to his or her satisfaction.
Accordingly, there is a need for an apparatus for suspending a detachable accessory adjacent a swimming pool structure. Further, there is a need for such an apparatus for suspending a plurality of detachable accessories wherein the arrangement of accessories may be customized by the user.

Suspended detachable swimming pool accessories


A lock includes two independently operating locking mechanism, one locking mechanism operating electronically and one locking mechanism operating mechanically. The lock may include a device for receiving and decoding an electronic unlock signal and a memory source for storing multiple unique unlock signals. The electronic signal may be generated from a remote source or on the lock itself. The lock also may include a button that allows unique unlock signals to be added or deleted from the lock memory.

Security devices, such as locks, are used in a variety of ways to secure a variety of objects. When securing objects, it is not always convenient to carry a key or remember a combination. This is especially true for users with multiple locks, each having a different key or combination. Additionally, it can be more convenient to unlock the lock from a given distance away from the lock and without having to mechanically manipulate a portion of the lock. Furthermore, since the user of the lock is not always in the presence of the object to be secured by the lock, the user frequently does not know that the lock is being tampered with until it is too late and the object is gone.

Lock system with remote control security device


A diagnostic reagent for hepatitis C virus infection obtained by sensitizing a solid phase with HCV antigen and a conjugated antigen prepared by chemical bonding of HCV antigen and a carrier protein, and a method of diagnosing hepatitis C virus infection, which comprises adding the diagnostic reagent for hepatitis C virus infection to a sample, and measuring the degree of agglutination of carrier particles as the solid phase. The diagnostic reagent and the method of diagnosis enable many samples to be measured with higher sensitivity and rapidity.

The present invention relates to a diagnostic reagent for detecting hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection by utilizing immunoagglutination.
In regard to hepatitis C, HCV gene was detected by the research group of Chiron Corporation, U.S.A., in 1988 prior to the detection of HCV. To detect antibodies to HCV, various recombinant antigens or synthetic peptides have been investigated, and kits for detecting HCV-associated antibodies have been developed. The methods of detection now available are agar diffusion, counterimmunoelectrophoresis, radioimmunoassay, enzyme immunoassay, passive hemagglutination, and latex agglutination.
Known HCV antigen proteins for use in the detection of HCV-associated antibodies are core and envelope proteins as structural region proteins, and NS1 to NS5 proteins as non-structural region proteins. One HCV antigen protein alone is not sufficiently high in detection sensitivity, and is also problematical in specificity. Thus, a suitable combination of proteins in structural and non-structural regions is used (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 89:10011-10015, 1992). Attempts to increase the detection sensitivity further are also made. With the particle agglutination method, for example, the number of HCV antigens for sensitization of particles is increased, or polypeptide having HCV antigenic activity is heat-treated (Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 1002273/94); alternatively, a fusion protein constructed from HCV antigen protein and carrier protein is coated onto hydrophilic particles for their sensitization (Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 198723/95).
The use of synthetic peptide as an antigen has also been attempted, but this use is generally said to lower the detection sensitivity.
Thus, there is a growing demand for a diagnostic reagent and a method of diagnosis which enable many samples to be measured with high sensitivity and rapidity.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Diagnostic reagent for hepatitis C virus infection


Disclosed is a substrate processing apparatus including: a housing section configured to house a substrate; a transfer chamber that includes a plurality of airtight chambers connected to the periphery thereof, and a transfer mechanism provided therewithin, each of the plurality of airtight chambers being configured to process the substrate under an airtight state, and the transfer mechanism being configured to transfer the substrate to and from the airtight chambers; a carry-in section configured to carry the substrate into the transfer chamber via a first opening provided in the transfer chamber; and a carry-out section configured to carry out the substrate discharged from a second opening provided at a different position from that of the first opening of the transfer chamber, to the housing section, without returning the substrate to the transfer chamber.

There is a substrate processing apparatus in which a plurality of substrate processing sections are connected, and a substrate is transferred among the substrate processing sections (See, e.g., Patent Literature 1). As an example of such a substrate processing apparatus, there is a multi-chamber-type substrate processing apparatus that includes a cluster including a transfer chamber and a plurality of chambers connected to the periphery of the transfer chamber, in which a substrate is transferred to each of the chambers by a transfer aim provided within the transfer chamber and is processed within each of the chambers. Also, as an example of the multi-chamber-type substrate processing apparatus, there is a multi-cluster-type substrate processing apparatus that includes a plurality of clusters connected to each other in line, in which a substrate is transferred to each of the clusters by being conveyed among the clusters (See, e.g., Patent Literature 2).
FIG. 11 is schematic plan view illustrating an example of a conventional substrate processing apparatus. FIG. 11 illustrates an example of a multi-cluster-type substrate processing apparatus that includes a first cluster 400 and a second cluster 500, in which a substrate is carried into the first cluster 400, and the second cluster 500 is connected to the first cluster 400 in line. The first cluster 400 includes a transfer chamber 401 including a transfer arm A401, and chambers 402 and 403 connected to the periphery of the transfer chamber 401. The second cluster 500 includes a transfer chamber 501 including a transfer arm A501, and chambers 502 and 503 connected to the periphery of the transfer chamber 501.
A load-lock chamber 300 is connected to one end of the first cluster 400, and a relay section 401a is provided to the other end of the first cluster 400. The substrate that has been processed within the first cluster 400 and the second cluster 500 is carried out from the first cluster 400 through a load-lock chamber 300. The first cluster 400 is connected to the second cluster 500 via the relay section 401a. The load-lock chamber 300 is connected to an atmospheric transfer section 200 that transfers the substrate to/from a housing section 100 under an atmospheric pressure state.
Also, the load-lock chamber 300 is connected to an exhaust section 301 and an opening section 302 via a valve V301, in which the exhaust section 301 is configured to decompress the inside to the pressure within the transfer chamber 401, and the opening section 302 is configured to recover the inside to the atmospheric pressure within the atmospheric transfer section 200. The atmospheric transfer section 200 includes a transfer arm A200 transferring the substrate disposed therewithin. The housing section 100 houses a plurality of wafers W0 to be used as substrates. Hereinafter, a process of substrate-processing on the wafers W0 housed in the housing section 100 by the conventional multi-cluster-type substrate processing apparatus illustrated in FIG. 11 will be described.
The transfer arm A200 takes out one wafer W0 to be processed from the housing section 100, and transfers the wafer W0 to the load-lock chamber 300 to store therein. The transfer arm A401 receives the wafer W0 within the load-lock chamber 300 and carries the wafer W0 into the transfer chamber 401. When the wafer W0 carried into the transfer chamber 401 is processed within, for example, the chamber 403, the wafer W0 within the transfer chamber 401 is transferred into the chamber 403 by the transfer atm A401. When the processing within the chamber 403 is completed, the transfer arm A401 transfers the wafer W0 within the chamber 403 into the transfer chamber 401, and then transfers the wafer W0 to the load-lock chamber 300 to store therein.
The transfer a in A200 receives the wafer W0 within the load-lock chamber 300 and carries out the wafer W0 to the housing section 100. When the wafer W0 carried into the transfer chamber 401 is processed within, for example, the chamber 502 included in the second cluster 500, the transfer arm A401 transfers and stores the wafer W0 into the relay section 401a. The transfer arm A501 receives the wafer W0 within the relay section 401a and transfers the wafer W0 to the transfer chamber 501. Then, the transfer aim A501 transfers the wafer W0 within the transfer chamber 501 to the chamber 502.
When the processing within the chamber 502 is completed, the transfer aim A501 transfers the wafer W0 within the chamber 502 into the transfer chamber 501, and further transfers and stores the wafer W0 into the relay section 401a. The transfer aim A401 receives the wafer W0 within the relay section 401a and carries the wafer W0 into the transfer chamber 401. Then, the transfer arms A401 and A200 carry out the wafer W0 within the transfer chamber 401 to the housing section 100 via the load-lock chamber 300.


An invoice processing system generates a data structure, comprising a data field value associated with each of a plurality of identified data fields, from a document image comprising text representing each of such data field values. The secure document data capture system includes a character recognition system receiving the document image and recognizing characters within the text to generate, for each of the identified data fields, a data field value for association therewith. A validation engine identifies a subset of the identified data fields which can be referred to as exception data fields due to failure to comply with a validation rule. An exception handling system provides an exception image to a first client system. The exception image comprising a portion of the document image which includes text of the at least one suspect character within the exception data field with a context portion of the document image redacted. The context portion of the document image is a portion of the document image which comprises text which discloses a meaning of the at least one suspect character or the data field value. The exception handling system receives, from the first client system, user input of a replacement character for at least each suspect character. The secure data capture system then generates the data structure utilizing, for each identified data field, the data field values generated by the character recognition system with substitution of the replacement character from the exception handling system for each suspect character.

Data capture systems which utilize character recognition to facilitate capturing of data from text based documents have existed for many years. In more sophisticated systems, characters recognized from a document image may be populated into fields of a database or fields of a data file.
On challenge with such data capture systems is that character recognition technology remains prone to error. The errors are further exacerbated if the document image on which the character recognition is based is an image generated by scanning of a paper document which includes any of low contrast, ink bleed, or other characteristics which affect the shape, alignment, and/or spacing of characters as present in the document image.
Contemporary data capture systems which are used for generating data fields with specific data elements may employ exception handling to correct errors within character recognition processes. In more detail, the data capture system initially identifies each data field value using characters provided by the character recognition system. Validation rules are then applied to the data field values to identify characters that may have been mis-recognized by the character recognition system. For example, if the data field value is expected to be a numerical value, a validation rule may consist of verifying that the data field value is numerical. A roman alphabet character within the data field value would be character likely mis-recognized.
Exception handling systems provide for display of the document image on a monitor for a human recognition and keyboard input of those characters that are likely mis-recognized. To facilitate the human operations, more sophisticated exception handling systems may sequentially highlight the mis-recognized characters within the document for human recognition and keyboard input.
After the exception characters are returned, the data capture system may substitute the human recognized characters for the characters mis-recognized by the character recognition system.
To further improve accuracy, the exception handling systems may provide for display of the same document image on a monitor of a second and independent exception handling processor for a second and independent input of those characters that are likely mis-recognized.
A problem with existing document capture systems that use existing exception handling techniques is that if the application is such that the document image includes confidential information, extensive security measures must be implement to adequately protect the confidential information when transmitted to the exception handling processor and displayed for exception handling.
Examples of confidential information within a document image include social security or tax numbers, credit card account numbers, bank account numbers, financial information, protected health information, or other identifiable confidential information. If such information is included, the hardware, software, and network systems used for providing the document image to the human operators must be secured.
The facilities at which human operators have access to the monitors displaying the document images must be secured. The human operators must be bound by, and trained to comply with, appropriate policies and procedures related to such confidential information. And, extensive resources are typically utilized to monitor and audit the security of the systems, policies, and procedures to achieve confidence that the confidential information remains protected.
What is needed is a secure document data capture system which provides the accuracy of a system that includes exception handling in a manner wherein the confidential information is secured in a manner that does not require the extensive resources needed for implementing the systems, policies and procedures to secure confidential information when traditional exception handling systems are employed.

Electronic transaction processing server with automated transaction evaluation


Provided is a method of controlling a fusing speed of an image forming apparatus. Determination is made as to whether a sheet of paper to be printed is a special-purpose sheet. Determination is made as to whether a length 1 of the sheet of paper is shorter than a distance L1 between a second transfer roller and a fusing unit. Determination is also made as to whether the length 1 of the sheet of paper is shorter than a distance L0 between a first transfer roller and the second transfer roller. Determination is made as to whether the length 1 of the sheet of paper is longer than the distance L0 between the first transfer roller and the second transfer roller.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of controlling a fusing speed of an image forming apparatus. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method of controlling a fusing speed of an image forming apparatus, which controls a conveying speed of a sheet of paper when the fusing speed must vary according to a thickness of the sheet of paper.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, an image forming apparatus irradiates light onto a photosensitive medium charged to a uniform potential to form an electrostatic latent image corresponding to a desired image on the photosensitive medium. The image forming apparatus develops the electrostatic latent image using toner to form a toner image, and transfers and fuses the toner image onto a sheet of paper, thereby forming a desired image.
A multi-color image forming apparatus generally requires yellow (Y), magenta (M), cyan (C), and black (B) toners. These color toners overlap each other to exhibit a desired multi-color image. Accordingly, the multi-color image forming apparatus requires four developing cartridges for storing respective color toners.
The multi-color image forming apparatus having the four developing cartridges has a larger volume and a more complicated structure than a monochromic image forming apparatus for exhibiting a single color.
In the image forming apparatus, the sheets of paper in a cassette, in which the sheets of paper are loaded, are sequentially conveyed by components, such as a conveying roller, transfer roller, and fusing unit. Then each sheet of paper is ejected by an ejecting unit outside the image forming apparatus. In structural and economical aspects, these components are driven by a driving source, but are not connected to the respective driving sources. That is, at least one driving source is connected to several components. Accordingly, when one driving source operates, many components connected are simultaneously driven.
For example, assuming that a conveying roller, transfer roller, fusing unit, and ejecting unit connected to one driving motor simultaneously operate, when printing is performed on a general-purpose sheet (for example, an A4 size sheet of paper), the sheet passes through the fusing unit and the ejecting unit at a normal speed. Thus, a toner image transferred onto the sheet can be normally fused on the sheet. However, when printing is performed on a special-purpose sheet (for example, an envelope or film), the time required for fusing a toner image on the special-purpose sheet is longer than the time required for the general-purpose sheet.
Accordingly, when the special-purpose sheet passes through the fusing unit at the same speed as the general-purpose sheet, the toner image may not normally be fused on the sheet. If the toner image is not normally fused on the sheet, image quality is adversely affected.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved method of varying a fusing speed of an image forming apparatus according to a size of a sheet of paper in order to produce a quality toner image on the sheet of paper.

Method of controlling fusing speed of image forming apparatus


A liquid ejection apparatus includes a plurality of liquid ejection heads, a plurality of elastic wiper blades for rubbing the nozzle formed surfaces of the liquid ejection heads, a blade cleaner for removing liquid adhered to the wiper blade, a cleaning unit for removing liquid adhered to the wiper blades, a wiper blade moving unit for respectively and independently moving the plurality of wiper blades between a rubbing position and a retreating position, and a control unit that controls the wiper blade moving unit so that the cleaning unit can make the blade cleaner and the moved wiper blades rub with each other. Herein, it is possible to maintain cleaning performance, preventing contamination of a wiper blade caused by liquid splashed from a neighboring wiper blade.

As liquid ejection devices having a liquid ejection head that can eject liquid in a droplet state, there are offered, for example, image recording devices that record an image or the like on a recording medium by ejecting ink droplets, electrode forming devices that form an electrode by ejecting electrode material in a liquid state onto a substrate, biochip manufacturing devices that manufacture a biochip by ejecting living specimen, and micropipettes that eject a sample in a predetermined amount into a reservoir.
This type of liquid ejecting devices reserves ejecting liquid in a reservoir, then supplies the liquid to a liquid ejection head, and ejects the liquid, to which a pressure has been applied in a pressure generating chamber in the liquid ejection head, from a nozzle as droplets toward an object. Herein, there are cases where when the droplets land on the object, splashes adhere to the surface having nozzles (hereinafter, referred to as a nozzle formed surface) and contaminate the surface.
Further, there are also cases where when liquid is ejected from nozzles, finer droplets (satellites) are generated, separating from droplets that land on an object. The satellites may not reach the object and may hang in the air to adhere to the nozzle formed surface.
Still further, there are cases where droplets remain adjacent to nozzles, when the nozzle formed surface is sealed with a cap member and a negative pressure from a suction pump is applied to forcibly suck and discharge liquid from the nozzles so that clogging of the nozzles are resolved.
If a nozzle formed surface of a liquid ejection head, particularly the peripheral of the nozzles, is contaminated in such a manner, it is possible that the ejecting direction of droplets is deviated from a normal direction or the nozzles are clogged to be disabled to eject droplets, which may affect ejection of droplets.
In order to solve these problems, some liquid ejection devices of this type are provided with a wiping mechanism to wipe off contaminants adhered to the nozzle formed surface. Such a wiping mechanism is provided with a wiper blade in a plate form (reed shape) of an elastic material, for example, rubber or elastomer, and is disposed on the home position side which is the waiting area of the liquid ejection head in the liquid ejection device. This wiper blase is located in a normal state at a retreating position where the wiper blade does not contact the liquid ejection head, and at the time of wiping, the upper portion of the wiper blade moves to a wiping position where the wiper blade can contact the nozzle formed surface of the liquid ejection head. Then, when the wiper blade contacts the liquid ejection head, the entire blade is deformed into an arc shape, and the holding member for holding the wiper blade or the liquid ejection head moves, in a state where the front end of the blade contacts the nozzle formed surface. Thus, the nozzle formed surface is rubbed, and the contaminants adhered to the nozzle formed surface are wiped off by the wiper blade.
The liquid having been rubbed off from the nozzle formed surface is adhered to the wiper blade having rubbed the nozzle formed surface of the liquid ejection head. If this state is left, the liquid adhered to the wiper blade adheres to the nozzle formed surface in return during the next wiping operation, which contaminates the nozzle formed surface on the contrary, causing problems such as nozzle failure or deviation of ejection.
In this situation, a device in a prior art has been offered which removes liquid adhered to a wiper blade having rubbed a nozzle formed surface, by rubbing the wiper blade with a blade cleaner, so as to maintain the cleaning performance.
For example, in Patent Document 1 (Japanese Patent Publication TOKKAI No. H10-291324), disclosed is a technology in which a blade cleaner is made contact with a blade strong elastically without rotation during forward motion, and is made contact with the blade light elastically with rotation during backward motion.
In Patent Document 2 (Japanese Patent Publication TOKKAI No. 2000-343719), disclosed is a technology in which wiping operation is performed only on nozzle arrays that need wiping operation.
In Patent Document 3 (Japanese Patent Publication TOKKAI No. 2001-277526), disclosed is a technology in which a rotary type of a blade for cleaning the nozzle formed surface of a recording head by wiping is provided.
In Patent Document 4 (Japanese Patent Publication TOKKAI No. 2001-347675), disclosed is a technology in which mixing of colors of respective inks due to splashed ink is prevented by disposing a division plate between heads during wiping.
In Patent Document 5 (Japanese Patent Publication TOKKAI No. 2005-205640), disclosed is a technology in which a wiper blade and scraper rub each other during forward motion, and the scraper retreats from the wiper blade during backward motion.
In Patent Document 6 (Japanese Patent Publication TOKKAI No. 2005-238643), disclosed is a technology in which mixing of colors is prevented by providing notched portions for division between scrapers for respective colors.
For example, in a case of a full-color inkjet recording device that is a liquid droplet ejection device using liquid ejection heads, a recording head for ejection of K (black) ink and recording heads for ejection of respective color inks, such as Y (yellow), C (cyan), M (magenta), or the like, namely plural recording heads, are mounted on the device.
Further, sometimes, ink is sucked selectively only from heads with which ejection failure, such as nozzle failure or deviation of ejection, has occurred, for a smaller amount of ink waste during suction of ink. Herein, preferably, only the heads from which ink has been sucked are selectively wiped with a wiper blade. It is because, through wiping heads from which ink has not been sucked (hereinafter, also referred to as null wiping), the wiper blade may drag foreign matter to damage the heads or wiping itself may cause nozzle failure. Further, the wiper blade may be worn, which significantly shortens the life of the wiper blade.
A lot of ink is adhered to a wiper blade having wiped a head from which ink had been sucked. In this situation, if ink is removed by rubbing the wiper blade, which have wiped, with a blade cleaner, as in a prior art, then ink from the wiper blade having wiped splashes and adheres to neighboring wiper blades, causing mixing of colors and ejection failure.
In order to solve this problem, a wiper blade may be fallen to the side opposite to the moving direction (rubbing direction) during wiping. However, with such a structure, a large force is applied to means for holding the wiper blade during wiping, which may suddenly fall the wiper blade, disabling enough wiping. In order to solve this problem, it is necessary to lock the wiper blade during wiping, causing a problem of making the mechanical structure complicated.
With this background, an object of the present invention is to provide a liquid ejection apparatus and maintenance method of liquid ejection heads, wherein it is possible to maintain cleaning performance, preventing contamination of a wiper blade caused by liquid splashed from a neighboring wiper blade. Herein, prior to the splashing of the liquid, liquid had been adhered to the neighboring wiper blade following selective rubbing of a nozzle surface by the neighboring blade and has been removed from the neighboring blade by rubbing with a blade cleaner.
Other objects of the invention will be made apparent by the following description.

Liquid ejection apparatus and maintenance method of liquid ejection head


A cask for a radioactive material has a single gamma ray and neutron shielding layer disposed on the outside of a vessel body, and the shielding layer is formed of the compact of a mixture of lead and a metal hydride dispersed therein. This cask can exhibit an excellent shielding effect according to the balance of radiation source intensity between gamma rays and neutrons, and can be made more compact.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a transport and/or storage cask for a radioactive material such as spent fuel or the like, and a radiation shield
2. Description of the Related Art
A cask for a radioactive material such as spent fuel from a nuclear power plant or the like must shield gamma rays and neutrons emitted from the radioactive material and to effectively dissipate heat generated through the decay of a radioactive material such as spent fuel or the like contained therein. Examples of such a cask are disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-27896 (kokai) and Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 5-39520 kokoku).
A cask disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-27986 (kokai) has a gamma ray shielding lead layer interposed between an inner shell made of a steel plate and an outer shell made of a steel plate and a neutron shield disposed on the outer surface of the outer shell, so that gamma rays and neutrons emitted form a radioactive material are shielded by these two layers, respectively.
This cask is further provided with cooling fins disposed on the outer side of the neutron shield. The lead layer is closely brought into contact with the outer surface of the inner shell via a thin film of a lead-tin material, thereby efficiently dissipating outward heat generated within the inner shell, such as that resulting from decay of a radioactive material, so that a radioactive material such as spent fuel is transported safely in the cask.
A cask disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 5-39520 (kokoku) is also based on the technical thought of shielding gamma rays and neutrons separately, wherein gamma rays emitted from a radioactive material are shielded by carbon steel, and neutrons by a neutron shield.
More specifically, it is composed of a cylindrical vessel made of carbon steel by which gamma rays are shielded, a plurality of metallic heat conductive members which are disposed adjacent to each other around the vessel and between the vessel and the outer shell, and a neutron shield material filing in each of closed spaces formed by the heat-conductive members and the outer shell. Each of the heat conductive members has an L-shaped cross-section and is composed of a portion which extends in the longitudinal direction of the vessel so as to contact the outer surface of the vessel and a portion which extends the radial direction of the vessel and whose end is attached to the inner surface of the outer shell.
The cask disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-27896 (kokai) has an advantage that the inner shell can be made thin because the lead layer having an excellent shielding capability against gamma rays is disposed between the inner and outer shells, and an advantage that heat generated within the inner shell, such as that resulting from decay of a radioactive material, can be efficiently dissipated outward because the lead layer closely contacts the outer surface of the inner shell via the thin film of a lead-tin material
However, in order to attain a close contact between the lead layer and the outer surface of the inner shell, the lead layer is formed employing a so-called homogeinzing treatment comprising the steps of applying flux containing zinc chloride, stannous chloride, and the like to the outer surface of the inner shell; coating the outer surface with molten lead-tin material; assembling the inner and outer shells together; and casting lead between the inner and outer shells. As a result, the fabrication of the cask takes a longer period of time and involves higher costs.
Further, lead must be carefully cast between the inner and outer shells so as to not introduce defects such as voids, and after casting, the cask must undergo an ultrasonic inspection for such defects.
Moreover, heat generated during casting causes the inner and outer shells to deform, resulting in a nonuniform clearance between the inner and outer shells and thus forming a thinner portion in the thus-cast lead layer. It is therefore necessary to cast more lead than a required quantity corresponding to a required shielding thickness.
The cask disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 5-39520 (kokpku) uses a vessel which is made of only carbon steel, thereby shielding gamma rays. When the vessel is made of only carbon steel, the thickness thereof must be considerably large to shield gamma rays because carbon steel is inferior to lead in terms of gamma ray shielding capability. Even though the vessel is relatively thick, the heat-conductive performance thereof is relatively good, and thus no problem arises with respect to heat; however, the vessel's capacity for containing a radioactive material reduces accordingly, resulting in a reduced storage efficiency.
The present inventors proposed, in Japanese Patent Applicaton No. 7-199594, a cask for a radioactive material having a gamma ray shielding layer and a neutron shielding layer disposed on the outer surface of an inner shell, as well as heat conductive members penetrating through the gamma ray shielding layer and neutron shielding layer, as a vessel having a high efficiency of storing a radioactive material and an excellent heat-conductive performance.
This transport/storage cask for a radioactive material, a transverse cross-secton of which is typically shown in FIG. 8, is composed of a vessel inner shell 1 having a basket 5 for containing a radioactive material, an outer shell 2, and a gamma ray shield layer 3 and a neutron shield layer 4 successively disposed between the vessel inner shell 1 and the outer shell 2.
According to this invention, the heat-conductive performance of the vessel is particularly excellent, compared with the above-mentioned prior arts, by the presence of the heat conductive members.
When it is required to shield both gamma rays and neutrons, as in a cask for spent fuel radiation source intensities of gamma rays and neutrons are differed depending on spent fuel, and it is important to effectively shield gamma rays and neutrons according to the balance of radiation source intensity between the both or the degree of intensity.
In the above-mentioned structures of the prior arts, since gamma rays and neutrons are shielded independently by a gamma ray shielding layer and a neutron shielding layer, respectively, it is difficult to design the material or thickness of each shielding layer according to the balance of radiation source intensity. Therefore, a conservative design such as thickening of the respective shielding layers is needed, resulting in an increase in size of the vessel, and construction of the shielding layers and the heat conductive members is obliged to be complicated.

Cask for a radioactive material and radiation shield


A system and method for cutting continuous web that provides a simplified and direct feed path during loading, and thereafter a more-complex serpentine feed path at an infeed unit for reliable infeed of the web, arranged as either a free loop or a moderately tensioned configuration. Downstream, an indexing drive intermittently pauses the web for the cutter knife to operate. The indexing drive and infeed unit's drive are synchronized by a controller to produce a small horizontally disposed buffer loop therebetween. The buffer loop is maintained within a predetermined range using a sensor, operatively with the controller, that measures the location of the end of the loop, modulating the drives to maintain the buffer loop's (returning) end within a predetermined location about the sensor's sensing field. The system includes an adjustment drive motor for moving a plurality of edge guide sets toward and away from each other in synchronization.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to web cutters and cutter feeding systems.
2. Background Information
The use of continuous web for high speed printing operations, including print-on-demand and direct mail applications has become extremely popular. A continuous web, held on a driven roll, is driven through a series of stages in which printing and other embellishments are applied in the form of pages or sections of the web. The web can be driven through various printers and other web utilization devices while remaining in its continuous form. Web is generally driven through these utilization devices using a conventional tractor pin feed method in which perforated, pin feed strips along opposing side edges of the web are engaged by tractor pin feed units, or the web can be driven using a pinless feed method and drive, such as that described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,967,394 entitled METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PINLESS FEEDING OF WEB TO A UTILIZATION DEVICE, by H. W. Crowley et al., the teachings of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference.
At a predetermined stage in the overall web-handling process, the continuous web may be fed from a driven source roll or other upstream source device to a web cutter. The cutter uses a moving knife (typically a guillotine, rotary or sliding type blade) to divide the web widthwise (e.g. laterally or transversely to the direction of movement) into individual sheets of predetermined size. As sheets are cut, they are directed downstream to further utilization devices that may include justifiers, folders, further printers, stackers or sorters. The cutter, or another utilization device, may also include a slitter that divides the web lengthwise into two or more side-by-side ribbons in order to maximize throughput by allowing the cutting and downstream-processing of two or more side-by-side sheets concurrently. The sheets can be subsequently stacked or otherwise handled in a side-by side fashion. In some implementations, a downstream justifier can include appropriate mechanisms for merging the slit sheets into a single feed path. Alternatively, the sheets can be merged prior to cutting, and then cut one-atop-the-other.
Conventional and currently available cutters are limited by a variety of disadvantages. Often, their infeed arrangement from a source involves a tortuous feed path in order to carefully regulate the location of web presented to the cutter. In high-speed operation, the cutter must move quickly and violently to divide the sheets. The tortuous web feed path, when maintained in a moderately tensioned state, is subjected to significant shock by the action of the cutter, which may lead to inaccuracy in the size of cut sheets—as the web is susceptible to sudden jerks during cuts. Similarly where the web is paused to receive a cut from, for example a guillotine-style knife cutter, the drive rate of the cutter section may vary from that of the infeed section. In addition, the tortuous infeed path is difficult to thread during loading and, once threaded, may form a permanent serpentine deformation in the web when it is allowed to stand in the cutter for any significant waiting time. This deformation can adversely affect feeding into downstream devices as the web presents an undesirable curl to the cutter, justifier, etc.
In addition, many cutters must be carefully adjusted at a number of different, discrete locations in order to ensure that the web is properly guided along its side edges. This is often accomplished by the operator through simple and inaccurate manual and visual techniques that may lead to misalignment between guides and off-center feeding. This adjustment problem is exacerbated where a cutter is designed to feed either pin-feed or pinless web. It is, thus, desirable to provide a system and method for cutting continuous web that addresses the various above-described limitations.

System and method for cutting continuous web


Provided are systems and methods for controlling a solid state lighting panel. A system according to some embodiments of the invention includes a controller that provides control signals to current drivers that are configured to provide current to multiple solid state lighting devices. The system also includes a sequence generator that generates a firing sequence for firing multiple strings of slid state lighting devices.

Solid state lighting arrays are used for a number of lighting applications. For example, solid state lighting panels including arrays of solid state lamps have been used as direct illumination sources, for example, in architectural and/or accent lighting. A solid state lamp may include, for example, a packaged light emitting device including one or more light emitting diodes (LEDs). Inorganic LEDs typically include semiconductor layers forming p-n junctions. Organic LEDs (OLEDs), which include organic light emission layers, are another type of solid state light emitting device. Typically, a solid state light emitting device generates light through the recombination of electronic carriers, i.e. electrons and holes, in a light emitting layer or region.
Solid state lighting panels are commonly used as backlights for small LCD display screens, such as LCD display screens used in portable electronic devices. In addition, there has been increased interest in the use of solid state lighting arrays for backlights of larger displays, such as LCD television displays.
For smaller LCD screens, backlight assemblies typically employ white LED lamps that include a blue-emitting LED coated with a wavelength conversion phosphor that converts some of the blue light emitted by the LED into yellow light. The resulting light, which is a combination of blue light and yellow light, may appear white to an observer. However, while light generated by such an arrangement may appear white, objects illuminated by such light may not appear to have a natural coloring, because of the limited spectrum of the light. For example, because the light may have little energy in the red portion of the visible spectrum, red colors in an object may not be illuminated well by such light. As a result, the object may appear to have an unnatural coloring when viewed under such a light source.
The color rendering index of a light source is an objective measure of the ability of the light generated by the source to accurately illuminate a broad range of colors. The color rendering index ranges from essentially zero for monochromatic sources to nearly 100 for incandescent sources. Light generated from a phosphor-based solid state light source may have a relatively low color rendering index.
For large-scale backlight and illumination applications, it is often desirable to provide a lighting source that generates a white light having a high color rendering index, so that objects and/or display screens illuminated by the lighting panel may appear more natural. Accordingly, such lighting sources may typically include an array of solid state lamps including red, green and blue light emitting devices. When red, green and blue light emitting devices are energized simultaneously, the resulting combined light may appear white, or nearly white, depending on the relative intensities of the red, green and blue sources. There are many different hues of light that may be considered "white." For example, some "white" light, such as light generated by sodium vapor lamps, may appear more yellowish, while other "white" light, such as light generated by some fluorescent lamps, may appear more bluish in color.
Solid state lamps, such as LED's, are current-controlled devices in the sense that the intensity of the light emitted from an LED is related to the amount of current driven through the LED. One common method for controlling the current driven through the solid state lamps to achieve desired intensity and color mixing is a Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) scheme. PWM schemes pulse the solid state lamps alternately to a full current "ON" state followed by a zero current "OFF" state. However, firing all of the solid state lamps simultaneously may result in undesirable electrical power system performance due, for example, to power factor spikes and/or electromagnetic interference due to the associated current rush. Sequentially firing the strings independently and/or in combinations without regard to relative string location within the display, however, can produce undesirable display characteristics.

Systems and methods for controlling a solid state lighting panel


The present disclosure relates to method and apparatus for image recovery and image correction. In an embodiment, the present disclosure relates to recovering images that are occluded due to some material in the optical path while capturing the images. The detection of noisy region is performed by taking the residual image between the images yielded by large sized and small sized Gaussian window smoothening filters on red, green and blue channels. The recovery of the image that alleviates the noise is obtained by point-wise multiplication of the above said residue image with a suitably synthesized Gaussian distributed co-efficient of same size.

In photography or image acquisition and/or processing techniques, impurities can cause imperfections in any images produced. The impurities can include dust, dirt or any type of thin occlude material which attenuates the incoming light and scatters the portion of light towards the camera capturing the image. For example, if dust is introduced into a camera or image processing system, such dust can cause obstructions, shadows or other extraneous or undesired artifacts in any images that are ultimately produced.
Conventionally, when a foreign substance such as dust sticks to the image capturing optical system, the captured images from the system may contain a foreign substance. Hence, the quality of the image degrades. This type of image degradation not only amounts to annoying effect but also hinders the analysis that are aimed to either some pathological defects detection in medical image based expert system or any other image based image systems.
Dust or other impurities or the effects caused by the presence of such impurities may be decreased or removed from an image processing method. However, the conventional dust correction may degrade the image quality depending on the object state around the dust. In some cases, smearing may occur in the object upon dust correction, and a sense of incongruity may be generated between the dust region and its periphery.
The present disclosure has been made in consideration of the above-described problems, and relates to a method and an apparatus for correcting an image.

Image processing method and apparatus for correcting an image


Magnetic flux in a magnetic flux distribution inside a wound iron core for a stationary apparatus is mal-distributed toward the inner periphery side where the magnetic path of a laminated magnetic steel sheet is short with respect to the total lamination thickness and magnetic resistance is small and the inner periphery side on which magnetic flux is concentrated has a high magnetic flux density and increased iron loss, and therefore magnetic steel sheets of different magnetic characteristics are disposed at an arbitrary lamination ratio to make uniform the magnetic flux distribution inside the same wound iron core. In order to make uniform the magnetic flux distribution inside the wound iron core for a stationary apparatus, such a structure is adopted that a magnetic steel sheet having a magnetic characteristic inferior to that on the outer periphery side is disposed on the inner periphery side having a shorter magnetic path and smaller magnetic resistance and a magnetic steel sheet having a magnetic characteristic superior to that on the inner periphery side is disposed on the outer periphery side having a longer magnetic path and greater magnetic resistance to thereby make uniform the magnetic flux distribution in a sectional area of the iron core.

The present invention relates to a wound iron core for a stationary apparatus such as a transformer or reactor, or more particularly, to a wound iron core made up of magnetic steel sheets having a magnetic characteristic (hereinafter refers to iron loss, magnetic permeability) laminated inside the same iron core at an arbitrary distribution ratio of lamination thickness and a stationary apparatus including such a wound iron core.
Magnetic steel sheets of an identical type having an identical magnetic characteristic are laminated inside the same iron core of a wound iron core for a transformer. As part of measures against global warming, there is a tendency toward low loss transformers in recent years, and in order to reduce iron loss (non-load loss) generated in an iron core or copper loss (load loss) generated in a coil, the former is designed to increase the amount of magnetic steel sheet used and secure a greater sectional area of the iron core to thereby reduce a magnetic flux density or use an expensive low loss magnetic steel sheet, which leads to upsizing of iron cores and increases in cost.
Furthermore, Patent Document 1 (JP-A-10-270263) describes an amorphous iron core composed of amorphous sheet block members of relatively low quality material in magnetic characteristic inside and those of relatively high quality material outside in forming amorphous sheet block members.

Iron core for stationary apparatus and stationary apparatus

Hitachi Industrial Equipment Systems Co., Ltd.


A semiconductor method of manufacturing involving porous and/or carbon containing, low-k dielectrics is provided. The method includes forming a hydrocarbon of the general composition CxHy on the surface of the low-k dielectric. The hydrocarbon layer includes depositing a precursor material, preferably C2H4 or (CH3)2CHC6H6CH3. In accordance with embodiments of this invention, carbon diffuses into the low-k dielectric, thereby reducing carbon depletion damage caused by plasma processing or etching. Surface dielectric pores damaged by plasma processing are also repaired by sealing them with the CxHy layer. Embodiments include semiconductor devices, such as devices having damascene interconnect structures, manufacturing using methods provided.

As the density of semiconductor devices increases and the size of circuit elements becomes smaller, the resistance capacitance (RC) delay time increasingly dominates the circuit performance. To reduce the RC delay, there is a desire to switch from conventional dielectrics to low-k dielectrics. These materials are particularly useful as intermetal dielectrics, IMDs, and as interlayer dielectrics, ILDs. However, low-k materials present problems during processing, especially during the processing of the conductive material used to make interconnects.
The conductive material is typically patterned and etched using high-energy plasma etch processes. The low-k materials are susceptible to damage from a plasma etch because they are softer, less chemically stable or more porous, or any combination of these factors. The plasma damage can manifest itself in higher leakage currents, lower breakdown voltages, and changes in the dielectric constant associated with the low-k dielectric material.
One example of a low-k material is a carbon-doped oxide or organosilicate glass (OSG). OSG films typically comprise SiwCxOyHz, wherein the tetravalent silicon may have a variety of organic group substitutions. A commonly used substitution creates methyl silsesquioxane (MSQ), wherein a methyl group creates a SiCH3 bond in place of a SiO bond. Upon exposure to a processing plasma, as in photoresist removal, plasma damage may cause the methyl group to be replaced with a OH group, thereby forming a silanol.
Silanol bonds at the surface of the OSG material have been observed to degrade the integrity of a low-k dielectric film. One form of degradation is the increase in the dielectric constant of the low-k dielectric material due to the presence of the silanol. In addition, the damaged OSG material has been observed to adsorb moisture. It has also been observed that this degraded low-k dielectric material is vulnerable to chemical attack during exposure to wet chemical cleanups, which results in significant critical dimension (CD) loss of low-k dielectric film insulating structures.
Another example of low-k dielectric materials are the porous dielectrics such as the commercially available Dow Chemical's porous SILK product and JSR Corporation's JSR 5109. The dielectric constant of the porous material is a combination of the dielectric constant of air and the dielectric constant of the dense material. Silica based xerogels and aerogels, for example, incorporate a large amount of air in pores or voids, thereby achieving dielectric constants less than 1.95 with pores as small as 5–10 nm.
Just as with carbon containing dielectrics, porous dielectrics are also susceptible to damage from plasma etching and ashing processes used in device fabrication. When there is an open pore in the dielectric, processing fluids in lap and polish and in thin film metallization can enter surface pores, thereby causing corrosion, mechanical damage, or an increase in the dielectric constant. Pore damage may also cause a surface that is preferably hydrophobic to become hydrophilic.
FIG. 1 shows a schematic representation of a cross-section of a damascene structure. Dielectric 12 has been laid down over wiring level 11. Extending downwards from trench 15 is a via 14. When the structure has been filled with copper, via 14 provides a connection between the two wiring levels. Because of its high diffusivity and its tendency to act as a recombination center in silicon, steps must be taken to ensure that all the copper is confined to the damascene structure. This is conventionally accomplished with a barrier layer 18 in that lines the walls of the trench 15 and via 14, as illustrated in FIG. 2.
As described above, chemicals may penetrate into the low-k dielectric pores and raise its dielectric constant. Low-k dielectric damage also causes surface roughness of the trench floor 21 and trench wall 23, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. The rougher surface means that a much thicker barrier layer 18, FIG. 2, than normal is needed to ensure that there are no thin patches through which copper could move. The thicker barrier layer 18, in turn, partially offsets the advantage of the low-k dielectric by increasing the resistance capacitance (RC) delay time.
As noted above, dielectric damage causes higher leakage currents, lower breakdown voltages, and changes in the dielectric constant associated with the low-k dielectric material. In view of these and other problems, there is a need for improved low-k dielectric manufacturing methods.

Sealing pores of low-k dielectrics using C

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.


A demodulation circuit and a demodulation method can optimize sampling timing with achieving reduction of power consumption. A preliminarily known signal is inserted in the digital transmission signal upon transmission. The demodulation circuit includes A/D converting means for performing A/D conversion of a base band signal obtained by demodulation of the digital transmission signal, and phase shifting means for causing phase shift of one of the digital transmission signal and the base band signal on the basis of the known signal after digital conversion by the A/D converting means and the known signal upon transmission.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a demodulation and modulation circuit and demodulation and modulation method. More particularly, the invention relates to a demodulation and modulation circuit and demodulation and modulation method of a digital transmission signal to be used in a cellular phone terminal.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, sampling in an analog-to-digital (A/D) converter in a demodulation circuit causes phase shift due to a frequency offset between transmission and reception and thus cannot be performed constantly at optimal sampling timing.
Therefore, at certain sampling timing, it is possible to significantly degrade reception characteristics for occurrence of error in symbol judgment due to sampling of the reception signal close to zero crossing (boundary point in transition where symbol is changed from positive to negative or negative to positive).
The following equation shows adverse influence of the frequency offset for demodulation. It is assumed that a modulated wave is expressed by:s(t)=A(t) cos [2πfct+φ(t)]
Here, A(t) is assumed to be +1 or −1, and a carrier wave component cos [2πfct] of the modulated wave set forth above is a reference signal pi(t), an orthogonal demodulator output I component is expressed by:
                              I                                (            t            )                          =                                              s                                      (              t              )                                ⨯                      pi                                      (              t              )                                                              =                                              A                                      (              t              )                                                                    cos                                            [                                                      2                                                                                π                                                                                fct                                    +                                      ϕ                                                              (                      t                      )                                                                      ]                                      ⨯                          cos                                            [                                  2                                                                                π                                                                                fct                                ]                                                                            =                                              (                                          A                                                  (                  t                  )                                            /              2                        )                    ⨯                      [                                          cos                                                  (                                                            4                                                                                π                                                                                fct                                        +                                          ϕ                                                                    (                        t                        )                                                                              )                                            +                              cos                                                                                ϕ                                                        (                    t                    )                                                                        ]
By cutting off cos (4πfct+φ(t)) as the second term on right side by LPF, the I component can be expressed by:I(t)=(A(t)/2)×cos φ(t)to obtain phase information of I component of a PSK modulated wave.
Similarly, a carrier wave component −sin [2πfct] which is obtained by shifting the phase for π/2 ahead of the modulated wave is a reference signal pq(t), an orthogonal demodulator output Q component is expressed by:Q(t)=A(t) cos [2πfct+φ(t)]×(−sin [2πfct])=A(t)/2)×cos φ(t)
However, since the frequency offset Δθ(t) is caused between transmission and reception in the practical circuit, respective reference signals can be expressed by:pi(t)=cos [2πfct+Δθ(t)]pq(t)=−sin [2πfct+Δθ(t)]The orthogonal demodulation output is expressed by multiplying the foregoing reference signal and the modulated wave and cutting off a high frequency component by the LPF:
                              I                                (            t            )                          =                                              A                                      (              t              )                                                                    cos                                            [                                                      2                                                                                π                                                                                fct                                    +                                      ϕ                                                              (                      t                      )                                                                      ]                                      ⨯                          cos                                            [                                                      2                                                                                π                                                                                fct                                    +                                      Δ                                                                                θ                                                                    (                        t                        )                                                                                ]                                                                            =                                              (                                          A                                                  (                  t                  )                                            /              2                        )                                          cos                                      (                                                ϕ                                                        (                    t                    )                                                  -                                  Δ                                                                                θ                                                              (                      t                      )                                                                                )                                                                        Q                                (            t            )                          =                                              A                                      (              t              )                                                                    cos                                            [                                                      2                                                                                π                                                                                fct                                    +                                      ϕ                                                              (                      t                      )                                                                      ]                                      ⨯                          -                              sin                                                  [                                                            2                                                                                π                                                                                fct                                        +                                          Δ                                                                                θ                                                                          (                          t                          )                                                                                ]                                                                                =                                                            (                                                A                                                        (                    t                    )                                                  /                2                            )                        ⨯                          cos                                            (                                  ϕ                                                        (                    t                    )                                                  )                                              -                      Δ                                                                                ϕ                                            (                t                )                                                        Thus, adverse influence of the frequency offset appears on the orthogonal demodulation output. By this, the phase of an input signal of the A/D converter is shifted to cause offset from a desired sampling timing.
Examples of the prior art of this kind have been disclosed in (1) Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Heisei 8-223132, (2) Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Heisei 10-260653 and (3) Japanese Patent No. 2570126 (hereinafter referred to as prior art 1 to 3.
The prior art 1 is designed to insert a pilot signal to the transmission signal, derive a frequency offset Δk and a synchronization offset δ of the sampling timing on the basis of the transmission frequency k of the pilot signal and the reception frequency k′, and control the sampling period and a transmission frequency of a frequency converter so as to reduce the foregoing offsets to zero.
The prior art 2 is designed for controlling a delay amount of the sampling clock and for controlling the phase of the sampling clock of the input video signal S1 to the phase adapted for the input video signal S1.
The prior art 3 is designed for extracting a clock signal component from a demodulation base band signal and outputting a signal synchronized with the clock signal component as a sampling clock.
As set forth above, in the foregoing prior arts 1 to 3, the ploblem that the phase of the input signal of the A/D converter is shifted to cause offset from the desired sampling timing is solved by controlling the sampling frequency.
However, when the sampling frequency in the A/D converter is increased in order to reduce error in symbol judgment, increasing of power consumption is caused in proportion to increasing of the frequency.
Increasing of power consumption causes significant problem in the equipment desired to be compact and to be used for a long period, such as a communication terminal, e.g. current cellular phone terminal.

Demodulation and modulation circuit and demodulation and modulation method