Example apparatus and methods concern controlling a hover-sensitive input/output interface. One example apparatus includes a proximity detector that detects an object in a hover-space associated with the input/output interface. The apparatus produces characterization data concerning the object. The characterization data may be independent of where in the hover-space the object is located. The apparatus selectively controls the activation, display, and deactivation of user interface elements displayed by the apparatus on the input/output interface as a function of the characterization data and interface state. Selectively controlling the activation, display, and deactivation of the user interface elements includes allocating display space on the input/output interface to the user interface elements when they are needed for an operation on the apparatus and selectively reclaiming space on the input/output interface allocated to the user interface elements when they are not needed for an operation on the apparatus.

In a touch screen device like a smart phone or a tablet computer, a virtual keyboard may be used to input information. For example, on a phone having a touch screen the virtual keyboard may be used to send text messages. When a user is texting, the user may also want to view the content in the text application while typing. Unfortunately, conventional systems may consume so much display space when providing the virtual keyboard that the space left over to display the content of the application may be limited.
One conventional approach provided a user with a tool to resize the virtual keyboard to make it smaller. However, making the keyboard smaller may compromise the typing experience. For example, it may be very difficult, if even possible at all, to see the smaller keys or to type on a smaller keyboard. This may be most noticeable for users with less than perfect vision or with large fingers. Another conventional approach involved compressing a conventional QWERTY keyboard down into a one-row keyboard. The one-row keyboard was then displayed at the bottom of the device. Once again, the typing experience was negatively impacted because less than all the keys were available. Another conventional approach made the virtual keyboard appear or disappear based on heuristics associated with whether the user was touching the screen, whether the user had typed in a while, whether the user had moved their digit(s) (e.g., finger(s), thumb(s)) onto or off of the virtual keyboard, or other actions. However, removing the keyboard may have required cumbersome actions to redisplay the keyboard, which once again may have negatively impacted the typing experience. Another conventional approach may have included dismissing (e.g., removing) the keyboard in response to touching, for example, a "back" capacitive button. Unfortunately, once the keyboard was dismissed there may not have been a convenient way to retrieve the keyboard without tapping on another user interface element (e.g., edit/compose field). Complicating matters even further, if the user happened to scroll their content after the keyboard was dismissed, then the user may have been forced to navigate back to a particular user interface element (e.g., edit/compose field) to retrieve the keyboard. Thus, conventionally, it has been difficult, if even possible at all, to seamlessly save screen space while not compromising the typing experience.
Touch sensitive screens have, in some apparatus, been replaced by hover-sensitive screens that rely on proximity detectors. Conventional hover-sensitive screens displayed user interface elements based on where an object was located in the hover-space. This may have unnecessarily constrained the flexibility of presenting, activating, or deactivating user interface elements.


A network management system includes a user interface, a virtual network and a device communication manager. The virtual network includes models which represent network entities and model relations which represent relations between network entities. Each model includes network data relating to a corresponding network entity and one or more inference handlers for processing the network data to provide user information. The system performs a fault isolation technique wherein the fault status of a network device is suppressed when it is determined that the device is not defective. User displays include hierarchical location views and topological views of the network configuration. Network devices are represented on the displays by multifunction icons which permit the user to select additional displays showing detailed information regarding different aspects of the corresponding network device.

Computer networks are widely used to provide increased computing power, sharing of resources and communication between users. Computer systems and computer system components are interconnected to form a network. Networks may include a number of computer devices within a room, building or site that are interconnected by a high speed local data link such as local area network (LAN), token ring, Ethernet, or the like. Local networks in different locations may be interconnected by techniques such as packet switching, microwave links and satellite links to form a world wide network. A network may include several hundred or more interconnected devices.
In computer networks, a number of issues arise, including traffic overload on parts of the network, optimum placement of network resources, security, isolation of network faults, and the like. These issues become more complex and difficult as networks become larger and more complex. For example, if a network device is not sending messages, it may be difficult to determine whether the fault is in the network device itself, the data communication link or an intermediate network device between the sending and receiving network devices.
Network management systems have been utilized in the past in attempts to address such issues. Prior art network management systems typically operated by remote access to and monitoring of information from network devices. The network management system collected large volumes of information which required evaluation by a network administrator. Prior art network management systems place a tremendous burden on the network administrator. He must be a networking expert in order to understand the implications of a change in a network device parameter. The administrator must also understand the topology of each section of the network in order to understand what may have caused the change. In addition, the administrator must sift through reams of information and false alarms in order to determine the cause of a problem.
It is therefore desirable to provide a network management system which can systematize the knowledge of the networking expert such that common problems can be detected, isolated and repaired, either automatically or with the involvement of less skilled personnel. Such a system must have certain characteristics in order to achieve this goal. The system must have a complete and precise representation of the network and the networking technologies involved. It is insufficient to extend prior art network management systems to include connections between devices. A network is much more than the devices and the wires which connect them. The network involves the network devices, the network protocols and the software running on the devices. Without consideration of these aspects of the network, a model is incomplete. A system must be flexible and extendable. It must allow not only for the modeling of new devices, but must allow for the modeling of new technologies, media applications and protocol. The system must provide a facility for efficiently encapsulating the expert's knowledge into the system.
An important aspect of a network management system is the way in which information is presented to a user. Network information is usually presented on a video display screen. It is important that the display clearly identify the network entity for which information is being presented. It is also important that the network management system provide the user with the ability to select additional information about a particular network entity and to present the information in a clear and well-organized display. Finally, displays of network information should be flexible to accommodate differing network configurations and differing network management requirements.
It is a general object of the present invention to provide improved methods and apparatus for managing networks.
It is another object of the present invention to provide network management systems which generate multiple display views of network information.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide network management systems which permit a user to select and to traverse between multiple display views of network information.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide network management systems having highly flexible user displays of network information.

Network management system using interconnected hierarchies to represent different network dimensions in multiple display views


A medical device for allowing a physician to unhand a scope or other instruments while maintaining control of the scope or other instruments during a medical procedure. The medical device includes at least one docks and a harness for attaching the dock to the physician's body. The harness can be adjustable, or sized to fit a specific physician. During a procedure, a physician outfitted with the medical device can place a scope and/or other instrument in the dock(s). Once the scope and/or other instrument is placed in the dock(s), the physicians hands are free to perform other procedures, while the physician continually controls the relative position of the scope with respect to the physician or the patient.

1. Technical Field
This disclosure relates to a medical device for docking an endoscope.
2. Background Information
Modern, non-invasive surgical procedures often require the use of an endoscope. Endoscopes are thin, tube-like devices used to visualize human anatomies such as the gastrointestinal tract. During endoscopic procedures, a physician manually grips a proximal end of the endoscope. Additionally, in the course of most endoscopic procedures, physicians manipulate and maneuver the endoscope in a variety of ways to rotate, adjust, or torque the endoscope.
At some stage in an endoscopic procedure, a physician may need to release the endoscope, for example, to perform an ancillary procedure or write notes. To do this, the physician carefully hands the endoscope to a nurse or places the scope in a stationary docking station. Docking stations are stands for receiving and holding an endoscope. Docking stations are typically affixed to a stationary point, such as a ceiling, wall, or floor. Other docking stations can be part of or affixed to a chair, a bed, or a table.
Both handing the endoscope to a nurse and docking the endoscope in a traditional docking station present significant drawbacks. First, whether the physician hands the endoscope to a nurse or docks it in a traditional docking station, the physician is disconnected from the patient during the procedure—even though the endoscope is still engaged in the patient's body. That is, the physician loses direct control of the endoscope. Second, presently available docking stations have very limited functionality. As a result, conventional docking stations are only suited for stationary hanging or gripping an endoscope that is not in use.


A switching regulator is configured to generate an output voltage by stepping down an input voltage by switching control of a switching element. The switching regulator includes a first comparator configured to compare a feedback voltage of the output voltage and a target voltage; a second comparator configured to compare magnitude of a current flowing through the switching element and a predetermined value; an on-time timer configured to measure fixed on-time for on-control of the switching element; an off-time timer configured to measure fixed off-time for off-control of the switching element; and a control circuit configured to perform the on-control of the switching element with the fixed on-time in accordance with an output of the first comparator, and the off-control of the switching element with the fixed off-time in accordance with an output of the second comparator.

The present disclosure relates to switching regulators, and more particularly to overcurrent protection of switching regulators in a hysteretic control mode.
In general, switching regulators can efficiently convert electrical power, and thus are used as power supply circuits of various electronic devices. In particular, in mobile devices using a battery as an input voltage source, control is performed, such as appropriately changing electrical power supplied to an electronic circuit in accordance with the use condition so as to enable long-term use. Therefore, switching regulators responding to a change in the use condition at high speed are required.
Some of these switching regulators do not perform feedback control using error amplifiers but hysteretic control for controlling a switching element using a comparator so that an output voltage falls within a predetermined range. The hysteretic control does not require operation time determined by a slew rate of an error amplifier, and thus, enables high-speed responses.
Although output ripple amplitude needs to be large to perform stable hysteretic control, a proper output voltage cannot be obtained when the amplitude is too large. Thus, a virtual ripple voltage, which is obtained by superimposing a voltage having a reversed waveform to an output ripple on a reference voltage, is used to control a switching element to be on for a predetermined time period, when an output voltage is lower than the virtual ripple voltage.


The present disclosure relates to a porous carbon particle of which a pore size can be controlled by using a copolymer that allows selective cross-linking of a polymer particle and selective carbonization of a polymer particle, and a producing method of the porous carbon particle and a photo electrode including a porous layer containing the porous carbon particle and a dye-sensitized solar cell including the photo electrode.

Porous particles or pores of porous structures may be classified into three types based on their diameters: micro pores (less than 2 nm), meso pores (ranging from 2 nm to 50 nm) and macro pores (more than 50 nm). These porous particles capable of controlling pore sizes thereof are recently attracting attention, for they can be used in various fields including a catalyst, a separation system, a low-dielectric material, a hydrogen storage material, a photonic crystal, an electrode, etc.
The porous particles or porous structures can be produced by using various materials such as a metal oxide, a semiconductor, a metal, a polymer or carbon. Especially, a porous carbon particle has many advantages such as excellent surface characteristic, ion conductivity, corrosion resistance, low manufacturing cost, etc, and, thus, has wide range of applications to various fields.
However, the efficiency of the porous carbon particle may greatly differ depending on a distribution, a size, connectivity, a surface area, a surface characteristic of pores included in the porous carbon particle. Especially, the size of the pores needs to be controlled depending on the purposes of using the porous carbon particle. For example, in case of using a porous carbon particle for an electrode of a fuel cell, if a pore size of the porous carbon particle is excessively small, transport and diffusion of a reactant gas or the like may become difficult and an effect of using a catalyst may be degraded because polymer electrolyte cannot reach the inside of pores, though an impregnation amount of a catalyst material may be increased due to an increase of a specific surface area. Thus, ultimately, it may be impossible to produce a fuel cell having an improved performance.
Meanwhile, conventionally, it has been proposed using a template to produce the porous carbon particle. For example, a spherical silica or a colloidal crystalline array based on aligned agglomerates of latex polymer nanoparticles has been used as the template. For example, Korean Patent Application No. 10-2003-0087761 describes "Electrocatalysts for fuel cell supported by porous carbon structure having 3-dimensionally regularly arranged spherical pores of uniform diameter and their preparation method." Specifically, this document describes a method of producing a porous carbon particle by using a template. Further, recently, there has been made efforts to synthesize a porous carbon particle including regularly arranged pores by template duplication using zeolite, a mesoporous material and a colloidal crystal. However, it has been observed that pores are not regularly arranged or distributed in porous carbon particles produced by using these conventional methods, and it has been impossible to control the size of the pores to be suitable for the purposes of usage. Further, in the conventional methods of producing the porous carbon particles by using the template, it has been difficult to simplify the production process and reduce cost.
In order to solve the aforementioned problems of the conventional methods of producing a porous carbon particle by using a template, the present inventors have found out that it is possible to produce a porous carbon particle while controlling a pore size easily by using a copolymer that allows selective cross-linking of a polymer particle and selective carbonization of a polymer particle. Based on this observation, the present inventors have reached the present disclosure.

Porous carbon particle and producing method of the same


Surface form data as an object to which a grain is applied is inputted to a data input part. A plane polygon forming part projects a borderline of the surface form data on an x-y plane and changes the borderline to poly-lines to form a two-dimensional polygon mesh having the borderline as an outer edge. A three-dimensional polygon forming part connects together intersections of straight lines extending to a z-axis direction from apexes of the polygon mesh and the original surface form data to obtain a three-dimensional polygon mesh and further make the mesh uniform. A grain forming part obtains an amount of displacement from texture data corresponding to the apex of the three-dimensional polygon mesh through a texture model formed and deformed in a texture model deforming part to set polygon data obtained by connecting together the apexes respectively displaced in normal directions as the surface processed data.

On the surfaces of domestic electric devices or interior devices for motor vehicles, a drawing process is applied for various purposes to improve an outward appearance or a tactile impression, shield a glare and prevent a slip. As a grain, patterns of various fine forms are used such as the textures of leather, grain, rock and pebble, pear-skin lacquer, a geometric pattern, etc. In order to form the grain on the surface of the resin product, the grain is given to a metal mold by an etching method or an electro-casting method.
When the grain is applied to the metal mold by the etching method, since the grain is formed by corrosion, the grain can be inexpensively applied even to the metal mold of a large product. However, a fine form is hardly expressed and the same form is repeatedly manufactured.
Further, when the grain in which irregularities are extended in a normal direction of a curved surface of a product is formed by an injection molding, if what is called an under arises that a product taking out direction intersects the curved surface of the product on a plane along a mold opening direction, the irregularities of the grain of a molded product are caught by the irregularities of the metal mold during a taking out operation of the molded product. At this time, a problem arises that when the molded product is taken out from the metal mold by force, the grain of the molded product is broken. Accordingly, in order to avoid the damage of the grain during a mold opening operation, as a drawing gradient (a supplementary angle of 90° of an angle formed by the normal direction of the curved surface of the product and the product taking out direction) along the mold opening direction comes nearer to 0°, the depth of the grain needs to be the shallower in accordance with the change of the drawing gradient so as to avoid the occurrence of the under. Therefore, the depth of the irregularities of the grain needs to be changed in accordance with the curved surface so that in an area of the curved surface of the product where the drawing gradient is nearer to 0°, the depth of the grain is made to be the shallower.
However, when the grain is applied to the metal mold by the etching method, the depth of the irregularities of the grain cannot be continuously changed. Thus, when an etching process is applied stepwise to change the irregularities, seams thereof are exposed. Accordingly, the seams of the metal mold are transferred to the molded product to deteriorate an outward appearance of the molded product.
On the other hand, when the grain is applied to the metal mold by the electro-casting method, a thin resin sheet having a grain embossed is bonded to the surface of a model manufactured in the form of a product, and an obtained model is taken as a master model to form a molding block via an inversion of resin or an electro-casting process. However, when the resin sheet is stuck to the model of a three-dimensional form, since an elongation or distortion arises, or a misalignment arises in the pattern of the seams, a skill of an operator is necessary in order to correct them so as to make them inconspicuous. Further, many processes are required, so that a term of work is lengthened to increase a cost. Thus, only a specialized maker having a private device can use the electro-casting method. Since the form or size of the grain is determined by the grain of the resin sheet to be stuck during the manufacture of the master model, it is difficult to apply an additional pattern to an arbitrary part after the master model is manufactured or to make a change, for instance, enlarge or reduce the grain.
Further, both the methods have a demerit that a chemical treatment is necessary.
Further, as a technique by which a grain of high quality can be more simply formed, JP-A-7-241909 or JP-A-2004-358662 is known. In this technique, initially, a surface measured value obtained by reading a surface form of a leather model is converted into image data in which the depth of the surface form is represented by the density of 256 gradations to digitize the form data of the grain. In accordance with this digital data, processed data is generated by a computer. By using the processed data, the grain is applied to a plane material such as an embossing roll or an embossing plate, or the grain is applied to a three-dimensional object such as a metal mold by a cutting work or a laser beam machining work.
When the processed data is generated from the form data of the grain, if the grain is merely projected on the surface of the three-dimensional object having a three-dimensional form such as the metal mold from one direction to generate the processed data, irregularities of the grain are elongated in an inclined surface of the three-dimensional object to distort the form of the grain. Accordingly, the grain needs to be formed in a normal direction corresponding to a curved surface relative to a surface of a product having the curved surface.
Therefore, as means that forms a grain in a normal direction of the surface of a product, for instance, a modeling software using a voxel data conversion is provided which stacks voxels on a curved surface of the product to generate the grain in accordance with a density corresponding to the depth of the grain in image data.
In this voxel system, form data of the product is converted to voxel data composed of small balls or cubes to determine a pixel of image data of the grain corresponding to each of the voxel data. Then, the density of the pixel is converted to an amount of displacement to stack the voxels corresponding to the amount of displacement on the voxel data. The stacked voxels are converted to polygon data as final data.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method and device for forming surface processed

National University Corporation Shizuoka University


A method for forming a semiconductor structure includes providing a semiconductor substrate; forming a gate dielectric layer over the semiconductor substrate; forming a gate electrode layer over the gate dielectric layer; doping carbon and nitrogen into the gate electrode layer; and, after the step of doping carbon and nitrogen, patterning the gate dielectric layer and the gate electrode layer to form a gate dielectric and a gate electrode, respectively.

Polysilicon is widely used to form gate electrodes of metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) devices. Polysilicon has a high resistivity, and hence needs to be doped, so that its resistivity may satisfy the requirement of the MOS devices. The doped impurity is activated through anneals.
MOS devices with polysilicon gate electrodes exhibit a carrier depletion effect, which is also referred to as a poly depletion effect. The poly depletion effect occurs when applied electrical fields sweep away carriers from regions close to gate dielectrics, forming depletion layers. In an n-doped polysilicon layer, the depletion layer includes ionized non-mobile donor sites, whereas in a p-doped polysilicon layer, the depletion layer includes ionized non-mobile acceptor sites. The depletion effect results in an increase in the effective gate dielectric thickness, making it more difficult for an inversion layer to be created at the surface of the semiconductor.
In order to reduce the poly depletion effect, either the impurity dosage or the temperature of annealing, which is used to activate the impurity, needs to be increased. However, these approaches may adversely result in the dopants to be diffused into gate dielectrics, causing the degradation of the reliability of gate dielectrics and the increase in the gate leakage currents. Further, the dopants may penetrate through the gate dielectrics and diffuse into the underlying substrates, causing the threshold voltages of the resulting MOS devices to be increased.
With the increasing down-scaling of integrated circuits, gate dielectrics also become thinner, making the situation worse. The leakage currents tend to increase with the reduction in the thicknesses of gate dielectrics. This makes the penetration of dopants through gate dielectrics even easier. New methods to reduce the diffusion effect are thus needed.

Reducing poly-depletion through co-implanting carbon and nitrogen

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.


A method allocates frequency subchannels in an orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) network including a set of base stations and a set of mobile stations for each base station. A graph of nodes and edges is constructed, in which the nodes represent the mobile stations in the network, and the edges connecting the nodes represent subchannel allocation constraints to be satisfied for the mobile stations represented by the nodes. The nodes are colored with colors selected from a set of colors such that subchannel allocation constraints of a pair of nodes connected by one of the edges are satisfied. The subchannels are allocated to the mobile stations according to the colors of the corresponding the nodes.

OFDMA
Orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) is a modulation technique used at the physical layer (PHY) of a number of wireless networks, e.g., networks designed according to the IEEE 802.11a/g and IEEE 802.16/16e standards. Orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) is a multiple access scheme based on OFDM. In OFDMA, separate sets of orthogonal tones (subchannels) and time slots are allocated to multiple transceivers or mobile stations (MS) so that the transceivers can communicate concurrently. OFDMA is widely adopted in many next generation cellular networks, such as 3GPP long term evolution (LTE) and, the IEEE 802.16m standard due to its effectiveness and flexibility in radio resource allocation.
OFDMA Frequency Allocation
The radio spectrum is a scarce resource in wireless communications, and therefore an efficient use is needed. The rapid growth of wireless applications and the mobile stations require a good radio resource management (RRM) scheme that can increase the network capacity, and reduce deployment cost. Consequently, there is a need to develop an effective radio frequency allocation scheme for OFDMA.
The fundamental challenge in frequency allocation is the inequality between the size of the spectrum, the large number of mobile stations, and the large geographical areas that need to be covered. In other words, the same frequency spectrum should be reused in multiple cells. This will inevitably incur inter-cell interference (ICI), when mobile stations in adjacent cells use the same spectrum. In fact, ICI has been shown to be the predominant performance-limiting factor for wireless cellular networks. As a result, a significant amount of research has been devoted to developing ICI-aware radio resource allocation for cellular networks.
Fractional Frequency Reuse
Several ICI-aware frequency allocation schemes are known for the next generation OFDMA networks. Fractional frequency reuse, (FFR) is one technique supported in WiMAX.
As shown conventionally in FIG. 1A, FFR partitions a cell 15, shown approximately as a hexagon, into a cell center 10 around a base station (BS) 11 and cell edge regions 20. The cell center of adjacent cells can use the same overlapping spectrum, while the cell edge regions of adjacent cells should use non-overlapping spectra. This is designed with the goal of striking a better trade-off between spectral efficiency and interference mitigation by leveraging the fact that cell-edge mobile stations are more ICI-prone than cell-center mobile stations. Typically, the base station 11 and other base stations communicate with each other via an infrastructure 25 or 'backbone' of the network.
There are many possible realizations of the FFR concept in terms of bandwidth partitioning and definition of cell center and cell edge. Most of these schemes, however, are of a fixed configuration. That is, their bandwidth allocation for cell center and cell edge is predetermined and not adaptive to dynamic traffic variations. This is not efficient when traffic changes over time and/or the number of mobile stations is asymmetric among a group of cells.
Graph-Based Framework in Prior Channel Allocation
The channel allocation problem in conventional (non-OFDMA) cellular and mesh networks has been solved using a graph coloring approach. In the conventional problem formulation, each node in the graph corresponds to a base station (BS) or an access point (AP) in the network to which subchannels are allocated. The edge connecting two nodes represents the co-channel interference, which typically corresponds to the geographical proximity of the BSs. Then, the allocation problem subject to the interference constraints becomes a node coloring problem, wherein two interfering nodes should not have the same color.
Other graph based methods are described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/112,346, "Graph-Based Method for Allocating Resources in OFDMA Networks," filed by Tao et al., on Mar. 30, 2008, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/112,400, "Graph-Based Method for Allocating Resources in OFDMA Networks," filed by Tao et al., on Mar. 30, 2008. The first Application ('346) constructs a graph and then partitions the graph into non-overlapping clusters of nodes to minimize interference. The second Application ('400) constructs a graph using diversity sets maintained at base stations, and then allocating channel resources to the mobile stations based on the structure of the graph, the potential interference between the stations, and the channel quality.

Graph-based method for dynamic fractional frequency reuse

Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Inc.


It has been found that direct-injection gasoline engines emit particulate matter during the first 500 seconds of operation due to fuel impacting combustion chamber surfaces. To largely overcome the fuel penetrating to surfaces in the combustion chamber, the fuel may be heated. In one embodiment, engine coolant that is heated in the water jacket portions nearest exhaust ducts is provided directly to a tube in physical contact with the fuel rail. In some embodiments, the tube is provided with an electric heating element. If the coolant pump is turned off at the initial portions of a cold start, the electric heater raises the temperature of the fuel in the fuel rail. After engine coolant temperature raises, water, warm coolant is provided to the tube proximate the fuel rail and the heater is turned off.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to reducing emission of particulate matter from a direct-injection gasoline engine.
2. Background Art
It has been found that particulate matter is emitted from gasoline direct-injection engines during the first 500 seconds of the Federal Test Procedure, i.e., when the engine is not yet warmed up. Particulate matter is presumed to be formed by fuel directly contacting surfaces of the combustion chamber, and in particular the piston tops (especially if they are oil cooled) as they warm up more slowly than the cylinder walls and the cylinder head.

Fuel heating during cold start in a direct-injection gasoline engine


A lightning protection system for a wind turbine includes at least one insulated high-voltage cable, a pick-up unit and an additional insulated high-voltage cable. The at least one insulated high-voltage cable is electrically connected to a lightning receptor and to the pick-up unit. The pick-up unit is electrically connectable to an electrically grounded member by the additional insulated high-voltage cable.

When a lightning strikes a wind turbine, the lightning often hits an area of one or more of the blades from where the current from the lightning strike is conducted inside or outside the blade by conducting means, like a down conductor, to one or more wind turbine components like the hub, the nacelle and the tower and further down to the ground. The aim is though to ensure that the current from the lightning strike on its way through the wind turbine does not reach any electrical components like the generator or converter or other critical components like the main bearings or gearbox that would be damaged by the large energy of the lightning strike.
The combination of a high voltage, large electrical current and strong resulting electromagnetic fields from the lightning strike could damage the generator or other electrical components of the wind turbine. Having a direct drive wind turbine, also called a gearless wind turbine, makes it is more difficult to conduct the lightning strike from one or more of the blades through the wind turbine without damaging especially the generator as it is connected directly to the blade hub of the wind turbine. Having a direct drive wind turbine with a generator with an outer rotating rotor makes it even more difficult to find a way to conduct the electrical current from the lightning strike on the blades of the wind turbine to the ground without damaging the generator.
In state of the art design of a wind turbine, the lightning strike is conducted by the down conductor of the blades directly to the hub which will further conduct the current from the lightning strike to the nacelle and further down to the ground. This kind of lightning protection system does not work for a direct drive wind turbine where the generator is connected directly to the hub as the generator then might be damaged by a lightning strike.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,377,750 B1 shows a lightning protection system for conducting lightning strikes to the blades and further to the region surrounding a blade hub and along a path around the blade hub and critical components of the wind turbine. The lightning conducting path around a hub is quite long with one or more directional shifts or turns and every place where this path has a directional shift or turn there is a substantial risk that the electrical current from the lightning strike jumps from the lightning conducting path to a component close to the lightning conducting path, like e.g. the blade hub and then further to the generator.

Lightning protection system for a wind turbine, wind turbine and method for protecting components of a wind turbine against lightning strikes


The present invention discloses an outdoor umbrella with remote touch-controlled LED lights comprising an umbrella assembly which includes an upper support pole, a lower support pole, a plurality of umbrella support bars and a plurality of support rails, wherein a plurality of LED lights is respectively provided on the upper portion of the upper support pole, the support rails and the support bars. In view of the above structure, the outdoor umbrella may have a simple structure, and can be easily operated. And the outdoor umbrella is very safe and reliable since providing any electric wire on the umbrella is avoided. In addition, the outdoor umbrella is energy-saving and environmental friendly.

Nowadays, the outdoor umbrella with illumination in the prior art cannot save energy, and the light cannot be controlled to adjust the brightness by any control means, such as remote control or touch control. Furthermore, the outdoor umbrella with illumination in the prior art fails to protect eyes since the light is naked in the air and not covered by a shade or a panel; and the light of the outdoor umbrella can only be turned on or turned off simply, thus the brightness of the light cannot be adjusted, if desired. In addition, the light of the umbrella should be turned on or turned off manually, and remote control and operation of the light cannot be achieved. Therefore, in order to eliminate the defect of the prior art, the present invention aims to provide an outdoor umbrella with remote touch-controlled LED lights.

Outdoor umbrella with remote touch-controlled LED lights


A III–V group nitride system semiconductor self-standing substrate has: a first III–V group nitride system semiconductor crystal layer that has a region with dislocation lines gathered densely, the dislocation lines being gathered substantially perpendicular to a surface of the substrate, and a region with dislocation lines gathered thinly; and a second III–V group nitride system semiconductor crystal layer that is formed up to 10 μm from the surface of the substrate on the first III–V group nitride system semiconductor crystal layer and that has a dislocation density distribution that is substantially uniform.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a III–V group nitride system semiconductor self-standing substrate and, in particular, to a III–V group nitride system semiconductor self-standing substrate with a uniform dislocation density distribution and a reduced dislocation on its surface, a method of making the same, and a III–V group nitride system semiconductor wafer with a nitride system semiconductor layer epitaxially grown on the substrate.
2. Description of the Related Art
Nitride system semiconductor materials such as gallium nitride (GaN), indium gallium nitride (InGaN) and gallium aluminum nitride (GaAlN) have a sufficiently wide bandgap and are of direct transition type in inter-band transition. Therefore, they are a great deal researched to be used for short-wavelength light emitting devices. Further, they have a high saturation drift velocity of electron and can use two-dimensional carrier gases in hetero junction. Therefore, they are also expected to be used for electronic devices.
Nitride semiconductor layers to compose the device are epitaxially grown on an underlying substrate by using a vapor-phase growth process such as MOVPE (metal organic vapor phase epitaxy), MBE (molecular beam epitaxy) and HVPE (hydride vapor phase epitaxy). However, since there is no underlying substrate that has a lattice constant matched to that of nitride semiconductor layers, it is impossible to obtain a high quality of grown layer and therefore a number of crystal defects (dislocations) are generated in the resulting nitride semiconductor layers. Since the crystal defects interfere with enhancement in device properties, researches to reduce the crystal defect in nitride semiconductor layers are a great deal conducted so far.
In order to obtain a III-group element nitride system crystal with relatively few crystal defects, a method is known that a low-temperature deposition buffer layer (buffer layer) is formed on a hetero-substrate such as sapphire and then an epitaxial layer is grown thereon. The crystal growth method using the buffer layer is conducted as follows. AlN or GaN is deposited on a sapphire substrate nearly at 500° C. to form an amorphous film or a continuous film including polycrystal. This film is heated to about 1000° C. and thereby part thereof is evaporated or crystallized to form crystal nuclei with a high density. Then, using the crystal nuclei as growth nuclei, a GaN film with a relatively good crystalline quality is grown. However, even when the method using the buffer layer is conducted, the resulting GaN film includes a considerable number of crystal defects such as a penetrating dislocation or a vacancy. Thus, it is not a satisfactory method for obtaining a high-performance device desired currently.
In order to solve the above problem, a method is a great deal researched that a GaN substrate is used as a crystal growth substrate and semiconductor layers to compose a device section are grown thereon. Herein, a GaN substrate for crystal growth is called GaN self-standing substrate. A known method of making the GaN self-standing substrate is ELO (epitaxial lateral overgrowth; e.g., Appl. Phys. Lett. 71 (18) 2638 (1997)). The ELO is conducted such that a mask with openings is formed on an underlying substrate and a GaN layer with reduced dislocations is laterally grown through the openings. For example, Japanese patent application laid-open No. 11-251253 discloses a method of making a self-standing GaN substrate that a GaN layer is grown on a sapphire substrate by ELO and then the sapphire substrate is removed by etching.
Further, FIELO (facet-initiated epitaxial lateral overgrowth; e.g., A. Usui et al., Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. Vol. 36(1997), pp. L899–L902) is known that is a modification of ELO. The FIELO is in common with the ELO in that a mask of silicon dioxide is used for selective growth, and is different from the ELO in that a facet is formed at the mask opening in the selective growth. By forming the facet, the propagation direction of dislocation is varied so as to reduce the penetrating dislocation to reach the upper surface of epitaxial growth layer. Using the FIELO, a thick GaN layer is grown on an underlying substrate such as sapphire. Then the underlying substrate is removed. Thus, a GaN self-standing substrate with relatively few crystal defects can be obtained.
Still further, DEEP (dislocation elimination by the epi-growth with inverted-pyramidal pits: e.g., K. Motoki et al., Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. Vol. 40 (2001) pp. L140–L143, Japanese patent application laid-open No. 2003-165799) is known as a method for making a GaN self-standing substrate with few dislocations. The DEEP is conducted such that a mask of silicon nitride etc. patterned on a GaAs substrate is used in growing a GaN layer, where a plurality of pits are formed intentionally surrounded by facets on the surface of crystal to collect dislocations at the bottom region of pit, thereby reducing the number of dislocations at the other region.
In the abovementioned ELO and DEEP, the initial crystal growth is conducted while generating facets on the crystal growth interface. There is a property that the propagation direction of a dislocation propagating during the crystal growth is bent by the facet. Using the property, the dislocation density on the surface of substrate can be reduced while preventing the dislocation from reaching the upper surface of crystal. On the other hand, by generating the pit surrounded by facets at the crystal growth interface in crystal growth, dislocations are densely gathered at the bottom region of pit. Due to the collecting of dislocations, the dislocations can be eliminated while running into each other, or the penetration of dislocation toward the upper surface can be stopped while having a dislocation loop. Thereby, the dislocation density can be reduced effectively.
Furthermore, VAS (void-assisted separation: e.g., Japanese patent application laid-open No. 2003-178984) is known as a method for making a III group nitride system semiconductor substrate with few dislocations. The VAS is conducted such that a metal film is formed on an underlying substrate with a first III group nitride system semiconductor layer formed thereon or on an underlying substrate made of the first III group nitride system semiconductor, the underlying substrate is thermally treated in an atmosphere that contains hydrogen gas or hydrogen-contained compound gas to form voids in the first III group nitride system semiconductor layer, and then a second III group nitride system semiconductor layer is formed on the metal film.
Although a GaN substrate is obtained by growing a GaN layer by HVPE on a hetero-substrate based on ELO, DEEP etc. and then separating the GaN layer from the underlying substrate, such a GaN substrate has generally in its as-grown state a morphology that pits or hillocks are generated on the upper surface and its back side surface also has a rough surface like a frosted glass. Since it is difficult to grow there on an epitaxial layer for device fabrication if nothing is done, the upper and lower surfaces of the substrate are generally mirror-finished by polishing to use it for device fabrication.
In conventional semiconductor substrates such as Si and GaAs, there cannot occur a problem that dislocation density or its distribution is significantly dispersed on the upper and lower surfaces since the substrates can be made by using a method of cutting away a substrate from its crystal ingot.
However, in the case of GaN self-standing substrate, since thick GaN crystal epitaxially grown on a hetero-substrate is separated (peeled) from the hetero-substrate after the growth to obtain the GaN self-standing substrate, it is difficult to suppress the occurrence of dislocation near at the hetero-epitaxial growth interface corresponding to the initial stage of crystal growth. Therefore, the dislocations densely gathered need to be reduced during the growth of thick epi-crystal film to be used as the self-standing substrate so as to finally have a substrate surface with reduced dislocations. Accordingly, the abovementioned dislocation-reducing methods such as ELO, FIELO and DEEP are developed.
However, the distribution of dislocation density is highly dispersed on the substrate surface although the dislocation density can be reduced in the GaN self-standing substrate thus fabricated. Especially, it is frequently observed that a region with a high dislocation density is locally generated on the substrate surface.
If the crystal growth is continued while leaving facets of concaves generated on the crystal growth interface, the region with dislocations densely gathered always remains on the growth surface. In the DEEP abovementioned, which is a method for intentionally using the dislocation-reduced region generated between the regions with dislocations densely gathered, uniformity in dislocation density distribution on the entire substrate surface must be sacrificed although a region with significantly reduced dislocation density can be obtained.
Japanese patent application laid-open No. 2003-178984 discloses that the crystal growth interface is flattened by terminating the facet growth by increasing the amount of hydrogen mixed into carrier gas or by changing the crystal growth conditions in process of the crystal growth, and dislocations gathered at the bottom region of pit are dispersed again as the crystal growth goes on.
However, in conventional manner, the growth of substrate and the polishing are performed without considering the dislocation density distribution in a depth direction of substrate. Therefore, it was in fact impossible to obtain a substrate surface that gathered dislocations are perfectly dispersed, or a substrate surface obtainable when dislocations are uniformly dispersed was unintentionally removed by polishing at the substrate surface. As a result, the substrate surface being mirror-finished had frequently a highly dispersed distribution in dislocation density.
When such a region with dislocations densely gathered is left on the substrate surface, a device with epitaxial layers grown thereon must have a deteriorated characteristic. For example, the output of a laser diode will lower and the lifetime thereof will be shortened.

III-V group nitride system semiconductor self-standing substrate, method of making the same and III-V group nitride system semiconductor wafer


A communications management tool for a call center maintains a record of threads of communications of diverse media types (e.g. voice calls, emails and faxes) relating to particular issues, and analyses new communications to automatically identify possible matches with existing threads. In this way the efficiency of the agents at the center is increased and the management of the call center can be provided with data recording agent performance and efficiency in dealing with particular issues.

Traditional call centres allow agents to deal with queries, complaints or other issues raised by remote users (referred to herein as "customers", irrespective of whether they are actually buying products or services from the call center organisation) who telephone the call centre. Sophisticated call centre software will often filter calls through a series of interactive voice response (IVR) menus to enable certain queries to be dealt with automatically and other queries to be routed to the most appropriate agent or group of agents using "skillset routing".
The call centre software also provides reporting functions allowing the management of the call centre to assess the performance and efficiency of individual agents and of groups of agents in terms of the time taken to respond to and deal with particular calls.
Multimedia call centres are emerging, largely as a consequence of the fact that many call centre customers will have a number of communication media at their disposal. For example, a customer who contacts a call centre initially by submitting a web page form when navigating a website may wish to follow up on this query by email and/or by speaking to an agent. (Of course the communications need not be and generally are not, unidirectional; contact can be made initially by the agent, such as in telemarketing call centres, and emails sent by customers will often be responded to by return email from the agent.)
Whereas conventional call centre management software is well adapted to monitor and generate statistics relating to agent performance in voice calls, it can be more difficult to provide useful statistics in multimedia call centres. For example, the management of the call centre may be interested not only in response times, but also in the efficiency of the agent as measured by some metric of success. In a call centre dealing primarily with complaints, the metric may be the customer satisfaction rating when the complaint has been disposed of, as measured by a follow-up survey. In call centres having sales of a product or service as their primary goal, the metric may be the number of sales or the financial value of sales attributable to the agent, in which case the amount of time spent dealing with a customer will be partly evaluated on the sales achieved. In telemarketing operations the success metric may the proporion of contacts who agree to receive a sales representative at their premises.
Tracking time-based statistics and success-based statistics across a number of diverse media imposes additional demands on the call centre management and reporting software. Of particular difficulty is the problem of identifying a number of distinct, time-separated communications made using different media types, as being related to a single case or transaction.
It would therefore be desirable to provide call centre management methods and systems which provide enhanced abilities in this regard.

Managing communications in a call center


A dual access DRAM includes first and second sets of data lines. By adding a second set of multiplexing transistors to data lines that are controlled with timing and addressing similar to an existing set of multiplexing transistors, data can be transferred to a second subarray by way of an additional set of data lines. The second set of data lines are additional internal read/write lines used in addition to the normal set of data lines. The second set of data lines are designed to have short lengths with correspondingly low capacitance so that additional loading on the sense amplifiers is small.

The present invention relates, in general, to the field of integrated circuit dynamic random access memories ("DRAMs"). More particularly, the present invention relates to a DRAM memory architecture that allows reading or writing from outside the integrated circuit while transferring or reading data from the same addressed memory cell to a second DRAM subarray.
Conventional single port ("1T/1C") DRAM cells and associated memory architectures are known in the art. Dual port ("2T/1C") DRAM cells or dual port video RAMs are also known in the art. These dual port video RAMs contain a high speed serial port and a conventional multibit parallel port. One problem with prior art memory cells and architectures is that they only allow one operation such as reading or writing to occur at a time.
Referring now to FIG. 1, a prior art memory architecture 10 is shown including a first set 22 of data lines (INT I/O and complementary INT I/O), DRAM subarrays 12A and 12B, sense amplifier blocks 14A and 14B, as well as row decoding circuits 16A and 16B, and column decoding circuits 18A and 18B. Selection transistors M0 and M1 are used to transfer the sensed data from DRAM subarrays 12A and 12B to data lines 22 upon operation of the "SEL 0" control signal. Similarly, selection transistors M2 and M3 are used to transfer the sensed data from DRAM subarray 12B to data lines 22 upon operation of the "SEL 1" control signal. For the sake of clarity in FIG. 1, the interconnecting bit and word lines are not shown.
Turning now to FIG. 2, a prior art block diagram shows further details of a sense amplifier block 14. As is known in the art, sense amplifier block 14 includes a plurality of sense amplifiers 20A through 20N. Each sense amplifier is coupled to two coupling transistors for transferring the sensed data from the DRAM subarrays to lines 15 and 17, which are coupled to the selection transistors as previously described.
Referring back to FIG. 1, in the prior art memory architecture 10, either the SEL 0 or SEL 1 signals go high to put data from one sense amplifier band 14A or 14B onto the data lines 22. What is not possible is to internally read or transfer that same data, or other data, to any other DRAM subarray.
What is desired, therefore, is a memory architecture that allows reading or writing from outside the integrated circuit while transferring or reading data from the same addressed memory cell to a second DRAM subarray or to transfer data between unrelated DRAM subarrays.


A three-dimensional terrain-information generating system extracts a road region from altitude information arranged on a two-dimensional plane and adjusts the position and scale by matching the road region with a building/road map. Altitude information of a road region with a width that is greater than or equal to a preset width is obtained from the building/road map, and the obtained altitude information is arranged in a three-dimensional space. Ribbon forms that may intersect one another at a plurality of points are generated. Altitude information of a region such as a park that is almost free from the effects of a building on the three-dimensional terrain is obtained from the building/road map. Subsequently, a surface including such altitude information is created, thereby generating three-dimensional terrain data.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to three-dimensional terrain-information generating systems and methods and computer programs therefor for generating terrain information including the relief of the ground. In particular, the present invention relates to a three-dimensional terrain-information generating system and method and a computer program therefor for extracting the three-dimensional shape of the ground on the basis of altitude information of the ground, which is obtained by an airplane, a satellite, or the like.
More particularly, the present invention relates to a three-dimensional terrain-information generating system and method and a computer program therefor for extracting the three-dimensional shape of the ground using altitude information mapped onto a two-dimensional plane and building/road information. In particular, the present invention relates to a three-dimensional terrain-information generating system and method and a computer program therefor for extracting the three-dimensional shape of the ground from which buildings are eliminated.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the recent innovation of information technology, various types of information content are created and edited on computers to offer services such as information storage and information distribution. For example, map information indicating buildings and roads is integrated with geographic information on a computer to offer services that present regional information using map images for road guidance and tourist information. Also, real-time navigation services have been offered to mobile stations such as vehicles and ships using a user's current position information detected by GPS (Global Positioning System) or the like.
A map, landform, or geographic information is not only obtained by measurement on the ground, but also created on the basis of the results of observation from space by an airplane, a satellite, or the like. A recent airplane with a range sensor can compute the three-dimensional shape of the ground on the basis of measured altitude information of the ground. Maps, in general, are orthographic projections, whereas aerial photographs and satellite photographs are central projections. Altitude information measured from space is compensated for geographical errors, and the altitude information is made into an ortho-image on the basis of the accurate geographic information, allowing the altitude information to be mapped onto observation points on the map. (In the description, "elevation-data" refers to data generated by mapping altitude information to each observation point on a two-dimensional plane.)
Basically, map information is two-dimensional planar position information. The integration of the map information with such altitude information allows the relief of the ground to be represented. As a result, for example, a navigation system displays a stereoscopic three-dimensional map image by taking the relief of the ground and landscape into consideration. Such higher quality map information display services are thus offered. Alternatively, the three-dimensional map information is applied to public services such as flood control simulation or systems using virtual space.
In the suburbs and mountains, measurement of the range from space to the ground directly and easily generates altitude information covering an extensive region. On the other hand, in central cities and downtown areas crowded with buildings, the distance, not to the ground, but to ground covering objects such as houses and buildings is measured, resulting in an error component of terrain information.
In the use of altitude information (z) disposed on a plane (x, y), the altitude information is subjected to a moving average filter or the like to minimize the effects of unevenness due to ground covering objects such as buildings. Alternatively, altitude information of regions corresponding to building regions that are obtained from a building map is eliminated. Subsequently, each piece of the altitude information serves as a spatial point at (x, y, z). The adjacent spatial points are connected to create a polygon mesh, and polygon reduction is performed to obtain the three-dimensional shape of the ground.
The above-described techniques are disadvantageous in that the buildings' altitude information is included in terrain data.

Three-dimensional terrain-information generating system and method, and computer program therefor


An image forming apparatus including at least one image bearing member; at least one charging device configured to charge a surface of the at least one image bearing member; and at least one developing device configured to develop an electrostatic latent image on the surface of the at least one image bearing member with a developer including a toner to form a toner image thereon, wherein the surface of the image bearing member has a friction coefficient of from 0.10 to 0.30. The image forming apparatus can include a lubricant applicator configured to apply a lubricant to the image bearing member. Alternatively, the outermost layer of the image bearing member can include a lubricant.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, and a process cartridge which can be detachably set in the image forming apparatus.
2. Discussion of the Background
Electrophotographic image forming apparatus including a photoreceptor serving as an image bearing member, a charging roller which serves as a charging device and uniformly charges the photoreceptor, a light irradiator which irradiates the photoreceptor with imagewise light to form an electrostatic latent image, and a developing device which develops the electrostatic latent image with a toner to form a toner image on the photoreceptor are well known. The image forming apparatus also include a transfer device which transfer the toner image onto a receiving material or a transfer belt, and a cleaning device which removes toner particles remaining on the photoreceptor even after the toner image transfer operation.
As to the photoreceptor for use in the image forming apparatus, organic photoreceptors are typically used therefor because of having low cost and high productivity and being pollution free. However, organic photoreceptors have low abrasion resistance, i.e., have a relatively low abrasion resistance compared to inorganic photoreceptors. In attempting to improve the abrasion resistance, photoreceptors including a metal oxide in the outermost layer thereof have been proposed.
In addition, in attempting to fulfill a recent need for high quality images, toners having a small particle diameter and/or a spherical form have been proposed and popularly used. However, in an image forming apparatus using such a spherical toner with a small particle diameter, toner particles remaining on the photoreceptor cannot be well removed with a cleaner such as brush rollers and cleaning blades. The toner particles thus remaining on the photoreceptor without being removed are adhered to the charging roller used, thereby causing uneven charging and deteriorating image qualities of the resultant images.
Published unexamined Japanese Patent Application No. (hereinafter referred to as JP-A) 2001-109235 discloses a short-range charger in which a charging roller is arranged so as to be close to a photoreceptor while having a predetermined gap. It is described therein that by using the short-range charger, the amount of toner particles adhered to the charging roller can be reduced, resulting in prevention of occurrence of the uneven charging problem. In addition, JP-A 2001-109235 discloses to apply a DC voltage overlapped with an AC voltage to the charging roller (hereinafter this charging method is referred to as AC roller charging), to avoid uneven charging due to variation of the gap between the charging roller and the photoreceptor.
However, when the AC roller charging is performed, the amount of materials generated by high-energy discharging caused in the vicinity of the photoreceptor, such as ozone, is relatively large compared with those in the case where a contact charging roller to which a DC voltage is applied is used. The discharge-induced materials change the properties of the surface of the photoreceptors used, resulting in increase in friction coefficient of the surface of the photoreceptors. Since a photoreceptor including a metal oxide in the outermost layer thereof has a good abrasion resistance, the surface of the photoreceptor is hardly abraded, and therefore the properties of the surface are further changed, resulting in a remarkable increase in the friction coefficient of the photoreceptors. When the friction coefficient of the surface of photoreceptors increases, a problem in that a toner image is not well transferred to a receiving material tends to occur. Particularly, when the surface of the receiving material is smooth, this transfer problem is more frequently caused.
Image forming apparatus having a lubricant applicator which applies a lubricant to the image bearing members thereof have been proposed. The image forming apparatus have advantages such that the abraded amount of the surface of the image bearing members is reduced; the toner transfer rate is improved; formation of undesired images such as images with omissions can be prevented; and the cleanability of the image bearing members is improved.
In a case where a lubricant is supplied by a solid lubricant stick, the lubricant stick is abraded as the image forming apparatus are used and it is difficult to maintain lubricant application conditions for a long period of time.
In attempting to solve this problem, JP-As 08-234642 and 11-202569 have disclosed techniques in that the amount of toner adhered to an image bearing member is checked using a toner amount detector to determine the conditions of the lubricant adhered to the image bearing member and to maintain the surface conditions of the image bearing member.
In addition, JP-As 08-234642 and 2002-341695 have disclosed techniques in that the pressure applied to a lubricant applicator is changed or the number of rotations or rotation cycles of the lubricant applicator are changed, depending on the amount of fed papers to control the coating amount of the lubricant so as to be uniform even when the lubricant stick is abraded with time.
As mentioned above, toners having a small particle diameter have been popularly used, but such small toners have poor cleanability. By applying a lubricant to the surface of an image bearing member, the cleanability of the image bearing member can be improved. However, the conditions of the lubricant adhered to the image bearing member cannot be satisfactorily maintained.
For example, the method in which the conditions of the lubricant on the surface of an image bearing member is determined by checking the amount of the toner adhered to the image bearing member using a toner amount detector has a drawback in that the conditions determined do not necessarily represent the conditions of the entire surface of the image bearing member because the detector measures the toner amount of only a part of toner images. In recent years, compact high speed full color image forming apparatuses including tandem type image forming units have been practically used. When a toner amount detector is provided on each of the tandem type image forming units, the image forming apparatus have high cost and become large in size.
There is another method in which the lubricant application conditions are controlled depending on the image area proportion. However, when, for example, 100 copies of an image are reproduced, the rotation number of the image bearing member is largely different between a case where the copies are produced one by one and a case where the copies are continuously produced. Therefore, the conditions of the image bearing member do not necessarily correspond to the image area proportion of the produced images.
Because of these reasons, a need exists for an image forming apparatus which can stably produce high quality images without causing the charging problem and the transfer problem mentioned above even when using a photoreceptor with good abrasion resistance.

Image forming apparatus with image bearing member having a lubricant


In an IC card, a frame for connecting a board for mounting electronics components is covered by upper and lower panels. A main connector for connecting the IC card to a computer is provided at one end of the frame. Further, one or more subconnectors to be connected to external systems are provided on the board and the pins of the subconnectors extend towards openings in the upper panel. The subconnectors are supported between the board and the upper panel. Thus, various kinds of subconnectors for various functions can be used with the IC card. In a modified example, a subconnector is provided opposite the main connector on the upper panel, and the pins thereof extend in a direction parallel to the board.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an IC card.
2. Description of the Prior Art
An IC card includes a board on which electronics components having an integrated circuit, such as a memory device or the like, are mounted. The IC card also includes metallic panels covering the board, and a connector at the top and bottom sides of the IC card. In a type of IC card, a connector is provided for connecting an electronic circuit constructed on the board to a system equipment. In a different type of IC card, the top panel is expanded relative to the card's peripheral, so as to mount various types of electronics components on the board and construct a complicated circuit. This type of IC card may provide a second connector at the opposing side of the first connector for connecting the electronic circuit constructed on the board to system equipment. The above-mentioned two types of IC card are called as type 1 and type 2, respectively, according to JEIDA (Japan Electronic Industry Development Association) standards.
The IC card of type 1 is inserted into system equipment such as a computer via a connector, so that a function of the system equipment can be expanded; for example, by increasing memory capacity. The IC card of type 2 can be connected further through the rear connector to another personal computer or a telephone line, so that it can be used for various functions.
Recently, IC cards tend to be used for systems of a larger scale and for systems having many functions. Therefore, a demand exists for IC cards capable of being used for various systems. The IC card of type 2 having the rear connector beside the main connector can be connected to other equipment through the rear connector. However, even in this IC card, because the rear connector is incorporated in a resin frame, space constraints limit the number of pins thereof to about 30 pins at most. Therefore, even if the rear connector is connected to another computer or a telephone line, function is limited. Accordingly, it is desirable to provide an IC card compatible with various systems and for a variety of functions.


In a semiconductor laser for analog modulation, intermodulation distortion at high temperatures and/or at high outputs is reduced. In a DC-PBH semiconductor laser, the width (Wm) of the electrode mesa 11 is set at 10 .mu.m or less, and the width of each recombination layer 2 is set at 0.1 .mu.m or more. Further, the distance between one end of the active layer 1 and one end of each current-blocking layer 5 is set at 0.01 .mu.m to 0.5 .mu.m.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor laser, particularly a high-output semiconductor laser for analog modulation.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, subcarrier multiplexing (analog optical transmission) has been used in mobile communication systems, optical CATV systems, etc. As the light used in the subcarrier multiplexing, a semiconductor laser for analog modulation, having small intermodulation distortion is needed. This semiconductor laser is required to satisfy low distortion properties, i.e. a composite second order distortion (CSO) of -60 dBc or less and a composite triple beat (CTB) of -65 dBc or less in, for example, a 80-channel CATV system when the optical modulation index per channel is 3.5%. Further, the semiconductor laser is required to have a high output of 30 mW or more so that image distribution by one transmitter to as many viewers as possible can be achieved. Furthermore, the semiconductor laser is desired to be usable at a wide temperature range, for example, from -25.degree. C. to 65.degree. C.
As the light source for analog modulation, there have heretofore been widely used distributed feedback semiconductor lasers (DFB lasers) which can easily produce a single-mode oscillation. The DFB lasers, however, have had a problem in that they generate intermodulation distortion caused by the non-linearity of the current-light output property. They have generated large intermodulation distortion particularly at high temperatures and/or at high outputs because the non-linearity of the current-light output property is made conspicuous by the high-frequency leakage current, the leakage current flowing near the active layer and the light output saturation of laser caused by the insufficient breakdown voltage of the current-blocking layers.
To overcome the above problems, there is described a technique of forming an electrode mesa of narrow width for a lower device capacitance and thereby reducing the intermodulation distortion caused by leakage current, in, for example, FUJITSU SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL JOURNAL, VOL. 29. NO. 4, DECEMBER, 1993. FIG. 15 is a conventional semiconductor laser. FIG. 15(a) shows a semiconductor laser of PBH (planar buried heterostructure) type. In FIG. 15(a), an active layer 1 is buried by a p-InP current-blocking layer 4, n-InP current-blocking layers 5 and a p-InP buried layer 6. In such a structure, the junction capacitance of the current-blocking layers cause leakage current; however, it is reported that the leakage current can be suppressed and reduction in intermodulation distortion is made possible by setting the width of the portion determined by an electrode mesa 11, i.e. the width (Wm) of the electrode mesa, at 7 .mu.m or less.
Conventional PBH semiconductor lasers, however, have had a problem in that they generate large intermodulation distortion at high temperatures and/or at high outputs. The first reason therefor is that in conventional semiconductor lasers of PBH type, the current-blocking layers have no sufficient voltage breakdown property at high temperatures and/or at high outputs, which makes conspicuous the light output saturation when the current is increased at high temperatures and/or at high outputs. The second reason is that since the high-precision control of the distance between each n-InP current-blocking layer and the active layer 1 is difficult in the process for production of conventional PBH semiconductor laser, the leakage current flowing near the active layer cannot be made sufficiently small, which makes conspicuous the light output saturation when the current is increased at high temperatures and/or at high outputs. Therefore, conventional PBH semiconductor lasers have found no application in, for example, a CATV system whose output exceeds 30 mW; moreover, they have had no sufficient stability in intermodulation distortion at a wide temperature range.
Meanwhile, a DC-PBH (double channel planar buried heterostructure) laser was proposed in, for example, ELECTRONICS LETTERS, VOL. 18, NO. 22, 1982. It is a semiconductor laser as shown in FIG. 15(b), having an active layer 1, one pair of channels 3 provided at the two ends of the active layer 1, and two recombination layers 2 of the same layer structure as the active layer 1, provided outside the channels 3; and is relatively superior in properties at high temperatures and/or at high outputs. This semiconductor laser has a further advantage in that since the distance between the active layer 1 and each n-InP current-blocking layer 5 can be controlled at a high precision, the leakage current flowing near the active layer can be made sufficiently small.
Even in this DC-PBH laser having the above-mentioned properties, however, the intermodulation distortion at high temperatures and/or at high outputs has been insufficient. The reason is that the electrostatic capacitance by the recombination layers 2 is large and it generates a high-frequency leakage current flowing through the recombination layers 2.

Semiconductor laser and process for production thereof


Systems and methods use negative feedback to create generic rules for a high dimensional sparse feature space. A system receives a set of fingerprints, where a fingerprint can be a set of features of a file. The fingerprints can be clustered according to similarity. For each cluster, a proto-rule is created that has a condition for each feature. The proto-rule is simplified using negative feedback to create a well-formed rule having a comparatively small subset of the conditions in the proto-rule that are useful in determining malware. The well-formed rule can be added to a set of rules used in a malware detection system.

Malware, short for "malicious software," is software that can be used to disrupt computer operations, damage data, gather sensitive information, or gain access to private computer systems without the user's knowledge or consent. Examples of such malware include software viruses, trojan horses, rootkits, ransomware etc. A common mechanism used by malware developers is to embed the malware into a file that is made to appear desirable to user or is downloaded and executed when the user visits a web site. For example, malware may be embedded into a software application that appears legitimate and useful. The user downloads the file, and when the file is opened, the malware within the file is executed. A file that contains malware can be referred to as a malicious file.
In the face of the growing threat of malware, many anti-malware software packages were developed to detect malware in a user's files. Upon detection, the anti-malware software may notify the user of the presence of the malware and may automatically remove or quarantine the malware. Detecting malware can be a difficult task, because millions of new files are created every day. Further, new malware threats are constantly being developed. Adapting to these new malware threats in a timely manner can be difficult.

Creating generic rules in a high dimensional sparse feature space using negative feedback


Disclosed is a data processing device for processing data representing an operation status of a pattern sewing system which includes at least one pattern sewing machine alternately operated by a plurality of operator groups. The data processing device may include a time zone setting device which sets a plurality of time zones. A plurality of operator groups operate the pattern sewing machine during a plurality of time zones, respectively. There is provided a log data recording device which records an operation status of the pattern sewing machine as log data, and an operation data creating device which creates operation data representing a predetermined operation parameter for each of a plurality of operator groups based on a plurality of time zones set by the time zone setting device and the log data recorded by the log data recording device.

The present invention relates to an operation data processing device for processing work data regarding operation status of pattern sewing system including pattern sewing machines.
Conventionally, a pattern sewing system provided with one or more pattern sewing machines such as an embroidery sewing machine, or a sewing machine for sewing a predetermined pattern, e.g., a pocket setter, have been known. In a production management system for products to which patterns are sewn by such pattern sewing machines, operation status of the pattern sewing machines is recorded as log files, and operation data representing production volume, rate of operation and the like is generated based on the contents of the log files. Such operation data is referred to as management data for improving the production volume and the rate of the operation of the pattern sewing system.
If, in such a pattern sewing system, the same pattern sewing machine is used by a plurality of operator groups alternately (e.g., in three shifts a day), the operation status of the pattern sewing machine is recorded in the same log file, and accordingly it was troublesome to analyze the data on a group basis, or generate the operation data for each group.

Data processing device for pattern sewing system


The invention relates to a simulation device (110) for training equipment (100) for a real ground vehicle, comprising —a vehicle model (115) comprising a predetermined number of function models (130b; 131b; 132b) for simulation of corresponding physical function elements (130a; 131a; 132a) of said vehicle; —arrangements (399) for engaging physical function elements (130a; 131a; 132a) to the simulation device (110). The simulation device (110) is arranged such that a function model (130b; 131 b; 132b) concerning a determined function element (130a; 131a, 132a) is intended to be deactivated at engagement of corresponding physical function elements (130a; 131a; 132a) and such that the deactivated function model (130a; 131b; 132b) is reactivated at disengagement of said engaged function element (130a; 131a; 132a). The invention also relates to a computer program and a computer program product comprising a program code (P) for a computer (110; 300).

In the field of simulation equipment for training for training equipment a number of different ways of providing training equipment exist today for e.g. operators of military vehicles. By providing training equipment personnel of different kinds may practice in driving and handling vehicles being relatively expensive to practice on in reality. Vehicles suitable for such simulation equipments may comprise military vehicles, such as e.g. tanks or combat vehicles.
Today virtual vehicles are used as models for real vehicles. These virtual vehicles are basically general vehicle models comprising different subsystems, such as e.g. an arbitrary number of wheels, engine, gear box, etc. These vehicle models are among others used in the game industry for facilitating fairly realistic game experiences for users of games where vehicles are included. The virtual vehicles are however associated with certain deficiencies, which in turn depend on to high costs for providing more accurate models. Virtual vehicles of this kind fill its function so far as providing satisfactory performance regarding the experienced vehicle dynamics for a player.
Another kind of virtual vehicles are based on data registered in real vehicles during drive. Also In these models a general model in which certain parameters may be changed for providing a desired performance of the virtual vehicle.
By performing a so called "reversed engineering" of an existing vehicle to be simulated the existing vehicle may be post created as a virtual vehicle. Theses virtual vehicles are of fairly high quality. A disadvantage with this method is however that it takes very long time to model the existing vehicle as a vehicle model, which of course is costly and complex. In certain cases it is even so that it may take as long time to create a virtual vehicle as a model of a real vehicle as it would have taken to develop the real vehicle.
Companies developing virtual vehicles today to model real vehicles provide updating packages and all kinds of services associated with maintenance and education. For a purchaser of vehicles, such as e.g. military vehicles, this may be costly and inefficient since vehicles continuously develop to improve performance thereof. Not least, delays in education by means of training equipment of purchasers of vehicles arise since in practice it takes relatively long time to perform a "reversed engineering" of the updated real vehicles for providing a corresponding updated virtual vehicle.
Different purchasers of vehicles have different needs of training equipment for their vehicles. Generally it can be said that a simulation environment which is realistic may result in a better concept of reality and thereby better training results. However, a training equipment having so many physical function elements may be costly, wherefore the most relevant function elements, such as e.g. gas trigger and steering member, are usually used at a user terminal where training personnel is present.
Since different simulated exercises have different purposes needs of different specific physical function elements use to vary. The physical function elements being suitable for certain simulated exercises may be unnecessary for other types of simulation exercises.
A disadvantage with the training systems existing today is that they comprise statistical vehicle models being time consuming and costly to update. Further it is difficult or impossible today to integrate different types of physical function elements in training equipments in a user friendly way.
There is thus a need to provide a simulation device for training equipment providing a higher degree of flexibility and versatility for a user, such as a purchaser of a vehicle.

Simulation device for training equipment for a vehicle


A device for diagnosis and treatment of tumors and lesions within the body. A cannula adapted to apply suction through the lumen of the catheter to the tumor or lesion is described. The lumen has a self sealing valve through which a cryoprobe is inserted while the suction is being applied. The cryoprobe is then inserted into the lesion, and operated to ablate the lesion.

The devices and method described below relate to the diagnosis and treatment of breast lesions, and more generally, to the diagnosis and treatment of tumors and lesions throughout the body.
Biopsy is an important procedure used for the diagnosis of patients with cancerous tumors, pre-malignant conditions, and other diseases and disorders. Typically, in the case of cancer, when the physician establishes by means of procedures such as palpation, mammography or x-ray, or ultrasound imaging that suspicious circumstances exist, a biopsy is performed. The biopsy will help determine whether the cells are cancerous, the type of cancer, and what treatment should be used to treat the cancer. Biopsy may be done by an open or percutaneous technique. Open biopsy, which is an invasive surgical procedure using a scalpel and involving direct vision of the target area, removes the entire mass (excisional biopsy) or a part of the mass (incisional biopsy). Percutaneous biopsy, on the other hand, is usually done with a needle-like instrument through a relatively small incision, blindly or with the aid of an imaging device, and may be either a fine needle aspiration (FNA) or a core biopsy. In FNA biopsy, individual cells or clusters of cells are obtained for cytologic examination and may be prepared such as in a Papanicolaou smear. In core biopsy, as the term suggests, a core or fragment of tissue is obtained for histologic examination which may be done via a frozen section or paraffin section. One important area where biopsies are performed is the diagnosis of breast tumors.
Traditionally, the biopsy technique for breast tumors involves placing a biopsy device multiple times into the breast and taking several samples of tissue from a mass or tumor which is suspected of being cancerous. Several samples are required to be sure that some tissue from the suspect mass has been captured, and enough tissue has been sampled to ensure that, if disperse cancer cells exist in the suspect mass some of those cancer cells will be captured in the samples. Each time the device is placed the physician must locate and direct the device with ultrasound imaging into the correct position near the suspect mass. Some breast tumors and lesions are very well defined, hard spherical masses which grow within the soft, compliant breast tissue. It is difficult to force a needle into these lesions because they are resistant to puncture and fairly mobile. Forcing the biopsy needle into the lesion is like trying to spear an apple floating in water.
Vacuum assisted biopsy system proposed by Biopsys involves sucking a breast lesion into a cannula and shearing off the captured edge of the lesion to obtain a biopsy sample. The device uses a vacuum to collect tissue into the side of an open tubular device, and then uses a rotating corer to cut the tissue collected. The rotating corer is slidable within the tubular section and can be pulled back to remove the tissue collected in the rotating corer. An additional stylet inside the rotating core can be used to push the tissue out of the core. The device can be rotated on its axis to remove a sample, 360 degrees around the central placement of the device. Typically, physicians sample six to eight cores. One advantage of this device is that the physician does not have to remove the device for additional biopsy samples. However, the tumor itself must be re-engaged after every coring operation, which entails substantial effort in relocation and confirmation that the target suspect mass has been engaged by the side aperture. Tumors may be too tough to yield to the suction and deform as necessary to enter the side opening of the cannula. Doctors also currently use the device to take a circular sequence of cores by rotating the device about its long axis or by sideways movement of the suction head to take a line of cores.
After biopsy and analysis, the tumor must be treated with a separate device, as Biopsys teaches that their coring device should not be used for resection. Indeed, the device is not designed to perform resection with assurance that complete resection of a suspect mass has been accomplished. Mechanical cutting and disruption of the tissue structure and cancer cell dispersion (that is, tearing of the tissue around the cancer and movement of the cancer cells amongst normal tissue) will result in unintentional delivery of cancer cells into healthy tissue adjacent the lesion.
The devices and methods described below provide for diagnosis and treatment of tumors within the breast. The devices include structures which permit the surgeon to secure a suspect mass or tumor within the breast for an extended period of time and for several biopsies, coring procedures, or resections. The suspect mass or tumor is secured to a cannula for the entire diagnostic and treatment procedure, or subsets of the procedure such as biopsy or ablation. This allows the placement of the cannula with a single step utilizing methods such as ultrasound to guide the cannula toward the tumor.
The cannula includes a lumen adapted to be connected to a source of vacuum, which can be used to secure a breast lesion to the cannula. A ring seal on the proximal end of the catheter permits biopsy needles, cryoprobes or other ablation devices to be inserted through the cannula and into the lesion while the vacuum on the cannula is maintained. In this manner, the needles and ablation devices may be inserted into the lesion while the lesion in held securely in place by the suction applied to the cannula.

Device for biopsy and treatment of breast tumors


The efficacy of an agricultural chemical can be enhanced by using an enhancer for agricultural chemicals represented by the following formulas (I) or (II) together with the agricultural chemical: ##STR1## The enhancer for agricultural chemicals according to the present invention can safely be applied to various crops without doing chemical injury thereto.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a novel enhancer for agricultural chemicals, a novel enhancer composition for agricultural chemicals and a method for enhancing the efficacy of an agricultural chemical.
2. Description of the Related Art
Agricultural chemicals including insecticides, fungicides (or bactericides), herbicides, miticides (or acaricides) and plant growth regulators have been used in the forms of, for example, emulsions, wettable powders, granules, dusts and flowables. In the properties of these agricultural chemical preparations, various attempts have been made to achieve the maximum efficacy of the agricultural chemical. However, it has been difficult to enhance the efficacies of agricultural chemicals through adjustments in formulations. It is further difficult to develop novel agricultural chemicals. Therefore, further enhancement of the efficacies of existing agricultural chemicals would highly contribute to the industry.
As substances capable of enhancing the efficacies of agricultural chemicals, surfactants comprising various nitrogen-containing compounds such as quaternary ammonium salts, betaines and amine oxides have been known. It is known that quaternized or further polyoxyethylenated long-chain amines, among the above-mentioned compounds, are effective for this purpose. However, the effects of the above described compounds capable of enhancing the efficacies of agricultural chemicals are not always satisfactory.

Enhancer composition for agricultural chemicals and method for enhancing the efficacy of agricultural chemical