An arrangement for supporting rollers in a roller conveyor includes at least three support rails arranged parallel to each other. The support rails define a set of holes aligned coaxially with each other. A bearing block is arranged on an intermediate one of the support rails. The bearing block includes a base strip defining a groove extending in a longitudinal direction along a lower side, and defining a hole extending in a lateral direction. An upper portion of the intermediate support rail is disposed in the groove and the hole is aligned coaxially with the set of holes in said support rails. A plurality of bearing supports extending from an upper side of the base strip. Each of the bearing supports defines a bearing surface extending in the lateral direction. Adjacent ones of the bearing supports are spaced apart from each other in both the longitudinal direction and the lateral direction. A support shaft extends through the hole in the bearing block and the corresponding set of holes in the support rails.

This invention relates to an arrangement for supporting rollers in a roller conveyor, and more particularly to a bearing block for supporting rollers and the connection of the bearing block to supporting rails.
Roller conveyors having a plurality of rollers rotatably supported by bearing blocks are known, for example, from U.S. Pat. No. 4,313,536 to Fauth, the entire disclosure of which is expressly incorporated by reference herein.
Fauth shows in FIG. 5 a bearing member 34 having a plurality of openings 60 defining bearing surfaces 62. As shown in FIGS. 7 and 8 thereof, the bearing member 34 is supported via a support member 30 and pins 48 arranged in holes in the support member 30. The support member 30 is disposed in a slot 50 running longitudinally along the lower side of the bearing member 34. Legs 44 and 46, which are resilient due to the nature of the material of which the bearing member is made, are clamped over pin 48.
In certain situations, particularly in the case of a bearing block having laterally offset bearing surfaces, twisting moments or torques may be produced on the bearing member relative to its longitudinal axis. The bearing member and the connecting structure to the supporting member must be designed to absorb or avoid such torques, in order to prevent stresses and/or vibrations which could lead to breakdown or failure. In Fauth, while the open clamping legs 44, 46 allow easy connection of the bearing member 34 to the supporting member 30, this connection provides limited support with respect to the torques about the longitudinal axis, due to the resilience of the legs which allows the legs to move with respect to the pin 48, providing limited resistance to torques about the longitudinal axis. The resistance to torques may be further limited due to tolerances between the pin 48 and the hole in the supporting member 30 in which the pin is disposed, allowing the pin to twist to a certain extent when a torque is induced on the bearing member.
In view of the above, there is a need for an arrangement for supporting rollers in a roller conveyor which will avoid or withstand torques on a bearing block which supports the rollers.
The above-mentioned and other needs have been met by the present invention by providing a bearing block for supporting a plurality of rollers in a roller conveyor, comprising: a base strip defining a groove for receiving a support rail in an assembled position, said groove extending in a longitudinal direction along a lower side, said base strip defining at least one laterally extending hole to be aligned with a corresponding hole in said support rail for receiving a support shaft in said assembled position; and a plurality of bearing supports extending from an upper side of said base strip, each of said bearing supports defining a bearing surface for receiving a roller shaft, said bearing surface extending in said lateral direction, adjacent ones of said bearing supports being spaced apart from each other in said longitudinal direction, adjacent ones of said bearing supports being offset from each other in said lateral direction.
The above-mentioned and other needs have also been met by the present invention by providing an arrangement for supporting rollers in a roller conveyor, comprising: at least three support rails arranged parallel to each other, said support rails defining at least one set of holes aligned coaxially with each other; a bearing block including a base strip defining a groove extending in a longitudinal direction along a lower side, said base strip defining at least one hole extending in a lateral direction, said bearing block being arranged on an intermediate one of said support rails such that a portion of said intermediate support rail is disposed in said groove and said at least one hole is aligned coaxially with a corresponding one of said sets of holes in said support rails, a plurality of bearing supports extending from an upper side of said base strip, each of said bearing supports defining a bearing surface extending in said lateral direction, adjacent ones of said bearing supports being spaced apart from each other in said longitudinal direction, adjacent ones of said bearing supports being offset from each other in said lateral direction; a support shaft extending through each of said holes in said bearing block and the corresponding one of said sets of holes in said support rails, respectively.
The above-mentioned and other needs have also been met by the present invention by providing a roller conveyor comprising: at least three support rails arranged parallel to each other, said support rails defining at least one set of holes aligned coaxially with each other; a bearing block including a base strip defining a groove extending in a longitudinal direction along a lower side, said base strip defining at least one hole extending in a lateral direction, said bearing block being arranged on an intermediate one of said support rails such that said intermediate rail is disposed in said groove and said at least one hole is aligned with a corresponding one of said set of holes in said support rails, a plurality of bearing supports extending from an upper side of said base strip, each of said bearing supports defining a bearing surface extending in said lateral direction, adjacent ones of said bearing supports being spaced apart from each other in said longitudinal direction, adjacent ones of said bearing supports being offset from each other in said lateral direction; a support shaft extending through each of said holes in said bearing block and the corresponding set of holes in said support rails; a roller shaft arranged in engagement with each of said bearing surfaces, respectively; and at least one roller sleeve mounted on each of said roller shafts.

Arrangement for supporting rollers in a roller conveyor


A piezoelectric resonator includes a piezoelectric resonator element having a base portion and a resonating arm extending from the base portion, a package including a bottom to which the piezoelectric resonator element is fixed and a frame wall that surrounds the bottom and having an opening above the bottom, and a lid for closing the opening of the package. In this piezoelectric resonator, the lid includes a main body having a through-hole formed therein, a flange formed to surround a periphery of the main body and to be thinner than the main body, and an optically transparent member located in the through-hole. The flange has a joining portion with an upper end surface of the frame wall, and the main body projects in a direction from the flange to the bottom in a thickness direction. Also, the through-hole is at a position displaced in a first direction approaching a first end of the main body from a center of the main body. Also, the flange is joined with the frame wall such that a clearance between the first end and the joining portion of the flange nearest to the first end is larger than a clearance between a second end in a second direction opposite to the first direction of the main body and the joining portion of the flange nearest to the second end.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a piezoelectric resonator and a manufacturing method therefor.
2. Related Art
It is known that a piezoelectric resonator element is fixed in a package and is sealed with a lid.
It is also known that a lid having a window member is used so as to allow the inside to be optically recognized after sealing (JP-A-2005-191314).
In the case where a lid is formed of metal and a window member is formed of glass, if the lid is deformed, the deformation tends to result in the breakage of the window member.
The breakage of a window member can occur not only during the process of joining a lid to a package but also after the joining of the lid to the package.

Piezoelectric resonator and manufacturing method therefor


To provide a cleaning blade having an elastic body portion containing urethane rubber and a support member supporting the elastic body portion.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cleaning blade and a cleaning device.
Description of the Related Art
In general, after a toner image formed on the surface (outer peripheral surface) of an electrophotographic photoconductor (hereinafter also simply referred to as a "photoconductor") is transferred to a transfer material or an intermediate transfer body or also after a toner image is further transferred to a transfer material from an intermediate transfer body, toner is likely to partially remain on the surface of the photoconductor and/or the intermediate transfer body. Therefore, the toner remaining on the surface of the photoconductor or the intermediate transfer body needs to remove. The removal is usually performed by a cleaning blade. As the cleaning blade, a blade like (plate like) one having a thickness (width) of 0.5 mm or more and 3 mm or less and a length in the longitudinal direction of a surface facing a member to be cleaned (a photoconductor, an intermediate transfer body, and the like) longer than the thickness is used, for example.
The cleaning blade is attached to a metal holder and is fixed thereto for use in an electrophotographic apparatus, for example. The cleaning blade is disposed in such a manner that an edge portion (front edge ridgeline portion) of the cleaning blade contacts a member to be cleaned. For the cleaning blade, a cleaning blade formed from urethane rubber is frequently used because the wear resistance, the grade of permanent deformation, and the like are excellent. As toner which has been developed in order to meet a demand for an improvement of image quality in recent years, toner having a small particle diameter and high sphericity (close to a spherical shape) is known. The toner having a small particle diameter and high sphericity has a feature that the transfer efficiency is relatively high and can meet the demand for the improvement of image quality.
However, even when it is attempted to remove the toner having a small particle diameter and high sphericity from the surface of the member to be cleaned using the cleaning blade, the toner having a small particle diameter and high sphericity is difficult to sufficiently remove, so that faulty cleaning occurs in some cases. This is because the toner having a small particle diameter and high sphericity is more likely to pass through a small gap formed between the cleaning blade and the member to be cleaned as compared with toner not having a small particle diameter and high sphericity.
In order to suppress the passing-through of such toner, it is effective to increase the contact pressure between the cleaning blade and the member to be cleaned to reduce the gap.
However, as an increase in the contact pressure between the cleaning blade and the member to be cleaned, there is a tendency for the frictional force between the cleaning blade and the member to be cleaned to be higher.
Then, as an increase in the frictional force between the cleaning blade and the member to be cleaned, the cleaning blade is more likely to be pulled in the moving direction of the surface of the member to be cleaned, so that an edge portion of the cleaning blade is turned up in some cases.
When the cleaning blade resists the turning-up force to return to the original state, an abnormal sound (squeaking) generates in some cases. Particularly in a high temperature and high humidity environment, the adhesion force between the cleaning blade and the member to be cleaned increases to increase the turning-up degree of the edge portion, so that the squeaking is likely to generate.
In order to suppress such squeaking, it is effective to increase the hardness of a cleaning blade contact portion to reduce the frictional force between the cleaning blade and the member to be cleaned to suppress minute vibration.
When the hardness of the surface layer of the cleaning blade is higher, the true contact area with the member to be cleaned surface becomes smaller, so that the frictional force decreases. Japanese patent Laid-Open No. 2010-281974 describes a technique of forming a hard surface layer having a cleaning blade front edge ridgeline portion on one side on the edge face which is a face parallel to the thickness direction of the cleaning blade in such a manner that the layer thickness becomes uneven in the longitudinal direction of the cleaning blade.
Moreover, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2013-190642 describes a technique of providing a cleaning blade having two layers different in 100% modulus, in which a coat layer having a high 100% modulus is provided on an edge portion.
The present invention is directed to providing a cleaning blade in which squeaking does not generate under severe conditions where toner and external additives are hardly supplied and in which surface layer peeling of the cleaning blade and passing-through due to insufficient following properties to unevenness of the surface of a member to be cleaned and foreign substances which may be present on the surface thereof are hard to occur.
Moreover, the present invention is directed to providing a cleaning blade in which vibration of an elastic body portion which is brought into contact with a member to be cleaned is hard to be transmitted to a support member and the contact state to the member to be cleaned of the elastic body portion can be stabilized.
Furthermore, the present invention is directed to providing a cleaning device capable of stably cleaning the surface of a member to be cleaned.

Abstract: A free end portion of the elastic body has a first region in which the Young's modulus gradually decreases in the depth direction from the principal surface facing the surface of the member to be cleaned on the edge face side and a second region in which the Young's modulus does not vary in the depth direction from the principal surface on the side closer to the support member relative to the first region.


An electronic endoscope apparatus has a single coaxial cable installed between a scope A and a processor unit B. Waveform superimposing circuits superimpose a video signal on power transmitted through the coaxial cable and sequentially superimpose scope-side reference pulses and processor-side reference pulses alternately on horizontal scanning blanking periods in one field of the video signal. At the same time, the scope A and processor unit B generate reference signals and various timing signals synchronized with the reference pulses of the counterpart and perform video processing based on them. This enables accurate sampling even when scopes with different pixel counts are used. Also, a scope information signal and electronic shutter control signal may be superimposed on a predetermined blanking period in the video signal. Alternatively, an electromagnetic coupler may be installed instead of the coaxial cable and the video signal and reference pulses may be superimposed on AC power supplied electromagnetically.

This application claims the priority of Japanese Patent Applications No. 2002-206536 filed on Jul. 16, 2002, No. 2002-214702 filed on Jul. 24, 2002 and No. 2002-250406 filed on Aug. 29, 2002 which are incorporated herein by reference.
Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic endoscope apparatus. More particularly, it relates to a configuration for supplying power and video signals between an electronic endoscope which is a scope and a processor unit which is connected with the electronic endoscope as well as for sampling the image signal properly.
Description of the Related art
In an electronic endoscope apparatus, an electronic endoscope equipped, for example, with a CCD (Charge Coupled Device) which is a solid-state image sensor is connected to a processor unit via a cable and connector. Through these cable and connector, power is supplied and various control signals are transmitted from the processor unit to the scope while a video signal and various control signals are transmitted from the scope to the processor unit.
Thus, the scope is driven by DC power supplied from the processor unit via a power line while a video signal picked up by the CCD of the scope is transmitted to the processor unit via a signal line (transmission line). As the processor unit performs various types of color video processing on the video signal, images of the object under observation are displayed on a monitor.
However, with the electronic endoscope apparatus described above, the cable connecting the scope with the processor unit contains a power line and a plurality of signal lines. Consequently, the connector of the cable has a multi-pin architecture, which may cause bad connections or breakage of some connection pins in addition to being expensive.
Recently, CCDs equipped with scopes have been growing in pixel count. This requires an ability to connect various scopes equipped with CCDs which have increased but different pixel counts to a common processor unit. To deal with this situation, each scope and the processor unit are equipped with oscillators which differ in frequency according to pixel counts, clock signals are approximated by dividing oscillation frequencies or the like, and processing timings in video processing are synchronized between the scope and processor unit. However, when sampling pixel signals outputted from a CCD, in particular, a slight difference in processing timing between the scope and processor unit will make it impossible to obtain a proper video signal.
FIGS. 13, 14A and 14B show configuration and operation of a sampling circuit. A CCD 1 mounted on the scope is connected, for example, with a correlated double sampling circuit 2. The sampling circuit 2 has a sampler 3 and holder 4 and its operation is controlled based on timing pulses (sampling pulses) which are output from a synchronizing signal generator (SSG) 5 and synchronized with operating timing of the CCD 1. For example, output of the CCD 1 is a signal which falls on a pixel-by-pixel basis as indicated by a horizontal line signal in FIG. 14A, and when the signal passes through the sampling circuit 2, its pixel-by-pixel amplitude is held as shown in FIG. 14B and an amplitude envelope of the CCD output shown in FIG. 14A is extracted as a video signal.
However, if there is a phase difference between the timing pulses outputted from the synchronizing signal generator 5 and the timing pulses outputted (read) from the CCD 1, it becomes impossible to accurately pickup the amplitude of sampled pixel signals, resulting in an inability to obtain a proper video signal. Such a phase difference can occur due to temperature conditions, the length of the electronic endoscope (the length of transmission channel), etc. even when oscillators with the same frequencies are used.
Furthermore, electronic endoscope apparatus are sometimes provided with an electronic shutter function which controls brightness of video by adjusting charge accumulation time of the CCD 1. It is necessary for an electronic endoscope apparatus to implement the electronic shutter function to work.
The present invention has been made in view of the above problems. Its object is to provide an electronic endoscope apparatus which can use a common line for power supply and signal transmission, connect a scope and processor unit using a minimal number of lines, and form images in good condition by means of accurate sampling even when scopes equipped with CCDs with different pixel counts are connected to a common processor unit as well as can easily implement an electronic shutter function.

Electronic endoscope apparatus which superimposes signals on power supply


A system and method for providing multi-modal messaging for a wireless communication system. A wireless terminal is connected to a wireless access network, wherein the wireless terminal is capable of generating a voice request. A multi-modal message server is connected to the wireless access network for receiving the voice request generated by a user of the remote terminal. A voice recognition application is operable to identify words contained in the voice request. A response generation application uses the identified words to generate a response to the voice request. A unified messaging application is operable to interpret the response and generate a first and second response that is based on the contents of the response generated by the response generation application. The first and second responses are then transmitted to the wireless terminal in different communication formats.

Wireless communication devices have recently evolved from a technology used by an elite segment of the population to a technology that is used by the masses. Worldwide, the number of wireless communication device users has reached a staggering number and is growing all of the time. In the near future, it is envisioned that almost everyone will own or use some sort of wireless communication device that is capable of performing a variety of functions. In addition to traditional wireless communication devices, many different types of portable electronic devices are in use today. In particular, notebook computers, palm-top computers, and personal digital assistants (PDA) are commonplace.
Users of wireless telephones and other wireless devices have recently been able to place a phone call to an automated system to request information by speaking to a basic automated speech recognition system. The basic automated speech recognition system typically responds to the caller using text-to-speech and/or recorded speech prompts. This method of information delivery is cumbersome and challenging for the caller as well as very time consuming, thereby causing callers unnecessary frustration. In some cases, the system returns too much information and the caller must listen to the entire response in order to get the information they want. In other systems the caller must verbally navigate through a deep hierarchy of prompts to get to the specific piece of information they seek.
As such, a need exists for a system that is capable of providing a structured response to a user request that takes advantage of voice and text enabled wireless communication devices to provide easy user interaction.


A flexible all-solid-state lithium-ion secondary battery is prepared by placing a positive electrode and a negative electrode or optionally a separator of the lithium-ion secondary battery in a gelable system in which a solid electrolyte has not yet formed by a way of infiltration or coating, so that the surfaces and the interiors of the positive and negative electrodes are infiltrated by the gelable system, which also fills the voids inside the positive and negative electrodes. When the gelable system is solidified to form the solid electrolyte, it can form the solid electrolyte in situ on the surfaces and interiors of the positive and negative electrodes. The lithium-ion secondary battery prepared by the method can form a conductive network inside the entire battery, which can not only extremely reduce the internal resistance of the lithium-ion secondary battery, thereby improving the conductivity and rate capability, but also solve the potential safety hazard problem caused by liquid electrolytes.

Advances in science and technology promote the rapid development of lithium-ion secondary batteries that provide electrical energy for daily practice electronic products. However, potential safety hazards that are not undetermined exist during using lithium-ion secondary batteries, such as leakage, combustion, explosion of electrolytes, etc. The batteries should be safe in order to satisfy people's normal production and life, so the safety of lithium-ion secondary batteries is also a hot topic explored by researchers. At present, the main solution to solve the electrolyte leakage problem of lithium-ion secondary batteries is to use solid electrolytes, which have advantages that liquid electrolytes cannot compare to, and are likely to become a technical approach to solve the safety problem of lithium-ion secondary batteries. Moreover, all-solid-state lithium-ion secondary batteries have great advantages in widening the operating temperature range, increasing energy densities of batteries, prolonging service life, etc., compared to lithium-ion secondary batteries with liquid electrolyte.
Based on differences in components of solid electrolytes, solid electrolytes can be classified into polymer composite lithium-ion electrolytes and all-solid-state thin-film lithium-ion electrolytes. Wherein, the polymer composite lithium-ion electrolytes mainly use macromolecular polymers to form coordination structures with lithium salts, thus realizing the conduction of lithium ion. To improve the conductivity of lithium ion, a certain amount of inorganic fillers, such as silica (SiO2), alumina (Al2O3), zeolite, etc., are often added.
At present, the reported method for applying solid electrolytes in lithium-ion secondary batteries is generally to place solid electrolyte membranes between positive and negative electrodes. Although this preparation method can effectively block the contact between the positive and negative electrodes, it is impossible to overcome interface resistance between the solid electrolytes and the positive electrodes as well as interface resistance between the solid electrolytes and the negative electrodes. Moreover, because the electrolytes are solid-state thin membranes, it prevents sufficient contact between the interiors of the electrodes and the solid electrolytes. Hence, the prepared lithium-ion secondary batteries have shortcomings, such as poor conductivity, high interface internal resistance, low rate capability, etc.
Furthermore, the currently used all-solid-state lithium-ion secondary batteries are rigid, which have the disadvantages such as heavy weight, fragility, low strain ability, poor restorability, poor electrochemical performance, poor cycling performance, short battery life, etc.

Flexible all-solid-state lithium-ion secondary battery having gelable system containing lithium salt and ether compound, and preparation method thereof


A variable feedback impedance is presented capable of providing high linearity (e.g. as represented by IP2 and IP3) and high linear range (e.g. as represented by P1dB) when used in a feedback path of an RF amplifier in the presence of high voltage amplitudes.

1. Field
The present teachings relate to radio-frequency (RF) amplifiers used in RF circuits. More particularly, the present teachings relate to methods and systems for RF amplifiers with variable feedback impedance capable of high output power and high output voltage swings while maintaining high output linearity and high output linear range.
2. Description of Related Art
RF amplifiers are an important part of present days RF communication systems as they constitute the main system block that drives the antenna in any radio transmitter. As such, linearity and power efficiency (e.g. gain) of such amplifiers are sought after attributes for integrators of such devices. Unfortunately these two sought after attributes work against each other as amplifier output tends to become non-linear when operated at higher gains required for better power efficiency. Feedback (e.g. using a combination of resistors, capacitors and inductors) is one of the methods universally known in the art used to trade off amplifier gain for linearity.
As used in the present disclosure, the term "IC" can refer to an integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit composed of a set of electronic circuits on one small plate ("chip") of semiconductor material such as silicon. An IC can also be referred to as a "chip" or a "microchip". The set of electronic circuits within an IC are typically made of a very large number of transistors and other electronic components, which may need supply power (e.g. positive supply and negative supply) to operate.

Amplifier with variable feedback impedance


A clamp mount and clamp assembly using a clamp mount are provided. The clamp mount is used to attach a clamp to a workbench or other support device so that a workpiece can be clamped to a work surface. The clamp mount may include a removable shoe. The clamp mount may include a plurality of attachment plates for attaching the clamp mount to different supports or different mounting features of the support device.

It is often required to clamp a workpiece or multiple workpieces for subsequent cutting, sanding, routing, drilling, attachment together, etc. Various types of clamps may be used, such as C-clamps, toggle clamps, bench clamps, etc. to clamp the workpiece to the work surface (e.g. work bench) or together.
It is desirable to be able to quickly and easily attach the clamp to the work bench without causing damage to the workbench. It is also desirable to be able to easily reposition the clamp relative to the workbench.
Some workbenches include holes as well as or alternatively T-channels that can be used to mount clamps to the work bench.
The present invention provides improvements over the current state of the art


A method and system for controlling a fuel pressurizing system in a direct-injection, spark-ignition engine is disclosed such that the ticking sound of a solenoid valve in the high pressure pump is disabled at certain engine operating conditions. The fuel pressurizing system includes two pumps in series: a low pressure lift pump and a high pressure pump. Based on an engine operating parameter (speed, load, temperature, fuel delivery rate, as examples) the high pressure fuel pump is disabled when the engine operating parameter is below a threshold. The disablement of the pump is accomplished by turning off the normally-open solenoid valve on the inlet side of the high pressure pump, particularly at low speed and/or low torque conditions, e.g., idle, when the ticking of the injector is particularly noticeable. When the pump is disabled, fuel is supplied to the fuel injectors at lift pump pressure.

Direct-injection, spark-ignition engines typically operate with injection pressures up to 150 bar. To obtain such a high pressure, it is common to employ two pumps in series: a low pressure, electrically-operated pump bringing the pressure to 3 to 7 bar feeding a high pressure pump. The high pressure pump can be electrically, hydraulically, or mechanically operated. Mechanical pumps tend to predominate as they are more efficient than electric pumps and less complex than hydraulic pumps. To provide variable control of a mechanical pump, it is known to install a solenoid valve in the pump which can be opened and closed during the pump plunger's travel. When the solenoid valve is open, the pump plunger merely pumps the fuel back to the inlet side of the pump. When the solenoid valve is closed, the pump's plunger causes the fuel to be pumped into the outlet side at high pressure. By controlling the solenoid valve based on the plunger position, the amount of fuel and pressure of the fuel delivered can be tailored to the demand of the engine.
The solenoid valve makes a clicking sound during each actuation. During normal driving, the clicking is not noticeable in relation to road, wind, and engine noise. However, at idle, when the engine is at its quietest and there is no road and limited wind noise, the clicking noise is noticeable and can be a source of customer concern or dissatisfaction. Thus, it is desirable to overcome that noise.
The inventors of U.S. Pat. No. 7,198,033 show one such solution. They teach closing the solenoid valve when the engine speed is low. By keeping the solenoid in the closed position, the stroke of the plunger in the high pressure pump is allowed to displace fuel into the high pressure line for the full extent of its stroke. This is in contrast to other operating modes in the solenoid is opened for at least a portion of the plunger stroke, thereby discontinuing the pump plunger's pumping ability while the solenoid if open. Because the engine demands a lower amount of fuel than the pump supplies at an idle condition, the inventors of '033 provide a pressure relief valve and a return line downstream of the engine. If such a return line were not provided, the pressure in the line would continue to rise. Eventually, the pump, fitting, or other fuel system component would fail, if such a return line were not provided.
The inventors of the present invention recognize that it is desirable to avoid having to provide such a fuel return line and pressure relief valve for the engine. Furthermore, the inventors recognize that the approach taken in '033 leads to excessive fuel heating. That is, by holding the solenoid valve in the closed position, the pump pressurizes and delivers a full stroke's worth of fuel. The amount not consumed by the engine is returned to the fuel tank at low pressure, which fuel is heated when the pressure is dropped and due to the fuel being in close proximity to the engine while being circulated.

Method and system to mitigate pump noise in a direct injection, spark ignition engine


A reconfigurable infinite impulse response low-pass filter is described in which the frequency response can be changed by changing a single parameter while the filter gain of the filter remains constant, preferably, unity. The parameter value is used to calculate the coefficients for the infinite impulse response filter. By choosing the parameter values carefully, the infinite impulse response filter can be implemented using shift registers rather than multipliers to reduce the hardware complexity of the infinite impulse response filter.

The present invention relates to digital infinite impulse response (IIR) filters. Infinite impulse response filters are filters with an impulse response that has an infinite length. Such an IIR filter can be built by feeding back the output into the filter.
An important class of infinite impulse response filters can be described by the difference equation EQU y[n]=b.sub.0 x[n]+b.sub.1 x[n-1]+ . . . +b.sub.M x[n-M]-a.sub.1 y[n-1]-a.sub.2 y[n-2]- . . . -a.sub.N4 y[n-N]
where X[n] is the input, Y[n] is the output of the filter, and [a.sub.1, a.sub.2 . . . , a.sub.N ] and [b.sub.0, b.sub.1 . . . b.sub.M ] are real value coefficients. An example of such a filter is given in FIG. 1. FIG. 1 shows a second order filter which is given by the equation EQU y[n]=b.sub.0 x[n]-a.sub.1 y[n-1]-a.sub.2 y[n-2]
This filter has three independent parameters b.sub.0, a.sub.1, a.sub.2. If a reconfigurable filter is desired to have a stable gain, the coefficients must be carefully chosen to maintain this stable gain. For example, if either coefficient a.sub.1, or a.sub.2 is changed, coefficient b.sub.0 should be modified to maintain a constant gain. It requires a lot of technical resources to store coefficients of such a reconfigurable system. Additionally, in order to maintain filter stability, the coefficients must be very accurately determined, since the filters can be sensitive to coefficient rounding errors.
Because of these limitations, it is desired to have an improved reconf igurable infinite impulse response filter.

Reconfigurable infinite impulse response digital filter


A method of producing shaped articles made from single-sidedly or double-sidedly galvanized steel sheet, starting from galvanized steel strip, at least one of the steps of the method being a transport operation, and in which, for protection from black-spot corrosion, a corrosion preventive oil is applied which comprises at least one phosphoric acid polyoxyalkylene ester.

The present invention relates to a method of producing shaped articles made from single-sidedly or double-sidedly galvanized steel sheet, starting from galvanized steel strip, at least one of the steps of the method being a transport operation, and in which, for protection from black-spot corrosion, a corrosion preventive oil is applied which comprises at least one phosphoric acid polyoxyalkylene ester.
The production of flat metallic ready-made products from galvanized steel, such as automobile bodies or parts thereof, appliance casings, exterior architectural facings, ceiling panels or window profiles, for example, is a multi-stage operation. The raw materials for it are usually galvanized steel strips which are produced by rolling of the metal, followed by galvanizing, and which for storage and transportation are wound to form rolls (referred to as coils). For processing, these coils are wound again, separated into smaller pieces, and shaped by means of suitable techniques such as punching, drilling, folding, profiling and/or deep-drawing. Larger components, such as automobile bodies, for example, are optionally obtained by the joining of two or more individual parts. After shaping and joining have taken place, the product can be painted, for example.
A characteristic of the stated production operation is that not all of the steps referred to are performed in one manufacturing site; instead, as a general rule, precursor products and/or semifinished products must be transported one or more times from one manufacturing site to another. To take as an example the production of automobiles: the production of the metal strips takes place at the premises of a steelmaker. The cutting-up of the strips and the shaping to an automobile body or bodywork parts takes place in a pressing plant, and the manufactured bodies or parts thereof are then transported to an automaker for painting and final assembly.
Also deserving of mention in this context is the "completely knocked down" or "partly knocked down" manufacturing technique for automobiles, where vehicles intended for export are transported deliberately not in the fully assembled state but instead in the form of individual parts to the importing country, and undergo final assembly only in that importing country. With this manufacturing technique, entire bodies or bodywork parts must be transported form the exporting to the importing country, in some instances in ocean voyages that can take several weeks.
In the course of transport, on railroad wagons or in ships, for example, the precursor products and/or semifinished products are subject to atmospheric influences, and must therefore be protected from corrosion for their transport.
For corrosion protection in transport, it is common to apply what is called a "temporary protective"; in other words, this is not yet the final corrosion preventive coating, which is intended to impart permanent protection to the finished product, but is instead a coating which is removed at a later point in the process and replaced by the ultimate corrosion preventive coating. For temporary protection from corrosion, the steel strips are provided generally with a coating of a corrosion, preventive oil. Corrosion preventive oils often have a dual function and also act as forming auxiliaries, as during deep-drawing, for example. The forming oil is intended to ensure the necessary lubricity during the shaping operation, so as to prevent fracture or rupture of the metal sheet.
In the transport of shaped articles made from galvanized steel, one specific form of corrosion comes to the fore, namely that known as black-spot corrosion. This is a locally confined, rather than an extensive, form of corrosion. One possible cause of this black-spot corrosion is the possibility of contamination of the metal surfaces by particles in the course of transport. This particulate contamination then leads frequently to very locally confined forms of corrosion around the particles. The particles in question may for example be particles of dirt and/or of salt, or may be particles of salt in association with dirt.
Especially in the case of electrolytically galvanized steel, this form of corrosion also results in a significant change in the surface morphology. Viewed from the side, the metal surface is seen to have, for example, craterlike elevations. In the context of automobile construction, craterlike elevations of this kind are extremely disruptive, since they tend to be exacerbated, and certainly not leveled out, by the subsequent cationic deposition coating process. As a result of the black-spot corrosion, extremely extensive afterwork is necessary on the assembled body. This afterwork not only leads to high costs for the automaker but also disrupts the time course of the line manufacturing operation. Furthermore, the corrosion resistance of the completed body is adversely affected as well, since remediated spots constitute nucleation cells for the corrosion of the consumer product.
The use of phosphoric esters with alkoxy groups as corrosion inhibitors is known.
DE 27 56 747 A1 discloses the use of phosphoric esters, obtainable by reaction of phosphoric acids with alkoxylated polyols, such as polypropylene glycol, as low-foam corrosion-control and lubricant compositions.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,360,474 discloses derivatives of polyphosphoric monoesters and also their use as corrosion inhibitors, the ester groups being polyalkylene groups.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,684,475 discloses a radiator protection mixture which besides other components comprises an organophosphate comprising alkylene oxides as a corrosion inhibitor.
WO 00/42135 discloses the machining of metals using metalworking fluids which comprise phosphoric esters comprising oxyalkylene groups.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,555,756 discloses a method for improving the stretchability of a steel strip. For this method, the steel strip is first heated and then a liquid lubricant is applied to the surface and is subsequently dried, forming a dry film on the surface. The quantity applied is at least 10.8 mg/m2. The steel strip is subsequently rolled. The liquid lubricant comprises preferably water, a surfactant, and an alkyl phosphate ester of the general formulae RO—P(═O)(OH)2 or (RO)2—P(═O)OH, with R being an alkyl group having 4 to 20 carbon atoms. Phosphoric esters formed from alkoxylated alcohols are not disclosed.
None of the stated specifications, however, is concerned with the problem of black-spot corrosion in the transport of precursor products or semifinished or finished products of galvanized steel in an atmospheric environment.

Method for producing molded bodies from sheet steel galvanized on one or both sides


A decorative face plate and modular retaining wall block combination is presented that allows the decorative face plate to be removably attached to a front face of the wall block. Each face plate is manufactured so that one or more face plates will cover the front face of the modular block. The block itself has a front face with at least one flat surface on which the face plates can be attached. Various mechanical attachment mechanisms for attaching the face plates to the modular retaining block are presented. In one embodiment, a matching pair of positive locking, reclosable fasteners are used, with one member of the pair attached to the block and the other member to the face plate. The reclosable fasteners preferably have interlocking stems with mushroom shaped heads. The reclosable fastener attached to the block can be situated in a recess found on the flat surface. Alternatively, the face plate can be attached to the modular wall block through a magnetic snap, interlocking clips or hook and loop tape. In addition, the face plate can be adhesively attached to the block or can be attached through magnets. A method of constructing a modular retaining wall with a decorative face plate is also presented.

This invention relates to the field of modular retaining walls, particularly to the development of replaceable plates designed to provide a decorative facing on a modular retaining wall.
The recent development and advancement in the field of modular retaining walls has been a boon to the do-it-yourself homeowner and the small contractor. Modular retaining walls, also known as mortarless wall or dry stack wall systems, allow the creation of retaining walls without using mortar between the bricks or blocks. In place of mortar, modular retaining walls blocks rest directly upon a lower layer of blocks. The lowest layer is typically buried or partially buried in earth. As in all retaining walls, the back side of the wall is back-filled with the dirt being retained. The retained earth tends to push the wall forward. In modular retaining walls, the blocks are prevented from sliding relative to one another due to a lip incorporated into each block, or through the use of pins that at least partially traverse two adjoining blocks. In most cases, the modular retaining wall is constructed so that each successive layer of modular blocks is placed on the lower level slightly to the rear of center, so that the entire wall leans backwards into the earth being retained.
If the retaining wall is short enough (generally about four feet tall), the wall is typically constructed as a gravity wall. Gravity walls rely on the weight of the modular retaining wall blocks and the slight backward lean of the wall described above to prevent the wall from tipping due to the force of the back-filled dirt. Modular retaining walls may also be used to construct taller walls. In these cases, the wall is generally reinforced by additional means such as the geogrid tie-back sheet described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,914,876 to Forsberg. However, even reinforced modular retaining walls still have the general characteristic of modular blocks resting directly on a lower row of blocks without the use of mortar.
Typically, modular retaining wall blocks are formed by molding a colored concrete mixture into the desired shape. The front face of each block, which forms part of the wall face when the retaining wall is completed, is generally given a rough hewn look so as to simulate split rock. Alternatively, the block could be molded with a flat front face that gives a simulated brick wall appearance to the finished wall.
Unfortunately, this method of creating a decorative face to a modular retaining wall limits the variety of looks that such a wall can have. The rough hewn face is widely used, leaving many users hoping for a more distinctive look to their wall. In addition, the flat front face of a colored concrete block cannot successfully duplicate the rich colors and ordered pattern created by a brick and mortar wall.
The color and texture of modular blocks can be overcome by producing the blocks through a process other than molded concrete. For instance, modular wall blocks could be made entirely out of more attractive (and expensive) materials such as marble or clay. However, since modular retaining walls depend upon their size and weight to hold back the retained wall, making the blocks out of a more attractive material quickly becomes prohibitively expensive.
It is possible to manufacture a more decorative facing directly onto the block. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,687,771 to L. Meijer, a method was disclosed for constructing a concrete block with a plastic or paper base laminate for the front face. Applying this technique to modular retaining blocks would allow the majority of the block to be formed of less expensive materials. The facing could be molded into the main body of the block, as explained in the U.S. Pat. No. 3,687,771 patent, or could form part of an offset facing section, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,290,849 to Wright.
Regrettably, the use of a modular retaining wall block that has a more expensive decorative facing molded to its front creates several problems. First, the creation of a multi-component block involves the expensive process of securing the facing to the remainder of the concrete block. For instance, the method described by L. Meijer utilizes a complicated process of applying different resin layers to the block, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 5.
In addition, the facing itself is susceptible to damage during storage and shipping of the block, and during the construction of the modular retaining wall itself. The cost of constructing such a wall would be increased either by the cost of preventing damage to the block face (through the use of a removable pad), or by the cost of blocks damaged during shipment and construction.
Finally, a molded-on face has the disadvantage of being permanently attached to the modular block. If alternative facings are to be offered for sale at a retail outlet, the outlet must stock a large inventory of modular blocks that differ only in the facing applied. The permanency of a molded-on face also prevents the re-facing of an existing wall at a later date.
What is needed is a method for removably attaching a face plate to a modular retaining wall after the wall has been constructed. Unfortunately, known methods for facing an existing wall cannot be adapted for modular retaining walls, as seen below.
One technique for facing a wall is through the creation of a simulated brick, stone, or tile wall panel, as exemplified in U.S. Pat. No. 4,644,719 to Salazar, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,740,910 to Taylor et al. In these techniques, a large panel of the desired look, such as a simulated brick wall, is constructed so as to be easily attached to a wood, or concrete block wall. However, such panels could be applied only to walls with large, flat areas on which the panels could be affixed. One of the primary advantages of modular retaining walls is their ability to create gracious, curving walls; walls that would be unsuitable for receiving a wall panel.
A second alternative is to affix standard wall or floor tiles to the modular wall. The use of wall tiles is well known, an example of which can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 3,962,504 to Sherwin. Unfortunately, most modular retaining wall blocks have rough hewn faces, and therefore do not contain a surface upon which the tile can be affixed. Alternatively, flat face blocks generally have enough decorative texture in the mold as to prohibit the creation of the good adhesive bond with the tile. Even if an effective bond to the tiles could be formed, tiles cannot be attached effectively since the misalignment of adjacent stones prevent tiles from being attached across multiple stones. Finally, standard methods of affixing tiles do not allow for the later removal and replacement of tiles, a benefit that would be useful in cases of tile damage or a desire for a different wall appearance.
A third alternative for facing a preexisting wall is to form a decorative facing cap that fits over each block, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,465,544 to Ghahary. In this technique, a facing cap for blocks such as bricks or cinderblocks is formed with a lightweight sheet having dimensions marginally larger than the block and a lip that extends upward from the sheet edges. The facing cap slips over the entire face of the block, and is held in place by the lips which grab the sides of the block, as shown in FIG. 3 of U.S. Pat. No. 5,465,544. Additionally, the cap can be held in place with adhesives. Although novel, this technique cannot be applied to modular retaining walls. Since modular walls are formed without mortar, individual blocks rest directly on top of and adjacent to one another. Because of this direct contact, the lips found on the facing cap of U.S. Pat. No. 5,465,544 would be unable to grasp the edges of the modular wall block.
The present invention overcomes these limitations in the prior art by providing a face plate that can be removably attached to a modular wall after the modular wall blocks are positioned into place.


Two-piece assembly which clamps to the frame of a hacksaw forward of and adjacent the handle and has two protective wing shields extending laterally outward from the hacksaw in front of the operator's hand. The wing shields may be integral with a hand and finger grip plastic mating portion attached to the handle of the hacksaw, or be separate and attached by bolts and nuts to the hacksaw frame forward of the handle.

A hacksaw is a well-known hand tool for sawing through metal, plastic, and other materials which are too hard for the ordinary carpenter saw to cut. The hacksaw has a handle, usually a pistol-grip, and a frame attached to the handle to grip the two ends of a saw blade and place the blade under tension so as to keep the blade straight and taut. The materials which are cut by the hacksaw leave chips and jagged fragments when the cutting occurs, and these are potentially injurious to the hand of the operator. There have not been available on the market any protective devices to prevent injury other than gloves.
It is an object of this invention to provide a hand guard for a hacksaw. It is another object of this invention to provide a two-piece assembly for attachment to the frame of a hacksaw for protection of the hand of the operator of the hacksaw. Still other objects will become apparent from the more detailed description which follows.


There is provided a device for sawing logs to a predetermined length which includes a log lead-in support member, a log support frame, a log cutting station and a log collection deck. The log support frame includes a front end, a rear end, opposite sides and supports a conveyor. An upwardly inclined conveyor moves a log lengthwise through the support frame to the log cutting station which includes a stop gate section, a sawing section, and a debris discharge conveyor. The stop gate section is positioned between the conveyor and the sawing section to set the log for proper timing into the cutting station and to align the butts when a plurality of logs is cut at the same time. A cutting station positioned at the front end of said support frame comprising a housing and a chain saw having a cutting bar on said support frame pivotally mounted to rotate 360.degree., whereby when one log is cut to its predetermined length the conveyor automatically moves a further section of the uncut log to a cutting position as the cutting bar makes its rotation.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an assembly for sawing logs to a predetermined length. More particularly, this invention relates to a log sawing assembly for automatically moving a log to a cutting station and a cutting station using a chain saw that pivots from one end and rotates in a full circle to cut the succeeding section of a log to a predetermined length.
2. The Prior Art
Many logging operations require that logs be cut to predetermined lengths such as 8 to 16 or so feet. This cutting step occurs either in the woods or at a collection station and follows the delimbing operation. Typically, knuckleboom loaders gather and place delimbed logs or tree boles in a suitable rack to be cut by radial or chain saws mounted to the rack. Equipment that has been designed for that purpose requires that the cutting cycle be stopped once a section of the log has been cut in order for the cutting blade to be returned to its upright or non-cutting position and a new section of log be moved to the cutting area, often using a knuckleboom loader. When using such equipment, considerable down time occurs while the cutting blade is being returned to its non-cutting position and the while the logs are being moved to the cutting area.
An example of such equipment is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,722,258 to Johnson where there is disclosed a log sawing apparatus in which a hydraulically actuated chain saw is moved in an upward and downward arrangement to cut logs. Once a cut has been made through a stack of logs, a knuckleboom loader grabs the remaining stack of uncut logs and manually places them in a new cutting position. Such placement, because it is not very accurate in the lengthwise position, results in cutting to lengths longer than necessary, causing waste.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,553,463 to Engel discloses a portable wood cutting device in which a handle is attached to the chain saw blade at the free end thereof for manual movement of the cutting blade. The cutting blade is actuated by an elastic strip member engaged with a throttle so as to activate the blade on the downward movement of the saw blade from its elevated non-cutting position to its lowered cutting position. Engel also provides a log support table on which logs to be sawed are manually moved to the cutting area on horizontally canted rollers.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,530,266 to Hedberg discloses equipment for cutting logs in which the cutting bar is pivotally mounted on a holder to move out of the way once a cutting cycle has been complete and the cutting bar is returned to its precutting downward stroke as a fresh section of the log passes to the cutting area.
Therefore, a need exists for a log sawing assembly that automatically moves logs to a cutting station and cuts the logs accurately to a predetermined length with a minimum of down time.


In a nonvolatile memory cell with charge trapping dielectric (150), the tunnel dielectric (140) includes chlorine adjacent to the charge trapping dielectric but no chlorine (or less chlorine) adjacent to the cell's channel region (120). The chlorine adjacent to the charge trapping dielectric serves to improve the programming and/or erase speed. The low chlorine concentration adjacent to the channel region prevents chlorine from degrading the data retention. Other features are also provided.

The present invention relates to integrated circuits, and more particularly to nonvolatile memories with charge-trapping dielectric.
Some nonvolatile memories include charge-trapping dielectric separated from a conductive region (e.g. doped silicon substrate) by tunnel dielectric. The memory state is defined by the charge in the charge-trapping dielectric. To change the memory state, a suitable voltage is applied to cause charge transfer through the tunnel dielectric between the charge-trapping dielectric and the conductive region. In order to provide good data retention, the charge leakage should be low when no voltage is not applied, so the tunnel dielectric should be sufficiently thick. However, the thick tunnel dielectric impedes the charge transfer when the voltage is applied, thus making memory write operations slow. See e.g. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/131,006 filed May 17, 2005 by Bhattacharyya, published as no. 2006/0261401 on Nov. 23, 2006, incorporated herein by reference.

Nonvolatile memories with tunnel dielectric with chlorine


The invention provides for a hand-held isometric exercise device comprising a handle portion and at least one load cell arranged to receive a load when the device is gripped by the handle portion and urged against the surface, the device having at least one contact portion on the underside thereof for contact with the said surface to transmit the load to the said at least one load cell.

The present invention relates to an isometric exercise device and, in particular, to a hand-held isometric exercise device.
The benefits of physical exercise have long been recognised both with regard to an improved level of physical fitness and muscle strength, and also through associated advantages such as improved skeletal strength.
In line with such realisations, the amount and variety of physical exercise undertaken by individuals has increased. For example, for strength training, this has lead to an increase in gym membership and an increase in individuals performing weighted workouts either with free-weights or through the use of multi-gym equipment.
However, for those seeking to increase muscle strength, it has been recognised that such use of free weights and multi-gym equipment may not be the most appropriate means for achieving optimal muscle stimulus. Also the manner in which such apparatus is used may itself be preventing the majority of individuals from achieving the results desired from their strength training.
The nature of most individual's weight-related training comprises a twice/thrice weekly gym visit where a level of weight considered comfortable will be chosen and a predetermined number of repetitions and sets of exercises will be performed. For example, it is common to perform three sets of ten repetitions with a weight which, to the individual, feels suitably heavy. On the next visit to the gym, a fairly similar workout regime will be undertaken.
However, it is generally recognised that, for muscle growth, there has to be a progressive overload of the muscles being exercised at each weight training session. It is recognised that a sufficiently powerful stimulus is required by the brain to produce an adaptive response in the musculature, and such stimulus generally results from making the muscles work harder than they are accustomed to at each and every training session.
The natural course of recovery, repair and growth required by the body of the average individual regularly attending a gym does not arise because the subsequent training session generally occurs too soon after the previous one and before the body has had a chance to complete its adaptive response. It is considered that muscles need in the region of 2-6 weeks, depending of course upon each individual, to fully recover, repair and grow. Thus, if a heavy weighted workout is performed and, within that minimum period, i.e. one week later, the body is stressed again before it is ready and has fully recovered from the previous session, the muscle groups worked are not capable of lifting weights which are greater than those used in the first session and so the above-mentioned progressive overload cannot be achieved. Such general over-training, albeit possibly accidental, is pursued by the vast majority of individuals following strength training regimes, and generally leads to plateaus and stagnation in strength increase and muscle growth, rather than the growth and increase in muscle mass that is sought from following such regimes.
It can therefore be appreciated that the average individual regularly attending a gym is likely to be missing out on potential increases in strength and muscle growth by not pursuing such progressive overload and its resulting adaptive response. By generally repeating the same exercise at each gym visit with more or less the same weight as previously used, the body will not receive sufficient stimulus to produce an adaptive response. What is generally required however is a constantly increasing progressive overload which optimally taxes the muscle each and every workout. The vast majority of individuals performing the above-mentioned sets and repetitions of exercises tend to be working well under their optimal levels of strength. Since the muscles employed can therefore generally easily perform the required repetitions, they are not then forced to adapt and so the adaptive response mentioned above is not experienced and no, or very limited, muscle growth is then experienced. Thus, the general increase in body strength and muscle size sought by those pursuing a strength-training regime is not readily achieved.


An image sensor cell includes a first MOS transistor coupled to an operating voltage for providing an output voltage of the image sensor cell with the output voltage changing conformingly with a voltage on a gate of the first MOS transistor. A photodiode is coupled to a floating node which further controls the voltage of the gate of the first MOS transistor. A photoconductor is coupled between the operating voltage and the floating node. The photoconductor has its resistance varying in response to a magnitude change of an imposed illumination so that the floating node is provided with additional electrical charges conformingly through the photoconductor while the photodiode drains electrical charges, thereby decreasing a voltage reduction rate of the voltage on the gate of the first MOS transistor.

The present invention relates generally to integrated circuit (IC) designs, and more particularly to an improved image sensor cell with a high dynamic range.
CMOS image sensors have offered significant advantages of cost and size over traditional sensor structures. Placing a semiconductor integrated circuit (IC) chip as an image sensor in the image plane of a camera greatly simplifies both still and video image recording and provides for flexible design of portable cameras. The CMOS image sensor is widely accepted because: 1) it operates at low voltages; 2) has low power consumption; 3) offers random access to the image data; 4) is compatible with CMOS logic technology; and 5) allows realization of an integrated single-chip camera. Typically, light from an image impinging on each active pixel sensor is sensed and translated into data, which may include a plurality of transistors, a photodiode and a current generator. For example, a three-transistor active pixel sensor is typically composed of a reset transistor, a source follower transistor, and a row selector transistor, with a photodiode, and a current generator.
An image produced by a camera ideally should be as similar as possible to the same image seen directly by the human eye. The human eye is less sensitive to changes in illumination in bright environments than in dark environments. In fact, the human eye responds to a wide range of illumination without hardly being saturated, meaning that the human eye is no longer sensitive to a change of illumination intensity. However, this is not how the conventional active pixel sensor operates. The conventional active pixel sensor has a linear response over its initial light level of illumination, and then abruptly saturates when the light level reaches a certain point. This operational feature is often referred to as the machine mode. When the saturation occurs, a bright light level will flood the photodiode of the sensor and drive it to a full current conduction. The abrupt saturation limits the dynamic range of the sensor. It is desirable that the senor captures an image with a quality as close as possible to the human eye does. Since the human eye hardly saturates, the image captured by the sensor with the limited dynamic range would not be very close to that observed by a human eye.
Therefore, there is a need for an image sensor that more nearly emulates the light response of the human eye.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd.


In an electronic device having a keyboard (120) and a display (116), a processing system (106) displays on the display a message entered through the keyboard and selects a supplemental mode, in response to entry of a first predetermined key sequence by a user. The supplemental mode is selected in accordance with the first predetermined key sequence, from at least one of a group of supplemental modes included in the electronic device. The group of supplemental modes comprise an acronym mode (200), a supplemental scrolling keyboard mode (300), a predictive character pairing mode (301), a predictive menuing mode (400), and a bi-directional delete mode (500). The electronic device operates in accordance with the supplemental mode until an occurrence of at least one of (a) the user entering a second predetermined key sequence and (b) the supplemental mode executing to completion.

Two-way radio messaging systems are now becoming increasingly popular. A benefit of such systems is confirmation of outbound (system-to-subscriber) message delivery. Another benefit is the capability of inbound (subscriber-to-system) message origination and transmission. The capability to send inbound messages has brought about electronic devices having a means of originating inbound messages. The simplest devices have utilized a few control buttons for positioning a cursor over a "canned" response or character and then "selecting" the same for addition to an inbound message. More advanced devices have included an alphanumeric keyboard and display for originating inbound messages.
A design objective of many electronic devices, such as portable subscriber units for messaging systems, is small size, allowing easy transport on one's person. This objective can conflict with designing a keyboard that includes a full set of alphanumeric characters, symbols, and punctuation marks, and is easy to use. In addition, preparing, addressing, and sending an inbound message can be somewhat daunting to a subscriber who is not familiar with these features.
Thus, what is needed is a method and apparatus in an electronic device for supplementing the keyboard and for helping a user to operate the electronic device.

Method and apparatus for supplementing a keyboard and for helping a user operate an electronic device


A system that implements detection and reconciliation of system resource metadata for a distributed storage system is described. A node may obtain resource metadata specific to the node from another node that maintains system resource metadata for a distributed storage system. Based on the resource metadata specific to the node, a determination may be made that the node is not reconciled with the system resource metadata. A corrective operation may be performed to reconcile the node with the system resource metadata. A corrective operation may include terminating a resource, making unavailable a resource, modifying resource attributes, or sending a resource metadata update to system resource metadata for correction.

Several leading technology organizations are investing in building technologies that sell "software-as-a-service". Such services provide access to shared storage (e.g., database systems) and/or computing resources to clients, or subscribers. Within multi-tier e-commerce systems, different resources may be allocated to subscribers and/or their applications from whole machines, to CPU, to memory, to network bandwidth, and to I/O capacity.
Database systems managing large amounts of data on behalf of users may distribute and/or replicate that data across two or more machines, often in different locations, for any of a number of reasons, including security issues, disaster prevention and recovery issues, data locality and availability issues, etc. These machines may be configured in any number of ways, including as a shared resource pool. If a partition gets too large, it may be split into smaller partitions (each stored on a different machine) or moved to another machine. Similarly, various other operations, such as storing additional data, may cause configuration or allocation changes among machines. In the face of these types of changes, maintaining current configuration and allocation information about the resources available on different machines is a challenge, especially as configuration and allocation information are important for providing reliability and consistency of the database. Thus, resolving inconsistencies in the configuration and allocation information resources across database systems helps distributed database systems maintain accuracy.
While embodiments are described herein by way of example for several embodiments and illustrative drawings, those skilled in the art will recognize that the embodiments are not limited to the embodiments or drawings described. It should be understood, that the drawings and detailed description thereto are not intended to limit embodiments to the particular form disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope as defined by the appended claims. The headings used herein are for organizational purposes only and are not meant to be used to limit the scope of the description or the claims. As used throughout this application, the word "may" is used in a permissive sense (i.e., meaning having the potential to), rather than the mandatory sense (i.e., meaning must). Similarly, the words "include", "including", and "includes" mean including, but not limited to.

Detecting and reconciling system resource metadata anomolies in a distributed storage system


A developer for irradiated, radiation-sensitive recording materials, in particular for the production of offset printing plates, which contains water, a compound which is alkaline in aqueous solution and a copolymer which acts as an emulsifier and has units of (I) a hydrophobic vinyl compound which has alkyl radicals having up to 30 carbon atoms and (II) a hydrophilic, ethylenically unsaturated carboxylic acid. Some of the carboxyl groups of the copolymer are esterified with reaction products of (A) (C.sub.1 -C.sub.30)alkanols, (C.sub.8 -C.sub.25)alkanoic acids, (C.sub.1 -C.sub.12)alkylphenols or di(C.sub.1 -C.sub.20)alkylamines with (B) (C.sub.2 -C.sub.4)alkylene oxides or tetrahydrofuran.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a developer for irradiated, radiation-sensitive recording materials which contains water and at least one compound which is alkaline in aqueous solution. The developer is particularly suitable for developing radiation-sensitive recording materials from which offset printing plates are produced. The invention is also directed to methods of making and using the developer.
2. Description of Related Art
Aqueous alkaline developers for recording materials should generally meet a number of requirements. For example, they should have high productivity, i.e., the developing capacity should decrease as little as possible after prolonged use and hence increased contamination by detached components of the layer. The so-called "tone limit" at which the developer is spent and the layer is removed only incompletely from the nonimage parts should be as high as possible. The developers should develop the recording materials as rapidly and completely as possible. This is particularly important in the mechanical production of the printing plates in processing lines. Owing to the short cycle times, a development time of substantially less than 30 seconds may be necessary.
For ecological and economic reasons, it is advantageous if the developer can be offered in the form of a liquid concentrate which the consumer himself dilutes with water. Although the hardness of the water differs from region to region, this should not influence the properties of the ready-to-use developer. Thus, it is desirable that the developer be substantially unaffected by water hardness.
During development, neither foam nor solid precipitates should form. The latter might contaminate the development units and hence give rise to a high level of maintenance or even settle on the developed recording material.
Moreover, the developer solution laden with layer residues should be compatible with the gumming solutions used in the processing line. Owing to the unavoidable entrainment of contaminated developer solution by printing plates passing through, layer residues may accumulate after a relatively short time in the downstream storage container of the gumming solution. In the most unfavorable case, this gives rise to solid precipitates which, after a phase of concentration, are redeposited on the printing surface of the developed printing plate via the roller rail system of the gumming station and can thereby render the plate unusable.
EP-A 0 323 836 describes aqueous alkaline developers for positive- and negative-working recording materials. In addition to an alkaline composition, they contain a thickener which adjusts their viscosity to 5 to 10,000 cps. If necessary, the developers may also contain organic solvents, such as benzyl alcohol or ethylene glycol monophenyl ether. Developers for positive-working recording material may furthermore contain surfactants, in particular anionic or amphoteric surfactants. The thickeners used are fine silicate powders or water-soluble polymers such as starch, gum arabic, sodium alginate, pectin, viscose, methylcellulose, carboxymethylcellulose, polyvinyl alcohol, polyvinyl methyl ether, or polyvinyl-pyrrolidones.
A very specific aqueous alkaline developer for negative-working recording materials for the production of offset printing plates is disclosed in EP-A 0 602 736. This developer permits particularly short development times and prevents excessive deposits in the processing units. Moreover, it is said to rapidly dissolve deposits already formed. This developer contains an organic solvent, an anionic surfactant, an alkali metal tetraborate, an alkali metal salt of an aliphatic monocarboxylic acid, an alkali metal salt of an aliphatic dicarboxylic acid, an alkali metal citrate, a poly(alkylene glycol), an alkali metal salt of a hydroxylated aromatic carboxylic or sulfonic acid, and an alkaline buffer system which ensures an alkaline pH.
A developer suitable for the production of negative-working printing plates is also the subject of U.S. Pat. No. 3,954,472. It contains ammonium sulfite and polyvinylpyrrolidone dissolved in water and an alcohol, in particular n-propanol. The polyvinylpyrrolidone acts as a gumming composition.
Polyvinylpyrrolidone or a copolymer having units of N-vinyl-pyrrolidone is also used in the aqueous alkaline developer according to DE-A 42 24 205. The developer furthermore contains an alkaline agent such as NaOH, KOH, Na.sub.2 CO.sub.3, K.sub.2 CO.sub.3, sodium silicate, potassium silicate, trisodium phosphate, or tripotassium phosphate. If necessary, a surfactant of the alkali metal sulfate or alkali metal sulfonate type, an antifoam and an organic solvent, such as benzyl alcohol or ethylene glycol monomethyl ether, ethylene glycol monoethyl ether, ethylene glycol monobutyl ether or ethylene glycol monophenyl ether, may also be added. It is envisaged for use in particular for the development of color proof materials, where it prevents the formation of stains in the nonimage parts.
EP-A 0 004 014 discloses a particularly productive developer for recording materials having exposed, negative-working layers of diazonium salt polycondensates and water-insoluble organic polymers. It contains an anionic wetting agent, polyvinyl alcohol, poly(N-vinyl-N-methylacetamide), benzyl alcohol, glyceryl triacetate and a buffer which ensures a pH in the range from 4 to 8. Since only high-boiling organic solvents are used in this developer, its composition remains virtually constant even on prolonged standing in open containers.
With the aqueous alkaline developer according to EP-A 0 180 122, it is possible to achieve particularly rapid and good development of exposed, negative-working photoresist layers. It also has a long life, can be used in automatic developing machines and prevents the formation of cakes and small cakes of detached layer components. In addition to water and an alkaline agent, it contains a complexing agent, an anionic surfactant, an alkanoic acid or a salt thereof, a buffer substance and an emulsifier, which is preferably poly(N-vinyl-N-methylacetamide), polyvinyl alcohol, dextrin, gum arabic, or a cellulose ether.
Although the stated polymeric emulsifiers result in a substantial improvement in the developer properties, they also have disadvantages. For example, they substantially affect the viscosity, i.e., they result in a relatively high viscosity even when they are contained in the developer only in small amounts. However, having as low an initial viscosity as possible and a moderate increase in viscosity with increasing contamination of the developer by detached layer components are important factors for minimizing the mechanical load on components of the processing line (for example, pumps and hose connection) on the one hand and, on the other hand, for counteracting premature sludge formation in the developing section of the processing machine, resulting in greater cleaning work when the developer is changed. With the known emulsifiers, it is always only a compromise that it achieved. Owing to the strongly viscosity-increasing effect of the known emulsifiers, their amount in the developer solution should often be limited.

Developer for irradiated, radiation-sensitive recording materials


Disclosed herein are a gateway-signaling method for frequency/timing offsets and an apparatus for the same. An apparatus for transmitting a broadcast signal according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a frequency/timing decision unit for determining a center frequency to which a frequency offset is applied using a carrier offset, which is identified using a timing and a management packet transmitted through a Studio-to-Transmitter Link (STL); and an RF signal generation unit for generating an RF signal to be transmitted, which corresponds to the center frequency.

With the introduction of new broadcast communication standards such as ATSC 3.0, service for a very robust SNR environment (a low system SNR threshold value) for mobile or handheld devices is provided.
Broadcast signals for such a low SNR system may reach a distance much further than the coverage contour of a 15 dB SNR of ATSC 1.0. Accordingly, there may be a very large overlapping area between neighboring co-channel transmitters that transmit different broadcast signals, and receivers in the overlapping area may receive signals transmitted from multiple transmitters.
Depending on FFT sizes and pilot patterns selected by neighboring co-channel transmitters, pilot overlapping may occur. Here, pilot overlapping may result in channel estimation errors, which may prevent a receiver from correctly receiving broadcast signals.
Therefore, a new broadcast signal transmission method for mitigating co-channel interference in a digital broadcast transmission system is required.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Gateway signaling method for frequency/timing offset, and device therefor

Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute


A method for manufacturing a discharge tube, including heating a quartz tube by irradiation and closing it shut, is presented, in which variation of the heating temperature of the quartz tube can be reduced. Laser light is irradiated on a portion of the quartz tube, and in the step of sealing the portion of the quartz tube onto which laser light has been irradiated, the laser light is scanned while oscillating back and forth. The intensity of the laser light is controlled such that the intensity of the laser light when the size of a displacement of the laser light is maximal is smaller than the intensity of the laser light when the size of the displacement of the laser light is minimal.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a discharge tube. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a discharge tube, characterized by its sealing step for sealing the translucent insulating tube.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Discharge tubes have a pair of electrodes opposing each other inside a quartz tube, which is filled with a certain gas and discharge material. To seal the discharge tube, a portion of the quartz tube is usually softened by heating it and then sealed shut. Generally, an oxygen-hydrogen burner is used for the heat source. However, because it is very difficult to keep the region heated by the burner small, there is a possibility that other portions of the quartz tube besides the portion to be sealed are heated as well and deformed. Especially, deformations of the part serving as the discharge space of the discharge tube are a problem, because they have a large influence on the characteristics of a discharge lamp using this discharge tube. Another problem is the possibility that the hydrogen in the flame of the oxygen-hydrogen burner is absorbed by the quartz glass, which deteriorates the characteristics of the discharge tube.
To solve these problems, it has been proposed to use laser light as the light source for heating the quartz tube (see e.g. Publication of Unexamined Japanese Patent Application (Tokkai) No. S57-109234 or Tokkai S58-78348). For example, Tokkai S58-78348 discloses heating and sealing the quartz tube by irradiating laser light, by scanning it along the tube axis of the quartz tube with a certain amplitude.
However, if the quartz tube is heated by irradiation with laser light that is scanned with a constant amplitude, temperature variations arise in the heating temperature of the quartz tube. A resulting problem is that there is a possibility that the discharge tube bursts during processing, and because there are large variations in the pressure resistance of the seal, there is a possibility of cracks in the discharge tubes occurring during use.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method for manufacturing a discharge tube including a step of sealing a translucent insulating tube with laser light, wherein variations in the heating temperature of the translucent insulating tube can be reduced, and a discharge tube of high quality can be produced with high reliability.
To achieve these objects, a method for manufacturing a discharge tube in accordance with the present invention comprises irradiating laser light on a portion of a translucent insulating tube, and sealing the portion of the translucent insulating tube onto which laser light has been irradiated. The irradiation of the laser light is performed while (i) scanning the laser light to oscillate back and forth along a tube axis of the translucent insulating tube, and (ii) changing at least one of an intensity of the laser light and an amplitude of the oscillation of the laser light. With this configuration, variations in the heating temperature of the translucent insulating tube can be reduced, and a discharge tube of high quality can be produced with reliability. In addition, it is easy to achieve optimal heating in accordance with several external conditions in the step of heating the discharge tube, because it is possible to heat the translucent insulating tube locally and selectively.
In this method, it is preferable that the irradiation of the laser light is performed while changing the intensity of the laser light such that the intensity of the laser light when a size of a displacement of the laser light is maximal is smaller than the intensity of the laser light when the size of the displacement of the laser light is minimal. Here, xe2x80x9cdisplacementxe2x80x9d refers to a vector expressing the irradiation position of laser light, whose direction corresponds to a direction along the tube axis of the translucent insulating tube, and whose magnitude (i.e. size) corresponds to the distance from an average irradiation position, wherein xe2x80x9caverage irradiation positionxe2x80x9d corresponds, for example, to a central portion of the irradiation region.
FIG. 7 shows the temporal change of the displacement and the intensity of the laser light in conventional step of sealing the discharge tube with laser light. The solid line in FIG. 7 marks the displacement of the laser light, and the broken line marks the intensity of the laser light. FIG. 8 shows the distribution of the irradiation energy of the laser light when the irradiation of the laser light is performed as shown in FIG. 7. If the laser light is oscillated and irradiated with a constant intensity and amplitude, the irradiation energy at the portions where the size of the displacement of the laser light is maximal (i.e. the end portions of the irradiation region near the points xe2x80x9cAxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cCxe2x80x9d in FIG. 8) tends to be high, and the irradiation energy at the portions where the size of the displacement of the laser light is minimal (i.e. the center portion of the irradiation region near point xe2x80x9cBxe2x80x9d in FIG. 8) tends to be low. This non-uniformity of the irradiation energy becomes one of the reasons for variations of the heating temperature.
However, in accordance with the above-mentioned preferable manufacturing method of the present invention, the intensity of the laser light is varied depending on the size of the displacement, so that the above noted non-uniformities in the irradiation energy can be relaxed and variations in the heating temperature of the translucent insulating tube can be reduced.
In this preferable configuration, it is even more preferable that the intensity of the laser light is changed stepwise or continuously such that the intensity of the laser light is reduced with an increase of the size of the displacement of the laser light, and the intensity of the laser light is increased with a reduction of the size of the displacement of the laser light.
In this configuration, it is preferable that the irradiation of the laser light is performed while changing the intensity of the laser light such that the intensity of the laser light is smaller when a scanning speed of the laser light is minimal than when the scanning speed of the laser light is maximal.
As has been mentioned above, the distribution of the irradiation energy of the laser light in conventional manufacturing methods is such that the irradiation energy is high at the ends of the irradiation region and low at the center thereof. The reason for this is that the scanning speed of the laser light at the ends of the irradiation region is low, whereas it is high in the center, because ordinarily, the scanning of the laser light lets the position of the laser light change with a trigonometric function over time. In the regions where the scanning speed is slow, the laser light is irradiated for a longer time then in regions where the scanning speed is high, so that if the intensity of the laser light is constant as in the conventional manufacturing methods, the regions with low scanning speed absorb more energy than the regions with high scanning speed.
However, with the above-noted preferable configuration of the present invention, the intensity of the laser light is varied depending on the scanning speed, so that the above-noted non-uniformities in the irradiation energy caused by the differences in the scanning speed can be reduced and variations in the heating temperature of the translucent insulating tube can be reduced.
In this preferable configuration, it is even more preferable that the intensity of the laser light is changed stepwise or continuously such that the intensity of the laser light is increased with an increase of the scanning speed of the laser light, and the intensity of the laser light is reduced with a reduction of the scanning speed of the laser light.
Furthermore, it is preferable that the irradiation of the laser light is performed while contacting with a coolant a portion of the translucent insulating tube where the laser light is not irradiated. In this case, it is even more preferable that the intensity of the laser light is changed such that the intensity of the laser light when scanning a portion that is closest to a portion of the translucent insulating tube contacting the coolant is larger than the intensity of the laser light when scanning a portion that is farthest away form a portion of the translucent insulating tube contacting the coolant.
If the irradiation of the laser light is preformed while contacting a portion of the translucent insulating tube with a coolant, energy can be dissipated easier from the region that is close to the portion contacting the coolant than from the region further away, so that the heating temperature tends to be lower. However, in the above-noted preferable configuration, the intensity of the laser light when scanning a portion that is closer to a portion contacting the coolant is larger than the intensity of the laser light when scanning a portion that is farther away, so that the energy irradiated on a portion closer to a portion contacting the coolant can be larger, and variations in the heating temperature of the translucent insulating tube can be reduced.
Furthermore, it is preferable that the irradiation of the laser light is performed while rotating the translucent insulating tube around a tube axis of the translucent insulating tube, because this reduces variations in the heating temperature along the circumference of the translucent insulating tube.
The laser light can be emitted by a laser selected from the group consisting of a carbon gas laser, an excimer laser, a YAG laser and a semiconductor laser. A material for the translucent insulating tube is selected from the group consisting of quartz glass, borosilicate glass, and translucent alumina.

Method for manufacturing a discharge tube

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


Disclosed is an electronic bulletin board system, which communicates with a user computer via a network, and mediates information exchange therebetween by an electronic bulletin board function. The electronic bulletin board is accompanied with a database of a notable words collection storing a plurality of words that are appropriately selected, each word in which is linked with a corresponding URL. A message text from a user computer is checked by using the notable words collection. When the message text does not include a notable word in the notable words collection, the message is posted on the bulletin board. When a notable word is found in the text, the notable word in the message text is converted into a hypertext format having the URL to which the word is linked as a link destination, and the message is posted on the bulletin board.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a server computer that is connected to the Internet, particularly to a server computer that functions as an electronic bulletin board and a mail server.
2. Related Art
Computers that are connected to the Internet contain user computers used by many unspecified users and server computers that provide various services to the user computers.
One of the server computers has an electronic bulletin board system and/or a mail server, which are for mediating information between the user computers. The electronic bulletin board system makes a message, which is contributed from a person who wants to post the message via the Internet, into a definite screen data, generally in a HTML format, and opens the screen data to public on the Internet.
The mail server receives an e-mail that a sender sent on the Internet according to a generally known SMTP procedure, and sends this e-mail to a mail address of a recipient of the e-mail. Then, the mail server sends the e-mail in an e-mail storage location, a mail box that corresponds to the mail address of the recipient to the user computer of a recipient who accessed to the mail server according to a POP procedure.
On the other hand, a hyperlink is known as a main system in the Internet. The hyperlink, hereinafter referred to as a link, links a text file, image data and voice data in sentences. A document created by using the link is a hypertext.
For example, when a hypertext document is being read on a user computer, a user performs a proper instruction operation, typically a click operation of a mouse for a character or a picture for which a link is set in the document. The instructed character or picture is linked with URL (Uniform Resource Locator), and the user computer obtains a specified document in a specified location on the Internet or activates a program in a specified location according to the URL. Of course, this link can be set in a text that includes a main message text and a main e-mail text posted on the electronic bulletin board.
When a document of the message or the e-mail is transformed into the hypertext, a creator of the document selects a text portion which the creator wishes to set the link, and performs operation of linking the text portion with a URL as a link destination. However, the hyperlink never be set unless the document creator intends to. Therefore, when a document reader wants to deepen understanding of the text included in the document, or to obtain related information, the reader has no option but to search such information by using a search engine that is open to public on the Internet and so on.
Moreover, even if the link is set, there is a case where a Web page of the link destination is already closed or the URL is changed. In order to cope with such cases, the document creator must check whether a setting of a link destination is effective or not as occasion demands. The link destination setting needs to be changed when a change to the link has been made.

Electronic bulletin board system and mail server