A communication path is established, only when monitoring a video signal on an object is required, between a sending station which acquires the video signal and a receiving station which monitors the acquired video signal through a display or the like. Usually, the video signal is monitored delayed by a time taken for establishment of the path. In the video monitoring system, a sensor senses the occurrence of a particular event to be monitored, the video of the object existing at the occurrence of the particular event is stored in an image memory on the basis of the output of the sensor indicative of such sensing. After the establishment of the communication path between the transmission and receiving stations, the stored video is transmitted to the receiving station to thereby ensure monitoring a truly required video.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to video monitoring systems applied to systems such as security systems, industrial television (ITV) systems, etc., and more particularly to a video monitoring system applied to an environment where a communication path between a sending station which acquires the video signal and a receiving station which receives and monitors the video signal by means of a display or the like is established only when monitoring the video signal is required.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional video monitoring system has a dedicated transmission path fixedly provided between the sending station and the receiving station.
However, according to the conventional video monitoring system, the transmission path is always established even in an ordinary state where monitoring is not required.
At present, a video monitoring system has been considered in which there is provided a switching networks for selectively connecting the sending station and the receiving station only when monitoring the video is required.
However, in such system the establishment of a communication path (telephonic communication path) through the switching network takes considerably long time. Therefore, although the establishment of the communication path is started immediately after the occurrence of a particular event to be monitored such as an abnormality is detected, it is impossible to monitor the most important video images during the initial period of occurrence of the event. In other words, monitoring of the video images becomes possible after the communication path has been established, and therefore monitoring is not from the occurrence of the event, but from the establishment of the communication path.
In case that the video monitoring system is used in a security system, only video images generated some time after invasion of a robber can be monitored by the receiving station. In case that the video monitoring system is used in an ITV system, only video images generated some time after the occurrence of abnormality can be monitored. Accordingly, such monitoring systems cannot provide important video images to be monitored.

Video monitoring system including a memory for storing and transmitting a video signal immediately following the occurrence of an event


Methods and apparatus for detecting on-screen media sources are disclosed. An example method includes monitoring a region of interest of a video signal for a first image, comparing the first image to a stored image, and confirming the media device change when the stored image differs from the first image and is associated with a secondary criterion.

The demographics of a television viewing audience are typically used by television program producers to improve the marketability of their television programming and determine a best price for advertising during such programming. In addition, accurate television viewing demographics allow advertisers to target commercial content to desired segments of the population.
In order to determine these demographics, an audience measurement company may enlist a plurality of television viewers as panelists. The viewing habits of the enlisted viewers and demographic data about the enlisted viewers are collected and used to determine statistically the demographics of a television viewing audience.
One aspect of audience measurement involves determining the identity of the content being displayed on a television. Conventional audience measurement systems use channel detection techniques to identify the channel to which a television set is tuned (i.e., channel information). This channel information may then be combined with programming information (e.g., a program schedule) to identify the program that was being displayed on the television during the time at which the television was tuned to the detected channel.
In addition, audience members may use a television to consume media from one or more alternate sources, such as a digital versatile/video disk (DVD) player, a video cassette recorder (VCR), game console, personal computer, etc. For example, audience members may use a television for gaming, gambling, shopping, and video on demand, to name a few. While the alternate sources of media may not originate from a broadcaster (e.g., sources such as a DVD player, VCR, video game console, etc.), measurement of the alternate sources may enhance measurement of demographic profiles and viewing habits of the enlisted viewers.
In addition to detecting a channel to which a television is tuned, channel detection systems are used to detect channel change events in which a television stops displaying programming associated with a first channel and begins displaying programming associated with a second channel. Because a channel change event corresponds to a change in the programming being displayed to the programming audience, a channel change event may be used as a trigger to start one or more methods to obtain identification data about the new programming being displayed to the audience.
Additionally, a channel change event and/or a switch to one or more alternate media sources (hereinafter "media change event") often corresponds with a change in the audience membership and, therefore, may also be used to trigger a method for capturing information about the audience. For example, audience measurement systems may include a device, such as a people meter, having a set of input keys, each assigned to represent a single viewer. The people meter may be adapted to capture information about the audience by prompting the audience members to indicate that they are present in the viewing audience by, for example, pressing the appropriate input key disposed on the people meter. Using a media change event as a trigger for people meter prompting allows for the accurate recording of changes in the size and/or membership of the audience that may result from the media change event or that may have caused the media change event.


A graphics processor or display device including a microcontroller that functions as a sequencer, a computer system including at least one such graphics processor or display device, and a microcontroller for use in such a graphics processor or display device. In preferred embodiments, the microcontroller functions as a sequencer for controlling the timing of power up and/or power down operations by one or both of a graphics processor and a display device. The microcontroller is implemented to exclude any capacity to handle interrupts and so can provide guaranteed timing, and is preferably implemented to be small, simple, and programmable, and to store a small number of programs. Each program consists of instructions belonging to a small instruction set, such as a set consisting of set and clear instructions (for overriding or overwriting specified register bits) and wait, release, and stop instructions. When executing a program, the microcontroller typically overrides (in an ordered sequence) state and control bits that would otherwise be asserted.

The invention is useful in computer systems, for example the computer system of FIG. 1. The FIG. 1 system includes system bus 1, central processing unit (CPU) 2, pipelined graphics processor (GPU) 4, input device 3, memory 5, frame buffer 6, and display device 8, connected as shown. Display device 8 is typically a liquid crystal (or other flat panel) display or cathode ray tube monitor. GPU 4 is coupled to system bus 1 via host slave interface 10. In response to input data received over the system bus, pipelined processing circuitry 12 in GPU 4 generates video data for display by device 8. Circuitry 12 can include a vertex processor (for generating vertex data indicative of the coordinates of the vertices of each primitive of each image to be rendered and attributes of each vertex), a rasterizer (for generating pixel data in response to the vertex data), and pixel processing circuitry for applying textures to and otherwise processing the pixel data from the rasterizer. The video data output from circuitry 12 are asserted to frame buffer 6. Consecutive frames of the video data are asserted by frame buffer 6 to display device 8.
Control circuitry 15 controls operation of pipelined processing circuitry 17 and other elements of GPU 4, including by setting bits in register 29 which are then asserted to circuitry 17 and/or other elements of GPU 4 via multiplexer 30 (to be described below).
GPU 4 is typically implemented as an integrated circuit (chip), a graphics processing portion of a chip (sometimes referred to as a graphics "core" or "core portion"), or two or more chips. Typically, both GPU 4 and frame buffer 6 are implemented as separate chips of a graphics card. Alternatively, both frame buffer 6 and graphics processor 4 are implemented as elements of a single chip.
As shown, GPU 4 includes microcontroller 14 which is implemented in accordance with the invention to control the timing of power up (and power down) operations by GPU 4 and display device 8. Microcontroller 14 includes program memory 16 (typically implemented as a RAM to be referred to herein as a "sequencer RAM"), instruction execution circuitry 20 (sometimes referred to below as "unit" 20), bypass register 28, multiplexer 30, and other elements to be described below.
Variations on GPU 4 that have conventional design (and do not embody the invention) do not include microcontroller 14 and instead employ conventional hardware and/or software to control the timing and sequencing of power up and power down operations of GPU 4 and optionally also display device 8.
For example, such conventional hardware and software can be an implementation of control circuitry 15 that includes timer circuitry, and with an external programmable controller (e.g., CPU 2), controls the timing and sequencing of power up and power down operations of the GPU and device 8 (implemented as a flat panel display). In such a conventional system, the timer circuitry would respond to external control signals (e.g., a "power on" signal from CPU 2 of FIG. 1) by asserting power up or power down signals for the flat panel display and for internal circuitry in the GPU with selectable delay times determined by the external controller. For example, an external control signal could trigger execution of the following operations in a predetermined sequence: turning the backlight of the flat panel display on or off, causing the flat panel display to start or cease generating a display in response to video data in frame buffer 6, and commencing or ceasing application of power to the flat panel display and internal components of the GPU. However, because the external controller employed (with timer circuitry as described) with a conventional GPU is conventionally a general-purpose processor, the external controller is subject to interrupts and thus cannot provide guaranteed timing.

Graphics processor and system with microcontroller for programmable sequencing of power up or power down operations


A method for manufacturing a liquid jet recording head having an element substrate provided with a plurality of discharge energy generating elements for applying discharging energy to a recording liquid in accordance with image data, a liquid chamber for storing the recording liquid, and a top plate having a plurality of nozzles, is provided. The method includes a step of forming, on an anisotropic-etching mask layer provided on a nozzle surface of the top plate, compensation patterns extending to a liquid chamber region in order to form the nozzles and the liquid chamber by anisotropic etching, and a step of performing anisotropic etching of the top plate through the mask layer and forming the liquid chamber to have a substantially rectangular shape at the nozzle surface of the top plate by over-etching portions with the compensation patterns.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a liquid jet recording head which performs recording on a recording medium with droplets of recording liquid ejected from a fine discharge opening.
2. Description of the Related Art
A liquid jet recording head such as a thermal ink jet printing head, etc., employed in a liquid jet recording device comprises a plurality of fine nozzles (discharge openings) which eject recording liquid such as ink, etc., liquid chambers each of which is connected to one of the nozzles, and discharge energy generating elements (for example, a heater such as an electrothermal conversion element) each of which is placed in one of the nozzles. Recording is performed by applying driving signals corresponding to the information to be recorded to the discharge energy generating elements, supplying the discharge energy to the recording liquid inside the nozzle in which the discharge energy generating element is placed, and discharging flying droplets of the recording liquid from the fine nozzle.
There are various types of nozzles suggested for use in this type of liquid jet recording head, and one example is explained with reference to FIG. 7.
In FIG. 7, reference numeral 101 denotes a top plate (nozzle member) formed by a silicon wafer which is cut and polished so that the upper surface thereof comprises the <110> crystal plane. The top plate 101 is provided with a liquid chamber 102 which is a hole formed through the top plate 101 and serves to retain the recording liquid therein, and a plurality of nozzle grooves 103 (hereinafter referred to simply as "nozzles"), connected to the liquid chamber 102, for discharging the recording liquid. An element substrate 108 (a heater board 108) comprises a silicon chip in which a number of heating members (heaters) 109 are provided as the discharge energy generating elements.
As shown in FIG. 7, the top plate 101 and the heater board 108 are closely jointed or bonded so that each of the nozzles 103 is arranged to oppose the respective heater 109. The nozzles 103 and the surface of the heater board 108 constitute thin and long discharge nozzles. At this time, the positions of the top plate 101 and the heater board 108 are precisely adjusted to ensure that each of the heaters 109 is placed inside the respective nozzle 103. The recording liquid is supplied from a recording liquid tank (not shown) to the liquid chamber 102 and reaches the nozzles 103. The heaters 109 on the heater board 108 are controlled by a controlling circuit (also not shown) and are individually energized according to printing data. The controlling circuit may be placed on the heater board 108 or may be formed on another substrate.
Each of the heaters 109 individually energized according to the printing data emits heat so as to heat the recording liquid contained in the nozzle 103. The heated recording liquid boils when a crucial temperature is reached and generates bubbles. These bubbles grow in a short period of time, i.e., in several μs, and provide an impact force to the recording liquid. Part of the recording liquid is pushed out from the discharge opening of the nozzle 103 as flying droplets due to the significant force of this impact and reaches the recording medium such as a sheet of paper, etc. An image is printed by repeating these steps.
Next, a method for manufacturing the top plate (nozzle member) 101 will be explained with reference to FIGS. 8A to 8H and FIGS. 8A′ to 8H′, according to steps thereof. It should be noted here that FIGS. 8A to 8H on the left side are sectional views taken along a plane along the liquid discharging direction and FIGS. 8A′ to 8H′ on the right side are end views viewed from the lower side (the surface provided with nozzles) of the top plate.
In FIGS. 8A and 8A′, a silicon wafer 105 which constitutes the top plate (nozzle member) provided with the liquid chamber and the nozzles, has a <110> crystal orientation at the surface and a <111> crystal orientation in the longitudinal direction of the nozzles. A silicon dioxide (SiO2) thin-film 106 of 1 μm in thickness is formed on both sides of the silicon wafer 105 by a deposition process such as a thermal oxidation process or a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process, as shown in FIGS. 8B and 8B′ The silicon dioxide thin-film 106 functions as a mask layer during anisotropic etching of the silicon. Then, one surface (the surface which will be provided with nozzles, hereinafter referred to as the "nozzle surface") of the silicon dioxide thin-film 106 is patterned into a shape of the nozzles and the liquid chamber combined, and the other surface is patterned into a shape of the liquid chamber by using a standard photolithography technique (FIGS. 8C and 8C′). The nozzle surface is coated with a silicon nitride (SiN) layer 107 by a method such as a CVD method (FIGS. 8D and 8D′) and is patterned into the shape of the liquid chamber (FIGS. 8E and 8E′).
Then, anisotropic etching is performed by immersing the wafer in an etchant such as a 22% tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH) solution. Etching progresses along the exposed portion (i.e., the portion having the shape of the liquid chamber) of the silicon from both sides of the wafer during the anisotropic etching step, resulting in the formation of a through hole (the liquid chamber 102) as etching progresses (FIGS. 8F and 8F′).
The shape of etching shown in FIGS. 8F and 8F′ will be described below. The main purpose of the anisotropic etching is to form fine nozzles in the top plate (nozzle member) 101. Accordingly, patterning of the nozzles is selectively performed so that the <111> plane of the silicon is parallel to the nozzle wall. When the liquid chamber 102 is substantially rectangular, a shorter side of the liquid chamber (through hole) 102 is left with a perpendicular plane after the etching because the <111> plane is provided perpendicular to the surface of the wafer. In contrast, since a longer side of the liquid chamber (through hole) 102 comprises a number of <111> planes tilted by approximately 30 degrees relative to the wafer surface, the surface of the longer side, composed of a number of planes, is not as perpendicular or smooth as that of the shorter side in a strict sense.
Next, the silicon nitride layer 107 is removed by etching (FIGS. 8G and 8G′) to expose the nozzle pattern formed in the silicon dioxide thin-film 106 of FIGS. 8C and 8C′. Anisotropic etching using the TMAH solution is performed again so as to etch the portion corresponding to the nozzles (FIGS. 8C and 8C′).
Because the <111> plane perpendicular to the wafer surface is provided in the liquid discharging direction, the cross-section of the nozzles 103 obtained by anisotropic etching is rectangular. In contrast, because there is no surface to inhibit the etching in the longitudinal direction of the nozzle, a nozzle wall 104 (see FIG. 9A) provided between the nozzles is etched from the rear side (the liquid chamber side) as well as the front side of the nozzle, resulting in over-etching in the longitudinal direction, forming an angular shape. Accordingly, the silicon dioxide thin-film serving as a mask layer may remain on the over-etched portion. In order to remove the silicon dioxide thin-film, high-pressure air or high-pressure air containing water is sprayed on the wafer to remove only the silicon dioxide thin-film without damaging the silicon. A pressure of 100 to 200 kPa is sufficient for removing the thin-film of approximately 1 μm in thickness when the method of spraying water by high-pressure air is performed. The entire silicon dioxide thin-film may also be removed by wet etching using a liquid mixture of ammonium fluoride and hydrofluoric acid.
The shape of the top plate (nozzle member) 101 fabricated by the above-described process is shown in FIGS. 9A to 9C. When the patterning is performed to form the liquid chamber, both sides of silicon are patterned substantially the same in the drawings; however, the size of the pattern at the recording liquid supplying side (i.e., the upper surface in FIG. 7) may be reduced as long as a penetrating hole can be formed by anisotropic etching. From the point of view of connection with a recording liquid supplying member (not shown) and securing the wafer strength during the formation of the top plate, it is preferable that the pattern be smaller than that on the nozzle side.
Because the above-described conventional method for fabricating the top plate (nozzle member) employs a silicon anisotropic etching technique to fabricate the top plate, the top plate can be produced by wafer-scale fabrication techniques, enhancing mass-productivity. Also, since a photolithography technique is employed to form the nozzles, the nozzles can be precisely formed with high density. However, the shape of the liquid chamber formed by anisotropic etching is complex, as shown in FIGS. 9A to 9C. More particularly, whereas the <111> plane of silicon is perpendicular to the surface of the side wall in the longitudinal direction of the nozzle, there is no independent <111> plane in the arraying direction of the nozzles and the <111> plane meets the wall surface at an angle of 55 degrees and at an angle of 71 degrees in the nozzle arraying direction. Consequently, when anisotropic etching is performed to form the liquid chamber, the liquid chamber is over-etched in the nozzle direction, leaving these two surfaces at the corners, and the resulting liquid chamber 102 has the complex shape shown in FIGS. 9A to 9C. The liquid chamber is etched for a time period sufficient to form a penetrating hole. Since a typical wafer is approximately 0.6 mm thick from the point of view of strength, the wafer is subjected to anisotropic etching of approximately 0.3 mm in depth when the top plate is fabricated according to the steps shown in FIGS. 8A to 8H and 8A′ to 8H′. Since the over-etched amount in the nozzle direction is substantially the same as the depth, the chip size must be undesirably large, resulting in an inefficient chip size, and there is a problem in that the number of chips fabricated from one wafer is significantly reduced. Also, because the angled surfaces relative to the nozzle arraying direction remain in the vicinity of the liquid chamber inner side surfaces, flow resistance of the recording liquid differs according to the difference in the shapes of the liquid chamber at both ends and at a center region. In other words, because the conditions for refilling the recording liquid (the nozzles are refilled with recording liquid after being discharged) vary, discharge characteristics vary among the nozzles, causing printing quality to vary and performance of the head to degrade.

Method for manufacturing liquid jet recording head


A method, system, and program product for creating a logical hierarchy for visualization and editing of data stored in a relational database. A plurality of data entities and relationships are first determined. A plurality of information on the structure of the relational database is maintained within a schema of control tables. A hierarchy path to impose on the relational database is defined interactively. A hierarchical visualization of data in the relational database is then presented on a user interface using the defined hierarchy path. Editing of the logical hierarchy presented on the user interface automatically edits data stored in the relational database.

Historically, most transaction systems use relational database platforms with a normalized data model to efficiently store data and manage updates. While the relationships stored in the normalized data model are the basis for hierarchical consolidations, transaction systems tend to provide form-based or tabular views to users for viewing and updating of information. This architecture is highly efficient for transaction processing and integrity.
Normalization is the process of structuring relational database schema to remove most redundancies and inconsistencies. The stages of normalization are referred to as normal forms, ranging from the least restrictive first normal form to the most restrictive fifth normal form. Generally, each higher normal form must meet all the requirements of each lower normal form in addition to meeting the specific requirements of the higher normal form. Most relational database designs meet the requirements of the third normal form (3NF) rules in which all columns are removed that do not depend on the primary key. In other words, all non-key attributes are mutually independent.
Many computer software applications for reporting and analysis, such as data warehouses and Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) applications, use hierarchical representations of data relationships (hierarchies) to support user visualization of the relationships and provide a navigation path from summary data to detail data and vice versa. Current software applications that provide both hierarchical visualization and hierarchy editing capabilities to users rely on specialized or proprietary data stores which often require duplication of data from transactional or other systems.

Derived hierarchy methods and system for definition, visualization and editing of data


A door speed is detected at every predetermined detecting time, and a door position is calculated at a timing detected the door speed. A target speed according to the door position is obtained by a map. A microcomputer calculates a speed difference xcex94VD between the target speed and the actual or present speed, and an acceleration/deceleration value xcex94VC such as the speed difference between the door speed at the last detecting time and the present detecting time. A duty increasing value and the decreasing value of a PWM duty command value for adjusting a torque of the motor are set based on the speed difference xcex94VD and the acceleration/deceleration value xcex94VC, the motor is driven by the PWM duty command value based on the duty increasing value and the decreasing value.

This invention generally relates to an opening/closing apparatus of an opening/closing body for a vehicle and a method for opening/closing such a body. More particularly, this invention relates to an opening/closing control apparatus and an opening/closing control method of a slide door driven by a motor installed on a side of the vehicle.
One example of an opening/closing control apparatus, such as a speed control apparatus, of an opening/closing body is known from Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 9(1997)-125818. In the speed control apparatus of the opening/closing body, the moving speed of the slide door is detected intermittently. A controller judges whether the detected value is greater than an upper limit to be set for a target speed or whether the detected value is less than a lower limit (condition 1). When condition 1 is repeated two times, the controller detects an adaptation difference in which the moving speed is too fast or too late, and the controller adjusts an adjustment amount by which the target speed changes based on the adaptation difference. Further, the moving speed of the slide door based on the adjustment amount is detected, the adjustment amount is adjusted again. Therefore, the adaptation difference for the target speed of the slide door is reliably detected. Thereby, even if gravity acts on the slide door on a sloping road, for example, the moving speed is controlled with respect to the target speed.
However, in the speed control apparatus of the opening/closing body in the above-mentioned published application, because the adjustment amount for changing the target speed is adjusted based on only the present speed of the opening/closing body, an opening/closing body having a large inertia weight such as a slide door of a vehicle is difficult to control with a small delay for the target speed. Particularly when the target speed changes according to an opening/closing position of the slide door and the sliding resistance fluctuates, the door speed is difficult to control with a small delay for the target speed as the speed changing pattern of the opening/closing body changes for the same adjustment amount.
A need exists for a way of controlling the speed of an opening/closing body for the target speed with a small delay even if a load acting on the opening/closing body or the target speed is changed by changing of the position of the opening/closing body with an opening/closing control apparatus and method of the opening/closing body for a vehicle, of which an opening/closing speed of the opening/closing body is controlled for the target speed according to on the position of the opening/closing body.
One aspect of the invention involves an opening/closing control method of an opening/closing body for a vehicle including detecting a position of the opening/closing body within an opening/closing area moving the opening/closing body and a motion speed of the opening/closing body at the position of the opening/closing body, obtaining a predetermined target speed of the opening/closing body at the position of the opening/closing body, controlling a feeding value for a motor moving the opening/closing body based on the motion speed and the target speed, driving the motor by a torque depend on the feeding amount includes steps of calculating a speed difference between the motion speed and the target speed for the position of the opening/closing body at every detecting time of the motion speed, calculating an acceleration/deceleration value such as a speed difference between a last detected motion speed and a present detected motion speed, setting a feeding amount increasing/decreasing value for changing the torque of the motor based on at least the speed difference and the acceleration/deceleration value, and controlling the motor by a torque depending on one of a feeding value added a last obtained feeding value to the feeding amount increasing/decreasing value and a feeding value subtracted the feeding amount increasing/decreasing value from the last obtained feeding value.
The feeding amount is determined based on the speed difference between the target speed and motion speed of the opening/closing body when the motion speed is detected and on the acceleration/deceleration value such as the speed difference between the last detected motion speed and the present detected motion speed, and the motor torque is adjusted by the feeding amount. Therefore, even if the load acting on the opening/closing body changed by opening/closing of the opening/closing body, or the target speed is set so as to be change according to the position of the opening/closing body, the speed of the opening/closing body is controlled for the target speed at the position of the opening/closing body within small delay.
According to another aspect of the invention, an opening/closing control apparatus of an opening/closing body for a vehicle includes motor operating means for operating a motor driving the opening/closing body by a torque depending on a feeding amount, position detecting means for detecting a position of the opening/closing body within a opening/closing area moving of the opening/closing body, target speed memory means for memorizing a target speed of the opening/closing body to be set at the position of the opening/closing body within the opening/closing area, motion speed detecting means for detecting a motion speed of the opening/closing body, speed difference obtaining means for calculating the target speed at the position of the opening/closing body and the motion speed at every detecting time of the motion speed, acceleration/deceleration value obtaining means for calculating the acceleration/deceleration value such as a speed difference between the last detected motion speed and the present detected motion speed, feeding increasing/decreasing value setting means for setting a feeding increasing/decreasing value changing the torque of the motor based on the speed difference and the acceleration/deceleration value, and motor control means for controlling the motor by one of a feeding value added the last obtained feeding value to the feeding increasing/decreasing value and a feeding value subtracted the feeding increasing/decreasing value from the last obtained feeding value.
The torque of the motor is determined by controlling a feeding value based on the speed difference between the target speed at the position of the opening/closing body and motion speed and the acceleration/deceleration value such as the speed difference between the last detected motion speed and the present detected motion speed. Therefore, even if the load acting on the opening/closing body changed by moving of the opening/closing body, or the target speed is set so as to be changed according to the position of the opening/closing body, the speed of the opening/closing body is controlled for the target speed at the position of the opening/closing body within small delay.
The opening/closing control apparatus further includes moving direction detecting means for detecting a moving direction of the opening/closing body, the feeding increasing/decreasing value setting means sets the feeding increasing/decreasing value based on the speed difference, the acceleration/deceleration value, and the motion direction when the positions of the opening/closing body is in an acceleration/deceleration area where the target speed is increased/decreased depending on a change of the position of the opening/closing body. When the target speed is in the acceleration/deceleration area where the target speed depending on the position of the opening/closing body increases or decreases, the feeding increasing/decreasing value is set based on the moving direction according to the changing of the target speed. Therefore, when the target speed increases by the motion of opening/closing body, the increasing value of the feeding increasing/decreasing value is larger than the decreasing thereof, thereby the speed of the opening/closing body is controlled so as not to large apart from the target speed. Further, when the target speed decreases, the decreasing value of the feeding increasing/decreasing value is larger than the increasing value thereof, thereby the speed of the opening/closing body is controlled so as not to large apart from the target speed. Accordingly, in the acceleration/deceleration area changing the target speed, the speed of the opening/closing body is controlled for the target speed at the position of the opening/closing body within small delay. Furthermore, when the speed of the opening/closing speed dropped from the target speed by entrapment of the obstacle etc., a large load by the motion of the opening/closing body does not act on the object, as the feeding amount does not increase rapidly.
The feeding increasing/decreasing value setting means sets an increasing value from a sum of plural feeding increasing/decreasing values to be predetermined set in the acceleration/deceleration area when the moving direction of the opening/closing body is a direction increasing the target speed in the acceleration/deceleration area, and sets an decreasing value from a sum of plural feeding increasing/decreasing values to be predetermined set in the acceleration/deceleration area when the moving direction of the opening/closing body is a direction decreasing the target speed in the acceleration/deceleration area. When the opening/closing body moves in a direction increasing the target speed, the sum of plural times of the feeding increasing/decreasing values to be predetermined set in the acceleration/deceleration area is set as the increasing value, and when the motion of the opening/closing body is the direction decreasing the target speed, the speed of the opening/closing body is controlled so as not to large apart from the target speed. Accordingly, in the acceleration/deceleration area changing the target speed, the speed of the opening/closing body is controlled by a small delay for the target speed at the position of the opening/closing body.
The feeding increasing/decreasing value setting means sets from each sum of the increasing value and the decreasing value of plural feeding increasing/decreasing values to be predetermined set in a large load area is larger than each sum of the increasing value and the decreasing value of plural feeding increasing/decreasing values to be predetermined set in an area except the large load area when the position of the opening/closing body is in a large load area where a load resistance by a moving of the opening/closing body is large. In the large load area where the load resistance acting on the opening/closing body is large, the amount by which the speed of the opening/closing body changes for the target speed is larger than the amount which the speed thereof in the area except the large load area. Accordingly, even if the load resistance according to the change of the position of the opening/closing body changes, the speed of the opening/closing body is controlled by a small delay for the target speed in all of the opening/closing area.
The opening/closing control apparatus can further include overload detecting means for detecting whether the load resistance acting on the opening/closing body is more than a predetermined load judging value, and reverse control means for controlling the motor by a predetermined overload feeding amount when the load resistance is more than the load judging value, and moving the opening/closing body in a reverse direction. When the large load such as the overload acts on the opening/closing body during the motion of the opening/closing body, the opening/closing body is driven in the reverse direction by the speed of the opening/closing body according to the overload-feeding amount to be predetermined, set. Accordingly, for example, as the overload feeding amount is set as the maximum feeding amount for the motor, the time when the load by the opening/closing body acts on the object can be short.

Opening/closing control apparatus of opening/closing body for vehicle and method thereof


A color image forming apparatus provided with plural charging devices, plural image exposure devices, and plural developing devices which are arranged around the outer circumference of a photoreceptor so that a color image is formed during a single rotation of the photoreceptor. The apparatus comprises a supporting cylinder for enclosing the photoreceptor and for supporting the plural image exposure devices thereon.

The present invention relates to an electrophotographic color image forming apparatus in which a plurality of charging means, image exposure means and developing means are arranged along the circumferential surface of a drum-shaped image-forming member, and toner images are formed and superimposed while the image-forming member is rotated by one revolution.
Concerning the method for forming a multi-color image, there have been known some methods including apparatus (A) in which photoreceptors, charging units and developing units each in quantity equivalent to the number of colors necessary for the multi-color image are provided, and toner images each being a mono-color formed on each photoreceptor are superimposed on an intermediate transfer member to form a color image, apparatus (B) in which one photoreceptor is caused to make plural turns so that charging, image exposure and developing for each color are repeated for forming a color image, and apparatus (C) in which charging, image exposure and developing for each color are conducted in succession while one photoreceptor makes one turn for forming a color image.
However, the apparatus (A) has a drawback that the dimensions of the apparatus are increased because a plurality of photoreceptors and intermediate transfer meters are required, while the apparatus (B) has a restriction that the size of a formed image is limited to the surface area or less of the photoreceptor although the dimensions of the apparatus can be small because the required number of each of the charging means, image exposure means and photoreceptor is just one.
In the case of the apparatus (C), which makes it possible to form images at high speed, it still has a contradiction that the diameter of a photoreceptor is large and thereby the apparatus is also large due to the following two reasons; one is the necessity that a plurality of charging units, image exposure means and developing units need to be arranged within a circumferential surface of the photoreceptor, and the other is the necessity that the distance between the image exposure means and the developing unit needs to be long for avoiding a possibility that image quality is deteriorated by toner leaking from the developing unit to which an image exposure optical system is located close.
For the purpose of avoiding the drawback of the aforementioned contradiction in the apparatus (C), there has been suggested an apparatus in which the base of an image-forming member is formed from a transparent material, a plurality of image exposure means are housed in the image-forming member, and a light-sensitive layer formed on the external surface of the base is exposed to light reflected on an image through the base (for example, Japanese Patent Publication Open to Public Inspection No. 307307/1993).
However, in the apparatus suggested above, since the image exposure means are provided inside the image forming member and the great number of charging devices and developing devices are mounted outside the image forming member, the construction inevitably becomes complicated. Further, a mounting and dismounting operation for the developing devices, the image forming member and the image exposure means becomes troublesome and the handling operation for the machinery components may be not easy. Also, it may be difficult to maintain a predetermined precise positional relation among the machinery components. Still further, to rotate the image forming member together with the optical exposure system incorporated in the image forming member and to mount or dismount the image forming member requires a difficult technique.
In particular, the optical exposure system is arranged with high precision among LEDs and between each LED and the image forming member. Accordingly, if deformation or positional deviation takes place on the optical exposure system at the time of mounting or dismounting the image forming member, the registration of the superimposed images or the image forming position may be deviated, resulting in that a good quality image may be not obtained.

Electrophotographic color image forming apparatus with a plurality of image exposing devices arranged around outer circumference of photoreceptor


An ignitor assembly for a fossil fuel-fired power generation system includes an elongate electrode, a tube sub assembly, and a coupling sub assembly, and an insulator sub assembly. The coupling sub assembly cooperates with other structural elements of the ignitor assembly and the respective windbox in which the ignitor assembly is installed to operably couple the elongate electrode to an external electrical power source. The ignitor assembly includes a contact socket secured by crimping to a lead of the external electrical power source which is biased into an electric current communicating disposition with the electrode rod of the ignitor assembly.

The present invention relates to an ignitor assembly for a fossil fuel-fired furnace.
Ignitors are provided in fossil fuel-fired furnaces to start or supplement the combustion activities in the furnaces. For example, in one known type of coal-fired unit, coal to be burned in the furnace is dried and pulverized in a coal mill and delivered directly from the coal mill to the load-carrying coal nozzles in the furnace. Operation of the coal mills requires that heated air be supplied to the mills for drying and conveying the coal. This air is supplied by a forced-draft fan that forces the air through an air preheater, a device that uses the hot products of combustion in the furnace to preheat the air. This preheated primary air, the air used for drying and conveying coal, is delivered with the coal to the coal nozzles and used to support combustion. The primary air is typically not sufficient in quantity to support combustion of all the coal, so secondary air is brought directly from the air preheater to the furnace to supply the rest of the air needed for combustion. The coal thus supplied with air is caused to burn due to ignition energy from the primary air, the secondary air, the heat in the coal itself, radiation and conduction from flame in the furnace, and radiation from furnace walls.
It is to be noted that almost all of these combustion energy sources presuppose that the furnace has already been operating, and, in the large furnaces used in power generation, it presupposes that the furnace has been operating for a fairly long time. Accordingly, in order to cause and sustain combustion of the coal, it is necessary to use an auxiliary fuel for warming up the furnace walls, for providing ignition flame, and for warming up the air preheater. This is usually the function of oil- or gas-fired ignitors and warm-up guns.
In a typical installation, a relatively high-capacity oil burner is started by an ignitor, and this starts the process or warming up the furnace walls and the heat-exchange surfaces of the air preheater. Once the furnace has been brought up to temperature, the coal nozzles are ignited by oil- or gas-fired ignitors or by the warm-up guns themselves.
The use of auxiliary fuel is not necessarily over when the coal nozzles have started to supply coal. At higher boiler loadsxe2x80x94that is, when the amount of coal supplied by the nozzles is greatxe2x80x94the furnace can typically maintain stable combustion of the pulverized coal. However, when the load goes down and the coal supply is thereby decreased, the stability of the pulverized coal flame is also decreased, and it is therefore common practice to use the ignitors or warn-up guns to maintain flame in the furnace, thus avoiding the accumulation of unburned coal dust in the furnace and the associated danger of explosion.
Certain portions of an ignitor mounted in a windbox compartment of a furnace are subjected to relatively high temperatures on the order of 500 degrees Fahrenheit or higher. In some conventional ignitors, there is a risk that the ignitor wire may burn up In the event that insufficient cooling air contacts the ignitor. Another risk exists in that a loosely wrapped connection between the solid rod spark plug of the ignitor and the supply lead of the external electrical power source may result in inefficient spark transfer. Accordingly, the need exists for an improved ignitor assembly for a furnace which provides a reliable spark action and which has improved survivability in a high temperature environment.
It is one object of the present invention to provide an ignitor assembly for a fossil fuel-fired furnace which advantageously permits easier installation and removal of the ignitor assembly relative to its installed disposition in the furnace.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an ignitor assembly for a fossil fuel-fired furnace which offers ease of installation and removal of the electrical wire or lead which connects the ignitor assembly to an external electrical source.
It is an additional object of the present invention to provide an ignitor assembly for a fossil fuel-fired furnace which, in comparison to conventional ignitor assemblies, reduces and simplifies the installation process or the removal process, respectively, of the ignitor assembly.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide an ignitor assembly for a fossil fuel-fired furnace which offers a less complex, more robust configuration thus leading to improved reliability of the ignitor assembly in comparison to conventional ignitor assemblies.
It is a further additional object of the present invention to provide an ignitor assembly for a fossil fuel-fired furnace which has a configuration that advantageously disposes temperature sensitive elements, such as the electrical supply lead connecting elements, at a relatively greater spacing from the higher temperature environments of the furnace, as compared to conventional ignitor assemblies.
It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide an ignitor assembly for a fossil fuel-fired furnace which provides a coupling means for maintaining the electrode rod in connection with the supply lead of the external electrical source which is independent of the electrical communication interface between the electrode rod and the supply lead.
These and other objects of the present invention, which are intended to provide advantages over conventional ignitor assemblies, shall become apparent from the specification in which the preferred embodiment of the ignitor assembly of the present invention will be described and claimed.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided an ignitor assembly for a fossil fuel-fired combustion furnace having an electrode rod and an elongate electrode rod housing for supporting therewithin the electrode rod. The elongate housing has an opening at one axial end for receiving therethrough an external electrical source connector which is operable to supply electrical current from an external electrical source. The ignitor assembly additionally includes means for electrically interconnecting the electrode rod connector and an external electrical source connector to one another. The electrically interconnecting means is operable to establish electrical communication between the electrode rod connector and the external electrical source connector when the electrode rod connector and the external electrical source connector are disposed at respective predetermined positions relative to one another forming a communication interface through which electrical current flows between the electrode rod connector and the external electrical source connector. The ignitor assembly further includes means remote from the communication interface for biasing the electrode rod connector and the external electrical source connector into their respective predetermined positions forming the communication interface whereby a reliable electrical current path is maintained between the external electrical source and the electrode rod.
Preferably, the remote biasing means of the ignitor assembly includes means for resiliently biasing the electrode rod connector and the external electrical source connector into their respective predetermined positions forming the communication interface. Moreover, it is preferable that the electrically interconnecting means includes a contact socket secured to the external electrical source connector and having a receiving chamber for receiving therein the electrode rod connector. Additionally, it is preferred that the means for resiliently biasing includes means for engaging the contact socket to bias the contact socket in a direction toward the electrode rod connector.

Ignitor assembly for a fossil fuel-fired power generation system


Propargylamine, propargylamine derivatives including N-propargyl-1-aminoindan, enantiomers and analogs thereof, and pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof, are useful for prevention or treatment of cardiovascular disorders, diseases and conditions.

The present invention relates to compositions and methods for the treatment of cardiovascular disorders and diseases and, more particularly, to propargylamine and derivatives thereof for use in said compositions and methods.
Cardiovascular Disorders and Diseases
Cardiovascular disorders and diseases and their associated complications are a principal cause of disabilities and deaths of individuals in the United States and Western Europe. For example, in recent years more than 500,000 deaths have occurred annually in the United States alone as a result of coronary artery disease, and an additional 700,000 patients have been hospitalized for myocardial infarction.
Ischemic heart disease (IHD) is the most common, serious, chronic, life-threatening illness among the cardiovascular disorders and diseases. Ischemia, reduced myocardial perfusion, which causes lack of oxygen (hypoxia) as well as other metabolic changes, is the most common effect resulting from an inadequate blood flow through the coronary arteries, which are the blood suppliers of the heart. The most common cause of myocardial ischemia is the atherosclerotic disease of epicardial coronary arteries. The plaques consist of subintimal collections of fat, cells, and debris, which develop at irregular rates in different segments of the epicardial coronary tree, and lead eventually to segmental reductions in cross-sectional area (stenosis). When the coronary artery cross-section area is reduced by ˜75%, a full range of increases in flow to meet increased myocardial demand is not possible. When the luminal area is reduced by more than 80%, blood flow at rest may be reduced, and further minor decreases in the stenotic orifice can reduce coronary flow dramatically and cause myocardial ischemia and infarction. This situation impairs myocardial contractility during exercise, creating the chest angina. Critical stenosis of the coronaries can cause chest angina even at rest, implying that the myocardium is suffering from lack of perfusion. The most serious complication of ischemic heart disease is acute myocardial infarction (AMI), which is one of the most common diagnoses in hospitalized patients. AMI generally occurs when coronary blood flow decreases abruptly after a thrombotic occlusion of a coronary artery, previously narrowed by atherosclerotic plaque. Although the mortality rate after admission for AMI has declined by about 30% over the last two decades, approximately 1 of every 25 patients who survives the initial hospitalization dies in the first year after AMI. The first step is the dissection of the atherosclerotic plaque, which causes the exposure of the thrombogenic plaque core to the blood. Because of its high thrombogenicity, a thrombus consists mainly of fibrin and activated thrombocyte is rapidly growing from the plaque core. Consequently, blood flow is seriously disturbed until there is no sufficient blood flow to the myocardium and an infarction begins due to lack of perfusion of oxygen.
There are various insults which cause the myocardial damage during myocardial ischemia and infarction. Lack of adequate perfusion to the heart tissue may result in: (i) lack of oxygen (hypoxia); (ii) growth factors and nutrients deprivation (e.g., IGF-1, insulin, glucose); (iii) acidosis (lactic acid production); (iv) hyperkalemia (due to environmental acidosis and cell damage); and/or (v) during ischemia, but mostly following reperfusion (resumption of the blood flow to the ischemic tissue), reactive oxygen species (ROS) such as H2O2, O2− OH− are created by the ischemic cells and by damage to neighboring cells. Each and every of these insults has been shown to exert damage to cardiomyocytes both in vivo and in vitro.
Two main cellular death types occur in nature: necrosis and apoptosis. While necrosis is a random process, often initiated by hostile environmental stimuli, apoptosis is a programmed cell death in which distinct intracellular signaling pathways are activated. Apoptosis is a fundamental physiological and pathologic mechanism that allows elimination of no-longer useful cells during embryogenesis, or of aged or damaged cells during life. Unlike necrosis, which involves large number of cells, apoptosis usually affects small number of cells without inflammation. In apoptosis, the nuclear DNA is "digested" into small fragments by special DNAses, while cytoskeletal and myofibrillar proteins are degraded by specialized proteases as well. At the final stages, the cell dissolves into a characteristic membrane bound vesicles (apoptotic bodies), which are quickly phagocyted by phagocytic neighboring cells.
Cells can undergo apoptosis caused by intrinsic stimuli, e.g. hypoxia, ROS, chemotherapies, or by extrinsic stimuli, mainly referred to activation of death receptors such as TNF-α and Fas.
Fas is a ubiquitous cell-surface receptor involved in apoptosis initiation. Fas belongs to the TNF/NGF superfamily, and is activated by Fas Ligand (FasL), which may cause apoptosis in Fas-bearing cells (Berke, 1997). It appears that while healthy cardiomyocytes are resistant to Fas-mediated apoptosis, during cardiac pathologies cardiomyocytes become sensitive to Fas-mediated apoptosis. Recent studies suggest that in several important heart diseases such as myocarditis, hypertrophy, ischemia, ischemia/reperfusion and heart failure, Fas activation results in apoptotic as well as in non-apoptotic effects, both contributing to cardiac dysfunction (Haunstetter and Izumo, 1998; Binah, 2000). Recent studies have shown that Fas activation is involved not only in myocardial pathologies inflicted by immune effectors (CTLs) such as transplant rejection, myocarditis and the resulting dilated cardiomyopathy (Binah, 2000; Hershkowitz et al., 1987), but also in lymphocyte-independent diseases such as ischemia/reperfusion injuries (Fliss and Gattinger, 1996; Yaoita et al., 1998; Jeremias et al., 2000). In this regard, it was recently proposed that FasL can be cleaved by a metalloprotease to form soluble FasL (sFasL), which can cause apoptosis in susceptible cells. Therefore, sFasL, which may be secreted from the failing heart and is elevated in patients with advanced congestive heart failure (Yamaguchi et al., 1999), is a potential contributor to apoptosis in this wide-spread heart pathology.
Programmed cell death (apoptosis) is recognized, increasingly, as a contributing cause of cardiac myocyte loss with ischemia/reperfusion injury, myocardial infarction, and long-standing heart failure.
Propargylamine and Propargylamine Derivatives
Several propargylamine derivatives have been shown to selectively inhibit monoamine oxidase (MAO)-B and/or MAO-A activity and, thus to be suitable for treatment of neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease. In addition, these compounds have been further shown to protect against neurodegeneration by preventing apoptosis.
Rasagiline, R(+)—N-propargyl-1-aminoindan, a highly potent selective irreversible monoamine oxidase (MAO)-B inhibitor, has been shown to exhibit neuroprotective activity and antiapoptotic effects against a variety of insults in cell cultures and in vivo.
Rasagiline has been developed for Parkinson's disease as monotherapy or as an adjunct to L-dopa therapy (Youdim et al., 2001; Parkinson Study Group, 2002; Finberg and Youdim, 2002; Gassen et al., 2003). Phase III controlled studies have shown that rasagiline is effective with a dose of as low as 1 mg/kg in monotherapy (Parkinson Study group, 2002) and as an adjunct to L-dopa, comparable in its effect to the anti-Parkinson catechol-O-methyltranferase (COMT) inhibitor, entacapone (Brooks and Sagar, 2003). Rasagiline has recently finished the phase III clinical trials and has been approved for treatment of Parkinson's disease in Europe, Israel, and in the U.S.
Rasagiline exhibits neuroprotective activities both in vitro and in vivo (for review see Mandel et al., 2003; Youdim, 2003) which may contribute to its possible disease modifying activity. It is metabolized to its major two metabolites: aminoindan (here designated "TVP-136") and S(−)—N-propargyl-1-aminoindan (here designated "TVP-1022") (Youdim et al., 2001), which also have neuroprotective activity against serum deprivation and 1-methamphetamine-induced neurotoxicity in partially differentiated PC-12 cells (Am et al., 2004).
Rasagiline [R(+)—N-propargyl-1-aminoindan] and pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof were first disclosed in US patents U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,387,612, 5,453,446, 5,457,133, 5,576,353, 5,668,181, 5,786,390, 5,891,923, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,630,514 as useful for the treatment of Parkinson's disease, memory disorders, dementia of the Alzheimer type, depression, and the hyperactive syndrome. The 4-fluoro-, 5-fluoro- and 6-fluoro-N-propargyl-1-aminoindan derivatives were disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,486,541 for the same purposes.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,519,061, 5,599,991, 5,744,500, 6,277,886, 6,316,504, 5,576,353, 5,668,181, 5,786,390, 5,891,923, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,630,514 disclose R(+)—N-propargyl-1-aminoindan and pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof as useful for treatment of additional indications, namely, an affective illness, a neurological hypoxia or anoxia, neurodegenerative diseases, a neurotoxic injury, stroke, brain ischemia, a head trauma injury, a spinal trauma injury, schizophrenia, an attention deficit disorder, multiple sclerosis, and withdrawal symptoms.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,251,938 describes N-propargyl-phenylethylamine compounds, and U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,303,650, 6,462,222 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,538,025 describe N-propargyl-1-aminoindan and N-propargyl-1-aminotetralin compounds, said to be useful for treatment of depression, attention deficit disorder, attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder, Tourette's syndrome, Alzheimer's disease and other dementia such as senile dementia, dementia of the Parkinson's type, vascular dementia and Lewy body dementia.
The first compound found to selectively inhibit MAO-B was R—(−)—N-methyl-N-(prop-2-ynyl)-2-aminophenylpropane, also known as L-(−)-deprenyl, R—(−)-deprenyl, or selegiline. In addition to Parkinson's disease, other diseases and conditions for which selegiline is disclosed as being useful include: drug withdrawal (WO 92/21333, including withdrawal from psychostimulants, opiates, narcotics, and barbiturates); depression (U.S. Pat. No. 4,861,800); Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease, particularly through the use of transdermal dosage forms, including ointments, creams and patches; macular degeneration (U.S. Pat. No. 5,242,950); age-dependent degeneracies, including renal function and cognitive function as evidenced by spatial learning ability (U.S. Pat. No. 5,151,449); pituitary-dependent Cushing's disease in humans and nonhumans (U.S. Pat. No. 5,192,808); immune system dysfunction in both humans (U.S. Pat. No. 5,387,615) and animals (U.S. Pat. No. 5,276,057); age-dependent weight loss in mammals (U.S. Pat. No. 5,225,446); schizophrenia (U.S. Pat. No. 5,151,419); and various neoplastic conditions including cancers, such as mammary and pituitary cancers. WO 92/17169 discloses the use of selegiline in the treatment of neuromuscular and neurodegenerative disease and in the treatment of CNS injury due to hypoxia, hypoglycemia, ischemic stroke or trauma. In addition, the biochemical effects of selegiline on neuronal cells have been extensively studied (e.g., see Tatton, et al., 1991 and 1993). U.S. Pat. No. 6,562,365 discloses the use of desmethylselegiline for selegiline-responsive diseases and conditions.
Selegiline (1-deprenyl) is a selective MAO-B inhibitor which is a useful anti-Parkinson drug both in monotherapy (Parkinson Study Group, 1989) and as an adjunct to L-DOPA therapy, and has L-DOPA sparing action (Birkmayer et al., 1977; Riederer and Rinne, 1992; Parkinson Study Group, 1989). Selegiline is a propargyl derivative of 1-methamphetamine and thus its major metabolite is 1-methamphetamine (Szoko et al., 1999; Kraemer and Maurer, 2002; Shin, 1997), which is neurotoxic (Abu-Raya et al., 2002; Am et al., 2004). In contrast to aminoindan, a rasagiline metabolite, L-methamphetamine prevents the neuroprotective activities of rasagiline and selegiline in partially differentiated cultured PC-12 cells (Am et al., 2004).
Selegiline and methamphetamine, unlike rasagiline and aminoindan, have sympathomimetic activity (Simpson, 1978) that increases heart rate and blood pressure (Finberg et al., 1990; Finberg et al., 1999). Recent studies (Glezer and Finberg, 2003) have indicated that the sympathomimetic action of selegiline can be attributed to its 1-methamphetamine and amphetamine metabolites. These properties are absent in rasagiline and in its metabolite aminoindan. Parkinsonian patients receiving combined treatments with selegiline plus levodopa have been reported to have a higher mortality rate than those treated with levodopa alone (Lees, 1995). This is not related to the MAO-B inhibitory activity of selegiline, but is rather attributed to its sympathomimetic action and methamphetamine metabolites (Reynolds et al., 1978; Lavian et al., 1993).
Several propargylamine derivatives have been shown to selectively inhibit MAO-B and/or MAO-A activity and, thus to be suitable for treatment of neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease. In addition, these compounds have been further shown to protect against neurodegeneration by preventing apoptosis.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,169,868, 5,840,979 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,251,950 disclose aliphatic propargylamines as selective MAO-B inhibitors, neuroprotective and cellular rescue agents. The lead compound, (R)-N-(2-heptyl)methyl-propargylamine(R-2HMP), has been shown to be a potent MAO-B inhibitor and antiapoptotic agent (Durden et al., 2000).
Propargylamine was reported many years ago to be a mechanism-based inhibitor of the copper-containing bovine plasma amine oxidase (BPAO), though the potency was modest. U.S. Pat. No. 6,395,780 discloses propargylamine as a weak glycine-cleavage system inhibitor. Copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/952,379, entitled "Use of propargylamine as neuroprotective agent", filed on Sep. 29, 2004, discloses that propargylamine exhibits neuroprotective and anti-apoptotic activities and can, therefore, be used for all known uses of rasagiline and similar drugs containing the propargylamine moiety.
Copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/244,150, entitled "Methods for treatment of renal failure", filed on Oct. 6, 2005, discloses a method for treatment of a renal failure, either acute or chronic, which comprises administering to the subject an amount of an active agent selected from the group consisting of propargylamine, a propargylamine derivative, and a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof.
All and each of the above-mentioned US patents and patent applications are herewith incorporated by reference in their entirety as if fully disclosed herein.

Methods for treatment of cardiovascular disorders and diseases

Technion Research and Development Foundation Ltd.


The present invention relates to an optical device integrated with a driving circuit and a power supply circuit, a method for manufacturing an optical device substrate used therein, and a substrate thereof, which are capable of reducing the overall size and facilitating the handling and management thereof by mounting a plurality of optical elements, driving circuits thereof, and power supply circuits thereof on a single substrate for an optical device having a vertical insulating layer. The objective of the present invention is to provide the optical device integrated with the driving circuit and the power supply circuit, the method for manufacturing the optical device substrate used therein, and the substrate thereof which are capable of reducing the overall size and facilitating the handling and the management thereof by mounting the plurality of optical elements, the driving circuits thereof, and the power supply circuits thereof on the single substrate for the optical device having the vertical insulating layer.

Generally, a light emitting diode (LED) has attracted considerable attention as an environmentally friendly light source in various fields since it causes no pollution. Recently, the usage range of an LED has extended to various fields such as interior and exterior illumination, automobile head lights, and back-light units (BLUs) of displays, and thus an LED having high efficiency and excellent heat emission characteristics has been required. In order to obtain a high-efficiency LED, primarily, the raw material and structure of an LED must be improved, but, additionally, the raw material and structure of an LED package must also be improved.
High heat is generated from such a high-efficiency LED. Therefore, when high heat is not effectively discharged to the outside thereof, the temperature of the LED rises, and thus the characteristics thereof deteriorate, thereby reducing the lifetime thereof. For this reason, efforts have been made to effectively discharge the high heat emitted from a high-efficiency LED to the outside thereof.
Hereinafter, various kinds of elements emitting light, including an LED, are referred to as "optical elements", and various kinds of products including one or more optical elements are referred to as "optical devices".
FIGS. 1A to 1D are perspective views explaining a method of manufacturing a conventional optical device with respect to each process. First, as shown in FIG. 1A, in order to form a substrate 10 for mounting a conventional optical element, conductive plates 11, such as copper plates, having a predetermined thickness and insulating plates 12, such as glass plates or epoxy plates, having a predetermined thickness are alternately attached to each other in a plane direction, thus forming a laminate 13 (refer to FIG. 1B). Here, the attaching of the conductive plates 11 and the insulating plates 12 may be conducted by an adhesive or by thermo-compression bonding.
Next, as shown in FIG. 1B, when the laminate 13 is cut by a predetermined width in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the conductive plate 11, that is, in a vertical direction, a substrate 10, configured such that band-shaped conductive portions 10a and insulating portions 10b are alternately disposed, is obtained, as shown in FIG. 1C.
Next, as shown in FIG. 1D, LED chips 2 are disposed and mounted on each of the conductive portions (10a-{circle around (1)}, 10a-{circle around (2)}, 10a-{circle around (3)}) of the substrate 10 in a matrix form having regular intervals, and wires 3 are drawn out from each row of the conductive portions (10a-{circle around (1)}, 10a-{circle around (2)}, 10a-{circle around (3)}) and connected to the next row of the conductive portion 10a to obtain an LED array. The obtained LED array is molded with a transparent molding resin to prepare a plate-shaped LED array.
Meanwhile, the prepared plate-shaped LED array is configured such that its rows are electrically connected in parallel to each other and its lines are electrically connected in series to each other. In this case, this plate-shaped LED array may be directly made into a product or may be made into a product after it is separated along a row or line or is separated with respect to each piece. Moreover, when this plate-shaped LED array directly is used, it may be mounted on a metal printed circuit board (PCB) or may be provided thereunder with a heat sink.
FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view showing a conventional optical device including a plurality of optical elements. As shown in FIG. 2, for example, in order to drive the plate-shaped LED array 20 prepared by the method of FIG. 1, there are required a driving circuit including passive elements 30, such as a resistor and a condenser, and a driving IC 40 serving to supply static current to the plate-shaped LED array 20; and a power supply circuit 60 such as switching-mode power supply (SMPS). A conventional optical device is configured such that at least one of a driving circuit and a power supply circuit is separately provided and then connected to a plate-shaped LED array substrate 10 through a power cable 50. Therefore, the conventional optical device is problematic in that its total size becomes large and its treatment and control is not easy.

Optical device integrated with driving circuit and power supply circuit, method for manufacturing optical device substrate used therein, and substrate thereof


Provided is a method for efficiently producing a carbon nanotube dispersion liquid in which less-damaged carbon nanotubes are highly dispersed. The method for producing a carbon nanotube dispersion liquid includes: (A) obtaining a carbon nanotube dispersion liquid by applying a shear force to a coarse dispersion liquid that includes carbon nanotubes having a specific surface area of 600 m2/g or more to whereby disperse the carbon nanotubes, wherein the step (A) includes at least one of applying a back pressure to the carbon nanotube dispersion liquid and cooling the carbon nanotube dispersion liquid.

Composite materials, particularly those obtained by blending carbon materials into polymer materials such as resin and rubber, have been conventionally used as materials with superior electrical conductivity and mechanical characteristics. Among carbon materials, carbon nanotubes (hereinafter "CNTs") are now attracting attention because they highly improve electrical conductivity and mechanical characteristics. Specifically, a single-walled carbon nanotube (hereinafter "SWCNT"), a fibrous conductive filler that exhibits high electrical conductivity, is attracting particular attention as a carbon material of composite materials. SWCNT can improve the electrical conductivity and mechanical characteristics of the composite materials well even when the blending amount thereof is small.
Carbon materials or CNTs need to be uniformly dispersed in a matrix of a polymer material to achieve improved electrical conductivity and mechanical characteristics in the composite material well. The following technique has been proposed in the art: a CNT dispersion liquid obtained by uniformly dispersing CNTs in a solvent and a polymer material are mixed together to form a composite material composition, which is then prepared into a composite material where CNTs are uniformly dispersed in a matrix of the polymer material.
However, CNTs such as SWCNTs and the like having a large specific surface area tend to aggregate and tangle one another. Thus, the production of composite materials that include CNTs as a carbon material requires a technique of efficiently preparing a CNT dispersion liquid in which CNTs are uniformly dispersed.
To achieve this, JP2006016222A (PTL 1) for example proposes breaking coarsely-dispersed CNTs in a solvent using shear forces, shock waves, cavitation, and the like. This highly disperses the broken CNTs in a CNT dispersion liquid. JP2010254546A (PTL 2) proposes cutting and untangling aggregated CNTs in a solvent using an ultrasonic homogenizer. This also highly disperses CNTs in a CNT dispersion liquid.

Method for producing carbon nanotube dispersion liquid, method for producing composite material composition, method for producing composite material, composite material, and composite-material shaped product


Various embodiments of the present invention relate to a device and a method for setting an area for an interaction of reactive content in an electronic device, wherein an electronic device operating method can comprise the steps of: displaying an image acquired from an external electronic device electrically connected to the electronic device; correcting the image into a top view form; displaying a guide interface of a lattice pattern form such that the image corrected into a top view form is overlapped therewith; selecting at least a partial area of the guide interface; applying spatial coordinates for the at least partial area so as to set an area for an interaction in a sensor of the external electronic device; copying the selected at least partial area and attaching the same to an adjacent other area; and mapping content to the area for an interaction. Other embodiments are possible.

Various types of electronic products are developed and supplied with development of information communication technology and electronic technology, and electronic devices having various information providing functions are being used. Moreover, an electronic device is installed and used not only indoors but also outdoors such as on a street and in a store. For example, a digital signage device is a digital information display for outdoor advertising, and is installed on not only the street and the store but also an outer wall of a building to provide content (e.g., advertisement content).
A digital signage device may provide active content corresponding to context awareness information such as the number of users, gesture, voice, sound direction, and the like, acquired using a sensor. Hence, the digital signage device may be subject to creating and managing content corresponding to surrounding environment information where the digital signage device is installed. For example, if a specific business advertises a product through a digital signage device, it may need to create and manage content of the digital signage device installed in each store to correspond to a surrounding environment of the store where the digital signage device is installed.
Various embodiments of the present invention may provide an apparatus and a method for generating reactive content in an electronic device.
Various embodiments of the present invention may provide an apparatus and a method for setting an area (e.g., a three-dimensional area) for conducting an interaction through reactive content in an electronic device.
According to various embodiments of the present invention, an electronic device includes a communication interface, a display, and at least one processor, and the at least one processor may be configured to control the display to display an image received from an external electronic device through the communication interface, correct the image into a top view form, control the display to display a guide interface of a lattice pattern form to overlap the image which is corrected into the top view form, select at least partial area of the guide interface, set an area for an interaction of a sensor of the external electronic device by applying spatial coordinates for the at least partial area, and map content to the area for the interaction.
According to various embodiments of the present invention, an operating method of an electronic device may include displaying an image obtained from an external electronic device, correcting the image into a top view form, displaying a guide interface of a lattice pattern form to overlap the image which is corrected into the top view form, selecting at least partial area of the guide interface, setting an area for an interaction of a sensor of the external electronic device by applying spatial coordinates for the at least partial area, and mapping content to the area for the interaction.
An electronic device and its operating method according to various embodiments may separate the area setting for creating the reactive content and conducting the interaction through the reactive content, and thus easily create or edit the content corresponding to the digital signage device installed in each store.
An electronic device and its operating method according to various embodiments may set the area for conducting the interaction on the cell basis of the lattice in the three-dimensional image corrected to the top view, and thus easily set and change the area for the interaction corresponding to the reactive content.

Method for providing content and electronic device therefor


A valve assembly for a container filling machine. The filling machine includes a rotating turret or carrier having a series of platforms that support individual containers, such as cans, to be filled. Mounted above each platform is a valve assembly which controls the fluid flow to the can. Each valve assembly includes a valve body and a rotatable disc, and the body and the disc have mating surfaces, each containing ports that can be moved into registry as the disc is rotated with respect to the body to effect fluid flow. To rotate the disc during the cycle of operation, a single arm is attached to the disc and carries a follower which is adapted to engage a series of fixed cam tracks as the carrier rotates to move the arm and rotate the disc to obtain the desired registry of the ports.

The conventional filling machine for filling beverage cans includes approximately one hundred valve assemblies which are mounted on a rotatable carrier or turret, and each valve assembly is positioned above a lift cylinder and platform which supports a can or other container to be filled with liquid. Each valve assembly is connected to a central filler tank by three tubes; a large diameter tube provides a passage for the beer or other liquid to move from the tank to the valve assembly, while two smaller diameter tubes serve to conduct carbon dioxide and air between the tank and valve assembly.
The valve assembly, as used in the conventional filling machine, includes a valve body, a rotatable disc which is mounted for rotation with respect to the valve body, and an adapter which is connected to the valve body and seals against the top of the can to be filled. Both the valve body and the disc have mating flat surfaces and ports in the disc and the valve body are adapted to be brought into registry as the disc is rotated to provide the desired liquid and gas flow between the filler tank and the can.
To rotate the disc with respect to the valve body, the conventional valve assembly includes a pair of arms which extend outwardly from the disc, and the arms are adapted to contact a series of fixed cams as the carrier rotates to thereby rotate the disc and bring the ports in the disc and valve body into proper registry.
The conventional filling machine operates at high speeds, generally filling about 1500 cans per minute. At this high speed, there is considerable impact when the arms, which are located at an angle of approximately 90.degree. with respect to the direction of movement of the valve assembly, strike the cam surfaces, resulting in substantial wear on the arms and cam surfaces, and in some cases breakage of the arms, which produces a serious maintenance problem.
As an additional problem, at high operating speeds, the arms may tend to over-ride when leaving the cam surface, that is, continue to rotate beyond the proper point of index, with the result that the ports in the disc and the valve body are not in proper registry. By increasing the biasing force between the contiguous faces of the valve body and the disc, the tendency to override can be reduced. However, increasing the biasing force will necessitate an increased force to move the arms and rotate disc, and this results in additional wear on the arms and cam surfaces. On the other hand, if the biasing force is decreased, the tendency to over-ride or boucce off the cam surface is increased, resulting in possible misalignment between the ports in the disc and the valve body.

Valve control construction for a filling machine


Disclosed is a tape-leading mechanism for an automatic packer including a housing having a tape inlet provided at an upper portion thereof, a tape-storing roller set in the housing near the tape inlet, and a movable tape-feeding bridge interconnecting the tape-storing roller set and a tape-operating unit for automatically feeding a tape to the tape-operating unit which thereafter sends the tape to a tape rail for packing a package. The movable tape-feeding bridge downward extends into a lower tape-storing chamber when there is no tape to be fed to the tape-operating unit. And, when there is a tape to be threaded into the housing and led to the tape-operating unit, a push button can be depressed to rotate the tape-storing roller set and therefore move the tape-feeding bridge to a position interconnecting the tape-storing rollers and the tape-operating unit. After the tape is successfully led to the tape-operating unit, the tape-feeding bridge turns downward again to send the unused tape into the tape-storing chamber.

The present invention relates to a tape-leading mechanism for an automatic packer that allows an operator to handle tape-leading operation in a standing position and includes a movable tape-feeding bridge to enable timely controlled tape-feeding and tape-storing operations.
For all currently available automatic packers, one example of which is shown in FIG. 1, the tape-leading operation thereof must be handled by an operator in a squatting position, so that a tape 40 for packing can be extended into a housing 50 of the packer via an inlet 52 provided at a lower portion of a side wall 51 of the housing 50. The tape 40 is then fed into a tape-storing chamber 54 in the housing 50 by a tape-storing unit 53 that feeds the tape 40 in one fixed direction. The tape 40 in the tape-storing chamber 54 is manually led to a tape-operating unit 55 for sending the tape 40 into a tape rail 56, so that the packer is prepared for performing a packing operation.
In an automatic packer disclosed in an earlier invention of the applicant published under Taiwanese Patent Publication No. 85216683, a tape can be automatically instead of manually led by the tape-storing unit to the tape-operating unit which operates to send the tape into the tape rail. However, the entire operation still requires an operator to squat and thread the tape into the tape inlet. It is inconvenient and troublesome for the operator to squat before the tape can be threaded into the inlet, particularly when the operator is a heavy person, an invalid or a disabled person, or a female operator wearing a short skirt.
Moreover, the tape 40 is wound around a tape reel 57 with a rear end thereof attached to the reel 57 by an adhesive tape (not shown). In the case the rear end of the tape 40 is unexpectedly pulled away from the reel 57 and enters the route of tape in the housing 50, the adhesive tape attached to the rear end of the tape 40 would stick to rollers forming the tape-operating unit 55. The operator must remove the adhesive tape before the packer can operate again. This condition will, of course, cause inconvenience and troubles to the whole packing operation.
It is therefore tried by the applicant to develop a tape-leading mechanism for an automatic packer that allows an operator to conveniently complete a tape-leading operation on the packer in a natural standing position.

Tape-leading mechanism for an automatic packer


A recursive digital filter is disclosed for removing noise from an incoming television signal. The filter couples the incoming television signal to a subtracter without substantial attenuation of the television signal. The subtracter also receives at an input an attenuated difference signal comprising a selected amplitude of the difference between the incoming signal and an earlier received signal which has been delayed for an interval corresponding to one television frame. The subtracter subtracts the attenuated difference signal from the incoming signal and develops an output in which noise is substantially reduced.

This invention is directed generally to noise filters, and particularly to digital filters for reducing noise in television signals.
It is well known in the art that so-called "recursive" filters are well suited for removing noise from repetitive signals such as television signals whose information content does not ordinarily vary to a great extent from frame to frame. One proposal for such a noise filter is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,064,530.
In the above-mentioned patent, a summer is employed to receive and sum an incoming digitized television signal and an earlier received television signal which has been delayed for an interval corresponding to one television frame period. The output of the summer provides a noise reduced television signal and also provides the input to a one frame delay device, the output of the latter providing one input to the summer.
In order to reduce smearing which can result from such recursive filtering when motion is present in the television signal, the filter described in the above-mentioned patent employs two attenuators, one between the incoming television signal and its input to the summer, and another between the output of the one frame delay device and its input to the summer. The two attenuators are adjusted simultaneously as a function of detected motion in the television signal and such that their combined outputs are equal to unity.
The above-described filter suffers from the fact that a rather expensive system is required to include two attentuators. In addition, a mis-adjustment to either of the attenuators may result in noticeable distortion in the output of the filter. Hence, prior recursive filters for use with television signals and the like have not been entirely satisfactory.
Another problem associated with filters used to reduce noise in NTSC television signals has to do with the fact that the chroma component of the television signal undergoes a 180.degree. phase reversal for each television line. Because there are an odd number of television lines in one television frame, the summation of an incoming television signal with a frame-delayed television signal can result in cancellation of the chroma component in the summed signal. To avoid such cancellation, it has been proposed to invert only the chroma component of the frame-delayed television signal prior to summing it with the incoming signal. While such chroma inversion tends to solve the problem of chroma cancellation, prior attempts to achieve such inversion, particularly utilizing a digitized television signal, have not been entirely satisfactory.


A control system for actively damping an output of an adjustable speed drive (ASD) having a DC link thin film capacitor is programmed to calculate a d-axis damping coefficient and a q-axis damping coefficient for stabilizing an output of the ASD based at least on a voltage across the DC link thin film capacitor at a steady operating point. The control system is further programmed to extract d-axis and q-axis perturbations in d-axis and q-axis output currents of the ASD using a high pass filter, damp the d-axis perturbation and the q-axis perturbation with the d-axis damping coefficient and the q-axis damping coefficient, respectively, and calculate a damping frequency based on the damped d-axis perturbation and the damped q-axis perturbation. The control system is also programmed to damp an angle of rotation of a reference motor speed command for controlling the ASD using the damping frequency.

The present invention relates generally to adjustable speed drives (ASDs) and, more particularly, to a system and method for stabilizing the output current of ASDs when using small DC link thin film capacitors.
In a conventional ASD, an alternating current (AC) power input is converted to a direct current (DC) power on a DC link by a rectifier and then to an AC power output by an inverter. The AC power output has the desired characteristics for operating an AC motor or other AC driven load. Often, a large electrolytic capacitor bank measuring between a few hundred and thousands of microfarads (μF) is used on the DC link to stabilize the DC link voltage and decouple the inverter side motor control of the ASD from the input rectifier operation. These electrolytic capacitor banks have a large capacity for energy storage and keep the DC link voltage fairly steady. Although electrolytic capacitors are effective to stabilize the DC link voltage, they have several drawbacks.
As one example, when a front end diode rectifier is used in the ASD, the AC input source current becomes severely distorted by the electrolytic capacitor bank such that low order harmonics pollute the utility grid. These harmonics can cause higher root mean square currents through connected transformers and feeder equipment. Sensitive equipment like instrumentation, computers, and communications systems may fail to function correctly or suffer damage.
As another example, electrolytic capacitors dry out and have a limited lifetime, which is a reliability concern. Then, upon replacement of an electrolytic capacitor bank, the capacitors need to be reformed or conditioned if they have been in storage for an extended period of time. This results in an inefficient installation process. The electrolytic capacitors will lose their charge in storage, so they need to be pre-charged. If the electrolytic capacitor banks are not pre-charged before energizing the ASD and the ASD does not have a pre-charge circuit, a high inrush current can flow through the rectifier and into the electrolytic DC link capacitor bank.
Because of the drawbacks of using electrolytic capacitors, smaller thin film capacitors are being used as a replacement. Thin film capacitors provide enhanced reliability, improved input current harmonic performance, reduced system size and cost, and out of the box installation with unlimited shelf life. However, thin film capacitors generally cannot provide the stability that electrolytic capacitors can. A significant amount of total harmonic distortion (THD) and DC link voltage ripple may thus be present in the system when thin film capacitors are employed.
In order to overcome the instability of the thin film capacitors, stability control strategies have been developed for ASDs. However, these control strategies generally include complicated algorithms that are not intuitive for users. In addition, while the control strategies may make the system more stable, they still do not provide enough stability for the ASD to produce a sine wave current, which is the ASD output for operating motors. Instead, the ASD output may approximate an oscillating wave, for example.
It would therefore be desirable to provide a system and method for analyzing and controlling the stability of an ASD with a small DC link thin film capacitor bank such that the ASD is stable under all normal operating conditions and the ASD output approximates a sine wave with low THD and DC link voltage ripple.

System and method for stability control in adjustable speed drive with DC link thin film capacitor