The present invention relates to a baby and toddler carrier and in particular to a novel and improved baby and toddler carrier to be used by a parent or other caretakers for carrying a baby in a secure and comfortable way, both for the adult and for the baby, in various carrying positions, the carrier includes an elastic back and neck support, harness straps, and buckles, all of which enable carrying the baby in at least five different carrying positions.

The present invention relates to a baby and toddler carrier and in particular to a novel and improved baby and toddler carrier to be used by a parent or other caretakers for carrying an infant, a baby or child, in a secure and comfortable way, both for the adult and for the baby, in various carrying positions.
As used herein the specification and in the claims section that follows, the term "baby" and the like refer to a human being of a substantially small weight suitable for carrying in a carrier according to the present invention, including an infant, a baby or child.
From the dawn of humanity, parents and other adults carry babies. The first natural form of carrying is in one's arms, with the newborn baby cradled in his mother or father's arms, then in various carriers, made of different fabrics and methods of use, in order to let the mother continue working while carrying the baby. Thus one can see a mother working in the field, while carrying her baby on her back, wrapped in a piece of fabric carried on their chest or on their shoulders.
In western/modern society, seeing as in many cases the adult carrying the baby needs to perform various tasks for which he needs his hands and/or front portion of the body to be free, as well as for comfort purposes, over the years many various types of carriers were developed to enable carrying babies for a long period of time while leaving the carrying adult's hands and/or front portion of the body free.
The modern carriers available on the market today enable adults to carry babies in front, on their backs, or on the side with the babies seated on the adults' waists.
An example of a common way of carrying a baby 300 in front of an adult 400 is shown in FIG. 1a, and on the back of an adult 400 is shown in FIG. 1b.
The carrying is by means of a carrier 100 which is a soft carrier belonging to the group of carriers known as wrap carriers, usually composed from one long strip of fabric or several long strips of fabric wrapping the baby and adult together.
Carrying a baby in a wrap carrier has several advantages which are the result of the baby resting snugly against the carrying adult. This way, the baby can feel the rhythm of the adult's beating heart and his center of gravity is close to the adult, thus avoiding a moment (moment is the product of a force and the distance from its action to a point) that makes carrying more difficult. However, wrap carriers also have disadvantages, including the difficulty of carrying a heavy baby, the sometimes uncontrolled pressure that the carrier applies to the baby, and the complicated preparations for carrying. Use on the back is especially difficult since it's virtually impossible to be worn independently, with no help.
Western society has created carriers which are more structured and upholstered, designed mainly for front use. In most of these carriers the carrier is worn by the adult prior to putting the baby inside.
Advantages of this group of carriers, known as front upholstered carriers, include them being relatively easy to wear. They free the adult's hands and are good for carrying a newborn baby close to the parent while maintaining eye contact in the first few months. In addition the baby can be positioned with his face outward.
Front upholstered carriers are schematically illustrated in FIG. 2a. The illustration shows two adults, each carrying a front upholstered carrier 200 with a baby 300 carried in front, one of whom is face to face with the baby 300 while the other baby 300 is facing outward and his back is to adult 400 who is carrying him.
This group of carriers has the prominent disadvantage of being mostly designed for front use, thus having the difficulty of carrying a heavy baby in front, which is heavy on the adults' backs. This group of carriers keeps the hands of the adult free but the front portion of the adult's body is still obstructed and thus does not allow many of the daily chores to be done comfortably.
An additional group of modern carriers are backpack carriers with plastic or aluminum frame. An example of a backpack carrier is schematically illustrated in FIG. 2b. Backpack carrier 201 includes a baby seat 200a and a waist belt 200b including straps and accessories enabling carrying backpack carrier 201 with baby 300 inside, on the shoulders and waist of adult 400. In this carrier, the baby 300 is at a considerable distance from the back of the carrying adult 400.
A prominent advantage of the backpack carrier is a result of the use of a waist belt, achieving controlled distribution of the pressures applied by the carrier on the adult who is carrying. Another advantage which makes the carrier easy to use is the fact that the baby is loaded in the carrier prior to it being lifted. These developments of carriers introduce additional accessories attached such as headrest, bag, shade etc.
However, the backpack carrier also has its disadvantages, such as the distance between the baby and the adult, preventing the baby from feeling the rhythm of the adult's heartbeat and causing a moment that makes carrying difficult and putting pressure on the adult's back and neck. An additional disadvantage is the age limitation. The carrier suits only babies who can sit well from the age of 6-8 months, and cannot be worn in front. This kind of carrier is mostly large and rigid and therefore is mainly for outdoor use.
Despite the many developments in the field of carriers, not all possibilities have been exhausted, and there is thus a widely recognized need for, and it would be highly advantageous to have a further developed carrier. A carrier that facilitates caretakers' preparation of the baby for carrying, carrying the baby, and removing him from the carrier in a more efficient, convenient, and safe way for the baby and adult than is currently available. It is highly advantageous to have a carrier that enables daily use by keeping the front of the body unobstructed, a carrier which is lightweight with no construction. Furthermore, it would be highly advantageous to use one single carrier which is "one-size" for babies and adults, suitable for carrying children from infancy through toddlerhood, and adjustable for different sizes of adults.


A slope controllable foot plate for a golf swing practice apparatus which includes a actuating oil pressure motor providing the power for controlling the slope, a transformation device for transforming the rotating driving power to linear driving power, and a slope control oil pressure cylinder for controlling the slope of the foot plate, whereby a lower height and a simplified structure of the foot plate is obtained.

Generally, golf is a game in which a ball is hit by golf clubs into holes spread over a location with uneven topography. Since golf courses are mainly constructed at places with uneven topography such as at the base of mountains, considerable expertise is required for the golf club swing. Therefore, prior to playing a round of golf at golf courses, a golfer should practice golf while correcting his/her golf swing or posture at an indoor golf range in order to achieve a good golf swing. At this time, the gofer swing draws a circle and should be performed by stereoscopic motions in which motions of the upper and lower parts of the body, motions of knees, and timing are perfected in connection with a proper grip and a proper address position. The practice is performed with a driver, a short iron, a middle iron, a long iron, and the like. The practice of the golf swing should be done with the correct posture for all swing shots.
However, since a golfer generally practices golf only at flat locations, e.g. in a conventional indoor golf range, he/she cannot sufficiently and satisfactorily practice golf for the purpose of making preparation for actual golf games in which there are various changes in topography such as inclined locations on golf courses. Therefore, a golfer cannot do himself/herself justice in practicing for an actual golf game.
To solve such a problem and to ensure practice simulating an actual golf game, there has been developed a foot plate for a golf swing practice apparatus, in which the slope of the foot plate can be controlled both in a right and left directions and in the fore and aft directions.
For example, Korean Patent No. 10-0358416 discloses a slope control apparatus for a golf swing practice mat, in which a hydraulic cylinder is lifted and lowered by means of a control panel and an oil unit and a lower support plate is connected to an upper slope control plate.
Further, Korean Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2002-0044130 discloses a slope controllable hitting-zone foot plate for golf practice, in which four supports with spherical recess portions formed therein are fixedly installed on the bottom of the hitting-zone foot plate and hemispherical piston heads that are in point contact with the spherical recess portions of the respective supports are fixedly installed at the distal ends of pistons of four hydraulic jacks controlled by a control unit so as to support the hitting-zone foot plate, thereby controlling the hitting-zone foot plate in various slope directions and at various angles.
Moreover, Korean Utility Model Registration No. 20-0267916 discloses a slope adjusting apparatus for a golf hitting-zone, which comprises an address foot plate including first and second panels pivotably installed through a pivot member; a bottom plate including a gear shaft formed integrally therewith on a constant level at the center thereof and with a first gear portion at one end of the gear shaft, ball bearings equidistantly installed at a predetermined interval with respect to the gear shaft, and ball insertion portions for receiving the ball bearings; a slope adjustor including a driving motor installed to abut against the ball bearings mounted on the bottom plate and having a second gear engaged with the first gear, a first lifting means installed adjacent to the driving motor to adjust the level of the second plate, and an intermediate plate having a fixing portion installed at a position corresponding to the first lifting means to fix the first plate; a golf ball receiving unit having second and third lifting means of which levels are adjusted according to slope changes by the slope adjustor; and a control unit for powering and controlling the driving motor and the first to third lifting means.
Furthermore, Korean Utility Model Registration No. 20-0175850 discloses a slope controllable foot plate for golf practice, in which cylinders are attached to respective corners of top and bottom plates, two pairs of diagonally opposing cylinders are connected through respective hoses to each other so as to communicate with each other, valves are attached to intermediate portions of the hoses, and the valves can be simultaneously opened and closed by a lever exposed upwardly beyond the top plate.
In such a conventional foot plate for a golf swing practice apparatus, the slope of the foot plate can be controlled by means of a fully hydraulic or mechanical type slope control device of the foot plate. However, the fully hydraulic type device has a problem in that production costs are increased, while the fully mechanical type device has problems in that the load is transmitted directly to mechanical parts due to play existing in the mechanical parts themselves when a golfer stands on the foot plate and practices golf, resulting in damage to the motor. Also, a golf club may come into contact with a ceiling of an indoor golf range due to the increased level of the foot plate.

Slope controllable foot plate for golf swing practice apparatus


Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture are disclosed to facilitate end-user defined policy management. An example apparatus includes an edge node interface to detect addition of a networked user device to a service gateway, and to extract publish information from the networked user device. The example apparatus also includes a device context manager to identify tag parameters based on the publish information from the networked user device, and a tag manager to prohibit unauthorized disclosure of the networked user device by setting values of the tag parameters based on a user profile associated with a type of the networked user device.

In recent years, network connected devices have facilitated services for household members, building managers and/or businesses, in which the connected devices share information. Such shared information may be sent to and/or otherwise received by utility companies, security companies and/or users to control and/or monitor the network connected devices. In some examples, the utility companies may retrieve and/or otherwise receive the shared information for the purpose of providing incentives, such as energy saving opportunities.

Methods and apparatus to facilitate end-user defined policy management


Disclosed are harness assemblies for use in tethering a pet, such as a dog, to a leash. The harness assemblies distribute the forces associated with restraining the animal over the animal's entire body. The harness assemblies also provide a wide range of adjustability and are easy to position upon or take off the animal. Various buckle constructions are also disclosed for use in easily securing the harness onto an animal. The various components of the present invention, and the manner in which they interrelate, are described in greater detail hereinafter.

The present invention relates to body harnesses that are connected to a hand held leash for controlling a pet. Dog collars are traditionally used for the same purpose. However, collars can injure the neck and may also be slipped over the head. A harness provides more secure control and also spreads out the restraining force over the chest and under body of the dog. There are a variety of canine harness embodiments in use in the prior art. There are several problems with these designs. There are many variables as each harness has its own design. Existing harness assemblies are complicated. They are sewn together from many strips of webbing. They have numerous adjustment locations, but none are fully adjustable across all dimensions of restraint. Some harnesses create uncomfortable and unnecessary stress on various portions of the animals' anatomy, such as under its front leg joints. Present harnesses are complicated, difficult to adjust and difficult to put onto the animal.
The body harness and buckle assembly of the present invention is aimed at overcoming these and other shortcomings in the background art.

Animal harness arrangement and associated buckle construction


A method for remote object sensing on-board a vehicle includes employing compressive sensing to analyze a waveform originating from an on-vehicle low-resolution radar imaging system and reflected from a remote object. The compressive sensing includes generating a matrix including a temporal projection, a Fourier transform, and an integral term configured to analyze the reflected waveform. Leading and trailing edges of the remote object are identified by employing a norm minimization procedure to reconstruct a range profile based upon the reflected waveform analyzed by the compressive sensing.

The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure. Accordingly, such statements are not intended to constitute an admission of prior art.
Vehicles may be equipped with various remote sensing devices and systems that assist a vehicle operator in managing vehicle operation and navigation. Known systems for ground vehicles can include autonomic control systems to control vehicle operation. For example, vehicles employ cruise control systems to maintain a travel speed of the vehicle at an operator-selected speed. Further, vehicles employ adaptive cruise control systems to control speed based on both the operator-selected speed and the presence of and distance to another vehicle in a projected travel path. Exemplary vehicle detection systems used by adaptive cruise control systems include radar detection devices and LIDAR detection devices to detect the position and speed of other vehicles within the projected travel path of the subject vehicle.
Known remote sensing systems employed on-vehicle have different operating ranges and angular coverages, and are capable of estimating different parameters within their operating range. For example, known radar sensors are capable of estimating range, range rate and azimuth location of a remote object. Known cameras with vision processors are effective in estimating a shape and azimuth position of a remote object, but are less effective at estimating the range and range rate of the remote object. Known scanning type LIDARs are effective at estimating range, and azimuth position, but are less effective at estimating range rate, and are therefore not effective with respect to new object acquisition/recognition. Ultrasonic sensors are effective at estimating range but are less effective at estimating or computing range rate and azimuth position of a remote object. Further, it is appreciated that the performance of each sensor technology may be affected by changes in environmental conditions.
Known radar systems operate at different frequency bands ranging between A-band at HF (less than 100 MHz) and VHF (about 150 MHz) up to and beyond W-band (100 GHz), including ultra-wideband radar (UWB) systems. Regulations including those promulgated by the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) may limit on-vehicle applications of UWB radar systems. Known frequency bands for automotive radar include an ISM band of 250 MHz around 24 GHz and a dedicated automotive radar band between 77-78 GHz.

Method and apparatus for remote object sensing employing compressive sensing


An information recovery system includes mountable data volume replications that can be examined for enhanced error detection and correction.

As is known in the art, computer systems that process and store large amounts of data typically include one or more processors in communication with a shared data storage system in which the data is stored. The data storage system can include one or more storage devices, such as disk drives. To minimize data loss, the computer systems can also include a backup storage system in communication with the primary processor and the data storage system.
Known backup storage systems can include a backup storage device (such as tape storage or any other storage mechanism), together with a system for placing data into the storage device and recovering the data from that storage device. To perform a backup, the host copies data from the shared storage system across the network to the backup storage system. Thus, an actual data file can be communicated over the network to the backup storage device.
The shared storage system corresponds to the actual physical storage. For the host to write the backup data over the network to the backup storage system, the host first converts the backup data into file data, i.e., the host retrieves the data from the physical storage system level, and converts the data into application level format (e.g. a file) through a logical volume manager level, a file system level and the application level. When the backup storage device receives the data file, the backup storage system can take the application level data file, and convert it to its appropriate format for the backup storage system. If the backup storage system is a tape-based device, the data is converted to a serial format of blocks or segments.
The EMC Data Manager (EDM) is capable of such backup and restore over a network, as described in numerous publications available from EMC of Hopkinton, Mass., including the EDM User Guide (Network) "Basic EDM Product Manual." An exemplary prior art backup storage architecture in which a direct connection is established between the shared storage system and the backup storage system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,047,294, assigned to assignee of the present invention, entitled Logical Restore from a Physical Backup in Computer Storage System, and incorporated herein by reference.
For large databases, tape-based data backup and restore systems, which are well known in the art, can be used. In general, files, databases and the like are copied to tape media at selected times. Typically, data is periodically backed up to prevent the loss of data due to software errors, human error, hardware failures. Upon detection of an error, in an online database, for example, the backed up data can be restored to effect recovery of the data. While restore refers to obtaining backed up data, data recovery refers to the entire process in which applications can access and use the retrieved data. Transactions since the time of backup can be recreated using so-called redo logs.
Tape-based backup and restore systems have a number of disadvantages. For example, due to the significant amount of time and overhead associated with backing up and restoring data to tape, such operations are performed relatively infrequently. The longer the period between backup and restoration, the more complicated and time consuming the overall recovery process becomes since, for example, this may render it more difficult to determine the point at which an error occurred. In addition, improvements in the data restore process, such as faster tape access times, provide only incremental advances in the overall data recovery process.
Further, data on tape cannot be accessed until it is restored to disk. Only when the data has been restored can a host computer examine the data. The data must be reformatted for each transition between tape and disk, which requires significant processing resources and elapsed time.
A further disadvantage associated with tape-based data storage systems is associated with the data recovery process itself. For example, after an error has occurred an operator, such as a database administrator, evaluates the error in an attempt to find a correct the error. However, the administrator has to deal with limitations imposed by the nature of tape-based storage. For a large mission critical database, it can be prohibitively expensive to shut down the database and perform a restoration from tape. If all possible, the administrator will attempt to perform a repair of the database. However, the risks of corrupting the entire database, causing additional errors, and failing to remedy the error, are significant.
In addition, it is not always known at what time the database became corrupted. In the case where data must be restored from tape, correction of the error can be an iterative and time-consuming process. The administrator may select a first set of tapes for restoration, after which the database can be examined to determine if the error is corrected. If it is not, another set of tapes, which is typically an earlier backup, must be restored. Data examination steps are then performed until the error is corrected.
Once the error is corrected, the error may be re-introduced into the database as post backup transactions are added to the database from the redo logs. The point at which the error occurs must be identified. The time and effort associated with iterative tape restores and error identification can be quite substantial.
One known attempt to identify errors includes so-called data scrubbing tools. These tools, which can be run periodically, are used in an endeavor to detect errors as soon as possible. While such tools may detect errors, many production databases, like those used by Internet-based vendors, are mission critical and cannot handle the loading required by such tools. In many applications, data scrubbing tools are not a practical option.
In addition, there are times at which it is desirable to recover only a portion of a database. However, known systems do not readily enable recovery of less than the entire database. While a portion of a database may be possible in conventional data backup and restore systems, a high level of skill is required to manually recover a portion of a database.
It would, therefore, be desirable to overcome the aforesaid and other disadvantages.

Information replication system having enhanced error detection and recovery


In a semiconductor device and a method of manufacturing the semiconductor device, the source wires 126 of a pixel portion 205 are formed of material having low resistance (representatively, aluminum, silver, copper). The source wires of a driving circuit are formed in the same process as the gate wires 162 of the pixel portion and a pixel electrode 163.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device having a circuit constructed by thin-film transistors (hereinafter referred to as "TFT"), and a method of manufacturing the semiconductor device. For example, the present invention relates to an electrooptical device represented by a liquid crystal display panel and electronic equipment in which such an electrooptical device is mounted as a part.
In this specification, the semiconductor device means a general device that functions by using semiconductor characteristics, and an electrooptical device, a semiconductor circuit and electronic equipment are defined as a semiconductor device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, much attention has been paid to a technique of forming a thin film transistor (TFT) by using a semiconductor thin film (having a thickness of about several to several hundreds nm) formed on a substrate having an insulating surface. The thin film transistor has been widely applied to electrical devices such as IC, an electrooptical device, etc., and particularly developments to apply the thin film transistor to a switching element of an image display device have been rapidly required.
A liquid crystal display device is well known as an image display device. The active matrix type liquid crystal display device has been more frequently used than the passive type liquid crystal display device because higher-definition images can be provided by the active matrix type liquid crystal display device. In the active matrix type liquid crystal display device, a display pattern is formed on a screen by driving pixel electrodes arranged in a matrix form. More specifically, a voltage is applied across a selected pixel electrode and a counter electrode confronting the selected pixel electrode to optically modulate a liquid crystal layer disposed between the pixel electrode and the counter electrode, so that the optical modulation is recognized as a display pattern by a viewer.
Such active matrix type liquid crystal devices have been widely used in more diverse fields, and not only the large-area design of a screen size, but also high definition, high numerical aperture and high reliability design has been increasingly required. At the same time the enhancement of the productivity and the reduction in manufacturing cost have been also increasingly required.
When TFT is formed by using aluminum as a gate wiring material for TFT, malfunction of TFT and degradation in TFT characteristics are caused by formation of projections such as hillocks, whiskers, etc. due to a heat treatment and diffusion of aluminum atoms in a channel-forming region. On the other hand, when metal material having high resistance to the heat treatment, typically a metal element having a high melting point is used in order to avoid the above problem, there occurs another problem that the resistance of wires would increase if the screen size is increased, resulting in increase of power consumption, etc.

Semiconductor device and method of manufacturing the same

Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.


The invention is concerned with an antenna arrangement adapted to a mobile terminal and division of frequency bands between different antennas. The antenna arrangement enables the terminal to operate worldwide in networks applying different frequency bands and technologies, as a so-called multi-band terminal. In the antenna arrangement the frequency bands of the antennas are arranged for each antenna in a way that the bands fill an optimal frequency area, thus accomplishing smaller total volume for the antennas and a good performance.

Nowadays there are available terminals that operate in various different frequency bands. Such terminals have greater performance and, in comparison with older terminals, are better adapted to take advantage of the new services appearing for the terminals all the time.
Terminals adapted for multi-frequency usage may be utilized in those wireless communications networks where the operations have been adapted in advance to function together with the terminals.
For each wireless communications system a previously determined frequency band is assigned for transmission and reception of signals. Wireless communications systems using different frequency bands include for example: digital 2G telecommunications networks, such as GSM (Global Systems for Mobile Telecommunication), DCS (Digital Cellular System), PCS (Personal Communications Services) and 3G UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System).
DCS and PCS networks are based on GSM technology. UMTS networks in Europe are based on WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) technology. The technology corresponding to 3G UMTS in USA is called CDMA2000.
Subscriber terminal applying wireless data transfer normally consists of at least one antenna for transmission and reception of signals. Placing a single large antenna in the terminal or inside the covering frame may be difficult or even impossible in practice. This is because it might require excessive growth of the physical size of the terminal, which is to be avoided at all cost. With a single antenna it is not possible to achieve a good enough performance in relation to the physical size, in comparison with the multi-band devices using multiple optimised antennas.
One implementation of an antenna arrangement adapted for usage in a multi-band environment is described in the patent publication WO 02/07254. The antenna arrangement tries to accomplish a good barrier damping between single frequency bands and to enable, without active components, separate and self-sufficient radiation curves as well as a large decoupler connection between the frequency bands. According to the publication, this will be accomplished by separating filters utilising frequency-selective filter structure. The filter structure supplied with sufficient barrier damping al-lows dividing the frequency band into two sub-bands. On the one hand, each separating filter combines two signals of different frequencies into one signal, and on the other divides the frequency band coming from the antenna into two frequency bands for two branches. There are always twice as many radiators as there are frequencies. This kind of antenna arrangement is not flexible because the amount of antennas is bound to the amount of frequencies. In addition, since the circuitry of the antenna arrangement is fixed, the filter structure requires a relatively large quantity of filters.

Antenna arrangement and mobile terminal device


A hydraulic wire joining device for connecting at least two wires. The device includes a hydraulic cylinder for clamping a wedge or spacer over at least two wires, and a work fixture for transmitting an cylinder force to the wedge. The cylinder is a two-stage type of cylinder, which has first and second coaxial cylinders and respective first and second coaxial pistons respectively forming the first and second chambers and third and fourth chambers. The first piston has passage means which has a pressure valve and which connects the first and third chambers upon opening of the pressure valve only at a second stage higher fluid pressure level, whereby a two-stage two-level force can be applied to the wedge for initial crimping and final crimping of the wedge.

The prior art wire crimping device widely used commercially includes a clamp for fastening together two or more wires and includes an explosive unit for applying a force to the clamp for crimping portions of the clamp over the wires.
Typical hydraulic crimping devices are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,796,461 issued Jan. 10, 1989 to Howard Mead; U.S. Pat. No. 5,065,609 issued Nov. 19, 1991 to Helmut Dischler; U.S. Pat. No. 4,136,549 issued Jan. 30, 1979 to Lytie, et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 3,786,669 issued Jan. 22, 1979 to Raydon A. Links; U.S. Pat. No. 3,017,905 issued Jan. 23, 1962 to C. H. Klein; U.S. Pat. No. 791,074 issued May 30, 1905 to H. A. Carpenter; and U.S. Pat. No. 2,158,855 issued May 16, 1939 to Eby, et al.
One problem with the prior art device is that the explosive unit causes a danger in the operation of the device.

Richard's Manufacturing Company, Sales Inc.


An mobile material placer or slinger with a placer conveyor having a gear-to-gear pivoting mechanism. The mobile material placer includes a body, a material hopper coupled to the body and configured to receive and store material, a feeder conveyor coupled to the body, and a placer conveyor pivotally coupled to the body about a vertical axis. The gear-to-gear pivoting mechanism includes a first gear attached to the body of the material placer and that drives a second gear fixedly mounted to the placer conveyor.

It is well known that many tasks such as: the construction of driveways, roadways, and asphalt surfaces; the back filling of retaining walls; and the distribution of aggregate, mulch, soil and the like, can be extremely labor intensive. For example, delivery of aggregate to a roadway construction site typically involves: (i) loading a dump truck at an aggregate storage facility, (ii) transporting the aggregate to the construction site, (iii) dumping the aggregate in a mound, (iv) manually filling a wheelbarrow, (v) wheeling the aggregate to a selected location, and (iv) dumping the wheelbarrow load at that location. Each of these steps involves a great deal of time and labor. Furthermore, at each of these steps material may be spilled, wasted or otherwise strewn about the construction site. This waste results in an unsightly and potentially environmentally hazardous construction site and can create a potential road hazard if gravel material is picked up by the tires of passing vehicles and thrown into the air. This picked-up material can injure unprotected pedestrians or damage property such as the windshields of passing vehicles.
To address the inefficiencies inherent in these steps, a number of mobile placers have been designed. Certain of these known mobile placers include a placer or placing conveyor pivotally attached to the main body of the vehicle. Placing conveyors generally include a conveyor belt driven around a number of rollers and function to convey and direct material from a material source to a worksite.
Certain known placer conveyors use a placer conveyor that is pivotally attached to the main body of the vehicle. Typically, the mechanism for attaching the placer conveyor to the main body includes a vertical pivoting axis located near the in-feed end of the placer conveyor. With this configuration, the placer conveyor can swing side-to-side about the vertical axis. This allows the operator to dispense material in a variety of different directions or angles relative to the vehicle.
Different driving mechanisms have been developed to accomplish side-to-side pivoting of a placer conveyor relative to the vehicle body. In one example, a flange is provided around the vertical pivoting axis and one or more hydraulic piston-cylinder apparatuses are coupled to a peripheral portion of the flange. As the cylinder extends and contracts, the placer conveyor is pivoted about the vertical axis. In another example, a sprocket is provided about the vertical axis and is driven by a chain. However, the accuracy of the side-to-side pivoting motion of the placer conveyors using these drive systems is not sufficient to precisely direct material to a specific location on a worksite.
It would be advantageous to provide a system, apparatus and/or method that addresses these limitations and simplifies the process of constructing and/or maintaining a roadway or distributing material around a construction site.

Mobile conveying apparatus having a gear-to-gear driven swing assembly


A fuse state indicator for a fuse including a cylindrical fuse body and a primary fuse element therein, includes an extension member, a transparent lens, a combustible substance adjacent the lens, a secondary fuse link adjacent said combustible substance, and a curved backing layer adjacent said secondary fuse link. Said backing layer is at least partially concealed by said combustible substance when viewed through said transparent lens before the fuse has opened, and said backing layer maintains said secondary fuse link in position with respect to said combustible substance.

This invention relates generally to fuses and, more particularly, to fuses with a fuse state indicator.
Fuses are widely used as overcurrent protection devices to prevent costly damage to electrical circuits. Fuse end caps typically form an electrical connection between an electrical power source and an electrical component or a combination of components arranged in an electrical circuit. A fusible link is connected between the fuse end caps, so that when electrical current flowing through the fuse exceeds a predetermined limit, the fusible link melts and opens the circuit through the fuse to prevent electrical component damage.
Various types of fuse state indicators have been developed in an attempt to more efficiently locate opened fuses for replacement. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,566,996 to Douglass et al., is directed toward a combustible fuse state indicator which is notable both for its low cost construction and its reliability in comparison to other types of indicators. The combustible fuse state indicator of the '996 patent includes a combustible substance located adjacent a transparent lens extending through a side of a rectangularly shaped fuse module. A secondary fuse link extends adjacent the combustible substance and heat associated with opening of the secondary fuse link ignites the combustible substance to reveal a backing layer of a contrasting color. The fuse state indicator of the '996 patent, however, is designed for use with a rectangular fuse module, and implementing such an indicator in other types of fuses presents a number of issues.
For example, in a cylindrical or cartridge fuse, the fuse indicator assembly must be accommodated in a comparatively smaller space than in a rectangular fuse module. Also, the secondary fuse link for the indicator must be electrically connected interior to the fuse body to conductive end caps or terminal elements coupled to the fuse body. Reliably establishing the electrical connection and properly orienting the secondary fuse link with respect to the combustible substance is difficult. Also, due to the curvature of the fuse body, the backing layer beneath the combustible substance can be difficult to see when the combustible substance is consumed.
It would therefore be desirable to provide a fuse state indicator that is more amenable to use in other types of fuses, such as cylindrical fuses, than the indicator described in the '996 patent for a rectangular fuse module.


A memory system or flash memory device may include mechanism for handling power loss with a dual programming architecture. The state of primary and secondary blocks may be reconstructed to a state immediately preceding a power loss. The reconstruction may include comparing error correction code (ECC) headers of blocks to recreate a block exchange with fewer control updates. The comparison can be used to identify a primary and secondary block. The header may identify a particular stream, identify a free block, identify a release block, and other information.

Non-volatile memory systems, such as flash memory, have been widely adopted for use in consumer products. Flash memory may be found in different forms, for example in the form of a portable memory card that can be carried between host devices or as a solid state disk (SSD) embedded in a host device. Flash memory may be written in pages and erased in blocks, so once a page is written, a rewrite may require the whole block to be erased. Once a host block becomes full, a new block may be exchanged from a pool of free blocks. In the case of a power cycle or a power loss the latest block exchange may be lost.

Initialization scheme during dual programming of a memory system


In one embodiment, road segments are aggregated for DLR. A plurality of connected road segments and corresponding traffic information for each of the connected road segments are identified. A processor aggregates the connected road segments into a fewer number of dynamic location reference (DLR) segments than the plurality. By testing different possible combinations, road segments with similar congestion are grouped. The processor calculates a traffic value for each of the DLR segments. Each traffic value is a function of the traffic information for the connected road segments of the respective DLR segment. An indicator of the aggregated DLR segment and the traffic value for at least one of the DLR segments is output.

Real-time road traffic information from traffic providers is reported using the Traffic Message Channel (TMC) addressing scheme to map traffic conditions to road-segments. However, some roads are not TMC encoded and do not have TMC identification, making it challenging to report traffic information on these roads. For example, non-expressway roads in the United States (e.g., Madison Street in the city center of Chicago Ill.) or Europe and many roads in developing countries do not have TMC encoding. One way to report traffic on roads that do not have a TMC (i.e., off-TMC) is to use the dynamic location reference (DLR) specification of the Transport Protocol Expert Group (TPEG). In DLR, latitude/longitude and shape points of links are used to identify the road segment with which traffic information is associated.

Dynamic location referencing segment aggregation


Emission gas recycling equipment includes a passage for recycling a part of an emission gas and a control valve for controlling an amount of the part of the emission gas. The control valve includes: a housing having a pipe portion; a butterfly valve accommodated in the pipe portion rotatable in a first direction and a second direction; a seal ring for sealing a clearance; and valve open/close operation means for stopping the butterfly valve at the valve full close position after the valve open/close operation means operates the butterfly valve to open and to close equal to or more than one cycle across the valve full close position at the time when the engine stops or after the engine stops.

Emission gas recycling equipment according to a related art is well-known. In the equipment, an emission gas recycling gas (i.e., EGR gas) as a part of the emission gas flowing through an exhaust pipe of an engine is mixed into an intake air flowing through an intake pipe so that the maximum combustion temperature is reduced. Thus, toxic substance (e.g., a nitrogen oxide) included in the emission gas is reduced. However, when the emission gas is recycled, engine power is reduced, and driving performance of the engine is reduced. Therefore, it is required to control an amount of the recycling emission gas (i.e., an EGR amount), which is recycled into the intake pipe.
In the related art, the equipment includes a recycling emission gas amount control valve for adjusting an opening area of an emission gas recycling passage, which is formed in an emission gas recycling pipe of the emission gas recycling equipment. Here, emission gas recycling equipment using a butterfly valve as a valve body of a recycling emission gas amount control valve is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. H11-502582, which corresponds to U.S. Pat. No. 5,531,205. In this case, the butterfly valve is operated in a rotation direction by a torque motor through a valve shaft. Further, electric control type throttle control equipment using a butterfly valve as a valve body of an airflow amount control valve is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. H04-249678, which corresponds to U.S. Pat. No. 5,146,887. In this case, the butterfly valve adjusts an opening area of an inlet passage disposed in an intake pipe connecting to a cylinder of an engine. Thus, the butterfly valve is stopped at a position, at which the valve is rotated by a predetermined angle in a case where the engine is stopped, so that the valve body is prevented from adhering to a bore by a deposit.
In the above prior arts, the butterfly valve rotates around a rotation center axis as a center of the valve shaft. The butterfly valve as the recycling emission gas amount control valve is accommodated in an emission gas recycling passage, in which an emission gas recycling gas (i.e., EGR gas) flows. The EGR gas includes a fine particle such as combustion residual or carbon. Therefore, when the butterfly valve is stopped at the valve full close position in a case where the engine stops, the fine particle in the emission gas recycling gas (i.e., EGR gas) may be adhered to the butterfly valve so that the deposition of the fine particle is occurred. If the deposit of the fine particle is deposited to bridge between the inner diameter surface of the passage and the outer diameter periphery of the butterfly valve, the butterfly valve is not operated smoothly by an actuator such as the torque motor.
In the above case, even if the butterfly valve is operated by energizing the actuator such as the torque motor, for example, in a case where the engine starts, the butterfly valve can not be returned to the valve full close position. Accordingly, the butterfly valve is not operated smoothly by the actuator such as the torque motor after the engine starts. Thus, a possibility of a problem exists, the problem being that the recycling emission gas amount (i.e., EGR amount) cannot be adjusted to correspond to the driving condition of the engine.
Further, another emission gas recycling equipment using a butterfly valve as a valve body of a recycling emission gas amount control valve is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2003-314377. In this equipment, the butterfly valve has no seal ring, which seals a clearance between the inner diameter surface of a nozzle and an outer diameter surface of the butterfly valve when the butterfly valve is positioned at a valve full close position. Therefore, the butterfly valve is not adhered to an emission gas recycling passage. However, the recycling emission gas amount cannot be precisely adjusted to correspond to the driving condition of the engine, since the butterfly valve is not sealed.

Emission gas recycling equipment having butterfly valve


A method of displaying an operation history of a machine, which permits quick and proper investigation of the causes of troubles and trouble-shooting therefor. A processor of a numerical control device mounted on the machine writes a block number in a corresponding address region of a memory every time one block of a machining program is read out, and executes the block after an index indicating the address region to be stored with the next block number is determined (S1 to S4, S6). If the determined index exceeds a value indicating the last address region, the index is reset to a value indicating the first address region (S5). During the execution of each block, the processor successively determines, with respect to all the circuit sections of an input/output circuit, the presence/absence of signal transfer through each circuit section (S12), and causes a memory address region corresponding to the block to successively store codes individually indicating those circuit sections concerned in the signal transfer (S13), so that block numbers indicating up-to-date blocks and codes indicating the circuit sections concerned in the signal transfer during the execution of the blocks are continually held in their associated memory address regions, whereby the operation history of the machine is recorded. In response to a display command, the block numbers and codes constituting the operation history are successively displayed on a display screen according to precedence (S21 to S26).

Conventionally known are various machine tools for performing various machining operations, such as cutting, turning, boring, electrical discharge machining, etc. under the control of a numerical control device. In general, the numerically-controlled machine tools of this type has a function to automatically stop the operation of the machine tool and automatically display an alarm message indicative of the kind of trouble when the trouble occurs during the operation. Therefore, the kind of trouble can be quickly specified. The operation of the machine tool, however, involves transfer of various control information signals, including various commands delivered from the numerical control device, various feedback signals delivered from sensor systems of the machine tool, and various commands and data manually inputted through a control panel, so that it is difficult to grasp the progress of the operation before the occurrence of the trouble with speed and accuracy. Accordingly, the investigation of all the causes of troubles requires labor except those ones, such as machining program errors, which can be specified relatively easily. In order to restart the operation of the machine tool in the same operating conditions as when trouble is caused, moreover, the operating conditions at the time of occurrence of the trouble must be ascertained. However, if an operator operates a reset button by mistake, for example, the operating conditions will be initialized. It is difficult, therefore, to grasp the operating conditions at the time of occurrence of the trouble in accordance with the contents of a machining program only. This constitutes a hindrance to the restart of the operation.

Method of displaying an operation history of a machine


Provided is a storage system and power supply control method thereof, storage apparatus and data processing method capable of reducing the power consumption of the overall storage system without requiring any complicated settings. A journal regarding update history information of a first volume in which a host system reads and writes data is created. The created journal is sequentially stored in a second volume or a first external storage apparatus, each of which serves as a storage destination of the journal. Power supply of a storage device providing an alternate second volume as the storage destination of the journal or an alternate first external storage apparatus as the storage destination of the journal is controlled according to the storage quantity of the journal in the second volume or the first external storage apparatus.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a storage system and a method of controlling power supply of the same, storage apparatus and data processing method. In particular, the invention is suitably applied to a storage system capable of recovering data at an arbitrary point in time by using update history of data.
2. Background Art
In recent years, data protection technology enabling the recovery of data at an arbitrary point in time by using update history of data referred to as a journal is attracting attention.
With this data protection technology, it is necessary to store all journals in order to enable the recovery of data at an arbitrary point in time and, as a result, the storage quantity of journals will continually increase.
Once a journal is stored in the storage device, such journal is rarely accessed until it is used in recovering data. Nevertheless, the actual situation is that a storage device storing journals is constantly in an operating state so that it can store an acquired journal at all times.
Pursuant to the increase of data to be protected in the future, it is anticipated that the accumulation of journals will also increase. Thus, it is envisioned that a means for reducing costs in retaining journals, which are hardly accessed, will become even more necessary.
Under the foregoing circumstances, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2000-293314 (Patent Document 1) discloses technology for suppressing the power consumption of the overall disk array device by turning off the power of a magnetic disk device, or switching to the power saving mode of such magnetic disk device, belonging to RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks) that has not been accessed for a certain period of time ("power saving waiting time").

Storage system and power source control method thereof, storage apparatus and data processing method


One embodiment provides a method and apparatus for suspending air conditioning duct works from a support structure comprising unistrut type support beams which apparatus includes a plurality of support brackets arranged and configured for being slidably interlockable with the interior of the unistrut beam members. The support brackets can be slid inside the interior of the support beam until adjacent a support beam which support beam can be connected to the support bracket. In like manner additional support brackets can be inserted into the interior of the support beam members to be adjustably located next to their respective support rod. In such manner multiple support rods can be used to support a frame member even where the support rods are not symmetrically located along the length of the support beam as the support bracket can be slid/moved inside the support beam until lining up with its respective support rod. Additionally, the entire support framework can be moved relative to the plurality of support rods by sliding the framework relative to the support brackets. In such manner the location of the supporting frame member can be changed without moving the support rods.

In supporting packages at elevated positions with structural support systems vertical locations such as ceilings or roofing frameworks, difficulties exist because of the irregular locations of possible tensile support connections.
It would be desirable to have a method and apparatus which allows the user to compensate for the irregular spacing of vertical tensile members when supporting the structural support systems with packages to be supported through the use of support brackets which are longitudinally adjustable relative to the longitudinal length of the structural support system.
While certain novel features of this invention shown and described below are pointed out in the annexed claims, the invention is not intended to be limited to the details specified, since a person of ordinary skill in the relevant art will understand that various omissions, modifications, substitutions and changes in the forms and details of the device illustrated and in its operation may be made without departing in any way from the spirit of the present invention. No feature of the invention is critical or essential unless it is expressly stated as being "critical" or "essential."

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method and apparatus for suspending a package in an elevated position


An imaging member includes a conductive substrate, a charge generating layer, a charge transport layer, and an intermediate layer between the charge generating layer and the charge transport layer, the intermediate layer including a hole transport material, such as three different hole transfer materials, dispersed in a film forming binder, such as two different binder materials.

The present disclosure relates to improved photoreceptor designs for electrostatographic printing devices, particularly photoreceptors having a three-layer photoconductive layer, where an intermediate layer is disposed between the charge generating layer and the charge transport layer, which provides improved photoreceptor operation. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to photoreceptors having an intermediate layer between the charge generating layer and the charge transport layer, which intermediate layer increases charge injection from the charge generating layer to the charge transport layer and reduces the occurrence or the effect of charge deficient spots in the photoreceptor.
In electrophotography, also known as Xerography, electrophotographic imaging or electrostatographic imaging, the surface of an electrophotographic plate, drum, belt or the like (imaging member or photoreceptor) containing a photoconductive insulating layer on a conductive layer is first uniformly electrostatically charged. The imaging member is then exposed to a pattern of activating electromagnetic radiation, such as light or a laser emission. The radiation selectively dissipates the charge on the illuminated areas of the photoconductive insulating layer while leaving behind an electrostatic latent image on the non-illuminated areas. This electrostatic latent image may then be developed to form a visible image by depositing finely divided electroscopic marking particles on the surface of the photoconductive insulating layer. The resulting visible image may then be transferred from the imaging member directly or indirectly (such as by a transfer or other member) to a print substrate, such as transparency or paper. The imaging process may be repeated many times with reusable imaging members.
An electrophotographic imaging member may be provided in a number of forms. For example, the imaging member may be a homogeneous layer of a single material such as vitreous selenium or it may be a composite layer containing a photoconductor and another material. In addition, the imaging member may be layered. Current layered organic imaging members generally have at least a substrate layer, a ground plane, and two active layers. These active layers generally include (1) a charge generating layer containing a light-absorbing material that generates charges, and (2) a charge transport layer containing electron donor molecules. These charge generating and charge transport active layers can be in any order, depending on the desired charge polarity, and sometimes can be combined in a single or mixed layer. The substrate layer may be formed from a conductive material, or a conductive layer can be formed on a nonconductive substrate.
The charge generating layer is capable of photogenerating charge and injecting the photogenerated charge into the charge transport layer. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,855,203 to Miyaka teaches charge generating layers comprising a resin dispersed pigment. Suitable pigments include photoconductive zinc oxide or cadmium sulfide and organic pigments such as phthalocyanine type pigment, a polycyclic quinone type pigment, a perylene pigment, an azo type pigment and a quinacridone type pigment. Imaging members with perylene charge generating pigments, particularly benzimidazole perylene, show superior performance with extended life.
In the charge transport layer, the electron donor molecules may be in a polymer binder. In this case, the electron donor molecules provide hole or charge transport properties, while the electrically inactive polymer binder largely provides mechanical properties. Alternatively, the charge transport layer can be made from a charge transporting polymer such as poly(N-vinylcarbazole), polysilylene or polyether carbonate, wherein the charge transport properties are incorporated into the mechanically strong polymer.
Imaging members may also include a charge blocking layer and/or an adhesive layer between the charge generating layer and the conductive layer. In addition, imaging members may contain protective overcoatings. Further, imaging members may include layers to provide special functions such as incoherent reflection of laser light, dot patterns and/or pictorial imaging or subbing layers to provide chemical sealing and/or a smooth coating surface.
As more advanced, higher speed electrophotographic copiers, duplicators and printers have been developed, and as the use of such devices increases in both the home and business environments, degradation of image quality has been encountered during extended cycling. Moreover, complex, highly sophisticated duplicating and printing systems operating at very high speeds have placed stringent requirements upon component parts, including such constraints as narrow operating limits on the photoreceptors. For example, the numerous layers found in many modern photoconductive imaging members must be highly flexible, adhere well to adjacent layers, and exhibit predictable electrical characteristics within narrow operating limits to provide excellent toner images over many thousands of cycles without degradation in the print quality or mechanical disintegration such as cracking and abrasion. One type of multilayered photoreceptor that has been employed for use as a belt or as a roller in electrophotographic imaging systems comprises a substrate, a conductive layer, a blocking layer, an adhesive layer, a charge generating layer, a charge transport layer and a conductive ground strip layer adjacent to one edge of the imaging layers. This photoreceptor may also comprise additional layers such as an anti-curl back coating and an optional overcoating layer.
Although excellent toner images may be obtained with multilayered belt or drum photoreceptors, it has been found that as more advanced, higher speed electrophotographic copiers, duplicators and printers are developed, there is a greater demand on copy quality. A delicate balance in charge, discharge, and bias potentials, and characteristics of the toner and/or developer, must be maintained. This places additional constraints on the quality of photoreceptor manufacturing, and thus adds an additional constraint on manufacturing yield.
In certain combinations of materials for photoreceptors, or in certain production batches of photoreceptor materials including the same kind of materials, localized microdefect sites (which may vary in size from about 50 to about 200 microns) can occur. Using photoreceptors fabricated from these materials, where the dark decay is high compared to spatially uniform dark decay present in the sample, these sites appear as print defects (microdefects) in the final imaged copy. In charged area development, where the charged areas are printed as dark areas, the sites print out as white spots. These microdefects are called microwhite spots. Likewise, in discharged area development systems, where the exposed area (discharged area) is printed as dark areas, these sites print out as dark spots in a white background. All of these microdefects, which exhibit inordinately large dark decay, are called charge deficient spots (or CDS).
Because the microdefect sites are fixed in the photoreceptor, the spots are registered from one cycle of belt revolution to the next. Whether these localized microdefect or charge deficient spot sites will show up as print defects in the final document will depend on the development system utilized and, thus, on the machine design selected. For example, some of the variables governing the final print quality include the surface potential of the photoreceptor, the image potential of the photoreceptor, the photoreceptor to development roller spacing, toner characteristics (such as size, charge and the like), the bias applied to the development rollers, and the like. The image potential depends on the light level selected for exposure. The defect sites are discharged, however, by the dark discharge rather than by the light. The copy quality from generation to generation is maintained in a machine by continuously adjusting some of the parameters with cycling. Thus, defect levels could also change with cycling.
Furthermore, cycling of belts made up of identical materials but differing in overall belt size and use in different copiers, duplicators and printers has exhibited different microdefects. Moreover, belts from different production runs have exhibited different microdefects when initially cycled in any given copier, duplicator and printer.
Various methods have been developed in the art to assess and/or accommodate the occurrence of the charge deficient spots. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,703,487 and 6,008,653 disclose processes for ascertaining the microdefect levels of an electrophotographic imaging member. The method of U.S. Pat. No. 5,703,487 comprises the steps of measuring either the differential increase in charge over and above the capacitive value or measuring reduction in voltage below the capacitive value of a known imaging member and of a virgin imaging member and comparing differential increase in charge over and above the capacitive value or the reduction in voltage below the capacitive value of the known imaging member and of the virgin imaging member.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,008,653 discloses a method for detecting surface potential charge patterns in an electrophotographic imaging member with a floating probe scanner. The scanner includes a capacitive probe, which is optically coupled to a probe amplifier, and an outer Faraday shield electrode connected to a bias voltage amplifier. The probe is maintained adjacent to and spaced from the imaging surface to form a parallel plate capacitor with a gas between the probe and the imaging surface. A constant voltage charge is applied to the imaging surface prior to establishing relative movement of the probe and the imaging surface. Variations in surface potential are measured with the probe and compensated for variations in distance between the probe and the imaging surface. The compensated voltage values are compared to a baseline voltage value to detect charge patterns in the electrophotographic imaging member. U.S. Pat. No. 6,119,536 describes the floating probe used in these measurements.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,591,554 and 5,576,130 disclose methods for preventing charge injection from substrates that give rise to CDS's. These patents disclose an electrophotographic imaging member including a support substrate having a two layered electrically conductive ground plane layer comprising a layer comprising zirconium over a layer comprising titanium, a hole blocking layer, and an adhesive layer. U.S. Pat. No. 5,591,554 describes an adhesive layer which includes a copolyester film forming resin, and an intermediate layer comprising a carbazole polymer, on which is coated a charge generation layer comprising a perylene or a phthalocyanine, and a hole transport layer, which is substantially non-absorbing in the spectral region at which the charge generation layer generates and injects photogenerated holes. U.S. Pat. No. 5,576,130 describes an adhesive layer that comprises a thermoplastic polyurethane film forming resin.

Photoreceptor with three-layer photoconductive layer


An optical module includes a module body on which at least one photo diode is mounted, a filter holder inserted into the module body, and a thin film filter mounted on the filter holder in order to guide optical signals towards photo diodes in such a manner that optical signals with corresponding wavelengths are received in the photo diodes. The filter holder, on which the thin film filters are mounted, is fabricated separately from the module body and houses active elements, such as the laser diode and photo diodes. The filter holder is inserted into the module body thereafter, so the optical module is easily fabricated at a low cost and in a simple manner.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical communication element. More particularly, the present invention relates to an optical module for housing a plurality of active elements, such as a laser diode and a photo diode.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, an optical module includes an electric circuit device, such as a printed circuit board, on which a laser diode, a photo diode, etc., are mounted. The optical module outputs an electric signal by converting a radio frequency signal into an optical signal or vice versa. As the information industry has progressed rapidly, a great amount of information is transmitted/received through an optical network at a high transmission rate. Accordingly, it is necessary to provide an optical module capable of transmitting/receiving mass data at a high transmission rate.
FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional optical module 10 for a multi-wavelength which includes a laser diode 11 and at least one pair of photo diodes 12.
In operation, the laser diode 11 receives an RF signal and outputs an optical signal by converting the RF signal into the optical signal. The photo diodes 12 receive the optical signal and covert the optical signal into the RF signal. The optical signal outputted from the laser diode 11 and the optical signal received in the photo diodes 12 have the same optical path. Thus, the optical path of the optical signals to be received in the photo diodes 12 must be shifted in such a manner that the optical signals having wavelengths corresponding to the characteristics of the photo diodes 12 can be received in the photo diodes 12. The optical module 10 transmits the optical signals along an optical axis of the laser diode 11 and is equipped with the thin film filters 14 and 15 corresponding to the number of the photo diodes 12. After the optical path of the optical signals has been shifted by means of the thin film filters 14 and 15, the optical signals are incident into the photo diodes 12 by passing through predetermined lenses 16 and 17. The lenses 16 and 17 are aligned in the optical path of the optical signals between the thin film filters 14 and 15 and the photo diodes 12.
FIG. 2 is a sectional view of another conventional optical module 100 for a multi-wavelength. As shown, the conventional optical module 100 includes a module body 101 in which a thin film filter 111 and a lens 113 are installed. A laser diode 102 is installed at one end of the module body 101 and photo diodes 103 and 104 are mounted at both side ends of the module body 101. In addition, an optical fiber 115 is coupled with the other end of the module body 101.
The optical module 100 having the above structure is integrally formed through an electric discharge machining process in order to form a mounting position of the thin film filter 111. However, since the structure of the conventional optical module 100 is complicated, it is difficult to fabricate the optical module 100 in mass production.
FIG. 3 shows yet another conventional optical module 200. As shown, the optical module 200 includes a module body 210 in which a laser diode 202, photo diodes 203 and 204, and an optical fiber 215 are installed therein. Further, thin film filters 211 are inserted into the module body 201.
However, the optical module 200 having the above structure uses a plurality of components, thus increasing the manufacturing cost. In addition, since the thin film filters 211 are inserted into the module body 201, a tolerance between parts of the optical module 200 must be considered, so that precision of the optical module 200 may be degraded.


A sensor device includes a base body 12 having a vibrating portion 14, a piezoelectric element 20 fixed onto one surface of the vibrating portion 14 and having a piezoelectric film 22 and a pair of electrodes 24a, 24b which are in contact with the piezoelectric film 22, a space 16 that allows a fluid to lead to the other surface of the vibrating portion 14, and introduction holes 18 that communicate with the space 16, and the sensor device 10 is in a longitudinal shape. A recess 15 which contains at least an opening end of the introduction hole 18 on the surface side of the sensor device 10 in its region and extends up to the rear end portion 10' of the sensor device is formed on the surface of the sensor device 10 by a protrusion 13 disposed on the surface of said sensor device so as to extend substantially continuously from the periphery of the introduction holes 18 to the rear end portion 10' of said sensor device.

The present invention relates to a sensor device having a piezoelectric element for measuring the viscosity, the density, the concentration, etc., of a fluid.
Up to now, in order to measure the viscosity, the density, the concentration, etc., of a fluid, a sensor device using a vibrator such as a piezoelectric element has been used. FIGS. 20A and 20B show an example of the sensor device of this type, in which FIG. 20A is a perspective view of the sensor device, and FIG. 20B is a partially enlarged cross-sectional view of the sensor device taken along a line VI--VI. The sensor device 40 includes a base body 12 having a thin vibrating portion 14. Onto one surface of the vibrating portion 14 is fixed a piezoelectric element 20 having a piezoelectric film 22 and a pair of electrodes 24a and 24b which are disposed to be in contact with the piezoelectric film 22, and the other surface of the vibrating portion 14 faces a space (surrounded space) 16 defined in the interior of the base body.
Also, introduction holes 18 that communicate with the space 16 are defined in the vicinity of a tip of the sensor device 40 in such a manner that a fluid flowing into the space 16 from the introduction holes 18 is led to the vibrating portion 14. The piezoelectric element 20 is covered with a protective cover 17 so as not to be in direct contact with the fluid.
In the sensor device 40 thus structured, a fluid to be measured is allowed to flow into the space 16 from the introduction holes 18 so as to be in contact with the vibrating portion 14. In this situation, a voltage is applied to the piezoelectric film 22 to vibrate the vibrating portion 14, as a result of which in the case where the viscosity of the fluid is large, the amplitude of the vibrating portion 14 becomes small whereas in the case where the viscosity of the fluid is small, the amplitude of the vibrating portion 14 becomes large, thereby being capable of measuring the viscosity of the fluid by detecting a current corresponding to that amplitude. Also, in the case where the viscosity of the fluid correlates with the concentration of the fluid or the density of components in the fluid, the concentration and the density of the fluid can be measured.
As one application of the above-described sensor device, there is a case in which the sensor device is built in a lead storage battery to measure a change in the density of an electrolyte. In other words, since a sulfuric acid aqueous solution is used as the electrolyte in the lead storage battery, and the viscosity of the sulfuric acid aqueous solution correlates with the density thereof, the density can be detected by the above sensor device. Also, since the density of the electrolyte changes depending on the charge and discharge of the battery, the charge and discharge state of the battery can be notified by measuring a change in the density.
FIG. 21 shows a state in which the above sensor device 40 is built in the lead storage battery. A porous sheet (separator) 34 is interposed between a pair of electrodes 32a and 32b of the battery, and the sensor device 40 is embedded in the porous sheet 34. The sensor device 40 in this state is accommodated within a battery case, and the electrolyte is injected thereinto in such a manner that the electrolyte is infiltrated into the porous sheet 34 so as to be fully supplied between the electrodes 32a and 32b, and the electrolyte that percolates from the porous sheet 34 enters the introduction holes 18, flows into the space 16 and is then led to the vibrating portion 14.
By the way, in order that the electrolyte is allowed to flow into the space 16 as described above, it is necessary that an air existing in the space 16 is exhausted to the exterior simultaneously, that is, the air is replaced by the flow-in electrolyte. However, in the conventional sensor device 40, when the sensor device 40 is built in the battery as shown in the figure, an opening end of the introduction holes 18 that communicate with the space 16 is in a state where it is in contact with the porous sheet 34. This makes it hard to discharge the air within the space 16, and the entrance of the electrolyte to the introduction holes 18 is irregular. As a result, there arises such a problem that it is difficult to replace the electrolyte by the air within the space 16 with the electrolyte.

Sensor device with fluid introduction holes


A photomask for printing multiple configurations includes a transparent substrate and a patterned opaque layer on a surface of the substrate defining transmitting and non-transmitting portions. A phase shifting layer is provided adjacent the opaque layer and has a depth such that it shifts a light having a first wavelength about 180.degree. and shifts the phase of a second light about 0.degree..

The present invention relates to photomasks or reticles used in the fabrication of semiconductor devices. More particularly, the present invention relates to phase shifting photomasks and processes for designing them.
Advances in capacity in semiconductor chips have generally been the result of decreases in the size of the features on the chip. The lateral dimensions of features are generally defined by photolithographic techniques in which a detailed pattern is transferred to a photoresist by shining light through a mask or reticle.
In recent years, phase shifting masks have been developed to improve photolithographic processes. Phase shifting masks increase image contrast and resolution without reducing wave length or increasing numerical aperture. These masks also improve depth of focus and process latitude for a given feature size.
With phase shift photolithography, the interference of light rays is used to overcome the problems of diffraction and improve the resolution and depth of optical images projected onto a target. With this technology, the phase of the exposure light at the target is controlled such that adjacent bright areas are preferably formed 180.degree. out of phase with each other. Dark regions are thus produced between the bright areas by destructive interference even when diffraction would otherwise cause these areas to be lit. This technique improves total resolution at the target.
In general, a phase shifting mask is constructed with a repetitive pattern formed of three layers of material. An opaque layer provides areas that allow no light transmission. A first transparent layer provides areas which allow close to 100% of the light to pass through. A transparent phase shifting layer provides areas which allow close to 100% of the light to pass through but phase shifted 180 degrees from the light passing through the first transparent layer. The first transparent layer and the phase shifting layer are positioned such that light rays diffracted through each area are cancelled out in a darkened area between them. This creates a pattern of dark and bright areas which can be used to clearly delineate features of a pattern defined by the opaque layer on the semiconductor wafer. Another method of constructing a phase shifting mask utilizes a semitransparent layer to cause the phase shift.
One process for fabricating phase shifting masks includes forming an opaque layer on a major surface of a transparent substrate, patterning the opaque layer to expose portions of the underlying transparent substrate, forming a phase shifting mask layer to expose the portions of the underlying transparent substrate, phase-etching the exposed portions of the transparent substrate until a 180.degree. phase shift is accomplished. Other processes of fabricating phase shifting masks include those in which a transparent film is formed over a portion of a mask to create a phase shift as well as the etching of rim shifting channels into the mask substrate.
With their increasing complexity, photomasks have become more difficult to design and fabricate over the years. Accordingly, its is desirable to fabricate photomasks which have the longest useful life possible. Additionally, it is advantageous to design photomasks which have the widest application possible.
Accordingly, it would be a significant advancement in the art to provide a photomask and method of fabrication wherein the photomask could be used to print features with different sizes or different configurations from the same mask. Such a photomask is disclosed and claimed herein.

Photomask for reconfiguring a circuit by exposure at two different wavelengths


A belt nip type fixing apparatus, which prevents a formation of an icicle-like uneven glossiness occurring on a surface of a fixed image due to pressure release in a fixing nip. In addition, an image forming apparatus provided with the fixing apparatus for preventing an occurrence of image failure even in a case where a coated paper sheet, which is most likely to cause the image failure, is used as a recording material and for enlarging a scope of application of the recording material while maintaining a productivity, to thereby attain an improved merchantability. The apparatus is configured such that a wedge-shaped space, which is formed between a belt, a separation roller, and a pressure pad, is adequately filled by a sliding sheet, thereby preventing a pressure in the fixing nip from being decreased.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image heating apparatus for heating an image on a recording material, which is used for an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, a printer, or a facsimile machine. Examples of the image heating apparatus include a fixing apparatus for fixing an unfixed image on a recording material and a glossiness increasing apparatus for increasing a glossiness of an image by heating the image fixed on a recording material.
2. Related Background Art
Conventionally, there has been a belt fixing apparatus in which a fixing roller and a belt are used, as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H11-045025.
In the belt fixing apparatus, it is possible to easily set a fixing nip width to be large along a direction of conveyance of the recording material by adjusting a contact width of the belt with respect to the fixing roller.
Therefore, the fixing nip width can be secured without depending on a diameter of the fixing roller, making it possible to reduce a diameter and a heat capacity of the fixing roller, to thereby shorten rise time of the belt fixing apparatus. That is, the belt fixing apparatus is capable of melting a large amount of toner. Therefore, the belt fixing apparatus is suitable for the image forming apparatus, which uses a large amount of toner such as a color image forming apparatus.
FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of the belt fixing apparatus as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H11-045025 mentioned above. A fixing roller 51 is disposed such that the fixing roller 51 can be freely rotated. On a lower side of the fixing roller 51, a belt unit 53 is disposed.
Inside the fixing roller 51, a heater 58 such as a halogen lamp is disposed. In addition, a thermister (not shown) is disposed on the fixing roller 51. The thermister may be in contact with or out of contact with the fixing roller 51, and regulates a temperature of a surface of the fixing roller 51 by controlling a voltage supplied to the heater 58 via a temperature control circuit.
The belt unit 53 is provided with a fixing belt 52 which is a flexible endless belt; three rollers of a first roller 55, a second roller 56, and a third roller 57, which are plural winding and stretching members around which the fixing belt 52 is wound and stretched; a pressure pad 1000; and the like. The pressure pad 1000 is provided with a low friction sheet.
The separation roller 56 and the pressure pad 1000 are brought into pressure contact with the fixing roller 51 via the fixing belt 52, and thus a fixing nip portion N′ which is a contact portion of the fixing roller 51 and the fixing belt 52 are formed with a width large in the direction of conveyance of the recording material.
FIG. 10 shows an example of a pressure distribution of the pressure of the fixing nip portion along the direction of conveyance of the recording material, and a curve A shows a case of a conventional belt fixing apparatus. A curve B shows an example of the pressure distribution of the fixing nip portion of the fixing apparatus using a conventional pair of rollers. A curve C shows a case in which in the conventional roller fixing type fixing apparatus, a thickness of an elastic member layer of the fixing roller is made to be thick and an amount of deformation of the elastic member layer is increased by increasing the pressurizing force with a pressure roller in order to increase a nip width without increasing an outer diameter of the fixing roller as less as possible.
The belt fixing apparatus has a merit in making a nip width W1 much wider than a nip width W2 of the roller fixing type fixing apparatus. A nip width W3 of the roller fixing type fixing apparatus is somewhat wider than the nip width W2 as shown in the curve B. However, an effect obtained by enlarging the nip width is small, and in addition, the thick elastic member layer causes a heat capacity to be large, which is disadvantageous in view of energy conservation.
In the belt fixing apparatus, the separation roller 56 and the pressure pad 1000 are separated from each other as shown in FIG. 9. The pressure between the separation roller 56 and the pressure pad 1000, however, is not zero, as is understood from the pressure distribution of the fixing nip portion as shown in the curve A of FIG. 10, and the pressure of the separation roller 56 and the pressure of the pressure pad 1000 are continuous to each other through a tension of the fixing belt 52.
In the belt fixing apparatus, however, when a recording material, such as a coated paper sheet, having a low air permeability is used, there is another problem in that a portion in which the glossiness is low (haze: hereinafter referred to as uneven glossiness), as shown in FIG. 11, is formed in an icicle-like shape on a solid image.
In other words, in a case where the recording material having a low air permeability such as a coated paper sheet is used, an image disturbance occurs due to an expansion of air or generation of steam inside the fixing nip. The expansion of air or the generation of water vapor is caused by the following reasons: that is, air existing in an unfixed toner layer stagnates in a portion A′ in which the pressure in the nip is low, namely, a boundary region of the pressure pad and the separation roller; and the stagnated air partly forms an air gap on a boundary surface of the recording material and the fixing roller, and disturbs a toner image which is not completely fixed yet.
In a case where a plain paper sheet is used, the plain paper sheet has an air permeability higher than the air permeability of the coated paper sheet, so the air existing in the toner layer is retained within the plain paper sheet which is a porous member having a large capacity; or otherwise, the air escapes by passing the plain paper sheet. Therefore, it can be considered that the image disturbance does not often occur.
Further, in the case of a recording material having an especially low air permeability such as a thick coated paper sheet, a larger amount of air is likely to be stagnated in the portion A′ in which the pressure is decreased. Therefore, the problem of occurrence of the uneven glossiness described above becomes more serious.
Note that under an environment of high humidity in which the air contains high moisture content, the problem like this noticeably occurs.

Image heating apparatus with heating nip for preventing image failure


A discharge lamp drive apparatus includes: an inverter circuit; a transformer; a plurality of discharge lamp connection terminals; a plurality of ballast capacitors; a plurality of voltage detection circuits; and a signal processor. Each voltage detection circuit has first and second voltage detection elements constituting a series circuit. Each series circuit has a first end connected with a corresponding one of the discharge lamp connection terminals and a second end connected with a grounding terminal. The signal processor generates a signal indicating an open state of a discharge lamp by using an average value and a peak value of voltages appearing between connection points of the first and second voltage detection elements and the grounding terminals.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a discharge lamp drive apparatus which drives discharge lamps used as a backlight for a liquid crystal panel, and a liquid crystal display apparatus using the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, with an increase in size of a screen of a liquid crystal panel, a circuit scheme which drives a plurality of discharge lamps for a backlight in parallel has been used in one liquid crystal panel. As means for driving the plurality of discharge lamps in parallel, there are a scheme which connects one end side of the plurality of discharge lamps with an inverter circuit and a transformer and grounding the other end side of the same (which will be referred to as a normal drive scheme hereinafter) and a scheme which connects one end side of the plurality of discharge lamps with an inverter circuit and a transformer and connects the other end side of the same with another transformer (which will be referred to as a differential drive scheme hereinafter).
Of these two schemes, the differential drive scheme can reduce output voltages of the transformers, which enables the use of circuit components having a small withstand voltage, thereby decreasing a cost accordingly.
In such a discharge lamp drive apparatus, however, there occurs a state in which a current does not flow between a transformer and discharge lamps (which will be referred to as an open state hereinafter) in some cases because of, e.g., a contact failure of a discharge lamp electrode with respect to a connector. Such an abnormal state, in which a liquid crystal display cannot operate appropriately, must be detected. As such means, for example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 6-267674 and Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2004-241136 disclose a normal drive type discharge lamp drive apparatus which is provided with a light-off detection circuit for detecting the open state.
In the discharge lamp drive apparatus disclosed in JP 6-267674 and JP 2004-241136, since the normal drive scheme is adopted, one end side of discharge lamps is grounded and has a low voltage. Therefore, whether each discharge lamp is in the open state or not can be determined by providing a resistance between the end side of the respective discharge lamps and the ground and detecting a current flowing through the resistance.
However, in case of a discharge lamp drive apparatus adopting the differential drive scheme, since transformers are connected with both ends of the discharge lamps and both the ends of the discharge lamps have a high voltage, it is impossible to take such a circuit configuration as disclosed in JP 6-267674 and JP 2004-241136 in which the resistance is provided between the discharge lamps and the ground.
On the other hand, adopting current transformers or the like to detect a current flowing through each end of the discharge lamps, which has a high voltage, presents the problem of hindering size reduction and cost reduction of the product.

Discharge lamp drive apparatus and liquid crystal display apparatus


Improved connectors of the type used for attaching shelves and bins to slot boards are generally shaped like the known W-clips and Z-clips but have ribbed channels to receive one edge portion of a shelf or bin. The edge portions of the shelves and bins are shaped to fit within the channels and grooved to fit around the ribs on the connectors when a connector is attached to a shelf or bin by seating the corresponding edge portion of the shelf or bin in the channel of the connector and seating the rib on the connector in the groove in the shelf or bin to mechanically interlock the connector with its shelf or bin. A combination connector is also provided which can be used either as a W-clip or a Z-clip.

Slot boards are commonly used for the support of shelves and bins displaying merchandise. Slot boards of the type with which this invention is concerned are typically made of wood with a plurality of vertically spaced horizontally extending slots or grooves. A slot board may be of any desired height and width or may be an entire wall, and the term "slot board" as used hereinafter refers to both slot boards and slot walls unless the context indicates otherwise.
The shelves and bins supported by a slot board are of many shapes and sizes and are typically, but not necessarily, made from a suitable plastic, such as acrylic. The shelves are connected to the slot board by one or more connectors known in the art as W-clips, which are W-shaped profiles. The bins are connected by one or more Z-clips or Z-shaped profiles. One leg of the appropriate W or Z shaped profile is bonded to the shelf or bin and the opposite leg of the profile is inserted in a selected groove in the slot board. The shelf is supported in any desired angular relation to the slot board, while the side of the bin to which the Z-clip is bonded extends at a desired angle to the slot board.
In the illustrated embodiments of the invention, the shelves are flat and the bins are cubical with an open top and four side walls rising from a bottom wall. Only one side of the bin is bonded to the Z-clip.
As known in the art, the shelves and bins are made in many different configurations. The improved connectors of this invention are usable with any shelf or bin that can be supported by a W-clip or Z-clip from a horizontal slot in a slot board.
All of the methods of bonding which have been heretofore used to affix the W-clips and Z-clips have been objectionable because the connection is not reliable, particularly when the shelves and bins are heavily laden. Failure of the clip or its connection results, of course, in the shelf or bin falling from the slot board and the spilling of its contents.
Most of the prior art profiles (W-clips and Z-clips) for connecting the shelves and bins to a slot board are made from plastic. Some of the plastic from which the prior art W-clips and Z-clips have been made is also subject to failure.
An attempt has been made to provide a stronger attachment of the W-clips to the shelves by using a sturdy plastic such as polycarbonate to make the W-clip and by adding a flange to the W-clip to form a channel in which one edge of the shelf is bonded. Another prior embodiment of the W-clip was made from metal with a channel for the shelf and one or more screws were used to hold the shelf in the channel of the metal W-clip. It strengthened the attachment of the W-clip to the shelf, but the cost of time, labor and materials needed to make the attachment with screws is economically unfeasible.