A print control apparatus to discharge sheets printed by a printing unit to discharging destinations. The print control apparatus includes a first determination unit, a second determination unit, and a selecting unit. When an input print job is to be executed by the printing unit, the first determination unit determines how many sheets are to be discharged, corresponding to a single copy based on the print job. The second determination unit determines how many discharging destinations are required for discharging the determined number of sheets. If the determined number of discharging destinations is a multiple value, the selecting unit selects multiple discharging destinations located closest to each other as discharging destinations for the sheets printed. The multiple discharging destinations are selected by the selecting unit before the printing unit begins printing operation based on the print job.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to print control apparatuses and print control methods that can discharge printed sheets to multiple discharging destinations.
2. Description of the Related Art
When performing printing of multiple copies, an apparatus that discharges sheets to different discharging destinations (trays) for each copy is known (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 8-26586). In Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 8-26586, multiple adjoining trays are allocated to a single job in advance so that sheets are discharged to the adjoining trays for each copy, thereby preventing the sheets from being mixed with those that correspond to another job.
However, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 8-26586, since the number of output sheets for each copy is not counted prior to the start of printing operation, if the number of output sheets corresponding to each copy exceeds the number of sheets that can be discharged to a single tray, the remaining sheets are discharged to another available tray at that point. When performing copying operation in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 8-26586, a process of reading an original document begins upon completion of an output-bin allocating process. Therefore, the number of output sheets is not ascertained at the time of the output-bin allocating process, and only the number of copies is ascertained. Regarding jobs other than copy jobs, since the output-bin allocating process is performed in a similar procedure, the allocating process is performed for the number of copies.
Consequently, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 8-26586, if the number of output sheets corresponding to each copy exceeds the number of output sheets that can be discharged to a single tray, the remaining sheets are discharged to another tray located distant from the current one, or are kept on hold until the sheets corresponding to another job are removed from an adjoining tray. Therefore, in the former case, the process for removing the printed matter corresponding to each copy becomes complicated. In the latter case, the process gets clogged in the middle of the printing operation.

Print control apparatus and print control method


A hard alloy and a cutting tool. The hard alloy includes a hard phase and a binder phase. The hard phase includes: a main phase containing 50-70 mass % of WC, 15-30 mass % of TiCN, and 0-10 mass % of at least one kind of carbide, nitride or carbonitride of one or more non-W, non-Ti periodic table Group 4, 5 or 6 metal; a WC phase; and a composite hard phase. The binder phase includes 6 to 12 mass % of at least one of Co and Ni. The hard alloy includes a surface portion at a surface thereof, the surface portion having a WC content higher than that of an internal portion thereof. An average size of grains in the WC phase in the surface portion is larger than an average size of grains in the WC phase in the internal portion.

At present, a sintered hard alloy containing more than 70 mass % of WC and a cermet containing Ti as the main component are used as cutting tools. The sintered hard alloy has high wear resistance and high fracture resistance and has been widely used for cutting tools. However, due to the price rise of WC raw materials, it has been examined to reduce the use amount of the WC by replacing the WC by other materials. On the other hand, the cermet has wear resistance higher than that of the sintered hard alloy but has a problem in that the fracture resistance is lower than that of the sintered hard alloy, which limits the use thereof.
For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2009-275237 discloses a cermet containing three kinds of hard phases of WC, Ti(C, N), and (Ta, Nb)C at a predetermined ratio. Moreover, NPL 1 discloses adding 20 to 50 volume % of WC raw materials to a cermet, and then firing the same while adjusting a nitrogen current atmosphere and a vacuum atmosphere to thereby form a surface portion with a predetermined thickness (portion in which the presence ratio of carbide, nitride, and carbonitride of metals of Groups IV, V, and VI in periodic table, other than WC, is low and the presence ratio of WC is high) on the surface of a sintered compact.
The following is a list of aforementioned background art
PTL 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2009-275237
Non Patent Literature
NPL 1: Daisuke TAKEZAWA and other 4 persons, "Influence of WC Addition Amount and Firing Atmosphere on Superficial Region Formation of WC Phase Remaining Cermet", Japan Society of Powder and Powder Metallurgy Autumn Meeting Lecture Collection in 2010, p. 105
However, with the cermet (hard alloy) in which the three kinds of hard phases are dispersed as in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2009-275237, the hardness of the alloy has become high to increase the wear resistance of tools but the fracture resistance of the alloy has not been sufficient. Even the hard alloy in which the surface portion is formed on the surface of the alloy as in Daisuke TAKEZAWA and other 4 persons, "Influence of WC Addition Amount and Firing Atmosphere on Superficial Region Formation of WC Phase Remaining Cermet", Japan Society of Powder and Powder Metallurgy Autumn Meeting Lecture Collection in 2010, p. 105 has had a problem in that the fracture resistance of the alloy has been inferior to that of the sintered hard alloy.
The present invention is to provide a hard alloy and a cutting tool with reduced WC content and improved fracture resistance.


A magnetic disc drive assembly comprises a disc drive housing defining a drive chamber. A desiccant housing in the drive chamber is joined to the bottom wall of the disc drive housing. The desiccant housing has end walls and side walls extending along a width and a length, respectively, of the desiccant housing, the length being oriented substantially parallel to the length of the drive chamber to form a structural beam for the disc drive housing. The desiccant housing has a top opening between the desiccant chamber and the drive chamber and a bottom opening through the bottom wall of the drive housing through which the desiccant is placed into the desiccant chamber. A separate bottom cover closes the bottom opening so that the desiccant may be place into the disc drive as the last assembly step.

This invention relates to magnetic disc drive assemblies of the class employing a stack of rigid discs in a standard housing profile.
Magnetic disc drive assemblies employing rigid, or hard, discs are commonly used in desktop and other computer mainframes as a principal memory for the computer. Currently, rigid disc magnetic disc drive assemblies are available in three different standard footprints, commonly known as 2 1/2 inch, 3 1/2 inch and 5 1/4 inch drives. Each of these standard drives are available in several configurations, the most common being known as low-profile and half-high drives. The principal difference between a low-profile drive and a half-high drive is that a low-profile drive typically has half the number of rigid discs in the disc stack, and hence half the data storage capacity, as a half-high drive. Computer manufacturers design their computer models to accommodate one of these three standard footprints and one of the two configurations. Consequently, disc drive manufacturers produce disc drives having a form and fit meeting the standard configuration of one of the three footprints and one of the two heights.
There is a continuing need for faster computers with greater capacity. One technique for meeting this need is described herein by decreasing the size of the recording discs without correspondingly decreasing the size of the housing. To maintain the same disc capacity, a greater number of discs is employed, resulting in a taller disc stack. To maintain the height of the disc drive within the standard configuration, it is necessary that the disc drive housing be thinner than prior housings and that the connections to external circuits be more compactly assembled to the disc drive housing. There is a need, however, for a mechanism to maintain the structural integrity of the disc drive housing without addition of new space-consuming components.
Most disc drives employ desiccants and desiccant housings to maintain the environment within the drive at a suitably low humidity. Since most disc drives are sealed from external environmental conditions, the desiccant serves to maintain the low humidity, regardless of the environmental conditions outside the drive. However, the desiccant packages have a life, dependent on the amount of moisture absorbed. Once the design maximum amount of moisture is absorbed, the desiccant package is no longer useful, and the disc drive is in risk of being subject to too much humidity which can adversely affect the performance of the drive.
One problem of the prior drives is that the desiccant package had to be inserted into the drive before writing servo tracks to the servo surface and before final testing of the drive. Only after completion of these operations could the drive be closed and sealed. During the servo writing and testing operations, the desiccant package was exposed to the high humidity of the surrounding environment, thereby adversely affecting the life of the desiccant package. There is a need, therefore for a desiccant housing within a disc drive that permits insertion of the desiccant package immediately before sealing the drive, thereby prolonging the life of the desiccant package to a maximum extent.


An apparatus for transporting printing sleeves is provided. The transport apparatus includes a housing with a bottom wall, a plurality of side walls, and at least one cover. A plurality of reception devices are mounted in the housing. Each reception device receives a printing sleeve in a vertically oriented transport position with a longitudinal mid-axes of the respective printing sleeve extending vertically. Each reception device is movable out of the housing into an outside position when the at least one cover of the housing is open. Each reception device is pivotable in the outside position such that the corresponding printing sleeve can be moved out of the vertical transport position into a horizontal extraction or insertion position.

With printed technology, the current practice is to position what may be referred to as printing sleeves on impression cylinders of a printing machine. These printing sleeves allow a smooth and jolt-free rolling of the cylinders of a printing machine that are involved in printing. Where printing machines of variable format are concerned, two printing sleeves are positioned one above the other on the impression cylinders. An outer printing sleeve forms a printing surface and an inner printing sleeves serving for diameter compensation between the outer printing sleeve and the respective impression cylinder of the printing machine. In this case, an outer printing sleeve forming a printing surface usually has a small wall thickness, whereas the inner printing sleeve serving for diameter compensation between the outer printing sleeve and the respective impression cylinder has a greater wall thickness, depending on the difference in diameter between the respective impression cylinder and the outer printing sleeve.
When carrying out a production change between two different printing orders, it is necessary to change at least the outer printing sleeve forming the printing surface. In the case of a production change between two printing orders that are characterized by the same printing format, only the outer printing sleeve has to be changed. If, however, the two printing orders also differ from one another in terms of their printing format, then the inner printing sleeve also has to be exchanged in addition to the outer printing sleeve.
During the production change, new printing sleeves must be moved up to the printing units of the printing machine and old or spent printing sleeves must be moved away from the printing machine. The movement of the printing sleeves towards and away from the printing machine takes place via corresponding printing sleeve transport apparatuses.
A change station for sleeves of printing machines is disclosed in DE 101 12 522 C2. The change station includes a lifting platform and a carriage. Avertically adjustable shelf with carrying mandrels for receiving the sleeves is mounted vertically displaceably in the carriage. The carrying mandrels for receiving the sleeves are set up in such a way that the sleeves are mounted and transported in the carriage in a horizontal position, i.e. with their longitudinal mid-axis running horizontally. Such a horizontal mounting of the sleeves may lead to a deformation of the sleeves, particularly when the horizontal mounting takes place for a lengthy period of time. This is undesirable. Furthermore, the carriage according to DE 101 12 522 C2 has greatly restricted functionality.

Apparatus for the transportation of printing sleeves


An improved system and methods for increasing security at sensitive locations from unwanted third parties through the use of fluidized granular solids.

The enhancement of security at sensitive locations has always been a concern through out modern history. At the present time, methods of limiting, controlling, and/or monitoring access of vehicles and personnel to buildings and sites typically include fences, access gates, guardhouses, barricades and related obstacles. Commercially available solutions also include sliding gates, drop bars, bollards, anti-ram walls, hydraulic wedges, hydraulic rising beams, retractable bollards, tire shredders, and ditches.
When a situation involves the potential of forced entry or secret unauthorized entry by personnel on foot or inside vehicles, particularly when aggressive unauthorized entry is involved, the typical approach involved armed personnel, impenetrable fences or gates and/or barricades. This approach has proven to be inadequate in many situations such as those involving people and vehicles both of which may be equipped with explosives.
An additional limitation of these approaches has been circumstances involving faulty assessments of the intention of the intrusion, and/or miscommunications leading to uncertainties. As a result of these problems, personal injury and/or significant damage to vehicles can easily result in unwanted fatalities and costly material loss.
In view of the above, there is a need in the art for enhanced security systems for sensitive locations for inhibiting access by unwanted third parties. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an enhanced security systems as well as methods of inhibiting access to sensitive locations by unwanted third parties.

Fluidized bed technology for security enhancement


A method (500) and apparatus (601) generate an input signal based on the orientation of a device. A sensor (302) such as a camera, a gyro, or an accelerometer detects a change in device orientation and generates a position input signal that is provided to an application program (612) such as a game program, a text messaging program, or a user interface program to affect an operation thereof. The input signal can, for example, affects a navigation position associated with the application program.

With the widespread proliferation of applications such as games, organizers, user interfaces applications, and the like, for portable electronic devices, wireless communication units, cellular handsets, and the like, and with the incompatibility of standard input devices such as joysticks, mice, or even touch pads with the portable nature of the devices, providing suitable input signals to such applications has become an important factor in product usability and enjoyment.
Portable electronic devices, because of their small size, often suffer limitations in the manner in which the user navigates menus, enters data, or otherwise provides input to applications running thereon. Keypads often have a relatively limited number of keys or buttons, and navigation controls such as joysticks and touchpads if adapted to the small size needed for use with the portable electronic device can be clumsy to use. Many existing portable electronic devices, in addition to number keys and auxiliary keys, have one or more arrow buttons built into the device for providing at least direction selectivity of device features and menu navigation. The small size of the arrow button(s) and the limited directional sensitivity can detract from the overall user experience. Thus the limitation in the availability of small-sized input technology can be an obstacle to convenient, efficient, and enjoyable use of portable electronic devices. Such input technology limitations become more noticeable when text must be entered, complex menus must be navigated, or high speed games are being played.

Device orientation based input signal generation


A front-end structure for a vehicle is provided with: front side frames, a subframe extending across a vehicle body floor front portion to support a suspension component and an electric power steering device, the subframe being supported at least at the front end portion and at the rear end portion and being formed in a subframe main body from a light alloy casting, and a pair of left and right extension arms that are fixed to the subframe main body and extend forward of the subframe main body, and that are formed from a light alloy or steel by press-molding. In the rear portion of the extension arms in the vicinity the subframe main body, provided is a recessed portion that serves as a point at which downward bending starts midway along the lengthwise direction of the subframe with an input load in the event of a vehicle frontal collision.

Among vehicles such as automobile vehicles, there is one in which a subframe supporting a suspension component in the vehicle front-end portion is provided, and this subframe is configured with a subframe main body and extension arms extending forward from the left and right of the front end of the subframe. The strength of a joint between the subframe main body and the extension arms is increased to thereby transmit frontal collision load to the rear floor (refer to Patent Document 1).
Moreover, there is one in which the subframe is formed with highly rigid aluminum alloy, and when a frontal collision load is applied to a suspension arm supported on this subframe, a weakened portion in front of the suspension arm rear end fastening portion at the rear end of the subframe is broken to absorb collision energy (refer to Patent Document 2).
Moreover, in the area of vehicles such as automobile vehicles, there is known a technique such that by bending a lower member positioned at the rear of the front cross member in the event of a frontal collision of the vehicle, a suspension component such as a stabilizer supported on the lower member is displaced downward to thereby ensure a crash stroke of the vehicle front-end portion (refer to Patent Document 3).
Furthermore, there is known a technique in which a subframe supporting suspension members on the lower portion of the vehicle front-end portion is provided, and a bolt that fixes the rear end portion of this subframe is pulled out by an explosion of an explosive triggered by a frontal collision, and the suspension members supported on the subframe are displaced downward, to thereby ensure a crash stroke for the vehicle front-end portion (refer to Patent Document 4).


An adapter module for a portable computer keeps its power cables in its housing to maintain a tidy appearance. Cylinders, driven by torsion springs, roll power cables around themselves in the housing. A stop, driven by a spring, blocks teeth of cylinders to prevent the cylinders from rolling up the power cables. A button, operated by a user, is pushed against the stop to release the cylinders on which the power cables are retracted. When the adapter module is used to transmit power, power cables of desired length are extracted. When the module is not in use, the button is pressed to tract the power cables into the housing.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to an adapter module. More particularly, the present invention relates to an adapter module for a portable computer.
2. Description of Related Art
A portable computer can use at least two power sources. Usually, a portable computer uses a built-in battery as a power source. A portable computer can also use an adapter, either as a power source or to charge the battery thereof.
An adapter has two ends, which are power cables and their plugs, electrically connected to a power source and a portable computer, respectively. However, power cables of fixed length are difficult to organize for use and storage. An adapter, when not in use, may occupy a large space if the power cables thereof are not properly organized. Thus, use of an adapter to provide power to a portable computer is somewhat inconvenient.


Provided herein are compounds and methods of synthesis thereof. The compounds provided herein are useful for the treatment, prevention, and/or management of various disorders, such as pain, neurological disorders, psychiatric disorders, and neuromuscular disorders. Compounds provided herein modulate the activity of opioid receptor (e.g., μ-opioid receptor) in the central nervous system or the periphery. Pharmaceutical formulations containing the compounds and their methods of use are also provided herein.

Chronic pain remains a challenge in medical science. Chronic pain is a common complaint in patients who have undergone surgical procedures or who suffer from long term illnesses, such as, e.g., cancer, nerve injury, arthritis, or heart diseases. Existing therapeutic agents for treating chronic pain are often unsatisfactory because of side effects accompanying the treatment. For example, opiates at high doses are apt to produce sedation, respiratory depression, and tolerance, which severely limit their use.
Generally, acute pain is of limited duration and rapidly subsides after removing the triggering stimuli. Acute pain due to the stimulation of intact nociceptors has a protective warning function to preserve physical integrity—the subsequent responses to avoid pain provide protection from injury. Chronic pain typically does not possess this protective function, resulting in a pain disorder. Chronic pain may be subdivided into at least two major groups. Pathophysiological nociceptor pain, including, e.g., chronic inflammatory pain, is caused by stimulation of intact nociceptors, after, for example, tissue trauma. By contrast, neuropathic pain arises from damages to nerves themselves.
The changeover from acute pain to chronic pain may occur within hours. Pain treatment during and following surgery may be affected by this. Acute pain may become chronic, both peripherally and in the CNS, by pathophysiological processes subsequent to tissue damage, for example, after surgery. The association of tissue damage, acute postoperative pain, and development of chronic pain has been investigated. It is possible to regard the severity of acute pain as a predictive factor for the duration of chronic pain. Thus, satisfactory treatment of acute pain is desired.
One issue in combating pain is the side effects of known analgesics, such as, respiratory depression caused by opioids. Since the side effects occasionally result in fatalities in patients having just undergone surgery, pain medications are often not given in sufficient quantity to combat pain satisfactorily. Because of respiratory depression and other known side effects, opiates are often used to an inadequate extent in treating severe pain, for example, in cancer patients. In addition, the risk of respiratory depression occurring after administration of opiates is higher in older people than in younger people. For example, the risk of developing respiratory depression rises distinctly in people of 60 years of age or older.
Thus, there is an urgent need for new therapeutic agents for the treatment of pain, such as, severe pain, with less adverse events than traditional analgesics.

Modulators of opioid receptors and methods of use thereof


An optical fiber temperature sensor has a sensing part composed of an optical fiber arranged at a temperature measurement point; a light source for injecting a light to the sensing part; a wavelength filter module for branching the Raman scattered light from the back scattered light generated at the sensing part; photoelectric detectors for detecting the Raman scattered light and a signal processing circuit for processing the electric signals from the photoelectric detectors, wherein the light source is a semiconductor laser having a wavelength bandwidth of 0.78 μm; the wavelength filter module has a longer wavelength side band pass filter for transmitting the Stokes light and a shorter wavelength side band pass filter for transmitting the anti-Stokes light; and the longer wavelength side band pass filter and the shorter wavelength side band pass filter do not allow the light having the wavelength band of the semiconductor laser to be transmitted.

The present invention relates to an optical fiber temperature sensor for measuring the temperature by detecting the Raman scattered light generated inside the optical fiber.
Fiber-optic technologies provide such optical sensors as used for measuring temperature, deflection, pressure and the others, in recent years, and specifically, optical fiber temperature sensors are used for sensing the temperature by using Raman scattered light generated at the optical fiber.
FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of the circuit for the conventional optical fiber temperature sensor.
As shown in FIG. 4, the optical fiber temperature sensor 70 has the sensing part arranged at the temperature measurement point and composed of the optical fiber 71 (long-distance optical fiber for measurement) and the sensor body 72.
The sensor body 72 has the light source 73 for applying the incoming optical signal into the optical fiber 71 (for example, semiconductor laser diode (LD)), and a couple of photoelectric detectors 74 and 75 (for example, avalanche photodiode). The light source 73 and the photoelectric detectors 74 and 75 are connected to the optical fiber 71 used for sensing thorough the wavelength filter module 76. The wavelength filter module 76 has a couple of edge filters, each having its own wavelength range different from each other and branches the Raman scattered light from the back scattered light generated at the optical fiber 71.
The light source 73, being connected to LD driver 77, forms the LD module 78. A couple of photoelectric detectors 74 and 75 are connected to the received signal amplifiers 79 and 79, respectively. The received signal amplifiers 79 and 79 are connected to A/D (Analog-to-Digital) converters 80 and 80, respectively. A/D converter 80 and the LD module 78 are connected to the signal processing control circuit 81. The signal processing control circuit 81 has the signal control circuit 82 (for example, MCU (Micro Control Unit)) and the signal processing circuit 83 (for example, FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array)), and the signal processing circuit 83 is connected to the external arithmetic processing means 84 (for example, personal computer).
The optical fiber 71 forming the sensing part is typically a multi-mode fiber or a single-mode fiber, which is generally used for communication and has a core doped with Ge and the other materials.
When injecting the pulsed optical signal generated at the LD module 78 into the optical fiber 71, the weak Raman scattered light is generated at individual places in the optical fiber 71. As shown in FIG. 5, the frequency spectrum of the Raman scattered light maps the frequencies located symmetrically below and above the center wavelength λ0 of the incoming light. The back-scattered light having the spectrum at the center wavelength λ0 of the incoming light is the Rayleigh scattered light R. The Raman scattered light with the spectrum above the center wave length is designated Stokes light St, and the Raman scattered light with the spectrum below the center wave length is designated anti-Stokes light As.
The intensity ratio between the Stokes light St and the anti-Stokes light As, both generated at the optical fiber 71, depends on the temperature of the optical fiber 71. Therefore, the temperature of the temperature-measured object affects the temperature of the optical fiber 71, and thus, contributes to the detected intensity ratio between the Stokes light St and the anti-Stokes light As. The temperature of the temperature-measured object can be measured by obtaining this intensity ratio.
In the optical fiber temperature sensor 70, the backscattered Stokes light St and the backscattered anti-Stokes light As are separated by the wavelength filter module 76, and received separately by the photoelectric detectors 74 and 75, respectively. The received light is converted into the electric signal, and then the electric signal is amplified by the received signal amplifier 79, and the amplified electric signal is converted into the digital signal by A/D converter 80, and the digital signal is supplied to the signal processing control circuit 81. The electric signal is processed by the signal processing control circuit 81 and the external arithmetic processing means 84 in order to calculate the temperature, and finally the measured temperature is displayed.


System for processing programmable buttons using system control interrupts in a portable device. The system comprises a programmable button that comprises logic to generate a selected system control interrupt when actuated. The system also comprises interrupt logic coupled to receive the selected system control interrupt. The interrupt logic comprises logic to generate a button report that includes a button identifier, which indicates that the programmable button has been actuated. The system also comprises button support logic that is coupled to receive the button report, the button support logic comprises logic to determine a selectable device function associated with the button identifier, and logic to activate the selectable device function.

Given the reduced size of many consumer electronic devices, packaging systems are becoming increasingly important. For example, cellular telephones are becoming smaller and smaller to satisfy consumer's desires for portable lightweight telephones that are easy to carry. Such devices must still provide all the features and functions consumers require. For example, portable computer systems must provide input and output ports, a display, and a user input device. Furthermore, the progression to smaller and smaller consumer devices with advanced features is extending to Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) and notebook computers
However, small consumer devices have problems that are typically not encountered by larger devices. For example, many small consumer devices are meant to be handheld, thereby making it easy for users to carry the devices and operate them at remote locations. These devices include user input devices, such as a touch pad, pen stylus and buttons to allow users to activate programs or input information.
In a typical computer system, various hardware devices may be provided with their own dedicated and non-shareable interrupt line that is used to activate their associated driver programs. However, this requires the computer system to have substantial interrupt resources. Furthermore, in a typical system, the interrupt resources are based on older architectures, referred to as "legacy" interrupts, which provide slow performance that can result in an unsatisfactory user experience with the device.
Another problem that exists affecting small handheld devices is that there are a limited number of buttons that can be accommodated by the device housing. Therefore, current handheld devices generally limit the types and numbers of functions that are available to a user via the buttons. For example, buttons may be used to activate application programs and make basic selections, however, these same buttons may not be used to process system level functions.
Another problem that exists affecting small handheld devices is that because they are small and designed to be carried by a user, it is easy for buttons to be accidentally depressed when handled. For example, a user may hold the device with one hand while inputting information with the other. The hand being used to hold the device may accidentally depress buttons on the device that activate other device functions. Thus, it is possible to inadvertently lose information or interrupt the operation of the device because of the accidental button press.
Therefore, it would be desirable to have a system to process button actuations in a small computer device that avoids the problems associated with conventional systems.

System for processing programmable buttons using system interrupts


A method in a radio network node (105) for handling handover of a user equipment (110) from a first cell (115) to a second cell (120) is provided. A first scenario (410, 510), associated with a radio quality of the first cell (115) and a radio quality of the second cell (120), and a second scenario (420, 520), associated with a radio quality of the first cell (115) and a radio quality of the second cell (120), are defined. Also defined is at least one individual handover parameter (210, 220) for each one of the scenarios. Measured radio qualities of the first and second cells, associated with the user equipment (110) are obtained. The user equipment (110) is then classified into one of the scenarios based on the measured radio qualities, and a handover decision is established based on the individual handover parameter (210, 220) for the chosen scenario.

In a typical cellular radio system, also referred to as a wireless communication system, user equipments, also known as mobile terminals and/or wireless terminals, communicate via a Radio Access Network (RAN) to one or more core networks. The user equipments may be mobile stations or user equipment units such as mobile telephones also known as "cellular" telephones, and laptops with wireless capability, and thus may be, for example, portable, pocket, hand-held, computer-included, or car-mounted mobile devices which communicate voice and/or data with the radio access network. The user equipment may also be referred to as a terminal or a UE.
The radio access network covers a geographical area which is divided into cell areas, with each cell area being served by a base station, e.g., a Radio Base Station (RBS), which in some networks is also called "eNB", "eNodeB", "NodeB" or "B node" and which in this document also is referred to as a base station. A cell is a geographical area where radio coverage is provided by the radio base station equipment at a base station site. The base stations communicate over the air interface operating on radio frequencies with the user equipment units within range of the base stations.
In some versions of the radio access network, several base stations are typically connected, e.g. by landlines or radio link, to a Radio Network Controller (RNC). The radio network controller, also sometimes termed a Base Station Controller (BSC), supervises and coordinates various activities of the plural base stations connected thereto. The radio network controllers are typically connected to one or more core networks.
To support mobility of user equipments between cells, a cellular radio system must perform so called handovers. A handover is a change of serving cell, so that a user equipment being served by one cell becomes served by another cell instead. Handover may be necessary for example when a user equipment such as a mobile telephone moves from one serving cell into another, otherwise an ongoing call might be dropped due to loss of radio coverage. The decision of when a user equipment shall change to be served by another target cell is called a handover decision, and is often decided by the serving base station or another radio network node.
Handover decisions are based on measurement reports, provided to the cellular radio system by the user equipment itself, or by other base stations or nodes in the cellular radio system. For this purpose, user equipments may regularly perform measurements on signals originating both from the currently serving cell, and from surrounding cells. Each cell is identified by an individual so called identification code. The measured quantities may be for example received signal strength (RSS), signal to noise ratio (SNR), or bit error rate (BER). When the measurements indicate that a cell other than the currently serving cell would provide a better connection for a user equipment, a handover decision may be made.
To account for measurement uncertainties, and to avoid interruption of service, the cellular radio system typically has preset handover parameters to control handovers. Usually, before a handover decision is established, it is required that the measurements indicate that the measured quantity of the target cell is a certain amount better relative to the current serving cell, the so called "handover margin", for a certain period of time, the so called "time to trigger".
A tuning of handover parameters, such as the handover margin and the time to trigger, typically has an inherent tradeoff. Too small values might cause numerous switching between two cells, resulting in a user equipment being handed over back and forth from one cell to another. This may increase the system load and even if each handover only poses a minor risk for the connection due to signaling errors, the connection is exposed to an unnecessary risk if an excessive number of handovers is made. Conversely, too high values might also lead to a dropped call, since the handover decision might come too late.
To facilitate the handling of handovers, so called Neighbor Cell Relations (NCR) have been introduced.
In older wireless communication system revisions such as analog networks, GSM or UMTS, it is normally predetermined for each cell which neighbor cell relations can be established, whereas in newer wireless communication system revisions such as LTE—Long Term Evolution, a neighbor cell relation may be automatically established with any identified cell.
Adding to the difficulties in setting satisfactory handover parameters in a cellular radio system, is the fact that radio coverage of a cell is influenced by the surroundings, such as the topography of the terrain and buildings. Moreover, all base stations in a network may not be placed for optimum performance due to natural and enforced limitations. This results in most cellular systems having a "patchy" cell configuration with irregular cell borders and coverage islands of one cell inside another cell. This results in varying radio coverage conditions, for which the handover parameters may not always result in desired quality of handover service.
In an attempt to alleviate problems due to troublesome handovers, measurements may be performed manually, and some cell relations may be manually prohibited, or the handover parameters for a specific cell relation may be tuned to encourage or discourage handover.
Moreover, as networks become large, the number of cells and cell relations grow rapidly. The operators therefore demand a higher degree of automation, and so called Self Organizing Networks (SONs) are requested.
With a higher degree of automation in the wireless networks, neighbor cell relations might, as mentioned above, be added automatically by the network itself. Although this may be a desired property, it may also lead to neighbor cell relations being added that sometimes exhibit undesirable properties and lead to poor quality of service. The above stated problems associated with handovers may indeed be relevant for both older and newer wireless communication systems.

Method of handover in a cellular radio network


The present invention relates to a process for producing polymeric structures that have activated surfaces. The process proved to be simple, quick, with high production capacity and low operating costs. The process occurs by depositing a polymer solution, which is assisted by a high electric field, on a conductive liquid surface to produce particles and/or filaments that have an activated surface. More particularly, the process of the present invention has the ability to produce particles and/or filaments that have chemically activated surfaces, in a single process.

A great number of methods for producing particles and/or filaments are described in the literature. Among these methods electrospray and electrospinning have an important highlight, because they produce particles and fibers, respectively.
Electrospray and electrospinning are technologies that use high electric fields for producing particles and/or fibers. In this process a jet of polymeric solution is accelerated and stretched through an electric field. Depending on the physical properties of the solution, the stretched jet can break, generating droplets, which produce micro/nanoparticles, or remain as a filament that after drying, produces fibers of micro/nanometric diameter (O. V. Salata, Tools of nanotechnology: Electrospray, Current Nanoscience 1: 25-33, 2005; S. Ramakrishna, et al., An Introduction to Electrospinning and Nanofibers, World Scientific Publishing Co., 2005).
Electrospray and electrospinning techniques make possible variations almost unlimited in the composition of ejected solutions, showing to be applicable in several technological sectors and for different applications, according to the needs of usage of particles or filaments.
Particles and filaments can be used in several industry segments, in the engineering of fabrics, ceramic fibers and filters, in the production of biomaterials used in treatment and diagnosis, in pharmaceutical, food, cosmetic industry etc. The particles and filaments also can be used in monitoring the pollutant dispersion, and in the quality of the environment protection processes.
The fundamental concepts of electrospray were launched by Lord Rayleigh, in 1882, when he was studying the instabilities in charged liquids (L. Rayleigh, On the equilibrium of liquid conducting masses charged with electricity, Phil. Mag. 14: 184, 1882). Applications of the technique were patented by J. F. Cooley e W. J. Morton (J. F. Cooley, Apparatus for Electrically Dispersing Fluids, U.S. Pat. No. 692,631, 1902; W. J. Morton, Method of Dispersing Fluids, U.S. Pat. No. 705,691, 1902). The explanation of the phenomenon was provided later by J. Zeleny (J. Zeleny, The electrical discharge from liquid points, and a hydrostatic method of measuring the electric intensity at their surfaces, Phys. Rev. 3:69-91, 1914) in 1914, but the physical principles of capillary formation in charged liquids only were established in 1964 by Taylor (G. I. Taylor, Disintegration of water drops in an electric field, Proceedings of the Royal Society 280: 383-397, 1964).
Regarding the electrospinning, which follows the same physical principles of electrospray, the first patent that described the technique, was registered in 1934 by Formhals (A. Formhals, Process and apparatus for preparing artificial threads, U.S. Pat. No. 1,975,504, 1934), when he was developing an apparatus for producing filaments from the force of electrostatic repulsion among the surface charges. Despite the apparatus for electrospinning is extremely simple, its operating mechanism, similar to the electrospray, is very complicated.
When a high voltage (usually in the range from 1 to 30 kV) is applied, the polymeric solution drop, in the ejector nozzle, becomes highly electrified with the charge uniformly distributed over the surface. As a result, the polymeric solution drop will suffer two types of Coulomb electrostatic forces, the repulsion among the surface charges and the force exerted by the external electric field. Under the action of these electrostatic interactions, the solution drop is distorted to a conic form, known as Taylor cone. Since the force of the electric field has exceeded a threshold value, the electrostatic forces can overcome the surface tension of the polymer solution, and then force the ejection of the solution jet from the ejector nozzle.
During the pathway that the electrified jet goes through, from the ejector nozzle to the collector, the process of stretching and lengthening of the jet takes place, and depending on the physical characteristics of the polymeric solution, the jet can break into drops or remain as a filament. In this pathway the evaporation of the solvent and the polymer solidification also take place, leading to the formation of particles or filaments (O. V. Salata, Tools of nanotechnology: Electrospray, Current Nanoscience 1: 25-33, 2005; S. Ramakrishna, et al., An Introduction to Electrospinning and Nanofibers, World Scientific Publishing Co., 2005).
Practically, all the polymers are susceptible to deposition by electrospray or electrospinning. The limitation is to find a solvent able to dilute or emulsify it in order to produce a solution or emulsion able to pass through the capillary of the pumping system. There are polymers for which there is some difficulty for deposition as a function of their physical or electrical properties, but adjusts of these parameters by means of the use of additives, variation of concentration etc, allow the use of these polymers.
Several polymers have been used industrially, such as Nylon, Polyester, Polyacrylonitrile, polyvynil alcohol, Polyurethane, Polylactic acid etc. Conventionally, the electrospinning technique uses preponderantly a solution of polymers in organic solvents, such as chloroform, formic acid, tetrahydrofuran (THF), dimethylformamide (DMF), acetone and alcoholic solvents.
The need for chemical activation of polymeric surfaces emerged together with the development of the first polymers. Generally, the simpler the polymeric chain, the smaller the reactivity. This generally implies in technical difficulties related mainly to dissolution and adhesion to other materials. The change of the polymers structure by introduction of new radicals in the chains, allowed generating new families of polymers with their own physicochemical properties.
In certain situations, it is necessary to use a polymer with an inert inside, but with reactive external surface in order to allow adhesion to other materials, or even to perform specific chemical reactions. Based on this need, from the beginning of the nineties, several techniques based on physical or chemical phenomena were developed, searching the superficial activation of polymeric materials. Among the several physical techniques employed, it is highlighted the electrostatic discharges at atmospheric pressure, the low energy ion implantation, and the low temperature plasma discharge in a reduced pressure environment.
The electrostatic discharges at atmospheric pressure consist in ionizing the environment air, or a gas at atmospheric pressure nearby the surface of an inert polymeric material. Such a phenomenon promotes chemical reactions between the reactive species generated by discharge and the polymer surface. Their main advantages are the simplicity and low cost of technique execution; however, their great disadvantage is the susceptibility of the material activated when exposed to the environment, reacting with any compounds present in the atmosphere and returning to make passive the surface or, even contaminating it (R. A. Wolf, Surface activation systems for optimizing adhesion to polymers, ANTEC™ 2004, Conference Proceedings).
The low energy ion implantation technique consists in producing and accelerating ions of interest, against the polymeric surface with controlled energy. This technique is extremely sophisticated and expensive, but allows to select the ions and to control their energies. Furthermore, the technique uses an ion beam extremely collimated, reaching a reduced area to be activated, what makes the processing of great areas, difficult and slow (G. Mesyats et al., Adhesion of polytetrafluorethylene modified by an ion beam, Vacuum 52:285-289, 1999).
The third technique consists in the exposure of polymeric surface to a low temperature plasma discharge, in a reduced pressure environment. The discharge in plasma allows a reasonable control of existing active species as a function of the gases employed to generate plasma. Depending on the plasma characteristics, this technique also can be known as plasma-immersion ion implantation (A. Kondyurin et al., Attachment of horseradish peroxidase to polytetrafluorethylene (teflon) after plasma immersion ion implantation, Acta Biomaterialia 4:1218-1225, 2008). The control of pressure and reaction gases flow allows controlling the concentration of active species and, consequently, the final activation degree of the produced surface. The need for vacuum in the environment before injection of reactive gases raises the costs and makes difficult the process (P. K. Chu et al., Plasma-surface modification of biomaterials, Mater. Sci. Eng. R36:143-206, 2002).
Among the great variety of chemical techniques for superficial activation, it is highlighted those of copolymer synthesis combining polymers chemically inert and active directly. These techniques have several economic advantages as easy manufacturing inclusive for the staggering process. However, from the distinct characteristics of surface energy of the employed polymers, the active sites can migrate to the inside of the inert polymer, reducing or eliminating totally the final product activity. Such phenomenon is highlighted as a disadvantage of the process. An option for eliminating this problem consists in grafting a layer of active polymer on an inert polymer substrate. In some cases, the grafting is aided by plasma. Even solving the problem of migration of the active sites, this process implies in the increase of steps necessary for obtaining the final product, (K. Kato et al., Polymer surface with graft chains, Progress in Polymer Science 28:209-259, 2003).
Other techniques for modifying the polymeric surfaces involve also treatments with solvents, acid or basic solutions and mechanical abrasion V. I. Kestelman, Physical methods of polymer material modification, Khimiya (Moscow), 1980). Most of these techniques present certain disadvantages, as for example, the production of industrial effluents, excessive degradation of the polymer, high production costs, aggregation of undesirable aspects to the polymer properties etc.

Process for producing polymeric structures that have activated surfaces and activated polymeric structures

Instituto de Biologia Molecular do Parana-IBMP

Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul-UFRGS


A stabilized DC power supply circuit comprises an error amplifier circuit, an output amplifier circuit, an output voltage division circuit, and a reference voltage circuit. A bias current boost circuit capable of stabilized operation is added to the DC power supply circuit. Since the feedback loop of the bias current boost circuit is provided with a hysteresis function or an artificial hysteresis function by a large delay element, it is possible to adaptively control bias current without sacrifice of stability and realize a stabilized DC power supply circuit exhibiting high response and high stability with low current consumption.

Multiple stabilized DC power supply circuits are applied in portable electronic devices, as well as other so-called electronic equipments. Power supply circuits whose characteristics adapt to different purposes are used for digital circuits, high-frequency circuits, analog circuits, and the like. In case of a cellular phone, a very high power supply ripple rejection is required for a RF transmitting circuit because poor ripple rejection results in poor clearness of voice conversation. Power supply ripple noise has a detrimental effect on the error rate, even in the case of wireless communications means whereby information is converted to digital code and transmitted and received, because the carrier signals are subjected to analog modulation and demodulation during transmission and reception. An operating current of 100 μA, which is sufficient for realizing a ripple elimination rate, for instance, of −80 db, is possible with conventional portable telephones. However, the newest trend in portable telephones is the improvement of overall power supply efficiency by splitting the inside of the device into many blocks and supplying power to each block, in order to prolong battery life. In short, the newest trend in portable telephones involves a plurality of power supply circuits loaded in one device so that the operating current of each power supply circuit is strictly curtailed.
It is estimated that several billion electronic devices operate throughout the world today. In this connection, assuming that one power supply circuit operates at 200 μA, a current of 1,000 kA is passed by 5 billion circuits, and assuming that these operate at 3 V, 3,000 kW of power are being consumed.
The prior art and the circuit theory on which this art is based are described below with reference to the figures.
(1) Example of Conventional Circuit
FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a conventional DC power supply circuit with adaptively controlled bias. FIG. 2 shows a circuit diagram of a conventional DC power supply circuit with adaptively controlled bias. Vdd (VDD) and Vss (VSS) in FIG. 1 are the power supply terminals.
The conventional DC power supply circuit with adaptively controlled bias shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 comprises a differential amplifier U41, an output amplifier U42, an output voltage dividing circuit U43, a reference voltage circuit U44, and a bias current boost circuit U45.
Differential amplifier U41 operates such that it amplifies the difference in voltage between reference voltage circuit U44 and voltage dividing circuit U43 and applies that voltage to output circuit U42 to control an output transistor P43 of output circuit U42 and causes a constant output voltage Vout to be output. RL in FIGS. 1 and 2 is a load resistance. Load resistance RL takes in a current of several 100 mA. Moreover, C3 is an output decoupling capacitor. Together with an equivalent series resistance Resr, output decoupling capacitor C3 participates closely in the stabilization of this DC power supply circuit. Bias current boost circuit U45 operates such that it increases the operating bias current of differential amplifier U41 when load current first begins to flow and thus improves the stability, the response speed, and the ripple noise elimination rate. In essence, when no load current is flowing to the power supply circuit, the system operates at the minimum operating current, and when load current is flowing, the bias current is increased and a stable, efficient operation of the power supply circuit is realized. The load current at which the boost starts is settable by the size ratio between transistor P45 and N47, and is usually set to a small load current region that is not frequently used.
(2) Theoretical Explanation of Conventional Circuit
The output voltage will now be subjected to theoretical study. Output voltage Vout is represented by the following formula.Vout=Vref ×(Av/1+K×Av)+S0  (1)Where, Vref is the reference voltage, AV is the voltage gain of differential amplifier U41, K is the voltage dividing ratio of voltage dividing circuit U43, and S0 is the system offset voltage of differential amplifier U41.
Reference voltage Vref is affected by changes in power supply voltage VDD; therefore, the percentage change thereof is represented by the power supply voltage coefficient of Vref, or ΔVref=(δVref/δv)/K.
K is the voltage dividing ratio of the output voltage dividing resistance; therefore, K<1, and unless ripple ΔVref that accompanies Vref is eliminated by a filter, it is impossible to obtain a good PSPR (power supply rejection ratio; this is the ratio at which the output has changed when the power supply has changed by, for instance, 1V. For example, if the output changes by 1 mV, PSPR becomes 1 mV/1V, in essence, −60 dB.). However, the ripple of Vref is contained in frequencies ranging from very low to high frequencies; therefore, a large time constant is needed for filtering, and it is impossible to integrate filters for eliminating ripple over the entire frequency range on the same semiconductor chip.
The voltage dividing ratio K is represented by the following formula:K=R1/R1+R2When each resister R1 and R2 is fabricated with a poly silicon material, the supply voltage dependency is negligible small. Therefore, it is assumed that the percentage change in the VDD is not taken into consideration. The value of K is the voltage dividing value that determines the output voltage. Vref is generally from 0.2 to 0.8; therefore, very small values and very large values is not settable. Therefore it contributes to ripple rejection slightly.
S0 in formula (1) represents the system-offset voltage and is inevitable because of the circuit structure. S0 is a new concept that was assumed to be present based on experimental values. It has been experimentally shown that VDD does have an effect, and generally has a positive coefficient. However, making this coefficient a negative value has an important effect on formula (1).
The power supply voltage coefficient ΔS0 of S0 is represented by ΔS0=δS0/δv.
Av is the open loop gain under the amplification rate of the entire circuit, and is, of course, dependent on the power supply voltage VDD; therefore, the percentage change is represented by the following differential equation:Av=(δAv/δv)/(1+KAv)2.
The ripple component is represented by the following formula (2):ΔVout=ΔVref+Vref×Av+ΔS0  (2)Voltage gain AV will now be subjected to theoretical study.
Differential amplifier U41 in FIG. 2 is divided into first amplification circuit U41-1 and second amplification circuit U41-2, and output amplification circuit U42 is regarded as the third amplification circuit. The voltage gain of the first, second, and third amplification circuits is Av1, Av2, and Av3, respectively.
The power supply gain Av is represented by Av=Av1×Av2×Av3.
The power supply gain Avi of the ith amplification circuit is represented by Avi=Gmi×Zoi.
Here, Gmi and Zoi represent the conductance and output impedance of the ith amplification circuit.
Output impedance Zoi is equal to the parallel impedance of output resistance Rpi of the P channel FET of the ith amplification circuit, output resistance Rni of the N channel FET of the ith amplification circuit, and the capacity component Coi of the output of the ith amplification circuit. In the case of the circuit structure shown in FIG. 2, P41 and P42 pertain to the P channel FET of the first amplification circuit U41-1, and N41 pertains to the N channel FET of the first amplification circuit U41-1. Similarly, P44 pertains to the P channel FET of the second amplification circuit U41-2, and N44 pertains to the N channel FET of the second amplification circuit U41-2. Moreover, P43 pertains to the P channel FET of the third amplification circuit U42.
The output resistance Rpi of the P channel FET of the ith amplification circuit is represented by formula (3).Rpi=α(Li/Idi)√(Vgdi+Vtpi)  (3)
Here, α is the correction coefficient. The value of α is generally 5×106 √V/M.
The conductance Gmi of the ith amplification circuit is represented by formula (4).Gmi=√{2μp Cox(Wi/Li)Idi}  (4)Here, μp, Cox, Wi, Li, and Idi are the P channel FET carrier mobility, gate oxide film unit capacity, and transistor i channel width, channel length, and drain current.
The frequency characteristics will now be discussed.
The first, second, and third amplification circuits have a pole at a frequency Fpi represented by formula (5).Fpi=1/2π×Zoi  (5)
The gain of the amplification circuit of each stage begins to roll-off by a ratio of −6 db/octave and the phase delay appears at the pole frequency Fpi.
It is clear from the results of the above-mentioned that according to formulas (3) and (4) with respect to the output resistance Rpi and the conductance Gmi, the gain increases with an increase in the operating current Idi of each amplification circuit, and that the desired characteristics are obtained with respect to the ripple elimination rate from formula (1). Moreover, according to formulas (5) and (3), the pole frequency Fpi increases with an increase in the operating current IDi and is settable freely, and the phase can be delayed to improve stability. In short, as a result, the desired characteristics with respect to a stabilized DC power supply are obtained with a higher operating current Idi.
However, increasing the operating current limitlessly, the larger total current consumption of the equipment leads to a reduction in battery life and a reduction in energy efficiency. Thus, there is a huge need for a bias current boost-type power supply circuit with which the operating current decreases at no load and the operating current increases at loaded.
(3) Problems with the Prior Art
Many technologies for adaptive control of bias current have been proposed. Examples of patent references relating to this type of technology are JP Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) 2001-75,663, JP Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) 2001-34,351, JP Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) 3-158,912, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,522,111 B2.
The basic structure of a conventional adaptive control circuit as cited in these references is one wherein the voltage output of an error amplifier is converted to current, and fed back as a control current proportional to the output current. A major problem with these conventional adaptive control circuits is the unstable operation or oscillation caused by positive feedback. A feedback circuit having a positive feedback loop oscillates when the gain of the feedback loop is 1 or higher. None of the prior technologies cited in the above-mentioned references solves this essential problem. Conditions under which oscillation occurs are present in each of the prior technologies and none can be put to practical use.
FIG. 3 is a graph showing the results of a simulation of the phase gain curve of the bias current feedback loop under various loads. Specifically, the results are from an AC analysis when the P45 gate of the circuit in FIG. 2 was AC blocked. Gain curves 100, 101, and 102 and phase curves 103, 104, and 105 in FIG. 3 represent the curves when the load resistance RL is 200, 500, and 5 kΩ respectively. Curve 101 exceeds a gain of 1 and the phase of curve 104 changes by 180° or more; therefore, it is clear that conditions under which oscillation occurs are generated. The above-mentioned oscillation condition shifts when the circuit constant in FIG. 2 is changed. Incidentally, the oscillation condition shifts in the direction of a large load current as the channel length of P45 increases. The range of the oscillation condition becomes broader with a reduction in the capacity of output capacitor C3.
FIG. 4 is the waveform diagram showing the results of a transient response analysis from the input power supply. FIG. 4 shows that in the transient response analysis, the output PD node of differential amplifier U41 oscillates under a frequency near the peak of gain curve 101. The conventional circuit in FIG. 2 always exhibits unstable operating conditions in response to load current unless the gain of the feedback loop is 1 or less. It is a self-evident that when the gain of the feedback loop is 1 or less, the original bias current boost function is lost, which is the same as having no boost circuit.
FIG. 5 is another conventional example of a DC power supply circuit with adaptively controlled bias. This example differs from the structure of the power supply circuit in FIG. 2 in that differential amplifier U51 consists of one differential circuit. Differential amplifier U51 comprises fewer amplification steps; therefore, the gain of the feedback loop can be set smaller and the oscillation condition can be reduced, although it cannot be completely eliminated. In contrast to the example in FIG. 2, the range of the oscillation condition becomes broader as the output capacitor C3 becomes larger.


In manufacturing a long ink jet print head in which a plurality of chips are arranged, a decrease in yield resulting from inappropriate arrangement of the chips can be suppressed and high-quality images can be printed. An image corresponding to the joining portion between adjacent chips is printed by using, as overlapping nozzles, those of the nozzles located in the joining portion which are selected on the basis of the amount of misalignment between chips.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a long ink jet print head in which a plurality of relatively short nozzle chips provided with nozzles are precisely arranged (what is called a joined head), an ink jet printing apparatus that prints images using this ink jet print head, an ink jet printing method, and a method and program for setting print conditions.
2. Description of the Related Art
The following printing apparatuses are configured to print images (including characters and symbols) on print media such as sheets, thin plastic plates, or the like: those which are used for printers, copiers, and the like or which are used as composite electronic equipment including a computer, a word processor, or the like as well as output equipment such as a workstation. These printing apparatuses can be classified into an ink jet type, a wire dot type, and a laser beam type according to a printing system.
Serial type printing apparatuses perform a printing operation while moving printing means (print head) in a main scanning direction crossing a direction in which a print medium is conveyed (sub-scanning direction). Every time the printing means finishes the printing operation for one main scan, the print medium is conveyed by a predetermined amount in the sub-scanning direction. Images are sequentially printed on the print medium by repeating the printing operation and a conveying operation of conveying the print medium as described above.
What is called a line type printing apparatus carries out printing while conveying the print medium in the sub-scanning direction without moving the printing means in the main scanning direction.
Ink jet printing apparatuses carries out printing by allowing an ink jet print head serving as printing means to eject ink to the print medium. Such an ink jet printing apparatus has the advantages of facilitating a reduction in the size of the ink jet print head, enabling high-definition images to be printed at high speed, enabling what is called ordinary paper to be printed without any special treatment to reduce running costs, reducing noise by using a non impact system, and facilitating the use of arrangements for forming color images using multicolor inks. In particular, an ink jet printing apparatus using what is called a full-multi type ink jet print head enables a further increase in the speed of image formation; the full-multi type ink jet printing apparatus has a large number of nozzles (ink ejection openings) arranged in a direction orthogonal to the print medium conveying direction. Much attention is being paid to this type of ink jet printing apparatus because it is expected to be used for on-demand printing, the need of which has recently been growing.
In contrast to printing of newspapers or magazines, which involves several million copies per printing process, the on-demand printing need not achieve a print speed corresponding to hundred thousand copies per hour. However, it has been desired to reduce labor required for the on-demand printing. The line type ink jet printing apparatus using the full-multi type print head achieves a lower print speed than conventional offset printing apparatuses. However, this type of ink jet printing apparatus eliminates the need to produce printing plates to enable a reduction in required labor and is thus optimum for the on-demand printing.
The line type ink jet printing apparatus using the full-multi type print head needs to provide a resolution of 600×600 dpi (dots/inch) in order to print monochromatic images such as texts. It needs to provide a high resolution of at least 1,200×1,200 dpi in order to print full color images such as photographs. It also needs to achieve a print speed corresponding to 30 pages per minute for A3-sized print media.
On the other hand, images taken with a digital camera or the like may be printed on L-sized print media as is the case with the prior art or on small print media such as postcards. Thus, images are very often printed on print media of different sizes.
However, for the full-multi type ink jet print head, it is difficult to machine, without any defects, all of a large number of ejection openings arranged across the width of a print area on the print medium and all elements (ink jet print elements) required to eject ink from the ejection openings. For example, a full-multi type print head used to print photographic images on large-sized sheets in, for example, offices requires about 14,000 ejection openings (print width: about 280 mm) in order to print images on A3-sized sheets at a resolution of 1,200 dpi. It is difficult to machine, without any defects, all ink jet print elements corresponding to the large number of ejection openings. Given that such print heads free from any defects can be manufactured, their efficiency percentage is very low and their manufacture costs are enormous.
Thus, a configuration using what is called a joined head has been proposed for the line type ink jet printing apparatus. The joined head is a long print head formed by precisely arranging a plurality of relatively inexpensive, short chips for print heads used for the serial type ink jet printing apparatus. However, with the joined head, image density is disadvantageously likely to be uneven in printed images corresponding to the joining portions among the plurality of chips. Specifically, if misalignment occurs between the arrays of nozzles (ejection openings) in the adjacent chips, the nozzle pitch in the joining portion between the chips is different from that in the other parts. This may result in a stripe-like high- or low-density portion (joining stripe) on a printed image.
Several improvements have been proposed to prevent generation of joining stripes due to the joined head.
For example, the following have been proposed: a method of precisely arranging the joining portions among the chips and a method of using an arranging device to reduce a variation in nozzle pitch (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-305853), that is, a method of improving the physical machining precision of the print head. A method has also been proposed which, rather than simply arranging the adjacent chips so that nozzles located at the ends of the respective nozzle lines are adjacent to each other in the direction of the nozzle lines, arranges the adjacent chips so that two sets of a plurality of nozzles located close to the ends of the respective nozzle lines overlap each other (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 05-057965). During a printing operation, the overlapping nozzles eject ink so as to make possible joining stripes unnoticeable. A method has also been proposed which varies the amount of ink ejected from nozzles located in the joining portion between the chips so as to make possible joining stripes unnoticeable.
However, even with the above measures for suppressing the occurrence of joining stripes, if the array of a plurality of chips becomes defective during a process of manufacturing print heads, suppressing the occurrence of joining strips is difficult. Thus, if long print heads are manufactured by arranging a large number of chips, even when a defect occurs in only one of the joining portions among the chips, that print head as a whole must be rejected. This reduces the yield of print heads. Moreover, the improved precision of a device for arranging a plurality of chips increases manufacture costs. If image processing is executed to control printing depending on the misalignment in the joining portion between the chips, separate means are required for determining the amount of misalignment on the basis of a printed test pattern.

Ink jet printing apparatus, ink jet print head, ink jet printing method, and method and program for setting print conditions


A device and method for oxygenating blood is disclosed herein. The device includes a plurality of passive mixing elements that causes a fluid to mix as it flows through the device. The passive mixing elements continually expose new red blood cells to the portion of the flow channel where oxygenation can occur. Accordingly, in some implementations, the device and method uses less blood to prime the device and allows for the oxygenation of blood with a substantial shorter flow channel when compared to conventional oxygenation methods and devices.

Blood oxygenation systems are used for short term respiratory support, such as during coronary artery bypass graft surgeries or for acute respiratory distress syndrome patients. In current systems, blood is oxygenated by pumping oxygen through an inner, hollow fiber pumping blood though a larger, outer fiber that encapsulates the inner fiber. The walls of the inner fiber are permeable to oxygen and allow for the oxygenation of blood near the inner fiber. Current oxygenation systems maintain a laminar blood flow, only allowing the oxygenation of red blood cells within a close proximity of the permeable membrane.

Methods for reducing the blood priming volume and membrane surface area in microfluidic lung assist devices

The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Inc.


A driving control apparatus of a vibration motor controls the speed of the vibration motor by simultaneously changing the frequency and the amplitude of signals applied thereto, and upon the speed control, a contribution to a rate of change of speed by a change in the driving frequency and a contribution to the rate of change of speed by a change in the amplitude are varied based on a difference between a target speed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vibration type (vibratory wave) driving apparatus for generating vibration (vibratory wave) in a vibratory body by vibration of piezoelectric element and utilizing the vibration energy to impart driving force to a moving body. More particularly, the invention concerns control of this vibration type driving apparatus.
2. Related Background Art
There are many conventional proposals concerning the control method of such vibration type driving apparatus, and a typical example is a method for controlling operation speed by changing the frequency or the amplitude of a voltage signal (drive signal) applied to the piezoelectric element.
Here, the relationship between the frequency and amplitude of drive signal and the operation (rotation) speed is as shown in FIG. 12. Namely, there are such characteristics that the rotation speed drops gently on the higher frequency side but drops steeply on the lower frequency side with respect to the peak of the resonance frequency of the vibrator. In addition, there are also such characteristics that the rotation speed increases as the amplitude of the drive signal increases.
Incidentally, often used for controlling the speed by change of frequency (hereinafter called frequency speed control) is a VCO (Voltage-Controlled Oscillator) capable of attaining relatively fine frequency resolution against input voltage. However, from the aspect of cost, use of digital circuitry (gate array) is more preferred than use of analog circuitry such as the VCO. In the case of the gate array being used, the frequency of the clock signal determines the frequency of the drive signal and there is a limit for the clock frequency. Therefore, it is not possible to achieve such high frequency resolution as that of VCO. As a result, the speed of the vibration type driving apparatus is controlled only stepwise, which would result in a drawback of easily causing large speed vibrations.
On the other hand, when the speed is controlled by changing the amplitude (hereinafter called amplitude speed control), the control can be performed with less speed vibrations as compared with the frequency speed control with digital circuitry. In order to carry out accurate speed control by the amplitude speed control, it is, however, necessary to keep the drive frequency constantly set at a frequency higher than and close to the resonance frequency. Since the resonance frequency varies with change in the environment including the temperature and change of load, this method has a drawback that accurate speed control is not easy.
Under such circumstances, there are proposals of the following techniques. For example, (1) Japanese Laid-open Patent Applications No. 3-239168 and No. 4-222476 describe such a technique that the vibration frequency of the vibration type driving apparatus is detected and control is made so as to keep the frequency of drive signal always near the resonance frequency and that as for the operation speed, the amplitude of drive signal is changed so as to decrease a difference from a target speed as detecting actual operation speeds. Further, (2) Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 6-237584 describes such a technique of control of the operation speed that upon start only the frequency is changed to take the operation speed to near the target speed and thereafter only the amplitude of drive signal is controlled. These techniques as described in the above bulletins enable control with less speed variations by digital circuitry.
However, the above technique of (1) has a problem of cost increase because of a need for means for detecting whether the vibration frequency is kept near the resonance frequency, in addition to means for detecting the operation speed.
Further, the above technique of (2) has problems that the control becomes complex and that the operation of the driving apparatus becomes unstable upon changeover because of a need for changeover between the frequency speed control and the amplitude speed control. Further, the above technique of (2) also has a problem of incapability of reacting against the change of the resonant point of the vibrator as described previously, because the drive frequency is fixed after the real speed becomes close to the target speed.


A composition and method for fabricating and tuning a dopant based core-shell semiconductor having a quantum dot core with an excitation band-gap are provided. A quantum dot core composed of an alloy of cadmium sulfide (CdS) and zinc sulfide (ZnS) as semi-conductor materials include a dopant of manganese (Mn) added to the core and an outer shell of zinc sulfide (ZnS). The dopant based core/shell quantum dot semiconductor of the present invention allows the fine tuning of an excitation band-gap, covering a wide range (from 2.4 eV to ˜4 eV). When doped with Mn, these alloy Qdots emit bright yellow/orange light. Tuning of the excitation band is accomplished by changing the alloy composition of the core. Based on photophysical studies a new core/shell/shell model is provided, in place of the traditional core/shell model. Due to the interfacial diffusion of the cations from the core and shell an intermediate alloy layer is formed providing an inner shell; this inner shell layer is the real host of the dopant ions.

Core/shell semiconductor quantum dots (Qdots) have attracted enormous research interest in the field of electronics, optoelectronics and bioimaging. To further diversify core/shell Qdot applications, especially in the field of spintronics, dopant based Qdots are of particular interest. By doping traditional CdS or ZnS core with transition metal ions such as manganese (Mn), cobalt (Co), nickel (Ni) and the like, it is possible to develop dilute magnetic semiconductor (DMS) Qdots for spintronic applications as reported in recent scientific articles written by D. A. Allwood et al in Science 2005 Vol. 309, pages 1688-1692 and P. I. Archer in Nano Letters 2007 Vol 7, pages 1037-1043, for example.
It is expected that these dopant based binary DMS Qdots will advance the capability of the next generation memory storage devices and computers. In this context, it is important to synthesize dopant based ternary DMS Qdots, such as manganese (Mn) dopant based CdxZn1-xS:Mn/ZnS Qdot heterostructures.
Fluorescent quantum dots (Qdots) have demonstrated their potential in diagnostic bioimaging applications in vitro as discussed by H. Yang et al. in Advanced Materials 2006, Vol. 18, page 2890. For in vivo bioimaging applications, however, the embodiment of additional properties such as paramagnetism into the same fluorescent probe is highly desirable. These multimodal probes would benefit in vivo disease diagnosis and surgical guidance based on their ability to be detected in multiple modes, such as, optically and magnetically. Thus, synthesis of bright multimodal Qdots is a matter of great interest to a broad area of the scientific community from physics to bioscience.
The wide band gaps of the II-VI group semiconductors such as CdS and ZnS serve as good host materials for various kinds of foreign elements known as dopants. Out of the different transition metals, manganese usually occupies cadmium (Cd) or zinc (Zn) substitutional sites in the host lattice as a divalent ion. The excitation and decay of manganese ion produces a yellow/orange luminescence at approximately 590 nm wavelength, as reported by R. N. Bhargava et al in Phys. Rev. Lett. 1994, Vol. 72, page 416 and S. Biswas et al. in Journal of Physical Chemistry B, 2005, Vol. 109, 17256. This emission peak is generally associated with a transition between 4T1 and 6A1 energy levels. Also, the presence of the Mn2+ ions within the host Qdots introduces the paramagnetic property.
The realization that many molecular phenomena result in mechanical responses at the nanoscale level promises to bring about a revolution in the field of chemical, physical, and biological applications. In a quest for smaller, faster, better, more accurate measuring and analytical devices there has been a wide application of traditional dopant based Qdots, particularly in biomedical imaging. However, the applications are limited because of a relatively narrow excitation range, typically in the UV range between 200-375 nm wavelengths.
In spite of the many advantages of dopant based quantum dot semiconductors disclosed in scientific applications today, there are limitations and disadvantages of the existing quantum dots regarding their adaptability and reconfigurablility. For example, traditional dopant based Qdots in biomedical imaging with a relatively narrow excitation range between 200-375 nm wavelengths is extremely harmful for biological systems as excitation in this wavelength range can easily destroy live cells. Again, due to narrow excitation ranges, these Qdots will not be efficient for capturing a broad spectrum of solar light. Ideally, Qdots with broad excitation bands will eliminate the above-mentioned limitations of traditional dopant based Qdots.
The performances of the QDots are often influenced by their surfaces since an appreciable portion of the constituent atoms reside at their surfaces for example, for a QDot with a diameter of 4 nm, 30% of its atoms reside on the surface and thus are missing one or more of their four (tetrahedral) bonds to neighboring atoms. Chemically passivating these surface atoms and providing them with a true tetrahedral bonding environment plays a significant role in determining the optical and electronic properties of the QDot.
A significant improvement in the performances of the QDots was realized by growing a semiconductor shell around the core compared to the organic surface capping ligands traditionally used to chemically passivate the QDot surface as discussed by H. Yang et al. in Advanced Functional Materials 2004, 14, 152 and H. Yang et al. in Journal of Chemical Physics 2004, 121, 10233. Of the various types of QDots, Mn-doped II-VI QDots are of special attraction owing to their bright luminescence at room temperature in the visible region. Also, presence of the Mn ion as a transition metal ion in the semiconductor host make them dilute magnetic semiconductor (DMS), an interesting materials for application in the field of spintronics. Especially, the Mn doped type I core-shell semiconductors are suitable for bio-imaging applications due to the large Stoke's shift in the emission spectra as discussed by S. Santra et al. in Chemical Communications 2005, 3144; S. Santra et al. in Journal of the American Chemical Society 2005, 127, 1656, and H. S. Yang et al. in Advanced Materials 2006, 18, 2890.
Performances of these doped semiconductors both as fluorescent as well as spintronics materials depends on the position and distribution of the Mn atoms inside the host lattice. Doping in the semiconductor nanocrystals are often encountered with various difficulties due to various reasons including various kinetic factors, preferential adsorption through specific surfaces etc. Difference in the ionic radii of the substituent dopant and the substituted cation often introduces significant amount of strain in the nanocrystal lattice; since strain fields are necessarily long range, much longer than typical nanocrystal dimensions, it tends to relieve itself by ejecting the dopant to the surface of the nanocrystals. Thus, it is extremely important to investigate the positions of the Mn atoms inside a traditional CdS:Mn/ZnS core/shell QDot.
The dopant based core-shell semiconductor quantum dots (Qdots) of the present invention solve many problems and overcome many limitations in the prior art through alloying between the CdS and ZnS phase and providing a different atmosphere to the substituent dopant.

Excitation band-gap tuning of dopant based quantum dots with core-inner shell-outer shell

University of Central Florida Research Foundation, Inc.


Systems, methods, media, and other embodiments associated with desensitizing data in cloning are described. One example method embodiment includes identifying a column to be desensitized and preparing a set of executable instructions to desensitize the column. The example method may also include organizing the set of executable instructions based on table-oriented relationships between instructions and then further organizing the set of executable instructions based on determinations concerning execution efficiency. The example method may be performed contemporaneously with the cloning of a database to produce a desensitized clone.

A database may be associated with a production system (e.g., online transaction processing (OLTP), online analytical processing (OLAP), analytics, front-office, back-office). The database may be cloned (e.g., copied as a whole) to allow work, testing, analysis, and so on, to be performed using the cloned data, leaving the original data to continue to support production (e.g., order processing, transaction processing). The data to be cloned may be arranged as columns in tables that support the production system. The cloned data may be referred to as a "clone".
Cloning may produce security issues with the clone. For example, the clone may not be as secure as the original, may not be run on equally secure hardware, may be exposed to people or processes that would not be allowed to access the original, and so on. Conventional approaches to address these security issues include manually removing sensitive data from a clone, manually running programs to remove sensitive data from a clone, encrypting sensitive data in a clone, and so on. However, these conventional approaches may consume unacceptable amounts of time and still not produce desired security leaving, for example, at least momentary insecurities. Furthermore, conventional approaches may make it difficult, if possible at all, to monitor the cloning process and/or the desensitizing process, which may in turn make it difficult, if possible at all, to perform a partial recovery from a failed cloning and/or desensitizing.
Cloning data involves selecting data to clone and then cloning it. Which data will be cloned may depend on why the clone is being produced. For example, a first clone may be produced to support testing a new feature while a second clone may be produced to support testing a bug fix. Similarly, a first clone may include data associated with a first set of applications while a second clone may include data associated with a second set of applications. In each example, a different set of data may be needed and the different sets may include different pieces of sensitive data. Conventionally it has been difficult, if possible at all, to have data that self-describes itself with respect to being desensitized. Thus, conventional cloning has involved intense, inflexible manual configuration that takes significant amounts of time and yet still produces insecure clones.


A system and method enabling location-based activation of applications. A server system stores and provides a persistent virtual world system comprising one or more applications virtually attached to virtual-world entities positioned according to real-world coordinates, the server system being configured to compute the state of the virtual-world entities and to process the applications. Upon detecting the user devices in a corresponding zone (e.g., by the wireless network detecting user devices connecting to the server), the server system sends a minimum amount of application graphical representation to the user devices. Upon user interaction with the application graphical representation, the user devices download a minimum amount of application data, prompting the server system to determine suitable application media streams. The server system performs heavy-load computational tasks on the media streams and delivers the streams to the user devices, which perform lightweight computational tasks on the media content.

Generally, location based services (LBS) are deployed in wireless networks that may be accessed by wireless devices, such as mobile phones, tablet computers, head-mounted displays, and other devices. LBSs may include a broad range of services that may be based on the current location of a user with respect to a specific place. Examples of LBS include providing the location of the nearest restaurant, banking automatic teller machine (ATM), or the whereabouts of a person; parcel tracking; providing advertising directed at potential customers based on the current customer location; and personalized weather services. LBSs are typically provided via a wireless network to which a user of a wireless device may subscribe or connect to as a casual user. Once connected, the current user location may be derived from various types of information, such as GPS, uplink time difference of arrival (u-TDOA), and others.
The applications are usually visible to users as an icon within a digital application store contained in a database available at a server. The user may look for the application and only after fully downloading the application data may the user have full access to the application. Thus, for example, for an LBS advertisement application, the user may first require to download the application and he or she will then receive discounts or other promotional material of interest once within an application activation distance range. Once the user has downloaded the application, the user may activate the application whenever desired, or, when the function of the application completely depends on the user's location (e.g., LBS advertisements), the application may be activated when the user is within an activation distance range of the application.
Needing to fully download the application in advance in order to be able to interact with the application may result cumbersome for some users and may increase storage requirements on the devices. Additionally, the application's data, such as media content, are typically processed by the user devices, resulting in high hardware demands in order to satisfactorily execute the application.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.