A method of nitriding a gate oxide layer by annealing a preformed oxide layer with nitric oxide (NO) gas in a hot wall, single wafer furnace is provided. The nitridation process can be carried out rapidly (i.e., at nitridation times of 30 seconds to 2 minutes) while providing acceptable levels of nitridation (i.e., up to 6 at. %) and desirable nitrogen/depth profiles. The nitrided gate oxide layer can optionally be reoxidized in a second oxidation step after the nitridation step. A gate electrode layer (e.g., boron doped polysilicon) can then be deposited on top of the nitrided gate oxide layer or on top of the reoxidized and nitrided gate oxide layer.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates, in general, to a process for fabricating integrated circuit devices in which a layer of nitrided oxide material is formed and, in particular, to a method of forming nitrided oxide using a hot wall single wafer furnace.
2. Background of the Technology
Semiconductor devices such as MOS (metal-oxide-semiconductor) devices are typically formed on a substrate such as a silicon wafer. Typically, one or more films of an insulating material such as silicon dioxide are formed on the substrate over which is formed a gate electrode. The insulating film formed between the gate electrode and the silicon substrate is referred to as the gate oxide or gate dielectric. A widely employed type of MOS device is a complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor device, or CMOS device.
Boron doping of the gate electrodes of MOS devices (e.g., p+ gates) has been used to improve device performance by reducing short-channel effects and lowering threshold voltages. Typically, boron is implanted into the poly-Si gate at sufficiently high concentrations to ensure adequate conductance of the poly-Si gate. With the continued push for smaller and smaller MOS device dimensions, however, higher active dopant concentrations are required. When boron is used as the dopant for p+ gates, boron atoms in the gate layer can diffuse into the gate dielectric during downstream processing. Boron, which is a relatively small atom, has a very high diffusion coefficient in both silicon and silicon dioxide at temperatures encountered during processing. Further, it is necessary to activate the boron dopant after implantation with a high-temperature anneal which is typically conducted at temperatures in the range of 950–1050° C. During this high-temperature anneal, boron diffusion can be exacerbated.
Boron penetration into and through the gate dielectric can also have significant effects on device characteristics. First, boron penetration through the gate dielectric and into the channel can influence device performance. Boron diffusion into the channel, for example, can result in a shift in the threshold voltage of the device and can even result in charge-induced damage and breakdown during device operation. Also, as boron penetrates into the gate dielectric layer, the capacitance-voltage (C-V) or flat-band voltage of the device can shift which can degrade device performance. The presence of boron in the gate oxide film can also degrade the quality of the gate oxide film.
The reduction of boron penetration is particularly important in light of the decreasing dielectric layer thicknesses of modern MOS devices. It is known to incorporate nitrogen into an oxide film to retard the effects of boron penetration Nitrogen is believed to block boron diffusion by forming B-N complexes.
The amount of nitrogen incorporated into the gate oxide generally determines the effectiveness of the oxide layer in blocking boron diffusion. The amount of nitrogen doping required in a particular application, however, is dictated in part by the thermal cycles to which the device is subjected after deposition and doping of the gate electrode. Typical amounts of nitrogen required for adequate levels of boron diffusion blocking are in the range of 1–3 at. %.
Nitrogen has been incorporated into SiO2 using various methods. These methods include thermal oxidation followed by annealing in a nitrogen containing environment (thermal nitridation) and various deposition techniques such as physical vapor deposition (PVD) and chemical vapor deposition (CVD).
Various nitrogen containing gases have been employed for thermal nitridation and oxy-nitride deposition, including N2, NH3, NO and N2O. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,403,786; 5,521,127; 5,629,991; and 5,880,040. See also Gusev et al., "Growth and Characterization of Ultrathin Nitrided Silicon Oxide Films", in IBM J. Res. Develop., Vol. 43, No. 3, pp. 265–286 (1999); Hook et al., "Nitrided Gate Oxides for 3.3-V Logic Application: Reliability and Device Design Considerations", in IBM J. Res. Develop., Vol. 43, No. 3, pp. 393–406 (1999); and Buchanan, "Scaling the Gate Dielectric: Materials, Integration and Reliability", in IBM J. Res. Develop., Vol. 43, No. 3, pp. 245–264 (1999). Evans et al. disclose a high pressure (15–25 atm.) process for oxynitride gate formation using nitric oxide gas. See Evans et al., "High Performance CMOS Devices with 20 Å Engineered Oxynitride Gate Dielectrics", Paper Presented at Semicon Korea Technical Symposium, (February 2000). Kuehne et al. disclose rapid thermal nitridation of gate oxide layers using nitric oxide gas. Kuehne et al., Papers Presented at the Materials Research Society Spring 1997 Meeting, Rapid Thermal Processing, Kyoto (Spring 1997).
Current methods of nitriding gate dielectric layers involve annealing wafers in nitrous oxide gas at temperatures of about 900° C. Annealing is typically conducted in a batch process involving 100–160 wafers in each run. Conventional nitridation methods, however, can result in a relatively low concentration of nitrogen in the films. For example, oxide films that were either grown or annealed in N2O typically have total integrated nitrogen concentrations of less than 1 at. %. These relatively low concentrations of nitrogen are usually insufficient to reduce the effects of boron penetration from a p+ poly-Si gate into and through the gate dielectric layer. In order to incorporate sufficient amounts of nitrogen in the gate oxide layer, annealing has typically been conducted at relatively high temperatures (e.g., 900° C. and greater) and/or for relatively long times.
Current nitridation methods also tend to result in appreciable boron concentrations in the silicon channel layer at significant distances from the gate oxide/channel interface. The depth profile of the boron concentration should be such that the boron content as a function of distance from the gate oxide/channel interface drops rapidly on the channel side of the interface.
There still exists a need for a nitridation process which can rapidly incorporate sufficient amounts of nitrogen into the gate oxide layer of a MOS device. There also exists a need to form nitrided gate oxide layers having high concentrations of nitrogen in the gate oxide layer at the gate oxide/channel interface such that the concentration of boron dopant in the channel layer after activation of the dopant drops sharply as a function of the distance from the gate oxide/channel interface.

Method of forming nitrided oxide in a hot wall single wafer furnace


Embodiments are described including platforms and methods used for generating dynamic web forms that are configured for a plurality of screen sizes, using relative units to determine the size of form elements, and developer-configured layouts for each screen size. A template of the dynamic web form can be generated using input from the developer. This template may contain a set of logical rules that alter the appearance or functionality of the web form based on the state and rendered display size of the dynamic web form. This template can be used to generate markup that includes the information necessary to display the web form at any of the configured layouts. Any previously configured property of the template may be modified in the future, and the modified version redistributed if desired.

As the variety of devices accessing the Internet continues to increase, designing a web application capable of adapting to a wide range of display sizes has become an increasingly necessary consideration. Traditional design solutions, such as declaring the size of elements on a web form using pixels, can provide an acceptable user experience on specific devices. However, if a website was for example designed in this manner for desktop computers, displaying that site on a smaller, handheld device can often result in a poor user experience including awkward or mismatched user interface elements or manipulations which necessitate large amounts of horizontal scrolling, adjustment of the page's zoom, or other awkward or inefficient interactions. When well designed, a web application can leverage existing web technologies to provide a sufficient user experience for a significant number of existing devices while also increasing the likelihood that devices entering the market in the future will be adequately accommodated. This practice, often referred to as responsive web design, generally involves techniques and processing operating on data including all of the information necessary to render the page at any screen size and makes use of CSS or other media queries with relatively sized HTML elements to provide modified user experiences for different display sizes.
An alternative conventional strategy for adapting a web site for multiple devices involves detecting what device, browser, or size a subject page is being rendered at, and modifying the contents of the site, or redirecting the user to a corresponding specialized site if necessary. For example, a website might store or provide a desktop version and a mobile version at separate URLs, and redirect mobile browsers to the mobile URL. Alternatively, by detecting the display size of the client, a web server application can generate a unique page for different display sizes. For example, a complex desktop page might have one or more elements removed to create a more compact page to store and deliver to smaller devices. Approaches similar to these practices are again often referred to as adaptive web design. A web application does not need to rely on only one of these strategies to attempt to handle a variety of devices and sizes. Strategies such as these can be combined with responsive web design to provide support for a range of devices, while at the same time modifying the functionality of a page beyond what is achievable with CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) or other platforms and properties by themselves.
A responsive web application can be implemented using only core or underlying web technologies known today such as HTML (hypertext markup language), JavaScript™, and CSS. However, this practice is often streamlined through the use of libraries and, occasionally, simpler languages. Many libraries exist that allow a developer to incorporate CSS and JavaScript™ code that is commonly used to build adaptive and responsive web applications. By doing so, developers are able to provide more consistent behavior across the application for different devices. Although this has become a somewhat prevalent strategy for achieving the desired adaptive behavior, the requirement that developers must familiarize themselves with the web server application and work directly with the source code of the application still leaves room for abstraction and greater development efficiency.
The process of developing dynamic web forms has likewise been simplified through the use of graphical user interfaces (GUIs), which can allow dynamic web forms to be created with a reduced burden of knowledge upon the developer. In these applications, common user interface patterns or tools such as drag-and-drop allow elements to be positioned within a form without the need to write explicit markup. Many of these applications allow dynamic behavior to be added to the web form without the need for the user to directly write front-end JavaScript™ or server-side code. Traditional form design applications such as Adobe Acrobat™ and InfoPath™ and standard formats such as PDF™ (page description format), simplify the development process of dynamic web forms. However, due to their use of pixel values for their layout, it is difficult for a developer to adapt the same form for multiple screen sizes.
The various limitations of these solutions have led to the development of GUI applications designed to generate responsive web forms. These applications provide interface elements that are given relative size values, such as percentages, rather than fixed pixel values.
Furthermore, the elements are not assigned an absolute position based on where the developer places them. Rather, the elements are adapted to the display size of the form. These can range from simple structures, such as a single column that expands and shrinks horizontally, to more complex wireframes (e.g. grids that collapse to a vertical column at different screen sizes). In aspects, the interface elements according to the present teachings may be freely or arbitrarily selectable, scalable, or configurable so the developer can create and implement any desired views and user experiences, rather than rely upon preconfigured (or "canned") interface arrangements so the user's views and navigation experience can be tailored to specific applications and purposes.
However, these current GUI solutions that offer pre-configured layouts that do not provide developers with layout configuration options that may be available to a developer implementing the form with HTML and a suitable framework.
Furthermore, they offer little to no options to control the presentation logic of the web form based on the device it is being displayed on, preventing web applications generated in this manner from exhibiting truly adaptive behavior.

Systems and methods for dynamic web user interface generation


An electronic musical instrument provides plural channels from which manual-performance sounds and/or automatic-performance sounds (e.g., automatic-accompaniment sounds) are generated. Herein, the manual-performance sound is designated by a performance manually made by a performer, while the automatic-performance sound is designated on the basis of automatic-performance information which is stored in a memory or the like in advance. Normally, a new musical tone is assigned to an unoccupied channel which is not occupied with a tone generation, so that the new musical tone will be generated from the unoccupied channel. However, under a full-channel condition where all of the channels are occupied with the tone generation, a new manual-performance sound is assigned to one of the channels whose envelope value is the smallest. If a new automatic-performance sound is designated under the full-channel condition, this new automatic-performance sound is assigned to one of the channels occupied with the tone generation of the automatic-performance sounds which receives a key-off command and of which envelope value is the smallest. If it fails to detect such channel, the new automatic-performance sound is assigned to one of the channels occupied with the tone generation of the manual-performance sounds which receives a key-off command but sustains to generate the manual-performance sound. Thus, each of the manual-performance sounds and automatic-performance sounds can be smoothly and automatically assigned to an appropriate one of the channels.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic musical instrument providing plural tone-generation channels by which both an automatic accompaniment and a manual performance can be simultaneously played.
2. Prior Art
Recently, several kinds of electronic musical instruments each having an automatic accompaniment function have been developed. This kind of electronic musical instrument can simultaneously generate plural sounds, and therefore provides plural tone-generation channels. Thus, automatic-accompaniment sounds and manual-performance sounds can be respectively assigned to the different tone-generation channels in accordance with several kinds of the channel-assignment methods.
In the conventional electronic musical instrument, there are provided two kinds of tone-generation channels exclusively assigned to the manual-performance sounds and automatic-accompaniment sounds respectively in advance. Herein, each sound is assigned to each of the exclusive-use channels. In this case, even if the channels exclusively used for the automatic-accompaniment sounds are not used at all, these channels cannot be used for the manual-performance sounds, which raises a drawback in that the channel-use efficiency must be relatively low.
In order to efficiently use the tone-generation channels, a development has been made to invent a brand-new channel assignment technique in which some of common-use channels are arbitrarily and dynamically assigned to the automatic-accompaniment sounds and manual-performance sounds. In such case, however, it is necessary to maintain a balance between the numbers of the tone-generation channels respectively assigned to the automatic-accompaniment sounds and manual-performance sounds. For this reason, the maximum number of the channels used for one of two kinds of sounds must be restricted, or the predetermined priority order must be given to one of two kinds of sounds.
When the number of the sounds to be generated becomes extremely large with respect to one of two kinds of sounds, even the above-mentioned channel-assignment technique cannot respond to it well. Thus, there is another drawback in that the channel assignment must be made un-naturally, which may prevent the music from being played smoothly.

Electronic musical instrument having automatic channel-assigning function


In an image processing system, smart images are provided with a structure consisting of a raw image with a knowledge structure. Each smart image is processed as an object, and reacts via its knowledge structure to environmental changes and/or queries for carrying out certain actions, and for preprocessing image data in anticipation of a user's future requirements relative to a given protocol.

Image information is typically much more difficult to process than alphanumeric information. For example, images, unlike alphanumeric text, typically require a long periods of time to access, process, store, retrieve, and distribute, because of the size and internal complexity of the image information. Also, unlike alphanumeric text, images are typically shared by many users as a non-divisible unit of information, in that in most instances users must view an image in its entirety. As a result of these characteristics of image information, evolving information systems strive to reduce the access time for a user to go from one image display to another, and to permit the unitary usage of image information in a heterogeneous distributed environment.
Many different techniques are known in the art for reducing the time required to process image information in what typically encompasses long duration operations. One approach is to increase the transmission capability of the image information system. Another technique is to distribute the image processing computations.
In known information image systems, protocols or pre specified procedures are provided to users of the system, for permitting them to manipulate the image information. For example, in medical imaging systems, physicians may be provided a predetermined diagnostic protocol for examining medical images. As another example, protocols have been developed for office procedures, such as for the circulation of a document from one office to another. Also, it is recognized that when image information is used in a heterogeneous distributed environment, one must insure operational integrity, operational consistency, synchronization, and so forth.
There is an ever expanding use for image information systems as advances are made in hardware and software technology. For example, image information systems are now included in application areas such as geographical information systems (GIS), office automation systems (OA), medical picture archiving and communications systems (PACS), computer-aided designs systems (CAD), computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), computer-aided engineering (CAE), education and training, robotics, multimedia information systems, and scientific databases systems (SBD). It is known in the art that such systems must be improved by decreasing the image delivery time, increasing the accessibility to a desired image associated information, and generally increasing the responsiveness, accuracy, and user friendliness of such systems.
Present research for improving image information systems is centered on content-based indexing, data modeling, tertiary storage structure, and query-by-content, amongst other techniques. Present systems perform image data processing operations such as retrieval, enhancement, transmission, and so forth, by responding to explicit requests from users. Present image information systems are incapable of coding image data for automatically responding to a users real time use of the image data.
The present inventors recognize that image information should be made "intelligent", in order to permit the image data to actively participate in the particular application the image data is be used at a given time. For example, in medical applications, subsequent to examining nuclear images of a patient's heart, a physician may elect to compare images of the same patient at different physiological states, such as exercising state, rest state, emotional state, and so forth. Next, the physician may elect to examine previous images (past histories) followed by checking images from other modalities. The present inventors recognize that image information systems for medical use, for example, can be improved by providing an active image information system capable of monitoring a physicians examination requirements, to provide the image information to a physician immediately subsequent to an examination step, without requiring the physician to retrieve such image information with explicit queries and convert and highlight the images to meet the physicians needs. In other words, the present inventors recognize that image information systems can be improved for various applications, if the images are enhanced with a knowledge structure, whereby the related image information is automatically moved into proper local working storage or memory banks, and the related data automatically pre-processed into appropriate representations, for display immediately at the time required by a user.


A method for modifying a NOx adsorber regeneration triggering variable. Engine operating conditions are monitored until the regeneration triggering variable is met. The adsorber is regenerated and the adsorbtion efficiency of the adsorber is subsequently determined. The regeneration triggering variable is modified to correspond with the decline in adsorber efficiency. The adsorber efficiency may be determined using an empirically predetermined set of values or by using a pair of oxygen sensors to determine the oxygen response delay across the sensors.

The present invention relates generally to the regeneration of a nitrogen-oxygen compound (NOx) adsorber catalyst. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method of controlling the frequency of NOx adsorber regeneration cycles by modifying a regeneration-triggering variable based on an engine operating condition.
Environmental concerns have led to increasingly stricter regulation of engine emissions by governmental agencies. The reduction of NOx in exhaust emissions from internal combustion engines has become increasingly important in order to meet governmental regulations. It is widely recognized that this trend of stricter government regulation will continue.
Traditional in-cylinder emission reduction techniques such as exhaust gas recirculation and injection rate shaping, by themselves will not be able to achieve the desired low emission levels. Scientists and engineers recognize that aftertreatment technologies will have to be used, and will have to be further developed in order to meet the future low emission requirements of the diesel engine. Abatement of NOx on motor vehicles may be achieved through the use of catalytic technology that converts the NOx species to diatomic nitrogen (N2) using a reductant as shown in the following equation:

Removal of NOx through the use of NOx adsorber catalysts requires that a hydrocarbon reductant be provided to the catalyst to convert the NOx. Typically, on-board fuel (e.g., diesel fuel) is used as the reductant. Fuel is injected into the exhaust stream for reaction with NOx on the catalyst.
Therefore, a need exists for further technological advancements in emission control systems for internal combustion engines. The present invention is directed toward meeting this need.

Method for modifying trigger level for adsorber regeneration


The present invention provides an impeller in which a metallic bush can be inserted correctly into a synthetic resin impeller main body manufactured by resin molding using a die, and a determination as to whether or not the impeller has been manufactured correctly can be made easily. The impeller comprises: a metallic bush comprising a circumferential boss portion having a substantially truncated cone-shaped throttle portion positioned on a front surface axial end side, a periaxial support boss portion positioned in an axial center, and a circumferential protruding portion positioned on a back surface axial end side; and an impeller main body made of synthetic resin and formed with a V-shaped bulging portion that bulges axially in the center of a front surface side of a disk-shaped vane portion fulcrum, in which a plurality of vanes are formed integrally on the periphery of the V-shaped bulging portion. An outer diameter of the circumferential protruding portion of the bush is formed to be smaller than an outer diameter of an axial end location of the throttle portion, the circumferential protruding portion is positioned on a back surface side of the V-shaped bulging portion, and the bush is inserted into the V-shaped bulging portion.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an impeller in which a metallic bush can be inserted correctly into a synthetic resin impeller main body manufactured by resin molding using a die, and a determination as to whether or not the impeller has been manufactured correctly can be made easily.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a pump such as a water pump is provided with an impeller constituted by a resin impeller main body portion formed with a plurality of vanes, and a metallic bush portion serving as a boss for supporting a drive shaft. Most of these impellers are formed by resin molding using a die. Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication 2003-3991 exists as an example of an impeller product formed by molding resin using a die and a core member.
In the invention described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication 2003-3991, a metallic boss is inserted in and attached to a V-shaped bulging portion of an impeller main body such that the V-shaped bulging portion on the impeller main body side can be formed in a compact shape, the thickness of the V-shaped bulging portion can be secured adequately, and the metallic boss can be attached to the impeller main body extremely securely.
One axial end side of the metallic boss portion takes a truncated cone shape, while the other axial end has anon-circular outer periphery to prevent idle rotation.
A throttle portion having a truncated cone shape is formed on the metallic boss. By inserting this part into the tip end of the V-shaped bulging portion on the impeller main body, the V-shaped bulging portion can be provided with an appropriate thickness corresponding to the throttle portion, and a sufficient dynamic strength can be secured without making the V-shaped bulging portion on the periphery of the inserted throttle portion of the metallic boss excessively thick. Thus, the impeller can be reduced in size.


The present invention involves the discovery that synthetic thyroid hormones can be used as compositions to reduce intraocular pressure in vivo. Methods of screening synthetic thyroid hormones for effect on intraocular pressure, aqueous pressure, hydraulic conductivity, hyaluronic acid secretion, and extracellular matrix assembly are provided. Methods of treating glaucoma and treating excess intraocular pressure with synthetic thyroid hormones and compositions therefore are also provided.

Glaucoma afflicts approximately two million people in the United States and about 15 million people worldwide. Approximately two percent of the population over 35 suffers from some form of glaucoma and it accounts for approximately 12% of all cases of blindness. Despite its easy diagnosis, therapies to lower intraocular pressure (IOP) in patients with glaucoma are frequently inadequate. Use of topical and oral medicines to lower intraocular pressure is often limited by side effects of the drugs. In other cases, use of medical therapy to treat glaucoma is not successful in lowering intraocular pressure sufficiently to prevent progressive damage to the optic nerve.
Consequently, there is a need for methods, compounds and compositions for treating glaucoma and other medical conditions of the eye or epithelium.

Eye treatments using synthetic thyroid hormone compositions

The Regents of the University of California


A computer-implemented method of determining a common social context can include detecting a collaboration between a plurality of participants. The method can include identifying a plurality of common social contexts and determining a probability that the collaboration belongs to each of the plurality of common social contexts. At least one probability and corresponding common social context can be output.

Over time an ever expanding list of communication channels have appeared for person-to-person communications. Early technologies, such as telephony, have led to new communication technologies such as the World Wide Web, wireless technologies, electronic mail, newsgroups, chat, instant messaging, and file sharing applications. These different forms of communication, which may be referred to as "collaborative applications," allow groups of two or more users to share information, ideas, and/or data in a collaborative way.
Collaborative applications have gained in popularity in corporate and non-profit organizations, online communities, and social networks since they facilitate communication and information exchange. As organizations grow, the popularity of collaborative applications makes it difficult for users to oversee the large number of collaborative events occurring at any given time. This in turn makes it difficult for users to identify which collaborations may be of interest.
Each collaboration deals with a particular subject, which can be referred to as a common social context. The concept of a common social context attempts to describe a wide variety of social interactions that may bring a group of two or more people together to communicate in a non-random fashion. Common social contexts relate to the subject matter shared within some collaborative interaction rather than the collaborative application used to facilitate the collaboration. For example, common social contexts can include the sports discussed in a chat room, the product information within a document shared at a business meeting, and/or the personal relationship information exchanged between two people in a series of electronic mails. As can be seen, common social contexts relate to the subject matter or theme contained in a collaborative interaction, not the mechanism for the collaboration.

International Business Machines Corporation


The present invention entails a hose coupling assembly having a pivotally mounted locking lever for engaging and locking against a cam lock. The hose clamping assembly including a pair of rotating and mating locking collars with each locking collar having a series of circumferentially spaced lugs formed about the outer surface thereof. The locking lever referred to above is integrally formed with a selected lug on each locking collar. The mounting lug includes a transverse cavity formed through the lug and mounted within the lug cavity is a pivot pin that is supported about opposite ends by the lug structure itself. The locking lever is in turn pivotally mounted on the pivot pin and is spring biased to assume a locked position.

Hose coupling assemblies are utilized to couple two ends of a hose, such as a fire hose. These hose couplings must be strong and rugged because they must create and hold a tight seal and must be able to withstand impact and abuses of all types while still maintaining a tight and secure seal. Conventionally, these hose coupling assemblies have been of various designs. But one particular design that has been utilized widely is the so-called non-threaded type. Many non-threaded type hose couplings include a pair of rotating collars where each rotating collar includes an externally actuated locking mechanism. One particular design for a latching or locking mechanism for a hose coupling assembly of this type includes a pivotally mounted lever-type locking arm that is externally actuated but includes a locking head that projects downwardly through the associated collar to engage and lock against a cam latch or lock. This lever-type locking arm in past designs has been pivotally mounted on a cantilevered pivot pin and because of that, has been very susceptible to breakage and failure. Since the pivot pin for the latch arm is only supported at one end any substantial impact against the free or unsupported end of the pivot pin may break or fracture the pivot pin and accordingly, this can cause the entire coupling assembly to fail.
Therefore, there is and continues to be a need for a strong and sturdy external latch assembly for a non-threaded hose coupling assembly.

Double point supported locking lever for a hose coupling assembly


This invention offers a liquid crystal display device with which each of a plurality of observers can visually recognize each of two different images displayed on a single liquid crystal display panel respectively. The liquid crystal display device of this invention includes a light source for backlighting, a first polarizing plate to extract linearly polarized light from the light source for backlighting, a polarization control LCD composed of a liquid crystal layer divided into a plurality of columns and controlling an optical retardation of each of the plurality of columns, lenticular lenses disposed along the columns, a first retardation plate in which a row having a first optical retardation and a row having another optical retardation that is different from the first optical retardation are disposed alternately, a display LCD and a second and a third polarizing plates between which the display LCD is interposed.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a liquid crystal display device, specifically to a liquid crystal display device capable of displaying a dual picture on a single liquid crystal display panel.
2. Description of the Related Art
A liquid crystal display device using a liquid crystal panel for display (hereafter referred to as a LCD (Liquid Crystal Display)) has been known as a display device incorporated in a TV receiver, an information device, etc. The increased variety of the information devices in recent years requires not only a conventional single picture display but also a dual picture display, with which two different display images can be visually recognized by a plurality of observers separately, and a variety of display modes such as three-dimensional display that realizes stereoscopic view.
Further description on the technologies mentioned above is provided in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2004-280042, for example.
However, the development of the liquid crystal display device capable of the dual picture display or having the display mode of the three-dimensional display is not satisfactory yet and further development has been required. Also, there has been a requirement for a development of a liquid crystal display device having a display mode switchable between different display modes such as the dual picture display and the three-dimensional display.


A deck system employing a plurality of substantially hidden fasteners to couple the floor boards of the deck to the joists. Each hidden fastener is rigidly coupled to a respective joist and positioned between a pair of adjacent floorboards. Each fastener forms a mating relationship with specially configured sides of the boards to thereby rigidly couple the boards to the joists.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to decks. In another aspect, the invention concerns an improved deck system employing hidden fasteners to couple the floor boards of the deck to the supporting joists.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventional deck systems typically employ an elevated floor portion surrounded by a railing and supported by upright columns. The floor portion of the deck usually includes a number of laterally spaced supporting joists and a plurality of floor boards extending across and supported by the joists.
Traditionally, the floor of a deck has been constructed by nailing, stapling, or screwing the floor boards to the joists, while maintaining a slight gap between adjacent floor boards. Conventional methods of attaching the floor boards to the joists can be time consuming, and the conventional fasteners used to connect the floor boards to the joists can be unsightly. In addition, the conventional fasteners may loosen over time, thereby causing the floor boards to creak when walked over. Worse yet, a loosened fastener can protrude upwardly from the floor boards, thereby causing an unsightly and dangerous condition.


A display device includes a first substrate and a second substrate facing each other, a first thin film transistor (“TFT”) disposed on the first substrate, a second TFT disposed on the first substrate, a first color filter disposed on the first TFT and a periphery thereof, a second color filter disposed on the second TFT and a periphery thereof and representing a different color from the first color filter, and a light blocking member disposed on the first and second color filters where the light blocking member includes a first spacer disposed on the first TFT and the first color filter, a second spacer disposed on the second TFT and the second color filter, a main light blocking portion disposed in peripheries of the first and second spacers, and a furrow disposed between the second spacer and the main light blocking portion.

(a) Field
The invention relates to a display device and a manufacturing method thereof, and more particularly, to a display device in which a light blocking member and thin film transistors are disposed on the same substrate, and a manufacturing method thereof.
(b) Description of the Related Art
A display device such as a liquid crystal display ("LCD"), an organic light emitting diode ("OLED") display, or the like generally includes a display panel including a plurality of pixels including switching elements and a plurality of signal lines, and a driving unit.
As one of the most widely used displays at present, the LCD includes at least one display panel formed with field generating electrodes and a liquid crystal layer.
The LCD may display a desired image by applying a voltage to the field generating electrodes, realigning liquid crystal molecules of the liquid crystal layer, and controlling an amount of transmitted light.
When the LCD includes two display panels, the field generating electrodes may be respectively provided in the two display panels facing each other, or the two field generating electrodes may be disposed in one display panel.
A pixel electrode of the field generating electrodes to which a data voltage is applied and a plurality of thin film transistors ("TFTs") may be arranged in a matrix form in one of the display panels facing each other, a color filter for representing primary colors such as red, green, and blue, for example, and a light blocking member for preventing light leakage between pixels may be formed in the other display panel.
However, in the liquid crystal display described above, since the pixel electrode, the TFTs, and the color filter or the light blocking member are formed in the different display panels, it is difficult to make an accurate alignment between the pixel electrode and the color filter or between the pixel electrode and the light blocking member, thereby causing an alignment error.
To solve the problem, a structure for forming the light blocking member in the same display panel as the pixel electrode and the TFT has been proposed, and in this case, the color filter may be formed in the same display panel as the pixel electrode.
As such, the light blocking member may be integrally formed in the display panel in which the pixel electrode and the TFT are formed, thereby achieving a high aperture ratio and high transmittance of the liquid crystal display.
When including the two display panels, the LCD may include a plurality of spacers for maintaining a cell gap between the two display panels.
The plurality of spacers includes a main spacer and a sub-spacer having a height lower than that of the main spacer.
When an external pressure is applied to the LCD to cause a change of the cell gap between the two display panels, the sub-spacer may serve to maintain the cell gap between the two display panels and to prevent deformation of the main spacer to an extent that does not allow it to be restored to its original shape.

Display device including main light blocking portion and spacers


A radio receiver handles a transmitted Walsh sequence having a code length of “m” as a two-dimensional array of “a” rows and “b” columns, and performs a fast Hadamard transform process having a code length of “a” in the row direction. The absolute values of the results are added in the column direction, and a Walsh number having the maximum receiving power is selected to determine a Walsh sequence having a code length of “a.” Then, only the identified column is extracted, and a fast Hadamard transform process having a code length of “b” is applied in the column direction.

The present invention relates to a code division multiple access (CDMA) transmission technique, and more particularly to, a modulation technique for a case in which a Walsh sequence having a relatively long code length is used, such as an m-ary modulation, in a radio receiver.
The CDMA transmission technique is one of multiple access communication techniques used for sharing a limited frequency band by a plurality of users, and is known for a high frequency-utilization efficiency compared with time division multiple access (TDMA) and frequency division multiple access (FDMA) transmission techniques. In CDMA, data obtained after modulation is multiplied by a pseudo-random code called a PN code and is transmitted. The multiplication process by the PN code is called spreading, and has an important role of identifying the user in CDMA. The PN code has a sufficiently high transmission rate (approximately 100 to 1000 times) compared with the bit rate of generally transmitted information. Therefore, by performing the spreading process, the bandwidth of a transmission signal is extended to 100 to 1000 times that obtained before the spreading process. In the PN code, since a different code sequence is used for each user, a multiplication process by the same PN sequence as in the transmission side is performed in a demodulation process. This is called a despreading process. The despreading process by the same code sequence as in the transmission side is performed to regenerate the original information bit. In this case, whether the information bit is "1" or "0" is determined by calculating a correlation with a spreading code. This is because calculating the correlation reduces the effect of user signals having different code sequences, and allows only a signal having the same code sequence to be extracted.
The ratio of the spreading-code rate to the information-bit rate is called the processing gain. In CDMA, the larger the processing gain is, the better the communication. Therefore, to improve communication quality in CDMA, it is necessary to increase the spreading-code rate or to reduce the transmission-data rate. In the m-ary modulation technique, the processing gain can be increased without reducing the transmission-data rate. With this characteristic, m-ary modulation is frequently used in CDMA communications.
In EIA/TIA/IS-95A (hereinafter called IS-95A) known as "cdmaOne," 64-ary modulation using a code length of 64 is used in a reverse link (transmission at a mobile station and receiving at a base station). The 64-ary demodulation method used in IS-95A is described in detail in U.S. Pat. No. 5,442,627, "Noncoherent Receiver Employing a Dual Maxima Metric Generation Process" by Audrey Viterbi and Andrew J. Viterbi. Since a pilot channel is not transmitted in the reverse link of IS-95A, it is difficult to perform synchronous detection for estimating the phase of a signal during demodulation. Therefore, U.S. Pat. No. 5,442,627 shows a structure used in a case in which demodulation is performed by asynchronous detection, where phase estimation is not performed. In this case, to demodulate a signal to which 64-ary modulation has been applied, an Hadamard transform is first applied to an I phase and a Q phase, and then the correlation between the received signal and 64 Walsh code sequences is calculated. The data obtained by correlation is converted to electric power by calculating the sums of squares of the I-phase component and the Q-phase component. The electric power is compared with that of each Walsh code to determine the Walsh code having the maximum value to determined the transmitted Walsh code.

Hitachi Communication Technologies, Ltd.


A conveyance control apparatus controls an amount of movement of a carrier. A first encoder detects an amount of movement of the carrier and outputting a first signal. A second encoder detects an amount of movement of a drive member driving the carrier. A control part acquires an amount of movement of the carrier by complementing an amount of movement of the carrier acquired from the first signal by an amount of movement of the drive member acquired from the second signal. The control part corrects a value representing a corresponding relationship between the first signal and the second signal based on the complemented amount of movement so as to control the amount of movement of the carrier using the corrected value.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to conveyance control apparatuses and, more particularly, to a conveyance control apparatus for controlling an operation of a paper conveyance apparatus used for an image forming apparatus such as a copy machine, a printer or a facsimile machine, and also relates to an image forming apparatus having such a conveyance control apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, in the field of inkjet recording, ink is shifted from a dye-based ink to a pigment-based ink so as to improve light fastness and deterioration with age. Additionally, ink having a high-viscosity has become used. By using a high-viscosity ink, run or bleeding of ink on a record paper decreases drastically. However, when the high-viscosity ink is used, a displacement in landing positions of ink droplets on a recording paper becomes highly visible due to white stripes, black stripes, banding, etc. That is, inaccuracy in landing positions of ink droplets becomes visible. Especially, since the accuracy in landing positions of ink droplets depends on accuracy in a stop position of a recording paper when conveying the recording paper in a sub-scanning direction, it is desired to achieve high-accuracy in conveyance of a recording paper.
Conventionally, in a sub-scanning recording paper conveyance mechanism of an inkjet recording system, it is general to use a conveyance method using a wheel conveyance roller or a conveyance belt. In a feed control in such a conventional conveyance method, a code-wheel is attached to a conveyance roller shaft to detect a rotational position or a rotation speed of the conveyance roller shaft by reading a scale provided on the code-wheel by using an encoder sensor. Then, a feed amount of the recording paper is acquired by computation based on the detected rotational position or rotation speed so as to perform the feed amount control (for example, refer to Patent Document 1).
Patent Document 1: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2001-253132
In the conventional paper conveyance control using the above-mentioned code-wheel, accuracy in conveyance of recording papers is influenced by eccentricity, deflection and temperature changes in the code-wheel, eccentricity and deflection in a drive pulley and the code-wheel, and variation in a thickness of a conveyance belt. That is, there is a problem that it is difficult to perform a stop position control of a recording paper with good accuracy due to accumulation of parts accuracy of a conveyance mechanism, influences of accuracy in assembling, or the like.

Conveyance control apparatus and image forming apparatus


A vehicle bumper comprising at least one part made of resilient material, in the interior of which there is provided at least one marking fluid cell with an opening to the exterior. The opening is closed by a closure device which, under the effect of a pressure applied with a determined intensity, can open up the opening, allowing the marking fluid to access the exterior of the cell through which the marking fluid can flow, and also comprising a securing element configured to secure the at least one part on the vehicle.

Collisions can occur between a vehicle of the GSE (Ground Service Equipment) type and an aircraft. However, certain aircraft have areas wherein an impact of this type has an effect on the structure, such as that of the fuselage for example, without this being able to be detected by the naked eye.
An objective of the present invention is to propose a vehicle bumper provided with a system for marking in the event of collision which permits rapid and easy replacement of the system in the event of activation of the marking.


An energy management system includes at least one distributed energy source for producing energy, the distributed energy source in electrical communication with at least one consumer device to be powered by electric power, and in electrical communication with an electric utility. The device also includes a CPU in communication with the at least one distributed energy source, the CPU operable to control the flow of energy produced by the at least one distributed energy source. The CPU manipulates the flow of energy to provide efficient usage of the energy based on information from the at least one consumer and the electric utility.

The North American power grid was once called the " . . . supreme engineering achievement of the 20th century." Unfortunately, the power grid is quickly aging such that outages and inefficiencies result in great costs to end users.
A growing movement to provide clean energy, utilizing such sources as wind, currently suffers from significant inefficiencies due to limitations within the power grid. Commercial wind farms often produce much greater energy than is realized, but the transmissions lines cannot accommodate the amount of energy produced, thereby resulting in large amounts of wasted effort.
Residential applications are often seen as impractical due to costs, lack of providing enough energy during peak demand, and wasted energy during off-peak times. In addition, there is no application that provides two-way communication between end users and the distribution source.
Current efforts to develop a Smart Grid are ongoing, but these efforts are generally limited to increasing reliability, efficiency, and safety of the power grid, largely in an effort to reduce threats of tenor attacks, resulting in large scale power outages. Unfortunately, there is no system that currently provides the end user the ability to utilize and manage distributed energy sources. Further, there is no system that currently provides the capability of the distributed energy sources, such as in residential applications, to return unused energy to the power grid, or store excess energy for later use by the end-user. Still further, there is no system that provides the end user, or other interested party, such as a stakeholder, the ability to collect usage and generation data, to deliver electricity more efficiently and detect problems within the system, and provide information that allows for strategic placement of distributed generation sources for overall performance improvement.


A rolled graphite sheet includes a rod-shaped body and a graphite sheet having a length of 1 m or more and a width shorter than the length. The graphite sheet is wound around the rod-shaped body and is rolled in a length direction. When a length direction-end of the graphite sheet is pulled with a force of 1.5 N/cm in a direction parallel to a tangent of a cross-sectional circle of the rolled graphite sheet while fixing the rod-shaped body, the end moves 5 mm or less in the direction parallel to the tangent of the circle.

A graphite sheet is a material having excellent properties such as high thermal conductivity, and is widely used in electronic parts etc. Examples of a method for producing a generally-available highly thermal conductive graphite sheet include: an expansion method in which expanded graphite is pressed into a sheet; and a polymer thermal degradation method.
For example, PTL 1 discloses a method in which a roll of long polymer film is heat-treated to obtain a carbonaceous film, and then the carbonaceous film is heat-treated at a temperature of 2400° C. or higher.


Application extension management may be provided. A plurality of related documents may be scanned to determine whether an activation trigger associated with an application extension has been triggered. In response to determining that the activation trigger associated with the application extension has been triggered, the application extension may be triggered and a user interface element associated with the application extension may be displayed according to a display rule.

A dynamic extension view may be provided. Software application extensions are computer-executable programming modules that may provide additional information displays and/or functionality to existing software applications. In conventional systems, these extensions can be difficult to manage via a traditional menu or multi-pane structure. In many situations, extension lists are presented to end-users in a rectangular pane wherein multiple contextual extensions may be shown at once. Since each extension needs its own rectangular pane to provide information or functionality to the user, showing multiple extensions can quickly clutter the host application's user interface.

Dynamic extension view with multiple levels of expansion


A system and method of identity verification at a point-of-identification verification (POV) using biometric-based identity recognition and an identity verifying score based upon a presenter's initial identification presentment and their subsequent action in the system. The system also provides tracking and evaluates verifier activity within the system through biometric-based identity recognition and a performance score based upon their actions and the results of their actions within the system. System users register at least one biometric identifier and personal and/or business identity-verifying data. Users present a biometric sample obtained from their person and their system ID number to conduct identification transactions. This data is used to authenticate the user's identity to a percentage of reliability and allows a user with consistently positive ID verifications to establish a higher ID score, strengthening their credibility within the system. Once enrolled, the system allows the user to be identified without presenting any token-based information, such as a driver's license or passport. In one embodiment, an identity verification score generated via the system can be employed in conjunction with online transactions, such as purchases, auctions, email, instant messaging, and the like.

Identity fraud, a growing national problem, occurs whenever an individual uses stolen or fabricated identity information to obtain goods or services that they would not normally have privilege to access. From identity theft to identity misrepresentation, identity fraud is not only a problem to identity presenters and identity verifiers because it costs them time and money, but it is an additional problem to identity presenters because it inhibits or removes their ability to positively identify himself or herself, which is central to everyday activities. Once the ability to identify oneself positively is complicated or stolen, day-to-day activities are hindered at the least, if not halted.
In the current system of identity verification, individuals present tokens to identify themselves. For example, registering for services or accessing restricted areas or products typically requires presentation of some type of identification token. To purchase cigarettes an individual must present a form of identity that verifies they are of age to purchase them. This identification is usually some type of driver's license or identity card. Additionally, to pay for something via most forms of payment (e.g. credit, debit, or checking), one has to verify their identity as an account holder on the presented account. This is usually achieved by their presenting some type of token that represents the account. This token provides proof that the person presenting the token is privileged to access the account. In many instances, the token presenter may be required to present other information to access the account, such as a signature, PIN, out-of-wallet information, or identification document. However, such additional information is not necessarily a reliable identification double check because signature comparisons cannot be accurately compared by the human eye, a PIN can be stolen, out-of-wallet information takes too long to obtain and confirm for a common ID transaction, and identification documents in addition to the one presented are an inconvenience to carry.
There are two main deficiencies in the current methods of identity verification that contribute to the high level of identity fraud that exists: 1) identity verification and identity verification linked activities are too intricately tied to tokens that, in actuality, have little tie to the individual being identified and can easily be fabricated, lost, or stolen; and 2) identity verification is typically not based upon a traceable personal history of actions.
A significant problem with current identity verification methods is that they rely too heavily on the identification token. The token is problematic because its only tie to its owner is the information presented on it. Additionally, the only way that information is linked to the owner is through the verifiability that the document was generated by a reputable agency (typically the government) and knowledge that the owner presents. In essence, as long as the token looks as if it were issued by a reputable agency and as long as the presenter looks relatively similar to the individual pictured on the token and the token presenter has memorized the information printed or encoded on the token, the token presenter is recognized as the rightful token presenter. This identification could, in fact, be inaccurate, but because the token looks authentic and because an individual has verified that the token presenter looks similar to the individual on the token and knows the information displayed on the token, the individual has also verified the presenter. This is also a misconception of financial tokens: as long as the presenter can verbally or physically verify the information on the token or present an additional token to support the information on the initial token, the presenter's identity is approved.
Previously suggested solutions to this problem include systems wherein a computer chip is implanted in the token, such as a smart chip, that stores individual-specific information such as a biometric or PIN that is not printed on the card. The problem with such systems is that although they provide an alternative to one of the identification system's largest problems, the token, they do not provide any type of identity verification tracking that might help solve another of the problems with the current identity verifying system.
A second significant problem with current identity verification methods is that each occurrence of identity verification is usually cut off from all others. For example, there is no way of knowing whether or not an individual's identity has been verified at another location, whether that individual is using an identity token for the first time, or whether that individual has just been declined identity verification at another location. Therefore, the identity verifier has no frame of reference regarding how often and to what degree of certainty an individual's identity has been verified.
What would be quite useful is a biometrically activated system and method that scores the verifiability that a person is who they claim to be both at an initial point of identification and at subsequent points of identification within the system. Biometric access of such a score would eliminate the inherent problems of the token, the human error often found with human recognition and verification, and would tie the identity verification process directly to the individual being identified, since biometrics—such as, but not limited to, fingerprints, retinal patterns, face ratios—are features of an individual that are biologically tied to them and which are difficult to change, lose, impersonate, or steal. It would also be useful to have a system that would provide identity verifiers with a score based upon the person's history of actions within the system which help indicate the likelihood that the person seeking identity verification is the rightful owner of the presented identity. It would also be useful to have a system that would give subsequent ID verifiers an indication of the quality of the initial identification of the presenter and help subsequent verifiers decide whether or not to trust the presenter at a glance. Not only would such a system and method increase the convenience and speed of identifications for both the presenter and the verifier, but in accessing an identification record through biometric authentication, the verifier would be further assured that the presenter's presented identity is valid, since biometrics are unique characteristics of each individual. Linking biometrics with the identity scoring process would be a more complete, secure, and convenient process of identity verification for all honest parties involved.

System and method for verifying identity


A development device wherein a magnetic force distribution of a developer bearing member in a longitudinal direction at positions at which a magnetic flux density of a low magnetic field area is minimal in the peripheral direction of the developer bearing member is set such that a difference between a maximum magnetic flux density in a range from a maximum position at which an attenuation rate of the magnetic flux density is maximal to a 30 mm distant position toward the center of the developer bearing member and a magnetic flux density on a further center side of the developer bearing member than the range is 3 mT or less, and an absolute value of the magnetic flux density of a further outer side in the longitudinal direction of the developer bearing member than the maximum position is set to 3 mT or less.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a development apparatus in which a magnet roller is arranged on the inner side of a developer bearing member and an image forming apparatus using the development apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In development apparatuses of recent years, a two-component development system using a developer acquired by mixing non-magnetic toner and magnetic carrier is widely used. The two-component development system has superior stability of the charging amount of toner and thus is appropriately used by high-speed image forming apparatuses and color image forming apparatuses.
In an image forming apparatus using a two-component developer, a columnar magnet roller in which a predetermined magnetic force pattern is magnetized is arranged to be fixed inside a rotating cylindrical sleeve, and developer is attached to the surface of the sleeve according to the magnetic force pattern and is conveyed. The conveyed developer is made to be a thin layer by a regulation blade located adjacent to a developing sleeve and then, is developed in an opposing portion of a photosensitive drum. Thereafter, the developer remaining on the developing sleeve after the developing process is separated from the developing sleeve and is collected to the inside of a developing container 2.
As the magnet roller, for example, there is a magnet roller that is configured by five poles including a draw-up pole, a conveyance pole, a development pole, a collection pole, and a peel-off pole. In the case of a magnet roller configured by an odd number of poles, the draw-up pole and the peel-off pole have the same polarity, and a repulsive magnetic field is formed between both the poles. However, there are cases where a low magnetic field area attracting the developer is generated between both the poles. As such a low magnetic field area is generated, the collection rate of the developer remaining on the developing sleeve after the developing process decreases, and a history according to the developer, which has not been collected, is left after one circulation of the sleeve, whereby there is a concern that an image defection may occur.
In order to prevent this, it is necessary to control the low magnetic field area to have 10 mT or less on the surface of the sleeve, and it is necessary to form this area having 10 mT or less to be flat. In this way, the collection rate of developer is improved.
In Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-50515, the arrangement of a magnet piece that has magnetic poles of the same polarity, which have a bar shape and a cross-section having an approximate linear shape, on the side face between poles, which have the same polarity, of a magnet roller 4 (in an area in which a low magnetic field area is generated) and has an inner peripheral face having polarity opposite to that of the side face has been disclosed.
However, in the method disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-50515, when the magnet piece is arranged for controlling the low magnetic field area, the magnetic characteristics of both end portions of the magnet roller in the longitudinal direction tend to be elevated. Thus, in both end portions of the low magnetic field area, the developer is not collected but wraps around to the outer side, whereby a stay of the developer occurs. Thus, on the surface of the developing sleeve at a position corresponding to an end face of the magnet roller in the longitudinal direction, locally, more developer than that present at a position corresponding to the circumferential face of the magnet roller is carried.
The developer staying in this way may leak to the outside of the developing container, and there is concern that the inside of the main body of the image forming apparatus is contaminated. Thus, as a measure for the leakage of the developer from the end portion of the developing sleeve, a configuration has been employed in which a magnetic plate or a magnet seal is arranged at the end portion of the developing sleeve, and a magnetic brush is brought into contact with the sleeve so as to perform magnetic sealing (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-262171).
However, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-262171, since the magnetic seal is necessary, the cost increases as that much. Thus, a configuration may be considered in which, by improving the magnetic characteristics of the end portion of the developing sleeve, the leakage of the developer is suppressed without using the magnetic seal.
However, in a case where the configuration not requiring the magnetic seal is employed, while the leakage of developer due to the stay of the developer in the end portion of the developing sleeve can be suppressed, there is concern about toner scattering in which toner sprouts from a gap between the developing sleeve and the developing container in the area of the end portion of the developing sleeve. The reason for this is that there is an area in which developer is scarcely present in the low magnetic field area over the entire rectangular area of the developing sleeve. In addition, since a magnetic seal is not arranged in the end portion, in the end portion of the developing sleeve, a gap, from which scattering toner leaks, is generated between the developing container and the developing sleeve.
As a measure for this, in a case where a clearance between the developing container and the developing sleeve is extremely decreased so as to fill up the gap, there is a possibility that the developing container and the developing sleeve are brought into contact with each other. In addition, as a result of the contact, there is concern that deformation of the developing sleeve according to the contact, aggregation of toner due to frictional heat generated at the time of the contact, or the like may occur.
In addition, in a conventional development apparatus, there are problems as below.
The configuration of a conventional development apparatus using two-component developer will now be described. FIG. 28 is a top view of the inside of the conventional development apparatus.
As illustrated in FIG. 28, the development apparatus 900 includes: a developing chamber 940 that supplies developer to a developing sleeve 941; and a stirring chamber 950 that is arranged to be aligned in the horizontal direction with respect to the developing chamber 940. The developing chamber 940 and the stirring chamber 950 are partitioned by a partition wall 946 having both ends open. In addition, in the developing chamber 940 and the stirring chamber 950, a conveyance screw 944 and a conveyance screw 945 that are conveyance members are respectively arranged.
By employing the configuration described above, as denoted by arrows in the figure, developer is supplied to the developing sleeve 941 while the developer is circulated between the developing chamber 940 and the stirring chamber 950 by using the conveyance screws. The developer that is carried in the developing sleeve 941 and passes through a developing area of a photosensitive body is peeled off from the developing sleeve 941 and, as denoted by broken-line arrows in the figure, is collected into the developing chamber 940.
Accordingly, in the developing chamber 940, the developer is supplied to the developing sleeve 941 while being conveyed by the conveyance screw 944, and the developer peeled off from the developing sleeve 941 is collected. For this reason, the developer disposed inside the developing chamber 940 has a more number of times of being carried in the developing sleeve 941 toward the downstream side in the conveyance direction according to the conveyance screw 944. In other words, toward the downstream side of the developing chamber 940, the developer has a more number of times of the consumption of toner by passing through the developing area.
As a result, the toner density of the developer disposed inside the developing chamber 940 decreases toward the downstream side in the conveyance direction, and non-uniformity of the toner density of the developer supplied to the developing sleeve 941 occurs. Then, when an image is formed in such a state, density non-uniformity occurs in an output object.
Meanwhile, as a development apparatus, a development apparatus has been proposed which has a configuration in which a developing chamber and a stirring chamber are arranged to be aligned in the horizontal direction, a partition wall is extended up to a position located close to a developing sleeve, and two-component developer carried on the developing sleeve is sent to the stirring chamber (see U.S. Pat. No. 6,449,442).
In the case of such a structure, developer that is peeled off from the developing sleeve after passing a developing area opposing a photosensitive body that is an image bearing member is collected into the stirring chamber. For this reason, after developer having a low toner density is sufficiently stirred in the stirring chamber, the developer is conveyed to the developing chamber and is supplied to the developing sleeve. Accordingly, it is difficult for density non-uniformity to occur in an output object.
In addition, in each of both end portions of the developing sleeve in the longitudinal direction, a developer leakage prevention member such as a magnetic plate or a magnetic sheet formed by a magnetic member having a predetermined space from a part of the circumferential face of the developing sleeve may be arranged. In such a case, two-component developer is prevented from leaking from both end portions of the developing sleeve in the longitudinal direction. In addition, a technology for preventing leakage of a magnetic carrier or non-magnetic toner by forming a magnetic brush of the two-component developer in the developer leakage prevention members has been proposed (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-262171).
However, in the case of the development apparatus using the developer leakage prevention configuration disposed on both end portions of the developing sleeve in the longitudinal direction as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-262171, there are problems as described below.
FIG. 29 is a diagram that illustrates an example of a development apparatus using two-component developer for describing conventional problems. In the development apparatus 1, a developing sleeve 941 that is configured using a non-magnetic material is arranged. In addition, on the inside of the developing sleeve 941, a fixed magnet 942 that is a magnetic field generation member is arranged.
When the developing sleeve 941 rotates in a direction (counterclockwise direction) denoted by an arrow X at the time of performing a developing operation, two-component developer included inside a developing container 910 is carried in the developing sleeve 941 and is conveyed in the direction X.
The magnet 942 includes five peak positions of magnetic poles. In the development apparatus of the two-component developing system, a magnet having peak positions of odd numbers is frequently used. The two-component developer included inside the developing container 910 is carried by a draw-up pole S3 to the developing sleeve 941 from the developing chamber 940.
As the developing sleeve 941 is driven to rotate in the direction X, the two-component developer is carried and conveyed and is formed in a thin layer by a regulation blade 943 arranged near a cutting pole N1. Then, a developing operation is performed for an image bearing member not illustrated in the figure near a development pole S1, and, according to a repulsive magnetic field formed by a peel-off pole S2 and the draw-up pole S3, the two-component developer is peeled off from the developing sleeve 941 and is returned to the developing chamber 940.
Between the peel-off pole S2 and the draw-up pole S3, which are the same S poles, a low magnetic force zone is generated. For this reason, while the two-component developer can be peeled off from the developing sleeve 941, in both end portions of the developing sleeve 941 in the longitudinal direction, a regulation force according to the magnetic field is weak in the low magnetic force zone between the peel-off pole S2 and the draw-up pole S3. Accordingly, the two-component developer may easily leak to the outer side of the developing sleeve in the longitudinal direction.
Thus, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-262171, a developer leakage prevention member 949 such as a magnetic plate or a magnet sheet formed by using a magnetic member is arranged so as to at least cover the repulsive magnetic field formed by the same poles. In this way, the two-component developer is prevented from leaking from both end portions of the developing sleeve 941 in the longitudinal direction.
However, in a case where the developer leakage prevention member 949 such as the magnetic plate or the magnetic sheet is arranged in a repulsive magnetic field, the cost increases by arranging the developer leakage prevention member 949. In addition, in order to improve the sealing property, a higher-priced developer leakage prevention member is required, and there is concern that the cost further increases. Particularly, in the case of a configuration in which developer is circulated between the developing chamber and the stirring chamber, the developer is configured to leak from the end portion more easily on the downstream side in the developer conveyance direction than on the upstream side according to the relation of developer pressure.
This problem similarly occurs also in a development apparatus having the configuration, as illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 6,449,442, in which the developing chamber and the stirring chamber are arranged to be aligned in the horizontal direction, the partition wall is extended up to a position located close to the developing sleeve, and two-component developer carried on the developing sleeve is sent to the stirring chamber.
In addition, in the conventional development apparatus, there are problems as below.
As a development apparatus using an electrophotographic system, there are development apparatuses each using two-component developer including non-magnetic toner particles (toner) as developer and magnetic carrier particles (carriers). In such development apparatuses, when developer leaks from an end portion of a developing sleeve, there is concern that a bearing as a bearing member of the developing sleeve is clogged, and defective rotation of the developing sleeve occurs.
Thus, it is known that a magnetic member is used so as to surround a developer bearing member in the peripheral direction except for an area corresponding to an opening portion of a developing container in an end portion of the developing sleeve in the direction of a rotation shaft of the developing sleeve as a developer seal (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-262171).
In Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-262171, as illustrated in FIG. 1, the magnetic member 21 covers an end portion of an area other than a developing area in which the developing sleeve is exposed from the development apparatus so as to face an image bearing member. In other words, the magnetic member 21 covers an end portion of an area other than a developer area including portions in which a pole N2 taking in the developer and a pole N3 peeling off the developer are present. Accordingly, the two-component developer is prevented from leaking from both end portions of the developing sleeve in the longitudinal direction.
In the magnetic member, since the pole taking in the developer and the pole N3 peeling off the developer have the same polarity, between the poles having the same polarity, a low magnetic field area is formed. Then, in an end portion of the low magnetic field area, there is a high possibility of the occurrence of developer leakage, and accordingly, it is necessary to cover all the areas other than the developing area with the magnetic member as in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-262171.
However, in the configuration disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-262171, there is a disadvantage that, when the developer after the developing process is put into the inside of the developing container from a developer taking portion, the developer seal disposed in the end portion of the developer bearing member hinders the flow of the developer in the developer taking portion.
The hindrance of the flow of the developer causes the developer to stay in the end portion of the developer taking portion. Then, there is concern that toner included in the developer disposed in the stay portion is separated, and toner scattering occurs inside an image formation apparatus. In addition, there is concern that the developer overflown from the stay portion falls into the inside of the image forming apparatus. Furthermore, the scattering toner or the fallen developer, finally, may have a bad influence such as contamination on an output image.
In addition, in the conventional development apparatus, there are also problems as below.
In image forming apparatuses of recent years, a two-component developing system using two-component developer acquired by mixing non-magnetic toner and magnetic carriers together is widely used. In the image forming apparatuses using the two-component developer, a columnar magnet roller in which a predetermined magnetic force pattern is magnetized is arranged to be fixed inside a rotating cylindrical sleeve. Then, developer is attached to the surface of the developing sleeve according to the magnetic force pattern of the magnet roller and is conveyed.
As the magnet roller, for example, there is a magnet roller that is configured by five poles including a draw-up pole, a conveyance pole, a development pole, a collection pole, and a peel-off pole. In the case of a magnet roller configured by an odd number of poles, the draw-up pole and the peel-off pole have the same polarity, and, by forming a low magnetic field area between both the poles, the developer after the developing process is peeled off from the developing sleeve.
However, generally, the magnetic characteristics of both end portions of the magnet roller in the longitudinal direction tend to be elevated. Thus, there are cases where, in both end portions of the sleeve, the developer is not collected but wraps around to the outer side, and a stay of the developer occurs. In other words, on the surface of the sleeve at a position corresponding to an end face of the magnet roller in the longitudinal direction, locally, more developer than that present at a position corresponding to the circumferential face of the magnet roller is carried.
As a result, in the portion in which more developer is carried, there is concern that the applied pressure of the regulation blade increases, and deterioration of the developer due to sliding friction progresses, or linear development non-uniformity on the image face is generated. In addition, there is concern that the staying developer may leak to the outside of the developing container.
Thus, in order to reduce the elevation of the magnetic force on the end face of the magnet roller in the longitudinal direction, chamfering is performed for the end portion of the columnar magnet roller (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-091002). In such a configuration, the diameter of the end portion of the magnet roller is gradually decreased toward the outer side in the longitudinal direction, and a distance between the surface of the magnet roller and the surface of the sleeve is gradually increased. In this way, the elevation of the magnetic force at the corner of the end portion of the magnet roller is offset.
However, in the configuration disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-091002, while there is an advantage of not requiring a magnetic seal, there is concern that the developer leaks due to vibrations at the time of shipping.

Development apparatus and image forming apparatus


An insert used to connect aircraft floor panels, and the like, to supporting structure includes features which function to isolate the supported panel from vibrations in the supporting structure. The isolation of the panels leads to reductions in SIL (Speech Interference Level) noise within aircraft cabins. The insert consists of internal and external rigid components separated by a contoured elastomeric component. The elastomeric component is preloaded when installed via a fastener extending through the inner rigid component and attaching to the supporting structure. The outer and inner rigid components are sized such that the inner rigid component will not pass through the outer rigid component, thus providing a safetied installation of the panel. The elastomeric component extends below the bottom of the outer rigid component and provides soft snubbing against the supporting structure during loading of the panels. This allows some level of isolation while restricting motion of the panels.

The present invention relates to an insert for an aircraft floor panel, or the like, used to attach the panel to a supporting structure. More particularly, the present insert has the capability to isolate the panel from the vibrational energy propagated through its support.
It has been determined that a large contribution to speech interference level (SIL) noise, in certain commercial aircraft, is radiated by the floor panels. Apparently, the vibration that is transmitted along the beams which support the panels effectively vibrate the panel similar to the way a speaker diaphragm is vibrated. In order to reduce weight, these panels are typically made of an aluminum honeycomb, or other highly rigid constructions, that are highly susceptible to vibration. One current method of attaching these panels to the support beams employs metal inserts that are staked to the floor panel and secured to the upper surface of the support beam using a screw inserted through the insert and threaded into a clip nut. This technique amounts to hard mounting the panel to the support providing a solid path for transmission of vibration.
The present invention significantly reduces SIL noise within the passenger compartment. The attachment insert of the present invention comprises a) a substantially cylindrical rigid outer member secured in an aperture in the floor panel and having an axial throughbore defining a minimum internal dimension of said outer member; b) a contoured elastomeric member bonded to said axial throughbore, said elastomeric member having a central axial opening therethrough and a portion surrounding the central axial opening that extends below a lowermost portion of said outer member; and c) a rigid inner member having a substantially cylindrical first portion of a first diameter which is press fit into said central axial opening of said elastomeric bushing and a shorter cylindrical second portion which has a second larger diameter than said first portion, said second portion generally overlying said contoured elastomeric member, rigid inner member having an axial fastener-receiving throughbore permitting attachment to said support. The outer diameter of the second portion is greater than the minimum internal dimension of the first member. As a result, the insert of the present invention is safetied against possible loss of elastomer integrity. The outer member has a flange which is used to bond the insert to the lower surface of the panel and provides pull-through resistance.
The contoured elastomer has a sleeve portion that extends along the outer periphery of the shank of the inner member and has a longer axial extent than said shank. In addition, the elastomeric member has a solid annulus that extends below the surface of the flange of the outer member. The excessive length of the sleeve results in the elastomer being preloaded in its secured position. The annulus provides a snubbing ring for the panel when the panel is loaded as by a passenger walking, a beverage/food cart, or by carry-on luggage placed beneath the seat. The annulus prevents the loading of the panel from creating a solid path; accordingly, the panel remains isolated from the vibrating support surface such that the SIL noise in the passenger compartment is still reduced.
Various other features, advantages and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent after a reading of the following specification.

Vibration isolation insert for aircraft floor panels and the like


A seat slides in a vehicle longitudinal direction between a pair of wheel houses projecting inside a vehicle compartment, and slides in s vehicle width direction at a portion which is in front of the wheel houses. The seat takes a first position in which its outside portion overlaps with the wheel houses in the vehicle width direction, and a second position in which its rear portion overlaps with the wheel houses in the vehicle longitudinal direction. There is provided a rearward-slide restriction device operative to restrict rearward slide of the rear seat in the first position. Accordingly, there is provided a seat device of a vehicle which can prevent any improper interference of the seat with the wheel houses, ensuring a proper long slide function of the seat.

The present invention relates to a seat device of a vehicle, in which a seat is provided in a vehicle compartment so as to slide in a vehicle longitudinal direction between a pair of wheel houses, which are provided so as to project inside the vehicle compartment, and slide in a vehicle width direction at a portion which is in front of the wheel houses.
Conventionally, a seat disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2000-264109 is known as the above-described seat device. It is a second-row seat (rear seat), which is provided in back of a first-row seat with a driver seat and a passenger seat, which comprises a center seat, a left seat and a right seat. The center seat, which has a relatively small width in the vehicle width direction, is located at the center between the left and right seats which have a normal width.
The above-described center seat is provided so as to slide in the vehicle longitudinal direction and the right and left seats are provided so as to slide in the vehicle longitudinal direction between a pair of wheel houses and slide in the vehicle width direction at a portion which is in front of the wheel houses.
Herein, by making the center seat slide forward and then making the right and left seats slide inward respectively until each side face of the both seats contacts one another from the normal position of the second-row seat, the whole width of the right and left seats contacting can be short enough to allow the right and left seats to slide rearward so as to be located right between the pair of wheel houses. As a result, there can be provided a wide foot space to a passenger seated in this second-row seat.
However, the conventional seat device of a vehicle which is disclosed in the above-described publication fails to provide any means for restricting the rearward slide of the right and left seats, which are located in front of the wheel houses with each outside portion thereof overlapping with the wheel houses in the vehicle width direction, in order to prevent interference with the wheel houses.


A process for manufacturing a dispersion of a vinylidene fluoride (VDF) thermoplastic polymer [polymer (F)], said process comprising polymerizing VDF in an aqueous phase comprising from 0.5 to 1.5 g/l of at least one surfactant of formula F—(CF2CF2)3—CH2CH2—SO3Xa, wherein Xa is H, a alkali metal or a NRH4 group, with RH being H or a C1-C6 hydrocarbon group [surfactant (T)] and an organic oxidizing agent [agent (O)] as polymerization initiator.

Vinyiidene fluoride polymers, thanks to their partially fluorinated backbone, have been long known and have been used in a variety of applications because of several desirable properties such as mechanical properties, chemical resistance, thermal resistance, etc.
A frequently used method for producing VDF polymers involves aqueous emulsion polymerization of VDF with optionally one or more fluorinated monomers generally involving the use of fluorinated surfactants.
Frequently used fluorinated surfactants include perfluoroalkyl carboxylic acids and salts thereof. Nevertheless, due to certain environmental concerns, efforts are now devoted to phasing out from such compounds and methods wherein VDF polymer products are manufactured using alternative surfactants having a more favourable toxicological profile are attracting increased attention.
Among polymerization techniques known in the art, a method for manufacturing thermoplastic VDF polymers, wherein certain partially fluorinated surfactants of general formula Rf—C2H4—SO3M, wherein Rf is a perfluorinated radical having 4 to 10 carbon atoms and M is an alkali metal such as lithium, sodium or potassium or an ammonium radical, are used, is known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,025,709 (UGINE KUHLMANN) 24.05.1977. In this document, it is taught that said surfactant should be used in amounts of between 0.2 to 0.5% based on weight of water (2 to 5 g/l).
Nevertheless, VDF polymers obtained from such polymerization process undergo substantial yellowing/darkening phenomena, in particular when exposed to temperature of 260° C. or more, as an evidence of thermal degradation issues.
On the other side, similar fluorosurfactants have been used in the past for the manufacture of fluoroelastomers.
Thus, U.S. Pat. No. 4,524,197 (DUPONT DE NEMOURS) 18 Jun. 1985 discloses a process for manufacturing VDF-based fluoroelastomers in the presence of surfactants of formula: F—(CF2CF2)n—CH2CH2OSO3M, with n=2-8 and M is an alkali metal cation, hydrogen or ammonium. These sulphate surfactants are nevertheless endowed with active tension properties which are less advantageous over corresponding sulphonic counterparts.
Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 6,774,164 (DUPONT DOW ELASTOMERS L.L.C) Oct. 8, 2004 discloses an emulsion polymerization process for the production of fluoroelastomers in the presence of a surfactant of formula F—(CF2CF2)n—CH2CH2—SO3M, with n from 2 to 9, and M being a cation of valence of 1, said process being initiated by water-soluble peroxides including ammonium, sodium or potassium salts of hydrogen persulfate.
Nevertheless, polymerization techniques suitable for fluoroelastomers are not directly applicable to the manufacture of thermoplastic VDF polymers, which possess different colloidal behaviour and completely different properties.
Further, in addition, in processes of the prior art, inorganic initiators have been used which, while known for positively affecting colloidal stability of lattices because of the formation of ionic end groups on growing chains, nevertheless lead to products having, because of these very same end-groups, moderated thermal stability, and which are prone to undergo to discoloration phenomena.
There is thus still a shortfall in the art for a method for emulsion polymerizing VDF polymers, which can provide with high conversions, with substantial no reactor build-up nor coagulation losses, thermoplastic VDF polymers having outstanding thermal stability and high molecular weight.

Method for polymerizng vinylidene fluoride