An organic electroluminescence device of an embodiment includes a first electrode, a second electrode on the first electrode, and an organic layer between the first electrode and the second electrode, wherein the organic layer includes a monoamine compound including a condensed three ring hetero compound and a condensed four ring hetero compound as substituents, and wherein the condensed four ring hetero compound includes two of at least one atom of an oxygen atom or a sulfur atom.

Embodiments of the present disclosure herein relate to an organic electroluminescence device and a monoamine compound for an organic electroluminescence device.
Recently, the development of an organic electroluminescence device as an image display device is being actively conducted. Different from a liquid crystal display device, the organic electroluminescence device is a self-luminescent display device in which holes and electrons injected from a first electrode and a second electrode recombine in an emission layer, and a light emission material including an organic compound in the emission layer emits light to attain display.
In the application of an organic electroluminescence device to a display device, the decrease of the driving voltage, and the increase of the emission efficiency and the life of the organic electroluminescence device are beneficial, and development on materials for an organic electroluminescence device which is capable of stably attaining the requirements is being continuously researched.

Organic electroluminescence device and monoamine compound for organic electroluminescence device


Transactions are received through at least two input channels, each transaction comprising one or more data packets. The data packets are placed in a single data queue. When a first transaction received through one input channel comprises more than one data packet, a data packet of a second transaction received through another input channel is permitted to be placed in the single data queue between data packets of the first transaction. A block of space in a data output queue is assigned to each transaction. Each data packet is placed in the block assigned to its transaction.

Computer systems, and other data-handling systems, need to transfer data from one part of a system to another. This sometimes involves transferring data from two or more input channels to a common output channel. When the incoming data is in the form of transactions, and a transaction may be transmitted in the form of two or more packets, it is usually desirable to ensure that packets from different transactions do not become confused.

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


A plaster device serves for fixating a length of a medical tube in relation to a skin surface of an individual having said tube inserted into a body part via an opening. The plaster device is of the kind including an adhesive part having an upper side, an adherent lower side for attaching the plaster device to the skin, and a through-opening for receiving the tube, a support part at least partly attached to the upper side of the adhesive part and arranged for supporting a bent length of said inserted tube, and fastenings means for securing the tube on the support part. The support part is an integral unit having a branched-off portion defining at least one recess for accommodating at least a part of a fastening means, preferably elastic means. A frictional force between the tube and the fastening means guarantees that the tube is prevented from moving or displacing to cause patient discomfort. The convex shape of the upper supporting surface provides a smooth anti-kinking support and guidance for the bended tube.

Medical tubes are often introduced into a wound, a cavity or an organ of a human or animal body to facilitate sustained drainage or sustained supply of liquid or gaseous substances. Examples of medical tubes used for drainage include, but are not limited to, a chest drainage tube, a lumpectomy or a mastectomy drainage tube, a renal drainage tube for use in e.g. dialysis or percutaneous nephrostomy, and a drainage tube for emptying e.g. an encystment or an abscess. Examples of medical tubes used for supplying a substance to the patient include, but are not limited to, tubes and catheters for controlled administration of palliatives, such as analgesia, and hormones, such as insulin, delivered via e.g. an insulin pump. Proper securing of the medical tube at and in relation to the patient's skin is necessary to improve the patient's comfort during the treatment. It is of outmost importance to avoid contamination of the puncture site, to avoid dislodgement of the tube, e.g. during inspection of the puncture site or during the patient moving, and to avoid kinking, blocking or obstruction of the tube to prevent discontinuity of drainage or supply.
Traditionally, a medical tube inserted into the patient through an incision in the skin is fixated by means of sutures at the incision site. Such sutures leaves scars and may even serve as wicks for undesirable contamination of the incision and the skin around the incision site. To prevent such contamination and to improve securing of the tube, a plaster strapping can be attached to both the skin and around the tube adjacent the incision.

Plaster device for supporting a bended length of a tube


A refrigeration cycle device 100 where a combustible refrigerant circulates includes a bypass pipe 5 that is connected so that part of the refrigerant that flows through a circulation pipe extending from a condenser 2 to a flow control valve 3 bypasses the flow control valve 3 and an evaporator 4; a bypass flow control valve 6 that controls the amount of the refrigerant flowing through the bypass pipe 5; a heat exchanger 7 that allows heat exchange between the refrigerant that flows through the bypass pipe 5 after flowing out of the bypass flow control valve 6 and the refrigerant that flows through the circulation pipe after flowing out of the condenser 2; and a subcooling degree sensor T73 that detects the subcooling degree of the refrigerant at the inlet of the flow control valve 3. At least either the flow control valve 3 or the bypass flow control valve 6 is controlled so that the subcooling degree of the refrigerant at the inlet of the flow control valve 3 is equal to or greater than or a predetermined value.

A conventional refrigeration cycle device is formed by connecting the following components in the following order through refrigerant pipes: a compressor that compresses a medium-temperature low-pressure refrigerant (referred to as "medium-temperature/low-pressure," hereinafter for ease of explanation); a condenser that condenses the compressed refrigerant (referred to as "high-temperature/high-pressure refrigerant," hereinafter); an expansion valve that expands the condensed refrigerant (referred to as "medium-temperature/high-pressure refrigerant," hereinafter); and an evaporator that evaporates the expanded refrigerant (referred to as "low-temperature/low-pressure refrigerant," hereinafter). Hereinafter, such configuration is referred to as "main circuit." An invention is disclosed that cools the medium-temperature/high-pressure refrigerant to turn into a "supercooled (subcool)" state and then supplies the refrigerant to the expansion valve in order to increase a refrigerating effect at the load side (see Patent Document 1, for example).
On the other hand, the conventional refrigeration cycle device uses an incombustible HFC (Hydrofluorocarbon) refrigerant such as R410A. Therefore, the greenhouse effect of the refrigerant is about 2,000 times greater than that of carbon dioxide. It is indicated that if the refrigerant leaks by accident when the refrigeration cycle is for example disposed of or repaired, the refrigerant remains undecomposed and floating in the atmosphere for long periods of time, contributing to the acceleration of global warming.                Patent Document 1: Unexamined Patent Publication No. H06-331223 (Pages 3 to 4 and FIG. 1)

Refrigeration cycle device and method of controlling the same


A cylindrical roller bearing includes an inner ring having a flange portion provided with a roller guide-surface which guides the end faces 4a of the cylindrical rollers having diameter of Da. The end face 4a away from a center axis of the cylindrical roller by 0.40 Da in the radial direction is a first position A, and the end face 4a away from the center axis by 0.35 Da is a second position B, the end face 4a contacts with the roller guide-surface between the first and second positions A and B, the end face 4a has a convex-shaped crowning portion 4b having a continuous curve which passes the first and second positions A and B, and an angle α formed between a line connecting the first and second positions A and B and a line perpendicular to the center axis is set to be 0.5° or less.

In general, a cylindrical roller bearing is configured in a manner that, in order to guide cylindrical rollers in the circumferential direction of a raceway ring, a flange portion is provided at the end portion of the raceway ring, and the end face of each of the rollers is made in slide contact with a roller guide-surface formed at the inner surface of the flange portion. A cylindrical roller bearing used for the transmission etc. of an automobile may be used in a state of being applied with an axial load in addition to a radial load. When the cylindrical roller bearing rotates while being applied with the axial load, a local stress such as an edge load acts on a portion where the end face of the cylindrical roller contacts with the roller guide-surface of the flange portion thereby to generate a large friction at the contact surface. When the friction becomes remarkable due to the high speed rotation, wear and seizure are caused and so there may arise a case that the bearing is broken in an early stage.
Thus, in order to make a contact surface pressure between the end face of the roller and the roller guide-surface of the flange portion as uniform as possible, the end face of the roller or the roller guide-surface of the flange portion is slightly tapered or crowned so as not to cause a large edge load.
As a technique of preventing or reducing the seizure of a cylindrical roller bearing, there is a technique of improving the surface roughness of the contact surfaces of the roller and the flange portion. There is another technique in which a crowing is provided at the end face of the roller so as to contact with the end face of the roller at the center position of the height of the flange thereby to prevent the contact point of an elliptical shape from falling into a relief groove or protruding largely to the outside of the flange height, for example.
As a conventional technique, there is known a roller bearing in which the surface roughness of the end face of a roller and the flange portion to be contacted to each other is improved thereby to prevent the lubrication failure (see Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. JP-A-7-42746, for example). Further, there is known another roller bearing in which a working grain is provided in a direction almost perpendicular to the relative movement direction in order to improve the lubrication efficiency (see Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. JP-A-7-91452, for example). Furthermore, there is known still another roller bearing in which minute recess portions are provided at the contact region of a flange portion contacting with the end face of a roller thereby to intend to maintain the forming of an oil film (see Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. JP-A-6-241235, for example). Furthermore, there is known still another roller bearing in which, in order to reduce an amount of heat generated by the sliding operation, the shape of a roller is changed so that the position where the roller contacts with a flange portion is made same as the outer diameter surface of the roller (see Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. JP-A-9-236131, for example).
Furthermore, there is proposed a technique in which oil films are surely formed within a roller and a flange surface at the rolling contact portion thereby to prevent or reduce seizure by placing the intersection position of the chamfering portion and the plane portion of the roller end face on the radial-direction small diameter side in an outer ring flange portion and the radial-direction large diameter side in an inner ring flange portion, rather than the intersection point of the flange surface and a relief portion for grinding (see Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. JP-A-2002-181053, for example).
However, the improvement of the surface roughness and the provision of the working grain as respectively disclosed in the JP-A-7-42746 and JP-A-7-91452 cause a problem of the cost-up and a problem in the stability of quality due to the particular processing equipment and the extension of the processing time. On the other hand, even in the case where the roller and the flange portion are changed in the particular shapes as disclosed in JP-A-6-241235 and JP-A-9-236131, respectively, these techniques are not effective since the processing of the roller and the additional processing of the inner and outer rings raise the costs thereof.
The cylindrical roller bearing disclosed in JP-A-2002-181053 is configured in a manner that the flange surface is crowned or that the contact portion between the inner ring flange portion and the roller end face becomes a contact portion between the outer diameter surface (inner ring flange surface) of a cone having a point as an apex and the spherical surface (the end face of the roller). However, the direction of the major axis of the contact ellipse caused at the contact portion between the roller and the flange portion is the radial direction of the inner ring of the bearing. Thus, there arises a problem that the contact ellipse may protrude from the relief groove of the inner ring flange surfaced or the outer diameter of the flange surface depending on an amount of the axial load, so that an edge load is generated at the boundary surface between the contact ellipse and the relief groove or the boundary surface between the contact ellipse and the outer diameter portion of the flange portion.
Further, in order to prevent the contact ellipse from protruding from the relief groove of the flange surface, it is considered to raise the center position of the contact ellipse which is the contact surface between the roller and the flange portion on the outer diameter side of the flange surface. However, in this case, since the slippery degree between the roller and the flange portion becomes large, a heat value increases, whereby there arises such problems that the temperature of the bearing increases, scoring or seizure etc. of the flange portion occurs.
In order to solve the aforesaid problems, an object of the invention is to provide a cylindrical roller bearing which can improve a seizure property and improve an allowable rotation speed without increasing the size of a bearing.


An apparatus and method for binary communication between a vehicle and a trailer transmits high voltage and low voltage signals detectable as high bits and low bits aggregated into messages. A controller in the vehicle and trailer subsystems each include transceivers for transmitting messages across the vehicle's powerbus that are detectable when current flows across the powerbus. The apparatus and method are useful for controlling trailer brakes via a blue wire interface.

It is well known in the art to connect trailer lighting and trailer braking systems to towing vehicles via standardized connectors. The connector pins of current connectors have predefined signal assignments for vehicle and trailer subsystems including brakes lights, running lights, battery, ground, and trailer brakes. The trailer brake connector is commonly a blue wire and thus referred to herein as the "Blue Wire" or "Blue Wire Interface". These signal wires, including the Blue Wire, are subject to shifts in ground levels between the trailer and the towing vehicle.
Under normal driving conditions the ground level of the Blue Wire is nearly constant. However, under certain conditions, these prior known systems cause voltage drops across the ground and power wires. When the Blue Wire provides power to trailer subsystems as trailer brakes, voltage drops result from braking events. The extent of a voltage drop depends upon such factors as the amount of electrical current needed for braking, the distance between a brake controller and trailer brakes, and the wire gauge. These voltage drops result in reduced braking force, even if the system may appear to function properly.

Vehicle communication method and apparatus


The method and apparatus of this invention permit quality review by medical insurers of ambulatory patient care by gathering medical data on each and every ambulatory visit and by providing a unique data transmission system to timely and accurately report the data for analysis. Negotiable medical data drafts are provided to participating medical care providers, who are authorized to issue the draft to themselves and sign the draft at the conclusion of each patient's visit. In exchange for immediate partial payment for services rendered, the medical service provider is required to enter the requested medical data summarizinq the patient's visit on the data entry portions of the negotiable medical data draft. Deposit in its bank of the medical data draft by the medical care provider returns to the provider immediate cash and places the medical data in a transmission system designed and monitored for accurate and reliable handling. After making archival copies of the medical data draft, the medical data drafts are ultimately returned by the insurer's bank to the insurer. The medical data available on the medical data draft may be analyzed by the insurer for quality review purposes. Establishment of a comprehensive data base, based on the data available from medical data drafts, enables insurers and medical professionals to examine the level of health care across the population at a level of detail previously impossible. Implementation of the method and apparatus of this invention should permit significant cost savings for the health care insurance system.

This invention relates generally to the field of quality control review medical treatment and, more specifically, to a system for gathering and evaluating data on the delivery of medical care for ambulatory patient visits. In this application, the term "medical" is used in its broadest sense which encompasses the health related activities and knowledge of all health professionals including, but not limited to, doctors, dentists, other licensed health professionals, and those in the allied health professions.
A major economic problem that has risen during the past twenty years has been the upward spiraling cost of medical care. Demographic factors have played one role in this increased cost since extended life expectancies increase the percentage of older individuals in the population. Generally, such individuals require a much higher degree of medical care. A second major factor contributing to increased costs for medical care has been the advent of many new, expensive, medical procedures which have sprung from medical and instrumentation advances of the past ten years. More widely known examples are organ transplants and the use of CAT scanners or MRI units for routine diagnosis. An additional factor has been the increased rate of inflation, which has dramatically influenced the costs for drugs.
Due to all of the above, as well as other factors, the cost of even routine medical care has increased dramatically. Correspondingly, insurers of medical care have had to increase their charges dramatically in order to offset these much higher costs. The insurer of the largest group in the United States, the Health Care Financing Administration, which administers Medicare, has been particularly susceptible to the dramatic increases since Medicare provides coverage primarily to those individuals who have reached their sixty-fifth birthday. After a few years experience with the Medicare program, Medicare administrators became aware of the fact that many of the charges being submitted by medical care providers were excessive, if not outright fraudulent. This has led to a system of quality review of the professional performance of medical care providers participating in the Medicare program and has resulted in criminal prosecutions in addition to civil actions against offending professionals.
In order to better control the rising hospitalization costs for the elderly, a hospital admissions and treatment review program was instituted by Medicare to evaluate the appropriateness of the care given to Medicare recipients at hospitals. Concerns over quality of care have thus also become concerns that unnecessary medical treatment is being given to patients for which the insurer is being billed. Such unnecessary costs must be reflected in increased insurance premiums. This review program has been implemented in all states within the United States, and has resulted in significant savings for unnecessary hospitalizations, unnecessary treatments, and overly-long hospital stays. This Medicare review program has become a model program by which hospital admissions and procedures are also being evaluated nation-wide by private insurers. While the current standards for appropriate treatment of Medicare patients in hospitals are set by each state, there is evolving a national consensus towards what constitutes appropriate medical care. Not only are each state's standards available for review and discussion by the standard setting organizations of other states, but also private insurers are generally utilizing the same standards which the Medicare state review agencies have devised. It is probable that such national use will ultimately lead to a uniform set of standards across the United States for hospital admission and treatment of both Medicare recipients and privately insured individuals. Quality review of hospital admissions and treatment was chosen for initial review for two reasons: (1) hospitalizations represented a significant faction of the total dollars expended by the Medicare system; and (2) hospital procedures and record keeping made review of cases relatively straight forward and accessible.
Private insurers have followed the government's lead in attempting to reduce hospitalization costs by requiring their insureds to obtain prior approval from the insurer for non-emergency hospitalizations. Virtually all insurers in the United States have adopted a system whereby an insured is required to contact the insurance carrier prior to non-emergency hospital admission. The insurance carriers have developed screening procedures and minimum criteria, which they believe weed out unnecessary hospitalizations for their insureds. Whether the actions by the private insurers have been as effective as actions by Medicare is unclear since they lack the statutory enforcement authority provided Medicare. For instance, any doctor or hospital found in violation of the Medicare standards may, after an appropriate opportunity to correct their behavior, be expelled from the Medicare system. For both doctors and hospitals, expulsion means a major decrease in their patient base with loss of concomitant funding, which very few doctors or hospitals can afford. Thus, the Medicare restraints work directly on the doctors and the hospitals. On the other hand, private insurers must attempt to enforce quality review procedures and cost controls through the only persons with whom they have contracts, their insureds. Insurers hope that by refusing to pay for what they believe are unnecessary procedures and hospital admissions, which results in their insureds paying for a higher percentage of such costs, they will dissuade their insureds from utilizing those doctors and hospitals providing the unnecessary medical care. Neither the quality review procedures used by Medicare nor those used by private insurers addresses the issue of quality review of the medical services provided to ambulatory (office visit) patients. Since this represents the other major cost of medical care, it represents an area for potentially great savings to the insurance systems.
However, implementation of a nation-wide quality review system covering services rendered to ambulatory patients has not heretofore been attempted due to the overwhelming number of patients and patient visits involved. While there is a large number of admissions based upon hospital capacity, there are hundreds of times more doctors and other medical care providers than hospitals. Each doctor and medical care provider in turn may have several thousand patient office visits per year. Medicare has been directed to have in place by 1992, a quality review system for ambulatory care. At the present time, it is anticipated that such a system will be based upon a traditional "chart audit" in which patient charts will be randomly selected from medical care provider's offices for individual review by a quality review evaluation panel. Not only will there be problems with the statistics of such a review, but to date, no chart audit criteria had been developed or proposed by Medicare for implementation with such a system.
Any attempt at quality review of every ambulatory visit under the current system of insurance administration is impossible due to the paperwork overhead. In current reimbursement systems there is a multiple stage process which is required before a medical care provider is paid by the insurers for services rendered, whether the insurer is the government or a private entity. The multiple stage paperwork generating processing is a burden for the medical care providers, the insurer, and the patient. Typically, for instance, the patient is required to fill out part of a medical care form prior to submission of the form to the medical care provider. The medical care provider must then add its data to the form, and either the provider or the insured must then forward the form to the insurer. The insurer must review the material, verify coverage, and determine whether the charges should be paid. Only then does the insurer issue a draft to the medical care provider or the insured, as the circumstances of the insurance contract warrant. Under current practice, quality review by a private insurer is only possible at the end of a burdensome data gathering process. More often than not, it is necessary for the insurer to obtain additional information, either from the insured or from the medical care provider in aid of making a quality review determination. The multiple levels of paper work require the expenditure of significant time and effort by all parties involved which itself increases the cost of insurance as well as over-burdening the system at all levels with administrative overhead.
Private insurers have also not implemented, and have no immediate plans to implement, any type of quality review of ambulatory patient care. As mentioned above, the large number of patient visits, including repetitive visits by the same patient for the same problem, as well as the possibility that patients may seek care for any number of medical concerns during a typical year, make the likelihood of assessing the total adequacy and quality of care being rendered to ambulatory patients by a chart audit process nearly impossible. Indeed, a patient may see more than one medical care provider for the same medical problem, with or without notice to the providers. Thus, a review of a patient's chart from one provider's office may still not yield a clear picture of the quality of care being delivered to that patient.
While eliminating unnecessary treatment is the initial goal of such quality review procedures, it is quite clear that down the line one additional benefit will be the ability to ascertain that all patients are receiving the appropriate and complete medical care for which the insurance system is paying. However, for providers and patients already overwhelmed by a system of insurance forms and record keeping, a comprehensive ambulatory review system which imposes additional paperwork demands would not likely produce the desired information due to resistance by both the patients and the providers to dealing with yet another level of bureaucracy.
Ideally, any quality review procedure examining the care given ambulatory patients would track all patient visits to medical care providers.

Medical data draft for tracking and evaluating medical treatment


A process for preparing Fischer-Tropsch derived lubricating base oils by blending a Fischer-Tropsch distillate fraction having a viscosity of 2 or greater but less than 3 cSt at 100 degrees C. with a Fischer-Tropsch derived bottoms fraction; lubricating base oil compositions having a viscosity between about 3 and about 10 cSt at 100 degrees C. and a TGA Noack volatility of less than about 45 weight percent; and finished lubricants using the aforesaid lubricating base oils.

Finished lubricants and greases used for various applications, including automobiles, diesel engines, natural gas engines, axles, transmissions, and industrial applications consist of two general components, a lubricating base oil and additives. Lubricating base oil is the major constituent in these finished lubricants and contributes significantly to the properties of the finished lubricant. In general, a few lubricating base oils are used to manufacture a wide variety of finished lubricants by varying the mixtures of individual lubricating base oils and individual additives.
Numerous governing organizations, including original equipment manufacturers (OEM's), the American Petroleum Institute (API), Association des Consructeurs d' Automobiles (ACEA), the American Society of Testing and Materials (ASTM), the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), and National Lubricating Grease Institute (NLGI) among others, define the specifications for lubricating base oils and finished lubricants. Increasingly, the specifications for finished lubricants are calling for products with excellent low temperature properties, high oxidation stability, and low volatility. Currently only a small fraction of the base oils manufactured today are able to meet the demanding specifications of premium lubricant products.
Syncrudes prepared from the Fischer-Tropsch process comprise a mixture of various solid, liquid, and gaseous hydrocarbons. Those Fischer-Tropsch products which boil within the range of lubricating base oil contain a high proportion of wax which makes them ideal candidates for processing into lubricating base oil stocks. Accordingly, the hydrocarbon products recovered from the Fischer-Tropsch process have been proposed as feedstocks for preparing high quality lubricating base oils. When the Fischer-Tropsch waxes are converted into Fischer-Tropsch base oils by various processes, such as hydroprocessing and distillation, the base oils produced usually fall into different narrow-cut viscosity ranges. Typically, the kinematic viscosity of the various cuts will range between 2.1 cSt and 12 cSt at 100 degrees C. Since the kinematic viscosity of lubricating base oils typically will fall within the range of from 3 to 32 cSt at 100 degrees C., the base oils that fall outside of this viscosity range have limited use and, consequently, have less market value for engine oils.
The Fischer-Tropsch process typically produces a syncrude mixture containing a wide range of products having varying molecular weights but with a relatively high proportion of the products characterized by a low molecular weight and viscosity. Used by itself, this low viscosity product is not suitable for many lubricant applications, especially high volume applications, such as for engine oil. Currently, those Fischer-Tropsch derived base oils having kinematic viscosities below 3 cSt at 100 degrees C. have a limited market and are usually cracked into lower molecular weight material, such as diesel and naphtha. However, diesel and naphtha have a lower market value than lubricating base oil. It would be desirable to be able to upgrade these low viscosity base oils into products suitable for use as a lubricating base oil.
Conventional base oils prepared from petroleum derived feedstocks having a kinematic viscosity below 3 cSt at 100 degrees C. have a low viscosity index (VI) and high volatility. Consequently, low viscosity conventional base oils are unsuitable for blending with higher viscosity conventional base oils because the blend will fail to meet the VI and volatility specifications for many finished lubricants. Surprisingly, it has been found that Fischer-Tropsch derived base oils having a kinematic viscosity above 2 and below 3 cSt at 100 degrees C. display unusually high VI's, resulting in excellent low temperature properties and volatilities similar to those seen in conventional Group I and Group II light neutral base oils which have a kinematic viscosity generally falling in the range of between 3.8 and 4.7 cSt at 100 degrees C. Even more surprising was that when the low viscosity Fischer-Tropsch derived base oils were blended with certain Fischer-Tropsch derived bottom fractions or bright stock, a VI premium was observed, i.e., the VI of the blend was significantly higher than would have been expected from a mere averaging of the VI's for the two fractions. Consequently, it is has been discovered that the low viscosity Fischer-Tropsch base oils fractions may be advantageously employed as blending stock to prepare premium lubricants.
While Fischer-Tropsch derived lubricating base oil blends have been described in the prior art, the method used to prepare them and the properties of the prior art blends differ from the present invention. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,332,974; 6,096,940; 4,812,246; and 4,906,350. It has not been previously taught that Fischer-Tropsch fractions having a viscosity of less than 3 cSt at 100 degrees C. could be used to prepare lubricating base oils suitable for blending finished lubricants meeting the specifications for SAE Grade 10W, and 15W multigrade engine oils; monograde engine oils, automatic transmission fluids; and ISO Viscosity Grade 22, 32, and 46 industrial oils. With the present invention, this becomes possible.
When referring to conventional lubricating base oils this disclosure is referring to conventional petroleum derived lubricating base oils produced using petroleum refining processes well documented in the literature and known to those skilled in the art.
As used in this disclosure the word "comprises" or "comprising" is intended as an open-ended transition meaning the inclusion of the named elements, but not necessarily excluding other unnamed elements. The phrase "consists essentially of" or "consisting essentially of" is intended to mean the exclusion of other elements of any essential significance to the composition. The phrase "consisting of" or "consists of" are intended as a transition meaning the exclusion of all but the recited elements with the exception of only minor traces of impurities.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Blending of low viscosity Fischer-Tropsch base oils and Fischer-Tropsch derived bottoms or bright stock


A sign assembly having a frameless-appearing sign face may be removed from and replaced into the assembly. The sign assembly includes a sign face having an outer surface, an inner surface and a peripheral side. The assembly also includes a sign frame having a sign face channel that is adapted to receive a portion of the sign face adjacent to the peripheral side. The sign face channel is defined by an inner frame portion and an outer frame portion. The assembly also includes a mounting component having a face support that is attached to the inner surface of the sign face adjacent to the peripheral side of the sign face, an inner support that is adapted to bear against the inner frame portion of the sign frame, and an outer support that is adapted to bear against the outer frame portion of the sign frame. The invention also includes a method for mounting a sign face on a mounting component and a method for converting a framed assembly into a frameless-appearing assembly.

This invention relates generally to sign assemblies having removable and replaceable sign faces. More particularly, the invention relates to a sign assembly having one or more sign faces that are removably attached to a supporting frame in such a way as to appear to be frameless.
Many sign assemblies include a sign panel or face which may be removed from the supporting frame of the assembly. Typically, such sign assemblies include a sign face that is attached to and supported by frame components or supports in such manner that the sign face has a framed appearance. Sign assemblies having a framed appearance are described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,408,407 of Bloom et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,801,115 of Heard and U.S. Pat. No. 4,802,296 of Kovalak, Jr. Other sign assemblies include a sign face that is attached to and supported by a frame or sign support in such manner that the sign face has a frameless appearance. U.S. Pat. No. 4,276,706 of Scott describes such a sign assembly. Frameless appearing sign faces display the entire surface of the sign face, whereas sign faces having a framed appearance typically do not display a peripheral portion of the sign face.
Many sign assemblies are also adapted to accommodate removable sign faces, so that a sign face may easily be replaced. Typically, the face of a sign assembly having a framed appearance is removed for replacement by removing the supporting frame from the posts or wall on which it is mounted and disassembling at least a portion of the frame. Frameless appearing sign faces are usually mounted on the supporting frame using threaded fasteners or an adhesive. Other frameless appearing sign faces may be mounted on a supporting frame using mounting components that are difficult to remove in order to replace the sign face.
It would be desirable if a sign assembly could be provided having a frameless-appearing sign face that is supported by a frame in such manner that the sign face may be easily removed from the sign frame for replacement. It would also be desirable if such a sign assembly could be adapted to convert a conventional sign assembly having a sign face with a framed appearance into a frameless-appearing sign assembly.
Accordingly, it is an advantage of the invention claimed herein to provide a sign assembly having a frameless-appearing sign face which is removably attached to the sign frame. It is another advantage of the invention to provide such a sign assembly which permits a sign face to be easily removed and replaced. It is still another advantage of the invention to provide a sign assembly which may be comprised of few components a are easily manufactured and assembled. It is yet another advantage of the invention to provide a sign assembly that may be employed to convert a conventional sign assembly having a sign face with a framed appearance into a one with a frameless-appearance.
Additional advantages of this invention will become apparent from an examination of the drawings and the ensuing description.
As used herein, the term sign face refers to a generally planar component on which information may be displayed.
As used herein, the term sign frame refers to a component or assembly that is adapted to support a sign face.
As used herein, the term signal post refers to a component or assembly to which a sign frame may be mounted.
As used herein, the terms frameless-appearing sign face, frameless appearance of a sign face and similar terms refer to a condition wherein a sign face is supported by a flame, no part of which extends beyond the periphery of the sign face. The sign frame may be mounted on one or more posts or on a wall or other surface.
As used herein, the term sign face having a framed appearance and similar terms refer to a condition wherein a sign face is supported by a frame, at least a part of which extends beyond the periphery of the sign face. The sign frame may be mounted on one or more posts or on a wall or other surface.
The invention comprises a sign assembly having a frameless-appearing sign face that may be removed from and replaced into the frame of the assembly. According to the invention, the sign assembly includes a sign face having an outer surface, an inner surface and a peripheral side. The assembly also includes a sign frame having a sign face channel that is adapted to receive a portion of the sign face adjacent to the peripheral side. The sign face channel is defined by an inner frame portion and an outer frame portion. The assembly also includes a mounting component having a face support that is attached to the inner surface of the sign face adjacent to a peripheral side of such sign face, an inner support that is adapted to bear against the inner frame portion of the sign frame, and an outer support that is adapted to bear against the outer frame portion of the sign frame. In addition, the face support of the mounting component is preferably generally coplanar with the outer frame portion of the sign frame.
The invention also comprises a method for mounting a sign face on a mounting component. According to the method, the mounting component of the assembly is placed on a frame assembly which includes a sign frame so that the inner support bears against the inner frame portion, the outer support bears against the outer frame portion, and the face support is generally coplanar with the outer frame portion. The sign face is then attached to the face support of the mounting component, preferably by use of an adhesive.
The invention also includes a method for converting a conventional channel frame sign system from a system having a visible frame around the sign face into a frameless-appearing sign system. According to this method, a mounting component having a face support an inner support that is adapted to bear against the inner frame portion of the sign frame, and an outer support that is adapted to bear against the outer frame portion of the sign frame is attached to an inner surface of a sign face. The mounting component is inserted into the sign face channel so that the inner support bears against the manner frame portion and the outer support bears against the outer frame portion of the sign frame while at least a portion of the inner surface of the sign face adjacent to the mounting component bears against a portion of the outside surface of the outer frame portion.
In order to facilitate an understanding of the invention, the preferred embodiments are illustrated in the drawings, and la detailed description thereof follows. It is not intended, however, that the invention be limited to the particular embodiments described or to use in connection with the apparatus illustrated herein. Various modifications and alternative embodiments such as would ordinarily occur to one skilled in the art to which the invention relates are also contemplated and included within the scope of the invention described and claimed herein.

Sign panel with replaceable, frameless-appearing sign face


A low-voltage, low-inductance device for storing electrical charge in a snubber circuit and a method of minimizing inductance in the snubber circuit using the device, wherein the device includes a plurality of extended electrodes, in parallel or series, that are joined to a positive conductor terminal at one end spray and at a negative conductor terminal at the other end spray so that end sprays of adjacent extended electrodes are alternately joined to the positive and negative conductor terminals. Accordingly, current flowing though adjacent extended electrodes is of substantially equal intensity but different in direction. As a result, inductance produced effectively cancels out that of adjacent extended electrodes.

The present invention relates to devices for electric circuitry. More precisely, the invention relates to low voltage capacitors that produce minimal inductance, e.g., for snubber circuitry, and to methods for minimizing inductance in same.
Capacitance, i.e., the ability of capacitors to store charge, plays a dominant role in shaping the time and frequency response of modern electrical circuitry. However, capacitance can be affected deleteriously by stray inductance, which is a flux field that is produced by current flowing through wires and/or conduction paths of substantially all electrical circuits and circuitry. Indeed, current (I) flowing through circuitry can cause significant voltages (V) to develop across stray inductance (L), which condition diminishes capacitance (C). Therefore, for optimal performance, inductance associated with capacitors must be as low as possible. This is especially true at higher frequencies, i.e., 5 kHz and higher, where inductive impedance diminishes capacitive effectiveness by amplifying microsecond pulses to high voltage levels.
This is particularly true of snubber capacitors, which are connected in parallel with one or more switches as part of a snubber circuit. Snubber circuits typically are used to (i) reduce voltage spikes, e.g., switching pulses, that occur when power switches are turned on and off, i.e., xe2x80x9cswitchedxe2x80x9d, repeatedly and (ii) to reduce power and other losses that also result from repeated switching. Indeed, power loss, which is defined by the equation P=Vxc3x97I, is substantially zero when either there is no current flow, i.e., I=0, which occurs when the switch is off, and/or when the voltage is very low, i.e., V= greater than 0. When neither of these conditions exists, the circuitry experiences significant power loss.
As a result, snubber capacitors, which typically operate at high current levels, i.e., I greater than  greater than 0, by default, must be designed to suppress switching pulses in inverter circuits to as low voltage levels as possible. Accordingly, the use of snubber capacitors in this capacity requires a very low inductance, otherwise, solid state devices, e.g., insulated gate bi-polar transistors (xe2x80x9cIGBTsxe2x80x9d), and/or insulation may fail if the inductance and associated voltage are too high.
Bowers (U.S. Pat. No. 6,166,932) discloses snubber circuitry that minimizes oscillations that are caused by repeated switching. Indeed, the snubber circuitry of Bowers includes a pair switches in parallel with a pair of capacitors, wherein an air-core transformer that is in series with a relatively high value resistor is disposed in close proximity of the capacitors to inductively couple resistance in the branch circuit without introducing additional stray inductance, which might otherwise be the case were the resistors directly connected to the capacitors in series. Hence, Bowers purports to reduce inductance in the snubber circuitry by providing distance between the resistors and the capacitors.
Furthermore, the prior art keeps inductance in interconnects and terminals by making interconnects and terminals as short as possible and/or by reducing the distance between adjacent edges of terminals.
However, the prior art has apparently failed to appreciate that to obtain low inductance in snubber capacitor design: (i) the cross-sectional area of the capacitor should be as large as possible, while the length, however, is kept to a minimum; (ii) design includes a high aspect ratio for low cross-sectional charge density; and (iii) conductors and/or terminals of opposite polarity should be disposed as close to one another as possible so that their respective flux fieldsxe2x80x94which produce inductancexe2x80x94substantially cancel out each other.
The present invention produces a low-inductance capacitance device, which is particularly useful with snubber circuitry. The cross-sectional area of the disclosed capacitor is relatively large although its length is kept to a minimum. The present invention provides a capacitor that includes a high aspect ratio for low cross-sectional charge density. Furthermore, the present invention comprises capacitors in combination with conductors and/or terminals of opposite polarity that are disposed close to one another so that the inductance produced by the flux fields substantially cancels out each other.
Accordingly, the invention provides a low-inductance device for storing electrical charge comprising a plurality of extended electrodes, wherein electrical current passing through a extended electrode from said plurality of extended electrodes flows in a direction opposite of current passing through one or more adjacent extended electrodes of said plurality of extended electrodes to provide cancellation of inductance in the device.
The invention as provides a method of reducing the inductance of a device used for storing an electrical charge, the device having a plurality of extended electrodes having a first end spray and a second end spray, the method comprising the steps of: sandwiching an insulating film between a positive conductor terminal and a negative conductor terminal; and joining said negative conductor terminal to each of the plurality of extended electrodes at a first end spray and said positive conductor terminal to each of the plurality of extended electrodes at a second end spray so that the end sprays of adjacent extended electrodes are joined to the negative conductor terminal and the positive conductor terminal alternately so that current flows in opposite directions between first and second end sprays of adjacent extended electrodes.

Low-inductance capacitor and a method for minimizing inductance in a snubber circuit


A new and distinct Vanda cultivar named ‘SPCDW1205’ is disclosed, characterized by a large, heavily patterned greyed-purple colored flower. The new variety is a Vanda, typically produced as an indoor ornamental plant.

This application relates to a new cultivar of Vanda hybrid and claims priority to EU application 2012/1954 filed Sep. 17, 2012. The new variety is the product of a planned breeding program. The new variety originated as a seedling from the crossing of the unpatented, proprietary seed parent Vanda 'M02' with the unpatented, proprietary pollen parent referred to as Vanda 'M58'. The crossing was made by the inventor in his research greenhouse in Chonburi, Thailand in January of 1989.
The new variety was first selected by the inventor, Thumrong Suphachadiwong, a citizen of Thailand, in September of 1993 in a research greenhouse belonging to the inventor in Chonburi, Thailand. After identifying the new variety as a potentially interesting selection, the inventor continued confidential testing and propagation of 'SPCDW1205', assessing stability of the unique characteristics of this variety.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar 'SPCDW1205' was first performed at a commercial laboratory belonging to the inventor in Chonburi, Thailand by tissue culture in February of 2007. Tissue culture propagation was performed using the base of leaves. Access to all plants was restricted, as plants were kept in a greenhouse not open to the public, and tissue culture plantlets were in a laboratory belonging to the inventor, and not accessible to the public. Through subsequent propagation, multiple generations have been reproduced, which have shown that the unique features of this cultivar are stable and reproduced true to type.


A composition for removing a copper-compatible resist includes about 10 to 30% by weight of an amine compound solvent, the amine compound solvent including an alkanol amine, about 10 to 80% by weight of a glycol group solvent, about 9.5 to 80% by weight of a polar solvent, and about 0.5 to 10% by weight of a corrosion inhibitor.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to composition and method for removing copper (Cu)-compatible resist, and more particularly, to composition and method for removing copper-compatible resist without the occurrence of corrosion.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
In general, a low resistance copper line is commonly utilized as an array line of an array substrate for a liquid crystal display (LCD) device, or as a circuit line of a semiconductor device to prevent resistance-capacitance (RC) delay. The copper line is usually formed through a photolithographic process incorporating fine pattern technology. The photolithographic process is well-known for fabricating semiconductor devices such as large scale integrated (LSI) circuits, very large scale integrated (VLSI) circuits, and display devices including LCD devices and plasma panel display (PDP) devices.
The LCD device makes use of optical anisotropy and polarization properties of liquid crystal molecules. The liquid crystal molecules have definite orientation alignment that results from their long thin shapes. The orientation of the liquid crystal molecules can be controlled by applying an electric field to the liquid crystal molecules. Accordingly, when an intensity of the applied electric field changes, the orientation of the liquid crystal molecules also changes. Since incident light through a liquid crystal material is refracted due to an orientation of the liquid crystal molecules resulting from the optical anisotropy of the aligned liquid crystal molecules, an intensity of the incident light can be controlled and images can be displayed.
Among the various types of LCD devices, active matrix LCD (AM-LCD) devices, in which thin film transistors (TFTs) and pixel electrodes connected to the TFTs are disposed in a matrix configuration, have been developed because of their high resolution and superior display of moving images.
An LCD device according to the related art is explained in detail with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2. FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view showing the related art LCD device. FIG. 2 is a schematic cross sectional view taken along a line II-II of FIG. 1.
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a gate line 14 is formed on a substrate 10 along a first direction. A data line 26 crosses the gate line 14 along a second direction perpendicular to the first direction to define a pixel region P. A thin film transistor (TFT) or switching device T is located at a crossing of the gate line 14 and the data line 26 and is connected to the gate and data lines 14, 26.
A gate insulating layer 16 is formed on the gate electrode 12. A semiconductor layer 19, which is formed by subsequently depositing intrinsic amorphous silicon as an active layer 18 and impurity amorphous silicon as an ohmic contact layer 20, is deposited on the gate insulating layer 16 over the gate electrode 12. Source and drain electrodes 22, 24 are formed on the semiconductor layer 19. There is a space between the source and drain electrodes 22, 24 that form a channel exposing the portion of the active layer 18. The source electrode 22 is connected to the data line 26. The gate electrode 12, the semiconductor layer 19, and the source and drain electrodes 22, 24 constitute the TFT T.
Moreover, a passivation layer 28 is formed on the TFT T and has a drain contact hole 29 that exposes a portion of the drain electrode 24. In addition, a pixel electrode 30 is formed on the passivation layer 28 in the pixel region P and is connected to the drain electrode 24 via the drain contact hole 29. The pixel electrode 30 may be selected from one of the transparent conductive materials consisting of indium tin oxide (ITO), indium zinc oxide (IZO) and indium tin zinc oxide (ITZO).
In the multi-layered structure of the substrate 10, the metallic layers such as the gate line 14, the data line 26 and the TFT T may be selected from the metallic materials having a low resistance. In addition, the low resistance properties of the metallic materials are more typically required for large size display devices. Among them, copper is considered as a typical low resistant metallic material.
Next, an explanation of a photolithography process according to the related art will be given below. FIGS. 3A to 3C are schematic cross sectional views showing a patterning process including a photolithography process and an etching process taken along a line II-II of FIG. 1. Specifically, the patterning process is utilized for forming the gate line 14 and the gate electrode 12 or a gate pattern.
In FIG. 3A, a metal layer 11 is formed by depositing copper on the substrate 10. Next, a photoresist layer 40 is formed by coating a photoresist material on the metal layer 11. The photoresist material may be classified into a positive type in which an exposed portion of the photoresist material is removed by developing, and a negative type in which an exposed portion of photoresist material is left after developing. For example, the photoresist material in FIGS. 3A to 3C belongs to the positive type.
To perform the photolithography process, a mask M, which has a transmissive portion E and a shielding portion F, is disposed over the photoresist layer 40. At this time, the portion of the photoresist layer 40, which corresponds to the shielding portion F of the mask M, is a photoresist pattern.
Next, an actinic radiation, which is a specific radiation capable of inducing a chemical reaction, is irradiated onto the photoresist layer 40 over the substrate 10 through the mask M. In fact, the actinic radiation is irradiated onto the portion of the photoresist layer 40 corresponding to the transmissive portion E of the mask M. Specifically, the actinic radiation may be selected from high energy radiations such as ultra violet rays, electron beam, X-rays, or the like. In the step of exposing, the actinic radiation reaches the photoresist layer 40 through the transmissive portion E of the mask M to change the properties of the photoresist layer 40.
After the step of exposing, the photoresist layer 40 has a first portion EE with changed properties of the matter and a second portion FF with unchanged properties of the matter. In other words, the first and second portions EE and FF of the photoresist layer 40 correspond to the transmissive and shielding portions E and F of the mask M, respectively. Since the first and second portions EE and FF of the photoresist layer 40 are determined by the patterns of the mask M such as the transmissive and shielding portions E and F, they may be called a potential phase for the mask M. When the step of exposing is completed, a step of developing for pattering the photoresist layer 40 is performed as follows.
Referring to FIG. 3B, the second portion FF of the photoresist layer 40 of FIG. 3A is patterned into a photoresist pattern 42 through developing. The photoresist pattern 42 corresponds to the shielding portion FF of the mask M of FIG. 3A. Therefore, the portion of the metal layer 11 is exposed except for the portion covered by the photoresist pattern 42.
Next, as shown in FIG. 3C, in order to form a metal pattern, the exposed portion of the metal layer 11 is etched utilizing the photoresist pattern 42 as etching barrier means. Specifically, the metal pattern may be utilized as the gate line 14 and the gate electrode 12 as shown in FIG. 1. Although not shown, a step of removing the photoresist pattern 42 by utilizing a stripping agent is performed after the step of patterning the metal layer.
The above-discussed photolithography process is an essential process to form the metal line and electrode for the array substrate of the LCD device. These metal line and electrode are properly selected from low resistant metallic materials in light of signal applying speed of them. Recently, copper has been regarded as the typical low resistant metallic material.
However, the use of copper in this regard has some disadvantages in that, for example, an oxidation reaction is caused by exposure of the copper line to room temperature. Moreover, when copper of about 99.9999% is exposed to room temperature, it may be easily oxidized. Further, the oxidized copper line may easily be corroded by a stripping agent for removing the photoresist pattern. Because of these oxidation and corrosion issues, the corrosion of the copper line may occur relatively fast. Moreover, the copper line is also easily corroded by conventional solvents that are utilized to remove the resist pattern during the photolithographic process. Accordingly, solvent compositions that include a corrosion inhibitor for preventing corrosion of copper should be utilized, as demonstrated in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,417,877 and 5,556,482, which are hereby incorporated by reference. Examples of possible corrosion inhibitors include mono-ethanol-amine (MEA) as a preferred amine. A specific amount of corrosion inhibitor is required so that removing properties of the inhibitor can be ensured without degradation. Generally, the basic elements of the composition for removing a copper-compatible resist include an amine compound solvent, a polar solvent and a glycol group solvent.
FIG. 4 is a scanning electron microscopy (SEM) image showing a corrosion state of a copper line by a composition including a monoethanolamine according to the related art. As shown in FIG. 4, the corrosion of the copper line severely occurred in case of utilizing the amine compound solvent including primary amine such as the mono-ethanol amine.
FIG. 5 is a SEM image showing a corrosion state between a copper line and a metal layer underneath the copper line in case of utilizing the stripping agent according to the related art. In FIG. 5, when the stripping agent did not contain a corrosion inhibitor, the corrosion between the copper line and the metal layer situated beneath the copper line is caused after stripping using the stripping agent.
In general, the corrosion between the copper line and the metal layer severely occurs by a galvanic phenomenon between the copper line and the metal layer in case of including about 0.1 to 3.0% by weight of water even if the corrosion of the copper line is not caused by the amine compound solvent.

Composition and method for removing copper-compatible resist


A polishing stand for supporting a slab of solid material comprises a plurality of vertical supports, a horizontal platform attached to the vertical supports, and at least one clamp member attached to the horizontal platform, the clamp member comprising a vertical section that is coupled to the horizontal platform and horizontally adjustable to clamp a slab. A sink installation tool features an elongated connecting rod, a clamp head mounted to a first end of the connecting rod, and a flip foot mounted to a second end of said connecting rod. The flip foot is movable between a first position substantially parallel to the connecting rod, so that the flip foot may be inserted through the drain hole of a sink, and a second a second position where the flip foot is nonparallel to the connecting rod to engage a bottom surface of the sink.

Recently, homeowners have increasingly used natural materials such as granite or other stone materials for countertops in domestic kitchens. Such natural materials have advantages in durability, stain resistance and beauty over man-made surfaces. However, these materials suffer from the disadvantage that they are heavy and difficult to manipulate. The substantial weight of these materials renders them both difficult to fabricate and difficult to install.
Typically a stone supplier fabricates stone slabs by cutting the desired shape from raw pieces, and then polishing the cut piece to the designer's specification. The step of polishing the cut stone can be difficult to accomplish, as the edges are best accessed when the stone slab is set vertically on edge, so that the top edge is positioned to permit polishing. Not only is this vertical positioning difficult to achieve, but it is also difficult to reliably maintain. If the slab is not well balanced on edge or not held securely, there is a substantial risk that the slab will fall over and likely break upon impact.
Installation of stone countertops is also difficult, again due to their great weight. A particularly difficult procedure is the installation of an undermount sink beneath a countertop, which requires the undermount sink to be held in place beneath the countertop while mountings are installed in the underside of the countertop. The undermount sink is typically heavy and therefore difficult to hold in place underneath the countertop while mountings are being installed. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that often there is only room for one person to reach into the cabinet beneath the kitchen sink, and thus one person must simultaneously hold the sink in place and fasten mountings thereto.


A cleaning device for cleaning residual toner on a toner image carrier. The cleaning device includes a blade that comes into contact with the toner image carrier at an acute angle with respect to an immediate downstream portion of the toner image carrier at a toner removal area where the blade scrapes off residual toner from the toner image carrier. A collecting device moves in a direction opposite the direction of movement of the toner image carrier at the toner removal area and collects the residual toner scraped off by the blade member.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to a cleaning device, and more particularly to a cleaning device for cleaning the residual toner on the toner image carrier in, for example, an electrophotographic copying machine, facsimile or printer.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, in an electrophotographic copying machine, etc., a toner image that is formed on the toner image carrier that comprises a photoreceptor or dielectric member is transferred onto a sheet of paper. When this occurs, however, the toner on the image carrier is not completely transferred and approximately 10% to 20% of the toner remains on the toner image carrier. This residual toner needs to be cleaned off so that it will not cause smudging of the image during the next image formation process.
As a cleaning device to clean residual toner, the device shown in FIG. 6 is conventionally known. In this cleaning device, blade 65 is caused to come into contact with photoreceptor drum 60 from the direction opposite the direction of movement of said photoreceptor drum (arrow d), and the residual toner scraped off by said blade 65 is pushed out, so to speak, to carrier groove 62 by means of vane member 66 that rotates in the direction of arrow e so that the residual toner will be carried outside of casing 61 by means of the rotation of coil 63 mounted in carrier groove 62.
Incidentally, in the conventional cleaning device, the direction of movement of vane member 66 at toner removal area C is the same as the direction of movement of photoreceptor drum 60. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 7, vane member 66 presses down toner T that was scraped off by the edge of blade 65 and blade 65 itself onto the surface of photoreceptor drum 60. Therefore, this cleaning device not only reduces the efficiency in scraping off toner T but also causes caking of residual toner T. When the toner cakes, it causes various problems, including toner scattering outside casing 61, damage to blade 65 and photoreceptor drum 60, and smudging of the image during the next image formation process.


A laminated film bag is made of laminated films each composed of an outermost layer formed of a polyester resin film, an innermost layer formed of a polyolefin resin film and an intermediate layer formed of an aluminum foil, the polyolefin resin film has formed thereon score lines having a depth of 1/20 to 2/3 of the thickness of the polyolefin resin film and an opening width of 0.5 to 7 mm, at intervals of 1 to 15 mm.

The present invention relates to a laminated film bag for packaging food, which is made of a laminated film, and in particular a laminated film bag which is suitable for use as a retort pouch food.
Several kinds of conventional bags have been proposed and used for packaging food. For example, several kinds of synthetic resin films have been used therefor. However, the use of only one kind of film for the bag encounters difficulty in providing sufficient effects in order to satisfy various demands for protecting food, such as prevention of oxygen permeation, prevention of moisture evaporation, prevention of permeation by aromatic components and the like. Accordingly, laminated films have been also used to overcome these difficulties.
In particular, the shock resistance strength and the ease of tearing or ease of unsealing raises problems for food packaging bags.
When a bag in which food is packaged is dropped or subjected to a shock, the bag may rupture. If its shock resistance strength is low, the handling thereof becomes very difficult during the physical distribution stage or the like. Further, if its ease of tearing is not good, the part of the bag which serves as the opening can hardly be torn or opened with ease.
The shock-resistance strength and the ease of tearing properties of a bag compete against each other, and are not compatible with each other.
Even if a bag is formed simply with the use of laminated films in which films each having a high ease of tearing, such as uniaxially oriented films or the like are laminated together, the unsealing of the bag is unsatisfactory, causing a high manufacturing cost. When the bag formed of two such laminated films is torn, a shift is encountered during tearing since the tear directions of the two laminated films forming the bag are not precisely coincident with each other in the vertical direction. That is, one of the laminated films is torn further downward so that a vertical shift occurs. The levels of the tear at the opening of the bag do not align with each other at the front and rear sides thereof, and accordingly, there is a high tendency for the contents thereof to spill therefrom.
If a shift in the tear occurs between the front and rear sides of the bag as mentioned above, the position of the downward tear provides an opening to the bag, and accordingly, the contents of the bag spill out, raising the risk of contamination.
In particular, in the case of the packaging of a retort pouch food, the food which is heated up to a high temperature would spill so as to create the disadvantage of a high risk of heat injury.
In a process in which a laminated film is scored by a knife or a slitter, the ease of unsealing can be attained by a some degree, but the shock resistance deteriorates greatly.


An improved silk textile is described which exhibits more desirable wet wrinkle-recovery and tear strength than untreated silk. The silk textile contains polycarboxylic acid cross-links which are relatively strong and resistant to hydrolysis.. A process for manufacturing an improved silk textile is presented which includes wetting an untreated silk textile with a specially formulated finishing agent. The finishing agent includes polycarboxylic acid, a catalyst, and a swelling agent. The wetted silk textile is dried and cured at an elevated temperature.

Crease resistant finishing is used to improve the elasticity of many textile fabrics. The finished fabric can have remarkably increased wrinkle resistance and dimension stability, and such wrinkle resistance can persist even after the fabric is machine washed and tumble dried many times.
Amino-formaldehyde (N-methanol) resins have been widely used in crease resistant finishes. Although amino-formaldehyde resins are quite effective in improving crease resistance, they release formaldehyde vapor during their manufacture, while they are in storage, and also when in use by consumers. Formaldehyde vapor irritates human eyes and skin, and is a known carcinogen.
Partly because of the serious health problems associated with formaldehyde, much research is currently directed to developing formaldehyde-free fabric finishes. Most of the research relates to cotton fabrics. The major non-formaldehyde finishes reported for cotton crease-resistant finishing are polycarboxylic acids, for example, citrus acid and butanetetracarboxylic acid (BTCA).
Polycarboxylic acids are said to esterify and cross-link with cellulose fibers of the cotton at elevated temperatures and in the presence of catalysts. Catalysts described for cross-linking cellulose fibers include basic salts selected from the alkali metal dihydrogen phosphates and alkali metal salts of phosphorous, hypo-phosphorous, and polyphosphoric acids. Polycarboxylic acid cross-linking is said to be applicable to fibrous cellulosic materials such as cotton, flute, jute, hemp, and also for regenerated wood celluloses, such as rayon.
BTCA, a polycarboxylic acid, is said to produce an improvement in the wrinkle recovery and water-washing durability of cotton fabrics. BTCA reportedly exhibits a very low volatility, releases no formaldehyde, and is odorless after cross-linking with the cotton fabric. Additionally, BTCA is reported to have low activity as a skin irritant and low oral and dermal toxicity in animal tests.
Fibers obtained from animals, such as silk, differ substantially from vegetable fibers, such as cotton and hemp. The animal fibers contain keratin and are chemically distinguishable from the cellulose fibers obtained from vegetables. A process for modifying keratinous material has been described which includes treating keratinous fibers with a mixture containing polythiols obtained from carboxylic acids, nitrogen-containing condensation products of epoxides, fatty amines, and dicarboxylic acids and, optionally, stabilizers against the harmful action of light. The process reportedly renders the keratinous material resistant to shrinkage and imparts desirable, durable press characteristics to the material.
A process for improving properties of silk, such as abrasion resistance and light resistance has been reported which involves a cross-linking treatment of silk fiber with epoxy compounds. In the process, the silk fibers are said to be treated with an aqueous solution containing a water-soluble epoxy compound in a catalyst which may be selected from alkali metal or alkali earth metal salts of dicarboxylic acids, tricarboxylic acids, and amino carboxylic acids. The process may include a heat-treating step at temperatures of 50.degree. to 110.degree. C.
Silk textiles are universally popular for use in clothing. They are comfortable to wear and provide an elegant appearance. However, silk textiles generally wrinkle and deform permanently if washed in water. For this reason, silk fabric is said to have a low wet elasticity. Although silk can be dry cleaned, dry cleaning is expensive and is relatively ineffective at removing certain types of stains, for example, perspiration stains.
Chemical finishes are available which improve some of the commercially important properties of silk. For example, glyoxal resin finishes with ethylene urea are reported to produce a silk textile having good crease-recovery, particularly when used with a metal-acid catalyst. Also, urethane resins with or without formaldehyde are said to be suitable for producing machine-washable silk. Generally, the resins are applied from an aqueous bath on a stenter, dried, and cured at about 150.degree. C.
It has been reported that epoxides, siloxanes, aminoplasts and glyoxal can be dispersed in a sodium-hydroxide solution and applied to silk textiles to increase the washability of the textiles. Similarly, others have reportedly applied hydroxymethylmethacrylamine to improve crease-resistance and dimensional stability. Others are said to employ a combination of glycerol and ammonium chloride to increase wrinkle recovery.
A process for preventing damage to fibers of natural protein-containing fiber materials has been reported which employs water soluble polyamides. Polyamides are said to be produced by reacting aliphatic polyamines with a polycarboxylic acid. The natural protein-containing fibers can be wool, silk, vegetable, or synthetic fiber materials. The process is said to preserve wet tear-resistance of fibers that are immersed in an aqueous acidic medium, such as a dye solution.
However, the wide appeal of silk textiles for use in clothing is based on several commercially important properties. Improving one or two of the properties, at the expense of others, does not fulfill a perceived need for silk textiles that are comfortable and elegant, as well as machine-washable. Among the properties which consumers have come to expect in silk, are ease in handling, dimensional stability under both wet and dry conditions, resistance to slipping, elasticity, soft flowing drape, freedom from water spots, resistance from ultraviolet light, and flame retardancy.
A need currently exists for a formaldehyde-free silk finishing process which can improve the crease-resistance of silk textiles without significantly decreasing the strength or the tear resistance of the textiles. A silk finishing process which provides both crease-resistance and durability is desired.

Process for increasing the crease resistance of silk textiles

The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois


An ECL driver, such as an ECL cut-off driver, is provided with settable output rise time and settable output fall time, in order to reduce noise at the output of the driver while limiting the delay resulting from such noise reduction. A method is also provided for so controlling an ECL driver. The driver includes a current switch and a current source. The current switch includes a NOR side including one or more transistors, and an OR side including one or more transistors. The input to the NOR side can be buffered with an input emitter follower, and the output from the current switch can be buffered with an output emitter follower. A capacitance is connected across the collector(s) and emitter(s) of the NOR side transistor(s) of the current switch, and a capacitance is connected at one electrode both to the collector(s) of the OR side transistor(s) and to the base(s) of the output emitter follower transistor(s). In one embodiment, the remaining side of the other capacitance is connected to ground and to the collector(s) of the output emitter follower transistor(s). In another embodiment, the other side of the other capacitance is connected to the collector(s) of the NOR side transistor(s). In still another embodiment, the other side of the other capacitance is connected to the emitter(s) of the OR side transistor(s), and to the current source.

ECL (emitter--coupled logic) drivers have been used as output buffers and drivers. Although such devices have served the purpose, they have not proven entirely satisfactory under all conditions of service because they produce short (on the order of 0.5 nanosecond) transition (rise and fall) times. Such short transition times, for example for a driver resident on a printed circuit board, can create reflections in the conductive line(s) leading from the output of such a driver. These lines can appear on printed circuit boards, backplanes, cabling, etc. Such reflections produce noise in those lines. Such reflections can occur anywhere on the conductive line(s) connected to the output of the driver. Such reflections can occur anywhere on such lines(s) from the output of the driver to the end(s) of the line(s). For example, a sufficiently fast transition time can cause a signal reflection at a downstream receiver, which reflection would be returned to the driver output, producing unwanted noise.
Present ECL technology provides output driver transition times (rise and fall times) in the sub-nanosecond range. In certain applications and designs, it is advantageous to purposely slow down these transition times in order to minimize noise.
One response to this problem has been to slow down the driver transition times in the manner shown in prior art FIG. 1. FIG. 1 shows an ECL cutoff driver 10 wherein the input signal IN to the driver is provided to the emitter follower 12 formed by transistor TI and resistor RI. Driver 10 further includes a current switch 14, current source 16 and output emitter follower (OEF) or output buffer 18. Current switch 14 includes a NOR switch or NOR side 20 and an OR switch or OR side 22. The transistors of current source 16 are biased up by reference voltage V.sub.ref 2 so that current source 16 serves as a constant current generator, so voltage V.sub.EE pulls constant current through either side 20 or 22 of current switch 14. Input signal IN and reference voltage V.sub.ref 1 determine which side 20 or 22 of current switch 14 is to be turned "on"; both sides of switch 14 are "on" only during transitions. Current switch 14 is provided with a load or "swing" resistor 24. Capacitor 26 is placed between the base and collector of OEF 18, and thus across current switch 14 load resistor 24. Capacitor 26 is placed across load resistor 24 to slow down the driver 10 transition times. This technique is operable, but has a disadvantage in that the resulting output rise time TR is approximately 1.5 times the resulting fall time TF, thus causing the propagation delay TD++ (propagation delay when driver 10 input and output are both going positive) to increase more than the increase in fall time, thus resulting in slower circuit performance. This substantial increase in TD++ when attempting to adjust the fall time TF of the driver is therefore undesirable.
ECL drivers can be categorized as cutoff drivers and non-cutoff ("normal") drivers. Operation of cutoff and non-cutoff drivers is distinguished by low-state output voltage level V.sub.OL and by operation of the OEF in the driver's low state. For a cutoff driver, V.sub.OL =V.sub.TT (terminating voltage) which can be accomplished by turning off (cutoff of) the OEF transistor(s). For a non-cutoff driver, V.sub.OL is higher, and the OEF is not cutoff. Cutoff drivers and non-cutoff drivers can have the same schematic diagrams or component interconnections, but have some different component and operating (voltage or current) values.
As shown in FIG. 1, a present method used to slow down the fall time of an ECL cutoff driver is to place a capacitor 26 across the swing or load resistor 24 in current switch 14. This then provides a time constant of R (resistance of load resistor 24) times C (capacitance of capacitor 26) which causes the base voltage of output emitter follower 18 to rise and fall exponentially. The effect of this at the emitter of OEF 18 is that the resulting rise time is approximately 1.5 times greater than the resulting fall time, causing the TD++ propagation delay to increase essentially the same amount as the increase in rise time. This disproportionate increase in rise time versus fall time results because during the rise time, the base of OEF 18 must rise to a voltage sufficient to turn the OEF on, and during rise time the rate of change of the base voltage, being exponential, has diminished. The opposite is true during the fall time; during the fall time, the emitter of OEF 18 responds during the greatest rate of change of the OEF base voltage. These transition times are illustrated in prior art FIG. 2.
In the device of FIG. 1, resistor 24 can for example be 290 ohms, resistor RE can for example be 97 ohms, resistor RI can for example be 13 K ohms, resistor RO can for example be 25 ohms, current source 16 can for example be configured to produce 4.5 milliamperes, capacitor 26 can for example be 6 picofarads, reference voltage V.sub.ref 1 can for example be -2.157 reference volts, voltage V.sub.ref 2 can for example be -3.879 volts, voltage V.sub.ee can for example be -5.2 volts, and load termination voltage or terminating voltage V.sub.TT can for example be -2.0 volts.
Results of a simulation of the driver of FIG. 1, using SPICE (Simulation Program with Integrated Circuit Emphasis) integrated circuit simulation software, is given in FIG. 2, and in Table 0 below. For that simulation, "swing" resistor 24 was set to 290 ohms, current source 16 produced a constant current of 4.5 milliamperes, driver output rise time TR and driver output fall time TF were measured from 20% to 80%, propagation delay TD++ (defined above) and propagation delay TD-- (propagation delay when driver 10 input and output are both going negative) were measured from 50% of the driver input to -1.3 V on the output, time is shown in the last four columns in nanoseconds, and the first column shows different values of capacitor 26. Voltages, RE, RI and RO were set as described in the preceding paragraph. A suitable pulse input, and a suitable simulated load at the output, were used for the simulation. SPICE is discussed in Antognetti, P. and Massobrio, G., eds. Semiconductor Device Modeling with SPICE (McGraw-Hill, New York, 1988).
TABLE 0 ______________________________________ C(pF) TR(ns) TF(ns) TD++(ns) TD--(ns) ______________________________________ 0 0.74 0.61 1.07 0.73 1.0 0.94 0.71 1.36 0.80 2.0 1.21 0.88 1.67 0.92 3.0 1.52 1.07 1.99 1.02 4.0 1.84 1.27 2.31 1.12 5.0 2.19 1.50 2.64 1.21 6.0 2.54 1.73 2.98 1.30 ______________________________________
The above data is for an ECL cutoff driver. For an ECL non-cutoff driver, resistor 24 could for example be 330 ohms, and current source 16 could for example be configured to produce 3.0 milliamperes.
Thus, a prior art approach to slowing down output rise time and output fall time for ECL drivers causes a disproportionately larger increase in output rise time compared with output fall time, so that any resulting noise reduction is obtained with an undesirable increase in delay. In this prior art approach, output rise time is slowed more than is output fall time. Thus, to sufficiently increase output fall time for effective noise reduction, an additional increase in output rise time is required, beyond what would be necessary for effective noise reduction for rising transitions. It is therefore also desirable to at least substantially independently control rise time and fall time, in order to reduce noise while limiting the delay resulting from that noise reduction.

ECL driver with adjustable rise and fall times, and method therefor


A windshield wiping arrangement with at least one wiper arm (11) is disclosed, which is operated by an electromotor (10) with reversible rotational direction. A time determination device (19) is provided, which determines the time (T.sub.n ; T.sub.n+1 ; T.sub.n+2 ; T.sub.n+3 ; T.sub.n+4) following the triggering of a wiping operation. Furthermore, a time presetting device (22) is provided, which presets a maximum allowable time (T.sub.max ; T.sub.max,n+1 ; T.sub.max,n+2 ; T.sub.max,n+3) for the duration of half of a wiping cycle. A comparator (21) detects a possibly existing time overrun and, with a time overrun signal (27), triggers a wiping operation in the opposite direction relative to the preceding wiping operation by reversing the electromotor (10). The windshield wiping arrangement according to the invention makes it possible to maintain a limited wiping operation when a blocking occurs (B1, B2, B3), as can be caused, for example, by a snow load on a windshield to be cleaned.

The invention is based on a windshield wiping arrangement, and more particularly to a windshield wiping arrangement that includes at least one wiper arm which is operated between stop positions by an electromotor with reversible rotational direction, having a time determination device which determines a time following the triggering of a wiping operation, a time presetting device for presetting a maximum allowable time, and a comparator which compares the maximum preset time with the determined time and which triggers a wiping operation in the opposite direction if a maximum allowable time is exceeded of the generic type. From DE-OS 40 32 922, an arrangement for wiping a windshield is known, for which the positions of the wiper arms in dependence on the predetermined desired positions are respectively controlled with a regulator. An overload or a blocking of a wiper arm is detected if a predetermined limit for a regulated condition is exceeded. Once an overload condition is detected, varied measures can be provided with the goal of maintaining a limited wiping operation. Such an overload condition can occur, for example, as a result of a snow load. The known device includes a position measuring device for each wiper arm. A limited wiping operation can be determined through wiping experiments, wherein the positions for the wiping limits are known from the position measuring devices.


An image processing device, method, computer readable storage medium, and image forming device that calculate spatial frequency of input image data and determine a frequency component in which a distribution amount of the spatial frequency maximizes, and perform an enhancement process by applying, to the input image data, an enhancement amount that varies according to the distribution amount of the spatial frequency, based on the determined frequency component.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing device, an image processing method, and an image forming apparatus including the image processing device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electrophotographic or inkjet image forming apparatuses are known in forms of copying machines, optical printers, optical plotters, facsimile machines, multifunction peripherals, and the like.
Such an image forming apparatus performs image formation based on input image data, which is data representing an image to be formed.
Examples of the input image data include scan data obtained by reading an original document with a scanner, data generated by a computer or the like, and data supplied via a communication line.
Other examples of the input image data include image data obtained by photographing using a digital camera or an image capturing apparatus of various types and image data generated by image editing software.
These image forming apparatuses generally apply "image processing of various types" to the input image data so that output image data for use in forming a desired image can be obtained.
The output image data may be output as an image formed onto a recording medium, such as recording paper, or displayed as an output image on a display device of various types.
There are known various image processing methods, some of which employ spatial frequency enhancement (as disclosed in, for instance, Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 2004-171231 and Japanese Patent No. 4821611).
A visible output image formed from output image data is generally a two-dimensional image. It is preferable that visually-perceived depth and material's texture intrinsic to a subject of the image are reproduced favorably.
A technique disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 2004-171231 relates to reproduction of an image of "a condition of crevices, dikes, and the like on a cut surface of rock or rock outcropping" and achieves favorable reproduction of depth perception in the image.
A technique disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 4821611 is directed at reproduction of an image that is a "visceral radiograph" and successfully achieves enhancement of a desired observational portion of the image.
However, the techniques disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 2004-171231 and Japanese Patent No. 4821611 are limited in "photograph subjects to be displayed as output images".
Possible subjects of input images have a wide range of variations. Image processing that increases reproducibility of perceived depth and material's texture in output images of subjects of a wide range of variations is not known yet.
There is a need for an image processing device capable of generating, from input image data of a subject of a wide variety of types, output image data that is increased in visually-perceived surface roughness and texture intrinsic to the subject.
There is a need for an image processing method that allows generating, from input image data which is image data of a subject of a wide range of types, output image data that is increased in visually-perceived surface roughness and texture intrinsic to the subject.
There is also a need for an image forming apparatus including the image processing device.
The present invention at least partially solves the problems in the conventional techniques.

Image processing device, image processing method, and image forming apparatus that perform an enhancement process to input image data


A respective weighting value is calculated for each texel in a texture map that is to be used to render a 3D computer model, the weighting value being calculated in dependence upon the red, green and blue values of the texel. Each weighting value is stored as an alpha value in the alpha channel for the corresponding texel in the texture map. During rendering, the texture map is rendered onto a polygon to generate R, G, B pixel values in the frame buffer together with a respective weighting value for each pixel comprising the weighting value calculated for the corresponding texel in the texture map, which is stored in the alpha channel for the pixel. A darkmap is rendered onto the polygon by subtracting from the pixel values in the frame buffer the darkmap values modulated by the frame buffer alpha values. The texel weighting values are calculated so that they have properties which result in a realistic image being generated.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of three-dimensional (3D) computer graphics, and in particular to the use of texture maps and lightmaps to render an image of a 3D computer model.
2. Related Background Art
The use of texture maps and lightmaps is widely known in the field of three-dimensional computer graphics.
In texture mapping, a two-dimensional (2D) image is mapped onto a surface primitive representing part of an object to generate visible surface pattern detail on the surface. The image to be mapped onto the surface is called a texture map, and its individual elements are called texels, each having a plurality of colour component values defining an image value. The use of texture mapping allows surface detail to be represented in high resolution without using a large number of polygons or other geometric primitives to model the detail.
A single texture map is often repeatedly mapped onto many surface primitives. For example, a texture map comprising an image of a brick may be repeatedly mapped onto different surface primitives representing one or more walls. However, the lighting may vary from wall to wall or over different parts of the same wall depending upon the positions of the light sources.
Lightmapping offers a solution to this problem. A lightmap is an image comprising a 2D array of "lumels", each comprising a plurality of colour component values defining an illumination value representing the intensity of the light at that location on a surface primitive, and the lightmap is applied to a surface primitive together with the texture map. Thus, each surface primitive is rendered with two textures—one representing the surface pattern and one representing the illumination, to give a realistic looking primitive in the image.
In order to generate a 3D computer model at acceptable real-time frame rates (that is 25 or 30 frames per second) using texture mapping and lightmapping, it is currently necessary to use hardware to accelerate the processing.
The hardware processing capabilities determine how a texture map and a lightmap are applied to a surface primitive.
More particularly, if the hardware supports vector-modulating multiplication to the frame buffer during rendering (such that R1, G1, B1 multiplied by R2, G2, B2 is R1×R2, G1×G2, B1×B2—where R, G and B represent red, green and blue values respectively for a pixel) then a first pass is performed to render the texture map onto the surface polygon in the frame buffer followed by a second pass in which the pixel values resulting from the first pass are modulated with the lightmap values in accordance with vector-modulating multiplication.
However, not all hardware platforms support vector-modulating multiplication to the frame buffer; some only support vector subtraction and scalar multiplication. In this case, the lightmap is inverted (to give what is known as a "darkmap") and the inverted lightmap (darkmap) is subtracted from the rendered texture map values in the frame buffer, for example as suggested in the article "Lightmapping" at http://www.delphi3d.net/articles/printarticle.php?article=lightmapping.htm.
One problem, however, with the subtraction of darkmaps from textured images is that the resulting images often have undesirable visual properties, a particular one being that they may appear very dark.

Use of sigma-weighted darkmaps for texture map processing