A light-emitting element that has an improved light-extraction efficiency and an improved color purity of an emitted light. A light-emitting element includes a reflective electrode, a transparent electrode, a light-emitting layer, a functional layer, and a color filter. An optical film thickness of the functional layer is from approximately 218 nm to approximately 238 nm for a light emitting element that emits a blue light. An optical film thickness of the functional layer is from approximately 384 nm to approximately 400 nm for a light emitting element that emits a red light.

In recent years, progress has been made in the research and development of organic electroluminescent elements, which are light-emitting elements that rely on the phenomenon of electroluminescence of organic material. In a structure proposed for a display device using these light-emitting elements, blue, green, and red light-emitting elements are arranged on a substrate.
It is important to improve light-extraction efficiency in the light-emitting elements, for example from the standpoint of reducing power consumption. Conventionally, technology has therefore been proposed to improve light-extraction efficiency by adopting a resonator (cavity) structure in the light-emitting element (see, for example, Patent Literature 1). Patent Literature 1 discloses light-emitting elements in which a lower electrode (mirror), transparent conductive layer, hole transport layer, light-emitting layer, electron transport layer, and upper electrode (half mirror) are laminated, and discloses adjusting optical distance between the mirror and the half mirror in order to maximize the blue, green, and red light-extraction efficiency (paragraph 0012).
Furthermore, in addition to improving light-extraction efficiency in the display device, it is also important to achieve excellent color reproducibility. In order to improve color reproducibility, it is necessary to improve the color purity of the light-emitting elements of each color. Technology has been proposed for improving such color purity of emitted light by providing a color filter above the light-emitting elements, thereby excluding unwanted wavelength components.

Light-emitting element and display device using same


System and method for simultaneous object detection and semantic segmentation. The system includes a computing device. The computing device has a processor and a non-volatile memory storing computer executable code. The computer executable code, when executed at the processor, is configured to: receive an image of a scene; process the image using a neural network backbone to obtain a feature map; process the feature map using an object detection module to obtain object detection result of the image; and process the feature map using a semantic segmentation module to obtain semantic segmentation result of the image. The object detection module and the semantic segmentation module are trained using a same loss function comprising an object detection component and a semantic segmentation component.

The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the invention. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present invention.
It is critical for autonomous driving cars to timely understand their surrounding environment, such as cars, pedestrians, traffic lights, traffic signs and free spaces. To achieve this goal, autonomous driving system typically needs to conduct multiple vision-based tasks, such as object detection, semantic segmentation, motion estimation, and 3D reconstruction. Among them, object detection and semantic segmentation are two of the most important tasks. However, it is quite computationally expensive to conduct each task given the limited computational power of the car.
Therefore, an unaddressed need exists in the art to address the aforementioned deficiencies and inadequacies.

System and method for real-time, simultaneous object detection and semantic segmentation

BEIJING JINGDONG SHANGKE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.

JD.COM AMERICAN TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION


A corrosion resistant aluminum article is described. It includes a main body portion formed of an aluminum alloy containing no more than 0.4% iron, no more than 0.15% silicon, from about 0.1% to about 0.6% copper and from about 0.7% to about 1.5% manganese. The corrosion resistance is provided by a silicon-rich band of dense precipitate formed in the alloy adjacent at least one face thereof. This band has a thickness of about 20-50 .mu.m and there is substantially less manganese in solid solution in the band than in the alloy outside the band. To form the band, a silicon-containing layer is applied to a surface of the alloy body to be protected and the composite thus formed is heat treated at a temperature of at least 550.degree. C.

This invention relates to aluminum products, and particularly to aluminum products having improved corrosion resistance, as well as a process for making such products.
Corrosion resistance is a concern common to many aluminum components used in a variety of applications. For example, road salt and moisture often cause perforation of automotive radiators.
It has been known for many years that corrosion problems in brazing can be alleviated to some extent by adding an interlayer between the structural member portion or core and the brazing layer. Such an interlayer is described, for instance, in Miller U.S. Pat. No. 2,821,014. The problem of corrosion in vacuum brazing is particularly considered in Singleton et al U.S. Pat. No. 3,788,824, where iron is added to either the core alloy or the cladding alloy to provide corrosion resistance and sag resistance. Various other patents such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,039,298, 4,093,782, 3,994,695, 4,339,510 and 4,649,087 describe various combinations of alloying components particularly for the core alloy which are claimed to provide benefit in intergranular corrosion resistance.
In Nakamura, U.S. Pat. No. 4,172,548, a procedure is described for controlling corrosion following vacuum brazing by controlling the grain size of the brazing sheet to at least 60 microns in diameter, this being achieved by a controlled cold work followed by a full anneal.
Finnegan et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,586,964 also considers the problem of corrosion in a vacuum brazed product and suggests a technique in which an interanneal is provided before a controlled cold work. This controlled cold work is maintained within a certain range of reduction.

Aluminum products having improved corrosion resistance


A process for preparation of ceftiofur of formula (I)

Ceftiofur is a broad-spectrum third generation antibiotic, which is primarily used for veterinary use. It is known chemically as (6R, 7R)-7-[[(2Z)-(2-amino-4-thiazolyl) (methoxyimino)acetyl]amino]-3-[[(2-furanylcarbonyl)thio]methyl]-8-oxo-5-thia-1-azabicyclo[4.2.0]oct-2-ene-2-carboxylic acid and is represented by the formula (I).

Ceftiofur is commercially sold as the sodium salt and is marketed under the brand names Naxcel® and Excenel® for parenteral administration, in bovine animals.
Ceftiofur has been synthesized by any of the following three methods, viz,
I. Ceftiofur and its salts thereof, especially the sodium salt is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,464,367 (Labeeuw et. al). The patent describes two methods for preparation of Ceftiofur (I) comprising,
    i) amidification at the 7-position of 7-amino-3-thiomethyl furoyl-3-cephem-4-carboxylic acid with a suitably activated [(2Z)-(2-tritylamino-4-thiazolyl) methoxyimino] acetic acid derivative such as mixed anhydride or an activated ester to give ceftiofur (I) after necessary deprotection.    ii) functionalisation at the 3-position of a 7-[2-(2-aminothiazol-4-yl)-2-syn-methoxyimino] acetamido cephalosporanic acid i.e. cefotaxime acid, with thiofuroic acid to give Ceftiofur (I).
U.S. Pat. No. 4,464,367 contains enabling disclosure for preparation of ceftiofur as per method (I) comprising reaction of 7-amino-3-thiomethyl furoyl-3-cephem-4-carboxylic acid with the syn isomer of (2-tritylaminothiazol-4-yl)-2-methoxyimino acetic acid activated with 1-hydroxy benzotriazole, followed by removal of the trityl protecting group to give ceftiofur (I).
However, for method (II), apart from the reaction sequence given in column 3, lines 25-35 depicting conversion of cefotaxime to ceftiofur (I), there is no enabling disclosure whatsoever about how the conversion could be carried out.
The two methods for preparation of ceftiofur of formula (I) are summarized in scheme (I).

Further, synthesis of ceftiofur as per method-I involves additional steps of protection of the amino group of [2-(2-aminothiazol-4-yl)]-2-syn methoxyimino acetic acid with trityl chloride followed by deprotection in presence of formic acid to give ceftiofur of formula (I). The amidification method utilises toxic, expensive dicyclohexyl carbodiimide for preparing the activated ester of [2-(2-aminothiazol-4-yl)]-2-syn methoxyimino acetic acid with 1-hydroxy benzotriazole, resulting in the formation of dicyclohexyl urea, which is difficult to remove.
II. Although, the claims of U.S. Pat. No. 6,458,949 B1 (Handa, et al) appear to be obvious, over prior art described in EP Patent No. 0,302,94, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,109,135, and 5,109,131 the said patent however discloses another method for the preparation of Ceftiofur (I), which is summarized in scheme-II.
The method comprises, reaction of 4-halo-3-oxo-2-methoxyimino butyric acid, activated as the acid halide, with silylated 7-amino-3-thiomethyl furoyl-3-cephem-4-carboxylic acid to give the corresponding 7-carboxamido derivative which on subsequent treatment with thiourea gives ceftiofur of formula (I). Herein, the thiazole ring is formed after the amidification step with thiourea.

The method described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,458,949 B1 is complicated and tedious, as it involves initial preparation of 4-halo-3-oxo-2-methoxyimino butyric acid requiring four steps followed by subsequent amidification reaction with 7-amino-3-thiofuroylmethyl-3-cephalosporanic acid and cyclisation with thiourea. The overall yield of (I) is therefore low, rendering the method commercially not very attractive.
III. U.S. Pat. No. 6,388,070 (Deshpande, et. al) teaches a method for synthesis of ceftiofur (I), and other cephalosporin compounds like ceftriaxone and ceftazidime, cefixime, cefpodoxime acid, cefetamet and cefotaxime acid.
Herein, [2-(2-aminothiazol-4-yl)]-2-syn methoxyimino acetic-acid is activated as the thioester by reaction with 2-mercapto-5-phenyl-1,3,4-oxadiazole in the presence of bis-(2-oxo-oxazidinyl)phosphinic chloride. The thioester on reaction with silylated 7-amino-3-substituted-3-cephem compounds in the presence of a base at low temperatures gives the corresponding 7-acylamido-3-substituted-3-cephem cephalosporin, depicted in scheme-III, herein below:

The activation of [2-(2-aminothiazol-4-yl)]-2-syn methoxyimino acetic acid with 2-mercapto-5-phenyl-1,3,4-oxadiazole is quite slow and it requires a time upto 34 hours. Moreover, the method utilizes a reagent like bis-(2-oxo-oxazidinyl)phosphinic chloride which is expensive.
Apart from the above methods, which utilize activation of the carboxylic acid moiety of either the [2-(2-aminothiazol-4-yl)]-2-syn methoxyimino acetic acid or 4-halo-3-oxo-2-methoxyimino butyric acid through the formation of a mixed anhydride or activated ester with 1-hydroxy benzotriazole or 2-mercapto-5-phenyl-1,3,4-oxadiazole or an acid chloride, there are no reports of synthesis of ceftiofur (I) by other methods, specially through utilization of other reactive derivatives of the said carboxylic compounds.
Various reactive derivatives of [2-(2-aminothiazol-4-yl)]-2-oxyimino acetic acid compounds have been utilized for synthesis of several 3-substituted cephalosporin antibiotics carrying a [2-(2-aminothiazol-4-yl)]-2-oxyimino acetamido addendum in the 7-position. These include, to a name a few    a) an acyloxypliosphonium halide derivative as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,317,099 (Lee et. al) for synthesis of cefotaxime and ceftriaxone;    b) an acetyl sulfite dialkyl formiminium halide hydrohalide derivative as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,037,988 (Meseguer et. al) for synthesis of cefotaxime, ceftriaxone, cefmenoxime, ceftizoxime, and ceftazidime;    c) a dialkyl chloro thiophosphate ester as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,567,813 (Sung et. al) for synthesis of cefotaxime, ceftriaxone, cefemenoxime, ceftizoxime, cefpirome sulfate and cefepime;    d) a dimethyl forminium chloride chlorosulphate derivative as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,739,346 (Datta et. al) for synthesis of cefotaxime, ceftriaxone, ceftazidime, cefazolin etc.
A reactive derivative of [(2)-(2-aminothiazol-4-yl)]-2-syn-oxyimino acetic acid compounds widely utilized in cephalosporin chemistry for effecting amidification at 7-position is the 2-benzothiazolyl thioester, first disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,767,852 (Ascher et. al), the chemistry of which is shown hereinbelow.
wherein the groups R1 to R3 are as defined therein and the group R4 is an acetoxy, carbamoyloxy, or is a group of formula S—Y, wherein Y is a heterocyclic ring.
The cephalosporin compounds that fall under the definition of the group R4 of this patent include the commercially and therapeutically valuable cephalosporin antibiotics like cefotaxime, ceftriaxone and cefuzonam.
The group R4 of U.S. Pat. No. 4,767,852 does not encompass ceftiofur as it covers only those 3-thiomethyl compounds in which the sulphur atom is directly attached to a heterocyclic ring, and not those compounds in which a carbonyl group is interposed between S and Y, where Y is a heterocyclic ring Ceftiofur (I) has a carbonyl group interposed between S and Y i.e. between the 3-thiomethyl group and the furan ring.
The method disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,767,852, as is evident from description given in the examples of the said patent, essentially consists reaction of a protected 7-amino-3-substituted cephalosporanic acid derivative, in particular a (N,O)-bis silylated 7-amino-3-substituted cephalosporanic acid derivative with the [2-(2-aminothiazol-4-yl)]-2-syn-oxyimino acetic acid-2-benzothiazolyl thioester in an inert organic solvent at ambient temperature for a time ranging between 0.5 to 48.0 hours to give the object [2-(2-aminothiazol-4-yl)]-2-syn-oxyimino acetamido-3-substituted-3-cephem-4-carboxylic acid compounds such as cefotaxime, ceftriaxone and cefuzonam, which it should be noted carries "a residue of a nucleophile at the 3α-position".
From the abovementioned methods it is apparent that the preparation of the [2-(2-aminothiazol-4-yl)]-2-oxyimino acetamido-3-substituted-3-cephem4-carboxylic acid compounds is effected essentially in an inert organic solvent, thereby implying a reaction medium free of water and through utilization of a protected 7-amino-3-substituted cephalosporanic acid derivative as the starting material.
In addition, the [2-(2-aminothiazol-4-yl)]-2-oxyimino acetic acid-2-benzothiazolyl thioester has also been utilized for synthesis of other [2-(2-aminothiazol-4-yl)]-2-oxyimino acetamido-3-substituted-3-cephem-4-carboxylic acid compounds such as cefixime as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,313,289. Here again, the method comprises reacting a protected 7-amino-3-substituted cephalosporanic acid derivative, particularly a protected 7-amino-3-vinyl-3-cephem-4-carboxylic acid, wherein the amino group and the carboxylic group are protected as trialkylsilyl group with a [2-(2-aminothiazol-4-yl)]-2-methoxyimino acetic acid-2-benzothiazolyl thioester in the form of a aqueous solution of a crystalline solvate with dimethyl acetamide and an inert organic solvent medium at room temperature in the presence of a base to give cefixime after removal of the said protective groups.
Cefixime is isolated as the salt of an organic base or as an acid addition salt with sulphuric acid.
In their attempt to extend the method described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,767,852 and 6,313,289, for synthesis of ceftiofur the present inventors found to their surprise that when (N,O)-bis silyl-7-amino-3-thiofuroylmethyl-3-cephalosporanic acid of formula (III1),
is reacted with [2-(2-aminothiazol-4-yl)]-2-methoxyimino acetic acid-2-benzothiazolyl thioester (MAEM) of formula (II),
in an inert organic solvent (dichloromethane) in the presence of an organic base (triethyl amine) at ambient temperature (15-30° C.), the methods had the following disadvantages, which are undesirable for any commercial process. These are,    i) the reaction required a period of more than 20-24 hours to proceed to completion,    ii) the conversion to ceftiofur as indicated by monitoring of the reaction by HPLC was only about 88-90%,    iii) about 9-10% of impurities were formed in the reaction,    iv) the product i.e. ceftiofur was isolated as a gummy material, and    v) the isolated product i.e. ceftiofur had a purity of only about 88% containing about 10-12% of impurites. Purification of the material thus obtained resulted in considerable loss thus giving ceftiofur (I) in low yield.
An improved method for synthesis of ceftriaxone comprising reaction of [2-(2-aminothiazol-4-yl)]-2-syn-methoxyimino acetic acid-2-benzothiazolyl thioester of formula (III) with a unprotected 7-amino-3-substituted cephalosporanic acid derivative i.e. 7-amino-3-(2,5-dihydro-6-hydroxy-2-methyl-5-oxo-1,2,4-triazin-3-yl)thiomethyl-3-cephem-4-carboxylic acid has been disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,026,843 (Riccardo et. al.). The improvement comprises carrying out the said amidification reaction in a monophasic system comprising a mixture of a water-miscible organic solvent and water and in the presence of an organic base. The ceftriaxone thus obtained without isolation is converted into its sodium salt, which is isolated from the reaction mixture. The chemistry is summarized hereinbelow:

The water-miscible organic solvents listed in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,026,843 as useful for carrying out the abovementioned synthesis include tetrahydrofuran, dimethyl acetamide, dimethyl formamide, dioxane, dimethoxyethane. When these solvents are mixed with water, a homogeneous single phase would result. This helps in keeping the ceftiaxone thus produced in solution throughout the reaction and thereby, enabling a one-pot reaction for preparation of ceftriaxone sodium.
An attempt by the present inventors to extend the method described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,026,843 for synthesis of ceftiofur or ceftiofur sodium comprising reaction of [2-(2-aminothiazol-4-yl)]-2-methoxyimino acetic acid-2-benzothiazolyl thioester (MAEM) of formula (II) with 7-amino-3-thiofuroylmethyl-3-cephalosporanic acid of formula (III),
in a medium consisting of water and a water-miscible organic solvent disclosed in the said patent like tetrahydrofuran and N,N-dimethylacetamide, was however, not satisfactory and was found to give the product i.e. ceftiofur (I) associated with impurities in the level of 5-10% depending on the water-miscible organic solvent used. The product obtained was a sticky solid adhering to the sides of the reaction vessel, rendering its isolation as a solid very difficult.
In addition, replication of the methods exactly as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,464,367 and 6,458,949 B1, referred herein earlier were also found to be associated with formation of higher level of impurities, which are to the tune of about 25-28% and 5-10% respectively.
The level of impurites formed in the-synthesis of ceftiofur by the four methods discussed herein before are summarized in Table-I.
TABLE IThe level of impurities formed in the synthesis of ceftiofur (I) by various methodsTotal%ImpuritiesNo.MethodConversion(%)% YieldPurity %1As per that described in7525-28Gummy material—U.S. Pat. No. 4,464,367(not isolated)2As per that described in91.28.869.692.78U.S. Pat. No. 6,458,949 B13Extrapolation of the method8911Sticky solid—described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,767,852*(not isolated)4Extrapolation of the method93 5-10Sticky solid—described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,026,843**(not isolated)*reaction of (N,O)-bis silyl-7-amino-3-thiofuroylmethyl-3-cephalosporanic acid of formula (III1) with [2-(2-aminothiazol-4-yl)]-2-methoxyimino acetic acid-2-benzothiazolyl thioester of formula (II) in dichloromethane at ambient temperature**reaction of 7-amino-3-thiofuroylmethyl-3-cephalosporanic acid of formula (II) with [2-(2-aminothiazol-4-yl)]-2-methoxyimino acetic acid-2-benzothiazolyl thioester of formula (III) in a medium containing water and a water-miscible organic solvent in presence of a base
It might be mentioned herein that the 3-thiofuroylmethyl substituent in ceftiofur, by virtue of it containing a carbonyl group interposed between a sulfur atom and a furan ring system is very labile in nature and is highly susceptible to fission of the sulfur-carbonyl bond as well as highly prone to undergo dimerisation, leading to formation of a dimeric compound in solution. This sets apart ceftiofur (I) from other 3-heterocyclic thiomethyl cephalosporin derivatives as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,767,852 wherein the abovementioned lability is less pronounced or negligent and thereby ensuring their synthesis through any known methods.
The structure of the impurities arising out of fission of the sulfur-carbonyl bond and dimerization are given herein below as compounds (IV) and (V) respectively.

Thus, to summarize,    i) Synthesis of ceftiofur (I) had been achieved in prior art either through amidification at the 7-amino position of (a suitably protected) 7-amino-3-thiofuroylmethyl-3-cephalosporanic acid with [2-(2-aminothiazol-4-yl)]-2-methoxyimino acetic acid activated through formation of a mixed anhydride or through formation of an activated ester with 1-hydroxybenzotriazole, or 2-mercapto-5-phenyl-1,3,4-oxadiazole and described respectively in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,464,367 and 6,388,070 B1, summarized in Scheme-I and Scheme-III, or through amidification at the 7-amino position of (a suitably protected) 4-halo-2-methoxyimino-3-oxo butyric acid activated as the acid halide, followed by cyclization of the intermediate compound thus formed with thiourea, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,458,949 B1 and summarized in Scheme-II;    ii) Functionalization at 3-position of cefotaxime by reaction with thiofuroic acid, as summarized in Scheme-I, for the conversion of which, however, there is no enabling disclosure whatsoever in U.S. Pat. No. 4,464,367;    iii) Replication of both the abovementioned methods was found to give ceftiofur associated with impurities in the range of 5-28%;    iv) Extension of the methods described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,767,852 and 5,026,843 for synthesis of ceftiofur (I) was not only lengthy requiring about 18-24 hours but also lead to higher levels of impurity, resulting in a gummy material.    v) The abovementioned methods involve protection and deprotection of reactive functional groups, increasing the cost and time of manufacture;    vi) The product i.e. ceftiofur obtained by the abovementioned methods, because of the higher level of impurities is therefore not suitable for formulation into a suitable dosage form; and    vii) Removal of the impurities by purification leads to considerable loss of the product, increasing the cost of manufacture and rendering such methods commercially not attractive.
Further, since regulatory authorities all over the world are highly concerned about the level of impurities in a drug substance/drug product and are becoming increasingly stringent in approving products containing levels of impurities above the prescribed limits for human or animal consumption, it is imperative that any method of manufacture of a drug substance/drug product, apart from being commercially viable should provide the product conforming to pharmacopoeial specifications, containing amount of impurities within the prescribed limits or subatantially free of such impurities.
In view of the foregoing reasons, there exists a need for a vastly improved method for manufacture of ceftiofur (I), which not only satisfies the techno-commercial aspects i.e. cost-effectiveness, ease of operations, etc, but also provides a product of high purity, free of impurities and possess properties, which are amenable for formulation into a suitable dosage form.
The present inventors have found to their surprise that the existing need for an improved method for manufacture of ceftiofur in high yield and high purity could be achieved through:    i) carrying out amidifaction at 7-amino position of 7-amino-3-thiofuroylmethyl-3-cephalosporanic acid of formula (III) with [2-(2-aminothiazol-4-yl)]-2-methoxyimino acetic acid activated as its -2-benzothiazolyl ester of formula (II), obviating the need for protection and deprotection of reactive functional groups,    ii) the said amidification reaction is carried out in a system comprising mixture of a water-immiscible inert organic solvent and water i.e. a biphasic system and in the presence of a base, in a remarkably shorter time (1.5 to 3.0 hours) resulting in a product with substantially lower level of impurities,    iii) removal of most of the impurities formed during the above reaction in (ii) above, through a selective extraction method to provide ceftiofur (I) of high purity and substantially free of impurities by extraction of the aqueous mixture of the alkyl ammonium salt of ceftiofur (I) with a inert organic solvent.    iv) further removal of impurities formed during acidification of the alkyl ammonium salt of ceftiofur (I) with a mineral acid, in the presence of a mixture of water-miscible and water-immiscible solvent and in the presence of a saturated aqueous solution of an alkali or alkaline earth containing salt, by selectively partitioning ceftiofur (I) in the organic phase substantially free from impurities with the associated impurities getting extracted in the aqueous phase.

Abstract: having purity greater than 97% is disclosed. The process comprises reacting [2-(2-aminothiazol-4-yl)]-2-syn-methoxyimino acetic acid-2-benzothiazolyl thioester of formula (II),

Abstract: with 7-amino-3-(2-furanylcarbonylthiomethyl)-3-cephem-4-carboxylic acid of formula (III)

Abstract: in the presence of a mixture of an water-immiscible inert organic solvent and water and in the presence of a organic base and isolating ceftiofur of formula (I) substantially free of impurities by,                a) adding water to the reaction mixture and selectively partitioning the impurities in the organic phase and ceftiofur (I) in the form of a salt with the base in the aqueous phase,        b) acidifying the aqueous phase containing ceftiofur (I) in the form of a salt with the base in the presence of a mixture containing a water-miscible and a water-immiscible organic solvent and in the presence of a saturated aqueous solution of an alkali or alkaline earth containing salt, to partition ceftiofur (I) in the organic phase, and        c) isolating ceftiofur (I) of high purity and substantially free of impurities by evaporation of the organic solvent or precipitation by addition of a anti-solvent.


A folding type of envelope-addressing guide is provided with a base plate 2 having a location ruler 4 at a bottom edge and a hinged cover plate 1 with address-positioning edges 12 and 21 that overlay the base plate 2 that is equal to maximum thickness of letters 9 that can be machine sorted. Line guides and instructions 22 are provided to facilitate machine-sortable addressing and effective handling of personal letters and occasional business letters the same as for mass-mailing business letters according to applicable mailing rules and regulations.

This invention relates to guide mechanisms for positioning addresses on letters for machine sorting by postal services. In particular, it is a folder type of guide into which a postal envelope is placed for marking indicia to position a printed destination address for machine sorting of personal as well as business letters.
There are a wide variety of templates and guides for lettering. But none are known for positioning addresses on envelopes in a manner that is convenient for personal as well as for occasional or low-use-rate addressing of business letters as provided by this invention.
Examples of related but different prior art include the following U.S. patent documents:
______________________________________ 4,854,048 8/1989 Goulet 4,640,018 2/1987 Gigliotti 4,586,906 5/1986 Buccieri, Jr. 3,227,472 1/1966 Swift 1,827,375 10/1931 Schneider 1,441,440 1/1923 Mackness 684,142 10/1901 Ward 274,031 3/1883 Requa ______________________________________
The oldest prior art found, Requa, was a folder type of guide, but it was constructed specifically for aid in forming letters with handwriting. Like most of the prior art, it was a template for specific formation of lines related to alphabetical letters and numbers. By contrast, this invention is a guide for positioning of addresses on envelopes for machine sorting.
The remaining patents show various guide devises. For instance, Ward taught a hinged means for holding a soft-metal cutting bed in relation to a manual cutting tool. Schneider taught a template guide for folding letters to be inserted into window envelopes. Macknesss taught a template for measuring material. Swift taught a container for meter-reading cards. Buccieri, Jr. taught a lottery-marking guide with a folder having an opaque or transparent plastic template heat sealed along one edge. Gigliotti taught a folder-type checkbook recording device with templates. Goulet taught a template for assistance to truck drivers in entering daily information while in the cab of a truck.
Both business and personal mail which is addressed according to applicable rules and regulations can be sorted and handled much faster with sorting machines than mail that is improperly addressed and therefore must be sorted by hand. Consequently, such properly-addressed mail takes less time in reaching its destination addresses. There is, therefore, a need for a guide and methods for its use in addressing personal mail and occasional business mail in a manner that it will be sorted by automatic sorting machines to facilitate its handling and decrease its delivery time.


Integrated semiconductor-on-insulator (SOI) sensors and circuits which are electrostatically bonded to a support substrate, such as glass or an oxidized silicon wafer, are disclosed. The SOI sensors and SOI circuits are both formed using a novel fabrication process which allows multiple preformed and pretested integrated circuits on a silicon wafer to be electrostatically bonded to the support substrate without exposing the sensitive active regions of the electronic devices therein to a damaging electric field. The process includes forming a composite bonding structure on top of the integrated circuits prior to the bonding step. This composite structure includes a conductive layer dielectrically isolated from the circuit devices and electrically connected to the silicon wafer, which is spaced form but laterally overlaps at least the active semiconductive regions of the circuit devices. The SOI sensors each include a transducer and at least one active electronic device, which are both made at least in part from a common layer of lightly-doped single-crystal semiconductor material grown on the silicon wafer. After the bonding step, the bulk of the single-crystal wafer is removed, leaving the epitaxial layer containing the circuits and transducers. The epitaxial layer is then patterned into isolated mesas to dielectrically isolate the electronic devices. This patterning step also exposes bond pads, allowing external connections to be readily made to the sensors and circuits. Exemplary solid-state sensors disclosed herein include a capacitive accelerometer and pressure sensor.

Silicon-On-Insulator (SOI) technologies have advanced dramatically in recent years towards the goal of producing thin single-crystal silicon films on insulating substrates. See, for example, G. Possin et al., "MOSFET's Fabricated in Laser-Recrystallized Silicon on Quartz Using Selectively Absorbing Dielectric Layers," IEEE Trans. Electron Devices, Vol. ED-31, pp. 68-74 (1984); S. Malhi et al., "Characteristics of MOSFETs Fabricated in SPE Grown Polysilicon," 1985 Sympos. on VLSI Technol., Digest of Tech. Papers, ; pp. 36-37 (Tokyo, 1985); Y. Kobayashi et al., "MOSFET Characteristics of Connected Silicon Islands on Fused Silica," Extended Abs. 16th Conference on Solid-State Devices and Materials, pp. 623-626 (Kobe, Japan, 1984). As suggested by the foregoing articles, the term "SOI" has been most commonly used in connection with metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs). As is discussed further below, existing SOI technologies suffer from material limitations in the quality of the crystalline material produced, such as grain boundaries, crystal defects, and doping constraints. Accordingly, transistors and other devices fabricated therefrom are inferior in many areas of performance to devices made using a conventional bulk silicon wafer process. Also, existing SOI technologies do not permit practical BJTs to be fabricated on glass, for reasons further discussed below.
Transistors fabricated in SOI films appear very attractive for a number of applications. The important feature in the SOI structure is the insulating substrate that reduces or eliminates certain parasitic device elements that are present in bulk silicon devices. These parasitic device elements include collector substrate capacitance and collector-substrate leakage current, which can both decrease circuit speed in bipolar devices. Parasitic device elements in CMOS monolithic silicon integrated circuits can also cause undesirable field conduction and a very undesirable phenomenon known as latch-up. In addition, there are many other parasitic capacitances and conductances in conventional monolithic silicon MOS circuits that decrease circuit speed. SOI transistors eliminate or reduce many of these parasitic device elements, allowing potentially faster integrated circuits to be fabricated in a smaller area.
SOI devices are also attractive as candidates for high voltage applications. In the design of these devices, the parasitic electrical elements and substrate connections in a bulk silicon integrated circuit become a limiting factor. The SOI device has no such parasitic elements because the substrate is an insulator. Thus, SOI technology will allow the fabrication of high voltage devices in a much smaller area, due to the reduced isolation area necessary, and they should be able to operate at higher voltages than devices made with bulk silicon technology.
In addition to the potential for reduced parasitic capacitance and leakage current, SOI devices have improved radiation hardness due to reduced junction area. SOI transistors on glass substrates are particularly attractive for sensors and displays, where high thermal, electrical, and physical isolation, an optically-transparent substrate, and compatibility with large areas are frequently important. For example, a high-performance transistor process for an active-matrix liquid-crystal display would allow the integration of the active pixel matrix with peripheral circuits on the same substrate, reducing electrical connections significantly, as discussed in A. Lakatos, "Promise and Challenge of Thin-film Silicon Approaches to Active Matrices," 1982 International IEEE Display Res. Conference, pp. 146-151 (New York, 1982).
A wide variety of techniques have been proposed for realizing thin silicon films compatible with high-performance devices on an insulating substrate such as glass or oxidized silicon wafers. Crystallization of deposited polysilicon films using thermal energy derived from incident beams has met with some success. See, for example, R. Lemons et al., "Laser Crystallization of Si Films on Glass," , Appl. Phys. Letters, Vol. 40, pp. 469-471 (1982). However, performance of such devices employing recrystallized silicon is still limited by problems associated with silicon crystal quality. Moreover, these technologies are often limited in that the thickness of the SOI semiconductor layer which can be deposited on glass is on the order of one micron or less. Thus, those conventional bulk silicon devices requiring single-crystal layers thicker than about one micron often cannot be fabricated in SOI form. Device properties in polysilicon or in amorphous silicon films are generally still less favorable. Field-effect mobilities in unrecrystallized polysilicon transistors are limited to less than 50 cm.sup.2 /V-sec, while amorphous material usually produces channel mobilities on the order of 1 cm.sup.2 /V-sec. An interesting process for producing single-crystal silicon films on silicon dioxide on silicon has been presented recently in J. Lasky et al., "Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) by Bonding and Etch-Back," Digest 1985 IEEE Int. Electron Devices Mtg.; pp. 684-687 (Dec. 1985). The reported process involves bonding two oxidized wafers together at high temperature and then thinning one wafer to produce a silicon-on-oxide film. However, this process does not yield the desirable properties of a glass substrate for sensor/display applications, and rather large voids during the bonding process are a concern. Work of a similar nature using electrostatically-produced bonds is reported in B. Anthony, "Dielectric Isolation of Silicon by Anodic Bonding," Journal Of Applied Physics (USA), Vol 58, No. 3, pp. 1240-1247 (Aug. 1985); R. Frye et al., "A Field-Assisted Bonding Process for Silicon Dielectric Isolation," Journal of Electrochemical Society (USA), Vol. 133, No. 8, pp. 1673-1677 (Aug. 1986).
Sensors have used glass substrates for many applications ranging from pressure transducers and micromachined chromatographs, where enclosed volumes are desired, to infrared imagers where thermal and/or electrical isolation of devices is required. Often these "glass substrate" sensors and utilize on-chip circuitry for signal processing, multiplexing and interfacing with other electronic circuits. With presently available technology, the circuits would have to be built into the silicon or attached to the glass substrate in a beam-lead, hybrid or flip chip technique. Such methods of interconnection generally require more area than if the circuit could be formed directly on the glass substrate, a goal which is highly desirable since it should reduce device size, increase the number of devices which could be processed at one time in a batch run, and increase reliability due to the need to make fewer "off-chip" interconnections. Improved performance and/or precision could also result.
Finally, current SOI techniques do not offer very good film uniformity or crystallinity over the area of an entire chip, let alone over an entire wafer. This greatly reduces yield and makes commercialization of SOI technologies economically impractical for all but the most exotic applications where normal cost considerations do not apply.
In an effort to overcome the foregoing problems, we have worked on new techniques for producing single-crystal thin semiconductor films on an insulating substrate, especially glass, which has electronic properties very similar to that bulk crystalline semiconductor films made of the same materials. In particular, we produced semiconductor-on-insulator structures suitable for subsequent fabrication of high-quality electronic devices thereon such as field effect transistors and bipolar junction transistors. Our earlier work involves electrostatic bonding of a silicon wafer, upon which is epitaxially grown a single-crystal film of any thickness, to an insulating substrate, such as glass, and the subsequent thinning of the bonded wafer to retain only the single-crystal film. An etch stop layer buried under the single-crystal film and doping-sensitive etchants are preferably used to accomplish the thinning of the wafer. A composite mobile ion barrier film, which includes a layer of silicon nitride and is bonded between the epitaxial layer and the glass, is used to prevent tramp alkali from the glass substrate from contaminating the silicon epitaxial layer. The resulting single-crystal SOI structure has been used to fabricate prototype NMOS transistors shown to have channel mobilities of 640 cm.sup.2 /V-sec, with leakage currents less than 10.sup.-14 amps/micron for w/l dimensions of 25 microns by 25 microns. We have also worked with bipolar junction transistors made from the aforementioned single-crystal SOI structure. The details of our earlier work is set forth in two commonly assigned, copending U.S. patent applications, the first of which is Ser. No. 027,717, ; filed Mar. 19, 1987, in the name of L. J. Spangler, and Ser. No. 156,854 filed Feb. 17, 1988, in the name of L. J. Spangler and K. D. Wise, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
In the course of our work disclosed in the aforementioned co-pending U.S. patent applications, we also wondered whether others had tried to bond fully-formed integrated circuits and solid-state devices to an insulating substrate using electrostatic bonding. Our searches revealed the following. U.S. Pat. No. 3,397,278 granted in 1968 to D. I. Pomerantz disclosed the electrostatic bonding of a semiconductor device or monolithic circuit to an insulator plate, such as quartz glass, borosilicate glass, or alumina. This patent also suggested bonding several silicon semiconductor devices to an insulating substrate such as glass while the devices still constitute a part of a single integral slice or wafer. U.S. Pat. No. 3,595,717 issued in 1971 to D. I. Pomerantz teaches the anodic bonding of an insulator member to an etched passivating layer covering a surface of a silicon semiconductor device containing p-n junctions. U.S. Pat. No. 4,121,334 to Wallis teaches the electrostatic bonding of a silicon wafer containing etched cavities and diffused integrated circuits thereon to a glass plate, such as Corning 7740 or 7070 glass, having a coefficient of thermal expansion comparable to that of monocrystalline silicon. However, the silicon wafer is not thinned, and the integrated circuits are diffused on a side of the wafer opposite from the side bonded to the glass substrate.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,426,768 to J. Black et al. teaches the fabrication of a plurality of ultra-thin microminiature pressure sensors by joining two silicon wafers by electrostatic bonding. Prior to bonding, the first wafer is processed to form a plurality of resistor arrays coated with a layer of phosphosilicate glass to protect p-n junctions therebelow from contamination by mobile sodium ions in or on the borosilicate glass that is deposited subsequently in later processing steps. A first layer of aluminum is then deposited between these two glass layers, and appears everywhere in the first wafer except in the regions near the resistor arrays. A second layer of aluminum is provided on the back of the second wafer. The first and second aluminum layers are then connected to a 40 to 50 volt DC supply to electrostatically bond the borosilicate glass on the first layer to the undoped silicon layer of the second wafer. After this bonding step, the composite wafer is then processed to form individual pressure sensors. This patent, however, does not mention Forming active electronic devices or circuits on either the first or second wafers. Instead, the transducers are wire-bonded to external circuits.
In our experiments, we found that the electrostatic bonding of integrated circuitry on a silicon wafer to an insulating substrate wrecks havoc with the active regions of the active electronic devices, such as transistors, of the circuitry. For example, the interface between the single-crystal channel region and insulated gate of a field effect transistor is often unpredictably altered, changing the threshold voltage V.sub.T of the device and rendering device performance unsatisfactory. We suspect that others may have also observed this destructive effect that electrostatic bonding has upon integrated circuits, which would help explain why, out of all the recent articles we have seen concerning ongoing efforts to develop an economical and commercially viable SOI technology, none discuss the electrostatic bonding of pre-formed transistor devices and circuits to an insulating substrate as a technique for forming SOI semiconductor devices. Our efforts to overcome such problems lead to the present invention.
A basic object of the present invention is to overcome the foregoing fundamental problems associated with electrostatically bonding fully-formed integrated circuits and electronic devices to an insulating substrate. Another object of the present invention is to produce a semiconductor-on-insulator circuit structure using pre-formed and pre-tested conventional integrated circuitry from a single-crystal silicon wafer. Another object of the present invention is to from a fully-integrated sensor using at least one pre-formed solid-state electronic device on a single-crystal wafer which has an active region of single-crystal semiconductor material and at least a pre-formed portion of a transducer on the same single-crystal wafer, which is electrostatically bonded to an insulating substrate such as glass.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a method of making fully integrated SOI sensors, including at least one transducer and an integrated electronic circuit on glass. Still another object is to provide a technique or mechanism to ensure that active semiconductor devices in a fully-formed microelectronic circuit are not damaged when electrostatically bonded at high voltages to a supporting substrate. One more object of the present invention is to provide an efficient manner of processing SOI devices which utilizes a single processing step to perform two or three important functions, including dielectrically isolating electronic devices and exposing previously prepared bond pads.

Fully integrated single-crystal silicon-on-insulator process, sensors and circuits


A generator is provided. The generator has a stator with teeth and slots for windings, a rotor rotatable around the stator, a plurality of permanent magnets, and a cooling pipe arranged beneath the slots. Further, a wind turbine with such a generator is provided.

Wind turbines are provided with a rotor shaft which is part of an electrical generator producing electricity during a movement of the rotor relative to the stator of the generator. The stator comprises a number of coils or windings; the rotor comprises a number of permanent magnets so that an electric voltage is induced when the rotor is turned.
During rotation of the rotor a certain amount of heat is generated in the stator. For conventional wind turbines different cooling means are known. It has been proposed to use an air cooled ventilation system, a water cooled system, as well as heat pipes. In a water cooled system cooling pipes are employed between the windings of the stator in order to remove the generator teeth from the stator. However, such conventional water cooling systems are complicated and costly from the manufacturing and serviceability point of view, due to the difficulty of separating cooling pipes and the windings of the stator coils from one another. Furthermore the output torque of the generator is reduced due to the fact that the fill factor is reduced due to the cooling pipes. Alternatively the flux density in the stator yoke is reduced due to saturation.

Generator, in particular for a wind turbine


Mouse monoclonal antibodies specifically recognizing the Penicillin Binding Protein 2a (PBP2a) derived from a strain of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) were produced and characterized. The immunogen used to generate an immune response in a mouse was a PBP2a recombinant protein derived from a strain of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). The data showed that both monoclonal antibodies of the disclosure were able to distinguish MRSA from MSSA bacteria. The monoclonal antibodies have distinct recognition patterns for the regions of the PBP2a protein sequence. Epitope mapping has localized regions of the PBP2a protein specifically recognized by one or both of the monoclonal antibodies. The monoclonal antibodies of the present disclosure having the ability to distinguish between MRSA and MSSA strains can be useful as the basis for a diagnostic assay useful in the clinical setting for determining whether and which antibiotics to administer to a patient.

Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a major pathogen responsible for serious hospital infections worldwide. These bacteria are resistant to all β-lactam antibiotics due to the production of an additional penicillin-binding protein, the PBP2a (about 75 kDa) encoded by the mecA gene, and which shows low affinity for this class of antibiotics. The protein is the target of lactam antibiotics. The two main groups of Staphylococcus aureus are classified as MRSA and MSSA (Methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus) depending on whether they are resistant or sensitive to antibiotics.

Monoclonal antibodies against PBP2A derived from MRSA and methods of use


A mobile communication device adapted to perform spur relocation for a digital phase-locked loop includes a receiver to determine a first frequency channel of interest and to identify a first frequency command word corresponding to the first frequency channel of interest. The mobile communication device further includes control logic circuitry to identify a first frequency at which a first fractional spur associated with the first frequency command word starts to occur and to determine whether the identified first frequency is within the first frequency channel of interest. In addition, the mobile communication device includes a programmable feedback divider configured to change the first frequency command word to a second frequency command word, wherein a second fractional spur associated with the second frequency command word occurs at a second frequency outside the first frequency channel of interest.

Phase-locked loops (PLL) are control systems that generate signals having a fixed relation to the phase of a reference signal. Typically, a phase-locked loop circuit responds to both the frequency and the phase of input signals, raising or lowering the frequency of a controlled oscillator until an oscillator signal is matched with a reference signal in both frequency and phase. Phase-locked loops are widely used in radio, telecommunications, computers, and other electronic applications.

Methods and mobile communication devices for performing spur relocation for phase-locked loops


Systems, methods, and data structures associated with the detection and resolution of duplicate data that might result when using multiple synchronization protocols are described. These techniques may use different types of identification data associated with data that is synchronized, as well as a defined set of operations that may be performed by one or more endpoints to identify and remove duplicated data.

As communication endpoints, including computing devices, are increasingly linked to other endpoints, the use of a variety of techniques for synchronizing data between endpoints has become widespread. Synchronization implementations often include functionality to communicate changes to synchronized data, to communicate new items, to communicate the deletion of items, and so on. Synchronization implementations may also include functionality that minimizes the creation of duplicate items on different endpoints, at least in certain cases.
Many synchronization implementations operate using a "synchronization protocol" that defines characteristics like how data is communicated between endpoints, which data is communicated and when it is communicated, how conflicts are handled when different endpoints modify the same data, and so on.
In some cases, it may be useful for endpoints to communicate using more than one synchronization protocol. Each synchronization protocol may transfer some or all of the same data, but may do so using different operations, different types of communication, and so on, and may provide different benefits. For example, one synchronization protocol may make it possible to synchronize particular data between different endpoints used by a single person. As just one example, and without limitation, such a synchronization protocol might synchronize personal information management (PIM) data by synchronizing each endpoint with a central server or servers. As a result, the single user might be able to access their PIM data on more than one endpoint—they might be able to access, say, their contacts and calendar items on a desktop computer at work, on their home computer, on their mobile phone, and so on. Another exemplary synchronization protocol may make it possible to synchronize the same or other data, say, in a peer-to-peer fashion between different users. When used with PIM data, this other exemplary synchronization protocol may enable users to share contacts, calendar items, and so on, with other people—everyone in the same family might share a set of contacts, for example. While both exemplary synchronization protocols may ultimately synchronize some or all of the same data, they may do so in different ways.
When more than one synchronization protocol is used to transfer the same data, there may be situations where particular pieces of data are transferred, perhaps by both synchronization protocols, and duplicate data is created. For example, while a synchronization protocol may include functionality to minimize the creation of duplicates when data is transferred using just that synchronization protocol, the synchronization protocol may not include functionality to avoid creating duplicate data when another synchronization protocol also synchronizes or transfers the same data.

Synchronization associated duplicate data resolution


An inductor component is provided which includes a magnetic core having at least one gap, an excitation coil disposed on the magnetic core so as to form a magnetic path on the magnetic core, at least one permanent magnet disposed near the at least one gap, and at least one first soft magnetic material piece disposed between the at least one permanent magnet and the magnetic core, wherein the first soft magnetic material piece is formed of a soft magnetic material which has a smaller permeability and less eddy current loss than the magnetic core.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a magnetic element comprising a coil wound onto a magnetic core, and more specifically relates to an inductor component such as an inductor and transformer and the like which is used in various types of electronic equipment and in electric power sources, for reducing core loss using DC bias.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, various types of electronic equipment are being reduced in size and weight. Accordingly, the relative volume percentage of the electric power source units of such electronic equipment has tended to increase with respect to the overall volume of the electronic equipment. This is due to the fact that, while various types of circuits are being contained in LSIs, reduction of size of magnetic parts such as inductors and transformers which are indispensable circuit components for electric power source units is difficult. Hence, various methods have been attempted for reducing electrical power source units in size and weight.
Magnetic elements such as inductors and transformers (which will hereafter be collectively referred to as xe2x80x9cinductor componentsxe2x80x9d) can be effectively reduced in size and weight by reducing the volume of magnetic cores formed of magnetic materials.
Generally, reduction in the size of cores facilitates magnetic saturation of the magnetic core, which is problematic in that the current value which can be handled as a power source is reduced.
As a means for solving this problem, an art is known wherein a part of a magnetic core contains magnetic gaps, thereby increasing the magnetic resistance of the magnetic core and preventing reduction in current value. However, the fact that the magnetic inductance of such magnetic parts deteriorates is also known.
Various methods are known for preventing deterioration of magnetic inductance of inductor components, such as a method of disposing a permanent magnet near a gap (hereafter referred to as xe2x80x9cprior art 1xe2x80x9d), a method for bridging a gap using a permanent magnet (see Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Publication No. 54-152957), or a method for connecting a gap by mounting a permanent magnet thereto (see Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 1-169905, hereafter referred to as xe2x80x9cprior art 2xe2x80x9d), thereby applying DC bias, and increasing the change in magnetic flux density, so as to increase processing electric power.
Prior art 2 describes a technique relating to the structure of a magnetic core using a permanent magnet for generating magnetic bias. This technique involves a method inwhich DC magnetic bias is applied to a magnetic core using a permanent magnet, consequently increasing the number of lines of magnetic force capable of permeating the magnetic gap.
However, in the event that a metal magnetic material having a high-saturation magnetic flux density (B), e.g., silicone steel, permalloy, amorphous material, is used as the magnetic core for the choke coil according to prior art 1, the permanent magnet formed of sintered material, e.g., rare-earth magnets such as Smxe2x80x94Co or Ndxe2x80x94Fexe2x80x94B or the like, generate heat from eddy current loss due to the high magnetic flux density of the magnetic core even if positioned outside the path of magnetism, so the properties of the permanent magnet deteriorate.
Also, with the configuration of the magnetic core of the inductor according to prior art 2, magnetic fluxes from a coil wound on a magnetic core pass through the permanent magnet within the magnetic gap, causing a problem of demagnetizing the permanent magnet. Also, there has been the problem in that the smaller the form of the permanent magnet inserted in the magnetic gap is, the greater the effects of demagnetizing due to external factors is.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an inductor component in which few restrictions exist with regard to the form of the positioned permanent magnet, generation of heat of the permanent magnet due to the magnetic flux from the coil wound on the magnetic core is suppressed, and in which properties do not deteriorate.
According to the present invention, there is provided an inductor component which comprises a magnetic core comprising at least one gap, an excitation coil disposed on the magnetic core so as to form a magnetic path on the magnetic core, at least one permanent magnet disposed near the at least one gap, and at least one first soft magnetic material piece disposed between the at least one permanent magnet and the magnetic core, wherein the first soft magnetic material piece is formed of a soft magnetic material which has a smaller permeability and less eddy current loss than the magnetic core.

Inductor component having a permanent magnet in the vicinity of magnetic gap


A portable apparatus for use in lowering and lifting a user into and out of a swimming pool includes a frame with vertical, longitudinally adjustable legs, horizontal support arms extending rearwardly from the upper ends of the legs, and feet extending forward from the lower ends of the legs. The support arms are adapted to rest on the pool deck and the feet are adapted to rest on the pool bottom, with the apparatus being held on position only by the frictional forces of the arms and the feet. The apparatus further includes a hydraulic cylinder moveable between raised and lowered positions, and a chair moved into the pool when the cylinder is moved toward its lowered position and lifted above the pool when the cylinder is in its raised position. The chair can be rotated at least 180° when in the raised position to permit user ingress and egress.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for lifting and lowering a handicapped person into and out of a pool of water. The invention is particularly well suited for portable operation with an in-ground swimming pool such as those found at hotel locations.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability. As a result, ADA guidelines specify that a swimming pool must either have a sloped entry or a lift to provide disabled persons access into the pool's water. The prior art has favored lifts as a means of handicapped access for swimming pools in which a sloped entry would not be practical. These prior art type lifts are usually permanently anchored to a deck or sidewall of the pool. Permanent attachment of a lift to a pool deck or sidewall has disadvantages in that a permanently attached lift is constantly exposed to the harsh chemicals and otherwise corrosive environment that is associated with swimming pools. Therefore, at facilities where handicapped access is used infrequently, permanent attachment of a lift to a pool sidewall or deck is less than an optimal solution. What is needed is a swimming pool lift that can be conveniently used, yet be able to avoid long-term exposure to a corrosive swimming pool environment.


An infrared-absorbing mark printed matter in which an infrared-absorbing mark is formed on a substrate by printing with an ink having high light absorptivity in the infrared region; the infrared-absorbing mark is covered up by smearing with an ink having high light absorptivity in the visible region and pervious to light in the infrared region to form a colored concealing layer; and on the colored concealing layer is formed a white concealing layer by printing with an ink containing a white pigment and an extender pigment of which at least part of the particles are those having an average particle size of 3 to 20 .mu.m.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to cards containing infrared-absorbing bar codes and more specifically to bar-coded cards wherein the bar code can be perfectly concealed so as not to be visible.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Recently, as a measure against tampering of magnetic records on private cards, ID cards and the like, it is practiced to print fixed information, such as magnetic bar codes or infrared-absoring bar codes, and provide thereon a covering layer or other covertures to conceal these bar codes. For example, the whole area of the infrared-absorbing bar code printed on a voting card is covered up by smearing with an ink which has high light absorptivity in the visible region but low light absorptivity in the infrared region (Japanese Patent Application Kokai No. 58-45999). This method, however, had the problem of a disagreeable visual image because of the black color of the ink which has low light absorptivity in the infrared region. This method also had the problem that it was incapable of perfectly concealing the bar code in order that it would be invisible to the naked eye.
In order to eliminate these problems to improve image and perfectly conceal the bar code so that it is invisible to the naked eye, it has been tried to cover up the infrared-absorbing bar code by smearing with an ink having high light absorptivity in the visible region but low light absorptivity in the infrared region and printing thereon with a white ink comprising titanium oxide to form a white concealing layer. It has further been attempted to print a pattern on the white concealing layer.
However, even if such a white concealing layer is provided by printing with a white ink comprising titanium oxide, it is impossible to attain perfect concealment of the infrared-absorbing bar code in order that it will be invisible to the naked eye. Also, when the white concealing layer is made thick or additional printing of a pattern is made thereon to assure perfect concealment of the infrared absorbing bar code, there arises the problem that when the bar code-printed objects are placed one upon another or piled up, the bar code-printed portions become bulky or bulgy, giving rise to trouble in handling or use of the objects (such as cards).


A support frame for a suspended ceiling assembly comprises a grid pattern having a plurality of main beams with opposing sides and an upper face and a plurality of cross beams with an upper face and opposed ends joined to an opposing side of the main beam; at least one of the upper faces of the main and cross beams having a guiding member; and at least one anchoring member mounted to the guiding member and displaceable therealong, the at least one anchoring member being adapted to mount the grid pattern to a ceiling.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to a ceiling system and, more particularly, to a suspended ceiling system.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Suspended ceilings are well known, and typically are formed with a grid of support members including longitudinally extending rails and secondary rails extending perpendicularly to the primary rails. Ceiling panels are then placed above the ceiling grid.
These ceilings are inexpensive to buy and install and they provide flexibility to install lighting outputs, ventilation means and an easy access once the installation is completed.
Conventional ceiling systems use metal strips to divide and support the ceiling panels. While these metal strips provide sufficient support for the ceiling panels, they have an unappealing appearance. Wood beam ceiling structures have already been described (See for instance U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,367,616, 4,454,700, 4,871,709, 5,261,204, and 6,029,413). However, these wood structures are complicated to install for many home remodelers.


A performance projection system includes a test IHS and a currently existing IHS. The performance projection system includes surrogate programs and user application software. The test IHS employs a memory that includes a virtual future IHS, currently existing IHS, surrogate programs, and user application software for determination of runtime and HW counter performance data. The user application software and surrogate programs execute on the currently existing MS to provide designers with runtime data and HW counter or microarchitecture dependent data. Designers execute surrogate programs on the future IHS to provide runtime and HW counter data. Designers normalize and weight the runtime and HW counter data to provide a representative surrogate program for comparison to user application software performance on the future IHS. Using a scaling factor, designers may generate a projection of runtime performance for the user application software executing on the future IHS.

The disclosures herein relate generally to information handling systems (IHSs), and more specifically, to workload projection methods that IHSs employ.
Customers, designers and other entities may desire to know how their software applications, or workloads, will perform on future IHSs before actual fabrication of the future IHSs. Benchmark programs provide one way to assist in the prediction of the performance of a workload of a future IHS. However, aggregated performance over many benchmarks may result in errors in performance projections for individual software applications on a future IHS. An IHS may operate as an electronic design test system to develop workload performance projections for new processors and other new devices in future IHSs.

Workload performance projection for future information handling systems using microarchitecture dependent data

International Business Machines Corporation


A system and method for providing third party secure hosting of an application. The system and method includes providing a host system with a main memory and a third party secured memory, the third party secured memory storing third party information; encrypting the third party information stored on the third party secured memory upon access by a user, the encrypting being via a security key, the security key being held at a customer location; and, enabling access to the third party information only to users having the security key.

The present invention relates in general to data processing systems and in particular to third party secured storage for applications such as Web services and/or Web applications.
It is known for a third party to host and operate Web services and/or Web applications for a customer. For example, referring to FIG. 1, labeled Prior Art, a typical third party Web application environment comprises three main entities. More specifically, a third party Web application environment comprises requesters located somewhere in the Internet, a host computer where a Web application is executing, and storage such as disk storage. It is transparent to the requestor where the Web service is executing. For example, if a customer such as a large retail company has a Web service that they want to make available to requesters on the Internet. The retail company's Web service might be executed by a third party global services organization. Thus the third party global services organization functions as the hosting company that owns and operates the physical computer on which the Web services are executed.
With this system, network security (e.g., HTTPS) secures data flowing between the Internet requestor and the host computer running the Web service. Additionally, known disk technology (e.g., encrypted disk) secures data flowing between the host computer and external physical storage (whether disk, tape, or other).
An issue that may inhibit the ability of a third party to provide these hosting services relates to the security of the Web services and Web applications. There are several points between a Web service requestor somewhere in the Internet and a Web service implementation where security is desired. It is known to provide network security between a requestor and a Web service host operating system. Additionally, it is known to provide security such as encrypted disk storage between the host operating system and disk storage.
However, it is possible that a security hole exists within the main memory of the computer systems on which the Web services or Web applications reside and operate. This hole can be especially troublesome to a customer when the Web services or Web applications manipulate sensitive data. Computer main memory can be viewed a variety of ways, such as via an operating system storage dump after a crash. Thus, potentially sensitive data from main memory can be viewable by hosting company personnel.
Some third party service providers have addressed this issue by enhancing physical security of the computing facility (i.e., limiting access to the actual computer on which the applications execute except hosting service employees) and or by providing access only to screened personnel at hosting companies. Another way in which this security issue has been addressed is by providing storage rings (or levels) of sensitivity where different levels of security are provided with different types of storage snapshots (this method may be used for example with certain types of government security classifications).

Third party secured storage for web services and web applications


Embodiments disclosed herein generally relate to an apparatus for simultaneous generation and separation processes. The apparatus provides a membrane module including a substrate, a catalytic layer and a membrane layer. The catalytic layer includes nano-sized particles. As a result, the apparatus can operate in sulfur-free and sulfur-laden feed gas environment for water gas shift (WGS) reactions while maintaining high reaction conversion.

1. Field
Embodiments described herein generally relate to an apparatus for simultaneous generation and separation processes. More specifically, embodiments include a membrane reactor for use in an apparatus for gas to gas or gas to liquid simultaneous generation and separation processes.
2. Description of the Related Art
Coal and natural gas resources are projected to provide greater than 40% of global energy demand over the next twenty plus years. In order to abate the global warming by reducing greenhouse gas emission in power plants, industries, transportation, etc., advanced technologies are being developed to enable clean, efficient and environmentally friendly use of these energy resources. As one of the advanced conversion technologies, coal gasification provides an efficient and flexible approach to utilize abundant energy resources with minimized pollution to the environment. During a coal gasification process, coal is heated and exposed to oxygen and steam, and the oxygen and water molecules oxidize the coal and produce a gaseous mixture of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, water vapor and hydrogen. The gaseous mixture then undergoes a water gas shift (WGS) reaction to produce hydrogen. Various membrane reactors are used to simultaneously generate and separate hydrogen.
One example of a membrane reactor is a compact catalytic membrane reactor (CCMR). A CCMR typically includes a membrane module that has a catalytic film. The catalytic film includes a porous layer having nano-sized catalysts deposited therein. As reactant gases pass through the catalytic film, hydrogen gas is generated. The catalytic film is also integrated with a membrane layer permeable to the hydrogen gas. As the hydrogen gas permeates through the membrane layer, the thermodynamics of the reaction are shifted toward hydrogen production. The hydrogen gas is produced and separated simultaneously in the CCMR. However, persisting issues with membranes or membrane modules for simultaneous hydrogen generation and separation include sulfur poisoning and low hydrogen flux.
Thus, an improved apparatus for simultaneous generation and separation processes is needed.

Compact catalytic membrane reactor for chemical process intensification


A method of query pattern matching uses a chain of linked stacks to compactly represent partial results to root-to-leaf query paths, which are then composed to obtain matches for the twig pattern.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to processing queries in a computer system and, more particularly, to processing computer queries using pattern matching.
2. Introduction
As is known in the art, the eXtensible Markup Language (XML) employs a tree-structured model for representing data. Queries in XML query languages typically specify patterns of selection predicates on multiple elements that have some specificed tree structured relationships. For example, the XQuery expression:                Book[tittle='XML']//author[fn='jane' AND in='doe']Matches author elements that (i) have a child subelement "fn" with content "jane", (ii) have a child subelement "In" with content "doe", and (iii) are descendants of book elements that have a child title subelement with content XML. This expression can be represented as a node-labeled twig (or small tree) pattern with elements and string values as node labels.
Finding all occurrences of a twig pattern in a database is a core operation in XML query processing, both in relational implementations of XML databases, and in native XML databases. Known processing techniques typically decompose the twig pattern into a set of binary (parent-child and ancestor-descendant) relationships between pairs of nodes, e.g., the parent-child relationships (book, title) and (author, fn), and the ancestor-descendant relationship (book, author). The query twig pattern can then be matched by (i) matching each of the binary structural relationships against the XML database, and (ii) "stitching" together these basic matches.
In one known attempt at solving the first sub-problem of matching binary structural relationships, Zhang et al., "On Supporting Containment Queries in Relational Database Management Systems," Proceedings of ACM SIGMOD, 2001, (hereafter "Zhang"), proposed a variation of the traditional merge join algorithm, the multi-predicate merge join (MPMGJN) algorithm, based on the (DocId, LeftPos RightPos, LevelNum) representation of positions of XML elements and string values. Zhang's results showed that the MGMGJN algorithm could outperform standard RDBMS join algorithms by more than an order of magnitude. Zhang is incorporated herein by reference.
A further sub-problem of stitching together the basic matches obtained using binary "structural" joins requires identifying a 'good' join ordering in a computational cost-based manner taking selectivities and intermediate result size estimates into account. A basic limitation of this traditional approach for matching query twig patterns is that intermediate result sizes can get quite large, even when the input and final result sizes are more manageable.
It would, therefore, be desirable to overcome the aforesaid and other disadvantages.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method and system for pattern matching having holistic twig joins


The present disclosure provides a battery box which comprises a lower frame body and a heat exchange assembly, the heat exchange assembly comprises a heat exchange plate, a heat insulating pad, a temperature preserving pad and a protective plate. The heat exchange plate is provided with a flow passage therein; a first part of the heat insulating pad and the circumferential edge of the heat exchange plate are stacked in the up-down direction, the first part of the heat insulating pad is sandwiched between a lower surface of the lower frame body and the upper surface of the circumferential edge of the heat exchange plate; at least a portion of the temperature preserving pad is provided below the heat exchange plate. Therefore, at least the heat transfer in the upward direction between the lower frame body and the circumferential edge of the heat exchange plate is blocked.

In the field of battery, a battery box comprises a lower frame body and a heat exchange plate, the lower frame body and the heat exchange plate form an accommodating space for accommodating a battery module, the battery module comprises a plurality of arranged batteries, the battery module is supported on the heat exchange plate, the heat exchange plate supports the batteries and exchanges heat with the batteries.
The battery generally needs to maintain at a constant temperature range to ensure the stability and constancy of the operating temperature of the battery.
However, because the heat exchange plate is fixed to the lower frame body, there is heat transfer between the heat exchange plate and the lower frame body, which will affect the heat exchange effect of the heat exchange plate and the stability and constancy of the operating temperature of the battery.

CONTEMPORARY AMPEREX TECHNOLOGY CO., LIMITED


A durable, adjustable, and collapsible target holder comprised generally of a pair of vertical poles vertically secured end to end, a pair of horizontal poles removable secured at adjustable heights to the vertical poles, and target restraint means secured to the ends of, and running the length of, the said horizontal poles. The target restraint means of the present invention comprise a flexible material capable of withstanding the direct hit of ammunition. Preferably, the target restraint means are a rubber strap with nubbings on the interior thereof to hold the target in place.

The present invention relates to a durable, adjustable and collapsible target holder, and more particularly pertains to a target holder capable of holding different sized targets at a variety of heights and widths. The present invention also relates to target holder restraint means capable of withstanding the direct strike of ammunition or arrowheads.
The art of target holders prior to this invention included collapsible target holders and adjustable target holders to accommodate varying target sizes. Furthermore, the art of target holders includes means to removably secure a target to the target holder, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,538,118, 2,722,420, and 3,540,729) that are subject to immediate destruction upon the direct strike of ammunition or arrowheads.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for a collapsible target holder which is easy to assemble and disassemble; a need for a target holder that adjusts to accommodate varying widths and heights of targets; and a need for a target holder with target restraint means capable of withstanding the direct strike of ammunition or arrowheads.
The objects of this invention include developing a target holder which is easy to assemble and disassemble; designing a target holder which can accommodate and adjust to varying widths and heights of targets; and developing a target holder with target restraint means which are capable of withstanding the direct strike of ammunition or arrowheads. Other and further objects of this invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art to which it relates from the following specification, claims and drawings.
The invention meets all of these objects. Generally, the invention is for a new and improved target holder comprising a pair of vertical poles, removably secured to one another at the ends thereof, and a pair of horizontal poles removably secured to said vertical poles. The horizontal poles are removably secured to the vertical poles such that they can be positioned anywhere along the vertical poles to accommodate targets of varying heights.
The device of the present invention further comprises target restraint means capable of withstanding the direct strike of ammunition or arrowheads, such restraint means being secured to each of said horizontal poles and running the length of the horizontal poles. The target restraint means are secured to said horizontal poles only at the relative ends thereof, with the remainder of such restraint means taut against but free from the horizontal poles, such that a target may be held in place thereby.
The simple assembly of the device of the present invention requires the user only to connect the two vertical poles and secure thereto the horizontal poles, positioning the same at a height desirable in accordance with the height of the target. The lower vertical pole may be positioned in the ground either before or after assembly.
The simple disassembly the device of the present invention requires the user only to disconnect the horizontal poles from the vertical poles, release the second vertical pole from the first, and remove the first vertical pole from the ground.
A more detailed description of the preferred embodiment of the device of the present invention follows.

Adjustable and collapsible target holder


A method and apparatus for cooling an electronic component within a handheld device comprised of an extension to the casing of the handheld device and at least one portion of a cooling apparatus within the extension.

The present invention is related to method and apparatus to aid in cooling a handheld device.
Handheld electronic devices, such as handheld computers, continue to increase in performance and capability as ever faster processors, memory and other components are used. However, these increases in performance and capability often come with the requirements of higher power consumption and/or higher heat dissipation by components within the handheld devices.
One of the key features making the use of handheld devices so desirable, is their small size and light weight, since as the name suggests, they are designed to be small enough to hold in one hand during use. However, as a result of being so small and light, handheld devices often have no room for the varieties of cooling apparatus that can often be found in more stationary electronic devices that perform similar functions. This can prevent the use of higher performing components of the variety often found in such stationary electronic devices in a handheld device, because such higher performing components often generate more heat than can be accommodated within a handheld device.
As a result, handheld devices often cannot have the same level or range of capabilities as more stationary electronic devices that perform similar functions, because this reduced ability to cool components often requires that compromises be made in the levels of performance and/or capability.

Cooling method and apparatus for handheld devices


An electronic device includes a semiconductor memory comprising row lines, column lines, memory cells, and a plurality of contact plugs including row contact plugs respectively coupled to the row lines and column contact plugs respectively coupled to the column lines. Each memory cell is coupled to a row line and a column line, and has a current path comprising a portion of that row line and a portion of that column line. First and second contact plug are respectively coupled to first and second memory cells respectively having first and second current paths. A resistance of the first current path is lower than a resistance of the second current path, and a resistance of the first contact plug is increased relative to a resistance of the second contact plug to offset the lower resistance of the first current path.

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a memory circuit or device, and application thereof in an electronic device.
Semiconductor devices configured to store information are used in various electronic apparatuses such as computers and portable communication apparatuses. To satisfy the requirements for improved speed, density, and power efficiency in non-volatile storage of data, semiconductor devices have been developed that store data using materials that switch between different resistance phases depending on an applied voltage or current. Examples of such semiconductor devices include a resistive random access memory (RRAM), a phase-change random access memory (PRAM), a ferroelectric random access memory (FRAM), a magnetic random access memory (MRAM), an E-fuse, and so forth.
Such semiconductor devices store data in a plurality of memory cells. When too large a current (that is, an "over current") is applied to a memory cell of such a semiconductor device, the memory cell may be damaged.

Electronic device and method of fabricating the same


A promotional hang tag having clasping and flag portions and a line-of-weakness delimiting the portions in furtherance of disengaging the flag portion from the clasping portion is provided. The clasping portion includes an anchor and an anchor retainer. The anchor retainer includes an elongate slot and opposingly paired slits extending from opposing ends of the elongate slot. The elongate slot is characterized by an axis of elongation and is dimensioned to receive a free end portion of the anchor, the anchor received by the anchor retainer and retained within the elongate slot.

Considerable resources are directed to product promotions. As a threshold matter, merchandise and/or product labeling, marking, and packaging are critical initial and ongoing considerations. Arguably, naming, visual identity creation, branding and cross-branding are essential ingredients for strong marketplace differentiation intended to influence the purchasing behavior of consumers.
A variety of well-known point-of-purchase and promotional products are available. For instance, vehicles for advertising and promoting products, grabbing the attention of consumers, and/or prompting impulse or first time purchases include, but are hardly limited to, static clings, tent cards, shelf talkers, hanging mobiles, bottle neckers, hanging tags, instant redeemable coupons, etc.
With regard to equipping, adorning, outfitting, etc. a product with a promotional article, as for instance by causing same to be supported, carried, suspended, adhered, dangled etc. therefrom, or thereby, as the case may be, form generally fits function. As should be readily appreciated, unique problems are present within any given class of promotional device, article, or assembly, e.g., hang tags on the one hand versus a bottle necker on the other hand, and, occasionally, a "solution" to a particular "problem" warrants a shift in approach or tactic, i.e., replacing or supplanting one approach for another, e.g., a switch from a hang tag to a bottle necker or vice versa.
Hang tags are ubiquitous market place communication devices. A fundamental consideration for such tags are their interface with a product, i.e., the merchandise. For a class of articles that are supported by a portion or element of a product, or product package (i.e., danglers), the articles are typically characterized by either a band, e.g., a fixed length or reversibly expandable element, which tensioningly engages the merchandise or portion thereof, or by selectively integratable or cooperatively engageable components (e.g., clasp or clasping elements) which wrap about or ensnare at least a portion of the merchandise.
Numerous tagging or marking articles contemplate tag and tail sections which cooperate in some fashion so as to loop about or otherwise capture at least a portion of an article of manufacture. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,016,059 (Stevens), 4,149,329 (Graves), 5,129,617 (MacWilliamson), and 6,401,304 (Dossett) generally disclose merchandise tagging articles having an indicia bearing portion from which extends a tail or strap portion. Operatively, a barbed or otherwise configured free end of the strap is received for retention within an aperture of the tag portion so as to form a suspending or clasping structure for the article. Commonly, the barbed or otherwise configured free end of the strap is received within a stylized aperture (e.g., see Stevens, or MacWilliamson), or a more traditional geometrically shaped aperture such as a rectangle (e.g., see Graves) or a circle (e.g., see Dossett), with the nature of the barbed insertion therethrough being one of compliant deflection (i.e., substantial deformation of elements of the free end of the strap upon aperture engagement and initial ingress).
Beyond merchandise tagging, a further, well-known tagging environment is that associated with luggage or baggage, more particularly, "handled" articles. For instance, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,550,295 (Anania), 3,837,101 (Young), 4,142,310 (Groselak et al.), 4,630,384 (Breen), and 5,381,617 (Schwartztol et al.), are all generally directed to self-locking baggage or luggage tags. Characteristically, such articles are known to have an elongate configuration, an indicia bearing area generally intermediate the end portions thereof, an aperture for receiving a free end of the article therethrough, and a portion or segment adapted to form an interference fit with the aperture. In this tagging environment, free strap ends, highly stylized (e.g., Anania and Young) or otherwise (e.g., Schwartztol et al.), may be received within an aperture, highly stylized (e.g., Anania and Young) or otherwise (e.g., Schwartztol et al.), some of which cooperatively engage same so as to form an interference fit (e.g., Anania and Young). Alternately, opposing side edges of an intermediate portion of the article may be adapted, via inclusion of a series of spaced apart slits (e.g., Groselak et al.) or slots (e.g., Breen), for forming an interference fit with an aperture of the article.
In light of the foregoing, and no doubt numerous alternative tagging solutions, there remains a need for quick, intuitive, instinctive, self-locking in/for a tagging article. Furthermore, there remains room for improvement with regard to a reliable, secured locked interface for portions or elements for such devices, namely, the interface between the engageable elements thereof, advantageously, a less is more solution. Additionally, and in furtherance of merchandise differentiation, it is believed advantageous to produce a printed marking tag via a sheet fed or web press, with or without over-laminates, that yield attention grabbing promotional vehicles. Further still, it is believed desirable to provide a promotional hang tag having a selectively disengageable flag, coupon, etc., more particularly, an article having an advantageous tension between the aforementioned characteristics or qualities, e.g., an article possessing a quick, supremely efficient clasp forming portion, and a reliably secure clasp so formed which can readily withstand disintegration of a marketing premium element thereof. Yet further still, it is believed particularly advantageous to provide a promotional article for selectively accompanying packaged snacks in lieu of integrally formed or direct promotional package print, more generally, it is believed advantageous to provide a novel mechanism or article to deliver promotions on a snack bag or the like.