The present invention is a device and a method that combines a carbon disulfide-releasing chemical with a low pH organic or inorganic acid to produce a carbon disulfide-containing fluid at or near the point of injection that minimizes or eliminates the possible exposure of carbon disulfide to workers and the environment. In one particular embodiment a positive displacement injection pump injects the carbon disulfide-containing fluid into a crude oil system for treating crude oil transmission lines and in downhole tubulars to remove paraffin deposits. The device uses a unique in-line motion mixer to mix two fluids. The device is electronically controlled locally and remotely with the system operating data displayed locally and transmitted remotely. The paraffin treating carbon disulfide-containing fluid and supplemental chemicals dissolve, disperse and remove paraffin deposits.

This invention relates to the use of a method, a process, an apparatus and special chemicals to produce, inject and monitor the application of carbon disulfide-containing fluids. The apparatus efficiently combines carbon disulfide releasing chemicals in order to produce a carbon disulfide-containing paraffin dissolving chemical solvent for use in crude oil systems. More particularly, this invention relates to the chemical treatment of crude oil systems including: crude oil flow lines, pipelines, downhole production pumps, tubing and vessels. Carbon disulfide is effective at removing therefrom or preventing the forming of petroleum waxes commonly referred to as "paraffin deposits" or simply "paraffins." The term "paraffin" as used to describe this problem refers to the deposit of carbonaceous material which is not soluble or dispersible by the crude oil under the conditions where deposition occurs. The "paraffin" normally consists of high molecular weight paraffin hydrocarbons, both straight chain and branched, resins and asphaltic materials of undetermined nature, occluded oil and water, and possibly oil-wet sand. In consistency, the deposit may vary from a soft, sticky material, to one which is hard and brittle. Paraffin deposits range in color from white to brown to black.
Under the conditions of temperature, pressure, and crude oil composition occurring in the underground reservoir, the paraffin is typically in suspension or solution in the crude. As the oil flows to the surface, there is generally a reduction of temperature, pressure, and the amount of dissolved gases contained in the oil. Reduction of temperature and gas break-out are shown to be factors causing reduced solubility of the paraffin in the crude oil. Thus, as the crude containing paraffin rises to the surface and flows to storage tanks through conduits at low pressure or atmospheric pressure, the solubility of the paraffin may be reduced. Deposition of paraffin will begin at the point in the system where the temperature of the system falls below its cloud point, or if the surface temperature of the crude oil piping falls below the cloud point, and continue if there is a further drop in the solvent power of the crude oil for the paraffin. The severity of the deposition in subsurface or surface equipment, will depend on the amount of paraffin originally in the crude oil, the way pressure and temperature of the crude oil are reduced and other properties of the crude oil and of the paraffin.
The melting point of the paraffin is the principal factor influencing solubility in each solvent, the solubility decreasing sharply with increased melting point, as would be expected. For hydrocarbon solvents, the main factor which influences solvent power is shown to be the American Petroleum Institute ("API") gravity of the solvent, solvents of high API gravity being superior paraffin solvents, and solvents high in aromatic content.
Carbon disulfide is known to be one of the most effective solvents for dissolving paraffin of different compositions. However, use of carbon disulfide or carbon disulfide containing solvents in the field is difficult and hazardous because it is extremely toxic, odorous, flammable, and volatile. Carbon disulfide has a flash point of −22° F., a boiling point of 115.3° F., and an ignition temperature in air of 257° F. Carbon disulfide is highly soluble in oil.
Notwithstanding the physical handling challenges associated with carbon disulfide, there are several industrial applications. Carbon disulfide is a globally produced chemical solvent with the largest percentage of carbon disulfide produced today being used as a major raw material for the manufacture of regenerated cellulose. The two major products manufactured from regenerated cellulose are viscose rayon and cellophane. A considerable amount of carbon disulfide is also used in manufacturing carbon tetrachloride. Carbon disulfide is also used in the cold vulcanization of rubber and in making rubber accelerators and resins. In agriculture, carbon disulfide was widely used as a fumigant to control insects in stored grain, normally when mixed with other solvents to reduce the fire hazard.
Carbon disulfide is recognized by the Environmental Protection Agency as a potential neurotoxin. Workers physically handling carbon disulfide without protective gloves, eye and respiratory protection may be exposed to levels which may result in nerve damage.
Understanding and recognizing the concerns in handling carbon disulfide there is a real need in the oil & gas industry and other industries for a safe efficient method and process for producing, delivering and injecting carbon disulfide containing solvent into paraffin containing crude oils to remove paraffin deposits. This invention provides a safe method and process to produce carbon disulfide without possible exposure of carbon disulfide to workers and the environment. This inventive process uses a unique apparatus at or near the point of injection into crude oil systems including: oil & gas flowing pipelines or into an oil & gas producing wells to dissolve and remove paraffin deposits from within pipelines, vessels, downhole tubulars, and oil/gas/water separation equipment. More particularly, this invention relates to a process method to produce carbon disulfide safely at or near the point of injection without the typical dangers associated with the physical transporting, conveying or handling of carbon disulfide or solvent products containing carbon disulfide. The process uses a unique apparatus that produces carbon disulfide-containing fluid solvent on demand, eliminating the need to store carbon disulfide or carbon disulfide-containing treating chemical products on location.
Traditional treatments of the paraffin containing crude oil to dissolve paraffin deposits include: 1) mechanical scraping, 2) hot oiling, 3) hot water, 4) continuous application of heat, 5) chemical solvent batch treatments, 6) continuous paraffin inhibitor/solvent treatment, and 7) combination treatments of mechanical or thermal techniques. Still another less widely used method is the use of high strength magnets or electromagnets positioned in line to allow paraffin-containing oil to flow through an intense magnetic field to disrupt the paraffin's tendency to agglomerate and stick to the pipe walls.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,300,348 discloses a method wherein oil is heated and pumped downhole to thermally dissolve paraffin and remove it from the surface of production tubing and sucker rods. Many variations upon this method have been discovered and employed in later years. This basic hot oiling method continues today with crude oil system operators using hot oil heating equipment to dissolve paraffin downhole and on the surface in crude oil systems. The hot oil method is subject to many dangerous handling conditions when heating up a volatile crude oil using a propane or diesel fired burner. With many paraffin conditions, it has been discovered how repeated hot oiling of paraffin tends to remove the paraffin with lower melt points leaving behind the higher melt point paraffin. The high melt point paraffin builds up deposits on the internal surfaces of crude oil systems and makes it very difficult to remove mechanically, chemically or by requiring crude oil systems to use hot oil at much higher temperatures in order to dissolve the high melt point paraffin.
Chemical dissolution of paraffin deposits requires the application of aromatic and/or aliphatic solvents that will effectively and efficiently dissolve the paraffin regardless of structure, size and melting point. The process requires much less energy compared with thermally melting the wax. Typical solvents include chemicals based on condensate light gas oil, xylene, toluene, terpenes, and carbon disulfide. These solvents are generally pumped in the crude oil system in a batch slug volume or in a continuous injection method to remove paraffin from pipelines. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,241,614 it teaches a process for removing paraffin accumulations by contacting with liquid mixture of solvent and a surfactant. Various hydrocarbon solvents are mentioned, as is carbon disulfide. U.S. Pat. No. 3,375,192 teaches about a mixture for cleaning oil wells which is composed of carbon disulfide and pentane. U.S. Pat. No. 3,402,770 teaches about a single base solvent which is used to dissolve flow-restricting paraffin in oil well equipment. The solvent solution disclosed comprises of an organic solvent with carbon disulfide disclosed as the preferred organic solvent for oil and asphalt. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,563,315 it teaches the use of carbon disulfide used alone or in combination with hydrocarbon solvents or even present in low concentrations will aid in the removal of paraffin deposits from pipe wall surfaces.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,724,552 (Snavely, Jr.), therein is described the use of water-soluble chemical selected from a class consisting of thiocarbonates, dithiocarbonates, and xanthates. In this patent, the inventor relies upon inexact mixing of the carbon disulfide releasing chemicals along with the elevated downhole temperatures and naturally acidic conditions caused by acid gases downhole to liberate carbon disulfide from these water-soluble compounds. Once the carbon disulfide is liberated it works to remove paraffin deposits from formations.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,053,149 (McElligott Jr. et al) it describes a process for dissolving wax, paraffin and/or sulfur deposits in oil or gas pipeline or well involves the use of an acid and a compound which liberates carbon disulfide upon contact with the acid, whereby the deposit is dissolved by the liberated carbon disulfide. I this invention the inventor relies upon the inexact mixing of the carbon disulfide releasing chemicals combining with the addition of an acid to lower the pH and initiate the chemical reaction to release the carbon disulfide. The presence of crude oil, produced water and natural gas create an unknown mixture which lowers the efficiency in the release of the carbon disulfide which may lead to lower overall paraffin removal efficiency by using this method.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,076,358 (Kissel) it teaches the use of one or more salts of tri- and tetrathiocarbonic acid injected into petroleum-bearing formations to form carbon disulfide to dissolve paraffin and increase flow of oil from the formation. The inventor here relies upon the inexact mixing of two chemicals in the presence of crude oil, produced water and natural gas to initiate and carry forward a reaction to release carbon disulfide from a carbon disulfide releasing chemical in a oil bearing reservoir.
In Canadian patent application CA 2,184,240 (Kissel) it teaches solutions of dithiocarbamate salts, such as the sodium salts of N-methyl dithiocarbamate and N, N-dimethyl dithiocarbamate, can be used as admixtures with acids to provide a non-corrosive treatment for oil production systems. It discloses how carbon disulfide lowers the pour point of the crude oil, reduces pressures in crude oil flow pipelines, reduces oil/water separation problems, and increases crude oil yields. The inventor describes the use of carbon disulfide in oil bearing formations to improve the production of oil and does not disclose a method or process to apply the carbon disulfide fluid into a crude oil system downhole or on the surface.
A need exists for a system which produces carbon disulfide-containing fluid in a mobile or easily transported modular system, able to control a chemical reaction using a class of carbon disulfide-releasing water soluble chemical compounds consisting of trithiocarbonates, dithiocarbamates, thiocarbonates, xanthates and dithiocarbonates. When the carbon disulfide-releasing chemical compounds are mixed in the process with an acid, organic or inorganic, where the pH of the blended fluid is reduced to below 3.5, the release of carbon disulfide occurs. The process can be operated in a continuous or intermittent continuous batch flow. The method and process occur in the unique apparatus located at or near the point of injection into the crude oil system. The process apparatus controls the physical conditions of the reaction including the temperature of the process and the proper metering and blending of the chemical compounds to achieve high efficiency in the release of carbon disulfide for injecting into crude oil system.

Method, process, apparatus and chemicals to produce and inject paraffin treating compounds


As consistent with various embodiments, an electronic device includes a fibrous material having a conductive coating thereon. The conductive coating includes conductive nanoparticles coupled to fibers in the fibrous material. The structure is implemented in connection with a variety of devices, such as a capacitive device or a battery. Other embodiments are directed to forming conductive fibrous sheets, in dispersing a nanomaterial in a solution and applying the solution to a fibrous sheet, such as commercial paper, to form a conductive sheet.

Conductive materials are used in a multitude of electronic devices for a variety of purposes. Many applications benefit from relatively thin conductive materials, due to one or more of shape, size or properties relative to such materials.
One type of thin conductive material that has seen extensive use involves materials having a base layer, such as a polymer or glass-type layer, with a conductive surface material. For instance, printable solution processing has been exploited to deposit various nanomaterials such as fullerenes, carbon nanotubes (CNTs), nanocrystals and nanowires for large-scale applications including thin-film transistors, solar cells and energy storage devices due to the low cost of these processes while attaining properties of those nanomaterials. In these processes, flat substrates such as glass, metals, Si wafer, and plastics have been used to hold nanostructure films Nanostructured materials are often capped with surfactant molecules to disperse the materials as separated particles in a solvent to form an "ink." The ink is deposited onto flat substrates and followed by surfactant removal and solvent evaporation processes.
To produce high-quality films, significant efforts have been spent on ink formulation and rheology adjustment. In glass and plastics, the ink surface tension needs to match with substrates, and viscosity must be high enough to avoid surface tension-driven defects such as ring and dewetting in coating and drying processes. Therefore, various additives are incorporated in ink to tune the rheology properties. These insulating additives decrease the final film conductivity. Moreover, since surfactants are normally insulating and thus limit the charge transfer between nanomaterials, their removal can be particularly critical to resulting device performance. However, removing surfactants can involve extensive washing and chemical displacement, which often causes mechanical detachment of the film from the flat substrate. While polymer binders or adhesives can be used to improve the binding of nanomaterials to substrates, they tend to decrease the film conductivity further.
These additional procedures increase the complexity of solution processing, and result in high cost and low throughput. These and other considerations remain challenging to the design, formation and implementation of conductive materials.

The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University


Soft-tipped pole designs and methods for their use on pavement are disclosed. The soft, gripping pole tip can slow down a roller skier or skateboarder by slowing down the rider directly and by providing increased rider stability during breaking. This is accomplished by the rider pressing one or two pole tips against the pavement, with or without the use of a fulcrum point for increased leverage. The soft rubberlike tip has a large surface area that provides durability as well as variable levels of frictional force imparted against the pavement. The fulcrum for the pole can be the user's arm or leg as well as fulcrum element fastened to the rolling device.

It is often difficult to slow down or otherwise control a skateboard, roller skates and many other human powered wheeled vehicle riders via the methods and technologies that are currently available.
In skateboarding, for example, mechanisms of slowing down the skateboard (as in, for example the V-Brake from Skate-Safe Products) are in existence, but most mechanisms of braking are mounted to the skateboard itself, leading to challenges in maintaining balance during braking, particularly during intense braking. These and other approaches (e.g. toe dragging) require a relatively high level of skill and balance to perform safely, and toe dragging can lead to overheating of footwear. In roller skiing for example, toe dragging is not used and braking without any braking technology requires a very high level of skill (e.g. "snowplowing") that is often beyond the skill set of most users. Mechanical braking systems have been designed and described for roller skis and in-line skates, for example in Johnson et al U.S. Pat. No. 7,677,600 and Stoughton et al U.S. Pat. No. 5,704,617. In these systems a braking element is pressed against a wheel of one roller ski via a lever system activated by the lower leg (Johnson et al) or activated via a waist-level pull cable by the hand (Stoughton et al). Their mechanical complexity, the need for multiple moving parts, and the need for proper adjustment), are shortcomings of the design. In addition, braking with these systems compromises to the user's ability to maintain balance during braking. A sudden need for braking can often occur at a moment when a loss of balance is particularly unwelcome. For example for some braking systems require a telemarking maneuver to maintain balance. For other systems, a hand activated cable must be located and activated in a very short period of time to avoid a collision or other type of accident. As the terrain gets hillier, or when roller-skiing speeds increase, challenges in user skill level are made even more apparent. For example, roller skiing on a long mountain road uphill is a great workout for skilled athletes and great training for other sports (e.g. winter cross country skiing), but when the roller-skier arrives at the top of the mountain road, the roller skier must often remove the roller skis and enter a vehicle to be driven back down the hill, as the ability to negotiate downhills safely are not within the abilities of most roller skiers.

Soft tipped pole and braking system for recreational use


The present invention relates to methods of forming metal-pyridine derivative complexes using pericyclic reactions with metal-1,2,4-triazine derivative complexes and a dienophile as the reactants. The reactants are bioorthogonal and the methods are particularly useful in preparing imaging agents.

In many areas of medicine, it is desirable to target a drug or diagnostic agent to a specific tissue or site. In particular in medical imaging the delivery of imaging agents to a particular tissue is crucial. Successful imaging requires that the imaging agent has high target uptake but that excess agent is rapidly cleared from the non-targeted tissues. Typically the targeting step is time consuming and this can lead to excessive exposure of the body to the imaging agent, which can often be harmful (e.g. radionucleotides). However, this is a balance that is difficult to achieve and as a result so-called pretargeting methods have been developed.
Pretargeting involves the targeting of the desired primary target (e.g. the tissue to be imaged) with a first probe having both a moiety that has high affinity for the primary target and a secondary target moiety. Once the primary targeting step is complete, typically a time-consuming process, a second probe, having both a moiety that has high affinity for the secondary target and the imaging moiety is administered. The secondary target moiety and the moiety having high affinity for the target moiety react, resulting in the imaging or therapeutic moiety being attached to the primary target.
Initial pretargeting was carried out using secondary coupling pairs that were natural in origin (e.g. antibody-antigen or biotin-streptavidin) but these methods had their own problems such as break down of the secondary pair via natural decomposition pathways.
An alternative methodology is the use of a bioorthogonal secondary coupling pair, i.e. using two chemical functionalities that have a high reactivity with each other but a low reactivity with biological systems. In this way, bioorthogonal reactions can be carried out in living systems without interfering with intracellular processes.
Bioorthogonal chemistry is emerging as a powerful tool to visualize proteins, nucleic acids, glycans and other biomolecules. (M. Boyce, C. R. Bertozzi, Nat Meth 2011, 8, 638-642; K. Lang, J. W. Chin, ACS Chemical Biology 2014, 9, 16-20.) Bioorthogonal reactions are based on reagents that selectively react with each other but do not react with any of the naturally present molecules. Bioorthogonal reactions should be kinetically fast under physiological conditions and should not interfere with any natural biochemical processes. The reagents and the side products should be non-toxic. (T. Carell, M. Vrabel, Topics in Current Chemistry 2016, 374, 1-21.)
One problem with such approaches is that the reaction between the bioorthogonal groups is still quite slow. In the cellular environment, the concentrations of proteins or other biomolecules is very low and the bioorthogonal reactions should be very fast. For in vivo applications, the rate constant should be 1 M−1s−1 or higher
A further problem is that the second probe, comprising the imaging agent, still needs to be cleared from the non-targeted tissues before the imaging of the targeted tissues can be carried out, making such imaging processes time consuming.
One common example of bioorthogonal reaction is the inverse electron demand Diels Alder (IED-DA) reaction of electron deficient 1,2,4,5-tetrazines with strained alkenes and alkynes (see WO2010/051530; US2013/0189184; Biomaterials 2016, 103, 305-313; Chemical Society Reviews 2017, 46, 4895-4950). The reactions are fast, do not require catalysts and produce non-toxic dinitrogen as the only by-product. However, tetrazine derivatives can be unstable and degrade under physiological conditions.
To address this problem, very recently 1,2,4-triazines were developed as IED-DA bioorthogonal reagents offering better stability under physiological conditions. For example, the Prescher and later Vrabel groups studied the reaction of 1,2,4-triazines with derivatives of trans-cyclooctyne-ols (TCO) reporting second order rate constant in the range of k2=1-7.5×10−2 M−1s−1. (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2015, 137, 8388-8391). The use of the most reactive trans-bicyclononene (s-TCO) increases the reaction rate with the highest reported values of k2=25 M−1s−1. There is very little literature data about the kinetics of the reaction of 1,2,4-triazines with strained alkynes. Webb group investigated the reaction of 3-substituted-1,2,4-triazine with (1R,8S,9R)-bicyclo[6.1.0]non-4-yn-9-ylmethanol (BCN) reporting the rate constant of k2=3-5×10−4 M−1s−1 (K. A. Homer, N. M. Valette, M. E. Webb, Chemistry—A European Journal 2015, 21, 14376-14381). Unfortunately, none of the 1,2,4-triazine derivatives developed to date satisfy this criteria.
In a more general context, pyridines are common motifs found in pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, functional materials, catalytic ligands and new, more efficient ways of making them are inherently desirable.

Preparation of metal-pyridine derivative complexes for use in medical imaging


An implement for disposing of dung of a pet animal adapted to be pointed to a rump of a pet animal by a user to receive dung of the pet animal through a sack, comprises an elongated tubular body having first and second ends, a housing body mounted on an upper wall of the elongated tubular body for carrying vertically stacked cartridges therein, each of the cartridges including a pair of casing members hingedly connected at one ends thereof to each other and a sack supported between the casing members in a manner to be folded up, a pair of receiving members inserted in a longitudinal bore of the tubular body for receiving a lowermost one of tile cartridges when the lowermost cartridge drops down from the housing body toward the bore of the tubular body by gravity, a rod-like pusher movably inserted in the bore of the tubular body for pushing toward the first end of the tubular body the lowermost cartridge received by the receiving members, the receiving members pivotally connected at one ends thereof to the pusher, between which receiving members a spring is stretched, thereby always urging the receiving members to be opened away from each other, and cooperating members on the receiving members and the casing members of each of the cartridges for causing the casing members to be separately held on the receiving members when each of the cartridges is received by the receiving members.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an improvement of an implement for disposing of dung of a pet animal such as a dog or the like, and more particularly to a dung disposing implement which is adapted to be pointed to a rump of a pet animal by a user, when the pet animal acts as if it was ready to excrete dung, to receive dung excreted from it.
2. Description of the Prior Art
This kind of dung disposing implement is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,717,186 and 4,878,703 to Mashayuki Yoshioka who is the inventor of the present invention. In each of the dung disposing implements disclosed in these patents, there is employed a cartridge which generally includes a pair of casing members pivotally connected at one ends thereof to each other, and a vinyl sack having an opening for receiving dung of a pet animal and a resilient wire provided along a margin of the opening of the vinyl sack, the vinyl sack being supported through the resilient wire between the casing members in a manner to be folded When the cartridge is pushed out of a tip end of an elongated tubular member of each of the conventional dung disposing implements by pushing means, the casing members of the cartridge are opened away from each other due to an elastic force of the resilient wire of the cartridge whereby the vinyl sack having been folded up between the casing members is simultaneously spread, resulting in the opening of the vinyl sack being completely opened. In state where the opening of the vinyl sack is completely opened, a user points the elongated tubular member to a pet animal so as to cause the opened vinyl sack to be held to a rump of the pet animal, whereby the vinyl sack can receive dung excreted from the pet animal. After the cartridge receives dung of the pet animal through the spread vinyl sack thereof, the cartridge is disposed of as waste. Generally speaking, this kind of waste is incinerated.
In each of the conventional dung disposing implements, when the cartridge is pushed out of the tip end of the elongated tubular member by the pushing means, the vinyl sack of the cartridge is adapted to be spread with resort to the elastic force of the resilient wire provided along the margin of the opening of the vinyl sack. Therefore, the resilient wire is indispensable for causing the vinyl sack to be spread. When the cartridge, after receiving dung of a pet animal through the vinyl sack, is incinerated, the resilient wire will remain unburned, since the resilient wire is nonflammable. Therefore, the cartridge including the resilient wire which is nonflammable is undesirable. In addition, the cartridge includes the resilient wire as an indispensable part thereof, so that the cartridge is complex in construction and high in cost. It is desirable that the cartridge which is to be disposed of as waste can be manufactured simply and at a low cost.

Implement for disposing of dung of a pet animal


A ceramsite produced by using a river/lake/sea sludge and seashell powder as raw materials and a preparation method thereof are provided. The ceramsite is made of the following raw materials in parts by weight: 15-50 parts of shell powder, 5-15 parts of kaolin, 1-5 parts of peat ash, 15-30 parts of siliceous shale, 15-40 parts of furnace slag, 10-20 parts of fly ash, 15-40 parts of zeolite, 10-30 parts of river/lake/sea sludge, and 10-25 parts of peat. The shell powder is pulverized to a particle size of 60-200 mesh in fineness. A content of silica in the siliceous shale is 87.0%-89.5%. The preparation method of the ceramsite includes the following steps: taking raw materials, pulverizing, stirring, granulating, calcining, and naturally cooling, so as to obtain the ceramsite.

As a kind of lightweight aggregate, ceramsite can be used instead of ordinary sand and stone to prepare lightweight aggregate concrete. The ceramsite has a wide application in departments of construction, environmental protection, metallurgy, chemical industry, petroleum, agriculture, etc. Especially in the aspect of water treatment, the ceramsite, as a filler for water treatment, has been used more and more widely. The calcination of ceramsite with the addition of sludge was first proposed by Nakouzi et al., wherein the ceramsite was obtained by pelletizing and calcination by using the sludge as a raw material, and adding an appropriate amount of auxiliary materials.
Shells, oysters, etc., are common marine products. At present, the development and utilization of seashell products generally focuses on processing the edible parts. While using the edible parts, a large number of shells are produced. Most of these shells are discarded, and only a small part of these shells are used for making feed. The shells discarded as garbage are piled up for a long time. The residual organic matters occupy space, decay and stink during the long-time storage process, which endangers the health of residents and causes serious pollution to the ecological environment. In recent years, shell products are increasing rapidly with the continuous expansion of the scale of aquaculture in coastal cities. It receives much concern as how to protect the ecological environment, control shell pollution, develop and utilize the large number of cheap and discarded shell resources, recycle and turn the garbage into treasure.
At present, some ceramsite products have been prepared by using seashell products as raw materials. A Chinese patent with the application number of 2013103846370 (Application Date: Aug. 29, 2013), "Method for Preparing a Shell Ceramsite Biocarrier", discloses a shell ceramsite biocarrier and a preparation method thereof. The biocarrier is a ceramsite sintered with shells, clay and a high temperature binder, and the prepared shell ceramsite biocarrier has rich foam structures, and is beneficial to the propagations of various microorganisms. But the cost is high, and the treatment effect on wastewater contaminated with heavy metals is limited. A Chinese patent with the application number of 2014103348562 (Application Date: Jul. 14, 2014), "Method for Producing Ceramsite, Ceramsite, and Application of Ceramsite", discloses a method for producing ceramsite. In the method, fly ash, sludge, clay and oyster shell powder are used as raw materials, wherein the sludge is subjected to a pressure filtration and a natural drying treatment in water works, and a water content of the sludge is 45-60%. The ceramsite is achieved by granulating and sintering the above raw materials at a high temperature, which is beneficial to reduce the consumption of the clay. The obtained ceramsite has good ability to adsorb pollutants, but has low strength and low bio-immobilization efficiency. A Chinese patent with the application number of 2015104033827 (Application Date: Jul. 11, 2015), "Ceramsite Aerated Block Added with shell powder" discloses a ceramsite aerated block prepared by shell powder, ceramsite, fly ash, quicklime, cement, aluminum powder, gypsum powder, sludge, calcium lignosulfonate, iron powder, nano aluminum oxide, carbon black, absolute ethanol and water. The block is not easy to crack, saves natural resources, but cannot absorb harmful substances.

Ceramsite produced by using river/lake/sea sludge and seashell powder as raw materials and preparation method thereof

QINGDAO YI ECO-ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD


Supply of supplementary fuel is controlled through a supplementary fuel supply passage in a carburetor to an engine according to a variety of methods and devices.

Many small internal combustion engines are supplied with a combustible charge of air and fuel using a carburetor. A typical carburetor includes a body at least partially defining a liquid fuel chamber, an air and fuel mixing passage, and one or more fuel passages in communication between the fuel chamber and the air and fuel mixing passage. The fuel passages communicate with the mixing passage between an air inlet at an upstream end and an air-and-fuel mixture outlet at a downstream end. Typically, a choke valve is disposed in the air and fuel mixing passage near the upstream end to control a quantity of air flowing into the mixing passage during engine cold starting and warm up. A throttle valve is disposed in the air-and-fuel mixing passage near the downstream end to control a quantity or flow rate of the air-and-fuel mixture flowing out of the mixing passage to the operating engine.
In operation, engine pistons reciprocate and induce a pulsating vacuum through the carburetor such that air is pulled through the mixing passage toward the engine. This airflow induces a pressure differential in the carburetor, thereby causing liquid fuel to flow out of the fuel passages and into the air and fuel mixing passage where the fuel becomes mixed with air to create the air and fuel charge. The carburetor controls the combustible charge of air and fuel by controlling the flow of liquid fuel that becomes entrained in the mixing passage airflow, and by controlling the flow of air into the mixing passage and/or the flow of air-and-fuel mixture out of the mixing passage. More specifically, the carburetor may be manipulated to adjust an air-to-fuel (A/F) ratio in accord with varying engine requirements during engine startup, idle, steady-state operation, maximum power output, changes in load and altitude, and the like.
In one example, an operator may manually rotate the choke valve to a substantially closed or "choke-on" position such that vacuum in the mixing passage will be greater than when the choke valve is open. Thus, a greater quantity of fuel will be pulled into the mixing passage for a more fuel-rich A/F ratio for supply to the engine. In other words, the choke valve may limit the air flow rate through the mixing passage relative to the fuel flow rate to block or "choke" air flow through the air-and-fuel mixing passage.
In another example, some carburetors have startup systems that provide supplementary fuel when cranking a cold engine by opening a "start fuel" or supplementary fuel supply passage provided separately from a primary fuel supply passage. Such startup systems typically stop the supply of the supplementary fuel once the engine has been successfully started.

Supplying supplementary fuel for engine startup


An optical mount is used for mounting an optical element, such as a beam splitter or a mirror, to a housing. The optical mount includes a pair of optical element retainer clamps that secure a first side of the optical element at respective first securement points on one of the major surfaces of the optical element, and also engage a first edge. A whiffletree retainer clamp secures a second side of the optical element at a second securement point on the one of its major surfaces. The whiffletree retainer clamp couples a whiffletree retainer to the housing, with the whiffletree retainer engaging a second edge along the second side of the device. The whiffletree retainer is positionally adjustable, for example able to pivot. Pivot pads may be used in at least some of the engagements to secure the optical element. The pivot pads may be segments of ball bearings.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention is in the field of mounts for optical elements, and methods for securing and/or adjusting optical elements.
2. Description of the Related Art
Precision optical devices or elements, such as beam splitters or mirrors, may need substantially strain-free optical mounts to provide diffraction-limited optical performance. One typical type of mount capable of achieving these requirements is referred to as kinematic. The theory of kinematic design assumes that the bodies are perfectly rigid, and that contact only occurs at points. Every rigid body possesses six degrees of freedom. These degrees of freedom are translations along three (3) mutually orthogonal axes, and three (3) rotations around these axes. The theory of kinematic design states that a rigid body has (6-n) degrees of freedom, where (n) is the number of contact points. Any mount or support that constrains a rigid object with more than six (6) contact points, is said to "over-constrain" the object, which likely results in distortion and uncertain position of the object. In kinematic design, three (3) points determine a plane, so that contact of a plane surface to more than three (3) points, distorts the plane surface to the co-planarity of all points contacting the plane surface. This co-planarity requirement for the mating surface must then be equal to the optical tolerance for flatness of the plane surface, which typically is a fraction of the wavelength of light. Such a requirement for mechanical surfaces, designed to mate with optically flat surfaces, imposes significant design and fabrication challenges.
Current mounts use angularly adjustable frames that house rectangular optic devices which are potted with room temperature vulcanization (RTV) silicone, or some other suitable adhesive. These adhesives are liquid when applied and thus conform to the optic's surface, but typically induce some strain into the optic when cured to their final state as a more rigid compound. The coefficient of thermal expansion of these RTV compounds does not equal those of the optic or the metals, such as aluminum, typically used to fabricate optical mounts. To ensure strain-free mounting of potted optics, over temperature changes, the gap used for the potting must be athermalized, i.e., made to function as though it is unchanging, independent of temperature. This means that the gap is sized such that ideally, no stress results from expansion differences between the mount, the RTV or other potting compound, and the optic being mounted. Since materials expand in all three dimensions simultaneously, designing perfectly athermal potting gaps can be challenging. For non-circular optics, such as in rectangular shapes, this more complex geometry results in athermalized gap designs that are typically impractical to fabricate, due to the requirement for continually varying cross-sections. RTV and other optics bonding adhesives generally used, typically possess a low bulk modulus of elasticity to minimize forces on the optic resulting from non-athermalized gaps. The more non-circular the optic, the greater the temperature changes relative to the bonding temperature, the more sensitive the optic to strain, etc., all underscore the importance of a perfectly athermalized potting gap. Strain induced by temperature changes on non-athermalized gaps can both deform the optic, and tilt it relative to surfaces of the frame to which it is potted. As an option, some frames may use flexures for mounting the optic within the frame. The flexure, or any surfaces or materials contacting the optic, which over-constrain it, can create localized stresses at the points of contact-with the optic. This can result in degraded optical characteristics, such as degraded surface figure, with its resulting degradation on optical wavefronts interacting with strained optical surfaces. Minimizing strain in optics can also be challenging, particularly in extreme environmental conditions, such as involving temperature extremes, vibrations, and/or shocks. It would be desirable to have improved optical mounts that would avoid or alleviate these shortcomings.


Implementations and techniques for containing electrolyte leaks are generally disclosed.

Unless otherwise indicated herein, the approaches described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Ultracapacitors may be useful in a variety of applications, such as, for example, electric and hybrid vehicles. Ultracapacitors may contain and may be at risk of leaking electrolyte. Some electrolytes may be a significant fire hazard. Even in cases where the type or amount of leaked electrolyte does not cause a safety hazard, the leaks may cause undesirable parasitic current paths that may drain power and cause other performance problems.

Laminate structure comprising a lipophilic gel for containing electrolyte leaks


A data processing system and method of task management within a self-managing application program including a number of tasks and a processing time monitor are disclosed. In accordance with the present invention, a selected portion of processing time is allocated to each of the tasks in the self-managing application and the tasks are executed by the data processing system. Utilizing the processing time monitor, a determination is periodically made whether an actual portion of processing time utilized by each of the tasks exceeds the selected portion of processing time allocated to that task. In response to a determination that an actual portion of processing time utilized by a particular task exceeds the selected portion of processing time allocated that task, execution of the particular task is suspended for a selected penalty time. In one embodiment, the penalty time is selected such that following the expiration of the penalty time, the actual portion of processing time utilized by the particular task will be no greater than the selected portion of processing time allocated to the particular task.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to a method and system for data processing and in particular to method and system for task management within a multitasking data processing system. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to a data processing system and method of task management within a self-managing application.
2. Description of the Related Art
Operating systems such as DOS (Disk Operating System) initially permitted only one task or process to be performed at a time. Thus, for example, a user of a word processing application could not print a first document while typing a second document. In order to permit multiple tasks to be executed concurrently (at least from a user's perspective), multitasking operating systems were developed. In general, multitasking operating systems can be classified as either cooperative or time-slice, depending upon the manner in which the operating systems allocate processing time to tasks.
Cooperative multitasking operating system classify tasks as either foreground or background tasks. Background tasks are granted processing time only during idle periods of the foreground tasks, such as periods when the foreground tasks are performing input and output operations. Time-slice multitasking operating systems, in contrast, allocate processing time (i.e., time slices) to each task in round robin fashion or based upon task priority.
Time-slice multitasking operating systems are often viewed as preferable to cooperative multitasking operating systems because background tasks running under cooperative multitasking operating systems receive insufficient processing time if the concurrent foreground tasks have minimal idle periods. Time-slice multitasking operating systems, however, are also subject to deficiencies. For example, conventional time-slice multitasking operating systems do not include facilities to detect an endless program loop in a task, which can lock out the operating system and prevent other tasks from receiving processing time. Similarly, in priority-based time-slice multitasking operating systems, a high priority task can prevent lower priority tasks from receiving adequate processing time. In addition, time-slice multitasking operating systems frequently preempt execution of well-behaved tasks that are not overusing the available processing resources, thereby incurring context switching delays.
In response to these deficiencies in conventional multitasking operating systems, multitasking operating systems have recently been developed which include scheduling facilities that utilize processing time estimates provided by tasks prior to dispatch to allocate processing resources to the tasks. However, for data processing systems that do not utilize a multitasking operating system with such scheduling facilities, a method for task management is needed that regulates the processing time allocated to each of a plurality of concurrent tasks.

Data processing system and method of task management within a self-managing application

International Business Machines Corporation


An object is to measure absorbance of aqueous cosmetic materials that have not heretofore been studied for absorbance measurement, and particularly to form a uniform layer of thin film in order to ensure accurate measurement without causing these aqueous cosmetic materials, which are O/W emulsions, to undergo phase separation during measurement. As a means for achieving the foregoing, an absorbance measurement method is provided, wherein an absorbent aqueous composition is applied on the surface of a substrate, which surface has been plasma treated, arc-discharge treated, or corona-discharge treated, to achieve a contact angle with pure water of 0 to 70.0 degrees, and the applied absorbent aqueous composition is measured for absorbance.

The technical background of the present invention is explained below.
Currently in Japan, SPF (abbreviation of Sun Protection Factor) indicating the ability to protect against ultraviolet (UV) B waves of 290 to 320 nm in wavelength, and PA (Protection Grade of UVA) indicating the ability to protect against UVA waves of 320 to 400 nm in wavelength, are used as UV protection indicators for cosmetic materials. When measured results of SPF and PA are displayed on cosmetic materials, the displayed measurements or grades thereof must be based on the standard measurement methods for SPF and PA as specified by the Japan Cosmetic Industry Association (Non-patent Literature 1) (Non-patent Literature 2).
Overseas, each region basically requires SPF and PA values to be displayed according to certain measurement and marking methods (Non-patent Literature 3), but the basic measurement methods are effectively the same. Under the standard measurement methods, high-output UV light is irradiated onto the human back, and UV protection effect is measured from the resulting inflammation reaction and darkening reaction visually observed on the skin. Since human subjects are used, however, measurement is time-consuming and expensive, and it also takes a long time to obtain results.
In addition, use of human subjects also raises ethical and medical questions, etc.; accordingly, in vitro measurement methods where UV protection effect is measured with machines, instead of using human subjects, are studied in Japan and Europe (non-patent Literature 4). However, the in vitro measurement methods currently being studied reportedly have a number of problems (Non-patent Literature 5). In a study conducted by the inventor of the present invention, identical samples tested according to the same standard produced varying SPF values with up to around 20-fold differences.
There are several obvious reasons that can scientifically explain this problem, which means that understanding these causes and conducting the test under a condition where they are controlled should solve the problem. The reality, however, is that the problem is yet to be solved. Having cutting-edge technology in this scientific field, the inventor of the present invention had studied whether these causes could be controlled accurately, and if so, the accuracy, repeatability of control, and the like.
As a result, the inventor found that addressing the following issues in the sample preparation stage would hold the key to solving the problem: accurate measurement of UV absorbance is impossible if the coating film of the sample has irregular thicknesses; a thin film of several μm to less than 20 μm should be applied as smoothly as possible with the accuracy of 1 μm or so; and coating is performed without setting a coating weight per unit area.
If the sample is abundantly available and a large, flat coating film is formed over several square meters, one method is to use a large device such as those described in (Non-patent Literature 6) and (Patent Literature 1), and this method is also used in liquid crystal coating of displays, etc.
In the case of cosmetic materials, however, the sample quantities are small and the required coating areas are as small as several tens of cm2. Accordingly, developing a measurement method appropriate for cosmetic materials requires understanding of relevant scientific phenomena. Also, actual studies found that spin coaters, which are believed to form smooth coating films in resist coating and other applications, permit thin streaky structures to form on the surface of coating film and thus cannot form a smooth surface, as described in Patent Literature 2. Even wire coaters, which are used when forming smooth coating films with paints, can form smooth coating films for some cosmetics, but not for other cosmetics, as demonstrated by actual testing.
Also, when it comes to paint and resist technologies, originally, the meaning of "smooth" permits variation of several tens of μm (Non-patent Literature 7), where the required accuracy is substantially different from the level required for measurement methods of UV protection effect used for cosmetic materials. For this reason, researching existing literatures and listing and testing methods that are described as capable of achieving smooth coating will only confirm the difficulty of forming thin films of cosmetic materials having various properties. This, as described in Non-patent Literature 3, is one reason why development of in vitro measurement methods is unsuccessful, although 13 years has passed since the first development and various improvements have been made around the world.
Among the above measurement methods and devices for cosmetic materials, Patent Literature 3 describes a method, and a device to implement the method, for measuring the effect of each cosmetic material, which is a liquid cosmetic material effectively assumed as an oily cosmetic material, by applying it uniformly on a quartz plate, etc., or doing so after dispersing the material in an oily solvent in the case of a powder cosmetic material.
In recent years, however, cosmetic materials and sunscreens of O/W (Oil/Water) emulsion type, of which the primary function is to absorb and/or reflect UV light, have become available on the market. These compositions behave like an aqueous solution against the object on which they are applied, but just as oily compositions are applied uniformly in Patent Literature 3 above, these cosmetic materials and sunscreens must also be applied uniformly on the surface of the base material for measurement of property to block the transmission of UV light, in particular. In addition, the thickness variation of the formed coating film must clearly be much smaller than what is expected at the levels of uniform application seen in fields other than cosmetic materials.
Surprisingly, applying such aqueous composition uniformly on the base material surface is extremely difficult, and when a quartz or other standard substrate is used as is, the formed coating film of O/W emulsion or aqueous solution can have minute irregularities, or the coating film may be formed in the shapes of islands due to the hydrophilicity of the O/W emulsion or aqueous solution, or island-like areas where coating film is not formed may occur, and for all these reasons, it has been proven inappropriate to use the methods for applying oily compositions and materials associated with these methods directly for application of aqueous compositions. There is also a practice of wearing a rubber finger cot over one's fingertip and using this covered fingertip to apply an oily composition on a substrate; however, such method causes the makeup of the composition before application to differ from the makeup of the composition of the applied film, because the oily component in the composition adsorbs onto the finger cot surface which is more lipophilic. As a result, accurately measuring the properties of compositions using this method has been difficult.
Also, accurate absorbance measurement is not possible with these compositions, unless they are formed into a uniform film. Otherwise, phase separation may occur during measurement, making it difficult to accurately measure UV protection capability.
If the coating film surface has minute irregularities and the UV transmissivity of the coating film as a whole is measured first, it is expected that, although the variation in coating film thickness due to these minute irregularities is directly linked to the variation in UV transmissivity, the coating film as a whole will have the level of UV transmissivity that is attained if the coating film is formed smoothly with an average thickness.
Contrary to this prediction, however, measuring the transmissivity of UV light through the coating film having minute irregularities reveals that this transmissivity is higher than that of a uniform coating film having a consistent average thickness, which leads in a lower value of measured SPF (UV protection index) and consequently makes accurate measurement of SPF value difficult. When the coating film is formed in the shapes of islands or has island-like areas where nothing is applied, naturally, accurate measurement of SPF value is certainly impossible.
In the field of paints and inks, it is a known general theory that an aqueous composition can be applied uniformly on a hydrophilic surface; in the case of paints and inks, however, coating films are relatively thick and not assumed to be as thin as the coating films of cosmetic materials, and moreover, there is no strict requirement as to the level of uniformness of the uniform surface of the applied film.
As described above, it is not assumed that measuring the SPF value, etc., of an aqueous cosmetic material entails forming a uniform layer of thin film, and even if an attempt is made to form a uniform layer, such attempt is clearly futile.
In addition, these same problems pertaining to the measured result of UV light absorbance and the behavior of the applied coating film, are seen with beams of light other than UV light, such as visible light and infrared light.
In the area of absorbance measurement of liquid, a method to put a liquid in a cell for measurement is known, for example; however, particularly in the case of a liquid which is applied on the skin for use and is easily separated into its so-called oil phase and water phase, the result obtained by measuring this liquid in a cell may not be accurate as it may not fully reflect the level of absorbance the liquid would demonstrate when applied for use.
Also, in view of how they are used, cosmetic materials and sunscreens may be considered to be measured for their effectiveness by recreating a condition where they are applied on the human skin surface, as described in Patent Literature 4; however, hydrophilicity and other properties of the human skin surface completely differ depending on various conditions, such as whether the skin has been washed with soap immediately before, how much time has elapsed after it was washed, and whether the skin has perspired. This is why, in many cases, the same cosmetic material can be applied uniformly on some, but not on others. Accordingly, perfect recreation of applied condition on the human skin surface has been effectively difficult. Consequently, using these inaccurate measurement results as the very characteristics of cosmetic materials, etc., has also been difficult.

Method and device for measuring absorbance of aqueous compositions using a substrate having a surface with an adjusted contact angle with water


Device enumeration support techniques are described for busses that do not natively support enumeration. In one or more embodiments, an intermediate controller of a computing device is configured to interconnect and manage various hardware devices associated with the computing device. The intermediate controller may detect connection and disconnection of hardware devices in association with one or more communication busses employed by the computing device. In response to such detection, the intermediate controller may send appropriate notifications to an operating system to alert the operating system when hardware devices come and go. This enables the operating system to enumerate and denumerate hardware devices within a device configuration and power management system implemented by the operating system that facilitates interaction with the hardware devices through corresponding representations.

Mobile computing devices have been developed to increase the functionality that is made available to users in a mobile setting. For example, a user may interact with a mobile phone, tablet computer, or other mobile computing device to check email, surf the web, compose texts, interact with applications, and so on. Some traditional communication busses (e.g., universal serial bus (USB)) used to interconnect connect hardware devices associated with a computing device may consume significant amounts of power, which may hinder the mobility of the device. Accordingly, alternative busses may be selected by a hardware developer for device designs to improve power consumption characteristics of the computing device. However, at least some alternative busses may not natively support device enumeration (e.g., plug-and-play or hot swapping capabilities), which may complicate addition/removal of hardware and detract from a user's experience with the device.

Device enumeration support method for computing devices that does not natively support device enumeration


A digital rights management system permits an application owner to cause code to be injected into the application's run-time instruction stream so as to restrict execution of that application to specific hardware platforms. In a first phase, an authorizing entity (e.g., an application owner or platform manufacturer) authorizes one or more applications to execute on a given hardware platform. Later, during application run-time, code is injected that performs periodic checks to determine if the application continues to run on the previously authorized hardware platform. If a periodic check fails, at least part of the application's execution string is terminated—effectively rendering the application non-usable. The periodic check is transparent to the user and difficult to circumvent.

The invention relates generally to digital rights management and more particularly, by way of example, to performing a check at run-time to determine if a software application is authorized to execute on a specific hardware platform.
It has become common practice for computer system manufacturers to preload their hardware platforms with one or more software applications. The single, most widespread, application being the operating system. In many instances, the developer of an application may wish to restrict its execution to a specific computer system or hardware platform. Once an application has been distributed, however, the application's developer/owner has little control over its subsequent re-distribution. This is becoming an especially vexing problem in that virtually every new computer system in the marketplace includes the software and hardware needed to: make exact copies of digital content (e.g., applications and multimedia content); transfer these copies to magnetic or optical disks; and distribute these copies via a computer network (e.g., the Internet or corporate or academic intranet).
The application owner may, of course, require the user to promise not to copy, distribute or use the application on another platform as part of the transaction by which the user obtains their copy. Such promises are, however, easy to make and easy to break. The application owner may also attempt to prevent re-distribution or re-use in a number of ways, usually involving encryption and decryption of the application or the use of specialized security hardware devices ("dongles"). There is very little, however, that these approaches can do to thwart a determined user.
Thus, it would be beneficial to provide a mechanism to restrict the execution of one or more applications to a specific hardware platform that is transparent to the user.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Run-time code injection to perform checks


A process is disclosed for purification of silicon source material including trichlorosilane. First, the silicon source material in liquid state with impurities vapor and the other chlorosilane or silane are passing a first high gravity rotating packed bed with porous metal, at a temperature lower than the boiling point of the silicon source material, the impurities vapor and the other chlorosilane or silane are separated from the liquid silicon source material; second, the silicon source material in liquid state is fed to a second high gravity rotating packed bed, oxygen is also fed to the second high gravity rotating packed bed to form impurity-containing siloxane complexes with higher boiling point. Finally distilling to remove the impurity-containing siloxane complexes from the silicon source material.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a process for purifying silicon source materials, and more particularly to a process for purifying trichlorosilane or mixtures of trichlorosilane and silicon tetrachloride by high gravity rotating packed bed.
2. Description of Relative Prior Art
Electronic grade polysilicon (EGS) can be obtained from trichlorosilane or mixtures of trichlorosilane and silicon tetrachloride after removing impurities such as boron and phosphorus. Most impurities can be readily removed from trichlorosilane or silicon tetrachloride by distillation. Trace impurities of boron or phosphorus which are usually present in the form of BCl3, PCl3, B2H6 or PH3, however, to reduce such contamination to an acceptably low level by distillation would require several sequential distillation steps. One reason is that the bubble of the impurity gases is not easy to pump out from the liquid state of trichlorosilane and silicon tetrachloride, and the impurity gas may dissolve in the liquid. The other reason is that the boiling point of BCl3 (12.5° C.) and PCl3 (74.2° C.) is not high enough nor low enough and may coming out with trichlorosilane when the temperature rise above 32° C. to extract trichlorosilane.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,616,245 to Albrecht et al. teaches a high gravity separator to separate solid materials. Other process has been proposed for purifying water to remove out the oxygen or other gas with a high gravity separator. U.S. Pat. No. 4,283,255 to Ramshaw et al. teaches a process and apparatus for effecting mass transfer between two fluid phases by using a rotating element, but none of the prior arts using rotating element is used to remove the impurities in silicon source materials. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,374,110 and 4,409,195 to Darnell et al. teaches a process to purify silicon source materials by reacting small amounts of oxygen with trichlorosilane in gas state at a temperature between 170° C. or 60° C. to 300° C.
It is desirable to have a purification process which achieve a still higher level of purification and does not require the time and expense of multiple distillation and high temperature reaction.

Process for purifying silicon source material by high gravity rotating packed beds


A user recommendation method and a related system are provided. In the user recommendation method, combination information from a first user is obtained. A first type of the combination information includes first cluster information and an option control. The option control is one of a first type of option control and a second type of option control. If the combination information from the first user is recognized as being in the first type, the first cluster information of the combination information from the first user is matched with the first cluster information of the combination information from a second user. The option control of the combination information from the second user is different from the option control of the combination information from the first user. If the matching succeeds, information of the second user is transmitted to the first user.

Nowadays, E-commercial companies, such as Taobao and Jingdong, have enormous user groups. Servers of the E-commercial companies publish information of different products. After a user logs into the server, the user inputs tag information of the needed products. The servers may search for the needed products of the user based on the tag information.
However, the function of providing the user with the needed product only based on the tag information by the server of the E-commercial company is not flexible enough to meet growing demands of users.

User recommendation method and related system

Shanghai Fusion Management Software Co., LTD.


A printing method using at least one transfer roller, whose roller surface is charged with a coating material, for example a toner. The coating material is directly or indirectly transferred from the transfer roller to a support surface of a transfer element, before being transferred at least partially from the transfer element to a workpiece to be coated. According to this invention, the transfer element has a stretching element which forms the support surface and the support surface is stretched in the direction of the surface by a stretching device. This ensures that this method can also be used to easily coat 3-dimensional surfaces which are curved in space.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a printing device with at least one transfer roller having a surface that can be charged at least partially with a coating material, for example toner, wherein the coating material can be applied indirectly or directly to a carrier surface of a transfer element.
This invention also relates to a printing method wherein a coating is applied to a workpiece using a transfer element.
2. Description of Related Art
A coating method is known from European Patent Reference EP 0 647 885 A1, which is used for imprinting ceramic and glass products. A toner is employed, with toner particles that have a pigment core, the toner particles consisting of ceramic pigments and glassy flux surrounded by a binder resin envelope. Charge control means are coupled to the binder resin envelope. The toner particles are applied to a paper coated with gum arabic with the aid of an electrostatic copying process. A clear lacquer is applied to the coated paper for fixation. The paper can subsequently be placed on a workpiece to be coated, such as a ceramic or glass product, and can be moistened. The paper used as the transfer means can be pulled off, while the gum arabic layer and the colored coating applied to it adhere to the workpiece.
A firing process is performed at the end, wherein the ceramic coloring melts together with the surface of the ceramic or glass product. With this method it is possible to create high quality and scratch-proof coatings.
Furthermore, a printing device is known from European Patent References EP-OS 0 834 784 and EP-OS 0 727 778, which has a tape-like transfer device with a flexible tape with a silicon coating. This tape is pressed against the workpiece by a roller in the area of the transfer of the toner, however, a coating of two-dimensional surfaces is not possible.
It is one object of this invention to provide a coating device, or a coating method, by which it is possible in a simple way to also coat three-dimensional surfaces in particular, which are curved in space.
The object is achieved with a transfer element that has an expansion element forming the carrier surface, and the carrier surface can be expanded by an expansion device.
The expansion element can be deformed with the expansion device so that it is adapted to the contour of the surface to be imprinted. In a simple way it is possible to also imprint complex courses of three-dimensionally shaped surfaces.
For example, the printing method, or the printing device, is suitable for workpieces made of glass, glass ceramics, ceramics, or plastic which are deformed out of the plane. In particular, three-dimensionally shaped parts are now made of the above mentioned materials and cannot easily be printed cost-effectively by known screen-printing techniques. It is possible with the printing method, or the printing device, to imprint three-dimensionally deformed glass panels, for example curved front panels of ovens, operating panels made of glass, glass doors for furniture or curved architectural glass, three-dimensionally deformed cooking surfaces made of glass ceramics with, for example, lower located cooking areas, or higher located operating areas formed out of the plane, as well as curved fireplace viewing panels, three-dimensionally deformed ceramic parts, for example tableware pieces such as plates and dishes, and three-dimensionally deformed plastic surfaces.
In one embodiment of this invention the transfer element is designed as an endless revolving tape, which has along its longitudinal extension at least partially expansion elements, or is designed as an expansion element itself.
The endless tape allows a continuous efficient coating of workpieces. Thus the transfer element is embodied as a rubber tape.
For example, the printing device can be designed so that the expansion device has a die, the die has a die face which is embodied so that it is matched to the surface to be imprinted of the workpiece. The carrier surface of the expansion element can be pushed out of its expanded initial position against the surface to be imprinted by the die. Here, the die stretches the expansion element. However, it is also possible for the carrier surface of the expansion element to be pressed on the workpiece using compressed air or by the action of a vacuum.
In order to prevent the damage of delicate workpieces, in particular brittle and fragile workpieces of glass, glass ceramics or ceramics, during the printing process, the die face of the die can be made from an elastic, resilient material.
So that no coating material is spread between two printing processes, a cleaning arrangement is assigned to the transfer element, by which the carrier surface of the expansion element can be cleaned after the printing process.
It is also possible for the carrier surface of the expansion element to have a silicon coating or to be formed by silicon rubber. Such an embodiment of the surface prevents coating material from adhering to the carrier surface after the printing process.
If workpieces are continuously fed to the printing device, for example by a conveyor belt, the printing process can be designed so that the transfer element, which circulates as an endless tape, is routed past the expansion device. The endless tape can be stopped during the expansion of the carrier surface and the performance of the printing process. The conveyor belt can be stopped simultaneously with the cycling of the endless tape.
A continuous production process can be achieved if the transfer element circulating as an endless tape is conducted past the expansion device. During the extension of the carrier surface and the execution of the printing process the expansion device, and simultaneously the workpiece, are conducted along with the endless tape.
In one embodiment of this invention, a corona device is assigned to the expansion device, which causes or aids the transfer of the coating material to the printing surface of the workpiece to be imprinted.


A support apparatus (10) having a base (14) from which a sign member (16) is suspended having a flexible member (18) in which the sign member (16) is secured (20) to the flexible member (18) and in which an adjustable engagement (26) is secured to the base (14) and spaced apart from the securement of the sign member (16) to the flexible member (18) to adjustably engage the flexible member (18) to position the sign member (16) to a desired distance from the base (14), as well as a method of using the same. It further includes a flexible member (18) in which a sign member (16) is secured to flexible member (18) and providing a support (40) for the flexible member (18) at a location spaced apart from the securement of the sign member (16) in which the sign member (16) and a portion (42) of the flexible member (18) between the support (40) and the sign member (16) are displaceable relative to the support (40).

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a support for a sign, and more particularly to a flexible support which is adjustable in length and a method for using the same.
2. Description of the Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97-1.99
In the sale of merchandise through retail outlets, it is desirable to advertise an item offered for sale to attract customers attention to the item in order to sell more of that item. Thus, when advertising products, it is of advantage to display descriptive information to indicate the item being sold in order to attract the customers attention.
Since items for purchase are located on shelves and in bins of various configurations, a variety of advertising apparatuses have been developed to attract customers attention to the items being sold. Advertising apparatuses of the type having a flexible member and ways of securing the flexible member to a sign member are well known. However, none of the advertising apparatuses provide means for adjustably engaging the flexible member to position a sign member to a desired distance from the base. This can be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 4,352,461, to Orta et el. issued Oct. 5, 1982; U.S. Pat. No. 2,895,246, to Mengee issued Jul. 21, 1959; U.S. Pat. No. 2,133,824, to Meisel issued Oct. 18, 1938; U.S. Pat. No. 1,224,582, to Vandergrift issued May 1, 1917; and U.S. Pat. No. 233,958 to Wetmore issued Nov. 2, 1880.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,774,328, to Tanney issued Nov. 27, 1973; U.S. Pat. No. 2,981,018 to Hoppet el. issued Apr. 15, 1961; U.S. Pat. No. 1,772,126 to Kelsea issued Jul. 22, 1930; and British Patent No. 1,220,674 to Pegg issued Jan. 27, 1968, provide for a flexible member and means for securing the flexible member to the sign member and a support member secured to the base. However, the support member in each of the above stated patents does not adjustably engage the flexible member to position the sign member to a desired distance from the base. In other words, the sign member is not adjustable in distance relative to the base.
Additionally, none of the above stated patents provide a method for engaging at least a portion of the flexible member to an adjustable engagement secured to the base at a desired position along the flexible member to position the sign member to a desired distance from the base. In other words, no method is provided for engaging the sign member in adjustable positions from the base.
Furthermore, none of the advertising apparatuses provide for means of supporting the flexible member at a location spaced apart from the securing means in which the sign member and a portion of the flexible member between the supporting means and the sign member are rotatable relative to the supporting means. This can be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 2,981,018 to Ropp et al. issued Apr. 15, 1961; U.S. Pat. No. 2,895,246, to Menges issued Jul. 21, 1959; U.S. Pat. No. 2,133,824, to Meisel issued Oct. 18, 1938; U.S. Pat. No. 1,224,582, to Vandergrift issued May 1, 1917; U.S. Pat. No. 233,958 to Wetmore issued Nov. 2, 1880; U.S. Pat. No. 3,774,328 to Tanney issued Nov. 27, 1973; U.S. Pat. No. 4,352,461, to Orta et al. issued Oct. 5, 1982; and British Pat. No. 1,220,674 to Pegg issued Jan. 27, 1968.
In U.S. Pat. No. 1,772,126 to Kelsea issued Jul. 22, 1930, does not provide for supporting means of the flexible member at a location spaced apart from the securing means, in which the sign member and a portion of the flexible member between the supporting means and the sign member are rotatable relative to the supporting means.

Flexible adjustable sign support and method of using same


It is intended to achieve a sufficiently-small SRAM cell area and a stable operation margin in a CMOS 6T-SRAM comprising a vertical transistor SGT. In a static type memory cell made up using six MOS transistors, each of the MOS transistor constituting the memory cell is formed on a planar silicon layer formed on a buried oxide film, to have a structure where a drain, a gate and a source are arranged in a vertical direction, wherein the gate is formed to surround a pillar-shaped semiconductor layer. The planar silicon layer comprises a first active region having a first conductive type, and a second active region having a second conductive type. The first and second active regions are connected to each other through a silicide layer formed in a surface of the planar silicon layer to achieve an SRAM cell having a sufficiently-small area.

With a view to achieving higher integration and higher performance of a semiconductor device, an SGT (Surrounding Gate Transistor) has been proposed which is a vertical transistor comprising a pillar-shaped semiconductor layer formed on a surface of a semiconductor substrate, and a gate formed to surround a sidewall of the pillar-shaped semiconductor layer (as disclosed, for example, in Patent Document 1: JP 2-188966A). In the SGT, a source, a gate and a drain are arranged in a vertical direction, so that an occupancy area can be significantly reduced as compared with a conventional planar transistor.
In cases where an LSI (large-scale integration) circuit is made up using an SGT, it is essential to employ an SRAM comprising a combination of a plurality of SGTs, as a cache memory for the LSI circuit. In recent years, there is an extremely strong need for increasing a capacity of an SRAM to be mounted on an LSI circuit. Thus, in the SGT-based LSI circuit, it is also essential to achieve an SRAM having a sufficiently-small cell area.
FIG. 28(a) and FIG. 28(b) are, respectively, a top plan view and a sectional view of a CMOS 6T-SRAM disclosed as one embodiment in Patent Document 1 (JP 7-99311A), wherein an SRAM cell comprises six transistors each designed using an SGT. With reference to FIGS. 28(a) and 28(b), a structure of the SRAM cell will be described below. A bit line, a ground line GND, and a power supply potential line Vcc, are formed by an N+ diffusion layer (801a, 801b), an N+ diffusion layer 802, and a P+ diffusion layer 803. Six pillar-shaped silicon layers are formed on the diffusion layers to constitute two access transistors 810a, 810b each operable to allow access to a memory cell, two driver transistors 811a, 811b each operable to drive the memory cell, and two load transistors 812a, 812b each operable to supply electric charges to the memory cell. Further, a gate (804a, 804b, 804c, 804d) is formed to surround each of the pillar-shaped silicon layers. A storage node is made up of an interconnection layer (807a, 807b). In each of the transistors constituting the SRAM cell, a source, a gate and a drain are vertically formed on and along the pillar-shaped silicon layer, so that the SRAM can be designed to have a sufficiently-small cell area.
Patent Document 1: JP 2-188966A
Patent Document 2: JP 7-99311A (paragraph [0051], FIG. 75)
In reality, the above SRAM cell involves the following problem. In the SRAM discloses in the Parent Document 2, each of the power supply potential line 803 and the ground line 802 in an SRAM cell array can be formed at a level of minimum size so as to achieve a sufficiently-small cell area. However, the power supply potential line 803 and the ground line 802 are formed by the P+ diffusion layer and the N+ diffusion layer, respectively. Thus, if each of the power supply potential line 803 and the ground line 802 is formed at a level of minimum size, a resistance thereof will be extremely increased to preclude a possibility to ensure a stable operation of the SRAM. Conversely, if the size of each of the power supply potential line 803 and the ground line 802 is increased so as to allow the SRAM to stably operate, the SRAM cell area will be increased.
In view of the above circumstances, it is an object of the present invention to provide an SGT-based CMOS 6T-SRAM capable of achieving a reduction in area of an SRAM cell, while ensuring a sufficient operation margin of the SRAM cell.

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