A beverage warming device for collecting, temporarily storing, and thermally maintaining an elevated level of a hot beverage which includes a heated drinking container and a mating holding structure for holding the heated drinking container and connecting it to an electrical power source.

1. Technical Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to a device that thermally maintains an elevated level of a hot beverage.
2. Background Art
People often consume hot drinks such as coffee when driving to their destinations. Time spent in traffic delays and traveling long distances, for example, turns an enjoyable hot drink into a cold distasteful liquid. Heat from the beverage transfers quickly to the ambient surroundings.
Prior art devices include insulated beverage receptacles and hot plates or warmers. Insulated receptacles simply prolong the heat dissipation process. They can elongate the period in which the user considers the beverage enjoyable, but cannot maintain an elevated beverage temperature. Hot plates introduce some heat into the beverage through the bottom area of certain receptacles. However, this hot plate type of heating does not evenly distribute heat throughout the beverage. The reason is very little receptacle surface area contacts the hot plate, therefore minimizing heat transfer through the receptacle to the beverage. Additionally, this type of heater limits the type of receptacle materials that one can place onto them. Certain plastics and other low melting temperature materials will deform or melt when they contact a hot plate. Finally, some problems with other heated beverage apparatus is their design complexity and manufacturing difficulties, lack of thermal adjustability and circuit protection, and poor stability in mobile applications, to mention a few. Therefore, a necessity exists in the art for a simple, electrically heated beverage appliance that thermally maintains an elevated level of a hot beverage contained therein.


Disclosed are embodiments of a field effect transistor that incorporates an elongated semiconductor body with a spiral-shaped center channel region wrapped one or more times around a gate and with ends that extend outward from the center region in opposite directions away from the gate. Source/drain regions are formed in the end regions by either doping the end regions or by biasing a back gate to impart a preselected Fermi potential on the end regions. This disclosed structure allows the transistor size to be scaled without decreasing the effective channel length to the point where deleterious short-channel effects are exhibited. It further allows the transistor size to be scaled while also allowing the effective channel length to be selectively increased (e.g., by increasing the number of times the channel wraps around the gate). Also, disclosed are embodiments of an associated method of forming the transistor.

1. Field of the Invention
The embodiments of the invention generally relate to field effect transistors and, more particularly, to a field effect transistor having an increased effective channel length (Leff).
2. Description of the Related Art
Over the past few decades numerous performance and economic advantages have been seen with semiconductor technology scaling. For example, transistor size scaling has lead to decreased channel lengths and a corresponding increase in switching speeds (i.e., shorter channel lengths correspond to faster switching speeds). However, recently it has been determined that such scaling has its limits because short channel lengths can lead to undesirable "short-channel effects" including, but not limited, variability in threshold voltage and excessive drain leakage currents. Therefore, there is a need in the art for an improved transistor that allows for transistor size scaling without decreasing the effective channel length to the point where such short-channel effects are exhibited.

International Business Machines Corporation


A tunable nanomechanical resonator system comprising an array of nanofeatures, such as nanotubes, where the nanofeatures are in signal communication with means for inducing a difference in charge density in the nanofeature such that the mechanical resonant frequency of the nanofeature can be tuned, and where the nanofeature is in signal communication with a waveguide or other RF bias conduit such that an RF signal having a frequency corresponding to the mechanical resonant frequency of the array will couple to the array thereby inducing resonant motion in the array of nanofeatures, and subsequently coupling to an output waveguide, forming a nanoscale RF filter is provided. A method of producing a nanoscale RF filter structure controllably positioned and oriented with a waveguide and integrated electrodes is also provided.

The present invention is directed to an array of nanoresonators, and more particularly to an array of carbon nanotube resonators for use as a tunable RF filter.
Nanoscale structures are becoming increasingly important because they provide the basis for devices with dramatically reduced power and mass, while simultaneously having enhanced capabilities.
For example, mechanical resonators have been of significant interest because such resonators can exhibit orders of magnitude higher quality factors (Q) than electronic resonators. Such low-loss resonators are important for communications and mechanical signal processing applications. However, practical mechanical resonators have typically used bulk acoustic wave (BAW) oscillators, such as quartz crystals; or surface acoustic wave (SAW) oscillators. These bulk-crystal-based oscillators tend to be bulky and difficult to inexpensively integrate with high frequency electronic circuits. As a result, there has been a move towards Si-micromachined resonators, which can be monolithically integrated with conventional electronics. However, to date Si-based resonators have not been demonstrated at frequencies over 400 MHz, they suffer from reduced quality factors at higher frequencies, and they have limited tuning ranges. In addition, it appears that practical transduction mechanisms for the readout of Si resonators will be problematic for Si oscillators operating at or near the GHz frequency regime. Finally, data suggests that Si resonators will have a small dynamic range.
In contrast, nanoscale mechanical structures hold the potential to enable the fabrication of high-quality-factor (Q) mechanical resonators with high mechanical responsivity over a wide dynamic range. Such devices can form very low-loss, low-phase-noise oscillators for filters, local oscillators, and other signal processing applications. High-Q resonators are critical components in communications and radar systems, as well as in MEMS-based sensors such as a micro-gyroscope. The combination of high-Q with small force constants enabled by nanoscale resonators would also produce oscillators with exceptional force sensitivity. This sensitivity is important for a variety of force-detection-based sensors and may ultimately allow single molecule spectroscopy by NMR and optical techniques. (M. L. Roukes, Solid-State Sensor and Actuator Workshop Proceedings, Hilton Head, S.C., Jun. 4-8, 2000, p. 367.) Such mechanical oscillators are also key components for mechanical signal processing, which is of great interest because small-scale, high-Q mechanical elements may theoretically enable processing at GHz rates with orders-of-magnitude lower power dissipation than conventional CMOS processors. Arrays of nanoscale oscillators are of special interest because such arrays can store more energy than individual nanoresonators and so hold out the possibility of controlling and processing RF signals with significant power levels, as required for many practical communication and radar applications.
Despite the potential for these nanomechanical devices, the practical application of nanotube-based actuators and oscillators has been limited by the development of growth and processing methods for the control of nanotube placement and orientation. These techniques are critical for a wide variety of other nanotube applications including nanotube electronic systems.
One novel approach to making nanometer-scale structures utilizes self-assembly of atoms and molecules to build up functional structures. In self-assembled processing, atom positions are determined by fundamental physical constraints such as bond lengths and angles, as well as atom-to-atom interactions with other atoms in the vicinity of the site being occupied. Essentially, self-assembly uses the principles of synthetic chemistry and biology to grow complex structures from a set of basic feedstocks. Utilizing such techniques molecular motors have been synthetically produced containing fewer than 80 atoms. Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) appears to be the most suitable method for nanotube production for sensor and electronic applications. CVD uses a carbon-containing gas such as methane, which is decomposed at a hot substrate surface (typically 600-900 C) coated with a thin catalyst film such as Ni or Co. However, most studies to date have produced disordered nanotube films.
A notable exception is the work of Prof. Xu of Brown University who has developed a new technique for producing geometrically regular nanotube arrays with excellent uniformity in nanopore templates. Xu et al. Appl. Phys. Lett., 75, 367 (1999), incorporated herein by reference. Post-patterning of these ordered arrays could be used to selectively remove tubes in certain areas or produce regions with different length tubes. A variety of other studies have shown that dense, but locally disordered arrays of normally-oriented nanotubes can be selectively grown on pre-patterned catalyst layers.
In addition, there has been little progress in the control of nanotube orientation in the plane parallel to the substrate surface. Many of the basic electrical measurements of nanotubes have been done using electrodes placed on randomly scattered tubes after growth, or by physically manipulating tubes into place with an atomic force microscope (AFM). Dai and co-workers have been able to demonstrate random in-plane growth between closely spaced catalyst pads, including growth over trenches, as well as a related technique to produce nanotubes suspended between Si posts. Dai. Et al., Science, 283, 512 (1999), incorporated herein by reference. In these cases individual nanotubes sometimes contact adjacent electrodes by chance, and excess tubes can be removed with an AFM tip. This type of procedure can be effective for simple electrical measurements, but considerable improvements will be required for production of more complex nanotube circuits. Smalley""s group has demonstrated a wet chemistry-based method of control over nanotube placement using solution deposition on chemically functionalized substrates, although questions remain about nanotube length control and contact resistance. Smalley et al., Nature, 391, 59 (1998), incorporated herein by reference. More recently, Han and co-workers have demonstrated a process for lateral growth of nanotubes between two electrodes, but with uncontrolled nanotube location and orientation in the plane of the substrate (Han et al., Journal of Applied Physics 90, 5731 (2001)). None of the current techniques have been able to grow vertical individual nanotubes or small groups of nanotubes in controlled locations with integrated electrodes, as would be necessary to form nanotube oscillators or actuators.
At least one group has been able to produce vertical carbon nanofibers (V. Merkulov et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 76, 3555 (2000)), but such nanofibers do not have the ideal graphite-like hollow tube structure of carbon nanotubes. Instead, the fibers exhibit a highly disordered xe2x80x9cbambooxe2x80x9d structure and will therefore have inferior surface and mechanical propoerties and be more suscpetible to losses that degrade resonator quality factors.
In addition to the problems associated with controlled growth and orientation of nanotubes, nanotube actuators and oscillators also require a transduction mechanism to convert input signals to physical motion and to provide corresponding output signals.
One possible electromechanical transduction mechanism is suggested by a recent demonstration that nanotube mats can serve as very high efficiency electromechanical actuators in an electrolyte solution, with the possibility of even better results for well-ordered single wall tubes. Baughman et al., Science, 284 1340 (1999), incorporated herein by reference. In brief, Baughman found that electronic charge injection into nanotubes results in a change in the length of the nanotubes. Conversely, it is expected that changing the length of a nanotube through an externally-applied force will result in the movement of charge on or off the tube, depending on whether the tube is stretched or compressed. However, this technique has only been demonstrated for large disordered arrays of nanotubes. Other potential actuation mechanisms include Coulomb force (electric field force on charges) interaction and light-induced nanotube motion. However, it is expected that light coupling to nanoscale-cross-section nanotubes will be inefficient.
There has been one report of high frequency resonator measurements on carbon nanotube bundles suspended over a trench in which Qs of around 1000 at 2 GHz were observed. (B. Reulet et al., xe2x80x9cAcoustoelectric Effects in Carbon Nanotubes,xe2x80x9d Phys. Rev. Lett. 85: 2829-2832 (2000)). In this case, Coulomb force coupling to a nonintegrated macroscopic local antenna was used to drive the mechanical resonance of the individual suspended nanotube bundle. However, the carbon bundle resonator required superconducting electrodes and low temperature measurement. Furthermore, the individual nanotube resonator is not suitable for RF power handling operation because the vibrational mode of such a device can store and transmit very little energy.
Accordingly, a need exists to develop nanoscale mechanical devices, such as, resonators to enable real-world applications ranging from molecular-scale characterization to ultra-low-loss mechanical filters and local oscillators for communications and radar, to rad-hard low-power mechanical signal processors.
The present invention is directed to a tunable nanomechanical resonator system comprising an array of nanofeatures, such as nanotubes, where the nanofeatures are in signal communication with means for inducing a difference in charge density in the nanofeature (e.g. by biasing one end of the feature) such that the resonant frequency of the nanofeature can be tuned, and where the nanofeature is in signal communication with a waveguide or other RF bias conduit such that an RF signal having a frequency corresponding to the mechanical resonant frequency of the array will couple to the array thereby inducing resonant motion in the array of nanofeatures, which in turn couples to an RF output waveguide structure, forming a nanoscale RF filter. The invention is also directed to growth techniques capable of producing a nanoscale RF filter structure controllably positioned and oriented with a waveguide and integrated electrodes.
In one embodiment, this invention utilizes an array of carbon nanotubes with an integrated electrode on a substrate that functions as an RF filter. This invention is also directed to a device, which utilizes multiple arrays of carbon nanotubes with integrated waveguides and electrodes that functions as an RF filter bank. This invention is also directed to novel systems and methods for utilizing devices comprising at least one array of nanotubes with an integrated waveguide and electrode.
In another alternative embodiment, the nanotube array oscillation is produced by optical irradiation or by direct RF coupling to the array via base and top electrodes.
In still yet another embodiment, the invention is directed to growth and processing techniques to control array location and orientation; and methods for positioning nanotubes during growth, including nanoscale patterning of the substrate to ensure that the growth of the nanotubes is ordered and oriented properly with the waveguide and integrated electrodes.
In still yet another embodiment the nanotubes comprising the arrays are self-assemble into arrays in which each nanotube has a specified diameter and height suitable for use in the devices of the current invention.
In still yet another embodiment, the substrate is made of a semiconductor such as, for example, oxidized silicon or aluminum oxide, coated with a metal catalyst film such as, for example, Ni or Co. In this embodiment, the silicon can be further doped to adjust the electronic properties of the substrate surface.
In still yet another embodiment, the nanotubes comprising the arrays are self-assembled from an inert material such as, for example, carbon utilizing a carbon feedstock gas such as, for example, ethylene.


The present invention provides polymers that are useful in negative resist compositions. Polymers of the present invention comprise (1) a first monomer having a polar functional group; (2) a second monomer; and optionally, (3) a third monomer that imparts at least one characteristic selected from crosslinkable functionality, etch resistance, and solubility modulation. The first monomer provides an acid catalyzed polarity switch upon elimination of the polar functional group, whereas, the second monomer provides aqueous dissolution. The polymers of the present invention may be incorporated into negative resist compositions, which may also include photoacid generators, crosslinking agents, basic compounds, solvents, dissolution accelerators, photobase generators, latent basic compounds, surfactants, adhesion promoters, and anti-foaming agents.

Ongoing efforts are being made in the field of microelectronic devices to achieve higher circuit density. One method of increasing the number of components per chip is to decrease the minimum feature size on the chip, which requires higher lithographic resolution. This has been accomplished over the years by reducing the wavelength of the imaging radiation from the visible (436 nm) down to the ultraviolet (365 nm) and to the deep ultraviolet (DUV) at 248 nm. More recent efforts at developing commercial lithographic processes use ultra-deep ultraviolet radiation, particularly 193 nm and 157 nm. See, for example, Allen et al. (1995) J. Photopolym. Sci. and Tech. 8(4):623, and Abe et al. (1995) J. Photopolym. Sci. and Tech. 8(4):637.
Despite these developments, there are no negative resists that are commercially available for 193 nm and 157 nm lithography. A recent study suggests that negative resists may have a better process window than positive resists for printing narrow trench geometries. See Brunner et al. (2001), Proc. SPIE 4345, 30. Therefore, there is a need to develop negative resists for 193 nm and 157 nm lithography.
Commercial resist candidates for use in 248 nm lithography are all based on cross-linking mechanisms. The problem mostly encountered with cross-linking systems is the micro-bridging of the features, where tiny strings of undeveloped resist material are left in the space between resist lines. Unfortunately, micro-bridging would become more pronounced in 193 nm and 157 nm lithography because of the smaller features.
Another approach, the acid catalyzed polarity switch (from polar to non polar) for negative resists, has been proposed, but has never resulted in a commercial resist. The polarity switch mechanisms involve pinacol rearrangement (from diol to carbonyl) or dehydration of tertiary alcohols attached to styrene based polymers followed by the cross-linking of the vinyl styrene. See Ito et al. (1994) Polymeric Materials for Microelectronic Applications, ACS Symposium Series 579, American Chemical Society, Washington, DC, and references cited therein. Since these mechanisms are generally based on aromatic polymers (e.g., styrene based polymers), they are generally unsuitable for 193 nm and 157 nm lithography because aromatic polymers are opaque at 193 nm and 157 nm. These mechanisms also do not work well with standard developers. Recently, however, attempts have been made to apply a dehydration mechanism in cycloolefin polymers in order to develop 193 nm negative resists. See Fu et al. (2001) Proc. SPIE 4345, 751. However, an organic developer was needed to develop the resist.
Researchers have also attempted to use acid-catalyzed lactone formation of hydroxy acids for 193 nm negative resist development. See Yokoyama et al. (2001) Proc. SPIE 4345, 58, and references cited therein. This type of system normally requires a very weak developer, the product of which has poor shelf-life since the hydroxy acid slowly shifts back into the lactone at room temperature.
Therefore, there remains a need in the art to develop negative resists for 193 nm and 157 nm lithography. This invention addresses that need.

Negative resists based on a acid-catalyzed elimination of polar molecules


The present disclosure provides an aircraft system in the tilt-rotor category with four propulsion units where the tilt angle and thrust of each unit is controlled independently of the other units. The tilt angle for each unit can be adjusted anywhere from below horizontal, to fully forward, and to greater than 180 degrees (i.e. tilted backwards). As a result, the system enables greater control during all phases of flight. Due to continuous, independent tilt control of the angle and thrust of each rotor, the present aircraft can avoid stalls much easier than traditional fixed-wing aircraft and other VTOL designs, as thrust vectors can at any moment be adjusted to compensate for loss of wing lift, making the aircraft safer to use.

The present subject matter relates generally to vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) technologies with quad independent and continuous-tilt rotors, and blended wing-body aircraft for use as an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).
UAV is a powerful aircraft that manipulates aerodynamic forces to provide lift without an onboard human operator. Generally, UAVs can be flown autonomously or piloted remotely, can be expendable or recoverable, and can be enabled to carry payloads.
VTOL is an aircraft that is subject to particular movement conditions including the abilities to vertically takeoff and land from a static position at ground level. VTOL aircrafts can hover in place and perform translational and rotational maneuvers while airborne. Additionally, VTOL aircraft can have the ability to transition between movement phases including vertical takeoff, hover, translational and rotational movement, and vertical landing. VTOL aircraft are advantageous because a smaller area is needed for takeoff and landing than conventional runway takeoff type aircraft. However, the transitions between movement phases of VTOL aircraft while airborne are known to create moment forces and other adverse aerial forces that cause disruptions to the stability of the VTOL aircraft.
Much research has been done to the UAV and VTOL technology to simplify the combined mechanical and control design to reduce the complexity and risk of failure while maintaining stability. It has been known to utilize multiple rotors to provide an improvement to vehicle balance and stability while in use. These vehicles must overcome stability issues relating to adverse moment forces caused by the environment as well as gyroscopic moment forces due to movement conditions and transitioning phases that are generated during aircraft maneuvers.
VTOL technology theoretically enables increased mobility and versatility compared to traditional fixed-wing aircraft. However, the most common VTOL designs, rotorcraft such as helicopters and quadcopters, generally have lower range and endurance compared to a fixed-wing aircraft due to active generation of lift. Existing VTOL designs which incorporate fixed-wing elements, and hence have better range and endurance compared to rotorcraft, tend to fall into 3 categories: quad-plane, tail-sitter, and tilt-rotor. However, such existing designs have instability problems and control difficulties, which decrease the versatility of the aircraft.
Quad-planes, also known as separate lift and thrust (SLT), consist of a fixed-wing design with forward propulsion unit(s), with separate vertical thrust units (usually 4) for VTOL capabilities. The quad-plane in flight has a transition zone where lift is transferred between active generation by the vertical thrusters and passive generation by the wings, as airspeed changes based on varying the thrust provided by the forward propulsion unit(s). During this transition zone, aerodynamic instabilities can occur as air separates and reattaches over the wing surfaces. The quad-plane typically has two control regimes: hover and forward flight, with the transition zone in between. In hover, the quad-plane stabilizes its position by varying thrust on the vertical units and varying the attitude of the aircraft to point the vertical units in various directions. However, due to the relatively large surface area of the wings, this design becomes unable to hold position in high winds, and in order to move forward, the aircraft must pitch down causing negative lift on the wings; or carefully vary the forward thrust while maintaining a positive pitch angle, however, this method does not react fast enough to stabilize the aircraft in gusting wind conditions. In order to move laterally, the aircraft must roll causing increased exposure of the wing area to crosswinds, which can cause the aircraft to become roll-unstable. Moreover, deceleration while maintaining a constant altitude is extremely difficult to control because the aircraft must pitch up so that the vertical units point backwards, and this increases the angle of attack of the wing, thereby increasing lift, followed by stall as the aircraft slows down. Finally, quad-planes control yaw rotation in hover by using differences in torque between the vertical thrusters, driven at different RPMs, which requires a large amount of thrust overhead as yawing torque is equal to rotor drag. During windy conditions, the amount of additional thrust required to maintain heading can easily overwhelm the available thrust and lead to instabilities.
The tail-sitter typically has one or multiple forward-facing propulsion units when the aircraft is in forward flight, and VTOL is achieved by pitching up to 90 degrees such that the same propulsion unit(s) are used to hover. As a result, the aircraft takes off and lands on its "tail" end. Similar to the quad-plane, such designs also have a transition zone between two control regimes. This introduces similar instabilities, difficulties in maintaining position in hover mode during high winds, and it is almost impossible to maintain altitude during the transition regions.
Conventional tilt-rotors use rotor thrust to control roll and pitch, along with optionally using differential tilt angle to control yaw, yielding greater controllability over other designs. However, most existing tilt-rotor systems transition between discrete hover and forward flight modes of operation, in which the rotors are tilted to fixed angles, and not coupled with attitude and position control. Discrete modes of operation prevent these systems from transitioning seamlessly between different airspeed regimes, and reduce translational controllability. Decoupled tilt and attitude control also allows the existing designs to be susceptible to the same stall and spin risks as conventional aircraft in the forward flight mode.
Accordingly, there is a need for a VTOL design that is capable of stable transition zones and avoids the disadvantages of traditional fixed-wing aircraft. There is a need to provide a VTOL UAV system that reduces undesired moment force phenomena generated by aircraft maneuvers to increase flight effectiveness, versatility, and efficiency while maintaining flight stability.

Tilt-rotor vertical takeoff and landing aircraft


A new and distinct cultivar of Lantana plant named ‘Balshamochl’, characterized by its light yellow-colored inflorescences, dark green-colored foliage, and moderately vigorous, mounded growth habit, is disclosed.

The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Lantana plant botanically known as Lantana camara and hereinafter referred to by the cultivar name 'Balshamochl'.
The new cultivar originated in a controlled breeding program in Guadalupe, Calif. during the summer of 2018. The objective of the breeding program was the development of Lantana cultivars having a moderately vigorous, mounded growth habit suitable for use in basket and container plantings.
The new Lantana cultivar is the result of cross-pollination. The female (seed) parent of the new cultivar is the proprietary Lantana camara breeding selection coded LAN-00191, not patented, characterized by its white-colored inflorescences, medium green-colored foliage, and moderately vigorous, compact semi-upright growth habit. The male (pollen) parent of the new cultivar is BANDANA Peach 'LANZ0002', U.S. Plant Pat. No. 23,317, characterized by its yellow, orange, and light red multicolored inflorescences, medium green-colored foliage, and moderately vigorous, relatively compact and mounding growth habit. The new cultivar was selected as a single flowering plant within the progeny of the above stated cross-pollination during May 2019 in a controlled environment in Guadalupe, Calif.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar by terminal stem cuttings since May 2019 in Guadalupe, Calif. and Arroyo Grande, Calif. has demonstrated that the new cultivar reproduces true to type with all of the characteristics, as herein described, firmly fixed and retained through successive generations of such asexual propagation.


A manufacturing method of an ultrasonic probe that has a signal foil made of a copper foil patterned by an additive method is provided. The manufacturing method includes preparing a base material and forming an insulating layer on a surface of the material, patterning the insulating layer by exposure, development, and peeling according to a lithographic technique, forming a cavity reaching an upper surface of the base material in the insulating layer along the patterning, forming a signal foil by performing plating in the cavity in the order of copper plating and solder plating, and demolding the formed signal foil from the cavity.

In a piezoelectric element array of a conventional ultrasonic probe, as shown in FIG. 12, a piezoelectric element array 2 including a number of piezoelectric elements 1 is arranged on a damper (backing) material 4 fitted to a damper stand 3, and electrodes 6a are alternately arranged in a staggered manner and led out by a first flexible printed board 7 which is patterned by etching. In the conventional example shown in FIG. 12, for example, the electrodes 6a of the piezoelectric elements 1 corresponding to 80 channels are led out through silver wires 9 by electrically-conducting paths 8 of the first flexible printed board 7. The first flexible printed board 7 is deposited on an external surface of the damper stand 3 and has electrode lands in two lines on the surface thereof, which are divided into four groups; each having 20 channels. Four pin connectors 12 are arranged corresponding to each of the four groups, with a reinforcing plate 11 intervening therebetween, and each electrode land and an input pin are connected to each other. Electrodes of the piezoelectric elements 1 corresponding to the remaining 40 channels are led out through the silver wires 9 by second and third flexible printed boards (not shown). The second and the third flexible printed boards are superposed on and bonded to the first flexible printed board 7 on opposite sides of the damper stand 3, and another pin connector is arranged on a point side provided on the electrode land, with the reinforcing plate 11 intervening therebetween. Electrodes 6b on a wave transmission/reception face side are commonly connected, for example, by a conductor path, and connected to the electrically-conducting path of the flexible printed board (see Patent Document 1).
In the ultrasonic probe in the conventional example having such a configuration, as described above, a flexible printed board or a solid (flat) silver foil or copper foil having a channel-divided pattern for leading out signals, is bonded to electrodes of a piezoelectric plate (a piezoelectric element array made from lead zirconate titanate, or the like) by solder, and a worker cuts (divides) a signal foil for each channel under a microscope, matched with a cut groove formed on the piezoelectric plate.

Ultrasonic probe and manufacturing method thereof


The nonvolatile semiconductor memory device includes a non-planar active region with floating gates disposed on opposite sides of the active region. A control gate overlaps the floating gates and a portion of the active region.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor memory device and a method of manufacturing the same. More particularly, the present invention relates to a non-planar split-gate-type nonvolatile semiconductor memory device and a method of manufacturing the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, electrically erasable and programmable read only memory (EEPROM) or flash memory devices have become strongly relied upon. A flash memory, widely used nowadays, can be electrically erased and programmed, and retains data even if the supply of power is interrupted.
In a nonvolatile semiconductor memory device, memory cells are connected to a bit line parallel to each other. If the threshold voltage of a memory cell transistor becomes lower than a voltage (normally, 0 V) applied to a control gate of a non-selection memory cell, current flows between a source region and a drain region irrespective of whether a selection memory cell is turned on or off. As a result, all the memory cells are read as if they are continuously in a turn-on state. For this reason, it is necessary to strictly control the threshold voltage in the nonvolatile memory device, which is very difficult. Also, high-speed programming of memory cells necessitates generation of sufficient channel hot carriers, and high-speed erasing thereof requires generation of sufficient Fowler-Nordheim (F-N) tunneling currents. To generate sufficient channel hot carriers or sufficient F-N tunneling currents, a high voltage is indispensable.
To solve these problems, split-gate-type nonvolatile semiconductor memory devices (e.g., as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,045,488) have been proposed. In these conventional split-gate-type nonvolatile semiconductor memory devices, a channel region formed by a floating gate and another channel region formed by a control gate are connected in series on the same plane.
Also, with the increased integration density of semiconductor memory devices, various structures and manufacturing processes of semiconductor devices (e.g., as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,329,685) have been proposed to minimize alignment errors between components such as sources, drains, control gates, and floating gates.
Meanwhile, in recent field effect transistor (FET) techniques, devices are scaled down, thereby achieving high efficiency and thus improving the operating speed. As the channel length of an FET has been scaled down on the level of 100 nm or less, it is very difficult to sufficiently reduce the gate length of the FET by scaling. However, the conventional split-gate-type nonvolatile memory device has a planar channel structure. In this planar FET, the gate length can be scaled along with the scaling of a transistor. However, while the distance between a source region and a drain region decreases, it is difficult to sufficiently scale a tunneling oxide layer.
Thus, adverse coupling occurs between channel regions and the source region or the drain region. This lowers the controllability of a gate for turning on and off a semiconductor device, and leads to a short channel effect (SCE) and drain induced barrier lowering. Therefore, in the conventional planar nonvolatile semiconductor memory devices, the SCE cannot be properly controlled by scaling.
A split-gate-type flash memory device has a floating gate which is separated from a control gate and electrically isolated from the outside. Data storage is enabled by using a variation of current level in memory cells through injection of electrons into the floating gate (i.e., programming) and emission of the electrons from the floating gate (i.e., erasing). The injection of electrons into the floating gate is performed using channel hot electron injection (CHEI), whereas the emission of electrons from the floating gate is performed by F-N tunneling mechanism using an insulating layer between the floating gate and a control gate. Nowadays, attempts are being made to increase the erasing efficiency by forming tips at edge portions of the floating gate, adjacent to the control gate. However, in the conventional nonvolatile semiconductor memory devices, the number of corners of the floating gate where the tips can be formed is too low to improve the erasing efficiency.

Nonvolatile semiconductor memory device having double floating gate structure and method of manufacturing the same


Time-delay circuit for automatic shutdown of furnace systems has an induced draft blower motor and a first circuit for providing energy to the blower motor from an energy source. A second circuit for energizing the primary control system of the furnace, includes a thermostat and an electronic switching means. When the thermostat is "closed", the second circuit is completed to energize the electronic switching element which starts the blower. An airflow switch is provided to sense the start of the blower and to thereby energize a primary control which provides gas to a burner of the furnace. A timer set to a predetermined time interval has an output and two input terminal connections, one connected to the output of the thermostat and another to the output of the primary control system. When the thermostat is "closed" and the burner is operating, the timer is disabled. However, when the thermostat is "closed" and the burner is not operating such as occurs during "lockout" conditions, upon elapse of the predetermined time interval, the timer output interrupts power to the electronic switching means, thereby shutting "off" power to the primary control and to the blower motor.

This invention relates to circuits for controlling the operation of a furnace and, more particularly, to circuits developed to prevent conditions which occur as a result of "lockout".
"Lockout" occurs where fuel, such as natural gas, fed to the burner fails to ignite or does ignite and then is subsequently extingished and the primary control system of the furnace shuts "off" the fuel supply thereto while the thermostat is still calling for heat. Since, in cooler weather, the temperature of the room will usually remain below the level set on the thermostat, the furnace will remain in this "lockout" condition until the primary control is reset, which is generally accomplished by interrupting power thereto by "opening" and then "closing" the thermostat.
In my U.S. Pat. No. 4,856,984, a control circuit is disclosed for automatically resetting the primary burner control after a "lockout" occurs but, in this system, no means is provided to monitor whether the primary control has turned "off" the fuel supply to the burner. The timer only monitors the thermostat operation and resets the furnace if the thermostat is "closed" and does not "open" again within a two-hour time interval. In addition, during such two-hour time period while the timer is running, the induced draft blower will continue to run and draw outside, cold air into the furnace and, as a consequence, accelerate cooling of the space being heated. Further, in some instances and for safety reasons, it is preferable to shutdown the furnace control when in the "lockout" condition and reset it manually.
Accordingly, the principal object of this invention is to provide a means for monitoring both the thermostat and the primary control system so as to shutdown the primary control after a short time interval when the furnace is in a "lockout" condition.
Another object of this invention is to provide means to shut "off" the induced draft blower motor when the fuel burner fails to ignite or the flame is extingished while the thermostat is still calling for heat.


A bearing retainer plate for fall restraint equipment made from a single, continuous piece of sheet metal, where the metal is lasered, cut, and/or butterflied to define a plurality of apertures. A bearing, preferably possessing a self-centering characteristic, is inserted into one of the apertures, while an adapter or bracket for an over-travel stop is inserted into another. A foot lock stud is inserted into another aperture defined by the bearing retainer plate and welded into place. The piece of metal may also define apertures configured to receive fasteners for attaching the plate to the fall restraint equipment, such as to a support structure of a gangway.

Fall restraint equipment, such as gangways, may comprise platforms, ramps, bridges, steps, guardrails, and other support structures. Gangways may be used to provide access to an area, such as the top of a storage container. For example, a semi-trailer truck or a railroad carriage transporting dry goods may need to be unloaded from the container's top. A gangway is used to provide workers a path to unload the material. The major parts of current gangways are constructed by a process involving cutting and welding a large number of smaller components together. The process requires a relatively substantial amount of time, manpower, and components.


An implantable medical lead has at least one electric conductor running along a lead body and electrically interconnecting at least one electrode at the distal portion of the lead with at least one lead terminal at the proximal portion of the lead. The lead also has at least one closed channel running along at least a portion of the lead body. The closed channel contains an extracorporeally detectable detection substance. A rupture to the lead will cause the detection substance to leak out of the channel and outside of the lead body. Lead damage can be confirmed by the absence of or a reduced amount of said detection substance inside the lead.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to implantable medical leads, and in particular to an implantable medical lead that allows detection of lead insulation damages following implantation and to a method of detecting such a lead insulation damage.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Today implantable medical devices (IMDs), such as pacemakers, cardioverters and defibrillators, among others, are typically connected to heart or nervous tissue by means of one or more implantable medical leads. These implantable medical leads provide electrical contact between the tissue and the IMD, which is generally implanted some distance from the target tissue to be sensed, paced or otherwise treated by the IMD.
The implantable medical lead is a vulnerable component of the IMD system and it can easily get damaged by inappropriate handling during implantation with serious consequences as a result. It is also a well known fact that the hostile environment of an implanted medical lead in addition to the implantation technique used at implantation may cause adverse events debuting later on in time. Illustrative examples include subclavian crush phenomena, conductor breakages, lead insulation damages and various types of lead abrasions.
Symptoms of lead damages may vary from cosmetic to hazardous ones. What they all have in common is that their symptoms mostly debut intermittently, progress gradually and are often very difficult to diagnose due to lack of appropriate tools.
Today the analysis of potential lead damages are performed by analysis of X-rays, intracardiac EGM (IEGM) and lead impedance measurements in combination with lead provocative movements. However, it is very hard to detect small lead damages, such as minor ruptures to the insulation material of the implantable medical lead using prior art techniques. Furthermore, IEGM and lead impedance measurements are not specific tools in order to consistently diagnose lead damages since they are generally not sensitive enough. It is therefore very hard to discriminate between lead insulation damages and other symptoms from IEGM and lead impedance measurements.
Lead damages might cause inappropriate therapy, such as high voltage defibrillation, or inhibition of therapy, such as inhibition of pacemaker pulses. It is therefore important to find an easy, cheap and reliable way to detect and verify lead damages before they create discomfort or injuries to the patient.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,532,939 discloses an active fixation medical lead having a tracking member extending from the distal end of the lead body, through the helical fixation member and outward from the distal end. The tracking member is used to facilitate tracking of the medical lead during implantation. After implantation a radio-opaque solution can be injected through the lumen of the medical lead to thereby leak out of the distal end. There the radio-opaque solution causes residual staining of the surrounding tissue and thereby facilitates fluoroscopic imaging at the implant site.

Implantable medical lead with housing integrity indicator


An optical lens assembly with a filter member for image taking, sequentially arranged from an object side to an image side along an optical axis, comprises: a filter member and a lens assembly. The lens assembly is set at the object side of the filter member. The lens assembly comprises at least three lens elements with refractive powers, wherein at least two lens elements are made of plastic, and have at least one aspheric object-side surface or image-side surface. By such arrangements, the optical lens assembly with a filter member for image taking can have good chromatic aberration correction and reduce the total length for applications to electronic products such as cameras and mobile phones requiring high resolution.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical lens assembly with a filter member for image taking, and more particularly to an optical lens assembly capable of filtering the infrared band of lights of a photographed object and then forming an image by an appropriately installed optical lens assembly in order to be applied to electronic products.
2. Description of the Related Art
As optical technology advances, image reception devices becomes increasingly popular, and a large number of electronic devices such as digital cameras, mobile phones, smart phones, notebook computers or tablet PCs, are disposed with the image reception devices. Therefore, users have higher demands on image reception devices for high quality and high resolution.
In an image reception device, CCD or CMOS image sensors are generally used for capturing color images of a photographed object. Since the CCD and CMOS image sensor adopts a non-continuous image taking method, the response to color is different to human eyes. The main reason resides on that the transmittance of infrared is higher than the transmittance of visible lights, so that it is necessary to remove the portion of infrared that can be detected by the image sensor but not by human eyes, while adjusting the response to color in the range of visible lights, and the color of the image can match with the feeling of human eyes. Therefore, one of the main factors for an image reception device affecting the quality of the optical lens assembly for image taking is how to filter infrared light effectively without affecting the chromatic aberration and image aberration. To prevent the color shift problem occurred after receiving the infrared light by the CCD and CMOS image sensors, the prior art generally uses a low-pass light filter (LPLF) to absorb or reflect lights of the infrared band. As disclosed in U.S. patent and publication of US2009/0009888 and U.S. Pat. No. 7,513,704, the low-pass light filter is installed between a lens assembly and an image sensor if the infrared isolation filter is used. As disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,754,009, and U.S. Pat. Publication No. 2008/0266670, an infrared isolation filter is installed between the lens assemblies.
The low-pass light filter is generally made by plating a layer of coating onto blue glass or plate glass, wherein the blue glass is a glass manufactured by adding sodium oxide, magnesium oxide, calcium oxide, cobalt oxide and a small quantity of rare earth oxides for absorbing lights with a wavelength other than those of 400 nm˜700 nm, or the light of different bands is adjusted according to the added metal oxide, so as to further improve the absorbing effect within the wavelength bands of UV and infrared light. The plate glass plated coating is a plated coating formed on the glass substrate for reflecting or absorbing the infrared light as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,166,359.
At present, the low-pass filter technology has been applied to sunglasses, contact glasses or measurement instruments as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,149,182 or U.S. Pat. Publication No. US2008/0137030. For applications of the optical lens assembly for image taking as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,064,909 or U.S. Pat. Publication No. US2009/0097103, a two-lens or multi-lens optical lens assembly for image taking can be used for filtering influential lights such as the infrared light and can be manufactured easily, therefore, blue glass is used directly for manufacturing the lenses. Although this method can achieve the effect of filtering the infrared light, the blue glass changes the Abbe number of the lens elements which is unfavorable for correcting chromatic aberrations and image aberrations.
In recent years, electronic products such as digital still cameras, mobile phone cameras and web cameras tend to be developed with a compact design, and users have an increasingly stricter requirement on the quality and the resolution of the image reception devices in addition to the requirement for a compact and low-cost image reception device, while meeting the requirement of an optical lens assembly for image taking with good aberration correction ability, high resolution and high image quality. The conventional optical lens assembly for image taking, an infrared isolation filter is installed, regardless of being installed between the lens assemblies or in front of the image sensor, the infrared isolation filter simply has the effect of filtering the infrared light, but the optical design of the optical lens assembly for image taking is still designed with a full spectrum, and thus the correction of the image, aberration, and color shift still require further improvements. If the infrared light is filtered and an image is formed at the image sensor, the optical design is still insufficient for a high-quality and high-resolution optical lens assembly for image taking.
Therefore, the present invention provides a more practical design and uses a front IR-filter to adjust the rear focal length appropriately and shorten the whole optical system, and adopts an absorbing filter such as the blue glass or with a coating thereof to provide a good effect of absorbing lights at the infrared band to reduce the color shift effectively. Moreover, with the appropriate design of the optical lens assembly for image taking, the length of the optical lens assembly for image taking is shortened, and a high-resolution, high-quality aberration and color shift correction capability is provided for the application to electronic products.

Optical lens assembly with filter member for image taking


The present invention relates to an active defense method based on cloud security comprising: a client collecting and sending a program behavior launched by a program thereon and/or a program feature of the program launching the program behavior to a server; with respect to the program feature and/or the program behavior sent by the client, the server performing an analysis and comparison in its database, making a determination on the program based on the comparison result, and feeding back to the client; based on the feedback determination result, the client deciding whether to intercept the program behavior, terminate execution of the program and/or clean up the program, and restore the system environment. The invention introduces a cloud security architecture, and employs a behavior feature based on active defense to search and kill a malicious program, thereby ensuring network security.

A malicious program is a general term, which refers to any software program deliberately created for performing an unauthorized and usually harmful behavior. A computer virus, a backdoor, a keylogger, a password stealer, a Word and Excel macro virus, a boot sector virus, a script virus (batch, windows shell, java, etc.), a Trojan, a crimeware, a spyware, and an adware, etc. are all some examples which can be called a malicious program.
The traditional ways of defending and killing a malicious program rely mainly on a feature library mode. A feature library consists of feature codes of samples of a malicious program collected by a manufacturer, while a feature code is a segment of program codes similar to "search keywords" truncated by an analysis engineer from where a malicious program is found to be different from a legitimate software. In the course of searching and killing, an engine will read a file and match the file with all of the feature codes "keywords" in the feature library; if a program code of the file is found to be hit, the program of the file may be determined to be a malicious program.
Feature library matching is a very effective technique for searching and killing a known malicious program. However, nowadays in the world the number of malicious programs increases exponentially; because of such an explosive growth, the generation and update of a feature library often lags behind, and most of the time an antivirus software cannot defense and kill endlessly emergent unknown malicious programs.
Active defense came into being as a consequence, which is a real-time protection technique based on a self-analysis and determination on the program behavior, does not take a feature code as the basis for determining a malicious program. Instead, the active defense starts from an original definition and takes directly the program's behavior as the basis for determining a malicious program, wherein ways of using a feature library locally, setting a behavior threshold locally and killing the virus heuristically locally are derived to discriminate and intercept the behavior of the malicious program, thereby to some extent achieving the purpose of protecting a computer of a user.
However, drawbacks inevitably exist for the above local active defense means. First, it is very easy for the local active defense to cause a malicious program to be free to kill. For example, the feature library based defensing and killing mode of the local active defense may be avoided by packing a malicious program or modifying a feature code of the malicious program; for the behavior of the malicious program, the startup upper limit of a behavior threshold based defensing and killing mode is avoided to be triggered by decreasing or replacing associated behaviors performed by a malicious program. Additionally, the local active defense still relies on a timely update of a local database.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Active defense method on the basis of cloud security

BEIJING QIHOO TECHNOLOGY COMPANY LIMITED

QIZHI SOFTWARE (BEIJING) COMPANY LIMITED


According to an embodiment of the present invention, an image reader comprises a plurality of light receiving elements configured to receive light from an object to be read and to convert the light into image signals. The image reader further comprises means for determining a distance between the object and the plurality of light receiving elements at a plurality of different positions of the object. Moreover the image reader comprises means for selecting at least one correction process portion based at least on the distance between the object and the plurality of light receiving elements. The image reader comprises means for applying the at least one selected correction process to the image signal.

A known image reader for reading a document is mounted on a facsimile, a copier, a scanner, or a combination thereof. The known image reader includes an auto document feeder ("ADF") reading mechanism which automatically conveys a document, or an flat bed ("FB") reading mechanism which reads an image. The ADF reading mechanism automatically conveys the document on a contact glass, radiates light to the document from a side opposite to the contact glass, and reads a reflection light by the image sensor to obtain the image of the document as image signals.
The ADF reading mechanism includes a guide plate which is biased toward the contact glass by a spring, and the document is conveyed between the guide plate and the contact glass. When a resilient document such as a glossy paper, is conveyed, the guide plate is raised, which may cause the document to float. Particularly, when a close-contact-type image sensor is used as the image sensor, a focal length of the image sensor is relatively short and consequently, when the document floats, it is difficult to obtain accurate focusing, e.g., it is difficult to obtain a clear image and focused.

Image reader and correction process for read image


A memory swap operation comprises writing information about a process in which a page fault occurred, into a temporary memory using a processor of a host, copying a page in which the page fault occurred, from a memory device recognized as a swap memory into a main memory of the host, and after completing the copying of the page, resuming the process in which the page fault occurred, using the information about the process, written in the temporary memory.

The inventive concept relates generally to a memory control method and a memory control apparatus. More particularly, certain embodiments of the inventive concept relate to a memory swap operation control method and a data processing system using the same.
Memory systems often use a memory swap operation to free up space in a main memory where the main memory becomes full. In a typical memory swap operation, the memory system identifies inactive portions of the main memory and transfers data from those portions to a swap memory, which may be located in a hard disk drive, solid state drive, or some other form of long term data storage.
Memory swap operations can be detrimental to overall system performance, for instance, due to the time required to move data from the main memory to the swap memory. Accordingly, there is a general demand for improvements in the speed of memory swap operations.

Method of controlling memory swap operation and data processing system using same


An apparatus for controlling a flow of a fluid between a wellbore tubular and a wellbore annulus includes an inflow control device having an opening in fluid communication with a bore of the wellbore tubular, a first particulate control device forming a first fluid stream conveyed to the inflow control device; and at least one degradable flow blocker blocking fluid flow through the inflow control device.

1. Field of the Disclosure
The disclosure relates generally to systems and methods for selective control of fluid flow between a flow bore of a tubular and a formation.
2. Description of the Related Art
Hydrocarbons such as oil and gas are recovered from subterranean formations using a well or wellbore drilled into such formations. In some cases the wellbore is completed by placing a casing along the wellbore length and perforating the casing adjacent each production zone (hydrocarbon bearing zone) to extract fluids (such as oil and gas) from such a production zone. In other cases, the wellbore may be open hole, and in a particular case may be used for injection of steam or other substances into a geological formation. One or more, typically discrete, flow control devices are placed in the wellbore within each production zone to control the flow of fluids from the formation into the wellbore. These flow control devices and production zones may be active or passive and are generally fluidly isolated or separated from each other by packers. Fluid from each production zone entering the wellbore typically travels along an annular area between a production tubular that runs to the surface and either a casing or the open hole formation and is then drawn into the production tubular through the flow control device. The fluid from a reservoir within a formation ("reservoir fluid") often includes solid particles, generally referred to as the "sand", which are more prevalent in unconsolidated formations. In such formations, flow control devices generally include a sand screen system that inhibits flow of the solids above a certain size into the production tubular.
It is often desirable also to have a substantially even flow of the formation fluid along a production zone or among production zones within a wellbore. In either case, uneven fluid flow may result in undesirable conditions such as invasion of a gas cone or water cone. Water or gas flow into the wellbore in even a single production zone along the wellbore can significantly reduce the amount and quality of the production of oil along the entire wellbore. Flow control devices may be actively-controlled flow control valves, such as sliding sleeves, which are operated from the surface or through autonomous active control. Other flow control devices may be passive inflow control devices designed to preferentially permit production or flow of a desired fluid into the wellbore, while inhibiting the flow of water and/or gas or other undesired fluids from the production zones. Sand screens utilized in production zones typically lack a perforated base pipe and require the formation fluid to pass through the screen filtration layers before such fluid can travel along the annular pathway along approximately the entire length of the production zone before it enters the production tubular at a discrete location.
The present disclosure addresses to the deployment and use of ICD's and other well tools.

Disintegrating plugs to delay production through inflow control devices


A method for creating a multiwalled container capable of safely holding a desired liquid. The container may be formed using a mold or form or may be formed on the inside of an existing shell or structure, thereby incorporating the shell or structure as part of the container. The mold or shell is prepared and coated with a first, impermeable polymer layer. An interstitial material is then applied to the first polymer layer and a second impermeable polymer layer is then applied to the permeable, interstitial material. This creates an interstitial space between the two impermeable polymer layers. The process of applying interstitial material and additional polymer layers may be repeated as many times as necessary to achieve the desired number of impermeable walls within the container.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a method for manufacturing a multiple walled vessel that is capable of containing liquid even if the primary, secondary or any number of desired vessel walls is ruptured, up to the final or outermost containment wall.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Multiwalled containers are currently in use in numerous industries in the United States. These containers may serve any number of purposes, from providing insulation or temperature controlling effects, to safely containing harmful or hazardous materials, such as chemicals. Most multi-walled containers require a preformed inner shell to be disposed inside a preformed outer shell, thereby creating an space in between the two shells. Such a process can be costly and does not allow existing containers to be converted to use as multiwalled containers. Similarly, by combining preformed shells, it is difficult, expensive and sometimes impossible to create a multiwalled container in the shape needed for a specific application.
The present invention provides an improved method for creating a multiwalled vessel. The method may be used to convert an existing shell or structure from a single walled container into a multiwalled container, such as in the case of upgrading or rehabilitating an existing liquid storage vessel, or the method may be used to manufacture a completely new multi-walled container. Where a new container is manufactured, a mold or form may be used to shape the container appropriately for a given application.
Regardless of whether an existing shell or structure or a mold is being used the interior surface or substrate of the shell must be prepared prior to application liner material. Typically, the substrate surface will at least be thoroughly cleaned to remove any undesirable material, such as dirt, oxidation, corrosion or the like, from the surface which may prevent the liner material from properly adhering. Such preparation may include, for example, abrasive blasting or water jetting. Additional steps may be taken to further prepare the substrate surface for the application of liner material. For instance, the surface may be mechanically abraded or chemically etched to provide a desired surface profile in order to maximize adhesion of the liner material.
Once the substrate surface has been adequately cleaned and prepared, a first polymer layer may be applied. This first polymer layer is typically impermeable to the liquid that will be disposed in the container. Similarly, the first polymer layer will have some resistance against deterioration caused by the liquid in the container. The first layer forms a primer, bonding or anchor layer upon which subsequent materials may be applied. The first polymer layer may be formed using any suitable material. This first polymer layer will form the outermost containment wall of the container.
A second, interstitial layer of permeable, non-absorbing material may then be applied to the exposed inner surface of the first polymer layer. This interstitial layer will typically be applied to form voids or pockets throughout so that liquid may travel through the voids and collect at some point within the interstitial material. Additionally, the interstitial material may provide support for successive layers of material which may be applied. Monitoring devices may be located in the interstitial material for detecting the presence of liquid, such as in the case of a leak or rupture.
A third impermeable polymer layer may then be applied to the exposed inner surface of the interstitial layer. This third polymer layer is typically of the same composition as the first polymer layer, but may be formed from any suitable material. The third layer will form the interior of the container and will also form the primary containment wall. By forming the third layer over the second, interstitial layer, an interstitial space is formed between the first layer and the third layer, through which liquid may run should the third layer crack or rupture.
The present invention is particularly useful for restoring, repairing or rehabilitating existing liquid storage vessels and containers. The method provides a new and improved, multi-walled interior to the existing container, so that it can be either put back into full use or easily converted to use with a new or different liquid. In this way the useful life of the container may be significantly extended at a reduced cost.
Although the procedure described forms a double walled vessel or container, it should be understood that any number of additional layers may be included, depending on the specific application for which the container will be used.

Method for creation of a multi-walled liquid storage vessel


The present invention concerns multi-layer structures comprising at least a layer of a thermoplastic compound containing nanofillers and at least a layer of rubber. These structures can be converted to bottles, reservoirs, containers, pipes, hoses and vessels of all sorts. The structures of the invention are of interest for the cryogenic fluids used in air conditioning, such as for example HFAs and HFCs.

Patent application US 2004068037 describes blends of polyamides and clays. In the process of the invention, a polyamide A1 and an organized clay B are mixed mainly by dispersive mixing, and after added with a polyamide A2, mixed mainly by distributive mixing in a corotating intermeshing twin-screw extruder so designed as to effect the dispersive mixing and the distributive mixing. The organized clay B is completely and finely dispersed and distributed throughout the resultant polyamide composite material. Shaped articles such as films and sheets made of the polyamide composite material exhibit excellent gas barrier properties and transparency with little malodor mainly attributable to the decomposed products of the organizing agent for preparing the organized clay B.
Patent U.S. Pat. No. 5,578,672 describes polymers containing intercalated layered materials. More particularly, the present invention is directed to intercalates having at least two layers of oligomer and/or polymer molecules sorbed on the internal surfaces of adjacent layers of the planar platelets of a layered material, such as a phyllosilicate, preferably a smectite clay. The resulting matrix polymer/platelet composite materials are useful wherever polymer/filler composite materials are used, for example, as external body parts for the automotive industry; heat-resistant polymeric automotive parts in contact with an engine block; tire cord for radial tires; food wrap having improved gas impermeability; electric components; food grade drink containers; and any other use where it is desired to alter one or more physical properties of a matrix polymer, such as elasticity and temperature characteristics, e.g., glass transition temperature and high temperature resistance.
Japanese patent application JP2000086822 describes a resin composite material for hose material, isolator, it has organic clay dispersed in at least single segments of the block copolymer type thermoplastic elastomer which consists of many segments.
Japanese patent application JP 11310643 describes the manufacture of thermoplastic polymer-clay composite materials with good gas-barrier properties.
Japanese patent application US 4835065 describes a polyamide resin compositions for films for wrapping food-comprise lamellar silicates uniformly dispersed in copolymerised polyamide resin.
Japanese patent application US 4835065 describes a polyamide resin compositions for films having gas barrier properties made by uniformly dispersing lamellar silicate into resin consisting of aromatic and aliphatic polyamide resins.
Japanese patent application JP 03262633 describes the production of polyamide film useful for good packaging comprises of drawing polyamide containing evenly dispersed sheet silicate and having low water content.
Japanese patent application JP 04178459 describes a resin composition for stretched polyamide film comprises polyamide resin, silicate salts, hindered phenol series compound and silane for titanate coupling agent.
Japanese patent application JP 04080259 describes a resin composition of stretched polyamide film consists of polyamide resin, lamellar silicate and silane and/or titanate coupling agent.
Japanese patent application JP 08073734 describes a resin composition of polyamide for film practice for wrapping film containing inorganic filler, and mixture of zin oxide and basic aliphatic acid salt of magnesium. The resin composition has a controlled phase structure of resin in the exfoliated surfaces of the fillers.
European patent application US 5102948 describes a polyamide composite material containing layered slicate uniformly dispersed in the polyamide.
German patent application US 6117932 describes a resin composite including organophilic clay and functionalized (co)polymer, useful for injection, extrusion, blown and compression molding and for films.
Patent application US 2004-0225066 describes polyamide and polyolefin blends with a polyamide matrix and containing nanofillers. These blends are thermoplastic and can be converted to bottles, reservoirs, containers, pipes and vessels of all sorts. It also relates to structures comprising at least one layer of these blends and at least one layer of another material. These structures can be converted to bottles, reservoirs, containers, pipes and vessels of all sorts. All these objects exhibit good barrier properties. For example, foods packaged in these packagings are protected from atmospheric oxygen and their degradation is avoided, whereas a polyethylene packaging allows some oxygen to pass through and the foods undergo degradation. The barrier properties can also be used in another sense. Thus, in the Sheet Moulding Compound (SMC) technology, a composition based on crosslinkable unsaturated polyester and on styrene is disposed between two films and it is necessary for the styrene to remain in the composition and not to diffuse through the films. It is also possible to mention the barrier to pentane which is useful in packaging containing expandable polystryrene beads. Indeed, these beads contain pentane and it is necessary that the beads do not lose their pentane before their conversion to expanded polystyrene. It is also possible to mention pipes in which the cryogenic fluids for air conditioning circulate, such as for example HFAs and HFCs. In an air conditioning device, loss of fluid should be reduced both for economic reasons (these fluids are expensive) and for environmental protection reasons (an excessive leakage could damage the ozone layer).
European patent application US 5248720 describes a material for molded article and film having liquid or gas barrier property. It is a mixture containing a polyamide resin or a resin mixture containing a polyamide resin and a layered silicate uniformly dispersed therein. The material for molding of said patent is applicable for various uses requiring liquid or gas barrier property. Examples of applicable uses may include, but are not limited to, a gasoline tank, alcohol tank, fuel tube, fuel strainer, brake oil tank, clutch oil tank, power steering oil tank, Freon tube for a cooler, Freon tank, canister, air cleaner, intake system parts, etc. In example 1 one hundred grams of montmorillonite were dispersed in 10 liters of water, then 51.2 g of 12-aminododecanoic acid and 24 ml of concentrated hydrochloric acid were added and the mixture was stirred for 5 minutes, followed by filtration. Then, the filtered product was thoroughly washed and vacuum dried. By this operation, a composite of 12-aminododecanoic acid ammonium ion and montmorillonite was prepared. Next, into a reaction vessel equipped with a stirrer, 10 kg of ε-caprolactam, 1 kg of water and 100 g of the above composite were charged, and the mixture was stirred so that the reaction system became internally uniform at 100° C. Further, the temperature was raised up to 260° C., and the mixture was stirred under pressurization of 15 kg/cm2 for one hour. Then, the pressure was released, and while the water was evaporated from the reaction vessel, the reaction was carried out under normal pressure for 3 hours. After completion of the reaction, the reaction product was taken out in strands from the bottom nozzle of the reaction vessel and was water-cooled and subjected to cutting to obtain pellets comprising a polyamide resin (average molecular weight 15,000) and montmorillonite. The pellets were immersed in hot water to extract and remove unreacted monomer (about 10%), followed by drying in vacuum, to give a material for a molded article. The material for a molded article was extrusion molded under the following conditions to prepare a tube with an outer diameter of ½ inch and a thickness of 1 mm, then permeability to Freon R22 was measured. All other examples are similarly based on a first mixing of montmorillonite with 12-aminododecanoic acid then with caprolactam. An example describes a bottle having an outer layer of composition above (PA 6 and montmorillonite), a tie layer and a polyethylene inner layer. Barrier properties of said bottle to gasoline are measured.
The previous art has not described multi-layers comprising at least a layer of a thermoplastic compound containing nanofillers and at least a layer of rubber.
In the two main methods of producing AC hoses for automotive application (Barrier and Veneer) the emphasis has been placed on producing compounds with better permeation to refrigerant. This invention however, takes advantage of increasing the path (tortures path) a diffusing gas will take to go through the tubing wall. This invention utilizes, by way of example, the improved gas barrier of a polyamide 6,66 copolymer when activated nano-clay is added to this material as an AC hose where the refrigerant going through the tubing made from this material is 134a.

Thermoplastics permeation, resistant multi-layers for air conditioning hose application using nanofillers technology


A moving image capture device captures a first image at a first location along a motion path and captures a second image at a second location along the motion path. The optic center of the first image and the optic center of the second image are determined and a line intersecting the optic centers of the first image and the second image is determined. An imaging plane perpendicular to the line intersecting the optic centers of the first image and the second image is then determined and used to generate a first rotation-cancelled image and a second rotation-cancelled image. The first image is warped onto the generated imaging plane to create the first rotation-cancelled image and the second image is warped onto the generated imaging plane to generate the second rotation-cancelled image. Translational motion is preserved by the first rotation-cancelled image and the second rotation-cancelled image.

Many conventional techniques use the optical flow of an image sequence to detect moving objects. However, the majority of these techniques assume that the image capture device obtaining the image sequence is stationary. This makes conventional techniques ill-suited for detecting moving objects based on data captured from a moving image capture device. Because image motion is affected by movement of the moving image capture device, conventional techniques erroneously identify moving objects when used with a moving image capture device, resulting in a large number of false positives.

Rotation cancellation for moving obstacle detection


A housing arrangement has a blower motor including a rotation shaft that traverses through an underside and a topside of the blower motor, the rotation shaft being configured to mount a fan impeller thereupon, a first housing part that receives the blower motor, a second housing part that covers the blower motor received in the first housing part, a first decoupling unit arranged circumferentially between the underside of the blower motor and an inner bottom of the first housing part, and a second decoupling unit arranged circumferentially between the topside of the blower motor and an inner surface of the second housing part. Here, the spring stiffness of the first and the second decoupling units are substantially constant in an axial direction, a radial direction, or a normal direction.

A housing arrangement for a blower motor may be provided, for example, for use in a vehicle climatization device. When in operation, vibrations from the blower motor may transmit via a housing to neighboring components. Structure-borne noise, particularly in a vehicle climatization device, may be considered irritating and therefore it may be desirable to decouple the transmission of such noise from neighboring components.


The invention relates to an optical component based on semi-conductor optical amplifiers in which the number of independent electrodes is reduced. The component has different regions (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) with the same vertical structure wherein an active waveguide (20) is buried between the upper and lower buffer layers. These regions each have lower and upper electrodes (10, E.sub.2, E.sub.4) for the purpose of injecting into them equal or different values of current density. This component is characterized in that at least one (10) of the said electrodes covers a number of regions (1, 3, 5) and has distributed resistivity which is adjusted depending on the region under consideration.

The invention lies in the field of semi-conductor optical components used for optical transmission or for methoding of digital optical data.
It more particularly relates to all optical components having a number of semi-conductor optical amplifiers, known in what follows as "SOA" (for "Semiconductor optical amplifier" in the Anglo-Saxon literature), such as for instance wavelength shifters, multi-arm amplifiers, all-optical switches or multiplexers.
To simplify the exposition of the invention, in what follows mention will be made only of all-active wavelength shifters, the subject matter of the invention also extending, as has been said, to all optical components based on a number of SOA.
Wavelength shifters are used in the field of telecommunications to shift a transmitted optical signal from one wavelength to another wavelength while maintaining its characteristics. Such changes of wavelength are used in particular during routing of signals to resolve problems of contention.
In such shifters the information is in the form of binary data represented by pulses modulating an optical carrier wave. A binary value is therefore determined dependent on the level of amplitude (or of power) of the modulated optical wave.
A common method of producing all-optical wavelength shifters is to use an interferometric structure of Mach-Zehnder type or equivalent.
An interferometric structure of this type is shown in plan view in FIG. 1. It is made up of two guiding branches 1 and 2. At least one of these branches is equipped with a semi-conductor optical amplifier SOA.sub.1. However in general it is preferred to position a second semi-conductor optical amplifier SOA.sub.2 on the other guiding branch for reasons of symmetry. This is because the presence of a second semi-conductor optical amplifier SOA.sub.2 makes it possible to maintain substantially the same level of amplification in the two branches and thus to have substantially identical power at the output from the branches of the interferometer.
A first coupler K.sub.1 allows one end of each of these branches to be coupled to a peripheral semi-conductor optical amplifier, also called input amplifier SOA.sub.5. In a counter-directional functional configuration, an external laser source 7 also enables the supply to this amplifier SOA.sub.5 an output carrier wave M of wavelength .lambda.s.
A second coupler K.sub.1 is disposed so as to couple the other end of branch 1 to another peripheral semiconductor optical amplifier SOA.sub.4. This coupler K.sub.2 enables introduction into the first amplifier SOA.sub.1, of an input signal E of wavelength .lambda.e which has been amplified by the input amplifier SOA.sub.4.
A third coupler K.sub.3, connected to coupler K.sub.2, to the second amplifier SOA.sub.2 and to another peripheral semi-conductor optical output amplifier SOA.sub.3, is disposed in such a way as to supply an output signal resulting from the coupling of auxiliary waves AM.sub.1, and AM.sub.2 supplied respectively by the first and second amplifiers SOA.sub.1 and SOA.sub.2.
Waves AM.sub.1, and AM.sub.2 correspond to waves M.sub.1 and M.sub.2 output from the coupler K.sub.1 amplified respectively by amplifiers SOA.sub.1 and SOA.sub.2. The output signal S, of wavelength .lambda.s, is then amplified by the peripheral output amplifier SOA.sub.3. It results from constructive or destructive interference of the waves AM.sub.1, and AM.sub.2, depending on the phase difference between the two branches 1 and 2 of the interferometer.
Another peripheral amplifier SOA.sub.6 is also provided to maintain the symmetry of the structure and to enable replacement of one of the amplifiers SOA.sub.3 or SOA.sub.4 in case of any breakdown.
Amplification currents are injected respectively into the amplifiers SOA.sub.1, SOA.sub.2, SOA.sub.3, SOA.sub.4, and SOA.sub.5 by means of electrodes E.sub.1, E.sub.2, E.sub.3, E.sub.4, and E.sub.5. To make this type of interferometric structure operate it is therefore necessary to use five independent electrodes E.sub.1, E.sub.2, E.sub.3, E.sub.4, E.sub.5, and five different current sources are necessary to inject an amplification current on each electrode. On the other hand, in a component with equivalent active/passive structure, only three current sources are necessary to make it work. This is because in this case the waveguides 3 and 5 are passive, so that it is not necessary to position electrodes above these guides to amplify the signal.

Optical component based on semi-conductor optical amplifiers having a reduced number of independent electrodes


Methods, apparatuses and computer programs for image processing are provided. A sequence of images, in particular, is processed in this case. The images are subdivided into tiles and the tiles are transformed into the frequency domain. By evaluating the argument of the spectral density in the frequency domain, it is possible to identify and rectify disturbances which, for example, are caused by air disturbances (flickering).

When optical systems such as telescopes or cameras, for example, are used in the atmosphere, disturbances in the optical imaging of the optical system may occur as a result of air disturbances. By way of example, air disturbances can be caused by solar irradiance, which in turn causes air turbulences. Such optical systems are often coupled to cameras or image sensors in order to facilitate an image recording.
Such air disturbances can lead to flickering, i.e. a movement, in the image and/or to unsharpness in the image, which can be observed through the optical system or which can be recorded by way of the optical system.
An unwanted movement in the image may likewise arise if the optical system is inadvertently moved during the image recording, for example as a result of tremors of an employed tripod. Additional disturbances may occur as a result of the scanning movement in the case of image recording devices that operate on a scanning principle, e.g. have a line sensor that records an object line by line or a sensor with a single pixel that scans an object to be recorded. A so-called slit scan laser scanning microscope (LSM) is an example of a so-called line sensor; an electron microscope or conventional laser scanning microscope is an example for recording a single pixel in conjunction with scanning of an object. Such movements can have translational and/or rotational components; i.e., both a shift and a rotation may occur.
Image disturbances that cause a movement, such as the aforementioned flickering or inadvertent movements of the optical system, are also disturbing, in particular, in the case of video recordings as well, i.e. in the case where a plurality of successive images are recorded.
In the case of digital image recording using an image sensor, as is usually used these days, there is the option of improving recorded images by subsequent computer-assisted processing. By way of example, there are various approaches for subsequently correcting unwanted movements or flickering by way of appropriate image processing. In some approaches, the flickering is reduced by registering prominent patterns such as prominent edges, for example, in the image. Expressed differently, prominent edges are determined in a sequence of images, for example in a video, and the images are corrected in such a way that the patterns in subsequent images are aligned. This approach works well if corresponding prominent features, e.g. edges, are present in the images, for example if many houses with windows occur. This becomes difficult in nature recordings with bushes, grass, etc., because prominent edges or other suitable patterns are less present or not present at all. If registering prominent patterns does not work in such a case, this may also have a negative effect on subsequent sharpening of the images should an employed sharpening algorithm be applied to a plurality of successive images.
A further approach is a so-called "speckle imaging", which is described in C. J. Carrano, "Speckle Imaging over Horizontal Paths", Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Jul. 8, 2002, for example. Further information in this respect was found in e.g. G. Weigelt and B. Wirnitzer, OPTICS LETTERS Vol. 8, No. 7, 1983, p. 389ff or Taylor W. Lawrence et al., OPTICAL ENGINEERING Vol. 31, No. 3, p. 627ff, 1992. The main disadvantage of speckle imaging is that it requires much computational time or corresponding high-power computers. Originally, speckle imaging was mainly used in astronomy where, at least in many applications, there is sufficient time for image post-processing and/or sufficient computational capacity available. For terrestrial recordings, which should often be carried out in real time, the implementation of such an approach on the basis of the speckle imaging at least requires much outlay since specially designed hardware (e.g. ASICs, application-specific integrated circuits) is required, or it may even be impossible. Moreover, moving objects, such as persons running or motor vehicles driving, for example, are processed just like air disturbances in the speckle imaging algorithm. This may lead to artifacts, in which these moving objects are typically blurred or even disappear in part.


A rigid stand holds bag-in-box containers of liquid to be dispensed from an outlet near the bottom of the container. A platform suspends the containers above a support surface high enough so that the outlet is at least 12 centimeters above the support surface for a cup or glass to fit under the outlet. The stand includes a base panel for sitting on the support surface. Upstanding from first and second sides of the base panel are two wall panels. The platform affixed to each wall panel holds the platform at an angle of at least eight degrees from the base panel. Upstanding from the lower edge of the platform is a ridge that extends upwardly enough to hold the box from sliding forward but low enough to not interfere with dispensing.

This invention relates to self-contained portable apparatus for dispensing beverages from a plurality of containers for consumption by consumers, and more specifically to such apparatus for dispensing beverage from bag-in-box containers into drinking receptacles supported on a surface.
Bag-in-box beverage packages are often produced for providing a large volume, 1.5 liters or more, of wine in a package that dispenses wine without admitting air. Other beverages are now being marketed in this manner. They are more economical than bottles, easier to handle, and environmentally friendly. They have a dispensing outlet at a low position, so that the outlet must be positioned over the edge of a support surface. A drinking receptacle must then be hand held below the outlet for filling. This is awkward when dispensing many portions at a public gathering. To dispense the last liquid from the container, the box must be tilted up. Heath in U.S. Pat. No. 7,137,533 teaches a wine box with a retractable stand to tilt the box up to encourage efficient emptying.


Delay igniter plug for pyrotechnic machine, in particular manual or mechanical launch grenade, comprising a body (4) fitted with a control mechanism comprising a trigger lever (1) and a percussion mechanism (28) interacting with a primary pyrotechnic module provided with a primer (3), a retardant composition (9), a primary explosive (13) which are capable of ensuring initiation of the charge of the associated machine which is arranged so that the primary explosive (13) cannot be initiated without going via the retardant composition, the primary pyrotechnic module (5) being axially displaceable in the said body toward the principal charge, means (2) for holding the primary pyrotechnic module (5) axially separated from the principal charge (19) and a screen (12a, 15) interposed between the principal charge and the terminal part of the primary pyrotechnic module containing the primary explosive (13), characterized in that the means (2) for holding the primary pyrotechnic module (5) axially separated from the principal charge (19) are exclusively mechanical means, actuated by the trigger lever (1) and in that the screen interposed between the principal charge and the terminal part of the primary pyrotechnic module (5), comprises a closure cap (15) of a cup (18) containing the principal charge (19) and a pellet (12a) carried by the end of the primary pyrotechnic module (5) containing the primary explosive (13) and engaged in the cap (15), the pellet (12a) and the cap (15) being shaped in order to be made integral with each other in the case of excitation of the primary explosive (13) in the storage position and to create a physical barrier to the shock wave or to the fragments.

The subject of the present invention is an improvement to delay igniter plugs for pyrotechnic machines, these machines being in particular grenades usable by hand or with mechanical launch means, and having explosive, smoke-generating, light-production or combined functions.
French Patent no. 76 00 800 describes an igniter plug provided with a trigger lever fitted with a locking pin and associated with a percussion mechanism for a sealed pyrotechnic module. The latter comprises an initiator, a delay composition, a primary explosive and a principal initiation charge capable of ensuring the initiation of the charge of the associated machine, this module being made integral in a leaktight manner with the body of the plug.
This plug has the advantage of guaranteeing sufficient leaktightness between the igniter system and the other constituent elements of the pyrotechnic chain of the module, so that the primary explosive cannot be initiated other than through the delay composition.
The first addition no. 76 17 248 to the aforementioned patent describes means for guiding the trigger lever in rotation over a given angular sector, after unlocking of this lever, so as to allow quasi-instantaneous release of the lever in question as soon as it has exceeded the guidance angular sector. According to a preferred embodiment, the body of the plug is also provided with two lateral slopes arranged beneath the trigger lever, so as to guide the latter in rotation after unlocking, and by interaction of the slopes with two corresponding lateral cheeks of the lever.
In these two known embodiments, the pyrotechnic module, which is mounted stationary with respect to the body of the plug, constitutes a complete pyrotechnic chain, capable of functioning in the case of accidental excitation of the primer, besides normal mechanical triggering by the lever and its associated percussion mechanism, this normal triggering comprising, in order, removal of the pin, release of the lever and percussion of the primer.
It has thus been observed that hand grenades can explode accidentally in the case of falling onto very hard ground, prolonged storage in premises with an abnormally high temperature, exposure to electromagnetic fields leading either to induced currents or to the formation of electrostatic charges which can influence, either by direct action, or by discharge, premature functioning of the primer.
In the aim of improving the safety of the storage and of the use of these pyrotechnic machines, in particular by removing any risk of accidental triggering of the principal primer charge and consequently of the charge of the corresponding machine, French Patent no. 78 17 119 described an igniter plug in which the pyrotechnic module is separated from the principal primer charge, and the igniter plug is fitted with a safety device capable of preventing triggering of the principal primer charge in the case in which the excitation of the primer has an origin other than the normal percussion mechanism of the plug.


A new geranium cultivar particularly distinguished by its compact and bushy growth and its cluster stem carrying a large white cluster of florets above strong dark green foliage.

The present invention comprises a new and distinct cultivar of geranium, botanically known as Pelargonium zonale-Hybride. The new cultivar is propagated from cuttings resulting from the cross of E 11 and PAC Penja. E 11 is a seedling selected from the E-Generation of our planned breeding program and is not commercially available. E 11 has a white flower color, medium to early precocity and medium floral richness. PAC Penja has a white flower, sometimes a little pink after a cool night, very early precocity, and is very floriferous. Because PAC Penja appears so early there is no time for much vegetative growth. For this reason, the plant stays small. PAC Penja is covered with buds and rather small clusters, but nonetheless the plant appears weak. The foliage is small and light green.