In some embodiments, a lithium ion battery includes a first substrate, a cathode, a second substrate, an anode, and an electrolyte. The cathode is arranged on the first substrate and can contain a cathode mixture including LixSy, wherein x is from 0 to 2 and y is from 1 to 8, and a first particulate carbon. The anode is arranged on the second substrate and can contain an anode mixture containing silicon particles, and a second particulate carbon. The electrolyte can contain a solvent and a lithium salt, and is arranged between the cathode and the anode. In some embodiments, the first particulate carbon or the second particulate carbon contains carbon aggregates comprising a plurality of carbon nanoparticles, each carbon nanoparticle comprising graphene. In some embodiments, the particulate carbon contains carbon meta particles with mesoporous structures.

Secondary (rechargeable) lithium ion batteries are used in many applications including automotive, mobile electronic devices, and small or large electrical energy storage systems. In contrast with conventional lithium ion battery systems, the electrodes in new lithium ion batteries, such as Li/S batteries, are composed of abundant elements and therefore promise to be lower cost than conventional batteries. Additionally, Li/S batteries offer higher specific energy and energy density at similar or better performance. However, commercialization has been hindered by performance limitations and practical manufacturing challenges.
One challenge still hindering the practical development of Li/S batteries is the high solubility of the polysulfides in conventional electrolytes. The dissolving of the polysulfides leads to poor battery properties (e.g., a loss of capacity upon repeated cycling). One mechanism by which the degradation can occur is the dissolved polysulfide anions can migrate through the electrolyte and reach the anode, where they react to form insoluble products on its surface and impede battery operation.
Conventional lithium ion batteries (with conventional cathode and anode materials) have insufficient battery characteristics such as battery life and performance. For example, sulfur-containing cathode materials tend to have low conductivity, and therefore conductive carbon is typically added to the cathode to increase the electrical conductivity. In cases where lithium-sulfur batteries use elemental Li metal in the anode, the resulting batteries tend to have poor electrical cycling performance and stability.

Lithium ion battery and battery materials


A motor vehicle door and a method for producing the motor vehicle door is disclosed having a frame plate coupled to reinforcement components and at least half of all of the reinforcement components are produced as extruded profiles which are subsequently press-formed three-dimensionally. The extruded profiles have different wall thicknesses.

From the prior art it is known to produce motor vehicles by means of a self-supporting body. The motor vehicle body in this case has openings, in particular lateral openings, doors being inserted therein. Nowadays, many specifications are set for a motor vehicle door. Firstly, these specifications must be highly accurate in order to ensure a precise and, in particular, small gap size on the motor vehicle body produced. At the same time, a motor vehicle door itself has to receive a plurality of system components, for example electrical window lifters, a central locking system, loudspeakers or the like. To this end, the motor vehicle door itself has to be configured to be as stable as possible. Additionally, it is important in the event of a side impact of a motor vehicle door, in particular, that said motor vehicle door is intended to provide a high degree of crash safety.
Moreover, in this case the motor vehicle door is intended to have a dead weight which is as low as possible so that the total weight of the motor vehicle may be reduced in order to achieve low fuel consumption. Additionally, the motor vehicle door is intended to be produced cost-effectively.
To this end, different approaches are known from the prior art for producing motor vehicle doors in order to fulfill the aforementioned requirements. Thus, for example, a motor vehicle door is disclosed in EP 0 803 389 A2 in which a door frame is provided, said door frame being made up of light metal cast components as well as extruded profiles, an outer wall and an inner wall being coupled thereto in turn.

Vehicle door and method for the production thereof


A process and apparatus improvement for energy and particulate recovery during the production of nixtamalized corn flour, by precooking with a lime solution to effect partial cooking, reduced energy use for pre-cooking and washing by recycling hot water. Next, moisture content is stabilized, and the corn is milled and dried in a super-heated stream of air with reduced energy consumption by recycling waste hot air. Dust trapping is performed on a portion of waste hot air which is reused for preheating combustion air. Wet scrubbing of the remaining waste hot air is performed where heated water is reused and exhaust air vented. Cooling and further drying of the dried-milled particles follows. A fine grind or flour is separated and recovered from the coarse grind which is also aspirated to isolate a hull fraction as corn waste along with particulate collected after entrapping and scrubbing waste hot air. Re-milling and sieving the coarse grind produces a corn flour for tortilla and the like.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a food system for recovering the heat and preventing pollution from waste hot air after nixtamalized corn dehydration and, more particularly, it relates to a process improvement involving heat recovery from the waste hot air laden with particulate produced after flash drying, especially milled corn and the like, and for minimizing particulate emission in both the exhaust vented to the atmosphere and the hot water recycled to the process.
2. Description of Related Art
Nixtamalized corn flour (NCF) is conventionally produced by alkaline cooking of food-grade corn under atmospheric pressure, steeping and washing, grinding the partially cooked corn (nixtamal) and drying to give corn masa flour. At the industrial or commercial level, xe2x80x9cthe milling and dehydrationxe2x80x9d steps are major cost factors. In any case, the availability of an instant flour has many advantages such as shelf-life (4 to 8 months), less labor, lower water and energy use for the customer. Any method which may decrease both time and cost, and still yield an acceptable nixtamalized corn or masa flour product per unit of raw corn, would be advantageous to the final customer.
By combining energy efficiency and pollution prevention technologies is an opportunity for alignment among business, environmental advocates and regulators. The efficient use of resources is key to a sustainable development and industrial ecology. Energy recovery and renewable energy have supplied more than 80% in the US incremental energy requirements since 1973 ($0.25 USD/MM-Btu). But given today""s low prices for natural gas ($1.5-2.2 USD in 1997 and $3 USD by mid-2001: oilnergy.com), no realistic reductions in carbon emissions will happen without concerted national programs and incentives to encourage the faster adoption of efficient and renewable energy as well as natural gas. The success and cost effectiveness of this approach have been proven by redesigning or improving processes: reduce/recycle/re-sell waste, reduce energy use and emissions (Acee, 1997).
In this connection, reference is made to the following U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,594,260, 5,176,931, 5,532,013, 6,025,011 and 6,265,013 requiring a low-temperature drying. However, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,513,018, 5,558,898 and 6,068,873 only used a high-temperature short time dehydration without a heat recovery system. These prior art methods for the industrial production of corn and masa flour involve accelerated cooking with reduced amounts of water along with short processing times as well as low energy requirements for a high yield of the end product.
As previously mentioned by Rubio in U.S. Pat. No. 4,513,018 and more recently by Sunderland in U.S. Pat. No. 5,558,898, the waste hot air produced by combustion of natural gas with excess air is actually not pure combustion gas, but rather a mixture of hot air, water and particulate matter (very fine particles). This hot exhaust mix is drawn from the dryer by a fan and fed into a cyclone for removal of solid and liquid matter (hereafter referred to as dust or particulate) from such waste hot air for pollution control. A single-cyclone is the most widely used of the dry separator having a medium collection efficiency (80-95% for 15-50 micron size), a low pressure drop (2-5 in. water) and a high throughput (Theodore and Buonicore, 1976).
Another method of treating contaminated air from a food processing operation in the past has been by direct incineration or wet scrubbing. A scrubber is a system which uses a liquid, usually water, to achieve the removal of particulates from a gas stream. Scrubbers (particulate collectors) may be loosely categorized by pressure drop (inches of water) or energy consumption (Theodore and Buonicore, 1976): a) Spray chambers and towers (Knapp, 2000: U.S. Pat. No. 6,019,818), for example, provide the lowest drop ( less than 5 in.) and, correspondingly, the lowest collection efficiencies (70-90% for  greater than 10 micron), b) Centrifugal fan, atomizing and packed-bed scrubbers have a medium drop (5-15 in.) and medium efficiency (90-95%), and c) Venturi-type has the highest drop ( greater than 15 in.) along with the highest efficiency ( greater than 99%). In this connection, a high-pressure venturi scrubber (40 in. water) was used commercially in treating a medical waste incinerator exhaust gas which not only claimed a 44% energy recovery for preheating incinerator or combustion air, but also complied with particulate EPA-limits (Andersen, 2001).
A few food processing plants have implemented both energy recovery and particulate emission using wet scrubbers to improve process efficiency during dehydration:
For example, West in U.S. Pat. No. 3,805,686, describes a batch scrubber system for treating moist air laden with particulate matter from a food smoke and drying chamber, cooled to condense liquid and solid out of the air in a dehumidifying tower, and reheated for recycling to the smoke chamber without discharge to the atmosphere.
Furthermore, Williams in U.S. Pat. No. 6,019,819, discloses another improved scrubber for extracting heat from contaminated waste steam. Waste gas is ducted from a food fryer to a condensing tower by spraying water into the gas. This cooled waste gas is pulled into a low pressure water washer, and clean gas is sucked by a fan and vented.
Many applications for heat recovery included waste hot gas from a high-temperature process furnace, an incinerator and a high-temperature direct-fired dryer. Although the above described prior art methods are capable in improving energy or particulate collection efficiency, a low-cost industrial application was still unavailable in the market at the time of the present invention.
The purpose of this invention is to provide a process improvement by reducing particulate matter and extracting heat and from the waste hot air of a flash dryer and recycle said heat into the furnace and washer as well.
Another object of the invention is to use an industrial method not only with a low-energy trapping and scrubbing apparatus, but also with a food process energy saving.
The above and other objects and advantages of the invention are achieved through a process improvement and apparatus applied to the production of nixtamalized corn flour, embodiments of which include pre-cooking with a lime solution so as to effect corn partial cooking, pre-cooking and washing with reduced energy, stabilizing moisture content to an optimum level for grinding, milling and flash dehydration of the milled corn with reduced energy and particulate emission, dust trapping of a portion of waste hot air which is reused for preheating combustion air, wet scrubbing of the remaining waste hot air where heated water is reused and exhaust air vented, cooling and drying the dry-milled particles, separating and recovering the fine grind so produced from the coarse grind while the latter is further aspirated to remove a hull fraction as corn waste, re-milling the isolated coarse grind and further sieving it to obtain a corn flour for tortilla and derivatives thereof.

Nixtamalized corn flour process and apparatus improvement for recovering heat and reducing particulate emission from waste hot air


A method of providing popularity ratings to users includes monitoring experiences of users with programs, generating popularity ratings associated with the programs in response to the monitoring, and communicating at least one of the popularity ratings as at least one of the users experiences at least one of the programs.

People enjoy discussions of their activities with other people. In particular, people enjoy discussing television programs with other people. As a result of such interaction, a person feels more connected to social groups. To be able to comment on a particular television program, a person may need to view the television program. However, if a program that a person views is not the program that was viewed by others in the person's social group, that person may feel excluded from the social group. For example, if Bob thinks that his colleagues are all watching reruns of "Friends", he may watch a broadcast of "Friends" to be able to discuss the episode the next day. Unfortunately, if his colleagues are all watching a "Doctor Who" marathon, Bob will be unable to discuss "Doctor Who", causing Bob to feel isolated from and rejected by his colleagues.
Popularity ratings of television programs are available. However, the popularity ratings may not be available until a day after the program is broadcast or later. As a result, a person cannot determine the most popular television programs currently being watched by other people. Unfortunately, after such a delay, the viewing opportunities for the indicated popular television programs have passed, so the person will not be able to watch the popular programs and later discuss them with others. In addition, in order to obtain the popularity ratings, a person must search through magazines, newspapers, or the internet. As a result, a person does not have immediate access to the popularity ratings.
Thus, there remains a need for an improved technique of communicating popularity ratings.

Method and apparatus for communicating popularity ratings to users


A variable vane assembly for a gas turbine engine is disclosed having a disk member bearing against a recess formed in the inner surface of the gas turbine engine casing is formed separately from the vane. The disk member has a diametrical notch that accommodates a strip member formed integrally with the vane and which extends generally parallel to the chord of the vane. The control rod, which is also formed integrallly with the vane, passes through an opening defined by the disk member and is pivotally supported by the engine casing. A low friction sleeve may be interposed between the control rod and the opening defined by the engine casing to reduce the pivoting friction of the vane. This sleeve may be formed as a separate element, or may be formed integrally with the disk member, which may also be formed of low-friction material.

The present relates to a variable stator vane for a gas turbine engine, more specifically such a variable stator vane having a separate guide disk in order to render the fabrication of the stator vane more economical.
Variable stator vanes for gas turbine engines are well known in the art and, as illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2, comprise vane assemblies 1 having a stator vane 2 mounted in the casing 3 of the gas turbine engine. A control pivot rod 4 pivotally supports the upper end of the vane 2 by passing through a bore 5 defined in a boss 6 extending outwardly from the casing 3. In order to transmit and distribute the stresses from the vane 2 to the casing 3, a disk portion 7 is formed on the upper and of the vane 2 such that it extends into a recess 8 defined by the inner surface of the casing 3. The relatively large area of contact between the disk member 7 and the recess 8 minimizes the stress concentrations between the vane 2 and the casing 3.
As is typical, the disk 7 is formed integrally with the vane 2 and the control rod 4. These elements are machined from one piece of a steel or an alloy ingot, usually by electrochemical machining techniques. As a rule, the diameter of disk member 7 is generally equal to the chord "c" of the vane 2. Thus, it is necessary to start the machining process with an ingot that has a width at least equal to the chord of the vane and a thickness at least equal to width of the member 7. Quite obviously, this results in a great waste of the steel or alloy material and a consequent increase in costs of the fabrication of such stator vanes. French Patent 2,599,785 discloses a vane structure wherein the disk member is formed in one piece with the vane.
It is also known to form a movable vane assembly by separately fabricating the disk and subsequently brazing or welding it to the vane member. This technique is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 2,955,744 to Hemsworth and U.K. patent application 2,027,811A. While such techniques lower the cost of fabrication, there is always the danger of the failure of the braze or weld which may cause catastrophic failure of the gas turbine engine.

Variable stator vane with separate guide disk

Societe National d'Etude et de Construction de Moteurs d'Aviation


A remote speaker system (14) for an automotive vehicle (10) has a holder (22) fixedly mounted within the vehicle (10). A speaker assembly (19) having a speaker housing (20) coupled to holder (22) and a speaker (26) coupled within the housing (20). A receive circuit (48) is coupled within the housing (20) and is electrically coupled to the speaker (26). A control circuit has an audio receiver generating audio signals and a transmit circuit (44) transmitting a wireless communication signal in response to the audio signal. The receive circuit (48) receives the wireless communication signal and converts the wireless communication signal into an audio electrical signal. The speaker converts the audio electrical signal into an audible signal.

The present invention relates generally to audio systems for automotive vehicles, and more particularly, to wireless speakers for the audio system.
Audio systems for automotive vehicles typically have four or more speakers that are fixedly mounted within the automotive vehicle to provide sound from the audio system into the passenger compartment of the vehicle. The connections between the controller and the speakers are hardwired into the vehicle. Also, portions of the vehicle are typically formed to provide a speaker cavity to allow the proper sound to be emitted from the speaker.
At various times, however, it may be desirable to direct the sound from within the vehicle outside the vehicle. For example, such places may include at a picnic, at the beach, or other locations remote from a person""s home audio equipment. Commonly to do this, the vehicle doors are left open or the windows are rolled down. However, the sound is distorted because the speakers are tuned to provide the optimum sound within the passenger compartment of the vehicle. Thus, the sound cannot be directed where desired.
It would therefore be desirable to provide removable audio speakers from the vehicle so that sound from the audio system of the vehicle may be directed as desired.
One object of the invention is to provide speakers that are removable from the vehicle to allow sound to be directed in a more desirable manner.
In one aspect of the invention, a remote speaker system for an automotive vehicle has a holder that is fixedly mounted within the vehicle. A speaker assembly having a speaker housing is removably coupled to the holder. A speaker is coupled within the housing. A receive circuit is coupled within the housing and is electrically coupled to the speaker. A control circuit having an audio receiver generates audio signals and a transmit circuit for transmitting a wireless communication signal in response to the audio signal. The receiver receives the wireless communication signal and converts the wireless communication signal into an audio electrical signal. The speaker converts the audio electrical signal into an audible signal.
One feature of the invention is that the controller may be coupled to an indicator to indicate to the driver that the speakers are being left behind.
Another feature of the invention is that if the vehicle has a cellular phone, the cellular phone may be coupled to the controller so that the controller sends a signal to the remote speakers when the phone is ringing.
Yet another feature of the invention is that the removable speaker may be mounted within the trunk of the vehicle on a slide bar mechanism to allow the speaker to recharge while not in use. Of course, the teachings of the present invention may be modified to allow the speaker to be located anywhere in the vehicle. Also, the slide bar may be made glow-in-the-dark for locating purposes.
Other objects and features of the present invention will become apparent when viewed in light of the detailed description of the preferred embodiment when taken in conjunction with the attached drawings and appended claims.

Wireless remote speakers for an automotive vehicle


An air-bearing slider used in a magnetic recording disk drive has a surface that supports a magnetoresistive (MR) read head or sensor and an electrical lapping guide (ELG) adjacent to the MR sensor. The ELG is formed of a different material than the MR sensor so as to have both a high electrical resistivity and a substantially higher etch rate. When the ELG and MR sensor are etched simultaneously to form their respective back edges, the ELG will have a sharp well-defined non-tapered wall at the back edge. The ELG has a film thickness close to but generally thinner than that of the MR sensor, and a sheet resistance to generally match the resistance measurement capability of the lapping tool. The preferred material for the ELG is an alloy comprising silver (Ag) and one or more of Sn, Ge and zinc Zn.

In conventional magnetic recording disk drives, each read/write head, which includes a magnetoresistive (MR) read head or sensor and an inductive write head, is located on an air-bearing slider that is maintained in close proximity to its associated disk surface as the disks rotate. The MR read sensor and inductive write head are fabricated by deposition and lithographic patterning of a series of thin films on a wafer containing a large number, e.g., 40,000, of rectangular regions arranged in rows, with each region ultimately becoming an individual slider. After formation of the read/write heads at the wafer level, the wafer is cut into bars. The bars are then "lapped" in a plane perpendicular to the wafer surface, with this plane becoming the slider's air-bearing surface (ABS). The bars are then cut into the individual sliders.
The lapping is typically performed as a wet grinding process in which material is removed to reach the ABS. Electrical lapping guides (ELGs) are used to monitor the lapping. Generally, ELGs are formed in the areas of the wafer between the read/write heads. Each ELG includes an electrically conductive structure whose ends are connected to leads that carry current from a control circuit. Each completed MR sensor is a stack of multiple layers and is required to have a precise shape, including a precise track width (TW) and a precise stripe height (SH). The TW is defined during the MR sensor patterning process on the wafer surface, but the SH is defined by the lapping process. The lapping is controlled by monitoring the resistance of the ELGs as material is removed in the grinding process to assure the precise SH of the MR sensor. Thus, a predetermined resistance measurement of the ELG corresponds to the desired MR sensor SH.
Typically the ELG is formed of the same set of multilayered materials and at the same time as the MR sensor to simplify the manufacturing process. Because the ELG and MR sensor are formed of the same materials and in the same process, they will have the same thickness and same electrical resistivity. It is advantageous for the ELG film to have a sheet resistance well matched to the slider fabrication lapping equipment, typically 20-30 Ω/square. Thus the resistivity of the ELG material determines the thickness of the ELG film that will result in such a sheet resistance. Also, because the ELG and MR sensor back edges, i.e., the edges recessed from the lapping surface, are formed at the same time in the same etching step, the ELG and MR sensor back edges will have the same profile if they are made from the same materials and have the same thicknesses. A tapered back edge is desirable for the MR sensor, but results in an unpredictable surface area for the ELG. Because the current through the ELG is in the plane of the ELG this can result in a unpredictable electrical resistance. In order for the back edge of the ELG to be flat, i.e., generally orthogonal to the plane of the ELG film, and thus result in a predictable electrical resistance, the ELG film must be thinner than the sensor stack or have a substantially higher etching rate. To facilitate processing, the ELG film preferably has a thickness substantially similar to or slightly thinner than the sensor stack.
What is needed is a high resistance ELG with an etch rate substantially greater than the etch rate of the stack of layers making up the MR sensor so that a non-tapered flat ELG back edge can be achieved, while providing the needed sheet resistance at a film thickness substantially similar to the thickness of the sensor stack.

Silver alloy electrical lapping guides (ELGs) for fabrication of disk drive sliders with magnetoresistive sensors