Organometallic complexes comprising a divalent lanthanide metal cation complexed with from one to three polydentate ligands which preferably contain one or more pyrazolyl groups, such as trispyrazolylborate anions, are useful in light emitting devices e.g., in electroluminescent flat panel displays.

This invention relates to divalent lanthanide metal complexes, to processes for their preparation and to light emitting devices containing the complexes.
Flat panel displays are the critical enabling technology for many current applications, including laptop computers and xe2x80x9chead upxe2x80x9d displays, as they offer several potential advantages over conventional cathode ray tube displays, including compactness and low power consumption.
Currently, the flat panel display market is dominated by liquid crystal technology, but these materials suffer several drawbacks including small operational viewing angles, poor image contrast and high power consumption. As an alternative technology for flat panel displays, electroluminescent (EL) displays using semiconducting organic polymers offer the potential of lower cost, improved viewing angles, better contrast and lower power consumption. However, these materials often have broad emission profiles, resulting in poor chromaticity and reduced device efficiency.
Typically, a flat panel device is a multilayer assembly of structurally important films consisting of a transparent electrode, insulation, phosphor and metal electrode. All are important materials in device fabrication, but the single most important element in the development of a multi-colour electroluminescent device is the phosphor.
It is known that organometallic complexes can be used as phosphors in electroluminescent devices. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,552,547 describes complexes of aluminium, gallium and indium in which one of the ligands acts as a xe2x80x9cbuilt-inxe2x80x9d fluorescent dye. The colour of the light which is emitted from the complex is determined by the ligand which acts as the dye.
Lanthanide-based materials are gaining popularity as phosphors for thin film devices, as they offer several potential advantages over other light emitting species: such as narrow emission linewidths, the potential for device structures with efficiencies greater than 25% and excellent Commission Internationale de I""Eclairage (CIE) colourmap coordinates. To date, two distinct types of lanthanide metal based phosphors have been reported in the literature; those based upon solid-state inorganic matrices doped with small amounts of the lanthanide ion and molecular coordination complexes. Conventional inorganic thin film EL devices are based upon solid-state phosphors and this group of materials are amongst the most extensively studied of all EL devices in the literature. Unfortunately, these solid-state devices, often based on doped II-VI materials, require large driving voltages and this has hampered their development in portable thin film displays, although there are reports of adequately functioning thin film structures. Recently, several groups of workers have recognised the potential of molecular organometallic phosphors to incorporate the processing and manufacturing advantages of organic materials with the emissive properties of the solid-state materials and reports of the use of lanthanide coordination complexes as hybrid materials are becoming increasingly common. To date these devices have been based almost exclusively upon trivalent europium (red emitting) and terbium (green emitting) complexes with bidentate oxygen donor ligands such as benzoylbenzoate and acetylacetonate derivatives.
M. A. Pavier et al., Thin Solid Films, 284-285 (1996) 644-647, describe electroluminescence from dysprosium- and neodymium-containing Langmuir-Blodgett films. The metal is in the trivalent state in the complexes and the ligand used is a pyrazolone-based molecule in which the binding to the metal by the ligand occurs via a beta-diketonate-type arrangement.
The trivalent europium complex with phenanthroline and thenoyltrifluoroacetone is disclosed in Sano et al, Jpn. J. Appl. Phys., vol.34 (1995), p. 1883-1887 and Campos et al in J. Appl. Phys., vol.80, no.12 (1996), p. 7144-7150. Both Sano et al and Campos et al teach the use of the complexes to provide red light in electroluminescent devices. Like the complexes disclosed by Pavier et al, it is the beta-diketonate part of the ligand which binds to the metal.
The synthesis and structure of bis(tris(3,5-dimethtylpyrazolyl)borate)samarium (II) is described by Takats et al in Organometallics 1993, 12, 4286-4288. However, there is no mention of the light emitting properties of the compound, only its structure and that of its reaction product with azobenzene. The syntheses and structures of the compounds bis[hydrotris(3-tert.butyl-5-methylpyrazolyl) borato]samarium and bis[hydrotris(3-tert.butyl-5-methylpyrazolyl) borato]ytterbium are described by Zhang et al. in New J. Chem. 1995. 19. 573-585. Certain bis- and mono-hydrotris(pyrazolyl)borate complexes of samarium and ytterbium are also described by J. Takats, J. Alloys and Compounds 249 (1997) 52-55.
Light emitting devices containing lanthanide (III) complexes are described in WO 98/06242. Trispyrazolylborate complexes of non-lanthanide metals are also mentioned but only as electron transporting hosts for phosphors. There is no mention of the use of trispyrazolylborate complexes as phosphors, of complexes of these ligands with lanthanide metal ions or of lanthanide (II) complexes at all.
One of the problems associated with the optical emissions from the trivalent lanthanide metal ions is that they are dominated by the relatively weak spin forbidden fxe2x80x94f transitions. Also, the wavelength of the emission from these transitions is generally independent of the ligand in the complex and is therefore difficult to tune by altering the nature of the ligand. The present invention solves these problems by providing a new class of lanthanide metal complexes for use as phosphors in light emitting devices in which the lanthanide metal is in the +2 oxidation state i.e., it is divalent.
Accordingly, the present invention provides a light emitting device comprising a complex containing a divalent lanthanide metal cation complexed with from one to three polydentate ligands.
Unlike the emissions from the trivalent lanthanide metal ions, emissions from the metal in the divalent state may arise from both inter-shell transitions between the 4f65d1 excited state and the 4f7 ground state and charge transfer (CT) transitions, both of which are quantum mechanically allowed and therefore potentially very efficient. Furthermore, unlike the fxe2x80x94f transition of trivalent species, the wavelength of the emission is ligand-dependent and, therefore, potentially tunable. Emission linewidths are also broadened since the transition is affected by differences in metal-ligand bond lengths between the ground and excited states of the molecule.
Preferably, each ligand in the complexes of the invention comprises one or more pyrazolyl groups, optionally substituted and optionally fused with a substituted or unsubstituted, heterocyclic or carbocyclic, aromatic or non-aromatic, ring system, and one of the nitrogen atoms of the pyrazolyl groups forms a coordinate bond to the metal. More preferably, each ligand is a trispyrazolylborate anion, the pyrazolyl groups each being optionally substituted and optionally fused with a substituted or unsubstituted, heterocyclic or carbocyclic, aromatic or non-aromatic, ring system, optionally substituted at the boron atom.
Suitable complexes for use in the invention are desirably those having the formula (I):
[(Z(L)3)pM]Aqxe2x80x83xe2x80x83(I)
wherein
Z is a carbon atom or R1xe2x80x94B fragment
p is 1 or 2
q is 2-p
A is a counterion
R1 is: (i) hydrogen, aryl or aralkyl each optionally substituted with from one to five halogen or C1 to C6 alkyl groups; or (ii) C1 to C6 alkyl, C2 to C6 alkenyl or C2 to C6 alkynyl each optionally substituted with one or more halogen atoms
each L is covalently bound to Z and is independently selected from a group of the formula (II) or (III)
in which R2, R3 and R4 are independently selected from: (i) halogen, cyano, nitro, sulphono, amino, C1 to C6 alkylamino, C1 to C6 alkylamido, carboxyl, C1 to C6 alkyloxycarbonyl, hydroxy, C1 to C6 alkoxy, C1 to C6 alkylcarbonyloxy, C1 to C6 alkylcarbonyl C1 to C6 haloalkoxy and hydrogen; (ii) aryl or aralkyl each optionally substituted on the aryl ring or, for aralkyl, on the alkylene chain with from one or more of the groups mentioned under (i) above; and (iii) C1 to C6 alkyl, C2 to C6 alkenyl or C2 to C6 alkynyl each optionally substituted with one or more of the groups mentioned under (i) and (ii) above
or either R2 and R3 or R3 and R4 are linked so as to form a fused, aromatic or non-aromatic, ring system with the pyrazolyl ring of L
and M is a divalent lanthanide metal ion selected from Eu, Sm and Yb. p is preferably 2.
The light emitting device of the invention may be a flat panel display.
A number of the complexes of formula (I) are believed to be novel and are also provided by the invention.
The term xe2x80x9calkylxe2x80x9d as used herein is intended to cover branched and unbranched C1 to C6 groups and alicyclic compounds for the C3 to C6 groups. The terms xe2x80x9calkenylxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9calkynylxe2x80x9d are intended to cover branched and unbranched C2-C6 groups which contain one or more unsaturated Cxe2x95x90C bonds or Cxe2x89xa1C bonds, respectively.
The term xe2x80x9carylxe2x80x9d covers C6 to C10 aromatic groups such as phenyl and naphthyl as well as heterocycles such as pyridyl, furyl and thiophenyl. The term xe2x80x9caralkylxe2x80x9d means C1 to C3 alkyl substituted with aryl, such as benzyl.
The term xe2x80x9chalogenxe2x80x9d means fluorine, chlorine, bromine or iodine. Of these, fluorine is the preferred halogen for the complexes of the invention.
M is Eu (europium), Sm (samarium) or Yb (ytterbium) since of all the lanthanide metals these three form the most stable divalent compounds and complexes. The Eu complexes of the invention are particularly preferred on account of their ability to exhibit bright electroluminescence which, as disclosed herein, may range from yellow to orange to blue.
The trispyrazolyl ligands used in the invention have been found to be particularly effective in terms of their sensitising efficiency i.e., in transferring energy to the metal in the excitation step of the light emitting (e.g., electroluminescence) process. They also impart high radiative efficiencies to the complexes by providing few non-radiative pathways for relaxation (i.e., energy loss from the metal in its excited state). Some of these ligands have been reported. Dias et al, Inorg Chem, 1995, 34, 1975 and 1996, 35, 267 and Renn et al Helv Chim Acta (1995), 78, 993 describe the synthesis of the fluorinated trispyrazolyl borate ligands. Julia et al., Organic Preparations and Procedures International, 16, 299, 1984, discloses the preparation of the trispyrazolylmethane-derived ligands. The conventional synthetic routes to these complexes offer further advantages for light emitting devices in that these materials are prepared in rigorously anaerobic and anhydrous conditions and thus water and oxygen are excluded from the device preparation at all stages. This is beneficial, since water is known to quench photoluminescence in molecular species and both oxygen and water have a deleterious effect upon the properties of light emitting devices.
The complexes of the invention are generally called xe2x80x9corganometallicxe2x80x9d herein. However, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that this term is used synonymously with the term xe2x80x9ccoordinationxe2x80x9d. Also, the term xe2x80x9ccomplexxe2x80x9d as used herein covers both neutral species and compounds containing a charged organolanthanide species as part of a complex salt.
The light emitted from the light emitting devices of the invention may be produced by various mechanisms such as electroluminescence, photoluminescence or cathodoluminescence with electroluminescence being preferred.
In the light emitting devices of the invention, the complexes may be provided as a thin film of the complex itself or in the form of a dispersion of the complex in a polymer matrix. When a matrix is used, it is preferably of the type conventionally used in light emitting (e.g., electroluminescent) devices and based on polymer systems such as polyvinylcarbazole (PVK) or polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) with a hole transporting material such as 2-(4-biphenylyl)-5-(5-tertbutylbenzene)-1,3,4-oxadiazole (BBO). The organolanthanide complexes used in the invention may themselves act as electron transporting materials, separately from or in addition to being a phosphor, in the light emitting devices.
The ligands ZL3 used in the complexes of formula (I) of the present invention in which R4 and/or R2 is xe2x80x94(CX2)nX or optionally substituted orthodihalogenated or orthodiperhalomethylated aryl are particularly advantageous for use in the light emitting device of the invention since they provide complexes with no carbon-hydrogen (Cxe2x80x94H) bonds within 5 xc3x85 (0.5 nm) of the metal centre. Keeping Cxe2x80x94H bonds away from the metal centre reduces the number of non-radiative pathways for relaxation of the complexes and thus increases their light emitting efficiency.
In the complexes of formula (I), R4 and/or R2 is conveniently trifluoromethyl. Also, R4 and R2 may both be methyl. R3 may be hydrogen and R2 trifluoromethyl. According to one particular embodiment of the invention the organometallic complex has the formula I above in which Z is Hxe2x80x94B and at least one of the L groups is a pyrazolyl group having the formula II or III above in which at least one of R2, R3 and R4 is a trifluoromethyl group. Preferably, in each L group one of R2 and R4 is a trifluoromethyl group and the other is selected from C1-C6 alkyl, C2-C6 alkenyl, C2-C6 alkynyl, aryl and aralkyl, as defined above, and R3 is H. A specific example of such a complex has the formula
This specific complex, which exhibits bright blue luminescence under UV irradiation, belongs to a subclass of europium compounds of formula I having at least one trispyrazolylborate ligand containing CF3 and other ring substituents which may have use as electroluminescence phosphors. The natures of the other variable substituent groups on the pyrazolyl rings act to tune the properties of the complex, such as volatility, solubility and hole and electron transporting properties. It is also found that the presence of the trifluoromethyl substitutents has a protecting effect on the Eu ion thus rendering the complexes stable to air and moisture, even on exposure for several weeks.
As an alternative to the above, ZL3 may be:
The increased conjugation of the fused bi- and poly-cyclic systems can be advantageous for electron transfer within the complex.
The complexes of formula (I) preferably have p equal to 2 and q equal to zero so that they are neutral overall. Neutral complexes are particularly useful since they are relatively readily vaporised and thus are easy to purify and to deposit as a thin film (e.g., in the light emitting device). However, where the complexes used in the invention are positively charged, they will be provided by compounds containing the complex and a counterion. The counterion preferably should not provide non-radiative pathways for relaxation of the metal. Therefore, it is preferred that the counterion should not contain bonds between hydrogen and other atoms, such as carbon-hydrogen bonds. Trifluoromethylsulphonate, CF3SO3xe2x88x92, halide (fluoride, chloride, bromide or iodide), nitrate, NO3xe2x88x92, and perchlorate, CIO4xe2x88x92, are suitable counterions for this purpose.
In yet another embodiment, the present invention provides a process for producing the complex of the invention, as defined in formula (I), which comprises the steps of reacting M2+ ions (i.e., divalent lanthanide ions) with ZL3 anions in solution and separating the complex from the reaction mixture. The process is carried out in a suitable solvent (e.g., an aprotic solvent such as THF) at about or above room temperature up to the boiling point of the solvent for a time sufficient to form a suitable amount of the complex, preferably with stirring. Where the complex is insoluble in the solvent for the reaction, it may be separated from the reaction mixture by filtration and then, where it is neutral, purified by sublimation (preferably at reduced pressure) or crystallisation from another solvent or solvent mixture. The complex may precipitate from the solvent for the reaction either itself or as a mixed salt (e.g., as a metallate with the other ions in the solution). Where the complex is soluble in the solvent for the reaction, it can be separated from any insoluble by-products (if present) by filtration and obtained as a solid by evaporation of the reaction solvent (preferably under reduced pressure). Again, the complex may be purified by sublimation or crystallisation.
To avoid the presence of water molecules in the complex which might provide non-radiative relaxation pathways, the process is preferably carried out under anhydrous conditions. It is also advantageous to exclude oxygen from the reaction mixture by carrying out the process under an inert gas atmosphere e.g., of nitrogen or argon.
The process may be carried out via the following reaction:
pMxe2x80x2ZL3+MA2xe2x86x92(ZL3)pMAq+pMxe2x80x2A
wherein
Mxe2x80x2 is a monovalent metal such as an alkali metal e.g., sodium or potassium, or thallium or silver (as Tl+ and Ag+, respectively)
p,M,Z and L are as defined above,
and q is 2-p and A is a counterion.
In a preferred version of the process, two equivalents of Mxe2x80x2ZL3 are suspended or dissolved in a solvent and are treated with one equivalent of a divalent lanthanide salt. The reaction mixture is stirred for a period of time between one and 100 hours either at room temperature or at a temperature up to the boiling point of the solvent under standard conditions.

Abstract: In the complexes, several classes of which are novel, the lanthanide metal is preferably Eu since the Eu complexes have the ability to exhibit bright electroluminescence ranging from yellow to orange to blue.


A measurement transmitter for providing a measured value to a control system, comprising: a sensor having a transducer for outputting a primary signal dependent on the measured value; a first electronic circuit for processing the primary signal to an intermediate signal; a second electronic circuit for processing the intermediate signal to a signal representing the measured value, wherein the second electronic circuit has a signal output for outputting the signal to connection lines; a housing arrangement having a metal material, wherein the first electronic circuit has at least a first circuit carrier, and the second electronic circuit has at least a second circuit carrier, and wherein the first and second electronic circuits are positioned in the housing arrangement spaced from one another. Electrically conducting shielding and high frequency filters for protecting against HF disturbances, which can get into the housing arrangement via the connection lines. The electrically conducting shielding and the high frequency filters are arranged between the first and second circuit carriers.

Measurement transmitters of the field of the invention for providing a measured value of at least one measured variable to a control system comprise: a sensor having an electrical transducer for outputting a primary signal dependent on the current value of the measured variable; a first electronic circuit for driving the transducer, for processing the primary signal and for outputting an intermediate signal dependent on the primary signal; a second electronic circuit for feeding the first electronic circuit and for processing the intermediate signal for producing a signal representing the measured value of the measured variable, wherein the second electronic circuit has a signal output for outputting the signal to connection lines; a housing arrangement, wherein the first electronic circuit has at least a first circuit carrier, and the second electronic circuit has at least a second circuit carrier, and wherein the first and second electronic circuits are positioned in the housing assembly spaced from one another. Frequently, the measurement transmitter is modularly embodied, so that the housing arrangement includes a first housing module and a second housing module, wherein the two housing modules are connected with one another. The first housing module contains the sensor and the first electronic circuit, while the second electronic circuit is arranged in the second housing module. The second housing module contains additionally a so-called terminal block where the connection lines are to be connected. Via the connection lines, high frequency disturbances in the region of some 100 MHz can get into the second housing module and via the signal path degrade the second and first electronic circuits. In order to prevent this, for example, the second housing module is embodied as a two chamber housing with a partition, which separates a connector space, which contains the terminal block, from the electronics compartment, in which the second electronic circuit is arranged. In the metal partition, which already acts as shielding, high frequency filters are provided, which are intended to attenuate the HF-signals. Such a measurement transmitter is described, for example, in WO 96/05483. The manufacture of a two chamber housing is, however, relatively expensive, since at least one additional housing opening with a corresponding housing lid must then be provided.


A method for coating thermoplastic resin beads for use in imitation pearls includes the steps of: applying to celluloid a surface treatment compound (A) dissolved into a mixed solution of acetone, ethylacetate, butylacetate, and benzene; coating the surface treated celluloid with compounds for an under coat and a mid coat, each compound being obtained by dissolving celluloid into a mixed solution of ethylacetate and amylacetate, and adding a pigment thereto; and coating the celluloid with a compound for a top coat (D) that is prepared by dissolving celluloid into ethylacetate, and adding a pigment thereto.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to a method for coating thermoplastic resin beads for use in imitation pearls. More specifically, surface of celluloid is treated with a surface treatment compound (A) having been dissolved into a mixed solution of acetone, ethylacetate, butylacetate and benzene, and the surface treated celluloid is coated with: a compound for an under coat (B), a compound for a mid coat (C), and a compound for a top coat (D), wherein each of the compounds (B), (C), and (D) is prepared by adding a pigment to a mixed solution of ethylacetate and amylacetate.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, thermoplastic resins are very sensitive to chemicals, and thus it was difficult to coat beads with those resins. Even though the coating process was succeeded, it did not increase merchantability of the beads.
However, industrial development has succeeded to mass-produce nontoxic and environmentally friendly imitation pearls made of thermoplastic resin. Moreover, the coating method of the mass-produced pearls was very easy and gave excellent color and luster to the pearls. Thusly produced pearls were high quality and hardly defective.
Industrial development also brought positive changes on ornaments and raised more interests in accessories. As people live in more comfortable circumstances than the past, their interests in ornaments and accessories have grown naturally.
Among them is the imitation pearl. As described above, imitation pearls could be mass produced and are no way inferior to natural pearls in terms of the texture, so they are widely used for accessories, necklaces, rings, brooches, toys and so on.
To make imitation pearls for ornamental purposes, cellulose nitrate (or simply, cellulose) is dissolved in diverse solvents, and pigments are added thereto. Then, resin beads are coated with the mixture of the cellulose solution and the pigments.
In the past, basic lead carbonate (2PbCO3Pb(OH)2), which is a compound of a lead (Pb)-containing neutral salt and a hydroxide, was usually used for the pigment to be added to the cellulose solution. Although the basic lead carbonate was effective for creating almost same texture and luster with natural pearls, it had deadly effects on a human body and was a major environmental contaminant.
To resolve the above-described problems, a new technique has been recently proposed. According to the new technique, cellulose was dissolved in a solvent of acetone or butylacetate, and a harmless pigment, bismuthoxychloride (BiOCl), was added to the cellulose solution.
However, as long as nitrocellulose itself was used, solubility and dispersibility of pigments based on titanium dioxide and bismuthoxychloride were poor. Also, imitation pearls made of nitrocellulose were easily turned to yellow because of nitrocellulose being very sensitive to ultraviolet rays. Although there was another technique introduced to get the same texture and physical properties with natural pearls by mixing titanium dioxide with a specific pigment (highlight pearl green), its manufacturing process was very complicated, and matching appropriate components and contents therefor was often failed. As a result, it seemed to be almost impossible to manufacture imitation pearls having gentle and bright colors like natural pearls, and this inferiority only deteriorated merchantability of the imitation pearls.
In the past, high impact non-coated thermoplastic resins like acryl, ABS, and PS were used as the materials of the bead. However, when the surface of the bead was polished, the bead still showed weakness to chemicals during the coating process. Needless to say, the bead was low in quality.

Method for coating thermoplastic resin beads for use in imitation pearls


A solid state lamp includes a connector and an envelope with a strip inside the envelope.

A huge market for LEDs is in replacement lamps for standard, screw-in incandescent light bulbs, commonly referred to as A19 bulbs, or less formally, A-lamps. The letter "A" refers to the general shape of the bulb, including its base, and the number 19 refers to the maximum diameter of the bulb in eighths of an inch (e.g., 2⅜″ diameter). Such a form factor is also specified in ANSI C78-20-2003. Therefore, it is desirable to provide an LED lamp that has the same screw-in base as a standard light bulb and approximately the same size diameter or less. Additional markets exist for replacing other types of standard incandescent bulbs with longer lasting and more energy efficient solid state lamps.
Typical LED lamps having an A-shape use high power LEDs in order to use as few LEDs as possible to achieve the desired lumen output (e.g., 600-1000 lumens). Such LEDs may each draw a current greater than 300 mA and dissipate 1 W or more. Since the LED dies are on the order of about 1 mm2, adequate heat removal is difficult because the heat is usually highly concentrated within a small surface area and often located near the base of the lamp where it shares heat dissipation capacity with the power supply electronics. The high power LED junction temperatures should be kept under 125° C. to ensure the LEDs remain efficient and have a long life. A common design is to mount high power LEDs on a flat, heat conductive substrate and provide a diffusive bulb-shaped envelope around the substrate. The power supply is in the body of the lamp. Removing heat from such designs, using ambient air currents, is difficult since the lamp may be mounted in any orientation. Metal fins or heavy metal heat sinks are common ways to remove heat from such lamps, but such heat sinks add significant cost and have other drawbacks. It is common for such LED replacement lamps to cost $30-$60. Additionally, the light emission produced by such a solid state bulb is unlike that of an incandescent bulb since all the LEDs are mounted on a relatively small flat substrate. This departure from the standard spherical distribution patterns for conventional lamps that are replaced with LED replacement lamps is of particularly concern to the industry and end users, since their existing luminaires are often adapted to spherical light emission patterns. When presented with the typical "hemi-spherical" type emission from many standard LED replacement lamps, there are often annoying shadow lines in shades and strong variations in up/down flux ratios which can affect the proper photometric distributions.
What is needed is a new approach for a solid state lamp that replaces a variety of standard incandescent lamps, using standard electrical connectors and supply voltages, where removing adequate heat does not require significant cost or added weight and where other drawbacks of prior art solid state lamps are overcome.

Solid state lamp using light emitting strips


A rotatable sound attenuation device is provided comprising a central portion rotatable about a first axis, a radial portion extending outwardly from the central portion and a chamber having a closed first end and a second end opening radially outwardly of the radial portion and defining a second axis therein having a radial component thereto. A piston is disposed within the chamber and is moveable to a location along the second axis in response to a centrifugal force imparted on the piston by rotation of the central portion and the radial portion about the first axis. A biasing member operates to limit movement of the piston along the second axis. A quarter wave chamber is defined by the second, open end of the chamber and the piston and has a sound attenuating length defined by the location of the piston along the second axis of the chamber.

The application of internal combustion engines, whether stationary or mobile, often requires significant noise, vibration and harshness ("NVH") engineering to reduce naturally generated sound frequencies. Rotating devices installed in, or associated with, internal combustion engines are a common contributor to such noise. Rotating parts such as fan blades or supercharger lobes may generate sound that varies over a range of frequencies; primarily as a function of the rotational velocity of the component. Additionally, rotating components may also produce noise as they pass by stationary objects.
Under-hood and induction system noise associated with an automotive internal combustion engine is a target of significant NVH focus due to the desirability of providing a quiet and comfortable driving experience for the operator of the vehicle. Induction noise produced by the engine depends on the particular engine configuration and may be affected by such factors as the number of cylinders, and the volume and shape of the intake manifold, plenum and intake runners. The application of induction compression through the use of an engine driven supercharger, or an exhaust driven turbocharger, may also contribute substantially to under-hood noise. Other under-hood sound produced by the engine may be contributed by rotating accessory drives, associated accessories and fans for cooling the engine.
Quarter wave tubes produce a sound-canceling wave of a frequency that is tuned to a wavelength four times longer than the quarter wave tube. Quarter wave tubes are often used to reduce sound generated by engine induction systems, but are typically of a fixed length and are therefore limited to addressing specific frequencies. Noise of varying frequency or noise of several different orders, such as may be produced by variable-speed rotating components, may require the use of multiple quarter wave tubes or other sound attenuation solutions that can be costly, difficult to package and of limited effectiveness.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a sound attenuator such as a quarter wave tube that can attenuate varying sound frequencies that are generated by rotating devices.

Variable frequency sound attenuator for rotating devices


A method of forming fin-shaped structures includes the following steps. A plurality of spacers is formed on a substrate. The substrate is etched by using the spacers as hard masks to form a plurality of fin-shaped structures in the substrate. A cutting process is then performed to remove parts of the fin-shaped structures and the spacers formed on the removed parts.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a method of forming a fin-shaped structure, and more specifically to a method of forming a fin-shaped structure by transferring the pattern of spacers.
2. Description of the Prior Art
With increasing miniaturization of semiconductor devices, various Multi-gate MOSFET devices have been developed. The Multi-gate MOSFET is advantageous for the following reasons. Manufacturing processes of Multi-gate MOSFET devices can be integrated into traditional logic device processes, and thus are more compatible. In addition, since the three-dimensional structure of the Multi-gate MOSFET increases the overlapping area between the gate and the substrate, the channel region is controlled more effectively. This reduces both the drain-induced barrier lowering (DIBL) effect and the short channel effect. Moreover, as the channel region is longer for the same gate length, the current between the source and the drain is increased.
A multi-gate MOSFET has a gate formed on fin-shaped structures, and the fin-shaped structures are formed on a substrate, wherein the fin-shaped structures formed by etching the substrate are strip structures parallel to each other. With the demands of miniaturization of semiconductor devices, the width of each fin-shaped structure narrows and the spacing between the fin-shaped structures shrinks. Thus, forming fin-shaped structures which can achieve the required demands under the restrictions of miniaturization, physical limitations and various processing parameters becomes an extreme challenge.


A method and apparatus for producing a chilled or partially frozen beverage is provided. The system includes a beverage hopper (32) a chilling unit (44), a rotatable mixing member (38), a sensing member (230) for detecting an occurrence of a rotation reversal condition, a controller for generating a rotation reversal signal in response to the sensing member, and a drive motor (36) coupled to the mixing member for rotating the mixing member in a first direction and a second, reverse direction in response to a rotation reverse signal.

The present disclosure relates to an improved apparatus for producing a chilled or partially frozen beverage often referred to as a slush beverage. A variety of apparatus have been designed to produce chilled beverages as well as to produce beverages which are in slush form. Some of these apparatus are referred to as "granita" machines. Such apparatus can be used to produce slush beverages for a number of products including fruit juices, coffee-based beverages, tea-based beverages, dairy based beverages, as well as beverages containing alcohol. The apparatus include a chilling structure and some form of blade or auger which moves relative to the chilling portion to strip the frozen product off and circulate the beverage along the chilling portion. Circulation of the frozen beverage within the beverage hopper and along the chilling portion helps to reduce the temperature of the beverage mixture thereby causing the partially frozen beverage to approach a slush consistency. There is a need for an improved chilled beverage producing apparatus.
One problem with the prior frozen beverage apparatus is that the rotatable augers of such machines typically induce an "ice hump" condition within the beverage hopper in which frozen beverage product collecting at the top of the hopper toward its front end. This condition is most common during a "freeze down" mode of operation of the machine which occurs when a substantial quantity of warmed beverage in the beverage hopper is rapidly chilled to being it to a slush or partially frozen condition.
A "freeze down" event is defined for purposes of this application as the time period required to chill and mix a quantity of warmed liquid beverage within the beverage hopper until a partially frozen beverage of adequate serving quality can be dispensed. A "freeze down" events typically occurs either after (a) the machine is partially re-filled with beverage products during periods of heavy use, (b) it is reactivated from a "night mode" operation, or (c) the initial filling of the beverage hopper after cleaning. As the ice crystals are scraped off the chilling structure, they rise in the beverage hopper since the crystals are less dense than the warmed beverage in the lower portion of the hopper. At the same time those ice crystals are rising due to their buoyancy, they are also being pushed forward and upward by the action of the auger. In prior devices, the "ice hump" would typically break up after it becomes large enough to collapse under its own weight and to fall back into the lower portion of the container. This collapse can take a considerable period of time to occur. As a result, the formation of an "ice hump" substantially slows the time period required for the system to complete a "freeze down" event.
Another problem that arises is that the chilled beverage product can become less uniformly mixed within the beverage hopper than is desirable. This can cause inconsistencies in the frozen beverage product from serving to serving. Lack of uniform mixing with the prior rotatable augers is often due to stagnant areas forming within the beverage hopper which are not homogeneously mixed with the remainder of the frozen beverage. Typically, these stagnant corners further contribute to inconsistencies in the beverage product.
One prior attempt to deal with the problems of delayed freeze down and insufficient product mixing has been to provide a second auger or mixing mechanism for breaking up the "ice hump" or stagnant corners within the beverage. This approach has the drawback of increasing the cost of the frozen beverage machines, their complexity, as well as creating difficulties in servicing them. Such two auger machines also have a tendency to mix air into the partially frozen beverage which causes undesirable "frothing" of the product. It is one object of the invention to provide a cost efficient partially frozen beverage machine having an improved mixing apparatus and method for providing a more consistent frozen beverage product.
It is another object of the invention to provide an improved mixing apparatus and method of using same that substantially prevents the formation of an "ice hump" or rapidly breaks up any "ice hump" that begins to form thereby providing rapid completion of a "freeze down" event.
The present disclosure is directed to an improved apparatus for producing a partially frozen beverage which includes a beverage hopper for retaining a quantity of partially frozen beverage, a rotatable mixing member, a chilling unit for cooling the beverage within the hopper, a sensing member for detecting the occurrence of a rotation reversal condition, a controller for generating a rotation reversal signal, and a drive motor operably coupled to the rotatable mixing member for rotating the mixing member in a first direction during normal operation and in a second, reverse direction in response to a rotation reversal signal. The reverse rotation of the rotatable mixing member improves the efficiency of the mixing of partially frozen beverage within the beverage hopper and is effective in speeding the conclusion of a "freeze down" event relative to prior "forward rotation only" beverage apparatus. Further, the machines disclosed may be designed with a single mixing member, rather than the more costly multiple mixing member machines sometimes used with prior machines.
In one preferred embodiment of the present invention, the sensing member is programmed to detect a "freeze down" event of a certain duration as a rotation reversal condition. During this operation, the chilling unit is maintained below a pre-determined temperature for periods of greater than about ten (10) minutes. Such operation conditions are likely to produce an "ice hump." Reversal of the rotatable member prevents or limits this occurrence by pulling ice crystals from the top-front portion of the machine and mixing them with the contents of the remainder of the beverage hopper. This causes more rapid "freeze down" of the beverage as complete mixing does not require waiting for collapse of the "ice hump" under its own weight. Where all or large portions of the beverage product is in liquid rather than partially frozen form, it may be necessary to cycle between forward rotation and reverse rotation repeatedly during a "freeze down" event. Preferably a torque sensor is also provided to sense the torque at the drive shaft of the drive motor. The torque sensor detects a torque valve that is correlated with a high quality product consistency. Once the selected torque value is detected, the flow of coolant into the chilling unit associated with beverage hopper is switched to an "off/ice" position. During the reverse rotation phase, the torque sensor is preferably deactivated so that it does not interfere with the operation of apparatus because reverse rotation may cause temporary fluctuations in measured torque which are not indicative of product quality.
In another preferred embodiment of the invention, the sensing member may be a timer that discerns that the rotatable mixing member has been rotating in a first direction for a pre-determined period of time that is indicative of incomplete mixing or stagnation in the corners of the beverage hopper. Reversal of the direction of rotation of the auger for a pre-determined period of time causes reverse circulation of the partially frozen beverage such that any stagnate frozen beverage is mixed with the remainder of the beverage. This results in a more homogeneously mixed frozen beverage product. Preferably, the timer is further programmed to detect a pre-determined period of reverse direction rotation. In response thereto, a forward rotation signal is generated and communicated to the drive motor. The drive motor is then caused to alter its rotation back into a normal, forward rotation mode until the pre-determined time period again lapses and a new reverse direction rotation cycle may be initiated.


A method and apparatus for use when measuring pressure in hydrocarbon wells. A sensor, an interferometric optical pressure transducer, at the end of a fibre optic line is illuminated by broadband light pulses. Measuring equipment output drives a display indicating the pressure at the sensor. The transducer is modelled by subjecting it to known pressures. The measuring equipment is modelled by applying test signals. The models are combined and a display output C is assumed. A mathematical model is used to calculate an estimation B of the actual output A from the sensor. B is compared with A and the value of C changed until the closest match is found between A and B. This value of C is taken as the output representing the pressure at the sensor. Different models and compensation factors allow for interchange of sensors and sensor types and measuring equipment and measuring equipment types.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to measurement systems, designed to read the value of a parameter, such as pressure, flow control, strain, chemical properties, or temperature, where the sensor is connected to a measurement box, optionally with a length of cable or other components between the two, for the measurement box to give a value for the parameter being measured. The present invention relates to such systems where different sensors can be attached to different measurement boxes. The example given for the embodiment of the present invention particularly relates to, but is not limited to, systems for reading parameters where the measurement box can be separated from the transducer by a large length, perhaps some kilometres in length, of fibre optic cable, and where the transducer is an optical transducer.
2. Description of Related Art
High precision optical measurement instruments, for example for measuring pressure at the bottom of a well bore in a hydrocarbon well, usually comprise a transducer situated within the well bore, a fibre optic cable leading to the transducer, at the distal end of which the transducer is situated, and measurement equipment, out of the well bore, for interrogating the transducer through the fibre optic cable and providing output indicative of the pressure to which the transducer is instantly subject.
The individual transducers are generally individually calibrated, with their individual measurement instruments, by subjecting the individual transducer to controlled values of the parameter to be measured (e.g. pressure) and noting the value of the output of the measuring equipment. In general, all transducers, even those of the same type, give different outputs from each other for the same parametric stimulus, and all measuring equipment, even those of the same type, give different readings from each other for the same output from a transducer. This is due to differences in the manufacturing process, dimensions, material properties, and alignment, among others, from sensor to sensor or from box to box. The present invention seeks to provide a method and means for allowing different measuring equipment to be connected to different sensors without loss of accuracy and without having to re-calibrate the entire system.

Sensor response with compensation for sensor type and measuring equipment type


Embodiments of the present disclosure are directed toward techniques and configurations for an optical coupler including an optical waveguide to guide light to an optical fiber. In embodiments, the optical waveguide includes a tapered segment to propagate the received light to the optical fiber. In embodiments, the tapered segment is buried below a surface of a semiconductor substrate to transition the received light within the semiconductor substrate from a first optical mode to a second optical mode to reduce a loss of light during propagation of the received light from the optical waveguide to the optical fiber. In embodiments, the surface of the semiconductor substrate comprises a bottom planar surface of a silicon photonic chip that includes at least one or more of passive or active photonic components. Other embodiments may be described and/or claimed.

Silicon photonics is often considered one of the most popular and successful technology platforms based on planar photonics circuits for cost effective optoelectronics integration. Optical waveguide-based photonics devices such as lasers, modulators, and detectors are typically fabricated on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers. In SOI photonic systems, light is typically confined in a wafer (or chip) plane. Silicon waveguides are typically designed with submicron cross-sections, allowing dense integration of active and passive devices to achieve higher speed and lower driving power. Optical mode converters (OMCs) are typically used to improve optical coupling between optical waveguides and optic fibers.
Optical coupling between a silicon photonic waveguide and an optical fiber, however, can be challenging because light is typically confined very tightly in waveguides but much more loosely in an optical fiber (e.g., supported optical mode sizes can range from submicron in a silicon waveguide to approximately 10 micrometers (μm) in an optical fiber). The numerical aperture (NA) of a waveguide or fiber is a critical figure, because it determines how much the light will diverge. A thin/narrow waveguide will have a high NA and high divergence, whereas a wide/thick waveguide will have a lower NA and lower divergence. Note that the higher the NA, the higher the number of modes associated with the waveguide. A low NA of a waveguide may be desirable to enable efficient coupling to the optical fiber; however, waveguides with sufficiently low NA typically require relatively thick films, e.g., semiconductor films, on the order of ˜10 micrometers (μm,) which can be challenging to process due to stress, topography, and throughput concerns.

Optical device including buried optical waveguides and output couplers


An uncoated, highly reflective, impact-resistant injection-molded article which comprises a rubber ingredient (A) and a thermoplastic resin (B), characterized in that (1) the rubber ingredient (A) has been dispersed in the thermoplastic resin (B), (2) the rubber ingredient (A) has a coefficient of linear expansion of 12.5×10−5 to 19×10−5/° C., (3) the surface of the injection-molded article has a reflected-image clarity of 60-100%, and (4) the injection-molded article has a notched Charpy impact strength of 5-60 kJ/m2.

Thermoplastic resins provided with impact resistance are widely used for household electrical appliances, game machines and interior materials for vehicles, etc. In recent years, products using such resins as materials are required not only to show performances of strength, impact resistance and the like but also to be very beautiful, and especially, image clarity has attracted attention. The image clarity means clearness of an image reflected on a surface, and for example, an image reflected on a piano or an image reflected on a high-grade black limousine may be imagined, and such an image may strongly give a sense of high quality. There are strong demands for such image clarity, and a variety of attempts have been made by material manufacturers and the like.
For example, a method for providing image clarity by coating a resin after subjecting it to a treatment for improving affinity between its surface and a coating composition has been known (Patent Literature 1).
Alternatively, a method for providing image clarity to a surface by forming a hard coat layer thereon by applying a thermosetting resin or an ionization-radiation curable resin and curing the resin has been known (Patent Literature 2).

Uncoated highly reflective impact-resistant injection-molded article and process for producing same


A method of lubricating the interior of a tire comprising the steps of: inserting an applicator tube including apertures and a protector sleeve between the rim and tire bead, and thereby into the interior of the tire; applying lubricant to the interior of the tire; covering the apertures with the protector sleeve; and withdrawing the applicator from the interior of the tire.

Upon partial or complete deflation of a pneumatic tire, the interior surface of the tire may come into contact with the wheel, generating considerable heat that may degrade the structure of the tire. One approach to this problem has been to provide an annular insert. This annular insert, or support ring, may be a solid ring that supports the load of the wheel assembly upon deflation of the tire. However, this insert may also chafe the interior surface of the tire upon deflation, or even upon normal operation of the tire. Therefore, it has been proposed to lubricate the outer surface of the annular insert or the inner surface of the tire. However, if lubricant is incidentally placed on the tire bead, it can cause slippage of the tire on the rim. Therefore there is a need for an improved method and apparatus for placing lubricant in the interior of the tire.

Method and apparatus for lubricating a tire


A nail polish remover comprises about 25 to 95% glycol ether ester and about 5 to 75% glycol ether. The remover preferably comprises about 5 to 40% water. The remover is highly effective and yet is gentle to the nails and skin and relatively hazard-free. The remover is free of acetone and ethyl acetate, the two most widely used and hazardous solvents in current commercial nail polish removers.

For thousands of years it has been customary for women to coat their nails with colored polish. Current commercial nail polishes are made of colors and acrylic resins dissolved or suspended in a solvent base. Nail polish removers are used to remove the polish from the nails. In the United States, about four million gallons of nail polish remover are sold annually, or about five fluid ounces per each woman of age 13 and above.
Present commercial nail polish removers generally contain either acetone or ethyl acetate. Each of these solvents is inexpensive and highly effective at removing nail polish. Unfortunately, each suffers from a large number of serious health problems: Each solvent is highly flammable, can cause dermatitis or other skin problems because it removes fat from the skin, can cause lung damage if inhaled, exhibits a moderate level of toxicity if ingested, and contains small amounts of known carcinogens such as benzene, formaldehyde, and acetaldehyde.
Because of these serious health problems, the use of acetone and ethyl acetate in nail polish removers will soon diminish or end altogether. The State of California has set a maximum level of 85% for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in nail polish removers sold after Jan. 1, 1994 and a maximum level of 75% after Jan. 1, 1996. A VOC is defined as an organic compound having a vapor pressure at 20.degree. C. of greater than 0.1 mm Hg. Both acetone and ethyl acetate are, of course, within this definition. Other states, as well as the federal government, are expected to impose similar requirements in the near future. Accordingly, it is essential that an effective nail polish remover be provided which reduces or eliminates the health hazards associated with acetone and ethyl acetate and which meets the upcoming VOC limitations.
Compositions for treating keratinic materials such as human skin, hair, and nails are disclosed in a series of patents issued to Grollier et al.: U.S. Pat. No. 4,240,450, issued Dec. 23, 1980; U.S. Pat. No. 4,304,563, issued Dec. 8, 1981; U.S. Pat. No. 4,445,521, issued May 1, 1984; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,842,849, issued Jun. 27, 1989. Glycol ether esters and glycol ethers are mentioned as optional, cosmetically acceptable solvents in these compositions. Papaphilippou, U.S. Pat. No. 4,781,916, issued Nov. 1, 1988, discloses a nail polish remover containing a diester of a diol or dioic acid. Optional ingredients include moisturizers such as the monoalkyl ethers of ethylene and propylene glycol.


An antifriction bearing equipped with sensors for measuring the length change in the rolling contact between antifriction elements and the outer ring, region vectors are formed and pass via an interface to an evaluation unit disposed outside the antifriction bearing which add region vectors from the sensors in at least three regions and determines magnitude and direction of force on the bearing.

Antifriction bearings equipped with sensors have the task of measuring the operating conditions present on the antifriction bearing, in order to then be able to control or regulate the overall process of the machine arrangement by using this measured data. In this case, antifriction bearings equipped with sensors are used for force measurement, measurement of the direction of rotation, rotational speed measurement and temperature measurement. Such antifriction bearings equipped with sensors are also disclosed, inter alia, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,952,587. The use of strain gage sensors, for example, and the evaluation of these measured results are extensively described in the text. The problem with the unit disclosed in this text is that, for antifriction bearings having a different number of antifriction elements, a different number of cables have to be led from the antifriction bearing to the evaluation unit located outside. The problem is therefore that the evaluation unit has to be designed differently, depending on the antifriction elements currently used in the antifriction bearings.


A first media packet from a first endpoint of an access network behind a NAPT device is received by a media device between a core network and the access network. The first media packet includes a first source IP address and port combination identifying the first endpoint. An UPDATE request or a reINVITE request is transmitted by the media device. A second IP address and port combination for the media device to receive future media packets from the first endpoint is negotiated. The media device compares a first IP address of the first source IP address and port combination to a second IP address of a second source address and port combination for a second media packet received on the second IP address and port combination. If the first and second IP addresses match, the media device relays media packets from the core network to the first endpoint.

NAPT devices, in general, do not allow unknown traffic flows to be initiated from the core network side. The first message, typically, is sent to the core network by an endpoint behind the NAPT device on the access network. This creates a new binding on the NAPT device. This behavior creates difficulties for media streams to be sent to devices behind NAPT devices as the IP address and port combination inserted into the signaling message(s) is not the IP address and port combination to be used when sending media packets to such endpoints. To overcome this problem, media address learning can be used.
The first-hop media entity in the core network or public domain from the endpoint perspective sends media packets to the endpoint only after it receives a first media packet from the endpoint. After that first media packet, the first-hop media entity sends media packets to the source IP address and port combination of the first media packet received from the endpoint.
A problem with media address learning is security. The first-hop media entity uses the source IP address and port of the first packet received on the port allocated for this session, but there is no guarantee that the packet is really sent by the endpoint behind the NAPT device. An attacker can continuously send packets to media ports of the first-hop media device and cause media traffic not to be received by the endpoint.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Secure media address learning for endpoints behind NAPT devices


Novel peptides with antimicrobial activity are disclosed. The novel peptides are octomeric peptides modified from α-MSH. The modified α-MSH antimicrobial peptides disclosed herein may have enhanced activity against microbes over α-MSH due to modifications in peptide sequence and chirality of amino acids. Due an identified mechanism of action for antimicrobial activity in which cAMP accumulates in the microbial cell, it may be that microbes will not generate resistance to these modified α-MSH antimicrobial peptides.

Antibiotics, and in general, antimicrobials, have been in commercial use for decades. Antimicrobials have played an enormous role in both enhancing quality of life and extending life expectancy.
Despite their effectiveness in fighting infection, antimicrobial agents have some well-known drawbacks. First, they can eliminate significant numbers of mutually beneficial native flora, opening the door for opportunistic infection. In other words, the successful treatment of unwanted bacteria or other microorganism may kill enough mutually beneficial microorganisms to allow an opportunistic pathogen to increase numbers to a pathogenic level.
For example, humans have over 400 species of commensal bacteria, present mostly in the colon and ileum, whose existence is essential to normal digestion by humans. Intestinal bacteria alone collectively weigh as much as one kilogram and number approximately 1014. Yet, humans manage to cohabit with the intestinal flora in a mutually beneficial symbiotic relationship. Centers for Disease Control: "Campaign to Prevent Antimicrobial Resistance in Healthcare Settings," 2002. Mutually beneficial gut flora compete with pathogenic species for space and nutrients, usually preventing pathogenic colonization. Similarly, mutually beneficial bacteria, if allowed to grow unchecked, may themselves become pathogenic.
On the other hand, an antibiotic that kills large numbers of mutually beneficial bacteria may eliminate competition for pathogenic bacteria, providing them with space and nutrients that otherwise would be unavailable to them. One example is the opportunistic pathogen is Clostridium difficile. Typically, C. difficile is not present at pathogenic levels in the intestine. If, certain mutually beneficial intestinal bacteria are eliminated after intense or prolonged antibiotic exposure, C. difficile will begin to colonize the intestine in large numbers, resulting in a significant infection capable of producing toxins that result in inflammation and injury to the intestinal lining. This colonization is allowed as a result of the lack of other bacteria, bacteria whose existence would have checked the growth of C. difficile, that have been eliminated by the long term antibiotic treatment.
Another common example is seen in the treatment of any number of infections in women. Infectious conditions, upper respiratory infections or urinary tract infections for example, treated with antibiotics may lead to other complications. Often times, women treated with broad spectrum antibiotics for a variety of bacterial infections often develop vaginal yeast infections due to the wiping out of the natural flora of the vagina, a flora that normally keep yeast, Candida albicans specifically, in check. A natural antibiotic treatment that does not disrupt the balance of the normal flora is needed.
The normal flora is easily distinguished from pathogenic bacteria, as are normal flora that have mounted an opportunistic infection. Antibiotics are created to selectively kill a certain group of bacteria, Gram positive for example. Upon the discovery and development of a new antimicrobial, an antimicrobial's spectrum of action is easily determined by using well-established techniques. The Kirby-Bauer Disc Diffusion test is one such technique. Microbes are grown in agar plates containing paper discs coated with the antimicrobial agent. By measuring the diameter of growth inhibition around the disc, one can determine which strains are susceptible or resistant to the antimicrobial agent. Discs with larger diameters of inhibition indicate that the strain is susceptible to the antimicrobial agent, and likely will be easily treated in a patient setting. Discs with smaller diameters of inhibition surrounding them are indicative of the presence of more resistant microbes that may take longer to kill in a patient. Those with no diameter of inhibition indicate that the microbes either already harbor resistant genes or have mutated to become resistant. As resistant bacteria propagate, the genes responsible for their resistance will be passed to successive generations. If resistant bacteria establish an infection in a patient, the results can be devastating.
Antimicrobial resistance has been recognized since the introduction of penicillin nearly 50 years ago when patients having penicillin-resistant S. aureus infections appeared. As early as 1946, only 3 years after companies began mass-producing penicillin, a London hospital reported that 14% of S. aureus strains taken from patients were penicillin-resistant. Drexler, M., "Secret Agents: The Menace of Emerging Infections," Joseph Henry Press, 2002. Today, hospitals worldwide are facing infection control problems from the rapid emergence and dissemination of other microbes resistant to one or more antimicrobial agents.
Microbes, regardless of their resistance status, are normally recognized and ablated by an individual's immune system. If, however, the microbe population is sufficiently large and their growth outpaces the immune system's ability to eliminate them, an infection can result that may threaten the health of the individual. Treatment with an antimicrobial agent will eliminate a large percentage of the pathogenic microbial population in a patient, which allows the patient's immune system to ablate the remaining pathogenic organisms. In contrast, resistant microbes do not succumb to antibiotic therapy and if the immune system is unable to eliminate them, their colonization may result in persistent infections that are difficult, if not impossible, to treat using currently available therapies.
Prolonged antibiotic exposure, among other causes, may also result in "super infection." Super infection is best understood with reference to basic Darwinian theory. Those microbes whose phenotype presents more resistance to certain antimicrobials will result in the proliferation of similar bacteria who are "selected in" by the antimicrobial. Essentially, the more sensitive bacteria are killed while the more resistant survive and thrive. Antimicrobials are designed to kill off sensitive bacteria, bacteria that have proliferated for any number of reasons, beyond the body's cellular and humoral based immunity systems' ability to overcome the infection. Usually, the number of sensitive bacteria significantly outnumber the resistant strains. Antimicrobial therapy directed to a specific microbe, in addition to the body's immune system, has been successful in clearing infection. However, long term administrations of an antibiotic treatment, osteomylitis for example, may result in the killing of all sensitive bacteria but no resistant bacteria. In this case, if the proliferation of resistant bacteria overcomes the body's natural ability to control the rate of growth of the resistant bacteria, a super infection of resistant bacteria develops.
In a nearly opposite situation, that of uncompleted antimicrobial treatment, a similar resultant super infection is possible. Antibiotic therapy is designed to last beyond the period of symptomatic treatment. In other words, the medications are to be taken beyond that point a patient no longer experiences symptoms of the infection. When treatment is aborted prior to a full "course of antibiotics," a super infection may result. The early portion of a normal course of antibiotic treatment usually results in the killing of the majority of sensitive bacteria. The remaining course of antibiotics keeps the remaining bacteria in check while the body fights the remaining sensitive bacteria and the rare population of resistant bacteria, a population that may not exist in every patient. In those cases where a patient may contain a population of resistant bacteria, the uncompleted course of antibiotic treatment may result in a proliferation of resistant bacteria beyond the body's natural ability to fight infection. Essentially, the incomplete course kills the weakest bacteria leaving the strong to survive. In Darwinian terms, the resistant bacteria have been selected in. As more and more hosts select in more and more resistant strains of bacteria, these bacteria become predominant and new medications are needed to combat them. A treatment that poses less of a risk of creating resistant strains of bacteria is needed.
Resistant microbes represent a major concern to the medical community. More than an estimated $30 billion was spent in 2000 alone treating antimicrobial-resistant infections. "Antimicrobial Resistance," Office of Communications and Public Liaison, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National, Bethesda, Md., June 2000. Standard therapies for treating infections become more limited in the face of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria, increasing the risk of serious, untreatable, sometimes life-threatening infections. Drug-resistant pathogens are a growing threat and are troublesome in healthcare settings. Nearly 2 million patients contract hospital-acquired infections, or "nosocomial" infections, every year in the United States alone, and about 90,000 die as a result of their infection. Centers for Disease Control: "Campaign to Prevent Antimicrobial Resistance in Healthcare Settings," 2002. More than 70% of the bacteria that cause hospital-acquired infections are resistant to at least one of the drugs commonly used to treat them. Persons infected with drug-resistant organisms are more likely to have longer hospital stays and/or require treatment with second or third-choice drugs that may be less effective, more toxic, and/or more expensive.
A recent and publicized example of this phenomenon occurred with the drug ciprofloxicin and the bacteria, Psudomonas aeriginosa. P. aeriginosa is a Gram negative bacteria that is resistant to many antimicrobials. It has been especially difficult to treat in patients with diabetic infections, which commonly lead to gangrene, amputation and death. The drug was used as specific therapy for patients having a P. aeriginosa infection and for broad spectrum treatment in cases where the pathogen had not been identified. The drug was successful at treating infection and doctors across the country began using the medication as a broad-spectrum therapy, especially in the common cases of upper respiratory infection. In time, ciprofloxicin-resistant strains of P. aeriginosa emerged. An infection with these resistant bacteria posed a risk to the patient and an increased difficulty of treatment for the physician. This problem is now difficult in an immunocompromised patient.
A similar example involves another genus of bacteria common to humans. Staphylococci are a type of Gram positive bacteria normally present in skin and mucosal membranes of the body. S. aureus, in particular, is a virulent opportunistic pathogen that causes many skin, bone, mucous membrane infections, bacterial endocarditis, respiratory infection, food poisoning and toxic shock syndrome, to name only a few. S. aureus infections were commonly treated with the methicillin, a member of the penicillin class of antibiotics. This was the treatment of choice before beta lactamase inhibitor antibiotics, clavulanic acid for example, became available. Although methicillin was effective against "Staph" infections, some S. aureus strains developed resistance to it, and only a few antibiotics were available to successfully treat methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). One such antibiotic commonly used to treat MRSA infection is vancomycin. A strain of S. aureus, however, with reduced susceptibility to vancomycin (VISA) has already been identified. Khurshid, M. A., et. al., Staphylococcus aureus with Reduced Susceptibility to Vancomycin—Illinois, 1999, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 48(51): 1165–1167 (2000). Strains of S. aureus resistant to methicillin and other antibiotics are endemic in hospitals. Infection with methicillin-resistant MRSA strains may also be increasing in non-hospital settings. Increasing reliance on vancomycin has led to the emergence of vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE), bacteria that infect wounds, the urinary tract and other sites. Until 1989, such resistance had not been reported in U.S. hospitals. By 1993, however, more than 10 percent of hospital-acquired enterococci infections reported to the CDC were resistant. Nordenberg, T., Miracle Drugs Versus Superbugs, FDA Consumer Article, November-December 1998.
Streptococcus pneumoniae is another pathogenic bacteria. It causes thousands of cases of meningitis and pneumonia, and 7 million cases of ear infection in the United States each year. Currently, about 30 percent of S. pneumoniae isolates are resistant to penicillin, the primary drug used to treat this infection. Many penicillin-resistant strains are also resistant to other antimicrobial drugs. "Antimicrobial Resistance," Office of Communications and Public Liaison, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National, Bethesda, Md., June 2000.
In sexually transmitted disease clinics that monitor outbreaks of drug-resistant infections, doctors have found that more than a third of gonorrhea isolates are resistant to penicillin, tetracycline, or both. "Sexually Transmitted Disease Surveillance 1997" Division of STD Prevention, September 1998, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention, Division of STD Prevention, Atlanta, Ga.
Strains of multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) have also emerged over the last decade and pose a particular threat to people infected with HIV. MDR-TB strains are just as contagious as TB strains that are drug-sensitive. MDR-TB is more difficult and vastly more expensive to treat, and patients may remain infectious longer due to inadequate treatment, thereby increasing the likelihood of transmission. "Antimicrobial Resistance," Office of Communications and Public Liaison, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National, Bethesda, Md., June 2000.
Diarrheal diseases cause almost 3 million deaths a year, mostly in developing countries, where resistant strains of highly pathogenic bacteria such as Shigella dysenteriae, Campylobacter, Vibrio cholerae, Escherichia coli and Salmonella are emerging. Recent outbreaks of Salmonella food poisoning have occurred in the United States. A potentially dangerous "superbug" known as Salmonella typhimurium, resistant to ampicillin, sulfa, streptomycin, tetracycline and chloramphenicol, has caused illness in Europe, Canada and the United States. "Antimicrobial Resistance," Office of Communications and Public Liaison, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National, Bethesda, Md., June 2000.
Fungal pathogens account for a growing proportion of nosocomial, or hospital acquired, infections. Fungal diseases such as candidiasis and Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia are common among AIDS patients, and isolated outbreaks of other fungal diseases in people with normal immune systems have occurred recently in the United States. Scientists and clinicians are concerned that the increasing use of antifungal drugs will lead to drug-resistant fungi. In fact, recent studies have documented resistance of Candida species to fluconazole, a drug used widely to treat patients with systemic fungal diseases. "Antimicrobial Resistance," Office of Communications and Public Liaison, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National, Bethesda, Md., June 2000. Moreover, recently isolated C. albicans strains from patients have exhibited resistance to amphotericin B, which is currently the only antifungal agent from the class of approximately 200 known polyene agents safe enough for intravenous administration. Ellis, D., "Amphotericin B: Spectrum and Resistance," Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy 49 Supp 1: 7–10, 2002.
In recent years, the emergence of resistant strains to commonly used antimicrobials has stimulated a search for new, and naturally occurring, antimicrobial compounds having clinical utility. Thus, a new and natural medication is needed that uniformly attacks bacteria that are both sensitive and resistant to classical medicines. Further, the new medication should be equipotent across genera of bacteria to help, as closely as possible, the immune system to maintain the intricate balance of the body's natural flora.
Certain endogenous peptides have shown antimicrobial activity against bacteria, fungi and enveloped viruses but with little or no cytolytic activity, have been isolated from diverse sources. Martin, E et al, "Defensins and other endogenous peptide antibiotics of vertebrates," J. of Leukocyte Biology 58: 128–36, 1995. Most of these peptides share the property of being cationic but they differ considerably in some features, such as their size, the presence of disulfide bonds and structural motifs. Gabay, J., "Ubiquitous Natural Antibiotics," Science 264:373–4, 1994. These peptides have been shown to exert their antimicrobial activities either by forming multimeric pores in the lipid bilayer of the cell membrane or through interacting with macromolecular synthesis after penetration into the cell membrane. Zasloff, M., "Antibiotic peptides as mediators of innate immunity," Current Opinions in Immunology 4: 3, 1992; see also Boman, H. et al, "Mechanisms of action on Escherichia coli of cecropin P1 and PR-39, two antibacterial peptides from pig intestine," Infection and Immunity 61: 2978–84, 1993. The most important aspect of antimicrobial peptides is that they rarely induce bacterial resistance. Oren, Z., et al, "A class of highly potent antibacterial peptides derived from pardaxin, a pore-forming peptide isolated from Moses sole fish Pardachirus marmoratus," European Journal of Biochemistry 237, 303–10, 1996. Accordingly, antimicrobial peptides are promising candidates in the continuing search for a new class of antibiotics. It is an object of this invention to create antimicrobial peptides for use in antimicrobial treatments.

Modified α-MSH peptides and derivatives thereof


A voltage control device for a liquid injection head corrects a voltage supplied to the liquid injection head.

As an liquid injection device having a liquid injection head capable of jetting a liquid under the state of microscopic liquid droplets, an image recording apparatus such as an inkjet printer that records images on a recording sheet, for example, is equipped with a liquid injection head having plural recording heads which jet ink droplets, and thereby, it is capable of printing images processed by a computer under the multicolor and multicontrast conditions, and is in widespread use as an output device for the computer.
For this recording head, piezoelectric elements are used as drive elements for jetting ink droplets, and when a plurality of piezoelectric elements provided corresponding to plural nozzles are driven selectively, ink droplets are jetted from the nozzles based on dynamic pressure of each piezoelectric element to stick to a recording sheet, thus a dot is formed, and intended printing is carried out. In recent years, the number of recording heads to be used for the image recording apparatus of this kind has been increased, for improving print resolution and a recording speed.
In this case, each piezoelectric element is driven based on the drive waveform in a prescribed form amplified up to the prescribed voltage, so that an ink droplet may be jetted from each nozzle in a necessary amount of ink droplet. Therefore, it is necessary to drive the piezoelectric element accurately at a prescribed voltage, for recording superior images with high image quality. However, since the piezoelectric element has generally fluctuations caused by differences of physical properties and processes, a different recording head, or a different nozzle even of the same recording head, needs voltage which is required for the different recording head or for the different nozzle. Further, different physical properties (viscosity and surface tension or the like) of a liquid such as jetted ink need different voltages.
Therefore, in the conventional voltage control device controlling drive of a recording head (for example, the voltage control device described in Japanese Patent Publication Open to Public Inspection No. 11-58735), it is possible to conduct calibration wherein voltage after the drive waveform to be applied on a recording head is amplified up to prescribed voltage is read, and the voltage is judged whether it is amplified accurately up to the prescribed voltage or not, and when it is not amplified to the prescribed voltage, a correction value for correcting its difference is calculated, and voltage based on the correction value is established newly, so that the piezoelectric element may be driven accurately at the prescribed voltage, and it has the structure shown in FIG. 9.
In FIG. 9, the numeral 100 represents a voltage controller, and voltage established by this voltage controller 100 is boosted by voltage amplifying sections 101 and 101 on the rear step to the prescribed voltage. Voltages boosted by the voltage amplifying sections 101 and 101 are sent to waveform amplifying sections 103 and 103 where the prescribed drive waveform generated in waveform generating section 102 is amplified to the voltage boosted by voltage amplifying sections 101 and 101 to be applied on each recording head 104, thus, a piezoelectric element of each recording head 104 is driven to jet ink droplet.
When voltage adjustment is conducted in this case, voltage immediately after being boosted by voltage amplifying sections 101 and 101 is read by voltage reading section 105 composed of AD converter, and is compared with the voltage established in advance, in voltage controller 100. As a result, when a difference from the voltage established in advance is caused, a correction value to correct the difference is calculated, and is stored in correction value storing section 100a in the voltage controller 100. Then, in the case of driving, the new voltage based on the correction value is established as correction voltage.
In the conventional voltage control device, the voltage immediately after being boosted by each of the voltage amplifying sections 101 and 101 is read, and voltage supplied to recording heads 104 and 104 is controlled based on the results of reading the aforesaid voltage.
However, the read step where voltage is read by voltage reading section 105 as stated above, is provided with waveform amplifying sections 103 and 103 for generating drive signals applied actually on recording heads 104 and 104, thus, a portion of fluctuation by amplification in this case is not considered in the voltage read by voltage reading section 105. Therefore, the voltage read by the voltage reading section 105 is one different from voltage applied on recording heads 104 and 104 actually through waveform amplifying sections 103 and 103.
Accordingly, even if the voltage adjustment is carried out based on the voltage acquired through reading by voltage reading section 105, correction is made under the reference of voltage that is different from voltage applied actually on each of recording heads 104 and 104, which makes it impossible to establish correct voltage, and causes dispersion in jetting ink droplets, resulting in a cause to decline image quality.
Therefore, when controlling voltage of recording heads 104 and 104, it is desired to conduct voltage adjustment by reading voltage immediately before applying on recording heads 104 and 104. However, for reading the voltage immediately before applying on recording heads 104 and 104, it is required to read voltage of drive waveform in a complicated form combined with a drive waveform generated in waveform generating section 102, which has caused a problem that the structure for reading voltage is complicated.
For example, in the case of a liquid injection head of a shear mode type wherein a side wall of a channel for reserving a liquid is formed with piezoelectric elements, and the side wall is deformed to the doglegged shear to give pressure for jetting a liquid in the channel, a rectangular drive waveform light that shown in FIG. 4(a) is sometimes used. In the case of the drive signals acquired by amplifying the aforesaid drive waveform up to the prescribed voltage, a period of time t for maintaining the maximum voltage Vmax is only about 2 μs, which makes it difficult to read voltage value accurately in such a short time, and requires a high speed reading device, resulting in a problem of a factor of cost increase.
There is further available a method to read the voltage before conducting waveform amplification by combining drive waveform and voltage. However, in the voltage which is read out by the aforesaid method, an amount equivalent to waveform amplification fluctuations after combining with drive waveform is not considered, and therefore, even when voltage correction is made based on the voltage thus read out, the correction is made under the reference of voltage which is different from voltage which is actually applied on a liquid injection head and has an amount equivalent to waveform amplification fluctuations, whereby, correct voltage cannot be set.
On the other hand, in the case of an image recording apparatus having a plurality of liquid injection heads, it is desired that voltage correction is conducted by distinguishing those requiring voltage correction from those requiring no voltage correction easily, because each of liquid injection heads needs to be corrected in terms of voltage individually. The problem of this kind is the same for the occasion where each of plural nozzles of a liquid injection head needs to be corrected in terms of voltage individually.
Japanese Patent Publication Open to Public Inspection No. 2006-95864 discloses a technology wherein signals for adjustment other than signals for jetting are used to solve characteristics dispersion in plural drive signal generating sections such as that for forming large dots, that for forming medium dots and that for forming small dots. However, there is no disclosure for a technology to conduct voltage correction individually for plural liquid injection heads or for plural nozzles.
Further, when obtaining a correction value from the voltage thus read out, it is desired that an accurate correction value having no dispersion is calculated.
With the aforesaid background, problems of the invention is to provide a voltage control device of a liquid injection head, a voltage control method and a liquid injection device of a liquid injection head, wherein voltage including an amount of amplification amplified in terms of waveform under the state immediately before being applied on a liquid injection head can be measured by a simple structure, thereby, voltage can be controlled accurately, accurate correction value having no dispersion can be calculated, and reliability of voltage control is high.

Voltage control device, voltage control method, and liquid injection device


A portable data collection device providing for optical character recognition. A housing defines an internal region and includes a user handle that allows a user to position the housing relative to an indicia carrying target. An imaging assembly includes a two dimensional imaging array supported within the internal region of the housing. The imaging assembly includes a capture circuit that generates a video signal representative of an image of a target zone. An optics assembly supported by the housing focuses an image of the target area onto the photosensor array. A character recognition processing circuit receives the video signal and categorizes the indicia on the target into a set of predefined characters. The character recognition processing circuit includes a discriminator for identifying a text region of the target and identifying individual character regions within the text region and a categorizer for identifying a character from a set of possible characters for an individual character region. The categorizer performs one or more tests based on pixel data within the individual character region.

Portable data collection devices are widely used in manufacturing, service and package delivery industries to perform a variety of on-site data collection activities. Such portable data collection devices often include integrated bar code dataform readers adapted to read bar code dataforms affixed to products, product packaging and/or containers in warehouses, retail stores, shipping terminals, etc. for inventory control, tracking, production control and expediting, quality assurance and other purposes. Various bar code dataform readers have been proposed for portable data collection devices including laser scanners and one dimensional (1D) charge coupled device (CCD) imaging assemblies, both of which are capable of reading 1 D bar code dataforms, that is, bar codes consisting of a single row of contrasting black bars and white spaces of varying widths. Both laser scanners and CCD imaging assemblies are also capable of reading a "stacked" two dimensional (2D) bar code dataforms, such as PDF417, which is comprised of a plurality of adjacent rows of bar code data. The stacked 2D bar code PDF417 includes row indicator patterns utilized by the dataform reader for vertical synchronization to permit reading successive rows of bar code data. A two dimensional (2D) imaging based dataform reader has been proposed in U.S. application Ser. No. 08/544,618, filed Oct. 18, 1995 and entitled "Extended Working Range Dataform Reader Including Fuzzy Logic Image Control Circuitry". The 2D dataform reader disclosed in application Ser. No. 08/544,618, which is assigned to the assignee of the present application, includes an imaging assembly having a two dimensional array of photosensors adapted to read 2D bar code dataforms (e.g., PDF417, SuperCode, etc.) with vertical synchronization row indicator patterns as well as matrix dataforms (e.g., MaxiCode, DataMatrix, etc.) which do not include vertical synchronization patterns. The individual photosensors correspond to image picture elements or pixels of the resulting image generated with the photosensors are read out after an exposure period or periods. The 2D dataform reader disclosed in application Ser. No. 08/544,618 utilizes an open loop feedback control system including fuzzy logic circuitry to determine proper exposure time and gain parameters for a camera assembly. Application Ser. No. 08/544,618 is incorporated in its entirety herein by reference.
Currently available optical character recognition systems operate in conjunction with fixed station flat bed scanners. A document is placed on the scanner and feed past a scanning head by a document handler. Such systems operate using fixed document illumination, fixed focusing, and a fixed platform for document handling. A fixed station optical character recognition system makes image segmentation, edge detection, and picture binarization easier to perform. Characters read by the scanner are less likely to be distorted and misoriented. Such a scanning system increases the inter-class variance, decreases the interior-class variance and increases the recognition accuracy.

Portable data collection device having optical character recognition


A notes organizer program is provided that allows a user to organize notes on a limited resource computing device. The notes are organized by associating a note, if desired, with a project. The user can name or rename a note or a project. If the user does not specify a note name, the notes organizer program determines the note name based on the associated project. If there is no associated project, the note name is based on the type of note (e.g., voice, handwritten, etc.). A template project is provided for creating notes from templates.

This invention relates generally to computer systems, and more particularly to a method and system for organizing notes on a limited resource computing device.
Small, mobile computing devices such as personal desktop assistants including hand-held and palm-type computers and the like are becoming increasingly popular for use by business people and others who must travel, and thus cannot readily access information stored on their desktop computer or office network workstation. Although laptop computers are capable of running virtually all of the application programs that execute on desktop machines, laptop computers are often either too large and/or too heavy to carry around. There is thus an increased demand for substantially smaller palm-type computers that are able to run business applications of less complexity than those designed to run on a desktop computer and enable a user to quickly access all types of personal and business related data, such as addresses, telephone numbers, scheduled appointment times, etc.
One such palm-type computer is Microsoft""s Palm-size PC. A Palm-size PC includes a touch screen display. The user may input data by touching a stylus to a user interface that is displayed on the touch screen display. A Palm-size PC user interface touch screen display is similar in appearance to a Windows user interface displayed on a desktop or laptop PC. A taskbar, used for invoking application programs, is displayed at the bottom of the touch screen display of the Palm-size PC. The user interface displayed on the touch screen display also includes a virtual keyboard for entering data.
One of the main reasons that a user will use a palm-type computer is to create and store notes when he or she is away from his or her desktop computer. Notes can be created on the Palm-size PC using various methods, including: typing a note using a virtual keyboard; handwriting a note using a stylus; and recording a note using a built-in recorder. Because notes can become voluminous, a method for organizing such notes in a logical manner is desirable. The present invention is directed to logically organizing notes on a limited resource computing device, such as a palm-type computer.
The present invention is directed to a method, and system for organizing notes on a limited resource computing device, such as Microsoft""s Palm-size PC, according to projects. A user interface is provided for creating a note. In response to a user requesting saving the note, the note is stored. If an active project exists when the note is stored, the note is associated with the active project.
In accordance with other aspects of the present invention, the user can create a project.
In accordance with further aspects of the present invention, the user can designate a project as an active project. A new note is associated with an active project, if an active project exists, when the note is saved.
In accordance with yet further aspects of the present invention, a note name is determined when a note is saved. The note name may be specified by the user or determined based on text found in the note. When based on text found in the note, the text of the note is analyzed (e.g., speech recognition or handwriting recognition is applied to the text) and the note name is determined based on the first line of valid text found in the note.
In accordance with still other aspects of the present invention, the note name may be a default note name. A default note name is a sequential note name based on the active project (e.g., PROJX1, PROJX2, etc.). If there is no active project, the default note name is a sequential file name based on the type of note (e.g., VOICE1, VOICE2, etc.).
In accordance with yet other aspects of the present invention, a notes index window is provided to display summary information for all notes, or for notes associated with a specific project. Preferably, the summary information contains fields for the note name, associated project, note type, memory location, note size, and note time. The notes can be displayed in ascending or descending order based on any field of the summary information.
In accordance with still further aspects of the present invention, a templates project is provided. The templates project is accessible from any other project. The templates project allows a user to create a note from an existing template.

Method and apparatus for organizing notes on a limited resource computing device


A segmented ionomeric copolymer when blended with a polyolefin improves sag resistance.

In U.S. Pat. No. 4,957,974 there is disclosed and taught graft copolymers and blends thereof with polyolefins. The present invention is an improvement on the invention claimed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,957,974.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,957,974 describes a copolymer imparting to a polyolefin when blended therewith a high tensile modulus and high sag resistance without increasing the melt viscosity. The ionomeric copolymer comprises a polypropylene trunk with an ionomer copolymer grafted thereto. Additional patents are discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,957,974 specification. The specification of U.S. Pat. No. 4,957,974 is incorporated by reference herein.