A cleaning device (1) for cleaning a video head and drum of a camcorder consists of a housing (2) for engaging the cassette receiving area of the camcorder. A brush (5) on a carrier arm (3) is urged from a rest position within the housing (2) into cleaning engagement with the head and drum under the control of a control mechanism (7). The control mechanism (7) is powered by a drive spindle in the cassette receiving area. A retaining latch (10) secured in the housing (2) consists of a camming member (14) for engaging the carrier arm (3) for retaining the carrier arm (3) and the brush (5) in the rest position. A portion (30) of the retaining latch (10) is resilient for urging the retaining latch (10) downwardly for retaining the carrier arm in the rest position. An engagement member (25) on the retaining latch (10) engages a light post (28) in the cassette receiving area as the housing (2) is being lowered into the cassette receiving area for releasing the retaining latch (10).

Such treatment devices, typically, are cleaning devices for cleaning, for example, the video head and drum of a video recorder and/or playback unit or a camcorder unit. In such units the video head and video drum are located spaced apart from the cassette receiving area, and a magnetic tape which is wound between a pair of spools in a tape cassette housing is engaged in the cassette receiving area. A plurality of guide rollers are moveable within the unit for withdrawing the magnetic tape from the tape cassette housing for urging the tape into cooperating engagement with the video head and drum for recording onto the tape or playing therefrom. Such video playback and/or recorder units and camcorder units will be well known to those skilled in the art.
Various types of cleaning devices are available for cleaning components, and in particular, the video head and drum of such units. In general, such cleaning devices comprise a housing which is substantially similar to a conventional magnetic tape cassette housing, and either a cleaning tape or a brush or both are located in the housing for cleaning the video head and drum and/or other components of the unit.
In cleaning devices which comprise a cleaning tape, the cleaning tape may be wound between a pair of spools which are similar to those onto which the magnetic tape of a conventional magnetic tape cassette is wound. The cleaning tape is urged from the cassette housing by the guide rollers into cleaning engagement with the video head and drum.
In cleaning devices which comprise a brush, the brush is, in general, mounted on a carrier arm, and the carrier arm is pivotal from a rest position with the carrier arm and the brush located adjacent or within the housing, to a cleaning position with the brush in engagement with the video head and drum for cleaning thereof.
In cleaning devices which comprise a combination of a cleaning tape and a cleaning brush carried on a carrier arm and located in a housing, the carrier arm and cleaning brush are urged into cleaning engagement with the video head and drum as the cleaning tape is being urged into cleaning engagement with the video head and drum by the guide rollers.
Cleaning devices for cleaning the video head and drum, and other components in a video playback and/or recorder unit are disclosed in European Patent Specifications Nos. EP-A-0,439,375 and EP-A-0,210,787. The cleaning device disclosed in EP-A-0,439,375 comprises a cleaning brush which is carried on a carrier arm, both of which are located in a housing of the device when in the rest position. A cleaning tape is not provided in this cleaning device. A drive transmission mechanism is located within the housing, and is cooperable with a spindle in the cassette receiving area of the unit for urging the carrier arm and cleaning brush into a cleaning position with the cleaning brush in cleaning engagement with the video head and drum. The cleaning device disclosed in EP-A-0,210,787 comprises a cleaning tape, and a cleaning brush which is carried on a carrier arm, all of which are located within a housing of the device in the rest position. The cleaning tape cooperates with the carrier arm for urging the carrier arm outwardly of the housing, and in turn the cleaning brush into cleaning engagement with the video head and drum as the cleaning tape is also being urged into cleaning engagement with the video head and drum.
The cleaning devices disclosed in EP-A-0,439,375 and EP-A-0,210,787 function quite adequately. However, there are cleaning devices which comprise a cleaning brush and carrier arm which require the carrier arm to be set in the rest position by the user prior to insertion into the video or other unit, and if the carrier arm is not adequately set by the user in the rest position, and retained therein, when the cleaning device is being loaded into the cassette receiving area, the carrier arm may move just sufficiently out of the rest position towards the cleaning position to become inadvertently engaged with the guide rollers as they are being operated in the mode for withdrawing a tape from a cassette housing. This may cause damage to the carrier arm of the cleaning device, and more importantly may cause damage to one or more of the guide rollers and/or other components and elements of the video unit. Indeed, this problem can arise with cleaning devices in which the carrier arm is automatically set in the rest position, but may become disengaged from the rest position prior to or during insertion into the video or other unit.
There is therefore a need for a cleaning device for a camcorder, and/or a video playback and/or recorder unit which overcomes these problems, and since the problem of inadvertent release of a carrier arm from a housing may arise in other devices for carrying out other treatments of a component in a camcorder and/or a video playback and/or recorder unit, or indeed, in any other playback and/or recorder unit, whether video, audio, data or the like, there is a need for a treatment device for treating a component of such a unit which overcomes these problems.
The present invention is directed towards providing such a treatment device.

Camcorder actuated treatment device for treating a camcorder head


A portable device for testing a pouch containing a flowable substance and manufactured from flexible film. The device includes two plates. One of the plates is moveable towards the other and one has a pressure sensor mounted flush with a surface which faces the pouch to be tested. The pouch is placed between the plates and they are moved together, pressing the pressure sensor against the pouch.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for testing the film or seal integrity of pouches which contain flowable materials.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is well known to package flowable materials, for example, milk, on so-called vertical form and fill machines. Using such a machine, a flat web of synthetic thermoplastic film is unwound from a roll and formed into a continuous tube in a tube forming section, by sealing the longitudinal edges of the film together to form a so-called lap seal or a so-called fin seal. The tube thus formed is pulled vertically downwards to a filling station. The tube is then collapsed across a transverse cross-section of the tube, the position of the cross-section being at a sealing device below the filling station. A transverse heat seal is made, by the sealing device, at the collapsed portion of the tube, thus making an airtight seal across the tube. The sealing device generally comprises a pair of jaws. After making the transverse seal, but before the jaws of the sealing device are opened, a quantity of material to be packaged, e.g. liquid, is caused to enter the tube, at the filling station, and fill the tube upwardly from the aforementioned transverse seal. The tube is then caused to move downwardly a predetermined distance. Such movement may be under the influence of the weight of the material in the tube, or may be caused by pulling or mechanically driving the tube. The jaws of the sealing device are closed again, thus collapsing the tube at a second transverse section. The second transverse section may be above, usually just above, the air/material interface in the tube, or the second transverse section may be below the air/material interface. The sealing device seals and severs the tube transversely at the second transverse section. The material-filled portion of the tube is now in the form of a pillow shaped pouch. Thus the sealing device has sealed the top of the filled pouch, sealed the bottom of the next-to-be formed pouch, all in one operation. One such vertical form and fill machine of the type described above is sold under the trade mark PREPAC. With some other machines, the sealing device does not sever the tube at the second transverse section, but does sever the tube subsequently. The portions of the pouch at the ends of the transverse seals are often referred to as "ears".
For many years, milk has been packaged in pouches made on vertical form and fill machines. Such pouches have been sold to household consumers and, in use, such milk-filled pouches are stood within an open-mouthed pitcher. More recently, such pouches have been used to package other flowable comestibles, mayonnaise, salad dressings, preserves and the like. Pouches containing such comestibles are usually sold to "institutional" buyers, e.g. restaurants.
It is also known to package flowable materials in sachets which have seals around three or four sides of the sachet. Such sachets may contain portion-sized comestibles such as mustard, ketchup, sugar and the like. In the context of the present invention the term "sachet" is intended to come within the scope of the term "pouch".
Heretofore, the integrity of pouch seals has been tested by a number of methods. One entails dropping a number of pouches from a given height onto a hard floor. This method suffers from the disadvantage that after one drop of the pouch from a given height, the pouch may be weakened, and further drops from greater heights, until the pouch bursts or leaks, may not be truly indicative of the pouch's integrity. As used herein the term "integrity" means the ability of the pouch to remain whole, i.e. without leakage of material from inside the pouch. Another method involves squeezing and twisting the pouch by hand. Such a test is highly subjective and depends on the person doing the test. One commercially available pouch tester allows air pressure to be applied to the inside of the pouch via a needle inserted in the pouch. The air pressure is monitored by a pressure gauge connected to another needle inserted in the pouch. A major disadvantage of this tester is that the pouch integrity is destroyed by insertion of a needle into the pouch. Another commercially available tester places a pouch under vacuum inside a dome. This tester takes time to generate the high vacuum required and is therefore not very convenient. Another method of testing pouches which is more convenient and reliable is desired. Furthermore an apparatus which is portable would be very desirable.


The invention is directed to a two-stroke internal combustion engine for handheld portable tools such as a motor-driven chain saw with the engine having a piston guided in a cylinder. The base of the piston is rotationally symmetrical and delimits a combustion chamber. An injection valve is mounted in the cylinder wall opposite an exhaust opening for exhaust gases. The injection valve injects fuel toward the piston base at an angle of less than 90.degree.. At least one overflow opening is arranged in the cylinder wall between the exhaust opening and the injection valve. Combustion air flows in through the overflow opening with the downward movement of the piston. The injection jet is directed opposite to the flow direction of the entering combustion air. The injection jet is directed for the most part to the half of the piston base which is disposed away from the exhaust opening and the injection opening is the last opening to be closed by the piston travelling toward top dead center. The duration of injection is continued beyond the closure of the overflow opening and of the exhaust outlet. In this way, an optimal air/fuel mixture is assured even at high rotational speeds.

A two-stroke internal combustion engine is disclosed in British Patent 723,972 wherein the injection jet is directed against the incoming combustion air in order to obtain a good preparation of the mixture. The overflow channels lie closely to the exhaust so that the preparation of the mixture takes place in a zone next to the exhaust. Accordingly, the condition must be accepted that a considerable portion of the prepared mixture reaches the exhaust uncombusted and therefore is lost. In this way, the quality of the exhaust gas is also affected so that the environment is burdened with a high charge of toxic material. An inadequate charge of the combustion chamber was determined especially at high rotational speeds whereby power losses occur.
European patent publication 0,302,045 discloses that the fuel is to be injected into the overflow channel already in advance of opening the same for obtaining an adequate preparation of the mixture especially at high engine speeds so that the fuel can prevaporize. Although a good preparation of the mixture is assured in this way, a portion of the mixture is lost because of scavenging losses. For this reason, additional overflow channels, which supply only combustion air, are disposed forward of the overflow channels which supply the air/fuel mixture. The complexity for a two-stroke engine of this kind is, however, very great.


A braze material (10) including nano-sized filler material particles (14). The nano-sized particles will melt at a temperature significantly lower than the micron-sized particles used in prior art braze materials, thereby eliminating or reducing the need for the addition of temperature depressant materials such as boron or silicon. The resulting braze joint is substantially free of detrimental boride and suicides phases, thereby improving the material properties of the joint, eliminating the need for a separate post-braze diffusion heat treatment, and permitting a subsequent welding operation with reduced risk of cracking. The braze heat treatment may also function as a solution heat treatment, a pre-weld heat treatment or a post-weld heat treatment.

High temperature cobalt-based and nickel-based superalloys are commonly used in the manufacture of gas turbine engine components, including combustors, rotating blades and stationary vanes. During the operation of these components in the harsh operating environment of a gas turbine, various types of damage and deterioration of the components may occur. For example, the surface of a component may become cracked due to thermal cycling or thermo-mechanical fatigue or it may be eroded as a result of impacts with foreign objects and corrosive fluids. Furthermore, such components may be damaged during manufacturing operations even prior to entering service. Because the cost of gas turbine components made of cobalt-base and nickel-base superalloys is high, repair of a damaged or degraded component is preferred over replacement of the component.
Several repair techniques have been developed for various applications of superalloy materials. Fusion welding of superalloy materials is known to be a difficult process to control due to the tendency of these materials to crack at the area of the weld deposit/joint. However, with careful pre-weld and post-weld stress relief, control of welding parameters, and selection of welding materials, repair welds can be performed successfully on superalloy components.
Brazing is also commonly used to join or to repair superalloy components. One limitation of brazing is that brazed joints are typically much weaker than the base alloy, and so they may not be appropriate in all situations, such as repairs on the most highly stressed areas of the component.
Another process that has been used successfully for repair and material addition to superalloy components is known by several different names: diffusion bonding; diffusion brazing; and liquid phase diffusion sintering. These names generally refer to a process wherein a powdered alloy is melted at a temperature that is less than the liquidous temperature of the component alloy and allowed to solidify to become integral with the component. The powdered alloy typically includes particles of a high strength base alloy, for example the same alloy as is used to form the base component, along with particles of a braze alloy having a lower melting temperature than the base alloy, for example the base alloy with a melting point depressant such as boron or silicon. The following United States patents describe such processes and are hereby fully incorporated by reference herein: U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,381,944; 4,493,451; 5,549,767; 4,676,843; 5,086,968; 5,156,321; 5,437,737; 6,365,285; and 6,454,885. The component and powder are subjected to a heat cycle, often called a brazing heat treatment, wherein the temperature is selected so that the braze alloy having the lower melting temperature will become liquid and will wet the surfaces of the higher melting temperature base alloy and component alloy. The component is held at this elevated temperature for a sufficient interval to promote liquid phase sintering. Liquid phase sintering is a process whereby adjacent particles in a powder mass are consolidated by diffusion through a liquid phase present between the particles. As the melting point depressant diffuses away from the braze area, the melting point of the remaining material will increase and the liquid material will solidify to form the desired braze joint. This process may be used to join two pieces, to repair a damaged area, or to add material to a component. Upon completion of this cycle, typical braze alloys will have formed undesirable large blocky or script-like brittle phases composed of chromium, titanium, and the family of refractory elements (e.g., tungsten, tantalum) combined with the melting point depressants. These brittle phases weaken the repaired component and decrease its ductility in the region of the repair. A further post-braze diffusion heat treatment may be applied at a somewhat lower temperature to break down the brittle borides, carbides and silicides into fine, discrete blocky phases and to further drive the melting point depressant away from the braze joint to more fully develop the desired material properties. This diffusion heat treatment step may extend for a just a few hours to as long as 24 hours or more. Such a liquid phase diffusion bonding process is capable of forming a joint with material properties approximating but typically not as good as those of the base alloy. Welding is generally avoided proximate the braze joint because the embrittling effect of the residual melting point depressant may cause cracking during cool down from the high temperature required for welding. Further reductions in processing times and improvements in the material properties resulting from a diffusion brazing process are desired.

High strength diffusion brazing utilizing nano-powders


A magnetic field controller for laboratory devices and in particular to dc operated magnetic field controllers for mass spectrometers, comprising a dc power supply in combination with improvements to a hall probe subsystem, display subsystem, preamplifier, field control subsystem, and an output stage.

The present invention relates to magnetic field controllers and in particular to a dc operated magnetic field controller of the magnet subsystem of mass spectrometers. The controller provides magnetic field measurement and field control of the mass spectrometer electromagnet.
Mass scanning on a mass spectrometer may be performed by varying the electromagnetic field of a large magnet. A magnetic field controller, with a hall effect sensor, controls the magnetic field and compensates for magnet hysteresis. The current technology used in the design of laboratory field regulated magnet systems is based on the alternating current (ac) design techniques. These ac based designs require complex circuitry to provide signal chopping, amplification, synchronous demodulation of the signal, and appropriate filter circuitry to remove the undesired ac components. This approach was required to provide stable, high gain, drift free hall sensor voltage amplification.
The mass analyzer of the mass spectrometer is built around a large electromagnet. Mass scanning is performed by varying the magnetic field. To vary the magnetic field the amount of current flowing through the magnet windings is changed. The magnet power supply is the source of the unregulated current. The current is conditioned and regulated by the magnet power supply regulator. Additional field regulation is required for precision analysis. This field regulation is provided by the magnetic field controller. The magnetic field controller is used in the feedback loop with the magnet power supply regulator to correct for magnetic hysteresis and other errors in the current regulation.
The function of the magnetic field controller can be described as follows. When the field control potentiometer setting is changed, the magnetic field controller senses an unbalance condition in the magnetic feedback loop and generates an error voltage, the power supply regulator modifies the current flowing through the magnet and the magnetic field is changed. The output of the hall probe senses the change in the magnetic field and compares it to the desired field as set with the field control potentiometer. The error voltage approaches zero as the actual magnetic field approaches the desired field and a balanced condition returns. The time required for the magnetic field to stabilize after adjusting the field control potentiometer is primarily dependent upon the magnet time constant--usually 2 to 3 seconds. Until recently, these required parameters were not easily obtained with integrated circuit operational amplifiers.

The United States of America as represented by the United States Department of Energy


A seedling transfer tool including a flexible inverted U-shaped blade assembly in an essentially inverted U-shaped configuration with two generally parallel fingers. Each finger has a U-shaped lower end terminating in a point and facing arcuate recesses at its upper end. A central section is provided having a generally semi-circular cross-section between its upper and lower ends. The blade assembly also has a downwardly facing U-shaped intermediate section which couples the fingers with a central aperture therethrough. The axis of the intermediate section is at a right angle from the axes of the central sections of the fingers. A screw extends through the apertures of the blade assembly and cylinder coupling the blade assembly and cylinder.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a seedling transfer tools and more particularly pertains to handling seedlings in a tender and convenient manner.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of apparatus for handling seedlings of various designs and configurations is known in the prior art. More specifically, apparatus for handling seedlings of various designs and configurations heretofore devised and utilized for the purpose of transporting seedlings through various methods and apparatuses are known to consist basically of familiar, expected, and obvious structural configurations, notwithstanding the myriad of designs encompassed by the crowded prior art which has been developed for the fulfillment of countless objectives and requirements.
By way of example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,040,471 to Lamont, Jr. discloses a Hand Vegetable Transplanter With Assembly for Varying Quantity of Liquid Dispensed. U.S. Pat. No. 3,865,055 to Gilbaugh discloses a Plant Transplanter. U.S. Pat. No. 3,210,112 to Glynn discloses a Garden Tool. U.S. Pat. No. 3,596,966 to Shredl discloses a Weeder. U.S. Pat. No. 3,594,931 to Yost discloses an Apparatus for Excavating Plants. Lastly, U.S. Pat. No. 5,398,624 to Caron discloses a Transplanting Tool.
In this respect, the seedling transfer tools according to the present invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art, and in doing so provides an apparatus primarily developed for the purpose of handling seedlings in a tender and convenient manner.
Therefore, it can be appreciated that there exists a continuing need for a new and improved seed transporting system which can be used for handling seedlings in a tender and convenient manner. In this regard, the present invention substantially fulfills this need.


In one embodiment, while being connected to the network, a security issue may be detected and associated with the device. The device may be placed on a blacklist for the security issue. The blacklist is a list that is used to deny service for the device when it attempts to connect. Thus, the device is disconnected from the network. Identification information for the device is added to the blacklist at the authentication server. If the device attempts to reconnect to the network, the request is received at the authentication server. The authentication server can then check the blacklist and deny the request for access to the network if the identification information is on the blacklist. This denial is determined without sending the request to the HLR. Accordingly, the HLR is protected in that requests from a device that may be considered a security issue are not sent to the HLR.

Mobile nodes may access data networks by connecting to an access device. A secure tunnel within Internet Protocol (IP) is established to communicate with the mobile node. Before establishing the secure tunnel, the mobile node is authenticated through an authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA) domain to a home location register (HLR). The HLR is a central database that includes details of each mobile node and subscriber that is authorized to use the network.
When a malicious attack is detected from the mobile node, the access device may terminate the session with the mobile node. In this case, the secure tunnel may be brought down. This disconnects the mobile node from the network. However, the mobile node can immediately attempt to reconnect to the network. This may occur because the mobile node is acting maliciously or may be inadvertent due to a virus. The mobile node may be authenticated again by the HLR through the AAA domain. Allowing a potentially malicious mobile node to reconnect to the network is not desirable. This exposes the HLR to a potential Denial of Service (DoS) attack as a malicious device/application, such as a virus or worm, continues to cause multiple queries to the HLR. The HLR is one of the most valuable nodes in a network. One reason is because the HLR maintains the subscriber's personal information. Allowing requests to contact the HLR exposes the HLR to potential DoS attacks. Also, requests to the HLR are expensive to process and thus having malicious requests contact the HLR may cause unnecessary expenses to be incurred for a service provider.

Blacklisting of unlicensed mobile access (UMA) users via AAA policy database


A method of providing zinc containing crystals of a protein derivative which has a lysine residue which carries a lipophilic substituent on the .epsilon.-amino group, said method comprising providing a solution of the protein derivative in an alkaline buffer, which further contains a zinc salt, adjusting the pH value of the solution to a value between 7 and 10, and isolating the crystals formed.

The isolation of pharmaceutical proteins in the crystalline state is important because crystals can be dried easily and subsequently stored at low temperature under conditions where the stability of the bulk protein is optimal. Insulins and insulin analogues in which the .epsilon.-amino group of a lysine residue contained therein has a lipophilic substituent e.g. in the form of an acyl group have a protracted profile of action and show promise for use in long-acting basal therapy in the treatment of IDDM (insulin-demanding diabetes mellitus) and NIDDM (non-insulin-demanding diabetes mellitus). The preparation of such acylated insulins and insulin analogues is described in Japanese patent application 1-254,699 (Kodama), in WO 95/07931 (Novo Nordisk), in EP 0 712 862 A2 (Eli Lilly) and in WO 96/29344 (Novo Nordisk). Unfortunately, such acylated insulins and insulin analogues have been found to be less prone to crystallize than the unmodified parent compounds.
Proinsulins, insulins and insulin analogues are labile proteins and their stability depends i.a. on the purity of the particular preparation. Optimal stability can be expected when a pure preparation is kept in solid form, in particular in the form of crystals.
Unfortunately, precipitation of these compounds from solutions usually leads to amorphous precipitates which are difficult or impossible to isolate by filtration. In stead they can be isolated by centrifugation. However, when they are isolated by centrifugation it is difficult to free the particles efficiently from the mother liquor. Even when amorphous particles can be isolated by filtration, the amorphous material will usually be less pure than corresponding crystals because more impurities are embedded in amorphous material than in crystals.
The preparation of of N.sup..epsilon.B29 -(myristoyl)des(B30) human insulin is described in European patent application No. 94926816.3, Example 33. These zinc-free crystals were precipitated at pH 9 from 20% aqueous ethanol containing 0.625M sodium chloride. A method for recovering acylated proteins, especially certain fatty acid-acylated insulins, by precipitation and filtration as a freely-flowing powder is described in EP 0 747 391 A2 (Eli Lilly). According to this method a filterable precipitate of a protein is obtained by adjusting the pH of an aqueous solution containing the protein and adding a suitable amount of alcohol. For use in therapy, proteins must be prepared in highly purified form and the storage conditions must ensure that degradation during the storage is minimized. An acylated insulin or an acylated insulin analogue in highly purified form is administered in the form of a solution of a zinc complex thereof in a composition which further comprises a phenolic compound. Accordingly, it would be convenient in the production to store the bulk acylated insulin or acylated insulin analogue in the form of filterable crystals containing both insulin or insulin analogue, zinc and a phenolic compound.
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide a method by which zinc complexes of an acylated insulin or an acylated insulin analogue, optionally also containing a phenolic compound, can be obtained in filterable, crystalline form.
According to the invention this object has been accomplished by precipitating the acylated insulin or acylated insulin analogue from an aqueous buffer.


A method may include identifying a service discovery manager associated with a first data center and registering with the service discovery manager. The method may also include, transmitting, by the service discovery manager, information identifying first services that are available at the first data center and information identifying a second data center in which one or more of the first services are available. The method may further include receiving the information identifying the first services that are available and the information identifying the second data center and updating a database based on the information identifying the first services that are available.

In a cloud-based service architecture, discovering the location of a service is important part of providing for delivery of the particular service. For example, cloud-based micro services typically get assigned network locations that are accessible to users. However, network locations for the particular services can change based on service restarts, data center failures, load-balancing, etc. A user may therefore be forced to use a different service address than the one originally used for a particular service. Changing service addresses for a service often causes problems associated with providing access to the service.
For example, when a service address changes or a new service address is added, the service provider typically needs to register the new service address and de-register the old service address at a central service registry or domain name system (DNS). DNS entries, however, typically have time to live (TTL) values and if a service goes down, it may take up to the TTL time or longer before service can be redirected to another instance or location of that service. In addition, for every service request, a user/client typically queries a DNS server, which increases the load on the DNS server and often slows down responses to DNS queries. As a result, accessing a service with a changed service address is typically a time consuming process.

Dynamic service discovery and control of load distribution


The system and method of training an animal to jump using a variable length oxer. The oxer having one or more jump cups located on an adjustable length arm to provide for a jump of varying depth and/or height. The oxer mounts to a standard using a variety of mechanisms. The mount may comprise a jump cup. The oxer may comprise a counterweight and/or a support leg.

The official practice of horse jumping has been around for at least as early as the 1700s when the British parliament enacted the Enclosures Act, which required that lands be fenced off from one another. From that point on, a horse needed to be able to jump a fence so the rider could pursue game and reach their destination more quickly than having to go around fenced-in areas of land. In less than a hundred years, the art of show jumping had become well known in Europe. Now horse jumping is a worldwide activity; spanning continents and is represented in three components of the summer Olympics.
Typically when a person is training a horse to jump, a stand-alone portion of fence is erected using two end pieces, or standards, to hold a pole, a bar, a gate or the like between the "posts." Standards can be made up of a single post, a short section of fence, a column, or any other decorative and/or functional arrangement. Standards typically range in weights from 15 pounds to about 35 pounds, with modified standards weighing as much as 100 pounds. Standards can be made out of various materials, including wood, metal, stone, plastic, and the like.
Between the pair of standards, a pole, a bar, a gate, a plank, a panel, decorative wall, or the like is supported and this is the object over which the horse jumps. For simplicity, a pole will be used herein to describe the object that the horse is trained to jump over, but it will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill that a "pole" can include, but is not limited to a gate, a bar, a portion of fence, a plank, a panel, a decorative wall, and the like.
Oftentimes, standards have a series of holes drilled along the height of the standard facing the inside of the jump or a patterned track, which allows jump cups, or arced supports, to be attached to the standards at various heights. These jump cups hold the pole in position. Jump cups can comprise a shallow arc or flat surface so the pole can easily "break away" if the horse's foot comes in contact with the pole during a jump. Jump cups can also be "deep" to hold the pole in position. Jump cups can also be a breakaway style jump cup. These are designed to break away from the standard and fall straight down should enough pressure be exerted on them.
Currently, when a rider wishes to train a horse to jump a certain distance, in addition to a certain height, they must install a second pair of standards and a second pole at a certain distance in front of the first pair of standards. This not only increases cost, but also requires more time to set up and transport equipment. Another alternative is for the rider or trainer to purchase modified standards. Modified standards are fixed in width, heavy, and expensive.
One object of the present invention is to provide a device that allows trainers, riders and the like to train horses to jump distances using only a single pair of standards. The device of the present invention saves the user time, money, storage space, and labor. The present invention allows for more flexibility in set up and reduces the possibility of injury by reducing the amount of equipment needed to transport and move to set up a course.

Variable length oxer and method of using same


Provided is a vehicle seat having a sufficient strength against an impact load due to collision in a peripheral structure of a side frame and having a reduced size of the peripheral structure of the side frame. The vehicle seat includes a seat back frame having a side portion located on a lateral side, a load input member arranged on the lateral side of the seat back frame so that a load from another member is input thereto, a pressure receiving member coupled to the seat back frame via a joint member and supporting an occupant, and an impact reduction member arranged on at least one side of the side portion, engaging with the joint member, and moving the pressure receiving member rearward by an impact load applied to the pressure receiving member.

Disclosed herein is a vehicle seat, and specifically a vehicle seat with an improved attachment workability of peripheral members to a side frame by reducing the size of a peripheral structure of the side frame.
In the case of a so-called rear end collision in which an end portion of a vehicle such as an automobile is impacted from behind or has a severe collision during backward driving, generally a head of an occupant may be suddenly inclined backward due to the inertia force and his/her neck may be damaged.
Therefore, a seat for a vehicle such as an automobile has a headrest above a seat back to receive the head of the occupant from behind in order to protect the head and the neck of the occupant from an impact load due to rear end collision to reduce the damage on the neck.
However, providing the head rest alone cannot reduce the impact load on the body, and it may also be difficult to sufficiently reduce the impact on the neck unless a gap between the head of the occupant and the headrest is immediately reduced at the time of read-end collision.
To solve this problem, a technique is known in which an impact is effectively reduced by providing a seat back frame equipped with a pressure receiving member for receiving a load of an occupant with a link member movable with respect to the side frame and attaching the link member to the pressure receiving member via a joint member, and thereby sufficiently causing the occupant to sink into the seat back at the time of the collision (see Japanese Patent Document No. 2009-023517 A ("the '517 Document")).
It is required for the vehicle seat to retain a seating space of the occupant without deformation of the vehicle seat by impact energy upon rear end collision as well as side collision, thereby ensuring safety of the occupant.
As a technique of keeping the safety of the occupant against such a side collision, a technique of arranging a side bracket on a lateral side of the vehicle and also on a door side is disclosed (see Japanese Patent Document 2000-103275 A ("the '275 Document")). According to this technique, when an impact load is applied from the lateral side, the impact load is transferred to the vehicle seat via a receiving member (side bracket) and tilts the vehicle seat toward the center of the vehicle body without deformation of the vehicle seat, thereby preventing the occupant from contacting a structure of the vehicle body.
The seat back frame disclosed in the '517 Document can sufficiently cause an occupant to sink toward the seat back frame at the time of rear end collision by receiving a rearward movement of the occupant by the pressure receiving member and thus pivoting the link member. Furthermore, because the link member is disposed with a biasing element and the biasing element typically inhibits pivoting of the pressure receiving member, a seating comfort will not be impaired. Moreover, a plurality of stoppers for regulating an allowable moving range of the link member is disposed near the link member, which can regulate the range of sinking the occupant.
According to the technique disclosed in the '275 Document, at the time of a side collision, the load is transferred from a pushing member provided on the vehicle body side to the receiving member (side bracket) arranged to protrude on the lateral side of the vehicle seat (more specifically, the lateral side of the seat back frame), resulting in the vehicle seat tilting toward the center of the vehicle body. Thus, by transferring the impact of a side collision to the vehicle body side, the seating space of the occupant can be ensured in the vehicle seat, thereby ensuring safety of the occupant.
However, when the pressure receiving member having the link member disclosed in the '517 Document and the receiving member disclosed in the '275 Document are provided to the vehicle seat in order to improve the safety against both rear end collision and side collision, a plurality of members are densely arranged on the lateral side of the seat back frame, i.e., in the periphery of the side frame. When many members are arranged in the periphery of the side frame in this manner, due to a large number of the components, it is required to spare a relatively large space on the lateral side of the seat back frame, which disadvantageously reduces the design freedom and reduces the seating space of the occupant, thereby reducing the occupant's comfort.
To counter the disadvantage, if a space reduction is intended by reducing the size of each member, there would be a risk of reducing durability against an impact at the time of rear end collision and side collision because each member is not strong enough. Especially the receiving member (side bracket) laterally protruding from the side frame requires a sufficient strength because it directly receives the impact of a side collision, and it also requires a certain size to effectively transfer the load of a side collision to the vehicle body side.
In other words, it has been difficult to both obtain the strength (rigidity) against rear end collision and side collision as well as reducing the size of the peripheral structure of the side frame. Therefore, a technique for both reducing the size of the peripheral structure of the side frame and providing the peripheral structure of the side frame having a sufficient strength against collision has been desired.
Furthermore, when many members are arranged in the periphery of the side frame, there is a disadvantage that the workability of attachments is impaired because an attachment structure of each member becomes complex due to a large number of the components. Therefore, a technique for improving the attachment workability of the members in the periphery of the side frame in the vehicle seat has been desired.


The technology relates to dynamically managing storage space of one or more video recording devices. The video recording devices sends one or more notifications to recording session management server. The one or more notifications are associated with recording status of an event and the storage space status of each of the one or more video recording devices. Each device is associated with one or more predefined policies configured by a user of the video recording devices. Based on predefined policies and notifications, the recording session management server identifies change in status of free space and used space in each of the one or more video recording devices. The recording session management server schedules video recording devices to perform actions based on change in status of free space and used space and one or more event parameters for dynamically managing the storage space of the one or more video recording devices.

Generally, a Digital Video Recorder (DVR) or a Personal Video Recorder (PVR) is used to record television programs. These devices have capacity to store 100s of hours of media in standard formats on secure hard disks in the device itself. There can be multiple such devices at home for example one in living room and one in bed room. Recently, there has been a shift to having cloud based recordings (cloud DVR) for television content which is then streamed to a Set Top Box (STB) or other mobile devices that the user owns. In view of the above, there exists a problem for managing the storage of recordings optimally across multiple recording devices at home and cloud.
The existing recording systems schedule and record programs either locally on a Hard Disk Drive (HDD) of a user specified/user owned Customer Premise Equipment (CPE) device or on the network storage in the cloud based on user request for recording initiation. Each user or account may be given an allocation of storage capacity in these storage devices (either local or remote) and when a user requests to record an upcoming program, the content server can record the program in the active storage device, consuming a portion of the user's allocation in that active storage device. Typically, there are various passive recording options available to users to manage the recording storage space such as "delete at a time", delete oldest recordings, First in First out (FIFO), large size items first etc. These options are set up manually by the user, and are associated per recording on a device and are used by the device to manage the space within itself. There is a finite amount of storage space available in the user device allocated for recording and there are operational costs for service provider involved in claiming additional storage space in the cloud. Due to the easier availability in high quality formats such as HD, 4K and existence of multiple copies of content for different device profiles and content explosion, the storage space can get easily exhausted.
Moreover, the current storage space management systems and policies are passive in nature. They are based on the recording options listed above. The onus is largely on the user to manually set appropriate record options for recording and for storage management. The user can also invoke a service option to choose what programs user wishes to retain vis-à-vis remove from storage either when the user chooses them specifically or if the storage space crosses a threshold value which is near the full capacity of the device. These methods involve user actions for storage space which might get burdensome on user. There can also be variations in storage policies and user experience across CPE devices (local) and cloud/network storage (remote) as well as differences in the devices available to user across time. These can be confusing for user to understand and use the devices optimally.
Also, there is minimal or no intelligence in the recording space management between the local recording storage(s) within the home and cloud storage. For instances, content which are not popularly viewed are not compacted and moved to the cloud, while content that is popular even if it is initially stored in the cloud, are not moved into the local storage for better viewing performance. This impacts the recorded content viewing experience for the end user.
The issues mainly faced in the video recording devices are to manage and utilize the storage space dynamically in each of the video recording devices (CPE devices and cloud devices) thereby improving the overall quality of video viewing experience for the end user.

Method and system for dynamically managing storage space of video recording devices


Aspects of the disclosed technology relate to an imaging system and method in which an array camera is employed along with an image processor to make use of parallax convergence differences in color and luminance between different cameras or groups of cameras within an array camera to provide improved super resolution performance.

Conventional cameras typically include one or more lenses and a photodetector element for capturing image data. Array cameras (also known as light-field cameras or plenoptic cameras) employ an array of cameras that capture images from slightly different perspectives. Array cameras can be useful for capturing images when motion is involved. One drawback of conventional array cameras is that image resolution can be less than commercially desirable.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


An ink jet head ejects ink by utilizing an electrostatic force to fly the ejected ink towards a recording medium. The ink jet head includes an ejection port substrate having ejection ports bored therethrough, a head substrate disposed at a predetermined distance from the ejection port substrate so as to define an ink flow path between the ejection port substrate and the head substrate, channel separation walls disposed on the head substrate, and ejection electrodes for controlling the ejection of the ink. In this ink jet head, each of the channel separation walls and each of the ejection electrodes are arranged in a position corresponding to each of the ejection ports.

The present invention relates to an ink jet head for ejecting ink to fly the ejected ink towards a recording medium, and an ink jet recording apparatus for recording an image corresponding to image data on a recording medium using the ink jet head.
An ink jet recording apparatus ejects ink from ejection ports to record an image corresponding to image data on a recoding medium. The ink jet recording apparatus, as well known, are classified into an electrostatic ink jet apparatus, a thermal ink jet apparatus, a piezoelectric ink jet apparatus and the like depending on a difference in ejection control means for ink.
Of those ink jet recording apparatus, the electrostatic ink jet recording apparatus uses ink containing charged colorant particles (colored charged particles). Thus, a predetermined voltage is applied to each of ejection portions of an ink jet head in correspondence to image data, thereby generating an electrostatic force in each of the ejection portions thereof, and an image corresponding to the image data is recorded on a recording medium by controlling the ejection of the ink by utilizing the electrostatic forces. As for such an electrostatic ink jet recording apparatus, an ink jet recording apparatus disclosed in JP 10-138493 A is known.
FIG. 7 illustrates a schematic constructional view of an example of the ink jet head of the ink jet recording apparatus disclosed in JP 10-138493 A. In an ink jet head 50 illustrated in FIG. 7, only one ejection portion of an ink jet head disclosed in JP 10-138493 A is conceptually illustrated. The ink jet head 50 includes a head substrate 51, an ink guide 52, an ejection port substrate (insulating substrate) 53, an ejection electrode (control electrode) 54, a counter electrode 55, a D.C. bias voltage source 58, and a pulse voltage source 59.
In the conventional electrostatic ink jet head as illustrated in JP 10-138493 A, the ejection electrode 54 is provided on a surface of the ejection port substrate 53. Hence, when a driving voltage is applied to the ejection electrode 54, an electric field Ed is generated not only from an upper surface of the ejection electrode 54, but also from a lower surface of the ejection electrode 54. That is, the electric field Ed directed from the ejection electrode 54 towards the surface of the head substrate 51 acts on ink Q circulating in an ink flow path 57. The electric field Ed generated in a direction from a lower surface of the ejection electrode 54 to the surface of the head-substrate 51 (hereinafter referred to as "repulsive electric field") acts on colorant particles contained in the ink Q circulating in a main flow path so as to prevent the colorant particles contained therein from flowing into the ejection port (through hole) 56. Thus, when the ink jet head 50 is driven to apply a driving voltage to the ejection electrode 54, the colorant particles are prevented from being concentrated at the ejection port 56, and hence a given period of time is required until the colorant particles are sufficiently concentrated at the ejection port 56. For this reason, when an image is drawn at a high speed using such an ink jet head, there is encountered a problem in that the supply of the colorant particles to the ejection port 56 is impeded by the repulsive electric field generated from the ejection electrode 54 provided on the surface of the ejection port substrate 53, and hence dots each having a desired size cannot be stably formed on a recording medium.
In a case where in the electrostatic ink jet head, a plurality of ejection ports are arranged in matrix to construct a multi channel head, the distribution of wirings among the ejection electrodes of the ejection ports becomes gradually difficult. For this reason, when there are many channels, it is conceivable that the ejection port substrate is structured in the form of a multilayer wiring structure, and in this multilayer wiring structure, the wirings are connected to the ejection electrodes. Thus, when the number of channels is further increased in the future, it is necessary to further thicken the ejection port substrate. However, since if the ejection port substrate is thickened, a length of the ejection port increases as compared with an opening diameter of the ejection port, a resistance generated between the ink and an inner wall of the ejection hole increases so that the ink becomes difficult to be ejected. In addition, if the ejection port substrate is thickened, the ink flowing below the lower surface of the ejection port substrate may stay in the ejection port depending on the flow velocities of the ink. Thus, the ink becomes difficult to be supplied to a tip portion of the ink guide. As a result, a problem occurs in that the responsibility to an ejection frequency becomes poor, and hence as an image drawing frequency increases, the dot diameter becomes gradually small. Moreover, a problem also occurs in that when the ejection ports are integrated at high density along with an increase in the number of channels, a fluid interference with the adjacent channels is caused, and hence the diameters of the dots formed on the recording medium become unstable.
Note that when the ejection port substrate is thickened, that is, the length of the ejection port is increased, in the ink jet recording apparatus using the ink jet heads of the various types as well as in the electrostatic ink jet recording apparatus, the same problems as those of the foregoing arise.

Ink jet head and ink jet recording apparatus


To provide an adhesive composition which can effectively improve the thermal-peeling-easy properties and the adhesion properties at low temperature at the same time. An adhesive composition comprising a crystalline polymer which comprises polyol units formed from a crystalline polyol as repeating units in the molecule, and a tackifying polymer compatible with said crystalline polymer at a temperature higher than the melting point of said crystalline polymer, wherein the tackifying polymer has an alkyl group with 4 to 8 carbon atoms and a carboxyl group in the molecule, a content of the monomeric units having the alkyl group with 4 to 8 carbon atoms (repeating units derived from a starting monomer having the alkyl group) is 60 to 99 mole % of the whole monomeric units of the tackifying polymer, and the alkyl group includes a butyl group.

Adhesives comprising tackifying polymers as main components are called pressure-sensitive adhesives (tackifiers), and can be firmly adhered to materials by simply applying a pressure to the adhesives. When the adhesive contains a tackifying polymer and a crystalline polymer, it can be used as a heat-sensitive adhesive.
As such an adhesive containing a tackifying polymer and a crystalline polymer, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,192,612 (corresponding to JP-B-3021646) discloses a pressure-sensitive composition comprising a pressure-sensitive adhesive base resin (a tackifying polymer such as an acrylic polymer), a detackifying resin and a detackifying particulate. A specific preferable example of the detackifying resin is substantially linear polycaprolactone having a molecular weight of about 3,000 to about 342,000. Polycaprolactone is a crystalline polymer which exhibits non-tackifying properties at room temperature (about 15 to 30° C.).
The above-described pressure-sensitive adhesive can be adhered to an adherent by pressing the adhesive against the adherent. The above detackifying resin and the detackifying particles effectively reduce tack on the surface of the adhesive at room temperature and improve repeelability. The detackifying particles are inorganic particles such as silica.
In the above U.S. Patent, it is not supposed that the adhesive material is peeled (including thermal peeling) during or after the use of the adhesive material after the final adhesion. Therefore, the adhesive as such cannot be used as an adhesive having thermal-peeling-easy properties, which are described below. To impart the thermal-peeling-easy properties to the adhesive, the compatibility of the crystalline polymer and the tackifying polymer should be improved, as described below. However, the above U.S. Patent does not disclose the improvement of the molecular structure (the kinds of functional groups and/or substituents in the molecule, a weight average molecular weight, etc.) of the tackifying polymer to increase the compatibility with the crystalline polymer.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,412,035 (corresponding to JP-A-6-510548) discloses a pressure sensitive adhesive composition which becomes pressure sensitive at least at one temperature in the range between 20° C. and 40° C., and comprises a polymeric pressure-sensitive adhesive component and a crystalline polymer.
The crystalline polymer is usually non-tacky at room temperature and molecularly designed so that it has good compatibility with the polymeric pressure-sensitive adhesive component.
The melting point Ta (° C.) of the crystalline polymer, which is measured in the composition, is lower than the melting point Tm (° C.) of the crystalline polymer as such, and the difference Tm—Ta is preferably from 1° C. to 9° C. In the above U.S. patent, Tm is preferably from 20° C. to 102° C.
The adhesive composition disclosed has the thermal-peeling-easy properties (thermal peelability), that is, a peel strength P2 (g/cm) at a certain temperature higher than Ta is smaller than a peel strength P1 (g/cm) at a certain temperature lower than Ta. This publication discloses neither the use of crystalline polyols such as polycaprolactone nor the improvement of the molecular structure (e.g. the kinds of the functional groups and/or substituents in the molecule, etc.) of the tackifying polymer to improve the compatibility with polycaprolactone and make it compatible with polycaprolactone at a temperature higher than the melting point of polycaprolactone. Furthermore, this publication does not disclose the improvement to increase the thermal peelability and the adhesion properties at low temperature (low temperature adhesion properties) of such an adhesive composition at the same time.
JP-A-2000-119624 discloses an adhesive composition comprising a specific tackifying polymer and crystalline polycaprolactone. Using the disclosed adhesive composition, an article can be adhered to an adherent by heat pressing (pressing after heating or pressing while heating). It is essential for the disclosed tackifying polymer to have two functional groups, that is, a hydroxyl group and a phenyl group, in the molecule, and the compatibility with polycaprolactone is improved by the functions of these functional groups. With such an adhesive, the tack on the adhesion surface at room temperature (about 25° C.) can be avoided with the function of the crystalline polymer having the polyol units such as polycaprolactone in the molecule.
None of the above publications disclose thermally peelable adhesive compositions comprising crystalline polyurethane as a crystalline polymer having polyol units formed from a crystalline polyol as repeating units.


An improved solid-state ion-selective electrode has greater uniformity of asymmetric potential and high sensitivity and selectivity for the cation of interest. The electrode comprises: (1) a porous element comprising graphite; (2) an electrochemical reference in substantially dry form on at least a portion of the element, the reference comprising: (a) an oxidant and (b) a reductant that is the conjugate of the oxidant, the oxidant and reductant being present in about equimolar quantities; and (3) a polymeric membrane comprising an ion-selective ionophore in electrochemical contact with the electrochemical reference. The electrode can be prepared to be selective for one of a number of cations, including lithium and ammonium. Methods for preparing these electrodes are also disclosed.

For many clinical and research purposes, it is necessary to measure the concentration of ions, particularly cations such as lithium, ammonium, sodium, potassium, or calcium, in biological fluids such as serum, plasma, or urine.
In recent years, physiological electrolyte analyzers based on ion-selective electrode (ISE) technology have been used increasingly in the clinical laboratory and doctor's office for the determination of such ions as H.sup.+, Na.sup.+, K.sup.+, and Ca.sup.2+. These analyzers are as simple and as rapid to use as the familiar pH meter. In such analyzers, an ISE is used together with an external reference electrode in such a manner that they are simultaneously immersed in a sample solution. An electrical potential is developed between the electrodes which is related to the presence of the ion to which the ISE is sensitive. The potential is proportional to the logarithm of the ion concentration. The relationship between potential and the logarithm of the ion concentration is described by the Nernst equation. The intercept of the potential on the y-axis, i.e., the potential at an infinitesimal ion concentration, is referred to as the offset.
The traditional methods for monitoring lithium ion concentrations, however, have been atomic absorption spectroscopy and flame emission photometry. Although accurate and precise, these methods are time-consuming, require very expensive and cumbersome equipment, and are not particularly suited to automation. The time and expense required make such methods unsuitable for rapid monitoring of serum lithium concentration in a doctor's office, as should be done with patients receiving lithium.
Likewise, ammonia ion concentration has been measured by conductimetry and by the reaction with phenol in the presence of hypochlorite to form a chromogen, indophenol. These methods for ammonium measurement are not ideal as they are time-consuming and require complex equipment and several reagents.
Although the measurement of lithium and ammonia using ISE technology would be an improvement over these prior measurement techniques, the use of ISE technology has presented several challenges. For example, an ISE useful for lithium determination must meet several rigorous criteria. Most importantly, such an ISE must be highly selective for lithium over other cations found in serum, particularly sodium and potassium. The level of NA.sup.+ in serum is typically over 1400 times the lowest lithium levels of clinical importance. The ISE for lithium should also have good sensitivity so that concentrations of lithium in serum of about 0.2 mmol/L can be accurately determined, and, for the most accurate measurement, a plot of electrode potential against the logarithm of lithium concentration should be linear or nearly so in the concentration region of interest. The ISE must also be resistant to interference from organic molecules found in blood serum, especially lipoproteins and other proteins. Rapid and stable response to lithium ion is also highly desirable. Resistance to water hydration when exposed to aqueous samples is also extremely important when providing a lithium ISE useful commercially. The occurrence of hydration requires that electrodes be changed at intervals of only a few weeks or even days. This has proven to be a great obstacle to a commercially useable lithium ISE.
ISEs have been developed by T. Shono, using crown ethers as lithium-selective ionophores (K. Kimura et al., Anal. Chem. 59:2331-2334 (1987)), and by Dr. W. Simon in Zurich, using ionophores known as "neutral ligands" (EPO Publication No. 017452 A2; E. Metzger, Anal. Chem. 58:132-135 (1986); E. Metzger, Anal. Chem. 59:1600-1603 (1987)). While these publications demonstrate the principal that lithium-selective and neutral ligand ionophores are useful, the ISEs described are not suitable for clinical applications due to limited performance characteristics.
As part of the measurement circuit of an ISE, an internal reference electrode is required. In traditional prior ISEs, this was usually made with a silver/silver chloride electrode in contact with a liquid reference solution that was in turn in contact with the ion-selective membrane. In more recent designs, the liquid internal reference electrode has been replaced by a solid support in the form of an electrical element or substrate (U.S. Pat. No. 4,276,141 to Hawkins; U.S. Pat. No. 3,856,649 to Genshaw et al.). However, a primary cause for problems with known solid support ISEs is believed to be related to difficulties attributed to the physical adhesion between the ion selective layer and the electrical element or substrate. Such an element or substrate can be a wire or a semiconductor (ISEFET). Another form of such an element or substrate is a silver-silver chloride pellet made by pressurizing a silver and silver chloride powder mix at very high pressure. With each of these types of elements or substrates, however, there is believed to be insufficient porosity to retain the ion-selective layer or membrane in sufficiently good physical contact to insure good electrochemical interaction.
Even more recently, a polymeric membrane ISE design using graphite as the internal reference electrode has been described (U.S. Pat. No. 4,549,951 to Knudson et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,431,508 to Brown et al.). Of these two approaches, only Brown et al. describes pre-treating the graphite substrate to help stabilize drift, but even Brown et al. is unsatisfactory for routine clinical analysis because the offset, i.e., the intercept of the Nernst equation E.degree., varies from electrode to electrode in a broad range. This is undesirable because the offset, sometimes referred to as the asymmetric potential (AP), must match with the instrument on which the electrode is to be used, and mismatches can lead to analytical error.
Therefore, there is a need for an improved design of ISEs, particularly for the detection of lithium and ammonium, but also for detection of other cations such as sodium and potassium. Such ISEs should be selective and sensitive and respond rapidly. They should be resistant to interference from serum components such as proteins and lipids. They should provide for improved electrochemical interaction between the electrically conductive element and the sample through a polymeric ion selective layer. Most importantly, they should have a very narrow offset or AP range to improve matching of the electrode with the instrument with which it is to be used.

Graphite-based solid state polymeric membrane ion-selective electrodes


A composition of matter having a metal powder or powders of specified characteristics in a Reactive Organic Medium (ROM). These compositions can be applied by any convenient printing process to produce patterns of electrical conductors on temperature-sensitive electronic substrates. The pattern can be thermally cured in seconds to form pure metal conductors at a temperature low enough to avoid damaging the substrate.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to compositions which can be used to apply conductors to electronic components such as printed circuit boards and semiconductors, particularly, to compositions which can be applied and converted to solid conductors at temperatures below 450° C.
2. Related Art
A common method for printed circuit fabrication process is subtractive or semi-additive processes in which conductors are formed by etching away unwanted copper. A fully additive process would have many advantages over the subtractive or semi-additive methods. The primary problem in providing a wholly additive process for producing printed circuitry is the requirement for high electrical conductivity with low enough curing temperature to be compatible with polymer-based circuit boards. Another major problem is making connections to the additive traces, preferably by conventional soldering. Present technology includes low cure temperature conductive epoxies and transient liquid phase materials which produce traces with poor electrical conductivity and poor solderability or high temperature thick film inks which produce traces with good electrical conductivity and good solderability but which are limited to ceramic substrates. These small, expensive and specialized substrates are required to withstand the thick film ink firing temperatures of more than 650° C. and usually above 850° C. A method which could duplicate the performance of thick film inks but on polymer-based substrates at 250 to 350° C. would permit broad, worldwide application of this technology in the $27 billion rigid circuit board industry and the $2.5 billion flexible circuit industry.
"Thick film" technology is routinely practiced to produce hybrid circuits on ceramic substrates. R. W. Vest, "Electronic Ceramics", R. Breckenridge, ed., 1991. The conductor patterns are created by silk screening or stencil printing thick film pastes or inks onto ceramic substrates and firing them at temperatures of 850 to 1100° C. to reduce the metal-containing inks to metal. An example of such inks are silver-palladium compositions which have recently been reviewed by Wang, Dougherty, Huebner and Pepin, J. Am. Ceram. Soc. 77(12), 3051–72 (1994). Typically thick film inks contain metal powders, an inorganic glass binder and a vehicle consisting of a polymer binder and a solvent. The vehicle provides the correct consistency for screen printing and consists typically of a polymer such as ethyl cellulose, hydrogenated rosin or polyacrylics dissolved in a low volatility solvent. Common solvents are terpineol, dibutyl carbitol and various glycol ethers and esters. The inks are applied to ceramic substrates by screen printing, dried to drive off the solvent and heat treated, usually in a belt furnace, to decompose the polymer binder and fuse the metal and the inorganic glass binder. The glass phase provides the bond to the substrate which is usually alumina, and the metal provides the electrical conductivity. Typically the conductors have a striated cross section with layers of glass alternating with layers of metal. The glass tends to concentrate at the ceramic interface and the metal at the air interface. The conductivity is typically one half to one quarter that of the bulk metal.
A number of thick film compositions contain surfactants to improve screenability and stability of the metal powder dispersions. Often these surfactants are metallo-organic compounds such as soaps of carboxylic acids. These are convenient in that they will decompose at relatively low temperature to deposit the metal or its oxide which can perform a useful function in the fired conductor.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,071,826 issued on Dec. 10, 1991 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,338,507 issued on Aug. 16, 1994 to J. T. Anderson, V. K. Nagesdh and R. C. Ruby, disclose the addition of silver neodecanoate to superconducting oxide mixtures in which the neodecanoate is decomposed to the metal at 300° C. to coat the superconducting grains with silver. The coated grains are then sintered and oxidized at 600–800° C. to produce an oxide superconductor of enhanced strength and critical current.
The addition of titanate to thick film conductors by decomposition of an organo-metallic titanate is described by K. M. Nair in U.S. Pat. No. 4,381,945 issued on May 3, 1983.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,599,277 issued on Jul. 8, 1986 to J. M. Brownlow discloses adding organo-metallic compounds to thick film inks to increase the densification temperature of the metal to match that of the ceramic substrate at 850–950° C., the inverse of the process required to apply conductors to polymer circuits at low temperatures.
Conventional thick film paste compositions containing silver flake, glass frit and silver resinates, which are carboxylic acid soaps, as well as surfactants such as Triton X 100, were described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,075,262, issued on Dec. 24, 1991 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,183,784, issued on Feb. 2, 1993 to M. N. Nguyen and coworkers. The objective was to eliminate the preliminary drying step after printing, and the resinate was said to promote adhesion and minimize cracks and voids in bonding semiconductor dies to a ceramic substrate at 350–450° C. V. K. Nagesh and R. M. Fulrath were issued U.S. Pat. No. 4,130,671 on Dec. 19, 1978. It discloses a similar composition of glass frit and silver resinate which was decomposed at low temperature to provide silver-coated glass particles similar to the superconductor of Anderson above. The particles were applied to a substrate either before or after decomposition of the resinate and fired in an oxidizing atmosphere at 500 to 700° C. to provide a conductor of metal-coated glass particles.
Still other conventional thick film compositions of glass and metal powders in an organic vehicle but without the resinate are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,250,229 and 5,378,408.
To create a low temperature analog of the thick film process, it will be necessary to find a new mechanism to obtain adhesion and cohesion of the deposited metal which can operate at temperatures below 450° C., which is the extreme upper temperature limit that most polymers can tolerate. The use of inorganic glass powder binders which are universally used in conventional thick film inks is not possible in this application because none of them melt a low enough temperature, and the glass will not bond to the metal or to the polymer substrates.
Other approaches to this objective have been described. The most common one is the creation of electrically conductive inks or pastes by incorporating metal powder, usually silver powder, in an organic matrix, the so-called "Polymer Thick Film" materials. This is a major industry with products available from Ablestik, AIT, Hokurika, M-Tech, Thermoset, Epoxy Technology and Ferro, among others. These materials can be printed on circuit boards, and they have good adhesion. An example of the application of this technology was described in an article by K. Dreyfack in Electronics 52(17), 2E–4E, 1979, on Societie des Produits Industrielles ITT's silk screening silver and graphite-based conductors of this type onto rigid and flexible circuits. One problem with this approach is that the inks conduct by random contacts between powder grains in the organic matrix, and the conductivity is poor. Typical values of the resistivity, which is the reciprocal of conductivity, are 40 to 60 microohm cm, compared to bulk silver at 1.59 microohm cm and high temperature thick film conductors at 3–6 microohm cm. Still more disturbing is the fact that the electrical conductivity is not constant with time. The conductivity depends on adventitious contacts between individual metal grains which are prone to be made and broken randomly as the trace is heated and cooled, and particularly as it is exposed to moisture and other environmental influences. Another major problem with polymer thick film materials is that because of their organic content, they are not solderable.
A typical resin-bonded copper powder conductor is described in Japanese Patent Application 52-68507, June, 1977. U.S. Pat. No. 4,775,439 issued on Oct. 4, 1988 to R. E. Seeger and N. H. Morgan, describes a more elaborate polymer thick film approach. In this concept metal powder and binder are applied to a substrate and dried. The trace is then covered by a polymer film which is adhesively laminated to the substrate to hold the conductor in place. This does not address the problem of obtaining electrical conductivity comparable to bulk metal.
Bulk conductivity has been achieved at low temperature by decomposing metallo-organic compounds on various substrates. They can be applied by ink jet printing as described by R. W. Vest, E. P. Tweedell and R. C. Buchanan, Int. J. of Hybrid Microelectronics 6, 261–267, 1983. Vest et al have investigated so-called MOD (Metallo-Organic Decomposition) technology over many years. The most relevant aspect of this research was reviewed in "Liquid Ink Jet Printing with MOD Inks for Hybrid Microcircuits" Teng, K. F., and Vest, R. W., IEEE Transactions on Components, Hybrids and Manufacturing Technology, 12(4), 545–549, 1987. The authors described their work on printing silver and gold conductors as well as dielectrics and resistors. MOD compounds are pure synthetic metallo-organic compounds which decompose cleanly at low temperature to precipitate the metal as the metallic element or the oxide, depending on the metal and the atmosphere. The noble metals, silver, gold and the platinum group decompose to metal films in air. The organic moiety is bonded to the metal through a hetero-atom providing a weak link that provides for easy decomposition at low temperature. An oxygen bond, as in carboxylic acid-metal soaps, has been found to be satisfactory, as have amine bonds for gold and platinum.
Vest et al investigated metallization of ceramic substrates and silicon by ink jet printing of xylene solutions of soaps such as silver neodecanoate and gold amine 2-ethylhexanoate. Images of satisfactory resolution (0.003 inches or 75 microns) were obtained, but the conductivity was low because of the extremely small thickness of the layers after decomposition which was less than a micron. Preliminary experiments by Partnerships Limited on epoxy-glass circuit boards with silver neodecanoate solutions demonstrated that well-bonded conductors could be produced on polymer substrates. Again, the difficulty was that they were very thin and had inadequate conductivity. It was found that the addition of more MOD compound resulted in wider traces but not thicker ones. The MOD compound melts before decomposing and spreads over the surface uncontrollably. Since melting provides for a well-consolidated metal deposit after decomposition, which is desirable, and since some MOD compounds are actually liquids at room temperature, this is an unavoidable problem. A possible solution to this problem is to build up the thickness by printing many layers, which Vest et al found suitable for metallizing silicon solar cells, but this detracts from the single pass production of circuits, which is our objective.
Similar materials and techniques have been used to apply thin film metallization and seed coatings which are then built up with solder or electroplating. U.S. Pat. No. 4,650,108, issued on Mar. 17, 1987, to B. D. Gallegher; U.S. Pat. No. 4,808,274 issued on Feb. 28, 1989, to P. H. Nguyen; U.S. Pat. No. 5,059,242 issued on Oct. 22, 1991 to M. G. Firmstone and A. Lindley and U.S. Pat. No. 5,173,330 issued on Dec. 22, 1992, to T. Asano, S. Mizuguchi and T. Isikawa, are examples. Thin films alone cannot provide adequate conductivity.
A creative attempt to circumvent the resistivity problem was described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,487,811 issued on Dec. 11, 1984, to C. W. Eichelberger. The patent describes augmenting the conductivity by a replacement reaction of metal in the deposit by a more noble metal in solution, for example the replacement of iron by copper. In the process of doing this, the contact between particles is improved by the greater volume of the replacement metal and its greater intrinsic conductivity. A resistivity of 7.5 microohm cm was achieved, substantially better than silver-loaded epoxies, but short of the performance of thick film inks.
The replacement reaction solved yet another problem of polymer inks in that the material was solderable, which conductive epoxy formulations in general are not. Another approach to solderability was described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,548,879 issued on Oct. 22, 1985 to F. St. John and W. Martin. Nickel powder was coated with saturated monocarboxylic acid with ten or more carbon atoms. The coated powder was mixed with novolac epoxy resins in a butyl carbitol acetate vehicle and silk screened onto an epoxy-glass board. After curing at 165° C., the conductive trace could be solder-coated by fluxing and dipping into molten solder, while a trace made with uncoated nickel powder could not be soldered. No improvement in electrical conductivity was described with this process.
A silver powder is disclosed in "Novel Silver Powder Composition", U.S. Pat. No. 4,186,244 issued Jan. 29, 1980, and "Process for Forming Novel Silver Powder Composition", U.S. Pat. No. 4,463,030 issued Jul. 31, 1984, Both issued to R. J. Deffeyes, and H. W. Armstrong. The silver powder was formed by decomposing dry silver oxalate in the presence of a long chain carboxylic acid, either saturated (stearic acid, palmitic acid) or unsaturated (oleic acid, linoleic acid). The acid reacted with the metal powder as it was formed to provide a protective coating on the surface and to limit the particles to sub-micron size. The particles were washed to remove excess acid and blended with an equal weight of a conventional thick film vehicle consisting of ethyl cellulose polymer binder and pine oil solvent.
The resulting ink was coated on a ceramic or polyimide substrate and heated to 250° C. in air for 30–90 seconds to convert the coated powder to a silver conductor with a stated conductivity of one ohm per square, which is not adequate for practical circuitry with traces many hundreds or thousands of squares long. The coating is said to be solderable without flux, which is believable if residual acid is acting as a flux. It is stated to be resistant to leaching in a bath of molten solder, which is unexpected, based on the well known solubility of silver in solder.
A somewhat similar silver flake material was patented by Grundy of Johnson and Matthey, U.S. Pat. No. 4,859,241, Aug. 22, 1989. The flake was prepared by milling silver powder with silver stearate surfactant in an organic solvent to produce silver stearate-coated silver flakes providing a glass-filled ink composition of superior stability. This is a common method of preparing stable powders and flakes of silver.
A more elaborate approach was disclosed by inventor Akira Akamatsu in a Japanese laid open patent application S59-167,906 Sep. 21, 1984, later abandoned by Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. In this case the powder was obtained by partially reducing an organic acid salt of silver, for example silver lactate in lactic acid solution, with formalin or hydroquinone. This prereduction involved preferably 20–30% of the salt. Additional silver powder or flake could be added at that point. The mixture was screen printed and cured by simultaneous application of UV radiation and heat at preferably 300–350° C. for preferably 30–60 minutes. It was found that without the UV the cure would not take place at low temperature, and without the heat the coating would not cure all the way through the approximately 10 micron thickness.
The mixtures of the present invention may be distinguished from those of Akamatsu by the fact that the fine powder constituent is prepared separately, permitting optimum preparation of the nanopowder without concern for the other requirements on the finished mixture. Also the reactive organic medium of the present invention allows the mixture to cure with heat alone in a much shorter time and lower temperature than specified by Akamatsu.
Another class of materials used to produce additive electronic circuitry are the Transient Liquid Phase materials developed by Toronaga Technologies under the trade name "Ormet". These materials and their applications are described by P. Gandhi Circuit World 23 (1), October, 1996, p. 43–46, and Roberts, E.; Proceedings of NEPCON WEST '96, 3, 1748–1752, 1996. The materials consist of a mixture of powdered silver or copper conductor with powdered solder and a polymer binder. They can be printed like conductive epoxies but when heated, the solder melts and alloys with the conductor creating a network of fused metal. Further heating at temperatures in the neighborhood of 220° C. for 10 minutes cures the polymer binder which provides for adhesion of the conductor to the polymer substrate. An alternative is to provide an adhesive layer on the substrate as disclosed by M. A Capote and M. G. Todd of Toranaga Technologies in U.S. Pat. No. 5,538,789, Jul. 23, 1996 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,565,267, Oct. 15, 1996.
Typically Ormet compositions yield electrical resistivities in the range 20–30 microohm-cm and they also present a problem with solderability because of the presence of the polymer binder.
None of the materials or mixtures described above accomplish the goal of providing a composition which can be cured to a well-bonded, well-consolidated metallic conductor with an electrical conductivity comparable to conventional thick film inks but with a curing temperature below 350° C., preferably below 300° C., more preferably below 275 C, which is required for compatibility with conventional polymer-based circuit board substrates. None of these materials has made it possible to impact the circuit board industry with new technology for rapid production by a simple process with no hazardous waste production. A new approach to provide this low temperature capability is needed.

Low temperature method and composition for producing electrical conductors


A semiconductor memory device of the invention includes: main decoders for generating wordline enable signals in response to first decoding signals, a first precharge signal, and a second precharge signal; wordline drivers for wordline drive signals in response to the wordline enable signals and second decoding signals; and a circuit for generating the second precharge signal in response to a command signal. The wordline drive signals are inactivated in sequence in response to the first decoding signals and the second precharge signal, in order to reducing ground noises.

1. Cross-References to Related Applications
This application relies for priority upon Korean Patent Application No. 2000-39993, filed on Jul. 12, 2000, the contents of which are herein incorporated by reference in their entirety.
2. Field of the Invention
The present invention is in the field of a semiconductor memory device and is more specifically related to a decoding circuit for controlling activation of wordlines in a semiconductor memory device for a test function.
3. Description of the Prior Art
A high-density memory such a dynamic random access memory (RAM) has various test operation modes for verifying reliability thereof. The tests are carried out with various conditions and circumstance before and after completing a fabricating process. One of the test functions applied on a dynamic RAM is a burn-in test where stress of high voltage impacts on memory cells thereof and then primary defects such as micro-bridges are detected. The micro-bridges are induced from undesired short circuit phenomenon due to particles or impurities making electrically conductive paths between lines (e.g., wordlines or bitlines) which should not form a short circuit or a direct interconnection.
FIGS. 1A and 1B show wordline activation patterns to find out micro-bridges over a memory cell array of a dynamic RAM. Referring to FIG. 1A, for screening micro bridges, data xe2x80x9c1xe2x80x9d is written in all memory cells, and then data xe2x80x9c0xe2x80x9d is written in memory cells coupled to one wordline. Thereafter, the wordline coupled to the memory cells storing the data xe2x80x9c0xe2x80x9d is activated for a time and set on a test voltage (i.e., high voltage for stress). If there is a micro-bridge between the memory cells storing xe2x80x9c0xe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9c1xe2x80x9d, the data of the memory cells which has stored data xe2x80x9c1xe2x80x9d is changed to xe2x80x9c0xe2x80x9d, which indicates that there is a micro-bridge between the bitlines of the memory cells.
It is known to activate a wordline at intervals of four wordlines, as shown in FIG. 1B. This method results in a reduced test time for micro-bridges to one-fourth that of FIG. 1A. If, for example, the number of wordlines in a unit array block is 512, then the active pattern of wordlines for the flow of the test operation are wordlines WL0, WL4, . . . , WL508. These wordlines, activated until the end of a stress time (step S24-FIG. 3) and coupled to memory cells storing data xe2x80x9c0xe2x80x9d, are all turned off at the same time. Since this method results in a number of the wordlines (i.e., 128 wordlines per the unit array block) being set to a low level (e.g. ground voltage) from high level, bouncing noises at the ground level (or ground noises) are induced thereby causing an increase of the ground voltage level that makes the low level be instantly higher. As a result, the data xe2x80x9c1xe2x80x9d stored in the memory cells coupled to the deactivated wordlines are undesirably changed into xe2x80x9c0xe2x80x9d because charges in the 1-storing memory cells are flow out from their bitlines.
The present invention is intended to solve these problems. It is an object of the invention to provide a decoding circuit capable of reducing ground noises in a test operation mode.
It is another object of the invention to provide a decoding circuit capable of performing a reliable test operation without an invalid disturbance.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide a method for testing the presence of micro-bridges without ground noises.
In order to accomplish those objects, a semiconductor memory device of the invention includes: main decoders for generating wordline enable signals in response to first decoding signals, a first precharge signal, and a second precharge signal; wordline drivers for wordline drive signals in response to the wordline enable signals and second decoding signals; and a circuit for generating the second precharge signal in response to a command signal. The wordline drive signals are inactivated in sequence in response to the first decoding signals and the second precharge signal, in order to reducing ground noises.

Decoding circuit for controlling activation of wordlines in a semiconductor memory device


A new and distinct Petunia cultivar named ‘DANLITT248 ’ is disclosed, characterized by having a distinctive small, white flowers, and a compact, rapid growth habit. The new variety is a Petunia, normally produced as an outdoor garden or container plant.

The new Petunia cultivar is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the inventor, Gavriel Danziger, in Moshav Mishmar Hashiva, Israel. The objective of the breeding program was to produce new Petunia varieties for commercial applications. The cross resulting in this new variety was made during 2007.
The seed parent is the unpatented, proprietary seedling variety referred to as Petunia sensu Wijsman 'Pe-2643.' The pollen parent is the unpatented, proprietary seedling variety referred to as Petunia sensu Wijsman 'Pe-1425.' The new variety was discovered in March 2008 by the inventor in a group of seedlings resulting from that crossing, in a commercial greenhouse in Moshav Mishmar Hashiva, Israel.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar 'DANLITT248' by vegetative cuttings was first performed at a commercial greenhouse in Moshav Mishmar Hashiva, Israel in March 2008 and has shown that the unique features of this cultivar are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.