A belt pulley is provided for a crankshaft in a vehicle. The belt pulley can be mounted on an end of the crankshaft projecting from an engine block. The belt pulley includes, but is not limited to a drive disc, which can be fixed on the end of the crankshaft projecting from the engine block in a rotationally fixed manner, vibration damper which includes, but is not limited to a bulge that is elastically connected to the drive disc and an end body, which includes, but is not limited to a hollow space. A sound-damping component is arranged in the hollow space and the hollow space is covered by means of a cover disc.

A belt pulley can be provided with a torsional vibration damper. A belt pulley with a torsional vibration damper makes possible decoupling the torsional vibrations during the crankshaft operation from the natural vibration of the crankshaft. For this reason, the torsional vibration damper for a crankshaft is frequently also described as decoupler. The torsional vibrations are created through the alternately occurring combustion pressures in the individual cylinders of the internal combustion engine. These torsional vibrations are superimposed on the natural vibrations of the crankshaft so that in an extreme case a fracture of the crankshaft can occur.
Thus, the torsional vibration damper on the projecting end of the crankshaft serves to enlarge the frequency differential between the frequency of the torsional vibrations and the frequency of the natural vibration of the crankshaft. To this end, a driving disc is connected to the crankshaft in a fixed manner, while the belt pulley is connected to the crankshaft in a vibration-damped manner via the torsional vibration damper and via the drive pulley. Thus, torsional vibrations of the crankshaft can be reduced or transmitted to the transmission in a reduced manner or not at all in order to reduce the noise emission.
In view of the foregoing, further reductions of the noise emissions however are desirable. In addition, other objects, desirable features and characteristics will become apparent from the subsequent summary and detailed description, and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background.

Belt pulley for a crankshaft in a vehicle


Herein, provided are heavily doped colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals and a process for introducing an impurity to semiconductor nanoparticles, providing control of band gap, Fermi energy and presence of charge carriers. The method is demonstrated using InAs colloidal nanocrystals, which are initially undoped, and are metal-doped (Cu, Ag, Au) by adding a metal salt solution.

Doping of bulk semiconductors, the process of intentional introduction of impurity atoms into a crystal discovered back in the 1940s, is a key route for tuning their properties. Its introduction allowed the wide-spread application of semiconductors in electronic and electro-optic components [1]. Controlling the size and dimensionality of semiconductor structures is an additional powerful way to tune their properties via quantum confinement effects. In this respect, colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals have emerged as a family of materials with size dependent optical and electronic properties. Combined with their capability for wet-chemical processing, this has led to nanocrystal-based light emitting diodes, solar cells and transistor devices prepared via facile and scalable bottom-up approaches. Impurity doping in such colloidal nanocrystals still remains an open challenge [2]. From the synthesis side, the introduction of a few impurity atoms into a nanocrystal which contains only a few hundred atoms may lead to their expulsion to the surface [3-5] or compromise the crystal structure. This inherently creates a highly doped nanocrystal under strong quantum confinement, and the electronic and optical properties in such circumstances are still unresolved.
Several strategies have been employed so far for doping nanocrystals. Binding ligands on the nanoparticle surface, which can donate carriers, or electrochemical carrier injection, have been shown to yield n-type doping in semiconductor nanocrystal superlattices [6-8]. While of great interest, such remote doping differs from substitutional doping, which has been studied mainly for color center impurities [9] and magnetic impurities, notably Mn atoms [10,11], providing insight to the challenging chemistry [12]. It should be noted, that despite efforts to concentrate such doping solely in the nanocrystal, significant amounts of the dopant materials were found associated with the nanocrystals surface.
Introduction of dopant precursors at specific stages of nanoparticle growth were effective in controlling the impurity location [13]. More recently, some progress has been made towards producing n-type CdSe quantum-dots (QDs) using tin and indium impurities [14, 15], and p-type InP using Cu impurities [16].

Heavily doped semiconductor nanoparticles

YISSUM RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT COMPANY OF THE HEBREW UNIVERSITY OF JERUSALEM LTD.


A management apparatus searches whether or not a notification file corresponding to a document name displayed on a display is present within a difference management table, and displays a predetermined indication “*”, which indicates the presence of a notification file, on the display, when a notification file is present. When conventional documents are converted into electronic documents, there arises problems that rather inconveniences would be brought compared to the paper-printed documents before converted into the electronic documents, and these inconveniences may cause mistakes in the work and misjudgments in the maintenance and operation of machinery and equipment and may induce considerable economical loss in the business activities and serious accidents in the maintenance and operation of machinery and equipment. However, these problems are solved by the present invention.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic document system, and more particularly relates to an electronic document system that allows easy management when the content thereof is changed, revised, etc. More specifically, it is a principal object of the present invention to provide an electronic document system and an electronic document management apparatus, capable of allowing easy understanding of the status of an electronic document when some change was made to the content of the original of the electronic document, allowing smooth use of the electronic document, and preventing errors in the use of the electronic document.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years, electronization of a variety of documents has been promoted. For example, by converting documents, such as the office manuals of enterprises, particularly financial institutions, the maintenance and operation manuals of various machinery and equipment (ships, aircrafts, power stations, industrial complexes, etc.), specifications (drawings), the codes and clerical procedures of government offices, the school regulations of various schools, the regulations of ISO, JAS, etc., or the manuals of home appliances, into electronic documents, it becomes possible to smoothly carry out daily work and deal with a variety of problems, if happen, by promptly finding the corresponding rules and regulations to be referenced.
By the way, while the conversion of documents into electronic documents has been promoted in the above-mentioned fields, this involves new problems. Such a variety of documents are subject to change relatively often depending on cases such as revisions of laws, acts or the like, changes in a system, or the case where there is an inappropriateness or mistake in the content of the conventional statement.
In the case where a conventional manual printed on paper (original document) which is not converted into an electronic document is possessed and being used, if the content of the original document is changed, the content of the change, the effective date, etc. are generally notified by a notification document until the original document will have been actually revised and the change will have been reflected in the original document. In this case, until the change of the content notified by the notification document is actually reflected in the original document (until the original document itself is revised according to the content of the notification document), it generally takes considerable time lag due to printing and distribution of the corresponding portion of the original document and the replacement of the corresponding portion in the actual field. Therefore, in the actual field, both of the unrevised original document and the notification document showing the revised content are present for a certain period. In such a period, in the actual field received the notification document, by temporarily attaching a tag, for example, to the corresponding portion of the original document, it is possible to easily know that a notification document, which indicates that some change was made to the portion of the original document, has already been issued, and also know the content of the change itself.
However, if the original document is converted into an electronic document, the electronic original document and the electronic notification document are both present, and therefore, when the electronic original document is displayed on the display of a terminal device, it is impossible to immediately judge whether or not a notification document, which indicates that a change was made to a portion of the document, has been issued and thus it is necessary to examine the electronic notification document separately. On the other hand, when the electronic notification document is displayed on the display of the terminal device, it is impossible to immediately judge whether or not the change has already been reflected in the original document (the electronic original document has been revised according to the content of the notification document), and thus it is necessary to examine the electronic original document separately.
Hence, when various documents are converted into electronic documents, rather inconveniences would arise compared to paper-printed documents before converted into electronic documents, and these inconveniences may bring big problems of causing mistakes in the work, misjudgments in the maintenance and operation of machinery and equipment, and inducing considerable economical loss in the business activities and serious accidents in the maintenance and operation of machinery and equipment.

Electronic document system, electronic document management apparatus, computer program product, and computer memory product


Terminals of a network are mapped cells. Time slots are allocated to the cells such that the time slots assigned to a first cell are reused as the time slots assigned to a second cell subject to a k-cell constraint whereby, according to the k-cell constraint, at least k cells separate the first and second cells. Additionally or alternatively, either a terminal j joining a cell i of the network is assigned a time slot in which it reports its presence in the cell i, or time slots are reclaimed within the cell i so that a reclaimed time slot can be allocated to the terminal j.

Ad hoc networks are increasingly being used for many applications. For example, ad hoc networks are used for sensing, detection, and tracking, and are being applied in military, ecological, environmental, and domestic system applications for monitoring and/or control. Ad hoc networks are also being used to automate buildings, universities, factories, etc.
Typically, the terminals of an ad hoc network are randomly and arbitrarily deployed in such a manner that their locations are not necessarily known a priori. The terminals of an ad hoc network may be stationary or mobile. The terminals of an ad hoc network are preferably, although not necessarily, wireless terminals.
Ad hoc networks generally operate over a single channel. Thus, a transmission by one terminal in the network is heard by all other terminals within range of the transmitting terminal. Terminals communicate among themselves in a multi-hop fashion so that a terminal that wants to transmit to another terminal that is not within its transmission range will transmit to a terminal that is within its transmission and that terminal will transmit to another terminal and so until the transmission arrives at the desired terminal.
Collisions of transmissions occur when two or more terminals within each other's transmission range transmit simultaneously in the same channel. As a result of such collisions, each of the terminals involved in the collision will attempt a retransmission. Every such retransmission causes a delay in message communication, lowers network throughput, and significantly drains the battery life of the terminal.
Many medium access control (MAC) protocols have been developed that attempt to minimize the drain on battery power of the terminals due to the retransmissions resulting from collisions. Time division multiplexing is one approach that has been used to reduce collision between terminals. Time division multiplexing based scheduling algorithms are superior to CSMA-CD based protocols for wireless ad hoc networks and, hence, are preferable wherever it is possible to use time division multiplexing.
Various algorithms are known that attempt to optimize channel allocation in cellular mobile networks. These algorithms attempt to optimally assign frequencies (channels) in cellular networks while assuming different frequency separation constraints. In channel allocation, a two-cell buffering constraint may be used during allocation.
When transmissions in an ad hoc network are based on a time division multiplexing model, existing implementations of time slot assignment attempt to assign a globally unique time slot to each terminal in the network, usually through graph coloring techniques, or by finding an appropriate set of partitions of the set of terminals and then assigning a unique time slot to each of these partitions. The ultimate goal is that no two terminals transmit during the same time slot.
Many of these implementations use more time slots (non-optimal assignment) than the optimal solution. Also, the number of time slots increases rapidly with an increase in the maximum terminal degree of the network graph, although the average terminal degree may be very small. It is also known to use a maximal independent set of terminals to generate a self-organizing time division multiple access schedule.
The pre-existence of a partitioning of the ad hoc network deployment area into a number of disjoint cells has been proposed in several works. The hexagonal cellular structure is assumed to be the conceptually closest approximation to the actually circular circumference of an omni-directional transmission radius while providing a regular cell structure. Therefore, the hexagonal cellular structure is widely used for modeling cellular communication networks.
To form a cellular structure within an ad hoc network, a mapping is used to convert a geographical region to hexagonal grid cells. It is known that time division multiplexing scheduling algorithms for wireless ad hoc networks partition an ad hoc network into hexagonal cellular networks, and that GPS enabled devices or terminals are used in ad hoc networks. Algorithms are also known that execute on terminals and that use the network infrastructure to determine locations of terminals relative to the deployment zone. GPS can provide highly accurate and synchronized global time, besides accurate location information. The knowledge of geographical information by terminals in an ad hoc network is an increasingly popular assumption to provide precise location and timing synchronization information. The current generation of mobile phones are GPS enabled, and there is ongoing research to improve GPS indoors. In the absence of GPS, a relative coordinate system can be used.
The present invention relates to a new approach to determining a collision-free transmission schedule for networks, such as ad hoc networks, using time division multiplexing.

Optimal time slot assignment for networks


A catheter shaft with an improved manifold bond and methods for making and using the same. The catheter shaft may include a sleeve disposed, for example, near its proximal end. The sleeve may include a first layer that is attached to the catheter shaft and a second layer to which a hub or manifold may be attached.

A wide variety of intraluminal medical devices have been developed for medical use, for example, intravascular use. Some of these devices include catheters and catheter shafts that can have hubs or manifolds attached thereto. Of the known catheters and catheter shafts, each has certain advantages and disadvantages. There is an ongoing need to provide alternative designs and methods of making and using catheter shafts with desirable characteristics.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Catheter shaft with improved manifold bond


A charged particle beam exposure apparatus which splits a charged-particle beam from a charged-particle beam source into a plurality of charged-particle beams by a plurality of apertures formed in an aperture array to expose a wafer using the plurality of charged-particle beams. The apparatus includes a stage on which the wafer is loaded, the wafer being irradiated with the plurality of charged-particle beams, which have been passed through the apertures of the aperture array, a plurality of detection electrodes which detect intensities of the plurality of charged-particle beams passing through the plurality of apertures of the aperture array to expose the wafer with the plurality of charged-particle beams, the plurality of detection electrodes being formed on the charged-particle beam source side of the light-shielding peripheral regions of the plurality of apertures of the aperture array, and a grid array which adjusts the intensities of the plurality of charged-particle beams on the basis of detection results obtained by the plurality of detection electrodes.

Recently, as a measure for implementing highly integrated and micropatterned semiconductor devices, an exposure apparatus using a charged-particle beam, such as an electron beam has been developed. The exposure apparatus has been considered to be unfit for mass-production until now, because of a low throughput.
However, the exposure apparatus is becoming a way to attain a practical throughput for mass-production by recent developments in a stencil mask type electron beam exposure apparatus and a multi-electron-beam exposure apparatus. Since these exposure apparatuses have a wider area to be exposed at once, i.e., an exposure area wider than that adopted in the prior art, throughput can be increased.
Unfortunately, in the stencil mask type charged-particle beam exposure apparatus, if the intensities of charged-particle beams, which strike the stencil mask are nonuniform in the irradiation region, the pattern to be transferred will deform. Furthermore, in the charged-particle beam exposure apparatus, a variation in intensities of a plurality of charged-particle beams will distort the pattern to be drawn. In particular, if a variation in intensities of charged-particle beams occurs due to a change in intensity distribution of the charged-particle beams during exposure, the drawing accuracy of the exposure apparatus greatly decreases.
To uniformly irradiate a wide range with beams by using the charged-particle exposure apparatus, a charged-particle beam source and optical system have been improved until now. However, irradiation uniformity achieved by such improvements is insufficient.
The irradiation intensity of a charged-particle beam irradiated from a charged-particle beam source often varies not only due to static intensity nonuniformity, but also due to the charged-particle beam source itself and an external environmental factor. The variation in irradiation intensity causes nonuniformity in the intensity distribution of charged-particle beams in the irradiation region, which is unpredictable by the charged-particle beam exposure apparatus, resulting in degradation in drawing accuracy.
In some cases, uniformity of the irradiation intensities of charged-particle beams is lost by replacing a charged-particle beam source or maintaining a certain structure associated with the beams.
Accordingly, a technique has been demanded to obtain statistically sufficient uniformity of the irradiation intensities, and to detect and to correct the irradiation intensity distribution of charged-particle beams during actual exposure in real time.
To meet this demand, as the technique for correcting a variation in intensities of charged particle beams in a charged-particle beam exposure apparatus, a method is proposed, which mounts apertures for irradiation current detection on an aperture array to detect the irradiation intensity distribution in real time (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-193516). In addition, a method is proposed which manages the exposure time by controlling the blanker ON/OFF time (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-051437). In the method of managing the exposure time by controlling the blanker ON/OFF time, to improve throughput, a blanker must be turned on/off under the control of the apparatus at a very high speed. However, the increase in throughput is limited due to difficulty in strict time management.

Charged-particle beam exposure apparatus and method


An adjustable equipment curb has a lower frame having opposed first and second length-adjustable sides and opposed length-adjustable first and second ends interconnectable to form a rigid frame and height-adjustable mounting legs. The lower frame may be used alone, or may support an upper frame through a shock mount system having mounts affixed to both the upper and lower frames and shock absorbing springs between the mounts. The frames may be formed of interconnecting channel members, and the lower frame channel members may be of a perforated construction that, in conjunction with applied sheathing, provides acoustic damping. Seismic brackets may be affixed to the frame to provide increased resistance to seismic shock.

Commercial and industrial heating, ventilating and air conditioning equipment is typically mounted on a roof or other exterior, generally horizontal surface associated with the facility whose air is to be treated by the equipment. Depending on the specifications and characteristics of the equipment, as well as its manufacturer and the location for the equipment, the size and footprint of the equipment is subject to significant variability, as is the mounting surface to which the equipment, through its mount, is attached. The equipment is not placed directly upon the roof or other surface, but is supported thereon by a framework or "curb". The curb is fastened to the roof and the equipment is then mounted to the curb. Conventional curbs, while supporting the equipment weight, typically are incapable of isolating vibration or noise, or withstanding seismic forces or wind loads.
Because of the variability in equipment footprint, the curb utilized to mount a specific piece of equipment must be matched to the equipment's footprint size. Proper matching either requires a plurality of differently sized curbs to be inventoried, or requires custom manufacture of the curb, either at a manufacturing plant or at the installation site, to accommodate the specific equipment being mounted. Neither alternative is efficient or cost effective.
It is accordingly a purpose of the present invention to provide an ene equipment curb able to conform to a variety of equipment footprints, thus permitting standardization of curb construction while providing significantly adaptability.
A further purpose of the present invention is to provide an universal equipment curb capable of being independently adjustable in a plurality of dimensions or directions to accommodate equipment of varying sizes and varying slopes of the surface to which the curb is mounted.
A further purpose of the present invention is to provide an adjustable curb of economical construction and great adaptability, while affording a rigid mounting system capable of supporting the equipment and having provision for vibration and noise isolation, seismic force sustainability, and wind load resistance.

Three-dimensional telescoping adjustable equipment mounting fixture


The invention provides a cosmetic or pharmaceutical composition in the form of an oil-in-glycerin emulsion, with mean droplet size below one micron, comprising a continuous glycerin phase, at least one vegetable oil comprising an internal phase, at least one emulsifying stabilizer, and at least one bioactive compount comprising at least one hydrophobic, moiety within its structure, wherein the composition facilitates stratum-corneum penetration and dermal penetration of said bioactive compound.

Most drugs are not amenable to transdermal mode of administration due to the well-known barrier properties of the skin. Molecules moving from the environment into and through intact skin must first penetrate the stratum-corneum. It is the stratum-corneum that presents the greatest barrier to absorption of topical compositions or transdermally administered drugs. The stratum-corneum, the outer horny layer of the skin, is a complex structure of compact keratinized cell remnants separated by lipid domains. Compared to the oral or gastric mucous, the stratum-corneum is much less permeable to outside molecules.
The flux of a drug across the skin can be increased by changing either a) the resistance (the diffusion coefficient), or b) the driving force (the solubility of the drug in the stratum-corneum and consequently the gradient for diffusion). Many enhancer compositions have been developed to change one or more of these factors, and are known in the art. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,006,218, 3,551,154 and 3,472,931, for example, respectively describe the use of dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO), dimethyl formamide (DMF) and N,N-dimethylacetamide (DMA) to enhance the absorption of topically applied drugs through the stratum corneum. Combinations of enhancers consisting of diethylene glycol monoethyl or monomethyl ether with propylene glycol monolaurate and methyl laurate are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,973,468 as enhancing the transdermal delivery of steroids such as progestogens and estrogens. A dual enhancer consisting of glycerol monolaurate and ethanol for the transdermal delivery of drugs is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,820,720. U.S. Pat. No. 5,006,342 lists numerous enhancers for transdermal drug administration consisting of fatty acid esters or fatty alcohol ethers of C.sub.2 to C.sub.4 alkanediols, where each fatty acid/alcohol portion of the ester/ether is of about 8 to 22 carbon atoms. U.S. Pat. No. 4,863,970 shows penetration-enhancing compositions for topical application comprising an active permeant contained in a penetration-enhancing vehicle containing specified amounts of one or more cell-envelope disordering compounds such as oleic acid, oleyl alcohol, and glycerol esters of oleic acid; a C.sub.2 or C.sub.3 alkanol and an inert diluents such as water.
The use of sorbitan esters of long chain aliphatic acids as skin permeation enhancers is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,122,383; 5,212,199 and 5,227,169. Skin permeation enhancement using aliphatic alcohol esters of lactic acid is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,154,122, World Patent 95/09006 and in Dohi et al., Enhancing Effects of Myristyl Lactate and Lauryl Lactate on Percutaneous Absorption of Indomethacin, Chem Pharm. Bull. 38 (October 1990) 2877-2879. U.S. Pat. No. 5,314,694 also makes reference to the use of esters of fatty acid alcohols, i.e. lauryl alcohol and lactic acid as a permeation enhancer component.
World Patent 96/37231 teaches the use of acyl lactylates as permeation enhancers for drug delivery purposes. This patent is specific to esters of fatty acids and lactic acid such as caproyl lactylic acid and lauroyl lactylic acid. It is stated that the salt form of acyl lactylates are not effective as permeation enhancers.
Many of the enhancer systems possess negative side effects such as toxicity, skin irritation and incompatibility with the drugs or other ingredients making up the transdermal system. U.S. Pat. No. 4,855,294 discloses compositions for reducing skin irritation caused by drug/enhancer compositions having skin irritation properties comprising a percutaneously absorbable drug, a binary enhancer composition consisting of a solvent and a cell envelope disordering compound, combined with an amount of glycerin sufficient to provide an anti-irritating effect.
Skin permeation enhancement due to fatty acid sucrose esters is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,940,586. Penetration enhancement resulting from combining free base and acid addition salt combinations of drugs is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 4,888,354. Enhancement of drugs by means of sub-saturation in a carrier is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,164,190.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,066,328 and 5,658,575 "Cosmetic or dermatological composition comprising an oil-in-water emulsion based on oily globules provided with a lamellar liquid crystal coating and made of—at least one lipophilic surface-active agent, at least one hydrophilic surface-active agent, and at least one fatty acid, the coated oily globules having a mean diameter of less than 500 nanometermeters, preferably less than 200 nanometermeters, and the oily phase contains a basic agent in the dissolved state, exhibit good skin and hair penetration"
U.S. Pat. No. 6,004,566 disclose oil-in-water sub micron emulsions that enhance absorption due reduction of mean particles size to below half a micron. However, two components are needed for stabilizing the emulsion, an emulsifying stabilizer and a surfactant.
All patents, mentioned above, do not disclose oil-in-glycerin type composition or homogenized oil-in-glycerin emulsions stabilized with fatty acid/s and carbohydrate conjugates. Many of the enhancer chemicals listed above were not exploited due to dose dependent skin adverse reaction that limits their clinical use. Alcohols, azones, fatty acids such as oleic acid and other suggested skin permeation enhancers are also causing skin damage or irritation or sensitization.
Oil-in-glycerin emulsions have been claimed in PCT/IL00/00142. Said specification describes a composition of matter comprising a stable oil-in-glycerin emulsion containing at least one oil, at least one emulsifying stabilizer and glycerin. Said invention relates to oil-in-glycerin emulsions in which the oil is the internal phase and the glycerin is the external, continuous phase. However, this patent do not refers to the unexpected observation of facilitated stratum-corneum penetration and method of intra-dermal and transdermal medication which involves the transport of drugs or cosmetics active agent into and/or through the skin.
It would be desirable to have an enhancer composition which not only enabled the passage of drug compositions across the skin barrier but which was also beneficial to the moisturization, stability and overall vitality of the epidermis. Skin having properly moisturized stratum corneum is smooth to the touch, flexible and elastic due to the presence of sufficient bound water. A 1% variation of water content may be enough to modify skin elasticity and permeability. Suitable skin hydration-also promotes transdermal delivery of drugs through the stratum corneum.
To be considered useful, a permeation enhancer should have the ability to enhance the permeability of the skin for at least one and preferably a significant number of agents. More importantly, it should be able to enhance the skin permeability such that the agent delivery rate from a reasonably sized system (preferably 5-50 cm.sup.2) is at therapeutic levels. Additionally, the enhancer when applied to the skin surface should be non-toxic, non-irritating on prolonged exposure and under occlusion, and non-sensitizing on repeated exposure. Preferably, it should be odorless and capable of delivering agents without producing burning or tingling sensations.
It is the objective of the present invention to furnish a carrier system for bioactive agents comprising at least one hydrophobic moiety, whereas an enhanced absorption is obtained while avoiding the side effects associated with many of the chemical enhancers such as alcohols or sodium lauryl sulfate and also provide for safe and biodegradable product and also free of synthetic polymers and also free of preservatives.
The advent of genetic engineering and especially recombinant DNA technology has made available many biologically active peptides. The peptides include human insulin, human growth hormone, bovine growth hormone, endorphins and enkephalines, calcitonin, interferons, interleukins and other lymphokines, TPA, vasopressin, oxytocin and many others.
Peptides are made up of groups of amino acid linked together by amide bonds. The distinction between peptides and proteins, which also are groups of amino acids linked by amide bonds, is somewhat vague, but usually they are separated by size or number of amino acids in the chain.
Use of these biologically active peptides in medical practice is not so simple. Because of the nature of the peptide bond, they are not stable in the acidic conditions of the stomach and thus have very poor oral activity. The most common route of administering biologically active peptides is by injection by the intravenous or I.M. or S.C. routes, which are not amenable to outpatient treatment.
In addition to the acid instability of peptides, enzymes in the body known as peptidases break down these peptides, rapidly destroying their biological activity, some peptides, e.g., Angiotensin I and bradykinin, have a half-life of less than 30 seconds. A transdermal delivery system for peptides would be ideal in many ways.
Unexpectedly, it has now been discovered that bioactive agents having at least one hydrophobic moiety such as phytomedicine, peptides, drugs and cosmeceuticals formulated in homogenized oil in glycerin permeation enhancer compositions of mean droplet size of below one micron better penetrate the stratum corneum natural protective layer of the skin and show higher dermal concentration and/or biological dermal effect. Bioactive agents that will not be biodegraded in the dermis and that will accumulate in the dermis, will finally diffuse into the circulation and will result in systemic effect via transdermal route.


A WDM optical transmission system is provided that operates at a plurality of channel wavelengths. The system includes at least three nodes at which any one or more of the channel wavelengths can be added or dropped. At least three optical transmission links interconnect the nodes. Each link includes a single waveguide over which travel oppositely-directed WDM signals having channel wavelengths that are interleaved with one another in a pairwise manner. A majority of the optical transmission links each have an optical span loss that corresponds to a level of coherent crosstalk between a reflected channel at a given wavelength co-propagating with a channel at the given wavelength prior to isolating one of the adjacent channels in a node that is less than a level of coherent crosstalk that would otherwise arise if a unidirectional transmission format were employed over a single waveguide in the same system.

Optical communication systems are a substantial and fast growing constituent of communication networks. Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) (and its more recent incarnation, Dense WDM or DWDM) is one technique used to increase the capacity of optical transmission systems. A wavelength division multiplexed optical transmission system employs plural optical channels, each channel being assigned a particular channel wavelength. In a WDM system, optical channels are generated, multiplexed to form an optical signal comprised of the individual optical channels, transmitted over a waveguide, and demultiplexed such that each channel wavelength is individually routed to a designated receiver.
WDM systems have been deployed in long distance networks in a point-to-point configuration consisting of end terminals spaced from each other by one or more segments of optical fiber. Because the communication traffic in such systems commonly travels many hundreds of kilometers, the need for add-drop multiplexing of individual channels is infrequent, occurring at widely spaced add-drop nodes. In metropolitan areas, however, WDM systems having a ring or loop configuration are currently being developed. Such systems typically include a plurality of nodes located along the ring. At least one optical add/drop element, associated with each node, is typically connected to the ring with optical connectors. The optical add/drop element permits both addition and extraction of channels to and from the ring. A particular node that allows the addition and extraction of all the channels is commonly referred to as a hub or central office node, and typically has a plurality of associated add/drop elements for transmitting and receiving a corresponding plurality of channels to/from other nodes along the ring. Metropolitan communications systems clearly require considerably more extensive add-drop multiplexing in order to successfully implement wavelength division multiplexing in their short-range systems.
Optical filters are essential components of add-drop multiplexers to select certain wavelengths and reject others. These filters need to have sharp passbands, i.e., passbands in which the transmission changes very rapidly with wavelength, to prevent crosstalk between adjacent channels. Moreover, when two or more filters are cascaded, the overall passband is smaller than the passband of the individual filters. That is, the overall bandwidth narrows due to the cascading of the filters. As a result it becomes even more important to employ sharp filters when WDM signals are required to traverse a large number of add-drop multiplexers such as in a metropolitan communication system. This requirement becomes more stringent as the spacing between adjacent wavelengths continues to decrease. In current WDM systems, for example, adjacent wavelengths may only be separated by 1 nm or less. It is generally recognized that when a wavelength is dropped at a single location in current WDM systems it should be isolated to about −30 dB with very low extinction at adjacent wavelengths. This requirement arises from the need to limit multi-path interference (MPI), also referred to as in-band crosstalk, which causes severe signal degradation when a residual signal at the same wavelength coherently interferes with a DWDM channel. It should be noted that this crosstalk arises from optical channel processing components within the node rather than the traditional source of MPI, which arises within the transmission span from two discrete reflections.
Such a coherent interference scales as the square of the intensity of the crosstalk signal for a single interference such as imperfect isolation of a single dropped signal described above. While this is a very demanding requirement, a much worse case arises in a transparent optical network when one or more spurious paths of a signal arise from the optical signal processing within a node. When this occurs, a single optical signal routed through many nodes can experience small coherent crosstalk contributions in each node. If the pathlength differences experienced by these crosstalk sources are similar, the worst case crosstalk contributions also sum coherently as the square of individual intensities when polarization and phase align to allow constructive interference of the interference signals.
Assuming the existence of n independent interference paths of equal intensity within the path of a signal through the network, and that at some period of time all n sources of the in-band crosstalk will constructively interfere, it can be shown that the maximum crosstalk value tolerable for those n crosstalk sources is less than the single node value of −30 dB by 20*log(n). Thus, for a signal that traverses N nodes and experiences n sources of MPI in each node, the maximum coherent crosstalk allowable at each node is −30 dB−20*log(N*n), which corresponds to <−54 dB for a signal with one MPI path per node traversing 16 nodes.
The worst-case situation described above will arise in practice within a conventional unidirectional WDM optical system if wavelength channels are demultiplexed for individual channel optical Add/Drop, and then multiplexed back together. This arrangement allows only one low loss path for a given wavelength through the device, however a small amount of each channel will transmit as crosstalk through the low loss paths of other channels. The highest crosstalk through such a path is typically an adjacent channel, where a worst case crosstalk for a demultiplexer and multiplexer are −25 dB and −10 dB respectively. Thus a net crosstalk of −35 dB can transmit through two paths (adjacent channels on either side), which is larger than the total maximum coherent crosstalk specified in the equation above for one node with two crosstalk paths (−36 dB). Lower levels of crosstalk in this application can be realized at the expense of added filter narrowing, cost and insertion loss by replacing the multiplexer device with a demultiplexer. This would yield a worst case crosstalk through the node of −50 dB, which for two paths at each node (n=2), would only be sufficient in the above equation for N=5 nodes.
The above requirements highlight the need for filters with high adjacent channel crosstalk in metropolitan area systems because of their extensive use of add/drop multiplexers to add and drop wavelengths at virtually every node, which means that each node is a potential source of coherent interference, or additional MPI. It can be demonstrated, for example, that for a metropolitan area system having 16 nodes with a maximum degree of flexibility in which every wavelength can be accessed at every node, requires the ability to filter or isolate individual wavelengths to about −55 dB or more in each node
Unfortunately, the vast majority of filters employed in communications systems exhibit a larger wavelength-dependent phase disturbance or group delay (chromatic dispersion) as the filter passband becomes sharper to reduce adjacent channel crosstalk. Dispersion limits the maximum distance a signal can travel before undergoing an unacceptable degree of degradation. While in principle it is possible to have a filter with a perfectly square passband, it comes at the expense of an unacceptably large amount of dispersion. Thus there is a tradeoff that needs to be optimized between the sharpness of a filter's passband and its dispersion. While current filter technologies can largely achieve the −30 dB of isolation required for a single MPI source, it becomes much more problematic to use current channel spacings and achieve 55 dB of isolation while maintaining dispersion at acceptable levels. Moreover, in future communication systems where each channel is expected to transmit at higher bit rates at narrower channel spacing, the limitation imposed by dispersion becomes even more severe.
Accordingly, there is a need for an arrangement that provides sufficient filtering for use in metropolitan area WDM communication systems without increasing the dispersion by an undue amount.

Bidirectional WDM transmission system having transmission format for reducing adverse effects of filter concatonation


A method and an apparatus in a computer system for connecting buses with different clock frequencies are provided. The method comprises receiving a request transmitted from a master to a slave. If the clock frequency of the master is lower than that of the slave such that the slave sees more requests than the master does, redundant cycles of the request signal are masked lest the slave repeatedly receive the request. The request is then transferred to the slave. If the clock frequency of the master is higher than that of the slave such that the slave cannot receive the request in time, then the request signal is lengthened so that the request signal is synchronized with the clock cycles of the slave. The output data responded from the slave is then transferred to the master.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for connecting buses of a computer system, and more particularly to a method and an apparatus for connecting buses with different clock frequencies.
2. Description of the Related Art
In computer systems, buses are very important devices. With buses, the essential components of computer systems, such as central processing units (CPU), memories and peripheral devices, are able to communicate with each other. Devices connected to buses include master devices and slave devices. Master devices, such as CPU, transmit requests. Slave devices, like peripheral devices, execute requests. The function of buses is to transfer requests and responses of requests.
Buses are shared by all devices so they tend to become the bottleneck during data transmission. Only one master can use the bus at one time. The other masters can only transmit requests after the execution of the previous request is completed. Accordingly, one solution is to put multiple buses in the system such that requests transmitted from masters connected to different buses can be simultaneously and individually executed on different buses. For example, the advanced high-performance system bus (AHB) proposed by ARM Corp. is one such solution.
These buses must be able to communicate to each other, which is made possible by a transfer matrix in the multi-layer AHB. A transfer matrix is a conversion interface among buses, in which a master of a bus can use a slave of another bus without affecting the operation of other buses.
The specifications of the multi-layer AHB, however, do not mention the issue about buses with different clock frequencies. Therefore, the question of how the transfer matrix connects buses with different clock frequencies is still not answered.
U.S. Patent Publication No. 20020162043 provides a structure for connecting an AHB and an advanced peripheral bus (APB) in the advanced microcontroller bus architecture (AMBA). In the structure, a master of the high-speed AHB can use a slave of the low-speed APB. The structure, however, cannot handle the situation where the slave is connected to high-speed buses. In addition, the structure can only be used in a two-bus system, but not in a system with more than two buses.
Accordingly, a more flexible solution is required to connect at least three buses with different clock frequencies and overcome the disadvantages of the prior art.

Method and apparatus for connecting buses with different clock frequencies by masking or lengthening a clock cycle of a request signal in accordance with the different clock frequencies of the buses


An active matrix reflective type liquid crystal display is provided which is obtained by an easy alignment of the respective layers of the display, and the use of small TFTs and a reduced number of manufacturing steps. Each TFT comprises a drain electrode which comprises an area where a scanning conductor and a signal conductor concerned intersect, a source electrode which comprises an area where a short-circuiting conductor concerned parallel to the signal conductor and the associated scanning conductor concerned intersect, a gate electrode which comprises an area provided between the drain and source electrodes concerned on the scanning conductor and a reflective electrode concerned provided at an end of the short-circuiting conductor concerned.

The present invention relates to liquid crystal displays and more particularly to an active matrix reflective type liquid crystal display.
An active matrix reflective type liquid crystal display is provided with reflective electrodes controlled by thin film transistors (TFTs), an opposing common electrode and a liquid crystal disposed between those electrodes to change the optical transmission state of the liquid crystal layer with a voltage applied across both the electrodes to control the strengths of the light reflected by the reflective electrodes for displaying purposes.
The reflective type liquid crystal display uses TFTs used in a regular active matrix transmission type liquid crystal display disclosed in "Society for Information Display 83 Digest 1983", pp. 146-147.
In this conventional reflective type liquid crystal display using TFTs, the alignment of the gate electrodes of the TFTs and the intrinsic semiconductor films and the alignment of the intrinsic semiconductor films and the drain and source electrodes are required. The alignment involves errors, so that the designed dimensions of the respective elements concerned have predetermined dimensional margins in consideration of the errors. Thus, there is the problem that the size of the TFTs is large. The number of process steps required is large and a considerable time is required for the alignment of the respective layers concerned.

Reflective type liquid crystal display with reversely staggered TFT structures


A thermoplastic polyester resin composition characterized by comprising. 30-70% by weight of a polyester resin (A) constituted mainly of a polyalkylene terephthalate, PA1 5-35% by weight of a graft polymer (B) obtained by graft-polymerizing at least one selected from the group consisting of an aromatic vinyl monomer and a methacrylate monomer in the presence of a rubbery polymer, and PA1 10-45% by weight of a polyphenylene ether resin (C) and PA1 resulting from blending these polymers so that the content of said polyester resin (A) may be higher than that of said polyphenylene ether resin (C).

Thermoplastic polyesters, e.g. polyalkylene terephthalates, have superior moldability, mechanical properties, heat stability, weather resistance, and electrical insulating properties, hence being used in extensive areas including those of electrical or electronic parts, automotive parts, etc. However, the application of thermoplastic polyesters are considerably restricted because of the low stiffness at elevated temperatures and the low impact resistance, particularly the inferior notched impact strength.
For instance, it has been investigated to make the most of superior mechanical and thermal properties of thermoplastic polyester resins in order to use them as materials for exterior panels of automobiles for on-line coating production, but such use has not been realized up to now on account of the insufficiency in stiffness at elevated temperatures and in impact resistance. In corporation of glass fiber, carbon fiber, wollastonite, or the like into thermoplastic polyester resins improves the high-temperature stiffness but has the drawback of lowering further the impact resistance and deteriorating the surface appearance. Blending of thermoplastic polyester resins with a rubber-reinforced resin improves the impact resistance but lowers the heat resistance represented by the high-temperature elastic modulus or the like; hence such blends are unfit for the on-line coating. In addition, since their linear expansion coefficients are large and their molded articles may show notable sink marks at the rib or boss portions, the blends cannot be applied as materials for exterior panels of automobiles. That's the present situations.
On the other hand, Japanese Patent Publication No. 51-21664 discloses that polyethylene terephthalate or polybutylene terephthalate is blended with a polyphenylene ether resin with the object of improving the moldability and processability thereof. However, this blending does not provide products much satisfactory in impact resistance.


Metal-oxide composite particles are used as a toner additive.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the use of metal oxide-polymer composite particles as external additives for electrophotographic toner.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electrophotographic image formation comprises uniform charging of the surface of a photoreceptor drum or belt; exposure of the photoreceptor surface to light and formation on the photoreceptor surface of a charge pattern, i.e., a latent image, that mirrors the information to be transferred into a real image; developing the latent image with electrostatically charged toner particles comprising a colorant dispersed in a binder resin; transferring the developed toner onto a substrate, e.g. paper; fusing the image onto a substrate; and preparing the photoreceptor surface for the next cycle by erasing the residual electrostatic charges and cleaning the remaining toner particles.
Toners for use in electrophotography and electrostatic printing include a binder resin and a colorant, and may further include a charge control agent, an offset-preventing agent, and other additives. External toner additives such as metal oxide particles are often combined with toner particles in order to improve selected properties of the toner particles, including fluidity, transferability, fixability, and cleaning properties. A variety of external additives may be used in a single toner composition to enhance different properties of the toner. For example, some additives may be selected to improve chargeability, i.e., tribocharge. Others may be selected to improve cleaning performance or humidity resistance. Of course, it is preferable that a toner additive optimized for one function is not detrimental to the functions imparted by the various additives.
One function imparted by the toner additives is spacing and maintenance of fluidity. If the toner particles adhere to one another, they will not flow as well; additives serve to reduce the cohesion of the toner powder. The additive particles tend to be hard. The toner, on the other hand, is formed from softer polymers and is a coherent powder. The resulting agglomeration of toner particles is detrimental to both the operation of the electrophotography apparatus and to the print quality. Indeed, as manufacturers have sought to reduce the energy required to produce a printed page, they have turned to softer polymers (i.e., lower Tg polymers) to reduce the amount of heat required to fuse the toner to a substrate. However, the hard additive particles can become embedded in the soft toner particles, reducing the effectiveness of the additive. Increasing the size of the additive particle reduces embedding; however, the larger particles are also heavier and exhibit a higher rate of drop-off from the toner particle. Of course, additive particles that drop off the toner cannot serve their function as part of the toner composition. Thus, it is desirable to have a toner additive that serves as a spacer between toner particles that both exhibits limited embedding in the toner particles and limited drop-off without adverse impact on the tribocharge characteristics of the toner.

Toner additives comprising composite particles


A method of controlling a delay locked loop (DLL) in a memory device is provided. The DLL generates an internal clock signal based on an external clock signal. The DLL constantly responds to variations in operating condition of the memory device to keep the external and internal clock synchronized. The method involves preventing the DLL from responding to a change in operating condition such as a change in the supply voltage of the memory device during an operational mode of the memory device such as an active mode, a read mode, or a refresh mode.

Delay locked loops (DLLs) are often used in integrated circuits (ICs) to generate an internal clock signal. In a typical DLL, the internal clock signal is generated by applying an amount of delay to a system clock or an external clock signal. The DLL tracks the external and internal clock signals with a detect operation and adjusts the amount of delay with a shifting operation to keep the internal and external clock signals synchronized.
In some integrated circuit devices, such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM) devices, the internal clock signal generated by the DLL is normally used as a timing signal for certain operations of the memory device. For example, in some memory devices, the internal clock signal can be used as a clock signal to provide timing for data transfer to and from the memory device.
A traditional memory device has a number of memory cells for storing data. To store data into the memory cells, a WRITE operation is performed. To retrieve the stored data, a READ operation is performed. Typically, a WRITE or READ operation includes two separate modes, an ACTIVE mode followed by a WRITE or READ mode. In the ACTIVE mode, the memory device activates a so-called ACTIVE command signal to "open" or activate the memory cells in preparation for a subsequent WRITE or READ mode. Following the ACTIVE mode, if it is a READ operation, the memory device activates a so-called READ command signal to access the activated memory cells to read the stored data in the memory cells.
Typically, activating the memory cells during the ACTIVE mode or accessing the memory cells during the READ mode demands a higher than normal amount of current which causes the internal supply voltage of the memory device to drop. The drop in the internal supply voltage changes the voltage supplied to the DLL. The change in the voltage supplied to the DLL causes a change in the amount of delay applied to the external clock signal. The change in the amount of delay causes the external and internal clock signals to be out of synchronism. When the external and internal signals are out of synchronism, the DLL performs a shifting operation to adjust the amount of delay to compensate for the drop in voltage during the ACTIVE mode to eventually put the external and internal clock signals back to synchronism.
Although the external and internal clock signal are eventually synchronized after the ACTIVE mode, the shifting operation during the ACTIVE mode may put the DLL in an unknown condition, which may change the timing for the data transfer of the memory device and move the data output timing out of the specification requirement. This change in the timing may not provide satisfactory level of accuracy for the data transfer of the memory device especially for new generations of high speed memory devices.
For the reasons stated above, and for other reasons stated below which will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading and understanding the present specification, there is a need for a method to control a DLL in an integrated circuit device such as a memory device during an ACTIVE or memory operational mode such as the ACTIVE or READ mode.

Controller for delay locked loop circuits


A marking apparatus including a traveling wave grid toner transport circuit structure for transporting powdered toner along a transport surface, and electromechanical elements for selectively enabling toner patches to be projected to an output medium by a projecting electric field.

The subject disclosure is generally directed to a direct marking apparatus, such as a printer or other hardcopy apparatus, that uses powdered toner as a marking component.
Conventional marking apparatus that use powdered toner as a marking component commonly employ electrostatographic techniques wherein an electrostatic latent image is lightwise formed on a photoconductive imaging surface and then developed by deposition of suitably electrically charged powdered toner on the photoconductive imaging surface. The developed image is transferred to an output medium (e.g., paper or other substrate), for example via a suitable transfer member such as a transfer belt or roll. After the transfer of the developed image to the output medium, the developed image is fixed, for example by application of pressure and/or heat.
Known powdered toner marking apparatus can be complex.


Methods and systems for generating spherical game videos for virtual reality (VR) streaming and replay are disclosed. The method, when executed by a processor, comprises first recording game environment around a virtual camera array inserted into a source computer game that lacks spherical video output, using a first subset of virtual cameras within the virtual camera array. Next, receiving game metadata of a source game play of the source game, configuring a local game play according to the received game metadata, recording a video of the local game play using a second subset of virtual cameras, wherein the second subset of virtual cameras is not equal to the first subset of virtual cameras, and generating a spherical video from the recorded game environment and the recorded local game play. The present invention aids the mass adoption of VR technology by easily generating VR content from existing computer games.

The statements in this section may serve as a background to help understand the invention and its application and uses, but may not constitute prior art.
Modern computing technology have brought in a new era of immersive experiences with virtual reality. Whether playing a video game or watching a sports event, immersion enhances the experience by making it more realistic, engaging, and interactive, with images, sounds, and haptic feedbacks that simulate the user's presence in a virtual three-dimensional (3D) environment. Virtual reality has seen uses in applications such as gaming, movies and television, architecture, and telepresence, yet ground-up development of virtual reality content for mass mainstream adoption is still non-trivial and expensive. Within the gaming universe, converting existing video games and eSport platforms into their VR counterparts is equally challenging, as traditional controls and user interfaces often do not work well in VR, while simulation sickness and latency also need to be taken into account. Moreover, 360-degree rendering and recording of an existing 3D game is generally too resource intensive for low-end platforms or user devices, where rendering, compressing, and streaming of VR videos necessitate high processing power, careful memory management, and bandwidth optimization. Moreover, production-ready offline rendering systems can produce 360 stereoscopic panorama videos for game replay in a VR environment, but such systems are generally incapable of real-time live game play capture and streaming.
Therefore, in view of the aforementioned difficulties, there is an unsolved need to make it easy to capture and record real-time live game plays of existing video games, and stream, replay or even live-play in a virtual reality environment.
It is against this background that various embodiments of the present invention were developed.

Methods and systems for virtual reality streaming and replay of computer video games


A suctioning and pumping toy for malleable play materials includes a hollow cylinder having a closed end supporting a nozzle. A piston rod is received within the hollow cylinder and supports a resilient piston. A transversely extending cylindrical barrel housing is supported upon the cylindrical member and defines an interior cavity for receiving a plurality of play articles. A plurality of interrelated toy figures and play articles are variously configured to be utilized in combination with the suctioning and pumping toy together with a malleable play material having viscosity properties which permit the play material to be suctioned into and pumped from the cylindrical bore of the pumping and suctioning toy as the piston rod is moved by the user.

Many toys have been provided through the years for use in combination with malleable materials such as clay, modeling plastic or the like. For example, toy manufacturers have provided various modeling material extruders, molders and sculpting toys. Often, such toys are used in combination with supporting figures. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,738,647 issued to Renger, et al. sets forth an ACTIVITY TOY FOR FORMING AND DISSOLVING A FIGURE TOY in which a toy monster figure is formed by shaping a plastic molding material mixed with sodium bicarbonate powder around a toy skeleton. A vertically extending clear reservoir of diluted citric acid solution is provided and, in the normal play pattern, the molded figure is immersed into the dilute citric acid bath and the bicarbonate material is removed to reveal the underlying skeleton.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,623,319 issued to Zaruba, et al. sets forth a FIGURE INCLUDING EXTRUSION MEANS ACTIVATED BY FIGURE APPENDAGES in which a toy figure includes an interior reservoir within which a molded malleable material is received An extruder piston is movable within the interior to force the malleable material outwardly through apertures provided in the figure's exterior as one or more appendages are moved.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,518,367 issued to Zaruba, et al. sets forth a FIGURE INCLUDING MEANS FOR EXTRUDING PLASTIC SUBSTANCE generally similar to the above-described '319 patent and providing similar malleable material extrusion.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,236,347 issued to Fauls sets forth a FLEXIBLE DOLL CLOSURE AND HEAD MOUNTING formed having a molded elastic outer skin and defining an interior cavity filled with a viscous liquid filler. A separate molded head is removably attachable to the figure to permit filling of the figure interior with the viscous material.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,169,336 issued to Kuhn sets forth a STRETCHABLE FIGURE EXHIBITING SLOW RECOVERY HAVING A SKIN OF ELASTIC FILM MATERIAL AND A HOLLOW INTERIOR FILLED WITH A HIGH VISCOSITY MATERIAL.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,323,522 issued to Journette sets forth a FLAT DOLL having an improved matter of affixing hair to the doll.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,0711,225 issued to Buttigieg sets forth a TAPE MEASURE having a fanciful hollow head structure such as a clown head defining a mouth aperture. A simulated tongue extends through the mouth aperture from the head interior. A flexible tape measure reel is supported within the head and is coupled at one end to the tongue allowing the tape measure to be drawn outwardly through the figure's mouth.
Practitioners in the various arts have, in addition, provided a variety of hand operated pumps and similar apparatus. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,287,819 issued to Emerit and entitled SOURCE OF VACUUM AND DEVICE FOR MAINTAINING A NEGATIVE PRESSURE IN AN ENCLOSURE U.S. Pat. No. 3,965,608 issued to Schuman and entitled MANUALLY OPERATED SUCTION DEVICE FOR CAPTURING SMALL OBJECTS and U.S. Pat. No. 2,620,114 issued to Graham and entitled FILLING DEVICE FOR GREASE GUNS all set forth similar structures for drawing or suctioning various materials varying from an air volume to high viscosity materials such as lubricating grease. In addition, U.S. Pat. No. 4,583,925 issued to Hawkins and entitled SUCTION PUMP, U.S. Pat. No. 4,206,531 issued to Haeuptli and entitled SUCTION PUMP, U.S. Pat. No. 2,915,986 issued to Sisson and entitled HAND PUMP FOR LIQUIDS and U.S. Pat. No. 2,049,872 issued to Sera and entitled VACUUM PUMP all set forth various hand operated air or fluid pumps having similar structures.
While the foregoing described prior art devices have to different levels of success met the needs of manufacturers and consumers in various art areas, the demanding toy art exhibits a continuing need for evermore varied and inventive toy combinations.

Suctioning and pumping toy for malleable play materials


A method and an apparatus for applying a decoration onto an object (50) use a chamber (22) that can be divided by a deformable foil (10) into a first space (24) and a second space (26). Said foil (10) comprises a carrier film (20), a decoration layer (16), and, at least, a varnish layer (18). The first and second spaces (24, 26) are evacuated simultaneously and, thereafter, a pressure gradient is generated to press the foil (10) against the object (50) to be decorated and to transfer at least the decoration layer (16) and the varnish layer (18) onto the object (50).

A. Field of the Invention
The present invention is concerned with a method and an apparatus for applying a decoration onto an object.
The said object to be decorated may, for example, be made from a plastics material, a derived timber product, or a metal. Such objects very often need to be decorated, where the term "decoration" includes, in particular, the application of a colour layer. Such a colour decoration may be a homogeneous single colour decoration and/or a decoration comprising a picture or an ornamental pattern. In a variety of instances, e.g. in automotive industries, furniture industries, electrical appliance manufacture etc., there can be a need to apply a decoration onto an object. In the following, the present invention is described and explained in connection with decorating a housing of a mobile telephone, such housings typically being made from a plastics material.
B. Description of Related Art
It is known in the prior art to decorate objects by means of a foil that carries a sublimable dye and floats on a liquid. As used herein, the term "foil" does not necessarily imply a thin layer of metal material, but may be used to refer to a thin layer of any material, particularly plastics. The object to be decorated is pressed against the foil for decoration transfer (see, for example, EP 0 922 588 A2 and EP 0 993 874 A1 and EP 1 000 731 A1). It is also known in the prior art to use carrier films comprising so-called "release"-properties in order to transfer a decoration layer onto an object. A varnish protecting the decoration layer can be hardened by radiation or an electron beam (see, for example, EP 0 993 968 A1). The prior art also teaches the use of pressurized air flow in order to enhance the contact between a carrier film comprising a colour layer and an object to be decorated (see EP 0 993 876 A1).

Pressure based method and apparatus for applying a decoration onto an object


An adapter of the invention for fitting an NMR sample tube having an outside diameter into an NMR spectrometer sample tube holder designed for a larger outside diameter sample tube includes a one-piece elongate cylinder having an upper portion and a lower portion. The lower portion has an outside diameter sized to fit within a preselected size NMR spectrometer sample tube holder. The cylinder has a hollow bore axially extending through the upper portion and the lower portion, the hollow bore having a preselected inside diameter sized to accept an NMR sample tube smaller than the preselected size NMR spectrometer sample tube holder.

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is a widely used technique in physical and biological science for structural analysis of compounds. Generally, an aliquot of solution in an elongate precision-made sample tube is placed in a sample chamber located between poles of a powerful magnet and subjected to radio frequency exitation. The sample tube is customarily axially rotated to average out the magnetic field and radio frequency exitation.
Sample tubes for the instrument are generally made of glass and are available in a plurality of diameters generally ranging from about 1 mm to about 10 mm in diameter with lengths ranging from about 100 mm to about 8 inches. The most widely used tubes are about 5 mm in diameter and about 7-8 inches long. In use, the tubes are placed in a tube holder that is specifically designed to fit a particular manufacturer's instrument. The tube holder is a precision-made air turbine that spins the sample during the determination of the spectrum.
Since the tubes are elongate and spun during the determination of the spectrum, it is important that the tubes are substantially straight and are substantially coaxial with the tube holder. If the tubes are not substantially straight and coaxial with the tube holder, when the tubes are spun, there will be substantial "run-out" of the bottom portion of the tube that is between the excitation coils and the poles of the magnet. This run-out will degrade the resolution of the spectrum and is very undesirable.
Instrumentation manufacturers supply tube holders to fit specific size tubes. These tube holders, since they are precision-made air turbines, are costly and most users only inventory tube holders for the most commonly used size tubes. In many instances, researchers may only have small amounts of a compound available for testing. In these cases, the standard 5 mm/8 inch tube does not provide a satisfactory vessel for evaluation of these small amounts. As a result, tube manufacturers have developed several sample tubes and adapters to enable use of smaller diameter/low volume samples in standard sample holders.
Examples of these currently available specialized tubes and adapters are illustrated in FIGS. 4 and 5. FIG. 4 illustrates one approach wherein a larger diameter tube upper portion is axially joined to a smaller diameter lower portion that is placed in a standard tube holder so that the smaller diameter lower portion is positioned in the required position between the poles of the magnet. There are several difficulties with this type of tube. Joining the smaller diameter portion to the larger diameter portion requires precision glass blowing, and as a result, tubes of this type are expensive, difficult to clean and fragile.
FIG. 5 illustrates another approach to the problem. In this approach, a smaller diameter inner tube is positioned within a larger diameter outer tube by fitting an upper and lower adapter kit over the inner tube and placing the smaller diameter inner tube having the adapters thereon within the outer tube. While this approach is workable, fitting the adapters over the tube and correctly placing the smaller tube within the outer tube is tricky. It is easy to snap or misalign the small diameter tube during the fitment or removal of the adapter pieces, fitment or removal of the smaller tube from the larger tube and, additionally, these small pieces may easily be lost, subjected to dimensional changes and contamination.
Another approach offered by one instrument manufacturer utilizes a proprietary sample holder and clamping devices for their specific instruments. However, this device is usable only with spectrometers of that manufacturer, and, additionally, is not compatible with standard tubes or tube caps. There are reports from the field of incomplete sealing of tubes in this device because of tubes not being square or being chipped at the top resulting in loss of solvent during the determination of the spectrum.
Accordingly, there is still a need for a more universally applicable and simple to use adapter for allowing the use of smaller diameter tubes in an NMR sample holder designed for larger diameter sample tubes. Such an adapter is disclosed hereinbelow.


The invention provides a) a method for making improved ionic halide salts, e.g., 1-methyl-4-amino-1,2,4-triazolium iodide and b) a method for making energetic ionic salts, e.g., 1-methyl-4-amino-1,2,4-triazolium nitrate, in high yield and purity from triazolium precursors. Also provided are the resulting novel salts from the above methods.

Prominent in the field of monopropellants in hydrazine, a highly toxic material, for which a replacement is being sought. Hydrazine's largest inherent drawback, is its considerable vapor pressure at ambient temperature of approximately 12-14 torr, which leads to a high vapor toxicity. This results in high handling and transfer costs in its use in satellite control devices. A current branch of research of the USAF, is the synthesis and use of new low melting energetic salts either alone or as mixtures with other well-known energetic materials, as new monopropellant materials. These salts offer several inherent advantages over materials such as hydrazine and high concentration hydrogen peroxide, including negligible vapor pressure and significantly improved densities. These properties should make these new materials very appealing to space missions for both government and private interests.
The search for new energetic materials having applications as monopropellant ingredients and/or new fuels is an ongoing research endeavor. Much effort has been applied to find new low melting salts having many inherent advantages over neutral materials such as hydrazine. These advantages include negligible vapor pressure at working conditions as well as much improved densities, usually on the order of 50% or greater. These advantages become apparent in the handling, storage, and lifetime of the device employing the propellant material.
Ionic liquids are known and discussed in two recent patent applications, U.S. Patent Application Publication #2002/0015883 entitled "Ionic liquids" by Hilarius et al, dated Feb. 7, 2002 and Schmidt et al, U.S. Patent Application Publication #2002/0015884 entitled "Ionic liquids II", dated Feb. 7, 2002. However, none of these references have the newly claimed ionic liquid salts of the present invention as disclosed below nor do they make claims for new energetic materials or new fuels for their systems.
Accordingly, there is need and market for energetic materials of minimized vapor toxicity that overcome the above prior art shortcomings.
There has now been discovered energetic compositions of low vapor toxicity with enhanced stability and performance and method for making same.


An image forming apparatus includes a recording sheet transporting member which has an inappropriate portion not suitable for forming an image and which transports a recording sheet while holding the recording sheet thereon, the recording sheet transporting member being endless, and a recording sheet feeding member which feeds the recording sheet to the recording sheet transporting member. The image forming apparatus further includes a controller. The controller controls at least one of the recording sheet transporting member and the recording sheet feeding member in accordance with data regarding a characteristic of the recording sheet so that the recording sheet is fed to the recording sheet transporting member so as not to be located on the inappropriate portion in a case where the image forming apparatus is in a first mode, and so that the recording sheet is fed to the recording sheet transporting member regardless of the inappropriate portion in a case where the image forming apparatus is in a second mode.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, for example, an electrophotography type, an electrostatic recording type image forming apparatus, or the like, and more particularly, to a color image forming apparatus such as a color copying machine, a color printer, or a similar apparatus, wherein a plurality of image forming members are provided to form a plurality of images, each different in color, on respective image storing members, and then these images are transferred, one on another, in turn, on the same recording sheet, held and transported by a recording sheet transporting member.
2. Description of the Related Art
In an image forming apparatus which includes an endless transporting belt having a seam and which transfers an image to a recording sheet held on the transporting belt from a photosensitive drum, if image transferring is performed when the recording sheet is located on the seam, a portion of the image may not be transferred on the recording sheet, resulting in a poor image.
In order to solve the problem, there has been proposed an image forming apparatus (for example, Japanese Unexamined Laid-open Patent Publication No. H5(1993)-2347) with a seam detector provided to detect the seam of the transporting belt. Based on the seam position detected by the seam detector and the size of the recording sheet, the feeding of the recording sheet to the transporting belt is controlled so that the recording sheet is not located on the seam.
However, in the above-mentioned conventional image forming apparatus, the recording sheet is always fed so as not to be located on the seam regardless of the type of the recording sheet. Accordingly, even relatively thick recording sheets such as an OHP film or a cardboard, which are seldom affected by the seam, are always fed on the transporting belt so as to always avoid the seam, which results in a decreased productivity for the whole apparatus.

Image forming apparatus which controls the image forming operation on the basis of the recording sheet


A one-piece, resilient, stackable hanger, which is preferably substantially U-shaped, adapted to attach a cable to a substantially flat surface defining an aperture. The hanger supports cable in a straddling relationship when snapped into an aperture of a supporting structure or another complementary hanger. The hanger has spaced-apart legs extending from the center portion. The center portion has two coplanar areas to provide a base for second hanger being stacked on the first hanger. The center portion has a mounting aperture in a recessed area, which is between the two adjacent coplanar areas, wherein the mounting aperture is adapted to allow a second hanger to be secured and stacked on the first hanger. The stackable hanger can straddle a cable and be easily installed by hand by squeezing, inserting, and snapping into an aperture to support the cable.

The present invention relates to a one-piece, resilient, stackable hanger adapted to secure cable to substantially flat supporting structures that define an aperture, such as a cross bar of an antenna tower, or another stackable hanger. The stackable hanger can straddle a cable and be easily installed by hand by squeezing, inserting, and snapping into an aperture to support the cable.
Hangers are known to attach cable or waveguides to a supporting structure, such as antenna systems and towers. Numerous hangers hold cable to supporting structures and are removably mounted in apertures, which are typically 0.75 inch. Hangers have been developed from one piece to ease installation with only one hand. Great advantages are derived from avoiding mounting hardware and tools. Prior one-piece hangers can be installed by hand and do not require additional hardware.
One type of hanger that can be attached to an antenna tower is shown in expired U.S. Pat. No. 4,763,132, which is incorporated herein by reference. The one-piece hanger is a resiliently yieldable U-shaped clip including two spaced-apart legs adapted to straddle an elliptical waveguide and snap into a hole of a supporting structure. Beverly Manufacturing Company also sold a hanger that was similar to this hanger, but was more rounded (rather than elliptical), had additional teeth and a small hole in the bridge to ease flexing. This unstackable hanger is shown in FIG. 3 of this disclosure as the uppermost hanger. Another hanger is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,443,402 that is not stackable, and the hanger has a slot that defines a torsion spring. All of these disclosures include similar legs and feet with detents that are similar to the preferred embodiment of the present invention. However, the center portions between the spaced-apart legs are distinct.
One of the shortcomings with certain hangers is that they cannot be readily used with multiple runs of cable. Often, it is advantageous to run multiple cables up a tower. Other cable hangers and systems were made for multiple runs of cable.
An early solution was a cluster mounting system shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,813,639. This generally is a band or strip whose ends are brought together wherein individual hangers are mounted side-by-side in apertures in the strip. Another solution was to make hangers stackable.
One set of related patents include U.S. Pat. No. 6,161,804; U.S. Pat. No. 6,354,543; and Patent Application Publication U.S. 2002/0005463A1 that show transmission line hangers. U.S. Pat. No. 6,161,804 discloses a transmission line hanger, but does not disclose a stackable embodiment. U.S. Pat. No. 6,354,543 shows a stackable embodiment with a lip on part of the aperture on an otherwise substantially flat mounting section. U.S. Patent Application Publication U.S. 2002/0005463A1 is a continuation-in-part of the application that issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,354,543, which are both incorporated herein by reference. FIGS. 14 and 15 of the published application show a circular mounting hole and a lip surrounding the entire mounting hole on an otherwise substantially flat mounting section. This may disclose the closest prior art, but the mounting section and aperture are distinct from the present invention.
Other prior art devices are complicated and cumbersome and are inconvenient, awkward, and difficult to manufacture, handle and operate.
An object of this invention is to minimize the time and labor required to hang cable, especially multiple runs of cable. It has therefore been found beneficial to produce a one-piece hanger that can be easily and quickly used with only one hand. Also, it is significant to add additional hangers with cable to existing stackable hangers.
Moreover, it would be significant in the industry to provide a stackable hanger that provides a sturdy base for other hangers that are stacked on the first hanger. The present stackable hanger provides both coplanar bases and a recessed area between the coplanar bases to provide additional structural support and resistance to the stress of having a second hanger stacked on the first hanger.
These and other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description, the accompanying drawings and the appended claims.


A large turbine blade having a large amount of taper and twist, the blade having a internal cooling circuit that includes an axial flow serpentine flow passage in the lower span and a plurality of radial flow channels in the upper span such that the cooling air flow is always passing toward the blade tip. During blade rotation, the cooling air is forced upward and the pressure increases from the centrifugal force to allow for a lower cooling air supply pressure. The axial flow serpentine flow passage includes a series of forward and aft flowing axial channels that extend from the leading edge to the trailing edge such that the cooling air flow in a back and forth direction. The cooling air from the axial flow channels passes into the plurality of radial flow channels formed by radial extending ribs, and then out through blade tip cooling holes. The axial flow channels are formed by axial extending ribs that provide chordwise sectional strength to prevent the blade from un-twisting.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to fluid reaction surfaces, and more specifically to a large turbine airfoil with a cooling circuits.
2. Description of the Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98
In a gas turbine engine such as an industrial gas turbine engine, a turbine section includes a plurality of rotor blades that react with the hot gas flow passing through the turbine to produce mechanical work by rotating the rotor shaft. In an industrial gas turbine, four stages of rotor blades and stator vanes are used to extract the energy from the flow. As the inlet temperature to the turbine increases, the size of the fourth stage rotor blade also increases because the flow into the fourth stage has higher energy than previous lower temperature engines. These fourth stage rotor blades can be over 30 inches from platform to blade tip, and also have very large taper and twist in order to react with the flow.
With the higher gas flow temperature exposed to the fourth stage blade, internal air cooling is required in order to increase the life of the rotor blade. However, prior art methods of casting turbine blades having internal cooling circuits are not practical with these larger blades. Radial holes cannot be drilled into the large highly twisted and tapered blade because of the large amount of twist from the blade attachment to the tip. A straight hole cannot be placed within the blade. Reduction of available airfoil cross section area for drilling radial holes is a function of the blade twist. Higher airfoil twist yields a lower available cross sectional area for drilling radial cooling holes. Cooling of the large, highly twisted blade by this manufacturing process will not achieve the optimum blade cooling effectiveness. FIG. 1 shows a profile view of a Prior Art large rotor blade with radial cooling holes drilled into the blade.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide for a large turbine blade that is highly tapered and twisted with an internal cooling circuit that can be cast into the blade.
Another object of the present invention is to provide for a large turbine blade that is highly tapered and twisted with an internal cooling circuit that will give the blade a very high airfoil chordwise sectional strength to prevent airfoil un-twisting.
Another object of the present invention is to provide for a large turbine blade that is highly tapered and twisted with an internal cooling circuit that will yield a lower and more uniform blade sectional mass average temperature at lower blade span height to improve blade creep life capability.
Another object of the present invention is to provide for a large turbine blade that is highly tapered and twisted with an internal cooling circuit that will provide cooler blade leading and trailing edge corners to enhance the blade high cycle fatigue (HCF) capability.
Another object of the present invention is to provide for a large turbine blade that is highly tapered and twisted with an internal cooling circuit that will allow for the rotation of the blade to provide a centrifugal pumping effect so that a lower cooling air supply pressure is required, resulting in lower leakage flow around the blade attachment and cooler cooling air supply temperature.

Cooling circuit for a large highly twisted and tapered rotor blade


Disclosed is a device (1) for fixing an adapter (3) for an add-on piece to a condenser that is provided with deformable lamellae located between coolant conduits. Said device (1) comprises an adapter-supporting piece (2) that is provided with the adapter (3) for the add-on piece. An opposite piece (5) is also provided. The adapter-supporting piece (2) and the opposite piece (5) encompass a number of facing, wedge-shaped protrusions (11, 13). A locking arrangement (6) is embodied on the adapter-supporting piece (2) and the opposite piece (5) for connecting the adapter-supporting piece (2) and the opposite piece (5). The protrusions (11, 13) engage with the lamellae of the condenser so as to deform the same when the adapter-supporting piece (2) and the opposite piece (5) are connected, resulting in stable securing of the device (1) while the connection is formed by the locking arrangement (6).

The invention concerns a device for fixing an adapter for an add-on piece to a condenser as recited in the preamble to Claim 1.
Such a device is known from EP 0 401 500 A1. In the prior device, U-shaped side parts provided with L-shaped brackets are present as supporting piece and opposite piece, and comprise a number of facing, wedge-shaped protrusions and a locking arrangement for connecting the brackets. The side parts embrace outer edge faces of a condenser.
Known for example from U.S. Pat. No. 5,107,688 is a device for fixing an adapter for an add-on piece to coolant conduits of a condenser on the back of a refrigerator. This device engages latchingly in mutually opposite coolant conduits. However, the use of this device is limited to condensers that are round in cross section and have coolant conduits at least portions of which are exposed for latching the device.
The object of the invention is to create a device that can be fixed stably in the central region of a condenser comprising lamellae that are deformable between coolant conduits.

Device for fixing an adapter for an add-on piece to a condenser


The invention relates to minimizing ammonia poisoning of a catalyst and to a xylene isomerization process using said catalyst.

Paraxylene is commercially important because it is a precursor for polyester fibers, films, bottle plastic, and the like. A typical equilibrium mixture of xylene isomers is contains only about 22-24 wt % paraxylene. In a conventional aromatics complex, paraxylene is separated from its C8 aromatic isomers by a process including adsorptive separation or crystallization processes, to produce a paraxylene-enriched stream and a paraxylene-depleted stream ("raffinate"). The raffinate is isomerized to equilibrium and recycled for paraxylene separation.
There are a number of known commercial processes to accomplish the isomerization of raffinate to equilibrium. For instance, there is a process that takes the paraxylene-depleted xylenes stream, which also includes ethylbenzene, and de-alkylates ethylbenzene to produce benzene and ethylene, while isomerizing the xylenes to an equilibrium mixed xylene product. The ethylbenzene dealkylation and xylene isomerization reactions can be carried out in a single step or the steps can be decoupled and accomplished step-wise in a dual-bed catalyst system. For illustration of the latter process, see, for instance, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,004,855; 5,516,956; and 6,028,238.
Rhenium (Re) is used to give metal functionality to certain zeolite-based high activity isomerization catalysts, such as in one or more of the aforementioned prior art. Re gives high olefin saturation activity with minimal aromatic ring saturation in the ethylbenzene dealkylation reaction in the presence of hydrogen. However, it has been discovered that during conventional start-up procedures in a xylenes isomerization process, the rhenium metal-modified catalyst readily catalyzes the ammonia synthesis reaction when nitrogen and hydrogen are present together and in contact with said catalyst, even at at relatively low temperature and pressure, as shown below:N2+3H2→2NH3
Ammonia formation occurs over the rhenium promoted xylene isomerization catalyst during the unit start-up, which includes introduction of nitrogen gas to remove oxygen and moisture, followed by the introduction of hydrogen for the purpose inter alia of reducing the metal, while at the same time increasing the temperature of the system to operational temperatures. Thus, the start-up procedure, including catalyst dry-out phase and introduction of hydrogen usually results in a relatively long period with significant nitrogen concentration in hydrogen gas at high temperature and pressure, typically above 180° C. and a pressure above 0.5 MPa. These gases are recycled in typical isomerization systems. In several commercial applications using this catalyst, ammonia was detected in the recycle gas during the catalyst dry-out phase. While ammonia production from hydrogen and nitrogen is per se is generally highly desirable, in the context of zeolite-based xylene isomerization it is not, as ammonia is a poison for the acid sites of the zeolite-based catalyst. Extended exposure results in potentially severe loss of catalyst activity. Since the rhenium promoter inherently provides high activity for ammonia synthesis, it is desirable to minimize the exposure of the rhenium-promoted zeolite xylene isomerization catalyst to ammonia in order to maintain its high performance characteristics.
The present inventors have surprisingly discovered a procedure that decreases the amount of ammonia produced during the catalyst dry-out phase and introduction of hydrogen and minimizes catalyst poisoning by ammonia.


A process for preparing a toner includes mixing a polymeric resin emulsion, a colorant dispersion, and a wax to form a mixture; optionally adding a coagulant to the mixture; heating the mixture at a temperature below a glass transition temperature of the polymeric resin to aggregate the polymeric resin, colorant, and wax, to form aggregated particles; adding a coalescent agent to the aggregated particles; heating the aggregated particles and coalescent agent at a temperature above the glass transition temperature of the polymeric resin, to coalesce the aggregated particles to form toner particles, optionally cooling the mixture, and isolating the tone particles.

Illustrated herein in embodiments are toner processes, and more specifically, emulsion aggregation and coalescence processes. More specifically, disclosed in embodiments are methods for the preparation of toner compositions by a chemical process, such as emulsion aggregation, wherein latex particles (for example polystyrene-acrylates latexes or latexes containing crystalline or amorphous polymeric particles such as polyester or sulfonated polyester), are aggregated with a wax and a colorant. Optionally, the latex particles are aggregated in the presence of a coagulant. This is followed by adding a coalescent agent (optionally with adding a latex containing further polymeric particles), prior to a coalescence step. Thereafter, the aggregates are stabilized. This procedure is followed by coalescing or fusing the aggregates such as by heating the mixture above the resin Tg so as to provide toner size particles.
A number of advantages are associated with the toner obtained by the processes illustrated herein. For example, the processes, in embodiments, provide toner particles having improved spheridization, that is an increasingly rounder shape. Moreover, the processes, in embodiments, allow the toner composition to be provided in a shorter time, and under a lower process (coalescence) temperature.
The processes of the disclosure, in embodiments, allow toner compositions to be made faster and at lower temperature, which provides both time and cost savings. In addition, the toner particles, in embodiments, are increasingly better rounded and thus provide more uniform desired properties.

Emulsion/aggregation process using coalescent aid agents