Systems and methods for tracking electronic messages and data are provided. According to one embodiment, steps for tracking an email message, or other electronic message, may include identifying an email message for tracking, associating a linking object with the tracked message, and responsive to activation of the linking object by a receiver of the electronic message, automatically submitting information regarding the electronic message to be tracked to a designated resource. According to various embodiments, a linking object may include a Universal Resource Identifier (URI), a java script, an executable file, a visual basic script (VBS), and/or the like. In accordance with one embodiment, the linking object facilitates submission of information regarding the tracked email message to an anti-spam system by a receiver of the tracked email message.

One of the problems arising with the proliferation of Internet and email usage, as well as other means of electronic communication, is the receiving of unwanted and unsolicited bulk messages, commonly known as "spam". While similar to the problems associated with physical junk mail, the consequences can be much more severe. Spam can contain viruses or other software that disable or damage the receiver's computer or other electronic equipment. In addition, the volume of spam may represent a significant load on the traffic handling mechanisms. For example, high volumes of email spam may negatively affect both client computer networks and the Internet itself. As a result, substantial efforts have been devoted to tracking and identifying spam in order to stop the problem at its source.
Currently, anti-spam services rely heavily on user feedback to refine the algorithms used to define and mark spam. This user feedback is important in two ways. First, new spam sources can be identified before they have a chance to proliferate. Second, and potentially more important for end-users, is the identification of false positives, or messages that have been falsely identified as spam by the algorithm.
Many anti-spam services mark the message header so that the user can readily identify the message as spam once the message is received by the user. The onus is then on the user to submit a misidentified message to a designated email address using their email client program. While this process is in common usage, it suffers from several limitations.
In the context of email spam, the reliance on the user's email client means that the instructions for submitting emails can be quite extensive and can vary substantially depending on which email client is used. As a result, the user can be discouraged from submitting emails due to the steps involved. This makes it difficult to improve the rate of false positives and refine the algorithms in the anti-spam service.
Related to this complexity, the user is required to remember the correct email address to submit information about false positive messages. Furthermore, the user is required to go through the process of forwarding the message through their email client. Even in a Graphic User Interface (GUI), this process still requires selecting the spam message, marking it for forwarding, entering the address and sending the forwarded message. This process can take some time, especially if multiple messages are identified and need to be forwarded.
The user's email client can also pose a problem. There are numerous email clients in use and they can vary significantly in functions and features. In particular, some clients do not support forwarding email messages in their original form as an attachment, rather they are sent after being reformatted, such as lines broken into a fixed number of characters per line, headers removed, etc. As a result, the message received by the anti-spam system may not be in its original form. This can create difficulties for the anti-spam system and staff in analyzing the email message forwarded by the user.
Additionally, the user may not want to forward the entire email message to the anti-spam system because of privacy concerns. The user typically cannot submit the signatures of the email, as he or she is not aware of the signatures of the email that mark the email message as spam.
Finally, the user's Internet Service Provider (ISP) may not allow the user to submit spam over its network. Some ISPs drop spam in their outgoing email and if the anti-spam system is not part of their network, the message will not be sent, preventing this existing method of submitting emails from functioning.
Another method of submitting email for spam analysis requires saving the email as a file and transferring the file to the anti-spam system manually or through a file transfer mechanism, such as File Transfer Protocol (FTP). This process is even more demanding and time consuming for the user than forwarding the original message. Also, the email is transformed from one format to another as part of the process and the original content may be lost or damaged, potentially rendering it useless to the anti-spam system.
Therefore, there is a need for an anti-spam system that facilitates user submission of information and/or feedback regarding electronic messages marked as spam.

Electronic message and data tracking system


Method and system for controlling nano-scale circuitry. Specifically, the present approach employs inverse GPS-like and multihop methodologies to provide individualized control of nano-scale particulate circuitry.

Miniaturization of electronic components has been an important goal of engineers. Various products ranging from liquid crystal display (LCD) panels to inkjet print heads are evidence of their success. These products provide dazzling results while reducing the overall footprint of the product.
However, miniaturized products are often expensive because they are difficult to produce and yield is often lower then non-miniaturized version of the same product. The higher cost and lower yield have affected how miniaturized products are developed and marketed. For example, it is uncommon to find full-page inkjet print heads.
One of many criticalities involved in miniaturized products is the manner of addressing individual elements, which may be identically structured, distributed in space. There are currently only a few methods of addressing these individual elements.
The first, and arguably the oldest, method is physical addressing wherein the means of physical interaction has a limited physical extent and that means itself is relocated to the region where the desired interaction is to take place. An example of this technique includes the CRT, where the identically structured elements are the screen phosphor dots and the means of interaction is the electron beam.
A second method is matrix addressing wherein each element is connected to two electrical circuit elements (so-called "row elements" and "column elements"), so that if a single row element is connected across a voltage source to a single column element, only a single of the elements experiences a voltage drop across its pair of connections. Examples of this technique include the LCD, the inkjet print head itself, and various memory devices.
Unfortunately, the problem with both of these methods, and other similar techniques, is that they don't scale well enough to deal with the numbers of elements, which may be identically structured, to be addressed as the technologies for producing and distributing these elements have advanced. It is already the case that expenses arising from interconnect requirements (e.g., pin count) dominate the cost of producing memory chips, and the physical difficulty and complexity of implementing the matrix addressing method limits the size of the apparatus to address only a small number of logical pixels at a time, e.g., capping the useable number of inkjet nozzles on a print head at about the current number found in most printers.
Additionally, as elements, which may be identically structured, e.g., nanochips, continue to be deployed in greater numbers and in ever smaller sizes, these traditional addressing methods are simply inadequate to handle the evolution of nano-scale circuitry. In fact, these addressing methods continue to be a limitation on the deployment of nano-scale technology.
Therefore, a need exists for a method and apparatus for controlling nano-scale circuitry.

Method and apparatus for controlling nano-scale particulate circuitry


A method of securing an RFID tag to a substrate with a noncontact adhesive dispenser, the RFID tag having an electronic chip and an antenna coupled with the electronic chip. The method includes spacing an adhesive discharge outlet of the dispenser from the RFID tag, discharging a plurality of discrete amounts of adhesive through the spaced adhesive discharge outlet and onto an area defined outside of the area occupied by the electronic chip, and securing the RFID tag to the substrate with the adhesive.

RFID technology is attracting considerable attention as a complement to or even replacement for other identification methods, such as the use of barcodes. This is because RFID tags have significant range relative to a reading device and allow increased speed and unattended reading advantages. Various retailers and wholesalers now request that their vendors use RFID technology on the products that they supply in the future to allow fully automated, high speed and unattended reading of packages or products in the supply chain.
A typical RFID system includes a tag or label that is embedded with a single chip processor and an antenna. The tag is similar to barcode labels more commonly in use today, but has more capacity and ability to transmit information. These tags may be "read only" or read/write type tags. Read only tags are more like barcodes as the encoded data cannot be changed and is often only a serial number that is used to retrieve additional descriptive data, such as item type, date of manufacture, etc., from a database. Read/write tags function similar to computer disks because they can be rewritten and updated an unlimited number of times, and may offer "locked" sections that may not be altered. The RFID system further includes a radio enabling device that communicates with or interrogates the tag for purposes of reading and writing information from and/or to the chip.
Various types of tags and labels are currently available for use in different environmental conditions. Suppliers using read/write tags may comply with the new requirements of their customers at minimal cost for disruption by writing the new information to their existing pallets. Suppliers using read only tags would have to purchase new tags for each pallet, apply them and remove the old tags to ensure that the old tags would not be read by the retailer or wholesaler. In such situations, the RFID tags may be supplied on wheels or reels having siliconized carriers for the tags. Exchanging the RFID tags in this manner usually involves downtime due to manufacturing line stoppages. Also, disposal of the carriers creates additional cost due, for example, to environmental laws.
One current method of affixing RFID tags onto substrates is to apply pressure sensitive adhesive onto the RFID tag and temporarily bond these tags onto a carrier material which is stored on a reel as mentioned above. In this instance, however, the RFID tags must be highly flexible such that they may be carried on the reel without damage or debonding. Other RFID tags will lose their function when bent and, therefore, must be stacked in magazines before being affixed to a substrate.

Method of attaching RFID tags to substrates


The transmission of the present invention includes a multi-speed geartrain comprised of an input shaft, a mainshaft, and a plurality of constant-mesh gearsets arranged for selectively coupling the mainshaft to the input shaft for driven rotation at various speed ratios. The mainshaft can be selectively coupled to the power transfer arrangement for establishing two alternative power transmission routes. In particular, the range shift mechanism is provided for establishing a high-range power transmission route and a low-range power transmission route from the mainshaft to a quill shaft which, in turn, drives the interaxle differential. The torque delivered by the quill shaft is split by the interaxle differential between the front and rear drivelines to establish the full-time four-wheel high-range and low-range drive modes. Optionally, the torque transfer apparatus can be provided for controlling speed differentiation across the interaxle differential or in place of the interaxle differential for on-demand four-wheel drive operation. The torque transfer apparatus can be a speed-sensitive device or an electronically-controlled transfer clutch.

The present invention relates generally to transmissions for use in four-wheel drive vehicles. More particularly, the present invention is directed to a transmission having a multi-speed geartrain and a power transfer arrangement contained in a single gearbox.
As is known, the majority of four-wheel drive vehicles are equipped with a transfer case mounted to a multi-speed transmission for directing power to all four wheels. To accommodate different road surfaces and conditions, many transfer cases are equipped with a gear reduction unit that can be shifted by the vehicle operator for establishing high-range (i.e., direct) and low-range (i.e., reduced ratio) four-wheel drive modes. Likewise, some transfer cases are equipped with an interaxle differential for delivering drive torque to the front and rear drivelines of the four-wheel drive vehicle while permitting speed differentiation therebetween.
In an effort to minimize the overall size of the drivetrain used in four-wheel drive vehicles, it has been proposed to utilize a transmission of a transaxle-type normally used to drive the front wheels of a front wheel drive vehicle as a four-wheel drive geartrain. In particular, British Patent No. 2,035,930 to Jones et al. teaches of rotating the front wheel drivetrain (i.e., engine and transaxle) such that the transaxle outputs can be interconnected to the front and rear drivelines of the motor vehicle. While such an arrangement may provide an economical drivetrain layout for a full-time four-wheel drive vehicle, the practical applications for such an arrangement are severely limited. For instance, such an arrangement does not permit the vehicle operator to selectively shift between high and low four-wheel drive modes.
Accordingly, the need exists for a transmission which can be used in most conventional four-wheel drive applications and which permits the vehicle operator to selectively shift between the available gear ratios and drive modes.

Transmission for four-wheel drive vehicles


A bicycle component is provided comprising an elongated body consisting of structural fibers incorporated in a matrix of polymeric material and having, in an end part thereof, a seat for the mechanical coupling of the component with an element of the bicycle. Also provided in the zone between the seat and the end of the body is a continuous layer of structural fibers which surround the seat and which ensure mechanical continuity in the aforementioned zone. The central part of the component comprises at least one first layer formed of continuous structural fibers incorporated in a matrix of polymeric material and at least one second layer formed of small pieces of structural fibers incorporated in a matrix of polymeric material and arranged randomly inside the layer, such layers overlapping each other.

According to the prior art, different types of pedal cranks are known, having different shapes, materials and constructive techniques in order to achieve the object of reducing as much weight as possible and, at the same time, ensuring, if not even improving, the characteristics of strength and reliability.
The trend towards manufacturing lighter components has led to the use of composite materials, in particular those formed of sheets of plastic resin material, incorporating structural fibers that contribute considerably to the structural strength of the component.
A known solution which uses the aforementioned technique is shown in published European Patent Application No. EP 1 281 609A currently assigned to Campagnolo S.r.l., wherein the body of the component is obtained by molding a thermosetting composite material inside a mold with metal inserts therein.
A suitable composite material is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,339,490. Sheets formed of a resin matrix have differently shaped small pieces of structural fibers, of a size between 1 and 100 mm, orientated randomly into the sheet. The use of such a type of composite material for molding provides a compromise between obtaining good strength characteristics, typical of the structural fibers, and the need to keep a sufficient fluidity during molding. The size of the small pieces, allows the composite material to flow sufficiently uniformly inside the mold, creating a homogenous pedal crank body.
This molding technique, however, has some drawbacks. The molding technique used provides for arranging a predetermined amount of composite material in the central zone of the mold and, during the molding step, making such a composite material flow until the entire mold is filled, even in the end areas with the arranged metal inserts. During the molding step, the composite material flows around the metal inserts following two distinct flow paths that meet near the end of the pedal crank, completely encasing the inserts.
First, the two-pronged flow causes a disadvantageous area of discontinuity in the joint points of the two flows. Second, a disadvantage stems from the greater fluidity of the resin with respect to that of the structural fibers and due to the long route (from the center to the end of the mold), the end zones of the pedal crank have a greater percentage of resin with respect to the percentage in the rest of the pedal crank and, consequently lower strength with respect to the rest of the body. Third, a specific drawback encountered in pedal cranks obtained by molding composite material having small pieces of structural fibers is the breakage of the pedal crank in its center area. The occurrence of such a drawback is due to the fact that such a composite material with small pieces does not ensure sufficient strength in such an area of the pedal crank.
Since the ends of the pedal crank are subjected to substantial stress during pedaling, the two aforementioned drawbacks can lead to undesired breakage of the pedal crank in these areas.

Bicycle component and method for manufacturing such a component


A method for manufacturing a web of paper and paperboard, in which method a spray-coating technique is used for applying a web treatment substance to at least one surface of a moving web. The qualities of the web treatment substance are selected such that at least the droplet size and viscosity of the web treatment substance are controlled such as to make the thickness of the applied web treatment substance essentially equal in at least two randomly selected sample areas. According to the invention, the applied coating conforms with the surface contour of the base sheet. A paper manufactured using the method.

1. Field of the Invention.
The invention relates to a method for manufacturing a web of paper or paperboard using a spray-coating technique wherein the web treatment substance such as a coating is applied to the surface of a moving web by means of spraying the substance from high-pressure spray nozzles onto the web.
The invention also relates to a paper grade manufactured using the method.
2. Description of the Related Art.
Currently, application of coating to a web of paper and paperboard is carried out using a plurality of different methods. Each application method has certain characteristic features that affect the quality of the finished product and its manufacturing process. In regard to the optimal production process, the choice must be made based on the actual running speed and strength of the web. The qualities to be rendered to the finished product are determined by the end use of the product, which in practice is defined by the printing method applied to the product and the intended degree of quality to be rendered to the final printed surface. In general, good printability can be achieved by giving the web a sufficiently smooth and even surface having an extremely high brightness. These qualities can be attained by applying a sufficient number of coating layers to the web being processed and then calendering the same in the different phases of paper manufacture. Obviously, as a high number of treatment steps increase the end price of the product, it must be understood that the choice of the proper manufacturing technique is ultimately dictated by the qualities that are desired from the end product. After the suitable process for the desired end product is chosen, it is possible to select such a finishing technique that renders the optimum result in terms of production efficiency and end product quality.
One promising application method is the spray-coating technique, wherein the coating finish or other web treatment material is applied to the surface of a paper or paperboard web by means of high-pressure spray nozzles. In this method, the web treatment material is pressurized to a high pressure and then sprayed from a small-orifice spray nozzle at a high velocity onto the web. A benefit of the method is that it imposes minimal stress on the web resulting in a good runnability behavior of the spray-coating apparatuses. As it is implemented in a fully noncontacting fashion, this kind of application excels over conventional blade and film-transfer techniques by being more gentle and less stressing to the web thus facilitating a production efficiency increase of about 5% as compared with blade application. In a different point of view, this allows the web to be produced from a stock of weaker strength, which is a particular benefit in making paper from recycle fiber. Contacting application methods such as blade coating or film-transfer coating always need between the web surface and the excess-coating-doctoring element a gap that determines the thickness of the applied coat. Due to this and other factors, the final coat weight is affected by quality variations in the base sheet, among other things by its profile deviations and surface roughness. In contrast, a spray-coater applies to the web under all circumstances a coating layer of constant weight entirely unaffected by base sheet quality variations. Moreover, spray-coating can be performed to a base sheet whose moisture content is higher and, hence, whose strength is lower than what has been acceptable earlier.
The price and quantity of raw materials used in papermaking have a crucial impact on the competitiveness of paper grades produced. Herein, spray-coating allows the production of the base sheet from a cheaper stock of lower strength without essentially compromising the end product quality. Inasmuch this coating method is free from streaking that typically is a handicap of other methods by occurring during coat smoothing and metering, it also permits the use of filler-grade calcium carbonate that is cheaper than coating-grade calcium carbonate. In the spray-coating method, the penetration of web treatment substance into the base web is minimal thus leaving the pigment or size particles onto the web surface. Resultingly, web porosity can be reduced by surface sizing resulting in reduced penetration of coating agent into the web, whereby the covering effect of surface size increases.
Hence, spray-coating method can be used for producing novel grades of paper.

Method for coating a web of paper or paperboard and a coated paper grade


A tire is provided with at least one textured marking on an outer surface of a sidewall of the tire. The at least one textured marking includes crumb rubber adhered to the sidewall of the tire.

Tires typically include markings or indicia on the sidewalls. Indicia can include, for example, letters, numbers, symbols, designs etc. The indicia can help identify the manufacturer of the tire by including the manufacturer's name and/or trademark, the size of the tire, and/or other information. Often, the indicia is difficult to discern on the black background of the tire sidewall. Tire manufacturers have endeavored to increase the visibility of the indicia on the sidewall of tires using numerous techniques.
One technique for increasing the visibility of the indicia on the tire sidewall involves raising or lowering at least a portion of the indicia from the cavity line of the sidewall. This technique is typically accomplished by molding the indicia in relief on the sidewalls of a tire, thereby creating embossed or engraved indicia.
Another technique for increasing the visibility of the indicia on the tire sidewall involves the use of colored indicia. Colored indicia (normally white such as a white sidewall) set on a black tire background increases the visibility of the indicia. The use of colored indicia, however, can complicate the manufacturing process. In addition, tires with colored indicia tend to require increased maintenance from the tire owner as compared to tires without colored indicia.
Yet another technique for increasing the visibility of the indicia on the tire sidewall involves using serrations, or texture. The serrations can change the amount of light reflected or deflected from the tire sidewall. The variation in light reflection or deflection enhances the visibility of the indicia.

Tire having a textured marking and method of making same

Bridgestone Firestone North American Tire, LLC


A method of operating a furnace having a circulating fluidized bed is described. Fuel is combusted in the fluidized bed. The fluidized bed includes a dense bed portion and a lower furnace portion adjacent to the dense bed portion. Reactant is injected in the furnace to reduce the emission of at least one combustion product in the flue gas. Secondary air is injected into the furnace above the dense bed. Using this method, the amount of reactant needed to reduce the emission of the at least one combustion product is reduced.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to circulating fluidized bed boilers and, more particularly to systems and methods of operating circulating fluidized bed boilers to improved reactant utilization.
2. Description of the Related Art
The combustion of sulfur-containing carbonaceous compounds, especially coal, results in a combustion product gas containing unacceptably high levels of sulfur dioxide. Sulfur dioxide is a colorless gas, which is moderately soluble in water and aqueous liquids. It is formed primarily during the combustion of sulfur-containing fuel or waste. Once released to the atmosphere, sulfur dioxide reacts slowly to form sulfuric acid (H2SO4), inorganic sulfate compounds, and organic sulfate compounds. Atmospheric SO2 or H2SO4 results in undesirable "acid rain."
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, acid rain causes acidification of lakes and streams and contributes to damage of trees at high elevations and many sensitive forest soils. In addition, acid rain accelerates the decay of building materials and paints, including irreplaceable buildings, statues, and sculptures. Prior to falling to the earth, SO2 and NOx gases and their particulate matter derivatives, sulfates and nitrates, also contribute to visibility degradation and harm public health.
Air pollution control systems for sulfur dioxide removal generally rely on neutralization of the absorbed sulfur dioxide to an inorganic salt by alkali to prevent the sulfur from being emitted into the environment. The alkali for the reaction most frequently used include either calcitic or dolomitic limestone, slurry or dry quick and hydrated lime, and commercial and byproducts from Theodoric lime and trona magnesium hydroxide. The SO2, once absorbed by limestone, is captured in the existing particle capture equipment such as an electrostatic precipitator or baghouse.
Circulating fluidized bed boilers (CFB) utilize a fluidized bed of coal ash and limestone or similar alkali to reduce SO2 emissions. The bed may include other added particulate such as sand or refractory. Circulating fluidized bed boilers are effective at reducing SO2 and NOx emissions. A 92% reduction in SO2 emissions is typical, but can be as high as 98%. The molar ratio of Ca/S needed to achieve this reduction is designed to be approximately 2.2, which is 2.2 times the stoichiometric ratio of the reaction of calcium with sulfur. However, due to inefficient mixing, the Ca/S molar ratio often increases to 3.0 or more to achieve desired levels of SO2 capture. The higher ratio of Ca/S requires more limestone to be utilized in the process, thereby increasing operating costs. Additionally, inefficient mixing results in the formation of combustion "hotspots" that promote the formation of NOx.
Thus, there exists a need for circulating fluidized bed boiler having improved reactant utilization for reduction of undesirable combustion products, which at the same time may also reduce NOx formation.

Circulating fluidized bed boiler having improved reactant utilization


A fluid flow shut-off or control valve or device, for use within the field of irrigation, has at least one end shaped so as to allow coupling of the body with a rotatable ring nut provided with a female thread adapted to be screwed onto a corresponding male thread of a component.

The present invention refers to a fluid flow shut-off and control device, bearing an incorporated rotatable quick-connect ring nut. In other words, the invention is a valve or member which serves to control the flow of fluids in pipes, for example by interrupting said flow or allowing it only one direction, such as, for example:                butterfly valve        globe valve        diaphragm valve        plug valve        gate valve        ball valve        needle valve        control valve        check valveand still various others.


The present disclosure includes systems and techniques relating to reconfigurable optical transmitters. In some implementations, an apparatus, systems, or methods can include multiple ports to receive independent optical data signals or independent electrical signals that are converted into independent optical data signals, at least one optical pump laser, and one or more nonlinear optics elements configured and arranged to generate a phase conjugate for each of the independent optical data signals at least by combining the respective independent optical data signal with an output of the optical pump, and generate an output optical signal from the independent optical data signals at least by combining each of the independent optical data signals with its corresponding generated phase conjugate.

The present disclosure describes systems and techniques relating to reconfigurable optical transmitters.
Dramatic growth in data capacity demand in optical networks has necessitated a simultaneous increase in the data speeds of terminal transmitters. For example, state-of-the-art transceivers are capable of providing 100-Gbit/s data rates or more per channel, and these channels can employ the use of spectrally efficient higher-level modulation amplitude/phase formats as well as coherent technologies.


In general, techniques are described to dynamically redefine a preference value used during route resolution. A network device, such as a router, may implement the techniques to improve a usability aspect of the router. The router may comprise an interface card that receives messages describing one or more of a plurality of routes. The router may also include a control unit that stores data defining a policy. The policy may comprise rules by which the router determines the preference value for one of the plurality of routes. The policy dynamically redefines the preference value as two or more bit fields rather than viewing the preference value as an integer value. The control unit further sets each of the two or more bit fields of the local preference value in accordance with the policy and associates the at least one of the routes with the determined local preference value.

A computer network is a collection of interconnected computing devices that exchange data and share resources. In a packet-based network, such as the Internet, the computing devices communicate data by dividing the data into small blocks called packets. The packets are individually routed across the network from a source device to a destination device. The destination device extracts the data from the packets and assembles the data into its original form. Dividing the data into packets enables the source device to resend only those individual packets that may be lost during transmission.
One type of computer device within the computer network, referred to a router, is responsible for routing the individual packets through the computer network from the source device that originated each packet to a destination device to which the packet is destined. To route the packets, each router of the computer network may store information describing routes through the network from each source device to each destination device. The routes may comprise a plurality of "hops" through the network, with the first hop of each route identifying the source, followed by one or more intermediate hops for each route identifying intermediate devices (such as the routers), and a final hop for each route identifying the destination. The routers may implement a routing protocol, such as a Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), to exchange routes with one another and thereby learn of all routes within the computer network, which may be referred to as the network topology.
After learning of this network topology, each of the routers may resolve the network topology to select a single path by which to reach a given destination from a given source. Often, a plurality of routes may be used to reach a given destination from a source, and each of the routers may select one of these overlapping routes through a process referred to as route resolution. The routers may perform a default form of route resolution defined by the particular routing protocol implemented by each of the routers or may alternatively perform a customized form of route resolution.
To customize the route resolution process, a network administrator or other user may define policies that influence the router's selection of routes during route resolution. For example, an administrator may define policies relating to the degree of trust for the peer from which the route was learned, for instance depending on whether the origin has been validated or is unknown or invalid. As another example, the administrator may define a policy forcing routing decisions to consider whether a route originated from a customer, peer, or transit provider. As a result, the router is often forced to evaluate a rich and complex set of variables when performing route resolution to rank and select routes. While customization may enable the network administrator to tailor how the router performs route resolution, for example, to meet particular contractual business agreements or obligations, defining and maintaining these policies may further burden already overburdened network administrators.
Although policies can be quite rich in terms of how to match routes, a challenge exists in determining the preference to be assigned to the routes, since they must ultimately be ranked by the routing protocol. Moreover, many conventional routing protocols (BGP, for example) are not particularly flexible in terms of allowing arbitrary ranking according to arbitrary criteria which were not considered ab initio. Thus, policies attempting to define complex ranking of routes often end up forcing the administrator to define exhaustive enumerations for the cross-product of all states and variables under consideration. Such policies may grow quite large and become unmanageable, especially from a human factors perspective, but also in terms of machine resources.
For example, consider the following pseudo-code to define a policy that assigns a local preference value based on a number or variables V1-VN with each variable having "M" states, S1-SM:
policy { when [(V1 == S1) && (V2 == S1) && ... (VN == S1)] then local_pref = 1; when [(V1 == S2) && (V2 == S1) && ... (VN == S1)] then local_pref = 2; when [(V1 == S2) && (V2 == S2) && ... (VN == S1)] then local_pref = 3; ... when [(V1 == SM) && (V2 == SM) && ... (VN == SM)] then local_pref = N*M;} end policy;Considering the above pseudo-code used to define the policy, a number of local preference instantiations are required to be defined so as to account for each combination of variables of the states, S1-SM, of variables, V1-VN. In particular, as noted above, this example policy consists of a number of lines to define the local preference value equal to the cross product of the number of states, M, and the number of variables, N. Consequently, these types of policies may grow quite large and become unmanageable, especially from a human factors perspective, but also in terms of machine resources.

Scalable routing policy construction using dynamic redefinition of routing preference value


A tightly coupled dual 16-bit multiply-accumulate (MAC) unit for performing single-instruction/multiple-data (SIMD) operations may forward an intermediate result to another operation in a pipeline to resolve an accumulating dependency penalty. The MAC unit may also be used to perform 32-bit×32-bit operations.

Digital signal processors (DSPs) may operate as SIMD (Single-Instruction/Multiple-Data), or data parallel, processors. In SIMD operations, a single instruction is sent to a number of processing elements, which perform the same operation on different data. SIMD instructions provide for several types of standard operations including addition, subtraction, multiplication, multiply-accumulate (MAC), and a number of special instructions for performing, for example, clipping and bilinear interpolation operations.
Many DSP applications, including many speech codecs, require high performance 16-bit multiply-accumulate (MAC) operations. To achieve high performance for these 16-bit DSP applications, 64-bit SIMD instructions may be introduced. The 64-bit SIMD instructions may be used to handle media streams more efficiently and reduce register pressure and memory traffic since four 16-bit data items may be loaded into a 64-bit register at one time.
While high throughput is an important factor for achieving high performance, power consumption may also be an important consideration in designing DSPs for wireless/handheld products. Accordingly, MAC architectures which are capable of high performance with low power demands may be desirable for use in DSPs.

Multiply-accumulate (MAC) unit for single-instruction/multiple-data (SIMD) instructions


The present invention is to provide an electrical contact and a socket for electrical parts which can be produced easily, at low cost and is light in weight. The contact pin 15 comprises a first contact member 26 having a first contact portion 26d to be contacted with an IC package 12, wherein the first contact member 26 is formed into a cylindrical shape by curling an electroconductive plate, a blocking piece 26e is formed at a middle portion of the cylindrical shape by making a cut in the middle portion, and the blocking piece 26e is bent toward an inside of the cylindrical shape in such a manner that the blocking piece, in a plan view, blocks a through hole that runs vertically through the inside of the cylindrical shape.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrical contact to be electrically connected with a first electrical part such as a semiconductor device (herein after called "IC package"), etc. and to a socket for electrical parts in which the electrical contact is disposed.
2. Prior Art of the Invention
In a known art, there has been provided an electrical contact of this kind, for example, as shown in FIG. 14 (Patent Document 1: Japanese unexamined Patent Publication No. JP H10-239349 A1). This electrical contact 1 comprises a plunger 2 and a spring member 3 and is held by both an upper-side holding member 5 and a lower-side holding member 6 of the socket body 4. The electrical contact 1 is structured to make an electrical connection between a wiring board 7 and an electrical part ("IC package", not shown) which is accommodated on an upper side of the electrical contact.
More precisely, the plunger 2 has a contact portion 2a to be contacted with the electrical part at an upper end portion thereof, a flange portion 2b at a middle portion thereof for retaining the plunger, and a shaft portion 2c formed on a lower side of the flange portion 2b.
Further, the spring member 3 comprises a normally-wound portion 3a in which a wire member is retractably wound and a closely-wound portion 3b in which the wiring member is closely wound. Both wound portions are disposed continuously in the vertical direction. The shaft portion 2c of the plunger 2 is inserted into the normally-wound portion 3a. Electrical connection can be established by making contact between the spring member 3 and the plunger 2, and the closely-wound portion 3b of the spring member 3 is structured to be electrically connected with an electrode portion 7a of the wiring board 7.
In such type of contact pin, when the electrical part ("IC package") is accommodated on the upper side of the plunger 2 and then the plunger 2 is pushed down by the electrical part, the normally-wound portion 3a of the spring member 3 is compressed and thus the plunger 2 is moved downward. When this compression force acts on the contact portion 2a of the plunger 2 and the closely-wound portion 3b of the spring member 3, the contact portion 2a contacts a terminal of the electrical part and the closely-wound portion 3b contacts the electrode portion 7a of the wiring board 7 with a predetermined pressure respectively.
At this stage, the terminal of the electrical part and the electrode portion 7a of the wiring board 7 can be electrically connected, and then burn-in test, etc. of the electrical part ("IC package") are carried out.
In such known contact pin, however, the plunger 2 is formed from a rod-like pin through cutting work, so that the shape forming of such plunger is time-consuming and cost-increasing. In addition, the resulting plunger itself is heavy, being inconvenient. In particular, the cutting work for producing a crown-like shape contact portion 2a which is to be contacted with the IC package, is time-consuming.

Electrical contact and socket for electrical parts


One inventive aspect relates to an attenuated phase shift mask suitable for hyper NA lithographic processing of a device, to a method of making such a mask and to hyper NA lithographic processing using such a mask. The attenuated phase shift mask is made taking into the effect of the numerical aperture of the lithographic system on which the attenuated phase shift mask is to be used.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to methods and systems for lithographic processing of a device, e.g. in electronic device processing especially semiconductor processing. More particularly, the present invention relates to lithographic attenuated phase shift masks, methods of making them and methods of using lithographic attenuated phase shift masks.
2. Description of the Related Technology
Lithographic processing is one of the key features in the manufacturing of today's circuits and integrated components. The quality of the lithographic processing is strongly dependent on the lithographic system and the mask used. Different types of lithographic masks are known such as binary masks, like chrome on glass masks and phase shift masks, such as e.g. alternating aperture phase shift masks (AAPSM) and attenuated phase shift masks (att. PSM). As is the case for binary masks (BIM), alternating phase shift masks consist of a substrate which is transparent for the wavelength of the light used during lithographic processing. On a surface of this transparent substrate, opaque areas are formed which block the propagating of light. However, contrary to binary masks where all light transmitting areas impact the light propagation in a similar intensity and phase, transmitting areas on an alternating phase shift mask are designed to provide an approximately 180° phase difference between light propagating through these transmitting areas and through other transmitting areas on the mask while preserving the intensity of the propagated light. A feature on mask, i.e. on opaque area, is always surrounded by transmitting areas of different phase. The occurrence of the phase difference leads to destructive interference, resulting in a sharp dark image. As is the case for alternating phase shift masks, also for attenuated phase shift masks a 180° phase difference is created between light propagating through different areas on the mask. However in case of an attenuated phase shift, this phase difference is created between a transmitting area and the opaque area. To this extent the material of the opaque area of the binary and alternating phase shift masks is replaced by halftone materials, i.e. a material or stack of materials that is partially transmissive for the wavelength of the light used during lithographic processing. A part of the incident light will be absorbed by the halftone material and a part of the light will be transmitted through the halftone material. FIG. 1 illustrates the orthogonal exposure of a device (200) comprising a substrate (220) covered with a photosensitive layer (210) through an attenuated phase shift mask (100) comprising a transparent substrate (110). On a surface of this transparent substrate (110) transmissive areas (130) and absorbing areas (120) are present. The intensity and phase of the light beams (320) in the absorbing areas (120) is changed with respect to the intensity and phase of the light beams (310) in the transmissive areas (130) as indicated by the respective wave curves showing amplitude (A) as function of time (t). The amount of light propagating through these halftone areas (120) is insufficient to make the photosensitive resist in corresponding areas on the wafer developable. The occurrence of the phase difference between the light with full intensity (330), i.e. propagating through the transmissive areas, and light with reduced intensity and phase shift (340), i.e. propagating through the halftone areas, will lead to destructive interference, resulting in an improved resolution. In FIG. 1 this is illustrated by the reduced and negative amplitude of the light (340) propagating through the halftone film compared with the substantially unaffected positive amplitude of the light (330) propagating through the transmissive areas (130). Such a halftone thin film can be made from bilayer films such as chromium (Cr) and silicon-oxynitride (SiON), tantalum (Ta) and silicon dioxide (SiO2), or of a single layer of molybdenum silicon (MoSi) or molybdenum silicide (MoSi2). These halftone layers should be as thin as possible to reduce manufacturing complexity and formation of slanted profiles of the halftone features. Currently molybdenum silicon is the preferred halftone material as it only requires processing of a single layer of material to form the absorbing areas (120) providing the required attenuating and phase shift. U.S. Pat. No. 5,869,212 discloses a method for manufacturing attenuated phase shift mask.
Due to down-scaling of technology, the features on mask will have smaller dimensions. Light propagating through the mask will become more diffracted such that less light is collected by the lens system of a lithographic tool and the obtainable resolution is reduced. In order to improve the resolution of optical lithography, lithographic systems with high numerical aperture (NA) are under development. While commercially available advanced dry lithograph systems can have a NA of about 0.9 but at the expense of an exceptionally high quality lens material, wet lithographic systems are under development offering a NA of 1 or higher. Such lithographic systems are often labelled hyper NA systems. In wet lithography, better known as immersion lithography, a liquid having a refractive index greater than 1 is present between the lens system and the substrate which is to be exposed. The presence of this immersion liquid will further improve the resolution of the system as it allows light to impinge on the exposed substrate at a larger angle.
A disadvantage of using state-of-the-art attenuated phase shift mask in hyper NA lithography is that these masks do not provide printed images with the required quality for advanced technologies. With increasing numerical aperture the image contrast image in the resist reduces, as illustrated by table 1 below for state-of-the-art attenuated halftone materials on a quartz substrate. The parameter image contrast is an image metric which is defined as the ratio of the difference between the maximum and minimum intensities to the sum of the maximum and minimum intensities in an image as obtained by projection of a mask pattern on photoresist coated substrate by a lithographic system.
TABLE 1Image contrast24.5 nm Cr/21 nm Ta/in resist68 nm MoSi99.2 nm SiON144 nm SiO2NA 0.850.620.600.64NA 1.200.540.460.58
Hence there is a need to have useful att. PSM, e.g. in view of the evolution towards high numerical aperture or hyper numerical aperture lithography systems and the associated shrinkage of features sizes and pitches, which puts stronger demands on the process window of associated lithographic processes.

Method for manufacturing attenuated phase-shift masks and devices obtained therefrom


A channel management process (68) is performed by a parent base station (36) of a radio telecommunications system (20) that exchanges channel usage data with neighbor base stations (38) within its local group (34). When channel usage data indicates a channel assignment conflict, that conflict is resolved in the base station (22) having the lesser loading of the pair of conflicting base stations (22). Channel usage requests received by a base station (22) are prioritized and sequentially processed, channels (58) being assigned for inter-cell handoff requests, then intra-cell handoff requests after inter-cell handoff requests, even when that assignment creates a conflict, and then channels (58) being assigned to new call requests after handoff requests if that assignment does not create a conflict.

In cellular telecommunication systems, a communication channel is generally assigned to a call in response to a channel usage request received by a base station, whether that request is initiated by a subscriber unit, by another base station, or within the original base station itself. Desirably, the assigned channel is selected so as not to cause interference or other conflict with other channels currently in use. This is not always possible.
When a channel usage conflict arises, each base station involved in the conflict attempts to resolve the conflict expeditiously. This creates two potential problems.
First, since a conflict by definition involves two base stations, each conflicting with the other, having both base stations attempt a resolution to the conflict creates redundant resolutions, and possibly creates other conflicts in the process. Only one of any given pair of base station need attempt a resolution. When the conflict has been resolved, it has been resolved for both base stations.
Second, having all base stations or even a "random-half" of base stations attempting conflict resolutions leads to potential excessive loading for those base stations that are already heavily loaded. Excessively loading a base station may cause that base station to fail to accept handoffs, drop calls, or perform some other unacceptable action.
What is needed is a system and method in which channel usage conflicts are avoided whenever possible. Whenever a channel usage conflict cannot be avoided, one or desirably more of the following should happen: 1) the conflict should be promptly resolved; 2) only one base station in the conflicting pair of base stations should attempt to resolve the conflict; and 3) the resolving base station in a pair of conflicting base stations should be that base station with the lesser workload.

Method and system for real-time channel management in a radio telecommunications system


AbtractProvided is a detergent composition comprising the following components (a), (b) and (c): (a) an anionic surfactant, (b) a water soluble cationized polymer having a weight average molecular weight of from 100,000 to 2,000,000 and a charge density of from 0.6 to 4 meq/g, and (c) a silicone derivative having a group containing both a hydroxy group and a nitrogen atom as a side chain thereof bonded to a silicon atom. The detergent composition provides rich foaming during washing and at the same time and is capable of giving excellent conditioning effects to the hair and the like.1 1.

Although a water soluble cationized polymer has been used in hair detergents for the purpose of giving conditioning effects to the hair, it does not provide a satisfactory effect. Amino-modified silicones have been used as another material for giving excellent conditioning effects to the hair, but they do not exhibit their function sufficiently in hair detergents.

Detergent composition comprising a silicon derivative having a group containing both a hydroxy group and a nitrogen atom


A blood pump comprises a pump housing; a rotor positioned in the housing and comprising an impeller having a hydrodynamic surface for pumping blood; and a motor including a plurality of magnets carried by the impeller, plus a rotor stator, including an electrically conductive coil located adjacent to or within the housing. The impeller comprises radially outwardly extending, bladelike projections that define generally longitudinally extending spaces between the projections. The shape of the projections and the spaces therebetween tend to drive blood in the spaces in an axial direction as the impeller is rotated. The spaces collectively have a total width along most of their lengths at the radial periphery of the rotor, that is substantially equal to or less than the collective width of the projections along most of their lengths at the radial periphery. Thus, the bladelike projections are thicker, achieving significant advantages.

The known axial flow pumps for blood have the advantage of narrow width, when compared with radial flow pumps. Axial flow pumps typically have a cylindrical housing with an inlet at one end, an outlet at the opposite end, and a rotor within the housing which has impeller blades attached to the rotor. Thus, as the rotor rotates, the blades add work to the fluid, propelling the fluid through one end of the housing.
A suspension system is provided to maintain the rotor in desired position within the housing, and a motor is provided to spin the rotor. Blood flows between the blades, being propelled through the pump by hydrodynamic forces transferred by the blade surfaces.
The blood then leaves the pump, flowing parallel to the axis of rotation of the rotor. Typically in the prior art, the rotor is suspended by mechanical bearings or bushings, with a rotor shaft protruding through the pump housing to a motor drive mechanism. Magnetic suspension is also known, as in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,368,083 and 5,840,070.
Typically, axial blood flow pumps have used a thin blade design, with the motor magnets being placed either in the rotor shaft far away from the surrounding stator as in pumps by Jarvik and Incor, or they use small magnets placed within the thin blades, as in the MicroMed pump. Both of these approaches tend to reduce the motor torque capacity and efficiency, and they use mechanical rotor support involving abutting surfaces that move relative to each other in rotation.
By this invention a new utilization of wide (thick), blade-like projections on a rotor in an axial flow configuration is provided for a blood pump, to provide a pump which is mechanically wearless, and can have improved torque. Blood pumps, whether internally or externally located, must exhibit low hemolysis, good resistance to thrombosis, adequate system efficiency, and very high reliability for the expected duration of use for the device. Internally located blood pumps are also subject to anatomical compability design constraints, and the need for elimination of mechanical wear and associated failure modes in order to provide successful, long-term, implantable devices. The pump of this invention can achieve the above. Also, the pump can be sealless.
While the pump of this invention is described in terms of a blood pump, it is also contemplated that the pump might be used for pumping chemically difficult fluids, where a sealless design is highly desirable, and the fluid must be gently handled for various reasons, for example because it is unstable to mechanical stress, causing decomposition and even explosiveness, or because it is another complex, biological fluid besides blood, having critical stability parameters, like blood.


A method for producing a grating image, which has at least one grating field recognizable with the naked eye, in which are disposed grating elements, which are produced by a writing apparatus. In a first procedure step at least one grating element is determined, which completely lies within one working field. Then a sequence of working fields is defined, in which the grating elements are to be produced by the writing apparatus. Finally, the working fields are moved to by a relative movement of a carrier, on which is located a substrate to be inscribed, and the writing apparatus, and the grating elements are written into the substrate with the writing apparatus within the respective working fields.

Optically variable elements, such as holograms or diffraction grating images, due to their optical properties varying with the viewing angle are frequently used as protection from forgery or copy for documents of value, such as credit cards, bank notes or the like, but also for product securing on any product packagings. For the mass production of such security elements, usually, so-called "master structures" are produced, which have the respective phase information about the optically variable element in the form of a spatial relief structure. This, typically, is a glass substrate with a photoresist coating, in which the diffraction structure is preserved in the form of peaks and valleys. Starting out from this master structure, by duplicating and molding the relief structure embossing tools of any desired form are produced, with the help of which the diffraction structures reproduced by the relief structure can be transferred in large quantities to suitable substrates.
The master structure can represent the complete diffraction structure of a real hologram, or of a grating image composed of different diffraction gratings. The diffraction gratings differ from each other regarding the grating constant and/or the azimuth angle and/or the profile structure of the grating lines as well as the contour or the outline of the image area covered with the respective diffraction grating.
The grating constant corresponds to the distance between the grating lines and is of essential importance for the colour of the image area in the grating image recognizable when viewed from a certain viewing angle. The azimuth angle describes the inclination of the grating lines concerning a reference direction and is responsible for the visibility of these image fields viewed from certain viewing directions. The line profile generally is responsible for the intensity and plays a particular role in grating images of zero order. On the basis of this technique, therefore, optically variable images, e.g. moving images or also plastically appearing images, can be produced.
The individual diffraction gratings can be produced either holographically or by means of electron beam lithography. When holographically recording the diffraction gratings, in an appropriate substrate light beams consisting of spatially expanding, uniform wave fields are overlapped. For this purpose, usually, laser radiation is used. With electron beam lithography the diffracting grating lines are exposed directly to an appropriate substrate, the exposure operation frequently also being referred to as writing operation. For this method in general a glass plate is used as a substrate, which is coated with a layer sensitive to the respective particle radiation or light radiation ("photoresist"). When exposing, substrate and electron beam can be moved relative to each other. Here it is possible, to hold the substrate motionless and to electromagnetically deflect the electron beam. The deflection range of the electron beam lies within a range of a few tenths of a millimeter. In case of large-scale deflections, so-called "lens errors" of electron optics will disturb, that are noticeable also in the finished diffraction grating. Alternatively, the substrate can be moved by means of an x-y-table, while the electron beam is held motionless. For this purpose, however, a high-precision guiding of the table is required.
As to be able to produce grating images of the above-mentioned kind with the help of the electron beam lithography, the entire grating image is divided into a multitude of small fields of an edge length of up to some tenths of a millimeter. I.e. the grating image independent of the depicted motif is divided into individual "screen elements", which by means of the electron beam are inscribed with grating lines. Here the grating lines are written into the individual small fields via the deflection of the electron beam, while the movement from field to field is effected by shifting the table. In this way large surfaces can be inscribed. This kind of electron beam exposure in general is referred to as "stitching mode". This proceeding, however, has the disadvantage, that the image is composed of many pieces of small surfaces, which upon closer viewing are visually recognizable, coarsen the image, and lead to colour errors. In the case of larger image surfaces, such as e.g. lines, which when viewed from one viewing angle are to show a uniform colour, the surface is not provided with an appropriate, uniform diffraction grating. Instead this diffraction grating is made up of many small elements. Due to the tolerances when putting together the small surface elements, the grating lines extending across the image surface have kinks or gaps, which leads to visible errors.
In the "CPC mode" (Continuous Path Control, product of the company Leica Microsystems Ltd.), however, the electron beam is mounted stationary, while the table is moved according to the structures to be exposed. But this mode is less suitable for the production of finely structured grating images, such as for example guilloche images, or images or microwriting divided into fine lines, because these finely structured images have a predominant number of short grating lines. For that reason for each grating image a number of stop and start operations of the table has to be effected which reaches the millions. This represents a load for the table mechanism and consumes very much time.


A system for forming and attaching pillowtop attachment gussets and borders to panels, with the gusset or border material being fed from a supply into a sewing station. The gusset or border material is passed through a folder assembly that directs the gusset or border material into a sewing zone where it is attached to the panel. A ruffler mechanism engages and forms a series of ruffles in the gusset or border material as it is sewn about the corners of the panel.

In the manufacture of bedding materials such as pillow top mattresses and furniture cushions, in which an upper padded layer or layers is enclosed within a fabric panel that is attached by gusset to an accompanying pad or spring unit, the various components often are measured, cut and sewn to mattress or foundation panels in a series of separate operations performed at separate sewing stations. For example, in a pillow-top style mattress, a pillow-top is attached to a top panel of the mattress by a gusset that generally is formed from a folded band of material similar to the material from which the mattress tops are made. The gussets are often folded and sewn to the panel along the fold line of the gussets, and further generally have a flange that is attached along a lower edge portion, which flange subsequently will be stapled to a mattress frame. The upper edge portion of the gusset is then attached to the pillow top for attaching the pillow top pad to the mattress. The gusset further can have ruffles or pleats formed at its corners to allow the gusset to turn about the corners of the mattress to provide a more finished, rounded and smooth contour or appearance thereto.
Previously, the gusset forming and sewing process, including the formation of the ruffled corners thereof, typically was done manually, wherein the gusset material would be flanged and thereafter ruffled at its corners, and subsequently attached to the edges of a mattress panel. The pillow top would then be attached to the upper or free edge of the gusset. In addition to being extremely labor intensive, such manual sewing operations often require highly skilled workers and enable only limited production. Additionally, if the ruffles at the corners of the gussets were not made at the correct angles or an insufficient amount or size of ruffles were formed at the corners, the gusset corners would not have a smooth contour or appearance. Further, there was a risk that the gusset would not match the mattress panel to which it is to be sewn, thus requiring reworking or re-sewing of the gusset.
More recently, automated systems have been developed for forming and sewing attachment gussets having ruffled corners that are formed as the gussets are attached to a mattress panel. Such systems enable significant increases in production and greatly reduce the level of skill required by an operator and/or enable operators to run multiple machines at the same time, greatly improving the production of the mattress panels with ruffled gussets. One draw-back that has been seen with such equipment, however, is that when the gussets for pillowtop type mattresses are folded in half and sewn along the fold line to the mattress panel, the increased thickness in the gusset material creates problems in sewing the gusset to the mattress panel. This is especially a problem when a thick gusset material is used and doubled when folded over. In addition, for pillow-top mattresses, it is important that there be sufficient ruffles formed in the gusset to enable the bottom or lower edge portion of the gusset to be attached in a substantially flat lying arrangement with the border or base of the mattress. For extremely thick materials and for pillow-top mattresses where there is an offset between the upper and lower portions of the gusset, however, it is difficult to form a sufficient number of ruffles that are small enough to enable the lower portion of the gusset to lie flat when attached to the mattress, while at the same time enable the upper portion to have a substantially upstanding "cupped" attitude for the attachment of the pillow-top thereto.
Still further, such automated systems often have folders for directing a portion of the gusset material over the remainder of the gusset material to form the fold, as desired. Such folders are, however, typically limited to a narrow range of widths or sizes of gusset materials that can be folded thereover and further limit the extent or amount of folding, and thus the amount of offset that can be created in the gussets. As a result, it is often necessary when running different size gusset materials that the folders must be changed out, thus requiring the operators to have multiple different size folders on hand to accommodate such changes in the gusset materials. Still further, the thickness of folded gusset materials often prevents the area or region where the leading and trailing ends of the gussets overlap to lay substantially flat when finished. As a result, operators must, at times, remove lines of stitching from the ends of the gusset after sewing to the mattress panel, trim and fold back the plies of gusset material at the trailing end of the gusset, and thereafter fold or tuck the end of the trailing end of the gusset back under the leading end for sewing.
Similarly, while automated systems have been developed for measuring, cutting and forming borders for attaching to a foundation frame such as a mattress or box springs, a drawback of such systems is, however, that they generally are limited in the type and number of sewing operations that can be performed to form foundation borders. In addition, it recently has become more desirable to fashion foundation borders with mitered corners to form "Continental Foundation Borders," wherein a portion of the border will be folded over and laid flat on top of a foundation panel to which the border is attached, with the corners of the border being mitered and sewn so as to form a flat, finished and substantially even appearance with the foundation panel top. Conventional automated border sewing workstations generally are not designed to form such mitered corners. As a consequence, the mitered corners typically will be formed manually by an operator who must measure, cut and notch mitered corners in a plain foundation border to form a Continental foundation border. The border thereafter must be subjected to a subsequent, later sewing operation to attach the notched portions of the Continental foundation border to a foundation panel, which in turn must later be sewn to a foundation frame in order to form a foundation having a Continental foundation border. Such additional measuring, cutting and sewing operations further increase the time, labor and expense involved in the manufacture of such Continental foundation borders and thus the subsequent foundations or mattresses to which they are attached.
Accordingly, it can be seen that there is a need for a system and method of producing pillowtop attachment gussets and foundation borders for bedding materials having ruffled corners and which enable their ends to be closed and sewn in a flat configuration about a mattress or foundation panel, which addresses the foregoing and other related and unrelated problems in the art.

System and method of finishing ruffled gussets/borders


A transparent substrate having an antiglare surface with reduced display sparkle. The transparent substrate has a roughened antiglare surface and a diffraction element below the antiglare surface. The diffraction element reduces sparkle by filling gaps between sub-pixels in a pixelated display with orders of diffraction. A display system comprising the transparent substrate and a pixelated display is also provided.

The disclosure relates to transparent substrates and devices having antiglare properties. More particularly, the disclosure relates to transparent substrates and devices having structures that reduce sparkle in an image generated by a pixelated display.
Pixelated displays such as liquid crystal displays (LCDs) and organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) are widely used in a variety of information, communication, and entertainment devices. Such displays often include an antiglare treatment, such as a film, coating, or surface to enhance viewability of the display by reducing the specular reflection of ambient light.
Display "sparkle" or "dazzle" is a generally undesirable side effect that can occur when introducing antiglare or light scattering surfaces into a pixelated display system. Sparkle is associated with a very fine grainy appearance of the display, and the pattern of grains may appear to shift with changing viewing angle of the display. Display sparkle may be manifested as bright, dark, and/or colored spots at approximately the pixel-level size scale.

Engineered antiglare surface to reduce display sparkle


An extra security alarm system for monitoring conditions within a predetermined monitoring area and alerting persons located throughout the monitoring area, persons in the vicinity and appropriate emergency personnel of an emergency situation. The extra security alarm system includes a plurality of sensors strategically positioned throughout the monitoring area for sensing conditions within the monitoring area. Each of the sensors includes a control unit for analyzing the sensed conditions to determine if an alarm situation exists and generating a sensor signal indicative of the sensed conditions, a transmitter for transmitting the generated signal to the other sensors, a receiver for receiving sensor signals from the other sensors and an alarm for generating an alarm signal upon determining an alarm condition has been sensed by the system. A central monitoring unit is centrally positioned within the monitoring area and includes a receiver for receiving sensor signals from the sensors, a control unit for analyzing the received signals and generating an emergency signal upon determining an emergency situation exists and a transmitter for transmitting the generated emergency signal. A telephone unit for alerting emergency personnel is positioned to receive the emergency signal from the central monitoring unit and a device for alerting persons in a vicinity of the monitoring area upon receipt of said emergency signal from said central monitoring unit is positioned about a periphery of the monitoring area.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to smoke and security systems and, more specifically, to a system for monitoring a designated area for smoke, intruders and other conditions and alerting the proper authorities and persons within both the designated area and surrounding vicinity as to an emergency situation.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Numerous security systems for monitoring the conditions of an area such as within a house have been provided in the prior art. These security systems include burglar alarms, smoke alarms, motion detectors, timer devices for turning on lights and many others. However, these units are unable to perform all of the many functions needed for adequately securing an entire area from all possible dangers. These systems are further not able to alert persons in other sections of the monitored area, in the vicinity of the secured area and the appropriate authorities and emergency personnel as to a sensed emergency situation. Furthermore, these systems do not include a plurality of individual monitoring units which communicate with both each other and a central monitoring unit to fully monitor the entire monitoring area. While these systems may be suitable for the particular purpose to which they address, they would not be as suitable for the purposes of the present invention as heretofore described.
It is thus desirable to provide a security monitoring system which is able to adequately monitor an entire area and alert persons within all sections of the monitored area as to the existence of an emergency situation in another section of the monitored area. It is further desirable to produce a system which will monitor a plurality of different emergency situations and alert the proper emergency personnel as to the situation.


A commercially useful material is produced from waste gypsum boards containing calcium sulfate dihydrate, by a method comprising the steps of (a) grinding the waste gypsum boards to obtain particles having a substantially uniform size; (b) drying the particles obtained in step (a) to obtain moisture-free particles; (c) heating the moisture-free particles obtained in step (b) at a temperature of 128 to 162.degree. C. to convert the calcium sulfate dihydrate to calcium sulfate hemihydrate; (d) adding water to the particles obtained in step (c) to form a paste; (e) forming the paste obtained in step (d) into a shaped product of a predetermined size; and (f) drying the shaped product obtained in step (e) at a temperature of 105 to 120.degree. C. to obtain a commercially useful material. The materials produced by the method of the invention can be used for a variety of industrial and household purposes. Typical uses include the absorption of oil, grease and chemicals on floors and elsewhere, in animal toilet applications as a cat box absorbent, as carriers for chemicals, such as pesticides and herbicides, in various agricultural and horticultural applications. They can also be used as fillers for agricultural and horticultural applications. When admixed with an adhesive agent such as Portland cement, epoxy or polyester adhesives, they can be applied onto walls and/or floors to provide a decorative coating.

The present invention pertains to improvements in the field of waste recycling. More particularly, the invention is directed to a method of producing commercially useful materials from waste gypsum boards, such as waste GYPROC (trademark) boards.
Waste gypsum boards coming from demolition and gypsum board factories represent a serious threat to the environment as they accumulate by thousands to hundred thousands of tons in many dumping sites. They retain humidity and thus promote the formation of undesirable mildew. Degradation of the calcium sulfate contained in the waste gypsum boards under the influence of infra-red and ultraviolet radiations causes the generation of H.sub.2 S and SO.sub.2 which contaminate the environment.
Gypsum boards contain calcium sulfate dihydrate, silicon dioxide, cellulosic fibers as well as various metal oxides such as aluminum oxide, calcium oxide, ferric oxide and magnesium oxide. Calcium sulfate dihydrate is known to have liquid absorbing properties, as disclosed for example in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,163,674 and 4,264,543. However, waste gypsum boards are not suitable for use as absorbents or any other useful products such as fillers for agricultural and horticultural applications.

Production of commercially useful materials for waste gypsum boards


A vibratory pod system for a vibratory compactor includes a central bulkhead defining a first mounting orifice and a plurality of second mounting orifices. The first mounting orifice is defined at a center of the central bulkhead and the second mounting orifices are defined at a location radially outward from the first mounting orifice. The vibratory pod system includes a transfer bearing hub supporting a transfer shaft for transferring rotary motion, and the transfer bearing hub is mounted within the first mounting orifice. The vibratory pod system includes a plurality of vibratory pods, each of the vibratory pods having a pod shell for rotatably supporting an eccentric mass. Each of the vibratory pods is partially inserted through one of the plurality of second mounting orifices and mounted to the central bulkhead.

Compactors are machines used to compact initially loose materials, such as asphalt, soil, gravel, and the like, to a densified and more rigid mass or surface. For example, during construction of roadways, highways, parking lots, and the like, loose asphalt is deposited and spread over the surface to be paved. One or more compactors, which may be self-propelled machines, travel over the surface whereby the weight of the compactor compresses the asphalt to a solidified mass. The rigid, compacted asphalt has the strength to accommodate significant vehicular traffic and, in addition, provides a smooth, contoured surface that may facilitate traffic flow and direct rain and other precipitation away from the road surface. Compactors are also utilized to compact soil or recently laid concrete at construction sites and on landscaping projects to produce a densified, rigid foundation on which other structures may be built upon.
Various types of compactors are known in the art. For example, some compactors include a rotatable roller drum that may be rolled over the surface to compress the material underneath. In addition to utilizing the weight of the roller drum to provide the compressive forces that compact the material, some compactors are configured to also exert a vibratory three on the surface. As can be appreciated, the vibratory forces assist in further compacting the loose materials into a dense, uniformly rigid mass. To generate the vibratory forces, one or more weights or masses may be disposed inside the roller drum at a position off-center from the axis line around which the roller drum rotates. As the roller drum rotates, the off-center or eccentric position of the masses induce oscillatory or vibrational forces to the drum that are imparted to the surface being compacted. In some applications, the eccentrically positioned masses are arranged to rotate inside the roller drum independently of the rotation of the drum.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,213,479 discusses and shows a vibratory mechanism in which two vibratory shafts are housed within a roller drum. The two vibratory shafts are supported by and disposed between a first bulkhead and a second bulkhead of roller drum. The two vibratory shafts are driven via a drivetrain using a hydraulic motor. However, maintenance of the vibratory shafts and/or the associated drivetrain may be cumbersome and time consuming due to the location, mass, and assembly of the vibratory mechanism within the roller drum. Thus, performing even minor repairs to the vibratory mechanism could take days. This resulting down time may result in extended loss of use of the machine and increased repair labor costs.


Emulsions containing particles of an organopolysiloxane with an average particle diameter of less than about 100 nanometer are prepared by (i) adding a polyfunctional silane to an aqueous medium containing a nonionic surfactant, an anionic or cationic surfactant, and a catalyst; (ii) allowing the polyfunctional silane to hydrolyze; (iii) adding a cyclic siloxane to the aqueous medium containing the pre-hydrolyzed polyfunctional silane; (iv) copolymerizing the cyclic siloxane and the pre-hydrolyzed polyfunctional silane to form the organopolysiloxane; and (v) continuing copolymerizing step (iv) until the resulting organopolysiloxane has a viscosity greater than about 100,000,000 centipoise (mPa.multidot.s).

While U.S. Pat. No. 5,661,215 (Aug. 26, 1997) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,684,085 (Nov. 4, 1997), hereafter referred to as the '215 and '085 patents, teach a method of preparing emulsions of organopolysiloxanes by copolymerizing a cyclic siloxane and a polyfunctional silane in an aqueous medium containing a nonionic surfactant, an anionic or cationic surfactant, and a catalyst; the method according to the '215 and '085 patents is limited to emulsions containing an organopolysiloxane with a viscosity of, at most, about 5,000,000 centipoise (mPa.multidot.s). In contrast, the method of the present invention is capable of producing similar types of emulsions, but emulsions which contain an organopolysiloxane with a viscosity in excess of about 100,000,000 centipoise (mPa.multidot.s). This twenty-fold increase in the polymer viscosity is enabled and attributed to a unique modification in the order of addition of the components, not taught or suggested by the '215 and '085 patents.

Emulsions containing ultrahigh viscosity silicone polymers


The enumeration and analysis of residual white blood cells in a sample of leukocyte-reduced blood products is conducted by forming a suspension of the leukocyte-reduced blood products with a sufficient amount of a lysing reagent. The lysing reagent comprises a buffer with a low molar concentration, and a non-ionic surfactant. The suspension of leukocyte-reduced blood products and the lysing reagent is incubated for a sufficient time at a temperature sufficient to selectively lyse the platelets and red blood cells without damaging the white blood cells. The white blood cells of the lysed blood products are then contacted with a suitable dye to stain the white blood cells and the number of stained white blood cells is measured. The lysing reagent is free of harsh organic solvents which can damage the plastic components of automated clinical analyzers.

This application claims the benefit of Provisional Application No. 60/488,945 filed Jul. 21, 2003.
This invention relates to the use of a reagent for automated and manual analysis of nucleated cells in suspension, particularly the analysis and enumeration of residual white blood cells or leukocytes with a high degree of accuracy and precision in leuko-reduced blood products including concentrated platelet and packed red blood cell ("RBC") products.
Various methods and systems are known for counting or enumerating the amount of residual white blood cells or leukocytes in blood banking products such as red blood cell concentrates, platelet concentrates, and plasma. Methods for counting the number of residual white blood cells in blood banking products include microscopic examination of manually prepared dilutions of these products in specially designed hemocytometers and flow-cytometric enumeration of white blood cells. (See Moroff et al, "Validation of the Use of the Nageotte Hemocytometer to Count Low Levels of White Cells in White Cell-Reduced Platelet Components" TRANSFUSION, vol. 34, pp. 35-38, (1994), AABB Technical Manual. Method 8.8 "Counting Residual White Cells in Leukocyte-Reduced Blood and Components", Goodfellow et al. "The United Kingdom National External Quality Assessment Scheme Gating and Standardization Strategy for Use in Residual WBC Counting of WBC-Reduced Blood Components", TRANSFUSION, vol. 42, pp. 738-746, (2002), Vachula et al. "A Flow Cytometric Method for Counting Very Low Levels of White Cells in Blood and Blood Components." TRANSFUSION vol. 33, pp. 262-267, (1993).
Current methods for the enumeration of leukocytes use relatively high pHs of about 8.5 and above to facilitate the elimination of the interference of other blood cell-types by differentially lysing these other blood cell types, while leaving a residue of white blood cells for identification and enumeration. The disadvantage of operating at pH's of 8.5 and above is that rapid deterioration of the white blood cells occurs.
Current methods also use harsh organic solvents as leuko-protective agent, including ether/alcohols, such as ethoxyethanol, butoxyethanol, ethoxyethoxyethanol, methoxyethanol, ethyl ether and the like; alcohols, such as isopropyl alcohol dimethyl ethylene glycol, diethylethylene glycol and the like; ketones, such as acetone, methyl ethyl ketone and the like; aprotic solvents, such as dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), dimethylformamide (DMF), dimethylacetamide and the like; and furans, such as tetrahydrofuran and the like.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,637,986 to Brown. et al. discloses other leuko-protective agents. The use of such organic solvents is disadvantageous because they can damage or have an adverse effect on the plastic components of automated clinical analyzers operating as flow cytometers. Plastic materials are commonly used in the fabrication of numerous components of automated analyzers including reaction chambers, seals, tubing, waste and storage containers and optical compartments. Chemical solvents that attack these components can render the analytical system inoperable.
Harsh organic solvents that are commonly used as leuko-protective agents can adversely affect the strength, flexibility, surface appearance, color and dimensions of plastic components of automated clinical analyzers. Harsh organic solvents can damage the plastic components of automated clinical analyzers by chemical attack on the plastic polymer chain, such as oxidation and depolymerization, and can cause physical damage when the plastic components absorb the harsh solvents that can result in softening and swelling of the plastic component, permeation of the solvent through the plastic component, and dissolution of the plastic component in a solvent.
Harsh organic solvents include ketones such as acetone or methyl ethyl ketone can dissolve polystyrene and adversely affect low density polyethylene (LDPE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE), polypropylene (PP), neoprene rubbers, acrylates such as Plexiglass™, and Viton™. Ethers, such as ethyl and propyl ethers, can cause swelling, distortion or dissolution of polypropylene, LDPE, HDPE, PP and neoprene rubber. Alcohols can also adversely affect polyethylene. Therefore, use of harsh organic solvents should be avoided.
Automated analysis is more precise than current manual methods for the enumeration of relatively small amounts of leukocytes. The current reference manual analysis method involves introducing a leukocyte-reduced blood sample into a Nageotte hemocytometer. This is a glass slide with small grid on the surface. The sample is introduced to the device and examined under a microscope. Using the grid the white blood cells can be counted.
The total volume of a Nageotte hemocytometer chamber enables about 100 uL of diluted sample to be analyzed. This manual method is time consuming and highly dependent upon operator skill and experience.
In contrast, automated analysis can be adapted to analyze higher sample volumes thus obtaining a better statistical sampling and thereby improve reproducibility and precision of the result. Automation also offers the added advantage of eliminating operator error.

Reagent composition for the analysis of residual white blood cells in leuko-reduced blood banking products


A unique rope-pulling exercise apparatus that includes a support structure, a continuous rope, and a means for applying resistance to the force applied on the rope by the user, as the rope is pulled in either direction.

Rope climbing is an effective form of exercise because it makes it possible for the user to workout on all upper body muscles in one exercise. This not only saves time but it makes for a better balance in strength for upper body as opposed to the case where an individual over emphasizes the exercising of a single muscle to the point where other muscles around it are more prone to injury since they are not balanced in strength. The invention allows the user to maintain their arm and back muscles under dynamic tension. Placing one's body under dynamic tension of this type improves one's muscle tone, blood circulation, respiration, and general mental and physical fitness.
Rope climbing may be practiced as an exercise in and of itself or as part of training for mountain or rock climbing. Also, Prior exercise machines of this general type have tended to be fairly large and complicated pieces of machinery that take up a large amount of floor space and are relatively expensive to make.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a rope pulling exercise apparatus of this general type that is relatively compact and that requires a relatively small amount of floor space.
Another object of the invention is to provide a rope pulling exercise apparatus that is safe and that permits natural body movement during the exercise.
A further object of the invention is to provide a rope pulling exercise apparatus that is adjustable to accommodate users whose strengths vary over a relatively wide range.
Another object of the invention is to provide a rope pulling exercise apparatus that is composed of relatively few components that are easy and inexpensive to fabricate.
Another object of this invention is to allow the user to pull the rope in different directions, reverse pull (upwards), and in a different embodiment, at different angles (diagonal), or horizontal.
Other objects will, in part, be obvious and will, in part, appear hereinafter. The invention accordingly comprises the features of construction, combination of elements and arrangement of parts that will be exemplified in the following detailed description.

Continuous rope pulling exercise apparatus


An electrical junction box for a motor vehicle includes a casing, a pair of bus bars accommodated in and secured to the casing with the bus bars being exposed outward, and a fusible link having a link body, an input terminal and an output terminal that extend from the opposite sides of the link body. The input and output terminals are secured to the bus bars by bolts, respectively. The input and output terminals of the fusible link are provided on the opposite side edges with ribs, respectively. Folding the bus bars forms U-bend portions to contact with outer side surfaces of the ribs. Alternatively, portions that contact side edges of the input and output terminals may be provided on inner surfaces of the casing.

This invention relates to an electrical junction box for a motor vehicle and more particularly relates to the junction box that can prevent breakage of a terminal of a fusible link and a link body when the fusible link is secured by a bolt to a bus bar accommodated in a casing of the electrical junction box.
For convenience of explanation, a conventional electrical junction box for a motor vehicle will be described by referring to FIGS. 11A, 11B, and 12. FIG. 11A is a plan view of a conventional electrical junction box. FIG. 11B is a longitudinal section view of the junction box taken along line I2—I2 in FIG. 11A. FIG. 12 is a plan view of another conventional fusible link.
The present applicant has previously proposed an electrical junction box 1 shown in FIGS. 11A and 11B. Patent Public Disclosure No. HEI 10-174254 (1998) discloses the electrical junction box 1 in which terminals of a fusible link are secured by a bolt to bus bars made of a conductive metal plate in a casing. The electrical junction box 1 has a casing including an upper casing member 2 and a lower casing member 3. The casing accommodates an assembly in which a plurality of bus bars 4 and insulation plates 5 are piled on one after another. An end of the bus bar 4 extends to a lower part of a fusible link containing-section 2a provided on the upper casing member 2. The extending end of the bus bar 4 is provided on a given position with a bolt hole (not shown). On the other hand, a fusible link 6 to be accommodated in the fusible link containing-section 2a is provided on the opposite sides of a link body 7 with an input terminal 8 and an output terminal 9 having bolt holes (not shown), respectively. When the fusible link 6 is accommodated in the fusible link containing-section 2a, the bolt holes in the bus bars 4 and the bolt holes in the input and output terminals of the fusible link 6 are aligned coaxially with one another and joined by bolts B.
However, there is a problem that heat radiation of the bus bars is lowered in the above structure, since the link body of the fusible link 6 and the input and output terminals 8 and 9 cover the whole upper surface of the bus bars 4.
Accordingly, as shown in FIG. 12, a structure is proposed in which the fusible link containing-section 2a is enlarged and the bus bars 4 to be connected to the input and output terminals 8 and 9 of the fusible link 6 are exposed to enhance heat radiation.
However, in this structure, when the bolts B fasten the input and output terminals 8 and 9 of the fusible link 6 onto the bus bars 4, a turning force of the bolt B moves the input terminal 8 or the output terminal 9 in the turning direction of the bolt B, since the input and output terminals 8 and 9 of the fusible link 6 are not fixed in the turning direction. This may break joining parts between the link body 7 and the input and output terminals 8 and 9.
In view of the above problems, an object of the present invention is to provide an electrical junction box for a motor vehicle that can prevent degradation of heat radiation of bus bars connected to terminals of a fusible link and can prevent breakage of the terminals of the fusible link and a link body when fastening by bolts.
Still other objects and advantages of the invention will in part be obvious and will in part be apparent from the specification.

Electrical junction box for a motor vehicle