A device and associated process for hygienizing and warming beehives aiming at the improvement of the production of organic bee produce, the device being installed in a beebox including an entrance for bees and frames for accommodating bees and bee products, and between the frames, a spacing making available one empty frame for installing the device. The device comprises a ceramic block inserted in the one empty frame provided with at least one row containing from 8 to 32 channels being in the vertical position and where the lower end and the upper end of the channels are opened towards the inner portion of the beehive, the channels being: i) thermally insulated from the rest of the one frame with the aid of wings and ii) traversed by conducting filaments connected to an energy source by a flat wire, whereby the electrical current crossing the filaments makes it possible to attain temperatures inside the channeles between 300-350° C. with ensuing warming of the air circulating in the beehive by convection, the warmed air from the upper ends of the channels creating a negative pressure in the lower ends of same, whereby outer colder air is sucked towards the ceramic channels so as to sustain continuous circulation of air through the channels, with the consequent extermination of the microorganisms present in the air as the microorganisms pass through the warmed channels.

The concept of employing the thermal effect as a sterilizing agent is generally well-known, as well as is the concept that the Joule effect can be used as a source of heat. Examples of state-of-the-art devices using such effect for cleaning or purifying the air by means of a tubular or elongated passage associated to a heating device can be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,014,455, 2,564,898 and 3,691,346. Such devices require relatively high power input, give out a flow of concentrated air and/or result in an air discharge at a relatively high temperature. Other devices utilize air sterilization with the aid of ultraviolet equipment.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,877,990 describes a device for the sterilization of ambient air using the effect caused by the passage of a continuous air stream through a relatively large number of small diameter, electrically-heated pipes, where the energy is dissipated by means of the Joule effect and where the high thermal gradient as produced within the pipes has an average value of 220° C. so that the protein membrane associated to most of the bacteria and viruses found in air are destroyed. According to the specification of said patent, a refractory block provided with a plurality of high thermal gradient pipes is provided, the pipes being arranged in such a way as to improve the sterilizing action of the Joule effect with consequent rise in the destruction efficiency of air microorganisms without causing any temperature increase in the air of the room where the proposed device is installed.
The basic concept for building the device object of U.S. Pat. No. 4,877,990 derives from thermodynamics, since it involves the convection of gases through a relatively large number of small diameter pipes, placed in close proximity one to the other and vertically aligned, the pipes being heated in the axial direction.
Preferably, each of the pipes is heated by means of a few watts (15-25 W), low-resistance wire placed within the pipe. The block where the pipes are bored is made up of zirconia and silica. It is alleged that the device shows improved efficiency relative to other state-of-the-art devices in terms of the rise in the efficiency of the volume of sterilized air by consumed watt, this being due to the use of high thermal gradient pipes provided with heating devices placed in the axial direction and simplicity in the heating process, since the obtained high efficiency is attained through pipe parameter choice selected according to thermodynamic laws.
The proposed device is useful for ambient sterilization such as homes, hospitals and whenever there are patients suffering from respiratory ailments. The device is able to sterilize 2.5 m3 every hour at an energy consumption of just 25 Wh while other devices need 1.5 Wh for the treatment of the same air volume.
The Joule effect in this system can result from the passage of an electric current through a resistive element such as a NiCr wire placed in the axial direction in pipes designed for profiting from thermodynamic principles. Thus, the pipes and the heating with wires in the axial direction make possible to provide air circulation through the pipes solely by convection.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,326,543 describes a device for sterilizing the air of grain storage silos. According to this document, the useful storage life of cereals or other products can be increased by the reduction of biological activity in the storage ambient. To this end, air is oxidized in a chamber which is external to the ambient. The oxidized air is driven by propulsion from the oxidation chamber up to the storage ambient.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,874,050 describes an improved device which is structured so as to eliminate germs, bacteria, viruses and other microorganisms found in the air of an inner ambient, without substantially increasing the temperature of the room where the device is to be placed. The device is shaped as an elongated member formed in a ceramic material, having a first end and a second end, and a plurality of narrow and substantially parallel passages which extend between said passages in order to allow the passage of the flow of air through the same. The plurality of narrow, substantially parallel passages is sized and spaced relative to one another within the elongate member so as to maximize a ratio of surface area of ceramic material exposed to air and from which heat will be irradiated per volume of ceramic material utilized in the device and also to minimize resistance to heat flow through the ceramic material. The air sterilization device additionally comprises at least one heating wire disposed and extending in the interior of at least one of the narrow, substantially parallel passages. The heating wire is structured and placed so as to irradiate substantial amounts of heat through the ceramic material of the elongated member so as to heat the parallel passages heating the air within the narrow and substantially parallel passages until the air attains a sufficient temperature which makes it sterilized and naturally increase, leaving the elongated member and creating a low pressure in this location and then pulling a fresh air supply towards the interior of the narrow and substantially parallel passages of the elongated member. In another mode of the invention the device for air sterilization comprises a ceramic heating bundle having a plurality of elongated members.
US Published Application 20030072688 describes an improved system for air sterilization to be utilized in refrigerators, multipurpose chambers and compartments where it is desired that the sterilization system does not significantly affect the temperature of the air inside the chamber where it is substantially enclosed.
The system can include a set up entirely placed in an enclosed space or can be connected to the exterior or can have some components in the interior of said space and others out of the space. The system has at least one set up for air sterilization, at least one air entrance and at least one air exhaustion. The entrance and air exhaustion are placed in the interior of the space so that inner air can enter and leave freely the set up for sterilizing air by air convection. Non-sterilized air enters the set up, is cleaned and the sterilized air returns to the space without significantly altering the enclosed space temperature. When utilized in the interior of a refrigeration chamber the device can reduce the development of odors, bacteria, spores and fungi in the enclosed space so as to preserve and enhance the useful life of stored food products and materials.
The device consists of a ceramic core having at least one pipe with at least two longitudinal capillaries extending along the pipe length. The capillary diameter is between 1 mm and 8 mm and the pipe can extend from around 120 mm and 2400 mm length. Capillaries are preferably heated by means of an electrically-resistant wire running throughout the capillary length. The wire is connected to an energy source. When energy crosses the wire, the wire resistance generates heat, which is then irradiated towards the air around the wire in the capillary interior. The resistant wire is designed for producing heat in the interior of the capillary at a temperature higher than 160° C.
Heat present within capillaries causes an air stream towards the vertical sense with heating of the air when the ceramic pipe is in the vertical position. The heated air leaving the upper capillary ends causes a negative pressure in the capillary lower ends, sucking outer air towards the interior of the ceramic capillaries and providing continuous air circulation throughout the capillaries. Microorganisms present in the air are exterminated by heat as they cross the heated capillaries. The flow of continuous air generated by air convection assures substantial air sterilization in an efficient and silent way while keeping energy consumption at low rates. The pipes are made up of ceramic material or any equivalent material, so that temperatures higher than 200° C. are attained. The ceramic nucleus is placed in an outer housing having an air access open at its bottom. An optional heat exchanger can be used at a certain distance above the ceramic capillaries, and can have an impact and heat resistant cover, said cover being provided with at least one air outlet for expelling air outside the device.
Bee culture aiming at the production of honey and related products has a drawback associated to the presence, in the air found in the beehive, of several parasites, such as mites, bacteria, viruses, spores, mold, fungi and mildew, those contributing to lower the bees output.
It is well-known that honey-producing bees (in Latin, Apis mellifera L.) are the most helpful insects found in nature. Since thousands of years, they have produced honey, the first sweetener ever known, besides other products such as bee wax, which can be used in cosmetics and for making candles; pollen, which can be used as food, royal jelly which is a very powerful health support product; propolis, and bee venom which are widely used as therapeutic agents for ailments. Still, they pollinate flowers, which may be their most beneficial activity. First rate cultures and large scale farming depend primarily on bee pollination to keep high quality and productivity. Recent studies as of March 2007 indicate that if bees didn't pollinate the crops in the North American farming market, this would result in an approximate US$ 14 billion negative impact to the rural economy.
Bees are social insects living in colonies. There are three castes of bees in each colony, the queen, the drones and the workers. The most important is the queen, acting as an egg factory in the beehive; she lies from 1,500 to 3,000 eggs a day, if the number of workers is sufficient to incubate such eggs. Workers are all female, but practically sterile since they cannot mate. The workers carry out the work of the colony. Work share in the colony is called age polytheism. New workers clean the nest cells during the first 2-3 days then they become nurses and provide food for the immature stages of the three castes. They also take care of the queen, feeding her with royal jelly throughout the day. Still, they take time to build fresh nests using wax secreted by their abdomen glands. They also process the collected nectar by adding enzymes to turn it into honey. In near three weeks of their living span they become apt to the domestic task and are able to collect pollen, water and propolis for several uses in the beehive. The lifespan of the workers is from 3-4 weeks in summer, much less than the queen, which has a lifespan of between 3 and 5 years.
The sole task of the drones is to mate with the new queen; they die during the mating process.
Mites infest the newborn in the beehive (drones and workers). Acariosis develops preferably in a humid environment and low temperature typical of the Brazilian South and Southeast area winter. In these areas and during the colder period, lower honey output also occurs, this being due to the energy expense undergone by the bees in order to keep the beehive temperature, the bees using honey as a maintenance food until the weather turns friendlier.
Bees give the heat required for the beehive heating by moving and vibrating thoracic muscles, consuming honey, the main raw material, in huge amounts, so that the honey output is lowered. When there is excess heat, bees ventilate the beehive with the aid of their wings. In this way, the whole swarm of bees regulates the temperature, keeping it between 34° C. and 37° C., as well as the humidity within the beehive, keeping it around 40%, by means of the homeostatic mechanism, with their activities being coordinated by pheromones.
Chemicals are also used for controlling mites in beehive bees. U.S. Pat. No. 6,037,374 discusses the several available compositions. A drawback is that the reagents that are toxic for the mites can leave residues in honey, besides being usually toxic as well to the bees. Mites can also develop resistance to the reagents. In this way the use of chemical reagents per se is not a suitable method for killing mites.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,069,651 describes an approach using an apparatus connected to the beehive. In this apparatus, a blower at the beehive top is used to heat the air introduced at the beehive bottom. The air temperature is kept at 49° C. up to 54° C. for 15 minutes. Vegetable oil is inserted in the beehive with the aid of the blower in order to ease the killing of mites, probably by blocking the respiratory tract of the mites. However, vegetable oil can harm the bees and their products. Besides, the apparatus is expensive and its use is time-consuming.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,162,014 proposes the use of magnetism for combating mites. This method did not prospered and it is uncertain how the mites are affected by magnetism.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,683,432 relates to heating elements for the foundation of the honeycomb in order to warm the beehive honey intended for feeding the bees during the cold season.
Therefore the open literature discloses on the one hand the existence of ceramic-block based devices, such block being perforated so as to form pipes or channels for the insertion of electrically-resistant wires able to warm and hygienize by convection air circulating in a housing so as to eliminate parasites and molds from the environment and on the other hand, several approaches including heating or warming of portions of a beehive in order that the bees can profit during the cold season from the honey stored in the beehive.
Documents describing air sterilization devices based on perforated ceramic blocks forming channels or pipes where electrically-resistant wires are inserted for heating the air within a housing so as to sterilize several parasites, fungi and molds by air convection do not contemplate the application of this kind of equipment by adapting the geometry of same for a bee frame in order to keep the temperature of a bee box and hygienize it, avoiding that the bees consume any energy to maintain the temperature of said box as well as avoiding the use of any disinfectant chemical product. The open literature also does not contemplate the possibility of a process for the rise in the output of organic bee products with the aid of the device described below in the present specification, the obtained products being free of any added agricultural defensives or reactants. It should be pointed out that the device object of the present invention further provides an energy subsidy as heat in the beehive nest in a power range between 5 Watts and 15 Watts. This spares the bees the task to move the muscles of their wings for the warming of the beehive environment, so that their energy can be directed for producing useful products, with the consequent reduction in the consumption of the basic raw material of their muscle energy, that is, honey.
Furthermore, the inventive device is provided with a temperature detection mechanism made up of thermal switches that actuate independent filaments inside the ceramic block. Once the filaments are activated, air starts to circulate in the beehive by means of the inner convection current and alternatively through forced ventilation.
The device works also to reduce air humidity inside the beehive by evaporating water vapor droplets present in this environment, these droplets being the physical transportation and dissemination agents for fungi, mold, spores, mites and mildew, etc, also called "pathogenic swarms" that attack and withdraw the strength of the main swarm—the bees. In case the bees detect an accentuated reduction in the beehive humidity, they place through their tongues water droplets throughout the beehive so as to increase and regulate the humidity of the environment.
In this "swarm war" occurring inside the beehive, the device of the invention favors the bee-swarm versus the pathogenic swarms cited above. As is well-known from the bee-related literature, the strengthened bee swarm has better defenses against all the aggressive outer and inner agents, once the working force of the bees is increased through a better task distribution and specialization.
The present device is further provided with two mechanisms for reducing accumulated humidity within the bee box present in the heated air inside the ceramic block. The first of these mechanisms is an opening between the upper portion of the nest box cover and the vertical wall of the box. This aperture or opening is positioned at the upper corner of the box where the warm air accumulates and gets trapped due to its lower density relative to the remaining air. The aperture can be created by sliding the said cover so as to create a minimum passage for the humid warm to move outside of the beehive. Alternatively, round orifices can be perforated in the said cover followed by introduction of rubber tubes such as those used for the passage of drones in commercial pollen collectors.
The second mechanism involves a metallic or glass plate within the nest box which is placed in the vertical wall of the opposite side of the inventive device, at the highest portion of this wall, where the warm and humid air will condensate when it contacts said plate. The plate extends out of the box laterally or to the back side, so as to remain at a lower temperature than the air within the beehive, and this difference of temperatures results in the air condensation. Once the vapor condensates into water droplets, the bees can remove this excessive humidity by licking it away with their tongues.
No matter which humidity reduction method is used, it is up to the bees the humidity fine tuning and control by blocking or freeing any box openings with wax and propolis, regulating temperature and humidity and using biological control of humidity through forced ventilation made by their wings.
By reducing humidity inside the beehive, two further favorable results are obtained: 1—the preservation of the wood used to make the beehive, resulting from lower inner humidity, increasing its useful life, with lower depreciation of the bee business assets; 2—increased honey dehumidification rate, honey being at first deposited by bees in the production honeycombs as green honey, of excessively high relative humidity for collection and human consumption (if prematurely collected, honey can ferment and turn sour). As a result from the action of the inventive device for reducing humidity in the beehive, the drying time of honey is reduced, with honey being more quickly collected and more quickly freeing box frames for further collections. In this way, the harvest cycle is optimized with acceleration of the honey drying period and ultimately significant increase in the amount of honey collected after each flowering, a critical factor for the short term flowering.
The inventive device as disclosed in the present specification is patentably distinguished from state-of-the-art devices since it contains items adapted to the bees' environment, taking into consideration the bees' natural behavior. As is widely known from the specialized literature, bees use to isolate any foreign body inside the beehive, filling in the holes as well as the external material with wax and propolis. Considering such behavior, the upper and lower portions of the present device are provided with a grid having an alternate voltage applied between its conductors in an alternate form, causing a stimulus or minimal electrical discomfort in the bees upon walking on the grid so that the bees are hindered from depositing propolis on it.
The inventive device also contemplates the optimization of the inter-frames inner convection current circulation by adding a slope in the horizontal positioning of the beehive nest between 2 and 15 degrees so as to facilitate air circulation. Warm air leaving the upper portion of the inventive device ascends towards the opposite upper corner of the nest box, gradually descending as it crosses the other frames, conveying sterilized (hygienized) air towards the air pouches between each frame. The beehive entrance, which is placed diametrically opposite the device object of the invention, makes possible to admit cold air from outside the bee box, and because this air is heavier than the inside air, it is displaced in the box bottom towards the lower portion of the present device and is sucked by it.
The inventive device is mounted on a standard bee feeding frame (Langstroth, Schirmer, Curtinaz and others). Such frame has sidewalls that hinder excessive heat from the ceramic block to reach the adjacent frame this being due to it being made from insulating material such as agglomerated wood including insulating matter such mica and the like.
Alternatively, the frame can be made up of neutral, non-toxic plastic such as polyethylene, polypropylene and the like. The frame (see item 5a in FIG. 2) of the inventive device is provided with standard electrical wire for electrical power supply and the wire is directed to the outer portion of the beehive box by means of a flat wire. The flattening is required in order that the cover of the nest box can be closed covering all apertures and thus avoiding heat loss to the environment.
The electrical energy powering circuit contacts of the present device can alternatively be made by metallic contacts installed in the bottom side of the support edges of the bee feeding frame. The electrical energy supplying wire can be embedded or carved inside the beehive wood box in the location which supports the feeding frame when it is inserted into the box, so that the device groove is similar to the plug-and-play system of computer electronic cards, making it easy to install and operate. Therefore, when placing the device grove in the bee box within its working position, the electric contacts between the grove and the bee box are established through overlaying physical contact, and the electrical circuits of the grove are supplied with electrical current.
The inner portion of the inventive device, that is, where the ceramic block itself is placed, is provided with air ducts (see items 15a and 15 b of FIG. 6) which guide, direct, and optimize the flow of air throughout the device, isolating said duct of air flow from the remaining electrical, electronic, and mechanical constituents from the inventive set up, thus reducing the air flow friction.
An additional advantage of the present device is that since it provides strong and healthy bee swarms at any season, the bee boxes containing it are adequately used for pollinate fruit cultures and other agricultural produce at a higher yield than it is possible to obtain from state-of-the-art bee boxes.
It should be pointed out that although the present device backs the bee swarm in three critical variables for its good development, that is, air purification, temperature and humidity, it is the bees which are in charge of the homeostatic fine tuning; it is up to them to take the necessary steps for the optimization of these variables.
From the documents of the open literature it can be seen that there is no description nor suggestion of a device for warming the ambient of a bee box and hygienizing or purifying the air inside said box, the device being installed in a frame of said box and comprising a perforated ceramic block forming at least one row of channels, said channels being provided of a lower end and an upper end opened to the beehive interior, electrically-resistant wires being inserted in the interior of said channels and connected to an energy source, so that when electrical current goes through said wires air is warmed, the warmed air from the upper portions of the channels creating a negative pressure at the lower ends of the channels, causing sucking of outer air towards the interior of the ceramic channels and supporting a continuous air circulation throughout the channels with the consequent extermination of the microorganisms present in the air as those are conveyed throughout the warmed channels, such device being described and claimed in the present application.

Device for hygienizing, warming, and dehumidifying a beehive


A semiconductor radiation detector is provided for improved performance of pixels at the outer region of the crystal tile. The detector includes a semiconductor single crystal substrate with two major planar opposing surfaces separated by a substrate thickness. A cathode electrode covers one of the major surfaces extending around the sides of the substrate a fraction of the substrate thickness and insulated on the side portions by an insulating encapsulant. An exemplary example is given using Cadmium Zinc Telluride semiconductor, gold electrodes, and Humiseal encapsulant, with the side portions of the cathode extending approximately 40-60 percent of the substrate thickness. The example with CZT allows use of monolithic CZT detectors in X-ray and Gamma-ray applications at high bias voltage. The shielding electrode design is demonstrated to significantly improve gamma radiation detection of outer pixels of the array, including energy resolution and photopeak counting efficiency. The detector has performance of detector leakage current density less than 6 nA/mm2 at a bias potential of substantially 1400V, and responsive to gamma radiation such that the energy resolution full width half maximum of more than 90% of the pixels is less than 6%.

High-resistivity semiconductor radiation detectors are widely used for detecting ionizing radiation due to their ability to operate at room temperature, their small size and durability, and other features inherent in semiconductor devices. Such detectors are used in a wide variety of applications, including medical diagnostic imaging, nuclear waste monitoring, industrial process monitoring, and space astronomy. Ionizing radiation includes both particulate radiation, such as alpha or beta particles, and electromagnetic radiation such as gamma or x rays.
Conventional semiconductor radiation detectors can be configured in several types, for example, planar or monolithic. The simplest form is a planar detector 1 which includes a semiconductor crystal 3 located between cathode 2 and anode 4 electrodes, as shown in FIG. 1A. To use the detector as an imaging device, the anode electrode should be fabricated into segments, such as pixels as shown in FIG. 1b. The device in the former case is generally referred to as conventional pixilated detector. In FIG. 1b, the architecture of such conventional pixilated detectors 6 typically consists of a slab of semiconductor crystal 3 with metal covering two opposing surfaces of the slab to form two electrodes, a cathode 2 and anode pixels 7. There are various configurations to apply a field 5 across the electrodes including applying an external voltage from an external voltage source (not shown) to either the pixilated anodes 7 or the cathode 2, or both. For example, a pixilated anode 7 may be connected to external signal processing circuitry (not shown) and to ground, and the cathode 2 is connected to an external voltage source (not shown). The bias voltage across the electrodes 2, 7 results in an electric field distribution. Electron and hole "charge clouds" generated within the semiconductor crystal 3 by an ionizing radiation event A absorbed within the slab of semiconductor crystal 3 are swept toward the anode 7 and cathode 2 electrodes, respectively. These moving electron and hole clouds create charge-pulse signals in the external signal processing circuitry (not shown).
If all the electrons and holes generated by the ionizing radiation A reach their respective electrodes (i.e., the electrons reach the anodes 7 and the holes reach the cathode 2), the output charge signal will exactly equal the charge from the energy deposited within the crystal 3. Because the deposited charge is directly proportional to the energy of the ionizing radiation A, the semiconductor radiation detector 6 provides a means for measuring the energy of the ionizing radiation A. The ability to measure this energy is an important function of radiation detectors.
Conventional pixilated radiation detectors, however, suffer from a serious drawback: because of limited field confinement of known electrode structures, some of the electrons and holes near the edge are generally lost by leaking to the side surface as they sweep toward their respective electrodes. The result of this drawback is poor charge collection efficiency for the outer pixels, and increasing side surface leakage current. This effect is particularly acute in the so-called edge (outer) pixels and evident even in the first inner pixels. It is desired to have an array of anode pixels with near-identical high performance, for improved imaging accuracy.

Segmented radiation detector with side shielding cathode


A prescription pill container organizer and carrier includes one or more rows of elastic loop holders attached to the inside of a piece of flexible material in which are held prescription pill containers, the piece folded or rolled up to enclose the prescription pill containers. Pockets for documents and a tethered magnifier for reading the prescription pill containers labels are also installed next to the rows of holders.

This invention concerns organizing and carrying containers for prescription pills. Many older persons regularly take a number of medications and particularly prescription pills to control various chronic conditions occurring in old age, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol, etc. Younger persons sometimes also regularly take a number of medicines in a regular regimen. It would be advantageous to be able to organize the containers of pills to keep them orderly and to make sure the proper pills are taken at the times as directed, and to be sure the pills are properly taken according to the instructions.
Such persons of course must take their medicines with them when going out for an extended time or when traveling and it would be advantageous to have a convenient carrier for their pills.
Commonly, when going to see medical practitioners or being admitted to a medical facility it is necessary to have the pill containers available as well as the associated prescriptions and other documents.
Medical personnel will often wish to obtain accurate information concerning the medication the person is taking, and often request that patients bring in their medications and prescriptions. Some convenient and accurate means of providing this information would be helpful in these situations.
It is object of the present invention to provide a convenient carrier and organizer for prescription pills and related papers.


An electrical connector includes an insulation body and a contact. The insulation body includes a first side and a second side positioned opposite to the first side. The contact is received in the insulation body and includes a first elastic gripping portion adjacent to the first side of the insulation body and a second elastic gripping portion adjacent to the second side of the insulation body.

In normal use, a tape-like LED (light-emitting diode) lamp is generally electrically connected to a wire or another tape-like LED lamp. In the prior art, a known tape-like LED lamp is electrically connected to the wire or another tape-like LED lamp through manual soldering. During the manual soldering, a special tool and a power supply are needed. Thereby, it is not convenient to electrically connect the tape-like LED lamp. Furthermore, the process of manual soldering is very complicated, decreasing the electrical connection efficiency. Moreover, the soldering quality is not reliable, often needing to re-solder, and the maintenance is difficult.


A method of nanoscale patterning is disclosed. The method comprises: mixing predetermined amounts of a first solvent and a second solvent to generate a solvent, the first solvent and the second solvent being immiscible with each other; dissolving a solute material in the solvent to generate a coating material, the solute material having solubility that is higher in the first solvent than in the second solvent; and applying the coating material onto a substrate to form a plurality of pinholes in the coating material. The formation of the plurality of pinholes is associated with suspension drops mostly comprised of the second solvent, separated from the solute material dissolved in the first solvent, in the coating material. A method of making a stamp with a nanoscale pattern is also disclosed based on the above method.

A solar cell (also called a photovoltaic cell) is an electrical device that converts solar energy into electricity by using semiconductors that exhibit the photovoltaic effect. Solar photovoltaics is now, after hydro and wind power, the third most important renewable energy source in terms of globally installed capacity. Constructions of these solar cells are based around the concept of a p-n junction, wherein photons from the solar radiation are converted into electron-hole pairs. Examples of semiconductors used for commercial solar cells include monocrystalline silicon, polycrystalline silicon, amorphous silicon, cadmium telluride, and copper indium gallium diselenide. Solar cell energy conversion efficiencies for commercially available cells are currently reported to be around 14-22%.
High conversion efficiency, long-term stability and low-cost fabrication are essential for commercialization of solar cells. For this reason, a wide variety of materials have been researched for the purpose of replacing conventional semiconductors in solar cells. For example, the solar cell technology using organic semiconductors is relatively new, wherein these cells may be processed from liquid solution, potentially leading to inexpensive, large scale production. Besides organic materials, organometal halide perovskites, CH3NH3PbX3 and CH3NH3SnX3, where X═Cl, Br, I or a combination thereof, for example, have recently emerged as a promising material for the next generation of high efficiency, low cost solar technology. It has been reported that these synthetic perovskites can exhibit high charge carrier mobility and lifetime that allow light-generated electrons and holes to move far enough to be extracted as current, instead of losing their energy as heat within the cell. These synthetic perovskites can be fabricated by using the same thin-film manufacturing techniques as those used for organic solar cells, such as solution processing, vacuum evaporation techniques, chemical vapor deposition, etc.
A hole transport layer (HTL) can be used as a medium for transporting hole carriers from the perovskite active layer to an electrode in the photovoltaic device. A solution method is typically employed to form a HTL for a perovskite optoelectronic device. For example, the solution of spiro-MeOTAD may be spin-coated to form the HTL on a perovskite film. However, a recent study revealed that these solution-processed films made of spiro-MeOTAD typically include pinholes with a high density.
In perovskite optoelectronics devices, the pinholes generated in the HTL are defects degrading device performances. However, the present studies described in this document demonstrate that the formation of pinholes can be controlled and positively utilized for practical applications, including: patterning and functionalization of surfaces, formation of membranes that allow certain sizes of particles to go through, and other nanoscale patterning applications.

Method of nanoscale patterning based on controlled pinhole formation

OKINAWA INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY SCHOOL CORPORATION


A method and an apparatus for obtaining NMR measurements are disclosed. An NMR measurement apparatus, the measured sample, or both elements may be subjected to motion during the measurement. The envelope of an RF carrier signal is modulated according to an envelope to generate a first sequence of RF pulses. The envelope, the phase of the RF signal, and/or a static magnetic field may be varied during the radiation of the first sequence to substantially saturate a first region of the sample. The first sequence may include additional RF refocusing pulses that, when coupled with movement of the NMR measurement apparatus or sample, may also be used to substantially saturate the first region. A second sequence of RF pulses is radiated to establish a resonance region within the first region and measure an attribute of the sample.

The invention generally relates to preconditioning spins near a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) region.
Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) may be used to determine properties of a sample, such as body tissue (for medical imaging purposes) or a subterranean formation (for well logging purposes). For example, for the subterranean formation, NMR may be used to determine and map the porosity, formation type, permeability and oil content of the formation.
Referring to FIG. 1, as an example, NMR may be used in a logging-while-drilling (LWD) operation to map the properties of a subterranean formation 10. In this manner, an axisymmetric NMR tool 6 may be part of a drill string 5 that is used to form a borehole 3 in the formation 10. The tool 6 may be, as examples, one of the tools described in Sezginer et. al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,705,927, entitled xe2x80x9cPulsed Nuclear Magnetism Tool For Formation Evaluation While Drilling Including a Shortened or Truncated CPMG Sequence,xe2x80x9d granted Jan. 6, 1998; Miller, U.S. Pat. No. 5,280,243, entitled xe2x80x9cSystem For Logging a Well During the Drilling Thereof,xe2x80x9d granted Jan. 18, 1994.
The NMR measuring process is separated by two distinct features from most other downhole formation measurements. First, the NMR signal from the formation comes from a small resonance volume, such as generally thin resonance volume 20a (see FIG. 2), and the resonance volume 20a may have a radial thickness that is proportional to the magnitude of a {right arrow over (B)}1 magnetic field (not shown). Depending on the shape of the resonance zones, the volume may extend, as an example, from as little as 1 millimeter (mm) in one direction and as long as several inches in another. Secondly, the NMR measurement may not be instantaneous. Both of these facts combined make the NMR measurements prone to tool motions, such as the NMR tool 6 moving around the periphery of the borehole 3, as further described below.
To perform the NMR measurements, the NMR tool 6 may include permanent magnets to establish a static magnetic field called {right arrow over (B)}0 (not shown); a radio frequency (RF) coil, or antenna, to radiate the time varying magnetic field {right arrow over (B)}1 that is perpendicular to the {right arrow over (B)}0 field; and an RF coil, or antenna, to receive spin-echoes from the formation in response to an NMR measurement, as described below. These two coils may be combined into a single transmit/receive antenna.
As an example, the NMR tool 6 may measure T2 spin-spin relaxation times of hydrogen nuclei of the formation 10 by radiating NMR detection sequences to cause the nuclei to produce spin-echoes. The spin-echoes, in turn, may be analyzed to produce a distribution of T2 times, and the properties of the formation may be obtained from this distribution. For example, one such NMR detection sequence is a Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill (CPMG) sequence 15 that is depicted in FIG. 4. By applying the sequence 15, a distribution of T2 times may be obtained, and this distribution may be used to determine and map the properties of the formation 10.
A technique that uses CPMG sequences 15 to measure the T2 times may include the following steps. In the first step, the NMR tool 6 transmits the {right arrow over (B)}1 field for an appropriate time interval to apply a 90xc2x0 excitation pulse 14a to rotate the spins of hydrogen nuclei (that are initially aligned along the direction of the {right arrow over (B)}0 field) by 90xc2x0. Although not shown, each pulse is effectively an envelope, or burst, of an RF carrier signal. After the spins are rotated 90xc2x0 from the direction of the {right arrow over (B)}0 field, the spins immediately begin to precess in the plane perpendicular to the {right arrow over (B)}0 field at first in unison, then gradually losing synchronization. For step two, at a fixed time T following the NMR pulse 14a, the NMR tool 6 pulses the {right arrow over (B)}1 field for a longer period of time (than the NMR pulse 14a) to apply an NMR refocusing pulse 14b to rotate the precessing spins through an additional angle of 180xc2x0 with its carrier phase shifted by xc2x190xc2x0. The NMR pulse 14b causes the spins to resynchronize and radiate an associated spin-echo 16 (see FIG. 5) which peaks at a time approximately equal to T, after the 180xc2x0 refocusing NMR pulse 14b. Step two may be repeated xe2x80x9ckxe2x80x9d times (where xe2x80x9ckxe2x80x9d is called the number of echoes and may assume a value anywhere from several hundred to as many as several thousand, as an example) at the interval of te (approximately 2xc2x7T). For step three, after completing the spin-echo sequence, a waiting period tw (usually called a wait time) is required to allow the spins to return to equilibrium along the {right arrow over (B)}0. field before starting the next CPMG sequence 15 to collect another set of spin-echoes. The decay of each set of spin-echoes is observed and used to derive the T2 distribution.
The T2* time characterizes a time for the spins to no longer precess in unison after the application of the 90xc2x0 excitation pulse 14a. In this manner, at the end of the 90xc2x0 excitation pulse 14a, all the spins are pointed in a common direction perpendicular to the static B0 field, and the spins precess at a resonance frequency called the Larmor frequency for a perfectly homogenous field. The Larmor frequency may be described by {right arrow over (xcfx89)}0=xcex3{right arrow over (B)}0, where xcex3 is the gyromagnetic ratio, a nuclear constant. However, the {right arrow over (B)}0 field typically is not homogenous, and after excitation, the spins de-phase with T2* due to inhomogenieties in the static {right arrow over (B)}0 field. This decay is reversible and is reversed by the refocusing pulses 14b that cause the echoes. In addition, irreversible de-phasing occurs (spin-spin relaxation) and is described by the T2 time constant. This results in the decay of successive echo amplitudes in the CPMG sequence according to the T2 time constant. With xe2x80x9cinside-outxe2x80x9d NMR, typically, spins are measured with T2 greater than  greater than T2*.
As stated above, the distribution of the T2 times may be used to determine the properties of the formation. For example, referring to FIG. 6, the formation may include small pores that contain bound fluid and large pores that contain free, producible fluid. A T2 separation boundary time (called TCUT-OFF in FIG. 6) may be used to separate the T2 distribution into two parts: one part including times less than the TOUT-OFF time that indicate bound fluids and one part including times greater than the TCUT-OFF time that indicate free, producible fluids.
Each T2 time typically is computed by observing the decay of the spin-echoes 16 that are produced by a particular CPMG sequence 15. Unfortunately, the drill string 5 (see FIG. 1) may experience severe lateral motion. However, the T2 time is approximately proportional to another time constant called a T1 spin-lattice relaxation time. The T1 time characterizes the time for the spins to return to the equilibrium direction along the {right arrow over (B)}0 field, and thus, considering both the T1 and T2 times, each spin may be thought of as moving back toward the equilibrium position in a very tight pitch spiral during the T1 recovery. Fortunately, the T1 and T2 times are approximately proportional. As a result, the T2 distribution may be derived from measured T1 times. In fact, the original work on establishing bound fluid cutoffs was done using T1. Those results were then expressed and used commercially in terms of T2. See W. E. Kenyon, J. J. Howard, A. Sezginer, C. Straley, A. Matteson, K. Horkowitz, and R. Ehrlich, Pore-Size Distribution and NMR in Microporous Cherty Sandstones, Paper LL (paper presented at the 30th Annual Logging Symposium, SWPLA, Jun. 11-14, 1989).
Polarization-based measurements may use either inversion recovery sequences or saturation recovery sequences. With the saturation recovery sequences, the spin system is saturated, e.g. with several 90xc2x0 pulses that reduce the magnetization to zero. The spin system is then allowed to recover for a variable length of time prior to applying a monitor pulse or pulse sequence, such as the CPMG sequence. The inversion recovery technique suggests that after the nuclei have aligned themselves along the static magnetic field, a 180xc2x0 pulse is applied to reverse the direction of the spins. Over time, the spins decay toward their equilibrium direction according to T1, but no measurement is yet made as the 180xc2x0 pulse does not induce a signal in the detector. Before the decay is complete, however, it is interrupted by a monitor pulse or pulse sequence, such as the CPMG sequence, which rotates the spins into the measurement plane (i.e., induces a signal in the detector). The information of interest is the amplitude of the signal immediately after the initial 90xc2x0 xe2x80x9creadoutxe2x80x9d pulse. This amplitude clearly depends on the recovery time between the initial 180xc2x0 pulse and the 90xc2x0 pulse. Following a determination of amplitude, the spin system is permitted to completely relax back to equilibrium, and the pulse sequence is then repeated.
An example of a downhole use of inversion recovery sequences is described in Kleinberg et. al, U.S. Pat. No. 5,023,551, entitled, xe2x80x9cNuclear Magnetic Resonance Pulse Sequences For Use With Borehole Logging Tools,xe2x80x9d granted Jun. 11, 1991. However, the inversion recovery sequences described in the ""551 patent do not use adiabatic pulses and therefore result in a narrow region of investigation. Also, under xe2x80x9cinside-outxe2x80x9d conditions in conjunction with motion, it may be easier to saturate a region than to invert it completely. Therefore, saturating a region may be preferred.
Referring back to FIG. 2, the T1 times typically are measured using polarization-based measurements instead of the decay-based measurements described above. In this manner, each polarization-based measurement may first include applying a saturation sequence to saturate the spins in a resonance region (such as the cylindrical resonance volume 20a as depicted in FIG. 2, for example). Subsequently, a polarization period elapses to allow polarization of the resonance volume 20a to the {right arrow over (B)}0 static magnetic field. Subsequently, a detection sequence, such as the CPMG sequence, is used to produce spin-echoes from the formation. The amplitudes of the first few spin-echoes are then analyzed to determine a polarization weighted integral "PHgr"(twait) of the porosity distribution "PHgr"(T1). Because only the first few echoes need to be observed to determine the amplitude of the signal, the T1 measurement may be performed in a shorter duration of time than the decay-based T2 measurement and thus, be less prone to motion of the NMR tool 6. The detection sequence may be successively repeated (after the appropriate saturation sequence) several times with varied wait times to obtain a porosity distribution "PHgr"(T1).
As an example, a polarization-based measurement may be used to measure the T1 times for hydrogen nuclei in the resonance volume 20a located within the saturated volume 20b (see FIG. 2). In this manner, the NMR tool 6 may first saturate spins within the saturated volume 20b. However, the polarization period may be sufficiently long to permit the NMR tool 6 to significantly move within the borehole. In that case, tool 6 movement causes the resonance volume 20a to shift and causes the NMR tool 6 to receive spin-echoes from a shifted resonance volume 20axe2x80x2 (see FIG. 3) that partially falls outside the original, saturated volume 20b. As a result, the shifted resonance volume 20axe2x80x2 may comprise a region without saturated spins (an effect typically called xe2x80x9cmoving fresh spins inxe2x80x9d) and a region of the original saturated volume 20b with saturated spins. Unfortunately, polarization-based NMR techniques may not be able to tolerate xe2x80x9cfresh spinsxe2x80x9d being moved in during the polarization period, as the fresh spins may introduce measurement errors. For example, the measurements may erroneously indicate a higher bound fluid volume than is actually present in the formation.
One way to saturate a larger region is described in PCT Application Serial No. PCT/US97/23975, entitled xe2x80x9cMethod For Formation Evaluation While Drilling,xe2x80x9d filed on Dec. 29, 1997. This application discloses, at the start of a measurement, transmitting one or more radio frequency pulses covering a relatively wide range of frequencies and/or extra wide bandwidth or using one or more pulses which are frequency swept to saturate a cylindrical volume around an NMR tool. The application further describes the use of acceleration peak values to determine when to invalidate measurements due to movement of the tool beyond the extent of the saturated region, the application further describes fitting the tool with stand-offs to prevent movement of the tool beyond the saturated region.
Thus, there is a continuing need for minimizing error introduced by relative motion between an NMR measurement apparatus and a sample being investigated.
A method for use with an NMR measurement apparatus that is subject to relative motion between the apparatus and a sample is disclosed. The apparatus, the sample, or both elements may be subjected to motion. In one embodiment of the invention, the method comprises radiating a first sequence of RF pulses. The first sequence has an envelope. The envelope is varied during the radiation of the first sequence to substantially saturate a first region of the sample. A second sequence of RF pulses is radiated to establish a resonance region within the first region and measure an attribute of the sample.
In another embodiment, a method for use with an NMR measurement apparatus that is subject to relative motion between the apparatus and a sample comprises using an RF carrier signal to radiate a first sequence of RF pulses. The carrier signal has a phase. The phase is varied during the radiation of the first sequence to substantially saturate a first region of the sample. A second sequence of RF pulses is radiated to establish a resonance region within the first region and measure an attribute of the sample.
In yet another embodiment, an NMR measurement apparatus that is subject to relative motion between the apparatus and a sample comprises at least one magnet to establish a static magnetic field, a first coil, a second coil and a pulse generator. The pulse generator is coupled to the first and second coils and adapted to use the first coil radiate a first sequence of RF pulses to create a time varying magnetic field. The first sequence includes at least one refocusing pulse to produce at least one echo from a resonance region of the sample. The pulse generator is further adapted to use the second coil in order to momentarily modify the static magnetic field at least one time during the radiation of the first sequence to cause saturation of a region larger than the resonance region.
In a further embodiment, a method for use with an NMR measurement apparatus that is subject to relative motion between the apparatus and sample includes using an inversion recovery sequence which comprises at least one or more adiabatic pulses.
Other embodiments of the invention will become apparent from the description, from the drawing and from the claims.

Preconditioning spins near a nuclear magnetic resonance region


A simple agricultural big bale loader, retriever, and transporter provides an efficient tool that should save time and labor costs over other existing loaders. The invention permits a novel lifting, rotating, and depositing of a big bale from the ground in the field onto and across an elevating and flipping receiving table, consolidating of a plurality of the lifted bales into two-high or three-high layers of bales on a stack carriage bed, transporting of the bales to a storage location, tilting of the carriage bed downward at the rear and upward at the front approximately 90 degrees, and depositing of the stack at the storage location.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to bale loading of a transport vehicle in an agricultural setting. The invention enables the lifting, rotating, and depositing of a big bale from the ground in the field onto a modified truck or vehicle for consolidation into a load with other bales for transport from the field over highways at highway speeds. The invention in the preferred embodiment serves as a useful modification of a ten wheel truck having a longitudinal two channel main frame into an autonomous big bale loader, retriever, and transporter for picking up serially individual big bales in a field and assembling the resulting group of big bales into a double or triple layer stack of bales on a stack carriage bed mounted to the main frame in place of a conventional truck bed for transport to a consolidated bale storage location and autonomous depositing of the stack at that location. The stack carriage bed is pivotally mounted on the main frame to allow tilting up of the front end of the carriage bed and tilting down of the back end of the carriage bed to the ground and return. The transporter can also be used to retrieve a stack of bales and move them to another location.
A bale pickup assembly and a swing gate assembly of the invention have a field deployment position for picking up individual bales in the field and a stowed over-the-road transport position for when the transporter is coming or going from the field.
The invention in its preferred embodiment allows for improved handling of individual big bales in the field and for improved handling of consolidated stacks of bales both in the field and at storage locations.
2. Description of Related Art
A number of big bale loading devices exist that can aid a person in loading wagons and other transport vehicles in the field. The prior devices are generally more cumbersome, bulky, and complex than the present invention. The present invention provides for a less complex big bale loader, retriever, and transporter and provides an efficient tool that should save time and labor costs over other existing equipment.
The present invention, a loader, retriever, and transporter permits a novel lifting, rotating, and depositing of a bale from the ground in the field onto and across an elevating and flipping receiving table assembly mounted to the main frame of the transporter, consolidating of a plurality of lifted bales into a two-high, three-high, or four-high consolidated stack of bales on a stack carriage bed pivotally mounted to the main frame of the transporter, transporting of the consolidated stack to a storage location, tilting of the carriage bed to the rear, and depositing of the consolidated stack at the storage location.

Big bale loader, retriever, and transporter


A wet dry barrier support system for a vehicle includes a support structure portion with mounting locations for mounting suspension components of a vehicle, mounting locations for coupling to a body of the vehicle, and a barrier portion to provide an environmental barrier to separate a first area of the vehicle from a second area of a vehicle. The support structure portion may provide a stiff mounting interface between the body and the suspension components by transferring loads therebetween and may define a through-cavity configured to pass a vehicle component through the through-cavity. The barrier portion may plastically deform upon receiving an energetic input from an impact of the vehicle and may prevent the wet dry barrier support system from entering a passenger compartment during the impact.

Many vehicles in operation today are designed to operate in varying weather conditions wherein components of the vehicle may become wet. Compact, electric, bidirectional, and/or autonomous vehicles have unique components and configurations that, under certain conditions, may be inadequately protected from liquids and/or moisture to provide protection during operation to components or passengers housed therein.

Vehicle wet dry barrier support structures and techniques


A method of reproducing a mirage-like phenomenon which comprises forming a structure comprising at least two see-through phases wherein the density of a lower phase in contact with an upper phase is larger than that of the upper phase, the density ratio (A) therebetween is 1<A<50 and the interface between the lower phase and the upper phase has an even or curved surface.

A mirage is a phenomenon caused as a result of the bending of light rays, which should go straight ahead by nature, due to a difference in the refractive index attributable to a difference in the temperature of the air, and more particularly a phenomenon in which distant objects such as buildings or trees are seen stretched, shrunken, inverted, or displaced. A mirage seen in winter in Uozu, Japan, a mirage seen in spring, a mirage over deserts, and an inferior mirage seen on a hot road are known as representative mirage-like phenomena seen in the nature.
Although various theories have been introduced as the cause of these phenomena, the matter remains unelucidated as yet. Although attempts have been made to reproduce these phenomena, the reproduction of a clear mirage-like image at any time has yet been unsuccessful. Further, since it has been believed that a depth of at least 100 m is necessary for realizing a mirage by making use of a gas, it has been thought to be utterly impossible to artificially reproduce a clear mirage-like image on a small scale.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a method of reproducing a mirage-like phenomenon which enables a desired mirage-like phenomenon to be clearly reproduced at any time.

Method of reproducing mirage-like phenomenon


A cosmetic article including a case and a applicator that is fastened to the case but movable relative to the case between a retracted position and an extended position, in which the applicator extends outward from the case further than in the retracted position. The applicator includes a body and protuberances, at least some of which are arranged so as to be movable relative to the body between a retracted position and an extended position, in which the protuberances extend outward from the body further than in the retracted position.

Document US 2010/0065080 closes an article for applying mascara with a pen-type configuration. It thus comprises an elongated case and an applicator slidably mounted relative to the case to occupy a retracted position in which it is immersed in the mascara container and an extended position in which it allows make-up.
An advantage of this configuration is that the article can be used with a single hand for make-up, as compared with the regular articles in which a brush is mounted on the cap and the latter is screwed onto the container so that the user must use both hands to unscrew the cap and access the brush.
This article nevertheless presents disadvantages. The diameter of the output orifice must be large enough to allow the brush loaded with a minimum of product to come out. However, the larger this orifice, the greater the risk that the product in the container will dry, since the latter communicates with the ambient air when the applicator is out. In addition, since the applicator is immersed in the product inside the container in the retracted position, it comes out of the case loaded with a large quantity of product of which a significant part is not used for make-up, especially that near the center of the applicator. Since this product is in contact with air, it tends to dry more quickly, which limits the lifetime of the applicator. Lastly, when the applicator is in the retracted position, product builds up at the free end of the case, which is likely to create stains.

Cosmetic article having a movable applicator


A terminal block includes a base, a support provided on the support, and a first terminal pair, a second terminal pair and a third terminal pair each supported by the support. A coupling line of the first electric wire is arranged along a first straight line, and a coupling line of the second electric wire is arranged along a second straight line. The base includes a support protrusion that extends to a coupling line of the third electric wire through between the coupling line of the first electric wire and the coupling line of the second electric wire and supports the coupling line of the third electric wire.

In Patent Literature 1, a socket body, and a plurality of external connection terminals and a plurality of pressure contact terminals accommodated in the socket body are provided. Each external connection terminal is press-fitted with each terminal of a relay and connected to one corresponding pressure contact terminal via a lead wire.


A direction control method and apparatus control the direction of a traveling object on a monitor, for example, in a video game device. An object having, for example, two elements to be directionally controlled with each of the elements being controllable in a rotational direction is displayed along with its background in a traveling state on a monitor. The object includes, for example, a war tank (31) used in a war game of a game device. The two elements to be directionally controlled includes a body (32) and a sight (33) of the tank (31). A target angle .theta. is designated by a single direction input unit 20(A) for the vehicle body (32) and the sight (33). The rotational direction of the sight (33) is controlled on the basis of the target angle .theta.. The rotational angle of the vehicle body (32) is controlled following the sight (33) on the basis of the traveling velocity of the tank (31) and the rotational angle Ya of the sight (33).

Video game devices are classified roughly into home and arcade ones in accordance with use. The home video game devices generally have a game device body and a controller such as a joy pad each with the game device body being connected, for example, to a home video monitor. When a cassette ROM is inserted into the game device body and a start button is depressed, a game program stored in the cassette ROM is read by the game device body. When the player manipulates the controller to give an operational signal to the game device body, the game program starts up in the game device body to produce a video signal and an audio signal, which are delivered to the video monitor and displayed as an image and outputted as a sound, respectively.
Many arcade video game devices have a cockpit-like housing in which the game device body containing game programs and a large display screen are provided. A manipulation seat on which the player sits is provided facing the display. The player views a game screen while playing the game by operating the control unit such as a steering-type input unit provided at the player's seat.
The direction of a traveler or vehicle (a travelable character) displayed on the video monitor or display is controlled by the player's operation of the joy pad and/or steering-type input unit in the video game device. There are various travelers. Some travelers are required to be controlled in two directions as the case may be. For example, some games have a war tank as a traveler. In this case, the two directions are the traveling direction of the tank itself and the direction of sight of a canon mounted on the tank. When the directions of the tank, as well as the sight of the canon, are controlled, two steering elements are required; a regular steering element and a second steering element for sight control. Alternatively, both a direction key and a steering element are provided and operated.
In many cases, the home video game devices have only a joy pad as a control unit. Thus, in many cases, the joy pad and a steering element are used in combination. When the steering element is manipulated while depressing a button switch on the joy pad, the direction of canon sight is controlled, while when only the steering element is manipulated, the direction of the tank itself is controlled.
However, when the two devices are provided separately to control the two directions of the same traveler, the whole control unit of the game device becomes large-scale and complicated. Since the player is required to operate the two devices simultaneously or in parallel, the manipulation itself becomes complicated and the direction control which the player is intended to provide cannot be provided timely as the case may be, so much so that the complicated direction control can reduce the player's interest in the game itself.

Object direction control method and apparatus


A convolutional neural network includes a front layer, a back layer, and a plurality of other layers that are connected between the front layer and the back layer. One of the other layers is a transition layer. A first precision is assigned to activations of neurons from the front layer back to the transition layer and a second precision is assigned to activations of the neurons from the transition layer back to the back layer. A third precision is assigned to weights of inputs to neurons from the front layer back to the transition layer and a fourth precision is assigned to weights of inputs to the neurons from the transition layer back to the back layer. In some embodiments the layers forward of the transition layer have a different convolutional kernel than the layers rearward of the transition layer.

The present invention relates to the electrical, electronic, and computer arts, and more specifically, to machine learning structures such as neural networks.
A neural network is an execution model of a machine learning training or classification algorithm. Typically, the compute operations of this model are executed on a plurality of processors that are configured to work together.
In a neural network, the processors simulate thousands or millions of neurons, which are connected by axons and synapses. Each connection is enforcing, inhibitory, or neutral in its effect on the activation state of connected neural units. Each individual neural unit has a summation function that multiplies each of its inputs by a corresponding weight, and then aggregates the weighted values to obtain a total signal. In some implementations, there is a threshold function or limiting function on at least some connections and/or on at least some neural units, such that the total signal must surpass the limit before the limited neural unit will activate. Once a neural unit has activated, it sends an activation signal as an input to one or more other neural units. A neural network can implement supervised, unsupervised, or semi-supervised machine learning.
A typical output of a deep neural network (DNN) is a labeling of the input as belonging to one of several categories. Typically, the labeling output is based on patterns learned from a training set of inputs and labels. DNNs achieve superior accuracy for applications with high computational complexity using very large models, which require 100s of megabytes (MBs) of data storage, and high bandwidth for data movement. This high computational complexity poses a technological challenge for widespread deployment, particularly in resource constrained edge environments.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, neural networks are known to make errors in assigning labels, in that some of the labels assigned by a neural network do not agree with the labels that are assigned by a human expert reviewing the same inputs.

System-aware selective quantization for performance optimized distributed deep learning

International Business Machines Corporation


A system may include: a light valve exposed to incident light from an external light source. The light valve may independently modulate multiple wavelength bands of the incident light that are transmitted through the light valve and into an environment that the system illuminates. A control system can operate the light valve to control a spectral distribution of light transmitted through the light valve.

Light from the sun may be the least expensive and most available daytime light source for lighting and most buildings have windows that pass sunlight or light from an exterior environment into the interior of the building. Curtains, blinds, and other window shades are commonly used to regulate the amount of sunlight that enters an environment. However, the capabilities of current windows and window controls are limited.


The present invention provides methods and devices for shielding an electronic component package. In one embodiment, an EMI shield is integrally formed within the package adjacent the die and grounded. The EMI shield may be a metallized shaped polymer layer and may be disposed fully within the package or it may extend out of the package.

The present invention generally provides shielded semiconductor electronic packages and printed circuit boards. More specifically, the present invention provides an EMI shield integrally formed within a package of a semiconductor electronic component.
Semiconductor electronic components emit electromagnetic radiation, generally in the range of 50 MHz to 3 GHz, depending on the speed of the microprocessor. As can be appreciated, with the advances in high-speed microprocessor design and the rapidly increasing capabilities of high-speed networking and switching electromagnetic radiation will often be above such a range. The problem of emittance of electromagnetic radiation is not new to designers of electronic equipment. Indeed, significant efforts are taken to reduce electromagnetic interference (EMI) and radiofrequency interference (RFI) and virtually every county has a regulating agency (FCC in the U.S., for instance) that regulates the marketing and sale of electronic equipment that do not pass stringent requirements for EMI and RFI, whether radiation is emitted or intercepted (also called susceptibility) by the electronic equipment.
Semiconductor device packages or integrated circuit chip carriers find use in a variety of electronics applications. Integrated circuits or semiconductor electronic components (collectively referred to herein as "electronic package") are typically protected from the external environment by encapsulation with a conformal coating such as an epoxy material, transfer molding, a thermoset, or thermoplastic resin about the electronic component. Such a package provides protection from dust, humidity and other environmental factors, which can destroy or irreparably damage the circuitry of the component. Unfortunately, one problem associated with conventional packaging of the semiconductor electronic component is that such thermoplastic package does not provide shielding from electromagnetic radiation, such as RFI and EMI.
When it comes to EMI shielding at the printed circuit board or "component level," some conventional solutions are to place a conductive surface of an EMI shield in contact with the surface ground traces either (1) directly placing a metal can in contact with a ground trace, (2) directly by metallizing a shield surface and placing it in contact with the ground trace or (3) by metallizing the "outside" surface (from the perspective of the component being shielded) and then using some method of attachment that connects the surface ground trace with the metallized outside surface. Such solutions act to protect the semiconductor electronic component from external RFI and EMI signals and to prevent the escape of RFI or EMI signals generated within the semiconductor electronic package.
The purpose of the surface ground traces, based upon the historical use of soldered metal cans, is to provide a point of contact between the metal can and printed circuit board that can be subject to standardized surface mount technology (SMT) solder reflow processes that ultimately provide a solid and permanent connection between the metal can shield and the printed circuit board.
The resultant assembly of shield and component provides adequate shielding for many applications. However, as the frequency of chips increase (e.g., greater than 3 GHz) and the data transmission rates increase, the creation of errant EMI radiation becomes much easier and more harmful to adjacent circuits and components. Indeed, with the increasing density of chips, the subject of immunity (of one chip relative to another) becomes all the more important. Thus, in general, conventional solutions will increasingly find themselves inadequate for purposes of immunity and indeed, radiated emissions, may also become an increasing issue. Moreover, for microwave devices, especially those that operate at harmonic frequencies above about 10 GHz., radiated emissions will be a significant concern.
In virtually all cases, the existing solutions are expensive and add to the cost of manufacturing electronic equipment such as cell phones, personal digital assistants, laptop computers, set-top boxes, cable modems, networking equipment including switches, bridges, and cross-connects. Moreover, as the density of electronic components on the printed circuit board increases, it may become difficult to find space on the printed circuit board to mount the EMI/RFI shields.
Therefore, a need still exists for a method to provide a low profile EMI/RFI shielding to integrated circuit packages on the printed circuit board.

EMI shielding for electronic component packaging


A convertible sofa bed system includes a sofa seat with a convertible sofa bed in which the seat is rotationally connected to the top of a front panel of the sofa. Prior to unfolding of the bed portion of the sofa bed system, the sofa seat may be rotated forwardly in the direction of the user so that, after the bed portion is unfolded, the sofa seat will be situated beneath the unfolded bed portion in an unobstructive position which will not interfere with normal use of the unfolded sofa bed. After the sofa bed has been used and folded back into the structure of the sofa, the sofa seat may be readily rotated upwardly and in the direction of the back of the sofa bed and into its normal position within the seat of the sofa structure.

This invention represents an improvement over the inventions of the above referenced related application as well as over my U.S. Pat. No. 4,932,720 in that there is provided herein a system by which the cushions of a sofa and convertible furniture of like class may be conveniently placed beneath the extended sofa bed without need to separately remove and store the sofa pillows before the sofa is converted into a bed and, conversely, to orient such cushions for replacement onto the sofa after the sofa bed has been converted back to the original sofa structure.
In view of the above, the instant invention, while a outgrowth of my modular furniture inventions as referenced above, is as well applicable to other furniture systems which employ one or another type of convertible sofa or sofa bed system.


One or more indicators as correspond to relative mobility of a wireless mobile station are monitored (21) to provide a resultant mobility indicator (26). Adjustment (24) of one or more inactivity temporal windows make use of this mobility indicator. Other criteria can be employed in a similar fashion, including information (25) regarding the operating capabilities of the mobile station and information (27) regarding communication system setup times. Pursuant to one embodiment, inactivity timers as used for a mobile station coincident with an active state of operation and/or a semi-dormant state of operation are selectively and dynamically extended and/or shortened as based, at least in part, upon such criterion.

Wireless communication systems of various kinds are known in the art. Many such systems support power saving strategies as used with mobile stations to aid in extending the effective operating time of a portable device. For example, some mobile stations can support multiple modes of operation wherein the different modes of operation have varying levels of characteristic power consumption associated therewith. By working in concert with one another, the communication system can facilitate the use of reduced power consumption modes of operation by the mobile station when and as appropriate.
For example, some communication systems (such as CDMA2000 3GPPP2 EVDV rel D and others) support an active mode of operation, a dormant mode of operation, and a semi-dormant mode of operation. The exact meaning of these concepts and the characterizing behaviors that define them can and will vary from system to system, of course, but in general, an active mode of operation tends to characterize the operational state of a mobile station when that mobile station is actively using an acquired communications channel to support normal communications (by transmission, reception, or both). Similarly, a dormant mode of operation tends to characterize the operational state of a mobile station when that mobile station is without an allocated communication channel (though other related capabilities, such as PPP functionality and the ability to communicate through common channels, may be nevertheless present) (for present purposes, it will be presumed that the concept of "dormant" subsumes both "dormant" and "idle" states as those terms are otherwise often understood by those skilled in this art).
A semi-dormant mode of operation comprises a more recently recognized operational state and generically represent a mode of operation that lies, functionally and/or operationally, between whatever comprises an active mode of operation and a dormant mode of operation in a given system. For example, in at least one system, the semi-dormant mode of operation is largely characterized by a lack of an allocated bearer channel but where the platform nevertheless continues to receive (or provide) periodic RF environment triggered system updates on a common channel such that the system can immediately effect channel assignment for the target without needing to page the target first in order to ascertain its RF environment.
Such a mobile station can aid in reducing system resource requirements by moving from an active mode of operation to a semi-dormant mode of operation while preserving an ability to relatively quickly resume active status as the semi-dormant-to-active transition can usually be accomplished more quickly than the change from dormant to active status.
While such multiple-state mobile stations can operate in a manner than benefits both the mobile station and the communication network itself, there are operating conditions that can lead to worsened, rather than improved, operating conditions. For example, a mobile station that exhibits or experiences high mobility while in a semi-dormant mode of operation will typically make frequent use of system communication resources to update the network with respect to its presently perceived reception conditions. Such high-mobility-instigated updating behaviors are, of course, often similar or identical to the same behaviors exhibited by a mobile station when undergoing high mobility while in an active mode of operation, except that this communication is over a common channel and thus is typically less tightly power controlled. This is not to say, however, that such high mobility-related behaviors have an equal overall network/user impact. In fact, the system impact varies considerably as between these two modes of operation.
During an active mode of operation, a mobile station already has an allocated communication resource, which is typically power controlled or rate controlled. Mobility-related updates therefore typically represent little increased consumption or system cost; that is, once a mobile station has an allocated channel, the existence or absence of frequent update transmissions, largely becomes irrelevant. During a semi-dormant mode of operation, however, the mobile station will not have access to a constantly allocated channel. Instead, the mobile station will be competing with other mobile stations for use of a potentially scarce common communication resource to effect its update transmissions. This can lead in many instances to undue loading of such resources.
Attempts to ameliorate such concerns are often hampered further by a frequent design requirement to spare the user from widely fluctuating user experiences. Therefore, a solution that seeks to address the high-mobility-based problems noted above must also usually not, at the same time, unduly lead to an unacceptable increase in system access time.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of various embodiments of the present invention. Also, common but well-understood elements that are useful or necessary in a commercially feasible embodiment are often not depicted in order to facilitate a less obstructed view of these various embodiments of the present invention. It will also be understood that the terms and expressions used herein have the ordinary meaning as is accorded to such terms and expressions with respect to their corresponding respective areas of inquiry and study except where specific meanings have otherwise been set forth herein.

Mobile communication station with three states of active, dormant, and semi-dormant having the capability of adjusting an inactivity time based on mobility indicators


A status displaying device includes a plurality of modules each having a plurality of channels to display system status. The status displaying device comprises a plurality of LEDs corresponding to the number of the channels so as to display the system status by changing colors of the LEDs according to the module states.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system status displaying device, and more particularly, to a device capable of reducing the number of light emitting diodes (LEDs) used for displaying a system status.
2. Description of the Related Art
The LED has found a multitude of roles in the field of opto-electronics, for example, indicators on hi-fi equipment, electronic telephone sets, cathode-ray tube phosphors, etc. LEDs are applied to various systems for their light emitting properties. In another example, LEDs are attached to a plurality of functional modules in a communication system housed in a cabinet so as to indicate the normal or abnormal function of the modules by giving off visible light.
Referring to FIG. 1, a prior art system is illustrated comprising a first module 10 and a second module 20. The first module 10 in the above system includes a first channel (CH1) 11 to a fourth channel (CH4) 14. Also, the second module 20 includes a first channel (CH1) 21 to a fourth channel (CH4) 24. The above system further comprises an LED controller 30 for sensing and displaying the states of each of channels of first and second modules 10 and 20. The LED controller 30 comprises LED 31-1 through 31-4 corresponding to the first channel (CH1) 11 through the fourth channel (CH4) 14 of the first module 10, and LED 32-1 through 31-4 of the first channel (CH1) 21 through the fourth channel (CH4) 24 of the second module 20.
According to FIG. 1, a conventional system is shown which includes a plurality of modules each of which comprises a plurality of channels having a system status displaying device with LEDs corresponding to each of the channels. A large number (modules.times.channels) of LEDs are required for a conventional communication system having a plurality of modules and channels. This is a drawback of the prior art system. A further disadvantage of the prior art system is that the size of printed circuit board (PCB) accommodating the LEDs becomes larger as the number of LEDs increases. Further, LEDs are typically continuously operated, even when not needed, resulting in unnecessary power consumption.


A plasma display panel (PDP) in which high luminance images can be formed at low voltage. The PDP includes first and second substrates which with a predetermined space therebetween; a plurality of barrier ribs disposed between the first and second substrates, including longitudinal barrier ribs and transverse barrier ribs having a height 10˜50% lower than the longitudinal barrier ribs in a direction towards the first substrate and connecting the longitudinal barrier ribs, the plurality of barrier ribs defining a plurality of discharge cells together with the first and second substrates; a plurality of pairs of sustain electrodes crossing the longitudinal barrier ribs; and a plurality of address electrodes to cross the pairs of sustain electrodes; and a fluorescent layer formed in each of the discharge cells.

1. Field of the Invention
Aspects of the present invention relate to a plasma display panel (PDP), and more particularly, to a PDP in which high luminance images can be formed at low voltage.
2. Description of the Related Art
Plasma display panels (PDPs) are flat display panels for forming images by exciting a fluorescent material using ultraviolet (UV) rays generated from a gas discharge. PDPs are regarded as next generation flat display panel due to their slim, large screens that display high resolution images. PDPs include pairs of sustain electrodes and dielectrics and a protection layer to protect the pairs of sustain electrodes.
To increase discharge efficiency of PDPs, the distance between the sustain electrodes of the pairs of sustain electrodes is increased as much as possible such that a discharge is effectively diffused in the discharge cells.
However, in conventional PDPs, when the distance between the sustain electrodes of the pairs of sustain electrodes is increased, the discharge is not diffused effectively due to barrier ribs which define the discharge cells. PDPs include barrier ribs disposed between the two substrates and have a predetermined space therebetween. Some of the barrier ribs extend in a direction parallel to the pairs of sustain electrodes, which are stripe-shaped. Accordingly, when the distance between the sustain electrodes is longer, the sustain electrodes are disposed near the upper portion of the barrier ribs, which are also stripe-shaped. As a result, the discharge between the sustain electrodes is blocked by the neighboring barrier ribs such that the discharge is not effectively diffused in the discharge cells.

Plasma display panel having transverse barrier ribs


A chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP) pad conditioner. The conditioner has a non-uniform conditioning surface with a plurality of conditioning elements. The non-uniform surface comprises a first section having a first cutting volume per unit width and a second section having a second cutting volume per unit width that is different from the first cutting volume per unit width. The difference in cutting volume may be provided by different projected widths of the individual conditioning elements, by a difference in the linear density between the two sections, or by a difference in the cutting depth. A CMP tool comprising a polishing pad, a conditioning pad having the disclosed structure, and a mechanism for moving the polishing pad relative to the pad conditioner is also provided. A method is further provided for uniformly conditioning a CMP pad using a conditioner having the structure described.

The present invention relates generally to semiconductor manufacturing and, more specifically, to the conditioning of polishing pads used for chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP).
Chemical-Mechanical Polishing (CMP) is a key processing technology for fabricating semiconductor chips. Often, after the performance of a processing step, the resulting wafer surface is full of peaks and valleys. Peaks and valleys of subsequent processing steps can build upon one another, creating an uneven surface that may be undesirable for a number of reasons. CMP uses a polishing pad and a slurry of chemically active liquid and abrasive material to grind down the surface of a wafer, thus restoring the planar surface.
In particular, CMP is useful for planarizing intermetal dielectric layers of silicon dioxide or for removing portions of conductive layers within integrated circuit devices. Non-planar dielectric surfaces may interfere with the optical resolution of subsequent photolithography processing steps, making it extremely difficult to print high-resolution lines. The application of a second metal layer over an intermetal dielectric layer having large step heights can result in inadequate metal coverage, and ultimately in an open circuit.
FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary linear CMP process. A semiconductor wafer 20 is typically held face down against a flat polishing pad 22 that has been coated with the slurry (not shown) and that moves relative to wafer 20 along arrow A. A rectangular conditioning pad 26 is used to condition polishing pad 22 continuously as wafer 20 is polished.
In an exemplary rotary CMP process, shown in FIG. 2, semiconductor wafer 20 is typically held face down and rotated along arrow C against a flat polishing pad 24 that has been coated with the slurry and that rotates along arrow B. Both wafer 20 and pad 24 are typically rotated relative to each other. Also shown in FIG. 2 are a first reference location 32 on polishing pad 24 and a second reference location 30 on polishing pad 24 located radially inward of location 32. As for the linear CMP process, rectangular conditioning pad 26 is used to condition polishing pad 24 continuously as wafer 20 is polished in the rotary CMP process. In both the linear and rotary CMP processes, the abrasive polishing process continues until the surface of wafer 20 contacting polishing pad 22 or 24 is substantially planar.
The motion of wafer 20 with respect to polishing pad 22, 24 and the force applied to hold wafer 20 against the pad adds mechanical energy to the system that helps remove the wafer surface material. In addition, the process of supplying fresh chemical liquid and removing spent chemical liquid helps remove material from the wafer surface. Uniform removal of material from the surface of wafer 20 is pursued by adjusting a number of variables, such as the pad velocity with respect to the wafer surface, the force applied between the pad and the wafer, and the slurry composition and flow.
Over time, the initially rough surface of polishing pad 22, 24 becomes worn and may glaze over due to a build-up of slurry and other deposits on the pad surface. To counteract the glazing and wear, polishing pad 22, 24 is periodically mechanically scored or xe2x80x9cconditioned.xe2x80x9d Conditioning pad 26 removes the build-up on polishing pad 22, 24 and roughens the surface of polishing pad 22, 24. Different approaches to conditioning may be required depending on the hardness of the pad surface and the particular slurry used for polishing. Further, conditioning may be performed by a conditioning apparatus in a discrete conditioning step or during wafer polishing depending on the specific conditioning process and apparatus used. FIGS. 1 and 2 both show rectangular conditioning pad 26 that may be used to condition polishing pad 22, 24 continuously as wafer 20 is polished.
The polishing pad-and-slurry combination may be envisioned as a piece of sandpaper in which the slurry acts as the sand and the polishing pad acts as the paper on which the sand is mounted. The slurry may have different particle sizes, with larger particles providing more grinding of the wafer surface than smaller particles, similar to the difference between larger and smaller grit sandpaper. The more slurry held against the wafer surface or greater particle size of the slurry, the more grinding that may occur. Grooves in polishing pad 22, 24 drain the slurry away from the surface of the pad. Slurry in the grooves is thus ineffective or less effective at grinding than slurry on the surface of the pad.
The shape and volume of the grooves per unit area of polishing pad 22, 24 therefore control to some degree the amount of polishing. For example, larger grooves not only take more slurry away from the surface, but also may completely or partially trap larger particles. Small grooves that are unable to trap large slurry particles leave the large particles in contact with wafer 20, providing more grinding than parts of polishing pad 22, 24 where the grooves are large enough to allow such particles to be trapped in the grooves. Intermediate size grooves may only partially trap the particles, leaving portions of the large particles protruding and providing less polishing than where only small grooves are present, but more so than where large grooves are present. The depth of the grooves may further control how much of the slurry is drained away, deeper grooves providing areas with less polishing capability than in shallower grooves.
Thus, the polishing rate and uniformity of the CMP process may be greatly affected by the characteristics of the polishing pad surface, which can make the slurry more or less effective. The ability to optimize the pad surface during conditioning is therefore highly desirable.
The present invention provides a chemical-mechanical polishing pad conditioner comprising a non-uniform conditioning surface having a plurality of conditioning elements and at least a first section and a second section. The first section has a first cutting volume per unit width that is greater than the second cutting volume per unit width of the second section. The first section may include at least one first conditioning element having a first projected width whereas the second section includes at least one second conditioning element having a second projected width that differs from the first projected width. The first section may also or instead have a first plurality of conditioning elements with a first density whereas the second section has a second plurality of conditioning elements with a second density that is different from the first density. The first section may also or instead have at least one conditioning element with a first cutting depth whereas the second section has at least one conditioning element with a second cutting depth different from the first depth.
The conditioner may be adapted for use in a linear or rotary CMP operation, and may be rectangular or may be a roller-type conditioner. In a rotary application, the non-uniform conditioning surface may be designed to compensate for a difference in relative velocity of the polishing pad at a radial-inward location as compared to a radial-outward location.
The conditioner may further comprise a third, transition section between the first section and the second section. The third section has a third cutting volume per unit width intermediate the first and second cutting volumes per unit width. The third section also has a gradual transition in cutting volume per unit width between the first and second cutting volumes per unit width.
The conditioner may be an element in a chemical-mechanical polishing tool comprising a polishing pad, the conditioner, and a mechanism for moving the polishing pad relative to the conditioner. The mechanism may further be adapted to move the polishing pad relative to the conditioner in a linear or rotary manner.
The conditioner may be used to perform a method for providing uniform conditioning of a chemical-mechanical polishing pad. The method first comprises the step of identifying at least a first region of the polishing pad that requires a different volume of material removed by the conditioner than a second region of the polishing pad. Then, the conditioner is provided with a non-uniform conditioning surface having a first section with a first cutting volume per unit width positioned to contact the first region of the polishing pad and a second section with a second cutting volume per unit width positioned to contact the second region of the polishing pad. The conditioner is then used to condition the polishing pad.
The invention also comprises a chemical-mechanical polishing pad that results from use of the conditioner of this invention. Such a pad comprises a non-uniform polishing surface having a plurality of grooves and at least a first region and a second region. The first region has a first groove volume per unit area that differs from a second groove volume per unit area of the second region.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary, but are not restrictive, of the invention.

Chemical-mechanical polishing pad conditioner

International Business Machines Corporation