A printed circuit board for use in an electronic device package such as a ball grid array package or organic chip carrier package includes a glass-free dielectric for separating and insulating power cores, circuitry or plated through holes from each other to prevent shorts caused by a migration of conductive material along glass-based prepreg substrates.

Printed circuit or wiring boards are currently used in electronic device packages, multichip modules, or organic chip carrier packages wherein the electronic device, such as integrated circuit chip(s) or memory chip(s), are directly attached to the printed circuit board. Such an electronic device package is necessary due to the large number of input/output contacts of the electronic device. The electronic device package is typically used to electrically couple the electronic device to an external printed circuit board. An example of such an electronic device package is a ball grid array package or organic chip carrier package such as found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,355,283. Previously, such packages were based on ceramic or multi-layer ceramic packages. For electrical performance, cost, and other reasons, the packages are being converted to printed circuit board based packages.
FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a prior art ball grid array package 10. An integrated circuit chip or electronic device 12 is attached to a prepreg-based substrate 14 comprising glass cloth or fabrics impregnated with epoxy resin, sometimes referred to as sticker sheets or prepreg. Electrically conductive bond wires 16 make electrical connection between selected one of contacts (not shown) formed on the electronic device 12 and electrically conductive circuitry 18 formed on top surface 20 of the substrate 14. Encapsulant 22 is formed on top surface 20 of substrate 14 to cover electronic device 12, bond wires 16, and a portion of circuitry 18. Circuitry 18 extends beyond encapsulant 22 to through holes 24 that are formed through substrate 14 to bottom surface 26 of substrate 14. Through holes 24 are plated with electrically conductive material and thus are often referred to as plated through holes. Electrically conductive traces 28 formed on the bottom surface 26 of substrate 14 extend from through holes 24 to pads 30 on which solder balls 32 are formed. In the conventional ball grid array 10, electrical connection between circuitry 18 on top surface 20 and traces 28 on bottom surface 26 of substrate 14 is made by through holes 24. Although not shown, substrate 14 may also include one or more internal circuit planes embedded therein. These planes may serve as signal, power, voltage, or ground planes and are usually incorporated in pairs. Such subcomposites are often called cores.
It is to be noted that substrate 14, circuitry 18, plated through holes 24, traces 28, and pads 30 form a printed circuit board (PCB) 33. Printed circuit boards are sometimes referred to as printed wiring boards (PWBs). Electronic device packages using printed circuit boards having glass-based prepreg substrates are prone to failures caused by shorts between circuitry 18 located on top surface 20, traces 28 located on bottom surface 26, or between power cores and the electrical traces 28 or circuitry 18 or between two power cores (not shown in FIG. 1) or between a power core and a plated through hole or between a plated through hole and traces 28 or circuitry 18.
In particular, shorts due to electrochemical migration are known to occur and are described as cathodic anodic filaments (CAF). The formation of CAFs is described in detail in B. Rudra, M. J. Li, M. Pecht, and D. Tennings, "Electrochemical Migration in Multichip Modules," Circuit World, Vol. 22, No. 1, pp. 67-70 (1995), and in W. J. Ready, S. R. Stock, G. B. Freeman, L. L. Dollar, and L. J. Turbini, "Microstructure of Conductive Anodic Filaments Formed During Accelerated Testing of Printed Wiring Boards," Circuit World, Vol. 21, No. 4, pp. 5-9 (1995). JEDEC module test requirements, such as a highly accelerated stress test (HAST) using 130.degree. C., 85% relative humidity, bias, 100 hours, and temperature humidity bias test (THB) using 85.degree. C., 85% relative humidity, bias, 1000 hours, are likely to develop such shorts in laminate chip carriers. These test conditions are orders of magnitude more severe than conventional IPC insulation resistance tests (50.degree. C., 80% relative humidity, bias, 300 hours). The IPC test requirements are fulfilled by these organic chip carrier packages easily.
Referring to FIG. 2, such shorting failures are illustrated wherein reference numerals which are like or similar to the reference numerals in FIG. 1 indicate like or similar parts. FIG. 2 illustrates a portion of a printed circuit board 33 for use in an electronic device package 10. Printed circuit board 33 includes power planes 34, 36 embedded within substrate 14. Substrate 14 includes sticker sheets containing glass fibers 38, 40, 42 as shown schematically. Conductive material in circuitry 18, plated through hole 24, or power planes 34, 36 migrate along the glass fibers contained within prepreg 38, 40, 42 to form conductive filaments 44, 46, 48 along the glass fibers. Filaments 44 create a conductive path or short between circuitry 18a and circuitry 18b. As spacing 50 between circuitry 18a and 18b decreases, the likelihood of such shorts increases. Filaments 46, in the sticker sheets on the inside of the core, create a short between power plane 34 and plated through hole 24 such as by bridging the clearance hole between the power plane 34 and plated through hole 24. Filaments 48 in the prepreg outside the core create a short between power plane 36 and plated through hole 24 such as by bridging the clearance hole between power plane 36 and plated through hole 24. It will be appreciated that other shorting conditions can be caused by other CAFs formed within substrate 14. What is needed is a printed circuit board design for use in an electronic device package which eliminates short failures caused by plating of conductive material or migration along glass fibers contained within the printed circuit board.

Electronic device packages having glass free non conductive layers

International Business Machines Corporation


The recording ink having a water, a water-soluble organic solvent, a colorant, and at least one fluorochemical surfactant selected from the following Structural Formulae (1) to (3). Structural Formula (1): where, Rf is a fluorine-containing group; and m, n, and p are integers in the Structural Formula (1). Structural Formula (2): where, Rf is a fluorine-containing group; X is a cationic group; Y is an anionic group; and q is an integer in the Structural Formula (2). Structural Formula (3): where, Rf is a fluorine-containing group; X is a cationic group; Y is an anionic group; and q is an integer in the Structural Formula (3).

Conventionally, an inkjet recording apparatus mainly uses aqueous ink using water-soluble dyes as colorants. However, the dye ink has disadvantages such as poor weather-resistance and poor water-resistance.
Recently, much research has focused on pigment ink that uses pigments in place of water-soluble dyes, and some pigment ink is commercially available. However, pigment ink still has many problems with color development and stability in comparison with dye ink. Particularly, according to technical improvement in OA printers for higher image quality, pigment ink is required to have print quality, hue, color saturation, gloss, and storage stability equal to dye ink on regular papers.
For example, inkjet printing ink is proposed as a low surface tension aqueous pigment ink having a stable ink discharge and improved ink wettability, in which a water-soluble organic solvent, colorants, water, and perfluoroalkylsulfonate are added (see Patent Literature 1). A variety of other ink compositions using fluorochemical surfactants have also been proposed (see Patent Literatures 2, 3, and 4).
However, these proposed compositions all have problems such as poor pigment dispersion stability and poor fixing properties and color development on recording media when the colorants are pigments. Generally, in low surface tension aqueous ink having improved ink wettability, the ink has high foaming properties and easily foams under the influence of surfactants used in the ink, which adversely affects the filling and stable discharge of the ink.
As for color development, C.I. Pigment Red 122 and C.I. Pigment Blue 15:3 are generally used for the pigment ink in magenta and cyan colors, respectively, and have different color reproduction ranges in comparison with dye ink. Toning is used to reduce hue errors. However, reduction in color saturation is inevitable and problems with print quality occur in such a case.
On the other hand, pigments themselves have been modified to change their hue without toning. For example, cyan pigments having hue in the same range as cyan dyes have been proposed in Patent Literature 5 where phthalocyanine pigment having a specific crystalline structure is used. However, they do not satisfy all properties including the problem of cost.
On the other hand, many inkjet recording inks have been proposed in which an ink set comprising pigments as black ink materials and dyes as yellow, magenta, and cyan color ink materials is used (see Patent Literature 6). However, in these proposals, sufficient regular paper properties in printing on regular paper have not been achieved.
According to technical improvements in OA printers for higher image quality, there is an increasing demand in relation to quality, hue, color saturation, and gloss. Particularly, there is an increasing demand for image quality with regard to pigment ink.
Subsequently, a technique is proposed in which a fluorochemical surfactant is contained in the pigment ink to improve wettability on paper, thereby improving color development (see Patent Literature 7). An attempt is made to use silicone resin as the ink-repellent layer of a nozzle head in order to use a fluorochemical surfactant-containing pigment ink having improved wettability.
These proposed techniques allow for improvement in color development of the pigment ink. However, the silicone resin layer as the ink-repellent layer of a nozzle head problematically deteriorates as a result of the elution of its components after it makes contact with the fluorochemical surfactant containing ink.
Therefore, the silicone resin layer is made thicker to ensure ink-repellency even after the components elute from the silicone resin layer of the nozzle head to a certain extent. However, sufficient achievement has not been observed. When the silicone resin layer of the nozzle head is made thicker, it becomes difficult to produce nozzle heads with uniform quality, and it is still difficult to sufficiently function as a nozzle surface (such as stable discharge and cleaning ability).
Hence, there is a high demand for the early providing of a recording ink having improved color development properties ensuring highly stable discharge and excellently uniform solid image parts, and consequently, improved color saturation to form high quality images and, an ink cartridge, ink record, an inkjet recording apparatus, and an inkjet recording method, all using the recording ink.
Patent Literature 1 Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 57-90070
Patent Literature 2 Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 4-211478
Patent Literature 3 Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 5-230409
Patent Literature 4 Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 6-200200
Patent Literature 5 Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 2000-17207
Patent Literature 6 Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 2000-239590
Patent Literature 7 Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 2003-335987

Recording ink, ink cartridge, ink record, inkjet recording apparatus, and inkjet recording method


A double hung window having a tiltable sash includes a sash brake for preventing movement of the sash along the jambs while in the tilted position. The preferred sash includes respective tongues extending along the stiles that are configured for reception in corresponding channels in the jambs for slidably mounting the sash and providing a seal between the stiles and window frame. The preferred brake elements each include a base configured for fitting within a groove of a respective tongue and a brake shoe that extends into the channel. Each shoe has a length greater than the width of channel so that when the sash is tilted, the shoe engages the channel side walls to provide braking against movement while in the tilted position.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of fenestration products including windows. In particular, the invention is concerned with a tiltable window sash and a brake for preventing slidable movement of the sash while in the tilted position.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Double hung windows with tiltable sashes provide an advantage in that the sashes can be tilted inwardly for convenient cleaning, repair or replacement. These types of windows include a balancing assembly such as springs or the like that balance the weight of the sash. In the tilted position, the top rail of the sash is supported and less weight is presented to the balancing mechanism. As a result, the balancing mechanism causes the bottom rail, which is still engaged between the jambs, to slide up the jambs.
The prior art discloses a variety of brake mechanisms for preventing movement of the sash while in the tilted position. These prior art mechanisms tend to be mechanically complex resulting in additional manufacturing expense and the potential for mechanical failure.
In one prior art device, ellipse-shaped cam elements extend from the stiles into respective jamb channels at the ends of nail-like fasteners with the interior end driven into the wood of the stile. When the window is tilted, the long axis ends of the cam elements engage the side walls of the channels to brake the movement of the sash. The cam element has a tendency to damage the side walls of the channel and only engages after the window is tilted about 30.degree.. This allows sliding of the window until this position is reached. Also, the fastener tends to loosen over time allowing the cam element to rotate with a resulting loss in braking effectiveness.

Sash brake for double-hung window with pivoting sash


A seating apparatus includes a suitably shaped housing box (1), a cushion (3) which is associated with it and ventilation (11, 12) and ionization (15) devices disposed inside of the box, capable of projecting ionized air inside the cushion (3).

This invention deals with a seating apparatus for chairs, for instance, wheelchairs destined for invalids.
Concerning the use of the wheelchairs destined to invalids, different types of cushions are already known designed to limit as much as possible the occurrence of bedsores or lesions from long hospitalization. Such cushions are made in a particular conformation with pointed cells, filled with air by means of a manual pump, so as to create a suitable floating support for a subject who must spend a great deal of time in a wheelchair.
However, such cushions present a series of problems for those people who use them since the cells, in the zones of greatest pressure, have a tendency to bend toward the inside limiting the passage of air between the cushion and the parts of the body in contact with the same and, therefore, they bring about the forming of lesions.
Furthermore, the cushion can easily break and, being made up of just one air pocket, may deflate making itself unusable unless suitably repaired.


An automated retirement plan manager manages the assets of an employee retirement benefits plan on behalf of an employer. The plan manager executes trades on investment vehicles based on instructions from an automated independent investment advisor. The advisor calculates a human capital for each plan participant based on data derived from the employer and from the participant through an interface, and based on that human capital calculation recommends an allocation of portfolio assets to the participant. This recommendation, once presented for review by and perhaps modified by the participant, becomes an instruction to the plan manager. As the participant ages his or her human capital is recalculated, and this is used to determine whether the participant's present portfolio type should now be switched to a more conservative one.

It is widely understood that workers should save a portion of their earnings to fund their retirement and other long-term goals, and invest these savings in a prudent manner so as to balance risk and return. Many employers have established benefit plans by which this may be accomplished, such as 401(k) retirement accounts and defined contribution pension plans.
It is common practice for employees to initially set up these plans to invest different percentages of the employee's contribution to different assets, such as different mutual funds, having differing degrees of risk and different rates of expected return. The worker is almost always given the discretion to change the percentage allocations made to various assets, and account managers usually even maintain a web site for this purpose, but empirical studies (e.g. "How Do Household Portfolio Shares Vary with Age?" Columbia University working paper, (2001) by John Ameriks and Stephen P. Zeldes) suggest that only a small minority, on the order of twenty percent, of all such workers actually make any alterations. The majority of all workers keep the initial allocations, and do not change them even in view of significant changes in their age, economic condition or need. As a result, what may have been a prudent allocation at the beginning begins to depart from the allocations which are optimum in view of advancing age, improving or deteriorating economic condition, newly available investment vehicles, or alterations in the performance characteristics of the assets that had been initially selected.
Recently, a concept called "Human Capital" has been used in computing what an investor should do given his or her present situation and age. Human Capital can be simply defined as the present value of future labor income or the actuarial present value of future savings directed toward retirement saving in the contexts of retirement portfolio management. The variables important to the calculation of Human Capital include future labor income, the amount of retirement savings in qualified retirement vehicles (such as 401(k) and IRA plans) and nonqualified retirement vehicles (such as taxable accounts and variable annuities), current age, retirement age, mortality and life expectancy, gender, real long-term interest rate, defined benefit pension income if any and social security income. The impacts of Human Capital on investor's portfolio choices have been studies in "Labor Supply Flexibility and Portfolio Choice in a Life Cycle Model," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Vol. 16, 427–449 (1992); "Why Should Older People Invest Less in Stocks than Younger People?" Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis Quarterly Review, 20(3), 11–23 (1996); "An Expanded Portfolio View Includes Real Estate and Human Capital", American Association of Individual Investors Journal, 7–11 (July 1996), by Charles Delaney and William Reichenstein; "Subjective And Objective Risk Tolerance; Implications For Optimal Portfolios," Financial Counseling and Planning, Vol. 8, (1997) by Sherman Hanna and Peng Chen; "Optimal Portfolio Choice for Long-Horizon Investors with Nontradable Labor Income," Working Paper: Harvard University (1998) by Luis Viceira; and "Investing Retirement Wealth: A Life Cycle Model," NBER Working Paper Number 7029 (1999).
Although the impact of Human Capital on investor portfolio choices have been studied by many academics, this concept has not been used in the management of retirement plans or to automatically switch allocations of assets in the portfolio of an investor or plan participant.

Automatically allocating and rebalancing discretionary portfolios


A new and distinct cultivar of Coleus plant named ‘Balaublach’, characterized by variegated foliage of varying amounts of green and grayed-purple, and vigorous, upright bushy growth habit.

The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Coleus plant botanically known as Solenostemon scutellarioides and hereinafter referred to by the cultivar name 'Balaublach'.
The new cultivar originated in a controlled breeding program carried out during January 2002 at Cartago, Costa Rica. The objective of the breeding program was the development of new Coleus cultivars with unique leaf shapes and coloration.
The female (seed) parent of the new Coleus was the Solenostemon scutellarioides variety 'Ducksfoot', not patented. The male (pollen) parent of the new variety was proprietary breeding selection 01Co8, not patented. The new cultivar was discovered and selected by the inventor as a single plant within the progeny of the above stated cross-pollination during August 2002.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar, by terminal stem cuttings since 2002 in West Chicago, Ill., has demonstrated that the new cultivar reproduces true to type with all the characteristics, as herein described, firmly fixed and retained through successive generations of such asexual propagation.


Light-duty liquid detergents derived from metathesized natural oil feedstocks are disclosed. The detergents comprise water, at least one anionic surfactant, and at least one secondary surfactant derived from a metathesis-derived C10-C17 monounsaturated acid or its ester derivatives. In particular, the secondary surfactant is selected from C10 amidoamines, quaternized C10 or C12 amidoamines, C12 amidoamine oxides, C12 sulfobetaines, C12 amidoamine sulfobetaines, and C12 alkanolamides. The detergents noted above rival or outperform commercial baselines in standard foam tests for liquid detergents, particularly those used for dishwashing.

Light-duty liquid ("LDL") detergents are commonly used in hand dishwashing liquids, shampoos, cleaners, and some laundry applications. The detergents are aqueous formulations that usually include an anionic surfactant, which is the principal suds producer, along with a secondary surfactant.
Because anionic surfactants tend to irritate skin and cause chapping, formulations that omit anionic surfactants (see, e.g., U.S. Pat. Appl. Publ. No. 2002/0169099) or include proteases, humectants, or other additives to counteract their undesirable effects (see, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 4,451,385 and U.S. Pat. Appl. Publ. No. 2010/0197554) have been developed.
More often, however, anionic surfactants (typically, one or more of a linear alkylbenzene sulfonate, a fatty alcohol sulfate, or a fatty alcohol ether sulfate) are the primary surfactant components, and one challenge is to identify suitable secondary surfactants that can be used with the primary surfactant(s). Ideally, the secondary surfactant maintains or enhances sudsing performance and allows a reduced amount of anionic surfactant to be used. U.S. Pat. No. 7,884,064, for instance, teaches dish detergent formulations comprising sulfonated estolides (anionic surfactant) in combination with a fatty amine oxide, betaine, sulfobetaine, or alkanolamide as the secondary surfactant.
Occasionally, light-duty liquid detergents have been formulated to contain fatty esters or amides made by hydrolysis or transesterification of triglycerides, which are typically animal or vegetable fats. Consequently, the fatty portion of the acid or ester will typically have 6-22 carbons with a mixture of saturated and internally unsaturated chains. Depending on source, the fatty acid or ester often has a preponderance of C16 to C22 component. For instance, methanolysis of soybean oil provides the saturated methyl esters of palmitic (C16) and stearic (C18) acids and the unsaturated methyl esters of oleic (C18 mono-unsaturated), linoleic (C18 di-unsaturated), and α-linolenic (C18 tri-unsaturated) acids. These materials are generally less than completely satisfactory, however, because compounds having such large carbon chains can behave functionally as soil under some washing conditions.
Recent improvements in metathesis catalysts (see J. C. Mol, Green Chem. 4 (2002) 5) provide an opportunity to generate reduced chain length, monounsaturated feedstocks, which are valuable for making detergents and surfactants, from C16 to C22-rich natural oils such as soybean oil or palm oil. Soybean oil and palm oil can be more economical than, for example, coconut oil, which is a traditional starting material for making detergents. As Professor Mol explains, metathesis relies on conversion of olefins into new products by rupture and reformation of carbon-carbon double bonds mediated by transition metal carbene complexes. Self-metathesis of an unsaturated fatty ester can provide an equilibrium mixture of starting material, an internally unsaturated hydrocarbon, and an unsaturated diester. For instance, methyl oleate (methyl cis-9-octadecenoate) is partially converted to 9-octadecene and dimethyl 9-octadecene-1,18-dioate, with both products consisting predominantly of the trans-isomer. Metathesis effectively isomerizes the cis-double bond of methyl oleate to give an equilibrium mixture of cis- and trans-isomers in both the "unconverted" starting material and the metathesis products, with the trans-isomers predominating.
Cross-metathesis of unsaturated fatty esters with olefins generates new olefins and new unsaturated esters that can have reduced chain length and that may be difficult to make otherwise. For instance, cross-metathesis of methyl oleate and 3-hexene provides 3-dodecene and methyl 9-dodecenoate (see also U.S. Pat. No. 4,545,941). Terminal olefins are particularly desirable synthetic targets, and Elevance Renewable Sciences, Inc. recently described an improved way to prepare them by cross-metathesis of an internal olefin and an α-olefin in the presence of a ruthenium alkylidene catalyst (see U.S. Pat. Appl. Publ. No. 2010/0145086). A variety of cross-metathesis reactions involving an α-olefin and an unsaturated fatty ester (as the internal olefin source) are described. Thus, for example, reaction of soybean oil with propylene followed by hydrolysis gives, among other things, 1-decene, 2-undecenes, 9-decenoic acid, and 9-undecenoic acid. Despite the availability (from cross-metathesis of natural oils and olefins) of unsaturated fatty esters having reduced chain length and/or predominantly trans-configuration of the unsaturation, surfactants have generally not been made from these feedstocks.
We recently described new compositions made from feedstocks based on self-metathesis of natural oils or cross-metathesis of natural oils and olefins. In particular, we identified esteramines and ester quats, fatty amides, fatty amines and amidoamines, quaternized amines, betaines, sulfobetaines, alkoxylates, sulfonates, sulfo-estolides, and other compositions made by derivatizing the unique feedstocks (see copending PCT/US11/57596, PCT/US11/57597, PCT/US11/57595, PCT/US11/57602, PCT/US11/57605, and PCT/US11/57609, all filed Oct. 25, 2011. The feedstocks, which include C10-C17 monounsaturated acids and their ester derivatives, preferably have at least 1 mole % of trans-Δ9 unsaturation. Because performance of a particular surfactant or blend of surfactants in a light-duty liquid detergent is not easily inferred from surfactant structure, we performed extensive experimental investigations to identify subclasses of surfactants having desirable attributes for use in LDL detergents.
New surfactant classes are always of interest to formulators of light-duty liquid detergents. Surfactants based on renewable resources will continue to be in demand as alternatives to petroleum-based surfactants. Traditional natural sources of fatty acids and esters used for making surfactants generally have predominantly (or exclusively) cis-isomers and lack relatively short-chain (e.g., C10 or C12) unsaturated fatty portions. Metathesis chemistry provides an opportunity to generate precursors having shorter chains and mostly trans-isomers, which could impart improved performance when the precursors are converted to downstream compositions (e.g., in surfactants). Formulators will benefit from identification of particular subclasses of surfactants that derive from renewable sources and have desirable attributes for LDL detergents.

Light-duty liquid detergents based on compositions derived from natural oil metathesis


A pleated shade with sewn in pleats is provided, in which each pleat is formed by a seam. Preferably, the seams that form pleats in the front side of the material separate only a few threads of the fabric from the main portions of the pleat. The seams that form pleats in the back surface of the panel preferably form a large tab of approximately one fourth of an inch which opens to create a pocket adjacent each seam. A stiff or flexible rod is placed in each pocket. Lift cords and spacer cords are attached to the larger rear tabs by clips.

In a standard pleated shade construction, a piece of material having a front side and a back side is pleated into a plurality of horizontal sections which stack one on top of the other when the shade is in its raised position. Alternate pleats face toward the front side or the rear side of the shade. Each section has at least one hole punched preferably through the transverse center thereof which holes are aligned when the shade is folded. Normally, there would be two or more aligned rows of holes formed in the shade sections. Lift cords passing through the aligned holes are utilized to control the raising and lowering of the shade and also control the folding of the pleat.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,974,656 discloses a pleated shade construction in which tabs are formed on the pleats on the rear of the shade. The tabs are formed by securing together the two sections of material forming each of the back projecting pleats along substantially the entire width of the material to form a tab of approximately five sixteenths to three eights of an inch projecting from the rear of each of such pleats. The sections may be secured together by welding, gluing, sewing or other suitable means. The lift cords are threaded through holes in the tabs which does not result in cords and holes being visible from the front of the shade. The rear projecting tabs permit two sections of pleated shade to be easily and invisibly spliced together at the tab. The rigidity of the pleats may be enhanced by providing a double-weld joint for the tab or by otherwise providing a multiple or continuous bond between the two fabric layers forming the tab. The joints used to form the tabs may be used as splice joints to secure together two pieces of shade material.
The pleated fabric disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,974,656 and other prior art pleated shades typically exhibit a rectilinear or "hard" appearance, due in part to the material used to make the shade which is coated to hold the permanent creases and also due in part to the method of manufacture. Conventional methods of constructing the pleated material for a simple, single pleat type of shade involve either creasing the entire length of material at regular intervals, or creasing portions of material and creating tabs which may be joined together to form, or repair, a shade from more than a single piece of material. The "hard" appearance generally results because the creases or the tabs used to form the pleats are continuous along the entire width of the shade material and very straight, even sharp. Furthermore, there are some materials such as lace which are difficult to pleat because the weave is so open that there is not enough material to retain pleat retention coatings. There are also some fabrics that can discolor when ironed or coated to create or maintain pleats.
Consequently, there is a need for a pleated material which has a "softer," more textured appearance than conventional pleated shades. There is also a need for a pleat that can be formed in lace and other fabrics without using ironing and coatings to create and maintain the pleats.


A slot nozzle having an adjustable width mouthpiece opening for applying a flowable material such as an adhesive to a surface. The nozzle has two slidable elements which are slidably displaceable with respect to each other in a predetermined direction to vary the width of the mouthpiece opening formed by the two slidable elements.

Slot nozzles of the afore-mentioned type serve for the areal application of different types of flowable material to various types of surfaces. Depending upon the intended purpose, e.g. dissolved or reactive synthetic resins such as polyurethane may be used as the material to be applied, but cold glue or hot-melt adhesive are also suitable. Such materials may for instance be applied for coating purposes to narrow surfaces of wood, plastic or metal profiles or as adhesive strips to films or paper surfaces.
For all applications, there is often the problem that the width in which the flowable material is to be applied varies, for instance because wood or plastic profiles of different thicknesses are to be coated, or because adhesive or color strips are to be applied in varying widths, for instance to film surfaces. Slot nozzles, the dispensing width of which is changeable, are known for such applications. It goes without saying that such slot nozzles must also be easy to dismantle and assemble and to be free of residues of adhesive or synthetic resin for cleaning purposes. In order that for instance, reactive resin does not remain in "dead water areas" of the slot nozzle until it hardens, as far as possible material should flow constantly through all channels of the slot nozzle while in use; this also applies to those channels or parts thereof which are temporarily not required when the slot width is reduced.
The requirement for dismantling ability of the slot nozzle yields the problem of imperviousness at the parting surfaces. Due to the different types of materials which are to be applied, it must first be expected that these are of low viscosity and capable of creep; however it may also be that the materials contain solvents which will attack the seals of the slot nozzle. Finally, there are a number of fields of application where what matters is that the slot nozzle is flat. Such a field of application is for instance, the gluing of edge veneers to the lateral surfaces of table leaves and the like. Often the edge veneers can be supplied to the lateral surfaces only at an obtuse angle because they break easily owing to their brittleness if the bending radius is too small when applying the edge veneer to the lateral surface to be veneered. At the same time, the adhesive should be applied as immediately as possible in the vicinity of the point at which the edge veneer and the lateral surface meet, because then fast-hardening adhesives can be used for a high production rate without there being the risk of the adhesive hardening even before the edge veneer and the lateral surface have met. Precisely when veneering the lateral surfaces of table leaves, due to the different thicknesses of the table leaves, the problem often occurs that the width of the adhesive film has to be matched to this thickness.
The object underlying the invention therefore consists in devising a slot nozzle which can be used as universally as possible, which avoids the problems discussed previously to as great an extent as possible and meets the requirements stated and is as simple as possible in construction.


A nonvolatile memory and a method of manufacturing a nonvolatile memory are disclosed. A nonvolatile memory according to an exemplary embodiment may include a deep well formed on a substrate, a first well formed within the deep well, a second well formed separately from the first well within the deep well, a first metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) formed on the first well, and a second MOSFET formed on the second well. According to a method of manufacturing a nonvolatile memory according to an exemplary embodiment, a well region of a control MOSFET of a memory cell may be shared with a control MOSFET of an adjacent memory cell, or a well region of a tunneling MOSFET of a memory cell may be shared with a tunneling MOSFET of an adjacent memory cell, thereby reducing an area of the memory cells. Further, the nonvolatile memory according to the exemplary embodiment may constantly maintain a voltage of a shared well region in the tunneling MOSFET and apply a different voltage to a source/drain from that of an adjacent cell, thereby recording data only in the selected memory cell or deleting recorded data from the selected memory cell while sharing the well region.

1. Field
The present invention relates to a nonvolatile memory and a method of manufacturing a nonvolatile memory, and more particularly, to a structure of a single polysilicon electrically erasable programmable read only memory (EEPROM) capable of performing recording, deleting and reading operations at a low voltage, a method of manufacturing the same, and an operation method of the same.
2. Description of Related Art
As a nonvolatile memory device using a silicon semiconductor process, a dual polysilicon electrically erasable programmable read only memory (EEPROM), in which double layers of polysilicon are staked as a floating gate and a control gate, and a flash memory are generally used. Despite its small cell size, this stacked gate-type memory involves a complicated circuit and manufacturing process and thus is not proper for a low-density and low-cost memory.
Storage devices with a comparatively small memory capacity and inexpensiveness are needed in various fields using a radio-frequency identification (RFID) chip. Here, a single polysilicon EEPROM compatible with a complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) is generally used.
The single polysilicon EEPROM may be programmed by two methods. A first method is channel hot electron injection. According to a programming method using channel hot electron injection, a strong electric field is formed in a channel region between a source electrode and a drain electrode, and part of electrons having a high kinetic energy by the strong electric field pass through a potential barrier of an oxide layer to be injected into a floating gate. The electrons injected into the floating gate are isolated by a potential barrier of an insulating layer, resulting in an increase in a threshold voltage of the MOS.
A second method is Fowler-Nordheim (F-N) tunneling. According to a programming method using F-N tunneling, as a high electric field is applied to an oxide between a gate and a source/drain/well electrode, an tunneling current exponentially increases with respect to the electronic field. The high electric field may cause an F-N tunneling phenomenon of electrons in the MOS, so that electrons may be injected into the floating gate and the threshold voltage of the MOS may increase accordingly.

Non-volatile memory (NVM) and method for manufacturing thereof

Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute


In the field of opto-electronic technology, a three-dimensional (3D) light-emitting diode (LED) light-emitting plate is described. The 3D LED light-emitting plate includes an aluminum substrate. The aluminum substrate is vertically disposed. Notches are formed on an upper side of the aluminum substrate in a thickness direction. LED chips are mounted in the notches. A flexible circuit layer is disposed on a surface of the aluminum substrate. Each LED chip is connected to a circuit of the flexible circuit layer by a gold wire. A fluorescent colloid light-emitting shell is disposed outside each LED chip correspondingly. A cavity is formed between the LED chip and the fluorescent colloid light-emitting shell. A lower portion of the fluorescent colloid light-emitting shell is fixed on the aluminum substrate. The 3D LED light-emitting plate effectively improves the luminous brightness and efficiency of an LED and enlarges an effective light-emitting angle, and alleviates the problem of non-uniform light pattern and light color, such that an LED white light lamp can achieve the luminous effect of a tungsten lamp. The fluorescent colloid light-emitting shell wraps the LED chip, which not only protects the LED chip from dust and produces white light, but is also suitable for use in a severe environment. Moreover, the production cost is reduced due to the simple structure.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to the field of opto-electronic technology, and more particularly to a three-dimensional (3D) light-emitting diode (LED) light-emitting plate.
2. Related Art
Two methods for fixing a high-power LED chip exist in the prior art. In one method, a high-power chip is firstly fixed on a copper support and then powered on to emit light by gold wire bonding, and heat is dissipated through the support. In the other method, a chip is fixed on a surface of an aluminum substrate and then powered on to emit light by gold wire bonding, and a heat dissipation effect is achieved through the aluminum substrate. In both the two structures, the LED is surface-mounted on a plane and then soldered. For the production process in which the LED chip is mounted on the substrate surface, the LED only has an effective light-emitting angle of 65 degrees, and cannot illuminate a large area. In addition, a halo effect occurs, resulting in a color difference between light in the center and edges of a light pattern formed by the LED. Moreover, in the existing product, a fluorescent powder colloid covers a surface of the LED chip and a gold wire, and the gold wire is often broken by the colloid due to thermal expansion and contraction of the colloid and becomes a blind spot. Since the working temperature of the colloid can only be maintained at 80° C. to −10° C., and thermal expansion and contraction of the colloid influences the quality of the chip, the chip is not suitable for use in a severe working environment. The excessively small space causes refraction of the light emitted by the chip inside the colloid, which reduces the luminous performance. The production cost of the existing product is high.

Three-dimensional LED light-emitting plate


The subject matter described herein includes methods, systems, and computer readable media for preventing software piracy. One method includes specifying at least one codemark that is intrinsic to a computing system. The method further includes inserting guard code in an application. The guard code including a first code portion that uses a codemark and produces an output that depends on a value of the codemark and a second code portion that uses the output of the first code portion. The method further includes executing the first and second code portions and selectively triggering a protective action based on the output of the second code portion. Multiple types, styles, and frequencies of guard codes can be used to provide in-depth, long lasting, and strong protection.

Software piracy is the unauthorized use or copying of software onto a machine or medium on which use of the software is not authorized. Software piracy costs companies billions of dollars in losses each year. For example, the Software Business Alliance estimates that over thirty-five percent of software applications in the world are pirated. This currently results in a yearly sales loss of about fifty billion dollars.
Current software anti-piracy methods, such as encryption, have only had modest success. For example, if a user has a product key, in some instances, the software can still be used beyond the scope of the original software license.
Another software antipiracy method is the use of guard code in an application. One type of guard reads a value stored in a computing system to determine whether or not the application is authorized to execute on the computing system. A problem with using guards is that their actions can be detected and used when the software is moved to a new computing system. For example, if an application includes guard code that receives a system-specific value before executing, the read operation can be detected, and the system specific value can be copied to a new computing system. When the application is copied to the new computing system, because the correct system-specific value is present, the application will execute on the new application, even though the application is not authorized to be executed on the new computing system.
In addition to the problem of preventing software piracy, it may be desirable to protect documents readable on computing systems such that the documents can only be read by a specific reader application located on an authorized computing system. Because reader applications can be pirated, protecting documents in this manner can be difficult. Accordingly, there exists a need for methods, systems, and computer readable media for preventing software piracy and for protecting digital documents using software piracy prevention methods.

Methods, systems, and computer readable media for preventing software piracy and protecting digital documents using same


A process for producing strains of Trichoderma virens which are deficient for production of viridiol for use as biocontrol agents is disclosed. These mutant strains are produced by treatment of viable T. virens with chemical or physical mutagens, preferably by irradiation with ultraviolet light. The treated fungi are then screened for production of viridiol to select for deficient strains. Following recovery, the mutant strains may be used as biocontrol agents for the control of plant diseases by application to the locus of a plant, seedling or seed to be protected. Coating seeds with the biocontrol agent prior to planting has been found to be particularly effective for the control of soilborne root or seedling diseases.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a biological control agent for control of fungal diseases in plants.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Trichoderma virens (formerly known as Gliocladium virens) has been recognized as a mycoparasite and antibiotic-producing antagonist of plant pathogens, and has been used as an effective biocontrol agent of several soilborne root or seedling diseases Aluko and Hering, 1970, Trans. Br. Mycol. Soc., 55:173-179; Beagle-Ristaino and Papavizas, 1985, Phytopathology, 75:560-564; Howell, 1982, Phytopathology, 72:496-498; Howell and Stipanovic, 1983, Can. J. Microbiol., 29:321-324; Weindling and Fawcett, 1936, Hilgardia, 10:1-16; and Wright, 1956, Plant Soil, 8:132-140!. T. virens produces gliotoxin and gliovirin, which are particularly effective antifungal antibiotics, as well as the antibacterial compound heptelidic acid and the antifungal compound viridin.
In addition to its use as an antifungal biocontrol agent, T. virens has also been employed as a mycoherbicide Jones et al., 1988, Weed Science, 36:683-687; and Howell and Stipanovic, 1984, Phytopathology, 74:1346-1349!. Herbicidal activity has been attributed to the production of viridiol, a steroidal phytotoxin which is very toxic to the growing tip of the emerging radicle of a germinating seedling and results in necrosis of the meristematic tissue and severe stunting of the root.
Unfortunately, viridiol has not only been shown to be phytotoxic to weeds such as pigweed, but also to valuable crop plants such as cotton seedlings Howell et al., Phytopathology, 74:1346-1349 (1984)!. Thus, the production of the phytotoxic compound viridiol may severely restrict the use of T. virens as a biocontrol agent for the control of plant diseases, limiting the amount of T. virens that can be applied to crops and/or seeds.
This problem can be partially alleviated by the addition of sterol inhibiting fungicides to the developing fungus cultures as described by Howell (U.S. Pat. No. 5,268,173, the contents of which are incorporated by reference herein). However, excessive levels of these fungicides tend to inhibit the growth of the T. virens, and do not prevent subsequent production of phytotoxin by the fungus around the seed after planting.

Viridiol deficient mutant strains of the biocontrol agent trichoderma virens, process of making and using as biocontrol agent

The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of Agriculture


A method for testing a tire by interferometry in a pressure chamber of a tire testing device includes capturing phase images at different pressures in the pressure chamber, generating partial phase difference images between successive phase images, and summing the partial phase difference images to form an overall phase difference image. The pressure in the pressure chamber is changed in a first direction during a first measurement phase and the pressure is changed in the opposite direction during a second measurement phase, wherein at least one partial phase difference image from the first measurement phase and at least one partial phase difference image from the second measurement phase are included in the summation.

Using methods for testing a tire by interferometry in a pressure chamber, it is possible to identify defects, such as air inclusions, lying in the interior of the tire. To this end, the pressure in the pressure chamber of the tire testing device is changed and the deformation of the tire generated by the pressure change is measured by interferometry. Phase images of the surface of the tire to be tested are captured at at least two different pressure states and a phase difference image is formed from the phase images, said phase difference image showing the deformation of the tire.
The interferometric test can be a holographic test or a shearographic test. However, use is typically made of shearography as it has the decisive advantage over holography that it can also be used in industrial conditions and in industrial surroundings.
However, two substantial interfering factors still exist when testing tires by interferometry, even when using shearography: This is, inter alia, a whole-body deformation of the tire during the test, caused by a preceding deformation, a local deformation of the tire during the test, caused by a preceding spatial restricted deformation, and vibrations of the tire during the test. The whole-body deformation of the tire is usually based on deformations of the tire which were generated, for example, by introducing the tire into the tire testing device and the relaxation of the tire back into its initial state, occurring during the test. Local deformations of the tire are also usually based on preceding local deformations, for example in the form of pressure points, which relax during the test. Vibrations of the tire can be excited by very different effects, for example by air flows when changing the pressure or external vibration stimulators.
FIG. 1 shows a first measurement log known from the prior art. Here, negative pressure is generated initially during a first phase and the negative pressure then is released again during a second phase by quick aeration of the pressure chamber. A first phase image B0 is captured at maximum negative pressure and a second phase image B1 is captured upon return to the initial pressure after releasing the negative pressure. Then, a phase difference image D=B1−B0 is generated from the two phase images B0 and B1. This procedure is relatively insensitive in relation to vibrations of the tire. However, whole-body deformations have a very problematic effect here. In particular, these may be substantially larger than the actual deformations from defects of the tire to be examined and/or these may lead to decoherence between the phase images.
Therefore, the document DE 10101057 A1 describes a further method for testing tires by shearography, in which a sequence of phase images of the object is recorded during the deformation of the tire. Thereupon, a partial phase difference image is generated from respectively two successive phase images and the individual partial phase difference images are summed to form an overall phase difference image. An exemplary embodiment of such a method is shown in FIG. 2. Here, a sequence of phase images B0 to B6 is captured while the negative pressure in the pressure chamber of the tire testing device is increased. In each case, a partial phase difference image Di=Bi+1−Bi is determined between adjacent phase images Bi and Bi+1, and then all partial phase difference images Di are summed to form an overall phase difference image.
As a result of summing a plurality of phase difference images, the measurement method is relatively insensitive to whole-body deformations. In particular, the coherence between adjacent phase images is maintained. Furthermore, the whole-body deformation can be eliminated from the overall phase difference image. However, the interferences caused by vibrations are amplified during this procedure. As a result, the tire testing devices become more susceptible to errors, the overall phase difference images become noisy and the test times are increased.

Method for testing a tire by interferometry


An outdoor grill of the type having a base, a cover, a food-supporting grill and a heating element includes an electrical housing having a support member removably disposed within the outdoor grill, and a housing member secured to the support member. The housing member is shaped to define a cavity wherein at least one electrical connection is located. The top and the sides of the housing member define a nonperforated surface which substantially prevents substances damaging to the at least one electrical connection from entering the cavity. In case damaging substances do enter the cavity, the bottom of the housing member defines a surface having at least one vent for venting the substances from the housing.

The present invention relates generally to the field of electrical housings for appliances, and more particularly to an electrical housing for outdoor appliances.
Electrical wires and connections in appliances are typically contained in protective housings or coatings to prevent the occurrence of short-circuits, fires, electric shock and other similar undesirable incidents. The use of such protective housings is especially important for outdoor appliances, where the appliances' exposure to the elements increases the risk of the previously described events.
To reduce the risk of injury and short-circuits, electrical wires and connections have been encased in a coating of rubber, plastic, or other similar non-conductive material. Electrical connections have also been placed in metallic or plastic electrical receptacles. Often, these receptacles are not covered with a non-conductive and/or water-resistant material to protect the electrical connections from the elements.
The above-described electrical housings do not possess the desired advantages of weather protection and ease of access to the protected electrical connections. If an appliance utilizing a protective coating over electrical connections requires maintenance or repair, the protective coating may be damaged in the process of uncovering the wires and connections. On the other hand, an appliance utilizing an electrical receptacle allows ready access to the electrical connections, but the electrical receptacle may not be sufficiently weather resistant to permit safe use of the appliance outdoors.
Additionally, while protective coatings usually prevent substances damaging to the wires and connections from contacting the wires and connections, once such substances do penetrate the coating there are usually no available means for venting the substances out of the coating. Furthermore, the use of rubber or plastic coatings to protect the wires and connections is relatively expensive due to the cost of such materials.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide an electrical housing for appliances that is substantially weather-proof.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an electrical housing that vents substances damaging to electrical wires and connections from the housing if such substances do happen to enter the housing.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide an electrical housing that permits ease of access to the electrical wires and connections of the appliance.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide an electrical housing that is designed to reduce heat transfer from the appliance to the electrical housing.

Electrical appliance with hermetically sealed connector having venting means


A printing method and a printing apparatus are achieved that can improve the quality of printed images. The printing method comprises the following steps: (a) a step of printing a correction pattern on a medium, wherein said correction pattern comprises a plurality of lines made of a plurality of dots arranged in a movement direction of nozzles, said lines being disposed in an intersecting direction that intersects with said movement direction, and is printed by alternately repeating an operation to eject ink from a plurality of said nozzles and an operation of moving said medium in said intersecting direction; (b) a step of determining for each of said lines a correction value for correcting a darkness in said intersecting direction of an image to be printed on said medium, wherein a degree of darkness correction in said correction values is determined according to a darkness of said correction pattern and a darkness of an image to be printed; and (c) a step of printing said image on said medium based on said correction values determined corresponding to each of said lines.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to printing methods and printing apparatuses.
2. Description of the Related Art
Inkjet printers (hereinafter referred to simply as "printers") that eject ink onto paper serving as a medium to form dots are known as printing apparatuses for printing images. These printers repeat alternately a dot formation operation of forming dots on a paper by ejecting ink droplets from a plurality of nozzles which move together with a carriage, and a carrying operation of carrying the paper in an intersecting direction that intersects with the movement direction (hereinafter, referred to as the "carrying direction") using a carry unit. By repeating these operations, raster lines are formed on the paper that consist of a plurality of dots arranged in the movement direction of the carriage. An image is printed by a plurality of the raster lines being formed in the carrying direction.
With this type of printer, the ink-droplet ejection characteristics, such as the amount of the ink droplet and the travel direction, vary from nozzle to nozzle. Such variations in the ejection characteristics are a cause of darkness non-uniformities in printed images, and thus are not preferable. Accordingly, with conventional methods, a correction value is set for each nozzle and the amount of ink is adjusted based on those correction values that are set (see JP H2-54676A for example).
In this conventional method, an output characteristics coefficient that indicates the characteristics of the ink ejection amount for each nozzle is stored in a head-characteristics register. Then, when an ink droplet is to be ejected, this output-characteristics coefficient is used to prevent darkness non-uniformities in the printed images.
However, the above-described conventional method corrects the ejection amount of ink droplets from each nozzle, but does not give consideration to darkness non-uniformities caused by the travel curve of ink droplets. Such darkness non-uniformities are related to landing positions of ink droplets ejected from the nozzles and are brought about by displacement in the carrying direction from the normal position. In other words, darkness non-uniformities occur when the spacing between adjacent raster lines becomes narrower or wider than the prescribed spacing. Accordingly, the darkness non-uniformities occur due to combinations of nozzles responsible for each raster line. For this reason, according to the conventional method described above, darkness non-uniformities due to the travel curve of ink droplets can occur when the sequence of the nozzles that form each raster line is different from the arrangement of the nozzles in the heads.
For example, there are cases where darkness non-uniformities can occur when using the interlaced mode as the print mode. The interlaced mode is a print mode in which unformed raster lines are set between raster lines that are formed in a single dot formation operation, and all of the raster lines are formed in a complementary manner through a plurality of dot formation operations. With this print mode, adjacent raster lines are not printed by the same nozzle. With this interlaced mode, there are cases in which the sequence of the nozzles responsible for adjacent raster lines in a printed image differs from the arrangement of the nozzles in the head, and darkness non-uniformities due to the travel curve can occur in these cases. The occurrence of such darkness non-uniformities reduces the quality of the printed images.

Printing darkness non-uniformities correction method and printing darkness non-uniformities correction apparatus


A transceiver system includes a first section coupled to a first antenna, a second section coupled to a second antenna, and a radio frequency (RF) unit. The first section includes a transmit path and a first receive path for a first (e.g., GSM) wireless system, a transmit path and a first receive path for a second (e.g., CDMA) wireless system, and a transmit/receive (T/R) switch that couples the signal paths to the first antenna. The second section includes a second receive path for the first wireless system and a second receive path for the second wireless system. The first and second receive paths for the first wireless system are for two frequency bands. The first and second receive paths for the second wireless system are for a single frequency band and provide receive diversity. The transceiver system may include a GPS receive path coupled to a third antenna.

I. Field
The present invention relates generally to electronics, and more specifically to a transmitter/receiver (transceiver) system suitable for a wireless device.
II. Background
Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various communication services such as voice, data, and so on. These wireless systems may be based on Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA), or some other multiple-access techniques. A wireless system may implement one or more standards adopted by a consortium known as 3GPP2, such as IS-2000, IS-856, IS-95, and so on. A wireless system may also implement one or more standards adopted by a consortium known as 3GPP, such as Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), Wideband-CDMA (W-CDMA), and so on. IS-2000 and W-CDMA are third generation standards for CDMA. IS-95 and GSM are second generation standards for CDMA and TDMA, respectively. These standards are well known in the art.
A wireless communication device (e.g., a cellular phone) utilizes a transceiver system to obtain two-way communication with a wireless system. The transceiver system includes a transmitter for data transmission and a receiver for data reception. On a transmit path, the transmitter modulates a radio frequency (RF) carrier signal with data to be sent to generate an RF modulated signal that is more suitable for transmission. The transmitter further conditions the RF modulated signal to generate an RF uplink signal and then transmits the RF uplink signal via a wireless channel to one or more base stations in the wireless system. On a receive path, the receiver receives one or more RF downlink signals from one or more base stations, and conditions and processes the received signal to obtain data sent by the base station(s).
A wireless system may operate on one or more frequency bands, and a transceiver may have a transmit signal path and a receive signal path for each frequency band used by the wireless system. The transceiver may thus have many signal paths if multiple frequency bands are used by the wireless system. The wireless system may be a time division duplex (TDD) system, such as a GSM system, that transmits and receives in different time intervals. In this case, a transmit/receive (T/R) switch may be used to couple one of the signal paths, at any given moment, to an antenna at the wireless device. The T/R switch has one common RF port for the antenna (which corresponds to a single pole on the switch) and one input/output (I/O) RF port for each signal path (which corresponds to a throw on the switch). For example, a single-pole four-throw (SP4T) T/R switch may be used in a dual-band GSM transceiver having two transmit paths and two receive paths. As the number of signal paths increases to support more frequency bands, more I/O RF ports are needed for the T/R switch. The design of the T/R switch becomes more complex and performance degrades as the number of I/O RF ports increases.
A multi-mode wireless device (e.g., a dual-mode cellular phone) may be capable of communicating with multiple wireless systems (e.g., GSM and CDMA systems). This capability allows the multi-mode device to receive communication services from more systems and enjoy greater coverage provided by these systems. A multi-mode transceiver may have many signal paths to support all of the frequency bands used by all of the wireless systems. Interconnecting all of these signal paths to the antenna may require a complicated T/R switch with many I/O RF ports.
There is therefore a need in the art for a transceiver system capable of supporting multiple frequency bands for multiple wireless systems and having reduced complexity.


An inflator 10 of a vehicle occupant protection system contains an elongated housing 12 having a plurality of gas exit orifices 14 spaced along the length thereof. A first propellant body 31 and a second propellant body 33 are provided in lengths substantially equivalent to the length of the housing 12 wherein the first propellant body 31 is placed in physical contact with the second propellant body 33 for all or most of their respective lengths. Once the first propellant body 31 is ignited upon a crash event, resultant uniform ignition and combustion across the length of the second propellant body 33 results in uniform gas generation and uniform inflation of an airbag 26, wherein the airbag 26 is at least substantially coextensive with and in fluid communication with the housing 12. Preferred mixtures of first propellant body 31 contain silicone, a perchlorate oxidizer, and a nitrate salt.

The present invention relates to gas generators used to inflate air bags in an automobile occupant protection system and, more particularly, to a head curtain inflator designed to protect the occupants of a vehicle during a rollover accident. The novel design provides a steady and uniform production of gas thereby providing sustained inflation of the airbag, and is particularly useful as a linear head side airbag inflator.
Inflation systems for deploying an air bag in a motor vehicle generally employ a gas generator in fluid communication with an uninflated air bag. The gas generator is typically triggered by a firing circuit when the sensed vehicle acceleration exceeds a predetermined threshold value, as through the use of an acceleration-responsive inertial switch.
Air bag inflation systems designed for rollover accidents often utilize a gas generator stored within the B-pillar of the car, for example. Hybrid gas generators are typical and contain pressurized gas that is released upon receipt of a predetermined signal. The gas must then be transferred to the point of application and thus requires additional plumbing.
Certain known side-impact inflators require plumbing to convey gas generated in a relatively remote gas generator to the airbag, thus complicating the manufacturing of the vehicle occupant protection system and furthermore resulting in a relative delay prior to airbag inflation.
Other known gas generators sometimes result in less than optimum inflation profiles. For example, original equipment manufacturers oftentimes require sustained inflation of the airbag thereby ensuring continued protection during a rollover accident. To ensure sustained inflation, gas generant compositions must exhibit sustained combustion over the desired or required time.
Gas quantities plumbed to the airbag are often not uniform across s the inflation profile of the airbag. Stated another way, a portion of the airbag may inflate or pressurize to a greater degree than another portion of the airbag. As a result, the airbag may provide less protection in the regions not completely inflated.
As such, a challenge remains to provide sustained and uniform inflation across the length of airbag employed for vehicular side-impact protection.
Related vehicle occupant protection systems are known. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,322,322, 5,094,475, 3,733,088, 5,540,459, 5,588,672, and 5,921,576 are cited by way of example and are herein incorporated by reference.


A computing device executing an optimizer analyzes a video. The computing device identifies one or more optimizations for the video based on the analysis. The computing device suggests the one or more optimizations to an entity associated with the video. In response to the entity accepting the one or more optimizations, the computing device implements the one or more optimizations for the video.

Many video hosting websites allow entities to post videos. Users can then view those videos. Such videos can be monetized by associating advertisements to the videos. Users who view a video may also be presented with the advertisements, and the entity that uploaded the video may be paid based on the users who viewed the video. Improvements to the videos may increase a number of users who view the videos, and thus increase revenues of the entity that controls the videos. However, it may be difficult for the entity to determine how the video should be changed to improve it.

Providing suggestions for optimizing videos to video owners


Methods and systems are provided for operating exhaust valves of an engine to create more even exhaust pulses to a turbine. More specifically, the engine may include one or more dedicated exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) cylinders routing exhaust to an engine intake and one or more non-dedicated EGR cylinder routing exhaust to the turbine. In one example, a method may include operating a first set of exhaust valves of a group of non-dedicated EGR cylinders to have no exhaust valve opening overlap and operating an exhaust valve of a dedicated EGR cylinder so that opening of the second exhaust valve overlaps with opening of exhaust valves of two cylinders of the group of non-dedicated EGR cylinders.

Engines may be configured with exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) systems to divert at least some exhaust gas from an engine exhaust manifold to an engine intake manifold. By providing a desired engine dilution, such systems reduce engine knock, throttling losses, in-cylinder heat losses, as well as NOx emissions. As a result, fuel economy is improved, especially at higher levels of engine boost. Engines have also been configured with a sole cylinder (or cylinder group) that is dedicated for providing external EGR to the engine cylinders. Therein, all of the exhaust from the dedicated cylinder group is recirculated to the intake manifold. As such, this allows a substantially fixed amount of EGR to be provided to engine cylinders at most operating conditions. By adjusting the fueling of the dedicated EGR cylinder group (e.g., to run rich), the EGR composition can be varied to include species such as hydrogen which improve the EGR tolerance of the engine and result in fuel economy benefits.
Various approaches may be used to time the firing of one or more dedicated EGR cylinder with non-dedicated EGR cylinders. In one example, the firing of the non-dedicated EGR cylinders may be distributed unevenly due to the firing of the dedicated EGR cylinder(s). For example, US patent publication no. 2012/0216530 shows firing a dedicated EGR cylinder between successive firing of three non-dedicated EGR cylinders. Additionally, all cylinders, including the dedicated EGR cylinders, fire at the same number of crank degrees after the previously fired cylinder. However, the inventors herein have recognized problems with this approach. For example, firing non-dedicated EGR cylinders and dedicated EGR cylinders with a conventional cylinder firing interval results in uneven exhaust pulses being delivered to the turbine. Further, a period may occur, during the firing of the dedicated EGR cylinder, where no exhaust flows to the turbine. Uneven exhaust blowdown pulses at the turbine may result in reduced engine performance and/or compressor surge events. Further still, in some examples, exhaust valve overlap between two or more cylinders routing exhaust to the turbine may result in exhaust blowdown interference at the turbine, thereby increasing in-cylinder pressures and decreasing engine efficiency.
In one example, the issues described above may be addressed by a method for operating a first set of exhaust valves of a first group of cylinders to have no exhaust valve opening overlap and operating one or more second exhaust valves of a dedicated EGR cylinder routing exhaust to an intake manifold so that opening of the one or more second exhaust valves overlaps with opening of exhaust valves of two cylinders of the first group of cylinders. In this way, exhaust blowdown interference between the first group of cylinders may be decreased and exhaust pulses to the turbine may be more evenly spaced.
For example, the first group of cylinders may be a group of non-dedicated EGR cylinders routing exhaust via the first set of exhaust valves to a turbine while the dedicated EGR cylinder is the only cylinder routing exhaust to the intake manifold. By operating the non-dedicated EGR cylinders to have no exhaust valve overlap via changing the firing interval of those cylinders, exhaust valves of different cylinders for the first group of cylinders may not be open at the same time. Further, by overlapping opening of the exhaust valve of the dedicated EGR cylinder with two exhaust valve opening events of two of the non-dedicated EGR cylinders, exhaust may continue to flow to the turbine even while the exhaust valve of the dedicated EGR cylinder is open. In this way, the exhaust pulses to the turbine may be spaced more evenly without periods of no exhaust flow to the turbine. Additionally, exhaust exiting the exhaust valves of the non-dedicated EGR cylinders may not interfere with exhaust exiting the other exhaust valves of the non-dedicated EGR cylinders, thereby increasing engine efficiency.
It should be understood that the summary above is provided to introduce in simplified form a selection of concepts that are further described in the detailed description. It is not meant to identify key or essential features of the claimed subject matter, the scope of which is defined uniquely by the claims that follow the detailed description. Furthermore, the claimed subject matter is not limited to implementations that solve any disadvantages noted above or in any part of this disclosure.

Systems and methods for a modified cylinder firing interval in a dedicated EGR engine


The invention discloses a system applied to optimize the perceived sound quality in virtual sound zones. The system includes a method to establish a threshold of acceptability for an interfering audio programme on a target audio programme. The method includes physical parameters like target programme and interferer programme which combined with the scenarios: information gathering, entertainment and reading and/or working, constitutes modes of operations that may be processed and controlled by a system controller.

In today's media-driven society, there are ever more ways for users to access audio, with a plethora of products producing sound in the home, car or almost any other environment. Potential audio programmes include a large variety of music, speech, sound effects and combinations of the three. It is also increasingly common for products producing audio to be portable. This wide range of increasingly portable products which produce audio coupled with the ubiquity of audio in almost all facets of society naturally leads to an increase in situations in which there is some degree of audio-on-audio interference.
Examples of such situations might include audio produced by a laptop computer in a room with a television; a mobile phone conversation whilst a car radio is on, or in the presence of piped music in a shopping centre; or competing workstations in an office environment. It is therefore of interest in a number of areas, within the audio industry and beyond, to evaluate the perceived effect of audio interference upon a target audio programme.
A system for reproduction of different sound signals in a plurality of independent sound zones is described in GB 2472092 A. However, contrary to the method and system according to the present invention, the system described in this document uses loudspeakers placed in or adjacent each different zones. Furthermore the system divides the total frequency band into a high frequency band and a low frequency band and directs the high frequency components into the appropriate zone by using a directional loudspeaker array, whereas the amplitude, phase and delay of the low frequency components are adjusted according to the specific sound zone.

System for optimizing the perceived sound quality in virtual sound zones


One embodiment provides a method, including: receiving a story, wherein the story is received in a text-based format; identifying conversational blocks contained within the story, wherein the identifying conversational blocks comprises (i) identifying conversational turns within the story, (ii) identifying topic switches between conversational turns, and (iii) grouping conversational turns occurring between topic switches into a conversational block; for each of the conversational blocks, obtaining at least one image illustrating the corresponding conversational block, wherein the obtaining comprises (i) extracting concepts from the conversational block and (ii) identifying images illustrating the concepts; and generating a visual storyline representing the story by ordering the images obtained for each of the conversational blocks, based upon an order of the conversational blocks within the story, wherein the generating comprises refining the images to maintain consistency between the images.

Learning to read can be a difficult and time consuming process. The process of learning to read is usually segmented into different steps, with each step introducing new concepts. For example, a person who is starting to learn to read may be presented with books that are mostly illustrations (e.g., pictures, images, drawings, etc.) with a few words describing the illustrations. The illustrations assist a person in associating words with known concepts as identified in the illustrations. As the reader progresses, the books generally use fewer illustrations and have more words to describe the story. In other words, books are generally written for a specific age range or reading level with the number and complexity of illustrations being correlated with the age range or reading level of the book. For example, a book developed for inexperienced readers may include a greater number of (and less complex) illustrations than a book developed for a more experienced reader.

Visual storyline generation from text story

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION


Injection molded casement window frames completely ready for assembly into windows with the frames for swinging sash windows formed for mounting of all necessary hardware. Also hardware which mates with such frames and casement window assembled with such frames and hardware.

Conventionally, the manufacturer of casement windows whether the fixed window or swinging sash type starts with an extruder who extrudes the window frame and sash profiles to meet the requirements of the customer who is the actual window manufacturer who then fabricates the frames from these profiles.
To complete the windows, these fabricators must assemble the window frame and glazing unit and in the case of the swinging sash must purchase the necessary hardware to mount the sash in the window frame for its opening and closing function; the operating hardware for effecting the opening and closing movement of the sash; and the hardware for locking the sash in the closed position.
Customers of the swinging sash window fabricators will, of course, require windows of different sizes so that the fabricator must keep an inventory of hardware to fit the various sizes of windows he is required to supply. Further, the mounting of the hardware requires some machining of the frames assembled from the profiles supplied.
It will be appreciated that if the profiles are not accurately cut and assembled into the frames or subsequently properly machined to receive the hardware they become expensive waste items so that all in all the cost of the material in the form of the extrusions, the hardware for swinging sashes, potential waste costs, and costs in assembling the frames and the hardware costs make such casement window relatively expensive.
Moreover, conventional swinging sash casement windows for the residential market provide a window opening movement in which the sash is operated from an operator at one side of the window frame and swings to a position where it extends outwardly from the window frame at some point between the sides of the window frame thus reducing the egress area of escape through the window to just a portion of the size of the window frame opening.
Again, it will be appreciated that in some cases it is desirable that the window sash open outwardly towards the left and sometimes to open outwardly towards the right depending upon the window arrangement into which the casement window is to be incorporated. To provide for this flexibility of the customers demands, the fabricator must carry the necessary extensive hardware inventory to accommodate the customer's selection.
It is the object of the present invention to provide a new casement window manufacturing system and frames and matching hardware therefore which will greatly simplify the manufacture and materially reduce the costs of, and the time taken to, produce casement windows and to provide such windows which have important functional advantages over conventional casement windows.

Casement window system and components and hardware therefor


A non-aqueous refractory maintenance mix made from 100% deadburned magnesite or other basic aggregate plus additions of coal tar pitch and a paraffin distillate oil. This mix is especially useful for the repair and maintenance of BOF, EAF, EBT, and OBT tapholes.

This invention relates to refractory mixes and, more particularly it concerns a basic maintenance mix used for patching and repairing metal exit ports in steel producing vessels, such as tapholes in basic oxygen furnace (BOF) vessels, spouts in eccentric bottom tap (EBT) and off center tap (OBT) vessels, and spouts in electric arc furnaces (EAF).
Repair of a furnace taphole is usually done on a hot furnace free of molten metal. Typically, refractory sleeves are placed in the taphole. The gap between the sleeve and the taphole is variable and must be filled with a refractory material. At the cold face there is usually a 1 to 2 inch gap; at the hot face, a 6 inch gap on each side; and a 12 inch gap above the sleeve. All of the space around the sleeve is filled with a basic maintenance material. Typical downtime for changing a taphole sleeve is 5 to 7 hours. In some instances, it is not possible to repair a furnace with its molten contents emptied, but hot repairs must be done on the "run". It has been found that a maintenance mix which works well for emergency repairs to the taphole is preferred. The usual time required for emergency repairs to a taphole is about 30 minutes.
Conventional methods of filling the void between the taphole and the refractory sleeve involve gunning a magnesite-based patching mix around the sleeve. Because gunable mixes inherently have high levels of flow agents (typically water), after hardening the mixes tend to be of low density and prone to shrinking and cracking. Typically, this type of maintenance patch lasts only a few heats before further patching is required.
Creosote containing patching mixes have also been used as EAF maintenance materials. However, during heatup creosote containing mixes produce offensive fumes which create serious environmental hazards in the work place.
Patching around the sleeves is preferred simply because to replace the entire taphole block after it is worn would require shutting down the entire furnace which usually requires at least 8 to 10 hours of down time. Therefore, for reasons of economics, the industry has developed an inconvenient procedure of frequent repairing of taphole sleeves.
The need clearly exists for a longer lasting maintenance material which requires less frequent repair.


A method for manufacturing a multimaterial component or construction, whereby a body is formed in said method of a basic material and at least one piece formed of a wear resistant material being joined to said body at a temperature of not more than 80% of the lowest melting temperature of the materials to be joined. The invention also comprises the use of a multimaterial component or construction manufactured by means of said method.

Wear resistant structures and components are used e.g. in equipment for reducing the size of rock, building or recycling material. In these processes, the material being crushed, pressed between the components or impacting the surfaces of the structures or components, cause wear on the surfaces of the components to an extent depending on the contact surface pressure, velocities, material characteristics of the component surfaces and on the physical characteristics of the material being crushed, e.g. the compressive strength and tribology characteristics. In other words, the movement of the material being crushed with respect to the surfaces of the components as well as the penetration of the material into the surface of the component have influence on the wear of the component: The material moving with respect to the surfaces of the components causes cutting and grooving, and the material penetrating the surface produces burrs on the affected area, which burrs are easily detached from the surface of the structures and components by breakage, fatigue or formation of cuttings as the events occur repeatedly. The intensity of the wear of the structures and components in their various sections and in the equipment generally is defined by the geometry of the equipment, the motion state of the components and the flow parameters of the material being crushed.
Attempts to increase the effective service life of the structures and components in general are generally made not only by influencing the geometry and internal flow conditions of the equipment, but in particular by selecting advantageous materials. The tribology characteristics of metallic wear protection materials of prior art are based e.g. on advantageous alloying of the relevant metals, and possible addition of particles, on manufacturing processes and further treatments, like heat treatments, whereby phases having better than usual resistance to wear phenomena will be formed in their microstructure as a combined effect of all these factors, said phases typically being hard but often having low toughness and fatigue resistance. As characteristics apart from tribology characteristics are required from the structures and components, they usually cannot be manufactured completely from the materials having the microstructure described above. On the other hand, also the control of the wear pattern of the structures and components, e.g. for maintaining the geometry and internal flow model of the equipment, may require that different portions of the structures and components are manufactured from materials different from each other.
The methods used in manufacturing multimaterial components must almost without exception be adapted according the requirements of all the materials forming the structure, whereby the characteristics achieved in each material fall short of the target level for the respective material, and the best possible performance of the structure or the component will not be reached. Another significant challenge is to maintain the dimensional and shape tolerances of the pieces or portions during assembly and the subsequent treatments, which will be jointly directed to the pieces or portions consisting of various materials and to the boundaries between them. Thereby the different behavior of the materials in contact with or joined to each other, e.g. different volumetric changes, can cause damage to the structures and components. The above mentioned requirements totally exclude a number of manufacturing methods or at least complicate the manufacturing processes unreasonably as far as commercial exploitation is concerned.
In the methods and wear parts in accordance with Patent publications JP5317731, JP5317732 and JP6079187 on the contrary, the aim is to manufacture structures having parts of low durability placed in a wear resistant frame and thus to selectively and locally increase the rate of wear, thereby controlling the surface shape of the wear parts.
In the wear parts disclosed in Patent publication JP2001165146, a material having better wear resistance is introduced for controlling the wear pattern, but only a joining method requiring strict shape and measure tolerances is disclosed for the purpose of manufacturing the desired structures, which in terms of cost-efficiency is not reasonable.
Further, according to patent publication JP7323238 the aim is to directly obtain the functionally most preferred form of wear parts during the assembly of the structures, by mounting exactly formed wear protection pieces to the component bodies, whereby the expensive multi-stage manufacturing process of both the body parts and the wear protection pieces cannot be avoided.
Patent publications JP2001269589 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,123,279 disclose wear parts correspondingly aiming at increasing wear resistance by mounting wear resistant material in the body of the wear part, but by using a geometrically shape-locking joint, which also requires applying technically demanding and cost-increasing design methods to wear protection materials which are difficult to work and shape, e.g. the hard metals according to the latter publication, to achieve the dimensional and shape accuracy required for the assembly.
Patent publication JP2004160360 also discloses, that the wear resistant part must be formed (grooved) in a certain way for joining, which is not technically and economically profitable for the wear resistant materials to be used in the method in accordance with the invention.
Patent publication WO 03/099443 A1 discloses a manufacturing method for multimaterial structures, where wear resistant material or materials are joined to a body part made of machineable material by means of hot isostatic pressing directly using a direct diffusion joint or by using powder material added between the body and the wear resistant pieces. The gas-tight encapsulating of the structure required by the method, and the fact that at least partial machining is generally required for the pieces being joined, increase the work phases of the component manufacturing and increase the manufacturing costs too much for the utilization of the method to be economically profitable.

Method for manufacturing a multimaterial component or construction


In an image reader, if a first and second light sources alternately light-up when a conveying unit conveys an imaging target medium, a visible light data group that is based on a reflected light, of a wavelength inside a visible spectrum, of a first light having a wavelength inside the visible spectrum and a visible light external data group that is based on the reflected light, of the wavelength inside the visible spectrum, of a second light having a wavelength outside the visible spectrum are alternately generated. By scanning the imaging target medium once and by collecting multiple visible light data group, first image data of the imaging target medium, based on the first light, is generated. Furthermore, by collecting multiple visible light external data group, second image data of the imaging target medium, based on the second light, is also generated.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image reader that reads an image on an imaging target medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image reader that reads or scans an image recorded on an original (imaging target medium) has been developed. Examples of image readers are disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 3227231, Japanese Patent No. 3292392, and Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. H11-205538.
In the existing image readers disclosed earlier, if a visible light, which is a light of a wavelength inside a visible spectrum, irradiating an original and an image of a reflected light, which is based on the visible light, of the wavelength inside the visible spectrum, is picked up by a first imaging unit, image data picked-up by the first imaging unit based on the light of the wavelength inside the visible spectrum is generated. Moreover, if a light such as an ultraviolet light of a wavelength outside the visible spectrum irradiates the original and an image of a reflected light, which is based on the light such as the ultraviolet light, of the wavelength outside the visible spectrum is picked up by a second imaging unit, image data picked-up by the second imaging unit based on the light of the wavelength outside the visible spectrum is generated. Thus, the picked-up image data that is based on the light of the wavelength inside the visible spectrum and the picked-up image data that is based on the light of the wavelength outside the visible spectrum can be generated.
However, in the existing image readers disclosed earlier, for generating the picked-up image data that is based on the light of the wavelength inside the visible spectrum and the picked-up image data that is based on the light of the wavelength outside the visible spectrum, an imaging target portion of the original needs to be reciprocated along a vertical scanning direction. In the existing image readers disclosed earlier, for example, the visible light needs to irradiate the original while moving the imaging target portion, of the original, that is captured as an image by the imaging unit in an outward direction along the vertical scanning direction and the picked-up image data, based on the light of the wavelength inside the visible spectrum, needs to be generated by using the resulting reflected light. Furthermore, the ultraviolet light needs to irradiate the original while moving the imaging target position of the original in a homeward direction along the vertical scanning direction and the picked-up image data, based on the light of the wavelength outside the visible spectrum, needs to be generated by using the resulting reflected light. Thus, for generating the picked-up image data that is based on the light of the wavelength inside the visible spectrum and the picked-up image data that is based on the light of the wavelength outside the visible spectrum from the original, the imaging target portion of the original needs to be moved (scanned) along the vertical scanning direction for the number of times.