This invention relates to novel rosin-alkyl ester of unsaturated fatty acid vinylic polymer and emulsion compositions and the processes for preparing them. In particular, the invention relates to novel rosin-alkyl ester of unsaturated fatty acid vinylic polymer and emulsion compositions which the polymer exhibit properties that make them useful as support resins for industrial coatings, ink and overprint formulations and as additives for formulating various coating compositions; and the emulsion which exhibits properties that make them useful as water-borne vehicles for coatings on various substrates.

Polymeric resins are commonly employed in a variety of different uses. For example, polymeric resins may be employed as support resins for waterborne emulsions. Typical surfactant-based emulsion polymerization products generally do not have the rheology properties desired for graphic arts and industrial coatings applications (i.e. film build, flow and leveling, and stability). It is, therefore, a common practice to add to the emulsion polymerization a low molecular weight water-soluble or alkaline-soluble polymer (also referred to in the art as a resin) in place of, or in addition to, a surfactant in order to improve the stability and rheology properties of the emulsion. Such improved stability generally results from adsorption of the resin on the surface of the polymer particles.
Supported emulsions are commonly employed in paints, clear coatings, floor finishes, leather treatments, cement formulations, functional paper coatings, and graphic art applications. The latter encompasses pigmented (ink) and non-pigmented (overprints and functional coatings) formulations. A support emulsion is comprised of two polymers, one that represents the support resin and a second polymer that is dispersed into the support. The second polymer may be dispersed through agitation or actually be polymerized in the presence of the support resin. Supported emulsions add stability while enhancing the flow characteristics of the formulation (thereby resulting in higher gloss and clarity).
Traditional processes for producing polymer support resins are well known (see generally U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,839,413 and 5,216,064, which are hereby incorporated by reference). Commonly a solution polymerization reaction is employed wherein styrenic monomer and acrylic acid is mixed with a hydrocarbon solvent, a polymerization initiator, and a chain transfer agent. Upon completion of the reaction, the solution is stripped of the solvent to yield the acrylic polymer. The polymer is then available for use as a support resin when dissolved in an alkaline water solution. However, major problems exist with such traditional methods of producing support resins. For example, these methods require the use of environmentally adverse hydrocarbon solvents. Moreover, as these solvents are not usable or desirable in water-based coatings, inks or overprint formulations, the solvents must be stripped from the resulting acrylic polymers (thereby causing a yield loss). This stripping step also adds expense to the process due to both the loss of yield and the energy consumed in performing the stripping. Also, these methods must utilize chain transfer agents to regulate the molecular weight of the resulting support resin.
A number of these problems were addressed via the development of rosin-fatty acid vinylic polymer compositions suitable for employment as support resins in emulsion compositions for coating formulations (see generally U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,429,247 and 6,437,033 B1 which are hereby incorporated by reference). However, it was found that some coatings formulated with these support resins tended to exhibit a decreased adhesion and chemical resistance when used on certain substrates, particularly certain metals and alkyd coatings.
Although water-based coatings and inks are comprised of various components, the emulsion polymer is principally responsible for adhesion to the substrate. Adhesion is a quantitative description of the work of detachment between two phases under conditions of failure.
In the present invention, rosin-fatty acid ester vinylic polymer compositions used as support resins for emulsion polymerization are produced preferably in bulk condition, thereby eliminating the costly stripping process for resin production. In addition, the resin polymerization can be performed at a higher temperature than traditional solution polymerization reactions. Moreover, as the present invention employs a lower amount of free radical initiator and little or no chain transfer agent, the resulting resins can be produced at a reduced cost (and unpleasant odors commonly associated with chain transfer agents can be avoided).
Alkyds generally are formed by the esterification polymerization of polyols and polybasic acid. The reaction mixture may also include monobasic acids, fatty acids and the like.
Due to their desired physical properties and low material costs, solvent-based alkyds have long been widely used as ingredients in coating compositions for various materials. For example, films resulting from aqueous alkyd coating compositions may be used as protective coatings for farm equipment and as a finish or refinish for trucks and automobiles. They are also extensively employed in architectural varnishes and enamels which require high gloss. However, rising health and environmentally concerns over the emission of organic compounds from solvent-based paints have resulted in strict regulation of the amount of volatile organic compounds (VOC) emitted from applied paints. In addition, rapid advances in technical innovation require improvements in the properties of coatings compositions. For example, it is desired that pigments be dispersed more effectively with higher stability in order to produce coating finishes having improved gloss (i.e., gloss at 60°) and distinctiveness-of-image gloss (i.e., gloss at 20°). Moreover, these coatings often exhibit problems with adhesion, flexibility, and resistance to corrosion and chemicals.
In an attempt to comply with the challenges of increased regulation and improved performance, industry has devoted much effort toward developing water-borne and high solid alkyds coatings which employ far lower amounts of organic solvents than conventional coatings. In spite of these substantial efforts, a need exists in the industry for such improved water-borne alkyds and high solid alkyds coatings.
High solid alkyds which employ less organic solvent than conventional alkyds often suffer from a dramatic increase in viscosity as the amount of solvent employed decreases. It has often been necessary for a high solid system to use lower molecular weight resins in order to maintain a workable paint viscosity. However, such systems tend not to develop the same hardness and through-dry in thick films in the same amount of time when compared to systems using higher molecular weight materials. Moreover, the additional functionality (which may build up the coating molecular weight after application) usually required for such high solid systems commonly results in adverse performance and higher production costs. One example of the use of additional functionality is to increase the level of unsaturated fatty acid to ensure sufficient crosslinking to achieve acceptable coating properties. One of the major drawbacks in the use of such high solid alkyds is the development of severe yellowing in the cured coatings due to the increased level of unsaturated fatty acid. U.S. Pat. No. 5,370,939 references attempts to address this yellowing problem in alkyd coatings by via the incorporation of polyhydroxy based allyl ethers into alkyds to replace a part of, or all of, the fatty acid. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,591,518, alkyd resins containing pendant polymerizable unsaturated groups attached to the alkyd through urethane linkages are claimed to improve high solid performance.
Water-borne alkyds coatings which use water as a dispersing medium are mainly emulsions and water-dispersible resins. Although showing an impressive success in replacing organic solvent coatings in many applications, water-borne alkyd coatings have not been able to satisfy the need of the coating industry in many applications because of certain inherent problems (e.g., insufficient gloss, water sensitivity, hydrolytic stability, and the difficulty of controlling water evaporation after application).
Coating compositions of acrylic polymers commonly provide finishes with excellent appearance, weatherability and durability. Coatings compositions of alkyds are known for their excellent gloss and their ability to be cured at ambient temperature. However, such alkyd coating compositions are also known for their inferior weatherability and durability when compared to acrylic finishes. Tremendous efforts have, therefore, been concentrated on developing interpolymers which are the combination of acrylic polymer and alkyd polymer.
Simply blending acrylic polymers and alkyds does not provide an optimum finish, as these acrylic polymer and alkyds are generally not compatible.
In the art of emulsions utilizing alkyd resins, interpolymer emulsions of acrylic polymers and alkyds have been prepared typically by following either one of two different procedures. In one procedure, an alkyd resin and compatible vinyl emulsion are separately formed, and then admixed together. By the other procedure, vinylic monomers are in situ polymerized in the presence of a preformed solution or dispersion of alkyd resin so as to provide an interpolymer system. The in-situ polymerization can take place with or without a conventional emulsifier. An example of this is U.S. Pat. No. 4,116,903, where a neutralized, aqueous solution of alkyd resin is utilized as sloe emulsifier to stabilize the in-situ vinylic emulsion polymerization.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,273,690, an interpolymer is produced by grafting alkyd resin to the acrylic polymer backbone through urethane moiety. A number of patents have described the production of water-borne alkyds via the use polyurethane dispersion (see U.S. Pat. No. 3,412,054 and European Patent Application No. EP 0017199A1). Polyurethane dispersions or isocyanate compounds (which are the precursor for urethane moiety) are quite costly, and result in much higher production costs for water-borne alkyds when compared to conventional solventborne alkyds.
The water-borne alkyds often exhibit poor hydrolytic stability, in that they often do not have the capability to withstand storage for long periods of time at the high storage temperatures often found in warehousing and manufacturing facilities. Hydrolysis of alkyds may result in the separation of the coatings composition into phrases, accompanied by the settling of solid materials to the bottom or substantial reductions in viscosity and the diminished performance of the coating materials. U.S. Pat. No. 5,096,959, attempts to improve the hydrolytic stability of water-borne alkyds by reacting the base alkyd commonly used for such compositions with a polybasic acid composition comprising one or more cycloaliphatic polycarboxylic acids. However, this approach requires the use of costly cycloaliphatic polycarboxylic acids, thereby increasing production costs.
An attempt to improve the adhesion property of water-borne alkyds is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,649,175, which teaches the incorporation of nitrogen-containing compounds into the alkyds. This incorporation, however, increases the cost of production of such water-borne alkyds.
Therefore, an object of this invention is to solve these major problems by disclosing rosin-fatty acid ester vinylic polymer compositions.
Another objective is to disclose rosin-fatty acid ester vinylic polymer emulsion compositions.
A further objective is to disclose rosin-fatty acid ester vinylic polymer compositions which exhibit properties that make them useful as support resins in water-based emulsions.
Another objective is to disclose rosin-fatty acid ester vinylic polymer emulsion compositions which exhibit properties that make them useful in formulating water-based inks, overprint, and other coating formulations.


Methods, systems, and computer program products for identifying and redacting data from diagnostic operations via monitoring of data are provided herein. A computer-implemented method includes automatically monitoring data, which includes determining which portions of the data are accessed during a diagnostic operation; parsing an input file into portions of parsed data, wherein the input file comprises an initial output of the diagnostic operation; classifying the portions of parsed data into classes by applying at least one of multiple classification models to the parsed data, wherein the at least one classification model is specific to the accessed portions of data; automatically identifying sensitive data in the classified portions of parsed data by applying a class-to-sensitivity mapping technique to the classified portions of parsed data; redacting the identified sensitive data from the input file; and generating and outputting an updated output of the diagnostic operation based on the redacting.

Diagnostic operations, such as diagnostic dumps, are often carried out when a system faces one or more errors. The results of such operations are also often shared with third-party vendors in connection with problem resolution. However, sensitive and/or private data are generally included in the diagnostic operation (for example, as part of memory capture), and it is undesirable for such data to be shared. Removing or redacting too much data (e.g., all user-related data regardless of the status of such data as sensitive and/or private), however, can be disadvantageous because certain types and/or amounts of user data are often required for problem diagnosis.

Dynamically identifying and redacting data from diagnostic operations via runtime monitoring of data sources

International Business Machines Corporation


A microlithographic resist patterning process which allows generation of very thick, vertically-walled resist patterns which allow for subsequent deposition or etching operations can produce high recording density magnetic thin film heads and other devices requiring high aspect ratios.

In etching patterns in a masked substrate, some etching processes, such as ion beam milling, may also etch the mask, even when not desired. This is further compounded by the fact that a photoresist mask layer may etch faster than the substrate. One way to assure that the photoresist layer survives long enough to protect the underlying substrate is to make the photoresist thicker. The problem which arises when patterning a narrow line to be etched in the substrate with thick photoresist is that the walls (the profile) of the photoresist are not vertical, as shown in FIG. 1(a). The width of the photoresist near the substrate is greater than the width of the photoresist at the top of the resist. As a result, upon ion beam milling, a portion of the photoresist will be etched away along with the substrate, as shown by dotted line in FIG. 1(b), resulting in the etching of a narrower line width in the substrate than desired as shown by the dotted line in FIG. 1(c).

Microlithographic method for producing thick, vertically-walled photoresist patterns


An apparatus for determining the mechanical deformation behavior of extrudable measuring samples and which has two drivable take-up rollers (2) disposed pairwise on a resiliently deflectable mounting frame, to which an extruded measuring sample billet is supplied. In order to prevent the adhesion of the measuring samples on the take-up rollers (2), a drivable guidance device for the measuring sample is mounted on the resilient frame downstream of the takeup rollers (2). The drivable guidance device comprises two drivable guidance cylinders (5).

The present invention relates to an apparatus for determining the mechanical deformation behavior of extrudable measuring samples, wherein two drivable take-up rollers are disposed pairwise on a resiliently deflectable mounting arrangement, and to which an extruded measuring sample billet is supplied.
Such apparatus, which are commonly called extension testers, are utilized in synthetic material processing where the maximum extensibility and the tensile strength of the synthetic material melts are determined in order to determine the highest possible processing speed. For this purpose an extruded measuring sample billet is supplied to a take-up apparatus having a pair of take-up rollers, and the sample billet is continuously elongated at continuously increasing take-up speed. The bearing force exerted in the process onto the pair of take-up rollers is measured and drawn on for evaluating the tensile strength at tearing of the measuring sample billet.
DE 19 04 079 describes an apparatus for determining the mechanical deformation behavior of extruded measuring samples, which comprises a pair of take-up rollers drivable at a variable rotational speed and which are resiliently supported in the direction of transport of the measuring sample. The take-up rollers are for that purpose mounted on a resiliently supported carrier. To determine the mechanical deformation behavior of a measuring sample, the deflecting force acting at given rotational speed of the take-up rollers on to the take-up rollers, respectively the support, is measured continuously.
The take-up rollers often have a corrugated or indented surface in order to prevent the measuring sample billet from slipping through while it is being pulled out. As a rule, the measuring sample billet has a cross section between 2 mm and 3 mm and, during the pulling-out between the take-up rollers, is rolled out to approximately 1 mm.
The use of the known extension tester is frequently problematic in practice since in the case of a large portion of the conventionally used polymers, such as for example polypropylene (PP), polycarbonate (PC) and polyamide (PA), the polymer billet adheres to the take-up rollers which can be traced back to the pronounced "sticking effect" of these polymers in the melt state. This sticking effect not only occurs when the polymer billet is guided between the take-up rollers but rather also when the polymer billet is guided in front of the rotating take-up rollers, thus, across the front faces of the take-up rollers, wherein the extruded measuring sample billet is elongated across the touching contact at the rotating front faces.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for determining the mechanical deformation behavior of extrudable measuring samples of the type under consideration, and to develop it further such that the adhesion of the measuring sample billet on the take-up rollers is as much as possible avoided and, in particular, is avoided for measuring samples with low viscosities.

Apparatus for determining the mechanical deformation behavior of extrudable measuring samples


Example method, apparatus, and computer program product embodiments are disclosed to improve user experience and security in sharing wireless network configurations. An embodiment comprises reading, by a guest wireless device, data from a machine readable medium, including accessing information, to enable the guest device to obtain credentials from an access rights server, to access an access point or network, based on the accessing information; transmitting by the guest device, a wireless message to the access rights server, requesting credentials to enable accessing the access point or network, the request including the accessing information addressing a storage partition in a database associated with the access rights server, the storage partition being accessible with the accessing information; and receiving by the guest device from the access rights server, the credentials to enable the guest device to gain access to the access point or network by using the credentials.

Modern society has adopted, and is becoming reliant upon, wireless communication devices for various purposes, such as connecting users of the wireless communication devices with other users. Wireless communication devices can vary from battery powered handheld devices to stationary household and/or commercial devices utilizing an electrical network as a power source. Due to rapid development of the wireless communication devices, a number of areas capable of enabling entirely new types of communication applications have emerged.
Cellular networks facilitate communication over large geographic areas. These network technologies have commonly been divided by generations, starting in the late 1970s to early 1980s with first generation (1G) analog cellular telephones that provided baseline voice communications, to modern digital cellular telephones. GSM is an example of a widely employed 2G digital cellular network communicating in the 900 MHZ/1.8 GHZ bands in Europe and at 850 MHz and 1.9 GHZ in the United States. While long-range communication networks, like GSM, are a well-accepted means for transmitting and receiving data, due to cost, traffic and legislative concerns, these networks may not be appropriate for all data applications.
Short-range communication technologies provide communication solutions that avoid some of the problems seen in large cellular networks. Bluetooth™ is an example of a short-range wireless technology quickly gaining acceptance in the marketplace. In addition to Bluetooth™ other short-range communication technologies include Bluetooth™ Low Energy, IEEE 802.11 wireless local area network (WLAN), Wireless USB, ZigBee (IEEE 802.15.4, IEEE 802.15.4a), and ultra high frequency radio frequency identification (UHF RFID) technologies. All of these wireless communication technologies have features and advantages that make them appropriate for various applications.
Near field communication technologies, such as radio frequency identification (RFID) technologies, comprise a range of RF transmission systems, for example standardized and proprietary systems for a large number of different purposes, such as product tagging for inventory handling and logistics, theft prevention purposes at the point of sale, and product recycling at the end of the life-cycle of the tagged product. In addition to RFID technologies, Near Field Communication (NFC) technology has recently evolved from a combination of existing contactless identification and interconnection technologies. NFC is both a "read" and "write" technology. Communication between two NFC-compatible devices occurs when they are brought within close proximity of each other: A simple wave or touch can establish an NFC connection that may be used to exchange specific information for another communications protocol, which may then be used to create an actual connection in the other communications protocol, such as Bluetooth™ or wireless local area network (WLAN).

Method, apparatus, and computer program product for sharing wireless network configurations


A system and method for searching a large volume of data stored in a disk in, for example, document file format at a high speed while allowing desired ambiguity. The present invention provides a character string search scheme which enables a user to optionally designate the degree of ambiguity for a character string to be searched. The present invention also provides an index structure for implementing a character string search scheme which enables a user of the search scheme to optionally designate the degree of ambiguity for a character string to be searched. The present invention also provides a character string search scheme which enables the scheme to perform searches in a manner close to human feeling by ambiguity search. Details of the manner in which such enablements are implemented are found in the detailed specification.

The present invention relates to a system and method for searching a large volume of data stored in a disk in, for example, document file format at a high speed while allowing desired ambiguity.
Conventionally, there has been demand to search a large volume of data, such as newspaper accounts, patent publications, or scientific/engineering literature, written in natural language and stored in a disk at a high speed. There have been proposed various search methods. Such methods are roughly divided as follows.
Keyword search scheme: This scheme previously indexes individual document and keywords indicating contents of the document. At the moment, methods for determining the keywords include automatic keyword extraction by the morphemic analysis, manual appending of keywords, and a combination of them. However, this scheme can only search character strings indexed as keywords. In addition, because the accuracy of automatic keyword extraction by the morphemic analysis depends on the accuracy of a dictionary, there is a disadvantage that it requires much manpower for maintaining the dictionary.
Full text search scheme without index: This is a scheme not to use an index, but to scan all documents to be searched every time a character string which is wanted to be searched is designated. Some systems use special hardware to increase the search speed. However, a system employing special hardware increases cost, and may impose restrictions on the type of machine which can be used in a client/server environment.
Full text search scheme with index: The present invention relates to a scheme for searching full document with index. Known techniques intending to increase the speed of full text search with use of index include the following.
Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application (PUPA) No. 4-205560 discloses creating a search file by dividing a character string to be searched into search units, each of which is a unit for performing the search; appending ascending codes for every search unit; appending attribute codes to the divided search units, the attribute code indicating a logical partition for the search unit; and appending character position sequence codes to every characters in the character string to be searched, the sequence codes indicating the position of character in the search unit, whereby character position information consisting of a search unit identification code, the character position sequence code, and the attribute code is created and stored in areas by character type.
Japanese PUPA No. 4-215181 discloses creating a search file for reducing the number of collation for character strings for search processing and for enabling a general purpose information processing system to perform high speed collation, in which search file character set position information is grouped by character set type, the character set position information indicating at which position in the character string each character set constituting the character string to be searched is positioned.
There frequently arises a necessity to search not only document containing character strings fully matching a search character string, but also document containing character strings partially matching it. For example, there is a case where the user is uncertain of the search character string, or where the search character string may appear in variations so that it is difficult to enumerate all such variations. A typical method for designating a partial character string in the prior art is to use regular expression. According to such method, it is possible to designate repetition of any character zero or more times, repetition of any character one or more times, the end of a line, the top of a line, or any character within a range of specific character codes.
In addition, Japanese PUPA No. 63-99830 discloses a system having a function for partial matching between search character string data and character string data to be searched, the system comprising a table which accumulates data on synonym relationship in the search character string data, and data indicating whether the search character string data appears in any character string data to be searched.
Furthermore, Japanese PUPA No. 62-221027 discloses, when a character string taken out from the top of a character string for partial search is not retrieved from a dictionary, reducing the number of invalid searches by performing forward search for a next taken-out character string the length of which is incremented by one, whereby a word can be taken out at a relatively high speed and efficiently.
Furthermore, Japanese PUPA Nos. 4-326164 and 5-174067 disclose a database search system comprising search means which stores self-correlation information for every articles to be searched, finds the degree of matching between the self-correlation information of search keys and the self-correlation information of the articles to be searched, and outputs the number of articles in the descending order of the degree of matching.
However, these character string search techniques of the prior art have difficulty in designating the degree of ambiguity of character strings to be searched or the like so that the result of a search may be not desirable for the user, or contain many unnatural character strings. In addition, in these character string search techniques of the prior art, when a character string to be searched is "This is a pencil", it is impossible to determine character strings such as not only "This is a pemcil" (one wrong character) and "This is a red pencil" (one interposed word) but also "This is a red pemcil" (one wrong character and one interposed word) as a character string similar to the search character string.

Information search method and apparatus, and medium for storing information searching program

International Business Machines Corporation


An injection molding hot runner nozzle and a method of making such a nozzle are disclosed that improves heat transfer along the length of the nozzle. The nozzle includes a nozzle body and a heating element located on an outer surface of the nozzle body having a form-fitting thermally conductive shroud that conforms to a profile of the nozzle and the heating element.

Hot runner nozzles often have an uneven distribution of heat along the length of the melt channel when operating in an injection molding apparatus. The nozzles are generally housed in an opening in a mold plate between a manifold and a mold cavity. The mold plate is typically cold, particularly near the manifold and the mold cavity. As a result, a nozzle head portion and the area around a nozzle tip tend to lose more heat through direct contact with the mold than the nozzle mid-section, which does not contact any part of the mold plate. The uneven distribution of heat along the nozzle causes the temperature of the melt flowing through the nozzle to vary as it travels toward the mold cavity. Any variation in melt temperature can adversely affect the quality of the molded products and is therefore undesirable.
A further disadvantage of an uneven temperature distribution along the length of the nozzle is that the nozzle is subjected to high stress due to the continuous cycling between higher and lower temperatures. This can result in a shorter nozzle life.
With the increased use of plastic materials that are more sensitive to fluctuations in temperature, the melt must be maintained within more accurate and controllable temperature ranges. If the temperature rises too high, to compensate for the heat loss through the contact with the mold, degradation of the melt will result; and if the temperature drops too low, the melt will clog in the system and produce an unacceptable product. Both extremes can necessitate the injection molding apparatus being shut down for a clean-out, which can be a very costly procedure due to the loss of production time.
Thermal sleeves have been used in attempts to reduce the uneven temperature distribution of injection molding hot runner nozzles. A sleeve of material that has a thermal conductivity greater than the material of the nozzle body is slid over the nozzle body and heater. Heater elements often have a circular or elliptical cross-section. Where such a heater is wound around the nozzle body and partially inserted in a groove, the sleeve only contacts the heater element and the contact with the heater element is only tangential. The tangential contact of the sleeve and heater element results in inefficient conduction between the components. Where the heater element is fully inserted in a groove, the sleeve usually only contacts the nozzle body. However, where the sleeve contacts the nozzle body and the heater element, the contact with the heater element is still only tangential and inefficient. The tangential contact results in the creation of an insulating dead air space between the sleeve and nozzle body.
Another hot runner nozzle includes a heating element inserted in a spiral groove on a nozzle body and the heating element is vacuum cast in copper. The process for making the nozzle requires the heating element to be inserted in the groove and spot welded. Then, a stainless steel sleeve is placed over the nozzle body and the heating element. A heating element is recessed within the spiral groove so that a space is created within the spiral groove between the outer surface of the heating element and the inner surface of the stainless steel sleeve. A filling reservoir that holds a copper slug is welded to an end of the nozzle so that the reservoir communicates with an opening in the spiral groove. The assembly is then placed in a vacuum furnace, and upon heating, the copper slug melts and the copper flows into the spiral groove filling the space between the heating element and sleeve. The stainless steel sleeve may then be machined off. Where the sleeve is removed, the copper does little to disperse heat along the length of the nozzle body because the copper only contacts the nozzle body within the spiral groove. If the sleeve is left in place, although the copper may improve conduction to the sleeve, the sleeve itself has a low thermal conductivity. In either case, the step of copper casting results in a painstaking and costly process.
Another hot runner nozzle design that has attempted to provide improved heat distribution includes a heating element that is cast in a conductive material, such as brass or beryllium-copper, and slid over a nozzle body. The cast heater has also been combined with a layer of conductive material that is coated on the outer surface of the nozzle. The heating element has to be cast during a separate operation. In addition, once the heater is cast there is less flexibility in changing the length of the casting. In addition, where a coating is utilized, the coating must be applied to the outer surface of the nozzle in a separate process. After those processes are completed, the nozzle would still require assembly. As a result, manufacturing such a hot runner nozzle is costly and time consuming.
Furthermore, thermally conductive coatings have also been utilized on the outer surface of hot runner nozzles and heaters to improve the thermal conductivity. However, coating processes must be properly monitored to assure that the coatings remain consistent and adequate.
There is therefore a need to provide a hot runner nozzle having a generally uniform temperature distribution along the length thereof.

Thermal shroud and method of making same


An organic light emitting element and an organic light emitting device including the same is provided. At least one p-type or n-type overdoping layer is formed between two light emitting members forming a p-n junction in the organic light emitting element.

(a) Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to display devices, and more particularly, to an organic light emitting element having organic light emitting members overlapped with each other and an organic light emitting device including the same.
(b) Discussion of the Related Art
Currently, with the increased demand for lighter or thinner monitors and TVs, cathode ray tubes (CRTs) are being replaced by liquid crystal displays (LCDs).
However, because the LCD is a passive display device, an additional back-light as a light source is needed, and the LCD may have a slow response time and a narrow viewing angle.
Among the flat panel displays, an organic light emitting device, namely, an organic light emitting diode (OLED) display, has recently been promising as a display device.
The organic light emitting device includes a plurality of organic light emitting elements. The organic light emitting elements each include an anode and a cathode, and an organic light emitting member therebetween.
The organic light emitting member emits white light or light of primary colors, and includes an emission layer and an auxiliary layer such as an electron injection layer, a hole injection layer, an electron transport layer, and a hole transport layer. In the case of an organic light emitting member emitting white light, the emission layer generally has a structure in which emission materials emitting three primary colors such as red, green, and blue, are deposited.
However, the typical organic light emitting element may exhibit low emission efficiency and have a short lifetime. Also, a high voltage is needed to generate the current used.

Organic light emitting element and organic light emitting device including the same


Derivatives of glucagon-like peptide I (GLP-1) and especially GLP-1 (7-37) have been found to have insulinotropic activity. The invention pertains to a composition comprising an acid addition salt of GLP-I (7-37) and to a composition comprising a carboxylate salt of GLP-I (7-37). The invention also pertains to method of treating type II diabetes mellitus by providing derivatives of GLP-I (7-37) to the patient.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention is directed to the discovery that certain peptide fragments of the prohormone, proglucagon, possess hormonal activities and can be used to stimulate the synthesis and secretion of the hormone, insulin. These peptide fragments are useful in therapy and treatment of maturity onset (type II) diabetes mellitus. This invention is specifically directed to the use of glucagon-like peptide-1(7-36) for the treatment of maturity onset diabetes mellitus, and for use as an insulin secretagague per se.
2. Description of the Background Art
The endocrine secretions of the pancreatic islets are under complex control not only by blood-borne metabolites (glucose, amino acids, catecholamines, etc.), but also by hormonal and local paracrine influences. The major pancreatic islet hormones (glucagon, insulin, and somatostatin) interact among their specific cell types (A, B, and D cells, respectively) to modulate secretory responses mediated by the metabolites. Although insulin secretion is predominantly controlled by blood levels of glucose, glucagon and somatostatin stimulate and inhibit glucose-mediated insulin secretory responses, respectively. In addition to the proposed interislet paracrine regulation of insulin secretion, there is evidence to support the existence of insulinotropic factors in the intestine. This concept originates from the observations that glucose taken orally is a much more potent stimulant of insulin secretion than is a comparable amount of glucose given intravenously.
The human hormone, glucagon, is a 29-amino acid peptide hormone produced in the A-cells of the pancreas. The hormone belongs to a multi-gene family of structurally related peptides that include secretin, gastric inhibitory peptide, vasoactive intestinal peptide, and growth hormone-releasing hormone. These peptides variously regulate carbohydrate metabolism, gastrointestinal mobility, and secretory processes. The principal recognized actions of pancreatic glucagon, however, are to promote hepatic glycogenolysis and gluconeogenesis, resulting in an elevation of blood sugar levels. In this regard, the actions of glucagon are counterregulatory to those of insulin and may contribute to the hyperglycemia that accompanies diabetes mellitus (Dobbs, R., et al., Science 187:544–547 (1975)).
In supraphysiologic concentrations, glucagon has been found to be capable of binding to receptors which lie on the surface of insulin-producing cells. Glucagon, when bound to these receptors, stimulates the rapid synthesis of cAMP by these cells. cAMP, in turn, stimulates insulin expression (Korman, L. Y., et al., Diabetes 34:717–722 (1985)). Glucose and insulin act to inhibit glucagon synthesis (Review of Medical Physiology, Ganong, W. F., 1979, Lang Publications, Los Altos, Calif. (p. 273)). Thus, the expression of glucagon is down-regulated by insulin, and ultimately by the serum glucose level.
The glucagon gene is initially translated from a 630-base pair precursor to form the polypeptide, preproglucagon (Lund, P. K., et al., Proc. Natl. Acad Sci., USA 79:345–349 (1982)). This polypeptide is subsequently processed to form proglucagon. Patzelt, C., et al. (Nature 282:260–266 (1979)) demonstrated that proglucagon was subsequently cleaved into glucagon and a second polypeptide. Subsequent work by Lund, P. K, et al. (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 79:345–349 (1982)); Lopez, L. C., et al. (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 80:5485–5489 (1983)) and Bell, G. I., et al. (Nature 302:716–718 (1983)) indicated that the proglucagon molecule was cleaved immediately after lysine-arginine dipeptide residues. Studies of proglucagon produced by channel catfish (Ictalurus punctata) indicated that glucagon from this animal was also proteolytically cleaved after adjacent lysine-arginine and arginine-arginine dipeptide residues (Andrews, P. C., et al., J. Biol. Chem. 260:3910–3914 (1985)). Lopez, L. C., et al. (Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 80:5485–5489 (1983)), and Bell, G. I., et al. (Nature 302:716–718 (1983)), discovered the mammalian proglucagon was cleaved at lysine-arginine or arginine-arginine dipeptides and demonstrated that the mammalian proglucagon molecule contained three discrete and highly homologous peptide molecules which were designated glucagon, glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1 or GLP-I), and glucagon-like peptide 2 (GLP-2 or GLP-II). Lopez et al. (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 80:5485–5489 (1983)) concluded that GLP-1 was 37 amino acid residues long and that GLP-2 was 34 amino acid residues long. Analogous studies on the structure of rat preproglucagon revealed a similar pattern of proteolytic cleavage between adjacent lysine-arginine or arginine-arginine dipeptide residues, resulting in the formation of glucagon, GLP-1, and GLP-2 (Heinrich, G., et al., Endocrinol. 115:2176–2181 (1984)). Human rat, bovine, and hamster sequences of GLP-1 have been found to be identical (Ghiglione, M., et al., Diabetologia 27:599–600 (1984)).
The conclusion reached by Lopez et al. (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 80:5485–5489 (1983)) regarding the size of GLP-1 was confirmed by the work of Uttenthal, L. O., et al., (J. Clin. Endocrinol. Metabol. 61:472–479 (1985)). Uttenthal et al. examined the molecular forms of GLP-1 which were present in the human pancreas. Their research shows that GLP-1 and GLP-2 are present in the pancreas as proteins having 37 and 34 amino acid residues, respectively.
The similarity between GLP-1 and glucagon suggested to early investigators that GLP-1 might have biological activity. Although some investigators found that GLP-1 could induce rat brain cells to synthesize cAMP (Hoosein, N. M., et al., FEBS Lett. 178:83–86 (1984)), other investigators failed to identify any physiological role for GLP-1 (Lopez, L. C., et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 80:5485–5489 (1983)). The failure to identify any physiological role for GLP-1 caused some investigators to question whether GLP-1 was in fact a hormone and whether the relatedness between glucagon and GLP-1 might be artifactual (Ghiglione, M., et al., Diabetologia 27:599–600 (1984)).
Thus, in conclusion, the prior art reveals an awareness of the processing of a glucagon hormone precursor into a set of peptides sharing extensive homology. It has been widely assumed by those of skill in the art that these highly related glucagon-like peptides would have a biological activity. Nevertheless, extensive investigations designed to elucidate the biological effects of these molecules had been unsuccessful.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Insulinotropic hormone derivatives and uses thereof


A liquid crystal display apparatus includes first and second substrates, a liquid crystal layer, a sealing member, and first and second spacers. The first substrate includes a first display part having a pixel electrode formed thereon. The second substrate includes a second display part having a common electrode. The liquid crystal layer is interposed between the first and second substrates. The seal line includes a liquid crystal inlet. The first spacer is disposed between the first and second display parts. The second spacer is disposed near the liquid crystal inlet. The second and third spacers prevent the cell gap of the liquid crystal inlet from being narrowed, so that a liquid crystal material may be injected easily completely. Thus, the liquid crystal material is completely filled to enhance the display quality.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display apparatus and a method of manufacturing the liquid crystal display apparatus, and more particularly to a liquid crystal display apparatus with completely filled liquid crystal material and a method of manufacturing the liquid crystal display apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
An arrangement of liquid crystal molecules is adjusted in accordance with electric fields applied to the liquid crystal molecules, so that optical characters are adjusted. A liquid crystal display apparatus uses liquid crystal molecules so as to display an image. The liquid crystal display apparatus includes a liquid crystal display panel. The liquid crystal display panel includes a thin film transistor substrate, a color filter substrate and a liquid crystal layer interposed between the thin film transistor substrate and the color filter substrate.
Generally, a thickness of the liquid crystal layer is in a range of a few μm.
A liquid crystal material is injected into between the thin film transistor substrate and the color filter substrate via a vacuum injection method to form the liquid crystal layer. In order to inject the liquid crystal material into between the thin film transistor substrate and the color filter substrate via vacuum injection method, a seal line is formed along an edge of the thin film transistor substrate or the color filter substrate. However, the seal line is not a closed curve. That is, a portion of the seal line is opened to form a liquid crystal inlet. Then, the color filter substrate and the thin film transistor substrate are assembled together via the seal line, so that a liquid crystal receiving space defined by the seal line is formed between the thin film transistor substrate and the color filter substrate.
In a chamber having a vacuum pressure, the liquid crystal inlet is dipped in the liquid crystal material. Then, a pressure of the chamber increases, so that the liquid crystal material is injected into the liquid crystal receiving space, because a pressure of the liquid crystal receiving space is lower than the an environmental pressure. Then, a sealing member seals the liquid crystal inlet.
However, according to the general vacuum injection method, the liquid crystal receiving space may not be completely filled because the liquid crystal inlet may be narrowed in an assembling process of the thin film transistor substrate and the color filter substrate.
When the liquid crystal receiving space is not completely filled, a display quality is deteriorated.

Liquid crystal display comprising the spacers disposed near the liquid crystal inlet, wherein the spacers have prism shapes or elliptical column shapes


A dispenser apparatus for stacked single-fold towel sheets has a rear wall, side walls, and front and rear funnel walls extending to a funnel height between bottom portions of the side walls on opposite sides of a feed slot; and a pair of shelf members projecting downwardly and inwardly from respective ones of the side walls, each shelf member having a shelf width perpendicular to the rear wall being approximately 45 percent of a housing depth between upper extremities of the funnel walls, inward extremities of the shelf members, the inward extremities being spaced above the feed slot within the funnel height and being spaced apart by a distance of not greater than approximately 90 percent of the stack width for partially supporting the sheets. Each shelf member has an upwardly and inwardly facing panel surface that forms a side angle of approximately 45 degrees with the side wall. A perimeter contour of each shelf member has a plan radius of approximately 0.5 inch at the inward extremity, diverging to the shelf width from the plan radius at a taper angle of approximately 90 degrees, the perimeter contour also having an edge profile of smooth curvature including a shelf lip radius of approximately 0.15 inch extending outwardly and downwardly from the panel surface. Another aspect of the invention provides a method for cleaning a facility having the dispenser.

The present invention relates to dispensers for folded and stacked sheets such as paper towels and the like, and more particularly to dispensers for sheets having "single-fold" configuration.
Paper towel dispensers of the type wherein folded sheets are taken from the bottom of a stack by pulling from a bottom dispenser opening are well known, being used in many commercial and institutional settings. In the single-fold configuration, successive sheets feed alternately from front and rear bottom extremities of the stack, and typical dispensers of the prior art have a lateral feed slot that is centrally spaced between front and rear housing walls. The dispensers of the prior art are not entirely satisfactory, for a number of reasons. For example:
1. The sheets are subject to tearing because of excessive frictional resistance to feeding, particularly when the dispenser is loaded with a large quantity of sheets;
2. Consequently, many dispensers are configured for receiving only short stacks of sheets, having insufficient capacity for feeding over a full maintenance cycle without becoming empty; and
3. The tearing problem is exacerbated by the use of towel materials having enhanced softness and absorption, particularly when accessed by users having wet fingers.
Another problem is that many dispenser installations are subject to cleaning by pressure water streams from hoses. In such situations, towel sheet dispensers must be emptied, dried out, and reloaded. Although dispenser housings can be configured for shedding water, some water gets in through the feed slot, soaking a bottom portion of the stack of sheets to the point of preventing further feeding until the dispenser id dried and reloaded.
Thus there is a need for a high capacity dispenser that can reliably feed sheets even when accessed by wet fingers. There is a further need for a dispenser that is water resistant to the point of not requiring reloading after being hosed off.


A multi-compartmented, transportable pet food and water carrier that includes food and water supply containers with opposed access openings, and a common wall; and food and water dishes removably attached over the access openings. The dishes have side walls with attachment means extending therefrom, so that the dishes can be attached in a side-by-side configuration for stability during use, the attachment means extending downwardly from the carrier when the dishes are attached to form support feet for the carrier. A carrying handle is attached to the upper side of the carrier.

(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a carrier for transporting food and water for an animal, and in particular to a multi-compartmented carrier that includes dishes or bowls for feeding and watering the pet without contamination of the food and water supply.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
When traveling with a pet, such as a dog, it is often necessary to carry both pet food and water in the event that the pet requires feeding or watering at a time and place where food or water is not otherwise conveniently available. In order to address this need, it is necessary to provide a container for the food; a container for the water; and a means, such as feeding dishes, for serving the food and water to the pet.
Traveling with all of these items can be cumbersome, bulky and inconvenient. Thus, attempts have been made in the prior art to design a carrier that can be used to store food and/or water within separate compartments in a single unit. Certain of these designs have also included some provision for serving dishes to feed or water the pet.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,192,256 to Clugston, for example, describes a carrier used as a combination feeder and waterer for pets. The carrier includes an inner compartment for holding water. A depression in the top of the carrier serves as a food dish. A water dish is attached to the side of the carrier, with a spout extending from the water compartment into the water dish, so that water can enter the dish from the compartment. There is no provision for carrying multiple servings of food or controlling the amount of food or water consumed.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,458,087 to Prior et al describes a container used to carry food and water for pets. No provision is made for separate feeding dishes. Therefore, the pet eats or drinks directly from the storage compartments of the container. As a result, the pet has access to all of the food and water in the container, resulting in uncontrolled consumption and in contamination of the unconsumed food and water.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,560,315 to Lampe also describes a carrier for holding food and water for a pet. The carrier is essentially a small water dish positioned inside a larger food dish, with a lid on each dish. Since the small dish is inside the larger dish, ants are kept out of the water. Again, the pet has access to all of the contents.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,125,363 to McGaha describes a container similar to the Lampe container, in that a water container is positioned inside of a larger food container. The containers may be used both for transportation and feeding. Again, the pet has access to all of the food and water.
Carriers described in the prior art fail to meet all of the requirements for a suitable carrier for pet food and water. These requirements are 1) a configuration whereby all components can be easily carried as a single unit, 2) separate food and water compartments, preferably holding multiple servings of food and water; and 3) food and water serving dishes independent of the storage compartments, so that the pet can be served a defined portion of the food or water without contaminating the remainder of the food or water. Desirably, the serving dishes should be designed for stability when being used, since the food and water will often be served together. Also, the compartments should be provided with large access openings for easy cleaning, and the access openings should be protected as much as possible.


A micro-electrical-mechanical-switch (MEMS) device comprises a semiconductor wafer, a first semiconductor layer formed on the semiconductor wafer, and a second semiconductor layer formed on the first layer. A first latching movable shuttle is formed in the second layer and has the first layer removed under the first movable shuttle, the first movable shuttle being moved in a first direction relative to the wafer in response to a predetermined acceleration of the MEMS device in a direction opposite to the first direction thereby changing an operating condition of the MEMS device from a first switch state to an intermediate switch state. A second latching moveable shuttle is formed within the first shuttle, the second shuttle being moved in a second direction relative to the first shuttle in response to a thermally activated force so as to change the operating state of the MEMS device from the intermediate switch state to a second switch state. In the second switch state an opening in the second latching moveable shuttle aligns with an opening in the wafer to enable an optical signal to pass through the aligned openings. In a second embodiment, a MEMS device comprises only one movable shuttle switch formed in the second layer, the shuttle switch being operated in response to a predetermined acceleration of the MEMS device.

Artillery shells are equipped with a safety and arming device (S&A) that permits detonation of the carried explosive only after the projectile has experienced a valid progression of physical launch conditions, including the huge initial acceleration (10,000–80,000 g). The arming device functions with sequential interlocks to remove a barrier in the fire train and/or to move out-of-line fire-train components into alignment. Once armed, the device can be fused with, e.g., an electrical discharge or a laser pulse. For safety, the S&A is required to be able to withstand a munitions mishandling drop from 40 ft. without damage or arming.
A typical arming device is centimeter sized and piece part assembled using screws, pins, springs, and tight-tolerance machined components. Shelf life is affected by the use of dissimilar materials and by the need for lubrication. Recent arming device modernizing efforts have been motivated by lower cost, weight, and volume. One such arrangement described by C. H. Robinson in U.S. Pat. No. 6,167,809 entitled "Ultra-Miniature, Monolithic, Mechanical Safety-and-Arming Device for Projected Munitions" is directed towards a monolithic metal (nickel) device fabricated using the LIGA micro machining process.
Notwithstanding the recent improvements made in these arming devices, there is a continuing need for further miniaturization and improved safety of arming devices.


A universal read head for a tank-level float gauge is adapted for use with any of certain different types of gauge rods which may be connected to a float element in the tank, including rods having an optical code thereon including a plurality of alternating reflecting and non-reflecting stripes arranged between magnetic end portions, and a rod with one or more magnets disposed adjacent to each end thereof and longitudinally spaced magnets intermediate the ends. The sensing head includes an LED light source for illuminating the rod and two phototransistors coupled in quadrature relationship for detecting the illuminated optical code patterns, and two magnetic reed switches for sensing the proximity of magnets on the gauge rod. The sensors are coupled to a microprocessor for interpreting the electrical signals generated by the sensors to identify the type of gauge rod being used and to provide an indication of the position of the gauge rod relative to the sensors.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to gauge systems for indicating the level of liquid lading in a tank and, particularly, to electronic gauges of the type which can produce an alarm signal and/or an indication of tank liquid level. The invention has particular application to a sensing head for such a gauge system.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The present invention is an improvement of tank level gauge systems of the general types disclosed, e.g., in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,124,686 and 5,585,786. Both of these prior systems are float gauges, which utilize a float which rises and falls with the liquid level along a fixed guide tube, which extends into the tank from the top thereof. The float carries a magnet for magnetic coupling to a magnet adjacent to an end of a gauge rod or tube, which is movable longitudinally within the guide tube so that the rod rises and falls with the float. U.S. Pat. No. 5,124,686 discloses a magnetic system, which has a pair of spaced magnets adjacent to the top end of the rod, which actuate a reed switch in a sensor head at the top of the guide tube. A similar pair of magnets may be disposed adjacent to the bottom end of the rod. At least one other magnet is disposed intermediate the ends of the gauge rod for indicating significant tank levels when sensed by the reed switch. U.S. Pat. No. 5,585,786 discloses an optical system, wherein the gauge rod is provided with a code pattern including a plurality of longitudinally alternating light and dark circumferential stripes. In this case the sensing head has a light source to illuminate the rod and photosensors arranged in quadrature relationship to detect the passage of the stripes to indicate rate and direction of movement of the rod. The ends of the rod have elongated dark regions to indicate these reference positions.
While these prior systems work reasonably well, they have certain disadvantages. The magnetic system provides only gross indications of a few significant liquid levels. While the optical system is capable of providing a relatively precise and continuous indication of liquid level, the optical system has proven to be unreliable in detecting the ends of the gauge rod, resulting in spurious readings.

Tank level gauge and sensor head therefor


An optical pickup which can be employed for different formats of a disk recording medium is disclosed. The optical pickup device includes a light source including first and second vertical cavity surface emitting lasers closely disposed to each other for emitting light having different wavelengths and different radiation angles, an objective lens for focusing the light emitted from the light source on a recording surface of a recording medium, a photodetector for detecting information signals and error signals by receiving the light reflected from the recording medium, a polarized beam splitter disposed on an optical path between the light source and the objective lens to redirect a proceeding path of incident light, and a wavelength plate disposed on the optical path between the objective lens and the polarized beam splitter to convert a polarization component of incident light.

The present invention relates to an optical pickup device, and more particularly, to an optical pickup device which can be employed for different formats of a disk recording medium.
In general, an optical pickup device records and reproduces information on and from a recording medium in a non-contact manner by being employed in a compact disk player (CDP), a digital video disk player (DVDP), a CD-ROM driver, and a DVD-ROM driver.
The optical pickup device employed by a DVDP which enables high density recording/reproducing of information is required to be compatible for the compact disk (hereinafter called CD) family, such as a CD (compact disk), a CD-R (CD-Recordable), CD-I (CD-Interactive) and a CD-G (CD-Graphical), not only a DVD (digital video disk).
The thickness of the DVD differs from that of the CD due to differing mechanical disk inclination allowances and the numerical apertures of an objective lens of the respective standards. That is, the thickness of the conventional CD is 1.2 mm, whereas that of the DVD is 0.6 mm. Since the thicknesses of the CD and DVD are different from each other, when an optical pickup device for a DVD is used to reproduce information recorded on a CD, spherical aberration due to the difference in the thicknesses occurs. Thus, a sufficient light intensity required for recording information is not obtained, or deterioration occurs in the reproduced signal. Also, the wavelength standards of the reproduced light for a DVD differs from that for a CD. That is, the wavelength of the conventional CD reproduction light is approximately 780 nm, whereas that of the DVD is approximately 650 nm.
In consideration of the above points, optical pickup devices compatible for multiple formats have been suggested. These optical pickup devices focus on overcoming such problems caused by the differences between the disk formats, and use a single light source. That is, a light source emitting light of a short wavelength of approximately 650 nm which is appropriate for a DVD format, is employed. In this case, deterioration in the reproduced signal increases about 5% relative to an optical pickup employing a light source emitting light of about 780 nm, which is within the reproduction allowance, causing little problem.
However, when a CD-R is employed as a recording medium, there is a difference in sensitivities between a light source emitting light of approximately 650 nm and a light source emitting light of approximately 780 nm, as shown in FIG. 1. Since the CD-R has an organic dye film recording layer, when using the light of 650 nm, signals are not reproduced by a low reflection ratio of a disk due to the difference in sensitivities.
To overcome such a problem, as shown in FIG. 2, another conventional optical pickup employing two light sources has been suggested. Referring to FIG. 2, a first light source 21 for a disk 10a having a relatively thin thickness, e.g., a DVD, emits light of approximately 635 nm, and a second light source 31 for a disk 10b having a relatively thick thickness, e.g., a CD, emits light of 780 nm.
The light emitted from the first light source 21 is reflected by a polarized beam splitter 23 and sequentially passes through an interference filter 33, a 1/4 phase delay plate 11 and a holographic device 13. Also, the optical path of the light emitted from the second light source 31 is converted by the interference filter 33 and then the light passes through the 1/4 phase delay plate 11 and the holographic device 13. A predetermined diffraction pattern 13a is formed at a central portion of the holographic device 13. Since the light emitted from the first light source 21 is input with a radius greater than that of the diffraction pattern 13a, the light becomes a O-th order diffracted light which is not diffracted while passing through the holographic device 13 and is focused on the relatively thin disk 10a. Meanwhile, the light emitted from the second light source 31 is diffracted by the diffraction pattern 13a of the holographic device 13 to a predetermined degree to be a +1st order diffracted light so that the light is focused on the relatively thick disk 10b. The light after passing through the holographic device 13 is focused on the disk 10 by an objective lens 15.
Such an optical pickup device can be used when a CD-R is employed as a recording medium. However, it is difficult to assemble and arrange the holographic device 13 in which the diffraction pattern 13a is formed and the optical efficiency of the +1st order diffracted light diffracted by the holographic device is drastically reduced by 34% with respect to a case in which the holographic device is not employed.

Optical head having two vertical cavity surface emitting lasers with different wavelengths


An assembly comprising a strip on the exterior of a plastic cover lens for a headlamp. Locking means are formed on the exterior of the plastic cover lens, which extend diagonally, in a transverse direction, from the surface of the plastic cover lens, and that the strip is designed as a backing strip and exhibits locking means receivers in which the locking means engage. At least one snapping means is provided on the backing strip and one complementary snapping means is provided on the plastic cover lens in order to secure the backing strip in the transverse direction (Y).

DE 10 2004 025 232 A1 shows a strip disposed on the exterior of a plastic cover lens for a headlamp, and the strip is designed thereby as a decorative trim, and is affixed to the exterior of the plastic cover lens with a casting compound.
In order to attach the strip, the plastic cover lens has an attachment section with an attachment extension, and the end edge of the attachment extension forms a type of ridge that is uneven, and because of this uneven surface, into which the casting compound is cast, a permanent, precise positioning of the strip is obtained on the exterior of the plastic cover lens when the casting compound hardens. Disadvantageously, it is difficult to replace the strip if, for example, it becomes damaged. Furthermore, there is the disadvantage that in order to mount the strip on the exterior of the plastic cover lens, a hardening time for the casting compound must be taken into account, and the strip must be fixed in position, accordingly, over the course of time during which the casting compound hardens.
Alternative assemblies for strips on the exteriors of plastic cover lenses are enabled in that screw sockets are formed on the exterior of the plastic cover lens, into which screw can be screwed, by means of which screws the strip can be attached to the exterior of the plastic cover lens. The screw sockets can then be covered by the strip. Disadvantageously, as a result of attaching the strip by means of screws, the screw sockets are subjected to a mechanical tension, in particular when self-tapping screws are used, which are screwed into the screw sockets. When cleaning agents, such as those also used for cleaning plastic cover lenses for headlamps on vehicles, are applied to the cover lenses, the screw sockets may prematurely exhibit signs of wear, which is to be avoided.
Strips that are to be attached to the exteriors of headlamps may run over the exterior of the plastic cover lens, depending on the design concept of a vehicle, and can also be placed there in order to separate light functions of the headlamp, for example, and the aim thereby is to dispose a strip on the exterior of a plastic cover lens such that it is permanently attached thereto, at a precise positioning thereof, which can be replaced in a simple manner.
If the strip becomes damaged, it should be possible to remove this strip from the plastic cover lens in a simple manner, and moreover, it should be the case that the retaining geometries on the exterior of the plastic cover lens, in particular as an alternative to a screw socket, are not subjected to excessive mechanical tensions, in order to ensure a permanent retention of the strip on the plastic cover lens.

Plastic cover lens of a headlamp having a backing strip disposed on the exterior


Aspects of the invention relate to techniques for adaptive clock management in emulation. A clock suspension request signal, indicating when a suspension of design clock signals in an emulator is needed, is generated based on activity status information of the emulator with one or more emulator resources such as software environment. A clock suspension allowance signal, indicating whether a suspension of design clock signals is permitted considering dynamic targets in the emulator, is generated based on slack information related to one or more clock signals associated with one or more dynamic targets of the emulator. Based on the clock suspension request signal and the clock suspension allowance signal, a clock suspension signal is generated for enabling temporary design clock suspensions.

Modern integrated circuit designs have become extremely complex. As a result, various techniques have been developed to verify that circuit designs will operate as desired before they are implemented in an expensive manufacturing process. For example, logic simulation is a tool used for verifying the logical correctness of a hardware design. Designing hardware today involves writing a program in the hardware description language. A simulation may be performed by running that program. If the program (or model) runs correctly, then one can be reasonably assured that the logic of the design is correct at least for the cases tested in the simulation.
Software-based simulation, however, may be too slow for large complex designs such as SoC (System on Chip) designs. Although design reuse, intellectual property, and high-performance tools all can help to shorten SoC design time, they do not diminish the system verification bottleneck, which consumes 60-70% of the design cycle. Hardware emulation provides an effective way to increase verification productivity, speed up time-to-market, and deliver greater confidence in final products. In hardware emulation, a portion of a circuit design or the entire circuit design is emulated with an emulation circuit or "emulator."
Two categories of emulators have been developed. The first category is programmable logic or FPGA (field programmable gate array)-based. In an FPGA-based architecture, each chip has a network of prewired blocks of look-up tables and coupled flip-flops. A look-up table can be programmed to be a Boolean function, and each of the look-up tables can be programmed to connect or bypass the associated flip-flop(s). Look-up tables with connected flip-flops act as finite-state machines, while look-up tables with bypassed flip-flops operate as combinational logic. The look-up tables can be programmed to mimic any combinational logic of a predetermined number of inputs and outputs. To emulate a circuit design, the circuit design is first compiled and mapped to an array of interconnected FPGA chips. The compiler usually needs to partition the circuit design into pieces (sub-circuits) such that each fits into an FPGA chip. The sub-circuits are then synthesized into the look-up tables (that is, generating the contents in the look-up tables such that the look-up tables together produce the function of the sub-circuits). Subsequently, place and route is performed on the FPGA chips in a way that preserves the connectivity in the original circuit design. The programmable logic chips employed by an emulator may be commercial FPGA chips or custom-designed emulation chips containing programmable logic blocks.
The second category of emulators is processor-based: an array of Boolean processors able to share data with one another is employed to map a circuit design, and Boolean operations are scheduled and performed accordingly. Similar to the FPGA-based, the circuit design needs to be partitioned into sub-circuits first so that the code for each sub-circuit fits the instruction memory of a processor. Whether FPGA-based or processor-based, an emulator performs circuit verification in parallel since the entire circuit design executes simultaneously as it will in a real device. By contrast, a simulator performs circuit verification by executing the hardware description code serially. The different styles of execution can lead to orders of magnitude differences in execution time.
An emulator typically has an interface to a workstation server (workstation). The workstation provides the capability to load the DUV (design under verification, also referred to as DUT—design under test) model, controls the execution over time, and serves as a debugging interface into the DUV model on the emulator. Due to software nature of operations in the workstation, communications between the workstation and the emulator during emulation often require slowing down or even temporarily suspending design clock signals running in the emulator. This is particularly true for emulators used in a simulation acceleration environment or in a hardware/software co-verification environment. In addition to communications with the workstation, other activities such as the need for multiple accesses to a hardware resource may also require slowing down or temporarily suspending design clock signals running in the emulator. For example, the design may need to read/write several locations of a design memory though a limited number of ports before the next associated design clock rising edge. In order to emulate these operations according to the design, the design clock signals may have to be suspended for a number of cycles of the emulator infrastructure clock signal. The rest of this disclosure focuses on using communications with the workstation as an example to illustrate various implementations of the invention. A person of ordinary skill in the art, however, would appreciate that the present invention can be applied to other activities that may need adaptive clock management according to various embodiments of the invention.
In an in-circuit-emulation (ICE) environment, on the other hand, an emulator models a part of a system and connects to real hardware that serves as another part of the system. The real hardware is often referred to as target(s). Even though the emulator can operate at a raw speed up to a few MHz, a target typically has to operate at a slower frequency than in a normal operational mode to match the clock rate of the emulator. For example, PCI's lowest bus frequency is 33 MHz, which is too fast for emulation.
As seen from the above, communications of an emulator with its software environment and with its hardware targets have conflicting clock speed preferences. This may not be problematic as long as targets are static. A target is static if the emulator can temporarily suspend design clock signals. During emulation, temporary suspension of design clock signals can be used when there is a need to compensate for the slow speed of software execution. Emulation resumes normally when the design clock signals are restarted.
A dynamic target, however, requires design clock signals to run continuously above a threshold speed. For example, if a personal computer is connected to the emulator through a PCIe bus as a target, the protocol may run into timeout errors if the clock signal associated with the PCIe bus is stopped for too long or is running at a speed too slow. Typically, a speed-bridging device may be inserted between the emulator and the dynamic target to bridge the speed gap. Even with this device in place, there may still be a threshold speed (although more manageable now) above which the clock signal supplied to the dynamic target by the emulator has to run. It is thus desirable to search for techniques that can adaptively manage clock signals for an emulator to optimize its overall performance.


An algorithm is disclosed for constructing nonlinear models from high-dimensional scattered data. The algorithm progresses iteratively adding a new basis function at each step to refine the model. The placement of the basis functions is driven by a statistical hypothesis test that reveals geometric structure when it fails. At each step the added function is fit to data contained in a spatio-temporally defined local region to determine the parameters, in particular, the scale of the local model. The proposed method requires no ad hoc parameters. Thus, the number of basis functions required for an accurate fit is determined automatically by the algorithm. The approach may be applied to problems including modeling data on manifolds and the prediction of financial time-series. The algorithm is presented in the context of radial basis functions but in principle can be employed with other methods for function approximation such as multi-layer perceptrons.

The problem of extracting nonlinear relationships in large high-dimensional scattered data sets is of central importance across fields of science, engineering and mathematics. In particular, diverse areas such as machine learning, optimal control, mathematical modeling of physical systems often rely significantly on the ability to construct relationships from data. Subsequently there have been a multitude of applications including financial time-series analysis, voice recognition, failure prediction and artificial intelligence all of which provide evidence of the importance for nonlinear function approximation algorithms.
The beginnings empirical data fitting may be traced to Gauss's work on using least squares to construct linear models. Over the last two decades we have seen a tremendous growth in this area motivated by new ideas for computing nonlinear models. Numerous references of prior art articles are cited herein. In most cases, when a reference is referred to herein, it is cited by its number (in square brackets) from the References section hereinbelow. Thus, e.g., for computing nonlinear models, the following references [11, 45, 40, 37, 38] in the References Section disclose exemplary prior art techniques.
Diverse areas such as machine learning, optimal control, mathematical modeling of physical systems often rely significantly on the ability to construct relationships from data such as provided by constructing robust approximation models. Moreover, there have been a multitude of applications including financial time-series analysis, voice recognition, failure prediction and artificial intelligence all of which provide evidence of the importance for nonlinear function approximation algorithms. Our interest in this problem relates to representing data on a manifold as the graph of a function [8, 9] and the reduction of dynamical systems (see, e.g. [10]).
A common element in empirical data fitting applications is that the complexity of the required model including the number and scale of representation functions is not known a priori and must be determined as efficiently as possible. A variety of approaches have been proposed to determine the number of model functions, i.e., the model order problem. A generally accepted measure of quality of such data fitting algorithms is that the resulting models generalize well to testing data, i.e., data associated with the same process but that was not used to construct the model. This requirement is essentially that the data not be overfit by a model with too many parameters or underfit by a model with too few parameters.
One general approach to this problem is known as regularization, i.e., fitting a smooth function through the data set using a modified optimization problem that penalizes variation. A standard technique for enforcing regularization constraints is via cross-validation [18, 44]. Such methods involve partitioning the data into subsets of training, validation and testing data; for details see, e.g., [19].
Additionally, a variety of model growing and pruning algorithms have been suggested, e.g.,                (1) the upstart algorithm by M. Frean, "A Upstart Algorithm: A Method for Constructing and Training Feedforward Neural Networks," Neural Computation, 2(2):198-209, 1990;        (2) the cascade correlation algorithm by S. E. Fahlman and C. Lebiere, "The cascade-correlation learning architecture," In D. S. Touretzky, editor, Proceedings of the Connectionist Models Summer School, volume 2, pages 524-432, San Mateo, Calif., 1988;        (3) the optimal brain damage algorithm by Y. Le Cun, J. S. Denker, and S. A. Solla, "Optimal brain damage", In D. S. Touretzky, editor, Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems, volume 2, pages 598-605. Morgan Kaufmann, San Mateo, Calif., 1990; and        (4) the resource allocating network (RAN) proposed by Platt in "A Resource Allocating Network for Function Interpolation," Neural Computation, 3:213-225, 1991.
Statistical methods have also been proposed that include, e.g., Akaike information criteria (AIC), Bayesian information criteria (BIC) and minimum description length (MDL) [42], [2] and Bayesian model comparison [29]. In [39], [31] and [20] the issue of selecting the number of basis functions with growing and pruning algorithms from a Bayesian prospective have been studied. In [5], a hierarchical full Bayesian model for RBFs is proposed. The maximum marginal likelihood of the data has also been used to determine RBF parameters [34]. For a more complete list of references the reader is referred to [21].
In general, model order determination via both regularization and growing and pruning algorithms can be computationally intensive and data hungry. More importantly, however, is that these algorithms do not explicitly exploit the geometric and statistical structure of the residuals (see Terms and Descriptions section hereinbelow) during the training procedure. In addition, many algorithms in the literature require that anywhere from a few to a dozen ad hoc parameters be tuned for each data set under consideration.
Accordingly, it is desirable to alleviate the modeling difficulties in the prior art, and in particular, at least provide model generating methods and systems that are computationally less intensive, and that reduce (preferably to zero) the number of model generation parameter required for generating a model of appropriate accuracy.

Nonlinear function approximation over high-dimensional domains

Colorado State University Research Foundation


The following description relates to a plasma processing apparatus and a method thereof. The plasma processing apparatus comprises a first plasma chamber having a first plasma discharge space, a first plasma source for supplying a first activation energy to the first plasma discharge space within the first plasma chamber, a second plasma chamber which is connected to the first plasma chamber and has a second discharge space, and a second plasma source for supplying a second activation energy for inducing inductive coupled plasma to the second plasma discharge space within the second plasma chamber.

1. Field
The following description relates to a plasma processing apparatus and a method thereof, and more particularly, to a plasma processing apparatus and a method thereof for uniformly processing a substrate using an activated plasma gas.
2. Background
Plasma is a high ionized gas including positive ions and electrons of the same number. Plasma discharge may be used for gas excitation to generate an active gas including ions, free radicals, atoms, and molecules. The active gas is widely used in various fields. In addition, the active gas is variously used in various semiconductor manufacturing processes, for example, etching, deposition, cleaning, ashing, and the like, for manufacturing devices such as an integrated circuit device, a liquid crystal display, a solar cell, and the like.
Plasma sources include various kinds thereof and may correspond to a capacitive coupled plasma source and an inductive coupled plasma source as typical examples. The capacitive coupled plasma source may enhance process productivity in comparison with other plasma sources because of the high accuracy in capacitive coupled control and a high level of ion control ability. However, when a capacitive coupled electrode is enlarged according to the increase of the substrate to be processed, the electrode may be deformed or damaged by deterioration thereof. In this case, the non-uniformity of electric field intensity can cause non-uniformity of plasma density and contamination within a reactor.
In the inductive coupled plasma source, when an area of an inductive coil antenna is increased, it may be difficult to obtain the uniformity of the plasma density. In addition, when the large-sized substrate to be processed is heated at high temperature at once, the surface of the substrate may crumple and shrink and it may be difficult to process uniformly the entire surface of the substrate because of the non-uniformity of the plasma density.
Recently, there has been a demand on an improved plasma processing technique because of various causes including micro-miniaturization of a semiconductor device and the maximization of the substrate to be processed like a silicon wafer substrate, a glass substrate or plastic substrate for manufacturing semiconductor circuits, and development of a new processing target material, and the like. For example, there has been a demand for an improved plasma source and a plasma processing technique having excellent processing ability with respect to the large-sized substrate to be processed.
Furthermore, various semiconductor manufacturing devices may use a laser. The semiconductor manufacturing process using the laser is widely applied to various processes such as deposition, etching, annealing, cleaning, and the like, with respect to the substrate to be processed. The semiconductor manufacturing process using the laser has the problems described above and disadvantages including a high manufacturing cost and an increase of a processing time.

Plasma processing apparatus and method thereof


The present invention relates to the field of the production, identification and selection of biological binding molecules such as antibodies or fragments thereof, as well as to their use in the therapy and prophylaxis of cancer diseases, such as, in particular, malignant B-cell neoplasia.

The present invention relates to the field of the production, identification and selection of antibodies or fragments thereof, as well as to their use in the prophylaxis and therapy of cancers, such as, in particular, malignant B-cell neoplasia.
Malignant B-cell neoplasias are generally meant to denote malignant diseases of the hematopoietic or lymphatic system. They include clinical pictures such as e.g. leukaemia and in a broader sense belong to cancer diseases. Leukaemias are characterized by a greatly increased formation of dysfunctional white blood cell precursors, also known as leukaemia cells. These cells spread in the bone marrow, displace the usual blood formation there and usually accumulate strongly in the peripheral blood. They can infiltrate the liver, spleen, lymph nodes and other organs and thereby impair their function. The disturbance in blood formation leads to a reduction in normal blood components, which can lead to anemia due to a lack of oxygen-transporting red blood cells, a lack of hemostatic platelets, and a lack of mature functional white blood cells.
Depending on the course of the disease, a distinction is made between acute and chronic leukaemia. Acute leukaemias are life-threatening diseases which, if left untreated, lead to death within a few weeks or months. Chronic leukaemias, on the other hand, usually run for several years and are often low in symptoms in their early stages.
The most important forms of leukaemia are:                acute myeloid leukemia (AML)        chronic myeloid leukemia (CML)        acute lymphatic leukemia (ALL)        chronic lymphatic leukemia (CLL).
Leukaemias are usually treated with chemotherapy. More recent therapies are increasingly using monoclonal antibodies such as e.g. GA101 (Obinutuzumab), which acts as a CD20 antibody similar to Rituximab and Ofatumumab and is used to treat chronic lymphatic leukemia (CLL). By using these antibodies, the remission-free time can be extended by approx. 10 months.
Other malignant diseases of the hematopoietic or lymphatic system (malignant B-cell neoplasia) affect lymphomas, such as e.g. Hodgkin lymphoma and the B-cell variants of non-Hodgkin lymphomas.
If antibodies against receptors are generated, animals are usually immunized with the receptor (purified, cloned, or as peptide fragments) and hybridoma cells are generated. These hybridoma cells produce antibodies which are then tested in cell systems using ELISA or expressed receptors. Conventionally established cell lines are used for this because only these can be cultivated easily. Antibodies can be generated which bind relatively specifically to a certain receptor type (e.g. Anti-IgG1, Anti-IgE). However, this often leads to cross-reactions with other receptors or other epitopes.
For a therapeutic application of BCR antibodies, it is usually not sufficient to use only one antibody against BCR in general, as such a broad-spectrum application can trigger considerable side effects. Rather, it would be desirable to provide an antibody that selectively binds to a receptor that exhibits (pathophysiological) activation, in particular autonomic activation. Such an antibody is not known in the state of the art and a process for its production or extraction by selection does not exist.
State-of-the-art therapies for the treatment of leukaemias are therefore usually very stressful for the patient. In general it can be summarized that the undesired side effects of the therapy and the often insufficient effect of the drugs lead to a high death rate of this disease, because not only tumor cells, but also healthy cells of the immune system are damaged. In addition, there is often no cure, but only the creation of a certain period of time in which the disease is demission-free.

Abstract: The binding molecules are able to selectively bind to autonomously active or autonomously activated B-cell receptors, the autonomously active or autonomously activated B-cell receptors being characterized by the presence of structural domains to which the binding molecule selectively binds and which are responsible for the autonomously active or autonomously activated state of the B-cell receptors.


Methods and apparatuses are described for integration of integrated circuit die and silicon-based trench capacitors using silicon-level connections to reduce connection lengths, parasitics and necessary capacitance magnitudes and volumes. A trench capacitor can be fabricated on silicon and mounted on or embedded in a chip or one or more sides of a through silicon interposer (TSI) for silicon-level connections to chip circuitry. Aspect ratio dependent, as opposed to trench diameter or trench depth dependent, trench capacitors formed by a dense array of high aspect ratio trenches with thin, high permittivity dielectric increase capacitance per unit area and volume, resulting in thin, high capacitance trench capacitors having thickness equal to or less than chip thickness.

Decoupling capacitors are often relatively large capacitors necessary to decouple one circuit (e.g., a power supply) from another circuit. Decoupling capacitors are often connected to an integrated circuit die or chip through the chip's package and through a substrate, such as a printed circuit board (PCB). These relatively long connections increase the equivalent series resistance (ESR) and equivalent series inductance (ESL) of decoupling capacitors, which in turn increases the magnitude of capacitance necessary to decouple circuits. Discrete decoupling capacitors are often 500 um thick or thicker, which is considerably thicker than integrated circuit chips.

Integration of chips and silicon-based trench capacitors using low parasitic silicon-level connections


The invention relates to a novel form of titanium oxide.

Titanium oxide is a compound widely used in various industrial fields. The uses are varied, and they depend in particular on its crystallographic structure and its morphology.
Various methods of preparation are known in the prior art. Preparation via a hydrothermal route has been widely explored, but its main drawback lies in the relatively high temperatures and pressures that are required. This is because rutile is the thermodynamically stable phase and its formation requires hard conditions, that is to say acid media, high temperatures and/or long aging times. These hydrothermal syntheses consist in heating, between 140° C. and 1200° C., a precursor such as TiCl4 (H. Yin, Y. Wada, T. Kitamura, S. Kambe, S. Murasawa, H. Mori, T. Sakata, J. Mater. Chem., 2001, 11, 1694) or Ti(OiPr)4 in aqueous medium (C. C. Wang, J. Y. Ying, Chem. Mater., 1999, 11, 3113) or an organic (alcoholic) precursor (S. T. Aruna, S. Tirosh, A. Zaban, J. Mater. Chem., 2000, 10, 2388) in the presence of other reactants (acids, complexing agents, salts, etc.). The particles obtained are generally elongate and their size is of the order of 100 nm. The addition of mineralizing agents (for example NaCl, NH4Cl or SnCl4) has the effect of reducing the size of the rutile particles (H. Cheng, J. Ma, Z. Zhao, L. Qi, Chem. Mater., 1995, 7, 663).
Titanium oxides have also been prepared by hydrolyzing a TiIV compound in aqueous medium at temperatures below 100° C., but the compounds obtained are anisotropic (S. Yin, H, Hasegawa, T. Sato, Chem. Lett., 2002. 564).
It is also possible to obtain TiO2 by electrochemical synthesis, but the synthesis conditions are demanding and the morphology of the compound obtained is difficult to control.
The hydrolysis of various precursors has also been used for the preparation of TiO2. For example, TiO2 is obtained in brookite form from an aqueous TiCl3 solution at a pH below 5 (B. Othani, et al., Chem. Phys. Lett., 1995, 120(3), 292). TiO2 is obtained in the form of a mixture of rutile, brookite, Ti6O11 and Ti7O13 by hydrolysis of an aqueous TiCl3 solution that contains urea, the pH of the solution thus being returned toward basic pH values as the urea decomposes (A. Ookubo, et al. J. Mater. Sci., 1989, 24, 3599). The preparation of TiO2 in rutile form by direct oxidation of TiCl3 at room temperature is described by F. Pedraza, et al. (Phys. Chem. Solids, 1999, 60(4), 445). The method consists either in leaving TiCl3 in water for a certain time (for example 60 hours), in order to hydrolyze the TiCl3 to TiO2, or in heating the aqueous TiCl3 solution to 80° C., then in filtering the particles formed and in drying them at 120° C. or higher. According to J. Sun, et al. (Huazue Xeubo, 2002, 60(8), 1524), a rutile nanopowder is obtained by direct hydrolysis of TiCl3 solutions under mild conditions, in the presence of (CH3)4NOH acting as precipitating agent. The rutile particles are in the form of needles. According to M. Koelsch, et al., (Thin Solid Films, 2004, 86-92, 451-542), the three TiO2 polymorphs may be synthesized by thermolysis of TiCl4 or TiCl3 in aqueous medium, and by controlling the precipitation conditions (acidity, the nature of the anions, ionic force, titanium concentration, etc.) it is possible to control the crystal structure, the size and the morphology of the particles. Thus, spheroidal nanoanatase, pure brookite platelets, of nanoscale dimensions, and rutile of different forms may be obtained. The particular cases illustrated result in the formation of particles of spherical anatase, rutile with a rod or needle morphology, the rods or needles being of various sizes, and platelets of pure brookite. The hydrolysis of TiCl4 in water at a temperature between 20 and 95° C. and an aging time of longer than two days results in rutile (Li, Y. Fan, Y. Chen, J. Mater. Chem., 2002, 12, 1387). The hydrolysis of Ti(iPr)4 in an HCl-acidified aqueous solution at a temperature between 25 and 200° C. results in rutile rods (S. Yin, H. Hasegawa, T. Sato, Chem. Lett., 2002, 564). The hydrolysis of TiOCl2 in HCl or in water containing NH4OH at a temperature of 60° C. gives rutile (D. S. Seo, J. K. Lee, H. Kim, J. Cryst. Growth, 2001, 223, 298).
Thus, it is apparent that, for a given type of method, the particular processing conditions have a major effect on the crystallographic structure and the morphology of the titanium oxide obtained.

Abstract: The titanium oxide is characterized in that it has the crystallographic structure of rutile with an orthorhombic lattice and a Pnmm space group, it has a platelet morphology, the platelets being of rectangular shape with a length between 3 and 10 nm, a width between 3 and 10 nm and a thickness of less than 1 nm and it has a specific surface area, determined by nitrogen adsorption/desorption, of 100 to 200 m2/g.

Abstract: Applications: self-cleaning glazing, photovoltaic cells.

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique