A method for treating bronze or brass fixtures containing lead with a cupric acetate solution is described. The treatment results in decreased amounts of lead in subsequent use. A preferred embodiment uses about 0.01 M cupric acetate at pH4.

For many years, various materials which contain lead have come in contact with foods and liquids intended for human consumption. Such lead-containing materials include brass alloys made of copper, lead, and zinc used for plumbing fittings; bronze alloys; lead solder in pipes; lead-containing compounds used in tins for storing food items such as olive oil; etc.
Brass alloys used to manufacture fittings such as faucets and valves are made up primarily of copper and zinc, with a small amount of lead added to make the brass more workable and machinable. Easier machinability permits finishing, machining, the cutting of threads, etc., to proceed more smoothly and at a lower cost than without a lead alloying moiety. Bronze alloys are similarly made up primarily of copper and tin, with a small amount of a lead alloying moiety for similar reasons.
Because lead atoms are much larger than copper and zinc atoms, the lead atoms have very low solid solubility in brass alloys. The lead atoms therefore tend to precipitate as lead-rich pockets dispersed through the brass. Surfaces of brass fixtures generally have lead concentrations much higher than the average concentration of lead throughout the fixtures. These lead-rich pockets improve the machinability of the bronze. However, they also increase the tendency of lead to leach into water.
Until recently, the amount of lead leached into foods and liquids from modern lead-containing plumbing fittings was considered to be low enough that it presented no significant harm to ingesters of such foods and liquids. However, new, stricter standards which significantly limit the amount of permitted lead leaching and lead exposure are being promulgated and imposed at both the state and federal levels. For example, the Safe Drinking Water Act was amended in June 1988 to limit lead in solders and fluxes to 0.2 percent and to limit lead in public water supply pipe and fittings to eight percent. Lead soldered food cans have not been made in the United States since 1991. Regulations such as these limit lead exposure by limiting the amounts of lead in materials in contact with foods and liquids.
Another approach to limiting lead exposure is to limit the amount of lead which is actually in the food or water. For example, regulations implementing California's Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986 limit lead exposure of an individual to less than 0.5 microgram per day. In 1991, the EPA increased the stringency of the lead standard for drinking water from 50 parts per billion to 15 parts per billion. In December 1994, a consortium led by NSF International developed a voluntary third-party consensus standard, NSF Standard 61, Section 9-1994, and a certification program for all direct and indirect drinking water additives. Among these standards is one for lead, which limits the amount of lead from most endpoint devices to 11 micrograms (.mu.g) when normalized for the one liter first draw sample.
Although the amount of lead leached from brass alloy faucets, valves and other plumbing fittings and fixtures made using current methods is low, the amount of lead leached from such fittings may exceed current or planned permissible standards. Such more stringent standards require either that lead be entirely eliminated from the brass alloys or that the brass be treated so that lead does not leach out in amounts which exceed permitted standards. Treatment of a material to reduce its chemical activity is sometimes referred to as passivation.
Previous lead control strategies recommended in the Lead and Copper Rule, 40 CFR .sctn..sctn.141-142 (U.S. EPA 1991) have focused on water stabilization and corrosion inhibition. These treatments do not remove lead, but merely precipitate it or change its oxidation kinetics.
To stabilize water, its pH is adjusted, using, for example, lime (CaO), slaked lime (Ca(OH).sub.2), and caustics (NaOH, KOH). Alternatively, the alkalinity of water is adjusted, using, for example, sodium bicarbonate, sodium carbonate, and sodium silicate.
To inhibit corrosion, various inorganic phosphate salts and sodium silicate may be added. Zinc and other orthophosphates, sodium pyrophosphate, and sodium tripolyphosphate have been used. Phosphate treatment is not effective in low pH water. Polyphosphates apparently contain or convert to orthophosphates which form metal orthophosphate films on plumbing materials. Although sodium silicate inhibits corrosion of galvanized steel and copper-based metals by forming metal silicate films, it requires high doses and months of treatment to be effective against lead leaching.
It has been recently suggested that brass fittings be treated in a very low pH copper chloride bath to reduce the rate of lead leaching from the fittings during consumer use. It was thought that this treatment would mimic the process occurring in situ over many years. However, the efficacy of this treatment has been somewhat erratic. The copper chloride concentration ranged from 1 millimolar (mM) to 100 mM, while the preferred pH was a pH of 2.0. This very low pH may unduly endanger workers' safety. During treatment, the pH increased to non-preferred ranges, becoming less effective.
Copper chloride treatments have been found to have other serious disadvantages, including: the treatments are non-specific and inefficient, resulting in high amounts of zinc leached as well as lead; insufficient amounts of lead are leached; and the treatments are corrosive, with the low pH adversely affecting the treatment facilities.
It has been discovered that immersing or otherwise exposing the lead-containing surfaces of brass plumbing fittings to a bath of 1 mM copper (cupric) acetate (CuAc.sub.2) to 100 mM CuAc.sub.2, for a period of at least about five minutes, will effectively, efficiently and consistently reduce the lead leached into water to substantially less than the normalized 11 .mu.g called for by the NSF International consensus standard of December 1994.

Method of treating lead-containing surfaces to passivate the surface lead


Several embodiments of bilge devices for small watercraft that permit the use of small capacity bilge pumps and which ensure that the bilge pumps will not run dry during abrupt maneuvers are disclosed. This result is obtained by using a trap-like device that permits water to accumulate from the bilge but which restricts the escape of the water during abrupt maneuvers

This invention relates to a water jet propulsion unit and more particularly to an improved bilge device for removing water from the hull of a small watercraft.
There is a type of small watercraft which is extremely popular and which is designed to be operated by a rider and occupants in swimming suits. The reason for this is that this type of watercraft may frequently be subject to sudden maneuvers and cause the occupants to become wet. And, in some instances, the watercraft in fact may be capsized or partially capsized.
Of course, it is desirable to ensure that the bilge of the watercraft is kept relatively clear of water and hence, it is the practice to employ some form of bilge pump for this type of watercraft. Generally, the bilge pump has a pick-up conduit that is disposed at a low portion in the hull and which will pick up the water that accumulates in the bilge for pumping out. However, because of the fact that this type of watercraft is subjected to abrupt handling, the water in the bilge may flow to one side or the other, or to the front or the rear, and the pump will run dry. When the watercraft becomes more stable, although water may be returned to the inlet of the bilge pump, the air that has been drawn into the pumping system can cause the efficiency of the pump to decrease.
Of course, this problem could be partially reduced by providing a larger bilge pump, but this type of watercraft does not accommodate such larger units. In addition, even a larger capacity bilge pump may be subject to the aforenoted problems.
It is, therefore, a principal object to this invention to provide an improved bilge pump for a small watercraft.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a bilge pump for a small watercraft wherein it will be ensured that water is at the inlet to the bilge system at substantially all times.


A method and system for computer question-answering. The method includes: receiving a plurality of the questions to be trained, and obtaining a candidate answer set for each question; determining part of the questions to which the candidate answer sets include correct answers, and using first feature sets of the candidate; obtaining a first mathematical model, which is used to compute a first confidence degree that the candidate answer is a correct answer; computing first confidence degrees of the candidate answers of all the questions to be trained, and for each question, extracting a second feature set related to the first confidence degrees and the first feature set; and obtaining a second mathematic model, which is used to compute a second confidence degree that the candidate answer is a correct answer based on the second feature set.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of computer question-answering, and in particular to an improved computer learning method and system for computer question-answering, and a method and system for responding to a new question.
2. Description of the Related Art
A question-answering system, also referred to as Human Machine Conversation (HMC) system, refers to a system that receives from a user a question expressed in the form of a natural language, and obtains, from a large amount of structural, semi-structural or non-structural data, an accurate, concise and individualized answer to the question in the form of the natural language.
Question answer systems are playing an increasingly important role in various fields, such as assisting in diagnosis, self-medicating, in the health care/life science field, used in call centers, self-services, in the retailing/consumption field, assisting enterprises' decisions in the field of enterprise business intelligence, and many others.
However, in the prior art, when a correct answer is not included in the candidate answer set, since the data is not related to the machine learning, no matter how the model is trained, a correct answer to the question cannot be found, and the machine learning cannot achieve a good resolution. Thus, it can be seen that there is still room for improvement in the question-answering method and systems known in the prior art.

Method and system for computer question-answering

International Business Machines Corporation


A multicomponent force and moment measuring arrangement wherein shear forces are converted into moments and transmitted via tensile-compressive forces onto piezoelectric rod elements, while axial compressive-tensile forces are transmitted directly onto the same piezoelectric rod elements. With appropriate arrangement of the piezoelectric rods and their signal evaluation, transducers and dynamometers of entirely new type can be constructed, in which the necessary electronics package can be located between the piezoelectric rod elements for certain applications.

Multicomponent force measuring by means of dynamometers and with flat washer sensors is familiar. For such applications piezoelectric metrology employing quartz load washers for compressive and shear loading has gained acceptance. The quartz crystal disks used for this are all cut longitudinally from the quartz rods. Piezoelectric ceramics might be used in principle, though they have not found acceptance because static calibration is necessary.
Also known in piezoelectric pressure transducers are piezoelectric crystals as rod elements cut transversely.
The invention is based on the new discovery that such piezoelectric rod elements may be employed for forming flexural moment, making possible multicomponent force measurement provided their signals are processed appropriately. Such force and moment transducers can be made very compact and simple. They are suitable for miniaturization, because the signal strength is many times greater than that with disk crystal arrays.
A measuring arrangement according to the invention is characterized by at least two piezoelectric elements sensitive to compression and tension respectively, with a common force introducing element, being disposed so that they measure both pressure and tension components, and also add or subtract as the case may be compressive or tensile forces set up in pairs by moment forces, resulting in the piezoelectric elements from one or more moments acting on the measuring arrangement, whereby the addends are led as signal charges to evaluation circuitry.
The invention and other features and advantages associated with it are explained in more detail below, with reference to the typical embodiments illustrated in the drawing.

Multicomponent force and moment measuring arrangement


The present disclosure discloses an in-cell touch screen panel, a driving method thereof and a display device. A plurality of sub-pixels are grouped into sub-pixel groups, each of which includes at least two sub-pixels. Cathode layers of different sub-pixel groups are independent of one another. The cathode layers are reused as self-capacitance electrodes. A driving chip determines a touch position by detecting a change in capacitance of the cathode layers, thereby achieving touch control functionality. The driving chip outputs, in a fourth phase, signals to the cathode layers and to the signal terminals of each sub-pixel circuit, each of the signals is a superposition of the signal output in a third phase with a touch scanning signal such that each sub-pixel circuit operates in the fourth phase in the same state as in the third phase.

With swift development of the display technologies, touch screen panels have been applied extensively in daily life. At present, touch screen panels may be classified in terms of their structures into add-on touch screen panels, on-cell touch screen panels and in-cell touch screen panels. For the add-on touch screen panel, a touch panel and a display panel are produced separately, and then fitted together to form a display screen which has a touch function. The add-on touch screen panel has drawbacks such as high manufacturing cost, low light transmissivity, and a large thickness. With touch electrodes of a touch panel being embedded in a display panel, the in-cell touch screen panel appeals to panel manufactures since it may have a thinner thickness as a whole, and a substantially reduced manufacturing cost.
Currently, in-cell touch screen panels are mainly used in liquid crystal displays. As is well known, the organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display is among intensively investigated fields of state-of-the-art flat panel displays. As compared with the liquid crystal display, the OLED display has advantages such as low energy consumption, low product cost, self-light emission, a wide view angle, and quick responsiveness. Presently, the OLED displays have begun to replace conventional LCD displays in applications such as mobile phones, PDAs and digital cameras. Hence, it is a technical problem that needs an urgent solution for a person having ordinary skill in the art to provide an organic electroluminescent display panel-based in-cell touch screen panel.

In-cell touch screen panel, driving method thereof, and display device

BEIJING BOE OPTOELECTRONICS TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.


A control method includes: acquiring information that indicates a predicted position of a mobile terminal that requests data that is able to be received from a first communication device; identifying, based on the acquired information, a second communication device that is able to communicate with the mobile terminal located at the predicted position; and causing, by a processor, the second communication device to start receiving the data from the first communication device before the identified second communication device becomes able to communicate with the mobile terminal, and to transmit the received data to the mobile terminal after the second communication device becomes able to communicate with the mobile terminal.

In order to download a large amount of data such as video data from a file server to a mobile terminal, there is a demand to maintain a stable, high-speed network connection between the mobile terminal and a base station. However, if a communication rate in a network is not sufficient or communication is not executed in the network due to a restriction caused by congestion, a disease, or the like or due to the fact that the mobile terminal is located outside a communication area, it takes a lot of time to download the data or the data is not downloaded. In addition, a technique in which a mobile network communicates data requests to neighboring data stores and the neighboring data stores pre-fetch the data is known (refer to, for example, Japanese National Publication of International Patent Application No. 2011-525312).
In addition, since the amounts of traffic in communication carriers' lines for mobile terminals increase, there is a demand to take an off-load measure to cause traffic to travel to lines and the like other than the carriers' lines. For the measure, there is a method for accessing a file server through a wireless-fidelity (Wi-Fi) (registered trademark) access point that is able to be connected to mobile terminals. This method is referred to as Wi-Fi off-load and promoted in order to distribute traffic to base stations of carriers. In addition, an ad-hoc network technique for forming an autonomous network by causing mobile terminals to directly communicate with each other is known.

Control method, control device, and communication system


A single-stage high-ratio compound planetary gear system has gears configured for optimal tooth profile contact to minimize Hertzian stresses under relatively high contact loads characteristic of high-ratio gearing. Criteria is established for determining the optimal line of action required to attain a substantially constant relative radius of curvature between the teeth of a mating set and optimal tooth geometry for maximal contact between mating teeth.

This invention relates in general to planetary transmission systems and gearing and deals more particularly with an improved single-stage compound planetary gear system embodying such gearing.
Heretofore it has been general practice in the planetary transmission art to utilize multi-staging of a series of planetary gear sets where high ratios of speed change (greater than about 10:1) have been required. In special cases where size, weight and efficiency have not been critical, compound planetary gearing has been used in high gear ratio transmissions. Either approach has generally utilized involute gears or modified involute gear forms. In such transmission systems it has been the usual practice to utilize wide gears, that is gears wherein the ratio of the face width to pitch diameter (F/D) is greater than 1 to compensate for high Hertzian stresses encountered in high-ratio meshes. This approach has been generally preferred to the use of relatively large diameter gears to maintain proper design stress limits on gear teeth and bearings. However, such wide gears are usually relatively heavy and tend to produce more severe load gradients across the tooth faces due to axial misalignments between meshing gears. Self-aligning mechanisms have been utilized such as floating, spline members, cams, and flexing type mechanisms to overcome this problem, however, the provision of such special support structures add substantially to the cost and complexity of a transmission system.
The present invention is concerned with the aforesaid problems. Specifically, it is the general aim of the invention to provide an improved single-stage compound planetary gear system which utilizes improved gearing whereby a broad range of high-gear ratios can be attained in a relatively simple transmission system utilizing gears having low face width to pitch diameter ratios (F/D less than 1.0).

Planetary gear system and gears therefore


A luminescent substance particle including BaSnO3 having a perovskite-type structure, wherein the luminescent substance particle contains one of 0.07% by mass or less of Fe (iron), 0.005% by mass or less of Cr (chromium) and 0.02% by mass or less of Ni (nickel). A wavelength conversion film including the luminescent substance particle for converting a light in an ultraviolet region to a light in an infrared region. A wavelength conversion device including a substrate and the wavelength conversion film formed on the substrate.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a luminescent substance particle (fine fluorescent particles) of a perovskite-type oxide and a method for producing the luminescent substance particle (process for producing fine fluorescent particles), and relates to a luminescent substance film (thin fluorescent film), a wavelength conversion film, a wavelength conversion device, and a solar battery (solar cell) using the luminescent substance particle.
Description of the Related Art
Japanese Patent No. 3698215 discloses a basic concept that in order to improve power generation efficiency of a solar battery, a part of a solar light is wavelength-converted to generate a light with a longer wavelength, at which the solar battery has a higher spectral sensitivity. Non-Patent Document 1 and Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2007-146102 disclose a material having a wavelength conversion function, and Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2013-004806 discloses a solar battery having a wavelength conversion layer. Furthermore, Non-Patent Document 2 discloses an effect of a feed composition on a light emission property of a BaSnxO3.

Luminescent substance particle having perovskite-type structure


The present invention is directed to chemical conjugates (herein referred to as polysaccharide adjuvant-antigen conjugates) that have a polysaccharide backbone capable of binding to the cell surface of Antigen Presenting Cells (APCs), to which is covalently attached (a) one or more molecules having a stable carbonyl group (i.e. an aldehyde and ketone group that is capable of reacting with amino groups to form an imine or Schiff base), and (b) one or more polypeptides or peptides that are capable of eliciting an immunogenic response when covalently attached to polysaccharide backbone. Also disclosed are methods for making the conjugates and methods of using the conjugates to enhance the potentiation of an immune response in a mammal. Also disclosed is a method of vaccination, and pharmaceutical and veterinary compositions comprising one or more of the polysaccharide adjuvant-antigen conjugates of the present invention.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to polysaccharide derivatives, their preparation and their use in vaccines and immunostimulating compositions. More particularly, the invention is related to antigen-adjuvant conjugates that are derivatives of polysaccharides recognized by antigen presenting cells (APCs) conjugated with an antigen.
2. Related Art
Adjuvants have utility in activating the immune system to increase the efficacy of preventative and therapeutic vaccines. Immunoadjuvants have applications in: (1) the non-specific stimulation of host resistance against infection and cancer, (2) the potentiating of preventative vaccine immunogenicity, and (3) the potentiating of therapeutic vaccine immunogenicity. These adjuvants may preferentially enhance cell-mediated immune responses (T cell responses, delayed hypersensitivity), humoral responses (B cell responses, antibody production), or both. Stimulation of humoral immunity is important for prevention of bacterial infections, some viral infections, as well as in therapy of soft tissue and circulating cancers. Cellular immunity is of major importance for solid tumor cancer therapy and some viral diseases.
After an initial stimulation by a foreign agent or antigen (such as viruses, bacteria, or parasites), the immune system usually recognizes and reacts to the agent with an accelerated response upon re-exposure. This enhanced response forms the basis for the enormous success of vaccination for disease prevention. However, the initial immune response to a foreign antigen requires several days for full response, which is insufficient for protection against infections by highly virulent organisms. A way to achieve a faster protective immune response is by vaccination or immunization with a pathogen, which is usually attenuated or dead. However, in many cases immunization with killed microorganisms or with pure antigens elicits a poor short term immune response with weak or no cell-mediated immunity produced at all. In many cases this poor immune response can be modified by the addition of adjuvants to the antigen preparation. Several polysaccharides (carbohydrate polymers) of mannose (e.g. mannans), xcex2(1,3) glucose (e.g. glucans), xcex2(1,4) acetylated mannose (acemannans), xcex2(1,4) N-acetyl-glucosamine (chitins), and heteropolysaccharides, such as rhamnogalacturonans (pectins), have been shown to stimulate the immune system. Antigen presenting cells (APCs) have specific cell-surface-receptors which recognize and bind the sugar moieties of these and other polysaccharides. Antigen presenting cells (APCs), such as dendritic cells and some macrophages, are responsible for taking up antigens and processing them to small peptides in endolysosomes. Processed antigens are expressed on the surface of APCs in conjunction with class II MHC. Specifically, reactive T cells recognize antigen and class II MHC simultaneously, yielding immune responses that are class II MHC restricted. B cells are stimulated by processed antigens to produce antibodies. These APC surface-receptors (such as the macrophage mannose receptor and its homologous receptor DEC-205 from dendritic cells) are trans-membrane proteins that mediate endocytosis and apparently play a role in the process of antigen presentation. (Stahl, P. D., Current Opinions in Immunology 4:49 (1992); and Jiang, W. et al., Nature 375:151 (1995)). Binding of these polysaccharides to such receptors apparently induces immunostimulation, as shown by the increase in phagocytosis, proliferative responses, release of cytokines, and other activities of the immune system. Because of this immunostimulatory activity, these polysaccharides have been proposed as vaccine adjuvants.
Polysaccharide adjuvants exert an immunomodulating effect by modifying cytokine production, such as upregulating IL-1, and causing a moderate Th1 response. The immune response produced by the Th1 subset of CD4+T cells induces complement fixing antibodies as well as strong, delayed-type hypersensitivity (DTH) reactions associated with xcex3-IFN, IL-2 and IL-12. Polysaccharides"" effects on the native protein conformation are moderate, preserving the conformational epitopes necessary to elicit a neutralizing antibody response. However, because these adjuvants cannot allow exogenous antigens to be processed via the endogenous pathway, they do not induce a cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) response. Because APCs have cell-surface-receptors specific for certain carbohydrate moieties, the targeting and delivery to these cells of antigens associated with these sugar moieties can be significantly enhanced. Apparently, the role of sugar moieties in the targeting of antigen delivery is not limited to polysaccharide adjuvants. For instance, the modification of quillajasaponin carbohydrate side-chains by periodic acid oxidation results in a loss of their adjuvanticity. Presumably, this results because of the loss of their targeting capacity.
Although the adjuvant properties of certain polysaccharides have been known for some time, their use has been largely limited to research applications. For instance, it has been shown that glucans can induce an anti-tumor response in mice, and have a preventive effect on acute sepsis. These effects are dependent on the glucans"" molecular weight and their degree of branching. Mannans are other polysaccharides with adjuvant activity which presumably exert their effect after binding to the macrophage mannose cell-surface-receptor. Recently, it has been shown that conjugation of a protein antigen to mannan under oxidizing conditions resulted in a cell-mediated immune response (Apostolopoulos, V. et al., Vaccine 14: 930(1996)). However, protein antigens conjugated to mannans under non-oxidative conditions, i.e. without aldehyde formation, elicited only humoral immunity (Okawa, Y. et al., J. Immunol. Meth. 142:127 (1992)) and (Apostolopoulos, V. et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 92:10128 (1995)). Stimulation of T-cell immunity has also been achieved by generating with galactose oxidase under experimental conditions, aldehydes in the galactosyl residues of cell-surface polysaccharides (Zeng, B., et al., Science 256:1560(1992)). However, this immunostimulation was not reproducible (Rhodes, J. Immunol. Today 17:436(1996)). These results highlight the problems associated with aldehyde instability and/or the inefficient production of aldehydes by enzymatic oxidation.
Commonly-assigned, co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/165,310, filed Oct. 2, 1998, discloses polysaccharide conjugates that comprise (i) a polysaccharide that binds to surface-receptors present on Antigen Presenting Cells (APCs), and (ii) one or more compounds having a stable carbonyl group (i.e. an aldehyde and ketone group that is capable of reacting with amino groups to form an imine or Schiff base) wherein compounds (ii) are attached to the polysaccharide (i) through (iii) a direct covalent bond or covalently via the residue of a bifunctional linker. The conjugates are useful as adjuvants or immunostimulants.
It has been reported that certain protein antigens linked covalently to an adjuvant to form conjugates may have a immunogenicity higher than that of the antigen mixed with the adjuvant. For instance, addition of the adjuvant muramyl dipeptide (MDP) to a synthetic viral antigen resulted in a limited adjuvant effect. However, a covalent conjugate of this antigen with MDP elicited a strong immune response (Arnon et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 77:6769-6772 (1980)). Conjugation of the quillajasaponin adjuvant (QS-21) with a poorly immunogenic protein, lysozyme, resulted in an enhanced immunogenicity (Kensil et al., Vaccines 92, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, pp. 35-40; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,583,112 (1992)), whereas mixtures of lysozyme with QS-21 failed to elicit an immune response. Recently, it has been reported that when a mucin (MUC1) fusion protein is conjugated to mannan under oxidizing conditions an effective anti-tumor cellular immune response is induced (Apostolopoulos et al., Vaccine 14:930-938 (1996)). However, conjugation of the protein to the polysaccharide with cyanogen bromide, via isourea bonds, did not elicit a cellular immune response. The authors indicate that the presence of aldehyde groups, produced by oxidation of the polysaccharide with periodate, was required to elicit T-cell immunity.
Thus, antigens conjugated to certain adjuvants show an enhanced immunogenicity. Furthermore, it is apparent that in some cases these conjugates are capable of eliciting a specific CTL response. Although the mechanism of how a conjugate elicits a CTL response is not known, it is possible that the adjuvant part is responsible for the initial targeting, binding to the surface of antigen presenting cells (APCs), and co-stimulation. Once this binding has taken place, the conjugate can be internalized into the co-stimulated cell""s cytosol by endocytosis/pinocytosis, and the antigen processed as an endogenous one. Although, there are reports of the utility of quillajasaponins to form antigen-adjuvant conjugates, their intrinsic toxicity and instability make their use in commercial products difficult. Antigen-adjuvant conjugates of periodic acid-oxidized polysaccharides are non-toxic. However, the inconsistent production of short-lived aldehydes by oxidizing polysaccharide sugar residues makes this approach unsuitable for commercial purposes as well.
Thus, to elicit an enhanced and useful T-cell immune response, such as that needed for clinically-useful viral and cancer vaccines, it would be advantageous to use stable, reproducible and non-toxic antigen-adjuvant conjugates as antigens. The present invention is directed to the preparation of reproducible, stable, and non-toxic antigen-adjuvant conjugates that are capable of targeting and co-stimulating APCs, and their use of such conjugates as vaccine antigens to stimulate T-cell immunity.
The present invention is directed to chemical conjugates (herein referred to as polysaccharide adjuvant-antigen conjugates) that comprise:
(i) a polysaccharide capable of binding to the cell surface of Antigen Presenting Cells (APCs);
(ii) one or more molecules having a stable carbonyl group (i.e. an aldehyde and ketone group that is capable of reacting with amino groups to form an imine or Schiff base);
(iii) one or more polypeptides or peptides that are capable of eliciting an immunogenic response when covalently attached to polysaccharide backbone (i);
wherein molecules (ii) are attached to the polysaccharide (i) through (iv) a direct covalent bond or covalently via a bifunctional linker in a manner that keeps the stable carbonyl group intact; and
wherein said one or more polypeptides or peptides (iii) are attached to the polysaccharide (i) through (v) a direct covalent bond or covalently via a bifunctional linker.
The present invention is directed to enhancing the potentiating of an immune response in a mammal, comprising administering an effective amount of a polysaccharide adjuvant-antigen conjugate of the present invention to enhance the immune response of a mammal to one or more antigens.
The present invention is also directed to a method of vaccination, comprising administering one or more polysaccharide adjuvant-antigen conjugates of the present invention.
The present invention is also directed to pharmaceutical and veterinary compositions comprising one or more of the polysaccharide adjuvant-antigen conjugates of the present invention, and one or more pharmaceutically acceptable diluents, carriers or excipients. These compositions may be employed as immunopotentiators in animals and humans.
The present invention is also directed to vaccines comprising one or more polysaccharide adjuvant-antigen conjugates of the present invention.

Modified polysaccharide adjuvant-protein antigen conjugates, the preparation thereof and the use thereof


A fluidic delivery device includes a fluid supply containing a fluid, the fluid supply has a fluid reservoir and a pair of fluid permeable compressible bodies located in the fluid reservoir. One of the fluid permeable compressible bodies has an effective greater density than the other fluid permeable compressible body.

Improvement is desired in the field of fluidic structures of the type used to dispense fluid from a storage supply. Inkjet printheads are one example of fluidic structures that operate by dispensing fluid from a fluid supply.
Conventional fluidic structures for dispensing fluid from a fluid supply desire improvement in their ability to more completely utilize the fluids they are designed to dispense and reduce wasting of fluid. For example, conventional devices typically cannot dispense more than about 80 percent of the stored fluid, leaving the undispensed fluid in the device once the device has exhausted its functional life.
This undispensed fluid represents a significant waste of fluid and also disadvantageously affects the size of construction of the device. For example, as desired fluid levels in such devices increase, the fluid volumetric efficiency of the device becomes of greater concern. An inefficient device requires a larger volume of fluid, which requires a larger device, which impacts the cost. Also, the increased mass of a larger device can also negatively affect the fragility during shipping and handling, as well as shipping costs for gross shipment of devices.
Accordingly, what is desired are fluidic devices that promote improved efficiency of dispensing fluid. Improved efficiency will result in more of the fluid stored in the device being dispensed. This will reduce the amount of fluid that is wasted and remains in the device once the device has completed its service life.

Fluid delivery devices having improved efficiency in delivering fluid with reduced wastage of fluid


Dye transfer inhibiting compositions are disclosed, comprising an enzyme exhibiting peroxidase activity, a hydrogen peroxide or a hydrogen peroxide precursor or an enzymatic system capable of generating hydrogen peroxide, an additional oxidizable substrate, and a cellulase, characterized in that the cellulase provides at least 10% removal of immobilized radioactive labelled carboxymethyl cellulose according to C14CMC method at 25.times.10.sup.-6 % by weight of the laundry test solution.. According to the present invention, a preferred cellulase consists essentially of a homogeneous endoglucanase component which is immunoreactive with a monoclonal antibody raised against a partially purified=43 kD cellulase derived from Humicola insolens DM1800.

One of the most persistent and troublesome problems arising during modern fabric laundering operations is the tendency of some colored fabrics to release dye into the laundering solutions. The dye is then transferred onto other fabrics being washed therewith.
One way of overcoming this problem would be to bleach the fugitive dyes washed out of dyed fabrics before they have the opportunity to become attached to other articles in the wash.
Suspended or solubilized dyes can to some degree be oxidized in solution by employing known bleaching agents.
GB 2 101 167 describes a stable liquid bleaching composition containing a hydrogen peroxide precursor which is activated to yield hydrogen peroxide on dilution.
However, it is important at the same time not to bleach the dyes actually remaining on the fabrics, that is, not to cause color damage.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,077,768 describes a process for inhibiting dye transfer by the use of an oxidizing bleaching agent together with catalytic compounds such as iron porphins.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/421,414 now abandoned describes peroxidases and oxidases utilized for the oxidation of organic or inorganic substances, including coloured substances. A dye transfer inhibiting composition comprising an enzymatic system capable of generating hydrogen peroxide and iron catalysts has been disclosed in copending EP Patent Application 91202655.6 filed Oct. 9, 1991.
EP 424 398-A describes a detergent additive capable of exerting a bleaching effect comprising a peroxidase. The additive further comprises one or more enzymes, particularly a lipase, protease, amylase or a cellulase.
EP-A-350 098 discloses a C14CMC-method which defines a cellulase selection criteria relevant for detergent application. A minimum of 10% removal of immobilized radioactive labelled carboxymethylcellulose according to the CMC-method at 25.times.10.sup.-6 % by weight of the cellulase protein in the test solution has been found to provide high active cellulase.
A preferred group of cellulase falling under the high activity definition according to the present invention has been disclosed in copending Danish Patent Application No. 1159/90 filed May 5, 1990. There is disclosed a cellulase preparation consisting essentially of a homogeneous endoglucanase component which is immunoreactive with a monoclonal antibody raised against a partially purified=43 kD cellulase derived from Humicola insolens DM1800.
It has now been surprisingly found that the efficiency of peroxidases in terms of dye transfer inhibition, is considerably enhanced by using said high activity cellulase and more in particular the specific cellulase preparation disclosed in copending Danish Patent Application No. 1159/90. It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide dye transfer inhibiting compositions which exhibit optimum dye transfer in wash liquids by using said high activity cellulase and peroxidase.
According to one embodiment of this invention a dye transfer inhibiting composition is provided which comprises a cost-effective cellulase preparation, e.g. by employing recombinant DNA techniques.
According to another embodiment of this invention a process is also provided for laundering operations involving colored fabrics.


A charging apparatus includes a cooling fan; a battery temperature detecting unit; and a control unit configured to determine presence or non-presence of cooling effect by the cooling fan, and to control a charging current based on an output of the battery temperature detecting unit. When there is no cooling effect and the battery temperature reaches a first predetermined value smaller than a maximum value of a temperature range in which a battery is chargeable without making a life time thereof shorter, the control unit changes the charging current to a first charging current value where increase of the battery temperature can be suppressed. When there is cooling effect and the battery temperature reaches a second predetermined value higher than the first predetermined value, the control unit changes the charging current to a second charging current value larger than the first charging current value.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a charging apparatus for charging secondary batteries such as nickel cadmium batteries, and nickel hydrogen batteries.
2. Background Art
In the case of charging a battery pack such as a nickel cadmium battery or a nickel hydrogen battery used as a power source for a cordless tool etc., although the battery pack can be charged in a short time when charged with a large current, an amount of heat generated from the battery within the battery pack during charge becomes large and so the cycle life of the battery becomes shorter. Thus, a charging apparatus is proposed that charges a battery pack with a small charging current for a long time in order to suppress the heat amount of the battery.
On the other hand, another charging apparatus is proposed that charges a battery pack with a large charging current while cooling the battery pack by a cooling fan provided at a charging apparatus thereby to charge the battery pack in a short time with suppressing the heat amount of the battery pack during charge.
The aforesaid two charging apparatuses differ in their charging methods depending on whether or not the battery pack can cope with the forced cooling, that is, whether or not the battery pack is provided with a structure such as an air hole with respect to air blown from a cooling fan. In view of the fact that the charging method differs in this manner between the battery pack with a cooling device and the battery pack without a cooling device, a charging method is proposed which determines whether or not the rising rate of temperature of the battery at the time of start of charging is more than a predetermined value thereby to determine the non-existence or existence of the cooling effect on the battery pack due to the cooling fan, and an average charging current is made large when the cooling effect exists, whilst the average charging current is made small when the cooling effect does not exist (see U.S. Pat. No. 6,204,639, for example).
As a method of determining the full charge of a battery pack, there is proposed a dT/dt detection method which detects that a battery is fully charged when a battery temperature increasing rate calculated at some sampling interval increases by a predetermined value or more from the minimum value within a battery temperature increasing rate storing unit (see JP-A-6-113475, for example).
However, according to the charging method which selects the average charging current depending on the non-existence or existence of the cooling effect, there arises a problem that the cooling ability is not brought to the maximum and so the charging time can not be made shorter even for the battery pack a the cooling device.
For example, as shown in the charging characteristics of FIG. 1, in the case where a charging control method is employed which changes the charging current from a value I0 to a value I2 when the battery temperature reaches a predetermined temperature (45° C.) after the start of the charging, the charging time of the battery pack with a cooling device can be made shorter than that of the battery pack without a cooling device. However, since the charging time with the charging current I2 is long, the battery pack with a cooling device does not fully use the cooling ability thereof.
Further, it is unreasonable to determine the presence or non-presence of cooling effect by simply using the battery temperature increasing rate calculated at a sampling interval used for determining the full charge in the dT/dt detection method.
This will be explained with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3. FIGS. 2 and 3 are graphs showing changes of battery voltages, charging currents and a battery temperature changing rate (A/D conversion value) at a first sampling interval used for determining full charge at the time of charging the battery pack with a cooling device and the battery pack without a cooling device and showing changes of a battery temperature changing rate (A/D conversion value) at a second sampling interval (>the first sampling interval) used for determining the existence or non-existence of cooling effect, wherein a battery temperature K described in the abscissa represents a time where the battery temperature reaches a predetermined value K. A minimum battery temperature changing rate until the battery temperature reaches a predetermined battery temperature K is small in difference between the battery pack with a cooling device and the battery pack without a cooling device in the case of the battery temperature changing rate at the first sampling interval, but large indifference between the battery pack with a cooling device and the battery pack without a cooling device in the case of the battery temperature changing rate at the second sampling interval. In this manner, it is difficult to determine the existence or non-existence of cooling effect by simply using the battery temperature changing rate calculated at the sampling interval used for determining the full charge in the dT/dt detection method. Further, the detection of full charge may be delayed and so the battery may be overcharged at the time of detecting full charge based on the battery temperature changing rate at the second sampling interval.
Further, since the battery temperature changing rate from the start of charging differs depending on the battery temperature at the time of starting charge, it is unreasonable to determine the existence or non-existence of cooling effect to determine a charging current simply depending on whether or not the battery temperature changing rate at the time of starting charge is equal to or more than the predetermined value.


The assembly is characterized by simultaneously molding the support fitting (18) and the swivel tube (20) of an organic polymeric material to be bonded to the conduit which extends between the support fitting (18) and the swivel tube (20) to allow the swivel tube (20) to oscillate.

1. Field of the Invention
The subject invention relates to a motion transmitting remote control assembly of the type for transmitting motion in a curved path by a flexible motion transmitting core element movably supported in a conduit and, more specifically, to such an assembly including a swivel tube attached to the end of the conduit for slidably supporting a rod attached to the end of the core element.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Such assemblies are well known in the prior art and many have been developed by the assignee of the subject invention as exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 3,429,197 to Loewenstem. However, such assemblies are fabricated by separate steps for the support fitting, which supports the conduit on a structure. Alternatively, the swivel tube is supported in a female socket in the support fitting, a relatively complex fabrication process, as illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,333,361 to Spease.


A method for preventing the sickling of sickle cells in a patient having sickle cell disease, the method which comprises administering to the patient a therapeutically effective amount of a compound having the formula: ##STR1## wherein X.sup.- is selected from the group consisting of iodide, chloride, bromide, hydroxyl, nitrite, phosphate and acetate.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to novel compounds and pharmaceutical preparations including the same which are useful in the treatment of sickle cell disease.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Sickle cell disease is caused by a hemoglobin mutant called hemoglobin S, known as HbS. The mutation of HbS involves the replacement of a polar residue, glutamic acid, by a hydrophobic one, valine, in the 6th position of the .beta.-chains, and this renders the HbS capable of polymerization in the deoxygenated form. See Pauling et al., Science 110, 543 (1949); Ingram: Nature, (London) 178, 792 (1956). In the deoxygenated state, the HbS molecules aggregate in the form of elongated microtubular structures which distort the shape of the red cell to a sickle shape. The sickled cells tend to block the blood capillaries and ultimately give rise to the sequelae of sickle cell disease.
There are known compounds which affect polymerization of HbS, and there is a clear distinction between those which are antisickling agents and those which are antigelling agents.
The antisickling agents are those which are able to pass through the cell membrane of the erythrocytes and prevent or reverse sickling; the antigelling agents are those which are adapted to prevent polymerization of deoxygenated HbS, but which do not pass through the cell membrane in sufficient quantities and thus are not adapted to prevent or reverse sickling when contacted with red blood cells of a patient suffering from sickle cell disease.
Antigelling agents are not capable of preventing sickling, nor are they adapted to reverse sickling when incubated with erythrocytes.
In this regard, Tables II and III of U.S. Pat. No. 4,390,526 disclose various antisickling and antigelling agents, respectively, which have been developed in prior efforts to alleviate the deleterious effects of sickle cell disease. Known antisickling agents disclosed therein include DL-glyceraldehyde, various aldehydes and ketones, alkyl urea and urea, 2(benzoyl amino) pyridinium benzoate, dibromo aspirin, 3,4-dihydro-2,2-dimethyl 2H-1 benzopyridinium-6-butyric acid, pyridoxal, cystamine, nitrogen mustard, potassium cyanate, dimethyl adipimidate, and benzyl esters of certain amino acids. Cited antigelling agents include triand tetrapeptides, aromatic compounds, aromatic amino acids and peptides, and oligopeptides.
Sickle cell disease has been studied extensively, but in spite of this there does not exist a universally acceptable therapeutic agent for the treatment of this disease. During recent years attempts have been made to provide such agents. Some of these efforts are based on the use of three types of compounds:
a. Agents which bind covalently with the hemoglobin molecule;
b. Agents which bind non-covalently to this molecule; and
c. Agents affecting the cell membrane.
A number of known antisickling agents have a rather high toxicity, one of these being, for example, potassium cyanate. Moreover, it is generally agreed that none of the known agents for treating sickle cell anemia provide satisfactorily efficacious results over prolonged periods of time.
It would therefore be highly desirable to provide an active agent which is effective in preventing the sickling of erythrocytes in sickle cell patients, without the accompanying toxicity that is characteristic of many prior art treating agents.

Orthomolecular method of treating sickle cell disease


A method of determining overlay error comprises creating a first and second layers of an integrated circuit, each having an active circuit feature and an adjacent kerf area. Each kerf area includes a first measurement feature separated from and corresponding substantially to the layer's active circuit feature. The circuit and kerf areas of the layers are substantially superimposed. The distance of separation between the active circuit feature and the layer kerf measurement feature in each layer in the direction of overlay error is the same. The second layer kerf measurement feature is displaced from the first layer kerf measurement feature in a direction perpendicular to the direction that the overlay error is to be determined. Overlay error is determined by measuring distance of separation in the direction of overlay error between the common points of reference of each of the first and second layer kerf measurement features.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the manufacture of integrated circuits and, in particular, to a method and system for determining overlay error between circuit layers made by a lithographic process.
2. Description of Related Art
Semiconductor manufacturing involves the printing of multiple integrated circuit patterns using lithographic methods on successive levels of exposure tools. A requirement of semiconductor manufacturing is to keep the alignment of each level to previous levels below product tolerance. Currently this is done using the optical microscope based tool that measures structures printed in the field kerf outside the product cell that comprises the printed circuit pattern. The field kerf is the area which separates the individual cells or patterns and which is unusable due to the width of the blade used to cut apart the cells or patterns upon completion of the printing. These structural features printed in the field kerf must be larger than the printed circuit pattern to enable the low resolution to image and make measurements of the current to prior level alignment.
Kerf to device overlay error prediction is an industry wide issue. A problem of conventional overlay metrology technique is that the printed structure used in the measurement is printed at a much larger size and different shape than that of the printed circuit. Due to the physics of optical lithography, mask making and the like, this can lead to errors in the measured structure overlay to that of the printed circuit overlay. In addition, typical high resolution methods of measuring in-chip overlay such as scanning electron microscopy (SEM) are complicated by the required direct placement of subsequent patterns on top of each other. This leads to difficulty or even impossibility of measuring the overlay directly in the product chip device since the structures typically sit on top of each other and it may be difficult to discern an edge of a device feature on one level from an edge of a device feature on another level. At sub 0.3 μm ground rules, the magnitude of the problem starts to become a potentially significant contribution to yield loss due to overlay error.
Bearing in mind the problems and deficiencies of the prior art, it is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an improved system and method for determining overlay error between different lithographically produced layers of an integrated circuit chip.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a system and method for determining overlay error between superimposed active circuit features on different lithographically produced layers of an integrated circuit chip.
A further object of the invention is to provide a system and method for determining overlay error that avoids the problem of discerning different superimposed active circuit features on different lithographically produced layers of an integrated circuit chip.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide such a system and method for determining overlay error that does not reduce the amount of active circuit area on a semiconductor wafer.
Still other objects and advantages of the invention will in part be obvious and will in part be apparent from the specification.

Method for determining semiconductor overlay on groundrule devices


A digital interactive television set has a graphical user interface for displaying content from a plurality of different sources on its screen e.g. from digital satellite or cable broadcasts or through the Internet, the interface comprising: a focus region (16), and horizontally and vertically extending scroll bars (H, V) which each comprise a plurality of scroll bar elements that can be scrolled successively through the focus region, the scroll bar elements of the horizontal scroll bar signifying groupings of content sources. Elements of the horizontal scroll bar are scrolled individually into the focus region, and the scroll bar elements of the vertical scroll bar signify content sources which are included within a grouping thereof associated with the individual element of the horizontal scroll bar, so that the scroll bar elements of the vertical scroll bar can then be scrolled through the focus region to select a content source of the grouping. The scroll bar elements of the horizontal scroll bar comprise a three dimensional depiction of more than one of the content source groupings, and an individual one of the groupings may be selected from the three dimensional depiction for the focus region. The three dimensional elements are the horizontal scroll bar may comprise rectangular blocks that are rotatable about a common longitudinal axis.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to providing a graphical user interface for selecting content from a plurality of content sources and has particular but not exclusive application to an interactive multi-channel television set for selecting content from a variety of different sources such as digital television broadcast channels, pre-recorded content and the Internet.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Multiple channel television sets which can receive a multiplicity of digital broadcast channels via terrestrial broadcasts, satellite or cable are becoming popular. Very large numbers of channels can be transmitted by digital techniques, and so improved channel management systems are needed to enable the viewer to make an informed selection without having to surf all of the available channels. The television set can also be used to provide Internet access so it is desirable to provide a system which can bookmark individual web sites and pages that are of interest to the user.
Proposals have been made to provide a conventional computer keyboard for connection to a television set in order to enable management of the Internet and channel access. However, conventional television sets are usually provided with a handheld remote control device that communicates with the television set through an infrared link. The handheld device has limited functionality as compared with a conventional keyboard but is more convenient to use than the keyboard in most viewing situations.
International Published Application WO 00/65429 discloses a graphical user interface for display on a screen such as the monitor of a television set, in which object fields corresponding to pre-defined choices of content sources is displayed in a vertical column of object fields and a horizontal row of subordinate object fields. The row and the column extend along vertical and horizontal side edges of the display screen respectively. The row and the column intersect in a focus area and are each scrollable that is act as scroll bars so that the individual object fields can be scrolled into the focus area. Each of the object fields in the column may define a general group of content sources and thus may act as a folder which contains a number of individual bookmarks for Internet sites and channels of interest to the user. When the individual object field or folder is brought into the focus area by scrolling the vertical scroll bar, the horizontal scroll bar is populated with bookmarks associated with the folder. The user can then scroll the horizontal scroll bar to bring the bookmarks into the focus area and then select the bookmark in the focus area. The bookmark in the focus area may itself contain a number of sub-object fields, and if so, these are then displayed in the object fields of the vertical scroll bar so that the vertical scroll bar can again be scrolled in order to make a selection from them.
This configuration has the advantage that the scroll bars, which extend vertically and horizontally, can conveniently be controlled by the conventional vertical and left and right scrolling or arrow keys of the handheld remote control device and thus can be operated intuitively by the user. However, the arrangement has the disadvantage that because successive selections of the vertical and horizontal scroll bars need to be made, the user can become confused by the navigational process.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Graphical user interface comprising intersecting scroll bar for selection of content


A new and improved dining plate helper in the form of an upstanding annular shaped abutment located on the food containing surface of the plate inwardly with respect to the plate's peripheral edge. On the opposite side of the plate are contained one or more protruding members to serve as legs enabling a series of plates to be stored one on top of another in a stacking arrangement. In an alternative embodiment, additional food retaining members are located on the surface of the plate in a radially aligned circumferentially spaced manner. In yet another alternative embodiment, the plate includes a utensil retaining rim and the protruding member on the opposite side thereof permitting stacking of a plurality of similar plates defines a shallow bowl for retaining a liquid such as soup.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to food utensils, and more particularly, to a dining plate having means thereon to facilitate the handling of food with an auxiliary utensil.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is generally known to provide attachments to dinner plates which serve as abutment members against which food my pushed by a utensil, such as a fork, to facilitate placing the food on the utensil. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,422,986 discloses a resilient molded plastic member adapted to snap-fitted on the rim of a conventional dinner plate to serve as an abutment against which food may be urged eventually to be scooped up with a fork or similar utensil. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 3,598,278 discloses a ring of somewhat flexible material having a V-shaped cross-section adapted to be fitted on the rim of a standard dinner plate. The rim so fitted serves as a bumper retaining food on the plate. While these prior patented devices generally are directed at solving the problem of retaining food on the surface of plate so that a utensil might more efficiently remove food from the plate's surface, they suffer from substantial drawbacks. Thus, the prior devices are not structurally integrated with the plate and must be fitted about the rim thereof. This requires additional pieces of equipment increasing the chance that the food retaining device might easily be misplaced and in any event, requires extra storage space. In addition, the removable retainers of the prior art must be resilient so that they may be snap-fitted on the rim of plate. This requires, in turn that they be made of a rubbery or plastic material (i.e. not ceramic) which many users find offensive or inelegant when brought into contact with food. Moreover, the rim fitting devices of the prior art, must be removed to enable the dinner plates with which they are used to be cleaned and then conveniently stacked one on top of another for storage when not in use.
It is apparent from the foregoing prior art known to applicant, that a long standing need exists for a dinner plate which includes as an integral part of the structure thereof a device for helping food to be transferred from the plate's surface to a utensil and which furthermore, enables several such similar plates to be conveniently stacked one upon another for easy storage when not in use. Such a need is completely fulfilled by the present invention. Many additional advantages of the present invention over the prior art will be rendered evident.


An assembly for feeding backing ribbon for adhesive labels for labeling products to be labeled, comprising a splicing device and at least two supporting elements for the backing ribbon, the splicing device being intended to perform on command the splice between a first splicing region, formed on a first backing ribbon being unwound from a first supporting element, and a second splicing region, formed on a second backing ribbon wound on a second supporting element, the first backing ribbon supporting a plurality of adhesive labels which are arranged, mutually spaced, on the face directed toward the second splicing region; the first backing ribbon having, when associated with the respective first supporting element, at least one portion that is free from self-adhesive labels and forms the first splicing region; the portion is located substantially at the end of the first backing ribbon that is associated with the first supporting element.

Conventional labeling machines use labels applied on a backing ribbon, from which they must be removed to be placed on products to be labeled.
These labeling machines have a ribbon feeding assembly constituted by at least one spool of ribbon, which supports the labels and which is unwound progressively.
The ribbon unwound from the feeder spool is transferred to a label application assembly, which is provided with a device intended to detach the labels from the ribbon and apply them on the products to be labeled.
Finally, the backing ribbon is transferred to an assembly for recovering the used backing ribbon.
In order to try to reduce machine downtimes, while the label backing ribbon is being unwound from a first spool, the operator prepares a second spool of ribbon that supports the labels, applying, at the free end of said ribbon, a double-adhesive element and arranging said free end at a splicing station, which has the purpose of joining the backing ribbon of the spool about to be depleted to the ribbon of the new spool.
This operation does not entail particular problems if the spool about to be depleted supports the labels on the face that is arranged opposite to the position of the ribbon of the new spool.
However, if the labels of the spool about to be depleted face the ribbon of the new spool, it is evident that it is not possible to perform the splice, since the double adhesive would be applied on a region with labels and therefore, once the label application assembly is reached, separation would occur between the depleted ribbon and the end of the ribbon of the new spool on which the double adhesive had been applied.
As a consequence, in traditional labeling machines, when the feeder spool with the labels facing the ribbon to be spliced is depleted, the operator stops the labeling machine to remove manually the labels supported by the ribbon about to be depleted, so as to be able to engage the end of the new spool preset with the double adhesive with the region of the ribbon about to be depleted from which the label has been removed.
It is evident that known solutions have the drawback of having to stop periodically the labeling machine to attach the label backing ribbon wound on the new feeder spool to the ribbon of the spool about to be depleted.
In order to try to solve this drawback, a solution has been proposed which uses a device for the automated separation of the labels supported by the ribbon of the spool about to be depleted.
This solution, described for example in patent EP 1904390 B1 in the name of Krones, despite being valid from a conceptual standpoint, is constructively complicated.
The aim of the present disclosure is to solve the problems and obviate the drawbacks described above, providing an assembly for feeding backing ribbon for labeling products to be labeled that is considerably easier and more practical to use than conventional assemblies.

Assembly for feeding backing ribbon for labeling products to be labeled


Embodiments related to managing the process feed conditions for a semiconductor process module are provided. In one example, a gas channel plate for a semiconductor process module is provided. The example gas channel plate includes a heat exchange surface including a plurality of heat exchange structures separated from one another by intervening gaps. The example gas channel plate also includes a heat exchange fluid director plate support surface for supporting a heat exchange fluid director plate above the plurality of heat exchange structures so that at least a portion of the plurality of heat exchange structures are spaced from the heat exchange fluid director plate.

Supplying process reactants to semiconductor processing tools can be difficult. For example, ambient gases may diffuse into low pressure portions of the process tool, potentially contaminating process reactants. Further, some process reactants may condense on various process tool surfaces under some processing conditions. Contamination and/or condensation of process reactants may lead to substrate quality problems as well as potential process control problems.

Process feed management for semiconductor substrate processing


A waveguide radiator includes a slotted waveguide with a plurality of transverse or longitudinal slots provided in the waveguide and an additional inner conductor provided in the waveguide. The inner conductor is formed, depending on the alignment of the slots in such a manner that the result is a feed according to the traveling wave principle, wherein all slots of the waveguide can be excited with identical phase.

Exemplary embodiments of the invention relate to a waveguide radiator having a slotted waveguide with a plurality of slots provided in the waveguide. Exemplary embodiments of the invention further relate to an array antenna radiator and a synthetic aperture radar system.
Waveguide radiators or array antenna radiators (in the literature also referred to as radiators or subarrays) are used, for example, in phased-array antennas of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) systems with single or dual polarization. Up to now, so-called microstrip patch antennas or slotted waveguide antennas are used as radiators.
Microstrip patch antennas exhibit high electrical losses and, due to their electrical feed network, cannot be efficiently implemented in greater radiator lengths than approximately seven wavelengths (in the X-band approximately 20 cm). In the case of an active antenna with distributed generation of the HF transmitting power by so-called T/R modules (transmit/receive modules) there is also the problem of dissipating the heat of the active modules, which are located on the rear side of the radiators, to the front.
The slotted waveguide antennas, on the other hand, are limited by their electrically resonant behavior in the achievable relative bandwidth (<5%). Moreover, they require high manufacturing accuracy and can be produced as dual-polarized array antennas only with very high costs. Concepts used in the prior art are waveguides with inner webs and longitudinal slots for vertical polarization, and rectangular waveguides with diagonally inserted wires and transversal slots for horizontal polarization. The problem here is the required transitions of the connected coaxial cables into the waveguides.
German patent document DE 10 2006 057 144 A1 discloses a waveguide radiator comprising a slotted waveguide in which an additional inner conductor, a so-called barline, is provided. This inner conductor is specially shaped in a polarization-dependent manner in order to excite all slots of the waveguide with identical phase. In contrast to conventional slotted waveguides, the propagation modes are no longer dispersive but correspond to those in coaxial lines, i.e., TEM modes. Hereby, the bandwidth can increase. Moreover, the cross-sections of the waveguides can be considerably reduced in size since no lower limiting frequency (so-called cutoff frequency) exists in the case of TEM modes. Coupling can take place by a direct coaxial transition, which can be implemented in a mechanically simple manner, for example by commercially available SMA installation sockets.
Exemplary embodiments of the invention are directed to a waveguide radiator that is functionally and/or structurally improved. The waveguide radiator is broadband and is producible in an efficient and cost-effective manner so that that it can be used for building a planar array antenna that can be used in space-based or aircraft-based synthetic aperture radar (SAR) systems.
In accordance with exemplary embodiments of the invention a waveguide radiator comprises a slotted waveguide radiator (waveguide) having a plurality of transversal or longitudinal slots provided in the waveguide. If the waveguide has transversal slots, the direction of the radiated polarization of the waveguide corresponds to the longitudinal direction of the waveguide. If the slotted waveguide has longitudinal slots, the direction of the radiated polarization of the waveguide corresponds to the transverse direction of the waveguide. Depending on the alignment of the slots, thus, either horizontally or vertically polarized waves can be radiated. The additional inner conductor fitted in the waveguide is shaped independently of the alignment of the slots in such a manner that the result is a feed according to the traveling wave principle, wherein all slots of the waveguide can be excited with identical phase.
Due to the inner conductor (so-called barline) located in the interior of the waveguide, a dispersion-free, transversal electromagnetic propagation mode (TEM mode) is supported. The inner conductor is shaped in a polarization-dependent manner to be specifically able to excite either longitudinal or transversal slots. Compared to the waveguide radiator described in German patent document DE 10 2006 057 144 A1, the waveguide radiator of the present invention has a significantly greater bandwidth.
In order to secure the inner conductor, a layer of dielectric material is placed in the waveguide, on the surface of which the inner conductor is fitted, for example by adhesive bonding.
The height or thickness of the dielectric layer along the waveguide is not uniform but has an individually shaped height profile. By means of the height profile and the shape of the inner conductor, the amplitude and phase of the electric field strength in the slots along the waveguide can be specifically influenced so that any desired aperture illuminations can be implemented, for example, in order suppress side lobes in the antenna radiation pattern below a predetermined value. In the same manner, a homogenous amplitude and phase occupancy along the waveguide can be achieved, for example, in order to maximize the antenna gain and to minimize the full width half maximum.
Each slot of the waveguide radiator can have individual geometric dimensions. However, it is to be understood that the waveguide radiator can have either only longitudinal or only transversal slots.
The specific shape of the inner conductor is composed of repetitive sections of similar geometry along the waveguide. The length of these sections is identical here to the spacing of adjacent slots along the waveguide. The additional inner conductor can be formed in particular from alternately arranged straight and twisted conductor sections.
One firm with respect to the resonant feed with a standing wave is an additional quarter-wave transformer that is located in each of the repetitive sections. This quarter-wave transformer is implemented by tapering the inner conductor, i.e., reducing the conductor width. The length of this taper or the conductor width reduction is preferably selected such that it corresponds to an electrical path length of exactly the quarter of a line wavelength. The reduction of the conductor width effects an increase of the wave impedance along the tapered section. By the quarter-wave transformers implemented in this manner, reflection points are compensated which otherwise would occur at these positions.
In the region of the ends of the waveguide, the inner conductor can have a straight section as an open stub.
While the radiator described in German patent document DE 10 2006 057 144 A1 uses a feed with standing wave, the waveguide according to the invention uses a so-called traveling wave feed.
Coupling a signal can take place in the center of the waveguide radiator by a galvanically coupled coaxial transition, wherein the inner conductor of a connected coaxial cable (e.g., via SMA, SMP connection) is directly connected to the feed point of the inner conductor. The outer conductor of the connected coaxial cable is directly connected to the wall of the waveguide.
The feed point can be slightly shifted in the transverse direction so as to thereby enable the transition at a suitable place to a circuit board attached on the rear side of the radiator.
In the case of slotted waveguide having transverse slots, the feed point of the waveguide can be shifted with respect to the geometric center of the waveguide in the longitudinal direction. In a specific implementation, the shift can be approximately 6 to 7 mm, wherein said shift depends on the wavelength or frequency of the signal to be generated.
In another configuration of a slotted waveguide having transverse slots, the feed point of the waveguide can be arranged in the waveguide in such a manner that the electric phase at the positions of slots is identical at center frequency.
In the case of a slotted waveguide having longitudinal slots, the additional inner conductor has a feed point which, in the longitudinal direction of the slotted waveguide, is arranged in the geometric center. It can also be provided that the slotted waveguide with the additional inner conductor is formed mirror-symmetrically around the feed point.
Overall, it is achieved that the wave fed at the feed point of the radiator can propagate in the center of the radiator without reflection up to the ends of the inner conductor.
The invention has the advantage that in contrast to the resonant feed, significantly greater band widths can be implemented. The advantages mentioned in German patent document DE 10 2006 057 144 A1 regarding conventional slotted waveguides remain valid such as, e.g., no dispersion, size reduction of the cross-section, no cutoff frequency, robustness with respect to manufacturing tolerances, possibility of greater radiator lengths, low production costs, short production time, problem-free transition to coaxial cable, high power can be fed, low ohmic losses, high cross-polar suppression.
Developing the waveguide radiators, in particular determining the exact geometric dimensions of the inner conductor and the slots is performed by means of electromagnetic simulation methods. The behavior of the radiator described here can also approximately be described by network models with suitable equivalent circuit diagrams. These models are normally used in a first step in order to optimize the dimensions of the elements present in the equivalent circuit diagram. In the second step, these dimensions are then translated into suitable geometric parameters. For this, commercially available software packets can be used that calculate the electromagnetic behavior of the actual geometry (3D model) by means of a flu wave analysis.
An array antenna radiator according to the invention comprises one or a plurality of slotted waveguides having transverse slots and one or a plurality of slotted waveguides having longitudinal slots of the kind described above. In one configuration, the slotted waveguides can be arranged side-by-side in the transverse direction, wherein a waveguide having transverse slots and a waveguide having longitudinal slots alternately adjoin each other. Here, the waveguides, i.e., all waveguides, preferably have an identical length.
The waveguides having transverse slots can be offset upwards with respect to the waveguides having longitudinal slots so that a step-like structure of the array antenna radiator is created. The top side here is that side of a respective waveguide on which the slots are located on the waveguides.
A synthetic aperture radar system, in particular a high-resolution synthetic aperture radar system comprises at least one array antenna radiator of the above-described kind.
The absolute values and dimensions indicated below are merely exemplary values and do not limit the invention in any way to such dimensions. The illustrations show the invention only schematically and are in particular not to be considered as being true to scale.

Waveguide radiator, array antenna radiator and synthetic aperture radar system


A terminal pressure welding device and method are provided. In this improved device and method, a pair of wires are pushed into a space between a pair of barrels by a wire holding member, and the pair of barrels are caulked by lapping one of them on the other by a crimper. At the start of the barrel caulking by the crimper, the wires are fixed to a position between the pair of the barrels by the wire holding member 16, so that an ingress allowance space is ensured for allowing the edge of one of the barrels to get under the other barrel. With this device and method, a terminal can be pressure welded onto even two thick wires as desired, and the pressure welding widths of terminals can be as uniform as possible so that the terminals can surely be inserted into the terminal receiving chambers of a connector.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a terminal pressure welding device and a method for pressure welding a terminal onto electric wires. This improved pressure welding device can pressure weld a terminal simultaneously onto two thick wires as desired, and make the pressure welding widths of terminals as uniform as possible so that the terminals can surely be inserted into the terminal receiving chambers of a connector.
2. Related Art
FIG. 8 illustrates a conventional connector. A connector housing 1 is provided with a plurality of terminal receiving chambers 2. Each of the terminal receiving chambers 2 accommodates a terminal 4 which is pressure welded onto the edge of a wire 3 and held by a flexible stopper arm (not shown) inside the chamber. However, a terminal 4' pressure welded onto the edges of two wires 3 and 3' (double pressure welding) may be inserted into each terminal receiving chamber 2 in the case of branch connection, and the like.
The terminal 4 comprises an electric contact 4A for a mating terminal (not shown), and a wire pressure welding portion 4B. The wire pressure welding portion 4B is provided with a pair of wire barrels 5 for the conductor 3a of the wire 3, and a pair of insulator barrels 6 for an insulating cover layer 3b.
The terminal 4' for double pressure welding has substantially the same structure as that of the terminal 4, but a pair of wire barrels 5' and a pair of insulator barrels 6' of a wire pressure welding portion 4B' are made a little longer than the barrels 5 and 6 of each terminal 4 connected to only one wire 3.
The positions of the two wires 3 and 3' to be pushed into the pair of insulator barrels 6' can be categorized roughly into the following four types: (A) a vertical arrangement; (B) a left-inclined arrangement; (C) a right-inclined arrangement; and (D) a horizontal arrangement.
FIG. 10 illustrates a conventional double pressure welding device which comprises a crimper 7, an anvil for placing the terminal 4', and a wire holding member 9. The wire holding member 9 descends right behind the wire pressure welding member 4B' (i.e., in an axially spaced position) to push the pair of wires 3 and 3' into a space between the pair of insulator barrels 6' by the horizontal holding surface 9a. After that, the crimper 7 descends to caulk the barrels 6' by covering the wires 3 and 3' with them.
At the bottom of the crimper 7, as shown in FIG. 11, a shallow caulking groove 7b is formed on one side of the center (on the left side in the figure) extending from an introducing groove 7a which becomes wider at the opening end, while a deep caulking groove 7c is asymmetrically formed on the other side (on the right side in the figure). The grooves 7b and 7c are connected via an inclined surface 7d.
When actually performing double pressure welding, the pair of wires 3 and 3' in the vertical arrangement shown in FIG. 9A are placed between the insulator barrels 6.sub.1 ' and 6.sub.2 ', and they remain in the vertical arrangement, since the wire holding member 9 descends vertically. If the diameter of the wires is large, the arranged height of the wires 3 and 3' becomes higher than the edge 6a' of the insulator barrel 6.sub.1 ' on the side of the shallow caulking groove 7b, as shown in FIG. 11.
If the crimper 7 descends in such condition, the edge 6a' of the insulator barrel 6.sub.1 ' cannot be placed below the other insulator barrel 6.sub.2 ', and the edge 6b' of the insulator barrel 6.sub.2 ' cannot be interposed between the insulator barrel 6.sub.1 ' and the caulking groove 7b. This causes the edges 6a' and 6b' to collide with each other. As a result, the entire shape becomes somewhat flat, and the insulator barrel 6.sub.2 ' on the right side is buckled in the middle, as shown in FIG. 12. In such pressure welding condition, there is a problem that, since the pressure welding width of the terminal becomes large, the terminal 4' cannot be inserted into the terminal receiving chamber 2 shown in FIG. 8.
Even if the terminal is successfully inserted, the buckled portion will be cracked, and the pressure welding strength is low. When the wires are pulled, the tensile strength will act directly on the wire barrels 5', which might result in cutoff due to vibration.

Pressure welding device and method for terminals


A wire-cut electroerosion machine as well as a method of operating the same wherein a wire electrode is axially and continuously transported from supply means to take-up means to travel through a cutting zone between a pair of wire guide members in which a workpiece is positioned. The machine includes rotary traction means having a first rotary shaft for advancing the wire through the cutting zone from the supply means and permitting it to be collected by the take-up means, and rotary brake means having a second rotary shaft for applying a braking force to the wire to cause it to be stretched between the guide members while being continuously advanced through the cutting zone. The improvement includes means for and steps of: sensing the rotation of the first rotary shaft to produce a first sensing signal representing the rate of rotation thereof; sensing the rotation of the second rotary shaft to produce a second sensing signal representing the rate of rotation thereof; and deriving from the first and second sensing signals an output signal representing a deviation of tension of the wire traveling between a brake rotary means and the traction rotary means or the guide members from a predetermined value. The method and system for detecting a change in the wire tension may also embody means for applying a mechanical vibration to the wire traveling between the guide members and monitoring a vibrational response of the wire.

In an electroerosion machine of this type, the continuous wire electrode unrolled from a supply reel is advanced through a machining region in which the workpiece is positioned between a pair of guide members which serve to position the wire precisely in a predetermined machining relationship with the workpiece and to stretch under tension the traveling wire across the machining region, the wire then being continuously wound on a take-up reel. The continuous advance or travel of the wire is effected typically by traction drive roller means disposed between the guide member on the downstream side and the take-up roller. A desired tension may be established in the traveling wire by providing brake drive roller means at a location between the guide member on the upstream side and the supply reel.
A change in the tension in the traveling wire spanned between the guide members is undesirable. The resulting deflection and oscillation of the wire in the form of a drum across the machining zone hampers stable electroerosion cutting process to yield inaccurate machining results and may also cause the wire to be broken upon dead short-circuiting with the workpiece. The wire electrode when elongated or bent causes the cutting width to become excessively large, the edge portions to be undesirably rounded and machined shape to deviate from a required shape or size.
It has now been observed that constancy of the tension in the traveling wire cannot be attained simply by applying constant drive and brake forces to the wire with a known arrangement. Thus, while a wire produced and rolled on the supply reel with a due precision for electroerosion purposes is commonly employed, it yet unavoidably involves uneveness in diameter and composition over its entire utility length and also may be bent or distorted when mounted on the supply reel. Additionally, in machining operation the wire passing opposed to the workpiece may undergo electrical discharge wear to variable extents and the guide members supporting the wire may also frictionally wear variably or with change in effective tension caused in the wire. Change in the tension caused by these and other operational factors causes varying elongation over the wire and may do its unfavorable bending, distortion, twisting or oscillation which leads to wire breakage, unstable machining and machine inaccuracy.

Wire-cut electroerosion machine and method of operating same


This invention provides a tetrafluoroethylene (TFE) copolymer resin powder composition capable, upon rotational lining, of generating a corrosion-resistant, nonstick film, which is a thick film on a metal or a like substrate, essentially free of gas bubbles, and excellent in adhesion and peel resistance. The TFE-copolymer resin powder composition comprises granules which comprise particles of a TFE/perfluoro(alkyl vinyl ether) copolymer (PFA), polyphenylene sulfide (PPS) particles having an average particle size of 0.3-50 .mu.m, and a heat resistant filler. This invention also provides a process for manufacturing the TFE copolymer resin powder composition comprising either (1) granulating a mixture of PFA particles, PPS and a heat resistant filler in the presence of water and an organic liquid, or (2) mixing PFA, PPS, and a heat-resistant filler, compression-molding, and pulverizing.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a tetrafluoroethylene copolymer resin powder composition capable of providing a highly corrosion- and chemical-resistant coating.
It further relates to a tetrafluoroethylene copolymer resin powder composition suitable for rotational lining processes to generate a thick coating which is essentially free of gas bubbles and which has strong adhesion to, and peel resistance from, a substrate.
2. Background
A copolymer (sometimes referred to hereinafter as PFA) obtained by copolymerizing tetrafluoroethylene (sometimes referred to hereinafter as TFE) with a perfluoro(alkyl vinyl ether) (sometimes referred to hereinafter as PFVE) is superior to other fluorinated polymers, particularly to polyvinylidene fluoride and ethylene/tetrafluoroethylene copolymers, with respect to heat resistance, chemical resistance, and electrical properties. PFA is different from polytetrafluoroethylene (sometimes referred to hereinafter as PTFE), a tetrafluoroethylene homopolymer, in that PFA is melt flowable at its melting point or above, so that it is extensively used as an excellent pinhole-free, or void-free, film-forming material.
Such film-forming material can be used to provide a substrate surface with corrosion resistance, nonstickiness, wear resistance, and chemical resistance. Such films are used over a broad temperature range, from low to high temperatures. Methods are known in the art for generating a corrosion-resistant film. Such methods include powder coating, sheet lining, and the like.
Generating a thick corrosion-resistant film by powder coating requires applying a superposed plurality of relatively thin films, each about 100 .mu.m thick, because an attempt to generate such a thick film by a single application tends to result in a film which suffers from bubbling. Even a multiplicity of forming steps permits generating a film thickness of at most only about 1 mm, and frequently bubbling occurs.
Sheet lining is a method for applying pieces of 2-5 mm thick PFA or PTFE sheet, together with glass cloth backing, to a substrate for bonding by an adhesive, where the pieces are bonded together by welding. The resulting film, although thick, can only be used at temperatures lower than those which can be tolerated by the PFA or PTFE, because of the heat resistance of the adhesive used.
A rotational lining method has recently attracted attention as a way of overcoming the above deficiency by generating a thick film lining, 1-5 mm in thickness, by a single resin melting operation. Rotational lining is a method of application which calls for heating a rotating mold on which a film is to be generated, introducing an appropriate melt flowable resin powder into the mold, melt fusing the resin on the interior surface of the mold so that the resin reaches a given thickness and sticks to the mold. Objects so formed can be used for lined tanks, pipes, and the like.
However, a rotational lining method using PFA has not been practical. Because the resin shrinks more than the metal substrate used, the resin, once heat-fused to the substrate, develops an internal stress, resulting in a coating which peels off spontaneously soon after the formation of the coating or after standing for several days, or which peels off when subjected to several heating-cooling cycles. This kind of peeling cannot be prevented sufficiently by conditioning the substrate by blasting or by primer coating, and the problem worsens as the thickness of the coating increases.
Powder coating comprises adding a heat resistant filler powder into a resin layer and generating a relatively thin resin coated layer, 50-500 .mu.m thick, which retards shrinkage and prevents peeling (Japanese Patent Application Publication 54-3172). However, a powder coating composition for generating the above thin film still does not exhibit satisfactory peel resistance when applied as a rotational lining for generating thick films, and fails to give a uniform lining coating because the powder composition bubbles or has poor melt flow.
PFA, near the molding temperature of 340.degree. C.-380.degree. C., tends to suffer from considerable bubbling, particularly if a thick film, and also fails to yield satisfactory coated films in rotational lining applications because of the bubbling phenomenon. The bubbling may occur because of the retention of gas generated by the thermal decomposition of unstable PFA end groups or the retention of gas due to insufficient deaeration of the powder and filler used. Rotational molding, in which the molded resin article formed by melt molding is removed from the mold, also suffers from a bubbling problem, but the bubbling can be prevented by treating the PFA resin powder with fluorine, thereby stabilizing any unstable end groups (Kokai 60-240713). However, a lining composition which contains a peel-preventing filler cannot be subjected to the fluorination treatment because the filler is attacked by fluorine. The bubbling of a coating, which reduces the essential thickness of the coating, considerably deteriorates the corrosion resistance of the lining.
Methods are known in the art for solving PFA bubbling in the case of coating or powder coating. These methods include utilizing heat stabilizers such as zinc or tin, or organic sulfur compounds such as benzoimidazole type mercaptans, and the like, thereby preventing the copolymer from bubbling (Japanese Patent Application Publication 57-14774). However, the use of zinc as a heat stabilizer for a PFA lining coating causes the film to crack, because zinc tends to be attacked by acids or alkalis, thereby allowing chemicals to penetrate. Such material is unsatisfactory as a corrosion resistant lining material for semiconductor manufacturing processes which cannot tolerate any metal-leaching contamination.
A process for decreasing the amount of zinc and using polyphenylene sulfide (hereafter PPS) at the same time (Japanese Patent Application Publication 63-38065), does not solve either the metal-leaching or the bubbling problem.

Tetrafluoroethylene copolymer resin powder composition and process for manufacture thereof


A selective call system is provided in which string searching or text matching operations are performed on data from data generating devices such as condition sensors in a security system. When a predetermined string is identified, an address of a selective call receiver such as a pager is generated and that receiver is called. The invention is applicable to other applications where data is generated which includes predetermined character strings.

This invention relates generally to the field of selective call systems, such as pager systems, and to the field of monitoring of equipment and/or buildings, such as in security systems, fire alarm systems, automated process control, computer equipment monitoring and other such fields in which equipment is employed which generates data in the form of character strings. Such fields would include generation of information such as financial services information, weather information or the like.