Molecular photoresist for extreme ultraviolet radiation lithography
Thu ,31/12/2009New Materials Asia, Jan, 2010
Toshiba Corp of Tokyo, Japan, has developed a high-resolution photo-sensitive film, or photoresist, that has been specifically designed for the future application of extreme ultraviolet radiation (EUV) lithography in semiconductor fabrication. According to the company, it has proved its viability in the world’s first 20 nm-scale generation process technology.
As semiconductor process technology advances and wiring densities get higher, the use of conventional polymer photoresists–the base materials for conventional semiconductor resists–will no longer be suitable.
By the time lithography technology advances into the 20 nm-scale generation, use of today’s argon fluoride laser exposure apparatus and polymer photoresists will result in difficulties in achieving the required resolutions. The solution lies in a transition to EUV lithography and photoresists based on low molecular materials.
Semiconductor circuit patterning requires photoresists that can be used in both positive-tone and negative-tone processes to secure precise structuring. Toshiba has developed a low molecular resist for EUV generation by employing a derivative of truxene, a low molecular material that is finer and more durable than polymer materials currently in use
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Daimler says Mercedes C cars to be built in US
Tue ,29/12/20090 Comments | AFP, December, 2009
FRANKFURT (AFP) German luxury car maker Daimler said Wednesday it will make popular C-Class autos at a US plant, sparking an uproar among workers in Germany who walked off the job.
The move would allow Daimler to save 2,000 euros (3,000 dollars) per vehicle thanks to lower salaries in the United States, where the C-Class is Mercedes-Benz’s most popular model, chief operating officer Rainer Schmueckle told a telephone press conference.
Building the car in Tuscaloosa, Alabama was “essential for strategic and operational reasons, so that Mercedes-Benz remains competitive and can fully utilise future growth opportunities,” chief executive Dieter Zetsche said in a statement.
Around 1,000 jobs would be created at the US plant, the company said.
But the move,…
10 Reasons For Liverpool Fans To Be Happy
Mon ,28/12/2009In amongst all the doom and gloom of what has been a disappointing season so far for Liverpool, is there a crumb of comfort to be had from anywhere? Many pundits seem to take great delight in forecasting nothing but a season of pain for Liverpool players and fans alike, but is there a silver lining to the cloud? Here’s 10 reasons why Liverpool fans can have cause for optimism…
1. GERRARD AND TORRES ARE BACK : After both playing peripheral roles due to groin injuries during the start of the season, the two talismanic figures at Anfield are now back. They are probably both a few games short of full fitness and there is no doubt their progress will have to be monitored carefully, but if it is and the players are back for the remainder of the season, the impact they will have on the team will be massive.
2. AQUILANI : The Italian has recovered from injury and now needs matches to get himself fit and up to speed in the English game. It may take him a little time, but he will get used to it and when he does he can easily fulfill the crucial anchoring midfield role that Liverpool have so missed since the departure of Xabi Alonso.
3. SPONSORSHIP DEAL : The financial situation at the club has eased thanks to the club signing a long term, lucrative sponsorship deal. This extra money will boost the club coffers a great deal and makes the club a better long term investment prospect for other investors, or a potential buyer for the club.
4. PEPE REINA : The one player to emerge this season with his reputation enhanced considerably. How Fabio Capello must wish that the second choice Spanish keeper was English. The best goalkeeper in the Premier League now, bar none.
5. GLEN JOHNSON : The England right back has impressed hugely since signing from Portsmouth
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Let people choose
Sat ,19/12/20090 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Dec 6, 2009 | by Anonymous
Let people choose
The purchase of health care insurance should not be a requirement and a monstrosity of inaccuracies must be scrapped.
Reforms are needed, one at a time, producing positive results before undertaking additional costs.
Under the guise of giving us the health care we deserve, our freedom to choose the health care we as individuals want is being ignored.
The rush to pass an unread bill by those exempt from it began to be scrutinized.
From town hall meetings to tea parties “the sheep-like people’s baas turned to loud boos, so much so that they were called unruly, even mob like.
In an attempt to force each individual to purchase insurance, Congress is considering using the Commerce Clause in order to achieve this mandate.
It gives Congress the power to regulate interstate commerce such as trade and economic transactions. These are activities in which individuals choose to engage.
Deliberations will continue over whether a decision not to purchase insurance will be subject to regulation by such clause.
It would be a first if the federal government ordered Americans to buy a particular product or service they had not chosen to purchase.
Will politics trump the Constitution?
Irene Lynch
San Ramon
Ruminant physiology; digestion, metabolism, and effects of nutrition on reproduction and welfare; proceedings
Fri ,18/12/2009SciTech Book News, Dec, 2009
Ruminant physiology; digestion, metabolism, and effects of nutrition on reproduction and welfare; proceedings.
International Symposium on Ruminant Physiology (2009: Clermont-Ferrand, France). Ed. by Y. Chilliard et al.
Wageningen Academic Publishers
2009
864 pages
$120.00
Paperback
QL737
Two-page abstracts of some 400 papers, oral and poster, invited and contributed, are contained here. Among topics of the 21 invited papers are recent developments in meta-genomics applied to the ruminant gastrointestinal ecosystem, adipose tissue and muscle growth interactions in cattle, strategies for optimizing nitrogen use by ruminants, the effects of pollutants on the reproduction and welfare of ruminants, and feeding practices for sustainable ruminant production facing environmental changes and the human food crisis. Full texts of all the invited papers will appear in the spring 2010 issue of the scientific journal Animal. Topics of the many short communications abstracted here include the ruminal metabolism of soluble rapeseed meal protein in vitro, the adaptation of hepatic glucose uptake and metabolism in growing lambs fed diets unbalanced in energy and nitrogen, and a simulated model of dairy heifer growth and time to mating weight when fed nothing but elephant grass. Only the authors are indexed
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STANDING ROOM
Fri ,18/12/2009Spectator, The, Feb 28, 2009 by STANDING, SARAH
A family-sized bag of Minstrels.
A tube of sour-cream-flavoured Pringles. A drum of popcorn.
Cookie-dough-flavoured Hagen-Dazs ice-cream. A litre of Diet Coke. For one brief moment I actually thought Ocado had extended their home delivery service to include Chelsea cinemas. I had to move my handbag off the floor just to make room for the supermarket sweep of junk food a couple beside me brought to consume while ostensibly watching He’s Just Not That Into You. By the time the trailer ended and the film began I found myself unable to concentrate and was furiously overidentifying with the sentiments contained in the title. Believe me, I just wasn’t that into either of them. I felt as though I’d been forced to gatecrash a bulimics’ picnic. I love public displays of affection — there’s something rather heart-warming about hearing the smooch of a snog — yet I deeply resent paying to sit next to and be distracted by the cacophonous soundtrack of a couple picking-and-mixing their way through a smorgasbord of snacks at the movies. I was sorely tempted to nudge them and suggest they ‘got a room’. Preferably a dining-room.
Eating while being entertained is not just noisy and antisocial; it’s also unhealthy, unnecessary and extortionately overpriced.
Cinema and theatre admissions in the UK are apparently enjoying a record-breaking boom, but the feel-good endorphins released by recession-induced escapism are surely compromised if accompanied by calorific binges. Casual eating habits have become the accepted norm and us babyboomers are probably the worst offenders.
We may disguise our disgust by jumping on the Daily Mail bandwagon of middleclass concerns and blame the rising levels of obesity on a lack of education and family values but the truth is we’re all guilty. In the last 20 years we’ve become sloppy eaters
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The Week Unzipped
Fri ,18/12/20090 Comments | Scotland on Sunday (Edinburgh, Scotland), August 2, 2009
Byline: NO BYLINE
Insurance premiums accelerate
CAR and home insurance premiums are rising at their fastest rate for nearly a decade, according to the AA’s British Insurance Premium Index. It revealed that in the past three months the average quote for an annual comprehensive car insurance policy went up by 3.5 per cent to GBP 778.13 while building premiums rose 2.5 per cent to GBP 223.92.
In the past year alone the cost of car insurance rose more than 11 per cent and the AA warned there would be no let-up. It blamed rising prices on rising costs.
In contrast, the cost of home contents cover has been falling, with average quoted premiums dropping by 3.2 per cent to GBP 122.34, lower than 1994 when the index began.
Houses on the up
HOUSE prices have risen for the third month in a row, according to the Nationwide monthly house price report. The cost of a property in the UK increased by 1.3 per cent in July and the three month rate of change, generally a smooth indicator of trends, rose to 2.6 per cent, the highest since February 2007.
House prices are still 6.2 per cent lower than a year ago but this is an improvement on the 9.3 per cent year-on-year decline last month.
One factor helping prices stabilise in 2009 is the shortage of properties available for sale. But the index revealed a steep fall in construction of new houses with potentially as few as 100,000 being built in 2009, by far the lowest level on record.
Home loans rise
BANK of England figures show loan approvals for house purchase up in June and reaching the highest level since April 2008. More than 47,000 loans were approved, about 3,000 more than in May.
However, lending for house purchase remains at half the long-run average and 36 per cent lower than in the first half of 2008.
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Louisiana DNR awarded $4.2M for Energy Star Rebate program
Wed ,16/12/2009New Orleans CityBusiness, Dec 3, 2009 by Reports
Louisiana’s Department of Natural Resources has been awarded $4.2 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to support energy efficiency and alternative energy efforts in Louisiana homes through the Energy Star Rebate program.
The U.S. Department of Energy, in awarding the funding, has approved the plan drafted by DNR’s State Energy Office for providing rebates to Louisiana homeowners who replace household appliances through the purchase of appliances with the Energy Star efficiency rating.
Included on the list of applicable appliances are clothes washers, dishwashers, refrigerators, freezers, water heaters, HVAC and room air conditioners. The rebate amounts range from $75 to $500, depending on the appliance purchased.
Homeowners will receive a mail-in rebate for the purchase of an Energy Star appliance once they’ve submitted proof of purchase. Homeowners will be required to dispose of old appliances.
The State Energy Office will work with a third-party contractor to help manage the program and expects to announce the schedule for rolling out the program in January, at which time more details will be provided.
DNR will also partner with utility companies, retailers and others to help market the program
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Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona Offers Fifth Year of Free Fitness Program for Schools
Wed ,16/12/2009Business Wire, Dec 02, 2009
Participating Fifth-Grade Teachers Will Have an Opportunity to Win
One of Five $5,000 Grants
PHOENIX — In celebration of the fifth anniversary of its Walk
On! Challenge, Blue
Cross Blue Shield of Arizona is offering fifth-grade teachers across
the state an opportunity to win one of five $5,000 grants.
The Walk On! Challenge is a free annual 28-day exercise challenge
in February designed by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona to motivate
fifth-grade students across Arizona to include exercise in their daily
routines. New this year is the addition of five $5,000 grants for
schools. Fifth-grade teachers who register for the Walk On!
Challenge at www.azblue.com/WalkOn
and implement it in their classrooms can apply for a chance to win a
grant for their school to continue the efforts to combat childhood
obesity.
Our goal is to inform and inspire all children to get up and get moving
for better health doing any kind of physical activity that is fun for
them, said Rich Boals, president and CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield of
Arizona. At the same time, we want to reward the teachers and the
schools for their commitment to decreasing the alarming childhood
obesity rate. The grants will give the winning schools an opportunity to
keep kids moving for longer than the month of February.
Also new to this years Challenge, students will track their minutes of
exercise, aiming for at least 60 minutes per day. In previous years,
students tracked the number of steps they walked for the Challenge.
Tracking minutes also expands the types of physical activities that
count toward the daily target.
The Walk On! Challenge is open to all fifth-grade classrooms in
Arizona. Classroom registration is required to ensure that those
students who complete the full 60 minutes every day for the month will
receive their reward for completing the Challenge and be entered into a
drawing for prizes
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Audio-Technica Women’s Headphones: In Fashion this Holiday Season
Tue ,15/12/2009Business Wire, Dec 03, 2009
Every holiday season, portable electronics like music players and
headphones are high on listeners gift listsand this year, companies
are offering a more diverse selection of headphones than ever before.
Todays headphones are an expression of personal style and individuality
like the Audio-Technica
headphones designed especially for women.
Crystal Griffith, Consumer Marketing Manager of Audio-Technica (www.audio-technica.com)
noted: Our womens headphones let you listen in your own fashion. They
come in a variety of eye-catching colors and styles that are especially
designed to fit women. Their appeal isnt just on the outside the
headphones are designed to offer outstanding sound, while being portable
and fun to wear.
Audio-Technicas womens headphones offer high sensitivity and
full-range frequency response, making them ideal for use with any music
source including the Apple iPod, iPhone and
iPod touch, computers, airline sound systems and other
devices. All come with cord wraps to keep the headphone cord organized
and tangle-free.
The in-ear models, such as the ATH-CK1W
(SRP: $59.95) come with interchangeable XS, S and M size
eartips for maximum comfort. The ATH-CK1W is available in dazzling
colors including green, orange, pink, purple, white and yellow, all with
matching decorative metal carrying cases.
The ATH-ON3W
portable on-ear headphones (SRP: $69.95) offer distinctive looks, great
sound and total convenience. Available in dark gray, teal blue, pink,
white and black (black model ATH-ON3ABK),
the slim headphones fold flat for portability and storage.
The on-ear ATH-ES3W
(SRP: $99.95) has a sleek design that sets it apart as well as anyone
whos wearing it
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