Color control of the multi-color printing device

Conventional color-printing systems often use inks of three hues, such as CMY, CMYK and CMYKLcLm, but in order to obtain more realistic color reproductions, the ink set of more than three hues has been adopted by some color-printing systems. It is difficult, however, to model the composed color with the multiple inks when the number of the output ink hues exceeds three due to the none-unique mapping between the color spaces of the CIE Lab and the multi-color printing device. In this paper, we propose a fine color-printing method for multi-color printing device with the ink set of more than three hues. The proposed approach has good color expression ability and provides fine control of the printed color. By dividing the output color space into several subspaces, our method allows one-to-one mapping between the standard color space and the multi-color output color space. It has been proved effective when applied to the digital inkjet printer—Mutoh8000.

Recovery of Gold, Silver, Copper and Niobium from Printed Circuit Boards Using Leaching Column Technique

Nowadays, over 300 tons of Au are used in electronic equipment each year with other precious and strategic metals such as Ag, Pt, Pd, Cu, Nb, Ta, etc.. After the use-phase, the electronic devices become electronic waste （e-waste）; consequently it is important to consider e-waste as a secondary supply for the recovery of these metals. This paper presents the recovery ofAu, Ag, Cu and Nb from PCBs （printed circuit boards） of discarded computers using leaching column technique. The PCBs were crushed with a hammer mill until reaching a particle size between 3.33 mm to 0.43 mm, Then, it was leached with a sodium cyanide solution in a glass column using the following conditions： sodium cyanide concentration 4 g/L, flux 20 L/d kg PCBs day, pH between 10.5 to 11 and leaching time 15 days. Every day, after leaching, the pregnant solutions passed through a column with activated carbon to complete the closed loop system. The following recoveries were obtained： Au 46.6%, Ag 51.3%, Nb 47.2% and Cu 62.3%. A preliminary technical-economic study shows the feasibility to create a small-scale PCBs recycling plant. The initial investment is on the order of USS155,639, considering the recovered metals from the loaded carbon. The internal rate of return for a 10 years period IRR （internal rate of return） and NPV （net present value） estimated are 27% and US$105,926 respectively.

Microscopic Halftone Image Segmentation

Microscopic halftone image recognition and analysis can provide quantitative evidence for printing quality control and fault diagnosis of printing devices, while halftone image segmentation is one of the significant steps during the procedure. Automatic segmentation on microscopic dots by the aid of the Fuzzy C-Means (FCM) method that takes account of the fuzziness of halftone image and utilizes its color information adequately is realized. Then some examples show the technique effective and simple with better performance of noise immunity than some usual methods. In addition, the segmentation results obtained by the FCM in different color spaces are compared, which indicates that the method using the FCM in the f 1f 2f 3 color space is superior to the rest.

The multi-motion-overlap algorithms for minimizing the time between successive scans of wafer stage

In order to optimize the transitional time during the successive exposure scans for a step-and-scan lithography and improve the productivity in a wafer production process, an investigation of the motion trajectory planning along the scanning direction for wafer stage was carried out. The motions of wafer stage were divided into two respective logical moves （i. e. step-move and scan-move） and the multi-motionoverlap algorithms （MMOA） were presented for optimizing the transitional time between the successive exposure scans. The conventional motion planning method, the Hazelton method and the MMOA were analyzed theoretically and simulated using MATLAB under four different exposure field sizes. The results show that the total time between two successive scans consumed by MMOA is reduced by 4.82%, 2.62%, 3.06% and 3.96%, compared with those of the conventional motion planning method; and reduced by 2.58%, 0.76%, 1.63% and 2.92%, compared with those of the Hazehon method respectively. The theoretical analyses and simulation results illuminate that the MMOA can effectively minimize the transitional step time between successive exposure scans and therefore increase the wafer fabricating productivity.

A diagnostic challenge of an unusual presentation of pneumomediastinum

A 77-year-old man who had underwent orthopedic surgery 17 days ago due to his left femur frac- ture caused by a pedestrian-car accident came to our emer- gency department with the chief complaint of a 2 days his- tory of sore throat and cough and also swelling of eyelids. He had no respiratory distress or any other life-threatening symptoms. Subsequent physical examination revealed re- markable edema and crepitus over the whole face, neck, proximal upper limbs and the anterior and posterior chest regions, and also bilateral hyperresonance was detected in pulmonary auscultation. The imaging studies showed pneu-momediastinum and bilateral subcutaneous emphysema. The diagnosis of pneumomediastinum and mild left pneumotho- rax and massive subcutaneous emphysema was definitely made. He underwent bilateral tube thoracostomy by using a 32 French chest tube under local anesthesia in the fifth in- tercostal space on the anterior axillary line. The patient was discharged with no complications 10 days postoperatively.