A stretching assembly for cloth has a heating furnace, a pressing device and a shaping device. The heating furnace has two opposite sidewalls and a channel. The channel is formed through the opposite sidewalls of the heating furnace and has an inlet and an outlet. The pressing assembly is set to face the inlet of the heating furnace and has a first pressing wheel and a second pressing wheel. The first pressing wheel has multiple annular protruding segments formed on an external surface of the first pressing wheel. The second pressing wheel parallel the first pressing wheel to form a curved clearance between the pressing wheels and has multiple annular concave segments formed on an external surface of the second pressing wheel. The shaping device is set to face the outlet of the heating furnace, aligns with the pressing device and has two shaping wheels.

Provided is a method for manufacturing a high-quality porous film. Here, while the porous film is being manufactured through forming micropores by stretching, a raw film is prevented from slipping on the surfaces of the respective rolls as much as possible even though the raw film includes oil or liquid paraffin as a solvent. The method is for manufacturing a porous film through forming micropores by successive biaxial stretching. A tensile force applied to the raw film F transferring from the longitudinal stretching machine (10) to the transverse stretching machine (50) is set not less than a stretching force necessary for the longitudinal stretching, and thus the raw film is prevented from slipping on a contact surface between the raw film and each roll of the longitudinal stretching machine (10).

A clip support member 30 has a first shaft member 51 cantilevered by guide rollers 56 and 56 for a guiding along a reference rail with a recessed channel 101, the clip support member 30 being provided with a slider 40 having a second shaft member 52 cantilevered by guide rollers 57 and 57 for a guiding along a pitch setting rail 120 with a recessed channel 121, the clip support member 30 supporting a clip 20 at an end thereof, where it has the first shaft member 51, whereto one end of a main link member 53 and one end of a sub-link member 54 are pivotally connected, to constitute a reference linkage at the clip 20 end.

Clipping both right and left side edge parts of a sheet or film by right and left pitch-variable clips having flow-directional clip pitches variable along with travel movements, respectively, having positions (AR, AL) for initiation of enlargements of flow-directional clip pitches changed between right clips and left clips, and enlarging flow-directional clip pitches along with travel movements of clips to thereby make an oblique stretch.

A stretcher including an upper frame for mounting a lifter thereon, a front leg pivotably attached to the upper frame, a rear leg pivotably attached to the upper frame, a fixed caster attached to one end of the front leg, a swivel caster attached to one end of the rear leg, and an auxiliary swivel caster attached to the front leg, wherein the upper frame is vertically adjustable by folding the front and rear legs relative to the upper frame, and wherein the auxiliary swivel caster is positioned relative to the fixed caster such that the auxiliary swivel caster is in contact with the ground when the upper frame is fully lowered and the front leg is folded away from the rear leg, and the auxiliary swivel caster is out of contact with the ground when the upper frame is fully lowered and the front leg is folded toward the rear leg.

Provided is a high-strength cold-rolled steel sheet having excellent ductility and stretch-flangeability as well as weldability in a range in which a tensile strength is 980 MPa or higher and a 0.2% yield strength is less than 700 MPa (preferably 500 MPa or higher). In the high-strength cold-rolled steel sheet of the present invention, the chemical composition is adjusted as appropriate, and the area ratio of below-mentioned metal structures at a position of ¼ sheet thickness in the steel sheet satisfies following requirements: tempered martensite: 10 area % to less than 30 area %, bainite: more than 70 area %, total of tempered martensite and bainite: 90 area % or more, ferrite: 0 area % to 5 area %, and retained austenite: 0 area % to 4 area %. The high-strength cold-rolled steel sheet has excellent ductility, stretch-flangeability, and weldability, and has a tensile strength of 980 MPa or higher and a 0.2% yield strength of less than 700 MPa.

An article of manufacture for stretchable night visibility bands for people and animals with a inner band consisting of a primarily stretchable material, an outer band consisting of a night visibility material, a way to attach the inner band to the outer band, a means to interchange said inner bands and said outer bands and a way to close the inner band around an object. A preferred embodiment includes further an outer band made of a night visibility material fabricated of least one of the following: a reflective, a florescent or a glow in the dark material and backed with a material such as VELCRO that attaches to the inner band, A preferred embodiment includes the element of inner band consisting of a stretchable material with a looped surface such as Velstretch™.

A stretchable electronic assembly comprising a stretchable body, a plurality of electronic components encapsulated in the stretchable body, at least one meandering conductor connected to at least one electronic component of the plurality of electronic components, at least one hollow pocket formed in the stretchable body, the at least one meandering conductor encapsulated in the stretchable body and the at least one meandering conductor located within the at least one hollow pocket formed in the stretchable body.

A stretchable animal foot covering comprising an elongated body with a foot-receiving chamber on opposite ends of the elongated body that is formed from stretchable material that is at least partially closed at the ends to form the foot-receiving chambers.

A HAMPSHIRE resident has been rescued from their home by emergency services.

Stretch and Evan are the co-authors of the new book No Sleep: NYC Nightlife Flyers 1988-1999. The book, as its title suggests, is a collection of flyers from the prime years of New York City nightlife, mixed with recollections from people who were there.

But both guests are known for far more than the book. Evan was the driving force behind Evil Empire mixtapes, and currently runs the popular Up North Trips, which has a website, Twitter, and Instagram devoted to hip-hop memorabilia, anniversaries, and history.

Stretch, of course, was the co-host of one of the most influential radio shows of all time, the Stretch Armstrong and Bobbito show. The show, co-hosted by Bobbito Garcia, ran on WKCR starting in 1990, and defined the sound of underground rap. Just a short list of artists who appeared on that show in the early years of their career would include Nas, Common, Jay Z, Eminem, Busta Rhymes, Big Pun, Big L, the Notorious B.I.G., and the Wu-Tang Clan. Many of those artists, and a ton more, revisited their experiences in the 2015 documentary Stretch and Bobbito: Radio That Changed Lives.

See http://theciphershow.com/episode/188/ for full show notes and comments.

Richard Nevin has a stroll through the city centre.

Updated on April 13 at 5:06 p.m. ET Forget living paycheck to paycheck. Many families have lost work during the pandemic and are running out of cash as they wait for unemployment checks and government rescue money to arrive. These are highly unusual times, and family budgeting recommendations are also unconventional. Kathy Hauer, a financial planner based in Aiken, S.C., says she's telling people to do things she has never recommended before: "Defer as many payments as possible and worry about it later." But, she says, don't just ignore all the bills. Make sure to call all the companies and ask for forbearance — either a delayed payment or a new payment plan. This is an especially hard time for lower-income families who don't have a lot of wiggle room in their budgets, Hauer says. They may not be able to borrow money from other family members. If they have bad credit, they can't qualify for personal loans from banks. Many also don't have credit cards or are close to maxing those out.

THE ORIGINAL THREAD was a single strand — a simple string of vision and possibility. Kenny really wanted to hold a Super Bowl party downstairs. That’s the thing with threads, though. They’re so rarely self-contained. “We decided to take over the playroom, and then we just kind of kept going,” says architect Andrew Patterson, of […]

Business and government insiders say other companies and organizations are contemplating similarly extended time frames as they consider the new realities of the workplace in the COVID-19 era.

Business and government insiders say other companies and organizations are contemplating similarly extended time frames as they consider the new realities of the workplace in the COVID-19 era.

Business and government insiders say other companies and organizations are contemplating similarly extended time frames as they consider the new realities of the workplace in the COVID-19 era.

Budget cuts, funding freezes, and tight rental markets put pressure on homeless services as more people end up on the street.

This bunny wants to remind you that when stretching it's important to work your whole body. It's easy to forget and neglect important squee features like ears and tongue!

-Sally Squeeps

This article deals with how you can use BlueGriffon to stretch a picture that is used as the backdrop of a web page, so that it fills the entire page, column or section.

New Yorkers leave messages of hope through the coronavirus pandemic.

Onyeka Okongwu had 21 points, Jonah Mathews added 17, and Nick Rakocevic had 14 points and 11 rebounds but USC could not hold onto a 14-point lead and finish a comeback in a 70-66 loss to Colorado.

velocityconf: RT @avleen: Ok folks, home stretch! We need 10 more people to record short #OpsSchool videos NEXT WEEK at @velocityconf. We can do it!...

12 June 2019

There has been so much hype about the “Internet of Things” (IoT) that it is refreshing to hear about a cutting-edge development project that can bring concrete benefits to millions of people. That project is the ongoing development of the Google Smart Contact Lens, and it was detailed in a keynote speech June 8 at the Design Automation Conference (DAC 2015).

The keynote speech was given by Brian Otis (right), a director at Google and a research associate professor at the University of Washington. The “smart lens” that the project envisions is essentially a disposable contact lens that fits on an eye and continuously monitors blood glucose levels. This is valuable information for anyone who has, or may someday have, diabetes.

Since he was speaking to an engineering audience, Otis focused on the challenges behind building such a device, and described some of the strategies taken by Google and its partner, Novartis. The project required new approaches to miniaturization, low-power design, and connectivity, as well as a comfortable and reliable silicon-to-human interface. Otis discussed the “why” as well and showed how the device could potentially save or improve millions of lives.

Millions of Users

First, a bit of background. Google announced the smart lens project in a blog post in January 2014. Since then it has been featured in news outlets including Forbes, Time, and the Wall Street Journal. In March 2015, Time reported that Google has been granted a patent for a smart contact lens.

The smart lens monitors the level of blood glucose by looking at its concentration in tears. The lens includes a wireless system on chip (SoC) and a miniaturized glucose sensor. A tiny pinhole in the lens allows tear fluid to seep into the sensor, and a wireless antenna handles communications to the wireless devices.

“We figure that if we can solve a huge problem, it is probably worth doing,” Otis said. “Diabetes is one example.” He noted 382 million people worldwide have diabetes today, and that 35% of the U.S. population may be pre-diabetic. Today, diabetics must *** their fingers to test blood glucose levels, a procedure that is invasive, painful, and subject to infrequent monitoring.

According to Otis, the smart contact lens represents a “new category of wearable devices that are comfortable, inexpensive, and empowering.” The lens does sensor data logging and uses a portable instrument to measure glucose levels. It is thin, cheap, and disposable, he said.

Moreover, the lens is not just for people already diagnosed with diabetes—it’s for anyone who is pre-diabetic, or may be at risk due to genetic predisposition. “If we are pro-active rather than re-active,” Otis said, “Instead of waiting until a person has full-fledged diabetes, we could make a huge difference in peoples’ lives and lower the costs of treating them.”

Technical Challenges

No one has built anything quite like the smart lens, so researchers at Google and Novartis are treading new ground. Otis identified three key challenges:

• Miniaturization: Everything must be really small—the SoC, the passive components, the power supply. Components must be flexible and cheap, and support thin-film integration.
• Platform: Google has developed a reusable platform that includes tiny, always-on wireless sensors, ultra low-power components, and standards-based interfaces.
• Data: Researchers are looking for the best ways to get the resulting data into a mobile device and onto the cloud.

Comfort is another concern. “This is not intended to be for the most severe cases,” Otis said. “This is intended to be for all of us as a pro-active way of improving our lifestyles.”

The platform provides a bidirectional encrypted wireless link, integrated power management, on-chip memory, standards-based RFID link, flexible sensor interface, high-resolution potentiostat sensor, and decoupling capacitors. Most of these capabilities are provided by the standard CMOS SoC, which is a couple hundred microns on a side and only “tens of microns” thick.

Otis noted that unpackaged ICs are typically 250 microns thick when they come back from the foundry. Thus, post-processing is needed so the IC will fit into a contact lens.

Furthermore, the design requires precision analog circuitry and additional environmental sensors. “Some of this stuff sounds mundane but it is really hard, especially when you find out you can’t throw large decoupling capacitors and bypass capacitors onto a board, and all that has to be re-integrated into the chip,” Otis said.

Sensor Challenges

Getting information from the human body is challenging. The smart lens sensor does a direct chemical measurement on the surface of the eye. The sensor is designed to work with very low glucose concentrations. This is because the concentration of glucose in tears is an order of magnitude lower than it is in blood.

In brief, the sensor has two parallel plates that are coated with an enzyme that converts glucose into hydrogen peroxide, which flows around the electrodes of the sensor. This is actually a fairly standard way of doing glucose monitoring. However, the smart lens sensor has two electrodes compared to the typical three.

In manufacturing, it is essential to keep costs low. Otis outlined a three-step manufacturing process:

• Start with the bottom layer, and mold a contact lens in the way you typically would.
• Add the electronics package on top of that layer.
• Build a second layer that encapsulates the electronics and provides the curvature needed for comfort and vision correction.

Beyond the technical challenges are the “clinical” challenges of working with human beings. The human body “is messy and very variable,” Otis said. This variability affects sensor performance and calibration, RF/electro-magnetic performance, system reliability, and comfort.

The final step is making use of the data. “We need to get the data from the device into a phone, and then display it so users can visualize the data,” Otis said. This provides “actionable feedback” to the person who needs it. Eventually, the data will need to be stored in the cloud.

As he concluded his talk, Otis noted that the platform his group developed may have many applications beyond glucose monitoring. “There is a lot you can do with a bunch of logic and sensing capability,” he said, “and there are hundreds of biomarkers beyond glucose.” Clearly this will be an interesting technology to watch.

Richard Goering

Related Blog Post

- Gary Smith at DAC 2015: How EDA Can Expand Into New Directions

Hello, i have a logic output from a D-flipflop which generates a reset signal with variable pulse width. I want to stretch this LOW pulse width with an extra 100ns added to the original pulse width digitally, is there any way to do that?

Einstein’s theory of relativity predicts that fast-spinning objects stretch space and time around them, and we’ve watched that effect make a pair of stars wobble

How to look after your body physically while WFH

Desperate for viewers while the country is shut down, ESPN gambled that fans are in such need of live competition that they'd watch late-night Korean baseball.

It's a common phenomenon we know from cracked sneakers and burst tyres: worn-out materials can cause anything from mild annoyance to fatal accidents. But while fatigue is well understood in synthetic materials, we know much less about such processes in mammalian tissue. An international team led by HITS researchers has shown that mechanical stress can similarly deteriorate collagen tissue. The findings might help to advance material research and biomedicine.