Disclosed are apparatus for screening compound libraries using frontal chromatography in combination with mass spectrometry to identify and rank those members of the library that bind to a target receptor. The apparatus of this invention also permit a compound library to be rapidly screened to determine if any member of the library has an affinity for the target receptor as measured by a pre-selected indicator compound.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to apparatus for screening compound libraries, such as compound libraries generated using combinatorial chemistry techniques. The apparatus of this invention employ frontal chromatography in combination with mass spectrometry to screen a library of compounds to identify and rank those members of the library that bind to a target receptor. The apparatus of this invention also permit a compound library to be rapidly screened to determine if one or more members of the library have an affinity for a target receptor as measured by a pre-selected indicator compound.
The following publications, patents and patent applications are cited in this application as superscript numbers:
1 K. S. Lam, Anti-Cancer Drug Des. 1997, 12, 145-167.
2 P. M. Sweetnam et al., In Burger""s Medicinal Chemistry and Drug Discovery; M. E. Wolff, Ed.; John Wiley and Sons: New York, 1995; pp 697-731.
3 R. H. Griffey et al., In Proceedings of the 45th ASMS Conference on Mass Spectrometry and Allied Topics, Palm Springs, Calif., Jun. 1-5, 1997; p. 400.
4 L. Fang et al., In Proceedings of the 45th ASMS Conference on Mass Spectrometry and Allied Topics, Palm Springs, Calif., Jun. 1-5, 1997; p. 401.
5 Y. -H. Chu et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1996, 118, 7827-7835.
6 Y. -Z. Zhao et al., J. Med. Chem. 1997, 40, 4006-4012.
7 Y. F. Hsieh et al., J. Mol. Div. 1996, 2, 189-196.
8 R. W. Nelson et al., Anal. Chem. 1995, 67, 1153-1158.
9 D. C. Schriemer and L. Li, Anal. Chem. 1996, 68, 3382-3387.
10 PCT/US97/07964 (International Publication No. WO 97/43641), published Nov. 20, 1997, entitled xe2x80x9cMolecular Diversity Screening Device and Method.xe2x80x9d
11 R. Wieboldt et al., Anal. Chem. 1997, 69, 1683-1691.
12 R. B. van Breemen et al., Anal. Chem. 1997, 69, 2159-2164.
13 M. L. Nedved et al., Anal. Chem. 1996, 68, 4228-4236.
14 PCT/US95/03355 (International Publication No. WO 95/25737), published Sep. 28, 1995, entitled xe2x80x9cMethod for Identifying Members of Combinatorial Libraries.xe2x80x9d
15 PCT/EP97/02215 (International Publication No. WO 97/43301), published Nov. 20, 1997, entitled xe2x80x9cIdentification of Members of Combinatorial Libraries By Mass Spectrometry.xe2x80x9d
All of the above publications, patents and patent applications are herein incorporated by reference in their entirety to the same extent as if each individual publication, patent or patent application was specifically and individually indicated to be incorporated by reference in its entirety.
2. State of the Art
In recent years, a large number of combinatorial chemistry techniques have been developed which permit vast libraries of diverse chemical compounds to be rapidly synthesized.1 In combinatorial chemistry, a series of chemical reactions is typically conducted employing a plurality of reagents at each step to generate a library of compounds. Such techniques have the potential to greatly accelerate the discovery of new compounds having biologically useful properties by providing large collections of diverse chemical compounds for biological screening.
This ability to rapidly generate large collections of compounds using combinatorial chemistry techniques has created a need for new methods of screening compound libraries. The traditional approach of screening each compound individually in an assay to identify those compounds having the desired biological activity is no longer practical due to time and resource constraints. Thus, a need exists for new methods and apparatus which permit the rapid screening of compound libraries.
In this regard, various methods for screening compound libraries have been reported. Typically, these screening methods involve the use of target receptors which have been labeled with fluorescent or other reporter groups.2 In these methods, the compound library, typically bound to a resin bead, is exposed to the labeled target receptor and those members binding to the labeled target receptor are identified and physically separated. The particular ligand binding to the target receptor is then identified. In many of these techniques, elaborate procedures are required to keep track of individual members of the library. For example, coded tags are often added during the synthesis of the combinatorial library to allow the structure of the individual members to be subsequently determined. Alternatively, combinatorial libraries can be prepared in an array and the individual members of the library subsequently identified by their location in the array. While such methods can be effective, the need to keep track of individual members of the library during their synthesis and screening is quite cumbersome and often limits the type of synthetic procedures that can be employed. Additionally, many of these techniques require that the synthetic procedures be conducted on a solid phase, thus further limiting the synthetic procedures and reagents that can be used.
As an alternative, mass spectrometry is emerging as an important tool for the interrogation of combinatorial libraries. To date, mass spectrometry has been used to assess library quality3, 4 and, when coupled with molecular recognition technologies, has allowed for some success in the isolation and characterization of active library compounds.5-15 Typically, when screening compound libraries for biologically active members, mass spectrometry is used in combination with a xe2x80x9ccapture and releasexe2x80x9d methodology. In this methodology, compound mixtures are presented to the target receptor, which is often immobilized on a solid support, and the resulting ligand-receptor complexes are separated from the unbound members of the library. After separation, the ligand-receptor complexes are typically denatured, for example, with a solvent and the solvent mixture containing the previously bound ligands is presented to the mass spectrometer to permit identification of the high affinity ligands.
For example, ultrafiltration has been used in combination with electrospray mass spectrometry to screen combinatorial libraries.10-12 In this method, ligands present in a compound library are allowed to bind to a receptor and the resulting ligand-receptor complexes are purified by ultrafiltration. The ligand-receptor complexes are then dissociated using a solvent, such as methanol, and the previously bound ligands are detected by an electrospray mass spectrometer.
Affinity capillary electrophoresis (ACE) has also been coupled with mass spectrometry to screen combinatorial libraries.5 In this procedure, ACE is used to separate ligand-receptor complexes from unbound ligands and mass spectrometry is used to identify the high affinity ligands.
Similarly, compound libraries have been screened using affinity chromatography in combination with mass spectrometry. For example, WO 97/43301 describes a method for characterizing the members of a combinatorial library, which method utilizes affinity selection in combination with mass spectrometry. Specifically, the members of the library are brought into contact with a domain of interest to allow for binding, i.e., the formation of a complex. After binding, the complex is separated from the unbound members of the library, typically by washing the unbound members from the column containing the complexes. The complexes are then treated to elute the bound library components and the eluted components are analyzed by mass spectrometry. The elution methods described include the use of displacers, chaotrope agents, pH elution, salt gradients, temperature gradients, organic solvents, selective denaturants and detergents. Using such methods, the weakly bound members of the library are purportedly eluted first and analyzed by mass spectrometry, followed by the elution of the more strongly bound members.
There are several disadvantages associated with the xe2x80x9ccapture and releasexe2x80x9d methods for screening compound libraries that have been previously reported. First, the procedure used to xe2x80x9creleasexe2x80x9d the bound ligands from the ligand-receptor complexes may alter the binding profile for the various bound ligands, resulting in a false indication of binding strength. For example, using a pH gradient to release the bound members of the library may change the electronic character of the binding site on the receptor causing ligands which are strongly bound under physiological conditions to be prematurely released. Thus, the characterization of binding strength for various ligands based on their relative time of release may be misleading if the release conditions are different from the binding conditions. Accordingly, these methods may not accurately identify the most active members of a compound library. Additionally, certain conditions used for compound release, such as pH gradients, may irreversibly denature the receptor thus preventing its subsequent use for screening compound libraries.
Additionally, when xe2x80x9ccapture and releasexe2x80x9d methods are employed, each bound ligand is typically released over a relatively short period of time resulting, for example, in an elution peak or xe2x80x9cspikexe2x80x9d for each ligand. Accordingly, the effluent produced using such methods is typically monitored continually, for example, by mass spectrometry so that any particular elution peak is not missed. Thus, the number of analyses that can be conducted using any particular mass spectrometer is limited. Accordingly, it would be desirable to develop methods and apparatus for screening compound libraries that do not rely upon xe2x80x9ccapture and releasexe2x80x9d methodologies.
This invention is directed to apparatus for screening compound libraries. The compound libraries may be generated or obtained by any means including, by way of example, combinatorial chemistry techniques or from fermentation broths, plant extracts, cellular extracts and the like. The apparatus of this invention employ frontal chromatography (FC) in combination with mass spectrometry (MS) to screen the library of compounds to identify and rank those members of the library that bind to a target receptor.
In frontal chromatography, a target receptor is typically immobilized on a suitable solid support material and packed in a column. A mixture containing putative ligands is then continuously infused through the column. Ligands having an affinity for the target receptor bind to the column, but eventually the capacity of the column for each ligand is exceeded and the ligands elute or xe2x80x9cbreak throughxe2x80x9d at their infusion concentration. Once a ligand begins eluting from the column, it is continually present in the effluent. Compounds having little or no affinity for the target receptor break through earlier in the effluent compared to ligands having a higher affinity for the receptor.
In the present invention, mass spectrometry (MS) is employed to continuously or intermittently monitor the FC effluent. Using MS, the identity and break through time for each ligand on the column can be determined. Thus, FC-MS allows the relative affinity of each member of the library for the target receptor to be determined relative to other members of the library under ligand-receptor binding conditions. Using the present apparatus, an accurate ranking of the relative affinity of each member of the compound library for the target receptor can be ascertained.
Accordingly, in one of its apparatus aspects, the present invention is directed to an apparatus for screening a compound library to determine the relative or absolute affinity of a plurality of putative ligands to a target receptor or a plurality of target receptors, which apparatus comprises:
(a) a column comprising a target receptor or a plurality of target receptors, each target receptor optionally attached to a solid phase support, and having a inflow end and an outflow end, wherein said column is capable of having a compound library comprising a plurality of putative ligands applied thereto under frontal chromatography conditions to produce an effluent from the outflow end of the column;
(b) a first reservoir connected to the inflow end of said column for applying the compound library to the column;
(c) a mass spectrometer connected to the outflow end of said column for continuously or intermittently analyzing the effluent from the column.
In a preferred embodiment, the above described apparatus further comprises:
(d) a second reservoir connected to the inflow end of the column for applying either (i) a mixture comprising the compound library, at least one void marker compound and an indicator compound or a plurality of indicators compounds, (ii) at least one void marker compound and an indicator compound or a plurality of indicator compounds, or (iii) a buffer solution to the column.
In another preferred embodiment, the above described apparatus further comprises:
(e) a third reservoir connected to the outflow end of the column for supplying a supplemental diluent to the effluent before analysis by the mass spectrometer.
Preferably, the column employed in this invention will have an internal diameter (i.d.) ranging from about 10 xcexcm to about 4.6 mm. More preferably, the internal diameter of the column will be in the range of from about 100 xcexcm to about 250 xcexcm.
Preferably, the column will range in length from about 1 cm to about 30 cm, more preferably from about 2 cm to about 20 cm.
Preferably, each target receptor is independently selected from the group consisting of proteins, including recombinant proteins, glycoproteins, glycosaminoglycans, proteoglycans, integrins, enzymes, lectins, selecting, cell-adhesion molecules, toxins, bacterial pili, transport proteins, receptors involved in signal transduction or hormone-binding, hormones, antibodies, major histocompatability complexes, immunoglobulin superfamilies, cadherins, DNA or DNA fragments, RNA and RNA fragments, whole cells, cell fragments, tissues, bacteria, fungi, viruses, parasites, preons, and synthetic analogs or derivatives thereof.
Additionally, each target receptor is preferably bound to a solid phase support. More preferably, each target receptor is covalently bound to the solid phase support or bound via biotin-avidin or biotin-streptavidin binding.
Preferably, the solid phase support used in this invention is selected from the group consisting of polymeric (resin) beads, polymeric gels, glass beads, silica chips, silica capillaries, agarose, diatomaceous earths and pulp.
The column employed in this invention preferably contains from about 1 fmol to about 10 nmol of target receptor-active sites; preferably, from about 1 pmol to about 10 nmol of target receptor active sites.
Preferably, the mass spectrometer employed in this invention is an electrospray mass spectrometer.
Additionally, since FC-MS does not require constant effluent monitoring, a plurality of FC-MS analyses can be conducted simultaneously using a single mass spectrometer to intermittently monitor each column. Furthermore, under FC conditions, since ligands are always present in the effluent once they break through the column, the intermittent monitoring of each column does not necessarily require monitoring the actual break through time for each ligand. Therefore, a plurality of FC-MS analyses can be conducted simultaneously using a single mass spectrometer to intermittently monitor each column.
Accordingly, in another of its apparatus aspects, this invention provides an apparatus for screening a plurality of compound libraries to determine the relative or absolute affinity of a plurality of putative ligands in each library to a target receptor or a plurality of target receptors, which apparatus comprises:
(a) a plurality of columns each column comprising a target receptor or a plurality of target receptors, each target receptor optionally attached to a solid phase support, and each column having a inflow end and an outflow end, wherein each of said columns is capable of independently having a compound library comprising a plurality of putative ligands applied thereto under frontal chromatography conditions to produce an effluent from the outflow end of the column;
(b) a plurality of first reservoirs each connected to the inflow end of one of the columns for applying a compound library to the columns;
(c) a mass spectrometer connected to the outflow end of each of said columns for intermittently analyzing the effluent from each of the column.
In a preferred embodiment, the above described apparatus further comprises:
(d) a plurality of second reservoirs each connected to the inflow end of one of the columns for applying either (i) a mixture comprising the compound library, at least one void marker compound and an indicator compound or a plurality of indicator compounds, (ii) at least one void marker compound and an indicator compound or a plurality of indicator compounds, or (iii) a buffer solution to the column.
In another preferred embodiment, the above described apparatus further comprises:
(e) a third reservoir connected to the outflow end of each of the columns for supplying a supplemental diluent to the effluent from each column before analysis by the mass spectrometer.
Preferably, the above described apparatus comprises from 2 to about 100 columns, more preferably from 3 to about 50 columns; and still more preferably from 5 to about 10 columns.
Preferably, each column is intermittently monitored for a period of about 0.5 seconds to about 10 seconds, preferably for about 1 second to about 5 seconds, before switching to the next column.
The apparatus of this invention can also be employed to screen a target receptor or a plurality of target receptors for affinity to an immobilized ligand or plurality of ligands. This embodiment is particularly useful for target validation studies on ligands having biological effects. Accordingly, in another of its apparatus aspects, this invention provides an apparatus for screening a target receptor or a plurality of target receptors to determine the relative affinity of the receptor or receptors to an immobilized ligand or ligands relative to an indicator compound or a plurality of indicator compounds, which apparatus comprises:
(a) a column comprising a ligand or a plurality of ligands wherein each ligand is bound to a solid phase support, said column having a inflow end and an outflow end and further wherein said column is capable of having a target receptor or a plurality of target receptors applied thereto under frontal chromatography conditions to produce an effluent from the outflow end of the column;
(b) a first reservoir connected to the inflow end of said column for applying the target receptor or receptors to the column;
(c) a second reservoir connected to the inflow end of the column for applying either (i) a mixture comprising the target receptor or receptors, at least one void marker compound and an indicator compound or a plurality of indicators compounds, (ii) at least one void marker compound and an indicator compound or a plurality of indicator compounds, or iii) a buffer solution to the column;
(d) a mass spectrometer connected to the outflow end of said column for continuously or intermittently analyzing the effluent from the column.
In a preferred embodiment, the above apparatus further comprises:
(e) a third reservoir connected to the outflow end of the column for supplying a supplemental diluent to the effluent before analysis by the mass spectrometer.
In a preferred embodiment, each ligand employed in the above apparatus is selected from the group consisting of carbohydrates, monosaccharides, oligosaccharides, polysaccharides, amino acids, peptides, oligopeptides, polypeptides, proteins, nucleosides, nucleotides, oligonucleotides, polynucleotides, lipids, retinoids, steroids, glycopeptides, glycoproteins, glycolipids, proteoglycans, and synthetic analogs or derivatives thereof.
In another preferred embodiment, each ligand is selected from the group consisting of synthetic small molecule organic compounds.
A plurality of such FC-MS analyses can also be conducted simultaneously using a single mass spectrometer to intermittently monitor each column. Accordingly, in yet another of its apparatus aspects, the present invention provides an apparatus for screening a plurality of target receptors to determine the relative affinity of the receptors to an immobilized ligand or ligands relative to an indicator compound or a plurality of indicator compounds, which apparatus comprises:
(a) a plurality of columns each column comprising a ligand or a plurality of ligands wherein each ligand is bound to a solid phase support, and each column having a inflow end and an outflow end, wherein each of said columns is capable of independently having a target receptor or a plurality of target receptors applied thereto under frontal chromatography conditions to produce an effluent from the outflow end of the column;
b) a plurality of first reservoirs each connected to the inflow end of one of the columns for applying a target receptor or a plurality of target receptors to the columns;
(c) a plurality of second reservoirs each connected to the inflow end of one of the columns for applying either (i) a mixture comprising the target receptor or plurality of target receptors, at least one void marker compound and an indicator compound or a plurality of indicator compounds, (ii) at least one void marker compound and an indicator compound or a plurality of indicator compounds, or (iii) a buffer solution to the column.
(d) a mass spectrometer connected to the outflow end of each of said columns for intermittently analyzing the effluent from each of the column.
In a preferred embodiment, the above apparatus further comprises:
(e) a third reservoir connected to the outflow end of each of the columns for supplying a supplemental diluent to the effluent from each column before analysis by the mass spectrometer.
Preferably, the above described apparatus comprises from 2 to about 100 columns, more preferably from 3 to about 50 columns; and still more preferably from 5 to about 10 columns.
Preferably, each column is intermittently monitored for a period of about 0.5 seconds to about 10 seconds, preferably for about 1 second to about 5 seconds, before switching to the next column.

Apparatus for screening compound libraries


The present invention relates to a blower vacuum device and in particular to a blower vacuum device for use in the collection of garden debris. The device is preferably one which is operable in a blowing mode to generate an air stream for blowing the debris into piles and also operable in a vacuum mode to suck debris into the device.

U.S. Pat. No. 7,735,188B discloses a blower vacuum having an air inlet cover and a blower tube both of which attach to a blower housing for operation of the blower vacuum in a blower mode. The air inlet cover may removably attach to both the blower housing and to the blower tube. The air inlet cover and the blower tube have a protrusion which is inserted through a hole in the housing when attached to the housing. The protrusion abuts a button when the air inlet or the blower tube are attached to the housing. When the button is depressed by the protrusion, a switch is closed in an electrical circuit and this permits operation of the electric motor. The switch is arranged in series with a user operated switch.
This means that the impeller, which is driven by the motor, is operable when the button is depressed by the protrusion and the user operated switch is actuated. In this way the user cannot put his hand in near the impeller and accidentally activate the impeller because the air inlet cover or blower tube must be correctly attached to the housing in order for the protrusion to depress the button and start the motor.
However when the attachment is removed the button is exposed via a hole in the housing. This means that there can still be some circumstances whereby the impeller can be operated when the blower tube or the air inlet grill are removed and the impeller is exposed. For example, the button can be depressed if a screwdriver or a similarly shaped object is inserted into the hole. This means that the user could still activate the impeller when their hand is in the vicinity of the exposed impeller.


A power relay assembly for an electric vehicle and a driving method thereof according to an embodiment of the present invention connect the first switching unit and the second switching unit connected in series with each other in parallel with the relay switch, and by allowing the first switching unit and the second switching unit to include semiconductor switching elements and diodes therein, not only when power is supplied from the battery to the load side, but also when charging is performed by supplying a charging current to the battery, it is possible to supply or cut off power while preventing sparks and arcs at the relay contact point.

In general, a power relay assembly (PRA) is a power blocking device that connects and disconnects power from a battery through a Power Control Unit (PCU) to a motor in electric vehicles and hybrid vehicles, and is a core component that serves as a main gate for supplying power.
In addition, the power relay assembly (PRA) acts as a safety device to completely cut off power in the event of a system failure or maintenance so that it plays a very important safety role in electric vehicles/hybrid vehicles.
These PRAs consist of high-voltage relays such as pre-charging relays (450V, 10 A or more) and main relays (450V, 100 to 150 A or more) and components such as high voltage/high current bus bars and terminals for wiring connections to the battery/inverter.
Among them, the key component is a high voltage relay that serves to connect and disconnect high voltage/high current. Conventionally, as such a high voltage relay, a mechanical relay structure in which a special gas (for example, H2 gas) is injected and sealed to prevent sparks that may occur at the contact point of the relay is adopted.
However, since the high voltage relay is heavy due to special gas, it increases the overall weight of the PRA. As a result, there is a problem that the fuel efficiency of the vehicle is lowered.
In addition, since the high voltage relay not only has a complicated mechanical structure, but also has a high material cost of its parts, the price of that part is high. As a result, there is a problem that the cost of the PRA is increased.
In addition, the PRA including the high voltage relay requires an increase in wiring due to the addition of peripheral devices. As a result, there is a problem that the arrangement of the wiring becomes complicated.
As an example of the prior art for solving these problems, as shown in FIG. 1, a smart PRA using a semiconductor switching element has been proposed. Korea Patent No. 10-0559398 shown in FIG. 1 (Title of invention: vehicle power connection control device for hybrid and fuel cell) turns on the second main relay 7 that connects the −terminal of the battery and the inverter to each other at the initial start-up, and before the first main relay 5 is connected, performs pulse width modulation (PWM) control of the power semiconductor 6 to intermittently flow current and charge the capacitor 8b in advance, and forms an equipotential for the same voltage across the first main relay 5, and then connects the first main relay 5, so that when the first main relay 5 is connected, sparks are prevented from occurring at both ends of the first main relay 5.
In addition, when the power supply is cut off, in the state where the first main relay 5, the power semiconductor 6, and the second main relay 7 are simultaneously turned on, only the first main relay 5 is first turned off. At this time, since the current flowing through the first main relay 5 continues to flow through the power semiconductor 6, the first main relay 5 can safely cut off power because sparks do not occur at the contact point.
However, in the case of such prior art, since it is possible to cut off the normal power while supplying power from the high voltage battery of the electric vehicle to the load (inverter) but the operation to cut off the power when charging the high voltage battery cannot be performed, a new structure of a PRA driving apparatus for an electric vehicle is required.

Power relay assembly for an electric vehicle and driving method thereof


An inkjet recording device includes a recording head and a waste ink tray. The recording head is configured to eject droplets of ink. The waste ink tray is configured to receive the ink drained from the recording head. A surface of the waste ink tray, which receives the ink, is made of an antibacterial agent containing resin composition. A solubility of the antibacterial agent containing resin composition, which is measured by a predetermined measurement method, is 1.0 or higher and 3.0 or lower.

The present disclosure relates to inkjet recording devices, waste ink trays, and waste ink collecting methods using such a waste ink tray.
Some type of inkjet recording device includes a plurality of recording heads, a plurality of nozzle cap members, and a waste ink tray. The recording heads include nozzle surfaces on which ink ejection nozzles (nozzles) are formed. The nozzle cap members are provided correspondingly to the recording heads. The nozzle cap members can be disposed below the corresponding recording heads. The waste ink tray is movably disposed below the nozzle cap members. Ink drained from the nozzles is temporarily retained in the nozzle cap members. In particular, when ink ejection for obviation of nozzle clogging, which is generally called an ejection recovery process (purging), is performed at a recording (printing) start, a considerable amount of ink drained from the nozzles is temporarily retained in the nozzle cap members.
The waste ink tray receives the ink temporarily retained in the nozzle cap members and the ink overflowing from the nozzle cap members. The ink that the waste ink tray receives is sent by suction force by, for example, a pump or the like to a waste ink tank to be stored.
However, waste ink partially remaining in the waste ink tray may be decomposed by bacteria entering from the outside of the inkjet recording device. As a result, it begins to smell, or so forth. A glycol ether component contained in the waste ink remaining in the waste ink tray may cause degradation of members composing the waste ink tray. It is noted that the glycol ether component provides paper with wettability.
To tackle this problem, an inkjet recording device has been proposed which includes a waste ink absorbent. In this inkjet recording device, a moisturizing agent and a preservative are dissolved in an impregnating solution of the waste ink absorbent.

Ink jet recording device, waste ink tray, and waste ink collecting method using waste ink tray


A movable member supporting mechanism includes a support ring; first and second rotatable members provided inside the support ring and supported thereby to be integrally rotatable and to be movable relative to each other in an axial direction thereof; a linearly moving member provided inside the support ring and coupled thereto to be integrally movable with the first rotatable member in the axial direction; a biasing device biasing the first and second rotatable members in opposite directions; and first and second position limiting surfaces formed on an inner peripheral surface of the support ring and are provided apart from each other in the axial direction. The linearly moving member is biased by the biasing device via the first rotatable member. The first and second position limiting surfaces limit positions of the linearly moving member and the second rotatable member in the axial direction, respectively.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mechanism for supporting movable members in an apparatus such as a lens barrel, and more specifically, relates to such a mechanism which includes a backlash eliminating structure.
2. Description of the Related Art
Play (backlash) is structurally indispensable between two members movably sliding on each other. However, since backlash concurrently has an influence on the accuracy of movement of the movable members, various types of backlash eliminating structures or mechanisms have been proposed. For instance, a lens barrel in which a rotating ring such as a cam ring for moving one or more lens groups in an optical axis direction continues to be extended forward from a lens barrel retracted position until reaching a ready-to-photograph position in a photographable range. However, the structure of a mechanism for eliminating backlash of such a rotating ring tends to be complicated.
The assignee of the present invention has proposed a solution to this problem in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/646,872. In this patent application, a first annular rotatable member and a second annular rotatable member which are supported to be movable relative to each other in an axial direction and integrally rotatable are provided inside an annular member, while a first sliding surface of the first annular rotatable member and a second sliding surface of the second annular rotatable member are biased to be in contact with a pair of circumferential surfaces formed on an inner peripheral surface of the annular member, respectively, to thereby make it possible to eliminate backlash by a simple backlash eliminating structure.

Movable member supporting mechanism, and movable member supporting mechanism for lens barrel


A method of measuring immunocompetence is described. This method provides a means for assessing the effects of diseases or conditions that compromise the immune system and of therapies aimed to reconstitute it. This method is based on quantifying T-cell diversity by calculating the number of diverse T-cell receptor (TCR) beta chain variable regions from blood cells.

Immunocompetence is the ability of the body to produce a normal immune response (i.e., antibody production and/or cell-mediated immunity) following exposure to a pathogen, which might be a live organism (such as a bacterium or fungus), a virus, or specific antigenic components isolated from a pathogen and introduced in a vaccine. Immunocompetence is the opposite of immunodeficiency or immuno-incompetent or immunocompromised. Several examples would be a newborn that does not yet have a fully functioning immune system but may have maternally transmitted antibody (immunodeficient); a late stage AIDS patient with a failed or failing immune system (immuno-incompetent); a transplant recipient taking medication so their body will not reject the donated organ (immunocompromised); age-related attenuation of T cell function in the elderly; or individuals exposed to radiation or chemotherapeutic drugs. There may be cases of overlap but these terms are all indicators of a dysfunctional immune system. In reference to lymphocytes, immunocompetence means that a B cell or T cell is mature and can recognize antigens and allow a person to mount an immune response.
Immunocompetence depends on the ability of the adaptive immune system to mount an immune response specific for any potential foreign antigens, using the highly polymorphic receptors encoded by B cells (immunoglobulins, Igs) and T cells (T cell receptors, TCRs).
Igs expressed by B cells are proteins consisting of four polypeptide chains, two heavy chains (H chains) and two light chains (L chains), forming an H2L2 structure. Each pair of H and L chains contains a hypervariable domain, consisting of a VL and a VH region, and a constant domain. The H chains of Igs are of several types, μ, δ, γ, α, and β. The diversity of Igs within an individual is mainly determined by the hypervariable domain. The V domain of H chains is created by the combinatorial joining of three types of germline gene segments, the VH, DH, and JH segments. Hypervariable domain sequence diversity is further increased by independent addition and deletion of nucleotides at the VH-DH, DH-JH, and VH-JH junctions during the process of Ig gene rearrangement. In this respect, immunocompetence is reflected in the diversity of Igs.
TCRs expressed by αβ T cells are proteins consisting of two transmembrane polypeptide chains (α and β), expressed from the TCRA and TCRB genes, respectively. Similar TCR proteins are expressed in gamma-delta T cells, from the TCRD and TCRG loci. Each TCR peptide contains variable complementarity determining regions (CDRs), as well as framework regions (FRs) and a constant region. The sequence diversity of αβ T cells is largely determined by the amino acid sequence of the third complementarity-determining region (CDR3) loops of the α and β chain variable domains, which diversity is a result of recombination between variable (Vβ), diversity (Dβ), and joining (Jβ) gene segments in the β chain locus, and between analogous Vα and Jα gene segments in the α chain locus, respectively. The existence of multiple such gene segments in the TCR α and β chain loci allows for a large number of distinct CDR3 sequences to be encoded. CDR3 sequence diversity is further increased by independent addition and deletion of nucleotides at the Vβ-Dβ, Dβ-Jβ, and Vα-Jα junctions during the process of TCR gene rearrangement. In this respect, immunocompetence is reflected in the diversity of TCRs.
There exists a long-felt need for methods of assessing or measuring the adaptive immune system of patients in a variety of settings, whether immunocompetence in the immunocompromised, or dysregulated adaptive immunity in autoimmune disease. A demand exists for methods of diagnosing a disease state or the effects of aging by assessing the immunocompetence of a patient. In the same way results of therapies that modify the immune system need to be monitored by assessing the immunocompetence of the patient while undergoing the treatment. Conversely, a demand exists for methods to monitor the adaptive immune system in the context of autoimmune disease flares and remissions, in order to monitor response to therapy, or the need to initiate prophylactic therapy pre-symptomatically.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


An adjustable load bolt adapter bracket assembly for use with a sway brace in securing a bracing element between a fluid pipeline and a structure to anchor the pipeline to the structure and limit relative movement therebetween. The assembly comprises an attachment member and an adapter plate. The attachment member includes a flat plate portion having an upstanding lateral wall adjacent one end thereof, a pair of axially aligned fastener receiving apertures spaced from the other end thereof, a bracking element receiving member pivotedly mounted on the lateral end wall and a plurality of locking channels in the opposite sides and one end thereof. The adapter plate defines a pair of spaced fastener receiving apertures therein axially aligned therein and a locking tab extending from one side thereof and from one end thereof. By selectively disposing one of the tabs on the adapter plate within one of the locking channels in the attachment member the plate is interlocked with attachment member for increasing the available fastener receiving apertures for use in securing the bracing element to the fixed structure from two to four to increase the strength of the securement to meet different seismic codes and the footprint of the interlocked elements can be varied to fit on the available space on the fixed structure to which the bracket assembly is to be secured.

The present invention relates to an adjustable load bolt adapter bracket assembly particularly adapted for use with a sway brace in securing a bracing element between a fluid pipeline and a fixed structure to anchor the pipeline to the structure. Sway braces are commonly used in building structures for securing numerous types of fluid supply lines to the structure to brace the lines against damaging movement such as could result from a seismic disturbance. An example of such a sway brace is found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,697,770. As seen therein, the sway brace secures a fluid supply line to a joist or other building structure by means of an elongated tubular bracing member which is held adjacent one of its ends by the sway brace and is fasten at its other end to the joist by a pair of bolts or other approved fastening members.
Recent changes in building codes have required additional securement of the bracing member to the structure. This has been achieved through the use of an adapter plate having three fastener receiving apertures therein. The plate is positioned over the mounting bracket by which the bracing member is secured to the structure or, in the case of the above patented structure, over the flattened end of the bracing element, such that two of the apertures in the plate are aligned with the apertures in the bracket, leaving the third aperture in the plate in axial alignment with the super imposed apertures of the plate end bracket. Through this configuration three bolts or other securement fasteners can be used to secure the bracing member to the building structure, increasing the strength of the attachment. Alternatively, an adapter plate having four apertures can be employed with the bracket to provide two additional fastener receiving apertures for applications requiring even additional attachment support.
While the use of such adapter plates has heretofore satisfied code requirements, they are subject to relative movement with respect to the brackets in the event of eccentric loading during a seismic disturbance due to the lack of any positive engagement between the plates and the bracket. In addition, such plates are configured so as to extend from the rearward end of the mounting bracket. As the building joists or other fixed members to which the mounting bracket and adapter plate are to be secured are often somewhat narrow and angularly disposed with respect to the central axis of the mounting bracket when the bracket is positioned thereon, there can be insufficient surface area to accommodate the rearwardly projecting bracket. The load bolt adapter bracket assembly of the present invention not only provides the positive engagement between the bracket and plate lacking in the adapter plate/mounting bracket combinations heretofore available, but allows for both extended and lateral parallel mounting of the adapter plate with respect to the mounting bracket to provide a variable footprint and thus better accommodate the available mounting space on the joist or other mounting surface while continuing to minimize any relevant movement between the mounting bracket and plate in the event of a seismic disturbance.

Adjustable load bolt adapter bracket assembly


An electrical connector for a manual welding machine includes first and second contacts each having a frustoconical surface thereon engageable with one another for carrying high amperage current between the first and second contacts; one of the contacts connects to a kickless cable and the other of the contacts connects to a welding head; the contacts include a self-contained lockup mechanism concentrically within the first and second contacts for pulling the contacts together as they are initially mated to impose an amplified axial force therebetween which is amplified further in a direction transverse to the axial force to produce a contact pressure between the frustoconical surfaces of the first and second contacts of a magnitude to assure low resistance flow of high amperage welding current.

Modern day automotive plants for assembling vehicle bodies and the like include a series of robots having welding units thereon that are selectably positioned by the robot to direct high amperage current to the welding head for carrying out various welding operations such as spot welds on the vehicle body or the like. Also, in conjunction with such automated lines, manual and automatic spot welding repair lines can be provided. In such repair lines, each welding gun, heretofore, has been connected to a dedicated power supply including a control panel, a power transformer and a kickless cable having a terminal on the end thereof connected by a nut and bolt to the weld gun. In some cases, such dedicated power supplies have a kickless cable with a terminal thereon configured to be connected to two weld guns. However, such arrangements require a substantial investment in dedicated control and transformer equipment in order to carry out a full range of repair operations by the use of a wide variety of specialized weld guns. The investment in such dedicated controls and power supplies for special weld guns is further accentuated since the investment is only used for a limited amount of time, e.g., in the range of 1% of the full time required to weld vehicle bodies.
Accordingly, such investment in infrequently used dedicated equipment is a cost penalty.

Quick connect/disconnector for high amperage current


A system for lubricating a 4-cycle engine includes a crank chamber having a crank portion of a crankshaft contained therein and storing a lubricating oil therein, a valve operating chamber having a valve-operating device contained therein, wherein the crank chamber and the valve-operating chamber are provided in an engine body. An oil mist producing means is provided in the crank chamber for producing an oil mist from the lubricating oil. The crank chamber and the valve operating chamber are in communication with each other above an oil level of the lubricating oil in the crank chamber through a control valve which is opened upon rising of the pressure in said crank chamber and closed upon reduction of the pressure in said crank chamber. The valve-operating chamber is substantially in communication at its upper portion with the atmosphere, and in communication at its bottom with the crank chamber through an orifice.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system for lubricating a hand-held type 4-cycle engine used as a power source mainly for a trimmer or a chain saw.
2. Description of the Related Art
The conventional hand-held type engine widely used in these applications is a 2-cycle engine capable of exhibiting a lubricating function in any operational attitude of the engine such as inclined and sideways-fallen attitudes.
However, as such a hand-held type engine, it is desirable to use a 4-cycle engine from the viewpoint of an exhaust emission control. In the 4-cycle engine, however, it is necessary to store an oil exclusively used for lubrication. Therefore, if the 4-cycle engine is used as the hand-held type engine, it is necessary to reliably lubricate various portion of the engine in any operational attitude of the engine.


According to one embodiment, an image forming apparatus includes an image forming portion configured to selectively form a toner image on an image bearing member using a developing device including a decolorizable toner or a developing device including an undecolorizable toner, a transfer portion configured to transfer the toner image, which is formed on the image bearing member, onto a transfer material, and a fixing portion configured to fix the toner image, which is transferred by the transfer portion, on the transfer material. The undecolorizable toner has at least a fixing temperature range in a range equal to or higher than a fixing temperature lower limit of the decolorizable toner and lower than decoloring temperature of the decolorizable toner.

There is a method of forming an image using a decolorizable toner in order to recycle a sheet. The decolorizable toner develops a color during image formation. However, when heat or the like is applied to the decolorizable toner, a color material in the toner loses a color to be decolored. If the decolorizable toner and an undecolorizable toner are combined to form an image, it is possible to erase only an image portion formed with the decolorizable toner without changing an image portion formed with the undecolorizable toner. Therefore, it is expected that an image forming apparatus that uses the undecolorizable toner and the decolorizable toner is applied to a wider variety of uses.
As a full-color image forming apparatus suitable for high-speed printing, a quadruple tandem full-color image forming apparatus is known in which four photoconductive members are arranged and developing devices including undecolorizable yellow (Y), magenta (M), cyan (C), and black (Bk) toners are respectively arranged around the photoconductive members. However, when a decolorizable toner is additionally arranged in such an image forming apparatus, if a photoconductive member exclusive for the decolorizable toner is provided, the apparatus increases in size. The quadruple tandem apparatus forms an image with all of plural toners or one or two or more toners selected out of the toners. In this case, to prevent wear and the like, the photoconductive member for an unselected toner is desirably not driven to rotate. However, if the decolorizable toner is additionally arranged in addition to the undecolorizable toner, there are a mode for forming an image with the undecolorizable toner alone and a mode for forming an image with the decolorizable toner alone. Therefore, a complicated switching structure and a complicated apparatus configuration are necessary to switch such image forming modes.


In one aspect, data characterizing a fuel storage facility can be received from a sensor in operable communication with the fuel storage facility. An estimate of meter drift of a flow meter of a fuel dispenser in fluid communication with the fuel storage facility can be determined based on the received data. The estimate of meter drift can be determined based on at least one predictive model that predicts whether a calibration parameter characterizing a calibration of the flow meter has deviated from a predetermined flow meter calibration parameter. The estimate of meter drift can be provided.

An aspect of fuel dispenser operation during a fueling transaction is that the fuel dispenser can accurately provide a desired amount of fuel to a fueling station customer. The fuel dispenser may typically include a flow meter that is responsible for measuring the amount of fuel provided to the fueling station customer during the fueling transaction. The flow meter is accurately calibrated, usually on an annual basis, and certified as such by applicable regulatory agencies to ensure that the fuel dispenser accurately provides the desired amount of fuel to the fueling station customer.
At present, fueling stations rely on annual or periodic calibration of a fuel dispenser flow meter to ensure that the accuracy of fuel dispensing is maintained, and assume that the calibration of a fuel dispenser flow meter is relatively stable between calibrations. However, it is known that occasionally the calibration of the flow meter responsible for ensuring the accurate dispensing of fuel may deviate from its proper parameter (which is referred to as "meter drift") in between calibration. When this occurs, the fuel dispenser does not accurately dispense the desired amount of fuel, which can cause a loss either to the fueling station customer or to the fueling station depending on the direction of calibration drift from the proper calibration parameter. Additionally, this may also impact fueling station inventory reconciliation, which may result in inaccurate estimates of leaks from one or more fueling tanks located at a fueling station, environmental contamination, damaged reputation, and public health risks. In addition, this may result in a lack of compliance with applicable environmental protection laws, which could result in heavy penalties issued to the fueling station owner from applicable regulatory agencies. Although these losses may be small, the magnitude of these impacts increases as the time between the onset of the meter drift and the detection of the meter drift increases. And, at present, some conventional systems for the monitoring of wetstock at fueling stations do not provide the ability to readily detect losses associated with meter drift on a more regular basis.

Real-time determination of meter drift via loss qualification and quantification


The present disclosure provides a method in a network device for configuration of Physical Downlink Control Channel, PDCCH, monitoring by a terminal device. The method includes: determining a PDCCH monitoring configuration indicating a PDCCH resource pool to be monitored by the terminal device at an aggregation level; and transmitting the PDCCH monitoring configuration to the terminal device.

Low latency communications, e.g., Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communications (URLLC) can be used in various application scenarios such as remote control of mining machines, factory automation and autopilot. Such application scenarios have similar traffic patterns in which small packet transmission occurs occasionally when necessary.
In order to ensure the low latency, data transmissions have to be very short, which means that either mini slots or large Sub-Carrier Spacings (SCSs) are required. Accordingly, a Core Resource Set (CORESET), or PDCCH search space, needs to occur at a short period.
In New Radio (NR), as in Long Term Evolution (LTE), a PDCCH search space for a terminal device (e.g., a User Equipment, or UE) contains a number of Control Channel Elements (CCEs) and each CCE contains 6 Resource Element Groups (REGs). Depending on a radio link condition, a network device (e.g., a gNB) can determine the number of CCEs required for ensuring reliable transmission of PDCCH by selecting an aggregation level from a set of aggregation level candidates (e.g. 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, etc.). A high aggregation level is typically selected in a worse radio link condition, such that more CCEs can be used for PDCCH transmission.
FIG. 1 shows an example of resource allocation for a PDCCH search space. As shown, the PDCCH search space occurs in every slot (or mini slot) (e.g., a slot can be 0.25 ms at SCS of 60 KHz). For each occurrence of the PDCCH search space, a terminal device shall monitor PDCCH every slot (or mini slot) by blindly detecting a PDCCH transmission for each PDCCH-to-CCE mapping at each aggregation level. For example, as shown in FIG. 1, assuming that there are 16 CCEs, having indices of 0, 1, . . . , 15, in a PDCCH search space, an example of blind detections of PDCCH can be as follows. At the aggregation level 1, i.e., when a PDCCH transmission is mapped to 1 CCE, there are 16 possible PDCCH-to-CCE mappings, requiring 16 blind detection attempts. At the aggregation level 2, i.e., when a PDCCH transmission is mapped to 2 CCEs, there are 8 possible PDCCH-to-CCE mappings (each mapping starts at a CCE having an index i satisfying i mod 2=0), requiring 8 blind detection attempts. At the aggregation level 4, i.e., when a PDCCH transmission is mapped to 4 CCEs, there are 4 possible PDCCH-to-CCE mappings (each mapping starts at a CCE having an index i satisfying i mod 4=0), requiring 4 blind detection attempts. At the aggregation level 8, i.e., when a PDCCH transmission is mapped to 8 CCEs, there are 2 possible PDCCH-to-CCE mappings (each mapping starts at a CCE having an index i satisfying i mod 8=0), requiring 2 blind detection attempts. At the aggregation level 16, i.e., when a PDCCH transmission is mapped to 16 CCEs, there is 1 possible PDCCH-to-CCE mapping, requiring 1 blind detection attempt. Hence, in this case the terminal device needs to perform in total 31 blind detections.
Such blind detections have impacts in two aspects. On one hand, they occupy a delay budget for the terminal device. FIG. 2 shows an example of downlink and uplink timings. As shown, Downlink Control Information (DCI) carrying an uplink grant to schedule a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) transmission is transmitted over PDCCH in a downlink Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbol, followed by a Guard Period (GP) for downlink-to-uplink switching. The GP is expected to contain a DCI decoding delay, a PUSCH encoding delay and a Timing Advance (TA) for the PUSCH transmission. The large number of blind detections of PDCCH means a high DCI decoding delay, which in turn results in a tight delay budget for the remaining procedures. This is also the case for downlink data receiving, when the DCI decoding delay shares the delay budget with a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) decoding delay and an Uplink Control Information (UCI) encoding delay.
On the other hand, the blind detections cause high power consumption at the terminal device, especially when uplink or downlink data transmissions are much sparser than the occurrences of PDCCH search spaces. With the short slot (or mini slot) duration, the power consumption at the terminal device due to PDCCH monitoring could be much higher than that in the LTE, where the terminal device is required to monitor PDCCH every 1 ms.
There is thus a need for an improved solution for PDCCH monitoring.

Methods and devices for PDCCH monitoring


A spindle motor includes a stationary unit, a rotary unit and a bearing mechanism. The stationary unit includes a base member, a stator including a plurality of coils and a wiring substrate electrically connected to the stator. The base member includes a tubular portion, a first accommodation portion, an opening portion, a plurality of coil accommodation portions, a second accommodation portion, and at least one through-hole. The wiring substrate includes an arc portion and an extension portion. A lead wire is led out from at least one of the coils and is connected to the arc portion by soldering within the through-hole.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a spindle motor and a disk drive apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a disk drive apparatus such as a hard disk drive apparatus or the like is equipped with a spindle motor for rotating a disk. The disk drive apparatus includes a disk, a housing, a stator, a FPC (Flexible Printed Circuit), and so forth. The housing includes a cover member, a base member, and so forth.
In recent years, the disk drive apparatus is required to become smaller in height and size. Particularly, in order to reduce the height of a 2.5-type disk drive apparatus having a thickness of 7 mm or less, which is used in small-size disk drive apparatuses, it is necessary to reduce the thickness of a housing or a motor arranged within the housing. In general, the motor includes a hub, a coil, a stator core, a wiring substrate, a base member, etc. When assembling the motor, these components are arranged to axially overlap with one another. For the sake of reducing the thickness of the motor, these components need to be made thin. However, if an attempt is made to reduce the overall height of the motor by reducing the turn number of the coils or the lamination thickness of the stator core, the magnetic fluxes generated in the stator during the operation of the motor will be reduced. In other words, the torque constant will be reduced. It is therefore impossible to obtain the torque required in rotating the disk attached to the hub.
In order to reduce the height of the motor, it is therefore necessary to pay attention to, among the components of the motor, the base member that has a large impact on the total axial dimension of the motor. However, if the base member is merely made thin, the rigidity of the base member will be reduced to a great extent. As a result, if a shock is applied from the outside to the base member, it is likely that the base member will be broken and that the disk arranged within the housing will be damaged.
Accordingly, a demand has existed for a structure capable of increasing the rigidity of the base member while reducing the overall height of the motor.

Disk drive spindle motor with wiring substrate having extension portion passing through opening in base


The present invention provides a crude extract from the bark of an Acer rubrum (AR) tree and/or Picea mariana (PM), method of preparation and its use for inhibiting the signs of skin aging (such as wrinkles and/or dehydration) caused by at least one of: increased elastase activity, increased collagenase activity, decreased elastin synthesis, decreased collagen synthesis or decreased involucrin synthesis, in skin fibroblast cells, particularly those of a human subject.

Finding new natural, safe and economical antioxidant substances, especially from abundant and low-value raw materials is a real challenge nowadays, especially in an effort to develop the sustainability concept (Moure et al., 2001). Some industries, such as those related to food additive production, pharmaceutics and cosmetics have increased their efforts in obtaining bioactive compounds from natural products by extraction and purification. Forest biomass contains the same bioactive molecules as the fruits and vegetables considered as healthy diets (Stevanovic et al., 2009) and the residues of industrial wood transformation, available in huge quantities, represent therefore an abundant and inexpensive source of bioactive molecules.
Extractives obtained from the bark of red maple and/or black spruce considered as forest industry residues, can be advantageously utilised as sources of potent antioxidants. The results of this study show that red maple stem bark and to a lesser extent the bark of branches extracts can constitute potential sources of new antioxidant agents, rich in polyphenols. Since the stem bark represents the most important residue of red maple and black spruce wood transformation and is available in high quantities, the implementation of an extraction procedure in the existing wood processing industries could represent a viable solution to add value to the existing transformations of this wood species.
The extracts of red maple bark and/or black spruce bark have now been found to have specific anti-elastase and anti-collagenase activities that make it an anti-aging agent when used as a cosmetic.

Tree bark extract as anti-aging composition and uses thereof


An electronic device includes: a communication unit that is engaged in communication with an external device; a control unit that adds image information into transmission data to be transmitted to the communication unit; and a decision-making unit that makes a decision in correspondence to information indicating a recipient of the transmission data as to whether or not to allow photographing location information included in the image information to be included in the transmission data.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic device that enables display of a photographing location on a map image.
2. Description of Related Art
Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2006-148514 discloses a camera that executes photographing location measurement based upon a signal received from a GPS satellite. Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2001-111884 discloses an electronic camera that transfers an image file obtained through photographing operation to a wirelessly connected external device in compliance with a specific communication protocol.

Electronic device that displays a photographing location on a map


An apparatus for inflating and deflating a balloon on a dilatation catheter in order to perform an angioplasty procedure therewith. The inflation/deflation apparatus has an elongated housing with a piston disposed within a bore within the housing and a threaded piston rod connected to the piston. A threaded split collar or nut is disposed about and engaged with the threaded piston which allows the piston rod to be rotated about its axis in order to move the piston longitudinally in small increments within the bore of the housing. Flexible arms are connected to each half of the split collar or nut which when moved away from the piston rod, disengage the split collar or nut from the piston rod and allow longitudinal movement of the piston within the bore by pushing on the piston rod.

This invention generally relates to angioplasty procedures such as percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) and particularly to inflation/deflation devices for use in such procedures.
In PTCA procedures, a dilatation catheter having an inflatable, relatively inelastic balloon on the distal end thereof is advanced through a patient's arterial system until the balloon crosses the atherosclerotic lesion to be dilated. The balloon is inflated to a predetermined size with radiopaque liquid by syringe-like inflation device mounted on the proximal end of the dilatation catheter to dilate the lesion and then deflated so that the catheter can be removed from the stenotic region and blood flow resumed.
The first step of the procedure is to percutaneously introduce a guiding catheter having a preformed distal tip into the patient's arterial system (e.g. the femoral artery) and advance the catheter therein until preformed distal tip thereof is seated within the ostium of the appropriate coronary artery. A guidewire is preloaded within an inner lumen of the dilatation catheter and both are then advanced through the previously positioned guiding catheter to the distal end thereof. The guidewire is first advanced out of the distal tip of the guiding catheter into the patient's coronary artery until the distal end of the guidewire crosses the stenotic arterial region to be dilated. The dilatation catheter is then advanced out of the guiding catheter over the guidewire until the inflatable balloon on the distal end thereof is positioned across the stenosis. The balloon is inflated with radiopaque liquid to a relatively high pressure (e.g. up to 8 atmospheres or more) by the inflation device to dilate the stenosis. After the dilatation, the balloon is deflated and the catheter removed.
For a more detailed description of the procedures and the devices used in such procedures, reference is made to U.S. Pat. No. 4,332,254 (Lundquist), U.S. Pat. No. 4,323,071 (Simpson-Robert), U.S. Pat. No. 4,439,185 (Lundquist), U.S. Pat. No. 4,468,224 (Enzmann, et.al.), U.S. Pat. No. 4,516,972 (Samson), U.S. Pat. No. 4,538,622 (Samson, et.al.), U.S. Pat. No. 4,554,929 (Samson, et.al.), U.S. Pat. No. 4,569,347 (Frisbie), U.S. Pat. No. 4,571,240 (Samson, et.al.), U.S. Pat. No. 4,638,805 (Powell), and U.S. Pat. No. 4,743,230 (Nordquest), each of which are hereby incorporated herein in their entirety by reference thereto.
The use of the various devices in angioplasty procedures requires a fair degree of manual dexterity on the part of the physician performing the procedures and frequently one or more assistants are also required. The inflation and deflation of the balloon on the dilatation catheter for priming the catheter and venting air therefrom and for performing the dilatation can be particularly demanding.
Most commercially available inflation devices for angioplasty catheters are essentially syringes with pressure gauges attached thereto. They generally have two modes of operation. In one mode, the piston and attached piston rod of the syringe are free to move longitudinally within the inner bore of the syringe by pulling on a handle provided on the piston rod to pull a vacuum so as to draw inflation fluid into the bore of the syringe or by pushing on the handle to discharge such inflation fluid out the end of the syringe. In the other mode, the piston rod, which is threaded, is engaged with an element of the device so that the longitudinal movement within the bore is effected by rotation of the piston rod. For a more detailed description of such inflation devices reference is made to U.S. Pat. No. 4,743,230 which has been incorporated herein by reference. While these inflation devices have been effective for their intended uses, they have not always been very convenient for the physician to use particularly when changing from one mode of operation to another. Additionally, they could not always maintain a locked position under high pressure.
What has been needed and heretofore unavailable is an inflation device which is easy for the physician to use, particularly when changing the modes of operation. The present invention satisfies this need.

Inflation device for dilatation catheters


A method for adjusting image acquisition parameters to optimize object extraction is disclosed, which is applied to an object characterized by forming a specific cluster in a color coordinate space after performing a coordinate projection, and thus the specific cluster contributes to a specific color model, such as a human skin color model. This method first locates a target object within a search window in a selected image. Then applies the specific color model to obtain the image acquisition parameter(s) according to the color distribution and features of the target object. Therefore, the image is transformed according to the adjusted image acquisition parameter(s). Consequently, a complete and clear target object can be extracted from the transformed image by applying the specific color model, and the follow-up images having the same image acquisition conditions with the aforesaid image can also be transformed according to the same image acquisition parameter(s).

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for adjusting image acquisition parameters to optimize object extraction, which is suitable for different color object extraction and, more particularly, to an object characterized by forming a specific cluster in a color coordinate space after performing a coordinate projection.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a prior art technique, there are two primary image detecting methods for the human face. One is the detection of important features on the face according to the geometric positions of the eyes, nose and lips; these individual features are combined to determine a position of the face. The other method collects a plurality of facial templates, and obtains a standard facial template by way of training steps; a template matching method is then utilized to find the position of the face in the image.
However, in the first method, a predetermined facial model, or its geometric position equivalent, is used to detect the face; if the face in the image is rotated, it is very difficult to detect the correct facial position. In the second method, facial data for various different rotated angles can be provided for training a database, but the template matching method is performed by brute force on every pixel in the image, and this requires an enormous amount of time; in addition, when the image includes two differently sized human faces, the method needs to perform several upscaling or downscaling processes to find the correct positions. As shown in FIG. 1, image X includes two differently sizes human faces F1, F2. A fixed size search window Y is used for scanning every pixel in the image X and sending a selected image area to a human face verification means to determine whether the image area is a face. Since the search window Y has a fixed size, any human face that is larger or smaller than the search window Y may be ignored. Therefore, referring to FIG. 2, several upscaling or downscaling processes must be performed to obtain upscale or downscale images X1, X2, X3, and then the above-mentioned scanning and verification processes are performed to find all of the differently sized human faces F1, F2. Accordingly, the second method will consume enormous amounts of processing time.
One other prior art technique utilizes skin color to reduce the range of the template matching method to accelerate the human face detecting process. Please refer to FIG. 3A. In this prior art technique, large numbers of facial images are first manually collected; the pixels in the skin color regions, as shown in FIG. 3B, are manually extracted, and the color information of these skin color pixels are projected onto a special coordinate system to establish a skin color model for further image processing, such as facial position or feature extraction. Since an image is composed of a plurality of pixels, the color values of the pixels are determined by the light impinging upon the skin and then reflecting into a light sensing device, such as a camera. A skin color model can be established by collecting these color values of the pixels and used as a reference for determining whether further pixels are of a skin color. This prior art technique usually uses the following formula to project the RGB color information of the skin color pixels into an equivalent YCbCr color coordinate:Y=0.2989×R+0.5866×G+0.1145×BCb=−0.1687×R−0.3312×G+0.5000×B,Cr=0.5000×R−0.4183×G−0.0816×B
A tight space collection (skin color model Z1), as shown in FIG. 3C, can be represented by the following math formula:
      if    (          Y      >      128        )          {                                                                                θ                  1                                =                                                      -                    2                                    +                                                            256                      -                      Y                                        16                                                              ;                                                                                θ                  2                                =                                  20                  -                                                            256                      -                      Y                                        16                                                              ;                                                                                θ                  3                                =                6                            ;                                                θ                  4                                =                                                      -                    8                                    :                                                                                if                          (                      Y            ≤            128                    )                                  {                                                                                θ                          1                                                =                        6                                            ;                                                                        θ                          2                                                =                        12                                            ;                                                                                θ                          3                                                =                                                  2                          +                                                      Y                            32                                                                                ;                                                                        θ                          4                                                =                                                                              -                            16                                                    +                                                      Y                            16                                                                                ;                                                                                C                r                                      ≥                                          -                2                                                          (                                                      C                    b                                    +                  24                                )                                              ;                                                                              C              r                        ≥                          -                              (                                                      C                    b                                    +                  17                                )                                              ;                                                                              C              r                        ≥                                          -                4                                                          (                                                      C                    b                                    +                  32                                )                                              ;                                                                              C              r                        ≥                          2.5                                            (                                                      C                    b                                    +                                      θ                    1                                                  )                                              ;                                                                              C              r                        ≥                          θ              3                                ;                                                                              C              r                        ≥                          0.5                                            (                                                      θ                    4                                    -                                      C                    b                                                  )                                              ;                                                                              C              r                        ≤                                          220                -                                  C                  b                                            6                                ;                                                                              C              r                        ≤                                          4                3                                                          (                                                      θ                    2                                    -                                      C                    b                                                  )                                              ;
Accordingly, any pixel projected into a YCbCr coordinate Z is checked to see if it matches the above mathematical formula to determined whether the pixel is in the skin color model and whether it is a skin color pixel; in this manner it is possible to outline a skin color area of this image.
By using the skin color information, it is possible to reduce multiple exhaustive search times, and so the search window needs only to verify the skin color to find a face to accelerate processing efficiency. However, under different lighting conditions and different camera settings, the extracted images may have certain color differences, and the actual skin color value of these images may not match the skin color model based on other conditions or parameters. Therefore, a collection formed by skin color values in a color space will change according to the conditions and parameter settings. Consequently, when the conditions have errors, the determined skin color may be incorrect, which causes broken skin color areas, or added noise in background.
In prior art skin color techniques, such as U.S. Pat. No. 4,987,482, U.S. Pat. No. 6,169,536 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,249,317, image signals are all assumed to mainly include people as objects, and hardware parameters are controlled, or compensation signals are added, by detecting skin color components in the image signal to obtain a better image quality. The skin color detecting techniques utilized by these three patents all separate the image signal into brightness (Y) and color components (R-Y and B-Y), and then use predetermined phase, area or special axis to distinguish skin color and non-skin color signals. However, even though the above-mentioned patents predefine the determination rules for skin color, different cameras, different lighting conditions, and different software and hardware parameters may still affect the image. When the skin color detecting process fails, subsequent processes, such as the adding of compensation signals or the controlling of hardware parameters, will fail as well.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide a method for adjusting image acquisition parameters to optimize object extraction to mitigate and/or obviate the aforementioned problems.

Method for adjusting image acquisition parameters to optimize object extraction

Industrial Technology Research Institute


A fingerprint sensor for incorporation into a smart card includes sensor electrodes for detecting fingerprint features of a finger placed on a contact surface, the sensor electrodes being disposed above a substrate layer that comprises a first portion, a second portion, and a ledge where an edge of the first portion extends beyond an edge of the second portion. Contact points disposed on the ledge connect the fingerprint sensor to electrical conductors of an intermediate layer of a multi-layer smartcard. The fingerprint sensor is disposed within a cavity formed in a body of the smartcard, and the contact points disposed on the ledge are set at a depth corresponding to the thickness of an outer layer covering the electrical conductors of the intermediate layer of the smartcard.

In the recent years, biometrics, and especially fingerprint sensors, have become common for the purpose of verifying the identity of a person, e.g., at immigration control, at airports as well as with personal devices such as laptops etc. The present solutions still have a number of disadvantages. Fingerprint sensors used in airports and immigration control are large and too expensive for many applications, smaller sensors seen in portable devices are often silicon based solutions with limited robustness and challenging electronic interconnections. Traditional silicon production techniques for such sensors often result in solutions for electrical interconnection features interfering with the physical finger interface of the device. Recessed mounting of the sensor in a consumer application is often implemented to improve these shortcomings, but may not be the optimal solution both with respect to esthetical design and protection from dirt and moisture. Sensor size, both volume and area, along with the rigid properties of silicon, significantly limits the feasibility of integrating fingerprint devices in thin and flexible applications such as smartcards.
A fingerprint sensor which may be flush mounted in the same plane as the surface of the product it is mounted into is described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,251,351, in which a set of first electrodes/sensor elements are positioned on one side of an insulating substrate provided with through-substrate-via conductors. The substrate may be made from glass, ceramics or other insulating materials. In WO 03/049012 a substrate made from a multilayered or laminate PCB process is described being based on a subtractive PCB process in which, as with the abovementioned US patent, is based on the removal of materials, e.g., by etching, which has relatively low resolution and thus not sufficiently good for the small dimensions and tolerances of fingerprint sensors. If the dimensions such as the layer thickness are not sufficiently accurate they may affect the measurements and reduce the accuracy of the sensor unit.
Thus it is an object of the present invention to offer a thin, flexible fingerprint sensor realized by well established, high volume, low cost manufacturing processes, while also allowing the sensor surface to be positioned flush with the surface of the device in which it is mounted. This is accomplished with a fingerprint sensor as stated above being characterized as described in the independent claims.

Fingerprint sensor including a substrate defining a ledge with contact points for incorporation into a smartcard


A test device for a liquid crystal display device includes a first shorting bar, a first, a second and a third control line, transmission lines and thin film transistor switch elements; in which the gate electrodes of thin film transistor switch element are respectively arranged on the first, the second and the third control line; the data lines are respectively connected to the first, the second and the third control line via the drain electrodes of thin film transistor switch elements, in which data lines for controlling the blue pixel units are connected to the first control line, data lines for controlling the red pixel units are connected to the second control line, data lines for controlling the green pixel units are connected to the third control line; and the source electrodes of multiple thin film transistor switch elements are connected to the first shorting bar via multiple transmission lines.

A liquid crystal display device has an active display portion composed of a pixel matrix. The active display portion includes: multiple scanning lines extending in the row direction of the pixel matrix, multiple data lines (also referred to as signal lines) extending in the column direction of the pixel matrix, switch elements arranged near intersecting portions of the scanning lines and the data lines, and pixel electrodes connected with the switch elements. The scanning lines and the data lines extend to the periphery portion of the active display portion, so as to detect the quality of an image displayed on the active display portion by inputting the test signal at the periphery portion.
In the prior art, a detection device such as a shorting bar, is usually arranged at the periphery portion, and a test signal is inputted on the shorting bar and is transmitted to the scanning line or the data line in the active display portion via corresponding elements, to detect the quality of the image displayed on the active display portion.
Referring to FIG. 1, FIG. 1 is a structural schematic diagram of a detection device of a liquid crystal display device in the prior art. In FIG. 1, 101, 102, 103, 109 denote four shorting bars; 104, 105, 106 and 110 denote test terminals respectively connected to the shorting bars 101, 102, 103, 109, and test signals are inputted on the test terminals and then transmitted to the data lines and the scanning lines via the shorting bars. D1, D2, D3, D4, D5, D6 denote six data lines, C1, C2, C3, C4, C5, C6 denotes six transmission lines. The shorting bar 101 is connected with the transmission line C1 through a via hole 107, and then the transmission line C1 is connected with the data line D1 through a Thin Film Transistor (TFT) switch 108. If a test signal is inputted on the test terminal 104, the test signal is transmitted to the data line D1 via the shorting bar 101, the via hole 107, the transmission line C1 and the thin film transistor switch 108. Similarly, other data lines can receive test signals via their corresponding test terminal, shorting bar, via hole, transmission line and thin film transistor switch. In FIG. 1, G1, G2 and G3 denote three scanning lines, the shorting bar 109 is connected with a thin film transistor switch 111 via a transmission line C7, and the thin film transistor switch 111 is connected with the scanning line G3 via the transmission line 108 and a via hole 112. If a test signal is input on the test terminal 110, the test signal is transmitted to the scanning line G3 via the shorting bar 109, the transmission line C7, the thin film transistor switch 111, the transmission line C8 and the via hole 112. Similarly, other scanning lines can obtain test signals via their corresponding test terminal, shorting bar, transmission line, thin film transistor switch and via hole.
During manufacture of the liquid crystal display device, larger static electricity in the processes such as glass taking and placing, oriented film coating and orientation rubbing, will cause a conductive film (the material of which is Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) or Indium Zinc Oxide (IZO)) at a via hole for connecting the transmission line and the shorting bar to be burned. Therefore, there is line defect in the data line direction or in the scanning line direction when the liquid crystal display device is tested, which will affect the final test results.

Test device for liquid crystal display device and test method thereof

Shanghai Tianma Micro-Electronics Co., Ltd.


Billets are produced from powdery alloys by a process which comprises densely packing in a can a powdery metal or alloy easy of plastic working and a powdery alloy difficult of plastic working in that order, sealing hermetically the can and thereafter degassing the same; or a process which comprises densely packing a powdery alloy difficult of plastic working in a can and, then, densely packing a powdery metal or powdery alloy easy of plastic working in the can to make the powdery metal or alloy into a lid of the can, wherein the powdery alloy easy of plastic working is coarse powder, while the powdery alloy difficult of plastic working is fine powder, and the powdery alloy is a rapidly solidified powdery alloy comprising an Al-base, Mg-base, Ni-base, Ti-base or Fe-base alloy. The billets obtained by the above process can be easily subjected to plastic working to provide worked articles having with excellent mechanical characteristics, such as high strength and high hardness, without deteriorating the properties of the starting powder materials.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improved process for producing a billet of powdery alloys to be used for plastic working of the powdery alloys.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the conventional processes for the production of a shaped article from a powdery alloy by plastic working, the powdery alloy was packed in a can having a prescribed capacity, uniformly compacted and degassed to give a billet, which was heated if necessary and subjected to plastic working, such as extrusion, forging or rolling, to produce a worked article.
The extrusion in the aforestated prior art will now be described by way of example. In the initial stage of the extrusion, the extrusion pressure is at its maximum but is lowered upon the commencement of the extrusion of a material. Although a powdery alloy which is easily subjected to extrusion has been made into a satisfactory billet by the conventional process, the use of a powdery alloy difficult of extrusion, such as a rapidly solidified powdery alloy, for achieving a high quality, such as high strength or high hardness, makes the initial extrusion pressure extraordinarily high, thus limiting the working on an ordinary plastic working machine (extruder) or a die. In addition,the working temperature raised for facilitating the plastic working has caused the problem of deterioration of the mechanical characteristics of the billet to be produced, such as strength and hardness, owing to a change in the properties of the rapidly solidified powdery alloy. Moreover, a powder usually produced by the atomizing process is not uniform and, thus, classified on a classifier into fine powder and coarse powder, the former being used for producing a high-grade product, while the latter for a low-grade product or being discarded.
Further, after being packed into a can, the powdery alloy is usually subjected to heating, degassing and compacting in a hot press. However, there is the disadvantage that the compacted powder is adulterated with a gas such as air when taken out of the hot press for carrying out plastic working.
In order to overcome the above-mentioned disadvantage, there has heretofore been adopted a method, as shown in FIG. 10, which comprises packing a powdery alloy 12 in a can 11, sealing hermetically the can with a lid 13 having an exhaust gas pipe 14 for degassing by welding 15 or the like, degassing the powdery alloy through the exhaust gas pipe 14 while heating the billet, and flattening the exhaust gas pipe 15 after the completion of degassing to prevent a gas such as air from returning into the billet. However, the welding of the lid after the packing of the powdery alloy raises the temperature of the rapidly solidified powdery alloy in the can to a temperature higher than a prescribed value (for example, 400.degree. C.) owing to the heat of welding and, in some case, substantial deterioration in the mechanical characteristics such as strength and hardness occurs after working, thereby causing problems in practical applications.

Process for producing billet of powdery alloy by special arrangement of powders