A nucleotide molecule encoding a protein encoded by a Fos regulated gene or a fragment thereof, wherein said protein or fragment thereof is encoded by any one of the nucleotide sequences shown in FIG. 1 or 2 or a fragment thereof, including allelic variants and species variants of the nucleotide sequences.

The present invention relates to the nucleotide sequences of Fos regulated genes, the proteins encoded by the sequences, uses of the sequences and encoded proteins, and transgenic animals comprising one or more of the sequences. The present invention also relates to antibody molecules having affinity for the encoded proteins and uses of the antibody molecules, and antisense nucleotide molecules and uses of the antisense nucleotide molecules.
The transcription factor AP-1 is involved in a number cellular processes, including cell proliferation, differentiation, and neuronal function (see Angel and Karin (1991) Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1072:129-57). AP-1 is considered to exert its effect by binding to a DNA recognition sequence, known as the AP-1 element, found in the promoter and enhancer regions of genes. The AP-1 element has the consensus sequence in TGA G/C TCA.
A number of genes have been found which contain AP-1 elements in their regulatory regions including c-Jun (Angel et al. (1988) Cell 55:875-885), MCP-1 (Rollins et al. (1988) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 85:3738-3742), Stromelysin (Kerr et al. (1988) Science 242:1424-1427), Type I collagenase (Schonthal et al. (1988) Cell 54:325-334), and Interleukin II (Farrar et al. (1989) Crit. Rev. Ther. Drug Carrier Syst. 5:229-261). AP-1 is composed of dimeric complexes formed between Jun (c-Jun, Jun-B, and Jun D) and Fos (c-Fos, Fos B, Fra-1, and Fra-2) proteins. The Fos component of AP-1 has been found to be the limiting component of AP-1 activity in cycling cells (see Kovary and Bravo (1991) Mol. Cell. Biol. 11:2451-2459; Kovary and Bravo (1991) Mol. Cell. Biol. 11:4466-4472).
c-Fos is a nuclear proto-oncogene which has been implicated in a number of important cellular events, including cell proliferation (Holt et al. (1986) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 831:4794-4798; Riabowol et al. (1988) Mol. Cell. Biol. 8:1670-1676), differentiation (Distel et al. (1987) Cell 49: 835-844; Lord et al. (1993) MoL Cell. Biol. 13:841-851), and tumorigenesis (Cantor et al. (1993) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 90:10932-10936; Miller et al. (1984) Cell 36:51-60; Ruther et al. (1989) Oncogene 4:861-865). c-Fos encodes a 62 kDa protein which forms heterodimers with c-Jun, forming an AP-1 transcription factor which binds to DNA at an AP-1 element and stimulates transcription. Fos gene products can also repress gene expression. Sassone et al. (1988) Nature 334:314-319 showed c-Fos inhibits its own promoter, and Gius et al. (Gius et al. (1990) Mol. Cell. Biol. 10:4243-4255) and Hay et al. (1989) Genes Dev. 3:293-303 showed c-Fos inhibits early response genes Egr-1 and c-myc. AP-1 factors have also been shown to inhibit expression of the MHC class I and PEPCK genes (see Gurney et al. (1992) J. Biol. Chem. 267:18133-18139 and Howcroft et al., 1993).
It can therefore be seen that Fos regulated genes are extremely important for the correct expression of genes which lead to changes in the cell phenotype. The importance of Fos genes was clearly demonstrated by generating mice deficient in c-Fos (see Hu et al. (1994) EMBO J. 13: 3094-3103). The c-Fos deficient mice were viable, but displayed a range of tissue-specific developmental defects, including osteopetrosis, delayed gametogenesis and lymphophenia, and behavioral abnormalities.
The c-Fos deficient mice were used to generate fibroblast cell lines and the expression of two genes was found to be abnormally low. The two genes were Stromelysin and Type I collagenase. Both genes were previously identified as having AP-1 sites in their regulatory sequences (see Kerr et al. (1988) Science 242:1424-1427 and Schonthal et al. (1988) Cell 54:325-334). Stromelysin and Type I collagenase have been implicated in embryonic tissue development (Brenner et al. (1989) Nature 337:661-663), injured tissue remodelling (Hasty et al. (1990) Arthritis Rheum. 33:388-397; Woessner and Gurja (1991) J. Rheumatol. Suppl. 27:99-101), and in tumor progression and metastasis (Liotta and Stetler (1990) Semin. Cancer Biol. 1:99-106).
Superti-Furga et al. (1991) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 88:5114-5118 showed that c-Fos activity can be controlled hormonally by fusing the mouse c-Fos protein to the ligand binding domain of the human estrogen receptor. The fusion protein was found to stimulate AP-1 dependent transcription in a strictly hormone-dependent manner. Using the fusion protein an AP-1 regulated gene, Fit-1, was found. Fit-1 was found to encode a secreted or membrane bound protein depending on the splicing pattern.
The present invention relates to the nucleotide sequences encoding two novel Fos regulated genes. The present invention provides a nucleotide molecule encoding a protein encoded by a Fos regulated gene or a fragment thereof, wherein said protein or fragment thereof is encoded by a nucleotide sequence shown in FIG. 1 (SEQ ID NO:1) or 2 (SEQ ID NO:3), or a fragment thereof, including allelic variants and species variants of the nucleotide sequences.
The term "nucleotide molecule" used herein refers to nucleotides of any length, either ribonucleotides or deoxyribonucleotides. The term encompasses both double and single stranded molecules. It also includes known types of modifications, for example labels which are known in the art, methylation, "caps", substitution of one or more of the naturally occurring nucleotides with an analog, internucleotide modifications such as, for example those with uncharged linkages (e.g., methyl phosphonates, phosphotriesters, phosphoamidates, carbamates, etc.) and with charged linkages (e.g., phosphorothioates, phosphorodithioates, etc.), those containing pendant moieties, such as, proteins (including nucleases, toxins, antibodies, signal peptides, poly-L-lysine, etc.), those containing intercalators (e.g., acridine, psoralen, etc.), those containing chelators (e.g., metals, radioactive metals, boron, oxidative metals, etc.), those containing alkylators, and those containing modified linkages (e.g., alpha anomeric nucleic acids, etc.).
The nucleotide molecule of the present invention may encode the protein of a Fos regulated gene or a fragment thereof. The term "fragment" used in relation to the proteins refers to fragments which are of sufficient length to be unique to the presently claimed protein (e.g., 10, 15, 20, or 25 consecutive amino acids in length). Preferably, the protein fragments are capable of eliciting at least part of an activity of the full protein. Particularly preferred fragments comprise a conserved region of a gene which has been found to be homologous with a number of other genes. Such conserved regions are considered to have a specific function.
The nucleotide sequences shown in FIGS. 1 (SEQ ID NO:1) and 2 (SEQ ID NO:3) will, as with most naturally occurring nucleotide sequences, have a number of other forms, such as allelic variants and species variants. Such variants and any other naturally occurring forms of the nucleotide sequences of the present invention are also considered to form a part of the present invention. Such variants should have at least 60%, preferably 80%, and most preferably 90% sequence homology with the sequence shown in FIG. 1 (SEQ ID NO:1) or 2 (SEQ ID NO:3) or fragments thereof.
The present invention also relates to the nucleotide molecule of the present invention wherein the protein or a fragment thereof encoded by the sequence shown in FIG. 1 (SEQ ID NO:1) or 2 (SEQ ID NO:3) or a fragment thereof is altered. Preferred altered proteins or fragments thereof, are those that still retain their activity and preferably have a homology of at least 80%, more preferably 90%, and most preferably 95% to the protein or a fragment thereof encoded by the sequence shown in FIG. 1 (SEQ ID NO:2) or 2 (SEQ ID NO:4) or a fragment thereof. Preferably such altered proteins or fragments thereof differ by only 1 to 10 amino acids. It is further preferred that the amino acid changes are conservative. Note that FIG. 2 sets forth alternate reading frames (SEQ ID NOS: 17, 53, and 69) for the nucleotide sequence therein (SEQ ID NO: 3), which encode the corresponding predicted polypeptides (polypeptides SEQ ID NOS: 18-52 for SEQ ID NO: 17, polypeptides SEQ ID NOS: 54-68 for SEQ ID NO: 53, and polypeptides SEQ ID NOS: 70-90 for SEQ ID NO: 69) set forth in the figure.
Conservative changes are those that replace one amino acid with one from the family of amino acids which are related in their side chains. For example, it is reasonable to expect that an isolated replacement of a leucine with an isoleucine or valine, an aspartate with a glutamate, a threonine with a serine, or a similar conservative replacement of an amino acid with a structurally related amino acid will not have a major effect on the biological activity of the protein.
However, it is sometimes desirable to alter amino acids in order to alter the biological activity of the protein. For example, mutations which abolish or enhance one or more of the functions of the protein can be particularly useful. Such mutations can generally be made by altering any conserved sequences of protein. Mutations which increase the number of amino acids which are capable of forming disulphide bonds with other amino acids in the protein are particularly preferred in order to increase the stability of the protein. Mutations which decrease the number of amino acids which are capable of forming disulphide bonds with other amino acids in the protein may also be made if it is desired to decrease the stability of the protein. It is preferred that such altered proteins or fragments thereof have a homology of at least 80%, more preferably 90%, and most preferably 95% to the protein or a fragment thereof encoded by the sequence shown in FIG. 1 (SEQ ID NO:2) or 2 (SEQ ID NO:4) or a fragment thereof. Preferably such altered proteins or fragments thereof differ by only 1 to 10 amino acids.
The nucleotide molecule of the present invention can be obtained by methods well known in the art. For example, the sequences may be obtained by genomic cloning or cDNA cloning from suitable cell lines or from DNA or CDNA derived directly from the tissues of an organism, such as a mouse. Suitable cell lines include any fibroblast cell lines such as the 3T3 cell line, described by Hu et al. (1994) EMBO J. 13: 3094-3103. Positive clones may be screened using appropriate probes for the nucleotide molecule desired. PCR cloning may also be used. The probes and primers can be easily generated given that the sequences encoding the protein or a fragment thereof encoded by the nucleotide molecule of the present invention are given herein.
Numerous standard techniques known in the field of molecular biology may be used to prepare the desired nucleotide molecules or the probes and primers for identifying the positive clones. The nucleotide molecules probes or primers may be synthesized completely using standard oligonucleotide synthesis methods, such as the phosphoramidite method.
Numerous techniques may be used to alter the DNA sequence obtained by the synthesis or cloning procedures, and such techniques are well known to those skilled in the art. For example, site directed metagenesis, oligonucleotide directed mutagenesis, and PCR techniques may be used to alter the DNA sequence. Such techniques are well known to those skilled in the art and are described in the vast body of literature known to those skilled in the art, for example Sambrook et al. (1989) Molecular Cloning: A Laboratory Manual (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.).
The present invention further provides the protein encoded by the nucleotide molecule of the present invention. Preferably, the protein encoded by the nucleotide molecule of the present invention has the amino acid sequence shown in FIG. 1 (SEQ ID NO:2) or 2 (SEQ ID NO:4), or a fragment thereof.
The term "protein" as used herein refers to a polymer of amino acids and does not refer to a specific length of the product; thus, peptides, oligopeptides, and proteins are included within the term protein. The term also does not refer to or exclude post-expression modifications of the protein, for example, glycosylations, acetylations, and phosphorylations. Included in the definition are proteins containing one or more analogs of an amino acid (including for example, unnatural amino acids), proteins with substituted linkages, as well as other modifications known in the art, both naturally occurring and synthesized.
The protein of the present invention can be obtained from cells that naturally produce the protein such as fibroblast cells using standard purification techniques. However, it is preferred that a suitable host cell and vector system is used for the expression of the nucleotide molecule of the present invention. The nucleotide molecule of the present invention can be expressed in a variety of different expression systems, for example, those used with mammalian cells, baculoviruses, bacteria, and eukaryotic microorganisms such as yeasts.
All the above-mentioned expression systems are known in the art, and expressing nucleotide sequences is now a standard technique known to all skilled in the art. Preferably, eukaryotic, e.g., mammalian, host cell expression systems are used. In particular, suitable mammalian host cells include Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells, HeLa cells, baby hamster kidney (BHK) cells, cells of hepatic origin such as HepG2 cells, and myeloma or hybridoma cell lines.
The present invention further provides a vector for the expression of the nucleotide molecule of the present invention, comprising a promoter and the nucleotide molecule of the present invention. A mammalian promoter can be any DNA sequence capable of binding mammalian RNA polymerase and initiating the downstream transcription of a coding sequence into MRNA. Particularly useful promoters are those derived from mammalian viral genes, such as the SV40 early promoter, adenovirus major late promoter, and the herpes simplex virus promoter. Additionally, sequences from non-viral genes can also be used as promoters, such as from the murine metallothionein gene.
The nucleotide molecule of the present invention may be expressed intracellularly in mammalian cells. A promoter sequence may be directly linked with the nucleotide molecule of the present invention, in which case the first amino acid at the N-terminus of the encoded protein will be a methionine encoded by the start ATG codon.
Alternatively, the protein encoded by the nucleotide molecule of the present invention can be secreted from the cell by linking a nucleotide sequence encoding a leader sequence to the nucleotide molecule of the present invention. The encoded fusion protein will comprise a leader sequence fragment and the protein encoded by the nucleotide molecule of the present invention. The leader sequence will lead to the secretion of the fuision protein out of the cell. Preferably, there are processing sites between the leader sequence and the protein encoded by the nucleotide molecule of the present invention allowing the leader sequence to be cleaved off enzymatically or chemically. An example of such a leader sequence is the adenovirus triparite leader.
The vector of the present invention is preferably a nucleic acid vector comprising DNA. The vector may be of linear or circular configuration and can be adapted for episomal or integrated existence in the host cell, as set out in the extensive body of literature known to those skilled in the art. The vectors may be delivered to cells using viral or non-viral delivery systems. The choice of delivery system will determine whether the DNA molecule is to be incorporated into the cell genome or remain episomal.
The vector of the present invention can comprise further control elements such as polyadenylation signals, transcription termination signals, enhancers, locus control regions (LCRs), etc.
The present invention further provides a host cell transformed with the vector of the present invention. Transformation refers to the insertion of an exogenous polynucleotide into a host cell, irrespective of the method used for the insertion, for example, direct uptake, transduction, f-mating, or electroporation. The exogenous polynucleotide may be maintained as a non-integrated vector (episome), or may be integrated into the host genome. Preferably, the host cell is a eukaryotic cell, more preferably a mammalian cell, such as Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells, HeLa cells, baby hamster kidney (BHK) cells, cells of hepatic origin such as HepG2 cells, and myeloma or hybridoma cell lines.
The present invention further provides a method for producing the protein encoded by the nucleotide molecule of the present invention, comprising transfecting a host cell with the vector of the present invention, culturing the transfected host cell under suitable conditions in order to lead to the expression of the DNA molecule and the production of the desired protein. The protein may then be harvested from the transfected cells or from the cell growth media, depending on whether the protein is secreted, using standard techniques.
The present invention further provides the nucleotide molecule of the present invention for use in therapy.
The present invention further provides the use of the nucleotide molecule of the present invention in the manufacture of a composition for the treatment of developmental disorders.
The present invention further provides the use of the nucleotide molecule of the present invention in the treatment of developmental disorders.
Fos regulated genes are known to be involved in development and cell differentiation. Accordingly, the discovery of genes regulated by Fos has implications in the control of development and cell differentiation.
The nucleotide sequences shown in FIG. 1 (SEQ ID NO:1) and FIG. 2 (SEQ ID NO:3) have been found to have a similar sequence to genes of a family of growth factors characterized by the Platelet Growth Factor (PDGF) family signature. The most clearly related sequence is that of the Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF). VEGF forms a homodimer which is a growth factor active in angiogenesis and endothelial cell growth (see Keck et al. (1989) Science 246:1309-1311 and Leung et al. (1989) Science 246:1306-1309). VEGF has also been used to stimulate angiogenesis and thereby produce a therapeutic effect (see Takeshita et al. (1994) J. Clin. Invest. 93:662-670).
The protein encoded by the nucleotide sequence (SEQ ID NO:1) in FIG. 1 is a mouse protein and the protein encoded by the nucleotide sequence (SEQ ID NO:3) in FIG. 2 is the human homologue of the mouse protein encoded by the sequence given in FIG. 1. Both the proteins are herein referred to as c-Fos Induced Growth Factor (FIGF).
The use of the nucleotide molecule of the present invention in therapy can therefore be seen to be an important application of the sequences of the Fos regulated genes of the present invention.
The nucleotide sequences shown in FIG. 1 (SEQ ID NO:1) and FIG. 2 (SEQ ID NO:3) are of particular interest in lung disorders as it is has been found that the nucleotide sequences are mainly expressed in the lungs. Particular lung disorders which may be treatable using the nucleotide molecule encoding the protein or fragments thereof which are encoded by the sequence shown in FIG. 1 (SEQ ID NO:1) or FIG. 2 (SEQ ID NO:3), include pneumonia and pneumoconiosis. The nucleotide molecule may also be used following pneumonectomy in order to aid in lung re-growth.
The nucleotide sequence in FIG. 2 (SEQ ID NO:3) has been mapped to human chromosome Xp22, near the locus that maps for the pathology spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia (SEDL). The genetic map of this region is described by Ferrero et al. (Ferrero et al. (1995) Human Molecular Genetics 4:1821-1827) and the mapping of the SEDL disease is described by Heuertz et al. (1993) Genomics 18:100-104. SEDL may therefore be treatable using the nucleotide molecule encoding the protein or fragments thereof, which are encoded by the nucleotide sequence given in FIG. 1 (SEQ ID NO:1) or in FIG. 2 (SEQ ID NO:3).
As previously discussed, Fos regulated genes have been found to be involved in tumor progression and metastasis. By inhibiting Fos regulated genes it is possible to inhibit or suppress tumor growth.
Previously Kim et al. (Kim et al. (1993) Nature 362:841-844) suppressed tumor growth by injecting monoclonal antibodies specific for VEGF. As stated previously, VEGF has a similar nucleotide sequence to the nucleotide sequences shown in FIG. 1 (SEQ ID NO:1) and FIG. 2 (SEQ ID NO:3). Accordingly, by inhibiting either the in vivo expression, translation, etc. of the native nucleotide molecules of the present invention, tumor growth may be inhibited or suppressed.
The actions of the Fos regulated genes corresponding to the nucleotide molecules of the present invention may be inhibited by a number of techniques. Preferred techniques include antisense-based techniques, ribozyme-based techniques, and antibody-based techniques.
Antibody molecules having specificity for the protein encoded by the nucleotide molecules of the present invention can be used to block the function of the protein and thereby inhibit or suppress tumor growth.
The present invention further provides antibody molecules having specificity for the protein of the present invention. The antibody molecules may be a complete polyclonal or monoclonal antibody or antigen-binding fragments, such as Fv, Fab, F(ab′)2 fragments and single chain Fv fragments thereof. The antibody molecule may be a recombinant antibody molecule such as a chimeric antibody molecule preferably having human constant regions and mouse variable regions, a humanized CDR-grafted antibody molecule or fragments thereof. Methods for producing such antibodies are well known to those skilled in the art and are described in EP-A-0120694 and EP-A-0125023.
The present invention further provides the antibody molecule of the present invention for use in therapy.
The present invention also provides the use of the antibody molecule of the present invention in the manufacture of a composition for the treatment of proliferative diseases such as cancer.
The present invention further provides the use of the antibody molecule of the present invention for the treatment of proliferative diseases such as cancer.
The present invention further provides an antisense nucleotide molecule or a fragment thereof, having the complementary sequence to the nucleotide molecule or a fragment thereof, of the present invention. The antisense nucleotide molecule of the present invention can be generated using the same standard techniques as for the nucleotide molecule of the present invention.
The present invention further provides an antisense vector for the expression of the antisense nucleotide molecule of the present invention comprising a promoter and the antisense nucleotide molecule. The antisense vector is identical to the nucleic acid vector of the present invention except that the vector contains the antisense nucleotide molecule of the present invention.
The present invention further provides the antisense vector of the present invention for use in therapy.
The present invention further provides the use of the antisense vector of the present invention in the manufacture of a composition for the treatment of cell proliferative diseases such as cancer.
The present invention further provides the use of the antisense vector of the present invention in the treatment of cell proliferative diseases such as cancer.
The present invention further provides a vector for the expression of a ribozyrne, comprising a promoter and a nucleotide sequence encoding a ribozyme capable of cleaving the RNA transcript of the nucleotide molecule of the present invention. The vector encoding the ribozyme is identical to the vectors previously described except that the vector encodes a ribozyme. The ribozyme being capable of cleaving the RNA transcript of the nucleotide molecule of the present invention. Techniques for producing such ribozymes are known to those skilled in the art and are discussed in Cantor et al. (Cantor et al. (1993) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 90:10932-10936).
The present invention further provides the ribozyme-encoding vector of the present invention for use in therapy.
The present invention further provides the use of the ribozyme-encoding vector of the present invention in the manufacture of a composition for the treatment of cell proliferative diseases such as cancer.
The present invention further provides the use of the ribozyme-encoding vector of the present invention in the treatment of cell proliferative diseases such as cancer.
A further object to the present invention is the use of the protein of the present invention in identifying the receptor or receptors of the protein or of a protein complex comprising the protein. Methods for identifying receptors are well known to those skilled in the art and have been widely described in the literature. However, basically there are three major ways of identifying receptors:                i. Test all known receptors that bind to similar molecules. This is particularly useful for the protein encoded by the DNA sequences shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, as VEGF has been found to have a similar sequence.        ii. Perform a binding purification step. For example, the protein of the present invention or a protein complex comprising the protein of the present invention can be immobilized on to a solid support and numerous possible receptor molecules, especially membrane proteins, are then passed over the solid support. A binding purification procedure is described in Schuster et al. (1995) Brain Res. 670:14-28.        iii. By screening expression libraries in order to find cells lacking the receptor or receptors and then utilizing the receptor cloning method described by Seed and Aruffo (1987) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 84:3365-3369.
Other methods are also known to those skilled in the art and can be used in order to find the receptor or receptors.
On identifying the receptor or receptors it will be possible to design drugs that block or enhance the activity of the receptor or receptors and produce antibody molecules that block the receptor or receptors. Once the DNA sequence of the receptor or receptors are known, a number of gene therapies may be designed for correcting errors in the receptor or receptors, or for blocking expression of the receptor or receptors.
The present invention further provides the use of the protein of the present invention in an assay for identifying antagonists or agonists of the protein which may be used as drugs in the treatment of cancer and developmental disorders respectively. Assays for identifying such potential drugs are frequently used and are well known to those skilled in the art. An example of such an assay is clearly described in Tsunoda et al. (1994) Anti-cancer Res. 14:2637.
The present invention further provides the use of the nucleotide molecule, antisense nucleotide molecule, protein, or antibody molecule of the present invention, or any combination thereof, in diagnosing a pathological state or a predisposition to a disease.
The nucleotide molecule or antisense nucleotide molecule of the present invention may be used in determining the presence of the gene corresponding to the nucleotide molecule or in determining the amount of RNA transcribed from the gene.
The protein of the present invention may be used in an assay for determining the amount of protein encoded by the gene corresponding to the nucleotide molecule of the present invention.
The antibody molecule of the present invention may be used in an assay for determining the amount of protein encoded by the gene corresponding to the nucleotide molecule of the present invention. An example of an assay for determining the amount of protein using the antibody molecule of the present invention is a competitive binding assay.
By determining the presence of the gene corresponding to the nucleotide molecule of the present invention or the transcribed RNA or the protein encoded by the gene, it is possible to diagnose a pathological state or a predisposition to a disease caused by the presence of the gene or the overexpression of the gene.
The present invention further provides the use of the nucleotide molecule of a present invention in the generation of transgenic animals. In particular, the invention provides the use of such nucleotide molecules for the generation of non-human transgenic animals, especially transgenic mice.
Transgenic animals can be generated which are suitable as models for research. For example, transgenic animals which overexpress the nucleotide molecule of the present invention could be used in order to determine what effects overexpression will have. Alternatively, transgenic animals can be generated where the native nucleotide molecule of the present invention is "knocked out". The effect of "knocking out" the nucleotide molecule could then be investigated.
Methods for generating such transgenic animals are well known to those skilled in the art and can be easily performed given that the nucleotide molecules to be overexpressed or "knocked out" are disclosed herein.
The transgenic animals of the present invention could also be subsequently bred with either Fos overexpression mice or Fos "knocked out" mice, in order to determine the effects of altered Fos control.
The present invention also provides a nucleotide molecule comprising all or part of the sequence shown in any one of FIG. 1 (SEQ ID NO:1) or 2 (SEQ ID NO:3). The nucleotide molecule comprising all or part of the sequence shown in any one of FIG. 1 (SEQ ID NO:1) or 2 (SEQ ID NO:3) may encode a protein or may be non-coding. Preferably, the nucleotide molecule additionally encodes the control sequences of the Fos gene corresponding to the nucleotide sequence shown in any one of FIG. 1 (SEQ ID NO:1) or 2 (SEQ ID NO:3). It is further preferred that the nucleotide molecule encodes a sequence which confers Fos regulation to a gene. It is particularly preferred that the nucleotide molecule comprises the sequence TGACTCA.

C-Fos induced growth factor (FIGF) and DNA encoding same


An integrated device having a transimpedance amplifier (TIA) cascaded with a limiter can be tested such that the frequency response of the TIA is accurately measured. The frequency response of the TIA is derived from the measured output jitter response of the integrated TIA/limiter device. In a practical testing system, a sinusoidal test signal having a constant amplitude is combined with a broadband noise signal having a constant power level to obtain a noisy test signal. The TIA/limiter is driven by the noisy test signal while the frequency of the test signal is varied. The output jitter of the TIA/limiter is measured for a number of frequency settings to obtain the output jitter response.

The present invention relates generally to testing techniques for electronic devices. More particularly, the present invention relates to a technique for measuring the frequency response of a transimpedance amplifier.
A transimpedance amplifier (TIA) operating on the output of a photodiode forms a fiber-optic receiver. In data applications, the output of the TIA is limited and subsequently processed by a clock and data recovery unit to obtain the original data. In such a system, the bandwidth of the TIA plays an important role. If the bandwidth is too narrow, the data will be corrupted by intersymbol interference. If the bandwidth is too wide, the TIA will generate excess noise that can also corrupt the data. From a communications theory viewpoint, the TIA bandwidth should be matched to that of the data channel.
For practical reasons, it is desirable to include the TIA and the limiter in a single integrated circuit (IC) device. For example, FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an IC package 100 having a TIA 102 and an integrated limiter 104. Such an integrated assembly is referred to herein as a TIA/limiter. The prior art contains a number of TIA/limiter designs, and the operation of TIA/limiters will not be described in detail herein. Briefly, TIA 102 generates an output that is proportional to the input current, and limiter 104 clips the TIA output signal at specific high and low voltage levels. The combined nature of an integrated TIA/limiter device makes it difficult (if not impossible) to perform direct measurements of the TIA itself (such as frequency response or bandwidth measurements).
One approach to testing the frequency response of a TIA implemented in an integrated TIA/limiter device is to include a TIA output test pin on the IC package. With such a configuration, conventional frequency response testing of the TIA is possible. However, an additional test pin can be difficult to implement and costly in terms of physical space, die size, and power requirements (such a test pin would consume unnecessary power because it would need to drive 50 Ohm test equipment).
A common method of testing the TIA bandwidth for an integrated TIA/limiter performs a low-level frequency response test on the TIA/limiter device. First, the test signal input level is reduced until the limiter is operating in the linear region. Then, conventional frequency response measurements are obtained with a spectrum analyzer and tracking generator combination, S-parameter test equipment, or a signal generator combined with a spectrum analyzer. Thus, the TIA bandwidth is measured in cascade with another linear system (the limiter). The frequency response of the limiter causes the measured bandwidth to be lower than the actual bandwidth of the TIA alone. The measured result is inaccurate because the limiter circuit normally operates in the nonlinear limiting mode, which does not significantly degrade the TIA bandwidth. In addition, the reduction of the test signal level results in a lower signal-to-noise ratio and noisy output measurements.
Another known technique for testing the bandwidth of a TIA implemented in an integrated TIA/limiter is set forth in a draft IEEE standard relating to Ethernet network systems (IEEE Standard 802.3-2002). This IEEE standard describes a test for an optical receiver module that includes a photodiode, a TIA, and a limiter. In summary, the test method is performed according to the following generalized steps: (1) sum a tone from an RF signal generator with a suitable data source; (2) with the RF tone set at the midband, adjust the powers of the RF tone and the data signal to provide a suitable bit error rate (BER); (3) change the RF tone frequency and vary the RF tone power to provide the same fixed BER; and (4) repeat the above steps for a number of frequencies to obtain the frequency response. The rolloff in the TIA frequency response corresponds to the increase in RF tone power as the frequency increases. Unfortunately, the IEEE testing technique is time consuming because several BER measurements must be taken to find the proper RPF power setting that yields the fixed BER at the given test frequency. If very accurate test data is desired, then the number of individual BER measurements at each frequency must be increased. In addition, BER test equipment can be expensive and difficult to operate.
Accordingly, a need exists for an accurate and effective technique to measure the TIA bandwidth in an integrated TIA/limiter device.
A testing technique according to the present invention can be utilized to test the frequency response of a TIA packaged with an integrated limiter, even though the integrated device lacks a TIA output pin. The testing technique can drive the TIA/limiter device at normal operating levels where the limiter functions in the nonlinear region. In this regard, the frequency response measurement is not affected by the operation of the limiter.
The above and other aspects of the present invention may be carried out in one form by a method of testing a transimpedance amplifier packaged with an integrated TIA/limiter. The method involves driving the TIA/limiter with a noisy input signal, obtaining a measured output jitter response of the TIA/limiter as a function of frequency of the noisy input signal, and deriving a frequency response of the TIA/limiter from the measured output jitter response.

Method for measuring the frequency response of a transimpedance amplifier packaged with an integrated limiter


The present invention provides methods for fabricating a fuel cell membrane structure that can dramatically reduce fuel crossover, thereby improving fuel cell efficiency and power output. Preferred composite membrane structures include an inorganic layer situated between the anode layer and the proton-exchange membrane. The inorganic layer can conduct protons in unhydrated form, rather than as hydronium ions, which reduces fuel crossover. Some methods of this invention include certain coating steps to effectively deposit an inorganic layer on an organic proton-exchange membrane.

Fuel-cell systems continue to offer much theoretical promise for the production of electricity. Proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells have drawn much attention in the last decade, due to the potential for a high-efficiency and low-emission source of energy.
For many of the fuel-cell systems known in the art, the performance can be dramatically influenced by the PEM and its interaction with the fuel. Fuel permeability results in undesirable diffusion of the fuel from the anode to the cathode. For example, direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs) currently suffer from fuel crossover, which limits the concentration of methanol that can be fed to the fuel cell. This limitation prevents the fuel cell from achieving higher current densities and power outputs due to poor utilization.
A DMFC feeds a methanol/water solution directly to the fuel cell (such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,599,638, for example). Nafion®, a perfluorinated sulphonic acid polymer, is often used as a PEM membrane material for fuel cells which operate at temperatures close to ambient. Nafion is typically employed as the PEM membrane in DMFCs. Other membranes of modified perfluorinated sulfonic acid polymers, polyhydrocarbon sulfonic acid polymers, and composites thereof, in addition to Nafion, are known.
The method of proton conduction in these systems requires that the membrane be hydrated, because protons are transported by the movement of hydronium ions (H3O+) through the membrane. The need for hydration often exacerbates the problem of fuel crossover, as PEM membranes are usually permeable to many fuels including methanol. When electric current flows through the fuel cell, the migrating hydronium will carry both water and the fuel (especially when it is highly miscible with water) across the membrane. The problem of fuel crossover limits the permissible fuel concentration.
Modification of the PEM membrane has been attempted to reduce the effect of crossover. One such system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,022,810 to Cornelius. In this patent, Cornelius describes a "hybrid inorganic-organic" membrane. Synthesis of the membrane is achieved by mixing an organic precursor of the proton-conducting polymer with an inorganic salt. The resulting membrane composition can be varied by altering the starting materials. These types of membranes reduce, but do not eliminate, fuel crossover while at the expense of proton conductivity which ultimately negatively impacts fuel cell performance.
There is a commercial need to reduce fuel crossover in fuel cells, thereby increasing fuel cell efficiency and power output. What is desired is an improved fuel cell, and methods to fabricate such a fuel cell, without chemical or physical modification to a desired PEM material itself. It would be further desirable for improved fuel cells to allow the use of fuels that would otherwise be incompatible with the desired PEM.

Methods for fabricating inorganic proton-conducting coatings for fuel-cell membranes


An exemplary system includes a sound processor configured to wirelessly communicate, while operating in a first mode, with a cochlear implant by way of a wearable headpiece coil configured to be worn on a head of a recipient of the cochlear implant, a non-wearable coil configured to be located away from the recipient, and an interface device configured to provide operating power to the non-wearable coil and communicatively couple to the sound processor while the sound processor is operating in a second mode. While the sound processor is coupled to the interface device and operating in the second mode, the non-wearable coil is configured to provide radio frequency (RF) power to the cochlear implant to keep the cochlear implant listening for commands from the sound processor.

A conventional cochlear implant implanted within a recipient receives operating power from an external sound processor via a transcutaneous link between a coil included in a headpiece externally worn on the head of the recipient and an implanted coil included in or otherwise connected to the cochlear implant. Hence, when the recipient removes the headpiece from his or her head (e.g., before going to sleep), the cochlear implant is not powered and cannot provide stimulation representative of sound to the recipient. This may result in the recipient not being aware of important audible notifications (e.g., fire alarms, security alarms, etc.) that may occur while the recipient is not wearing his or her headpiece.

Utilization of a non-wearable coil to remotely power a cochlear implant from a distance


The present invention includes an ergonomic chair that is useful for people who sit for an extended period of time at work, in avoiding work station related back pain and neck pain. The present invention incorporates a hemispherical seat which can be locked in position and comprises a fixed inner hemisphere, a movable outer hemisphere, and a shroud. The support pole where the inner hemisphere is bolted into absorbs the load from the user, and the outer hemisphere equipped with hydraulic or pneumatic resistance devices and attached to the tension springs provides a balanced movement of the chair. Accordingly, while sitting on the chair, the present invention allows no deformation on the rigid hemispherical seat, and keeps the spine of the user in a desirable alignment, further improving the internal function of the user's organs. The present invention can also be used as an office stretch GYM ball.

Recent studies show that many cases of back pain and neck pain in a modern society are related to work stations that require people to sit for an extended period of time, since the human spine is not originally designed to sit for more than 10 to 15 minutes. Sitting for a long period of time puts a lot of strain on discs of the lumbar, or lower back, and the pressure on the discs increases dramatically when people lean forward while sitting, to write or use a computer. This bad posture exerts uneven forces to the intervertebral discs that lie between each of the vertebral bodies, and results in a loss of anterior longitudinal ligaments.
It has been known that a majority of back pains are caused by strains and/or sprains of the lordotic curve consisting of muscles, ligaments and tendons. People with jobs that require sitting at a work station for a long period of time tend to have their muscles become lax and lose the ability to support the spine correctly, due to the stress on the cervical spine. As a result, the ligaments and tendons in such people can also lose the ability to function properly. Unfortunately, sitting on a regular chair at work does not usually support the lordotic curve, and thus, various types of ergonomic chairs have been developed.
Ergonomic seating units adopting a gas-filled ball or a balloon which allows lateral movement and deformation when a user sits on the chair have been invented and widely used. These ergonomic chairs may be helpful to adjust sitting comfort, balance, and endurance. However, people on the ball-shaped chairs tend to forget about their sitting posture during work and currently available ergonomic chairs include seats which deform to accommodate the users poor posture. Thus, currently available ergonomic chairs are not able to properly maintain the user's posture upright. The currently available ergonomic chairs can support the user's back only when the user leans on the chair, but not when the user leans forward towards the desk to write or type on the computer.
In light of the above, it would be advantageous to provide an ergonomic chair that can subconsciously adjust the user's position for a better posture as the user sits, by maintaining the spine of the user in the same alignment as when the user stands. It would also be advantageous to provide an ergonomic chair with a seat which does not allow any deformation on the seat. It would further be advantageous to provide an ergonomic chair that helps the nerve system to transmit 100% of the signals to the user's organs for a better internal function, through the correct posture. In addition, it would be advantageous to provide an ergonomic chair that can be used as a stretch GYM ball at the office, and which is simple to use, and comparatively cost effective.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A u-shaped trailer frame that includes a drawbar that is connectable to a trailer hitch. The u-shaped frame includes forward holding means and also a pair of axle supports for the wheel axles of the greens mower once the wheels have been removed. The trailer includes a pair of wheels that have special mounts, allowing the frame to be positioned as close to ground as possible, thus eliminating the need for any pivot members to raise the greens mower as found in the prior art. A special offset draw bar configuration is also provided to allow the ground hugging trailer frame to be attached to a conventionally located trailer hitch mounting.

The present invention relates to trailers and more specifically, it relates to a trailer for golf course greens mowers. The structural design of conventional trailers used for this purpose frequently contributes to damaged cutting reels; the reels are usually damaged when greens mowers are towed from green to green or when placed on and/or removed from conventional trailers. Usually, the cutting reels are invariably brought into contact with conventional trailer frames, thus damaging the reels, or at the very least, dulling the cutting reels, requiring sharpening prior to its next use; thus adding time to completion of the particular job.
In view of the above noted deficiencies of the known currently available golf course greens mowers, applicants have designed a trailer that eliminates the above noted problems. Applicants have designed a trailer which has a cavity, formed by its frame members, for receiving the mower. The trailer frame includes a forward locking or securing device and a pair of rearwardly disposed supports for engaging the front roller of the machine whereby the mower is suspended from its mountings on the trailer. A unique feature of the trailer is the particular manner of mounting the wheels on the trailer. The trailer wheels are positioned such that the frame of the trailer has a low profile that is in close proximity to the ground, thus eliminating the need for any ramps. Also, each wheel of the trailer includes an axle that screws into the frame versus the conventional hard-weld arrangement of conventional trailers. This screw-in axle configuration facilitates the replacement of wheels and axles which are frequently damaged when a trailer hits a tree or other obstruction on a golf course.
A pre-examination prior art search was made in the appropriate classes and sub classes in the files of the United States Patent Office and revealed the following prior art documents.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,019,566xe2x80x94issued to Their et al on Feb. 1, 2000xe2x80x94discloses a greensmower trailer that includes a pivotable ramp for loading and unloading a plurality of mowers. It also includes a forward bracket for holding the mowers in place during transit and also rear latching members for securing the mower in place. The rear latching lever when moved into latching position also causes the ramp to swing upwardly to its raised transport position.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,464,436xe2x80x94issued to Davis on Oct. 15, 2002xe2x80x94discloses another greens mower trailer that includes a ramp leading to a perforated deck 40. The deck includes a plurality of forward latch supports and also a pair of rear left and right axle supports of the mower.
Pub. No.: US 2002/0109345xe2x80x94by Dufty and published on Aug. 15,2002xe2x80x94discloses a trailer frame supported by a pair of ground engaging wheels. A pivot frame is pivotally attached to the trailer frame to allow a mower to be attached thereto. The trailer frame includes a drawbar for connection to a prime mover.
Pub. No.: US 2002/0148870xe2x80x94by Zimmerman and published on Oct. 17, 2002xe2x80x94discloses a transporter for a greens mower The transporter is attached to a utility vehicle and allows the greens mower to be attached thereto. Once the transporter is pivotally attached to the utility vehicle, an arm that is interconnected to a transverse member is utilized to raise the greens mower sufficiently above ground level to allow its movement from greens to greens.
A review of the above cited art reveals that the known transporters for greens mowers are transported by either one of two styles. The first one is of the trailer type that includes a ramp for loading the greens mower onto a deck surface of the trailer and is secured thereon during movement. The second type of transporter is the type that utilizes a pivot arm for raising the transporter off the ground surface for movement from greens to greens. Applicants have developed a U-shaped trailer frame that includes An offset drawbar that is connectable to a trailer hitch. The U-shaped frame includes forward holding means and also a pair of axle supports for the wheel axles of the greens mower once the wheels have been removed. The trailer includes a pair of wheels that have special mounts, allowing the frame to be positioned as close to ground as possible, thus eliminating the need for any pivot members to raise the greens mower as found in the prior art. A special offset draw bar configuration is also provided to allow the ground hugging trailer frame to be attached to a conventionally located trailer hitch mounting.
An object of the invention is to provide a trailer for a greens mower that is inexpensive and can readily be attached to a utility vehicle.
A further object of the invention is to provide a trailer that is generally U-shaped and includes forward and rearward attachment points for the greens mower.
Another object of the invention is to provide a trailer for a greens mower that will accommodate a plurality of the most popular greens mowers.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a trailer with a supporting frame that is close to the ground and requires only inches of mower lifting to allow easy mower attachment to the trailer.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a trailer frame that includes a forward draw bar that is vertically offset from the trailer frame to accommodate hitch attachment and the low ground clearance of the frame.
A still further object of the invention is to provide a trailer for a greens mower that allows the mower to be moved from green to green without any damage to the cutting reel of the mower.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a trailer for a greens mower that can be used for safely moving the mower without any fear of inadvertent changing of the cutting settings.
These and other objects of the invention will become more apparent hereinafter. The instant invention will now be described with particular reference to the accompanying drawings that form a part of this specification wherein like reference characters designate the corresponding parts in the several views.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the novel greens mower trailer with a greens mower shown thereon in phantom.
FIG. 2 is partial plan view of the trailer with one wheel removed to illustrate the wheel support of the trailer and the mower support.
FIG. 3 is another partial view of the trailer showing the manner in which the greens mower engages the trailer supports.
FIG. 4 is another partial side view of the trailer illustrating the greens mower loaded on the trailer in phantom.


A cell selection method includes steps of: (A) determining, at a mobile station (UE), whether or not a first CSG cell satisfies a predetermined condition, when using a first macro cell as a camped cell; and (B) changing, at the mobile station (UE), the camped cell from the first macro cell to a first CSG cell, when determined that the first CSG cell satisfies the predetermined condition.

There is a discussion in the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) RAN-WG on a home base station HNB employing the "LTE (Long Term Evolution)" as a radio access scheme.
Specifically, in the current 3GPP specifications, a mobile communication system is configured to manage a specific mobile station (a mobile station permitted to select a specific cell as a camped cell) belonging to a CSG (Closed Subscriber Group) under control of the home base station HNB.
In other words, in the current 3GPP specifications, only a specific mobile station belonging to a CSG can perform communication via a CSG cell (specific cell) under control of the home base station HNB.
However, the current 3GPP specifications do not define a method in which the mobile station selects a camped cell in an environment where CSG cells and macro cells coexist.
Accordingly, the following situation may occur. Specifically, even when a mobile station using a macro cell as a camped cell enters an area where a CSG cell regarding the mobile station as a specific mobile station is selectable as a camped cell, the mobile station cannot detect that, and thus cannot change the camped cell to the CSG cell.
The present invention has been made in consideration of the above problem, and has an objective to provide a cell selection method and a mobile station that allow a camped cell to be properly selected in an environment where CSG cells and macro cells coexist.

Cell selection method and mobile station


A crimper for crimping terminals of electrical conductors includes upper and lower elongated members pivoted to one another and having rear handle portions. A first crimping component is provided anterior to the pivot point of the elongated members and includes a first press member formed on the lower elongated member and a first stepped recess formed on the upper elongated member. A second crimping compenent is provided posterior to the pivot point and includes a second press member and a second stepped recess respectively formed on the upper and lower elongated members. Both first and second press members are attached pivotally to the lower and upper elongated member so that the press members can be guided easily into the stepped recesses to effect crimping operations.

This invention relates to a crimper for crimping electric terminals, and particularly to a crimper having two jaw pieces with stepped recesses of different dimensions to hold terminals of different conductors as well as having two pivoted press members to enter the stepped recesses to crimp the terminals put in the stepped recesses.
A conventional crimper for crimping electric terminals is shown in FIG. 1, wherein two elongated member 92 and 93 are pivoted together by means of a pivot bolt 94, and a jaw piece having a stepped recess therein is attached to one of the elongated member 92 to cooperate with a press member which is attached immovably to the other elongated member 93. When the handle members of the elongated members 92, 93 are pressed against one another, the press member is moved into the recess of the jaw piece and crimped on the electrical terminal which is placed in the recess. In common practice, the stepped recess of such a crimper is arranged to be wider than the press member because the press member moves along a curve path rather than straight into the stepped recess of the jaw member, so that the stepped recess is also larger than the terminal of a conductor. Therefore, the conductor terminal put in the stepped recess is liable to deviate from a proper position and the terminal crimped thereby may deviate from the desired quality.
Cables used for the wiring of telephones are of different specifications, such as those having six pieces of wire, eight pieces of wire and twelve pieces of wire. Such cables require individual conventional crimpers with different sizes of stepped recesses since the conventional crimpers include a single stepped recess for receiving a terminal and no selectivity can be acquired for the stepped recess.

Bleiwerk Goslar GmbH & Co. Kg Besserer & Ernst


A communication scheme capable of realizing operations to supplement the resource shortage or the poor environment of the portable terminal device. At the radio portable terminal device, whether a specific processing of the data packets received from a correspondent device connected to the computer network or the telephone network is to be carried out using resources of the radio portable terminal device or not is determined according to an attribute of the data packets or data contained in the data packets, and a part or whole of the data contained in the data packets are transferred to another portable computer/device connected to a local network or another computer connected to the computer network, such that the specific processing of the data packets determined not to be carried out using the resources of the radio portable terminal device is carried out at another portable computer/device or another computer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a communication scheme for carrying out voice (speech) or data communications through a radio telephone network, and more particularly to a communication scheme in which a connection to the Internet is made via a radio telephone network and voice or data communications are carried out in the IP packet format through this connection.
2. Description of the Background Art
Due to the spread of portable telephone (cellular telephone) or PHS (Personal Handyphone System) terminals, communication services utilizing the radio communication system are now widely in use. In these portable telephone (cellular telephone) or PHS terminals, communication services are realized by carrying out radio communications with radio base stations and being multiply connected to wired communication networks through these base stations.
On the other hand, due to the spread of the worldwide computer network called the Internet, various information services on the Internet have been developed. In particular, much attentions have been attracted to the Internet telephone (IP telephone) for carrying out communications through the Internet by assembling IP packets from telephone voice data, which takes the advantage of the fact that communication cost is quite low on the Internet compared with the conventional telephone network. Typically, as shown in FIG. 19, IP telephone gateways for relaying between a voice telephone network and the Internet are provided inside telephone stations, for example, and communications between these gateways are realized through the Internet such that communications can be carried out with only a fee up to the closest telephone station (or the closest IP telephone gateway location) even in the case of long distance telecommunications.
Such an Internet telephone is also applicable to the case where the terminal is a radio portable terminal such as a cellular telephone or PHS terminal. For example, as shown in FIG. 20, the Internet radio telecommunication system can be realized by providing a router device for managing a plurality of radio base stations such that this router device functions as the IP telephone gateway and carries out data exchange with the Internet.
Of course, on the Internet, multimedia data in various formats can be transferred according to the standard protocol. For example, voice, still images, dynamic images, data files of specific application, etc. can be transferred by the single TCP/IP protocol by assembling IP packets from these data. Consequently, in FIG. 20, by setting up a protocol for transferring TCP/IP packets between the router device and the radio portable terminal through the radio base station, it becomes possible to exchange these multimedia data transferred on the Internet while utilizing the Internet telephone at the same time. More specifically, it becomes possible to realize an application which enables voice communications while transferring related image data (data of references or maps, for example), or receiving a news clip in voice while also receiving related photographs as images.
However, in the case of carrying out the multimedia communications including the Internet telephone as described above by using a radio portable terminal, the radio portable terminal which generally has a compact size is expected to be associated with various limitations regarding resources.
For instance, there can be cases where even when the image data are received, there is no display device that can display the received image data in sufficient resolution. There is also a limitation that the screen size is small.
Also, because the multimedia data generally have large data sizes, it is even possible to encounter situations where the entire transmitted multimedia data cannot be stored in the worst case.
On the other hand, in view of the environment in which the Internet and the telephone network are utilized, in many cases the utilization environment of the radio portable terminal is generally worse compared with the ordinary fixed PC, for example. For instance, there can be cases where a contract for the local telephone can be made at a fixed rate only for the fixed PC at one's home but not for the radio portable terminal, or cases where many Internet applications are more convenient to use on the ordinary PC than the radio portable terminal (such as cases where many more Web address information can be maintained on the ordinary PC than the radio portable terminal for obvious reasons).
As described, in the case of realizing an Internet service that handles the Internet telephone and the multimedia data by using a radio portable terminal, the radio portable terminal which generally has a compact size is associated with many limitations regarding resources, such as a lack of a display device capable of displaying image data in sufficient resolution, or a lack of ability for mounting a storage device such as memory or disk that can store the large amount of multimedia data, for example.
Also, the radio portable terminal is associated with a poorer handling of applications or a poorer environment that requires a higher communication medium utilization fee, for example, compared with the fixed PC at a home or even the portable note PC.

Communication scheme with operations to supplement limitations of portable terminal device


A mechanism is described for facilitating learning and application of neural network topologies in machine learning at autonomous machines. A method of embodiments, as described herein, includes monitoring and detecting structure learning of neural networks relating to machine learning operations at a computing device having a processor, and generating a recursive generative model based on one or more topologies of one or more of the neural networks. The method may further include converting the generative model into a discriminative model.

Current parallel graphics data processing includes systems and methods developed to perform specific operations on graphics data such as, for example, linear interpolation, tessellation, rasterization, texture mapping, depth testing, etc. Traditionally, graphics processors used fixed function computational units to process graphics data; however, more recently, portions of graphics processors have been made programmable, enabling such processors to support a wider variety of operations for processing vertex and fragment data.
To further increase performance, graphics processors typically implement processing techniques such as pipelining that attempt to process, in parallel, as much graphics data as possible throughout the different parts of the graphics pipeline. Parallel graphics processors with single instruction, multiple thread (SIMT) architectures are designed to maximize the amount of parallel processing in the graphics pipeline. In an SIMT architecture, groups of parallel threads attempt to execute program instructions synchronously together as often as possible to increase processing efficiency. A general overview of software and hardware for SIMT architectures can be found in Shane Cook, CUDA Programming, Chapter 3, pages 37-51 (2013) and/or Nicholas Wilt, CUDA Handbook, A Comprehensive Guide to GPU Programming, Sections 2.6.2 to 3.1.2 (June 2013).
Machine learning has been successful at solving many kinds of tasks. The computations that arise when training and using machine learning algorithms (e.g., neural networks) lend themselves naturally to efficient parallel implementations. Accordingly, parallel processors such as general-purpose graphic processing units (GPGPUs) have played a significant role in the practical implementation of deep neural networks. Parallel graphics processors with single instruction, multiple thread (SIMT) architectures are designed to maximize the amount of parallel processing in the graphics pipeline. In an SIMT architecture, groups of parallel threads attempt to execute program instructions synchronously together as often as possible to increase processing efficiency. The efficiency provided by parallel machine learning algorithm implementations allows the use of high capacity networks and enables those networks to be trained on larger datasets.
In the last few years, deep neural networks have demonstrated increased accuracy in relation to a number of tasks, such as large-scale object classification. However, such networks typically require high computational power for learning its parameters and for inference, such as using graphics processing units (GPUs) for such tasks, where any computational cost is regarded as a function of the network topology. The topology of a network for a given task is commonly hand-crafted by meticulous trial-and-error and often requires intuition or simply guessing.
More recently, attempts have been made to automatically learn the topology; however, these methods often rely on heuristic, trial-and-error approaches, etc. Further, these conventional techniques necessitate label-data (that is supervised).

Efficient learning and using of topologies of neural networks in machine learning


Dynamic filtering of content in a content feed may be provided. A user interface may be displayed on a computer for presenting different views of content. The user interface may include a title bar for switching between the different views and for displaying notifications. The different views may include content generated by users of the content feed. Content in the different views may be filtered based on a type and a priority of the content during the presentation of each of the views in the user interface.

A number of websites, such as those provided by social networking services, provide blogs which enable users to provide commentary, describe events or insert other material (such as graphics or video) for viewing by other users on a website or a portion of a website. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, Web pages, and other media related to its topic. Blogs may also include microblogs which are typically limited to very short posts. A drawback associated with current blogs (including microblogs) is that content is often presented to users on a series of different pages that all have different interfaces for interacting with content. For example, a service may be set up such that one or more pages may be required for viewing special notifications (e.g., inbox-style need-to-know information), an additional profile page may be required as an exclusive area to view a user's own activities while further additional pages may be required for viewing company-wide information and user filters on this information. It is with respect to these considerations and others that the various embodiments of the present invention have been made.


A method and an apparatus to form a sheet of polymeric material have first and second mold halves which clamp together on a polymeric sheet. A vacuum mechanism draws the sheet into an interior space. The vacuum mechanism has a plurality of controllable vacuum ports positioned about the interior space to direct the vacuum at specific portions of the sheet. Also, the sensing mechanism determines the draw depth of the sheet.

Polymeric materials are used in a wide variety of applications. Typically, polymeric materials are used to manufacture transparent panels such as windows or windshields for various applications including aircraft, automobiles, motorcycles, boats and the like. Such applications, especially those for aircraft, require an extremely clear, undistorted, transparent panel, which is resistive to scratching and impact.
Traditionally, acrylic plastic is used to form such transparent panels. Acrylic plastic is noted for its excellent optical properties and weatherability, having outstanding resistance to the effects of sunlight and exposure to the elements over long periods of time. Subjected to long term exposure to the elements, acrylic plastic does not experience significant yellowing or any other significant changes in its physical properties. Acrylic plastic, however, does not retain as high an impact strength as do other polymeric materials and thus, are less preferred for applications where impact strength is of importance.
Polycarbonate is a high-performance thermoplastic with the characteristics of high impact strength, optical clarity, heat resistance and dimensional stability. Polycarbonate, on the other hand, does not include the same weatherability characteristics of acrylic plastic. However, the transparent panels, whether produced using acrylic plastic or polycarbonate, include a hard protective coating to prevent scratching, abrasions or other markings that would reduce the service life of the transparent panel. Further, the hard protective coating protects the base sheet, whether acrylic plastic or polycarbonate, from UV degradation. As a result, the transparent panel is protected from any degradation, such as yellowing, distorting, and the like, even though the base sheet (e.g. polycarbonate) would otherwise degrade from such exposure. Therefore, it is desirable in the industry to use polycarbonate for producing transparent panels because of its high impact strength, while it remains protected from UV degradation by the protective coating which is applied regardless of the material used.
Traditionally, polymeric sheets of acrylic plastic are formed using molds that include contoured upper and lower surfaces. The contoured surfaces define the desired shape of the polymeric sheet, directly contacting the entire upper and lower surfaces of the polymeric sheet. Because of the hardness of the upper and lower surfaces of an acrylic plastic sheet, it may be formed in this manner without distorting the upper and lower surfaces. However, the upper and lower surfaces of a polycarbonate sheet are not as hard and therefore, when heated, may be distorted upon contact during the forming process. For this reason, the use of traditional molds, which directly contact the upper and lower surfaces of the polymeric sheet, are not desirable to form polycarbonate sheets. Traditional molds have increased potential for distorting the surfaces of the polycarbonate sheet, thus producing an increased number of rejected panels and driving up production costs.
Applicant's prior application, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,733,714 issued May 11, 2004 and entitled Method for Forming High-Impact Transparent, Distortion-Free Polymeric Material, the specification and drawings of which are expressly incorporated by reference, illustrates an apparatus and method for forming distortion free polymeric materials. While this apparatus and method functions well for its intended purpose, designers strive to improve the art.

Apparatus for a mold vacuum system and method of forming a polymeric sheet utilizing the system


An acrylic resin type release agent composition comprising (A) a polymer which comprises a (meth)acrylate containing a constituent unit represented by the following formula (1) and (B) a crosslinking agent which comprises an amino resin, wherein a weight ratio (A)/(B) is in the range of 99.99/0.1 to 30/70:

In the process for manufacturing semiconductor devices, pressure sensitive adhesive sheets have been heretofore employed, and in general, on a pressure sensitive adhesive layer of such a pressure sensitive adhesive sheet, a release liner having on a substrate a release layer made of a release agent composition containing a silicone compound is laminated to protect the pressure sensitive adhesive layer.
The silicone compound, however, generally has properties such that it is liable to migrate and therefore, it is thought that if such a pressure sensitive adhesive sheet is used in the field of semiconductors, the silicone compound that constitutes the release layer migrates into the pressure sensitive adhesive layer to cause troubles of circuits of the semiconductor devices. Because of this shortcoming, a release liner having a release layer made of a release agent containing no silicone compound has been desired.
As the release agent containing no silicon compound, an alkyd resin type release agent, an olefin resin type release agent, an acrylic resin type release agent having a long-chain alkyl group (also referred to as a "long-chain alkyl type release agent" hereinafter) or the like has been proposed.
The alkyd resin type release agent, however, presents a problem in that its uses are restricted because of high peel strength. The olefin resin type release agent has a problem in that a pressure sensitive adhesive layer cannot be formed on the release liner because of poor heat resistance. The long-chain alkyl type release agent presents a problem in that a pressure sensitive adhesive agent cannot be applied to the release liner because of poor solvent resistance and has a problem of poor adhesion to a substrate such as a film.
Under such circumstances as mentioned above, a release agent composition wherein an ultraviolet-curing functional group was introduced into the long-chain alkyl type resin has been proposed in order to solve the above problems of the long-chain alkyl type release agent (see, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 183619/2003). In the use of such a release agent composition, however, there occurs a problem that the apparatus for manufacturing semiconductor devices needs a measuring device or a dryer for curing ultraviolet rays.
Further, a release agent composition wherein a functional group, such as a hydroxyl group, a carboxyl group or an epoxy group, was introduced into the long-chain alkyl type resin has been proposed (see, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 147327/2003 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 290610/2000). However, if a functional group is introduced into the long-chain alkyl type resin that is a major agent to form a crosslinked structure, degree of freedom of the long-chain alkyl group is decreased, and therefore, surface energy of the release layer is hardly lowered, that is, there occurs a problem that control of release force becomes difficult.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a long-chain alkyl group containing acrylic resin type release agent composition which exhibits excellent solvent resistance, heat resistance and adhesion to substrate without exerting evil influence on electronic parts and the like and which is capable of controlling peel strength, and a release liner having a release layer made of the composition.

Release agent composition and release liner

Abstract: wherein R1 is a hydrogen atom or a methyl group, and R2 is a long-chain alkyl group of 12 to 28 carbon atoms. Also described herein is a release liner having a release layer made of the release agent composition. The acrylic resin type release agent composition exhibits excellent solvent resistance, heat resistance and adhesion to substrate without exerting evil influence on electronic parts and the like, and is capable of controlling peel strength.


A robot system includes a slave unit including a slave-side force detector configured to detect a direction and a magnitude of a reaction force acting on a workpiece held by a work end of a slave arm, a master unit including a master-side force detector configured to detect a direction and a magnitude of an operating force applied by an operator to an operation end of a master arm, and a system controller configured to generate a slave operational command and a master operational command based on the operating force and the reaction force. The system controller includes a regulator configured to correct a moving direction of the work end so that the movement of the work end in a pressing direction of an object is regulated when the reaction force exceeds an acceptable value set beforehand.

Conventionally, a master-slave manipulator and a control method of the same are known (for example, refer to Patent Document 1).
This master-slave manipulator is configured to switch the mode to a contact mode when a reaction force measured by a force sensor exceeds a target force value set beforehand. In this contact mode, in a force control direction set beforehand so as to be substantially in agreement with a normal direction of a work object, i.e., in a direction toward the work object and a direction away from the work object, it is configured so that, without operating a slave arm to follow operation of a master arm, the slave arm is operated by a force control in which a reaction force measured by the force sensor becomes in agreement with a target force value set beforehand. Therefore, the master-slave manipulator which performs the work while contacting the hard work object can stably be controlled.

Robot system and method of controlling the robot system


The present invention discloses a keyboard and a key layout method. When an operator holds the keyboard with both hands, thumbs of a left and right hands cannot touch a middle position of the keyboard, the keyboard has at least three rows of keys and more than five keys arranged in each row, and widths of all the keys arranged on a middle line of the keyboard are all greater than a width exceeding a touchable range of the thumbs of both hands in a keyboard width; widths of a left side key and a right side key arranged closest to the middle line of the keyboard are greater than a half of the width exceeding the touchable range of the thumbs of both hands in the keyboard width. All the keys in the keyboard are respectively located at positions touched by the left and right thumbs.

Generally speaking, a virtual keyboard is as wide as a touch screen. If the touch screen/virtual keyboard is too wide and a large number of keys are arranged on the same row, an operator cannot touch or control the keys with both thumbs (the left/right thumb cannot touch or control the keys at the middle of the virtual keyboard). In view of the problem that the touch screen/virtual keyboard is too wide and the operator cannot control the keys for inputting with both thumbs, the existing technical solution is to split the virtual keyboard and the keys thereon into two independent keyboards (i.e. half of keyboard on the left and half of the keyboard on the right) and display the two keyboards on the left and right sides of the touch screen. Although this can satisfy the requirement of the operator of controlling the keys with both thumbs, negative issues caused by splitting the keyboard apparently exist. For example, two keyboards are required for input, and the man-machine interface is poor. Also, the change of the original key layout and the relative positions of the keys would affect the operability of the keyboard. As for a physical keyboard, the prior arts is the same to the virtual keyboard, and if a width of the physical keyboard is large, the physical keyboard is separated into two separate physical keyboards or the keys in the physical keyboard are split into left and right key areas, which can also cause many negative issues such as poor operability.

Keyboard operated with two thumbs and key layout method thereof


Methods, devices, systems and apparatus for medical imaging, e.g., Magnetic Resonance (MR) imaging or Computed Tomography (CT) imaging, using neural networks are provided. In one aspect, an imaging method includes: determining a first neural network and a second neural network corresponding to a target imaging task, the first neural network including a first neural network parameter and a first neural network model, the second neural network including a second neural network parameter and a second neural network model, obtaining a reconstructed image by performing reconstruction for down-sampling data of a tissue under test using the first neural network, the target imaging task corresponding to the tissue under test, and obtaining an image output by a second neural network as a target image of the tissue under test by performing an image processing operation corresponding to the target imaging task for the reconstructed image using the second neural network.

Medical imaging is a common technical approach in the current medical field. The traditional medical imaging method is employed to finally obtain an image with a high signal-to-noise ratio, a high resolution and good contrast under the guidance of entire image quality.
NEUSOFT MEDICAL SYSTEMS CO., LTD. (NMS), founded in 1998 with its world headquarters in China, is a leading supplier of medical equipment, medical IT solutions, and healthcare services. NMS supplies medical equipment with a wide portfolio, including CT, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), digital X-ray machine, ultrasound, Positron Emission Tomography (PET), Linear Accelerator (LINAC), and biochemistry analyser. Currently, NMS' products are exported to over 60 countries and regions around the globe, serving more than 5,000 renowned customers. NMS's latest successful developments, such as 128 Multi-Slice CT Scanner System, Superconducting MRI, LINAC, and PET products, have led China to become a global high-end medical equipment producer. As an integrated supplier with extensive experience in large medical equipment, NMS has been committed to the study of avoiding secondary potential harm caused by excessive X-ray irradiation to the subject during the CT scanning process.


A server computing device and an image search system based on contents recognition using the same are provided. The image search system includes a server computing device, and the server computing device is configured to perform an operation of receiving image search basic information including at least one among an image, a keypoint extracted from the image, and an image search condition from a user computing device; an operation of extracting a keypoint which matches with a search request keypoint obtained from the image search basic information among keypoints which are previously stored; and an operation of transmitting at least one of an image and image related information corresponding to the extracted keypoint to the user computing device.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to image processing technology, and more particularly, to a server computing device and an image search system based on contents recognition using the same.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Information search through the Internet is also being increased while Internet technology is developed and fields utilizing the Internet are gradually expanded. Conventional information search through the Internet was largely performed based on a text, but recently, search technology based on an image is being developed while an amount of an image or a video, etc. uploaded on the Internet is increased. However, since the amount of data which is a search target is increased in an image-based search compared with a text-based search, a search speed is decreased and search accuracy deteriorates.
That is, in the image, there is a problem in which it is difficult to search the same or a similar image due to various changes (for example, illumination change, size change, affine change, time change, etc.) generated in the image. For example, even when capturing the same object according to the lighting change when capturing an image, differences in a color may be remarkably generated. Further, when capturing the image, different images are generated when a camera is rotated or the object is rotated. Moreover, different capturing images are obtained even when capturing the same object according to a resolution and a capturing distance of the camera, and whether a zoom function of the camera is used. Accordingly, it is difficult to search the same image as or an image similar to a predetermined image, and the search accuracy deteriorates.

Server computing device and image search system based on contents recognition using the same


A method is disclosed for use in the manufacture of a color cathode ray tube having a foil tension mask with a central pattern of apertures. A transparent flat front panel has a cathodoluminescent screen pattern on its inner surface. A plurality of mask support means, located on opposed sides of the screen pattern, have respective mask-receiving surfaces for receiving a shadow mask in tension. Q-height error data is developed according to the invention, and the aperture pattern of the mask in expanded and positioned in response to the error data to compensate for errors in Q-height to bring the mask apertures into registry with the screen pattern. Apparatus for measuring Q-height is also disclosed.

Field of the Invention
The invention applies to the manufacture of flat tension mask color cathode ray tubes. More specifically, the invention provides means for achieving registration of the aperture patterns of flat tension shadow masks and related cathodoluminescent screens.
In particular, the invention relates to a portion of the process steps employed in the manufacture of the faceplate assembly of a flat tension mask color cathode ray tube. The faceplate assembly includes a glass front panel, a support structure on the inner surface of the panel, and a tensed foil shadow mask affixed to the support structure.
In this specification, the terms "grille" and "screen" are used, and apply generally to the pattern on the inner surface of the front panel. The grille, also known as the black surround, or black matrix, is widely used to enhance contrast. It is applied to the panel first. It comprises a dark coating on the panel in which holes are formed to permit passage of light, and over which the respective colored-light-emitting phosphors are deposited to form the screen.
The holes in the grille must register with the columns of electrons passed by the holes or slots in the shadow mask. This is the primary registration requirement in a grille-equipped tube; the phosphor deposits may overlap the grille holes, hence their registration requirements are less precise.
In tubes without a grille, on the other hand, it is the phosphor deposits which must register with the columns of electrons. The word "screen", when used in the context of registration, therefore includes the grille where a grille is employed, as well as the phosphor deposits when there is no grille.
As used in this application, the terms "Q" and "Q-height" refer to the distance between the mask-receiving surface of a foil shadow mask support structure relative to the inner surface of a flat panel.

Method and apparatus for making flat tension mask color cathode ray tubes


Sequences that enhance permeation of agents into cells and/or across the blood brain barrier, compositions comprising the sequences, and methods of use thereof.

Delivery of therapeutic agents, including gene therapy reagents, is an impediment to development of treatments for a number of conditions. The blood-brain barrier (BBB) is a key obstacle for drug delivery to the mammalian central nervous system (CNS), particularly for delivery to the human brain, to treat conditions including neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease; Alzheimer's disease; Huntington's disease; Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; and Multiple sclerosis.

Methods and compositions for delivery of agents across the blood-brain barrier


An optical lens including a first lens group and a second lens group is provided. The first lens group is disposed between a magnified side and a reduced side and has a negative refractive power. The first lens group includes four lenses. Two lenses closest to the magnified side in the first lens group are aspheric lenses. The second lens group is disposed between the first lens group and the reduced side and has a positive refractive power. The second lens group includes at least seven lenses.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an optical lens.
2. Description of Related Art
Optical lenses are key components in various optical systems, and usually determine the optical quality of the optical systems. An optical lens may be a projection lens which projects an image from an image source, for example, a light valve or a display, onto a screen or a lens forming a virtual image of an image source in a virtual image display. Alternatively, an optical lens may be an image-forming lens which forms a real image of an external subject onto an image sensor inside a camera.
Generally, a longer projection distance is required if a projector needs to projects an image onto a larger screen. Contrarily, a special wide-angle lens is usually required if the image needs to be projected onto the larger screen from a shorter projection distance. However, a wide viewing angle and a large aperture may cause aberration. How to reduce image aberration is one of the major subjects in the design of wide-angle lenses.


A signal processing module can be manufactured from a plurality of composite substrate layers, each substrate layer includes elements of multiple individual processing modules. Surfaces of the layers are selectively metalicized to form signal processing elements when the substrate layers are fusion bonded in a stacked arrangement. Prior to bonding, the substrate layers are milled to form gaps located at regions between the processing modules. Prior to bonding, the leads are positioned such that they extend from signal coupling points on said metalicized surfaces into the gap regions. The substrate layers are then fusion bonded to each other such that the plurality of substrate layers form signal processing modules with leads that extend from an interior of the modules into the gap areas. The individual modules may then be separated by milling the substrate layers to de-panel the modules.

The development of planar transmission media in the early 1950's had a major impact on microwave circuit and component packaging technology. The engineering of the microwave printed circuit and the supporting analytical theories for stripline and microstrip occurred at a rapid pace. The early years of stripline circuit design were devoted almost entirely to the design of passive circuits such as directional couplers, power dividers, filters, and antenna feed networks. Early implementations were housed in bulky metal housings and connected by coaxial connectors.
To reduce size and weight, case-less and connector-less couplers were developed. These later implementations were sometimes referred to as "filmbrids" and included laminated stripline assemblies bonded together by fusion, or with thermoplastic or thermoset films. Further refinements continued in areas such as the dielectric materials used in these devices and the microwave-circuit fabrication process itself. A historical perspective on the development and applications of microwave integrated circuits, can be found in "Microwave Integrated Circuits—An Historical Perspective", H. Howe, Jr., IEEE Trans. MTT-S, Vol. MTT-32, pp. 991-996; September 1984; and "Microwave Printed Circuits—The Early Years", R. M. Barrett, IEEE Trans. MTT-S, Vol. MTT-32, pp. 983-990; September 1984.
Stripline and microstrip components have been integrated for various applications in housings and packages, as well as monolithically on a common substrate. Methods of integration and packaging affect the system interface and installation, as well as the module's ability to handle post-processing temperatures (i.e., post-manufacture of the stripline or microstrip component), and the module's operating thermal management ability (i.e., its heat transfer ability). Common techniques for integrating components call for bonding them together using, e.g., epoxies, adhesives and solder. Leads may be attached to the modules after bonding to provide for signal coupling to external signal sources. Generally speaking, prior techniques of lead attachment have provided for attachment of the leads after bonding.

Fusion bonded assembly with attached leads


A coupling system including a mounting plate for anchoring to a substrate and a pair of clasp elements for anchoring to an object to be coupled to the mounting plate. The mounting plate carries a longitudinal slot disposed at its distal end and a transverse slot disposed at its proximal end. Each clasp element is structured to define a groove shaped, dimensioned, and disposable to effect a press-fit registration with a respective slot. One clasp element is structured to form a press-fit installation into the transverse slot when the other resilient element is installed in press-fit registration in the longitudinal slot. Sometimes, the mounting system may include a deflection-limiting structure operable to resist wobble of a coupled object with respect to the substrate.

1. Field
This invention pertains to archery quivers. It is more particularly directed an improved connection system for quickly attaching or detaching a quiver to the handle riser of a bow.
2. State of the Art
There is a need in the field for quivers that can be quickly and silently attached and detached from the handle riser of a bow. Several versions of interface structures have been proposed for accomplishing such a connection.
One example of a quick-connect quiver attachment system is the "Twist-Lock" quiver marketed by Browning, of Ogden, Utah. That quiver is easily fixed to mounting structure carried by the handle riser of a bow at two connection points. The first connection point comprises a male-female pivot connection formed by a clover leaf peg inserted through a congruently configured opening in the mounting structure. The second connection point comprises a slot in the mounting structure that captures a post carried by the quiver when the quiver is pivoted to effect a connection. This arrangement is illustrated at page 35 of the 1994 Browning Archery catalog, incorporated by reference as a portion of this disclosure. This arrangement permits the rapid attachment or detachment of the quiver by means of an easy 45 degree twist of the wrist. Attaching or detaching the quiver from the handle riser creates noise, however. Moreover, vibrations at the anchor points during use can cause distractions and be disruptive of the silence required for effective bow hunting.
A more recent example of a quick-connect quiver mounting system is the "quick-detach" system of the "Octane 1" quiver currently marketed by Octane Accessories, 90554 Highway 99 North, Eugene, Oreg. 97402. That system comprises a mounting plate with two slots, one parallel the long axis of the plate, and the other transverse that axis. The quiver carries two mounting posts. The plate is connected to the handle riser of a bow. The quiver is mounted by inserting one post in the longitudinal slot, and then swinging the quiver to register the second post with the transverse slot. The posts are made of non-metallic (Teflon) material so that attachment and detachment are relatively quiet. Nevertheless, significant noisy vibration still occurs at the relatively hard connection points during transit and use.