A radiation image capturing device includes a radiation image capturing unit, a diaphragm unit, and a control unit. The radiation image capturing unit captures a radiation image based on radiation transmitted through a subject. The diaphragm unit has an opening region that is configured to transmit a part of the radiation emitted from a radiation source and an area thereof is changeable, and the diaphragm unit is configured such that a transmission dose of the radiation decreases as a distance from a circumferential part of the opening region increases. The control unit controls the diaphragm unit such that direct rays of the radiation are irradiated onto a predetermined region of the subject.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a radiation image capturing device and a radiation image capturing system and more particularly, to a radiation image capturing device and a radiation image capturing system, each including a radiation image capturing unit.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, interventional radiology (IVR) has rapidly spread in medical treatment is performed by inserting a catheter having a tip end mounted with various instruments into a body of a patient, making the tip end of the catheter arrive at a lesion part of the patient's body while monitoring a state of the body of the patient in real time on the basis of a radiation image displayed on a monitor, and operating the catheter at the outside of the body.
A technician performs a medical treatment while observing a radiation image displayed on a monitor at the time of executing IVR. Accordingly, as treatment time increases, a patient is exposed to a larger dose of radiation.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 2008-220480 discloses a radiographic imaging device that can capture a radiation image by automatically setting an irradiation range and therefore a radiation irradiation condition depending on the position of a treatment instrument inserted into a subject to thereby reduce an exposure dose with respect to the subject. The radiographic imaging device includes a radiation detector in which plural radiation detecting elements are arranged two-dimensionally, and irradiates radiation emitted from a radiation source onto the radiation detector through the subject to capture a radiation image. The radiographic imaging device includes an instrument detecting unit that processes the radiation image captured by the radiation detector and detects the treatment instrument inserted into the subject, a position calculating unit that calculates the position of the detected treatment instrument in the subject, and a setting unit that sets the irradiation range of the radiation including the treatment instrument according to the calculated position of the treatment instrument in the subject and sets the radiation irradiation condition with respect to the irradiation range, and captures the radiation image within the set irradiation range according to the set radiation irradiation condition.
JP-A No. 5-161639 discloses a radiographic imaging device for selecting an optimal adjusting unit according to an imaging part in control for adjustment of an irradiation dose based on detection of a transmission dose. The radiographic imaging device detects a dose of radiation transmitted through an object by scanning and operating a radiation fan beam, and captures a radiation projection image. The radiographic imaging device includes a transmitted radiation dose detecting unit that has plural detecting elements arranged in a longitudinal direction of the radiation fan beam and outputs a detection signal according to the dose of radiation transmitted through the object for each detecting element, a first radiation dose adjusting unit that arranges plural radiation shielding members, the number of which is equal to the number of detecting elements, in the longitudinal direction of the radiation fan beam and adjusts a radiation transmission opening area at plural points in the longitudinal direction of the radiation fan beam by displacement of the plural radiation shielding members, a second radiation dose adjusting unit that arranges plural wedge-type radiation attenuating members, the number of which is equal to the number of the detecting elements, in the longitudinal direction of the radiation fan beam and adjusts a radiation attenuation rate at plural points in the longitudinal direction of the radiation fan beam by displacement of the plural wedge-type radiation attenuating members, and a radiation dose control unit that controls an operation of at least one of the first radiation dose adjusting unit and the second radiation dose adjusting unit on the basis of the detection signal from the transmitted radiation dose detecting unit and changes and adjusts the dose of radiation of the radiation fan beam irradiated onto the object.
JP-A No. 11-142597 discloses a movable compensation filter device that has a compensation filter capable of being used in plural imaging parts. The movable compensation filter device includes two compensation filter pieces and a filter moving unit to support the compensation filter pieces and move the compensation filter pieces in parallel. In the movable compensation filter device, each of the compensation filer pieces has a flat shape and is made of an X-ray absorbing material in which the thickness thereof varies depending on place. A combination of a left part and a right part or a combination of the right part and the left part of each of the two compensation filter pieces constitute one compensation filter for a single imaging part.
JP-A No. 2005-27823 discloses an X-ray imaging device for reducing an exposure dose with respect to a subject and imaging a target part and a peripheral region thereof with a desired image that is required for medical treatment and diagnosis to permit observation of the target part and the peripheral region. The X-ray imaging device includes an X-ray generating unit that irradiates X-rays onto the subject, a diaphragm unit that determines an X-ray irradiation field, and an X-ray detecting unit that detects the X-rays irradiated from the X-ray generating unit. An X-ray absorbing filter that absorbs the X-rays is disposed at least one of the X-ray generating unit side or the X-ray detecting unit side of the diaphragm unit, regions where the X-ray dosage and X-ray energy vary are formed in the irradiation field by a function of the X-ray absorbing filter, and image information is obtained by the X-ray detecting unit.
JP-A No. 5-329138 discloses an X-ray scanning device for substantially equalizing a flux of an X-ray fan beam over the entire length of the fan beam. The X-ray scanning device includes an X-ray source that generates the X-ray fan beam and scans an object with the fan beam, a detector including a detector row that detects the X-ray flux transmitted through the object at plural points crossing the fan beam and that is disposed to correspond to the fan beam at an opposite side of the object to output an electric signal indicating the flux detected at the plural points, an X-ray flux modulator that uses a wedge-type shutter which modulates the flux density of the fan beam at the plural points crossing the fan beam, and a feedback circuit that controls the modulator on the basis of the output signal of the detector row to modulate the flux of the fan beam at the plural points crossing the fan beam, and causes the flux of the fan beam detected by the detector row to be substantially equalized over the entire length of the fan beam.
JP-A No. 2005-198762 discloses an X-ray diagnostic device which includes an X-ray generating unit that irradiates X-rays onto a subject, an X-ray detecting unit that detects X-rays irradiated by the X-ray generating unit and transmitted through the subject, an image data generating unit that generates X-ray image data concerning the subject on the basis of the X-rays detected by the X-ray detecting unit, a display unit that displays the generated X-ray image data, a dose detecting unit that detects a radiation dose of the X-rays irradiated from the X-ray generating unit, an irradiation dose calculating unit that calculates an irradiation dose for the subject on the basis of the radiation dose detected by the dose detecting unit, an irradiation dose comparing unit that compares the irradiation dose calculated by the irradiation dose calculating unit and a predetermined allowable irradiation dose, and a dose control unit that controls the radiation dose of the X-rays by the X-ray generating unit on the basis of the comparison result obtained by the irradiation dose comparing unit.
JP-A No. 2001-17416 discloses an imaging device which includes an imaging unit that captures an image of a subject by radiation and acquires image information on the subject, a setting unit that sets information on a kind of a generation source of the image information obtained by the imaging unit, an attribute of the subject, and an imaging part of the subject, a reducing amount determining unit that determines the reducing amount of radiation on the basis of the information set by the setting unit, and a reducing control unit that controls reducing of the radiation on the basis of the reducing amount determined by the reducing amount determining unit.
JP-A No. 2008-119195 discloses an X-ray imaging device which includes an X-ray generator that intermittently irradiates X-rays onto a subject and an X-ray detector that acquires image data according to an incidence dose of the X-rays transmitted through the subject. The X-ray imaging device includes a dose control unit that controls the irradiation dose of the X-rays to the subject and controls the X-ray irradiation so as to repeat a combined irradiation pattern of irradiation with a regular dose and irradiation with a dose smaller than the regular dose.
JP-A No. 2008-272381 discloses an X-ray imaging device which includes an estimation unit that estimates a cumulative exposure dose of X-rays irradiated onto an object, a remaining exposure tolerance dose calculating unit that calculates a remaining exposure tolerance dose using a difference between a tolerated maximum exposure dose and the cumulative exposure dose, an X-ray irradiation tolerance time calculating unit that calculates an X-ray irradiation tolerance time using a difference between a predetermined X-ray irradiation scheduled time and an actual irradiation time of X-rays irradiated onto the object, an X-ray irradiation reference dose calculating unit that calculates an X-ray irradiation reference dose per unit time that is a reference of X-ray irradiation, on the basis of the remaining exposure tolerance dose and the X-ray irradiation tolerance time, and a control unit that controls X-ray irradiation on the object by setting an X-ray irradiation dose per unit time within the X-ray irradiation tolerance time, on the basis of the X-ray irradiation reference dose.
JP-A No. 2009-160308 discloses a radiation treatment system which includes an irradiating unit that irradiates a treatment radiation beam according to an irradiation plan that determines an irradiation condition of radiation on the basis of a reference dose absorbed by a treatment part and a normal part of a subject, a detecting unit that detects scattered rays generated on the basis of the treatment radiation beam, an acquiring unit that acquires data of an absorbed dose from data of the detected scattered rays, a calculating unit that calculates a dose distribution including irradiation and non-irradiation on the basis of the absorbed dose data and the irradiation plan, an evaluating unit that evaluates whether the irradiation plan is appropriate or not using a predetermined evaluation reference on the basis of the absorbed dose data, and a providing unit that provides the dose distribution and the evaluation result.
JP-A Nos. 2007-97909 and 2009-213905 disclose a radiation exposure dose managing system in which a radiation inspecting device, an image managing server, an exposure dose managing device, and an in-hospital information database server are connected to one another via a network. The image managing server holds images of parts of a body of a subject captured by the radiation inspecting device and an image information group including a variety of information related to capturing of the images. The exposure dose managing device manages data of an exposure dose with respect to the subject when the image is captured by the radiation inspecting device. The in-hospital information database server manages personal information of the subject. In the radiation exposure dose managing system, the exposure dose managing device has a function of extracting information, which is necessary to calculate the exposure dose, from the image information group held in the image managing server, and calculating the exposure dose on the basis of the extracted information. In addition, the data of the exposure dose that is calculated by the exposure dose managing device is transmitted to the in-hospital information database through the network and is recorded and stored in a personal information database for the subjects in the in-hospital information database.

Radiation image capturing device and radiation image capturing system


An equipment management method comprises a step A of predicting, at an equipment management apparatus, occurrence of a first abnormality which is an abnormality occurred in a fuel cell system and not predicted by the fuel cell system; and a step B of transmitting, at the equipment management apparatus, a message associated with a prediction for the occurrence of the first abnormality when the occurrence of the first abnormality is predicted.

An equipment management system that manages various pieces of information on a plurality of pieces of equipment is known. The various pieces of information include basic information on equipment and maintenance information. The basic information includes, for example, an installation date, a predetermined service life, a rated power consumption, and the like. The maintenance information includes a history of past maintenance (for example, Patent Literature 1).

Equipment management method and equipment management apparatus


The present invention relates to novel pyridazin-3-yl phenol compounds of Formula (I):

The NOD-like receptor protein 3 (NLRP3) is a protein-coding gene: the protein belongs to the family of nucleotide-binding and oligomerization domain-like receptors (NLRs) and is also known as "pyrin domain-containing protein 3" (Inoue et al., Immunology, 2013, 139, 11-18). This gene encodes a protein containing a pyrin domain, a nucleotide-binding site domain (NBD), and a leucine-rich repeat (LRR) motif. In response to sterile inflammatory danger signals, NLRP3 interacts with an adapter protein, apoptosis-associated speck-like protein (ASC) and procaspase-1 to form the NLRP3 inflammasome. NLRP3 inflammasome activation then leads to the release of the inflammatory cytokines IL-1β (interleukin-1β) and IL-18 (interleukin-18), and when dysregulated, can drive pathology in a number of disease settings.
NLRP3 inflammasome activation normally requires two steps. The first step involves a priming signal in which pathogen activated molecular patterns (PAMPs) or danger-activated molecular patterns (DAMPs) are recognized by Toll-like receptors, leading to activation of nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB)-mediated signaling, which in turn up-regulates transcription of inflammasome-related components, including inactive NLRP3 and proIL-1β (pro-interleukin-1β) (Bauernfeind et al J. Immunol. 2009, 183, 787-791; Franchi et al Nat. Immunol. 2012, 13, 325-332, Franchi et al J. Immunol. 2014, 193, 4214-4222). The second step is the oligomerization of NLRP3 and subsequent assembly of NLRP3, ASC, and procaspase-1 into an inflammasome complex. This triggers the transformation of procaspase-1 to caspase-1, and the production and secretion of mature IL-1β and IL-18 (Kim et al J. Inflamm. 2015, 12, 41; Ozaki et al J. Inflamm. Res. 2015, 8, 15-27; Rabeony et al. Eur. J. Immunol. 2015, 45, 2847-2857).
NLRP3 inflammasome activation has been linked to various inflammasome-related diseases/disorders, immune diseases, inflammatory diseases, auto-immune diseases and auto-inflammatory diseases, for example, autoinflammatory fever syndrome such as cryopyrin-associated periodic syndrome (CAPS) (Mortimer et al Nature Immunol. 2016, 17(10), 1176-1188); sickle cell disease; systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE); liver related diseases/disorders such as chronic liver disease, viral hepatitis, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), alcoholic steatohepatitis, and alcoholic liver disease (Petrasek et al J. Clin. Invest. 2012, 122, 3476-89; Petrasek et al. Nat. Rev. Gastroenterol. Hepatol. 2015, 12, 387-400; Mridha et al J. Hepatol. 2017, 66, 1037-46); inflammatory arthritis related disorders, such as gout, pseudogout (chondrocalcinosis), osteoarthritis (Ridker et al N. Engl. J. Med. 2017, 377, 1119-31), and rheumatoid arthritis (Mathews et al Ann. Rheum. Dis. 2014, 73, 1202-10), acute or chronic arthropathy; kidney related diseases such as hyperoxaluria (Knauf et al. Kidney Int. 2013, 84, 895-901), lupus nephritis, hypertensive nephropathy (Krishnan et al Br. J. Pharmacol. 2016, 173, 752-65), hemodialysis related inflammation and diabetic nephropathy which is a kidney-related complication of diabetes (Type 1, Type 2 and mellitus diabetes), also called diabetic kidney disease (Shahzad et al Kidney Int. 2015, 87, 74-84). Emerging studies have revealed the involvement of the increased production of IL-1β and IL-18 by the NLRP3 inflammasome can contribute to the onset and progression of various diseases such as neuroinflammation-related disorders, e.g. brain infection, acute injury, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease, and neurodegenerative diseases (Shao et al. Front. Pharmacol. 2015, 6, 262); cardiovascular/metabolic disorders/diseases, e.g. cardiovascular risk reduction (CvRR), atherosclerosis, type I and type II diabetes and related complications (e.g. nephropathy, retinopathy), peripheral artery disease (PAD), acute heart failure and hypertension (Ridker et al N. Engl. J. Med. 2017, 377, 1119-31; Vandanmasgar et al Nat. Med. 2011, 17, 179-88; Hu et al Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 2015, 112, 11318-23; Antonopoulos et al Curr. Opin. Pharmacol. 2017, 39, 1-8; Toldo S et al Nat. Rev. Cardiol. 2018, 15, 203-214); wound healing and scar formation; inflammatory skin diseases, e.g. acne, hidradenitis suppurativa (Sweeney et alBr. J. Dermatol. 2015, 173, 1361), asthma, sarcoidosis, age-related macular degeneration; cancer related diseases/disorders, e.g. myeloproliferative neoplasms, leukemias, myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), myelofibrosis, lung cancer, colon cancer (Ridker et al Lancet 2017, 390, 1833-42; Derangere et al Cell. Death Differ. 2014, 21, 1914-24, Gelfo et al Oncotarget 2016, 7, 72167-83, Baiorka et al Blood 2016, 128, 2960-75; Carey et al Cell. Rep. 2017, 18, 3204-18). Those diseases/disorders that are immune or inflammatory in nature usually are difficult to diagnose or treat efficiently. Most treatments include treating of the symptoms, slowing down the progression of the disease/disorder, change in lifestyle and surgery as a last resort (e.g., open heart surgery for advance forms of atherosclerosis). Recent studies have linked mitochondrial dysfunction and NLRP3 activation in neuroinflammation related diseases such as Parkinson's (Sarkar et al npj Parkinson's disease 2017, 3:30; Zhou et al Nature, 2011, 469, 221). One of the major problems associated with the mitochondrial modulators is their poor metabolic stability; thus there is a need for selective and stable inhibitors in neuroinflammation of this nature (Lee et al Eur J. Org. Chem. 2017, 141, 240).
Therefore, there is a need for inhibitors of the NLRP3 inflammasome pathway to provide new and/or alternative treatments for these inflammasome-related diseases/disorders and others such as autoinflammatory fever syndrome cryopyrin-associated periodic syndrome (e.g. CAPS), sickle cell disease, chronic liver disease, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), gout, hyperoxaluria, pseudogout (chondrocalcinosis), Type I/Type II diabetes and related complications (e.g. nephropathy, retinopathy), neuroinflammation-related disorders (e.g. multiple sclerosis, brain infection, acute injury, neurodegenerative diseases, Alzheimer's disease), atherosclerosis and cardiovascular risk (e.g. cardiovascular risk reduction (CvRR), hypertension), hidradenitis suppurativa, wound healing and scar formation, and cancer (e.g. colon cancer, lung cancer, myeloproliferative neoplasms, leukemias, myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), myelofibrosis).

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Abstract: wherein R1, R2, R3, R4, R5 and Z are defined herein, which inhibit NOD-like receptor protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome activity. The invention further relates to the processes for their preparation, pharmaceutical compositions and medicaments containing them, and their use in the treatment of diseases and disorders mediated by NLRP3.


A microprocessor connected to external memory storing a reset process program and an exception, interrupt, or trap (EIT) processing program, has an internal memory for storing an application program; copies one or more EIT process programs to empty space in the internal memory when the reset process program is executed; determines whether an initiated EIT process is a reset process or EIT process for program debugging; and changes the destination address of program branches to the internal memory when an initiated EIT process is not a reset process or program debugging EIT process, and changes the destination address of program branches to external memory when an initiated EIT process is a reset process or program debugging EIT process.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a microprocessor having an error, interrupt, and trap processing function for handling reset, exception, interrupt, and trap processes occurring during program execution, and relates further to an error, interrupt, and trap processing method.
2. Description of Related Art
When a microprocessor is initialized or reset, an initialization program stored in an internal or external memory is run to initialize internal chip states. After running the initialization program, the microprocessor runs a user application program stored in an external memory.
Exception, interrupt, and trap processes (referred to below as EIT processes) are typical of processes that interrupt and change the execution sequence of a user application. An exception process is performed, for example, when an instruction code other than one of the reserved instruction codes is decoded, or when the program attempts to access an memory area that is prohibited to access. Interrupt processes include the above-noted reset process, interrupts asserted from an external device, and interrupts used for debugging. Trap processes test particular conditions so that a corresponding routine can be executed, such as an EIT process executed by an instruction in the program, and include normal error traps and debugging traps.
One method for performing an EIT process is to branch the program sequence directly to a fixed EIT vector area stored in an external memory. The EIT vector area is normally located at a fixed address in the external memory, and the application program developer cannot change the storage address of the EIT vector area.
The operating speed of external memory is also typically lower than the internal operating speed of the microprocessor, and accessing an EIT vector area in the external memory for every EIT process is a factor lowering the processing capacity (throughput) of the microprocessor.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Laid-Open Publications SHO62-282335, HEI1-219930, HEI6-124212, HEI6-324884, and HEI7-262023 teach various methods for increasing the degree of freedom of program design and increasing the speed of EIT processes. These methods typically enable the EIT vector area storage address to be changed by copying the EIT process program to the microprocessors internal RAM and using registers to store the addresses to which an EIT process branches the program sequence. EIT process speed can thus be improved by designing all EIT processes other than reset processes to branch the control sequence to address internal RAM.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Laid-Open Publications SHO62-282335 and HEI5-27989 also teach various microprocessors for achieving high speed EIT processing by reserving two EIT vector areas in a memory and switching between these two EIT vector areas when, for example, a same EIT process occurs repeatedly and consecutively.
While not directly related to accelerating microprocessor processing capacity, debugging is an EIT process that is essential to software program development. Japanese Unexamined Patent Laid-Open Publication HEI6-103115 teaches a debugging method for effectively accomplishing this debugging process by starting a pseudointerrupt process without starting a debugging program using a dedicated debugging data table.
As noted above, EIT processes include processes related to the debugging operations required during program development. Therefore, if all branch addresses used by the EIT process can be freely moved as with the above-noted conventional microprocessor, EIT vector addresses for debugging-related EIT processes that should not be changed by the user could be changed. In this case, the program development environment could be crashed.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a microprocessor for achieving high speed EIT processes while also appropriately protecting the user programming environment.
To achieve the above object, a microprocessor according to a first aspect of the present invention has an exception, interrupt, and trap (EIT) processing function for branching a program processing sequence to an EIT vector area and executing an EIT process program when an EIT process is initiated. This microprocessor is connected to an external memory having an EIT vector area containing data for various EIT process programs, including an EIT process program related to program development. Further specifically, this microprocessor comprises an internal memory for storing data identical to the data in the EIT vector area of the external memory; a first determining circuit for determining whether an EIT process initiated during process sequence execution is an EIT process required for program development; and a branch destination changing circuit for setting a process sequence branch destination to the EIT vector area stored in the external memory when the first determining circuit determines the initiated EIT process to be the EIT process required for program development, and setting the process sequence branch destination to the EIT vector area stored in the internal memory when the first determining circuit determines the initiated EIT process to not be the EIT process required for program development.
A microprocessor thus comprised can prevent a user from inadvertently crashing the program development environment by fixing sequence branch destination addresses to the external memory when an EIT process required for program development is executed. Fast EIT processing can also be achieved when the EIT process required for program development is executed by setting sequence branch destination addresses to the internal memory.
Preferably, the EIT process program required for program development and stored to the EIT vector area in the external memory may include debugging related EIT process program data.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a microprocessor.
Also preferably, where the EIT vector of the external memory includes a reset process program, the determining determines the initiated EIT process is a reset process the branch destination changer setting the process sequence branch destination to the EIT vector area stored in the external memory.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a microprocessor having an exception, interrupt, and trap (EIT) processing function for branching a program processing sequence to an EIT vector area for executing an EIT process program when an EIT process is initiated. The microprocessor is connected to an external memory having an EIT vector area containing programs for a plurality of EIT processes and comprises an internal memory for storing first data in a first area of the internal memory and second data in a second area of the internal memory, said first data being identical to data in a first portion of the EIT vector area of the external memory while said second data is identical to data in a second portion of the EIT vector area of the external memory.
This microprocessor also comprises a determining circuit for determining whether an EIT process initiated during process sequence execution is a first EIT process, a second EIT process or a third EIT process among the plurality of EIT processes, and a branch designation changer. The branch designation changer sets a process sequence branch designation to the EIT vector area stored in the external memory when the determining circuit determines the initiated EIT process to be the first EIT process; the process sequence branch designation to the first area of the internal memory when the determining circuit determines the initiated EIT process to be the second EIT process; and the process sequence branch designation to the second area of the internal memory when the determining circuit determines the initiated EIT process to be the third EIT process.
The microprocessor thus comprised fixes branch sequence addresses to the external memory during reset process execution, changes the branch address to a first EIT vector area copied to the internal memory when an EIT process required for program development is executed, and changes the branch address to a second EIT vector area copied to the internal memory when an EIT process other than a reset process or an EIT process required for program development is executed.
It is to be noted that EIT process programs required for program development and stored to the EIT vector area in the external memory may include data for debugging related EIT processes, and such debugging related EIT processes are handled as EIT processes for program development. By fixing sequence branch addresses to the external memory when reset processes and debugging related EIT processes are executed, inadvertent crashing of the program development environment by a user can be effectively prevented. High speed EIT process execution can also be achieved when EIT processes other than reset processes and debugging related EIT processes are executed by changing sequence branch addresses to the internal memory.
The present invention furthermore provides an exception, interrupt, and trap (EIT) processing method used by a microprocessor for branching a program processing sequence to an EIT vector area for executing an EIT process program when an EIT process is initiated. This microprocessor is connected to an external memory having an EIT vector area containing data for various EIT process programs, including an EIT process program related to program development. This EIT processing method more specifically comprises storing data identical to the data in the EIT vector area of the external memory to the internal memory of the microprocessor; determining whether an EIT process initiated during process sequence execution is an EIT process required for program development; and setting the process sequence branch designation to the EIT vector area stored in the external memory when determined the initiated EIT process to be the EIT process required for program development. This setting step sets the process sequence branch destination to the EIT vector area stored in external memory when determined the initiated EIT process to not be the EIT process required for program development.
An EIT processing method thus comprised can prevent a user from inadvertently crashing the program development environment by fixing sequence branch destination addresses to the external memory when the EIT process required for program development is executed. Fast EIT processing can also be achieved when an EIT process other than the EIT process required for program development is executed by setting sequence branch destination addresses to internal memory.
The present invention also provides an exception, interruption, and trap (EIT) processing method used by a microprocessor with an internal memory for branching a program processing sequence to an EIT vector area for executing an EIT process program when an EIT process is initiated. This microprocessor is connected to an external memory having an EIT vector area containing programs for a plurality of EIT processes. This method comprises storing data identical to data in a first portion of the EIT vector area of the external memory in a first area of the internal memory and second data identical to data in a second portion of the EIT vector area of the external memory; determining whether an EIT process initiated during process sequence execution is a first EIT process, second EIT process or third EIT process among the plurality of EIT processes; and setting a process sequence branch designation to the EIT vector area of the external memory when the initiated EIT process is the first EIT process, to the first area of the internal memory when the initiated EIT process is the second EIT process, and, to the second area of the internal memory when the initiated EIT process is the third EIT process.

Microprocessor with EIT, processing capability, and EIT processing method


A system for call conferencing a plurality of participants is provided that includes (a) an input operable to receive, from a conference call participant A-E, at least one of (i) a selective listening request and (ii) a request to remove selective listening, wherein the communication devices 416a-e of the conference call participants A-E are connected to a plurality of gateways 408, 424; and (b) a conference configuration agent 346 operable, in response thereto and during the conference call, to change from a first conference topology to a second conference topology, wherein the first and second conference topologies have a different number of inter-gateway connections.

Primarily in business applications, multi-party communications or conference calls among spatially dislocated parties are widely and frequently used to communicate effectively. For conferencing within a single communication system, a single connection topology, typically, the fully inter-connected mesh or star, is generally selected. This single connection topology assumes that all bandwidth is created equal, whether the bandwidth crosses a Local Area Network or Wide Area Network. For conferencing between/among peer-to-peer systems, where each system produces its own local conference, dumbbell topologies are typically selected.
The fully inter-connected mesh, an example of which is shown in FIG. 1, requires significant bandwidth and conferencing resources since each conference participant needs to construct their own composite sum of the other parties, and each conference participant needs to transmit their signal to all other participants. Referring to FIG. 1, first, second, and third port networks 100a-c are controlled by a common enterprise switch 104. The port networks 100a-c are located at different geographic locations 108a-c. At each location, a party (not shown) uses a corresponding communication device 112a-c to conduct a conference call with the other parties. The communication device of each party transmits a unidirectional audio stream 116a (for device 112a), 116b (for device 112b), and 116c (for device 112c) to the other communication devices. This configuration is acceptable when the connection network is proprietary. In a full mesh N party conference, the required numbers of transmitted streams is (N(N−1)) and of conference points is N. A 3-party conference call, such as shown in FIG. 1, would produce six unidirectional audio streams to cross the intervening Wide Area Network or WAN and require three conferencing points. As will be appreciated, full mesh is commonly used for a center-stage switch or asynchronous transfer mode connected port networks and not for IP WAN networks.
To reduce the required bandwidth resources, a star topology has been used, where each party sends its signal to a central conferencing or master circuit (where conferencing occurs), which is typically in a gateway. Referring to FIG. 2, the hardware configuration of FIG. 1 is depicted. Unidirectional audio streams 200a-c (among the devices 112a-c) are transmitted between the parties. The third port network 100c is the master and provides the conferencing circuit, while the first and third port networks 100a,b are the slaves and receive the audio streams provided by the master. The first port network 100a transmits audio stream 200a (which is the audio stream received from the first communication device 112a) to the third port network 100c and receives, from the third port network 100c, audio streams 200b,c (which, respectively are the audio streams received by the second port network 100b from the communication device 112b and by the third port network 100c from the communications device 112c). The second port network 100b transmits audio stream 200b to the third port network 100c and receives, from the third port network 100c, audio streams 200a,c. In a star topology N party conference, the required numbers of transmitted streams is 2N, and of conference circuits is one. For example, in FIG. 2 the three-party conference call produces six unidirectional audio streams to be transmitted over the intervening WAN and require one conferencing point.
A compromise between the fully inter-connected mesh and the star is a dumbbell topology, where each participant sends its signal to a local conferencing point, the signals are partially summed or combined, and the partial conference sum is then sent to other local conferencing points. An example of a dumbbell is shown in FIG. 3. A first gateway 300a controlled by a first server (not shown) in a first enterprise 304a is in communication via a WAN (not shown) with a second gateway 300b controlled by a second server (not shown) in a second enterprise 304b. First and second parties using first and second communication devices 312a and b are in a conference call with a third party using a third communication device 312c. The audio streams of the first and second parties are combined or summed to form a combined audio stream 316a and transmitted to the second gateway 300b. The second gateway meanwhile transmits to the first gateway the audio stream 316b of the third party. In a dumbbell topology N party conference call with M locations, the required numbers of transmitted streams is 2N+2(M−1) and of conference circuits is M. For example, in FIG. 3, the three-party conference call produces two unidirectional audio streams to be transmitted over the intervening WAN.
Apart from bandwidth requirements, the star and fully inter-connected mesh generally allow each party full flexibility in determining the set of other parties that they may be connected to. For example, in the examples of FIGS. 1 and 2 the second party can choose to speak and/or listen only to the first party. This selective listening is known as a sidebar. The dumbbell topology commonly does not allow a receiver to connect to a subset of parties from a remote location since they only receive a combined conferenced sum of the entire remote location.
There is a need for a conferencing system that can balance bandwidth requirements against the need to provide the conference participants with various conferencing features, such as selective listening.

Conference connections using dynamic topology switching for IP and circuit-switched fabrics


An electronic ballast for driving a gas discharge lamp avoids mercury pumping in the lamp by adaptively changing an operating frequency of an inverter of the ballast when operating near high-end. The inverter of the ballast generates a high-frequency AC voltage, which is characterized by the operating frequency and an operating duty cycle. The ballast also comprises a resonant tank for coupling the high-frequency AC voltage to the lamp to generate a present lamp current through the lamp, and a current sense circuit for determining the magnitude of the present lamp current. A hybrid analog/digital control circuit controls both the operating frequency and the operating duty cycle of the inverter with closed-loop techniques. The control circuit adjusts the duty cycle of the inverter in response to a target lamp current and the present lamp current. To avoid mercury pumping, the control circuit attempts to maximize the duty cycle of the inverter when operating at high-end. Specifically, the control circuit adjusts the operating frequency of the inverter in response to the target lamp current signal, the duty cycle of the inverter, and a target duty cycle in order to drive the operating duty cycle toward the target duty cycle.

Electronic ballasts for fluorescent lamps typically can be analyzed as comprising a "front-end" and a "back-end". The front-end typically includes a rectifier for changing alternating-current (AC) mains line voltage to a direct-current (DC) bus voltage, and a filter circuit, e.g., a capacitor, for filtering the DC bus voltage. The front-end of electronic ballasts also often includes a boost converter, which is an active circuit for boosting the magnitude of the DC bus voltage above the peak of the line voltage and for improving the total harmonic distortion (THD) and the power factor of the input current to the ballast. The ballast back-end typically includes a switching inverter for converting the DC bus voltage to a high-frequency AC voltage, and a resonant tank circuit having a relatively high output impedance for coupling the high-frequency AC voltage to the lamp electrodes.
Referring first to FIG. 1, there is shown a simplified block diagram of a prior art electronic ballast 100. The ballast 100 includes a front-end 102 for producing a substantially DC bus voltage across a bus capacitor, CBUS, from an AC input voltage. The ballast 100 further comprises an inverter 104 for converting the DC bus voltage into a high-frequency voltage for driving a lamp current in a fluorescent lamp 108. The high-frequency voltage provided by the inverter 104 is coupled to the lamp 108 through a resonant tank 106 having a resonant inductor, LRES, and a resonant capacitor, CRES.
The inverter 104 includes first and second series-connected switching devices 112, 114 and a gate drive circuit 116. The switching devices 112, 114 in the inverter 104 are controlled using a d(1−d) complementary switching scheme. In the d(1−d) complementary switching scheme, the first switching device 112 has a duty cycle of d and the second switching device 114 has a duty cycle of 1−d. The switching devices 112, 114 are controlled by the gate drive circuit 116 such that only one switching device is conducting at a time. When the first switching device 112 is conducting, then the output of the inverter 104 is pulled upwardly toward the DC bus voltage. When the second switching device 114 is conducting, then the output of the inverter 104 is pulled downwardly toward circuit common.
The current through the lamp 108 is controlled by changing the frequency and/or the duty cycle of the high-frequency voltage at the output of the inverter 104. A current sense circuit 110 is coupled in series with the lamp 108 and provides a lamp current signal 250 representative of the magnitude of the current through the lamp. An analog control circuit 210 is responsible for controlling the gate drive circuit 116 and thus the switching devices 112, 114 of the inverter 104. The analog control circuit 210 includes a reference circuit 212, a summing circuit 214, a compensator circuit 216, a frequency-shift circuit 218, a triangle-wave oscillator 222, and a comparator 220. The reference circuit 212 provides a reference signal 242 representative of a target current ITARGET for the lamp 108. The summing circuit 214 receives the lamp current signal 250 and the reference signal 242 and creates an error signal 240 representative of the difference between the target current and the actual current in the lamp 108. The compensator circuit 216 receives the error signal 240 and provides a duty cycle request voltage 246 that is proportional to the desired duty cycle of the inverter 104.
The frequency shift circuit 218 also receives the reference signal 242 and provides a desired frequency signal 245 representative of the desired inverter frequency. The triangle-wave oscillator 222 receives the desired frequency signal 245 from the frequency shift circuit 218 and provides a triangle-wave signal 244 at the desired frequency. The comparator 220 receives both the triangle wave signal 244 and the duty cycle request voltage 246 and produces a pulse width modulated (PWM) signal 248 with the desired frequency and duty cycle. This PWM signal 248 is provided to the gate drive circuit 116, which drives the switches 112, 114 in the inverter 104.
In addition to the normal running mode, the ballast 100 has several other modes of operation including a "preheat" mode and a "strike" mode. The purpose of the preheat mode is to heat the lamp filaments prior to the application of a sufficient voltage to strike the lamp. During the strike mode, the lamp voltage is increased until either the lamp strikes or a predetermined voltage limit is reached.
Preheat is accomplished by controlling the frequency of the inverter 104 to a preheat frequency, which is greater than the frequency of the inverter 104 in normal operation. During preheat, the compensator circuit 216 is always in control of the duty cycle of the inverter 104. At the same time, the reference circuit 212 provides a reference signal 242 at a level that represents a non-zero lamp current. Since there is no current through the lamp during preheat, the current sense circuit 110 produces the lamp current signal 250 with a positive magnitude and thus the output of the summing circuit 214, i.e., the error signal 240, has a non-zero value. The compensator circuit 216 includes an integrator (not shown), so the non-zero error signal 240 causes the compensator circuit 216 to increase the duty cycle of the duty cycle request voltage 246 to 50%, at which time the compensator circuit saturates. At this point, the duty cycle of the duty cycle request voltage 246 is fixed at 50% and the preheat voltage is adjusted by changing the frequency. It is important to note that since the compensator circuit 216 contains an integrator, it is not possible to set the duty cycle to an arbitrary level. In practice, the choices would be saturated at 50% or saturated at 0%. An alternative would be to provide additional circuitry to clamp the output of the compensator circuit 216 at a given level during preheat, but this would add additional cost and complexity.
To strike the lamp 108, i.e., in the strike mode, the operating frequency of the inverter 104 is swept down from the preheat frequency to a low-end frequency. Preferably, the low-end frequency is near the resonant frequency ωR of the resonant tank 106, i.e., ωR=1/√{square root over ((LRES*CRES))}. Accordingly, the voltage at the output of the resonant tank 106 at the low-end frequency is substantially large and is appropriate to strike the lamp 108. When the lamp 108 strikes, the lamp current begins to flow through the lamp. At this time, the compensator circuit 216 of the analog control circuit 210 is still saturated and the duty cycle of the duty cycle request voltage 246 is still 50%. As a result, a current above the target current starts to flow through the lamp 108. This excess current will cause the compensator circuit 216 to come out of saturation and to set the duty cycle of the PWM signal 248 so as to maintain the target current in the lamp 108. While the compensator circuit 216 is saturated, the current in the lamp 108 can be significantly higher than the target current. The high current, along with the time required for the loop to come out of saturation, can result in a noticeable flash when the lamps strike.
A simplified schematic diagram of another prior art electronic ballast 300 is shown in FIG. 2. The ballast 200 operates in a similar manner as the ballast 100 shown in FIG. 1, but the analog control circuit 210 has been replaced by a digital control circuit 310. An analog-to-digital converter (ADC) 352 in a microprocessor 350 receives the lamp current signal 250 from the current sense circuit 110 and converts it into an 8-bit digital representation. The reference signal 242 representative of the target current in the lamp 108 is received at an input 355. The software in the microprocessor 350 then compares the measured current with the target current to generate an error signal, which is then used to generate a desired duty cycle. The desired frequency is determined from the desired current. A pulse-width modulated (PWM) signal 356 is produced at an output 354 of the microprocessor 350. The software in the microprocessor 350 drives the PWM signal 356 with the desired frequency and duty cycle and provides the PWM signal to the gate drive circuit 116. In the ballast 300, software in the microprocessor 350 of the digital control circuit 310 provides the functionality that was provided by the analog control circuit 210 of the ballast 100.
The digital implementation of the preheat mode of the ballast 300 is very different than the preheat mode of the ballast 100. The software that normally implements the compensator routine is not in control of the inverter duty cycle. In fact, a completely different routine is in control of the inverter. As a result, it is possible to directly control both the duty cycle and the frequency to achieve the desired preheat level.
In the digital implementation of the strike mode, the duty cycle is held at a fixed level and the frequency is swept down from the preheat frequency to the low-end frequency. During this period, the software must monitor the lamp voltage and lamp current to detect when the lamp strikes. It is very important to detect when the lamp strikes because once it is struck, a different routine must be run to implement the normal operation control loop. Since both the frequency and duty cycle are controllable during strike, it would be possible to set the duty cycle to something less than 50% during the strike phase. The lower duty cycle would result in the lamp starting at a lower current to help reduce flash. However, in order to ensure accurate detection of lamp strike, the lamp must strike with a relatively high current.
Replacing the analog control circuit 210 of the ballast 100 with the digital control circuit 310 of the ballast 300 has several benefits. First, there are fewer parts in the digital control circuit 310 since most of the control functions are completed by the microprocessor 350. Second, the control functions provided by the microprocessor 350 can be easily altered without the need to change any hardware of the digital control circuit 310. Further, situation-specific software can be executed when the ballast 300 is in different normal and abnormal modes of operation.
However, the digital control circuit 310 has some disadvantages in view of the analog control circuit 210. The capability of the microprocessor 350 is dependent on the cost of the device. So, in order to achieve a reasonable cost, some compromises may need to be made in the areas of core speed, ADC resolution, ADC sampling rate and math capability. Quantization effects of the ADC conversion can become significant at low dim levels. This can be improved with a higher resolution ADC or a higher sampling rate, but as mentioned earlier, higher capability results in higher cost for the microprocessor 350.
Both the analog control circuit 210 and the digital control circuit 310 of the prior art ballast 100, 300 use an open-loop frequency shift in which there is a predetermined operating frequency for a given desired light level. The concept of adjusting both the frequency and the duty cycle of the inverter 104 is described in greater detail in U.S. Pat. No. 6,452,344, issued Sep. 17, 2002, entitled "Electronic Dimming Ballast", which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
FIG. 3 is a simple control system diagram illustrating the control loops of the prior art ballasts 100, 300. The operating duty cycle, dOP, of the inverter is controlled through a closed-loop technique, while the operating frequency, fOP, is controlled through an open-loop technique. The actual lamp current, IACTUAL, is provided as feedback to the duty-cycle control loop and is subtracted from the target current, ITARGET, to produce a lamp current error signal, eI, and ultimately, the desired operating duty cycle dOP. In contrast, the desired operating frequency fOP is simply generated solely in response to the target current ITARGET.
FIG. 4 shows a plot of the target operating frequency of the inverter 104 versus the lamp current and a plot of the operating frequency versus the lamp current at a fixed 50% duty cycle, which demonstrates the maximum current that can be delivered by the ballast 100, 300 at a given frequency. At low light levels, the ballast operating frequency is maintained at the low-end frequency fLOW-END, which is near the resonant frequency of the resonant tank 106. Above a predetermined level, the operating frequency is decreased linearly as the lamp current increases, i.e., as the desired lighting level of the lamp 108 increases towards high-end.
One complication that results from operating the inverter 104 at a frequency that is away from the resonant frequency when utilizing the d(1−d) switching scheme (i.e., at high-end) is the possibility of "mercury pumping". As the operating frequency moves away from the resonant frequency, and the impedance of the lamp 108 decreases (as the lamp current increases), the filtering effect of the resonant tank 106 is reduced. When the inverter 104 is operating at any duty cycle other than 50%, the voltage at the output of the inverter is asymmetric and contains second harmonic content. For duty cycles near 50%, the second harmonic is not significant. However, as the duty cycle moves away from 50%, the second harmonic content increases.
When operating at the high-end frequency fHIGH-END, a significant amount of this second harmonic content from the inverter 104 is passed through the resonant tank 106 to the lamp 108. As a result, the lamp current is not symmetric. Blocking capacitors, e.g., capacitor 118 in FIGS. 1 and 2, at the output of the ballast 100, 300 prevent the ballast from delivering significant DC current to the lamp 108. However, the asymmetric current in the lamp 108 coupled with the non-linear lamp load results in a DC voltage on the lamp 108. The DC voltage on the lamp 108 will cause mercury ions to migrate from one end of the lamp to the other. If the DC voltage is high enough, the lamp 108 will become starved for mercury at one end. As a result, the starved end of the lamp 108 will produce less light and may also turn pink.
In order to avoid significant mercury pumping, the analog control circuit 210 and the digital control circuit 310 of the prior art ballasts 100, 300 utilized frequency shift profiles that were selected to insure that the duty cycle was as close to 50% as possible when operating at the high-end frequency. However, the tolerances of the components of the resonant tank 106, and the variations in the operating characteristics of common fluorescent lamps, require that the frequency be selected such that even worst-case combinations are capable of reaching the needed high-end current IHIGH-END. The constraints of being able to reach high-end in the worst case while having the highest duty cycle possible result in the need for tight tolerances on components and the need to tailor tank component values to a narrow load range.
Thus, there exists a need for an electronic ballast that avoids mercury pumping and operates at high-end with a duty cycle close to 50% and has a broad range of load types, but does not require a resonant tank that has components with small tolerances.

Electronic ballast having adaptive frequency shifting


A method for forming a container assembly having a lid, a container and a cooperative closure mechanism, includes providing a lid form and flexible members biased toward the lid form, wherein the lid form and the flexible members are operable between a forming position defined by the lid form exerting a biasing force against the flexible members, and an extraction position defined by the biasing force being substantially removed from the flexible members, creating a lid form cavity defined by the lid form and the flexible members disposed in the forming position, injecting a lid material throughout the lid form cavity to form a lid, disposing the lid form and the flexible members in the extraction position, wherein the lid form is moved distal from the lid and the flexible members are biased away from the lid to separate the lid from the flexible members.

Infant cups on the market use standard helical threads for closure of a lid portion to a cup portion. As the majority of cups are made of plastic, there are several disadvantages when using this type of closure feature. Typical materials used in this category include polyolefin based materials, such as polypropylene or polyethylene. When molded, these materials tend to bind when torqued against each other during closure. This is the type of action that can occur using helical threads as the closure mechanism. This binding often causes lids that have been connected to the cup using helical threads to be difficult to remove. Also, these polyolefin based materials have a high degree of variability that is further increased by using different color polyolefin in the production of the cup and lid. This variability makes it difficult to ensure proper function of the complex geometry used in making a lid and cup combination so that the container and lid close sufficiently to ensure complete or near complete resistance to leakage.
Also, to ensure that there are no in-mold stresses during normal wear of the product requires that "best practices" for the plastic part design is to maintain constant wall stock thickness where possible. Deviations in thickness in the main wall stock of the container and/or lid adds to the possibility of in-mold stresses and, concomitantly, potential deformation of the part. Deformation of the part may, in turn, cause leakage of liquid contained in the cup.
Further, helical threads also often cause inconsistent wall stock thickness on both the male and female mating parts. Moreover, helical threads in plastic parts tend to be difficult to align at the beginning of the threading process that sometimes leads to damage of the threads on either or both of the lid or the cup. Such damage can lead to improper sealing that again could lead to unwanted leakage.
So-called "sippy cup" lids are generally non-symmetrical parts, mostly due to the addition of a non-symmetrical drinking feature, such as a spout in a raised position on and above the upper surface of the lid. The use of non-symmetrical parts makes it difficult to achieve a plug seal when mating the lid and cup. This shortcoming is compounded by having uneven wall stock in the threads, again usually due to the material and manufacturing processes employed in producing the threads on the lid and the cup. These two features, difficulty in achieving a plug seal and uneven wall thickness, often lead to the parts having the tendency to be "out of round" or not flat, depending on the portion of the lid and cup combination in question. In order to achieve a good, preferably leak-proof, seal with a part that has the above tendencies, the lid must be "torqued-on" with a high degree of force (on the order of 25 lbs. or greater) in order to flex the seal geometry such that it correctly or completely plugs. This force is greater than most end users can comfortably achieve. Moreover, such repetitive force may have the additional drawback of prematurely wearing the threads on the lid or the cup, or both.
It is desirable to manufacture a container and lid having a closure mechanism that does not utilize threads as well as a method for manufacturing a thread-free closure mechanism for a container assembly.

Method of making a bayonet sealing closure for containers and lids


Small cell provisioning and validation may be performed, for small cells, in a small cell cluster, based on wireless cellular network connections (i.e., without requiring the use of a backhaul connection). In some implementations, the small cells may communicate with one another using direct Device-to-Device (D2D) communications. The D2D communications may be used to further enhance the network connectivity (i.e., to the cellular network and the OAM server) and to transmit test traffic during performance of the validation functions.

The use of wireless networks, to support mobile data communications, continues to grow rapidly. One trend in the implementation of cellular wireless networks is the increasing reliance on heterogeneous networks (HetNets). A heterogeneous cellular network may include traditional macrocell base stations overlaid with small cells (femtocells, picocells, wireless relays, etc.). The small cells may include, relative to the macrocells, smaller form factor and lower power radio nodes. By deploying HetNets with targeted small cell installations, network operators can offload users from macrocells to small cells. This technique may be particularly useful in areas with poor radio reception and/or dense mobile device populations.
Small cells are often deployed in clusters, such as a cluster of small cells deployed in a shopping mall, office building, or stadium. In such a situation, small cells may be advantageous as individual small cells are relatively inexpensive and may thus be deployed in large numbers. The typical deployment procedure for macrocells may not be applicable to small cells. For example, when deploying a large number of relatively inexpensive small cells, using an on-site network technician to setup and configure each small cell may be prohibitively expensive.

Small cell self-validation and provisioning without using backhaul


The present invention is directed to an arginine/lysine oxidoreductase modified with polyethylene glycol, a production method thereof, and methods of treating disorders responsive to a modification of amino acid levels reactive oxygen species and/or ammonium.

Since decades, tremendous efforts are made to collect pharmacologically active substances from natural organisms and to test their effects in various disease areas.
The sea hare Aplysia punctata produces a purple ink to protect itself from predation. This ink was shown to contain an anti-tumor activity (Butzke et al., 2004). Subsequently, studies were conducted to isolate the factor from crude ink, resulting in the discovery of APIT, the Aplysia Punctata Ink Toxin. Recently, the factor was cloned and characterized to be a weakly glycosylated FAD-binding L-amino acid oxidase that catalyzes the oxidative deamination of L-lysine and L-arginine and thereby produces hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), ammonium (NH4+) and the corresponding alpha-keto acids (Butzke et al., 2005).
L-amino acid oxidases (LAAOs, EC 220.127.116.11), can be found in secretions and venoms. Members of this family of flavoenzymes catalyze the stereospecific oxidative deamination of L-amino acids and thereby produce H2O2, ammonium and the corresponding alpha-keto acids (Du et al., 2002). The 3D individual LAAOs differ in their substrate specificity: Snake venom L-amino acid oxidases (sv-LAAOs) which constitute up to 30% (by weight) of the crude venom (Ponnudurai et al., 1994), possess a clear preference for hydrophobic amino acids. A fish capsule LAAO termed AIP (Apoptosis-Inducing Protein) which is induced by larval nematode infection of Scomber japonicus is highly specific for L-lysine (Jung et al., 2000). Achacin, a mucus LAAO from the African snail Achatina fulica, metabolizes a very broad range of substrates, including hydrophobic amino acids along with L-lysine, L-arginine, L-cysteine, L-asparagine and L-tyrosine (Ehara et al., 2002).
L-amino acid oxidases have not been investigated for their half-life after administration to mammalians at any routes. With respect to drug development, this is however an important issue and a prerequisite to efficiently exert a therapeutic effect. Data in this respect are only available for a D-amino acid oxidase employing D-proline as substrate (Fang et al., 2002). After intravenous injection, native D-amino acid oxidase was, however, rapidly cleared from the circulation. A pegylated derivative did not exhibit a significantly increased circulation half-life time which was well below 1 h. A product with such a short circulation half life time cannot be expected to have a substantial therapeutic benefit for therapy, e.g. for cancer therapy. Thus, according to the teaching of the prior art it would have been expected that pegylated amino acid oxidases would lack therapeutically efficacy.
An object of the present invention was to increase the therapeutic efficacy of L-amino acid oxidoreductases in order to provide a therapeutic product with improved characteristics.


A surface acoustic wave (SAW) transducer comprises a piezoelectric substr, a pair of metal bus bars positioned on the substrate parallel to and separated from each other a preselected distance and a plurality of interdigital electrode fingers extending from each of the metal bus bars. A plurality of slots are positioned along each metal bus bar so that the bus bar metallization is reduced and the acoustic wave velocity is increased in the metal bus bar region.

SAW transducer devices, by way of example, have important uses in communications (e.g. cellular radio, data transmission, etc.) radar, signal processing systems, and so on. SAW transducer devices have proven attractive because they are inexpensive, of compact size, and are amenable to specific design criteria; e.g., phase and amplitude can be controlled or designed independently.
Conventional SAW transducers consist of three wave velocity regions: free-surface (crystal surface) semi-metal surface (interdigital electrodes) and metal surface (bus bars). The electrodes and bus bars, in effect, form an acoustic waveguide since both the metal bus bars and electrodes provide a "slow wave" structure.
Unfortunately, large portions of the acoustic energy are directed along the bus bars of the transducers. This leakage of energy to the bus bars leads to distortion and reflection of waves and increases the device insertion loss.
Accordingly, in order to minimize distortion, reflection, and insertion loss, the acoustic energy should be confined to the interdigital electrode region.

Saw transducer with improved bus-bar design

The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Army


An information processing method for Cancelling Release of a Skill in a Game and apparatus, electronic device and a storage medium are provided. The method includes that: a cancellation response region is provided on a graphical user interface; when detecting the starting touch point of the touch operation is positioned within the range of the skill icon, a position of a current touch point of the touch operation is obtained in real time; when detecting that the position of the current touch point satisfies a preset condition, a size of the cancellation response region is controlled to be enlarged; and when detecting that the position of the current touch point of the touch operation is within a range of the cancellation response region, or, when detecting that a position of an ending touch point of the touch operation is within a range of the cancellation response region, release of a skill is cancelled.

A skill of a virtual character in at least one game on a mobile terminal (particularly to the mobile terminal for supporting touch control) is usually required to be released by touching at least one skill button. In this process, a player for controlling the virtual character may be required to execute an operation of cancelling skill release for reasons of a misoperation, a change in a fighting chance of the game, and the like.

Information processing method for cancelling release of a skill in a game, apparatus, electronic device and storage medium


Novel cyclic ester-amides having the formula: ##STR1## where R is an alkyl group having from 2 to 5 carbon atoms, and x ranges from 2 to 6 by reacting a polyethylene glycol monoamine having the formula NH.sub.2 --(CH.sub.2 CH.sub.2 O).sub.x --H, where x is as above, with at least one dicarboxylic acid, where the dicarboxylic acid is selected from the group consisting of glutaric, adipic, pimelic acids and mixtures thereof. The a molar ratio of polyethylene glycol monoamine to dicarboxylic acid should be about 1:1. Catalysts may be optionally used, and may include such compounds as titanium alkoxides; and zinc, manganese and antimony salts of carboxylic acids. This method is anticipated to be a useful step in a new preparation of valuable cyclic products.

The preparation of cyclic materials is receiving more attention. A recent study involving the synthesis of cyclic oligomeric carbonates and their polymerization to high molecular weight polycarbonates is noteworthy: D. J. Brunelle, et al., ACS, Polymer Preprints, Vol. 30, No. 2, 1989, Miami Beach, Fla. Because the cyclic oligomeric products have relatively low molecular weights and viscosities, they are very suitable for molding applications and other reactive processing techniques. The advantages of "cyclics" technology in the preparation of thermoplastic composites is described in Modern Plastics, Nov. 1989, p. 10.
Another class of cyclic materials which has received considerable attention for over twenty years is the large ring cyclic compounds. In 1967, Pederson described his pioneering work on the synthesis of macrocyclic polyethers; Pedersen, C. J., Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol. 89, p. 2495 and p. 7017, 1967. These cyclic crown ethers (I) were capable of forming surprisingly stable complexes with alkali and alkaline earth metal cations. The preparations of these "simple" cyclic products was followed by the preparation of other cyclic products having sulfur or nitrogen as donor atoms (II). Monocyclics were succeeded by bicyclic compounds (III) called cryptands. ##STR2## The scientific and practical interest in complexing cations by crown compounds is increasing--over 250 original papers dealing with crown ethers appeared in 1980 alone.
The unique ability of crown ethers to form stable complexes with various cations has been used in such processes as metal separation, transfer catalysts, increasing the activity of catalysts, solubilizing sodium and potassium carbonate in apolar solvents such as benzene, and catalysis of isocyanates to isocyanurates, see U.S. Pat. No. 4,487,928.
One of the main drawbacks in the use of crown compounds in industrial synthetic work is their cost due to the tedious methods needed for their preparation. High dilution techniques utilizing the "template" route is still the best way. Such routes not only use expensive reagents, but the yields are low and low volume production adds to the costs. ##STR3##


A power cylinder system for a reciprocating engine includes a piston configured to move within a cylinder of the reciprocating engine. The system also includes a groove extending circumferentially about the piston and configured to support a ring. An axially-facing surface of the groove has circumferential undulations at ambient temperatures that are configured to compensate for distortions to the groove caused by operation of the reciprocating engine.

The subject matter disclosed herein relates generally to reciprocating engines, and, more particularly to distortion compensation for a groove of a piston of a reciprocating engine.
A reciprocating engine (e.g., a reciprocating internal combustion engine) combusts fuel with an oxidant (e.g., air) to generate hot combustion gases, which in turn drive a piston (e.g., a reciprocating piston) within a cylinder. In particular, the hot combustion gases expand and exert a pressure against the piston that linearly moves the piston from a top portion to a bottom portion of the cylinder during an expansion stroke. The piston converts the pressure exerted by the combustion gases and the piston's linear motion into a rotating motion (e.g., via a connecting rod and a crankshaft coupled to the piston) that drives one or more loads, e.g., an electrical generator. The construction of the piston and associated structures (e.g., a piston assembly) can significantly impact exhaust emissions (e.g., unburned hydrocarbons) and engine efficiency, as well as lubricant (e.g., oil) consumption. Furthermore, the construction of the piston assembly can significantly affect the operating life of the reciprocating engine. Therefore, it would be desirable to improve the construction of the piston assembly.


A vehicle cooling device includes a pump, circulation paths connected to the pump for circulating coolant between a cooling object and a heat exchanger, a solenoid valve for opening and closing at least one of the circulation paths, and a control unit for controlling pump operation. The solenoid valve includes a valve body movable between a position separated from a valve seat and a position abutting the valve seat, the valve body being held in abutment with the valve seat, and a solenoid maintaining the abutment when energized. The valve body allows coolant fluid pressure to move the valve body separate from the valve seat when the solenoid is not energized and the pump is in operation, and the control unit performs controlling to stop the pump and start solenoid energization when conditions are ready for stopping coolant circulation through the circulation path in which the solenoid valve is disposed.

A vehicle cooling device includes, for example, an electric pump, an engine as an object of cooling, a heat exchanger, a circulation path for circulation of coolant between the engine and the heat exchanger by the operation of the pump, and a solenoid valve capable of opening and closing the circulation path. This solenoid valve may be of the type in which the valve body is brought into abutment with the valve seat by the biasing force of a biasing member when the solenoid is not energized to switch the valve to a closed state, and the valve body is moved against the biasing force of the biasing member by the energization of the solenoid to switch the valve to an open state (see, for example, Patent Document 1). Accordingly, in order to circulate the coolant between the object of cooling and the heat exchanger, it is necessary to energize the solenoid to move the valve body against the biasing force of the biasing member and also to maintain the energized state.


The present invention relates to vaccines comprising an effective amount of at least one antigen in a water-in-oil-in-water (WOW) emulsion and an additional adjuvant, and to the methods of preparation and uses thereof.

Vaccines are usually formulated with an adjuvant to enhance and improve the immune response, notably to prolong antibody response. For instance, Freund's adjuvant (Proceedings of The Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine, 1942, 49, 548-553), which corresponds to a solution of antigen emulsified in mineral oil, has first been used as an immunopotentiator or as an immunobooster. Freund's adjuvant forms a water-in-oil (WO) emulsion and exhibits an adjuvant effect essentially through a sustained release of the antigen.
Various other adjuvant systems have been evaluated in order to provide effective vaccines. These include, for instance, chitosan, cytokines, oligonucleotides, lipids, toxins, hapten carriers or aluminum hydroxide. In this regard, Matsumoto et al. (Avian diseases, 1971, 15, 109-117) has tested the efficacy of aluminum derivate such as aluminum hydroxide gel and chrome aluminum in vaccines. Blackall et al. (Avian Diseases, 1992, 36, 632-636) have compared aluminum-hydroxide adjuvant and WO emulsions. Squalene, saponin, Quil A, lipoidal amine, glycan or avridine have also been added as adjuvants to vaccines to improve their efficacy.
EP 0 640 348 relates to a vaccine comprising a WO emulsion and an immunostimulatory glycan. US 2014/0099358 proposes a vaccine comprising a water-in-oil emulsion and aluminum or a compound of aluminum or TiterMax (squalene). However, the design of combined emulsion-adjuvant systems generates safety issues because of possible side effects (Reid and Blackall, Avian Diseases, 1987, 31, 59-63). Furthermore, traditional WO emulsions often have a high viscosity and are difficult to formulate or inject.
Vaccines based on WOW emulsions have been tested in in ovo immunization of avian embryos (U.S. Pat. No. 5,817,320) and against specific viruses such as Newcastle disease virus, infectious bronchitis virus (Cajavec et al., Acta Veterinaria Hungarica, 1998, 46, 25-34), and infectious Coryza (Blackall, World's Poultry Science Journal, 1995, 51, 17-26).
Such vaccines in a WOW emulsion have also been improved in term of stability according to the nature and the proportions of the surfactants used to produce the WOW emulsion. In this context, Hunter and Bennet have studied the polyoxyethylene polyoxypropylene block copolymer of formula HO(C2H4O)b(C3H6O)a(C2H4O)b at Hydrophilic-Lipophilic Balance (HLB) below 2 (U.S. Pat. No. 5,622,649). They have also tested such WOW emulsions in vaccination methods for Hepatitis B infection and have mentioned their effectiveness against tetanus, malaria, AIDS, influenza and pneumococcal pneumonia.
Jiao and Burgess (AAPS Pharm. Sci., 2003, 5, 1-12) have evaluated the long-term stability of WOW multiple emulsions with respect to the concentrations of two specific surfactants, Span 83 and Tween 80, and have determined that a concentration ratio of 20% Span 83 and 0.1% Tween 80 provided the best long-term stability of WOW emulsions. WOW emulsions, however, do not always generate satisfactory immune response. In addition, WOW may be associated to a number of potential disadvantages including their lack of homogeneity, for instance in the size distribution profile of particles, and the possible viscosity of heterogeneous formulations. Furthermore, there is no established suitability of such systems for formulating large objects such as cells.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for alternative, safe and improved vaccines, notably for use in animals.

Dual adjuvant vaccine compositions, preparation and uses


A permeable soap holder and body washing device may include a permeable bag for receiving a bar of soap therein and for body contact during washing, and a gripping strap carried by a closed end of the permeable bag to facilitate manipulation of the permeable bag for body contact during washing. The permeable bag may have opposing first and second ends, with the first end being selectively closeable and the second end being closed. The soap holder may further include a drawstring for selectively closing the first end of the permeable bag to permit insertion or removable of a soap bar within the permeable bag. The combination of the drawstring and the gripping strap permits a user to control the soap holder to more readily wash the user's back.

A common bathroom article is a soap holder that a person uses to retain a bar of soap and also wash one's body using the outer surface of the soap holder. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,031,759; 5,326,610; 5,486,064; and 6,887,007 and published U.S. Patent Application No. 2003/0208871 disclose variations of handheld soap holders for body washing. Such soap holders have also been developed in the form of a glove, such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,398,443, for example.
Hemp is an organic material that as a woven fabric has been used in a soap holder because it is slightly abrasive and may be naturally mildew resistant, for example. Its slight abrasiveness makes it desirable for exfoliating the skin while washing. For example, Paivatar Yarns & Design offers a handwoven hemp bag for containing a bar of soap. This product was offered on http://www.paivatar.com/hemptowels.htm. A crocheted hemp soap bag was offered on http://www.oceantribes.com/catalog/item/892944/465061.htm. A similar hemp soap bag was offered by Everything Earth on http://www.everythingearth.com/hempsoapbag.htm. In addition, Hemp Basics of Warren, New Jersey offered a hemp soap bag on its site http://www.hempsupply.com/bodycare/7060.asp.
Unfortunately a typical soap holder and body washing device can only typically be grasped in one hand, and, therefore, is difficult to use to wash certain body areas. In particular, a typical soap holder cannot be readily used to wash one's back.
Attempts have been made to provide back washing devices that incorporate soap holders, however, such devices are typically relatively large and therefore not practical for single hand use. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,812,849; 3,860,349; 5,545,456; and 6,227,742 each discloses an elongate relatively large device for retaining a bar of soap and being grasped by both of the user's hands for washing the back. U.S. Pat. No. 3,791,746 discloses yet a further more complicated back washer including an arrangement of straps over the shoulder and around the body to facilitate back washing.

Soap holder and body washing device including gripping strap and associated methods


A piston ring formed of cast iron provides improved machinability and exceptional performance and minimum costs. The cast iron includes 2.2 to 2.9 wt. % carbon, 3.2 to 4.2 wt. % silicon, 0.75 to 1.25 wt. % copper, 1.0 to 1.5 wt. % manganese, 0.09 to 0.15 wt. % sulfur, not greater than 0.2 wt. % phosphorous, and an average carbon equivalent of 3.8. The cast iron preferably includes a matrix of martensite with MnS and carbides dispersed therein. The matrix is also preferably free of ferrite, austenite, and steadite. The cast iron is formed by casting, autenitizing, quenching, and tempering the alloy.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to piston rings for internal combustion engines, materials thereof, and methods of forming the same.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Piston rings of internal combustion engine applications are often formed of cast iron compositions providing wear resistance and seizure resistance. U.S. Pat. No. 5,972,128 to Miwa discloses cast iron compositions used to form piston rings. The cast irons disclosed in Miwa include, in wt. % of the cast iron, 3.15 to 3.16 wt. % carbon, 2.66-2.86 wt. % silicon, 0.65 to 1.18 wt. % copper, 0.7 to 0.78 wt. % manganese, 0.04 to 0.06 wt. % sulfur, and 0.10 to 0.12 wt. % phosphorous. U.S. Pat. No. 4,891,076 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,985,052 also disclose example cast iron compositions.
One type of cast iron is referred to as gray cast iron, or gray iron. There are various grades of gray iron, and a typical gray iron composition includes, in weight percent (wt. %) of the gray iron, 2.0 to 4.0 wt. % carbon, 1.25 to 3.25 wt. % silicon, 0.75 to 1.25 wt. % manganese, 0.08 to 0.12 wt. % sulfur, and 0.07 to 0.2 wt. % phosphorous, based on the total weight of the gray iron.
Recently, there has been increased demand for piston rings including complex physical features, such as advanced oil groove designs, to provide increased performance and reduce costs. However, the cast irons of the prior art are oftentimes difficult to machine, or require expensive alloying additions to achieve the desired physical properties, which limits their use in piston rings of internal combustion engine applications.

High modulus wear resistant gray cast iron for piston ring applications