The present invention provides a toner for electrostatically charged image development comprising at least a binder resin, a colorant and a releasing agent. The releasing agent satisfies the following equations (1) and (2):0.1≦η*a≦1.0  (1)1.1≦η*b/η*a≦3.5  (2)                wherein η*a represents a complex viscosity (Pa·s) determined from a first dynamic viscoelasticity measurement at a measuring frequency of the releasing agent of 6.28 rad/s, η*b represents a complex viscosity (Pa·s) determined from a second dynamic viscoelasticity measurement at a measuring frequency of the releasing agent of 62.8 rad/s, and each of the first and second dynamic viscoelasticities is measured in a temperature range from a temperature that is 15° C. lower than the melting point of the releasing agent to a temperature that is 15° C. higher than the melting point of the releasing agent.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a toner for electrostatically charged image development used for developing an electrostatic latent image formed by electrophotography or electrostatic recording, a method for manufacturing the toner, an image forming method using the toner for electrostatically charged image development, and an image forming apparatus using the image forming method.
2. Description of the Related Art
A method for visualizing image information via an electrostatic image by, for example, electrophotography has been used in various fields in recent years. An image is visualized in the electrophotographic method through the steps of forming an electrostatic latent image on a photoreceptor by charging and exposing the photoreceptor, developing the electrostatic latent image with a developer containing a toner, and transferring and fusing the image.
A two-component developer including a toner and a carrier, and a one-component developer using only a magnetic or nonmagnetic toner are known as the developer used in the method. The toner contained in the developer is usually produced by a kneading-pulverization method in which a thermoplastic resin is melted and kneaded with a pigment, a charge control agent and a releasing agent such as wax, and the mixture is cooled, pulverized and classified. Inorganic or organic fine particles may be added onto the surface of the toner particles, if necessary, in order to improve fluidity and the cleaning property of the toner. While this method can provide a quite excellent toner, it involves some problems as set forth below.
The shape and surface structure of a toner produced by the conventional kneading-pulverization method becomes irregular. Although subtle changes are possible depending on the pulverizability of the materials used and pulverization conditions, it is difficult to purposely control the shape and surface structure of the toner. Moreover, the range of selection of the materials is restricted in the kneading-pulverization method. Specifically, a dispersion of a resin and a colorant must be pulverizable with an economically practical production apparatus.
However, finer powders may be undesirably generated by a mechanical shear force applied to a toner in a developing apparatus or the shape of the toner may be changed, when the resin colorant is made to be more fragile to satisfy the above requirements. These effects may cause accelerated deterioration of charging characteristics of the developer due to adhesion of the fine powder on the surface of the carrier in the two-component developer, or scattering of the toner due to expanded particle size distribution and deterioration of image quality by a decrease in developability due to the change in the toner shape in the one-component developer.
When a large amount of the releasing agent such as wax is used in producing a toner, the releasing agent is often excessively exposed on the surface of the toner depending on a combination between a thermoplastic binder resin and the releasing agent. Such exposure of the wax on the surface of the toner is evident particularly in a combination between a resin that includes a polymer component to enhance elasticity and that is a little difficult to pulverize and a fragile wax such as polyethylene or polypropylene.
Exposure of the wax component is advantageous for removing the toner from a fusing roll in the fusing process and for washing non-transferred toners from the surface of a photoreceptor. However, the wax component exposed on the surface of the toner may be readily transferred onto a member of an image forming apparatus when a mechanical force is applied onto the toner during use. Accordingly, a development roll, the photoreceptor and the carrier are liable to be contaminated, and thus reliability may decrease.
Furthermore, as described above, the shape of the toner is irregular. Therefore, sufficient fluidity is difficult to obtain even if a fluidizing aid is applied to the toner. Consequently, fine particles added to the surface of the toner move to concave portions on the surface of the toner due to a mechanical shear force during the use of the toner, and fluidity of the toner decreases over time or the fluidizing aid is embedded in the toner to impair developability, transferring property and cleaning property. Image quality may further decrease when a toner retrieved by cleaning is returned to a development unit and used again. However, when the amount of the fluidizing aid added to the toner is increased to prevent such adverse effects, black spots are generated on a photoreceptor and the fluidizing aid particles are scattered.
A method for producing a toner by an emulsification-polymerization aggregation method has been proposed in recent years as a means for enabling the shape and surface structure of the toner to be purposely controlled in order to solve the problems caused by irregularity of the toner shape (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) Nos. 63-282752 and 6-250439). In this method, the toner is produced by mixing a dispersion liquid of resin fine particles prepared by emulsification-polymerization and a dispersion liquid in which a colorant is dispersed in a solvent, forming aggregate particles having a diameter corresponding to the diameter of toner particles to be formed, and heating the aggregate particles to fuse and integrate the aggregate particles.
The shape of the toner produced by this method may be controlled to a certain extent, which improves chargability and durability of the toner. However, since the inner structure of the toner becomes almost uniform, removability of a recording medium on which an image is formed from a fusing roll in a fusing process, stabilization of transparency of an image on an OHP sheet, and different charging among colors remain as problems to be solved when an image is formed using the toner.
As described hereinbefore, exposure of the releasing agent on the surface of the toner should be suppressed in order to permit the toner to maintain stable performance under various mechanical stresses, and the surface hardness of the toner should be enhanced to suppress deterioration of fusability of the toner in the image forming method by an electrophotographic process using the toner. In other words, the toner's own mechanical strength should be enhanced, and chargability and fixability of the toner should be compatible at a high level.
Since a demand for high image quality has grown in recent years, the diameter of the toner particles has been remarkably decreased to obtain images of high definition in forming color images. However, the problems of contamination of the carrier and the photoreceptor, and scattering of the toner become evident due to toner particles having an extremely small diameter, when the toner diameter is simply reduced while the particle diameter distribution remains the same. As a result, it is difficult to simultaneously realize high image quality and high reliability. Therefore, the particle diameter distribution should be narrowed while the diameter of the toner particles is reduced.
In digital full-color copiers and printers, colors of a color image manuscript are separated with B (blue), R (red) and G (green) filters to obtain blue image information, red image information and green image information, and latent images which are composed of dots having a diameter in the range of 20 to 70 μm and which correspond to the original manuscript are formed in accordance the image information and developed by taking advantage of a subtractive color mixing using Y (yellow), M (magenta), C (cyan) and Bk (black) developers. However, a larger amount of the developer must be transferred in such a process than in conventional monochromatic printing. Since the development process is required to be able to accurately develop latent images composed of dots having a small diameter, uniform chargability, persistence of the charge, toner strength and sharpness of the particle size distribution are becoming more and more important in recent years.
Low temperature fixability is also required for the toner considering high speed and energy-saving operation of the apparatus. A toner suitable for low temperature fusing may be produced by taking advantage of a method for producing the toner using an emulsification-polymerization aggregation process suitable for producing toner particles having a small diameter.
On the other hand, it is necessary that large amounts of color toners are sufficiently mixed in a full-color printer, and improved color reproducibility and transparency of an image on an OHP sheet are essential for full-color printing.
Meanwhile, a polyolefin wax is usually used as the releasing agent component of the toner in order to prevent low temperature offsetting in the fusing process. A trace of a silicone oil is uniformly applied onto a fusing roll in order to prevent high temperature offsetting in the fusing process. Accordingly, since the silicone oil adheres onto the surface of a recording medium on which an image is formed, the surface gives an unpleasant sticky feeling when the recording medium is handled.
A toner for oilless fusing which contains a large quantity of the releasing agent component has been proposed in order to solve the problems as described above (see JP-A No. 5-061239). Removability of the toner from a fusing member may be improved to a certain extent by adding a large amount of the releasing agent. However, it is difficult to obtain stable removability, since a problem of compatibility between a binder resin and the releasing agent is caused and the releasing agent unevenly bleeds on the surface of the toner. In addition, since the means for controlling aggregation force between the toner and the binder resin depends on the weight average molecular weight Mw and glass transition temperature Tg of the binder resin, it is difficult to directly control spinnability and coagulability of the toner in the coalescence process. Further, free components in the releasing agent may cause inhibition of charging.
In order to solve the problems in oilless fusing, a method for enhancing rigidity of the binder resin by adding a high molecular weight component to the binder (see JP-A Nos. 4-69666 and 9-258481), and a method for improving rigidity of the binder resin by chemically introducing cross-links to the binder so as to eventually decrease spinnability of the toner at a fusing temperature and improve removability of the toner were proposed (see JP-A Nos. 59-218460 and 59-218459).
Various measures for the releasing agent have been investigated and proposed to solve the problems offusability, and particularly removability, of a toner for oilless fusing, transparency of a full color image on an OHP sheet, and/or inhibition of fluidity of the toner powder caused by the releasing agent.
Particularly, a method for using a releasing agent which has a melting point in an intermediate temperature region and which is amorphous or has low crystallinity such as an ester wax has been proposed to improve removability of a recording medium on which an image is formed from a fusing roll at the time of oilless fusing (see JP-A No. 6-337541). According to this proposal, removability of a recording medium on which an image is formed from a fusing roll at the time of oilless fusing is improved by lowering the melt viscosity of the releasing agent, and reduction of transparency of a full color image on an OHP sheet is prevented by using a low crystallinity releasing agent.
However, since the releasing agent component often plasticizes the binder resin component and consequently the Theological property of the binder resin at the time of fusing deteriorates, removability of the toner from a fusing roll of an oilless fusing unit is impaired.
In order to solve the above problems (to suppress a decrease in removability due to plasticization), it becomes inevitable to introduce cross-linking structures into the binder resin, to increase the molecular weight and the glass transition temperature Tg of the binder resin, and/or to add a large quantity of the releasing agent to the toner.
However, countermeasures as described above may often cause a decrease in luster of the image and also decrease transparency of the image on the OHP sheet. In addition, the production cost increases since a large quantity of the releasing agent is required for producing the toner. Furthermore, a releasing agent layer is formed on the image due to a large amount of the releasing agent remaining on the fixed image. The releasing agent layer formed on the image may deteriorate the image quality due to generation of contact traces on the releasing agent layer by contact between a roll for ejecting a recording material out of the image forming apparatus and the image formed on the recording material. Such a phenomenon becomes more evident on an image having higher luster.
Accordingly, there is a need for a toner for electrostatically charged image development which is excellent in removability in oilless fusing, maintains good luster, has excellent fixability such as luster of the surface of a fixed image and transparency of an image on an OHP sheet, can provide images of high definition by suppressing contact traces of ejecting rolls generated in ejecting the fixed image, and renders the image less dependent on an operation environment. Moreover, there is a need for a method for producing such a toner, an image forming method using the toner for electrostatically charged image development, and image forming apparatus using the image forming method.

Toner for electrostatically charged image development, manufacturing method thereof, image forming method, and image forming apparatus using the image forming method


A method and system for generating threads of documents from a collection C of documents containing terms. Each document of C has a timestamp and an associated timestamp index. The timestamp indexes are ordered in accordance with an ordering of the associated timestamps. A relevance graph G generated from C is an acyclic directed graph. Each node of G denotes a document of C. Each edge of G connects a pair of directed nodes pointing from a node having an earlier timestamp to a node having a later timestamp. At least one thread of G is determined by executing a matching-based algorithm or a dynamic programming algorithm. Each thread is a path through G originating at a first node and terminating at a second node and including one or more contiguous edges from the first node to the second node. The at least one thread is outputted.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a method and system for generating relevant threads of documents from a collection of time-stamped documents.
2. Related Art
Organizing and searching document collections for the purpose of perusal by human users may relate to the following categories: automatic construction of hypertext and hyperlinks; burst analysis and prediction of news events; and clustering and automatic identification of communities.
There has been lot of work on automatically generating hypertext, beginning with the thesis of Allan [4]. Works closely to the present invention are Dalamagas and Dunlop [10] and Dalamagas [9]. The preceding works consider the problem of automatic creation of hyperlinks for news hypertext which is tailored to the domain of newspaper archives. The method in the preceding works is based on traditional clustering tools. Dalamagas [9] also explores the use of elementary graph-theoretic tools such as connected components to identify threads in news articles and builds a prototype system. Smeaton and Morrissey [21] use standard information retrieval techniques to compute a graph that is based both on node-node similarity and overall layout of the hypertext; they then use this graph to automatically create hyperlinks. Blustein [8] explored the problem of automatically creating hyperlinks between journal articles. Green [13] develops a notion of semantic relatedness to generate hypertext. However, most of these work focus on examining the text of a news article and adding hyperlinks to other news articles based on terms, dates, events, people, etc; they do not address the problem of identifying threads in news collection.
Automatically identifying threads in document collections is also related to burst analysis and event analysis. Kleinberg [17] models the generation of bursts by a two-state automaton and proceeds to automatically detecting bursts in sequence of events; Kleinberg looks for the burst of a single keyword. News event prediction and analysis are important topics that have been explored in several contexts. Clustering and text retrieval techniques were used by Yang et al. [25; 5] to automatically detect novel events from a temporally-ordered sequence of news stories. Statistical methods were used by Swan and Allan [23] to automatically generate an interactive timeline displaying major events in a corpus. Uramoto and Takeda [24] describe methods for relating multiple newspaper articles based on a graph constructed from the similarity matrix.
News articles and news groups have been analyzed in the context of search and data mining. Agrawal et al. [2] study the use of link-based methods and graph-theoretic approach to partition authors into opposite camps within a given topic in the context of newsgroups. Finding news articles on the web that are relevant to news currently being broadcast was explored by Henzinger et al. [14]. Allan et al. [6] propose several methods for constructing one-sentence temporal summaries of news stories. Smith [22] examines collocations of dates/place names to detect events in a digital library of historical documents.
Community identification has been studied extensively in the context of web pages, web sites, and search results. Trawling refers to the process of automatically enumerating communities from a crawl of the web, where a community is defined to be a dense bipartite subgraph; an algorithm to do trawling via pruning and the a priori algorithm [3] was presented in [19]. A network flow approach to identifying web communities was given by Flake et al. [11]. Local search methods were used to identify communities satisfying certain special properties in the work of [18]; their interest was to extract storylines from search results.

Method and system for generating threads of documents

International Business Machines Corporation


A two-wheeled motor vehicle prevents a belt from slipping in a continuously variable transmission even when support by a center stand is released and a rear wheel thus lands while spinning. The two-wheeled motor vehicle includes a hydraulic continuously variable transmission that transmits torque via a belt, and a control device includes a stand position obtaining unit that obtains position information about the center stand, and an add-at-support-position unit that increases oil pressure generated in a primary oil chamber and a secondary oil chamber by a predetermined amount when the center stand is at the support position.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to two-wheeled motor vehicles including a belt-type continuously variable transmission.
2. Description of the Related Art
Some two-wheeled motor vehicles have a center stand for supporting the vehicle body while keeping the rear wheel, which is a driving wheel, floating above the ground. For such a two-wheeled motor vehicle, when the acceleration grip is operated while the vehicle body is supported by the center stand, the rear wheel will spin. Then, when the support by the center stand is released and the rear wheel thus lands while spinning, an abrupt change will occur to the torque in the torque transmission path to the rear wheel.
The above mentioned abrupt change in torque causes a belt slip in a two-wheeled motor vehicle having a belt-type continuously variable transmission. In a hydraulic continuously variable transmission for transmitting torque via a metallic belt, in particular, belt slip is not preferable in view of durability of a belt and a pulley.


Fast and efficient photodiodes with different structures are fabricated using CMOS process technology by adapting transistor structures to form the diode structures. The anode regions of the photodiodes correspond to either PLDD regions of PMOS transistors or P-wells of NMOS transistors to provide two different photodiode structures with different anode region depths and thus different drift region thicknesses. An antireflective film used on the silicon surface of the photodiodes is employed as a silicide-blocking mask at other locations of the device.

The present invention generally relates to semiconductor photodiodes, and more particularly to an integrated circuit device that includes photodiodes, and a process for its fabrication.
The structure and function of semiconductor photodiodes are well known in the art. Photodiodes convert electromagnetic radiation in the form of photons into electrical energy. Typical photodiodes operate in the visible and near-infrared range of the electromagnetic radiation spectrum. Different semiconductor materials determine the particular wavelength of the radiation to which the photodiode responds. Photodiodes can be fabricated from elemental semiconductors, such as germanium and silicon, as well as so-called III-V compound semiconductors, such as gallium-arsenide.
A typical photodiode includes a surface P-type anode region to which an anode contact is formed. An antireflective film overlies the P-type region and is structured to assure a high degree of transmission of radiation at the wavelength that the photodiode is designed to absorb. Beneath the P-type region is a very lightly-doped N-type drift region in which photons of the incident radiation are absorbed, generating hole-electron pairs. Adjoining the N-type drift region is a heavily-doped N+ cathode region, to which a cathode contact is formed at a surface of the device. The PN junction between the P-type anode region and the N-type drift region is reverse biased by an applied potential producing a depletion layer on both sides of the junction. Because the N-type drift region is relatively lightly doped, the depletion layer predominantly resides on the N-type side of the junction extending deeply into the drift region. Holes and elections generated in the depletion layer are swept in opposite directions in response to the applied potential, providing a current that is a function of the incident radiation.
It is desirable for certain applications to include more than one photodiode as part of an integrated circuit. U.S. Pat. No. 5,177,581 is an example of a prior-art patent describing the incorporation of multiple identical photodiodes on an integrated circuit chip.
It is known that trade-offs in the design of photodiodes determine various operational characteristics. Also, when integrating a photodiode on the same semiconductor chip as other elements (transistors, resistors, etc.) to perform complex functions in response in part to incident radiation signals, the constraints of the process for making such other elements must be considered in the design of the photodiode. It is desirable to minimize the complexity of a semiconductor fabrication process while maximizing the flexibility available to the designer to provide complex functionality in the device design. The inclusion of a photodiode on an integrated circuit chip made with state-of-the-art CMOS or BiCMOS process technology contributes to the foregoing design considerations. CMOS devices include complementary types of MOS transistors (both PMOS and NMOS). BiCMOS devices include MOS transistors as well as bipolar transistors.
In accordance with a principal object of the invention, photodiodes of different structures are integrated on a semiconductor chip with transistors defining an integrated circuit. The photodiodes are built up using structures that correspond to structures of the transistors. Thus, a process for making a CMOS integrated circuit device can be adapted without altering the process steps by using different photomasks to incorporate the photodiodes along with PMOS and NMOS transistors into a single optoelectronic integrated circuit device.
Both fast and efficient types of photodiodes can be integrated on the same chip using anode regions of different depths, the anode regions corresponding to PLDD regions of PMOS transistors or to P-wells of NMOS transistors. An antireflective film used over the silicon surface of the photodiodes also functions as a silicide-blocking mask at other locations on the device.

Method for making an integrated circuit device including photodiodes


The present embodiment relates to a lens driving device comprising: a housing; a bobbin disposed inside the housing so as to move in a first direction; a first coil disposed on the outer circumferential surface of the bobbin; a magnet disposed in the housing; a base disposed below the housing; a coil part having a second coil disposed between the housing and the base so as to face the magnet; a substrate disposed between the housing and the base; and a conducting member for electrically connecting the coil part to the substrate, wherein the conducting member is disposed at a corner of the base.

This section provides background information related to the present disclosure, which is not necessarily prior art.
Concomitant with widely generalized dissemination of various mobile terminals and commercialization of wireless Internet services, demands by consumers related to mobile terminals are diversified to prompt various types of circumferential devices or additional equipment to be mounted on mobile terminals.
Inter alfa, camera modules may be representative items photographing an object in a still picture or a video. Recently, camera modules equipped with handshake correction (OIS: Optical Image Stabilization) function have been developed. Meantime, the camera modules equipped with the OIS function generally require an OIS coil and an electric conductive structure for substrate that provides a power to the coil.
On the other hand, the conventional camera modules having the OIS function suffers from disadvantages in that short-circuit may be generated between an OIS coil and other members due to solder balls that electrically conducts a substrate, there may be generated a tilt when the coil and the substrate are fixed, and there may be generated a limitation in contact area between an OIS spring and a base.
In addition, there may be generated a limitation design-wise in spatial area for a substrate, because recently, resolution of a camera module has grown larger and an external size of a camera module has grown smaller. Meantime, a camera module having the abovementioned OIS function requires an OIS spring movably supporting a mover relative to a stator.
The camera module equipped with an OIS function according to prior art suffers from a design-wise spatial limitation in a leg of an OIS spring. Furthermore, a short-circuit, which pops up in the soldering process between a power-supplying substrate and an OIS spring, may be generated, or a foreign object may be infiltrated. Still furthermore, another problem may be generated where a contact area between an OIS spring and a base disposed with a stator is limited.

Lens driving device, camera module, and optical apparatus


The present invention provides a method for efficiently using an aqueous solution of (meth)acrylic acid at a low concentration formed in a production/storage step of (meth)acrylic acid.

A (meth)acrylic acid-containing gas obtained through vapor-phase catalytic oxidation of propane, propylene, isobutene, or (meth)acrolein is collected in water or in a high boiling point solvent, to thereby form a (meth)acrylic acid solution. The (meth)acrylic acid solution is then subjected to a subsequent purification step involving extraction, diffusion, distillation, and crystallization, to thereby purify (meth)acrylic acid.
When a vaporization of (meth)acrylic acid as in distillation is involved in the purification step, an operation is conducted under reduced pressure. This is because reduced pressure decreases an operating temperature to suppress polymerization of (meth)acrylic acid. In addition to an operation of reducing pressure, air or a mixed gas of air and nitrogen (hereinafter, may also be referred to as "mixed gas") may be supplied into a system for suppressing polymerization.
The supplied air or the mixed gas is guided to a vacuum device used for reducing the pressure along with a vapor of (meth)acrylic acid. When a steam ejector is used as the vacuum device, (meth)acrylic acid is trapped in condensed water of a steam discharged from the ejector. When a vacuum pump is used, (meth)acrylic acid is trapped in a seal water thereof.
An example of a technique of recycling the thus-obtained aqueous solution of (meth)acrylic acid includes a method for circulating the aqueous solution to a collecting step of collecting in the above-mentioned water or the high boiling point solvent crude (meth)acrylic acid formed in production of (meth)acrylic acid or to a purification step thereafter (see JP 2000-351749 A, for example). However, in the method, a large volume of water is circulated along with (meth)acrylic acid, and thus, at least energy required for purification of (meth)acrylic acid from the aqueous solution is further increased.
Air or the mixed gas is supplied to (meth)acrylic acid stored in a tank for preventing polymerization. The supplied gas is discharged from the tank as a vent gas along with a vapor of (meth)acrylic acid. (Meth)acrylic acid has a strong odor, and thus is usually guided to a deodorization column and trapped in water or an aqueous solution of caustic soda (see "Safety guidelines for handling acrylic acid and acrylates", 5th edition, Japan Acrylate Industry Association, 1997, for example). The thus-obtained aqueous solution of (meth)acrylic acid has been heretofore treated as waste water. Thus, treatment of the aqueous solution of (meth)acrylic acid has involved a loss of (meth)acrylic acid and an increase in load of waste water treatment.
Meanwhile, JP 2000-351749 A discloses a method for directly introducing a vent gas containing (meth)acrylic acid into the collecting step. However, (meth)acrylic acid is usually produced through a continuous process, and a volume of a vent gas generated from the tank varies depending on receiving or discharge of (meth)acrylic acid. The method may become a variable factor of an operation in a continuous process, and thus is not preferable.
Further, a vent gas from the tank cannot be recycled while a production process of (meth)acrylic acid is stopped, and the vent gas from the tank must be treated separately.

Method for producing (meth) acrylic acid derivitive

Abstract: In the present invention, a (meth)acrylic acid derivative is produced by using as a raw material an aqueous solution of (meth)acrylic acid formed by one or both of: a device which reduces a pressure of a gas comprising (meth)acrylic acid in production of (meth)acrylic acid; and a device which collects (meth)acrylic acid from a gas comprising (meth)acrylic acid.


An improved method for examining fuel bundle spacers using fiber-optic visual inspection apparatus. A distal end of a fiber-optic scope having image and light guides is inserted through an upper tie plate and between the fuel rods of a fuel bundle assembly at the top thereof. The distal end of the scope is then lowered into the space between a group of spacer ferrules until a side aperture of the scope is at the elevation of the spacer spring to be inspected. Light is supplied to the light guide and redirected out the side aperture to a spot proximal to the field of view of the image guide. The distal end of the scope is rotated until the spacer spring to be inspected is visible through an ocular lens coupled to the image guide. The spring is visually inspected for defects by moving the scope to scan the spacer spring.

Fissionable fuel materials such as oxides of uranium, plutonium or thorium, and combinations thereof, are typically formed into small cylindrical slugs or pellets and housed within sealed tubes or elongated containers sometimes referred to in the art as "cladding". Large-capacity power-generating nuclear fission reactor plants normally have several hundred sealed cladding tubes for housing fissionable fuel. To facilitate periodic refueling, which commonly is performed by replacing fractional portions of the total fuel at intervals and rearranging other fractional portions, these fuel rods or pins are conventionally assembled into bundles or groups of elements which can be handled and manipulated as a single composite unit.
The fuel rods of each bundle are held mutually parallel and spaced apart by mechanical means. A typical fuel bundle comprises, e.g., an 8.times.8 or 9.times.9 array of spaced fuel rods. The cladding is usually more than 10 ft long, e.g., 14 ft, and approximately 1/2 inch in diameter, the cladding tubes being spaced from each other by a fraction of an inch. The spacing is required to permit an ample flow of heat-removing coolant, such as water, over the full exterior surface of the cladding for effective heat transfer and thus effective reactor operation.
To inhibit the fuel rods from bowing and vibrating due to high heat and high velocities of coolant flowing thereabout, which could cause adjacent fuel rods to contact and in any case could impede or unbalance coolant flow, the fuel rods are retained in a spaced-apart array or relation by means of a plurality of spacing grids (hereinafter "spacers") positioned at intervals along the fuel rod length.
A typical spacer comprises a plurality of parallel cells which are welded to each other and to a surrounding spacer band to form a lattice of cells. Each cell receives one fuel rod. Each fuel rod passes through a plurality, e.g., seven, of spacers. These spacers are mutually aligned and spaced along the length of the fuel rods. Each spacer receives a different axial portion of the plurality of fuel rods making up the fuel bundle. The spacers provide intermediate restraint and support transverse of the fuel rods, thereby preventing lateral bowing and vibration which could damage the fuel rods or impede effective coolant flow intermediate and around each fuel rod. Spacers for securing bundles of fuel rods often incorporate spring and stop members which press against the fuel rods in metal-to-metal contact as a means of securely gripping and holding the fuel rods in position. The fuel rods additionally have their ends supported in respective sockets of upper and lower tie plates.
The fuel rod bundle assembly is also typically surrounded by an open-ended tubular fuel channel of suitable cross section, e.g., square. The fuel channel directs the flow of coolant longitudinally along the surface of the fuel rods and guides the neutron-absorbing fission control rods which reciprocate longitudinally intermediate adjacent bundles.
Referring to FIG. 1, a typical nuclear fuel bundle 10 comprises a group of spaced-apart, mutually parallel fuel rods 12. Each fuel rod comprises a cylindrical container 14 (i.e., cladding) which houses a vertical stack of pins or slugs of fissionable fuel (not shown) sealed therein. Each fuel rod 12 is transversely secured in the parallel array by a series of spacers 16 positioned at intervals along the length of the fuel rods. The ends of the fuel rods of each bundle are fixed within respective sockets of upper and lower tie plates 18 and 20. The bundle assembly of grouped fuel rods 12 and spacers 16 is surrounded by an open-ended fuel channel 22.
FIG. 2 shows a top view of a typical spacer 16 comprising a plurality of parallel cells or ferrules 25 welded to each other and to a spacer band 27 to form a lattice or grid. Less than all of the ferrules 25 are shown for the sake of convenience.
As best seen in FIGS. 3A and 3B, each pair of adjacent spacer ferrules 25 and 25' share a common spacer spring 26 which biases fuel rods 12 and 12' in opposite directions toward a respective set of stops 24. In the absence of intervening means for deflecting the spring, the spring will be deflected by contact with the fuel rod. The interference between spring 26 and the fuel rods 12 and 12' is best seen in FIG. 3B. The spring 26 exerts a force of several pounds on the surface of each fuel rod during contact.
The structural components of the spacers--especially the spacer springs--must be periodically inspected for defects, such as cracks, corrosion, erosion and separated weld joints. Historically, inspection of irradiated fuel bundle spacers has required the complete disassembly of a fuel bundle at a reactor site in order to retrieve the spacers. The spacers are loaded into a cask, which is certified for shipment of radioactive materials, and shipped to a radioactive materials laboratory for destructive inspection. The above process, aside from being expensive and time consuming, does not allow reinstallment of the spacers for additional exposure to the reactor environment.
A fiber-optic scope, which is specifically constructed to perform examinations of fuel bundle spacers, permits the examination of spacers at the reactor site without the need to disassemble or otherwise disturb the bundle. After the examination, the bundle remains in the reactor core for additional exposure.
It is essential that the spacer springs be inspected because in some cases spacer springs may fail. This raises the specter of pieces of spring breaking off and recirculating in the coolant. Such pieces may block the flow of coolant through a fuel bundle when lodged in a coolant inlet or may even cause damage to the recirculation pump which in turn might break up into pieces. To avoid such failure, it is essential that the spacer springs be inspected.
Conventional fiber-optic scopes of a first type are constructed to enter the fuel bundle from a side and to view the spacer components from above or below. Scopes of the side-entry type require cumbersome and expensive manipulators for locating the scope within the fuel bundle. Conventional fiber-optic scopes of a second type are designed to be inserted from above into a spacer ferrule having its fuel rod removed. Scopes of the first type comprise a flat array of optical guides which, although thin enough to fit between adjacent rows of fuel rods, cannot be inserted into a spacer ferrule.
A known fiber-optic scope of the side-entry variety comprises a flat array of optical guides. The distal end of that scope is constructed as shown in FIGS. 4A, 4B and 4C. Light is supplied to the spot to be inspected by light guides 30a and 30b; light reflected from the inspected spot is transmitted to an ocular lens (not shown) via an image guide 32. Each guide consists of a bundle of fused optical fibers terminating at a planar interface of a respective prism 34. Each prism reflects incoming light at its inclined back interface, preferably by an angle of 90.degree.. The flat array may consist of any number of guides arranged in a repeating pattern of two light guides followed by one image guide or any other suitable pattern. These known scopes require a cumbersome manipulator and cannot be inserted inside the spacer ferrules.

Method for examining irradiated fuel bundle spacer springs using fiber-optic visual inspection equipment


An oil hydraulic circuit having a pilot operated control valve, for performing control of pressure oil supply to a hydraulic actuator and a pilot valve gear for outputting a pilot pressure to the control valve, that improves operationality when a fine operation is performed. The pilot valve gear has a first pressure controller that outputs a pilot pressure corresponding to the degree of operation of an operating lever and a second pressure controller that reduces the pilot pressure outputted from the first pressure controller based on a signal from an operating speed changeover switch and outputs the reduced pilot pressure to the control valve.

1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to a technical field of an hydraulic circuit for a working machine, such as a hydraulic excavator, provided with various hydraulic actuators.
2. Description of Related Art
In general, various hydraulic actuators are provided in a working machine, such as a hydraulic excavator, and working machines exist, which have a structure such that, while control of pressure oil supply to these hydraulic actuators is performed by a pilot operated type control valve, supply of a pilot pressure to the control valve is performed by a pilot valve for outputting a pilot pressure based on an operation with an operating tool. As an example thereof, a hydraulic circuit of a hydraulic cylinder to be provided in a hydraulic excavator is shown in FIG. 6. In FIG. 6, 1 denotes a hydraulic cylinder, 2 denotes a main hydraulic power source, 3 denotes a pilot hydraulic power source, 4 denotes a reservoir, 5 denotes a control valve, and 17 denotes a pilot valve (herein, in FIG. 6, 6 denotes a control valve for another hydraulic actuator 7 which shares an hydraulic power source of supply with the hydraulic cylinder 1). In this hydraulic circuit, a pilot pressure to be outputted from the pilot valve 17 becomes higher as the degree of operation with a control lever 12 becomes greater and, in addition, as the pilot pressure to be supplied becomes higher, the degree of opening of the control valve 5 becomes greater, the amount of pressure oil to be supplied to the hydraulic cylinder 1 increases, and expanding/contracting speed of the cylinder 1 accelerates. That is, a structure is provided such that the cylinder expanding/contracting speed is controlled in a manner corresponding to the degree of operation with the control lever 12, and the relationship between the degree of operation with the control lever 12 and cylinder expanding/contracting speed is as shown in FIG. 7, for example.
Meanwhile, in some cases where a minute operation is performed by slowly expanding/contracting the above hydraulic cylinder, such a maximum speed of the hydraulic cylinder as shown in FIG. 7 is not required, but expanding/contracting actions of the cylinder within a low-speed range indicated as the fine operation area are desirable. However, the range of operation with the control lever is narrow within the above fine operation area, therefore, it is necessary to operate the control lever while suppressing the degree of operation to a small amount. This makes an operator nervous, requires a great deal of skill, and results in poor workability, in which problems to be solved by the invention exist.
In light of the circumstances described above, the invention is created with the aim of solving the problems and provides an oil hydraulic circuit comprising a pilot operated type control valve for performing control of pressure oil supply to a hydraulic actuator and a pilot valve gear for outputting a pilot pressure to the control valve, wherein the pilot valve gear comprises a first pressure control means for outputting a pilot pressure corresponding to the degree of operation with an operating tool and a second pressure control means for reducing the pilot pressure outputted from the first pressure control means based on an external signal and outputting the reduced pilot pressure to the control valve.
Then, by providing such a structure, the acting speed of the hydraulic actuator with respect to the degree of operation with the operating tool can be made slow. Thus, the operationality and workability are improved in, for example, a case where a fine operation is performed.
In the oil hydraulic circuit, the second pressure control means comprises pressure-reducing valves which can switch over the respective states to an inactive state for outputting the pilot pressure from the first pressure control means to the control valve without a reduction, and to an active state for outputting the pilot pressure after a reduction and selector valves which switch over to a first position and to a second position based on an external signal. Further, the selector valves act to bring, at the first position, the respective pressure-reducing valves into an inactive state and, at the second position, into an active state, whereby selection between the case where a pilot pressure to be outputted from the second pressure control means to the control valve is reduced and the case where the same is not reduced can be performed by a switchover of the selector valve based on an external signal.


The present invention is in the field of minibreweries and concerns a double-walled vessel for boiling and fermenting wort, comprising (a1) an opening for receiving liquid and yeast, (a2) a space for holding the liquid, (a3) a temperature control element located between outside wall (a5) and inner wall (a6), (a4) an outlet for discharging liquid, equipped with a valve, and a (a9) a controller capable of controlling (a3), which contains a connection (a9′) to an operating system. The invention also concerns a system containing or adapted to receive said vessel, a process for brewing beer using said system, kits of parts comprising said vessel and/or system and a program for executing said process.

Home brewing of beers requires a lot of effort, equipment and time. To facilitate this process, minibreweries have been developed. A minibrewery is a household appliance that facilitates the brewing of beer by automating (part of) this process. Minibreweries are known from DE 3333541, U.S. Pat. No. 6,032,571, as well as the commercially available minibreweries Brewie, Picobrew, Brewbot, Braumeister and Artbrew. These known minibreweries all suffer from one or more drawbacks. One of them is that conventional microbreweries basically prepare wort and the fermentation step(s) of the brewing process are not automated, while the microbrewery according to the present invention controls all steps including fermentation, and thus truly prepares beer in a ready-to-tap vessel. The drawbacks of existing systems are elegantly resolved with the detachable vessel according to the present invention.


A synchronous driving apparatus for use in a scanning exposure type reproducing apparatus. A scanning system and a recording sheet are moved in synchronization without regard to changes in temperature.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a scanning exposure type reproducing apparatus such as a reproducing camera, an electrophotographic copying machine and the like, and more specifically to a synchronizing apparatus, that is, a synchronous driving apparatus for moving either an original holding frame or an optical system in synchronization with a recording sheet.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A synchronous driving apparatus of particular interest to the present invention is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Utility Model Laying-Open Gazette No. 81648/1986. FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view showing the synchronous driving apparatus disclosed therein and FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the main portion thereof.
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, a conventional synchronous driving apparatus comprises an endless steel belt 52 which is fixed to an original holding frame 51 and which moves according to the movement of the frame. The endless belt 52 is wound around a driving pulley 53. The driving pulley 53 drives a driving roller 54 which is provided coaxially with the driving pulley 53. The driving roller 54 rotates a feeding roller 56 and the feeding roller 56 feeds an image recording sheet 55. A pressing roller 57 presses the image recording sheet 55 onto the feeding roller 56.
The conventional apparatus forms an image on the image recording sheet 55 in synchronization with the scanning of the original. Thus if scanning and movement of the image recording sheet 55 are not carried out at the same speed, the image on the sheet 55 will be skewed. In order to prevent this problem, the conventional apparatus is carefully structured as described in the following. The driving pulley 53 and the driving roller 54 are made of materials which have the same expansion coefficient. The pulley 53 and the roller 54 have the same diameter. Therefore, even if there is a change in temperature, the diameters of the driving pulley 53 and the driving roller 54 will be the same, and their speeds of rotation will be the same. Consequently, there will be no difference between the speed of the original holding frame 51 and the speed of the image recording sheet 55, which would be otherwise caused by thermal expansion derived from a change in temperature.
In the conventional synchronous driving apparatus, synchronization between the rotation of the feeding roller and the movement of the original holding frame can be maintained even if there is a change in temperature. However, even when such synchronization is maintained, the quality of the reproduced and recorded image is sometimes degraded. The reason is as follows. Since the feeding pressing roller 57 (which is formed of rubber) presses the image recording sheet 55 on to the feeding roller 56, the speed of the feeding roller 56 and the image recording sheet 55 is theoretically the same. However, in practice when there is a change in temperature, the hardness of the rubber forming the feeding roller 56 varies, and the volume thereof expands or contracts. Consequently, the diameter of the feeding roller 56 changes. This causes a change in the coefficient of friction between the roller 57 and the image recording sheet 55. Therefore, the friction between the image recording sheet 55 and the feeding roller 56 changes as a function of temperature. Consequently, even if the driving pulley 53 is rotated at a constant speed, the image recording sheet 55 is not necessarily moved at a constant speed.

Synchronous driving apparatus for a scanning exposure type reproducing apparatus


Methods and apparatus are described for providing access to data in a programmable logic device (PLD). A hierarchy of directories and files are maintained in a virtual file system, which is registered with an operating system. The directories and files are associated with resources of a PLD. In response to program calls to file system routines that reference files associated with resources of the PLD, the virtual file system is invoked, and the virtual file system accesses state information in resources of the PLD.

The technology of programmable logic devices (PLDs) has progressed to a level such that it is possible to implement a microprocessor on a PLD and host an operating system such as Linux. Not only may this support various system on a chip (SOC) applications, but with the capabilities of a PLD such as a Virtex field programmable gate array (FPGA) from Xilinx, the SOC is reconfigurable to suit changing requirements or adjust to changing environmental conditions.
The configuration of a PLD such as an FPGA, generally refers to the state of the configurable logic resources of the device as programmed to accomplish a set of required functions. Data that is loaded into the device for a desired configuration may be referred to as configuration data. The state of the device generally refers to the contents of registers in the device at a chosen time while the device is performing the desired functions.
Devices such as the Virtex FPGA have various modes available for accessing the configuration data and state. For example, for general needs the SelectMap interface of the Virtex FPGA may be used to load a configuration bitstream into the device from an external memory or read back configuration data from the device. For testing and diagnostic activities, a boundary scan interface may be used to establish or read back state data. The internal configuration access port (ICAP) may be implemented on a Virtex FPGA to manipulate configurable resources by, for example, an embedded processor, (i.e., self-controlled configuration) after the device has already been configured.
Even though these interfaces for accessing configuration data or device state are suitable for most purposes, the interfaces are low-level (less abstract) and may be unnecessarily complex for some applications. For example, to the developer of an application in which the PLD is to be re-configured while being part of a running system (run-time reconfiguration), the low-level interface may not be familiar. The developer's lack of familiarity may present scheduling, reliability, and cost issues.
The present invention may address one or more of the above issues.

Virtual file system interface to configuration data of a PLD


An unwind data system stores unwind data for a target module in memory pages in main memory prior to an introspection tool making an attempt to generate a backtrace for the target module. The unwind data system detects a trigger in a user script, which includes instructions to generate a backtrace for the target module using the introspection tool. The trigger corresponds to a section of software code of the target module. The unwind data system locates the unwind data in the memory pages in the main memory for the section of software code of the target module and unwinds the section of software code to generate a backtrace using the unwind data located in the memory pages in the main memory.

A software program may unexpectedly be interrupted or stopped. A user, such as a system administrator, a software developer, and a performance analysis staff member, can use an introspection tool, such as the SystemTap introspection tool for the Linux® operating system, to generate a backtrace for the software to help determine the activities of the software leading up to the moment of the interruption. A backtrace is a textual report that lists all of the functions in the software that were running at the moment of the interruption, including the function parameters, the current state of nested function calls in the software program, etc. The introspection tool can translate the backtrace into a function call stack, which is a translation of the backtrace data into a human readable format.
To generate a backtrace, the introspection tool performs a complicated search on the memory state of the stopped program software. Some data that the introspection tool uses to perform that search, such as 'unwind data', is often not loaded into the program software itself. Examples of unwind data include unwind tables and symbol tables. Typically, the introspection tool searches for the unwind data on a disk file, a network, or virtual memory, which traditionally can take on the order of seconds. As a result, there is a large amount of processing overhead during a backtrace generating operation that makes an introspection tool an intrusive system, rather than non-intrusive system.

Preloading unwind data for non-intrusive backtracing


The method of fabricating fire resistant tank apparatus adapted for transportation and for installation above-ground to receive and dispense a liquid hydrocarbon or hydrocarbons, includes providing a metallic tank assembly having lightweight wall means defining inner wall means, intermediate wall means and outer wall means, and spacing the wall means to form primary space between the intermediate wall means and the inner wall means, and secondary space between the intermediate wall means and the outer wall means; providing access porting to a tank interior defined by the assembly; a bottom wall defined by the assembly located to support the assembly at an installation side; and providing thermal barrier material in one of the first and second spaces to effectively define a shell about the tank interior. In addition, fire resistant material may be applied to the outer side or sides of the outer walls and hardened to define a relatively lightweight shell enclosing the tank assembly. The method provides structure that resists severe heat invasion in the form of radiation, convection and conduction to maintain liquid hydrocarbon in the innermost tank isolated from such invasion, the structure also being bullet resistant.

This invention relates generally to tanks for flammable and combustible liquids, and more particularly concerns methods and means for making such tanks fire resistant in above-ground installation environments.
Tanks holding flammable or combustible liquids, such as new and used hydrocarbon products, if installed above ground, can be dangerous if not "fireproofed", i.e., made "fire resistant". For example, if the tanks leak flammable liquid, a fire danger will exist. Fire can weaken the lightweight tank walls and lead to tank collapse and spillage of tank contents. Also, prior tanks were not, in general, bullet resistant.
In the past, such tanks were enclosed in concrete and transported to installation sites; however, the concrete is subject to cracking, which then can allow leakage to the exterior of flammable liquid leaking from the tank itself. Also, the concrete-enclosed tank is extremely heavy and difficult to transport. There is need for method and means to make such tanks fireproof and leak proof in such a way that a relatively lightweight unit is provided, for ease of transportation and installation, and subsequent safety.


At the time of occurrence of camera shake, an angular velocity sensor detects an angular velocity. A rotation angle calculator integrates the angular velocity to calculate angle camera shake. A translational acceleration calculator subtracts an internal acceleration caused during operation of a lens unit from a first translational acceleration detected by an acceleration sensor, so as to calculate a second translational acceleration. A translational velocity calculator integrates the second translational acceleration to calculate a translational velocity. A rotation radius calculator calculates a rotation radius based on the angular velocity and the translational velocity. A shake amount calculator calculates a camera shake amount based on the angle camera shake and the rotation radius. An actuator drives a camera shake correction lens in a direction for canceling the camera shake amount.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image pickup apparatus having a camera shake correction function.
2. Description of the Related Art
As an image pickup apparatus, as well known, there are a digital camera, a monitoring camera, and the like. The image pickup apparatus is generally provided with an automatic focusing mechanism and an automatic exposure control mechanism. Recently, the image pickup apparatus is further provided with a camera shake correction mechanism so as to suppress image quality degradation of a captured image occurring due to camera shake. The camera shake occurs when the image pickup apparatus rotates or shifts in accordance with movement of hands or arms holding the image pickup apparatus. The camera shake is a low-frequency vibration on the order of 1 to 10 Hz. Accordingly, for the purpose of correcting the camera shake, the low-frequency vibration of the image pickup apparatus is detected, and then an imaging device or a correction lens contained in an image pickup lens is caused to move so as to cancel the low-frequency vibration. Thereby, occurrence of image blur on a screen is suppressed.
The image blur due to the rotation of the image pickup apparatus (hereinafter referred to as angle camera shake) occurs when a release button is depressed or the like. On the other hand, the image blur due to parallel shifting of the image pickup apparatus (hereinafter referred to as shift camera shake) occurs when arms holding a camera move, for example. In macro image capturing at high magnification or the like, the shift camera shake affects the captured image adversely more than the angle camera shake. The angle camera shake can be detected by an angular velocity sensor. However, it is difficult for the angular velocity sensor to accurately detect the shift camera shake. In view of the above, recently, in addition to the angular velocity sensor, an acceleration sensor is provided to the image pickup apparatus, so as to detect an acceleration of the image pickup apparatus due to the parallel shifting thereof and suppress occurrence of the shift camera shake based on the detected acceleration (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2010-286721 and US Patent Application Publication No. 2011/0063458 corresponding to Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2010-025961).
In the image pickup apparatus disclosed in each of Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2010-286721 and US Patent Application Publication No. 2011/0063458, it is possible to correct both the angle camera shake and the shift camera shake. However, it is only when mechanical movable sections in the image pickup apparatus do not operate that the angle camera shake and the shift camera shake can be corrected with precision. It is because, while the movable sections operate, vibration of the image pickup apparatus in accordance with an internal acceleration thereof due to the movable sections results in noise in the angular velocity sensor and the acceleration sensor. In a lens unit, the mechanical movable sections are a magnification lens, a focusing lens, an aperture stop, and the like. In the image pickup apparatus disclosed in each of Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2010-286721 and US Patent Application Publication No. 2011/0063458, while the lens unit operates, the camera shake correction mechanism is suspended, and after the operation of the lens unit is stopped, the operation of the camera shake correction mechanism is resumed.
In most cases, while performing zooming operation, focusing, exposure control, or the like, a user observes a through-image on a monitor screen or looks through an optical viewfinder, so as to determine the framing of an image to be captured. As the camera shake correction mechanism is suspended while the lens unit operates, the image quality of the through-image or the image looked through the viewfinder degrades due to the camera shake, and thereby it becomes harder to determine the framing of the image to be captured. In the macro image capturing, in particular, since the magnification is high, degradation of the image quality is prominent even when slight camera shake occurs. Further, in moving-image capturing, the zooming operation or the like is performed in conjunction with the image capturing. Thus, there is a problem in that the image quality of the moving image degrades since the camera shake correction mechanism is suspended every time the zooming operation or the like is performed.


A multi-processor mobile computing device includes a first processor connected to a first operating memory and a mobile display and powered by a portable power source integrated into the multi-processor mobile computing device, a second processor connected to a second operating memory and a display input-output port; the second processor is activated only when mobile device is connected to an external power source. The device includes a dual-function operating system, including a mobile operating system module operating on the first processor, the mobile operating system module having a first capability set and a desktop operating system module operating on the second processor; the desktop operating system module having a second capability set, wherein the second capability set differs from the first capability set.

Mobile devices such as smartphones are increasingly supplanting traditional computers such as laptop and desktop computers. However, existing mobile device technology is limited due to power and size constraints, and so is not able to fulfill many of the functions that traditional computers perform. This problem has stalled the transition that might otherwise occur to mobile devices.


AMP (Accelerated Message Passing) decoder adapted for LDPC (Low Density Parity Check) codes. A novel approach is presented by which the LDPC coded signals may be decoded in a more efficient, faster, and less computationally intensive manner. Soft bit information, generated from decoding a higher layer square sub-matrix of a parity check matrix of the LDPC code, is employed to assist in the decoding of other square sub-matrices in subsequent layers. This approach allows the decoding of an LDPC code whose parity check matrix has column weight more than 1 (e.g., 2 or more), thereby allowing a much broader selection of LDPC codes to be employed in various communication systems. This approach also provides much improvement in terms of BER/BLER as a function of Eb/No (or SNR), and it can provide comparable (if not better) performance when performing significantly fewer (e.g., up to 50% fewer) decoding iterations that other approaches.

1. Technical Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to communication systems; and, more particularly, it relates to decoding of signals employed in such communication systems.
2. Description of Related Art
Data communication systems have been under continual development for many years. One such type of communication system that has been of significant interest lately is a communication system that employs iterative error correction codes. Of particular interest is a communication system that employs LDPC (Low Density Parity Check) code. Communications systems with iterative codes are often able to achieve lower bit error rates (BER) than alternative codes for a given signal to noise ratio (SNR).
A continual and primary directive in this area of development has been to try continually to lower the SNR required to achieve a given BER within a communication system. The ideal goal has been to try to reach Shannon's limit in a communication channel. Shannon's limit may be viewed as being the data rate to be used in a communication channel, having a particular SNR (Signal to Noise Ratio), that achieves error free transmission through the communication channel. In other words, the Shannon limit is the theoretical bound for channel capacity for a given modulation and code rate.
LDPC codes are oftentimes referred to in a variety of ways. For example, iterative soft decoding of LDPC codes may be implemented in a number of ways including based on the BP (Belief Propagation) algorithm, the SP (Sum-Product) algorithm, and/or the MP (Message-Passing) algorithm; the MP algorithm is sometimes referred to as a Sum Product/Belief Propagation combined algorithm. While there has been a significant amount of interest and effort directed towards these types of LDPC codes, regardless of which particular manner of iterative decoding algorithm is being employed in the specific case (3 of which are enumerated above: BP, SP, and MP), there still is ample room for improvement in the implementation and processing to be performed within a communication device to complete such decoding. For example, there are a variety of relatively complex and numerically burdensome calculations, data management and processing that must be performed to effectuate the accurate decoding of an LDPC coded signal.
LDPC code has been shown to provide for excellent decoding performance that can approach the Shannon limit in some cases. For example, some LDPC decoders have been shown to come within 0.3 dB (decibels) from the theoretical Shannon limit. While this example was achieved using an irregular LDPC code of a length of one million, it nevertheless demonstrates the very promising application of LDPC codes within communication systems.
FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a prior art embodiment of MP (Message Passing) decoding functionality 400. In this prior art embodiment, the bit metrics 410 are initialized and provided to one or more bit engine processors (shown generally as bit engine 421, bit engine 422, bit engine 423, . . . , and bit engine 424). The one or more bit engine processors 421-424 perform bit node processing by updating a plurality of edge messages with respect to a plurality of bit nodes, Medgeb, using the initialized bit metrics 410.
This results in the generation of the updated edge messages with respect to a plurality of bit nodes, Medgeb, of the first generation. Thereafter, these updated edge messages with respect to a plurality of bit nodes, Medgeb, are provided to and stored in an edge memory 430 from which they may subsequently be appropriately retrieved for check node processing using one or more check engine processors (shown generally as check engine 441, check engine 442, check engine 443, . . . , and check engine 444). The one or more check engine processors 441-444 perform check node processing by updating a plurality of edge messages with respect to a plurality of check nodes, Medgec, using the most recently updated plurality of edge messages with respect to a plurality of bit nodes, Medgeb. Thereafter, these updated edge messages with respect to a plurality of check nodes, Medgec, are provided to and stored in the edge memory 430 from which they may subsequently be appropriately retrieved for bit node processing using the one or more bit engine processors 421-424.
The one or more bit engine processors 421-424 and the one or more check engine processors 441-444 operate cooperatively to perform iterative decoding processing that involves updating the plurality of edge messages with respect to a plurality of bit nodes, Medgeb, and updating the plurality of edge messages with respect to a plurality of check nodes, Medgec. After a final decoding iteration, the most recently updated plurality of edge messages with respect to a plurality of bit nodes, Medgeb, is employed to generate soft bit information from which subsequent hard decisions are made to make best estimates of the one or more information bits that have undergone LDPC encoding.
In addition, there are also two known prior art approaches by decoding of LDPC coded signals may be performed in accordance with a LMP (Layered Message Passing) decoding approach. The following two references describe the LMP decoding approach.
[a] M. M. Mansour and N. R. Shanbhag, "High-throughput LDPC decoder," IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory, vol. 11, no. 6, pp. 976-996, December 2003.
[b] D. E. Hocevar, "A reduced complexity decoder architecture via layered decoding of LDPC codes," Signal Processing Systems, 2004, SIPS 2004, IEEE Workshop on 13-15 October 2004, pp. 107-112.
Using the LMP decoding approach, the parity check matrix, H, of an LDPC code has the following form.H=[H1H2 . . . HL]T.  (EQ 1)
In this form, each of the sub-matrices, Hi, has the same number of rows. Moreover, each of the sub-matrices, Hi, may further be decomposed as follows:Hi=└Hi,1Hi,2 . . . Hi,M┘.  (EQ 2)
In this decomposed form, it is noted that each of these sub-matrices, Hi,j, is either a p×p matrix in which all elements are either 0 (i.e., an all zero-valued matrix) or a p×p matrix that is a permutation of the identity matrix. While each of the two prior art decoding approaches can provide a means to reduce the total number of decoding iterations required (e.g., because of their layered decoding approach), each of these two prior art decoding approaches is significantly limited, in that, they can only accommodate a sub-matrix, Hi,j, that is permutation of a single p×p identity matrix.
The use of LDPC coded signals continues to be explored within many newer application areas. One such application area is that of digital video broadcasting. The Digital Video Broadcasting Project (DVB) is an industry-led consortium of over 260 broadcasters, manufacturers, network operators, software developers, regulatory bodies and others in over 35 countries committed to designing global standards for the global delivery of digital television and data services. Publicly available information concerning the DVB is available at the following Internet address:
"http://www.dvb.org/"
The DVB-S2 (i.e., DVB-Satellite Version 2) draft standard is also publicly available via this Internet address, and the current DVB-S2 draft standard may be downloaded in Adobe PDF format at the following Internet address:
"http://www.dvb.org/documents//en302307.v1.1.1.draft.pdf"
The entire contents of this current DVB-S2 draft standard, "Draft ETSI EN 302 307 V1.1.1 (2004-06), Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB); Second generation framing structure, channel coding and modulation systems for Broadcasting, Interactive Services, News Gathering and other broadband satellite applications" is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety and made part of the present disclosure for all purposes.
In addition, the standard "ETSI EN 302 307 V1.1.1 (2005-03), Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB); Second generation framing structure, channel coding and modulation systems for Broadcasting, Interactive Services, News Gathering and other broadband satellite applications" was formally ratified by the ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute) in March 2005. The entire contents of this standard is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety and made part of the present disclosure for all purposes.
In addition, DVB-S2 uses a powerful FEC (Forward Error Correction) system based on concatenation of BCH (Bose-Chaudhuri-Hocquenghem) outer coding with LDPC inner coding. The result is performance which is at times only 0.7 dB from the Shannon limit. The choice of FEC parameters depends on the system requirements. With VCM (Variable Coding and Modulation) and ACM (Adaptive Coding and Modulation), the code rates can be changed dynamically, on a frame by frame basis.
The multiple operational parameters to which a receiving device, that includes a decoder, must operate to be DVB-S2 compliant is very clearly laid out by the operational parameters of the transmission system description. However, as long as a receiving device, that includes a decoder, complies with these operational parameters specified within the DVB-S2 standard, great latitude in the means of implementation is permissible. The generation of signals on the transmission end of a communication channel is clearly laid out within the DVB-S2 standard, and the means by which the receive processing of such signal (at the receiving end of a communication channel) may be performed is widely open to the designer. Clearly, a key design constrain of such receiving devices is to provide for the accommodation of such DVB-S2 signals while providing for very high performance while occupying a relatively small amount of area and having a relatively lower level of complexity.
Within the context of DVB-S2 as well as other types of communication systems, there continues to be a need in the art for faster and more efficient means by which LDPC coded signals (as well as other types of coded signals) may be decoded to provide for a variety of design constraints including operational speed, less computational complexity, less burdensome memory management, as well as overall lower BERs (Bit Error Rates) for various degrees of SNR (Signal to Noise Ratio).
Moreover, there is no means presently in the art to do layered decoding using a low density parity check matrix, H, that has a p×p sub-matrix, Hi,j, that is a sum of multiple permuted p×p identity matrices. For example, when a p×p sub-matrix, Hi,j, has more than one "1" value per row or per column, the prior art layered decoding approach does not work.
It is known in the art that the more constraints placed on the construction of an LDPC code inherently limits the LDPC code's performance. The fact that this prior art layered decoding approach can handle only p×p sub-matrices, Hi,j, having one "1" value per row or per column restricts the selection of LDPC codes that may be employed. By being restricted to only LDPC codes having this format, a designer does not have the flexibility to construct a better performing LDPC code while using this prior art layered decoding approach.

AMP (accelerated message passing) decoder adapted for LDPC (low density parity check) codes


Semiconductor structures and methods for fabrication thereof are predicated upon epitaxial growth of an epitaxial surface semiconductor layer upon a semiconductor substrate having a first crystallographic orientation. The semiconductor substrate is exposed within an aperture within a semiconductor-on-insulator structure. The epitaxial surface semiconductor layer alternatively contacts or is isolated from a surface semiconductor layer having a second crystallographic orientation within the semiconductor-on-insulator structure. A recess of the semiconductor surface layer with respect to a buried dielectric layer thereunder and a hard mask layer thereover provides for inhibited second crystallographic phase growth within the epitaxial surface semiconductor layer.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to semiconductor structures. More particularly, the invention relates to semiconductor structures having enhanced performance.
2. Description of the Related Art
As semiconductor technology advances, dimensions of semiconductor devices and semiconductor structures continue to decrease. As a result of this continued scaling of semiconductor device and semiconductor structure dimensions, it has become increasingly important within semiconductor technology to fabricate semiconductor devices with increasingly enhanced performance at continued decreased dimensions.
An additional trend within semiconductor technology that also provides enhanced semiconductor device performance is the fabrication of semiconductor devices upon different crystallographic orientation semiconductor substrates. Generally, particular crystallographic orientations are selected to optimize either electron mobility or hole mobility. For example, nFET devices are desirably fabricated upon 100 crystallographic orientation silicon containing semiconductor substrates to provide enhanced electron mobility, while pFET devices are desirable fabricated upon 110 crystallographic orientation silicon containing semiconductor substrates to provide enhanced hole mobility.
Examples of semiconductor structures fabricated using multiple crystallographic orientation substrates are known in the art.
For example, Yamada et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 6,835,981, teaches a semiconductor structure that includes both a bulk semiconductor region and a semiconductor-on-insulator (SOI) region. Within this prior art reference, the bulk semiconductor region and the SOI region are separated by an isolation region.
In addition, Yamashita in U.S. Pat. No. 6,949,420 teaches a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) semiconductor substrate having a plurality of surface crystallographic regions. Within this prior art reference, an oxygen ion implant method is used for forming a buried dielectric layer within one of the SOI regions.
Semiconductor device dimensions are certain to continue to decrease, and as a result thereof it is desirable to fabricate semiconductor devices with enhanced performance at decreased dimensions. To that end, additional semiconductor structures that are advantaged through use of multiple crystallographic orientation semiconductor substrates are desirable.

Semiconductor structures including multiple crystallographic orientations and methods for fabrication thereof


An exhaust aftertreatment system for purifying an exhaust gas feedstream expelled from an internal combustion engine that is operable at an air/fuel ratio that is lean of stoichiometry is described. The exhaust aftertreatment system includes a plasma reactor disposed upstream of a selective catalytic reactor device. The plasma reactor is electrically connected to a plasma controller. The plasma controller controls the plasma reactor to generate ozone from constituents of the exhaust gas feedstream, and the ozone reacts to oxidize nitrogen oxide contained in the exhaust gas feedstream to form nitrogen dioxide. The nitrogen dioxide reacts with a reductant in the selective catalytic reactor device to form elemental nitrogen and water.

Internal combustion engines introduce an air/fuel mixture into each cylinder that is compressed during a compression stroke and ignited by either the compression (compression-ignition) or by a spark plug (spark-ignition). Spark-ignition (SI) engines may operate in different combustion modes, including, by way of non-limiting examples, a homogeneous SI combustion mode and a stratified-charge SI combustion mode. SI engines may also be configured to operate in a homogeneous-charge compression-ignition (HCCI) combustion mode, also referred to as controlled auto-ignition combustion.
An engine in-cylinder air/fuel mixture may be characterized in terms of an air/fuel ratio, which may be described as stoichiometric, lean, or rich. Compression-ignition engines and spark-ignition engines may be configured to operate at lean air/fuel ratio conditions. Engine exhaust gases associated with lean air/fuel ratio operation may have relatively higher quantities of nitrogen oxides, including, e.g., nitric oxide (NO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2), as compared to an internal combustion engine operating at stoichiometry.

Method and apparatus for exhaust purification for an internal combustion engine


The present invention relates to methods and compositions for the treatment and prophylaxis of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) in a human subject in need of such treatment, the methods comprising the pulmonary administration to the subject, preferably via inhalation of a composition comprising rapamycin or a prodrug or derivative thereof.

Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is an increase of blood pressure in the pulmonary artery, pulmonary vein, or pulmonary capillaries, together known as the lung vasculature, leading to chest pain, dizziness, fainting, fatigue, leg swelling, light-headedness during exercise, shortness of breath during activity and/or weakness. The symptoms of PH are similar to those of other more common heart and lung problems. Those disorders include asthma, pneumonia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), left heart failure and/or coronary disease, which make the diagnosis of PH often challenging. The initial cause of PH remains unknown. Vasoconstriction or tightening of blood vessels connected to and within the lungs are observed in PH. The walls of the smallest blood vessels thicken and are no longer able to transfer oxygen and carbon dioxide normally between the blood and the lungs. This makes it harder for the heart to pump blood through the lungs. Over time the affected blood vessels become both stiffer and thicker in a process known as fibrosis. This further increases the blood pressure within the lungs and impairs blood flow, increases the work load of the heart, and causes hypertrophy of the right ventricle. The heart is less able to pump blood through the lungs resulting in heart failure and death in patients. The normal pulmonary arterial pressure in a person living at sea level has a mean value of 8-20 mm Hg at rest. PH is present when mean pulmonary artery pressure exceeds 25 mm Hg at rest.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has classified PH into various groups such as: WHO Group 1-pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) (e.g., idiopathic, heritable (BMPR2, ALK1, endogolin, unknown), drug- and toxin induced, PH associated with connective tissue disease, HIV infection, portal hypertension, congenital heart diseases, schistosomiasis or chronic hemolytic anemia (including sickle cell anemia), persistent pulmonary hypertension of the new born), WHO Group I′-Pulmonary veno-occlusive disease (PVOD) and/or pulmonary capillary hemangiomatosis (PCH), WHO Group II-pulmonary hypertension owing to left heart disease (e.g., systolic or diastolic dysfunction, valvular disease), WHO Group III-PH owing to lung disease and/or hypoxia (e.g. chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, interstitial lung disease, other pulmonary diseases with mixed restrictive and obstructive pattern, sleep-disordered breathing, alveolar hypoventilation disorders, chronic exposure to high altitude, developmental abnormalities), WHO Group IV-chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH), and/or WHO Group V-PH with unclear multifactorial mechanisms (e.g. hematologic diseases: myeloproliferative disease, splenectomy, systemic diseases: sarcoidosis, pulmonary Langerhans cell histiocytosis: lymphangioleiomyomatosis, neurofibromatosis, vasculitis, metabolic disorders: glycogen storage disease, Gaucher disease, thyroid diseases, and others: tumoral obstruction, fibrosing mediastinities, chronic renal failure on dialysis).
Pulmonary hypertension (PH) has no cure. Treatment only relieves symptoms and slows the progress of the disease. Despite considerable advances in medical therapy for PH, long-term mortality remains high, largely as a result of heart failure and other cardiovascular diseases.
Some types of PH can be treated if the underlying lung disease is known. Currently treatment options available for those suffering from PH of unknown causes target cellular dysfunction that leads to constriction of the vasculature. Therapies such as prostacyclin, prostanoids, phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitors, endothelin receptor antagonists and other vasodilators primarily work by causing dilation of the pulmonary vessels. For example, prostacyclin given intravenously through a catheter surgically implanted in the skin improves the quality of life, increases survival, and reduces the urgency of lung transplantation. Vasodilators, such as calcium channel blockers, nitric oxide, and prostacyclin, are often helpful for PH associated with scleroderma, chronic liver disease, and HIV infection. In contrast, these drugs have not been proven effective for people with PH due to an underlying lung disease. For PAH diuretics, dixogin and oxygen therapy are often prescribed. Unfortunately, many patients respond poorly to these therapies or stop responding to them over time. The only remaining option then is a single and/or double lung transplantation, or heart-lung transplantation to treat PH. Although there is some evidence that available therapies have secondary effects on vascular remodeling, there are currently no therapies that target abnormal cell proliferation in PH.
The molecular mechanism of PH is not known, but it is believed that the endothelial dysfunction results in a decrease in the synthesis of endothelium-derived vasodilators such as nitric oxide and prostacyclin. Hyperplasia of pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells (PA-SMCs) is a pathological feature of all forms of PH that leads to structural remodeling and occlusion of the pulmonary vessels. Pulmonary vascular remodeling is due to abnormal proliferation and resistance to apoptosis of cells forming the vascular wall, including PA-SMCs, endothelial cells and pulmonary adventitial fibroblasts. Intracellular signaling pathways involving the serine/threonine kinase Akt and mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) are known to be critical in cell proliferation and cancer and may also take part in the proliferation of vascular smooth muscle cells in PH. In PA-SMCs, Akt and mTOR signaling can be activated by numerous growth factors, as well as physical stimuli, such as shear stress and hypoxia. Thus, the Akt-mTOR signaling pathway is shared by various physical and biological stimuli that act on PA-SMCs and can induce PH.
Rapamycin is a macrocyclic triene antibiotic produced by Streptomyces hygroscopicus (See U.S. Pat. No. 3,929,992). Rapamycin is an inhibitor of mTOR. The immunosuppressive and anti-inflammatory properties of rapamycin initially indicated its use in the transplantation field and in the treatment of autoimmune diseases. For example, it was shown to prevent the formation of humoral (IgE-like) antibodies in response to an albumin allergic challenge, to inhibit murine T-cell activation, and to prolong survival time of organ grafts in histoincompatable rodents. In rodent models of autoimmune disease, it suppresses immune-mediated events associated with systemic lupus erythematosus, collagen-induced arthritis, autoimmune type I diabetes, autoimmune myocarditis, experimental allergic encephalomyelitis, graft-versus-host disease, and autoimmune uveoretinitis.
Rapamycin is also referred to by its generic drug name, sirolimus (see for example, ANDA #201578, by Dr. Reddys Labs Ltd., approved May 28, 2013). Sirolimus is FDA approved and marketed in the United States for the prophylaxis of organ rejection and renal transplantation under the trade name RAPAMUNE by Wyeth (Pfizer). It is in the form of an oral solution (1 mg/ml) or tablet (multiple strengths). Wyeth (Pfizer) also markets a derivative by the tradename TORISEL (temsirolimus) for the treatment of advanced renal cell carcinoma, which is administered intravenously. Temsirolimus is a water-soluble prodrug of sirolimus. Cordis, a division of Johnson & Johnson, markets a sirolimus-eluting coronary stent under the tradename CYPHER. In this context, the antiproliferative effects of sirolimus prevent restenosis in coronary arteries following balloon angioplasty. US 2010/0305150 to Berg et al. (Novartis) describes rapamycin derivatives for treating and preventing neurocutaneous disorders, such as those mediated by TSC including tuberous sclerosis, as well as those mediated by neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF-1). Rapamycin and its derivatives are further described in Nishimura, T. et al. (2001) Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med. 163:498-502 and in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,384,046 and 6,258,823.
Rapamycin use in its clinically approved context has several known adverse effects including lung toxicity (the RAPAMUNE label warns that it is not indicated for lung transplant patients), increased cancer risk, and diabetes-like symptoms. Rapamycin is associated with the occurrence of pulmonary toxicity, usually in the form of interstitial pneumonitis, but pulmonary alveolar proteinosis has also been documented. See for example, Nocera et al., Sirolimus Therapy in Liver Transplant Patients: An Initial Experience at a Single Center, Transplantation Proceedings (2008), 40(6), 1950-1952; Perez et al., Interstitial Pneumonitis Associated With Sirolimus in Liver Transplantation: A Case Report, Transplantation Proceedings (2007), 39(10), 3498-3499; Hashemi-Sadraei et al., Sirolimus-associated diffuse alveolar hemorrhage in a renal transplant recipient on long-term anticoagulation, Clinical Nephrology (2007), 68(4), 238-244; Pedroso et al., Pulmonary alveolar proteinosis—a rare pulmonary toxicity of sirolimus, Transplant International (2007), 20(3), 291-296. The cause of rapamycin-induced pulmonary toxicity is not known. It is the lung toxicity of rapamycin that is of primary concern for its use in the treatment of PH.
Severe respiratory adverse events have also been associated with sirolimus use as an anti-cancer therapy under chronic administration resulting in circulating blood concentrations greater than 1 nanogram/mL range. For example, the lung toxicity of the sirolimus prodrug, temsirolimus, was documented in a 2009 report noting that "interstitial lung disease is a rare side effect of temsirolimus treatment in renal cancer patients". Aparicio et al., Clinical & Translational Oncology (2009), 11(8), 499-510; Vahid et al., Pulmonary complications of novel antineoplastic agents for solid tumors, Chest (2008) 133:528-538. In addition, a 2012 meta-analysis concluded that 10% of cancer patients administered temsirolimus or everolimus may experience mild grade toxicity with a worsening of quality of life and, in some case, interruption of therapy. See lacovelli et al., Incidence and risk of pulmonary toxicity in patients treated with mTOR inhibitors for malignancy. A meta-analysis of published trials, Acta oncologica (2012), 51(7), 873-879. Furthermore, safety pharmacology studies performed in rats with temsirolimus (see Pharm/Tox section of temsirolimus NDA) showed reductions in respiratory rate as well as alveolar macrophage infiltration and inflammation in the lungs (see Pharmacology Review for temsirolimus NDA 22088 available from the US FDA website). These adverse effects were observed under conditions of relatively high concentrations of the drug in the circulating blood volume as a result of systemic administration.
Despite its potential for toxicity to the lung, rapamycin has been investigated as a potential treatment for PH in various animal models (Ghofrani et al J. Am. Coll. Cardiol. 54(1):S108-S118 (2009); Paddenberg et al BioMed Central 8 (15): 1-12 (2007)). US Patent Application 2014/0271871 and WO2008/137148 (collectively, "the Abraxis applications") describe methods for treating, stabilizing, preventing, and/or delaying PH by administering nanoparticles of rapamycin and a carrier protein such as albumin. Various modes of administration of these rapamycin nanoparticles are generally described including inhalation. But an aerosol formulation of rapamycin for delivery directly to the lungs would be considered highly unlikely to succeed in view of rapamycin's well-known lung toxicity, as exemplified by the articles cited above. Indeed, the prophetic clinical trial designs described in the Abraxis applications include only intravenous administration. There is no data in the Abraxis applications that would indicate to the skilled person that the problems associated with lung toxicity of rapamycin have been overcome. A U.S. patent application by Lehrer published in 2013 reflects the view that "[r]apamycin (sirolimus) cannot be safely inhaled because of its well-documented lung toxicity, interstitial pneumonitis". See US 20130004436, citing Chhajed et al. (2006) 73:367-374. The Lehrer patent application is directed to compositions and methods for treating and preventing lung cancer and lymphangioleiomyomatosis. Although some earlier publications, such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,080,899 to Sturm et al. (filed February 1991) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,635,161 (filed June 1995), contain some generic description of rapamycin for delivery by inhalation, such generic descriptions were unsupported by any evidence and came before the many reported incidences of rapamycin-induced lung toxicity that appeared following its more widespread adoption as an immunosuppressant in the transplantation context and as an inhibitor of cellular proliferation in the anti-cancer context, as evidenced by the reports discussed above.
WO 2011/163600 describes an aerosol formulation of tacrolimus, which like rapamycin is a macrolide lactone. But tacrolimus is a distinct chemical entity from sirolimus and the molecular target of tacrolimus is calcineurin, not mTOR, and unlike rapamycin, tacrolimus did not show lung toxicity and in fact is indicated for preventing rejection following lung transplantations.
In view of the wide-spread recognition of the potential for rapamycin-induced lung toxicity, a pharmaceutical composition comprising rapamycin for pulmonary delivery was not considered to be a viable therapeutic option in humans.
Delivery of drugs to the lung by way of inhalation is an important means of treating a variety of conditions, including such common local conditions as cystic fibrosis, pneumonia, bronchial asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, some systemic conditions, including hormone replacement, pain management, immune deficiency, erythropoiesis, diabetes, lung cancer, etc. See review by Yi et al. J. Aerosol Med. Pulm. Drug Deliv. 23:181-7 (2010). Agents indicated for treatment of lung cancer by inhalation include cisplatin, carboplatin, taxanes, and anthracyclines. See e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,419,900; 6,419,901; 6,451,784; 6,793,912; and U.S. Patent Application Publication Nos. US 2003/0059375 and US 2004/0039047. In addition, doxorubicin and temozolomide administered by inhalation have been suggested for treating lung metastases. See e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 7,288,243 and U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US 2008/0008662.
There is a need for pharmaceutical formulations of rapamycin, its prodrugs, derivatives, and analogues, that can safely be delivered directly to the lungs, preferably by inhalation, in order to provide a more effective dosage form for the treatment and prophylaxis of diseases and disorders affected by the TOR signaling pathway that reduces or eliminates the toxicities and adverse events associated with oral dosage forms of rapamycin.

Inhalable rapamycin formulation for the treatment of pulmonary hypertension