Cheese curd suitable for conversion into natural hard cheese is prepared by ultrafiltering and diafiltering milk or a milk product to produce a retentate, ripening the retentate by fermenting with a cheese starter culture, coagulating the retentate to produce a coagulum, cutting, cooking and agitating the cut coagulum to produce curd, and separating the curd from whey. The retentate has a concentration Factor of 2-8 and contains 1.0-6.2% w/w lactose. Ripening the retentate produces a pH drop of 0.05-1.5 units. Cutting the a coagulum is at a time between 120% and 220% of coagulation time and cooking is at a temperature of 30.degree.-50.degree. C. Combined cooking and agitating operations take 20-120 minutes. Coagulation may be continuous, and a minor portion of the retentate may be separated, fermented with a cheese starter culture and mixed with the remaining retentate to produce a ripened retentate having a pH of 0.05-1.0 units lower than before ripening.

The manufacture of cheese from milk concentrated by ultrafiltration (UF) is a radical innovation in cheesemaking which has been introduced to increase the yield of cheese. The increase in yield, which may exceed 20%, is due to incorporation into the cheese of soluble proteins, principally .alpha.-lactalbumin and .beta.-lactoglobulin. In conventional cheesemaking, these proteins are almost totally lost in the whey. Cheesemaking by UF offers other advantages, including reduced rennet consumption, a more uniform product, a less-polluting effluent, more efficient fat utilization, more uniform cheese weights, and the possibility of continuous cheese manufacture. In addition, the principal effluent (permeate) is particularly well suited to further processing, e.g. lactose crystallization or hydrolysis. The principle of manufacturing cheese from milk concentrated by UF (called retentate) in order to obtain increased cheese yield, is well known (Maubois et al, Aust. Pat. No. 477,339 (1978); Maubois et al, Le Lait, 51, 495, 1971) and is now used commercially in the manufacture of some varieties of soft (i.e. high moisture) cheese.
Ultrafiltration is a pressure-driven membrane separation process, utilizing pressures of 0.1-1.0 MPa and membranes with pore sizes of 5-35 nm. Macromolecules (e.g. proteins) and fat globules are retained on the feed side of the membrane, in the retentate, while the solvent (water) and small solute molecules (lactose, inorganic ions etc.) pass through the membrane and constitute the permeate. The principles of UF, the equipment available, and its application in dairy processing have recently been reviewed (Glover et al. (1978) J.Dairy Res., 45, 291). UF is now a commercially accepted technique for dairy processing. In most of the installed equipment, milk can be concentrated about 5-fold, but in new equipment now becoming available the attainable concentration factor may reach 9:1.
The well known process by which soft cheeses are manufactured from milk UF retentate was pioneered and patented by French workers (Maubois et al. op.cit). It is based on the concentration of whole or skim milk by UF, with the addition of high-fat cream in the latter case, to yield a product ("pre-cheese") containing about 60% moisture and having a gross composition similar to that of the desired cheese. Coagulation and fermentation of the pre-cheese affords the finished cheese directly, with little or no whey drainage or loss of whey proteins. The rennet requirement is reduced by approximately 80%. Camembert made by this process was initially claimed to be indistinguishable from the conventionally made cheese but more recently it has been reported to have flavour and textural defects.
The experimental manufacture of certain semi-hard cheeses from milk concentrated by UF has been reported. The varieties include Mozzarella, Gouda, blue-vein cheese, St. Paulin, Herve, and Havarti. In all cases, the desired moisture content was achieved by whey drainage. The volume of whey from the St. Paulin was exceptionally small, as this cheese was made from milk ultrafiltered to 45-46% solids by using new mineral membranes. These membranes are not in general use.
The manufacture of hard cheese from retentate presents difficulties much greater than those encountered in the manufacture of soft and semi-hard cheeses. The difficulties derive from the requirements of (i) removing more water from the retentate (typically 60% moisture in 5:1 retentate) in hard cheese manufacture than in soft cheese manufacture in order to achieve the desired composition, while (ii) retaining the sensory attributes of the cheese variety and (iii) simultaneously achieving a sufficient yield increase to justify introducing the UF-based process.

Preparation of hard cheese from concentrated milk


A single-use camera comprises a light-tight film casing and a film cassette located inside the casing. The film cassette includes a rotatable film spool with an end portion engageable to rotate the spool, and an active light lock with an end portion engageable to rotate the light lock open to permit film movement out of and into the cassette interior and closed to prevent ambient light from entering the cassette interior. The casing has separate weakened areas covering the end portion of the spool and the end portion of the light lock which can be entirely pierced to make respective perforations in the casing to permit individual access to the end portions to engage them for rotating the spool and for rotating the light lock closed and, simultaneously, to destroy the casing to prevent it from being reused.

Single-use cameras have recently become well known, for example, the "Kodak FunSaver 35 with FLASH". Typically, the single-use camera is a simple point-and-shoot type which comprises a plastic light-tight film casing or housing with a fixed-focus taking lens, a film metering mechanism, a single blade shutter, a frame (exposure) counter, and possibly a built-in electronic flash unit, and a decorative cardboard cover containing the light-tight casing and having respective openings for the taking lens, a shutter release button, a film advance thumbwheel, a direct see-through viewfinder, the frame counter, and a flash emission window. At the manufacturer, the light-tight casing is loaded with a conventional 12, 24, or 36 exposure 35 mm film cassette and substantially the entire length of the unexposed filmstrip is factory prewound from the cassette onto a spool in the casing or simply into a roll. Then, after the photographer takes a picture, he or she manually rotates the thumbwheel to rewind the exposed frame into the cassette. The rewinding movement of the filmstrip the equivalent of slightly more than one frame rotates a metering sprocket to decrement the frame counter to its next lower numbered setting. Further details of this operation are disclosed in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 5,235,366, issued Aug. 10, 1993, and in U.S. Pat. No. 4,890,130, issued Dec. 26, 1989. When the maximum number of exposures available on the filmstrip are exposed and the filmstrip is completely rewound into the cassette, the camera is given to a photofinisher who first removes the cassette with the filmstrip from the casing to develop the negatives and then forwards the camera to the manufacturer for recycling. The manufacturer, in turn, recycles the camera by loading it with another roll of film and repeating the foregoing prewinding process.

Single-use camera with weakened area to access film cassette


In order to obtain an excellent color processing result by calculating an optimal white point in partial adaptation, first white point data which indicates white of a device is input, the first white point data is projected onto a predetermined curve, and white point data in the partial adaptation located on the predetermined curve is calculated using the projected first white point data and the second white point data located on the predetermined curve. Color processing of input color data is performed using the white point data in the partial adaptation, which is corrected in accordance with the positional relationship between the first white point data and projected first white point data, and the color reproduction characteristics of the device.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to color processing considering chromatic adaptation.
2. Description of the Related Art
Color matching for matching color reproduction between an image display device such as a monitor, projector, or the like and an image output device such as an inkjet or electrophotographic printer is available. There is proposed color matching which converts the absolute value (e.g., the tristimulus value XYZ) of the color of a color patch measured by a measurement device into a color value on a relative color space (color appearance space) considering the color appearance to human, and uses the converted color value.
As a color appearance space, a CIELab space, a JCh space used in CIECAM97s and CIECAM02, or the like is available. In order to convert a measurement value (XYZ value) into that on a color appearance space, a white point (to be referred to as a reference white point, hereinafter) is used as a reference for relative conversion. In general, a color (to be referred to as device white, hereinafter) with a highest brightness which the image display device can display is employed as the reference white point. However, when the color selected as the device white is not an achromatic color but a slightly chromatic color, a phenomenon (incomplete adaptation) occurs in which the human eyes do not completely adapt to the device white. In addition, when viewing a monitor or the like, it is necessary to consider a phenomenon (partial adaptation) in which not only the device white (the white point of the monitor) but also the white point of the light (to be referred to as ambient light, hereinafter) around the viewing environment influences the color appearance.
For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 9-093451 discloses a technique of calculating a white point in partial adaptation from a plurality of white points to use it as a reference white point.
For example, when the color appearance on a monitor is to be calculated, a white point in the partial adaptation is calculated on a line which connects the white point of the monitor and that of the ambient light. However, since an xy plane, uv plane, or u′v′ plane of a color space used to calculate the white point in the partial adaptation shows poor linearity with respect to the distributions of various actual light sources and the human visual characteristics, an optimal white point in the partial adaptation cannot be calculated.
FIG. 1 is a graph showing the method of obtaining a white point in the partial adaptation. Assume that a monitor with a white point 101 greenish compared to a blackbody locus 104 is viewed under the ambient light with a white point 102 on the blackbody locus 104. In this case, a white point 103 calculated in the partial adaptation is not a white point on the blackbody locus 104 but a somewhat reddish white point.
In other words, as the technique in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 9-093451, a technique of calculating a white point in the partial adaptation on a line which connects two different white points so as to set it as a reference white point does not always calculate an optimal white point in partial adaptation.

Color processing apparatus and method thereof


A method of manufacturing a thermally-assisted magnetic recording head includes the steps of: forming a preliminary head section that has a surface to be polished and includes a magnetic pole, a waveguide, and a preliminary plasmon generator; causing a volumetric expansion of the preliminary plasmon generator with heat by introducing light into the core of the waveguide of the preliminary head section; and polishing the surface to be polished of the preliminary head section into a medium facing surface. The preliminary plasmon generator has an end face located in the surface to be polished. In the step of polishing the surface to be polished, the surface to be polished is subjected to polishing with the preliminary plasmon generator expanded in volume, whereby the end face of the preliminary plasmon generator is polished into the front end face, and the preliminary plasmon generator thereby becomes the plasmon generator.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a thermally-assisted magnetic recording head that includes a waveguide and a plasmon generator.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, magnetic recording devices such as magnetic disk drives have been improved in recording density, and thin-film magnetic heads and magnetic recording media of improved performance have been demanded accordingly. Among the thin-film magnetic heads, a composite thin-film magnetic head has been used widely. The composite thin-film magnetic head has such a structure that a read head section including a magnetoresistive element (hereinafter, also referred to as MR element) for reading and a write head section including an induction-type electromagnetic transducer for writing are stacked on a substrate. In a magnetic disk drive, the thin-film magnetic head is mounted on a slider that flies slightly above the surface of the magnetic recording medium.
To increase the recording density of a magnetic recording device, it is effective to make the magnetic fine particles of the magnetic recording medium smaller. Making the magnetic fine particles smaller, however, causes the problem that the magnetic fine particles drop in the thermal stability of magnetization. To solve this problem, it is effective to increase the anisotropic energy of the magnetic fine particles. However, increasing the anisotropic energy of the magnetic fine particles leads to an increase in coercivity of the magnetic recording medium, and this makes it difficult to perform data writing with existing magnetic heads.
To solve the aforementioned problems, there has been proposed a technology so-called thermally-assisted magnetic recording. The technology uses a magnetic recording medium having high coercivity. When writing data, a write magnetic field and heat are simultaneously applied to the area of the magnetic recording medium where to write data, so that the area rises in temperature and drops in coercivity for data writing. The area where data is written subsequently falls in temperature and rises in coercivity to increase the thermal stability of magnetization. Hereinafter, a magnetic head for use in thermally-assisted magnetic recording will be referred to as a thermally-assisted magnetic recording head.
In thermally-assisted magnetic recording, near-field light is typically used as a means for applying heat to the magnetic recording medium. A known method for generating near-field light is to use a plasmon generator, which is a piece of metal that generates near-field light from plasmons excited by irradiation with laser light. U.S. Pat. No. 6,768,556 discloses a method of exciting plasmons by directly irradiating the plasmon generator with light.
However, the plasmon generator that generates near-field light by direct irradiation with light is known to exhibit very low efficiency of transformation of the applied light into near-field light. The energy of the light applied to the plasmon generator is mostly reflected off the surface of the plasmon generator, or transformed into thermal energy and absorbed by the plasmon generator. The plasmon generator is small in volume since the size of the plasmon generator is set to be smaller than or equal to the wavelength of the light. The plasmon generator therefore shows a significant increase in temperature when it absorbs the thermal energy. As a result, there arises the problem that the plasmon generator melts.
To address this problem, as disclosed in, for example, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0103553 A1, there has been proposed such a technique that the surface of the core of the waveguide provided in the slider and the surface of the plasmon generator are arranged to face each other with a gap therebetween, so that evanescent light that occurs from the surface of the core based on the light propagating through the core is used to excite surface plasmons on the plasmon generator to generate near-field light based on the surface plasmons.
The aforementioned technique allows the plasmon generator to be increased in volume to some extent, and prevents the plasmon generator from excessively increasing in temperature because the plasmon generator is not directly irradiated with the light propagating through the core.
Even with the aforementioned technique, however, an increase in temperature of the plasmon generator still occurs because part of the energy of the light propagating through the core is transformed into heat in the plasmon generator. The increase in temperature causes a volumetric expansion of the plasmon generator. The aforementioned technique serves to retard the increase in temperature of the plasmon generator and reduces the coefficient of volumetric expansion of the plasmon generator. However, the plasmon generator has a large volume, so that the amount of volumetric expansion of the plasmon generator is somewhat large. An expansion of the volume of the plasmon generator causes the plasmon generator to protrude from the medium facing surface, which is the surface of the thermally-assisted magnetic recording head to face the magnetic recording medium. As a result, the end portion of the read head section located in the medium facing surface becomes farther from the magnetic recording medium. This renders the servo signal unreadable during write operations.

Method of manufacturing a thermally-assisted magnetic recording head that suppresses protrusion of a plasmon generator


The present invention provides a method for determining magnetometer errors during wellbore survey operations. It is capable of determining errors on up to three axes, with or without the use of an external reference measurement of the local magnetic field, and is capable of providing an accurate result using data from a minimum number of surveys. A model is used to correct the observed data and the corrected data are transformed from the tool coordinate system to a different coordinate system referenced to the earth. The difference between the corrected transformed data and reference data in the earth coordinate system is minimized to determine the model parameters. The present invention also provides a method for determining residual uncertainty in the measurements and for quality control of the measurements. By making the observations over a period of time, any deterioration of the sensors may be identified.

1. Field of the Invention
Surveying of wellbore orientation is commonly performed by the use of instruments containing sets of three orthogonal accelerometers and magnetometers, which are inserted within the drillstring and used to measure the orientations of the local gravitational and magnetic field vectors. In order to measure the earth's magnetic field, which is used as a north reference from which wellbore azimuth may be computed, the instruments must be placed within a section of non-magnetic material extending between upper and lower ferromagnetic drillstring sections. These ferromagnetic portions of the drillstring tend to acquire magnetization as they are repeatedly strained in the earth's magnetic field during drilling operations. The nominally non-magnetic portion of the drillstring may also acquire some lesser magnetization as a result of imperfections. The result is that magnetometer measurements made by an instrument within a drillstring may measure not the undisturbed magnetic field, but the vector sum of the earth's field and an error field caused by drillstring magnetization. Since the tool is fixed with respect to the drillstring, the error field is fixed with respect to the tool's coordinate system and it appears as bias errors on the magnetometer measurements, which can lead to errors in the determination of wellbore azimuth and trajectory unless measures are taken to compensate for these bias errors.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Since the greater part of the drillstring magnetization occurs in the ferromagnetic portions of the drillstring, which are displaced axially from the instrument, the bias error in the axial direction usually exceeds the transverse bias errors. Various methods have therefore been published which seek to determine axial magnetometer bias errors in a single directional survey, including U.S. Pat. No. 3,791,043 to Russell, U.S. Pat. No. 4,163,324 to Russell, U.S. Pat. No. Re. 33,708 to Roesler, U.S. Pat. No. 4,761,889 to Cobern, U.S. Pat. No. 4,819,336 to Russell, U.S. Pat. No. 4,999,920 to Russell, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,155,916 to Engebretson. All of these methods require the provision of an independent estimate of one or more components of the earth's magnetic field, and as a result all of them tend to lose accuracy in those attitudes in which the direction of the independent estimate is perpendicular to the drillstring and therefore contributes little or no axial information. In particular, all of these methods lose accuracy as the wellbore attitude approaches horizontal east-west. A number of methods have also been published which seek to determine magnetometer biases on all three axes, including U.S. Pat. No. 4,682,421 to van Dongen and U.S. Pat. No. 4,956,921 to Coles, and UK Pat. No. 2,256,492 to Nicolle. While certain of these methods can resolve transverse bias components without external estimates of the field, they all require an independent estimate of the earth's magnetic field in order to determine the axial bias component, and therefore they also tend to lose accuracy as the attitude approaches horizontal east-west. U.S. Pat. No. 4,709,486 to Walters discloses a method for determining axial bias errors without any external estimate, by the simultaneous use of transverse magnetometer data from a plurality of surveys. However the method fails to make use of the valuable information contained in the axial magnetometer measurements, since it does not require any correlation between the axial biases determined at the plurality of attitudes. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,321,893, Engebretson discloses a method which may be used to determine magnetometer scale factor and bias errors from a plurality of surveys with or without requiring any external estimate of the earth's field. However, the method is inherently approximate since it requires the construction of a "measurement matrix", whose elements depend on the unknown borehole attitude and magnetic dip angle. U.S. Pat. No. 5,623,407 to the present inventor and having the same assignee discloses a method for determining magnetometer biases during wellbore survey operations, which is capable of determining biases on up to three axes, with or without the use of an external estimate of the local magnetic field, and which is capable of providing an accurate result using data from a minimum number of surveys. Also disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,623,407 is a method for determining magnetometer biases which may vary between surveys in a predefined manner. What is lacking in prior art is the ability to deal with biases in the accelerometer and properly correcting for the, and the ability to estimate the uncertainty of correlated measurements.
Additional objectives, features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent in the written description which follows.

Method for magnetic survey calibration and estimation of uncertainty


Combination pipe-cutter and deburring tool especially for plastic pipe. A housing which can be positioned around the pipe to be cut, carries an adjustable cutter which has a spindle and a hollow grip handle. A separable deburring tool for removing the internal burr that remains after the pipe is cut fits into the hollow grip handle.

This invention relates to a pipe-cutter, particularly for plastic pipes, having a housing which can be moved around the pipe and a cutting device which is adjustable in the radical direction in relation to the housing by means of a spindle drive having a grip handle, and a guide for the rotation of the housing which engages the pipe.
Pipe-cutters of this kind are known. They are used for cutting pipes to length, and plastic pipes having an outside diameter of 100 millimeters or more can be dealt with manually with little expenditure of force. Cutting wheels or cutting rollers, as they are called, can be used as the cutting device in these operations, though in fact they have a squeezing action. Chip-removing tools, in the form of what are called parting-off tools, are also used. Part-off tools offer the advantage that, depending upon the finish of the cutting edges, precisely radial cut faces as well as conical, i.e., bevelled, faces, are obtained, the latter being of advantage in the further processing of the cut-to-length pipes.
The cutting devices of these tools are guided on or in the housing so that they can be displaced radially towards the pipe, and the housing in turn has a guide whereby it can be rotated relative to the pipe. The housing may take the form of a bowed member, and the guide in which it is rotated may consist of pairs of rollers which are backed by the outer face of the pipe. The guide may also consist of shells forming a cylinder, one of which has a closed guide ring which, in the manner of a flange, surrounds the pipe to be cut and on which a ring, forming part of the housing, is able to rotate by sliding.
Depending upon the configuration of the cutting device, it is possible to obtain a clean deburred cut edge at the outer circumference of the pipe or even to provide a bevelled edge. However, all the known cutting devices suffer from the disadvantage of creating, at the inner edge of the cut face, a more or less sharp burr. This presents a considerable risk of injury and is a hindrance when two lengths of pipe of different diameters but forming a small radial gap are required to be fitted telescopically one within the other. The burr has a particularly disadvantageous effect when an adhesive for connecting the lengths of pipe together in a tight manner is to be injected into the gap between the pipes. The burr then acts as a stripper for the adhesive, i.e., the adhesive does not move with the inner length of pipe into the outer length of pipe but is pushed back on the inner length so that a firm and tight connection between the pipes is no longer ensured. Hitherto, the fitter has always had to carry a special deburring tool along with him, and this is frequently not immediately available or at least not without special manipulations on the part of the fitter. In this connection, because of their sharp edges, some deburring tools cannot be conveniently carried in the pockets of overalls.


There is provided cyclic peptides of the general formula ##STR1##. where x represents any amino acid sequence or analogues located from amino acid 586 to amino acid 602 gp4l (HIV-1) y represents any amino acid sequence or analogues located from amino acid 611 to amino acid 620 gp4l (HIV-1); and a and b represent the amino and carboxy terminals, respectively, as well as substituents which are effective to make the peptides more useful as an immunodiagnostic reagent. These cyclic peptides alone or in admixture with certain linear peptides are particularly useful in detecting HIV antibodies.

The numbering system for amino acids used herein is that of Ratner et al., Nature, 313, 277-284, 1985 even though other numbering systems are used in the prior art referred to herein. The amino acids used herein in the peptides are given with the single letter code as follows: ala=A, arg=R, asn=N, asp=D, cys=C, gin=Q, glu=E, gly=G, his=H, ile=I, leu=L, lys=K, met=M, phe=F, pro=P, ser=S, thr=T, trp=W, tyr=Y and val=V.
The initial immunodiagnostic tests for the detection of antibodies in the serum of patients infected with HIV-1 utilized whole virus as the antigen. Second generation tests made use of polypeptide sequences obtained by the recombinant DNA methodology. Cabradilla et al. Bio/Technology 4, 128-133 (1986) and Chang et al. Bio/Technology 3, 905-909 (1985) succeeded in obtaining bacterially synthesized viral protein fragments of 82 and 102 amino acid residues respectively. Eur. Patent 86202314 and 86114243 describe recombinant polypeptides covering regions of the gp41 and gp120 that are immunoreactive alone or in mixtures. Shoeman et al. Anal. Biochem. 161, 370-379 (1987) also describe several polypeptides from gp41 that have immunoreactive properties with antibodies present in sera from patients infected with HIV. None of the above assay procedures is acceptable. Their lack of sensitivity is serious as it may permit blood-containing virus to escape detection and thereby potentially result in the infection of blood product receivers. The impurities present in these antigen preparations are also responsible for unacceptably high levels of false positive results which cause healthly individuals to suffer distress.
It then became apparent that a tendency of the prior art was the identification of shorter epitopes. This is because of the ease and lower cost with which they could be prepared and more importantly because of the reduced risk of obtaining falsely positive tests results due to the presence of shared epitopes with viral proteins not related to AIDS. In this regards, serum samples tested in each of these cases is very limited, specificity was found to be very high (95%-100%) with small synthetic peptides but the overall sensitivity varied between 80 and 100%. In the only example where 100% sensitivity was attained only ten samples had been tested.
Smith et al., (J. Clin. Microbiol. 25, 1498-1504, 1987) described two overlapping peptides, E32 and E34, that are highly immunoreactive. No false positive result, out of 240 seronegative specimens, were obtained but the test missed three seropositive samples out of 322 (sensitivity of 99.1%). Wang et al. (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 83, 6159-6163, 1986) described a series of overlapping peptides (including amino acid residues of the E32 and E34 peptides discovered by Smith et al.) among which one 21-mer peptide showed 100% specificity and 98% sensitivity (out of 228 seropositive samples taken from patients with AIDS, 224 were found positive with this peptide).
In U.S. patent application Ser. No. 120,027 filed Nov. 13, 1987, there is disclosed a short synthetic peptide covering residues 606 to 620 (SGKLICTTAVPWNAS) of gp 41 (HIV-1), which is said to be immunoreactive with antibodies of patients infected by the AIDS viruses. In this example, specificity was also excellent (63/63) but six seropositive specimens out of 57 confirmed positive could not be detected (sensitivity of 89%).
Gnann et al. (J. Virol. 6, 2639-2641, 1987 and J. Infect. Dis. 156, 261-267, 1987) also reported a series of overlapping peptides from an immunodominant region of gp 41 (HIV-1). Of particular interest was their finding that one peptide having the sequence SGKLIC (606-611) was not immunoreactive with any of the 22 HIV-1 positive sera tested. The addition of a cysteine residue to the N-terminus restored some immunoreactivity, 21 of 44 sera reacted with the 7-mer peptide (48% sensitivity). Gnann et al. concluded that cys-605 was essential for the immunoreactivity of that segment of the gp 41 (HIV-1) protein.
Gnann et al. have also speculated that the cysteine residues at positions 605 and 611 (Ratner's numbering system) of gp 41 (HIV-1) might play a critical role in the antigenic conformation of this region of the protein possibly through the formation of a loop via disulfide bonding.
The 7-amino acid sequence containing two cysteine residues at position 605-611 also has been disclosed in other documents such as PCT/US 86/00831 published on Nov. 6, 1986 under International Publication No. WO 86/06414 where peptide X(39) which is encoded by the region from about bp 7516 through 7593 and peptide XIII(79) which is encoded by the region extending from about bp 7543 through bp 7593 both contain the 7-amino acid sequence (amino acids 605-611) discussed by Gnann et al. in the above noted publication. In PCT/US 86/0031 the peptides are reported as linear and there is no mention of any cyclic peptides or disulfide bridging between the 605 and 611 cysteines.
Although the references discussed above do provide peptides which are useful in identifying HIV-1 antibodies, they also present certain drawbacks such as inability to full detection (100%) of positive serum samples. For example, Gnann et al. in Journal of Virology, August 1987 P. 2639-2641 in their tests with their 600-611 amino sequence detected 22 out of 22 positive sera while they also states that similar tests carried out by another author at the Center for Disease Control, Atlanta, Ga. with the same 12-amino acid sequence (600-611) detected 78 out of 79 positive sera. The same authors in J. Infect. Dis., 156, 261-267, 1987 show that the same 12-amino acid sequence from gp 41 (HIV-1) was shown to be reactive with 131 out of 132 HIV-1-infected patients from the United States.
In the same article, it is also clearly shown that when the HIV-1 positive sera are diluted by a factor exceeding 500, some of these diluted, sera are found to be negative thus indicating a low sensitivity.
Another potential drawback of these prior art assays is their use of a poorly defined and unpredictable peptide mixture as the probe. This mixture comprises peptides having many oxidative forms of cysteine produced spontaneously during peptide preparation, processing and use. It would appear highly desirable to provide peptides or peptide mixtures which are resistant to spontaneous oxidation. Such peptides would, thus, have a well defined structure. Moreover, under normal test conditions, they detect all HIV-1 antibody-containing samples as positive even when extremely low levels of antibody are present.

Synthetic peptides and mixtures thereof for detecting HIV antibodies


The invention relates to a gene which encodes reverse transcriptase having DNA polymerase activity and substantially no RNase H activity. The invention also relates to vectors containing the gene and hosts transformed with the vectors of the invention. The invention also relates to a method of producing reverse transcriptase having DNA polymerase activity and substantially no RNase H activity by expressing the reverse transcriptase genes of the present invention in a host. The invention also relates to a method of producing cDNA from mRNA using the reverse transcriptase of the invention. The invention also relates to a kit for the preparation of cDNA from mRNA comprising the reverse transcriptase of the invention.

The invention is in the field of recombinant genetics.
Both viral and cloned reverse transcriptase (RT) contain at least two enzymatic activities, DNA polymerase and ribonuclease H (RNase H), that reside on a single polypeptide. Grandgenett, D. P. et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. (USA) 70:230-234 (1973); Moelling, K., Virology 62:46-59 (1974); Kotewicz, M. L., et al., Gene 35:249-258 (1985); and Roth, M. J., et al., J. Biol. Chem. 260:9326-9335 (1985). Little is known about the structure-functional relationship of these two activities, but such knowledge would be important both in understanding retroviral replication and in exploiting the enzyme as a recombinant DNA tool.
In the retrovirus life cycle, the RT DNA polymerase activity is responsible for transcribing viral RNA into double-stranded DNA. Varmus, H. (1982), Weiss, R., et al. (eds.), RNA Tumor Viruses, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, pp. 410-423. The function of RNase H in replication is less clear, but it is thought to degrade genomic RNA during DNA synthesis to generate oligomeric RNA primers for plus-strand DNA synthesis, and to remove the RNA primers of both minus- and plus-strand DNA. Omer, C. A., et al., Cell 30:797-805 (1982); Resnick, R., et al., J. Virol. 51:813-821 (1984); Varmus, H. (1985), in Weiss, R., et al. (eds.), RNA Tumor Viruses, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, pp. 79-80.
The temporal relationship in vivo between DNA polymerization and RNA hydrolysis is not well defined. Furthermore, precisely how the two enzymatic activities are coordinated is not clear. Conditional mutations restricted to either DNA polymerase or RNase H would be invaluable in deciphering the events of retroviral replication. Unfortunately, conditional viral mutations in the RT gene invariably affect both activities. Lai, M. H. T, et al., J. Virol. 27:823-825 (1978); Moelling, K., et al., J. Virol. 32:370-378 (1979).
RT is used extensively in recombinant DNA technology to synthesize cDNA from mRNA. One major problem with cDNA synthesis is that the RNase H activity of RT idegrades the mRNA template during first-strand synthesis. The mRNA poly(A)-oligo(dT) hybrid used as a primer for first-strand cDNA synthesis is degraded by RT RNase H. Thus, at the outset of cDNA synthesis, a competition is established between RNase H-mediated deadenylation of mRNA and initiation of DNA synthesis, which reduces the yield of cDNA product. Berger, S. L., et al., Biochem. 22:2365-2373 (1983). Furthermore, in some cases, the RNase H causes premature termination of DNA chain growth. Unfortunately, these events eliminate the potential for repeated copying of the RNA template.
Efforts to selectively inactivate RT RNase H with site-specific inhibitors have been unsuccessful (for review, see Gerard, G. F. (1983), in Jacob, S. T., (ed.), Enzymes of Nucleic Acid Synthesis and Modification, Vol. I, DNA Enzymes, CRC Press, Inc., Boca Raton, Fla, pp. 1-38). Attempts to physically separate the active centers of RT polymerase and RNase H activity by proteolysis have yielded a proteolytic fragment possessing only RNase-H activity (Lai, M. H. T., et al., J. Virol. 25:652-663 (1978); Gerard, G. F., J.Virol. 26:16-28 (1978); and Gerard, G. F., J. Virol. 37:748-754 (1981)), but no corresponding fragment containing only polymerase activity has been isolated.
Computer analysis of the amino acid sequences from the putative gene products of retroviral vol genes has revealed a 150-residue segment at the carboxyl terminus that is homologous with the ribonuclease H of E. coli and a section close to the amino terminus which can be aligned with nonretroviral polymerases. Johnson, M. S., et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. (USA) 83:7648-7652 (1986). Based on these related amino acid sequences, Johnson et al. suggest that ribonuclease H activity should be situated at the carboxyl terminus, and the DNA polymerase activity at the amino terminus.
There have been a number of reports concerning the cloning of genes which encode RT and their expression in hosts. Weiss et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,663,290 (1987); Gerard, G. F., DNA 5:271-279 (1986); Kotewicz, M. L., et al., Gene 35:249-258 (1985); Tanese, N., et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. (USA) 82:4944-4948 (1985); and Roth, M. J., et al., J. Biol. Chem. 260:9326-9335 (1985).
The invention relates to a gene which encodes reverse transcriptase having DNA polymerase activity and substantially no RNase H activity.
The invention also relates to a reverse transcriptase gene comprising the following DNA sequence:
or the degenerate variants thereof.
The invention also relates to the vectors containing the gene of the invention, hosts transformed with the vectors of, the invention, and the reverse transcriptase expressed by the transformed hosts of the invention.
The invention also relates to a fusion protein comprising a polypeptide having RNA-dependent DNA polymerase activity and substantially no RNase H activity and a second peptide selected from polypeptide proteins which stabilize the fusion protein and hydrophobic leader sequences.
The invention also relates to a method of producing reverse transcriptase having DNA polymerase activity and substantially no RNase H activity, comprising culturing transformed hosts of the invention under conditions which produce reverse transcriptase, and isolating the reverse transcriptase so produced.
The invention also relates to a method of preparing cDNA from mRNA comprising contacting mRNA with a polypeptide having RNA-dependent DNA polymerase activity and substantially no RNase H activity, and isolating the cDNA so produced.
The invention also relates to a kit for the preparation of cDNA from mRNA comprising a carrier being compartmentalized to receive in close confinement therein one or more containers, wherein
(a) a first container contains reverse transcriptase having DNA polymerase activity and substantially no RNase H activity;
(b) a second container contains a buffer and the nucleoside triphosphates;
(c) a third container contains oligo(dT)primer; and
(d) a fourth container contains control RNA.
The invention is related to the discovery that portions of the RT gene can be deleted to give a deletion mutant having DNA polymerase activity but no detectable RNase H activity. This purified mutant RT lacking RNase H activity can be used to effectively synthesize cDNA from mRNA.

Cloned genes encoding reverse transcriptase lacking RNase H activity


A haemodialysis device having an emergency activating function is provided. In order to avoid critical drops in blood pressure during a dialysis treatment, the emergency activating function makes it possible for the operating staff to initiate with a single control function a blood pressure measurement and a delivery of substance into the patient's blood in the event of a hypotensive episode and at the same time to have the introduction of these measures by the haemodialyser confirmed clearly through a display having an outward appearance different from that displayed during normal operations. In addition, further automatically introduced process steps can be provided. The emergency activating function speeds up the implementation of the measures to be introduced and, at the same time prevents incorrect operation and makes it possible for the operating staff to attend directly to the patient.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a haemodialysis device including an extracorporeal circulatory system in which blood from a patient is passed via a blood supply line to the blood chamber of a haemodialyser, which is divided into two chambers by a semi-permeable membrane, and from the blood chamber to the patient via a blood return line. The device further comprises a blood pump to supply the blood though the extracorporeal blood circulatory system, an addition unit for adding a substance to the blood of the patient, an ultra-filtration unit for withdrawing fluid from the second chamber of the dialyser, a blood pressure measuring unit for measuring the blood pressure of the patient, and a control and evaluation unit which is connected to the blood pump, the addition unit, the ultrafiltration unit and the blood pressure measuring unit. The device further includes an output unit for outputting information which is connected to the control and evaluation unit, comprising an input for inputting data and instructions which is connected to the control and evaluation unit.
2. Description of Related Art
In haemodialysis blood is removed continuously form a patient in an extracorporeal circulatory system, passed through a haemodialyser and re-infused back to the patient.
In this case, a metabolism similar to that of the kidneys is carried out. The haemodialyser consists of two chambers separated by a semi-permeable membrane, of which blood flows through one and a purifying fluid—the dialysis fluid—flows through the other. For this purpose the commercially available haemodialysers have thousands of hollow fibres whose walls are semi-permeable. The blood is passed through the interior of the hollow fibres whilst the dialysis fluid is generally fed in the opposite direction in the fibre interior intermediate space and removed.
The dialysis fluid has concentrations of blood components such as electrolytes which approximately correspond to those of a healthy person so that the corresponding concentrations in the blood can be kept at a normal level.
Substances to be removed from the blood such as creatinine or urea are not contained in the dialysis fluid whereby these can be removed from the blood merely by diffusion as a result of the concentration gradient at the membrane.
Excess water is removed from the blood by convection or ultra-filtration with the aid of a pressure gradient.
Haemodialysis devices are used to control these processes and usually also prepare the dialysis fluid from water and concentrates with the correct concentration and temperature. At the same time, these devices are increasingly in a position to take over a wide range of monitoring actions of the haemodialysis treatment in order to keep any danger to the patient as low as possible and allow countermeasures to be taken in good time in the event of complications.
Among the complications, drops in blood pressure are of particular importance. Problems of this kind arise in 40-50% of treatments. In approximately 20-30% of treatments the dialysis must be interrupted by the user and the blood pressure status of the patient restored. In this case, the user must carry out an always similar sequence of actions on the dialysis machine which binds him to exclusive operation of the dialysis machine for about 1-2 minutes instead of being able to devote himself directly to the patient.
These measures comprise a reduction in the blood flow in order to prevent arterial alarms at the blood pressure sensors in the blood supply line of the extracorporeal circulatory system, stopping ultra-filtration in order to prevent a further withdrawal of volume, starting blood pressure measurements in order to obtain the current blood pressure status of the patient and administering a substance into the patient's blood in order to increase the blood volume status of the patient. This can be achieved by increasing the concentration of a substance such as sodium chloride in the dialysis fluid, where sodium chloride enters into the blood through the membrane merely as a result of the difference in concentration without any significant displacement of volume. However, this can also be achieved by a volume infusion in the form of a bolus directly into the lines of the extracorporeal blood circulatory system or through the membrane of the dialyser.
EP 0 311 709 A1 discloses a haemodialysis device in which the blood pressure and the heart rate of a patient are continuously monitored. If the measured values lie outside certain ranges of values, the machine independently initiates countermeasures to stabilise the patient's circulation without any action by the staff. These measures comprise reducing the ultrafiltration and raising the sodium concentration in the dialysis fluid. According to the teaching of EP 0 311 709 A1, the dialysis staff should only be involved after unsuccessful, automatically initiated countermeasures.
EP 0 911 044 A1 of the applicant also has as its subject matter an automated intervention in the treatment. The blood pressure can be continuously monitored especially well using pulse wave transmission time measurements. In this case, the user can specify which measures should be introduced by the haemodialysis device when a drop in blood pressure occurs. These measures comprise lowering the temperature of the dialysis fluid, switching off the ultra-filtration, application of a bolus of sodium chloride solution and changing the composition of the dialysis fluid.
In order to avoid hypotonic phases, WO 94/27658 A1 proposes a manually actuatable device at a haemodialysis device which when actuated delivers additional sodium into the dialysis fluid.
In the case of manual interventions which are of great importance in practice as previously, several steps must frequently be instigated one after the other, as already described, which takes a certain space of time. In this case, the haemodialysis device confirms the individual measures differently, under which a clear presentation of the information and user guidance suffers.

Hemodialysis unit comprising emergency activation means


The present invention comprises of a circular prism having beveled periphery and center faces cooperating with multiple other prisms to form a light capacitor. The present invention allows a user to collect and hold the light in a storage-type device for use in a concentrated way when desired.

None.
a. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to devices for harnessing light energy. More particularly, the invention relates to devices used to store, then release light energy in a burst.
b. Description of the Prior Art
Since caveman times, when man walked out of his cave and felt the warmth of the sun on his face, he has inherently understood that light contains energy. Recently, scientific advances have allowed creation of lasers and other such devices to more effectively harness the power of light.
There are many ways to harness the energy of light: mirrors can be used to reflect light, and prisms can be used to refract or bend light. There are practical applications of the properties of reflection including solar collectors using parabolic mirrors to reflect light onto a concentrated source which is then heated to produce, for example, steam for electric generation. Similarly, there are myriad practical applications of refraction, for example, binoculars used to magnify distant objects.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,691,994 to Afian et al., discloses a method for solar concentrator manufacturing. Afian""s device is intended to, for example, receive sunlight concentrated, it then releases a more focused light from an output face. Afian uses a hologram layer to ensure that light entering the trapezoidal prism in this device enters the prism at an angle xcex8 such that it is propagated through the prism via total interval reflection within the prism towards an output face. Thus, a concentrated beam is omitted at the output face. In effect, Afian""s device acts like a traditional magnifying glass to concentrate light rays, though it uses a prism and the concept of total internal reflection to accomplish that objective.
A similar device is disclosed by Kuper et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 5,555,329. Kuper discloses a light directing optical structure. Several prisms are provided, each having an aperture, which due to its index of refraction, allows light to escape the waveguide rather than remain confined in the prism due to total internal refraction. The light escaping the waveguide is reflected from a side face of the prism, and redirected in a desired direction. Light emerging from the aperture is of a fairly closely constrained range of angles. The optical structure can receive light along an input edge or along several edges, converting this input, which is not constrained in angles, to a directed, controlled output source.
However, both of the Afian and the Kuper devices are directed at sources of defused light, that is they are not directed at use and manipulation of laser-type light. There is a need for an invention to direct and focus both diffused light and laser-type light.
In view of the foregoing disadvantages inherent in the known types of the invention which relates to devices for harnessing light energy, it is an object of the invention to provide an apparatus which overcomes the various disadvantages of the prior art.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a device to collect and concentrate both diffuse light from sources such as sunlight, incandescent, and flourescent lighting sources, as well as from lasers. More particularly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a circular prism-based system for collecting and storing light in a focused beam for use as such. Essentially, it is an objection of the present invention to provide a light xe2x80x9ccapacitor.xe2x80x9d
There has thus been outlined, rather broadly, the more important features of the invention in order that the detailed description thereof that follows may be better understood, and in order that the present contribution to the art may be better appreciated. There are, of course, additional features of the invention that will be described hereinafter and which will form the subject matter of the claims appended hereto.
In this respect, before explaining at least one embodiment of the invention in detail, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in this application to the details of construction and to the arrangements of the components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The invention is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced and carried out in various ways. Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein are for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting. As such, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the conception, upon which this disclosure is based, may readily be utilized as a basis for the designing of other structures, methods and systems for carrying out the several purposes of the present invention. Additional benefits and advantages of the present invention will become apparent in those skilled in the art to which the present invention relates from the subsequent description of the preferred embodiment and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. It is important, therefore, that the claims be regarded as including such equivalent constructions insofar as they do not depart from the spirit and scope of the present invention.
Further, the purpose of the foregoing abstract is to enable the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the public generally, and especially the scientist, engineers and practitioners in the art who are not familiar with patent or legal terms or phraseology, to determine quickly from a cursory inspection the nature and essence of the technical disclosure of the application. The abstract is neither intended to define the invention of the application which is measured by the claims, nor is it intended to be limiting as to the scope of the invention in any way.


A pneumatic tire for trucks, buses, etc. having a tread profile, before inflation, which has a first circular arc forming a tread center area and second circulr arcs forming shoulder ribs at both sides of the first circular arc, the first and second circular arcs intersecting together at a point from which the shoulder rib starts to extend and inwardly of which there is a 1/4 tread width point from a tread center axis, the first and second circular arcs having an inner radial divergence, between an inside wall top of an outermost main groove and the intersecting point, of up to 3 mm and an outer edge divergence, between an outer edge of the shoulder rib and an elongated line of the first circular arc, of up to 10 mm, whereby a good river wear resistance is attained. The tire has a belt portion, below the tread portion, including a working belt ply composite and preferably has such a tread rubber thickness to an uppermost working belt ply that is larger at an end of the uppermost working belt ply than at the tread center axis.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a pneumatic tire for heavy-loaded vehicles such as trucks, buses, etc. which is improved in resistance to river wear of the tread by impeding the occurrence of river wear and avoiding reverse warping deformation of belt plies during service growth of the tire.
2. Statement of Related Art
In so-called tires for a heavy load used for transport by trucks and buses in a trend toward high-speed, long-distance service as seen in the highways of Japan as well as for long-distance, high-speed cruising in the North America market, various performance characteristics such as tread wear life, resistance to river wear, etc. during service are virtually dependent on the tire profile and characteristics of the inflated or grown tire.
In particular, general use as in the Japanese domestic market with frequent stops and goes, promotes heavy abrasive wear conditions with faster wear and accordingly, the degree of occurrence of river wear is so small that the grown configuration of the tire has little effect on tire performance. However, under high-speed, long-distance cruising conditions where the wear rate is small, movement of the tread within the contact patch that is ascribable to changes in footprint contour and tire construction has an adverse effect on irregular wear performance (e.g. river wear). For this reason, a natural inflated profile of a tread inclusive of belt and carcass plies is of importance for fundamental designing of a tire for trucks and buses, and a variety of attempts have been made.
As one example of the attempts, a pneumatic tire for a heavy load is known, which tire has a tread profile formed of a single circular arc with a single radius of curvature. Because of the single curvature form of the tread, it assumes, upon contact with the ground, such a footprint contour that the length at the tread edges in the circumferential direction of the tire is shorter than the length at the tread center, and the tire is likely to induce an initiation stage of river wear since the tire must compensate for the difference in contact length by shoulder slippage.
Further, tires having a double crown tread are also known which have a tread profile constructed of two different radii of curvature. One example of a double-crown tire is disclosed in Japanese Patent First Publication No. 54-159902 (1979), wherein circular arc sections forming tread shoulder areas have a larger radius of curvature than a circular arc section forming a tread center area, and two different circular arc sections are adjacent to each other at a tangential point. Since two kinds of circular arc sections are tangent to each other without intersecting, the tire exhibits a good straight line stability, but has a problem in that when the tire undergoes side force action during running, erosion of shoulder rib edges takes place that leads to river wear in the center area.
In order to reduce river wear and shoulder step wear, a further attempt has been made to configure the tread profile so that the boundary zones between the tread center area and shoulder areas may extend in a concave bent profile (Japanese Patent First Publication No. 5-77608(1993)). However, so-called rib punching occurs because assumedly, its one-fourth tread width point (1/4 TW point) that is spaced apart a distance of 1/4 the tread width from the tire center axis is recessed, which results in slippage and tread wear that is responsible for initiation of irregular wear.
Further with a view toward simultaneously diminishing tread center wear and shoulder wear, a tire has been proposed, wherein the shoulder areas are configured as a straight line profile (Japanese Patent First Publication No. 5-77609 (1993)). This is aimed at a low profile tire and is not suited to general tires. Moreover because of the rectilinear configuration of the shoulder areas, river wear or irregular wear is likely to occur owing to a wiping action of lateral force within the contact patch that is generated by deflection of the sidewall which force is transmitted to the tread shoulder areas as the tire rolls.
With tires for heavy-loaded vehicles such as trucks or buses, in general, they are inflated and grow from high inflation pressure, heavy load and heat build-up during running to assume a specific natural inflated profile, namely, a stable configuration owing to the balance between the tension force of the carcass and the inflated pressure.
In order to elucidate the mechanism of river wear, the inventors have investigated the correlation between river wear characteristics and change or deformation of a tread, belt and carcass profile caused by inflation, using a single crown tire as shown in FIGS. 3A and 5A, on which the design of the invention will be based, and a conventional double-crown tire as shown in FIGS. 3B and 5B for comparison purposes.
With the conventional double-crown tire wherein the crown profile before and after inflation and the cross-sectional view of the deflected tire when contacting with the ground are schematically illustrated respectively in FIG. 3B and FIG. 4B, the profile of the tire before inflation as shown in dash lines is changed to that shown in solid lines, owing to tension forces exerted on the tire by inflation, wherein the belt portion forming a tire skeleton has uneven radii and exhibits reverse warping phenomenon, and the tread crown CR, carcass ply CC and belt plies BT grow unevenly. Consequently, the tread crown profile is unstable and liable to change in configuration, so that the tire lacks wear resistance.
On the other hand, the profile of a single crown tire before and after inflation is schematically illustrated in FIG. 3A and the cross-sectional view of the deflected tire is schematically illustrated in FIG. 4A respectively. As can be seen, the single-crown tire shows even growth of the tread profile, and the tension force created by inflation is shared equally by the belt and carcass portions BT,CC.
Further entering into the details thereof, the configurational change of the double-crown tire (FIG. 3B) is such that edges of the belt plies are deformed as if they might pierce through the shoulder rib SR whereby the stress of inner pressure is transmitted to the rubber of shoulder area SH and the outer ends of the shoulder rib SR are pulled downwardly. As a result, the tread crown CR is deformed into a shoulder drop profile, wherein the 1/4 TW point, namely a point spaced apart a distance of one-fourth the overall tread width from the tread center axis CL, protrudes. This is presumed to be caused by the enlargement of the belt radius as tension and belt rigidity increase with pressure, which would interfere with the tread crown configuration when the belt radius exceeds the tread crown radius, forcing out the 1/4 TW point. Since belt and ply can no longer withstand the inner pressure in such a case, the stress of inner pressure not only causes an uneven configurational change, but the tension is transmitted to the surrounding rubber material of the tread with a lower elastic modulus, which easily deforms to cause surface distortion of the tire, undermining even growth and irregular wear resistance altogether.
Additionally, because of the concave profile of the belt portion in the tread center area and the upturned belt edges as seen in FIG. 5B, the tread thickness B' above the outermost position of the belt 3BT is thinner than the tread thickness A' at the center position of the belt 3BT, and such form of the belt resembles a deformed concave shape of the belt under load as illustrated in FIG. 4B, even though no load is applied as in FIG. 3B.
The concave, reverse warping deformation of the belt ply composite after service growth is common to conventional tires, and affects tire performance because a firm tire contact with the road is not ensured. For a firm and uniform contact of the tread, the overall shape of the inflated belt ply composite combined with tread rubber thickness above the belt edge are important factors owing to the fact that reinforcement of the tread by the belt reduces movement between the tread elements and the road within the contact patch. Therefore, belt ply rigidity that resists deformation within the contact patch is one of the major factors dominating tire performances.
Accordingly, tires prone to causing a reverse warping deformation as in FIG. 3B lack belt rigidity needed for a firm tread contact, significantly reducing the road-hugging properties of the tire needed to improve irregular wear resistance. The contact with the road is impaired in the central tread area of the concave belt ply composite since the tread rubber adhered to the belt must follow the concave contour of the belt under load as in FIG. 4B.
The construction of such a belt lacks sufficient belt resistance (to tire deflection) needed to force the tread rubber against the road for a firm tread contact. The protruding, reversely warped belt edge also causes shoulder-drop configuration of the tread profile (FIG. 3B), disrupting load distribution within the contact patch as the contact pressure concentrates on the protruding rib edge at the 1/4 TW point. Combined with the wiping action of a lateral force generated within the contact patch, a round off wear of the rib edge corner develops and leads to the initiation of river wear.
On the contrary, with the other tire (single-crown), the toroidal shape of the belt with a sufficient belt rubber thickness at the belt edge BTE ensures firm contact of the central tread and an even load distribution within the contact patch for a good road-hugging property (FIG. 4A).
Now, changes of the belt ply composite BT (for example, of three plies) and the crown portion CR will be explained with reference to FIGS. 5A, 5B.
With the conventional double-crown tire (FIG. 5B), before growth or inflation (dash lines), the tread thickness a' at the tread center axis CL from the uppermost working belt ply 3BT to the tread surface is substantially equal to the tread thickness at the outermost edge of the working belt 3BT from there to the tread surface whereas after growth (solid lines), the tread thickness B' at the outermost belt edge is smaller than the tread thickness A' at the tread center axis CL.
The belt ply composite of the double-crown tire has a reasonable belt curvature before growth, but causes reverse warping deformation during growth owing to an increase in belt curvature. By contrast, with the single-crown tire (FIG. 5A), the belt ply composite grows evenly in an equal proportion.
The reverse deformation of the belt ply composite is explained referring to FIG. 6B, which is an illustrated example of an intermediate working belt ply 2BT of the three belt construction. In the intermediate belt 2BT of the double-crown tire (FIG. 6B), steel cords embedded in the diagonal direction I'J' are shown with tension F from inner pressure being applied in the direction of the X-axis. Here, a deformation inherent in a composite material, namely, a cross-elasticity effect naturally appears. Mainly caused by the absence of reinforcing cords in the diagonal direction of G'H', shear deformation in the direction of G'H' as shown in solid lines of FIG. 6B occurs, creating an a symmetrical elongation between diagonal directions of I'J' and G'H' (I'J'<<G'H') under tension F.
This shear deformation tends to occur conspicuously when there is an increase of belt rigidity from tension F in the X-axis owing to the low angle belt ply and when a high-tension steel cord is adopted that is constructed of two or more layers of filaments twisted in the same direction. The iron of the steel cord preferably has a carbon content of 0.75-0.85% by weight. In particular, the deformation magnitude in the circumferential direction of the tire (X-axis), which is relative to the amount of tire growth, is to be noted. As is apparent from FIG. 6B, the growth amount c' at the tread center axis CL is significantly smaller than the growth amount d' the belt (c'<<d'). The upturning deformation of the belt edge as shown in FIG. 5B is therefore considered to be due to the tire growth at the belt edge in the circumferential direction exceeding that of the tire center axis CL. Thus, the growth of the belt edge is excessive as compared to the growth of the belt at the tire central axis as shown in FIG. 5B, which causes the reverse warping deformation of the belt ply composite.
It should be noted that two-dimensional top views of the belt ply construction in FIGS. 6A and 6B merely illustrate asymmetrical shear deformation of the belt plies. Therefore belt angle alteration does not correspond directly with that of the actual tire. In the actual tire, the belt ply composite such as in FIG. 6B with a belt edge diameter that is similar to a diameter of the central axis (Cf. FIG. 5B) would naturally form a cylindrical shape. The open belt ends (EPI) at both belt edges during inflation would compensate for the difference in circumference by large deformation d' and belt angle alteration that result in a flare-out shape of the belt edge causing reverse warping deformation. But, the belt composite as seen in FIG. 6A forming a curvature across the cross-section of the belt would form a toroidal shape. In contrast to the belt in FIG. 6B, the tight belt ends (EPI) of the smaller belt edge diameter (Cf. FIG. 5A) would result in minimum deformation and belt angle alteration.
Thus in view of the cause for reverse warping deformation of the belt ply composite with the conventional double-crown tire as described above (FIGS. 5B, 6B), we have found that it is essential in tire design that after growth, the deformation magnitude c of the belt ply composite at the central axis be equal to or larger than the deformation magnitude d at the belt edge (c.gtoreq.d) as is shown with the single-crown tire in FIG. 6A.
Further we have found that in the prior art tire after growth, the reverse warping deformation that forces out the belt edge, and accordingly, the 1/4 TW point, results in loss of sufficient tread rubber thickness B' at the working belt edge (B>B').
Accordingly, in order to impede the loss of the tread thickness above the uppermost working belt ply, which is caused by the reverse warping deformation during tire growth, this invention is designed to raise the shoulder ribs of the tire upon molding so that the shoulder thickness b above the edge of the uppermost working belt may be thicker than the tread thickness a above the working belt ply of the tread center axis while simultaneously rectifying the protrusion of the 1/4 TW point.
A general object of this invention is therefore to provide a pneumatic tire for heavy-loaded vehicles having an improved river wear resistance.

Pneumatic tire for heavy-loaded vehicles, with resistance to river wear


Graft having a bifurcation for repairing an aneurysm in the vicinity of an aortic bifurcation in a patient comprising a main tubular body and first and second tubular legs joined to said main body in a bifurcation. The main body and the legs are formed of a flexible surgically implantable material. The main body and each of the first and second legs having an opening therein in communication with the other openings. Expandable spring attachments are secured to the main body adjacent the opening in the main body. An additional expandable spring attachment is secured to one of said legs adjacent the opening in said one leg.

This invention relates to an endovascular graft having bifurcation and an apparatus and a method for deploying the same.
In Kornberg U.S. Pat. No. 4,617,932 there is disclosed a bifurcated graft which has two legs with one leg being longer than the other leg. There is also disclosed a device and a method for inserting the graft into an artery. However, there is a need for an improved endovascular bifurcated graft and an apparatus and a method for deploying the same.

Method for deploying an endovascular graft having a bifurcation


A plastic easy-open container end including a score line in the end wall with a finger pull tab which pulls the tear strip away from the edge of the end wall toward the center of the can with a pressure knob extending from the pull tab with the knob positioned to be secured in a snap to hold the tear strip open and away from the pour opening.

My invention relates to easy-open containers and in particular container ends which might be most easily pictured as pull top cans. My invention is directed to containers wherein the pull top is not detachable. In particular, my invention is useful for containers wherein the container end with the pull top is manufactured of a polymeric plastic, typically a thermoplastic molding compound wherein the entire assembly may be injection molded in one piece.
Most present pull top ends have a top section that either completely separates from the can or is merely bent back along a fold line. These tear strips can easily work loose from the can, increase litter and a safety hazard to the user or to the person stepping on the discarded piece. The tops of cans are typically constructed of aluminum or steel and leave sharp edges on the tear strip as well as the can. These edges are a safety hazard to children or even adults as these parts must be handled with utmost care.
The easy-open cans have enjoyed ready acceptance for such can products as beverages, including carbonated beverages, such as beer, soft drinks and the like, as well as other products such as puddings, fruit juice and the like. These easy opening cans have not yet been used for granular products such as sugar, spices, drink mixes and other such items, possibly because of the inability to produce such an item from a polymeric plastic in a construction that will not cause significant difficulties.
While metal will generally take a permanent set when substantially folded, most plastics will not react in the same fashion and will tend to return to their original shape. This is particularly true with polymeric plastics such as polyethylene, polypropylene, polyvinyl chloride, acrylonitrile styrene polymers and copolymers and the like. Thus, if a pull tab were constructed of a like polymeric material, it would tend to return to the opening from which it was torn. The user would have to hold the tab back out of the way causing great inconvenience and loss of effectiveness. A typical easy opening container is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,437,227 to H. A. Peyser. This opener pulls toward the center of the can, but leaves the jagged tear strip in place. Another typical end assembly is that easy open container described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,108,302 to Richard A. Patterson. Another easy open can is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,900,128 to Omar L. Brown.
Some container tops have directed attention to holding the tear strip out of the way such as in U.S. Pat. No. 3,386,613 to B. J. Traynor and U.S. Pat. No. 3,847,300 to Lyle E. Waters. Both of these devices attach over or onto the rim of the can top. A plastic cover for press-in cover cans is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,246,792 to T. G. W. Brackmann et al with tongue or flap means to oppose the tendancy of the elastic hinge strip to bring the cover back to closed position. A snap on container lip with fold back drink opening is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,994,411 to Walter Elfelt wherein a flap is inserted into a slit in the removable lid snapped on to a plastic or paper container.
None of these devices satisfy the above needs nor the objects listed hereinbelow.
It is an object of this invention to provide a container end that may be constructed of materials that will not leave a cutting or jagged edge, but will solve the problems associated with such materials that will not take a permanent set when substantially folded.
It is an object of this invention to provide a pull top tear strip construction that will remain out of the user's way after opening, but may be reclosed.
It is an additional object of this invention to provide a container end, such as a can top in which the entire top including the tear strip, the pull tab and a hold down device may be molded in one piece from a thermoplastic polymer.
It is an additional object of this invention to hold down mechanism which is simple and inexpensive which will prevent a tear strip molded of a thermoplastic material tendancy to return to the opening away from that opening.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a hold down system to prevent the tear strip from yielding to the tendancy to return to the opening without breaching the integrity of the can interior, at least until the tear strip has been torn from its position sealing the can.
It is a specific object of this invention to provide a pull tab which may be easily grasped and lifted before pulling on the tear strip to form the opening in the container.
It is an object of this invention to provide an easy open container end in a container in which the end is sealed to the container to protect the contents of the container from adulteration, spoilage and leaking.
It is particular object of this invention to provide a tear strip in the container end that may be easily started and ripped to form the pour opening.
It is an additional object of this invention to provide a container end useful in sealing and providing an easy open end construction for sanitized containers, such as vials and ampules.


A multiple cartridge fluid filter canister for mounting operatively in a standard filter housing includes spaced part upper and lower support plates that engage respective ends of a plurality of elongate filter cartridges that extend between the upper and lower support plates. The upper support plate carries an upper positioning element that depends from the upper support plate for engaging an upper end of a respective filter cartridge. The lower support plate carries a corresponding lower positioning element that extends upwardly from the lower support plate to engage a lower end of the filter cartridge. Annular seals surround the upper and lower positioning elements for respectively interengaging and sealing the upper and lower ends of the filter cartridge to restrict fluid flow between the cartridge and the upper and lower support plates. The upper and lower support plates define one or more inlets and outlets that communicate with corresponding fluid flow inlet and outlet lines in the filter housing.

Conventional swimming pool filtration systems usually employ pleated surface media filters for removing debris that collects in the pool. Such filters must be cleaned and changed on a regular basis, which can be tedious, inconvenient and expensive. Although high quality pleated plastic fiber filters can be fairly effective in removing dirt and debris from the pool water, such contaminants create a fairly substantial pressure differential across the filter, which increases steadily over time as the filter ages. Water flow through the filter is thereby gradually reduced so that the pool is cleaned less effectively. As a result, the filter must be cleaned or changed sooner than desired in order to regain an effective flow rate. Frequent cleaning and replacement of the filter media also contributes to the inefficient and wasteful use of water and cleaning chemicals. Replaced pleated cartridge filters must be disposed of, typically in a landfill, which has a negative environmental impact.

Multiple cartridge fluid filter canister


A hinge cover is provided for a refrigerator door hinge so as to hide the hinge screws. The cover includes a cap with a front face and a side wall extending continuously around the cover. A bead is formed on the inside of the side wall to engage a mounting plate secured to the base of the door hinge, or alternatively, to frictionally engage the hinge base. The cover is made of a flexible material, and includes a slot through which the hinge flange and post extend. The cover can be colored to match or complement the refrigerator color.

Refrigerators typically have one or two doors which are mounted to the refrigerator cabinet by hinges so as to pivot between open and closed positions for the fresh food compartment and/or freezer compartment. The hinges are mounted to the cabinet with screws which normally are visible, particularly for the hinges which are located near eye level. The screws generally do not match the color of the cabinet or doors. Prior art efforts to hide the screws include caps press fit over the head of the screws. Other prior art hinges screw caps are complex, difficult to install, and/or expensive to manufacture.
Therefore, a primary objective of the present invention is the provision of an improved cover for a refrigerator door hinge to hide the hinge screws.
Another objective of the present invention is the provision of a refrigerator door hinge cover having an aesthetically pleasing appearance.
A further objective of the present invention is the provision of a refrigerator hinge cover which is quick and easy to install.
Still another objective of the present invention is the provision of a hinge cover for a refrigerator door which is resilient so as to mount over the hinge post.
Another objective of the present invention is the provision of a cover for a refrigerator door hinge which can be made in different colors to match or complement the color of the refrigerator.
Yet another objective of the present invention is the provision of a hinge cover for a refrigerator door hinge which is economical to manufacture and durable in use.


In an electromagnetic earpiece with a housing in which a coil through which an energizing current flows as well as a membrane are arranged such that the membrane can be excited to vibrate as a result of the energizing current, the parasitic leakage field generated by the electromagnetic earpiece is be reduced. This is accomplished by internally-running connection lines optimally close together between the ends of the coil and the electrical connections of the electromagnetic earpiece so that the leakage field thereby generated is kept optimally low according to the physical principle of a double conductor, producing an advantageous electromagnetic earpiece in a hearing aid device.

The invention concerns an electromagnetic earpiece with a housing, in which a coil through which an energizing current flows as well as a membrane, are arranged such that the membrane can be excited to vibrate as a result of the energizing current, whereby within the housing internal connection conductors are directed from the coil ends to electrical connections on the housing.
In electro-acoustic apparatuses, and particularly in hearing aid devices, electromagnetic earpieces are used to transduce electrical signals into acoustic signals. Due to the required miniaturization of these apparatuses, hearing aid devices have a problem in that electromagnetic leakage fields emanating from the earpiece interfere with other components of the hearing aid devices. In particular, the reception via an induction, telephone, or hearing coil in a hearing aid device can be disturbed by the leakage field generated by an earpiece.
From the prior art, measures are known in order to confine the leakage field emanating from an earpiece. For example, an induction coil is, in principle, arranged in the housing of a hearing device with an optimally large distance from the earpiece. Furthermore, it is known to provide particular shielding plates. These known shielding plates can, however, only influence a portion of the leakage fields. An optimally complete shielding of the earpiece is therewith not possible.
A cone speaker with a voice coil through which an audio-frequency alternating current i flows is known from Jecklin, Jürg, "Lautsprecherbuch", Telekosmosverlag, Franckh'sche Verlagshandlung, Stuttgart, 1967, page 37. The cone speaker comprises a membrane that is arranged such that the membrane can be excited to vibrate. Furthermore, the cone speaker comprises wires that supply the alternating current i to the voice coil. Within the cage, internal connection lines are routed from the coil ends of the voice coil to electrical connections on the cage.
German patent document DE 198 54 201 C2 discloses a hearing aid device with an earpiece for sound emission and with an induction coil for inductive acquisition of signals as well as with a compensation inductor for generating a compensation field, whereby the compensation inductor is positioned in the signal line of the earpiece between the induction coil and the earpiece such that its compensation field is directed counter to the magnetic field of the earpiece given operation of the induction coil, and a coupling between the earpiece and the induction coil is prevented.


The described method provides for an efficient method for user equipment (104) to identify when it is in proximity to an assigned femtocell (108) in order to be handed over to a femtocell from a macro cell. As the user the equipment moves within a macro cell (106) that is defined by a serving base station (102), it is determined (202) that it is in the range of or in proximity to the femtocell to which it is registered or subscribed. Upon notification that it is near the femtocell, the user equipment sends (204) a message to the serving base station of the macro cell indicating the user equipment has identified its femtocell. The serving base station then sends (208) a message to femtocell to turn on the femtocell so that a handover of the user equipment from the macro cell and serving base station and the femtocell can be initiated. The serving base station sends (212) a response to the user equipment indicating that the femtocell is ready to receive the user equipment as a part of handover procedure.

Femtocells are small telecommunication cells that are controlled by an access point. Femtocells are typically used in residential or other small locations. Femtocells connect into telecommunication networks using broadband or other similar types of connections. Femtocells are commonly used in association 3rd and 4th Generation telecommunication systems such as UMTS and LTE systems.
A large number of femtocells can be configured within a macro cell serviced by one or more serving base stations within a telecommunication system thereby creating a high density of femtocells in a given area. As user equipment moves within the macro cell, the user equipment will attempt to connect to the plurality of femtocells that are in the area of the user equipment. As user equipment connects only to femtocells to which it is authorized, the multiple attempts can cause interference and an excess of control messages.
Based on this, there is a need to reduce the number of futile attempts that are made for user equipment to connect to inaccessible femtocells. Since a macro cell may have a large number of femtocells within its operating area, it is difficult to include all the femtocells into its neighbor list. Moreover, a tracking area within a macro cell may include a large number of femtocells, and it is not desirable to send paging packets to user equipment through a femtocell that the user equipment cannot access.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of embodiments of the present invention.

Method for identifying user equipment to a femtocell