A removable lid (10) for an analytical specimen cup (12) of a type for defining a test space (26) with a chemical strip (24) mounted therein includes a selectively-removable protective cover (16) for selectively covering and uncovering an outer surface of a transparent portion of an outer partition (18) forming the test space. The protective cover is formed as one piece with an inner partition to be attached thereto by a dual living hinge (28a and b). The lid is rectangular in shape and includes an elongated magnifying lens (20) which has protrusions extending into blind holes (62) of the inner partition. The magnifying lens extends across the transparent portion of the outer partition. When the protective cover is in a closed position it impinges on the magnifying lens. A peel-off color analysis chart (22) is mounted on an inside surface of the protective cover.

This invention relates generally to specimen cup lids, chemical test strips for analyzing contents of analytical specimen cups, and, specifically, to analytical specimen cup lids which are combined with chemical test strips.
It has been suggested to combine chemical test strips with analytical specimen cup lids so that contents of specimen cups on which the lids are mounted can be analyzed without the necessity of opening the specimen cups and inserting chemical strips therein.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,119,830 to Davis describes an analytical specimen cup lid coupled with a test strip. That is, an analytical specimen cup has a lid with outer and inner partitions to define a test space therebetween in which a chemical test strip is mounted. A fluid specimen in the cup is selectively introduced to the chemical strip in the test space by manipulating a frangible valve which breaks an opening in the inner partition. Thus, the analytical specimen cup described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,119,830 to Davis allows technicians to control when fluid specimen is introduced to a chemical test strip so that the technicians need do this only when they are prepared to read and record data.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/262,535, filed Jun. 20, 1994 by Davis discloses the concept of placing the chemical test strip on a raised shelf in the test space so that the chemical test strip does not remain in contact with a specimen introduced into the test space. Davis also discloses therein the placement of a peel-off color-analysis chart on an exterior surface of the lid adjacent the chemical test strip so that the peel-off color-analysis chart can be easily compared with the chemical test strip, appropriately marked, peeled from the lid, and placed on a patient's chart. Although this device has various beneficial structures, it still has several shortcomings. One problem with this device is that an exposed unprotected lid of this design could be damaged in storage or transport, tampered with, or have a hole poked in a transparent portion of the outer partition, thereby making the lid virtually unusable.
For this reason, it is an object of this invention to provide a lid for an analytical specimen cup of a type providing a test space with a chemical strip therein which is more safely transported and stored and which is relatively tamper proof.
Yet another difficulty with devices of the prior art described above is that they allow light and moisture to continually enter the test space and thereby adversely affect the chemical strip therein. In this regard, it is desirably that chemical test patches be protected from light, especially sunlight, and moisture because such influences tend to discolor chemical patches on chemical test strips and, therefore, make "readings" taken from the test strips inaccurate.
Thus, it is a further object of this invention to provide a lid for an analytical specimen cup of a type defining a test space with a transparent partition which does not normally allow an undue amount of light and/or moisture to reach a chemical strip in the test space.
Yet another difficulty with some of the prior art devices described above is that they suggest the use of an optical magnifying lens as part of a lid for aiding a technician in reading the chemical test strip, but they do not suggest a practical manner of incorporating such a magnifying lens into the lid. Therefore, it is an object of this invention to provide a lid for an analytical specimen cup of a type defining a test space with a chemical test strip therein having a magnifying lens incorporated therein in an inexpensive and practical manner.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a lid for an analytical specimen cup of a type defining a test space with a chemical test strip therein which is not unduly expensive to manufacture and which is uncomplicated for both patients and technicians to use.


The support plate device for baked goods, pastries, or Viennese baked goods, includes at least one lower plate and at least two molds supported by the lower plate. The device further includes at least one upper plate, which covers the molds. The lower surface of the upper plate engages with the upper ends of the respective edges of the molds. There is a resilient return device for each mold, generating a force urging each mold individually and separately against the lower surface of the upper plate.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a support plate device for baked goods, pastries, or Viennese baked goods.
The present invention will find its application in the field of utensils and equipment for the production of baked goods, pastries, or Viennese baked goods or the like. It will find a very particular interest in the field of the plates used for conveying these products through various processing units, in particular during the stages of fermentation and baking.
In the field of bakery, the dough is subjected to a step of dividing into dough pieces, then of shaping of the latter, which are then deposited onto plates or into molds, used for transporting them, especially through a fermentation step and passing through the oven.
2. Description of Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97 and 37 CFR 1.98.
In particular, many products should preserve a well-determined specific shape during fermentation and during baking. To this end, they are placed inside molds having said desired shape at the level of the bottom and the periphery.
However, the molds are open in the upper portion, in order to permit their supply with dough pieces and the extraction of the products after baking. Therefore, the dough piece swells or "raises" during fermentation and baking, changing the upper aspect of the finished product.
In order to cope with this drawback, each mold is closed at the upper portion.
Examples of such a closing and locking of the cover of one single mold are disclosed in WO 95/24128 or DE 199 59 465. Such a locking can also be applied by one single cover on several molds at one time, namely as described in DE 297 08 638 or FR 2 682 262.
In addition, a springy restoring force can be applied from the top to the bottom, in order to maintain a downward pressure of the cover on all the molds at the same time.
In this framework, within the lines of industrial bakeries, it is customary to use "teams" of molds, which permit to convey a number of molds on one single support plate. Therefore, one single plate is applied for covering several molds at the same time, resting on the upper edges of said molds. Thus, the molds being closed, the upper swelling of the dough piece during its fermentation and its baking is continuous and limited.
But such a technique does not ensure the tightness and, after fermentation or baking, dough overflows are observed at the upper periphery of the product, which no longer has the desired shape and quality. These overflows are due to the fact that the upper rims of the edges of said molds are not completely joined to the plate. In brief, the tops of the molds are not all coplanar with each other, thus creating differences of level through which the dough escapes during fermentation or baking.
In order to cope with this problem, the solution currently used is to maintain the covering plate on the support plate resting on the molds, by applying a force suitable for pressing the upper surface of said covering plate against the upper edges of the molds. To this end, complex mechanical locking and clamping means are provided on both support and covering plates for applying at a plurality of points a force for clamping said plates to each other. The deformation and mechanical stresses so applied to the plates are supposed to ensure the tightness between the molds and said covering plate.
Again, burrs are after all observed, which are due to the fact that the upper edges of the molds are not co-planar and do not perfectly apply against the lower face of the covering plate. In addition, the mechanical and thermal stresses the molds and the plates are subjected to lead to deformations of the constituent materials during baking. Thus, the dough infiltrates through the smallest gaps, which are formed, despite the overall clamping force exerted between the plates.
In addition, the locking means are subjected to expansion during heating, which makes the separation of the plates difficult after baking. Finally, such means are expensive and of a high maintenance cost.


[Object]

In the field of optical devices, such as, displays, light emitting diodes and solar cells, various proposals have been recently made for the purposes of energy conservation and of improvement in light utilization efficiency. For example, there is a known method for increasing the aperture ratio of a liquid crystal display. In that method, a transparent planarization film is formed to cover a thin-film transistor (hereinafter, often referred to as "TFT") element and then pixel electrodes are formed on the planarization film (see, Patent document 1). Similarly to this method for a liquid crystal display, there is also a method proposed in order to increase the aperture ratio of an organic electric field light-emitting device (hereinafter, often referred to as "organic EL device"). In the proposed method, the constitution of the device is changed from a type in which a light-emitting layer is formed by deposition on transparent pixel electrodes provided on a substrate so that the emitted light is extracted from the substrate side (i.e., bottom emission type) to another type in which a TFT element, a planarization film formed thereon to cover the TFT element, transparent pixel electrodes provided thereon, and a light-emitting layer formed thereon are so laminated that the light given off from the light-emitting layer is extracted from the side opposite to the TFT element (i.e., top emission type) (see, Patent document 2).
According as new technologies such as 3D displaying have been introduced to meet increasing needs for improvement of displays in resolution, in upsizing and in image quality, signal delay on the wiring has been becoming a problem. Specifically, the speed of rewriting image information (i.e., frame frequency) has been accelerated, and accordingly the input time of signals into the TFT element has been shortened. However, even if it is attempted to improve the response speed by broadening the wiring width to reduce the wiring resistance, the broadening of the wiring width is limited by the requirements of high resolution displaying and the like. In view of that, it is proposed to increase the wiring thickness so as to solve the problem of signal delay (see, Non-patent document 1).
As one of the materials for the planarization film formed on a TFT substrate, it is known to adopt a negative-working photosensitive material mainly comprising a polysiloxane compound and a polymerization initiator. The polysiloxane compound is obtained by polymerization of a bifunctional group-containing silane compound, such as, dialkyldialkoxysilane, in the presence of catalysis. However, the conventional siloxane-containing negative-working photosensitive material has a problem to be improved. Specifically, when developed with an inorganic developer, a coating of the material intended to be removed by the developer may still remain after the development. Because of that, it has been difficult to develop the coating inorganically although inorganic development has the advantages of being very safe and of making it possible to obtain high contrast as compared with development with an organic developer, such as, tetraammonium hydroxide.

Negative-working photosensitive siloxane composition

Abstract: [Object]

Abstract: To provide a negative-working photosensitive siloxane composition developable inorganically, and also to provide a cured film-manufacturing method employing that.

Abstract: [Means]

Abstract: The present invention provides a negative-working photosensitive siloxane composition comprising a polysiloxane, a silicon-containing compound having a pKa of 2.0 to 15.7, a photo-polymerization initiator, and a solvent. This composition is coat on a substrate, exposed to light, developed with an inorganic developer, and heated, so that a cured film can be obtained.

AZ ELECTRONIC MATERIALS (LUXEMBOURG) S.A.R.L.


The present invention provides a process for synthesis of tri- and tetra-alkylated pyridines (i.e. collidines) in high yields by reacting methyl ethyl ketone with formaldehyde in presence of ammonia in gas phase in the presence of a zeolite catalyst which comprises of silica-alumina with at least one metal ion and/or metal selected from the group consisting of lanthanum, lead, manganese, iron, copper and cobalt. This process provides eco-friendly, more economical and shape-selective heterogeneous method.

The present invention relates to a process for the preparation of a collidine and 2,3,5,6-tetramethyl pyridine over a zeolite catalyst. More particularly, the present invention relates to a process for the preparation of collidine from methyl ethyl ketone, formaldehyde and ammonia in gas phase in an eco-friendly method with high yields and selectivity.
The present invention provides a non-corrosive, eco-friendly process where the catalyst can be recycled and reused for many times. The process involves no-wastage of the compounds (i.e. high atom selectivity) and has high selectivity of products.
Collidines and tetramethyl pyridines are useful compounds that find application as raw materials in various medicines like Omeprazole and also in agrochemicals.
The following processes are known for the preparation of 2,3,5-collidine by reacting a carbonyl compound with ammonia in a gas phase in the presence of a catalyst.
A process comprising reacting methacrolein and methyl ethyl ketone with ammonia in a gas phase in presence of catalyst which comprises silica-alumina containing at least one element selected from the group consisting of cobalt, zinc, cadmium and lead. (U.S. Pat. No. 6,111,113) wherein the yield of 2,3,5-collidine is 42% and other major product is 2-methyl 5-ethyl pyridine.
A process comprising reacting methacrolein with ammonia in a gas phase in the presence of a catalyst which comprises silicon and an element such as zirconium, aluminium and/or phosphorus (see JP-A-8-245589), and a process comprising reacting methacrolein and methyl ethyl ketone with ammonia in a gas phase in the presence of an oxide catalyst comprising silicon, phosphorus and/or boron (see JP-A-8-259537). However, the main product of the former process is 3,5-lutidine, while 2,3,5-collidine is obtained in a yield of only 16.5%. In the latter process, 2,3,5-collidine is obtained in a yield of 15 to 37%.
Another process by Yamaji; Mitsuharu comprises the synthesis of collidine along with tetramethyl pyridine by the alkylation of 3,5-lutidine with aliphatic alcohols over Raney nickel catalysts. The yields and selectivities are higher but the process suffers from use of hydrogen and is not a continuous process.
Some processes have also been reported such as the separation of 2,3,5-collidine from tar and the reacting the 3,5-lutidine methyl lithium butyl but these or not upto the level of commercial use. In the latter process the yield is upto 80% but suffers in industrial operation.
Syntheses of pyridine bases have been extensively studied over the solid acid catalysts and on some zeolites, but those are not for the synthesis of collidines and tetramethyl pyridines. Prior art describes neither a gas phase catalytic reaction of a carbonyl compound with formaldehyde and ammonia for the preparation of collidines, nor the use of crystalline uniform porous zeolite catalysts.
The main object of the present invention is to provide a process for the synthesis of collidines over zeolite molecular sieves in a heterogeneous eco-friendly method.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a process for the preparation of collidines, in a high yield and at the same time, 2,3,5,6-tetramethyl pyridine, by the gas phase catalytic reaction of a carbonyl compound and ammonia.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a process for synthesizing collidines using a specific zeolite catalyst.
Another object of the invention is to provide a process wherein the catalyst is capable of reuse and recycling.
Accordingly the present invention relates to a process for the preparation of a compound of formula 1
wherein R1 and R3 are H or methyl, R2 and R4 are methyl, said process comprising reacting methyl ethyl ketone with formaldhyde in the presence of ammonia in gas phase conditions in the presence of a catalyst comprising zeolite ZSM-5.
In one embodiment of the invention, R1 is methyl and R3 is H to give 2,3,5-collidine.
In one embodiment of the invention R1 is H and R3 is methyl to give 2,3,6-collidine.
In one embodiment of the invention R1 and R3 are methyl to give 2,3,5,6-tetramethylcollidine.
In one embodiment of the invention, the ZSM-5 catalyst contains at least one element selected from the group consisting of lanthanum, lead, manganese, iron, copper and cobalt.
In one embodiment of the invention A process as claimed in claim 1, wherein the Si/Al ratio in the catalyst is in the range of 15 to 140.
In one embodiment of the invention the amount of said at least one element is between 1 and 10 wt. % of metal to said zeolite.
In one embodiment of the invention said at least one element is contained in the form of an oxide in said zeolite ZSM-5.
In one embodiment of the invention the amount of methyl ethyl ketone is at least one mole per one mole of formaldehyde, and the amount of ammonia is between 0.5 and 5 moles per one mole of the total of methyl ethyl ketone and formaldehyde.
In one embodiment of the invention, wherein methanol is added to the starting materials in an amount of up to 0.5 mole per mole of ethyl methyl ketone.
The process of the present invention uses ZSM-5 silica-alumina containing at least one element selected from the group consisting lanthanum, lead; manganese, iron and copper, as a catalyst. At least one element selected from the group consisting of lanthanum, lead, manganese, iron and copper is contained in the catalyst in the form of a metal, an ion and/or a compound. Examples of the compounds of such elements are inorganic compounds such as their oxides, nitrates, hydroxides, carbonates, etc.
The content of alumina in the zeolite varies between 15 and 140 of the silica/alumina ratio. The amount of lanthanum, manganese, iron and copper and/or lead is usually between 1 and 10 wt. %, preferably between 2 and 5 wt. %, based on the weight of the ZSM-5 catalyst. When the content of the alumina and the amount of the element or elements are within the above ranges, respectively, 2,3,5-collidine and 2,3,6-collidine are obtained in good yields, and the deterioration of the catalytic activity of the catalyst with time is suppressed. The presence of water in the formaldehyde decreases the coke formation and increases the lifetime of the catalyst. The catalyst is be prepared from at least one compound selected from the group consisting of inorganic compounds of the above elements (e.g. oxides, halides, sulfates, nitrates, hydroxides, sulfides, silicates, titanates, carbonates, etc.) or organometal compounds of the above elements (e.g. carboxylate salts, organic chelates, etc.) as the source materials for the elements, ZSM-5 catalyst was used as commercial catalyst and it can be prepared by silicon compound (e.g. water glass, silica sol, alkali silicates, etc.) and an aluminium compound (e.g. aluminium nitrate, aluminium sulfate, alumina sol, etc.) in presence of template tripropyl amine by reported literature.
The catalyst of the present invention may be prepared by any conventional method such as impregnation, ion exchange, and the like. For example, ZSM-5 impregnated with the aqueous solution of the above compound(s) of the element(s), dried and calcined. The ZSM-5(30) powder is ion exchanged by treating the powder with the aqueous solution of metal salt solutions of the compound(s) of the element(s) lanthanum, cobalt, lead, copper, manganese and iron and after that it is washed with water, dried and calcined. In the process of the present invention, the catalyst can be used as a fixed bed catalyst or a fluidized bed catalyst.
When the catalyst of the present invention is used as the fixed bed catalyst, it is shaped in the form of a solid tablet with a tabletting machine and then meshed to the 18-30 size. In either case, the shaped catalyst is calcined at a temperature of between 400 and 600xc2x0 C. for several hours in the atmosphere of air to strengthen the catalyst and to evaporate volatile components off. The calcination of the catalyst after shaping is not always necessary, since the catalyst is heated in a reactor for the gas-phase catalytic reaction.
The process of the present invention can be carried out by any conventional method. For example, a gaseous mixture of methyl ethyl ketone, formaldehyde and ammonia is supplied over the catalyst of the present invention, and catalytically reacted in the gas phase. The amount of methyl ethyl ketone is usually at least one mole, preferably between 0.5 and 2 moles per one mole of formaldehyde. The amount of ammonia is usually between 0.5 and 5 moles, preferably between 1 and 3 moles, per one mole of the total of formaldehyde and methyl ethyl ketone. The reaction temperature for the gas phase catalyst reaction is usually in the range between 300 and 450xc2x0 C., preferably in the range between 350 and 400xc2x0 C. The weight hourly space velocity of the mixture of the raw materials is usually between 0.25 and 1 hxe2x88x921. The reaction pressure may be reduced pressure, atmospheric pressure or elevated pressure. Preferably, the reaction pressure is atmospheric pressure.
The possible reaction scheme of the process of the invention is given below:
When the process of the present invention is performed in the form of a fixed bed, the catalyst of the present invention is packed in a reactor and heated to a reaction temperature. Then, the mixture of methyl ethyl ketone, formaldehyde and ammonia was allowed to proceed through the gas phase catalytic reaction while maintaining the suitable reaction temperature. Thus, a reaction product containing 2,3,5-collidine, 2,3,6-collidine and 2,3,5,6-tetramethylpyridine is obtained.
The reaction product gas is condensed by cooling, or trapped in a suitable solvent. The condensed or trapped liquid contains 2,3,5-collidine, 2,3,6-collidine and 2,3,5,6-tetramethyl pyridine along with the lutidines and other pyridine derivatives.

Process for the preparation of a collidine and 2,3,5,6-tetramethyl pyridine

Council of Scientific and Industrial Research


This invention relates to an O-methyltransferase gene cloned from sorghum, the sorghum O-methyltransferase-3 gene, SbOMT3. Quantitative real-time RT-PCR and recombinant enzyme studies with putative O-methyltransferase sequences obtained from an EST data set from sorghum have led to the identification of the novel root hair-specific O-methyltransferase designated SbOMT3. Transgenic plants which express SbOMT3 can convert resveratrol into pterostilbene in planta. SbOMT3 is also involved in the biosynthesis of sorgoleone.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an O-methyltransferase gene cloned from sorghum, the sorghum O-methyltransferase-3 gene, SbOMT3; a construct containing the gene and its promoter; a vector containing the gene; sorghum O-methyltransferase-3 protein, SbOMT3; a method of making SbOMT3 protein; a method of transforming plants; and transgenic plants which express SbOMT3 and thereby convert resveratrol into pterostilbene in planta.
2. Description of the Relevant Art
Resveratrol is a grape phytoalexin that protects plants against important plant pathogens such as Botrytis cinerea (Adrian et al. 1997. J. Chem. Ecol. 23: 1689-1702; Hoos and Blaich. 1990. J. Phytopathol. 129: 102-110). This metabolite is also beneficial to human health by acting as a strong antioxidant (Martinez and Moreno. 2000. Biochem. Pharmacol. 59: 865-870; Stivala et al. 2001. J. Biol. Chem. 276: 22586-22594) and by having cancer chemopreventive properties (Jang et al. 1997. Science 275: 218-220). Pterostilbene, a methylated analogue of resveratrol was demonstrated to have similar antioxidant and cancer chemopreventive properties as resveratrol (Rimando et al. 2002. J. Agric. Food Chem. 50: 3453-3457). Pterostilbene has been shown to have beneficial pharmaceutical and nutraceutical effects for humans and animals. It has been reported to be cytotoxic against a number of cancer cell lines including human breast cancer and murine lymphoid neoplasma cell lines (Rimando et al. 1994. Nat. Prod. Lett. 4: 267-272), and to lower blood glucose level in streptozidin-induced diabetic mice (Manickam et al. 1997. J. Nat. Prod. 60: 609-610). Pterostilbene is more fungitoxic than resveratrol against the plant pathogens Botrytis cinerea, Cladosporium cucumerinum, Pellicularia sasakii, Piricularia oryzae, and Plasmopora viticola (Langcake et al. 1979. Phytochemistry 18: 1025-1027). Pterostilbene also inhibited fungi involved in the chronic disease of grapevines, esca, (Phaeoacremonium aleophilum, Phaeomoniella chlamydospora, Libertella blepharis, Fomitiporia punctata and Stereum hirsutum), whereas resveratrol did not inhibit mycelial growth of these fungi (Mazzullo et al. 2000. Phytopathol. Mediterr. 39: 357-365). Furthermore, pterostilbene was inhibitory against the human pathogens Candida albicans, Cryptococcus neoformans, Staphylococcus aureus, and methicillin-resistant S. aureus, while resveratrol was ineffective against those disease agents (Rimando et al. 2003a. Abstracts of Papers: 219th American Chemical Society National Meeting: AGFD-081).
Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench is one of the most important cereal crops worldwide (Doggett, H.1988. Sorghum, 2nd Edition, Blackwell Publishing, Ames, Iowa), surpassed only by wheat, rice, corn and barley in total acreage, with the United States currently accounting for a major portion of total world production and exports (FAOSTAT data, faostat.fao.org; accessed March 2006). Allelopathy, the chemical inhibition of one plant species by another, represents a form of chemical warfare between neighboring plants competing for limited light, water, and nutrient resources (Inderjit and Duke. 2003. Planta 217: 529-539; Bais et al. 2004. Trends Plant Sci. 9: 26-32). The allelopathic properties of sorghum were first suggested from observations of reduced growth of other crop species when grown in rotation; moreover certain sorghum species such as Sudan grass (Sorghum sudanese) can produce largely weed-free monocultures without the use of synthetic herbicides (reviewed by Duke et al. 2005. Outlooks Pest Management 16: 64-68). Allelopathic interactions have been proposed to have profound effects on the evolution of plant communities through the loss of susceptible species via chemical interference, and by imposing selective pressure favoring individuals resistant to inhibition from a given allelochemical (e.g., Schulz and Wieland. 1999. Chemoecology 9: 133-141; Bais et al., supra). In addition, allelochemicals released by grain crop species such as barley, rye, and sorghum are thought to play a significant role in their efficacy as weed suppressants when used as cover crops or within intercropping systems (Duke et al. 2002. J. Pestic. Sci. 27: 298-306; Weston and Duke. 2003. Crit. Rev. Plant Sci. 22: 367-389).
Current evidence suggests that a family of allelochemicals active at micromolar concentrations, referred to as sorgoleones, may account for much of the allelopathic properties of Sorghum spp. (Netzly and Butler. 1986. Crop Sci. 26: 775-780; Einhellig and Souza. 1992. J. Chem. Ecol. 18: 1-11; Czarnota et al. 2001. Weed Technol. 15: 813-825). The term sorgoleone is most frequently used to describe the compound corresponding to the predominant congener identified in sorghum root exudates (Kagan et al. 2003. J. Agric. Food Chem. 51: 7589-7595), 2-hydroxy-5-methoxy-3-[(Z,Z)-8′,11′,14′-pentadecatriene]-p-benzoquinone (FIG. 1), which has been estimated to account for as much as 85% of the exudate material (w/w) in some varieties (Czarnota et al. 2001, supra). The remaining exudate largely consists of sorgoleone congeners differing in the length or degree of saturation of the aliphatic side chain, and in the substitution pattern of the quinone ring (Kagan et al., supra; Rimando et al. 2003. J. Nat. Prod. 66: 42-45). The fact that sorgoleone acts as a potent broad-spectrum inhibitor active against many agronomically important monocot and dicot weed species, exhibits a long half-life in soil, and appears to effect multiple targets in vivo (e.g., Netzly and Butler. 1986, supra; Einhellig and Souza, supra; Nimbal et al. 1996. J. Agric. Food Chem. 44: 1343-1347; Rimando et al. 1998. J. Nat. Prod. 61: 927-930; Czarnota et al. 2001, supra; Bertin et al. 2003 Plant Soil 256: 67-83; Duke, S. O. 2003. Trends Biotechnol. 21: 192-195) may make it promising for development as a natural product alternative to synthetic herbicides (Duke, supra).
Both pterostilbene and sorgoleone have important roles in food crops; namely, pterostilbene has been shown to have beneficial pharmaceutical and nutraceutical effects for humans and animals and the allelopathic interactions of sorgoleone can suppress the growth and effects of weeds. Thus, knowing the genetic determinants of pterostilbene biosynthesis and sorgoleone biosynthesis could provide a novel and powerful tool, for enrichment of pterostilbenes and sorgoleones in important food crops. Increasing pterostilbene content in staple crops such blueberries, cranberries, and grapes could help in the alleviation of high cholesterol levels in patients, a condition which affects a large percentage of the world's population. Furthermore, the SbOMT3 gene could be used to alter food plants to selectively modify pterostilbene content and/or composition to provide protection against certain other diseases such as cancer. Thus, the sorghum O-methyltransferase can be used to generate transgenic plants with enhanced levels of pterostilbene in species such as grapes and blueberries that produce resveratrol (Adrian et al. 2000. J. Agric. Food Chem. 48: 6103-6105; Pezet and Pont. 1988. Plant Physiol. Biochem. (Paris) 26: 603-607; Rimando et al. 2000. Abstracts of Papers: 220th American Chemical Society National Meeting: AGFD-074; Rimando and Barney. 2003b. Abstracts of Papers: The 3rd World Congress on Medicinal and Atomatic Plants for Human Welfare: PP10-07) resulting in more disease resistant varieties that also have higher nutraceutical value. It is a primary object of this invention to provide a molecular tool and method for increasing accumulation of pterostilbenes in plant cells.
In addition to utilizing the SbOMT3 gene to generate increased levels of pterostilbenes in plants which already produce resveratrol, i.e., plants such as blueberries, grapes and cranberries, the SbOMT3 gene can be used in combination with a resveratrol synthase gene to produce pterostilbene in any plant species. The enzymatic production of resveratrol in plants requires only the presence of the ubiquitous substrates p-coumaryl-CoA and malonyl-CoA (Austin and Noel. 2003. Nat. Prod. Rep. 20: 79-110); therefore, a resveratrol synthase gene such as the stilbene synthase gene from Arachis hypogaea (peanut; Lanz et al. 1991. J. Biol. Chem. 15: 9971-9976) can be used to generate pterostilbene in planta. The resulting transgenic plants expressing both transgenes, i.e., O-methyltransferase (SbOMT3) and stilbene synthase, simultaneously, would exhibit increased resistance to pathogen infection and also produce fruit that has higher nutraceutical value. This strategy could also be deployed in species where resveratrol is in limiting quantities, to achieve higher accumulation levels of pterostilbene.
We have isolated SbOMT3, a novel O-methyltransferase gene from Sorghum bicolor. The recombinant enzyme, SbOMT3, has been shown in vitro and in vivo to use resveratrol as a substrate to produce pterostilbene.

O-methyltransferase gene from sorghum cloning, expression, transformation and characterization

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


Para-ordered aromatic heterocyclic polymers having repeating units of the formula: ##STR1## wherein n has a value of 0.05 to 1.00 and Q is a benzobisazole of the formula ##STR2## wherein X is --S-- or --O--, are soluble in aprotic solvents.

This invention relates to para ordered aromatic heterocyclic polymers which are soluble in aprotic solvents.
In general, the class of aromatic heterocyclic extended chain polymers and copolymers is well known for their outstanding thermal, physical and chemical properties. These polymers and copolymers generally exhibit excellent modulus and tenacity properties. Although these materials exhibit superior mechanical properties, they have the drawback that they generally can only be fabricated from strong corrosive acids such as polyphosphoric acid or methanesulfonic acid.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide para-ordered aromatic heterocyclic polymers and copolymers which are soluble in aprotic solvents.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art.

Benzobisazole copolymer system soluble in aprotic solvents

The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Air Force


An example method includes identifying, using a browser extension, content of a first webpage of a first website being displayed using a browser. The identifying of the content includes determining a product related to the content of the first webpage and determining that the product has been added to an electronic shopping cart. The method further includes determining a merchant that offers the product for sale and determining, based on a user account associated with the browser extension, a customer reward offered by the merchant and available to the user account. The method further includes determining that the browser has navigated away from the first webpage to a second webpage of a second website. The method further includes modifying the browser to display a graphical user interface element including information about the customer reward and a link configured to navigate the browser back to the first website.

A computer network platform/system may include a group of computers (e.g., client devices (e.g., laptops, desktop computers, tablets, smartphone devices, internet of things (IOT) devices, etc.), servers, wireless routers or other networking devices) and other computing hardware devices that are linked together through one or more communication channels to facilitate communication and/or resource-sharing, via one or more specifically programmed graphical user interfaces (GUIs) of the present disclosure.

Computer-based systems and/or computing devices configured for implementing browser extensions that provide contextually relevant information to a user via a graphical user interface


A tourist information guiding apparatus is provided with a tourist spot information storage storing image data relating to tourist spots in correspondence with character string data for sightseeing guide written in a plurality of languages, a monitor for displaying operation screens used to input various instructions such as the display of tourist information, a language receiving section for receiving the selection of a language via the operation screen on the monitor, a tourist spot receiving section for receiving the selection of a tourist spot, and a display controlling section for causing the monitor to display an image of the tourist spot selected by the tourist spot receiving section together with a character string for sightseeing guide written in the language designated by the language receiving section. A traveler can obtain tourist information in his native language at a travel destination by means of a tourist information guiding apparatus.

Conventionally, foreign travelers have, in many cases, purchased guidebooks in their own countries, checked tourist information such as famous tourist meccas, hotels, restaurants at destinations, and headed for the destinations on their journeys while referring to maps to the destinations written in the guidebooks and transportation guides.
However, maps to destinations and transportation guides are written not in Japanese, but in foreign languages in the guidebooks purchased in foreign countries. Thus, frequently, travelers cannot easily arrive at destinations even if they show these maps and transportation guides to taxi drivers or other people there upon heading for the destinations. On the other hand, since sightseeing guide brochures for tourists handed out at hotels and the like in Japan are written in Japanese, they cannot be easily understood by foreign travelers even if the foreign travelers see them. Such problems similarly occur when Japanese travel abroad.
Since an amount of information for each destination is limited in the guidebooks or sightseeing guide brochures, no detailed tourist information can be obtained. Further, the guidebooks or sightseeing guide brochures need to be reprinted in the case of updating information, and those having been used till then are discarded. This leads to a problem of wasting resources.


Emulsifiable linear polyethylene compositions which exhibit good hardness and color characteristics can be obtained by oxidizing a blend of about 90 to 60% by weight of either linear low density polyethylene or high density polyethylene and about 10 to 40% by weight paraffin wax to an acid number of 12 to 30 mg KOH/g. The water emulsions obtained from the emulsifiable polyethylene compositions are useful as textile lubricants and fruit coatings.

1. Field of the Invention:
The present invention relates to novel emulsifiable linear polyethylene containing compositions which possess good color characteristics, such as high light transmittance, high density, and low penetration hardness values. The present invention also relates to a process for the production of such emulsifiable linear polyethylene compositions and the emulsions prepared from such emulsifiable linear polyethylene compositions.
2. Discussion of the Background:
Water emulsifiable polyethylene waxes are widely used as self-polishing waxes in commercial applications. These waxes are relatively easy to use, are inexpensive, and provide good results. The waxes, in addition to being used in self-polishing wax formulations for floor polish applications, are also useful in formulating textile finishes, paper coatings, and the like. However, for applications such as textile lubricants and fruit coatings, waxes characterized by having high densities and low penetration hardness values as well as good color characteristics are desired.
One method for producing emulsifiable polyethylene compositions involves a two-step procedure. The polyethylene is first thermally degraded and then oxidized. However, the presence of catalyst residues, such as Ti, Ca, Al, and Cl, results in a discoloration of the polyethylene during the thermal degradation step. Thus, emulsifiable polyethylenes produced by this process do not possess good color characteristics and are not suitable for use as textile lubricants and fruit coatings.
A process for oxidizing blends of specific polyethylene components and a specific microcrystalline wax is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,879,239. The products produced by the process are said to be especially valuable for the preparation of emulsions which, when spread on a surface, leave hard, tough films having a high gloss.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,632,955 discloses emulsifiable polyethylene paraffin blend compositions prepared by oxidizing a mixture of: (1) low density polyethylene (LDPE); (2) low density polyethylene wax; and (3) paraffin wax. By first blending the LDPE with paraffin wax, the initial viscosity of the polyethylene is lowered, and the thermal degradation step may be omitted. This method provides a savings in energy and a product with better color characteristics. However, the emulsifiable LDPE compositions possess low densities and high penetration hardness values and are, thus, unsuitable for use as textile lubricants or fruit coatings.
Thus, there is a need for emulsifiable polyethylene compositions which possess good color characteristics, high densities, and low penetration hardness values.

Emulsifiable linear polyethylene compositions and process for preparation


A hard disk drive is disclosed in which the disk has tracks each divided into alternating data sectors and servo sectors, with the control data such as track addresses on the servo sectors being normally recorded more stably than the main data on the data sectors. In order to obtain read pulses representative of the peaks of the output waveform of a transducer, this waveform is directed on one hand into a differentiator circuit and thence into a wave shaping circuit for the provision of data pulses which rise and decay in synchronism with the peaks of the transducer output waveform. On the other hand, the transducer output waveform is sent into a gate pulse circuit, in which the waveform is compared with a reference signal in order to provide gate or window pulses. A logic circuit is provided for ascertaining whether the data pulses rise and decay within the durations of the gate pulses and, if they do, for producing read pulses indicative of the rises and decays of the data pulses. The duration of the gate pulses is made shorter for recovery of the control data than for main data recovery, with a view to more precise detection of the peaks of the transducer output waveform representative of the control data.

This invention relates generally to rotating disk data storage apparatuses; and particularly to that of the hard or "fixed" magnetic disk variety. More particularly, the invention deals with an improved read circuit in such apparatus for accurately reading data on both data sectors and servo sectors of the rotating disk.
The hard magnetic disk has a multiplicity of annular tracks arranged concentrically on at least one major surface thereof. Each track is divided into sectors, with intersector gaps therebetween, and each sector is subdivided into a data sector and a servo sector. The data sectors are used for the storage of main data or user information. The servo sectors have written thereon various control data such as automatic gain control (AGC) data, track addresses, and tracking servo patterns, and have mid-sector gaps aside from the intersector gaps. Read by the data transducer of an associated disk drive, all such data, on both data sectors and servo sectors of the disk are recreated from read pulses representative of the peaks of the transducer output waveform. The gaps in the disk tracks perform an important function of enabling the disk drive to detect the servo sectors.
As heretofore constructed, a read circuit, included in the hard disk drive, has had a problem in reconstructing the main data and control data on the disk. As is customary in the magnetic disk art, the main data is so recorded on the disk that the transducer on reading it produces an output of shorter wavelength and smaller amplitude than that produced on reading the control data. It may be comtemplated to make the reference level of wave shaping comparators in the read circuit low enough to enable exact recreation of the main data. Then, since this same low reference level has so far been used also for recreating the control data, difficulties have been encountered in detecting the peaks of the transducer output waveform representative of the control data. Such difficulties have led in some cases to failures in detecting the gaps and hence the servo sectors of the disk tracks.
The problem discussed above has become all the more pronounced in cases where an AGC is coupled to the output of the transducer. The intersector gaps as well as those in the servo sectors typically to carry noise magnetizations. These noise magnetizations have been so amplified as to result in the production of wrong read pulses if the gain is so determined as to suit the smaller amplitude transducer output representative of the main data. Such noise has also found its way into the read circuit, making impossible the correct reading of the track addresses and other control data, when the threshold level is made too low for reading the control data.

Read circuit providing two different reference levels for reading the servo sectors and data sectors of a rotating data storage disk


In an image obtained by reading a document or the like, when a round portion is present at a corner of a frame for describing a character, extraction of a region where a character image is described is performed by removing pixels constituting a part of rules or lines constituting the frame. Such pixels are removed from an extracted image region by identifying whether or not a desired pixel group contacting at least one of row-direction rules and column-direction rules constitutes part of the rules, by performing labeling for the pixel group.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus, method and program for segmenting a character image described in a frame or a table in a document image, and a storage medium storing such a program.
2. Description of the Related Art
When reading characters described in a document, such as an application form or the like, in many cases, a document formed with a dropout color is used, and characters described with a color different from the dropout color are read and recognized. Since dropout-color documents are printed and distributed using a color adapted to conditions of a light source of a reading apparatus, the documents are expensive and inconvenient.
Although non-dropout-color documents are less expensive and convenient, it is impossible to discriminate between characters and closing lines. Accordingly, the following approaches have been considered as methods for recognizing a non-dropout-color document.
In a conventional method, the positions and the sizes of frames for describing characters within a document are stored in advance as a document definition, and described characters are extracted by reading differences between an input document to be read and the document definition by superposing them after correcting position deviation between the input document and the document definition. In this method, however, since it is necessary to store the document definition in advance, an input document other than the document definition cannot be dealt with. Accordingly, techniques have been considered in which, even if a document definition is not stored in advance, a frame for describing a character and a character within the frame are recognized.
For example, according to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (Kokai) No. 07-282191 (1995), a black run continuous for at least a predetermined length in the vertical and horizontal directions is extracted as a set of rules (i.e., lines). In some cases, a vertical rule and a horizontal rule are disconnected. In such a case, the vertical rule and the horizontal rule are virtually extended, and if the length of an extended portion is equal to or less than a threshold, the vertical line and the horizontal line are assumed to be connected, and the black run is recognized as a rectangular frame. However, since the frame is handled to be a straight rectangle, if a document having a round portion at a corner of a frame is recognized, the round corner portion is segmented as a character when extracting a character within the frame and is used in character recognition processing, and erroneous character recognition will sometimes occur.
In Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (Kokai) No. 07-14000 (1995), a plurality of patterns of corners of a frame are stored in advance. Black pixels continuous in vertical and horizontal directions are checked, and black pixels continuous in the vertical and horizontal directions, having a length equal to or more than a predetermined value are determined to provide rules. A corner-portion pattern that is stored in advance is matched with a intersection point of a pair of a vertical rule and a horizontal rule whose end points are close to each other. If similarity is large, the corner portion is determined to correspond to that pattern. In this approach, it is necessary to store a large number of corner-portion patterns in advance, and therefore to provide a large memory capacity. In addition, a corner portion is not recognized if it has a pattern other than stored patterns.
In Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (Kokai) No. 2000-235619 (2,000), a round corner portion is determined by identifying a pixel-density distribution in an oblique direction between end points of extracted rules, or by performing a matching operation by generating a pattern connecting end points of rules using an n-degree function. In the former approach, however, when a change in the pixel-density distribution is small, for example, when a thin portion is present in a corner portion, the corner portion is sometimes not recognized. In the latter approach, although a large number of round-corner portions need not be stored in advance, it is necessary to perform processing of generating a pattern using an n-degree function and matching processing, resulting in an increase in the processing time.
As described above, in the above-described conventional approaches, there are problems such that, for example, a large memory capacity is necessary, processing requiring a long time for matching or the like must be performed, accuracy in recognition is inferior, and a round portion of rules is segmented as a character and is erroneously recognized.

Image processing apparatus, method and program, and storage medium


An apparatus to dispense salt, sand, brine or similar material under or in the area of a tire on a motor vehicle, including, but not limited to, a truck or automobile. The apparatus comprises one or more containers for storing salt, sand, brine, or similar material that can be used to melt or provide traction on snow or ice. One or more tubes or lines run from the container(s) to a position above or near a vehicle wheel, or in the wheelwell, where the salt, sand, brine or similar material can be dispensed via a dispenser directly onto the snow or ice under or proximate to the tire, or onto the tire itself. A pump is used to pump the salt, sand, brine or similar material through the lines. The pump may be integrated with the container, or may be separately installed.

The problems of winter driving in many parts of the world are well-known. Vehicles frequently slip, skid or get stuck in or on snow and ice. A variety of techniques and methods have been used to attempt to overcome this problem. Many such prior art devices are difficult to attach to the vehicle's wheels or tires, or require special tires or wheels. Examples include tire chains, tire traction devices, and tires with special treads or studs, such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,426,949; 6,536,491; 6,047,754; 5,322,107; and 5,198,048; all of which are incorporated herein in their entireties by specific reference for all purposes.
The need continues, however, for a way to increase traction for a vehicle when needed without special tires, or without special equipment attached to the tires.


The invention refers to a ventilated filter cigarette comprising a tobacco rod, a wrapper for the tobacco rod and a filter ventilated through ventilation openings, including a coaxial filter element, comprising a filter core, a wrapper for the filter core, a filter jacket and a wrapper for the filter jacket, in which the material specifications of the tobacco rod and the filter and the dimensions of their individual components are designed to allow the smoke to flow mainly through the filter core (upon open ventilation zone) and when covering the ventilation openings, the smoke of the cigarette flows to a major degree through the filter jacket of the coaxial filter element.

I. Field of the Invention
The invention refers to a ventilated filter cigarette comprising a tobacco rod, a wrapper for the tobacco rod and a filter ventilated by ventilation openings, said filter comprising a coaxial filter element including a filter core, a wrapper for the filter core, a filter jacket and a wrapper for the filter jacket.
II. Description of the Prior Art
Ventilated filter cigarettes are prior art. These cigarettes include a ventilation zone in the filter through which air is aspired when drawing on the cigarette. The ventilation zone may be generated, for example, by perforation of the filter wrapper by laser beams but also in a number of other ways. Ventilation of the filter offers a facility for controlling taste and may contribute to modifying nicotine and condensate values for cigarettes.
When smoking with a closed ventilation zone, the smoke yield will clearly increase.

Ventilated filter cigarette with a coaxial filter element


A manufacturing method for a micro bump structure includes the following steps as follows. A substrate is provided and a under bump metallurgy (UBM) is formed on the substrate for accommodating a solder ball. A buffer layer is disposed on the substrate and then the solder ball is disposed on the UBM. Finally, the solder ball is grinded in order get the height reduced to a predetermined height.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a manufacturing method for a micro bump structure, and more particularly, to a manufacturing method of utilizing a solder ball with a normal size to fabricate a micro bump structure.
2. Background
Electronic devices incorporate a lot of electrical components and connectors for implementing a predetermined function. Solder balls are widely used in various conducting components. Since mobile devices are becoming increasingly popular; these electronic devices have to implement ways to reduce in size. Thus, the electrical components and the conducting components are required to be fabricated within a smaller size to fit such demands. In order to implement a type of miniaturization, engineers in this field often utilize expensive micro bumps to form a micro bump structure.
In light of the above-mentioned problems, a manufacturing method for a micro bump structure with low cost is most desired.

Manufacturing method for micro bump structure


In accordance with a first aspect of the present disclosure, a near field communication (NFC) device is provided, comprising: a modulator configured to modulate a carrier signal received from an external reader, resulting in a modulated carrier signal; a controller configured to control a transmission of the modulated carrier signal to the external reader; a transmitter driver configured to transmit said modulated carrier signal, said transmitter driver having a variable resistance; wherein the controller is further configured to change said variable resistance during a modulation phase of the NFC device such that a clock synchronization window is widened. In accordance with a second aspect of the present disclosure, a corresponding method of operating an NFC device is conceived. In accordance with a third aspect of the present disclosure, a non-transitory machine-readable medium is provided, comprising instructions which, when executed, carry out a method of the kind set forth.

Near field communication (NFC) refers to a set of communication protocols that enable two electronic devices to establish communication by bringing them within proximity of each other. The communication range of NFC is typically in the order of centimeters (e.g., 10 centimeters or less). NFC technology can be used to carry out various transactions, such as transactions for accessing buildings, transactions for accessing public transportation sites or vehicles, and payment transactions. Near field communication is often realized by means of modulation techniques. In that case, a near field device modulates a carrier signal received from a reader and transmits the modulated carrier signal back to the reader.

NFC device and method of operating the same


The group of inventions relates to the food industry, and more particularly to a method and device for transforming brewer's spent grain (BSG). The invention makes it possible to increase the level of recovery of edible fractions from BSG to 90-95%, and to increase the amount of protein in an edible suspension to not less than 50 wt % dry solids. The underlying principle of the invention is a technique for preparing BSG for nutrient extraction and extracting said nutrients by mechanical processing on a proposed industrial processing line. The essence of the claimed method lies in loosening BSG on a vibratory sieve, grinding the BSG in a colloid mill with the addition of water or centrate in a ratio of from 0.5:1 to 1:1 relative to BSG to produce a paste-like homogeneous mass of BSG, and then processing said mass in a screw extractor for further grinding and separation into two fractions: an edible suspension having a 90-95% moisture content and containing all of the nutrients of BSG, including protein substances; and ground BSG husks having a 60-75% moisture content, suitable for subsequent industrial use. The edible suspension is then mechanically filtered to remove ground husk residue, and the suspension is pumped into a storage tank.

After producing beer brewing companies have a lot of wastes in the form of brewer's grains consisting of remains of barley glume and grain particles rich in protein and fat. This brewer's (malt spent) grains raise the greatest interest among all secondary raw material resources of the brewing industry because they are produced in great numbers and they contain a lot of valuable nutritional ingredients.
Brewer's grains are obtained at the stage of filtering saccharified brewer's mash. Percentage of brewer's grains in the brewing industry wastes amounts to at least 98%. Brewer's grains consist of liquid and solid phases. The solid phase that accounts for approximately 45% in brewer's grains is represented by glume and grain kernel particles. In brewer's grains, there are fats, fibres and amino acids: histidine, lysine, leucine, isoleucine, methionine, valine, glycine, threonine, serine, alanine, arginine, phenylalanine, tyrosine etc. Every year Russian brewing companies dispose of more than 3.5 min tons of brewer's grains where the protein content amounts to 25-28% what is almost by 3 times higher than the protein content in barley. Caloric density of wet grains amounts to 115 cal/g and of dry grains to 440 cal/g (with the humidity level of 7-10%). Ingredients in brewer's grains depend on the type of barley; technologies used for manufacturing brewer's malt; malt mix recipe for manufacturing beer; malt grout recipes for manufacturing beer etc. However, the obtained quantitative composition of proteins, fats, hydrocarbons and fibres in brewer's grains varies slightly from 1 to 5%.
At present, brewer's grains in their native form are not extensively used because their transportation and storage are complicated by the fact that fermentation processes are initiated in such brewer's grains in 6-8 hours at the temperature of 15-30° C. and the grains become unsuitable for processing and further use.
Prior art solutions comprise various methods of processing brewer's grains for their use as a feed supplement based on their preliminary frying with further granulation or grinding (for example, EP0694609A2; WO2010053493A1; WO2010117288A1; WO9822751A1). However, in the course of drying a part of protein substances is transformed into a non-digestible form what causes decrease in nutritional value of dry brewer's grains in comparison with wet brewer's grains. The final protein content in dried brewer's grains amounts to only 27-28%. Besides, this product contains significant amounts (up to 80%) of non-digestible barley malt husk. Besides, drying of brewer's grains requires great power consumption because of which it is not always economically reasonable to make feed stuff from such brewer's grains.
Prior art solutions also include methods of deeper processing of wastes from the brewing industry. In particular, there is a known method of processing liquid brewer's grains with the humidity level of 90-92% that envisages treatment of the source raw materials by means of two-step compression: down to the humidity level of 70-75% during the first step and down to the humidity level of 40-45% during the second step, and two-stage drying: down to the humidity level of 20-25% during the first stage and down to the humidity level of 10% during the second stage with obtaining of a dry feed supplement (RU2215426). This method has a shortcoming: centrate containing a significant amount of nutrients is removed in the course of compression. Besides, the final product is also characterized with high content of barley husk.
Another prior art solution comprises a method of deriving a protein product from brewer's grains with the protein content from 60% to 90% (WO2018136234A1). This method implies thermochemical treatment of brewer's grains when the following is done: a mixture consisting of worked-out grains and water is added in a hydrolysis tank with constant stirring; then glucoamylase is added; the obtained mixture is heated up to the temperature from 30 up to 70° C.; grain particles in the said mixture are subject to grinding in order to obtain the medium size of max. 500 micrometer; then the mixture pH is brought to the level approximately from 7 to 10.5 and then alkaline protease is added for the purpose of protein solubisation. The obtained mixture is screened with the screen plate's diameter from 5 to 500 micrometer; then ultrafiltration with the use of membranes with their pore size from 20 kDa to 40 kDa is performed and then nanofiltration is performed. This method's shortcoming is a necessity of using sophisticated and expensive equipment, long technological cycle for obtaining the protein product (60-105 minutes, including 30-60 minutes for the grinding process and 30-45 minutes for hydrolysis) and the use of hazardous substances—hydrochloric or carboxylic acids and alkalis—in this technological process. Besides, in the course of processing brewer's grains great amounts of water from 8:1 to 11:1 in relation to brewer's grains are used as a result of which a lot of centrate is formed. Such centrate is a waste product and additional equipment is required for its disposal.
Another prior art solution (method known as EP0694609A2) implies obtaining a protein composition from grain material worked-out in the course of making beer. This composition contains from 40 to 60% of proteins, from 12 to 18% of lipids, from 2 to 6% of fibre materials and from 1 to 4% of ash in terms of the equivalent amount of dry weight. This method implies compression of brewer's grains by means of a roller-grinding machine with simultaneous wet peeling of grain particles and further separation of the obtained product from the husk. The method has a shortcoming: a number of valuable components are removed from brewer's grains in the course of compression by means of roller grinding machines. Besides, brewer's grains are not subject to grinding before compression and a part of protein remains inside compressed husk particles due to which this protein is lost with the further husk removal. Besides, in order to enhance the husk removal efficiency in accordance with the known method the obtained mixture (liquid protein suspension) is rinsed with large quantities of water, then the obtained suspension is screened by means of screen plates. This rinsing and screening process is repeated up to 5 times. As a result, a great amount of centrate is produced. Such centrate is a waste product and additional purification equipment is required for its disposal.
Thus, all existing methods of processing brewer's grains are aimed at obtaining protein powders or concentrates and they are characterized by complexity and duration of the protein production process, high output of centrate that is a waste product requiring additional equipment for its disposal.
Prior art solutions do not have any method of processing brewer's grains and obtaining the final product in the form of protein suspension rich in protein that can be widely used as a food and feed supplement. The known methods are mainly aimed at obtaining from brewer's grains a product in the form of powder or concentrate without deriving in the course of technological processes a ready-for-use product that extends the range of dietary food products.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Protein suspension from brewer's grains, method and apparatus for obtaining same


An information processing apparatus, connected to a management server managing a set value used among a plurality of information processing apparatuses, can perform an appropriate process according to the situation of an information processing system and can prevent wasteful power consumption thereof. A set value acquired from the management server and changed by the information processing apparatus is transmitted to the management server, but when the transmission fails, the transmission of the changed set value is retried, and it is switched according to a classification of the set value to be transmitted whether the retry is stopped or is continued.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, a control method therefor and a storage medium, and more particularly, to a control technique for sharing and synchronizing set values among a plurality of information processing apparatuses.
Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, there has been an information processing system in which a set value management server is arranged to manage set values in order that the set values are shared among a plurality of information processing apparatuses, and the set values are reflected by performing communication between each information processing apparatus and the set value management server. In this configuration, when a set value is changed in any of the information processing apparatuses, the apparatus transmits the content of the change to the set value management server. Accepting the content of the change, the set value management server transmits change information to the other information processing apparatuses. Thereby, the setting is reflected on all the apparatuses.
In such an information processing apparatus as described above, when communication with the set value management server is performed in synchronization with a set value changing operation by a user of an information processing apparatus in the case where the speed of communication between the information processing apparatus and the set value management server is low or the communication is unstable, responsiveness is bad, and the user's operability is reduced. Therefore, the information processing apparatus is required to transmit the contents of change to the set value management server independently from the timing of the set value changing operation by the user.
If the communication between the information processing apparatus and the set value management server fails, the information processing apparatus is required to retry communication because the user of the information processing apparatus cannot be necessarily notified that the communication has failed. For example, it is disclosed that, when communication between a data transmitting apparatus and a receiving apparatus fails, the process is switched according to the factor in the failure in the communication (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2007-174247).
However, if retry is continued when the communication between the information processing apparatus and the set value management server fails, power consumption of the information processing apparatus increases. For example, even if the information processing apparatus is provided with a power-saving mode, the information processing apparatus cannot shift to power-saving while retry is continued. In such a case, when only the conventional technique is used, only the factor in communication failure can be considered, and, therefore, only the same retry process can be performed while the communication failure factor is the same.

Information processing apparatus, control method for the same and storage medium


A belt retractor (40) having a belt reel (14), a seat belt (12) which can be wound thereon to form a belt reel, and at least one first assembly, the first assembly being arranged coaxially with the axis of rotation of the belt reel (14) and in series with the belt reel (14). The belt retractor is especially adapted for mounting inside the frame member of a motor vehicle seat.

The basic components of seat belt retractors are a load-bearing frame and a rotatable belt reel mounted in the frame, on which a seat belt can be wound up.
In addition to supporting the belt reel, the frame is also used to attach the retractor to a seat structure or a vehicle structure and is typically made of a correspondingly thick steel sheet which is bent into a U-shaped frame.
Vehicle seats with seat belt devices are, for example, known for use as front seats in cabriolet style vehicles in which at least the belt retractors of the seat belt devices are fastened to the backrests of the vehicle seats. In this case, the belt retractors are preferably integrated into the backrests of the vehicle seats for lack of a load-bearing B-pillar and reasons of access to the rear seats or for reasons of distance to the rear vehicle structure, which must also be designed to absorb the tensile forces applied to the seatbelt webbing in the case of restraint. The belt retractors themselves have all the basic components of a standard belt retractor and are only fitted with various additional components specially designed for installation in the backrest, such as a self-aligning inertia sensor.
In its basic structure, the vehicle seat has a seat structure consisting of several load-bearing structural parts which serve to fasten the vehicle seat to the vehicle structure. The seat structure is equipped with springs and upholstery to improve seating comfort and also serves to attach other components such as various seat adjustment mechanisms, including the associated electric motors and other components such as heating devices, sensors, displays, headrests and the likes.
In modern vehicles with autonomous driving systems, there is an increasing demand for greater adjustability of the vehicle seats in different orientations and positions, so that the vehicle occupant can use the freedoms gained by autonomous driving, e.g. for deeper communication with the other occupants, for extended and more intensive rest periods or work and can align the vehicle seat accordingly. As a result, the seat belt device and in particular the belt retractor no longer has to be attached to the vehicle structure as before, but instead to the vehicle seat, as was the case with the front seats of convertibles, for example.
One problem however, is that the belt retractor with its other components requires a comparatively large amount of installation space due to its external dimensions so that installation in the vehicle seat can be problematic. This is due in particular to the fact that the seat belt must have a certain minimum thickness for the tractive forces to be absorbed at a specified width of e.g. 46 mm and a certain minimum length of e.g. 2,500 mm for the restraint of the occupant so that the belt reel on the reel of a fully wound seat belt has a correspondingly large outer diameter due to the volume of the seat belt to be wound up. This large belt reel is further enlarged towards the outside by a correspondingly large frame of the belt retractor and other components such as a drive device for an irreversible belt tensioner, an electric motor for a reversible belt tensioner, a force limiting device, sensor devices or the like, which further increases the installation space required.
Against this background, the invention is based on the task of providing a belt retractor which can also be arranged in a limited installation space of a vehicle seat.
To solve the problem, a belt retractor with the features as described herein is proposed.


A method for increasing performance of selected poll applications without recompilation. In one embodiment, the method is comprised of assigning the name of a library as a value for an environment variable in a software application. The library is comprised of software code for emulating a system call. The method is further comprised of launching the software application. The launching causes invocation of a loader associated with the software application. The method is further comprised of preloading the library into the software application. The preloading performed by the loader. The method is further comprised of redirecting the software application to invoke an alternative mechanism when the software application requests a system call. The invocation of the alternative mechanism implements the library as the system call. The method is further comprised of registering a plurality of file descriptors and events of interest with the alternative mechanism when the application makes said system call with a list of file descriptors identifying sockets for which the application has interest in events. Each of said plurality said file descriptors is related to an event of interest pertaining to an associated socket of interest. Those sockets with registered file descriptors are examined by the software application.

In a computer system or a computer network, a port number identifies a sending or destination application. Every application running on a host computer system uses certain ports or ranges of ports to communicate with other applications running on other host computer systems. It is by these port numbers that a communication protocol, e.g., TCP (transmission control protocol) or UDP (user datagram protocol) determines which application to pass the data to in the application layer.
When an application on one computer system wants to communicate with an application on another computer system, it must specify the address of the device (IP address) and identify the application (port number). The combination of sending and destination port numbers and the sending and destination IP addresses defines a socket. A socket can be used to uniquely define a UDP or TCP connection.
Applications, e.g., Internet applications, were initially written to handle one or two sockets. Internet applications, e.g., Telnet, UDP, or TCP, etc., typically handle one or two sockets, and accordingly, handle one or two connections at a time. With each socket are associated socket calls. A socket call can be, but is not limited to, a call to read from the socket, a call to write to the socket, a call for error check on the socket, etc.
The proliferation of the Internet, and more particularly the World Wide Web, has caused, in part, the development of a web server, a type of computer system that is adapted to serve/handle numerous sockets. Many of today's current web servers can handle thousands of concurrent sockets/connections.
The socket calls are the same as those listed above, e.g., read, write, and error check, but instead of one or two sockets to handle, there are commonly hundreds if not thousands of sockets that can be simultaneously opened. This means that the application will check each of the sockets for read, write, and/or error check. Accordingly, applications use vast amounts of processing time performing socket calls on the thousands of sockets. Disadvantageously, other useful work or processes may not be performed while the Internet application is performing these thousands upon thousands of socket calls.
To overcome this drawback, system calls, e.g., select system call and poll system call, were developed to be able to inform the application, e.g., an Internet application, when it is permitted to read from a socket or permitted to write to a socket.
The system calls are not without drawbacks associated therewith. When a poll call or a select call was made, the kernel would go through every socket opened by the application in the poll or select call, locking and unlocking the socket and checking for events of interest. Because there can be hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands of sockets and each socket is looked at, with some sockets having hold mechanism, this can also use large amounts of processing time.
Hence, many applications are not provided with efficient socket communication.

Method for increasing performance of select and poll applications without recompilation

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


Systems, apparatuses, and methods for implementing hypervisor post-write notification of processor state register modifications. A write to a state register of the processor may be detected during guest execution. In response to detecting the write to the state register, the processor may trigger microcode to perform the write and copy the new value of the register to a memory location prior to exiting the guest. The hypervisor may be notified of the update to the state register after it occurs, and the hypervisor may be prevented from modifying the value of the guest's state register. The hypervisor may terminate the guest if the update to the state register is unacceptable. Alternatively, the hypervisor may recommend an alternate value to the guest. If the guest agrees, the guest may set the state register to the alternate value recommended by the hypervisor when the guest resumes operation.

Technical Field
Embodiments described herein relate to virtualization and more particularly, to allowing guests to make changes to the physical machine state prior to notifying the hypervisor.
Description of the Related Art
Virtualization has been used in computer systems for a variety of different purposes. It is common in virtualization to execute privileged software (programs) in a "container" to prevent the privileged software from directly accessing and/or making changes to at least some of the physical machine state without first being permitted to do so by a virtual machine manager (VMM) (or hypervisor) that controls the virtual machine. Privileged programs may include operating systems, and may also include other software which expects to have full control of the hardware on which the software is executing.
Generally, virtualization of a processor or computer system may include providing one or more privileged programs with access to a virtual machine (the container mentioned above) over which the privileged program has full control, but the control of the physical machine is retained by the hypervisor. The virtual machine may include a processor (or processors), memory, and various peripheral devices that the privileged program expects to find in the machine on which it is executing. The virtual machine elements may be implemented by hardware that the hypervisor allocates to the virtual machine, at least temporarily, and/or may be emulated in software. Each privileged program (and related software in some cases, such as the applications that execute on an operating system) may be referred to herein as a guest or guest program. As used herein, the term "guest execution" generally refers to execution of a guest program during a period of time that a guest program (e.g., application, operating system, process, etc.) has independent access to processor hardware resources and is able to execute code on the processor.
In a common virtualization implementation, the hypervisor is considered fully trusted. Accordingly, the hypervisor has visibility into all of the guest's memory contents, register contents, etc. Additionally, the hypervisor can change the architectural state of the guest at any time, with or without the guest's knowledge. However, in some scenarios, the hypervisor may not be trusted to have control over the architectural state of the guest.

Hypervisor post-write notification of control and debug register updates


The invention relates to a wireless outdoor-indoor multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communications system for communicating with user equipment located inside a physical structure such as a building. The MIMO communication system is comprised of a node having at least two node antennas, wherein the node is configured for line of sight (LOS) wireless MIMO communication with at least two outdoor-indoor repeaters, and of at least two outdoor-indoor repeaters adapted for LOS wireless MIMO communication with the node. The repeaters have at least one repeater antenna each, provided outside the physical structure, for LOS MIMO communication with the node and at least two DASs each, provided inside the physical structure, for indoor MIMO communication with the user equipment located inside the physical structure. The repeaters are provided outside on the same physical structure and spaced well-apart, and each DAS of each repeater is provided such that they provide the same indoor coverage of the same interior space in the physical structure.

A large part of today's traffic load in wireless communication comes from users inside physical structures such as office buildings, shopping malls, cafés and restaurants, etc. Providing these indoor users with good coverage, high bit-rate and spectrally efficient communication from outside base stations is very challenging due to, for example, the penetration loss that occurs when the communication signals propagates through the walls of the building.
A well-known solution for enhancing communication signals inside a building is to use outdoor-indoor repeaters. An outdoor-indoor repeater has a pick-up antenna placed on the outside of the building connected via a double-directional power amplifier to a donor antenna placed on the inside of the building. Thus, signals from the base station are received by the pick-up antenna on the outside of the building, where the signal level is high, and then the signals are re-radiated inside the building by the donor antenna, and thereby circumventing the penetration loss. In a similar manner, communication signals from user equipment (UE), such as mobile phones and portable computer equipment, inside the building are received by the donor antenna located inside the building, and re-radiated by the pick-up antenna on the outside of the building. Typically, the pick-up antenna of the repeater on the outside of the building is placed in line of sight (LOS) of the base station antenna to ensure good link quality.
A well-known way of improving spectral efficiency in a wireless communications system is to utilize a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communication system. Provided that both transmitter and receiver uses more than one antenna (e.g. K transmit antennas and M receive antennas), and that the channels between different pairs of transmit and receive antennas have similar power and can be made orthogonal, gains in spectral efficiency on the order of min(M,K) are possible to achieve. To allow indoor users communicating via a repeater to fully benefit from MIMO gains there needs to be at least as many repeater antennas as there are antennas at the base station.
Outdoor-indoor MIMO repeaters ensure good indoor coverage which implies high signal strengths. However the indoor coverage is typically limited to the close vicinity of the repeater donor antennas which usually are co-located with the repeater itself. Furthermore, as mentioned above, there is usually LOS between the base station and the repeater pick-up antennas in order to ensure a good link quality for the desired communication signals, and it is well known in the art that it is hard to achieve MIMO channels of more than rank two in a LOS environment since the spatially separated antennas will experience high correlation. Achieving sufficiently low correlation in a LOS environment might require a very large spatial separation of the repeaters antenna elements, which might make it difficult to co-locate the indoor donor antennas with the repeater and the pick-up antennas. Having non co-located donor antennas could lead to severe power imbalances between the donor antennas when for instance communicating with user equipment closer to one of the donor antennas, which in its turn will result in lower MIMO gains.
Thus, finding a way to offer good indoor coverage with high bit-rate and spectrally efficient communication is therefore highly sought for.

Enhanced rank for outdoor to indoor coverage


The present invention relates to a nonwoven fabric for a hook and loop fastening device wherein the fabric comprises needlepunched fibers forming a plurality of loops which are effective for releasably engaging the hooks in a hook component, wherein the fabric has a weight of about 1.5 to about 4.0 ounces/sq. yd., and a thickness of about 0.015 inches to about 0.050 inches. The product may be used as fastening device for disposable products.

It is often desirable to connect two surfaces securely together without producing a permanent bond. It also may be desirable to attach and subsequently detach these surfaces several times. A fastening device attaches two surfaces that are in contact with each other until a separating force is applied. A refastening fastening device allows the two surfaces to have repeated cycles of attachment and detachment.
One type of refastenable fastening device involves a male and female component. The male component, referred to herein as the hook component, is a fabric having a plurality of resilient, upstanding hook-shaped elements. The female component, referred to herein as the loop component, is a fabric having a plurality of upstanding loops. When the surfaces of the hook and loop components are pressed together, they become entangled. This creates a mechanical bond which will not disengage under normal conditions. The bond is held secure because it is difficult to break all of the bonds between the hooks and loops at one time. A gradual peeling force, however, releases the hooks from the loops and opens the fastener. As the peeling force is applied, the hooks, made of a resilient material, straighten and become disentangled from the loops of the loop component. The hooks and the loops are not destroyed by this separation and therefore can be reattached by again placing the hook and loop components in a face-to-face relationship.
Such hook and loop refastenable fastening devices are well known in the art and described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,717,437 and 3,009,235, the contents of which are incorporated herein in their entirety. These refastening fastening devices are commonly sold under the trademark "Velcro."
The loop component performs several functions in the mechanical bond formed in a refastening fastening device. For example, the loop component provides an entanglement area for the hooks to become attached. This area is where the mechanical bond is formed. The loop component also provides a space for the hooks. to remain while the fastener is closed.
The loop component is intended to engage and disengage the hook component several times during normal use. Just as the hooks of the hook component have a degree of resiliency to allow repeated use, the resiliency of the loops provides a degree of structural integrity allowing the loops to remain dimensionally stable during repeated use. After the components are separated, enough loops remain undamaged for reattachment to the hook component.
Hook and loop refastening fastening devices are useful for disposable articles, for example in disposable diapers. However, their use has been limited due to the expense of the components. Conventional hook and loop components are typically made by weaving or knitting resilient yarn materials into a loop structure, and then cutting the loops when a hook structure is desired. Thus, these woven or knitted hook and loop components are systematic. The position of each yarn producing a loop is carefully determined before the fabric is produced. Such detailed manufacturing steps are often time consuming and expensive.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,694,867 issued to Stumpf discloses a loop component made with a "high loft" fabric attached to a backing layer. Fibers are mechanically manipulated to form the loops and are attached to the backing layer. These manufacturing steps add to the cost of the final loop component.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,739,635 to Conley relates to a loop component produced by feeding a backing layer into a knit stitch machine, where loops are knit into the backing layer at predetermined intervals. Example 5 of Conley shows that knitting without the backing layer resulted in a product lacking sufficient strength and stability to securely engage the hook component. The knitting steps are also complex and time consuming.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,600,618 to Raychock relates to a splint material with a hook and loop fastening device, where the loop component comprises needlepunched fibers. The Raychock patent, however, does not present any examples of the needlepunch fabric, and does not provide any details about the properties and characteristics of the loop component.
Accordingly, there exists a need for a low-cost refastening fastening loop component with high performance properties. Such a loop component should have an adequate range of caliper, weight, opacity, and peel strength. Preferably, the loops Withstand repeated cycles of attachment and detachment to the hook component.
Further, as disposable articles having hook and loop devices may be stored and/or sold under compression, a need exists for a loop component with favorable performance properties after such compression has been released.

Needle punch nonwoven component for refastenable fastening device


A pivotable door assembly has stiles and rails which are coupled by brackets having side walls defining a channel opening at the outer ends thereof. Pivot inserts are seated in the brackets on one side of said door and include a body member slidably seated in the channel and a pivot member rotatably seated in the body portion and extending outwardly of said open outer end of said bracket for engagement with the floor and ceiling. The pivot inserts include adjustable fasteners seated in the body member and cooperating with the bracket for adjusting the position of said pivot insert along the length of said channel and thereby the length of the pivot member extending outwardly of the bracket. The body member is comprised of a base element and a movable element which seats the pivot member and is horizontally adjustable. A cover is desirably snap fit over the brackets.

The present invention pertains to pivot assemblies for pivotably mounting doors, and, more particularly, to such assemblies which may be inserted into brackets in previously assembled doors.
Sliding doors and pivotable doors often utilize similar door constructions. Some doors such as mirrored doors are comprised of stiles and rails in which are seated mirror panels, and corner brackets are frequently used to join the stiles and rails as well as to mount the hardware to provide pivotal or sliding motion. Often, the appropriate mounting hardware for such motion is provided on the door when it is initially assembled.
Often the door is installed by the user in the so called "do-it-yourself" market. Products in this market must be simple to install by use of commonly available tools. One way in which the door installation may be simplified is to sell the mirror door panels with the hardware already installed. This approach necessitates a duplication of the retail inventory as each style of door panel must be available with the hardware for installation as either a sliding door or a pivotable door. Further, any hardware which projects from the door frame is susceptible to damage during shipment and handling of the panels and increases the cost of packaging and shipment.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a novel pivotable door assembly comprising a door panel with hardware which may be attached at the worksite.
It is also an object to provide such a door assembly which is specifically adapted for home owner installation.
Another object is to provide such a door assembly in which the position of the pivot member may be adjusted horizontally of the door to accommodate door openings which are not perfectly square.
Yet another object is to provide a bracket assembly which secures stiles and rails to provide such a door assembly.
A further object is to provide such a bracket assembly which can be fabricated readily and relatively economically.
A still further object is to provide such a market assembly which includes a universal bracket for all corners of the door and mounting inserts which are interchangeable for mounting along either side of the door.


An electrostatic discharge (ESD) protecting circuit for effectively discharging an overcurrent applied to a semiconductor circuit device, by providing a plurality of current paths. The ESD protecting circuit comprises a first discharging current path for discharging an overcurrent from the I/O pad to a first power supply, a second discharging current path for discharging the overcurrent from the I/O pad to a second power supply providing power for the internal circuit and a third discharging current path formed between the first power supply and the second power supply.

In general, an electrostatic discharge protecting (referred to herein as an ESD) circuit has been widely used to prevent overcurrent from being applied to an internal circuit in a semiconductor device. Desired attributes of the ESD circuit are a low trigger voltage, a low holding voltage and a low dynamic resistance. Trigger voltage refers to the voltage level at which the SCR switches from a forward-blocking state to a forward conducting state. The holding voltage (or "snap-back voltage") refers to the momentary voltage drop of the SCR due to avalanche breakdown during SCR conduction.
Shown in FIG. 1 is a semiconductor device having a conventional ESD circuit of an SCR structure for satisfying the above requirements. Referring to FIG. 1, an input/output (I/O) pad is connected to an internal circuit 6 between a power supply Vdd and a ground voltage level Vss. Also, the input/output (I/O) pad is connected to an SCR 8, one terminal of which is connected to the internal circuit 6 and the other terminal of which is connected to the ground voltage level Vss. Typically, the SCR can be connected to either the power supply Vdd or the ground voltage level Vss. Here, the SCR will be illustrated with respect to only the connection to the ground voltage level Vss.
In the conventional ESD circuit, however, there are problems in that the trigger voltage is relatively high as compared with the low holding voltage and the low dynamic resistance. One design to reduce the trigger voltage of the ESD circuit to desired levels is proposed in EDL (Electron Device Letter) IEEE published in 1991 by Polygreen--called the LVTSCR (low voltage trigger SCR).
FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing the LVTSCR structure proposed by Polygreen for reducing a high trigger voltage of the conventional ESD circuit The ESD circuit of the LVTSCR includes P-well and N-well regions 15 and 16 formed by implanting impurity ions into a semiconductor substrate 9 and field oxide layers 7a to 7e to define active and nonactive regions in the P-well and N-well regions 15 and 16. Further, the ESD circuit of the LVTSCR includes impurity regions 10 to 14 formed in the active regions by ion-implantation. The concentration of impurity regions 10 to 14 is higher than that in the well regions 15 and 16.
Impurity regions 13 and 14 in the N-well region 16 are connected to the I/O pad and impurity regions 10 and 11 in the P-well region 15 are connected to the ground voltage level Vss. The impurity region 12 is formed between the field oxide layers 7c and 7d, thereby being in contact with both the P-well region 15 and the N-well region 16.
In the above-mentioned ESD circuit of the LVTSCR structure, a first current path discharging the overcurrent is formed in the positive pulse as follows: p.sup.+ (I/O pad) .fwdarw. n.sup.+ (N-well region) .fwdarw. P-well region .fwdarw. n.sup.+ (Vss). In case of a negative pulse, a second current path discharging the overcurrent is formed as follows: n.sup.+ (N-well region) .fwdarw. P-well region (substrate).
FIG. 3 is an equivalent circuit diagram illustrating the ESD protecting circuit of the LVTSCR structure shown in FIG. 2. Referring to FIG. 3, the conventional ESD protecting circuit of the LVTSCR structure forms a PNPN diode between the I/O pad and the ground voltage level Vss and a PN diode 38 having an anode connected to the ground voltage level Vss and a cathode connected to the I/O pad.
FIG. 4 is an I-V characteristic curve of the conventional ESD protecting circuit of the LVTSCR structure shown in FIG. 2. As can readily be seen in FIG. 4, the trigger voltage, the holding voltage and the dynamic resistance of the LVTSCR are lower than those of the simple SCR structure, thus yielding an improved ESD device.
However, although the LVTSCR structure may improve the trigger voltage of a conventional ESD circuit, there still is an important drawback in that the discharging current paths for protecting the internal semiconductor device circuit are formed in only one direction.

Electrostatic discharge protecting circuit having a plurality of current paths in both directions