The invention relates to methods for the accumulation and retention of immune-enhancing, bacterial-derived ribonucleotides smaller than 10,000 Daltons (ORN<10 kDa) in bacteria that are produced when bacteria are grown naturally, allowing the pH of the growth medium to become acidic. The immune-enhancing, bacterial-derived ribonucleotides (ORN) and bacteria comprising ORN are useful in the preparation of animal feed or animal drinking water as well as for use in enhancing the immune system of an animal and/or its resistance to infection. The invention also discloses methods of preventing the loss of ORN during bacterial production and storage as well as methods to aid in the release of ORN when consumed by an animal.

Microorganisms commonly encounter threatening changes in their environments. These changes include depletion of nutrients, shifts in pH, temperature and pressure, and sharing habitats with invading organisms. A commonly encountered stress of animal-associated bacteria and one of importance to a study of infectious diseases is that induced through the transfer of cultures from their propagation media into different media. This stress is especially pronounced when the bacteria are transferred to a media of neutral pH with altered or reduced levels of nutrients, such as when exogenous bacteria enter an animal or when endogenous bacteria penetrate sterile zones and tissues from their non-sterile habitats. During growth, bacteria form H+ which accumulates in both the cell and the media.
When encountering normal and naturally-occurring stresses, bacteria release products which the inventor has named stress response factors, (SRFs). These SRFs include polymers of nucleic acids and their partial and complete hydrolysates including a mixture of about a dozen oligoribonucleotides (ORN) ranging from 1-30 nucleotides, which are resistant to further hydrolysis by RNAse.
The present inventor has found that a series of mild stresses, mimicking those commonly experienced when bacterial environments change, induces the release of these oligoribonucleotides. Their release does not kill or injure the bacteria from which they were released, but rather assists them in establishing a colony in a new environment by increasing their rate of mutation and their rate of growth.
These oligoribonucleotides are released when bacteria enter the pH neutral environment of animals, such as the mouth, nose, oropharyngeal cavity, urethra and vagina.
Through co-evolution in a shared habitat, the immune systems of animals and humans have adapted a protective response to the appearance of these ORN in anticipation of a microbial invasion. This immune response to the released ORN precedes its detection of bacteria entering the pH neutral body fluids or attempting to invade horizontally onto sterile tissue, (e.g. from the nose to the sinus, from vagina to uterus). Encountering neutral pH will induce the release of these ORN, which will serve to alert the host to a potential penetration onto a sterile area or into sterile tissue. This immune response follows the stimulation of embedded sentinel cells, e.g. in oral pharyngeal tissue as well as the circulating sentry cells monocytes and macrophages, and B- and T-cells of the immune system.
Specifically, the macrophage has adapted a preemptory reaction to the presence of the oligoribonucleotides (ORN) that prepares the immune system to defend the host against infection. For example, when ingested bacteria encounter neutral pH or are overcrowded by the presence of growing pathogens, they will release readily absorbable, non-toxic ORN which activate tissue macrophages to release Interleukin-1, IL-1, Interleukin-6, IL-6, and Tumor Necrosis Factor, alpha, TNFα which stimulate other cells of the immune system. After being highly activated, exposed macrophages down-regulate the surface receptors, CD-14 and CD-16, thereby desensitizing the cell from over-activation by the subsequent interaction with bacterial toxins if infection occurs.
The present inventor has found that the oligomeric fraction having a molecular weight <10 kDa and, in particular, between 500 and 3,000 Da are readily absorbed, are non-toxic, and both activate and modulate the immune system. The products less than 10 kDa in size are non-toxic when fed or injected and contain further a group of compounds of oligomeric size, i.e. 0.5 to 3 kDa that activate and modulate macrophages. Macrophages are activated to release cytokines at levels deemed helpful to combating infections and are also down-modulated to prevent their over-activation with its subsequent release of host-threatening levels of cytokines and becoming overly cytotoxic resulting in the perforation of organs.
As sentry cells, macrophages circulate in the blood and lymph as well as reside in specialized endothelial tissues and organs. They are among the host's first lines of defense, releasing interleukin signals, destroying microbes and stimulating other immune cells to destroy diseased cells of the host. Approximately twenty different interleukins can be released modifying, amplifying, restricting and dampening messages as the system is stimulated. Thus, the macrophage's signal is key to initiating and enforcing the appropriate immune response. In an infection, bacterial endotoxin (lipopolysaccharide, LPS), binds to the TOLL-like receptor, TLR-4 and the CD-16 surface molecules on macrophages stimulating them and inducing the release of yet higher levels and combinations of IL-1, IL-6 and TNF. These signals, in turn, induce fever, fatigue, cardiovascular hypotension, renal failure and can dictate the death of the host in "septic shock".
By down-regulating the numbers of CD-14 and CD-16 receptors on the surface of the macrophage, the oligomers released by high levels of stressed bacteria help to ensure that the macrophage does not become over-activated by interleukins thereby creating a system which may go awry killing the host.
Monocytes also respond to the presence of released bacterial ORN by escaping apoptosis and maturing into macrophages.
Thirteen different species of animal-associated bacteria have been found to release oligoribonucleotides <10 kDa when stressed. However, the distribution of polymer:oligomer:monomer is not equal amongst these species. The levels of ORN accumulated and released are related to the rate of growth of the bacteria. Therefore, not all strains of bacteria, even of the same species, release levels of oligomers sufficient to protect animals against a subsequent bacterial invasion. Feral colonies of bacteria yield more oligoribonucleotides (ORN) when initially stressed than non-feral or laboratory strains. However, inducing a stress upon a laboratory strain before re-propagation will stimulate its growth rate and accumulation of ORN, comparable to that occurring when a feral strain was stressed.
The fraction >10 kDa is toxic when injected into mice, producing a ruffled fur coat, huddling and diarrhea. However, the fraction <10 kDa activates and modulates macrophages, is non-toxic when fed or injected into mice and protects them against a subsequent lethal challenge of injected endotoxin.
The present inventor has found that the ORN <10 kDa are a rich new source of natural, normally-occurring, co-evolutionarily evolved immune modulators that can be safely used to protect animals and humans from infections and the over-stimulation of their immune system. In addition, this fraction contains compounds that can be used to adjust the expression of individual surface receptors on macrophages to re-center a dysfunctional immune system.
Furthermore, in vitro and in vivo testing indicates the potential role of ORN <10 kDa as adjuvants by stimulating the production of antibodies. Human B-cells were stimulated in cell culture and mice demonstrated increased B-cell activity when an experimental vaccine against melanoma was injected with ORN<10 kDa in a trial.
An unusual feature of the ORN<10 kDa that possess immune stimulating capacity is their resistance to hydrolysis by RNase (product R-7003 purchased from Sigma Chemical Co.) when used as directed by the manufacturer (incubating 750 μL of ORNs with 50 μg of RNase at 37° C. for 3 hr). The pattern of the ORN<10 kDa on Sephadex G-10 was the same before and after RNase treatment showing no further reduction in molecular size.
The resistance of ORN<10 kDa to RNase suggests that the ORN have unusual structures. Some may have substitutions on their bases and ribose (e.g., methyl and other groups) or may have nucleotide strands held together by complementary hydrogen bonding with itself. These unusual structural conditions leading to resistance to RNase are believed to be responsible for their unique stimulation and modulation of the immune system.
Through co-habitation with bacteria, the immune system has evolved to recognize the bacterial origin of these ORN. Besides the unusual structures that prohibited further hydrolysis by RNase, the inventor believes that the immune system recognizes as "bacterial" certain base sequences in the ORN<10 kDa. Their importance to bacteria is evidenced by how well conserved they are across genera. Their ubiquity, consistency and conservation over many genera of bacteria have permitted the immune system to invest a significant response to their sudden appearance.
The <10 kDa ORN collected from heat-killed bacteria stimulate monocytes in cell culture but do not protect mice from endotoxic death. Therefore pasteurized products might be erroneously considered effective if demonstrated in a reductionistic assay similar to the one previously described. (Mangan D F, Welch G R, Wahl S M, 1991, Lipopolysaccharide, tumor necrosis factor-α, and IL-1B prevent programmed cell death (apoptosis) in human peripheral blood monocytes, J Immunol 146:1541-6).
The discovery of the release of immune-activating and modulating ORN <10 kDa has broad implications to improving the immune response through both diet and pharmaceutical preparations for humans and animals. Dairy products like milk, cheese, and yogurts contain viable bacteria, which, when transferred to the nutrient deprived environment of pH neutral body fluids, such as the mouth, release ORN. More effective health outcomes could be gained from consuming such products if they were formulated to release biologically significant amounts of ORN or by extending the dwell-time of the bacteria or ORN in the mouth and throat or by fortifying pasteurized products by adding back the viable bacteria lost during pasteurization or by the addition of ORN possessing greater stimulating powers.
Numerous patents teach the healthful benefits of administering viable bacteria to humans and animals either orally or parenterally to provide immune stimulation. Their mode of action is purported to be due to 1) The aggressive nature of a specific strain of bacteria to eliminate resident pathogens, 2) The release of antibiotics or other chemicals, which act to mitigate the efforts of pathogens, or 3) The release of vitamins or enzymes that are believed to improve the health of the immune system. The prior art also recognizes the use of cytokines to stimulate certain immune responses. However cytokines are toxic and can induce lethal septic shock. None of the prior art teaches that harmless bacteria release specific ORN to which the immune system has adapted an alert response. The present inventor believes that ORN are the molecules responsible for the healthful benefits derived from consuming probiotics or fermented dairy products. Such benefits can be obtained by administering either bacteria containing ORN or the purified ORN themselves released by bacteria.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,975,467 teaches methods by which synthetic compounds can be used to inhibit the release of IL-1 thereby alleviating the induction of its pathophysiologic conditions. U.S. Pat. No. 5,055,447 provides methods and compositions for the prevention of septic shock by administering growth factor-β. This patent teaches the use of administering a signal compound to intercept or modify existing signals. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,041,427 and 5,158,939 teach the use of a non-toxic LPS from R. spaeroides, ATCC 17023 to desensitize macrophages to toxic LPS. Since R. spaeroides has an unusual lipid A structure, it may not be effective as a desensitizing agent. U.S. Pat. No. 5,157,039 supports the clinical importance for controlling IL-1 release by macrophages by teaching the use of two non-natural quinolinol compounds, which appear to be non-selective in IL inhibition. U.S. Pat. No. 5,840,318 teaches that bacteria exposed to a neutral pH buffer for 10-16 hours release compounds <10 kDa in size having a UV maximum absorption at 254 nm (A-254). Feeding the <10 kDa sizes activates and modulates an animal's immune system, thereby protecting it against a subsequent lethal challenge of endotoxin. The accumulation of A-254 absorbing compounds in bacteria is associated with the slowing or termination of cell growth. Further, U.S. Pat. No. 6,589,771 B1 teaches that bacteria enter dormancy during their stationary phase by accumulating solutes that increase the cytoplasmic osmolality and H+ which decrease the intracellular pH of the cell. Putting dormant cells in buffers with osmolalities and hydrogen ion (H+) concentrations lower than that of the cell will force the diffusion of solutes and H+ thereby inducing the activation of the cell. Rather than a single 10-16 hour wash to induce the release of the compounds that have a maximum of UV absorption at 254 nm, one can employ a series of 20-minute washings in a buffer of pH 7 and of an osmolality lower than the cell's followed by an adjustment period of approximately 72 hours in the final wash.
Livestock are routinely fed silage, a product containing high levels of viable and harmless Lactobacillus plantarum. When ingested and chewed as cud, the silage bacteria release immune-activating ORN. The proper selection of harmless bacteria that ferment silage and grains and also release biologically significant levels of ORNs will help improve the health of livestock.
Direct-fed microbials and probiotics are harmless bacteria which are grown in a rich media, concentrated, dried and fed to animals either as a powder for top-dressing or in gel forms for oral inoculation. On occasion some of these products have been shown to provide a health benefit to the animal in combating infections relating to shipping and weaning. However, analyses of commercial products indicate a low concentration of ORNs as well as their inadequate release when transferred to saliva or to a nutrient-reduced environment. This inventor has determined that the generally accepted methods for preparing probiotics do not allow for the accumulation or retention of significant levels of ORN. It is believed that uncontrolled unit operations during production may occasionally and randomly produce a finished product containing adequate levels of ORN-releasing viable bacteria. These uncontrolled production parameters explain the occasional effectiveness reported for some probiotics. This invention puts forth the production and storage parameters, which yield a bacterial preparation that permits the administration of a stable, probiotic of known bacterial dose or one containing sterile ORN for livestock and poultry. Currently, viability of probiotics is believed necessary for effectiveness. However, this invention allows for the distribution of a sterile, stable product that can be stored without refrigeration and would provide a known dose of a measurable chemical.
The present inventor has found that the extrusion of ORN from the cell is forced by transferring bacteria which have accumulated ORN into environments of a lower molality and lower H+ concentration than that of the bacterial cell, e.g. saliva, body fluids and physiologic saline. Extrusion can be induced by subjecting the bacterial populations to repeated dilutions or washings, as many as 6, in pH neutral buffers of sufficient molarity to maintain a neutral pH in the presence of the efflux of H+ that accompany ORN. Further, the present inventor has discovered doses of ORN that are also effective in rescuing monocytes from apoptosis and, in addition, rescue animals from the lethality of endotoxemia. Moreover, lab tests have been developed which aid in the selection and screening of bacteria, which release the more potent ORN and determining appropriate doses.
ORN are the products of the destruction of ribosomal RNA, which occurs concomitantly with the slowing of bacterial growth. The number of ribosomes is known to be directly proportional to the rate of growth of bacteria. Fast growing populations are known to possess 70,000 ribosomes per bacterial cell while cells in slow-growing population have as few as 2000 ribosomes. (Neidardt, F. C., Ingraham, J. L. and Schaechter, M., in The Physiology of the Bacterial Cell, Sinauer Assoc., Sunderland, Mass., 1990, p 430). As exponential growth slows, ribosomal RNA is hydrolyzed, creating very acidic oligoribonucleotides, which accumulate in the cytoplasm and in the broth. With accumulation of ORNs by the cytoplasm, the lag period extends into days and even weeks.
The hydrolysis of ribosomal RNA requires conditions of neutral pH from about 6 to about 9 but preferably from about 6 to about 8. However, acidic conditions (a pH of or less than 6) are required for the formation and stabilization of the ORN:DNA complex. The first of this two-step reaction is accomplished during the growth of bacteria in neutral broths. At about the mid-exponential growth point (5-8 hrs), H+ begin to be released along with ORNs from the hydrolysis of RNA.
In the manufacture of probiotics the culture broth of bacteria is artificially maintained at neutral pH in order to prevent the slowing of growth and thereby maximizing production of the bacteria for sale. Sodium hydroxide is commonly added to resist the culture's natural tendency towards a lower pH. Short production times and large cell masses are the goals of probiotic manufacturers and are achieved by not allowing the pH of the media to become acidic.
However, under these common practices, ORN may be formed but are not retained in the bacteria. According to the generally-accepted practices, the probiotic bacteria are then concentrated by centrifugation or filtration at neutral pH. Under these pH conditions, the ORN cannot bind the genomic DNA, and are lost to the supernatant, which is flushed down the drain.
The ORN that are most effective in boosting an immune response are those between 0.5 and 10 kDa. They are a new rich source of natural, normally-occurring, co-evolutionarily evolved immune modulators that can be safely used to protect animals and humans from infections and over-stimulation of their immune system. In Pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/883,550 ORNs, ranging from 0.5 to 10. kDa, have been shown to activate and modulate macrophages by adjusting the expression of individual surface receptors on macrophages, thereby re-centering a dysfunctional immune system. Furthermore, human cell culture and in vivo animal testing indicate the potential role of ORN<10 kDa as adjuvants by stimulating the production of antibodies. Results from stimulating human B-cells in cell culture and in mice demonstrate increased B-cell activity when an experimental vaccine against melanoma was injected with ORN<10 kDa. Furthermore, in Pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/883,550 in vitro testing indicates the ORN potential role as adjuvants by stimulating the release of IL-12. See U.S. Pat. No. 5,840,318. Studies with Balb/C mice have revealed that the consumption or injection of sterile preparations of ORNs in this range are non-toxic to the mice and provide the mice protection against a subsequent lethal challenge of injected endotoxins. See U.S. Pat. No. 5,840,318.
Because of the ORN potential as immune modulators, the discovery of the release of immune-activating and modulating factors has broad implications to improving the immune response through diets and pharmaceutical preparations for humans and animals. Numerous patents teach the healthful benefits of administering specific viable bacteria to humans and animals either orally or parenterally to provide local immune stimulation. For example, direct-fed microbials and probiotics, harmless bacteria which are grown in a rich media, concentrated, and dried, may be fed to animals either as a powder for top-dressing or in gel forms for oral inoculation. See U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,797,266; 6,461,607; and 5,401,501. These products are intended to provide a health benefit to the animal in combating infections relating to shipping and weaning.
However, many products marketed as containing probiotics are perceived as over-hyped. J Appl Bacteriol. 1989 May; 66(5):365-78. Clinical testing of probiotic-containing products has generated inconsistent and equivocal results regarding the products' claims. J. Nut. 2000; 130:384S-390S, Nut. Rev. 2003 March; 61(3):91-9. In short, many probiotics claims are unsubstantiated or simply fail to demonstrate any health benefit. The inventor believes that ORN are the molecular mode of action of probiotics and are lost during the presently accepted general methods of producing probiotics. While the prior art recognizes the importance of modulating the immune system, it does not teach the parameters of production to provide a significant level of ORNs which are safe, natural, normally occurring biological chemicals derived from co-evolution, which are effective when taken orally or parenterally.
To date, thirteen different species of animal-associated bacteria have been found to release ORN<10 kDa when stressed. See U.S. Pat. No. 5,840,318. However, the distribution of polymer:oligomer:monomer is not equal amongst these species. See U.S. Pat. No. 5,840,318. Therefore, not all strains of bacteria, even of the same species, release levels of ORN<10 kDa sufficient to protect animals against a subsequent bacterial invasion. Therefore, for these and other reasons, there is a need for the present invention.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method for the accumulation of ORN in bacteria.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method for the retention of ORN in bacteria.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method for preventing the loss of ORN during bacterial production or storage.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an isolated bacterium comprising ORN less than 10,000 Daltons in molecular size.
It is an object of the present invention to provide isolated ORN that are less than 10,000 Daltons in molecular size.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method of preparing an immune-enhancing animal feed or animal drinking water comprising ORN.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method of preparing an immune-enhancing animal feed or animal drinking water comprising bacteria having ORN.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method of enhancing the immune system of an animal or its resistance to infection.
The method and means of accomplishing each of the above objectives as well as others will become apparent from the detailed description of the invention, which follows hereafter.

Methods for the accumulation and retention of immune-enhancing, bacterial-derived ribonucleotides (ORN) in bacteria


A calibration system comprising: a Helmholtz device comprising thee pairs of coils defining an inner volume, wherein each of the three pairs of coils is configured to generate a magnetic field that is uniform throughout the inner volume; a mount configured to accept a device that includes a magnetic sensor, wherein at least a portion of the mount is positioned within the inner volume such that the magnetic sensor is positioned at or near a center of the inner volume when the device is positioned on the mount; and a computer system configured to communicate with the Helmholtz device and the magnetic sensor, wherein the computer system is configured to: provide instructions to cause each of the three pairs of coils to generate a magnetic field; receive signals from the magnetic sensor that are based on characteristics of the magnetic fields received at the magnetic sensor; measure, based on the signals received from the magnetic sensor, one or more characteristics of the magnetic sensor; and determine, using a calibration algorithm, one or more calibration correction factors for the magnetic sensor based on the one or more characteristics of the magnetic sensor and the provided instructions.

Electromagnetic Tracking (EMT) systems in general, and Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) systems in particular, can determine locations of devices in various contexts (e.g., gaming, medical, etc.). Such systems utilize a magnetic transmitter in proximity to a magnetic sensor such that the sensor and the transmitter can be spatially located relative to each other. Improper calibration of the transmitter with respect to the sensor (or vice versa) can cause the EMT system to report incorrect positions for the sensor or transmitter.


An apparatus and method is disclosed for frequency reuse to avoid interference between a Relay Station (RS) and a Mobile Station (MS) in a multi-hop relay system. The method includes measuring a preamble signal strength of a serving RS, measuring a preamble signal strength of a neighboring RS, and computing a preamble signal strength ratio using the preamble signal strength of the serving RS and the preamble signal strength of the neighboring RS.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multi-hop relay system, and, in particular, to an apparatus and method for frequency reuse to avoid interference between a Relay Station (RS) and a Mobile Station (MS).
2. Description of the Related Art
To realize a self-adaptive wireless network required in a next generation mobile telecommunication system, techniques applied in an ad hoc network need to be introduced to the mobile telecommunication system. A typical example of the mobile telecommunication system is a multi-hop relay based broadband wireless access communication system which is constructed with a fixed Base Station (BS) and employs a multi-hop relay scheme used in the ad hoc network.
In the broadband access communication system, communication between the BS and a Mobile Station (MS) is achieved through one direct link. Thus, a highly reliable wireless communication link can be readily constructed between the MS and the BS. However, since a position of the BS is fixed, configuration flexibility of a wireless network is low. As a result, it has been difficult to effectively provide service in a wireless communication environment where there is a rapid change in traffic distribution and call demands.
To address this shortcoming, the broadband wireless access communication system employs a relay scheme in which data is delivered in a multi-hop manner by using a plurality of surrounding MSs or fixed BSs. According to the multi-hop relay scheme, a network can be rapidly reconfigured in response to a change in the surrounding environment, and the entire wireless network can be further effectively managed. Therefore, the self-adaptive wireless network required by next generation wireless telecommunication systems can be realized by modeling after the multi-hop relay based broadband wireless access communication system.
Advantageously, the multi-hop relay scheme can cover a partial shadow area resulted from an insufficient electric field. In addition, the use of the multi-hop relay scheme can reduce an initial installation charge since a relay is established in an initial stage when a service request is not frequently made. Therefore, the multi-hop relay scheme can broaden cell service coverage and increase system capacity.
Now, referring to FIG. 1, a communication method using a Relay Station (RS) in a broadband wireless access communication system employing a conventional multi-hop relay scheme will be described.
An MS3 111 within the coverage area of a BS 101 is connected to the BS 101 through a direct link. An MS1 107 and an MS2 109 are located outside the coverage area of BS 101, and thus have a poor channel quality with respect to BS 101. Therefore, MS1 107 and MS2 109 are connected to BS 101 though a relay link by use of an RS1 103 and an RS2 105, respectively. When MSs 107 and 109 communicate with BS 101 when MSs 107 and 109 are located outside the coverage area of BS 101 or in a shadow area suffering a serious shielding phenomenon due to buildings, a better wireless channel quality of a link between MSs 107 and 109 and BS 101 can be achieved by the use of RS1 103 and RS2 105. Therefore, by using the multi-hop relay scheme, BS 101 can provide a high-speed data channel in a cell boundary region having a poor channel quality and also can extend the cell service coverage.
In the broadband wireless access communication system employing the multi-hop relay scheme, communication using RS1 103 and RS2 105 is made using a frame which has two transmission periods (hereinafter referred to as phases) in a time axis. In a first phase (i.e. PHASE-I) of the frame, a BS-RS transmission or a BS-MS transmission is achieved through a direct link. In a second phase (i.e. PHASE-II) of the frame, a frequency is reused for an RS-MS transmission for a relay communication. In the relay communication, information transmitted from the BS to the RS during the PHASE-I is retransmitted to the MS. In PHASE-II, power transmitted from a certain RS acts as a signal component (indicated by a solid line) for its corresponding MS and acts as interference (indicated by a dotted line) for a neighboring MS. For example, as shown in FIG. 2A, the frame may have two transmission periods, that is, a PHASE-I 201 and a PHASE-II 203. Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 2B, the frame may have three transmission periods, that is, a PHASE-I 205, a PHASE-II 207 and a PHASE-I 209. As such, in the multi-hop rely type wireless access communication system using RSs, it is possible to increase the capacity of a packet transmission system by reuse of wireless resources.
However, as shown in FIG. 3, if a frequency is reused in a link between an RS and an MS (e.g., a link between an RS1 301 and an MS1 305, a link between an RS2 303 and an MS2 307, etc.), the MS1 305 may receive a strong interference signal from its neighboring RS2 303 when the MS1 305 is located in a boundary coverage of the serving RS1 301. In this case, in order to increase cell capacity, a new technique may be taken into account in which the delivery of transmission power from the RS1 301 to the MS1 305 is stopped to avoid signal interference between two links RS1-MS1 and RS2-MS2. In order to accommodate the technique, a procedure for a method of frequency reuse has to be defined to avoid interference between an RS and an MS in a multi-hop relay system.

Apparatus and method for frequency reuse to avoid interference between relay station and mobile station in multi-hop relay system


A system, method and computer-readable storage device for accessing heterogeneous memory system, are provided. A memory controller schedules access of a command to a memory region in a set of memory regions based on an access priority associated with the command and where the set of memory regions have corresponding access latencies. The memory controller also defers access of the command to the set of memory regions using at least two queues and the access priority.

Field
The embodiments are generally directed to accessing memory using a memory controller and specifically to scheduling access to heterogeneous memory regions having various access latencies.
Background Art
Electronic devices include heterogeneous memory systems. These memory systems include volatile and non-volatile memories. Each of these memories has different characteristics, such as bit storage requirements and latency access. However, as a number of heterogeneous memory systems in the electronic device increases, what is needed is a memory controller that prioritizes memory access to heterogeneous memory devices and improves access speed and energy consumption.


A trunk skeleton of a human body dummy includes a spine portion, the spine portion including a plurality of vertebra portions made of metal-based materials or synthetic resin-based materials, a plurality of intervertebral buffer portions disposed between the vertebra portions, the intervertebral buffer portions being made of synthetic resin-based materials, and a bone-coupling portion coupling the vertebra portions in a displaceable manner, the bone-coupling portion including a metal-based rod-shaped member; and a thorax portion, the thorax portion including a plurality of costa portions having first ends coupled to the respective vertebra portions of the spine portion, thus forming respective pairs for the vertebra portions, the costa portions being made of synthetic resin-based materials, and a sternum body coupled to second ends of the costa portions, the sternum body being made of a synthetic resin-based material.

In conventional crash tests of cars or the like, a crash test human body model (human body dummy) is used as a measurement tool for estimating injury to human being. For example, a human body dummy is taken on a car like human being, a crash test is performed, and the resulting data from the test is analyzed and used for improved car crash safety performance.
One known human body dummy is, for example, a newborn dummy disclosed in Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. JP 2006-258752 A. The newborn dummy includes, in a portion corresponding to the abdominal portion in the torso portion of the spine portion, an abdominal pressure sensor disposed apart from the torso portion. It is thus possible to measure a pressure applied to the inside of the abdominal portion during a crash or the like.


A method and apparatus of enforcing a connection policy of a system controller is disclosed. In one embodiment, the method and apparatus monitor multiple distinct device identifications on a bus connected to the system controller. When more than a threshold number of the device identifications have been identified on the bus, the method and apparatus proceed to disable the system controller.

This invention relates to computer technologies generally and particularly to system controllers in computer systems.
A system controller in an electronic system often interfaces with multiple semiconductor devices and provides appropriate control information. In certain system topologies, the system controller may interface with multiple devices on one of its ports. When too many devices are connected to one port, this can in some cases disrupt temperature stability of the system controller or electrically stress the system controller""s interface circuits and may as a result reduce reliability of the system controller or even damage the system controller.
Although some flow control mechanism may in theory ameliorate the mentioned thermal problem, where the system controller would inform the sending devices to suspend transmission for a period of time when the previously described conditions are met, the electrical interface problem cannot be solved in this manner. Specifically, flow controlling a device will not change the fact that the device is indeed connected to a particular interface port, persistently causing it electrical stress.
Thus, a method and apparatus is needed to enforce a connection policy of a system controller to address the described issue.
A method and apparatus of enforcing a connection policy of a system controller is disclosed. In one embodiment, the method and apparatus monitor multiple distinct device identifications on a bus connected to the system controller. When more than a threshold number of the device identifications have been identified on the bus, the method and apparatus proceed to disable the system controller.

Method for enforcing device connection policies


A motor vehicle battery cooling arrangement wherein the battery is enclosed by a housing which includes an air inlet port connected to an air guide disposed in front of the vehicle's radiator and cooling fan and an air outlet port connected to the outside. When the vehicle is moving, air impacting at the air guide enters the air inlet port and exits the air outlet port thus cooling the battery. When the vehicle is stationary or when it is very hot and the fan is turned on, the direction of air flow through the battery housing is reversed as the fan induced air flow at the air guide produces a partial vacuum which sucks hot air away from the battery housing through the air inlet port. Cooler fresh air is drawn into the battery housing through the air outlet port. In an alternate embodiment, the air inlet port is connected to the front portion of the engine compartment and the air outlet port is connected to the scoop or shroud housing for the cooling fan located behind the radiator. During fan operation, the partial vacuum which forms in the fan scoop draws hot air out from the battery housing via the air outlet port. In normal driving conditions, when the fan is not working, the normal flow of air impacts the front of the vehicle and forces air through the air inlet port to the battery housing and the air flow then exits through the air outlet port to the fan scoop and from there again reaches the outside.

In the field of motor vehicle batteries, it is desirable to protect the battery from the extremes in temperature produced by the engine and the exhaust emission control apparatus. It is well known that excessively high temperatures have a decided detrimental effect on the motor vehicle battery's operating life. While some thermal protection may be afforded by shielding the battery from the heat producing sources in the engine compartment through the use of panel-type enclosures, it is also necessary to ensure that the battery receives proper ventilation in order to exhaust the corrosive acid fumes and heat produced by the battery itself.
Japanese patent abstract 1-47640 discloses a cooling arrangement for a motor vehicle battery wherein the battery is positioned immediately behind one of the motor vehicle headlights and is partitioned from the engine by use of several partition boards which form a box-like enclosure for the battery. The battery enclosure includes a front panel which is in air communication with a cutout in the headlight and an air outlet port disposed in the rear panel portion thereof adjacent the front wheel housing. In operation, when the vehicle is moving, the battery compartment is ventilated by cool air entering through the headlight opening. Hot air within the enclosure is exhausted through the air outlet port and eventually exits to the wheel housing. In this fashion, the battery remains cool and is basically unaffected by the engine heat during driving operation. However, when the vehicle is stationary, the air circulation through the battery enclosure is not sufficient to provide adequate cooling.
In order to improve the air circulation through a battery enclosure when the vehicle is stationary, it has been proposed to position the battery within a first housing which, in turn, is received within a second outer battery enclosure. The outer enclosure is provided with a ventilation opening and an evacuation channel. The evacuation channel is preferably sloped upwards in order to create a chimney effect so that hot air is caused to be carried away from the battery and fresh air is caused to be sucked into the enclosure through the ventilation opening. In practice, however, it has been found that sufficient cooling for the battery cannot be achieved in this way.
From U.S. Pat. No. 2,104,765 issued to Saunders, it is known to provide a battery enclosure having an air inlet port and air outlet port with a false bottom and sides for supporting the battery a distance away from the walls of the battery enclosure. In this arrangement, a flue is created which permits air flow across diagonally opposite top and bottom corners of the enclosure. Saunders also discloses an air inlet port with a connecting inlet tube having a belled mouth positioned near the fan such that positive air induction to the enclosure is provided by the fan blast. In this arrangement, the belled mouth of the air inlet tube is located behind the fan which, in turn, is located behind the radiator. Thus so positioned, the air inlet tube is blocked by the radiator from receiving pressurized air flow which enters the forward portion of the engine compartment when the vehicle is moving. This requires that the fan to be operated at all times to ensure adequate cooling air flow to the battery. In many modern day vehicles, operation of the cooling fan for the radiator is temperature dependent whereby fan activation occurs when the engine temperature exceeds a preselected threshold level such as when it is very hot outside or when the vehicle is stationary or moving slowly.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a simple low cost arrangement for cooling a battery of a motor vehicle which provides sufficient flow of cooling air across the battery irrespective of whether the motor vehicle is moving or is stationary. There is also a need for such a battery cooling arrangement which does not require additional power means for providing cooling air flow to the battery while the motor vehicle is stationary.

Arrangement for cooling the battery of a motor vehicle


A phase-change memory element for reducing heat loss is disclosed. The phase-change memory element comprises a composite layer, wherein the composite layer comprises a dielectric material and a low thermal conductivity material. A via hole is formed within the composite layer. A phase-change material occupies at least one portion of the via hole. The composite layer comprises alternating layers or a mixture of the dielectric material and the low thermal conductivity material.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a memory element, and more particularly to a phase-change memory element.
2. Description of the Related Art
Phase-change memory is a scalable, high speed, and non-volatile memory technology. It is targeted typically for mobile devices which require low power consumption. A phase-change memory cell must therefore provide low programming current, avoidance of high voltages, smaller cell size, faster phase transformation speed, and low cost. These requirements are difficult to meet given the current state of the art.
The most straightforward way to reduce the programming current is to reduce the heating area. A benefit of this strategy is simultaneous reduction of cell size. However, reducing the area results in a higher cell resistance, which increases the required driving voltage. All other considerations being the same, the amount of Joule heating is conserved, meaning the operating voltage is inversely proportional to the programming current. This is clearly not desirable. Reducing heating area does not necessarily improve other performance features. Phase transformation speed requires good thermal uniformity within the active region of the cell.
In reality, cooling becomes significant for smaller structures, and loss to environment becomes more important with increased surface/volume ratio. As a result, temperature uniformity is degraded. In addition, the required current density must increase as heating area is reduced. This poses an electromigration concern for reliability. Hence, it is important to not only reduce the current, but also required heating. Since the amount of Joule heating input is reduced, heat loss to the environment must be reduced even further.
The heating loss is proportional to the thermal conductivity of the surrounding dielectric material. As a reference, the thermal conductivity of a commonly used phase-change chalcogenide, Ge2Sb2Te5, is experimentally measured to have a range of values, averaging around a value of 0.3 W/m-K. The low conductivity is due to both low electron density and vacancies in the microstructure which enhance phonon scattering. Since it is the active material, it obviously cannot serve as the surrounding dielectric. Silicon nitride and silicon oxide are stable in contact with the chalcogenide. However, their thermal conductivities approach and sometimes exceed 1 W/m-K, which prohibits scaling down the programming current beyond the current state of the art.
One solution uses a mixture of the low thermal conductivity chalcogenide material with a stable higher thermal conductivity dielectric, such that the effective thermal conductivity of the mixture approaches that of the chalcogenide.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,933,365 "Memory element with energy control mechanism" discloses the use of thermal isolation layers which at least partially encapsulate the phase-change material. However, the selection of candidate materials far exceeds the range of materials available for state-of-the-art memory cell fabrication, and do not reflect the currently known thermal conductivities of such materials.
Therefore, it is necessary to develop a phase-change memory to solve the previously described problems.

Industrial Technology Research Institute


A new and distinct cultivar of the species Actinidia chinesis Planch is described. ‘AU Golden Sunshine’ has a low chilling requirement, fruit is early maturing, excellent flavor with a non acid sweet taste and a high percent solube solids and dry matter content. ‘AU Golden Sunshine’ matures about 20 days after ‘AU Golden Dragon’ and 30 days before ‘Hort 16A’ (patented), the industry standard for golden flesh kiwi cultivars. ‘Au Golden Sunshine’ fruit quality indices are similar to fruit quality indices of ‘AU Golden Dragon’ and ‘Hort 16A’ (patented). There have been no differences in plant performance and fruit quality of ‘AU Golden Sunshine’ plants grown in China and Alabama.

'AU Golden Sunshine' is a golden fleshed cultivar of Actinidia chinensis Planch. This cultivar was selected from an Actinidia chinensis open pollinated seedling orchard that was tended and fruit harvested in Chongyang County of Hubei Province of P.R. China. The parentage of the new cultivar is unknown. 'AU Golden Sunshine' has been asexually reproduced in China and in Alabama, USA by rooting softwood and hardwood cuttings and by whip and cleft grafting. The genetics have been stable through succeeding asexual propagations. 'AU Golden Sunshine' fruit is large, cylindrical and uniform in shape with golden flesh that has a thick sweet flavor and delicious taste. 'AU Golden Sunshine' has high percent soluble solids and dry matter content which does not significantly differ from 'Hort 16A' (U.S. Pat. No. 11,066) (Table 1). 'AU Golden Sunshine' fruit ripens 30 days before 'Hort 16A' (patented), the industry standard for Actinidia chinensis cultivars. 'AU Golden Sunshine' fruit contains high levels of health promoting properties.


A frequency converter comprises an impedance matching unit connected to a current switching stage and a transconductance amplifier stage. The impedance matching unit has an impedance for conjugate power match. For example, the impedance matching unit is a parallel resonant circuit that includes an inductor and a capacitor that are formed as an integrated circuit. Thus, the frequency converter that has high conversion gain and low noise is obtained.

1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improvement in a frequency converter. This invention also relates to a radio communication apparatus that employs the frequency converter as an up-converter or a down-converter.
2) Description of the Related Art
Information devices, employing radio communications such as mobile phones and portable information devices, have recently attracted increasing research and development. Because of such research and development, the information devices are day-by-day becoming smaller and cheaper.
The information device becomes smaller or cheaper if analog radio frequency (RF) circuits in the information devices are made as integrated circuits. Frequency converters, such as single balanced mixers and double balanced mixers are the examples of such analog RF circuits. These type of mixers have been disclosed, for example, in "Monolithic RF Active Mixer Design", K. L. Fong and R. G. Meyer, IEEE Transactions on circuits and systems-II: Analog and digital signal processing, vol. 46, No. 3, March 1999, pp. 231–239.
The mixers described in this document include a driver stage and a switching stage. If such mixers are used in a frequency converter, it is necessary to set a condition of conjugate power match in order to obtain the available maximum power for analog circuits such as a frequency converter. However, in the frequency converter that employs such mixers, such condition is not met since the driver stage and the switching stage have mainly capacitive load (−JX, where X is a positive number) in a high frequency.
As a result, the frequency converters that employ the mixers described in the document have poor conversion gain.

Frequency converter and radio communication apparatus


According to one embodiment, a magnetic recording apparatus includes: an information recording module configured to record a predetermined number of lines of information with a predetermined length in an information recording region of a magnetic recording medium, each of the lines of information having a same recording start position with respect to a relative movement direction of the magnetic recording medium and a recording element, the each of the lines of information being provided with an overlaying portion of adjacent lines of information. The information recording module is configured to record clock information in one or a plurality of the lines of information.

1. Field
One embodiment of the invention relates to a magnetic recording apparatus and a magnetic recording medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
The rapid development of information technology (IT) and diverse demands in various information dramatically increase the amount of information produced. Magnetic disk devices are suitable, in terms of capacities, bit costs for storage, access performances, reliability, or the like, for storing therein a large amount of information. In order to increase the capacities of the magnetic disk devices, a recording density is required to be increased. Hence, various technologies for achieving high density recording have been studied and developed.
Increasing a recording density has limitation called trilemma. When the minimum unit of magnetization for recording is reduced to increase the recording density, the recorded information is to be lost after a long period of time because the information recorded with a small unit of recording is thermally unstable. Further, with the use of a recording medium having a magnetic characteristic that is not easily lost, magnetic poles are saturated due to the material characteristics of the magnetic pole of a recording element, thereby results in a state where a sufficient recording magnetic field cannot be output. Still further, when size of the minimum unit of magnetization is increased, the number of units of magnetization each corresponding to one bit of information decreases so as to increase noise (medium noise) in the transition region. As a result, recording and reproduction with sufficient reliability becomes impossible. As described above, the three of a thermal relaxation characteristic, a writing characteristic, and signal quality, are in a trade-off relationship with each other.
The conventional technologies that surmount the limitation on a recording density are, for example, a bit patterned media system, an energy assisted recording system, and a shingle write/two-dimensional magnetic recording (TDMR) system. In the bit patterned media system, one bit of information is recorded in association with a recording land that is physically isolated and provided on a medium. With this system, the volume of the minimum unit of recording can be enlarged and thus the recorded information is less affected by thermal relaxation. The energy assisted recording system is a system by which writing is performed using a magnetic material that is difficult to be magnetically inverted at room temperature by assisting a recording magnetic field with external energy only during recording. For the external energy, thermal energy produced by a laser beam, excitation energy of magnetic spins produced by a microwave, and the like have been studied. With this system, the writing characteristic out of the three factors that inhibits the density from being increased is improved.
In the shingle write/TDMR system, during recording, a number of tracks of recordings each being formed in a movement direction of a recording medium are overlaid with each other with slight offset and recorded in the recording medium to record the information, using a recording element that has a comparatively wide recording width. During reading, magnetic information in a unit of recording/reproduction is read two-dimensionally, using a reading element having comparatively high resolution, and then the information recorded by a two-dimensional signal process is demodulated.
The magnetic recording system as described above is known as a shingle write system or a TDMR system (for example, see The Magnetic Recording Conference (TMRC) 2008, Jul. 31, 2008, Session CC: Recording Physics of Novel Media CC-4 "The feasibility of magnetic recording at 10 Terabits per square Inch on conventional media).
However, in a magnetic recording system disclosed in the conventional technology, clock signals necessary to obtain information by reading one unit of recording/reproducing is not considered. Stable clock signals are required to perform a two-dimensional signal process on the information.

Magnetic recording apparatus and magnetic recording medium


An image forming apparatus includes a memory for storing image information. The image information stored in the memory can be printed onto both surfaces of paper sheets. A resupplying path guide sheets having information printed on a first surface thereof to a printer for subsequent printing on a second surface of the sheets. The resupplying path includes at least one standby position for suspending the sheets. Further, the total number of sheets introduced into the resupplying path can be controlled to ensure that no collision of sheets occurs. Further, such an operation can be intermitted by a further printing operation, and such a process can be executed prior to outputting sheets to a finishing device.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device, such as a copy machine, a printer, a facsimile, etc., that can print on both sides of sheets, and more particularly, the present invention relates to such a device that includes a memory for storing digitized images.
2. Discussion of the Background
A background printing control method of a printer is disclosed in a Japanese Patent No. 2522799. In such a control method, a controller monitors a sheet supplying operation from a sheet supplying unit and from a sheet resupplying unit. The controller controls the operations such that a sheet remaining in the resupplying unit is preferentially supplied therefrom based on a supervisory result that the sheet supplying is not to supply a sheet. Further, sheets from the resupplying unit are turned around so that the contents of each of successive original documents are printed on a back or second surface of each sheet which has already been printed on a first or front surface, and as a result, sheets having images printed on both surfaces thereof are then formed and then ejected.
However, in this method of printing on the first surface and the second surface of sheets alternately, the apparatus cannot continuously feed and keep a number of sheets with their first surface printed on which exceeds a number of standby position(s) in the apparatus, and the apparatus also must print to sheets in a given order decided before printing.
Further, increasing the number of standby position(s) in the apparatus makes the apparatus larger. Furthermore, when the apparatus has image data under compression in a storage media, because of differences in decompression times corresponding to the amount of image data, a number of sheets having their first surfaces successively printed on cannot exceed the number of standby position(s).
Furthermore, when an irregular decompression or transcription of an image data arises, re-transferring of the image data is attempted, and then a printing timing is delayed or the re-transferring may not be accomplished well.
When the re-transferring is not executed after a time, an extra process is usually executed such that a waiting operation for outputting the image data is canceled and the sheet to be printed on is ejected without printing. However, feeding a number of sheets continuously in the re-supplying path which exceeds a number of standby position(s) results in prolonging a waiting time of outputting the image data, and consequently a sheet may collide with a sheet that is in a standby position, and a sheet jam may occur. The background control method also does not operate in an apparatus having a finisher device or which takes an interrupting function into account.

Image forming apparatus printing on both sides of a printing medium


The purpose of this invention is to provide a method and an apparatus for producing thermomechanical fibers using less energy per ton that has previously been required for similar type of production. The invention is based in that at least two refiners are combined so that mixture of chips, water and steam is first fed into a first refiner wherein the chips are broken up and the mass flow from the first refiner is then fed into the second refiner for breaking the fibers to final freeness level. The mass flow of steam and fibers is fed forwards at least in the first refiner by the rotational energy of the refiner rotor so that essentially no flowback of the steam occurs. The mass flow exciting the first refiner is fed completely to the second refiner and no steam is extracted from the mass flow before the second refiner.

In the refining process, wood is fed in chip form into a narrow gap between stator and rotor of a refiner together with water. The cross section of the gap narrows from the center of the refiner towards the outer perimeter. The surfaces of the rotor and stator have bars that have edges for breaking the wood material into fibers. The chips are defibrated and fibrillated during their passage through the refiner. Refining can take place in one refiner or it can be continued in subsequent refiners.
The chips are fed into the center of a refiner and strike first the edges of a breaker bar and the chips are broken into pieces. Refining of these pieces begins when the pieces strike each other as well as the refiner rotor and stator edges. Centrifugal force drives this coarse wood and fiber mixture outward in radial direction the disc gap stator and rotor plates and the gap becomes smaller. The interaction between rotor, stator and fiber defibrates and fibrillates the fiber material to the final freeness level. The collisions between fiber and rotor bar edges and collisions between fibers, friction between fiber and segment surfaces and internal friction in the fiber phase consume a considerable amount of energy. This energy is transformed into heat, which increases the temperature of the water and fiber and thus evaporates the water into steam. This steam has strong influence on fiber flow in the disc gap. Depending on the pressure conditions before and after the refiner, some of the steam flows toward the chip feed as a flowback steam and some flows forward with the fiber flow. The steam flow is restricted due to narrow disc gap and, because of this, the pressure and the temperature in the disc gap can be noticeably higher than those in the refiner housing or feed. The heat in the refining process changes the rheological properties of wood and fiber and has an important influence on the final fiber quality.
Very often two serial refiners are used in a refining process. In such a process once refined raw fibers exit from the first refiner together with steam and exhaust velocity of the steam and chips is used for transporting the fibers to the second refiner. Since large amount of steam is generated in the first refiner, excess steam has to be removed from the flow before feeding the chips to the second refiner. Therefore, the outflow of the first refiner is led to a cyclone wherein excess steam is separated. The separated steam can be fed into the first refining stage. From the cyclone the defibrated fibers are fed into the second refiner, wherein it is further refined to final freeness. After the second refiner the mixture of fibres and steam is fed into a second cyclone for separating steam and fibers.
This kind of process requires large amount of energy for each ton of fibers produced. One factor that increases the amount of energy needed, is the generation of steam in the refiners. Steam is needed for transporting the refined fibers within the refiner between the stator and rotor or rotor to rotor especially from first refiner to the second refiner. In present processes large amount of steam is needed for transporting the fibers. This extra steam has to be removed from the fiber flow before it is fed into the second refiner. Steam or water is also needed for cooling the fibers that is heated due to friction between the refiner plates. If the consistency of the fibers is not right, the dwell time of the mass in the refiner may become longer and the mass may overheat and become dark. Longer residense times also change the refining result and quality of the fibers.
In conventional process steam is separated from fibers in between the refining stages. This steam is typically used in paper machine and therefore it requires very high pressure to first stage refiners housing and second stage refiners feed.

Method and apparatus for producing mechanical fibers


A liquid processing apparatus is arranged to planarize a film on a substrate by supplying onto the film a process liquid for dissolving the film while rotating the substrate. The apparatus includes a substrate holding member configured to rotatably hold the substrate in a horizontal state, a rotation mechanism configured to rotate the substrate holding member, and a liquid supply mechanism configured to supply the process liquid onto a surface of the substrate. The liquid supply mechanism includes first and second liquid delivery nozzles configured to deliver the same process liquid. The first liquid delivery nozzle has a smaller diameter and provides a smaller delivery flow rate, as compared to the second liquid delivery nozzle. The first liquid delivery nozzle is inclined to deliver the process liquid in a rotational direction of the substrate, and is movable between a center of the substrate and a peripheral edge thereof.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid processing apparatus and liquid processing method for planarizing a film on a substrate, such as a semiconductor wafer, by use of a process liquid.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, in the process of manufacturing semiconductor devices, thin films, such as oxide films and nitride films, are formed as insulating films on the surface of a target substrate, such as a semiconductor wafer (which will be simply referred to as a wafer, hereinafter). As a method for forming a thin film, chemical vapor deposition (CVD) methods are utilized. In CVD methods, where a source gas is supplied from outside a wafer, as in a film formation process of the batch type performed in a vertical furnace, the thickness of a film thereby formed becomes larger at the peripheral portion of the wafer than at the central portion thereof, i.e., a concave shape (cone-shaped recess) is formed on the film. Further, where a film formation method other than CVD of the batch type is used, the thickness of a film thereby formed may become larger at the central portion, i.e., a convex shape (cone-shaped projection) may be formed on the film. Where contact holes are formed in a film having such a less uniform thickness, the diameter of the contact holes becomes smaller at a position with a film thickness larger than a predetermined value, while the diameter becomes larger at a position with a film thickness smaller than the predetermined value. If the diameters of the contact holes are different, a problem arises in that the product yield is decreased.
As a technique to solve this problem, U.S. Pat. No. 6,096,233 discloses the following technique. Specifically, at first, the thickness of a film, such as an oxide film, formed on a semiconductor wafer is detected at least at the peripheral and central portions of the film. Then, in accordance with detection signals, the film is planarized by supplying a process liquid (for example, hydrofluoric acid solution) that dissolves (etches) the film onto the wafer. At this time, the wafer is rotated, while a nozzle for supplying the process liquid is moved from the peripheral portion to the central portion of the wafer.
However, according to the technique disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,096,233, liquid flicks occur at the peripheral portion of a wafer near a wafer chuck for holding the wafer. Consequently, a process liquid may be unevenly supplied onto the inner area of a film on the wafer, thereby deteriorating the uniformity of etching. Further, at the peripheral portion of the wafer near the wafer chuck, liquid supply is disturbed by the wafer chuck, thereby deteriorating the uniformity of etching, i.e., lowering the accuracy of the film thickness. In addition, since the process liquid is supplied while a nozzle for supplying the process liquid is moved for scanning, the process liquid consumption is large. Accordingly, it is also required to decrease the process liquid consumption.

Liquid processing apparatus and liquid processing method


A liquid crystal display apparatus comprises: a liquid crystal display panel including a liquid crystal cell between a first polarizing plate and a second polarizing plate; and a surface light source device having a light source unit and a light guide plate. In a polarized light output from the light guide plate, when the normal direction of a light output surface is defined to be at a polar angle of 90°, and the light guiding direction of the light guide plate is defined to be a direction of an azimuth angle of 0°-180°, a ratio La/Lt of integrated intensity La of output light in ranges where the polar angle is 50° to 80° and the azimuth angle is 135° to 225°, 0° to 45°, and 315° to 360° to integrated intensity Lt of total output light is 0.3 or more.

In recent years, as a display, a liquid crystal display apparatus using a surface light source device has been remarkably widespread. For example, in a liquid crystal display apparatus including an edge light-type surface light source device, light emitted from a light source enters a light guide plate, and propagates through an inside of the light guide plate while repeating a total reflection on a light output surface (liquid crystal cell-side surface) of the light guide plate and a back surface thereof. A part of the light that propagates through the inside of the light guide plate allows a traveling direction thereof to be changed by a light scattering body or the like, which is provided on the back surface of the light guide plate or the like, and is output from the light output surface to an outside of the light guide plate. Such light output from the light output surface of the light guide plate is diffused and condensed by various optical sheets such as a diffusion sheet, a prism sheet, a brightness enhancement film, or the like, and thereafter, the light enters a liquid crystal panel in which polarizing plates are arranged on both sides of a liquid crystal cell. Liquid crystal molecules of a liquid crystal layer of the liquid crystal cell are driven for each of pixels to control transmission and absorption of the incident light. As a result, an image is displayed.
Typically, the above-mentioned prism sheet is fitted into a casing of the surface light source device, and is provided close to the light output surface of the light guide plate. In a liquid crystal display apparatus using such a surface light source device, the prism sheet and the light guide plate are rubbed against each other when installing the prism sheet or under an actual usage environment, and the light guide plate is flawed in some cases. In order to solve such a problem, a technology for integrating the prism sheet with a light source-side polarizing plate is proposed (Patent Literature 1). However, a liquid crystal display apparatus using such a polarizing plate with which the prism sheet is integrated has a problem of being dark because accumulated illuminance and front brightness are insufficient.


The invention relates to a method for gathering information from traffic flowing in communication networks. The method includes generating in a network element, which sees the traffic flowing in the network, events on the basis of the traffic flow and predefined instructions, an event being a piece of information indicating that a certain matter has occurred in the traffic flow, sending said events for analysis in a central processing element, analysing said events in said central processing element, and conveying on the basis of said analysis information to network operator systems.

The business of mobile network operators is based on controlling and billing their customers (the users of mobile networks).
Traditionally mobile network concepts and technologies have been network operator-centric, that is, the network operator has been responsible for offering the services available in the network. Thereby, controlling access rights and collecting billing information has been easy to arrange for the network operators.
However, the newer concepts and technologies are based on open Internet standards and additional services offered by third parties, who may be completely independent of the network operator, whose network their customers are using. The services are provided to mobile terminals through gateways, which are usually administered by the network operator. Different gateways are used for different types of traffic (SMS, MMS, WAP, HTTP, e-mail, instant messaging, streaming and so forth). The gateways provide connectivity between terminals and service providers systems. That is, the users may be allowed to completely by-pass network operator's applications. Naturally, the mobile network operators are nevertheless trying to maintain their position as a single control point for mobile networks for controlling access rights and collecting billing information. The use of billing functionalities offered by the network operators are reasonable also in view of the external service providers, since that way they do not need to implement sometimes complex billing systems, but can instead concentrate on their core business. In addition, in many countries, the operator is responsible for the traffic that is flowing in their network and thus the operator must know what that traffic is and must have measures to control the traffic flow.
Furthermore, network operators have access to certain valuable data (network capabilities), such as terminal location, terminal capabilities or characteristics of used connection (for example available bandwidth) that can provide added value for services offered by external service providers. Some service providers need to have access to this information in order to offer their services.
Therefore, the network operators still need to control the traffic on the network level, or in other words, to understand the traffic (protocols) in order to be able to handle access control and billing decisions.
FIGS. 1 and 2 show two prior art arrangements for implementing information gathering from network traffic of mobile terminal users in mobile networks and controlling thereof.
In FIG. 1, each gateway has been integrated to network operator systems, which need information about network traffic or which may control network traffic. Such network operator systems are for example billing system, location system and client capability system. The system comprises two gateway elements 101 and 102 in an operator network. The gateway elements may be for example an MMS gateway and a WAP gateway. Service providers 103 and 104 are respectfully connected to the gateway elements 101 and 102 over Internet. By means of the functionality provided by the gateway elements these service providers provide services to mobile subscribers 105 and 106, which are connected to the gateway elements via mobile network. Herein it must be noted that the gateway elements need not be physically separate devices. Alternatively, they may be software processes running on the same server. Further one service provider may be connected to more than one gateway element and equally one mobile subscriber may be connected to more that one gateway element.
The gateway elements 101 and 102 are connected to (integrated to) network capability systems of the network operator, that is, to a prepaid/postpaid system 107 (billing system), a client capability system 108 and a location system 109. This means that the gateway elements have been implemented so that they are able to employ the functionalities offered by the network capability systems.
In this arrangement each gateway operates as a separate entity. The gateways 101 and 102 are implemented so that they understand the traffic that goes through them. They are adapted to take care of accounting and billing by creating billing tickets (Call Detail Record, CDR) on the basis of fixed or modifiable logic. Further they may be adapted to use some (predefined) logic for granting/controlling access to different services or systems, for using client capabilities obtainable from the client capability system 108, or for using location information obtainable from the location system 109.
The problem in this arrangement is that each gateway needs to be adapted to properties of each network capability system that is used, that is, management and integration has to be done separately for each system. Thereby, for example modifying or expanding the system is burdensome. Additionally a separate solution is needed for each traffic type as the gateway needs to understand the traffic, and the solution does not scale well, as different users may have different rules for billing and access control. Also the network capability systems vary from operator to operator, thus adding additional burden in integrating the gateways with various different network capability systems.
In FIG. 2, an external traffic snooping system 205 collects information from network traffic and provides it to network operator systems, which need information about network traffic. The system is otherwise similar to the system of FIG. 1 except that now the gateway elements 101 and 102 are not connected to (or integrated to) network capability systems of the network operator. Instead, the traffic snooping system 205 is connected to (or integrated to) a prepaid/postpaid system 107 and possibly to some other operator systems that need to collect information about the traffic in the network.
The system comprises snooping means 201 and 202, which are located on the signal path between the mobile subscribers 105 and 106 and the gateways 101 and 102, respectively. The snooping means 201 and 202 are connected to the traffic snooping system 205. Alternatively, the system might comprise equivalent snooping means 203 and 204 located on the signal path between the gateways 101 and 102 and the service providers 103 and 104, respectively. The principle is to have an arrangement, wherein each message/connection passes by snooping means. It is also possible that the snooping means are included in the gateway or that the gateway is adapted to route all traffic that goes through it via snooping means.
By means of the snooping means the traffic snooping system 205 sees the traffic flowing in the network and can extract information from the flow. The traffic snooping system is adapted to listen to the traffic in the network and parse billable/controllable features from it. For example, the traffic snooping system 205 is adapted to create billing tickets (CDR) on the basis of some predefined rules and the traffic that is seen by means of the snooping means 201 and 202. However, the traffic snooping system does not fully understand the content of the traffic or network capabilities. Further, the traffic snooping system cannot stop the traffic flow by itself, but only to signal information about the traffic to other systems, which may be capable of stopping the traffic.
The problem in this arrangement is that the traffic snooping system cannot contain a full replica of gateways' internal state machine that handles the traffic flow. (If it would, it would implement the gateway functionality described in FIG. 1.) Thus snooping is always superficial, as the traffic is not fully understood. The snooping system may understand traffic in a fundamentally different way compared to the gateways and all traffic features may not be extractable in a superficial snooping. Furthermore, the system cannot do anything with encrypted traffic. Compressed traffic may generate huge processing loads and memory consumption, as the snooping system has to uncompress it before trying to parse it. And as mentioned above, external systems are needed for stopping the traffic flows.
On the basis of the description above, a new solution is needed for gathering information from traffic flowing in communication networks and for controlling the traffic.

Information gathering from traffic flow in a communication network


A toner comprising toner particles which comprise a binder resin and a colorant, and also inorganic fine particles as external additives, wherein the inorganic fine particles are silica fine particles and a group 2 element titanate fine particles, the inorganic fine particles have specific particle diameters, the silica fine particles have a coverage ratio X1 on the surfaces of the toner particles, which is not less than 40.0 surface area % and not more than 75.0 surface area %, when the theoretical coverage ratio by the silica fine particles is X2, the diffusion index defined as “diffusion index=X1/X2” satisfies the condition: diffusion index≧−0.0042×X1+0.62, and the external additives have an embedding ratio on the toner particles, which satisfies a specific range.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a toner for use in, for example, electrophotographic, electrostatic recording and magnetic recording technologies.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, in electrophotographic systems, an electrostatic latent image bearing member (referred to below as a "photosensitive member") which is generally composed of a photoconductive material is charged by various means then exposed to light, thereby forming an electrostatic latent image on the surface of the photosensitive member. Next, the electrostatic latent image is developed with toner on a toner bearing member (referred to below as a "developing sleeve") to form a toner image, and the toner image is transferred to a transfer material such as paper, following which the toner image is fixed on the transfer material by heat, pressure or the application of both heat and pressure, yielding a copied article or a print. At this time, the toner that has not been transferred to the transfer material and remains on the photosensitive member following transfer (untransferred toner) is cleaned off by various methods, and the above steps are repeated.
One known cleaning system is a blade cleaning method that mechanically removes untransferred toner by pressing an elastic rubber blade against the photosensitive member.
In recent years, the desire for higher speed, higher image quality and smaller equipment size in copiers and printers which use electrophotographic technology has created a need to increase the process speed of the apparatus while at the same time furnishing high-resolution images. However, the burden on the toner increases at higher speeds, and problems relating to development performance, such as a decline in the image density caused by toner deterioration, have a tendency to arise.
Moreover, in the cleaning step, increasing the process speed of the apparatus makes it difficult for the cleaning blade to properly scrape away the toner, and allows toner to pass by the cleaning blade. As a result, what is referred to as "faulty cleaning" tends to arise.
A key technology in downsizing copiers and printers is to reduce the size of the developing sleeve. The application of charge to the toner is carried out by triboelectric charging due to rubbing between the toner and a triboelectric charge-providing member such as the developing sleeve in a region where the toner has been regulated primarily by a toner regulating member (referred to below as the "developing blade").
In the case of a smaller developing sleeve in particular, the developing zone of the development nip becomes smaller, making it more difficult for toner to jump from the developing sleeve. As a result, the phenomenon known as "charge-up" occurs in which only a portion of the toner becomes excessively charged, sometimes causing various image defects.
For example, the charged up toner remains on the developing sleeve, leading to a decrease in image density and making charging of the toner non-uniform, as a result of which image defects such as fogging in non-image regions sometimes arises.
In addition, the charged up toner tends to adhere strongly to the photosensitive member, making it difficult to remove in the cleaning step, which readily leads to faulty cleaning. Also, such toner has a tendency to pack tightly at the back of the cleaning blade, as a result of which the untransferred toner is not completely recovered, readily giving rise to the problem of waste toner spillage. Such problems can become quite serious, particularly in low-temperature, low-humidity environments where which toner charge-up readily occurs.
One method for improving the cleaning performance is to increase the pressure of the cleaning blade against the photosensitive member. However, simply increasing the blade pressure tends instead to give rise to such problems as vibration and curling of the cleaning blade. Also, from the standpoint of energy conservation, a low torque is preferred, and there are cases where a lower cleaning blade pressure is in fact preferred. Also, from a downsizing standpoint, because making the photosensitive member smaller increases the curvature at the surface of the photosensitive member, stable scraping with the cleaning blade becomes more difficult to achieve.
Toners in which an inorganic fine powder is externally added to the toner particles as an abrasive or a lubricant in order to improve the toner cleaning performance have also been proposed.
Japanese Patent No. 3385860 describes a toner obtained by the external addition to toner particles of strontium titanate fine particles that are sintered aggregates of primary particles having an average primary particle size of 30 to 150 nm.
However, with increasingly fine toner particles targeted at higher image quality, it becomes more difficult to obtain a stable image density. Moreover, because the state of attachment by silica and other inorganic fine particles is not controlled, this approach has not led to an improvement in cleaning performance within low-temperature, low-humidity environments.
When the diameter of a developing sleeve is made smaller, as mentioned above, charged up toner readily forms and toner charging tends to become uneven. In order for proper triboelectric charging of the overall toner to occur, toner circulation needs to take place in the region where rubbing with the developing sleeve and the developing blade is carried out (referred to below as the "blade nip"); that is, toner in contact with the developing sleeve or the developing blade must be replaced with toner that is not in contact. However, deteriorated toner has a poor ability to circulate, and so proper triboelectric charging of the overall toner tends to be difficult.
A great deal of research aimed at suppressing toner deterioration has hitherto been carried out.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2009-186812 describes an emulsification aggregation toner for which the ratio of free large-particle-size silica (free ratio) has been specified. Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Nos. 2008-276005, 2010-60768 and 2009-229785 all describe technology for enabling toner to withstand long-term use by improving the attached state of the external additive and thereby altering toner flowability.
Such related art has indeed provided a certain degree of advantageous effects in terms of stability when used in durability tests and in terms of the cleaning performance. Yet, in cases where, as described above, the diameter of the developing sleeve has been made smaller, and also in low-temperature environments, satisfactory solutions have not been developed, leaving room for further improvement.


A flexible cable has a conductor formed by twisting a plurality of annealed copper wires and a plurality of alloy wires, an assembled conductor formed by twisting a plurality of the conductors, an insulated wire core formed by covering the assembled conductor with an insulator, a cable core portion formed by twisting a plurality of the insulated wire cores, and a sheath covering the outside of a single or a plurality of the cable core portions.

The cable as shown in Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. H06-176626 is known as a conventional flexible cable. The cable is composed of a conductor formed by twisting annealed copper wires, an insulator, and a sheath. A conductive metallic thin film is formed on an inner surface of the sheath. However, while the cable is generally durable against breaking of the conductor, the cable is too rigid because of the emphasis on durability. Thus, flexibility is at a disadvantage.


Disclosed are DNA sequences encoding to cocaine and amphetamine regulated (CART) proteins, polypeptide products of recombinant expression of these DNA sequences, peptides whose sequences are based upon the amino acid sequences deduced from these DNA sequences, antibodies specific for such proteins and peptides, procedures for the detection and quantitation of such proteins and nucleic acids related thereto, as well as procedures relating to the development of bacteriolytic methods, therapeutic agents, and compositions utilizing CART proteins.

Cocaine is a psychomotor stimulant affecting mammalian physiology and behavior following both acute and chronic patterns of administration. These adaptive changes result in the establishment of physical states representing tolerance, dependence, sensitization and withdrawal. Pharmacologically, the drug acts by inhibiting the synaptosomal uptake of catecholamines (including dopamine and norepinephrine), and serotonin (Gawin, "Cocaine Addiction: Psychology and Neurophysiology," Science, 251:1580-1586 (1991); Koob, "Drugs of Abuse: Anatomy, Pharmacology and Function of Reward Pathways," Trends in Neuroscience, 13:177-184 (1992)). Modulation of dopaminergic neurotransmission within the striatum, for example, is believed to underlie the rewarding and reinforcing properties associated with cocaine administration (Kuhar et al, "The Dopamine Hypothesis of the Reinforcing Properties of Cocaine" Trends in Neuroscience, 14:299-302 (1991)).
It is currently hypothesized that cellular plasticity within specific neural circuits underlies the behavioral and physiological alterations associated with psychomotor stimulant administration (for review, see Nestler, "Molecular mechanisms of drug addiction," J Neuroscience 12:2439-2450 (1992)). One such type of plasticity occurs at the nuclear level, and involves the regulated expression of specific sets of genes. For example, cocaine selectively regulates the pattern of expression of immediate early genes (IEGs), particularly those belonging to the Fos and Jun (i.e., AP-1) family of transcriptional regulatory factors, within the brain. Furthermore, such transcriptional regulation appears to be localized to those brain regions regulated by catecholaminergic input. For example, it is now firmly established that acute administration of cocaine induces expression of c-fos and jun B mRNA in the rat striatum (Graybiel et al., "Amphetamine and Cocaine Induce Drug-Specific Activation of the c-fos Gene in Striosome-Matrix Compartments and Limbic Subdivisions of the Striatum," Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 87:6912-6916 (1990); Dragunow et al., "3,4 MethyleneDioxyMethamphetamine Induces Fos-like Proteins in Rat Basal Ganglia: Reversal With MK-801," Eur. J Pharmacol., 206:255-258 (1991); Hope et al., "Regulation of Immediate Early Gene Expression and AP-1 Binding in the Rat Nucleus Accumbens by Chronic Cocaine," Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 89:5764-5768 (1992); Nguyen et al., "Differential Expression of c-Fos and Zif-268 in Rat Striatum After Haloperidol, Clozapine and Amphetamine," Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 89:4270-4274 (1992); Young et al., "Cocaine Induces Striatal c-fos-Immunoreactive Proteins via Dopaminergic D1 Receptors," Proc. Natl. Acad Sci. USA, 88:1291-1295 (1991)), a brain structure regulated by catecholaminergic input and representing a crucial component of the neuronal circuitry underlying reward. The cerebellum also represents a brain structure in which c-fos mRNA levels are selectively elevated following acute cocaine administration (Iadarola et al., "Induction and Suppression of Proto-Oncogenes in Rat Striatum After Single and Multiple Treatments with Cocaine and GBR-12909," In NIDA research monograph series: Activation of immediate early genes by drugs of abuse (Grzanna et al., Eds.), 125:181-211 (1993); Clark et al., "Expression of c-fos mRNA in Acute and Kindled Cocaine Seizures in Rats," Brain Res., 582:101-106 (1992)). Studies have further shown that cerebellar c-fos mRNA levels rapidly increase following acute cocaine treatment (Iadarola et al., supra; Clark et al., supra), with chronic treatment resulting in a sensitization of the transcriptional response (Couceyro et al., "Cocaine Differentially Regulates Activator Protein-1 mRNA Levels and DNA Binding Complexes in the Rat Striatum and Cerebellum," Mol. Pharmacol., 46:667-676 (1994)). Thus, transcriptional plasticity appears to represent a cellular mechanism through which specific neural networks respond and adapt to psychomotor stimulant administration. By contrast, the hippocampus represents a transcriptionally quiescent brain structure following acute administration of psychomotor stimulants. Thus, such brain region specific transcriptional changes associated with psychomotor stimulant administration are likely to be related to reinforcement and addiction.
An important area of current research involves identification of additional psychomotor stimulant regulated genes. Identification of such genes will increase our understanding of the molecular events underlying both short- and long-term cellular changes resulting from administration of psychomotor stimulant drugs, and may potentially lead to the development of therapeutic agents which mediate effects of psychomotor drugs.


In a film bonding machine 1 including a laser oscillation means 2 for oscillating laser for processing a tape 7 bonded onto an end surface 8 of a columnar honeycomb structural body 6 by the laser oscillated from the laser oscillation means 2, the film bonding machine 1 further includes an image pick-up means 3 having a moving type or tilt type mirror 4 capable of reflecting the end surface 8 of the honeycomb structural body 6 onto the same axis as the laser oscillation means 2 by reflected light and an image pick-up unit 5 for picking up the image of the end surface 8 of the honeycomb structural body 6 reflected by the mirror 4. In the film bonding machine 1, the processing position of the tape 7 bonded onto the end surface 8 of the honeycomb structural body 6 can be recognized by the image-pick means 3 on the same axis as the laser oscillation means 2. As a result, the tape bonded onto the end surface of the honeycomb structural body can be accurately processed by the laser.

There is an increased necessity to remove fine particles and harmful substances contained in exhaust gases from boilers and the like in consideration of the adverse effect of them to the environment. In particular, regulations as to removal of fine particles (hereinafter, also called PM) exhausted from diesel engines tend to be made more strict in Europe and the United States as well as in Japan, and a honeycomb structural body is used as a collecting filter (hereinafter, also called DPF) to remove the PM.
In general, as shown in FIGS. 3(a) and 3(b), the honeycomb structural body used as the collecting filter and the like has such a structure that it includes a plurality of cells 23, which are partitioned by a porous partition wall 24 and act as fluid flow paths, and adjacent cells 23 are plugged at one ends opposite to each other so that the end surfaces of the cells 23 exhibit a checkered pattern. In the honeycomb structural body 21 having the above structure, a fluid to be treated flows into a cell 23 whose flow-in-hole side end surface 25 is not plugged, that is, a cell 23 whose end portion is plugged on a flow-out-hole side end surface 26 and is exhausted from an adjacent cell 23, that is, from the cell 23 whose end portion is plugged on the flow-in-hole side end surface 25 and whose flow-out-hole side end surface 26 is not plugged passing through the porous partition wall 24. At the time, the partition wall 24 acts as a filter, and when the honeycomb structural body is used as the DPF, soot and the like exhausted from diesel engines is trapped by the partition wall 24 and deposited on it.
The honeycomb structural body 21 used as described above has a problem in that a temperature is unevenly distributed in the honeycomb structural body 21 due to the arbitrary change of temperature of an exhaust gas and local heat generation and thus cracks and the like are made in the honeycomb structural body 21. In particular, when the honeycomb structural body 21 is used as the DPF, it must be regenerated by burning off accumulated carbon fine particles. At the time, the honeycomb structural body 21 is locally heated to a high temperature unevenly, from which a problem arises in that a regenerating efficiency is lowered and clacks are liable to be made due to a large amount of thermal stress.
To cope with the above problems, there are disclosed methods of joining segment-like honeycomb structural bodies (segments) obtained by dividing a honeycomb structural body by a joint material (refer to, for example, Patent Document 1).
When the segment-like honeycomb structural bodies are joined to each other by the joint material, the end surfaces of the respective honeycomb structural bodies are protected by a resin tape bonded onto them to prevent an extra joint material from protruding and entering into the openings of cells formed to the respective honeycomb structural bodies. Further, when silicon carbide (SiC) having a small coefficient of thermal expansion is used as the material of the honeycomb structural body, a manufacturing method of joining segment-like honeycomb structural bodies is also used.    Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Publication No. 61-51240


Engine misfire is detected by using threshold values that vary depending on whether damping control is executed. First threshold values are adopted at the setting of a gearshift position to a drive position or a park position where damping control is performed to reduce the vibration of an engine. Second threshold values are adopted at the setting of the gearshift position to a neutral position where the damping control is not performed, the second threshold values being greater than the first threshold values. Engine misfire detection is carried out by processing using the first and second threshold values.

One proposed engine misfire detection apparatus for an internal combustion engine is mounted on a hybrid vehicle that is driven with output powers from the engine and a motor generator linked with a crankshaft of the engine (see, for example, Patent Document 1). This prior art engine misfire detection apparatus detects an engine misfire based on a torque correction value during execution of damping control with the motor generator, which corrects a torque command value with the torque correction value for canceling out a torque variation of the engine. The prior art engine misfire detection apparatus detects an engine misfire based on a variation in rotation of the engine during non-execution of the damping control with the motor generator. This arrangement is expected to detect an engine misfire with sufficient accuracy even during execution of the damping control with the motor generator to reduce the variation in rotation of the engine.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Laid-Open Gazette No. 2001-65402

Engine misfire detection apparatus, hybrid vehicle equipped with the same, and engine misfire detection method