Methods and apparatus for measuring the millimeter or submillimeter wave absorption spectra in a sample of DNA molecules are provided.

The presence of phonon phenomena induced in DNA by radiation in the 75 GHz to 5 THz frequency range have now been demonstrated to result in resonance absorption properties unique to a particular DNA molecule. The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for measuring the phonon resonance occurring in a DNA molecule when the molecule is subjected to electromagnetic radiation in the 75 GHz through 5 THz frequency range. The method and apparatus of the present invention are useful in locating and identifying DNA molecules of interest and in determining damage to known DNA samples.
The genetic molecule deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is constantly exposed to a variety of chemical and physical agents resulting in changes to the structure of this molecule. These changes in the structure of the DNA molecule can interfere with replication and transcription of DNA and are generally referred to as DNA damage. Biological consequences of DNA damage include cell death and mutations, events that may cause cancers, mental retardation and reduced growth and development.
Various methods exist for detecting DNA damage. For example, photodamage in DNA resulting from ultraviolet radiation can be detected by chromatography, enzymatic and biochemical incision of DNA at sites of photoproducts or antibody binding to structural damage in DNA. The cyclobutane dimer was first detected in DNA using two-dimensional paper chromatography. Other types of base damage can be determined via techniques such as thin-layer chromatography and high pressure liquid chromatography. Other procedures measure strand breaks induced directly in DNA via an agent or via enzymatic or biochemical treatments that cleave DNA at damaged sites. For example uvrABC exinuclease, a partial excision repair complex purified from Escherichia coli, cleaves DNA on either side of damage produced by exposure to genotoxic chemicals or ultraviolet radiation. More recently, the ability of endonuclease VII to cleave at mispairings in double-stranded DNA has been exploited for enzymatic mutation detection (Youil et al. Proc. Nat""l Acad. Sci. USA 1995 92:87-9). Further, Golz et al. have disclosed improved reaction conditions which increase the selectivity of endonuclease VII for mismatches up to 500 fold (Mutat. Res. 1998 382(3-4):85-92). Immunochemical approaches adapted to the analysis of DNA damage include immunoassays, immunofluorescence, immunoprecipitation, enzyme-linked radioimmunoassays, and quantitative and immunoelectron microscopy. In addition, an ultrasensitive method for measuring DNA damage was recently described. This method couples immunochemical recognition with capillary electrophoresis and laser-induced fluorescence detection (Le et al. Science 1998 280 30 (5366):1101-2).
However, these methods for detecting DNA damage are indirect and relatively cumbersome. Further, they are not suitable for field detection in a stand-off mode.
Recent advances in understanding the interaction between microwave/millimeter wave radiation and living matter have opened new avenues in the detection and identification of microorganisms. In particular, DNA has been suggested to interact with electromagnetic radiation in the millimeter wave regions of the spectrum, due to the presence of phonon modes and plasmon modes of base pairs along the double helix of the DNA chain (Saxena, V. K. and Van Zandt, L. L. Phys. Rev. A 1989 40:6134; Saxena et al. Phys. Rev. A 1989 39: 1474; Van Zandt, L. L. and Saxena, V. K. Phys. Rev. A 1990 42:4993; Saxena, V. K. and Van Zandt, L. L. Phys. Rev. A 1992 45:7610; and Smith et al. IEEE J. Quantum Elec. 1988 15 24:255).
A modified self-consistent phonon approximation theory has been used to calculate temperature dependent interbase hydrogen bond disruption profiles for a number of six base pair repeating sequence infinite B-DNA polymers with various guanine-cytosine/adenine-thymine ratios (Chen, Y. Z. and Prohofsky, E. W. Eur. Biophys. J. 1996 25(1):9-18). Calculations via this modified phonon approximation theory were used effectively to calculate H-bond disruption behavior of different DNA sequences.
The expected absorption of microwave radiation in the GHz frequency range by fixed-length DNA polymer molecules dissolved in saline solution have also been calculated (Biopolymers 1989 28(8):1429-33).
Further, the feasibility of using spectroscopic techniques, and more specifically microwave and millimeter wave technology, as a probe for possible detection of damage to DNA has been examined by Woolard et al. (J. Of Applied Toxicology 1997 17(4):243-246). In this study, a series of resonances were first predicted, based on available physical parameter values and reasonable assumptions, in a spectral region with a frequency at 88, 89, 110, 172, 232, 300, 382, 418, 503, 561, 638, 784, 891, 920 and 1019 GHz. Preliminary experiments were then conducted to detect some of the resonances using microwave absorption spectroscopy. More specifically, DNA samples from relatively similar species, salmon and herring, were mechanically loaded as dry DNA salts into a 100-mil long shortened section of waveguide and microwave scattering parameter (S11) data was generated via an HP 8510 W-band (i.e. 85-110 GHz) tester. A variance in the occurrence of resonance behavior as a function of electromagnetic energy frequency between the DNA samples of the different species was observed. Microwave absorption spectrum of the same dry sodium herring DNA sample in the frequency region of 180-220 GHz were also measured via a Millitech frequency domain-up conversion unit transmitted through a 75-mil section of DNA contained within a Teflon sample holder. Measurements of the dry sodium herring DNA sample were also taken over a much broader frequency range utilizing a Bell Labs T-Ray Source (Smith et al. IEEE J. Quantum Elec. 1988 24:255; Nuss, M. C. IEEE Circuits Devices March, 1996 25). While unconfirmed by any additional measurements, power-absorption results, for transmission through four different locations of the sample layer in the frequency of 100-400 GHz, were disclosed to result in relatively well-defined peaks resolved at 160, 180, 230, 260, 30 290, 330 and 390 GHz. Based upon these preliminary experiments, it is speculated that microwave absorptions techniques may be useful in detecting DNA-based microorganisms. Further, the feasibility and advantages of using a particular set of modes of the DNA polymers as identification resonances are discussed. However, dry-packing of samples into the waveguide sections as described can lead to inhomogeneity of the sample or possible influence by waveguide eigen-modes. Alternatively, measurement of the samples as thick films can lead to standing waves that tend to mask the signal being detected.
In the present invention a method for inducing and detecting lesion-induced resonance phenomena in thin films of a few micrometers or other samples of DNA molecules via an apparatus comprising an electronically tunable source of electromagnetic radiation capable of generating a broad range of frequencies in the millimeter and submillimeter range wave spectral region, a cavity or sample holder containing the DNA sample and a detector capable of monitoring and recording the radiant power transmitted through the sample as a function of frequency is provided.
An object of the present invention is to provide a method of identifying an unknown DNA molecule in a sample which comprises transmitting through a sample of unknown DNA electromagnetic radiation in a selected range of frequencies in the millimeter or submillimeter wave range; detecting the radiation transmitted through the sample over the selected range; generating an absorbance spectrum which correlates with the detected radiation; and comparing the generated absorbance spectrum with absorbance spectra generated for known DNA samples so that the unknown DNA molecule is identified.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a method of detecting a mutated DNA molecule from a selected species which comprises transmitting through a sample of DNA electromagnetic radiation in a selected range of frequencies in the millimeter or submillimeter wave range; detecting the radiation transmitted through the sample over the selected range; generating an absorbance spectrum which correlates with the detected radiation; and comparing the generated absorbance spectrum with absorbance spectra generated for nonmutated DNA of the same species wherein differences in the absorbance spectra are indicative of a mutation.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a method of identifying agents which mutate DNA which comprises transmitting through a first sample of DNA electromagnetic radiation in a selected range of frequencies in the millimeter or submillimeter wave range; detecting the radiation transmitted through the first sample of DNA over the selected range; generating an absorbance spectrum which correlates with the detected radiation; contacting the first sample of DNA sample with an agent suspected of mutating DNA; transmitting through the DNA sample contacted with the agent electromagnetic radiation in a same selected range of frequencies in the millimeter or submillimeter wave range as the first sample of DNA; detecting the radiation transmitted through the DNA sample contacted with the agent over the selected range; generating an absorbance spectrum which correlates with the detected radiation for the DNA sample contacted with the agent; and comparing the absorbance spectrum of the first DNA sample to the absorbance spectrum of the DNA sample contacted with the agent wherein differences in the absorbance spectra are indicative of the agent being mutagenic.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for identifying a DNA molecule which comprises a spectrometer composed of a broadband millimeter or submillimeter wave signal source and a detector, a data bank with all spectra of defect-related DNA local modes for a class of substances, and a means for comparing spectra obtained with spectra in the data bank.

Methods and apparatus for detecting lesion-induced resonances in deoxyribonucleic acid via millimeter or submillimeter wave spectroscopy

Trustees of Stevens Institute of Technology

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


The testing system is provided with a diagnostic processing apparatus which is independent from a computer to be tested. The diagnostic processing apparatus operates based on a clock signal which is separate from another clock signal used in the computer to asynchronously issue a fault generation command to the computer. The computer is provided with a register for storing particular fault mode information. The computer is responsive to the issued fault generation command for enabling the stored fault mode information so as to generate an asynchronous pseudo-fault in the computer for testing purpose.

The present invention relates to a testing system of a computer, and more particularly relates to a testing system of a computer having a diagnostic processing apparatus which is independent from the computer to be tested.
The conventional testing system of computers of such type will be described briefly with reference to FIG. 1. This system operates such that a computer apparatus 202 is provided with a firmware control unit 209 operative to set fault mode information in order to generate a pseudo-fault in synchronization with a clock signal of the computer apparatus 202. Namely, the fault mode information is set in a fault information register 203 provided in the computer apparatus 202 and a fault enabling bit latch 204 is set so that an output of a decoder 205 is enabled concurrently with this setting to generate a fault or error at a given location of the computer apparatus 202.
The fault processing is effected as follows, when a fault is generated in the computer apparatus 202. Firstly, a particular error indicating flag 207 is turned on to notify a diagnostic processing apparatus 201, through a fault notifying line 210, of the fact that normal operation is disabled. The diagnostic processing apparatus 201 carries out the fault processing when receiving the notice. In the fault processing, the error indicating flags 207 are extracted from the computer apparatus 202, and the error indicating flag 207 etc. is cleared to remove the fault state, and then re-start processing is initiated.
As long as the synchronous operation is held according to the internal clock signal of the computer apparatus 202, fault mode information can be effectively set in the fault information register 203 to repeatedly generate a fault at an identical timing. Further, since the same fault can be recreated, an expectation value of the fault can be suitably set by a program for fault testing, thereby facilitating confirmation of RAS function of the computer apparatus 202 and the diagnostic processing apparatus 201. These processings are illustratively indicated in a flow chart of FIG. 2.
However, an actual fault may occur in the computer apparatus asynchronously with its internal clock. Therefore, an actual fault may not be simultaneously created by a synchronous pseudo-fault generating means. Thus, an asynchronous pseudo-fault generating means is needed to carry out effective RAS function testing.
Next, a brief description is given for the method of generating an asynchronous fault in the computer apparatus 202. During the operation of the computer apparatus 202, for example, its external control signal pin or terminal is clamped to a logical level "0" to fix the logical level of the control signal to generate an asynchronous pseudo-fault. Then, the computer operation, the fault processing and the diagnostic processing are tested. In such case, the external control signal is generally taken from an interface between logical packages.
The clamping of the external control signal pin may cause electrical noise, while the level of the control signal changes asynchronously with the clock signal of the computer apparatus 202. Since an actual hardware fault occurs in an analog mode asynchronously with the operation of the computer apparatus 202, the above noted method can generate a pseudo-fault which is more similar to an actual hardware fault.
However, the following problems may be caused when generating an asynchronous pseudo-fault by the above noted conventional computer testing method. Since highly integrated and sophisticated design is required in the modern computer, it would be quite difficult to generate an asynchronous pseudo-fault by simply clamping the external control signal pin as in the above noted prior art. The reason is that the clamping operation is physically difficult to perform during the operation in view of the hardware construction of the computer, and that a pseudo-fault cannot be generated closely at a particular designated spot by clamping an interface signal between packages. Further, in situations where the computer apparatus, the diagnostic processing apparatus and a terminal are remotely installed from one another, for example, on separate floors, it would be quite inconvenient to access the external control signal pin.

Testing system of computer by generation of an asynchronous pseudo-fault


A hardware and software co-design environment and design methodology based on a data-model that allows one to specify, simulate, and synthesize heterogeneous hardware and software architectures from a heterogeneous specification. The environment and methodology of the invention allow for the interactive synthesis of hardware and software interfaces. The environment defines primitive objects to represent a specification of an essentially digital system. The primitive objects are defined by describing the specification of the system in one or more processes, each process representing a functional aspect of the system. Further, each of the processes have ports which are connected to ports of other processes with a channel. The ports structure communication between the processes.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a design environment and a design method for hardware/software co-design. More specifically the hardware/software co-design of this invention comprises the specification, synthesis, and simulation of heterogeneous systems.
2. Description of the Related Technology
Digital communication techniques form the basis of the rapid breakthrough of modern consumer electronics, wireless and wired voice- and data networking products, broadband networks and multi-media applications. Such products are based on digital communication systems, which are made possible by the combination of VLSI technology and digital signal processing.
Digital systems perform real-time transformations on time discrete digitized samples of analogue quantities with finite bandwidth and signal to noise ratio. These transformations can be specified in programming languages and executed on a programmable processor or directly on application specific hardware. The choice is determined by trade-offs between cost, performance, power and flexibility. Hence digital systems are a candidate par excellence for hardware-software co-design.
In contrast to analogue processing, digital processing guarantees perfect reproducibility, storage and testability. Signal quality is a matter of exact mathematical operations. The price paid is the cost of hardware and the performance needed to satisfy the hard real-time character. This problem is now solved by the abundance of digital VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration) technology which provides for cheap storage and high speed computation. Therefore, the combination of VLSI technology and digital processing has made possible the breakthrough of modern consumer electronics, portable and personal communication, broadband networks, multi-media, and automotive applications.
The design process of the products for these applications is subject to a number of constraints. A first constraint is that they must be implemented in silicon or another hardware platform for power, performance and cost reasons. A second constraint is that these products implement systems conceived by a highly specialized system team thinking in terms of executable concurrent programming paradigms which, today, are not well understood by hardware designers. Hence most specifications are first translated into English and then redesigned in a specific hardware description language such as Very High Speed Integrated Circuit (VHSIC) Hardware Description Language (VHDL) or VERILOG for the hardware components and a software description language such as C or assembler for the software components. Although the hardware and software have tight interaction, both hardware and software are designed separately. Only after system assembly, are the software and hardware run together. As a consequence, the design can be far from optimal or even erroneous, making a redesign cycle mandatory.
This gap between system design and implementation is rapidly becoming the most important bottleneck in the design process of such products and systems. However, constraint is that for reasons of cost-effectiveness and time-to-market, there is a need to increase design productivity by at least an order of magnitude. Yet another constraint is that re-use of designs as well as a design for re-use methodology will have to be adopted. This methodology implies hardware/software co-design at several levels of implementation.
J. Buck et al. in "PTOLEMY: A framework for simulating and prototyping heterogeneous systems" (International Journal on Computer Simulation, January 1994) focus on an environment for hardware/software co-simulation. The proposed methodology only allows for hardware/software co-design of systems based on a data-flow algorithm. Furthermore, hardware/software interface synthesis is not supported.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,197,016 discloses a computer-aided system and method for designing an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) whose intended function is implemented both by hardware subsystems and software subsystems. The proposed methodology only allows for a single processor design and is only valid for specifications based on a state transition diagram. The hardware/software co-design of systems based on a heterogeneous specification is not supported.
S. Narayan, F. Vahid, and D. Gajski. in "System specification with the SpecCharts language" (IEEE Design & Test of Computers, pages 6-13, December 1992) disclose a methodology that builds on VHDL. The methodology does not support the hardware/software co-design of systems based on a heterogeneous specification.
P. Chou, R. Ortega, and G. Borriello. in "Synthesis of the hardware/software interface in microcontroller-based systems" (Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Computer-Aided Design, ICCAD 92, pages 488-495, November 1992) show a method for hardware/software interface generation for microcontroller based systems. This method assumes that the user determines the software interfacing such as the communication with drivers before the start of the system synthesis task.
Neither of the prior art solutions provides a design environment based on a data-model that allows one to specify, simulate and implement or synthesize heterogeneous hardware/software implementations starting from a heterogeneous system specification. In the following paragraphs of this section an analysis is made of the characteristics of specifications of such heterogeneous systems.
In the strictest sense digital systems are algorithms mapping digital signals into digital signals in real-time. The real-time constraint is determined by the repetition period of the algorithm for consuming an input frame and producing a new output frame. The periodicity of this constraint and the nature of the signals leads to the fact that the elementary algorithm is a data-flow function.
A synchronous data-flow (SDF) algorithm can be modeled as an acyclic graph where nodes are operators and edges represent data-precedences. This graph is called a data-flow graph. An operator can execute when a predetermined, fixed number of data (tokens) are present at its input and then it produces one or more output data (tokens). Conditional selection of two operations to a single output is allowed. Operators have no state but arrays resulting from one algorithm execution can be saved for reuse in future executions (delay operator). Many digital processing algorithms are of this type. They can be described very efficiently by so-called applicative programming languages like SILAGE.
In contrast to SDF algorithms, dynamic data-flow (DDF) algorithms contain data-dependent token production and consumption. They allow for while and if-then-else programming constructs.
Computer-Aided Design (CAD) environments for digital systems such as DSP-Station of Mentor Graphics, PTOLEMY, GRAPE-II of COSSAP all allow for specification of SDF and DDF and use as much as possible static scheduling to provide simulation speeds that are up to two orders of magnitude faster than event driven simulators such as in use for VHDL. This justifies the use of these simulation paradigms for digital system specification and validation.
However, when we consider digital processing systems in the broad sense, a wider scope is necessary as illustrated in FIG. 1 which is an abstraction of many practical implementations of digital processing systems. A careful look at FIG. 1 allows us to identify five common characteristics of digital processing system specifications as follows:
1) Digital systems typically comprise one (or more) signal paths 1 as well as slow control loops 2 and a reactive control system 3 taking events 4 of a slow environment such as a user interface (UI) 5 and slow status information 6 of the signal paths as inputs to control the mode or parameters of the signal paths.
2) A signal path 1 is usually a concatenation of data-flow functional blocks (DFBs) 7, such as h1, h2, . . . , L2, often operating at fairly different data- and execution-rates and transforming the format of the data. The rate and format differences naturally result from operations such as: frequency down- or up-conversion, bit to symbol modulation, data-compression and error correction coding. When these DFBs operate on unfragmented signal words, they can best be specified as data-flow algorithms (e.g., in SILAGE, data-flow language (DFL), or C). Others that manipulate individual bits of the signals can be directly specified as Finite State Machines with Data paths (FSMD) at VHDL register transfer or behavioral level. Hence the specification format depends on the type of data-flow functional block.
3) DFBs in the signal path are internally strongly interconnected data-flow graphs with sparse external communication. Hence, from an implementation viewpoint, they are seldom partitioned over several hardware or software components. Rather they will be merged onto the same component if throughput and rate constraints allow. Merging implies sequentializing the concurrent processes on a single component while still satisfying the timing constraints. This requires software synthesis encapsulation techniques of single thread compilers to allow real-time scheduling of concurrent processes.
4) Control loops and mode control by parameter setting are common to almost all digital processing systems. For example, all digital communication systems have tracking and acquisition loops to synchronize frequency and phase of the receiver signal path 1 to the characteristics of the incoming signal. Design of these loops is one of the most difficult tasks since their characteristics depend strongly on noise and distortion properties of the communication channel. It involves the design of phase-locked loops, delay-locked loops, and fast Fourier transforms, controlled by "events" disturbing the regularity of the signal streams. The occurrence rate of these events is orders of magnitude slower than the data-rate in the signal path. Hence, similar to the UI, the processes modeling these slow control loops and mode setting have no data-flow but reactive semantics. They run concurrently with the data-flow and often consist themselves of concurrent processes. Such a control dominated system can be described as a Program State Machine (PSM), which is a hierarchy of program-states, in which each program-state represents a distinct mode of computation. Formalisms such as StateCharts or SpecCharts, which include behavioral hierarchy, exception handling and inter-process communication modeling are needed to describe such systems. In practice, very often synchronization is specified in one or more concurrent C programs.
5) Digital systems contain both high and low data-rate blocks in the signal path. High data-rate blocks are synthesized directly in hardware. Low data-rate blocks are candidates for implementation on programmable processors. Hence, digital systems are natural candidates for hardware/software co-design.
From the above it follows that digital systems require a combination of data-models for their specification. Specification languages are tightly coupled to these data-models, paradigms, simulators, and synthesis tools.
Nowadays, the dominant specification language of the digital system designer is C or a DFL for the main signal path whereas FSMDs and PSMs are usually described in a Hardware Description Language (HDL). For the description of communication channels and communication protocols other formalisms such as timing diagrams, Extended Signal Transition Graphs, and Communicating Sequential Processes must be considered. A CAD system for digital systems must be able to encapsulate all these paradigms and there associated languages and design environments.
Digital systems design thus requires the ability to mix data-flow and reactive paradigms with widely different time constants. The difference in time constants between control- and data-flow poses special problems in simulation. It requires all processes to be simulatable at the highest possible abstraction level.
Not only the specification of a digital system is heterogeneous by nature. Also the implementation architecture of a digital system is heterogeneous. An example implementation architecture comprises the following types of components and the communication between these components:
programmable processors. PA1 application specific processors with hardwired controller. PA1 application specific processors with specialized instruction set. PA1 hardware accelerators PA1 micro controllers PA1 communication blocks and memory PA1 peripherals (DMA, UART, and so forth) PA1 Modularity being essential to master complexity, but the overhead should be minimal and removable. PA1 Different description languages are needed to allow each system component to be described with the most appropriate paradigm. PA1 The design environment must be able to model the heterogeneous conceptual specification, the resulting heterogeneous architecture and all refinement steps in between. PA1 Off-the-shelf components and the associated design environments need to be modeled. PA1 A clear separation between functional and communication behavior is required to allow to reuse designs. PA1 Processor independent interface synthesis is essential.
Thus, a design method for a digital system must bridge the gap between the heterogeneous specification of the system and its heterogeneous implementation. Today's synthesis tools and compilers allow us to synthesize or program all the processor-accelerator-memory components once the global system architecture has been defined. However, the availability of these component compilers is necessary, but not sufficient. What is needed are the models and tools to refine the functional specification of a system into the detailed architecture: the definition and allocation of the components and their communication and synchronization. The most essential step is to generate the necessary software and hardware to make processors, accelerators, and the environment communicate.
One of the keys to mastering the complexity of digital system design is the reuse of components. The design process for a digital system must allow the modeling of reusable components and support a design for reuse methodology which allows to design components that are easily reusable. The problem in reusing previously designed components lies in the fixed communication protocols they use, which necessitates protocol conversions when processors with different protocols have to be interfaced. Nowadays, the selection of a protocol is done while designing the component: functional and communication behavior are intrinsically mixed. However, a good selection of the protocol is possible only when all components involved in the communication are known. Therefore, a design environment for digital systems has to allow that a component is initially described in purely functional terms. Later, when the component is (re)used in a system, the design environment must allow to plug in the most appropriate communication behavior. This approach is in contrast with current hardware (VHDL) design practices, where communication and functional behavior are mixed.
Another key to mastering the complexity of digital system design is by means of modularity. In modular designs, the complete system functionality is split into communicating components of manageable complexity. The advantage of this approach is that the components can be reused and that the system is easier to adapt and maintain. The disadvantage is the overhead because of the inter-component communication or because the compiler does not optimize over the component boundaries. Therefore, the inter-component communication semantics should be such that modularity can be removed easily when merging two components into a single component.
In the past, a lot of effort has been put in design environments that allow to implement the components of a digital system. Languages with associated simulators, tuned towards specific application domains, allow to specify and simulate components at a high abstraction level. Hardware compilers can implement the component description into processors with highly specialized architectures. Software compilers permit the generation of machine code for off-the-shelf programmable processors. Instruction set simulators permit the generation of debug the machine code at different levels of abstraction (C, asm). Examples of such design environments are Cathedral-1/2/3, the ARM processor tool suite (C-compiler and the ARMulator), and the Synopsys synthesis tools. From the above it can be concluded that the components of digital systems can be implemented with off-the-shelf design environments. What is missing is the glue that links these design environments together and automatically interfaces the generated or off-the-shelf processors according to the system specification. Hence, a system design environment should allow the easy inclusion of existing design environments. It should provide synthesis tools for hardware/hardware and hardware/software interfacing that are processor and design environment independent. To achieve this, the specification method must allow the modeling of off-the-shelf components on an as-is basis.
In summary, the following requirements can be defined for a hardware/software system design environment.

Design environment and a design method for hardware/software co-design

Interuniversitair Micro-Elektronica Centrum(IMEC vzw)


Binoculars equipped with focus adjustment nut 53 to which left object lens holder 42 of the left optical system is linked, dioptric adjustment nut 61 to which right object lens holder 41 is linked and which is attached such that it may move relative to focus adjustment nut 53, and focus adjustment dial 51 and dioptric adjustment dial 63 to move said nuts, respectively. When dioptric adjustment dial 63 is operated, dioptric adjustment nut 61 moves along the optical axis, together with which movement right object lens holder 41 linked to dioptric adjustment nut 61 moves, whereby dioptric adjustment is carried out. Focus adjustment dial 51 is located on either the top or bottom surface of the binoculars, and dioptric adjustment dial 63 is located on the other surface.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to binoculars in which at least one of the two optical systems is moved horizontally in directions perpendicular to the optical axes to perform pupil distance adjustment.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventionally, a method of performing dioptric adjustment by moving an eyepiece lens has offered the simplest construction and has been the mainstream approach. The mechanism is such that an one eyepiece lens system and the main body of the binoculars are connected via a screw mechanism, wherein when the eyepiece lens and the eyepiece lens holder that integrally holds said eyepiece lens are turned, the eyepiece lens system moves along the optical axis relative to the object optical system and dioptric adjustment is carried out. However, because the operating member to perform dioptric adjustment is located near the eyepiece lens, there is a possibility that it may be moved by mistake while using the binoculars, which creates an inconvenience.
With this as a backdrop, an object lens dioptric adjustment mechanism has been proposed in which dioptric adjustment is performed using the object lens. For example, Japanese Published Utility Model Application SHO 57-22163 discloses a construction in which two rods are linked to the two object lenses such that when the rods are moved together along the optical axes, both object lenses move and focus adjustment is performed, and when one pre-specified rod is moved, only one object lens moves and dioptric adjustment is carried out.
In the conventional binoculars described above, a rotational pupil distance adjustment mechanism is employed in which the distance between the right and left optical systems (hereinafter termed the pupil distance') is adjusted by rotating the optical systems around one or two shafts. In contrast, particularly with binoculars made compact and thin, those using a horizontal pupil distance adjustment mechanism are known in which one of the two optical systems is horizontally moved in directions perpendicular to the optical axes. Dioptric adjustment in binoculars using this horizontal pupil distance adjustment mechanism is also performed using the eyepiece lens.
In doing so, where the optical system comprises round lenses, the eyepiece lens and its holder may be rotated to perform dioptric adjustment. However, where the lenses are made non-round by cutting off the top and bottom ends in order to make the binoculars thinner, it is difficult to rotate the optical system, and therefore a dioptric adjustment mechanism must be used in which the eyepiece lens is horizontally moved by externally rotating a dial, etc.
Consequently, binoculars having a horizontal pupil distance adjustment mechanism cannot help but become complex in their construction. In addition, because dioptric adjustment in binoculars having the horizontal pupil distance adjustment mechanism is performed by moving the eyepiece lens, as described above, the operating member to perform dioptric adjustment is located near the eyepiece lens, and as a result it may be moved by mistake while using the binoculars.
It would thus be preferable for dioptric adjustment to be performed using the object lens. However, the conventional object lens dioptric adjustment mechanism is based on binoculars using the single-shaft or double-shaft rotational pupil distance adjustment mechanism and does not accommodate binoculars using the horizontal pupil distance adjustment mechanism. In addition, since the main purpose of binoculars using the horizontal pupil distance adjustment mechanism is compactness, unless the operating members for focus adjustment and dioptric adjustment are located at appropriate positions easy to access, operational errors might result.

Binoculars with dioptric and focus adjustment


In a network system which includes multiple printers, when a problem is detected in any one of the printers performing a print, another normally functioning printer is selected to substitute for the printer in which the problem is detected. In order to ensure that quality of the images printed by the selected substitute printer is the same as that of the images printed by the printer in which the problem is detected, the print data is corrected and is outputted to the selected substitute printer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to a printer control device and method to control printers in a network to which multiple printers are connected, and a computer program product to perform this control, and more particularly, to a printer control device and method by which, where printing is continued using a substitute printer to substitute for a printer that has failed, the same image quality, including such aspects as color characteristics and gradation characteristics, is ensured in the output from both printers.
2. Description of the Related Art
Printer systems in which multiple printers are connected to each other by means of a network circuit are conventionally available. Using such a printing system, one of the multiple printers is selected so that printing will be executed using this selected printer. In addition, when a problem has occurs in the printer that is performing printing in the printing system, the images that are not printed by the failed printer are output by another printer (see Japanese Laid-Open patent Application No. Hei 10-11242).
There are differences in the output characteristics of the multiple printers, however, because they are made by different manufacturers, or due to aging. Consequently, in the case of color images, the color characteristics of the images printed by the first selected printer before the failure occurred does not match the color characteristics of the images printed by a substitute printer after the failure occurred, resulting in the problem that the color characteristics of the printed images are different.
In the case of monochrome images, the gradation characteristics of the images printed using the selected printer and the gradation characteristics of the images printed using a substitute printer are different, resulting in the problem that there is a difference in darkness between the two sets of printed images.

Printer control device and method to control printers in network to which multiple printers are connected, and computer program product to perform said control


A material spacer is disclosed for stacking warehouse materials such as sheets of drywall or other construction materials. The material spacer is basically an elongated member formed of an expanded high density polystyrene material having a density of approximately 2.5 to 6.0 pounds per cubic foot. Preferably, the material spacer is a rectangular block-shaped member having first and second ends with a pair of opposed support surfaces extending therebetween. The material spacer is at least approximately four feet in length between the first and second free ends. A black or dark resin is preferably used to form the material spacer. In a first embodiment, the material spacer has parallel support surfaces, while in a second embodiment, the material spacer has its bottom support surface angled to accommodate the slope of the bed or deck of a vehicle, e.g., the deck of a rail car.

Sheet materials in warehouses are typically stacked in piles on wooden pallets or blocks of wood such that the piles of sheet materials can be easily moved with a forklift. Likewise, sheet materials are also transported on wooden pallets or blocks in piles such that the piles can be easily unloaded from a truck, rail car or other vehicle. While wooden pallets and wooden blocks work, they can be quite heavy and cumbersome to handle. Moreover, wooden pallets and wooden blocks are very hard and can damage soft materials such as drywall.
Drywall, which is also known as sheetrock, wallboard or gypsum board is generally produced in sheets, which are approximately four feet wide. The length and thickness of the drywall sheets vary depending upon the particular application. Typically, drywall sheets range from eight feet to twelve feet in length and from 1/4 inch to 3/4 inch in thickness.
Gypsum wallboard drywall is generally formed of a gypsum material sandwiched between sheets of gypsum paper. Often, two sheets of drywall or wallboards are taped together at their ends for stacking and/or transporting. The sheets of drywall are stacked during shipping and storage on spacers or risers. Currently, sheets of drywall are cut into strips and glued together to form a spacer or risers. These material spacers are typically damaged after a few uses and must be replaced. Of course, this requires new sheets of drywall to be cut up. This constant replacement of spacers can result in a substantial amount of waste and cost.
Examples of various types of prior cushions or spacers for shipping articles are disclosed in the following U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,338,542 to Meinhard; U.S. Pat. No. 4,435,463 to Roellchen; U.S. Pat. No. 4,610,355 to Maurer; U.S. Pat. No. 4,892,193 to Thomas; U.S. Pat. No. 4,927,023 to Elzey; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,352,064 to Carruthers et al. However, none of the devices disclosed in these patents are constructed for supporting sheets of drywall.
In view of the above-mentioned problem, there exists a need for a reusable spacer for stacking and transporting materials such as sheets of drywall. This invention addresses this need in the art as well as other needs which will become apparent to those skilled in the art once given this disclosure.

High density polystyrene spacers for stacking warehouse materials


A sampled data lightning strike detection and mapping system receives a signal waveform representative of a lightning strike and other electrical activity and samples the waveform to generate a train of data samples representative thereof. The data samples of the train are processed by a first processor to detect the lightning strike and estimate a location thereof. A predetermined number of data samples of the train are processed by a second processor to generate a plurality of frequency signals representative of a frequency spectrum of the processed data samples. The system includes a display which is driven by the first processor to display an indication of the lightning strike based on the estimated location thereof and further driven by the second processor to display a representation of the frequency spectrum. In a preferred embodiment, the first and second processors are embodied in a common signal processor.

The present invention is related to lightning strike detection and mapping systems, in general, and more particularly to a system capable of sampling input signal waveforms, generating a frequency spectrum therefrom, and displaying a representation of the frequency spectrum on the mapping display.
It is well known that thunderstorms present a serious threat to airborne craft as a result of the dangerous turbulence, up and down drafts, wind shear and other violent atmospheric disturbances generated thereby. Thunderstorms for the most part are comprised of clusters of cells which grow and dissipate within the storm through a variety of stages. Most of the violent atmospheric disturbance of the storm takes place during the mature stage of the storm cells. It was recognized by Paul Ryan an early pioneer in the field of weather mapping instrumentation that electrical discharges or lightning occurred coincidentally with the violent atmospheric disturbances during the mature stage of the storm cells. This strong correlation between the threatening atmospheric disturbances and electrical discharges was used by Ryan to create a weather mapping system known as Stormscope.RTM., which was disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,023,408 which is currently assigned to the same assignees as the instant application.
The Ryan system is capable of measuring pulse type electromagnetic radiation generated through the atmosphere from the large electric currents flowing within the lightning channel during a lightning stroke for the detection thereof. Ryan's system used an inverse relationship of the measured radiation to map the detected lightning strike on a display in range and bearing relative to an observation location which, for example, may be the location of the aircraft. In one embodiment, the observation location was calibrated at the center of the display screen and each displayed stroke appeared as a substantial point source at a bearing and radial dimension from the screen center, the radial dimension being proportional to the range measurement of the corresponding lightning stroke.
The dimension between the displayed stroke and screen center was not necessarily a measure of the actual range from the aircraft to the stroke but rather an approximation of range based on a mix of distance and intensity information of the detected lightning stroke. The Ryan system did not take into account the variety of lightning strikes, like return strikes, leader strikes and intra cloud strikes, nor did he utilize the different frequency and pulse width characteristics of these different strikes.
While the Ryan technology described by the aforementioned '408 patent has met and continues to meet a significant commercial need, further improvements are always desirable. For example, by classifying the detected lightning strike into a known type, the range and bearing measurements corresponding thereto may be more accurately estimated to narrow the statistical distribution thereof, thus rendering a more accurate range and bearing measurement over a given region for display mapping purposes.
From the teachings of Hans Volland in his edited text "CRC Handbook of Atmospherics", Vol. I, published by CRC Press, Inc. of Boca Raton, Fla. (1982), it is recognized that impulse forms of lightning currents may be characterized into different types by the spectral frequency and pulse width characteristics thereof. A Type 1 current is observed from lightning channel currents of return strikes and commonly referred to as aperiodic waveforms. A Type 2 current is observed from both return and intra cloud strikes and is referred to as damped oscillatory waves. And, Type 3 or K current is a special case of Type 2 and is sometimes referred to as the intermediate type. A more recent model of the Ryan Stromscope technology, referred to as WX-1000, manufactured by B.F. Goodrich FlightSystems, Inc. and marketed more than one year prior to the filing of the instant application, used pulse width measurements of the lightning strikes to discriminate intra cloud and leader strikes from the others.
In addition, a U.S. Patent bearing the number U.S. Pat. No. 4,672,305 issued to Coleman is directed to a lightning detection system which uses a ratio of low (1.5 kHz) and high (500 kHz) frequency magnetic field components to extend the range thereof. Further, U.S. Pat. No. 4,803,421 and its divisional counterpart U.S. Pat. No. 4,873,483 both issued to Ostrander and assigned to the same assignee as the instant application, are directed to lightning detection and mapping systems which determine lightning locations from the ratio of the integrated intensity of two different field components of lightning generated signals. Also, a data acquisition system for use in gathering lightning strike data is present in the paper "A Lightning Data Acquisition System", authorized by B. M. Stevens, Jr. et al. for the International Aerospace and Ground Conference on Lightning and Static Electricity at Dayton, Ohio, Jun. 24-26, 1986.
Because the electromagnetic radiation measurements of the lightning detection instrumentation are affected by noise and other unwanted interference, there is always the problem of false triggers causing unwanted processing of information. Accordingly, to avoid false triggering, the threshold trigger level for detecting valid lightning strikes may be set at higher magnitudes, although it recognized that the processing of lightning stroke signaling does not commence until the higher threshold level is reached. Since the past embodiments were analog, the pre-threshold portion of the incoming signal was lost. Consequently, the higher the threshold setting for false trigger avoidance, the greater the portion of incoming signal not being processed. Therefore, another area of improvement of the prior analog systems is the capability of avoiding false triggering without loss of a substantial initial portion of the incoming lightning signal.
Further, the prior lightning detection systems relied primarily on threshold triggering of the incoming lightning signal to commence processing thereof. Once processing began, it would continue for a predetermined processing interval until completion. There was no way to interrupt or abort information processing once started. Accordingly, if the processing was initiated by an invalid lightning stroke, such as a dart leader, a noise spike, or other interference, for example, a main or return stroke may be missed during the invalid processing interval and thus not measured. Accordingly, it is of paramount importance to be capable of distinguishing between valid and invalid lightning strikes early in the processing interval thereof so that the processing of an invalid strike may be aborted and the monitoring of incoming lightning signaling is quickly resumed. This capability would provide a greater opportunity to detect and measure the associated lightning strikes which follow quickly after their corresponding dart leaders.
Still further, the prior analog systems generally processed as much of the incoming lightning signaling as possible in performing correlation discrimination between the EH field measurements thereof. This method of correlation not only increased processing time but also processed signaling beyond the leading edge of the lightning pulse where noise became more prevalent in the incoming signal, thus corrupting at times the correlation discrimination. Thus, another area of improvement is the capability of limiting the correlation determination of the incoming lightning signaling to the leading edge thereof to effect an early correlation decision which accomplishes speeding up the processing time and avoiding significant noise disruption and interference that could render a false or corrupted correlation decision.
Another area of improvement over the past lightning detection systems is the capability of identifying ambient noise conditions which could interfere with weather mapping and/or lightning detection operations of the instrumentation. Even sporadic noise levels may cause false triggering or even false detection of invalid lightning strikes. An additional improvement is the capability of switching between weather mapping and noise or frequency spectrum identification modes for displaying such on a common weather mapping display. Accordingly, the operator or pilot could confirm the integrity of the instrumentation with the push of a button.
Still further, certain types of weather mapping displays require a backlight for viewing by an operator or pilot. In a cockpit environment, the ambient light levels tend to change as a result of varying the orientation of the aircraft Also, the brightness of the display is contrasted with the surrounding ambient light level of the cockpit. Thus, in order to maintain an even brightness level, the pilot or viewer will have to vary the backlight setting with each variation of ambient light condition. This could result in the pilot directing a substantial portion of his time controlling the brightness of the display rather than operating the aircraft. Accordingly, it is believed beneficial to have some hands-off automatic brightness level calibration for the display so that the pilot can direct his attention more to the flying of the aircraft.
Another area of improvement is directed to the integrity of the instrumentation in regard to the supply of power thereto. An operator or pilot utilizing a lightning detection system for storm avoidance may question the information being displayed on the display unit of the lightning detection system. Since, the aircraft instrumentation is generally powered by on board batteries, there is always the possibility of malfunctioning conditions and degradation of the battery voltage potential which could cause erroneous readings. Accordingly, it would be beneficial to the pilot to have the capability of reading the avionics power bus through the same lightning detection display without interrupting substantially the weather mapping operations. Thus, a malfunction or degradation of the avionics power bus could be quickly determined at the push of a button.

Sampled data lightning strike detection and mapping system capable of generating frequency spectrum of input signal waveforms and displaying such on the mapping display


A fusion protein comprising at least one Type 1 Ribosome Inactivating Protein, polypeptide B; and at least one polypeptide A capable of viral entry inhibition; and/or at least one Cationic AntiMicrobial Peptide, polypeptide C.

Microbial infections affect human beings and animals and cause a high level of morbidity around the world. Microbial infectious agents include protozoan parasites, bacteria and fungi for which antimicrobial agents are often available. However, some antimicrobial agents are associated with undesirable side effects and the problem of microbial resistance to such agents is a growing problem.
Microbial infectious agents also include viruses which are the cause of many widespread infectious diseases afflicting mankind as well as mankind's companion animals and also animals farmed specifically for human food. Most of the presently available antiviral drugs used in human therapeutic applications are mono-functional in nature and block only one specific viral pathway such as for example, entry of the virus into the host cell, fusion or integration of the viral genome into the host cell genome, translation or reverse transcription of the viral ssRNA to dsDNA format that is viable for integration into the infected host-cell genome. Accordingly, once a virus acquires resistance to the mono-functional antiviral drug, the drug loses its effectiveness.
Also, at present no therapeutics are available for a number of animal viruses including for example White Spot Syndrome Virus (WSSV), Porcine Epidemic Diarrhoea Virus (PEDV), Porcine Reproductive & Respiratory Syndrome Virus (PRRSV) and the like. These animal viruses are known to particularly affect the prawn and swine industries. The annual loss caused by each of these viruses is believed to be in excess of USD 1 billion.
Effective vaccines for these viruses and most other viruses are difficult to develop due to their high mutation rate. Also, vaccines that work for one geographical strain often do not work well for other geographical strains of the same virus.
Examples of antiviral drugs include Enfuvirtide (marketed by Roche under the trade name FUZEON®) which is a HIV-1 fusion inhibitor. Enfuvirtide is a modified protein which is produced by synthesis and is known to be an expensive mode of treatment which is reported to be in the region of USD25,000 per year per person. Its mode of administration is also very inconvenient as it is introduced into the body by subcutaneous injection twice daily.
Another example of antiviral drug includes Oseltamivir (also known with its trade name TAMIFLU®) which slows the spread of influenza (flu) virus between cells in the body by stopping the virus from chemically cutting ties with its host cell. TAMIFLU® has been used to treat and prevent Influenza virus A and Influenza virus B infection in over 50 million people since 1999 and is taken orally in capsules or as a suspension. However, there are now many strains of Influenza virus A and Influenza virus B which are resistant to TAMIFLU®. Zanamivir (also known by its trade name RELENZA®), another antiviral drug acting as a neuraminidase inhibitor used in the treatment and prophylaxis of Influenza virus A and Influenza virus B. RELENZA® is administered by inhalation. It is well known in the art that the antiviral drugs TAMIFLU® and RELENZA® depend on raw material shikimic acid for production which cannot be economically synthesized. In fact, ROCHE has made several press releases before that production volume of antiviral drugs TAMIFLU® and RELENZA® may be seriously limited by the supply of shikimic acid.

Antimicrobial fusion compounds and uses thereof


The present invention provides compositions and methods for regulating expression of heterologous nucleotide sequences in a plant. Compositions include a novel nucleotide sequence for a maize metallothionein 2 promoter for the gene encoding metallothionein. A method for expressing a heterologous nucleotide sequence in a plant using the promoter sequences disclosed herein is provided. The method comprises transforming a plant or plant cell with a nucleotide sequence operably linked to one of the promoters of the present invention.

Expression of heterologous DNA sequences in a plant host is dependent upon the presence of an operably linked promoter that is functional within the plant host. Choice of the promoter sequence will determine when and where within the organism the heterologous DNA sequence is expressed. Where expression in specific tissues or organs is desired, tissue-preferred promoters may be used. Where gene expression in response to a stimulus is desired, inducible promoters are the regulatory element of choice. In contrast, where continuous expression is desired throughout the cells of a plant, constitutive promoters are utilized. Additional regulatory sequences upstream and/or downstream from the core promoter sequence may be included in the expression constructs of transformation vectors to bring about varying levels of expression of heterologous nucleotide sequences in a transgenic plant.
Frequently it is desirable to express a DNA sequence in particular tissues or organs of a plant. For example, increased resistance of a plant to infection by soil- and air-borne pathogens might be accomplished by genetic manipulation of the plant's genome to comprise a tissue-preferred promoter operably linked to a heterologous pathogen-resistance gene such that pathogen-resistance proteins are produced in the desired plant tissue.
Alternatively, it might be desirable to inhibit expression of a native DNA sequence within a plant's tissues to achieve a desired phenotype. In this case, such inhibition might be accomplished with transformation of the plant to comprise a tissue-preferred promoter operably linked to an antisense nucleotide sequence, such that expression of the antisense sequence produces an RNA transcript that interferes with translation of the mRNA of the native DNA sequence.
Thus far, the regulation of gene expression in plant roots has not been adequately studied despite the importance of the root to plant development. To some degree this is attributable to a lack of readily available, root-specific biochemical functions whose genes may be cloned, studied, and manipulated. Genetically altering plants through the use of genetic engineering techniques and thus producing a plant with useful traits requires the availability of a variety of promoters. An accumulation of promoters would enable the investigator to design recombinant DNA molecules that are capable of being expressed at desired levels and cellular locales. Therefore, a collection of tissue-preferred promoters would allow for a new trait to be expressed in the desired tissue. Several genes have been described by Takahashi et al. (1991) Plant J. 1:327–332; Takahashi et al. (1990) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 87:8013–8016; Hertig et al. (1991) Plant Mol Biol. 16:171–174; Xu et al. (1995) Plant Mol Biol. 27:237–248; Capone et al. (1994) Plant Mol Biol. 25:681–691; Masuda et al. (1999) Plant Cell Physiol. 40(11):1177–81; Luschnig et al. (1998) Genes Dev. 12(14):2175–87; Goddemeier et al. (1998) Plant Mol Biol. 36(5):799–802; and Yamamoto et al. (1991) Plant Cell. 3(4):371–82 that express preferentially in plant root tissues.
Metallothioneins (MT's) are proteins or polypeptides that bind and sequester ionic forms of certain metals in plant and animal tissues. Examples of such metals include copper, zinc, cadmium, mercury, gold, silver, cobalt, nickel and bismuth. The specific metals sequestered by MT's vary for the structurally distinct proteins/polypeptides occurring in different organisms. Plants appear to contain a diversity of metal-binding MT's with the potential to perform distinct roles in the metabolism of different metal ions. In plants, MT's are suggested to have roles in metal accumulation, metal intoxication, and embryogenesis (Thomas et al. (2003) Biotechnol. Prog. 19:273–280; Dong and Dunstan (1996) Planta 199:459–466; Kawashima et al. (1992) Eur. J. Biochem. 209:971–976).
Typically, MT's and MT-like proteins are Cys-rich proteins that are characterized by the presence of Cys-Xaa-Cys motifs suggesting the capability of binding metal ions. Further categories of MT-like proteins have been proposed on the basis of the predicted locations of Cys residues and have been designated types 1 and 2. In type 1 there are exclusively Cys-Xaa-Cys motifs, whereas in type 2 there is a Cys-Cys and a Cys-Xaa-Xaa-Cys pair within the N-terminal domain. The type 1 motif has been implicated in the binding and sequestration of copper. (Murphy et al. (1997) Plant Physiol. 113:1293–1301 and Carr et al. (2002) J. Biol. Chem. 277:31237–31242)
Several metallothionein-like plant genes have been isolated, including those from pea, maize, barley, Mimulus (monkeyflower), soybean, castor bean and Arabidopsis. See Robinson et al. (1993) Biochem J. 295: 1–10. Sequences expressed in roots have been reported to be isolated from pea, as described in Evans et al. (1990) FEBS Lett 262:29–32. A maize root MT gene has been described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,466,785; though this sequence is also expressed in leaves, pith and seed, as described in de Framond (1991) FEBS Lett 290:103–106.
Thus, isolation and characterization of tissue-preferred, particularly root-preferred, promoters that can serve as regulatory regions for expression of heterologous nucleotide sequences of interest in a tissue-preferred manner are needed for genetic manipulation of plants.

Maize metallothionein 2 promoter and methods of use


An airbag module mounted on a boss section of a steering wheel of an automotive vehicle. The airbag module comprises an airbag which is inflatable and developable upon being supplied with gas. A cover is provided including a covering section for covering the airbag. A tearing line is formed at a surface of the covering section of the cover. The tearing line includes a central section having first and second ends which are opposite to each other, and first and second side sections to which the first and second ends of the central section are respectively connected. An inflator is provided having gas ejection openings through which gas is ejected. The gas ejection openings are located inside the airbag. A base member is provided such that the airbag is fixed thereto. Additionally, an opposite member is located opposite to the covering section of the cover and disposed inside the airbag. The opposite member includes a device for guiding gas from the gas ejection openings of the inflator toward first and second side sections of the tearing line of the covering section of the cover.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to improvements in an airbag module including an airbag which is folded and stored inside a cover, and more particularly to the airbag module which is arranged to rapidly break or tear the cover so as to smoothly inflate and develop the airbag.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Airbag modules have been proposed and put into practical use in such a manner that one of them is installed in a boss section of a steering wheel in order to protect a driver of an automotive vehicle from impact at a vehicle collision or the like. Such an airbag module is, for example, disclosed in Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. 6-312643 and includes an airbag whose major part is folded and located facing the driver and positioned in front of an inflator for ejecting gas. In other words, the major part of the folded airbag is located between the upper surface of the inflator and the front side of a cover for covering the airbag. The inflator, airbag and cover are secured to a base plate. With this arrangement, when a vehicle collision is detected or when a high deceleration of the vehicle over a predetermined level is detected, the inflator ejects gas to inflate the airbag thereby breaking or tearing the cover along a predetermined tear line under the pressure of expansion of the airbag. This causes the cover to open taking the shape of opened doors, so that the airbag projects through the cover and inflates and develops in front of the driver or vehicle passenger.
The airbag module of this type is usually arranged such that a horn device is switched ON by pressing the cover in order to improve the operationability of a horn switch. For example, in the arrangement of Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. 6-312643, the whole airbag module is supported by horn plates and springs, in which the whole airbag module is moved downward by pressing the cover thereby allowing the movable contact disposed on the horn plates to come into contact with a stationary contact disposed on the side of a steering wheel main body thereby closing a switching circuit to sound the horn device.
Besides, with an arrangement disclosed in Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. 7-40838, a diaphragm type switch is installed to the back side surface of a cover of an airbag module and covered at its back side surface with a stiff panel. When the cover is pressed by a driver, the diaphragm type switch is pressed through the cover thereby to close a switch circuit.
With the above-discussed conventional arrangements, it has been desired to rapidly break or tear the cover when gas is ejected from the inflator in order to smoothly inflate and develop the airbag. In this regard, in the arrangement of Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. 6-312643 in which the major part of the airbag is folded and stored to be located at the side of the vehicle occupant, gas is supplied into the airbag which has been folded a plurality of times so that the inflating airbag thrusts the central section of the cover. At this time, the central section of the cover elastically deforms in a manner to bulge upwardly, and therefore it is difficult to effectively apply a breaking force to a tear line. This makes it difficult to rapidly break or tear the cover of the airbag module.
Concerning the above conventional switch arrangements in which the switch is operated by pressing the cover of the airbag module, the airbag is folded to be stored in a space having a certain volume which space is located inside the cover; however, the airbag cannot be always folded in the same condition. As a result, a hardness of the airbag in the folded state is not constant, so that a deformation amount of the airbag or a force required to deform the cover with the airbag is not constant when the cover is pressed. This makes a dispersion in depression stroke of the switch throughout many products of the airbag module thereby lowering the operationability of the switch combined with the airbag module.


A polyol ester distillate fuel additive exhibits improved lubricity and friction and wear performance. The ester has between about 1% and about 35% unconverted hydroxyl groups and is characterized as having a hydroxyl number from about 5 to about 180.

The formulation of distillate fuels for internal combustion engines has become increasingly sophisticated and complex. Basic diesel fuels are tailored through additives aimed to reduce fuel hazing, particulate and gaseous emissions, inhibit corrosion, reduce deposits and more pertinent hereto, improve lubricity. Driven by demanding regulatory requirements in the U.S. and Europe, increasingly severe specifications have been imposed to diesel fuels, particularly with respect to sulfur content and in some areas aromatic content. For example, in 1991, clean burn, Class 1 diesel fuels were introduced in Sweden; these fuels contain less than 10 ppm sulfur and less than 5% vol. aromatics. In the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency promulgated a regulatory sulfur content in diesel fuels which was limited to 0.05% wt. commencing in 1993. Similar reductions in sulfur will occur in Japan in 1997.
Removal of sulfur compounds and hydrotreating of distillate fuels, in combination with increasing injection pressures in fuel systems in modern engines, have caused concerns over lack of fuel lubricity. This could lead to problems of excessive wear of fuel-lubricated components such as fuel pumps, fuel injectors, etc. The present invention provides a distillate fuel additive which exhibits improved lubricity, and wear and frictional performance.
Esters have generally excellent thermal and oxidative stability characteristics, and have been widely used in synthetic or partially synthetic crankcase lubricants. The art has recently recognized the potential role esters may serve as fuel additives. For example U.S. Pat. No. 5,366,519 discloses the use of certain polyoxyalkylene hydroxylaromatic esters as fuels additives, including diesel fuels, to reduce engine deposits.
The prior art also teaches that high molecular weight esters may survive the combustion in the cylinder and thereby be available to provide surficial lubricant benefit to the cylinder walls and piston rings while low molecular weight esters provide detergency benefits such as reduced injector deposits. U.S. Pat. No. 4,920,691 teaches a combination of a low molecular weight straight chain carboxylic acid ester, i.e., molecular weight less than 200, and a high molecular weight straight chain carboxylic acid ester, i.e., molecular weight ranging from 300 to 1000 to achieve both detergency benefits and cylinder wall lubrication. In addition to increasing the cost of the fuel, it has been recognized that the amount of detergent additives need be minimized because of the deleterious effects the by-products of such additives have on crankcase lubricants; see, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,004,478. Small amounts of the by-product of these additives, upon breakdown in the combustion chamber, wind up in the crankcase lubricant and contribute to engine oil breakdown.


A treated wood-based composite is formed by treating a green wood furnish with an amount of a treating agent effective to increase the value of the resulting wood-based composite. The treating agent can be, for example, a fire retardant, a wood preservative, a dye, a pigment, a stain, bleach, a water repellant, a drying oil, or a combination thereof. The treated green wood furnish is blended with a binder and then bound, as by pressing the furnish, to form a non-leaching fire-retardant wood based composite. Another aspect of the invention is the product formed according to the preceding process. The addition of the treating agent to green wood chips, without the need to dry them to low moisture content, is believed to be novel.

This invention relates to the incorporation of various treatment agents into wood composite products such as oriented strand board, medium density fiberboard, fiberboard and particleboard. The invention also relates to the method of manufacturing wood based composite products whereby treatment compositions are added to the wood furnish prior to drying, forming and pressing into a finished board or panel product. (A "wood furnish" is defined as wood strands, chips, particles, flakes or fibers. "Wood particles" are defined broadly in this specification to include webs of splintered wood formed by twisting or crushing billets of wood, as well as other forms of wood particles. A wood treatment composition can be, for two examples, a fire retardant agent or a wood preservative, as well as other treatment agents.) The invention further relates to the products made by these processes.
The production of wood based composite panel products has increased dramatically in recent years. Oriented strand board (OSB) production exceeded that of plywood in 2000. In order to continue this new growth, additional uses for OSB need to be developed. Composite wood products find application in the construction of residential housing and commercial buildings. Common applications for these products include roof sheathing, wall sheathing, flooring, structural insulated panels and engineered wood components such as I-joists. With the ever-expanding production capacity of wood based composites there is a critical need to find additional uses. One such possibility is for structural and non-structural building components to be made resistant to fire. However, by virtue of their lignocellulosic composition, wood based composites are susceptible to combustion.
Chemical preservatives and fire retardant treatments are readily available for solid lumber and plywood. Such chemical treatments are applied to lumber and plywood using vacuum pressure processes to ensure uniform distribution of the active ingredients throughout the wood components thereby guaranteeing optimum performance.
Historically, attempts to incorporate chemical treatments into wood based composites using similar technology have failed for economic reasons or more commonly because of technical problems associated with irreversible and excessive swelling of the treated panels and severe loss of structural integrity.
The incorporation of a wood preservative in aqueous form directly into green wood particles, without first drying the wood particles, is disclosed in U.S. Ser. No. 09/550,027, filed Apr. 14, 2000. That disclosure also provides wood treatments that stabilize the dimensions of the wood composite when it is exposed to environmental moisture, preventing the wood composite products from swelling. Similar incorporation of a fire retardant treatment directly into green wood particles, without first drying the wood particles, is disclosed in U.S. Ser. No. 10/038,522, filed Oct. 23, 2001.
Additional discussion of treatment of wood products is found in U.S. Published Patent Application No. 20030026942, published Feb. 6, 2003, U.S. Ser. No. 60/322,644, U.S. Ser. No. 60/288,136, and U.S. Ser. No.: 10/251,615, filed Sep. 20, 2002, all the contents of which are incorporated by reference here.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Methods of incorporating treatment agents into wood based composite products


A window shade assembly for motor vehicles is provided. The window shade assembly includes a window shade element that is cut into a trapezoidal shape in order to be optimally adapted to the shape of the corresponding window. The winding shaft for this window shade web resembles a truncated cone that is approximated by means of a cylindrical core with wrappings applied thereon.

Motorcars are typically equipped with additional side windows in the rear area of the car body. These side windows are either directly integrated into the car body or form part of rear side doors. If such a window is arranged in a side door, it is typically divided into two sections, namely an approximately trapezoidal section and a triangular section. The trapezoidal section is designed in this fashion because the side window pane can be lowered in this region in order to open the window. The upper edge of the side window is almost always composed of an essentially straight section and a curved section in order to prevent an abrupt transition into the triangular region. The upper edge of the quadrangular section can be considered to be roughly straight. However, this section does not extend parallel to the lower edge due to the shape of the car body. When the side window pane is lowered, this results in the upper edge of the window pane still being visible in the front end of the window slot, while the rear section is significantly lowered below the window slot.
This is acceptable with window panes. However, if the side window is shaded by a window shade, one encounters the problem that the upper edge of the side window shade either projects beyond the lower edge of the window or causes a large gap to remain into which objects may fall. This is of particular importance because children are frequently seated on the rear seats of motorcars and thus the risk of objects being dropped into the interior of the door through the gap is accordingly high.
Consequently, it would be very desirable to provide a window shade assembly which ensures that the upper edge of the window shade web will completely close off the extraction slot in the rear portion of the side window shade. In theory, this can be accomplished by arranging the window shade shaft underneath the lower window edge such that it extends parallel to the upper edge of the window. Such an arrangement is usually not feasible, however, due to the space conditions in the interior of a car door. The design engineer is forced to accommodate the window shade shaft parallel to the lower edge. This arrangement results in a longer vertical dimension of the window shade web in the area that lies toward the front end of the vehicle than in the area that lies toward the rear of the vehicle. When the window shade web is wound up, this means that more material needs to be wound up in the front edge region of the window shade web than in the rear edge region.
In this context, EP 0 111 270 teaches simulating a conical winding shaft. The disclosed winding shaft actually has a strictly cylindrical shape and the desired conicality is achieved by providing the window shade web fixed on the winding shaft with a triangular extension. The triangular extension is configured integrally with the section that can be unwound from the winding shaft. The extension is limited by a dividing line that lies parallel to the winding shaft and delimits the extension from the section that can be unwound. The extension is also limited by two lateral edges that respectively originate at the dividing line such that a right triangle is formed, one leg of which consists of the dividing line.
However, this arrangement is limited to applications in which the short lateral edge that forms an extension of the front lateral edge of the window shade, web and thus the other leg of the triangle is shorter than the circumference of the winding shaft. Otherwise, the point would uncontrollably fold over during the wind up process at the assembly site. In addition, the strip shaped blanks are difficult to handle during assembly due to the limited reproducibility. One also has to take into account that the winding shaft ultimately moves along an arc of a circle when the triangular compensating section is wound up. In this case, the radius of the arc is defined by the length of the compensating section and the tip of this compensating section. The lack of rigidity in the material used for the window shade web additionally complicates the situation.
Another solution to this problem is disclosed in FR 2 750 158. In that reference, the conical shape of the winding shaft is achieved by wrapping up a triangular patch on a cylindrical core element. The patch is wound up with the long leg first. Although the reproducibility is somewhat improved with this arrangement, it is necessary to handle two separate blanks.


The controller includes motor control means for controlling the drive RPM of a motor generator to reach a specified RPM less than the idle RPM when the braking condition of a foot brake is detected by a brake-operating-state detecting means while a motor generator is being rotated at an idle RPM or more. This reduces uncomfortable shock which tends to occur because of a change in the rotation of the motor during braking as much as possible to improve drive feeling.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a hybrid vehicle controller having an idling stop function and, more particularly, it relates to a control device for a hybrid vehicle capable of avoiding a shock which tends to occur between braking and starting during motor single running.
2. Description of Related Art
For hybrid cars including an internal combustion engine (hereinafter, referred to as an engine) and a motor generator (hereinafter, referred to as a motor) as the primary drive, particularly, hybrid cars having a so-called idling stop function of stopping an engine and a motor every time an accelerator pedal is released and a brake pedal (service brake (foot brake)) is depressed to stop the car, driving units have been proposed that operate only the motor at startup after the stop and ignite, or start, the engine, which is rotated by the motor at the point in time when the engine rotation reaches a certain speed as described, for example, in JP-A-2001-163071.
With the hybrid-car driving unit, when the brake pedal is released during stopping in which the idling stop function is activated, the motor which has been stopped until then starts to rotate at idle speed to start so-called creeping and when the brake pedal is depressed again, the motor stops. Accordingly, low-speed running can be performed by depressing (ON) or releasing (OFF) the brake pedal during traffic congestion or parking. "Creep" generally means that automatic cars including a torque converter move slowly at an engine torque though the torque converter when a brake pedal is released without an acceleration pedal depressed and with the gear switched to a drive (D) range or a reverse (R) range. "Creep" in this description, however, means that cars move slowly not at a torque of the internal combustion engine but with torque through a torque converter when a motor generator operates.
With the above-described hybrid-car driving units, when the motor generator repeats the stop and the rotation by repeating the depression and release of the brake pedal (ON and OFF of the brake), uncomfortable shock occurs and is applied to a driver each time.