Various embodiments provide an HVAC system that includes first and second controllers. The first controller is configured to control a first demand unit to maintain a setpoint temperature of a first portion of a conditioned space. A second HVAC controller is configured to control a second demand unit to maintain a setpoint temperature of a second portion of the conditioned space. The control provided by the second controller is dependent on a load metric of the first demand unit.

The heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) requirements of some buildings are provided by multiple HVAC systems. Some such systems service disjoint portions of a conditioned space within the building, and may be essentially independent from each other. Thus, each system may include a controller, an indoor unit (e.g. including a furnace and blower) and an outdoor unit (e.g. including a compressor and fan). Typically, each controller operates to heat or cool its associated space based on a thermal load and a temperature setpoint associated with that space without regard for operation of the other independent HVAC systems.

Uniform HVAC comfort across multiple systems


A method for enabling an apparatus (15) to operate only after detecting with receiver elements (11) located proximate to the apparatus, a signal transmitted by portable transmitted elements (1), which consists in no longer taking into account detection by the receiver means (11) of the signal transmitted by the transmitting elements (1), after activating presence sensing elements (22) provided proximate to the apparatus, or integrated in the apparatus. Once activated, the presence sensing elements (22) neutralize the transmitter/receiver device (1, 11) and the apparatus can operate normally without being perturbed by possible statics or accidental losses of signal. The inventive method and device are applicable to an antitheft safety device for a motor vehicle.

This invention concerns a secured method for managing the operation of an apparatus by a user, which method is of the type enabling the operation of the apparatus only after detection by receiving means situated close to the apparatus, of a signal transmitted by portable transmitting means; the invention also concerns the hardware for the implementation of the method.
One already knows safety systems adapted on an apparatus which, to authorize the operation of this apparatus, involve the existence of a link between a transmitter carried by the user and a receiver provided close to said apparatus or on said apparatus.
For example, the document EP-0 319 428 describes an anti-theft safety device for vehicle comprising a portable transmitter which transmits a high frequency signal (HF), and a fixed receiver adapted for cutting off automatically the ignition circuit of the engine of the vehicle assembly, when the distance between the portable transmitter and the on-board received exceeds a certain value. Such a system stops the motor of the vehicle, in particular in case of theft, as soon as the vehicle moves away from the carrier of the transmitter.
The transmitter transmits a low power, encoded cyclic HF signal. When this signal is acknowledged and validated by the reception means, a relay or equivalent closes the ignition circuit of the engine to ensure its operation. When the reception system does not receive the HF signal transmitted any longer, the relay or equivalent cuts off the ignition circuit in order to stop the motor.
A time-delay circuit is provided to maintain the control of the relay for a duration greater than that intermediate two encoded sequences, in order to avoid any false interruption in case of interferences, or more generally in case of accidental loss of the signal.
However, if the duration of accidental loss of this signal is greater than the time-delay duration, the ignition circuit is automatically cut off by means of the relay and the motor of the vehicle does not operate any longer. This may cause sizeable malfunctions, and may even prove dangerous.
The object of this invention is to remedy this shortcoming.

Secure method for managing the operating conditions of a apparatus by a user and equipment therefor


On a host computer (300), writing software for controlling recording and image forming operations of an optical disc recording apparatus (10) is installed. When the writing software is activated, the host computer (300) requests the user to input various settings relating to record information and image information before giving instructions for starting recording and those for starting image formation to the optical disc recording apparatus (10), and, in accordance with various settings which are input in response to the request, determines the recording and image forming operations of the optical disc recording apparatus (10).

The present invention relates to a method of controlling the operation of an optical disc recording apparatus which can form an image on an optical disc, and a recording medium on which the control program is recorded.
Recently, optical discs on which information can be recorded, such as a CD-R (Compact Disc Recordable) and a CD-RW (Compact Disc Rewritable) are widely used to provide excellent convenience.
When user's original music data which is stored in a personal computer (hereinafter, abbreviated to "PC") is to be recorded onto an optical disc, for example, the user operates a keyboard or the like of the PC to activate writing software (software for recording music data or the like onto an optical disc) stored in a hard disc drive, and selects music data to be recorded.
When such operations are conducted, the music data to be recorded is sequentially transferred from the PC to an optical disc recording apparatus. In the optical disc recording apparatus, on the basis of the music data supplied from the PC, a laser beam is applied to an optical disc loaded into the apparatus, whereby the desired music data is recorded onto the optical disc.
Recently, the user can enjoy oneself by producing an optical disc with full originality as described above. However, thus produced optical discs are hardly distinguished from one another by appearance. When the number of thus produced optical discs is increased, therefore, there arise problems that it is difficult to select a desired one from many optical discs, and that many optical discs are hardly managed.
Consequently, an image such as characters, symbols, and the like indicating the title is formed on a face of an optical disc that is opposite to the face (recording face) on which information is to be written, i.e., on a label face, thereby enabling information recorded on the recording face to be identified. Such an image is formed by printing it onto a label sheet with using a printing apparatus or the like, and then applying the label sheet to the label face of the optical disc.
In order to form an image on an optical disc, a printing apparatus is required in addition to an optical disc recording apparatus, and hence the burden on the user is increased.
By contrast, characters, symbols, and the like for identifying an optical disc may be formed without using a printing apparatus, or for example handwritten with using an appropriate writing instrument. In this case, the above-mentioned burden can be reduced. However, handwriting on a label face causes problems such as that characters or patterns gradually fade to become unclear or spoil the appearance.

Method of controlling the operation of an optical disc recording apparatus, and recording medium on which the control program is recorded


Compressed digitally encoded video signals are transmitted over an asynchronous transfer mode network with varying grades of service dependent on bitrate requirements for a desired picture quality and the currently available network capacity. To maximize transmission quality and minimize cost, the grade of service requested from the network is changeable in response to scene changes.

The invention is related to a video transmission system comprising a transmitter with a video source for providing an encoded video signal, the transmitter comprising transmit means for transmitting the encoded video signal via a packet switched network to a receiver.
The invention is also related to a transmitter for use in such a transmission system and to a video transmission method.
A transmission system as described above is known from published European patent application No. 517 273 A2.
In order to transmit video signals in digital form, the video signal is encoded using a video encoder. Because the pictures in a video signal can have different properties, the bitrate required for encoding a video signal with a predetermined quality is not constant, but will be variable. The bitrate of an encoded video signal depends on the amount of detail in a picture and the amount of motion present in a sequence of pictures.
In view of this variable bitrate it is expected that in the near future packet switched networks will become important for the transport of variable bitrate encoded video signals. These packet switched networks will likely operate according to the ATM standard. Packet switched networks are in particular suitable for transporting user signals having a variable bitrate, because they do not build up a circuit for the complete connection, but they only pass packets from a source to a destination via a path determined at call set up. If, for instance, temporarily no packets are to be transmitted, the resources required for said transmission can be used for transmitting packets from other connections.
In order to avoid congestion in the packet switched network, at call set up the grade of service to be guaranteed by the network is defined in a so-called traffic contract negotiated between the transmitter and the packet switched network. This traffic contract enables the network to allocate resources on a statistical basis, and it poses to the transmitter the bounds within which it can operate. Elements of the connection to be negotiated between the transmitter and the network are e.g. the service categories as CBR (Constant Bit Rate), VBR (Variable Bit Rate), ABR (Available Bit Rate) and UBR (Unspecified Bit Rate ). Grade of service (GoS) parameters are e.g. CLR (Cell Loss Ratio), maxCTD (maximum Cell Transfer Delay) and peak-peakCDV (Cell Delay Variation). A problem with commonly used video encoders is that the required traffic parameters are not always available in advance. The consequence is that the grade of service requested from the network is too low, making it impossible to transmit the encoded video signal, or that the grade of service is higher than required, leading to unnecessary high cost.
In the transmission system according to the above mentioned patent application the video encoder is arranged for reducing the bitrate of the encoded video signals if this bitrate exceeds the grade of service requested from the network. This reduction of the bitrate leads to a decreased quality of the encoded pictures. The fact that sometimes the requested grade of service is higher than required, and consequently the unnecessarily high costs incurred, is accepted.

Encoded digital video transmission system


Provided is a patterned conductive film may include a conductive interconnected nano-structure film. The conductive interconnected nano-structure film may include a first region and a second region adjacent to the first region. A conductivity of the first region may be at least 1000 times a conductivity of the second region.

1. Technical Field
The disclosure relates to a patterned conductive film, a method of fabricating the same, and application thereof.
2. Description of Related Art
A transparent conductive film can be applied in a wide range of fields, including a touch control monitor, a flexible display, a LCD panel, an OLED illumination, a solar cell and so on, in which a touch panel has the large market among them.
Scope of the market of the transparent conductive film expends as the demand of touch control products including smart phones and tablet computers constantly grows, a nano silver conductive material can become one of major materials used in the next-generation transparent conductive film for it has advantages in low costs, preferable conductivity, and flexibility.
Method for patterning a silver nanowire film can be done by using a common photolithography process to perform patterning of a nano-structure film. Nevertheless, said method can leave visible etching marks which influence an optical quality thereof. Costs are relatively higher since the common photolithography process for patterning of the nano-structure film requires use of chemicals such as etchants. When the common photolithography process is used for patterning of a nano-structure film, the silver nanowire needs to be partially washed off after an etching process may cause an environmental pollution.

Patterned conductive film, method of fabricating the same, and application thereof

Industrial Technology Research Institute


A thermal processing unit is connected to a substrate position detector, which is in turn connected to a bake unit controller. The thermal processing unit includes a temperature control plate and a lifting device. The temperature control plate and lifting device are connected to the bake unit controller. The operations of the temperature control plate and lifting device are controlled by the bake unit controller. A pressure measuring pipe is provided at a lower part of at least one of a plurality of pin inserting holes in the temperature control plate. The pressure measuring pipe is connected to a low differential pressure sensor. The low differential pressure sensor detects the pressure in an airflow exhausted from a space surrounded by a substrate and an upper face of the temperature control plate via the pressure measuring pipe.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a substrate processing unit for performing various processings to a substrate, a method for detecting the position of a substrate, and a substrate processing apparatus.
2. Description of the Background Art
A substrate heating apparatus for heat-treating a substrate has been conventionally used in processing steps of a variety of substrates, such as a semiconductor wafer, glass substrate for a photomask, glass substrate for a liquid crystal display, and glass substrate for an optical disc (refer to JP 2001-189368 A, for example).
In the substrate heating apparatus, the substrate is placed on a heating plate for heat-treatment. During the heat-treatment, it is desired that the temperature of the entire substrate be varied uniformly. This improves accuracy of the processing steps.
For the purpose of improving accuracy of the processing steps, following solutions have been proposed.
For example, by providing a lid that covers the substrate above the heating plate, the substrate to be processed is prevented from being exposed to an airflow coming from above the substrate heating apparatus (downflow). The temperature of the entire substrate during the heat-treatment is therefore not affected by the downflow.
Moreover, when atmosphere during the heat-treatment is reduced, the substrate is prevented from being in contact with an unnecessary gas and reacting.
In addition to such solutions, it is required that the substrate be accurately placed during the heat-treatment. If the substrate is placed in a shifted position on the heating plate, part of the substrate lies out of the heating plate. As a result, the entire substrate may not be uniformly heat-treated.
By the way, a method for directly detecting the position of the substrate using an optoelectronic sensor, proximity sensor or the like has been conventionally used for knowing how the substrate is being transported or placed. This has led to attempts to obtain some information about the position of the substrate on the heating plate using an optoelectronic sensor, proximity sensor or the like.
It has been difficult however, in the above described heat-treatment apparatus, to install an optoelectronic sensor or proximity sensor to know the substrate position, because of the influence of heat from the heating plate or constraints and interference associated with the layout of other peripheral units in the substrate heating apparatus.
Apart from the optoelectronic sensor or proximity sensor, sensors such as a high heat-resistant optoelectronic sensor, weight measuring sensor for measuring the mass of the substrate, and temperature measuring sensor for detecting a temperature variation in the substrate heating apparatus are available; however, applying any of these to detect the substrate position in the substrate heating apparatus has been difficult because of problems associated with the space, cost necessary to install a plurality of sensors, sensor accuracy and the like.
For this reason, in a conventional substrate heating apparatus, positioning guides with a tapered portion are provided around the position in which the substrate is to be placed on a heating plate so as to prevent the substrate position from being shifted. In this case, even if the substrate is received in a shifted position, a peripheral edge of the substrate is guided by the tapered portion of a positioning guide, so that the substrate can be guided to a given position on the heating plate.
Thus, in the substrate heating apparatus, the substrate is heat-treated on the premise that it is placed in an accurate position by the positioning guides.
However, in the substrate heating apparatus with the positioning guides around the position in which the substrate is to be placed on the heating plate, the substrate may lie on a positioning guide when it is greatly shifted beyond a given range (such that the periphery thereof may lie beyond the tapered portion). In this case, the substrate is not guided to the given position on the heating plate, and heat-treated while being in a shifted position. As a result, the entire substrate is not uniformly heat-treated.

Substrate processing unit, method for detecting the position of a substrate and substrate processing apparatus


Disclosed is a filter assembly for use in a baghouse having a cell plate provided with openings. The filter assembly includes a collar, filter bag, tubular supporting cage and locking ring. The filter bag filters particulate material and extends below the cell plate. The collar supports the filer bag and has a longitudinally extended portion and a flange portion. The longitudinally extended portion is affixed to the filter bag below the cell plate, while the flange portion extends along the cell plate as a rim above a respective opening. The collar acts as a gasket to seal a respective opening in the cell plate. The tubular supporting cage has a longitudinally extended portion that supports the filter bag. The locking ring locks the filter bag, collar and cage in place. The locking ring can include a venturi affixed thereto to assist in filtering and cleaning operations.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a filtering apparatus of the type utilizing elongated baglike tubular filters or filtering particulate material carried in a gas or liquid stream in a filter housing and, more particularly, to an integrated molded collar, filter bag, cage and locking ring assembly for use in baghouses.
2. Description of the Related Art
A filtering apparatus of the type related to the present invention generally includes multiple tubular filter bags mounted in a filter housing or baghouse with each filter bag having a supporting frame or cage positioned therein to hold the filter bag in an open, hollow tubular configuration. The bags are open at an outlet end and closed at their other end. Particulate-laden gas or liquid is directed into the baghouse and through the gas-permeable filter bags. The particulate material is filtered and retained on the exterior surface of the filter bags while the filtered gas or liquid passes through the filter bag. Periodically, a reverse purge of gas or fluid is directed into the open outlet end of the filter bags for dislodging any trapped particulate material from the bags and thus, cleaning the filter bags.
Typically, a filter bag can have a useful life of up to about two years. However, in some filtering applications, the inability to effectively clean the filter bags is so severe that it is necessary to frequently replace the filter bags. Under extreme conditions, such as when the particulate material is of a highly abrasive nature, the filter bags may wear out in a matter of weeks. Thus, the ability to readily remove and replace the filter bags is important.
A common method of locking filter bags in place in the baghouse is by using clamps, locking-strips and similar devices which require special equipment for fastening or unlocking. The locking devices also are generally unwieldy and increase the cost of the filter bag assembly. A typical baghouse may contain hundreds of filter bags. Thus, a large number of such locking devices can be required, and replacement of the filter bags becomes time consuming and costly.
Conventional fastening devices often exhibit sharp edges or wear points which cause breakage or excessive wear of the filter bags with prolonged use. Such fastening devices combined with exposure to vibrations damages the filter bags. In addition, protruding locking devices render cleaning more difficult and cause accidents.
Accordingly, a need has arisen to eliminate the abovenoted drawbacks associated with conventional locking devices, as well as to provide a filter assembly which is easy and inexpensive to install.
Some attempts have been made in the art to overcome such drawbacks. For instance, FIG. 1 shows a cross-sectional view of a conventional double-beaded snap band filter bag and cage assembly for use in baghouses. This conventional filter bag and cage assembly sought to overcome some of the drawbacks associated with the complex locking devices discussed above. However, in so doing, this conventional arrangement has introduced further..problems with respect to installation and removal.
In FIG. 1, reference number 100 represents a filter bag assembly for use in a baghouse (not shown). The baghouse includes a cell plate 110, with one of a plurality of generally circular openings 190 shown. The filter bag assembly 100 includes a double-beaded snap band assembly 120 secured at points 135 to the filter bag 140. The filter bag 140 is supported by a cage assembly 150. The cage assembly 150 includes an upper portion 155 that loosely overlaps the double-beaded snap band assembly 120.
The double-beaded snap band assembly 120 includes an upper bead 122 and a lower bead 124. The beads 122 and 124 are generally double beads of felt tape, fiberglass rope or fabric filling. These beads overlap the cell plate 110 around the opening 190. The beads 122 and 124 are adhesively secured to a metal snap band 126. The metal snap band 126 is typically made of stainless steel, or other suitable material, and provides leverage for the seal by applying a radially outward force. The entire double-beaded snap band assembly 120 is covered with a fabric or gasket cuff 128. The cuff 128 is secured to the filter bag at points 135.
The conventional filter bag and cage assembly shown in FIG. 1 has several disadvantages. It is difficult and time consuming to install and is costly to manufacture. Moreover, because the bottom bead 124 lies underneath the cell plate 110, it is extremely difficult to remove the filter assembly 100 from the cell plate 110 without destroying the reusable cage, and practically impossible to remove the filter assembly into the clean, outlet end above the cell plate 110.
To install the conventional filter bag and cage assembly 100 shown in FIG. 1, it is necessary first to compress the metal band 126 into a bone-shape. The filter assembly 100 is then dropped into position through the opening 190 in the cell plate 110, and the snap band assembly 120 is released with a snap-action to seat the fabric cuff 128 in the groove between the beads. This snap-action can pinch fingers and is dangerous to the installer. The cage assembly 150 is then dropped into place within the bag. The upper portion 155 of the cage assembly 150 is placed over the filter assembly 100 for protection.
For removal of the filter assembly 100, it is necessary to first remove the cage assembly 150. Then, it is necessary to once again compress the metal snap band 126 into the bone-shape. The filter assembly 100 is then pushed through the cell plate 110 into the dirty area of the baghouse. Such an operation adds cost and time to the removal procedure. Moreover, that operation is undesirable, because it is preferred to remove the bag into the clean, outlet end of the baghouse. In addition, the filter bag 140 often sticks to the cage assembly 150 after use. When sticking occurs, the filter bag and/or the cage must be destroyed for removal of the filter bag assembly 100. This, again, increases costs.
Attempts have been made to eliminate the drawbacks noted above with respect to the double-beaded snap band assembly. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 4,014,672 discloses a gas filter tube locking apparatus that eliminates both the upper bead from the bag and the overlapping upper portion of the cage assembly in the typical double beaded snap band assembly. However, the gas filter tube locking apparatus in the '672 patent includes the undesirable lower bead that prevents removal of the bag assembly into the clean, outlet end of the baghouse.
The gas filter tube locking apparatus of the '672 patent includes a bag filter attached to a socket. The socket is on the outer extremity of a self-expanding thickening portion. The socket is attached to a semi-annular bulge that constitutes the lower bead. The lower bead contacts the bottom of a cell plate. A collar partially extending over the cell plate holds the gas filter tube in place. However, the lower bead in the apparatus of the '672 patent presents the same difficulties in removal as the double-beaded snap band assembly discussed above, i.e., the lower bead prevents upward removal. Accordingly, the expensive and time consuming removal associated with the double beaded snap band assembly has not been overcome by the '672 patent.
Moreover, no gasketing is provided between the collar and the cell plate of the filtering device in the '672 patent. This can create leaks, should the lower bead fail in any respect, for example, caused by workmen walking on the device, as often occurs.
The locking cylinder and the bag filter in the '672 patent are made of different materials. This increases manufacturing costs. Moreover, the external diameter of the locking cylinder is chosen so that the cylinder can slide into the socket containing the bag filter without damaging the filter, but without much clearance. This requires a very sensitive and time consuming installation. If extreme care is not taken, the bag filter can readily be damaged. This, too, is a severe disadvantage.
Accordingly, a need has arisen to overcome the drawbacks discussed above, and to provide an improved filter assembly for bag houses.

Integrated collar, filter bag, cage and locking ring assembly for baghouses


A microelectronic package having a first bumpless build-up layer structure adjacent an active surface and sides of a microelectronic device and a second bumpless build-up layer structure adjacent a back surface of the microelectronic device, wherein conductive routes are formed through the first bumpless build-up layer from the microelectronic device active surface to conductive routes in the second bumpless build-up layer structure and wherein through-silicon vias adjacent the microelectronic device back surface and extending into the microelectronic device are electrically connected to the second bumpless build-up layer structure conductive routes.

The microelectronic industry is continually striving to produced ever faster and smaller microelectronic packages for use in various mobile electronic products, such as portable computers, electronic tablets, cellular phones, digital cameras, and the like. Typically, a microelectronic package must have a significant number of conductive routes (for the routing of power/ground and input/output signals) between a microelectronic device, such a microprocessor, a chipset, a graphics device, a wireless device, a memory device, an application specific integrated circuit, or the like, and external interconnects used to connect the microelectronic package to external components, such as motherboards, interposers, printed circuit boards, and the like. The formation of the significant number of conductive routes may necessitate the formation in a relatively large microelectronic device, may require stringent design rules, and/or may require numerous layers of dielectric material and conductive traces within an interconnection layer to achieve a proper routing to the external interconnects.

Microelectric package utilizing multiple bumpless build-up structures and through-silicon vias


According to one embodiment, a microwave-assisted magnetic recording head includes a SIL formed either in an area outside a FGL in a track width direction or in an area outside a FGL in a depth direction perpendicular to an air bearing surface of the FGL. An area between the SIL and the FGL can be enlarged, and an intermediate layer can be formed therebetween such that an area in which the intermediate layer contacts the FGL can be enlarged as well.

Disk devices such as a magnetic disk device include, for example, a magnetic disk provided inside a case, spindle motor which supports and rotates the magnetic disk, magnetic head which reads/writes data from/to the magnetic disk, and carriage assembly which supports the magnetic head movably with respect to the magnetic disk. The magnetic head includes a head part composed of a magnetic recording head used for write and a resuming head used for read.
In recent years, perpendicular magnetic recording heads are proposed for increasing recording density, capacity, and miniaturization of the magnetic disk device. In such magnetic heads, a recording head includes a main magnetic pole which produces a perpendicular magnetic field, write shield disposed to face the main magnetic pole with a write gap interposed therebetween at a trailing side of the main magnetic pole to close a magnetic path with the magnetic disk, and coil to supply a magnetic flux to the main magnetic pole.
There are proposed microwave-assisted magnetic recording heads in which a spin torque oscillator arranged between the main magnetic pole and the write shield (arranged in the write gap). The spin torque oscillator (STO) is formed as a layered structure of a field generation layer (FGL), intermediate layer, and spin injection layer face (SIL), and the spin torque oscillator is electrically connected to the main magnetic pole and the write shield. The intermediate layer functions to send spin current from the spin injection layer (SIL) to the field generation layer (FGL); however, the conventional layered structure does not sufficiently inject the polarized spin into the field generation layer (FGL), and when bias current increases, the magnetization of the spin injection layer (SIL) tends to fluctuate by the spin transfer torque from the field generation layer (FGL).

Spin torque oscillator, microwave-assisted magnetic recording head, magnetic recording head assembly, and magnetic recording and resuming device


The present disclosure relates to computer-implemented methods, software, and systems for generating and using discount keys associated with a particular sales person in association with sales within an enterprise online store. One example process includes operations for (i) identifying a discount key at a sales system associated with a prospective sale negotiated between a sales person and a prospective customer, (ii) determining at least one item associated with the identified discount key, (iii) determining at least one discount associated with the determined items associated with the identified discount key, (iii) facilitating completion of the prospective sale at the sales system for the prospective customer based on the at least one determined discount associated with the at least one determined item, and (iv) associating the completion of the prospective sale at the sales system with a sales account for the sales person.

In an enterprise sales environment, it is common to sell software and other items through a sales person, where discounts are negotiated individually. The buyer's agent, purchaser, or other employee can leverage the amount of business being generated, personal relationships, and other interpersonal communications to generate better or individualized discounts. These discussions with the sales person may be performed in person, over the phone, or through a computer chat session, as well as others.
Online sales provide individuals and enterprises with the ability to quickly login to a secure session, identify one or more products, software, or other items for purchase, and complete the transaction without interacting with sales persons. In many cases, however, online sales, both for personal and business purchases, remove the ability for bargaining, discounts, and general interpersonal interactions.

Personalized discount keys for enterprise online stores


A combustion-type power tool having a cooling arrangement for cooling a cylinder. The tool includes a housing, a cylinder head at one end of the housing, a push lever disposed at another end of the housing, and a combustion chamber frame including a base section and a head section. The head section has a disc like connecting portion extending from an end of the base section and a sleeve like abutment section extending from the connecting portion toward a cylinder head. A fan is disposed in a combustion chamber and is fixed to a rotation shaft of a motor supported to the cylinder head. The fan has fan blades. The fan blades define a widthwise center line in the axial direction of the rotation shaft. The center line is offset from the connecting portion and toward the push lever. The fan blades define widthwise edges in confrontation with the cylinder head. The widthwise edge is positioned in alignment with the connecting portion or offset therefrom toward the cylinder head.

The present invention relates to a combustion-type power tool, and more particularly, to such power tool capable of driving a fastener such as a nail, an anchor, and a staple into a workpiece.
In a conventional combustion-type power tool such as a nail gun, a mixture of air and gaseous fuel injected into a combustion chamber is ignited by a spark at an ignition plug to cause gas expansion in the combustion chamber, which in turn causes a linear momentum of a piston. By the movement of the piston, a nail is driven into a workpiece. Such conventional combustion-type nail gun is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,197,646 and Japanese Patent Publication No. H03-25307.
However, there has been a demand of cooling a component such as a cylinder.

Combustion-type power tool having cooling arrangement


An embodiment of the present invention is an improved insulated-gate, field-effect transistor and a three-sided, junction-gate field-effect transistor connected in series on the same chip to form a high-voltage MOS transistor. An extended drain region is formed on top of a substrate of opposite conductivity material. A layer of material with a conductivity opposite to that of the material of the extended drain region is buried within the extended drain region such that field-effect pinch-off depletion zones extend both above and below the buried layer. A top layer of material similar to the substrate is formed by ion implantation through the same mask window as the extended drain region. The top layer covers the buried layer and extended drain region and itself is covered by a silicon dioxide layer above. Current flow through the extended drain is controlled by the substrate and buried layer when a voltage is applied to pinch-off the extended drain between them in a familiar field-effect fashion.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to high voltage metal-oxide semiconductor (MOS) transistors and more specifically to improvements that lower the inherent on-resistance of high voltage MOS transistors.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Insulated gate field effect transistors (IGFETs) or MOSFETs are conventionally placed in series with junction field effect transistors (JFETs) to make combination devices that can switch high voltages and that have low values of on-resistance. A lightly doped extended drain region is used so that the voltage is sustained by an offset gate. The voltage capability of such devices is determined by the doping of the substrate, the length of the extended drain region and the net number of charges therein. Improvement in on-resistance is substantially limited by the cross sectional area, length and degree of doping in the extended drain region.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,811,075, issued Mar. 7, 1989 to the present inventor, Klas H. Eklund, describes an insulated-gate, field-effect transistor and a double-sided, junction-gate field-effect transistor connected in series on the same chip to form a high-voltage MOS transistor. An extended drain region is formed on top of a substrate of opposite conductivity material. A top layer of material similar to the substrate is formed by ion implantation. The top layer covers a middle part of the extended drain. Current flow through the extended drain is controlled by the substrate and top layer which pinch-off the extended drain between them in a familiar field-effect fashion.
The extended drain region requires high levels of doping to achieve acceptable levels of conductivity. The resistance of the device when it is switched on will be very much dependent on the dimensions of the extended drain region and its doping concentration. Generally, those adjustments in these parameters that improve on-resistance will degrade voltage handling capability, and vice versa.
A lateral double-diffused MOS transistor device for source follower applications is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,626,879, issued Dec. 2, 1986, to Sel Colak. An intermediate semiconductor layer of the same conductivity type as the channel region extends laterally from the channel region to beneath the drain contact region of a device. Colak states that this intermediate semiconductor layer substantially improves the punch through and avalanche breakdown characteristics of the device, thus permitting operation in the source-follower mode. A compact structure which features a relatively low normalized "`on` resistance" is also claimed. However, the on-resistance is not as low as it could be. FIG. 1 in Colak reveals that intermediate layer 16 isolates layer 18 from layer 14. Channel currents do not have the opportunity to flow both over and under the intermediate layer 16. In the present invention, the equivalent of the intermediate layer stops short, and thus permits dual current paths and concomitant lower on-resistance values.
An improved high voltage MOS transistor is needed in which very low levels of on-resistance can be realized without sacrificing high voltage performance.

High voltage MOS transistor with a low on-resistance


Provided herein is a process for isolating at least one (thio)phosphoric acid derivative, which has a boiling point of at least 70° C., from a product mixture including the at least one (thio)phosphoric acid derivative, at least one salt selected from ammonium salts and alkali metal chlorides, at least one polar solvent selected from the group consisting of ester solvents and ether solvents, and optionally at least one HCl scavenger; wherein the process is based on first dissolving the (thio)phosphoric acid derivative to be able to remove the at least one salt, and then causing solids formation of the (thio)phosphoric acid derivative.

Worldwide there is an increasing need for urease inhibitors and convenient and cost-effective large-scale processes for preparing them.
Urease inhibitors are used in combination with urea-based fertilizers to inhibit the hydrolysis of urea by the enzyme urease, which is present ubiquitously in the soil, thereby preventing a loss of nitrogen from the fertilizer due to the formation of gaseous ammonia (for a general review see Kiss, S.; Simihäian, M. (2002) Improving Efficiency of Urea Fertilizers by Inhibition of Soil Urease activity, ISBN 1-4020-0493-1, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, The Netherlands).
(Thio)phosphoric acid derivatives such as (thio)phosphoric acid triamides and (thio)phosphoric acid ester amides are known to be effective urease inhibitors for use in combination with urea-based fertilizers. N-hydrocarbylthiophosphoric acid triamides and N-hydrocarbylphosphoric acid triamides for use as urease inhibitors are, e.g., described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,530,714. Among the most potent known urease inhibitors are N-alkylthiophosphoric acid triamides and N-alkylphosphoric acid triamides, which are described in EP 0 119 487, for example. Additionally, mixtures of N-(n-butyl)thiophosphoric acid triamide (NBPT) and N-(n-propyl)thiophosphoric acid triamide (NPPT) can advantageously be used. Such mixtures are described in US 2012/218575 A1.
Known processes for preparing N-hydrocarbyl(thio)phosphoric acid triamides involve a two-step procedure, in which an N-hydrocarbylamino(thio)phosphoryl dichloride (e.g. R1R2NP(═O)Cl2 or R1R2NP(═S)Cl2) is formed in a first reaction by reacting (thio)phosphoryl trichloride with an amine, and in which, in a second reaction, the N-hydrocarbylamino(thio)phosphoryl dichloride is reacted with ammonia to produce a slurry, from which the co-product ammonium chloride is removed by aqueous extraction after removing the ammonia under reduced pressure, or by filtration after removing the ammonia under reduced pressure and dissolving the product (e.g. R1R2NP(═O)(NH3)2 or R1R2NP(═S)(NH3)2) through increasing the temperature, or by separating a phase rich in ammonia and ammonium chloride from the organic product phase under pressure being high enough to keep the ammonia liquid. The reactions of the procedure may be summarized as follows.

Process for isolating a (thio)phosphoric acid derivative


The disclosure provides novel antibodies against growth and differentiation factor-8 (GDF-8), including antibody fragments, which inhibit GDF-8 activity in vitro and in vivo. The disclosure also provides methods for diagnosing, preventing, or treating degenerative disorders of muscle, bone, or insulin metabolism.

Growth and Differentiation Factor-8 (GDF-8), also known as myostatin, is a member of the Transforming Growth Factor-beta (TGF-β) superfamily of structurally related growth factors, all of which possess physiologically important growth-regulatory and morphogenetic properties (Kingsley et al. (1994) Genes Dev., 8: 133-46; Hoodless et al. (1998) Curr. Topics Microbiol. Immunol., 228: 235-72). GDF-8 is a negative regulator of skeletal muscle mass, and there is considerable interest in identifying factors which regulate its biological activity. For example, GDF-8 is highly expressed in the developing and adult skeletal muscle. The GDF-8 null mutation in transgenic mice is characterized by a marked hypertrophy and hyperplasia of the skeletal muscle (McPherron et al. (1997) Nature, 387: 83-90). Similar increases in skeletal muscle mass are evident in naturally occurring mutations of GDF-8 in cattle (Ashmore et al. (1974) Growth, 38: 501-507; Swatland and Kieffer (1994) J. Anim. Sci., 38: 752-757; McPherron and Lee (1997) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 94: 12457-12461; and Kambadur et al. (1997) Genome Res., 7: 910-915). Since GDF-8 is expressed in both developing and adult muscles, it is not clear whether it regulates muscle mass during development or in adults. Thus, the question of whether or not GDF-8 regulates muscle mass in adults is important from a scientific and therapeutic perspective. Recent studies have also shown that muscle wasting associated with HIV-infection in humans is accompanied by increases in GDF-8 protein expression (Gonzalez-Cadavid et al. (1998) PNAS, 95: 14938-43). In addition, GDF-8 can modulate the production of muscle-specific enzymes (e.g., creatine kinase) and modulate myoblast cell proliferation (WO 00/43781).
A number of human and animal disorders are associated with loss or functional impairment of muscle tissue, including muscular dystrophy, muscle atrophy, congestive obstructive pulmonary disease, muscle wasting syndrome, sarcopenia, and cachexia. To date, very few reliable or effective therapies exist for these disorders. However, the terrible symptoms associated with these disorders may be substantially reduced by employing therapies that increase the amount of muscle tissue in patients suffering from the disorders. While not curing the conditions, such therapies would significantly improve the quality of life for these patients and could ameliorate some of the effects of these diseases. Thus, there is a need in the art to identify new therapies that may contribute to an overall increase in muscle tissue in patients suffering from these disorders.
In addition to its growth-regulatory and morphogenetic properties in skeletal muscle, GDF-8 may also be involved in a number of other physiological processes, including glucose homeostasis in the development of type 2 diabetes and adipose tissue disorders, such as obesity. For example, GDF-8 modulates preadipocyte differentiation to adipocytes (Kim et al. (2001) BBRC, 281: 902-906).
There are also a number of conditions associated with a loss of bone, including osteoporosis, especially in the elderly and/or postmenopausal women. Currently available therapies for these conditions work by inhibiting bone resorption. A therapy that promotes new bone formation would be a desirable alternative to or addition to, these therapies.
Like TGF-β-1, -2, and -3, the GDF-8 protein is synthesized as a precursor protein consisting of an amino-terminal propeptide and a carboxy-terminal mature domain (McPherron and Lee, (1997) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 94: 12457-12461). Before cleavage, the precursor GDF-8 protein forms a homodimer. The amino-terminal propeptide is then cleaved from the mature domain. The cleaved propeptide may remain noncovalently bound to the mature domain dimer, inactivating its biological activity (Miyazono et al. (1988) J. Biol. Chem., 263: 6407-6415; Wakefield et al. (1988) J. Biol. Chem., 263: 7646-7654; and Brown et al. (1990) Growth Factors, 3: 35-43). It is believed that two GDF-8 propeptides bind to the GDF-8 mature dimer (Thies et al. (2001) Growth Factors, 18: 251-259). Due to this inactivating property, the propeptide is known as the "latency-associated peptide" (LAP), and the complex of mature domain and propeptide is commonly referred to as the "small latent complex" (Gentry and Nash (1990) Biochemistry, 29: 6851-6857; Derynck et al. (1995) Nature, 316: 701-705; and Massague (1990) Ann. Rev. Cell Biol., 12: 597-641). Other proteins are also known to bind to GDF-8 or structurally related proteins and inhibit their biological activity. Such inhibitory proteins include follistatin, and potentially, follistatin-related proteins (Gamer et al. (1999) Dev. Biol., 208: 222-232). The mature domain is believed to be active as a homodimer when the propeptide is removed.
GDF-8 is highly conserved in sequence and in function across species. The amino acid sequence of murine and human GDF-8 is identical, as is the pattern of mRNA expression (McPherron et al. (1997) Nature 387: 83-90; Gonzalez-Cadavid et al. (1998) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 95: 14938-14943). This conservation of sequence and function suggests that inhibition of GDF-8 in humans is likely to have a similar effect to inhibition of GDF-8 in mice.
GDF-8 is involved in the regulation of many critical biological processes. Due to its key function in these processes, GDF-8 may be a desirable target for therapeutic intervention. In particular, therapeutic agents that inhibit the activity of GDF-8 may be used to treat human or animal disorders in which an increase in muscle tissue would be therapeutically beneficial, particularly muscle and adipose tissue disorders, bone degenerative diseases, neuromuscular disorders, and diabetes, as discussed above.

Methods of increasing muscle mass or muscle strength using antibody inhibitors of GDF-8


A rapid and simple method and kit for the analysis of Porphyromonas gingivalis in a sample. A sample suspected of containing P. gingivalis is assayed for enhanced proteolytic, amidolytic, or esterolytic activity in the presence of a specific enhancer compound. Specifically, the enhancer is a mono- or di-peptide containing glycine, or an amide or ester thereof.

According to recent data, almost all adults show clinical signs of inflammation in the gums, gingivitis, at one or more tooth sites. About 11% of the population shows pronounced destruction of the tooth supporting tissues, i.e. periodontitis. The clinical signs of inflammation are redness, bleeding on probing and suppuration. However, these clinical parameters are not reliable predictors of tissue destruction.
Most, if not all forms, of periodontal diseases are caused by bacteria. Recent clinical and microbial investigations have revealed that specific gram negative bacteria play an ethological role in different forms of human periodontal diseases. Porphyromonas gingivalis has been associated with progressive adult periodontitis. Thus, the presence of P. gingivalis could be used as a guideline for selection of treatment regime and for treatment evaluation. Identification of P. gingivalis is commonly performed using cultivation techniques. Microbial sampling and culturing is usually performed as in the following example:
Sterile paperpoints are inserted into the periodontal pocket and left in place for 15 s. The points are pooled in a vial containing glass beads and transport medium. At the microbial laboratory, the samples are thoroughly desintegratcd and diluted. A volume of 0.1 ml from each dilution as well as from the undiluted sample is distributed on the surface of Brucella agar plates (BBL Microbiology Systems, Cockeysville, Md., USA) enriched with 5% defibrinated horse blood, 0.5% haemolyzed blood and 5 mg/l of menadion. After 7-9 days of incubation, in jars with 95% H.sub.2 and 5% CO.sub.2, total viable count and the number of P. gingivalis colonies in the sample is determined. The P. gingivalis colonies are identified by gram staining, lactose fermentation test, and checking for production of red fluorescence in long-wave (360 nm) UV-light. The handling of the sample is time consuming and personal intensive and therefore expensive. Also it will take about 2 weeks before the therapist can have the result of the test.
Today about 3000 microbial samples are sent for analysis to the Dept of Oral Microbiology in Goteborg. This laboratory is one of the 4 Oral Microbiology Departments in Sweden to which samples could be sent for analysis. The cost for the analysis of 1 sample is 150 SEK, which limits the number of samples taken from each patient. P. gingivalis is known to produce high proteolytic activity which can a) destroy in vitro many components of connective tissue and b) degrade other proteins important for the maintaining of local homeostasis e.g. the inactivating of inhibitors controlling host proteinases.
EP-A2 0 255 341 (Sunstar Kabushiki Kaisha) discloses a periodontal diagnosis reagent, which comprises peptide(s) having attached thereto a colour developing group for detecting aminopeptidase-like enzymatic activity in an oral sample. EP-A2 0 292 708 (The Research Foundation of State University of New York) relates to detection of Bacteroides gingivalis using a serum aminopeptidase inhibitor in an assay system, and measuring the ability to hydrolyse N-carbobenzoxy-glycyl-glycyl-L-arginine-.beta.-naphtylamide derivatives. Use of enhancers of the enzymatic activity of Bacteroides gingivalis such as chelating materials, specifically tetrasodium ethylene-diaminetetraacetate (EDTA) is proposed.

Method for detecting Porphyromonas gingivalis


A license plate bracket for an automotive vehicle includes a generally planar body having self-locking axially engageable retention structures extending from a rear side of the generally planar body. The retention structures allow the license plate bracket to be pushed into locking engagement with a front or rear module of a vehicle without the need for tools, while allowing the bracket to be removed subsequently without leaving any unsightly holes in the bodywork of the vehicle.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mounting arrangement for placing a license plate bracket on an automotive vehicle.
2. Disclosure Information
The task of providing mountings for the license plate frames of automotive vehicles presents an unusual challenge to automotive designers and engineers by virtue of the fact that there are many jurisdictions which do not require the use of front license plates, whereas other jurisdictions do. Accordingly, although all vehicles must naturally have the capability for mounting a front number plate, it is highly desirable to not have such license plate brackets mounted on all vehicles, for appearance reasons alone. Moreover, it is highly desirable to not cut holes through front end fascia and bumpers and other end structures of vehicles for the purpose of mounting license plate brackets.
The reasons for avoiding the drilling of holes in a vehicle structure for the purpose of mounting a license plate bracket are manifold. First, the precision with which holes must be drilled so as to avoid out of place brackets requires that a fair amount of time be spent, usually at a high hourly cost, whether the drilling is done at an assembly plant or in the field. Moreover, if a vehicle changes hands and the new owner either does not want a number plate on the front or is not required by law to maintain such a number plate, the owner may wish to remove the license plate frame or bracket and will be understandably upset if unsightly holes are left in the front end structure of the vehicle. Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a license plate bracket that may be installed without the necessity of drilling any holes, so as to save time, money and ultimately the appearance of the vehicle itself, in the aftermath of the removal of a license plate bracket. U.S. Pat. No. 6,167,645 discloses a license plate bracket which has two clips at an upper portion thereof, but which must be fastened with screws, thereby necessitating undesirable drilling and also risking damage to the grille of the vehicle to which the bracket of the '645 patent is attached or installed.
A license plate bracket according to the present invention solves the problems inherent with prior art brackets by allowing a bracket to be installed without the need for tools, without the need for drilling and with the capability for removing the bracket entirely, without causing any damage or degradation in the appearance of the vehicle following the removal of the bracket.

Snap-in license plate bracket for automotive vehicle


A system for amplifying a signal is provided. The system includes a plurality of driver stages, each having an input, an output, and a disable control. An output stage having an input is coupled to the outputs of the plurality of driver stages. A plurality of disable control signals is provided to the driver stages so as to controllably enable and disable one or more of the driver stages.

Power amplifiers are known in the art. One application of power amplifiers is the use of a variable gain power amplifier to produce amplitude modulation in an AM transmitter or in a polar transmitter. In these configurations, a power amplifier can be required to change its output level over a wide range. Depending on the system requirements, the amplifier may be required to produce an accurate output level or an accurate gain between input amplitude and output amplitude. An amplifier may be required to keep a nearly constant phase offset between input signal and output signal. It may also be desirable for an amplifier to have capability to be power efficient at all output levels.
FIG. 1 is a diagram of a typical prior art variable gain amplifier 100, such as might be used in a polar transmitter or AM transmitter. Amplifier 100 includes output stage 102 and driver stage 101. Output stage 102 produces a controlled gain or a controlled output level, such as by using control circuit 103. An RF input signal is provided to an input of driver stage 101, which produces an output signal that is provided to an input of output stage 102, which produces output signal 104. By controlling the gain of output stage 102, the amplitude of output signal 104 can be controlled.
When a coupling 105 exists between the input and output of output stage 102 which is independent of the controlled gain, such as a capacitance of a transistor used to implement output stage 102, metallization capacitance, capacitance due to some other circuit used in conjunction with output stage 102, or other typical capacitances or couplings, undesired system behavior can occur. One common cause of this coupling is gate-drain or base-collector capacitance in an amplifying transistor used to implement output stage 102. Other detrimental couplings 105 from input to output can also occur, such as resistive coupling, inductive couplings, or series and/or parallel combinations of such couplings.
FIG. 2 is a diagram 200 showing an exemplary output amplitude response of prior art variable gain power amplifier 100 containing a coupling 105 across the variable gain output stage. Waveform 201 depicts the output amplitude of output signal 104 of output stage 102 versus the control applied to the output stage. Waveform 202 depicts a desired response of output amplitude versus control applied to output stage 102. The desired response may be linear over a wide range of control, including at small amplitudes. Waveform 201 of amplifier 100 can be linear over a range 204 of relatively large amplitudes. At lower amplitudes, coupling 105 can cause waveform 201 to deviate from the desired response. Coupling 105 can cause the amplifier to produce an output amplitude 203 even when the desired response from the control is to have zero amplitude. This can occur if output stage 102 is producing no gain for this control, while output amplitude 203 is caused by coupling 105. In this case, it can be impossible to control output stage 102 to produce an amplitude of output signal 104 that is lower than output amplitude 203.
FIG. 3 is a diagram 300 showing an exemplary output phase response of prior art variable gain power amplifier 100 containing a coupling 105 across the variable gain output stage. Waveform 301 depicts the output phase of output signal 104 of output stage 102 versus the control applied to the output stage. Waveform 302 depicts a desired response of output phase versus control applied to output stage 102. The desired response may be for a constant output phase over a wide range of control, including at small amplitudes. Waveform 301 of amplifier 100 can be nearly constant over a range 304 of relatively large amplitudes. At lower amplitudes, coupling 105 can cause waveform 301 to deviate from the desired response. This deviation can occur if the component of the output signal due to coupling 105 has a different phase than the desired output signal due to output stage 102. For output amplitudes where the signal component due to coupling 105 is comparable or greater in magnitude than the signal component due to output stage 102, the phase of output signal 104 can move away from the desired response towards the phase of the leakage signal 303.
FIG. 4 is a diagram 400 showing an exemplary power consumption of prior art variable gain power amplifier 100. Waveform 401 depicts the power consumption of output stage 102 versus the control signal applied to output stage 102. The power consumption of output stage 102 can vary with the control signal, typically increasing as the gain or output amplitude increases. Waveform 402 depicts the power consumption of driver stage 101. At low gains or output amplitudes, the power consumption due to the driver stage can be comparable to or even greater than the power consumption due to output stage 102. At sufficiently low output amplitudes, the signal at the output of driver stage 101 may be stronger than output signal 104, so that the driver amplifier can be amplifying the signal only to have output stage 102 attenuate it to a lower level.


There is provided a process for controllably supplying a chemical agent to a flowing process fluid for effecting generation of treated flowing fluid comprising a chemical agent-derived fluid component material, wherein the chemical agent-derived fluid component material is derived from the chemical agent. The controllably supplying comprises: while discharging a chemical agent from a chemical agent supply system, modulating distribution of the chemical agent that is being discharged, between at least a flowing process fluid and a fluid bypass, with a chemical agent supply modulation system, in accordance with a system operating cycle, wherein the system operating cycle includes a single system supply mode and a single system bypass mode, and wherein the system bypass mode follows the system supply mode.

Oil and gas, being distributed through pipelines, typically require chemical addition to mitigate against various undesirable phenomena, such as corrosion, scaling, and solids deposition.
The required concentrations of these chemical agents is relatively low. Unfortunately, existing metering pumps, for delivering these chemical agents, are unable to reliably supply these chemical agents at the low rates required to achieve these relatively low concentrations. As a result, these chemical agents tend to be over-injected, resulting in waste and unnecessary costs. Even if it is attempted to inject chemical agents with existing pumps at relatively low rates, by having the pump stroke over extended periods, the result is more of a pulsed injection, and a relatively significant departure from continuous injection, thereby resulting in non-uniform protection of the process fluid being injected with the chemical agent. Other inherent problems with low pumping rate include the increased risk of vapour lock, or loss of prime, in the pump head.

System and process for supplying a chemical agent to a process fluid


An image sensor includes a unit cell of four pixels. The unit cell includes four photosensitive regions that collect charge in response to light; four transfer transistors that respectively pass the charge from each of the four photosensitive regions to one common charge-to-voltage conversion mechanism; three control wires in which a first control wire controls two of the transfer transistors and a second control wire controls one of the transfer transistors and a third control wire controls one of the transfer transistors; an amplifier connected to the common charge-to-voltage conversion mechanism that outputs an output signal in response to a signal from the charge-to-voltage conversion mechanism; and a reset transistor connected to the common charge-to-voltage conversion mechanism for resetting the charge-to-voltage conversion mechanism to a predetermined signal level.

As pixel sizes are reduced to less than 1.7 μm to meet demand, there are tradeoffs. The primary disadvantages are reduced sensitivity because the pixel area is smaller, and the smaller opening between pixel wires blocks too much light.
For example, referring to FIG. 1, the pixel schematic from U.S. Patent Publication 2008/0062290 A1 is shown. The unit cell has four transfer gates 107, 108, 109, and 110 that control the flow of charge between the floating diffusion and photodiodes 112, 113, 114, and 111, respectively. Transistor 106 resets the floating diffusion to the level of the power supply VDD. Transistor 105 buffers the floating diffusion voltage and the row select transistor 103 switches that voltage onto the output signal line. In this pixel schematic, there are a total of 6 horizontal wires and two vertical wires. If a 1.4 μm pixel size is desired, then the unit cell of 2.8 μm must contain 6 horizontal wires. If the typical metal 2 wire line and space requirement is 0.18 μm, then those 6 wires will occupy 1.80 μm out of 2.8 μm leaving only a 1.0 μm hole for two photodiodes in the pixel unit cell. A 0.5 μm opening for each photodiode is smaller than the wavelength of red light (650 nm). As a result, the pixel quantum efficiency will be very poor.
The opening in the metal wires could be made larger by using 3 or more layers of metal. Camera lenses for cell phones typically have light rays that may be incident at an angle of 25 degrees from normal. A tall stack of metal wires 3 or more layers high will block light incident at 25 degrees from reaching the photodiodes.
The present invention will address the problem of narrow openings between metal wires above photodiodes while at the same time permitting improved sensitivity by summing pixels in low resolution imaging modes.


An electric machine has a stator and a rotor. The stator has a housing and at least one pair of magnetic poles. Each magnetic pole has a primary magnet and two auxiliary magnets disposed on respective sides of the primary magnet. All of the magnets are disposed on an inner surface of the housing. All the magnets of a magnetic pole have the same polarity.

Japanese Published Patent Application No 10-201206 shows a stator for an electric motor. The stator comprises a housing with two arcuate sides and two magnetic poles. Each magnetic pole is composed of one large arcuate magnet which is fixed to an inner surface of a corresponding arcuate side of the housing.
However, the manufacture of large arcuate magnets is complicated. The arcuate magnets are formed as rectangular magnets which are then cut to shape. Thus there is a lot of material wastage plus there are breakages when cutting the magnets resulting in a low efficiency of material usage.

Electric machine having magnetic poles including a primary magnet and auxiliary magnets


It is an object of the present invention to provide a method of producing a polyvinyl acetal resin by which a polyvinyl acetal resin having a high acetalization degree can be produced even in a solid catalyst system, a polyvinyl butyral resin produced by the above-mentioned production method of a polyvinyl acetal resin, and a method of producing an esterified polyvinyl alcohol resin by which the esterification can be performed at high efficiency even in a solid catalyst system.

A polyvinyl acetal resin is widely used for many purposes, for example, an interlayer film for a laminated glass, a wash primer of metal treatment, various coating materials, an adhesive, a resin processing agent, a ceramics binder and the like, and in recent years, the range of its applications has been extended to electronic materials. Among others, a polyvinyl butyral resin is particularly suitably used for an interlayer film for a laminated glass and the like because it is superior in a film formation property, transparency, absorbency of impact energy, and adhesion to glass.
The polyvinyl acetal resin is generally produced by dehydrating and condensing a polyvinyl alcohol resin and an aldehyde compound in the presence of an acid catalyst such as hydrochloric acid as shown in Patent Document 1. And, in Patent Document 2, a method of producing a polyvinyl butyral resin in which a polyvinyl alcohol resin and a butyl aldehyde compound are mixed with a given mixing power in the presence of an acid catalyst in an aqueous solution is disclosed.
However, in the conventional method of producing a polyvinyl acetal resin, it is essential to use an acid catalyst. When the polyvinyl acetal resin produced by the conventional production method of a polyvinyl acetal resin is used for the applications of electronic materials in which the presence of impurities may cause serious problems, a process step of neutralizing an acid catalyst is needed and further an extremely troublesome process step of cleaning remaining halogen ions in the resin which have been originated from the acid catalyst, alkaline ions used in neutralization and the like to remove impurities in the resin is needed.
On the other hand, even if it is tried to react polyvinyl alcohol with aldehyde without using an acid catalyst such as hydrochloric acid, only a polyvinyl acetal resin having an acetalization degree of the order, at most, of 40 mol % can be obtained. And, even if it is tried to heat a system to elevated temperatures to accelerate an acetalization reaction, degradation of a resin such as the break of a primary chain occurs and some resins obtained are colored.
And so, a method of producing a polyvinyl acetal resin having an acetalization degree of 70 mol % or more without using an acid catalyst, which can be put to practical use, has been requested.
An esterified polyvinyl alcohol resin also has a wide array of uses. However, there were the same problems as in the method of producing a polyvinyl acetal resin since it is essential to use an acid catalyst in order to esterify a polyvinyl alcohol resin at high efficiency using the conventional method of producing an esterified polyvinyl alcohol resin.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Kokai Publication Hei-6-1853
Patent Document 2: Japanese Kokai Publication Hei-11-349629

Process for producing polyvinyl acetal resin, polyvinyl butyral resin, and process for producing esterified polyvinyl alcohol resin

Abstract: The present invention is a method of producing a polyvinyl acetal resin, wherein a solution or a suspension containing a polyvinyl alcohol resin and a carbonyl compound is pressurized in the presence of a solid catalyst.


An object is to realize high performance and low power consumption in a semiconductor device having an SOI structure. In addition, another object is to provide a semiconductor device having a high performance semiconductor element which is more highly integrated. A semiconductor device is such that a plurality of n-channel field-effect transistors and p-channel field-effect transistors are stacked with an interlayer insulating layer interposed therebetween over a substrate having an insulating surface. By controlling a distortion caused to a semiconductor layer due to an insulating film having a stress, a plane orientation of the semiconductor layer, and a crystal axis in a channel length direction, difference in mobility between the n-channel field-effect transistor and the p-channel field-effect transistor can be reduced, whereby current driving capabilities and response speeds of the n-channel field-effect transistor and the p-channel field-effect can be comparable.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to semiconductor devices having a so-called SOI (silicon on insulator) structure in which a semiconductor layer is provided on an insulating surface.
2. Description of the Related Art
As an alternative to an integrated circuit using a silicon wafer which is manufactured by thinly slicing a single-crystal semiconductor ingot, an integrated circuit using a semiconductor substrate which is referred to as a silicon on insulator (hereinafter also referred to as "SOI") in which a thin single-crystal semiconductor layer is provided on an insulating surface has been developed. The integrated circuit using an SOI substrate has attracted attention as a semiconductor integrated circuit which reduces parasitic capacitance between a transistor and the substrate and improves the performance of a semiconductor integrated circuit.
As a method for manufacturing SOI substrates, a hydrogen ion implantation separation method is known (e.g., see Reference 1: Japanese Published Patent Application No. 2000-124092). A hydrogen ion implantation separation method is a method by which hydrogen ions are implanted into a silicon wafer to form a microbubble layer at a predetermined depth from the surface, and the microbubble layer is used as a cleavage plane to bond a thin silicon layer to another silicon wafer. In addition to performing heat treatment for separation of a silicon layer, it is necessary to perform heat treatment in oxidizing atmosphere in order to form an oxide film on the silicon layer, to remove the oxide film, and then to perform heat treatment at from 1000 to 1300° C. to increase bonding strength.
On the other hand, a semiconductor device in which an insulating substrate such as high heat resistance glass is provided with a silicon layer is disclosed (e.g., see Reference 2: Japanese Published Patent Application No. H11-163363). This semiconductor device has a structure in which the entire surface of a crystallized glass having a distortion point of 750° C. or more is protected by an insulating silicon film, and a silicon layer obtained by a hydrogen ion implantation separation method is fixed to the insulating silicon film.

Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.


A putting practice and training device having a support member having a first end and a second end. The first end may be adapted engage a surface. A rotatable, swingable arm may have at least two members arranged where only one member is visible when viewing the arm from above the putting practice and training device. At least one indicating means may be slidably mounted on at least one member. The rotatable, swingable arm may be adapted to perpindicularily engage the second end of the support member whereby the arm rotates the two members to be level with the surface.

In order to improve one's ability on the golf course, there are a number of areas that a player can focus on. For instance correct stance when addressing the ball, proper head and body movement, proper swing, or length of stroke. Different challenges are presented depending on a player's strengths, weaknesses, abilities and physical limits. Although many golfers spend a great deal of time practicing tee-off shots and fairway shots, a great deal of time is actually spent on the green and putting. Despite the amount of time devoted to shots on the green, players often do not spend a great deal of time practicing to improve their putting game despite the fact that their putting ability is key to a successful round of golf.
In general to improve one's putting game, the player must first be able to visualize an imaginary line from the golf ball to the cup and take into account various factors such as slope of the green, wind, conditions of the course etc. The golfer must next be able to position him/herself correctly in relation to the ball, namely the body should be aligned parallel to the putting line. Specifically, the player should position their head directly over the ball with the eyes looking down vertically over the ball during the entire putting stroke. Finally the face of the putter should be oriented at a right angle to the imaginary line, and the putter shaft should move parallel to the imaginary line. One must also ensure that the stroke length/weight is adjusted to accommodate the speed of the green. All of these skills must be put together for the golfer to have a successful putt. There have been a number of devices developed to try and help golfers improve these various skills and thereby improve their putting game.
Prior art practice devices for putting have been devised to address some of the afore noted problems. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,458,041 issued on Oct. 1, 2002 to Brandt relates to a golf ball putting device used by a golfer to practice a line of sight directly over the top center of a golf ball when putting the ball. By practicing with the device, the golfer enhances his or her skill in alignment of sight over the top of the golf ball with improved putting skills. The golf ball putting device includes an upright support having a vertical lower portion, a curved middle portion and a horizontal upper portion. The lower portion can be inserted into a ground surface or inserted into a stand. The upper portion includes a forked end. The forked end includes a first fork arm and a second fork arm with an eye alignment opening there between. Ends of the first fork arm and the second fork arm are joined together by an elongated upper sight alignment member. The upper sight alignment member, when properly positioned, is parallel to the direction of travel of the golf ball when it is putted. Suspended from opposite ends of the upper sight alignment member are a pair of suspension chains. Lower ends of the chains are attached to opposite ends of an elongated lower sight alignment member. When the upper and lower sight alignment members are placed above the top of the golf ball and the golfer's line of sight aligns the upper sight alignment member above the lower sight alignment member, then the golfer knows his or her line of sight is directly above the golf ball.
The invention disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,458,041, however, requires the player to constantly adjust the device by pulling the device out of green and repositioning it to the desired position. Furthermore, this device does not allow the player to make comparisons between shots to develop consistency of attempted shots so as to provide a reference point and therefore help the player with length of stroke.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,303,926 which issued on Apr. 19, 1994 to Owens et al relates to a portable golf swing practice device. The practice device includes a weighted base and an upstanding flute guide post with a positioning bar adjustably mounted between ear portions of a post encircling locking jaw which is vertically and rotatably adjustable on the guide post. By setting the positioning bar in any one of a plurality of positions relative to the user, each of the proper body positions and swing motions can be reinforced thus improving the user's stance and wring during actual playing. All components of the device are made of a rigid high strength polyvinglchloride to prevent corrosion.
Carpenter is the owner of U.S. Pat. No. 4,032,157 which issued on Jun. 28, 1977 to Carpenter relates to a base having a lower, ground-engageable portion and an upper portion. An indicator mechanism is formed by first and second perpendicularly intersecting planar members. Each of the outer planar surfaces of the planar members includes a distinctive color, and each color is different from the others. The first planar member defines a plane oblique to the ground while the second planar member defines a plane normal to the ground. The indicator mechanism is attached to the upper portion of the base. When the golfer assumes a golfing stance adjacent the base and gazes at the indicator mechanism, the upper edges of the planar members form an inverted T-shape, the side surfaces of the planar members not being visible.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,720,669 which issued on Feb. 24, 1998 to Pearson relates to the golf club practice device of the present invention which includes a supporting member, an elongated member and a connecting member which form means for perfecting a golfer's swing. The supporting member supports the device on a generally planar base from which a positioned golf ball may be driven such as a golf swing practice area or a plate covered with a mat of a synthetic material. The connecting member makes right angle elbow connections with one end of the elongated member and with the end of the supporting member distal the planar base. The elongated and connecting members are substantially parallel to the planar base. A golf ball may be positioned on the planar base under the connecting member between the elbow connections of the elongated and supporting members so that the golf ball would just be completely visible to the user. A golfer takes a proper stance with respect to the ball so that the elongated member is substantially parallel to the golfer's body when facing the practice device and uses the elongated member which is parallel to the surface of the practice area as a guide to a perfect swing. If the downstroke of the golf swing is not in the an optimum golf path, one of the members of the device is struck with the head or shaft of the golf club. With frequent practice, a golfer using the golf club practice device can learn to avoid hooks, slices, topping the ball and other swing imperfections.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,899,816 which issued on May 4, 1999 to Pearson relates to a golf club practice device consisting of: a generally planar base from which a positioned golf ball may be driven; a supporting member in a first plane extending vertically from the surface of the generally planar base at a distance of eleven to fourteen inches, and having a first end and a second end connected to the planar base; an elongated member in a second plane substantially parallel to the generally planar base, having a length of 30 inches to four feet, and having a first end and a second end distal said supporting member; and a connecting member in the same plane as the elongated member, between the first end of the supporting member and the first end of the elongated member, substantially parallel to the generally planar base, having an elbow connection to each of the first ends, substantially perpendicular to the supporting member and the elongated member, and having a length of four to eight inches; wherein the supporting member, the elongated member and the connecting member form a single one piece construction; and wherein the connecting member is over a golf club head when the club head is addressing a golf ball on the surface of the generally planar base directly under a location on the connecting member as a user starts a practice golf swing that is a critical distance from the elbow connection of the connecting member to the first end of the supporting member and between the first ends of the elongated member and the supporting member so that the golf ball would just be completely visible to the user and wherein the elongated member is substantially parallel to the user's body as the user faces the practice device and serves as a guide for the user to achieve an optimum golf swing in which the golf club is brought back in the direction of the second end of the elongated member and an optimum golf swing is achieved when no part of the device is struck during a complete golf swing.
Prior art devices may focus on head over the ball, but fail to address the length of stoke. Thus a putting practice and training device which helps the player improve his address to the ball namely eye over the ball, having the putter centered to ball, and length of stroke is desirable.


Traditionally, wireless device, such as cell phone or personal data assistant device (PDA), has relatively smaller storage capacity. Therefore, it is quite often that a user of the wireless device has difficulty to find more storage space for storing ever increased personal data, such as storing multiple Gig bytes of multimedia data including digital video, music, or photo picture etc. Instant application disclosed a system and method for a storage system providing storage service to the wireless device for the wireless device remotely storing personal data into an external storage space allocated exclusively to a user of the wireless device by the storage system.

Storage system always is a critical part of a computing system regardless of the computing system is a server, a laptop or desktop computer, or a wireless device such as cell phone or personal data assistant device ("PDA"). The storage system can be categorized as internal storage or external storage system.
The internal storages of a computing system include those storage media such as hard disk drives, memory sticks, and memory etc. that are internally connected in the computing system directly through system bus or a few inches of cable, Therefore, the storage media actually are internal components of the computing system in a same enclosure.
The external storage of a computing system are those storage media that are not the internal components of the computing system in a same enclosure. Therefore, the storage media have to be accessed through longer cable, such as through Ethernet controller with longer cable for IP based storage, Fiber channel cable for fiber channel storage, or wireless communication media etc. The storage media of the external storage could be magnetic hard disk drives, solid state disk, optical storage drives, memory card, etc. and could be in any form such as Raid which usually consists of a group of hard disk drives.
To effectively use a storage system, the storage devices of the storage system usually need to be partitioned with storage volumes. After the partition, each of the volumes can be used for establishing a file system on top of it. To simplify the discussion, herein, the term of the storage volume and its corresponding file system, and the storage partition are often used without differentiation.
To satisfy the needs for external storage for a larger number of wireless devices on the Internet, a central controlled distributed scalable virtual machine ("CCDSVM") of present invention can be deployed. The CCDSVM allows a control management system to control a group of computing systems for providing distributed services, including storage service, to client systems over the Internet, Intranet, and LAN environment.
As matter of the fact, today major Internet service provider (ISP) and application service provider (ASP) are all in business of providing various type of storage services to their clients.
Unless specified, the programming languages and the protocols used by the software modules and the computing systems used of present invention are assumed to be the same as described in the prior patent applications.
In addition, in the drawing, like elements are designated by like reference numbers. Further, when a list of identical elements is present, only one element will be given the reference number.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method and apparatus for wireless devices access to external storage


The present invention provides a solid-state camera device which can improve both the shading caused by the eclipse of the incident light and the shading cased by the rim darkening. The present solid-state camera device comprises a plurality of light-receiving parts 1 arranged at a constant interval on a substrate, and a plurality of light-focusing parts 2 disposed corresponding to each of the light-receiving parts on the substrate surface so that the incident light is focused on the light-receiving parts. Further, the position of each of the light-focusing parts is shifted gradually larger toward the center of the camera region O based on the corresponding light-receiving parts and the size along the substrate surface of each of the light-focusing parts 2, W1′, . . . , Wn−1′, Wn′, becomes gradually larger, as the location of the light-focusing parts is getting closer to the peripheral camera region 22 from the middle of the camera region 21 in front of the exit pupil on the substrate in the direction along the substrate surface.

Recently, solid-state camera devices are built in many video cameras and electronic still cameras in order to reduce size and weight of such cameras. As shown in FIG. 6, a solid-state camera device, generally, comprises a plurality of sets of a light-receiving part 1 and a vertical transfer part 6 which are arranged along by each other on a semi-conductor substrate 7, a plurality of vertical transfer electrodes 5 which are formed on each of the vertical transfer parts 6, a shading film 4 which covers the vertical transfer parts 6 and opens on the light-receiving parts 1, and a plurality of color filters 3 which are arranged above each of the light-receiving parts 1 and, further comprises, in order to focus the incident light effectively on the light-receiving parts, a plurality of generally hemispherical microlenses 2 as a light-focusing part formed above each of the color filters 3 at positions corresponding to the light-receiving parts 1. A process of forming the microlens 2 is as follows. First, a transparent film of a composition for the microlens having photo-sensitivity and thermoplasticity is formed by applying the composition on the substrate 7 on which the shading film 4 and the color filter 3 have been arranged. Next, the film is patterned by exposure with a specified mask and development. Then, the patterned film is softened by heat treatment to make the patterns generally hemispherical.
As shown in FIG. 7(a), in the case where an eye point distance (distance between the shading film 4 and an aperture stop 9 defining an exit pupil 9a) L in an optical system of a camera is relatively long (L=L1), an incident light IL, which has passed through the microlens 2, can enter into an opening 4a of the shading film 4 (i.e., the light-receiving part 1) not only in the middle of the camera region 21 (a region in the front of the exit pupil) but region in the peripheral camera region 22 (a region remote from the middle of the camera region along the substrate surface).
On the other hand, in the case where an eye point distance L is relatively short (L=L2) as shown in FIG. 7(b), in the peripheral camera region 22, particularly in the peripheral region in the lateral direction, an incident angle of IL to the microlens becomes larger compared to the case where an eye point distance is long (L=L1), and a part of IL is prevented from entering into the opening 4a (i.e., so-called "eclipse" of the incident light IL occurs), consequently, a proportion of a light quantity that enters into the light-receiving part 1 decreases. Thus, sensitivity of the camera device becomes lower in the peripheral camera region 22 than in the middle of the camera region 21, resulting in a phenomenon that brightness diminishes in the peripheral region of its screen (so-called deterioration of "shading"). A broken line in FIG. 8 shows an output voltage wave in one laterally scanning period 1H of a camera, indicating that the intensity of the output signal in the peripheral camera region Ve is significantly lower than the signal intensity in the middle of the camera region V0.
As a method of preventing the deterioration of the shading, JP-A 140609/1994 describes a technique of performing slight-scaling with referring to the center of a camera region as shown in FIG. 9. The "slight-scaling" is a technique of shifting each of the microlenses 2 gradually larger toward the center of the camera region based on the corresponding light-receiving parts 1, as the location of the microlens is getting closer to the peripheral camera region 22 from the middle of the camera region 21 by using an interval P′ for a microlens array (consisting of microlenses 2 having a common size) which is smaller than an interval P for the light-receiving parts 1, i.e., opening 4a (P′=a×P; scale a is <1, e.g., "a" is set to be 0.9999). Thus, the eclipse of the incident light IL in the peripheral camera region 22 is reduced. A dotted line in FIG. 8 indicates that the slight-scaling technique decreased the difference between Ve and V0, that is, the shading was somewhat corrected in comparison with the case where the slight-scaling was not performed (the broken line).
Further, in an optical system of a camera, especially when its aperture stop opens fully, a phenomenon occurs that a quantity of the light having passed through near the rim of its lens is less than that of the light having passed through the middle of the lens (so-called "rim darkening"). The slight-scaling technique can not sufficiently correct the shading caused by the rim darkening.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a solid-state camera device which can correct the shading caused by the eclipse of the incident light and, further can correct the shading caused by the rim darkening, and to provide a method of manufacturing it. Another object of the present invention is to provide a method of manufacturing a mask for forming light-focusing parts of such a solid-state camera device.
These objects as well as other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art by the following description with reference to the attached drawings.

Solid-state camera device and method of manufacturing the same, and method of making mask for manufacturing the device


A method may include receiving a selection of a streaming data source, where the streaming data source provides data to a display component in a graphical model; determining a data type for the data associated with the streaming data source. Determining the data type may include reading a portion of the data from the data source, analyzing the read data portion to determine a data pattern, and identifying the data type based on the data pattern, where the identified data type is one of a plurality of available data types. The method may further include selecting, in response to determining the data type, a visual representation for the data associated with the data source; and displaying the data associated with the data source using the selected visual representation within the display component.

When a user interacts with a computer device, the user may request to open a particular file or a data stream. The requested file or data stream may be associated with a particular application or a particular format. In order to select a correct application or a correct format, the user may be prompted by the computer device to select an application or a format from a list. Having to select an application or format from a list may prove to be cumbersome and/or confusing for a user, especially when the user is provided with multiple applications or formats from which to choose. Furthermore, a user may not know how to select an application or format for a file or a data stream.

Display selection based on data format recognition


The invention provides a non-naturally occurring microbial organism having a muconate pathway having at least one exogenous nucleic acid encoding a muconate pathway enzyme expressed in a sufficient amount to produce muconate. The muconate pathway including an enzyme selected from the group consisting of a beta-ketothiolase, a beta-ketoadipyl-CoA hydrolase, a beta-ketoadipyl-CoA transferase, a beta-ketoadipyl-CoA ligase, a 2-fumarylacetate reductase, a 2-fumarylacetate dehydrogenase, a trans-3-hydroxy-4-hexendioate dehydratase, a 2-fumarylacetate aminotransferase, a 2-fumarylacetate aminating oxidoreductase, a trans-3-amino-4-hexenoate deaminase, a beta-ketoadipate enol-lactone hydrolase, a muconolactone isomerase, a muconate cycloisomerase, a beta-ketoadipyl-CoA dehydrogenase, a 3-hydroxyadipyl-CoA dehydratase, a 2,3-dehydroadipyl-CoA transferase, a 2,3-dehydroadipyl-CoA hydrolase, a 2,3-dehydroadipyl-CoA ligase, a muconate reductase, a 2-maleylacetate reductase, a 2-maleylacetate dehydrogenase, a cis-3-hydroxy-4-hexendioate dehydratase, a 2-maleylacetate aminoatransferase, a 2-maleylacetate aminating oxidoreductase, a cis-3-amino-4-hexendioate deaminase, and a muconate cis/trans isomerase. Other muconate pathway enzymes also are provided. Additionally provided are methods of producing muconate.

The present disclosure relates generally to the design of engineered organisms and, more specifically to organisms having selected genotypes for the production of muconic acid.
Terephthalate (also known as terephthalic acid and PTA) is the immediate precursor of polyethylene terephthalate (PET), used to make clothing, resins, plastic bottles and even as a poultry feed additive. Nearly all PTA is produced from para-xylene by the oxidation in air in a process known as the Mid Century Process (Roffia et al., Ind. Eng. Chem. Prod. Res. Dev. 23:629-634 (1984)). This oxidation is conducted at high temperature in an acetic acid solvent with a catalyst composed of cobalt and/or manganese salts. Para-xylene is derived from petrochemical sources, and is formed by high severity catalytic reforming of naphtha. Xylene is also obtained from the pyrolysis gasoline stream in a naphtha steam cracker and by toluene disproportion.
PTA, toluene and other aromatic precursors are naturally degraded by some bacteria. However, these degradation pathways typically involve monooxygenases that operate irreversibly in the degradative direction. Hence, biosynthetic pathways for PTA are severely limited by the properties of known enzymes to date.
Muconate (also known as muconic acid, MA) is an unsaturated dicarboxylic acid used as a raw material for resins, pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals. Muconate can be converted to adipic acid, a precursor of Nylon-6,6, via hydrogenation (Draths and Frost, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 116; 399-400 (1994)). Alternately, muconate can be hydrogenated using biometallic nanocatalysts (Thomas et al., Chem. Commun. 10:1126-1127 (2003)).
Muconate is a common degradation product of diverse aromatic compounds in microbes. Several biocatalytic strategies for making cis,cis-muconate have been developed. Engineered E. coli strains producing muconate from glucose via shikimate pathway enzymes have been developed in the Frost lab (U.S. Pat. No. 5,487,987 (1996); Niu et al., Biotechnol Prog., 18:201-211 (2002)). These strains are able to produce 36.8 g/L of cis, cis-muconate after 48 hours of culturing under fed-batch fermenter conditions (22% of the maximum theoretical yield from glucose). Muconate has also been produced biocatalytically from aromatic starting materials such as toluene, benzoic acid and catechol. Strains producing muconate from benzoate achieved titers of 13.5 g/L and productivity of 5.5 g/L/hr (Choi et al., J. Ferment. Bioeng. 84:70-76 (1997)). Muconate has also been generated from the effluents of a styrene monomer production plant (Wu et al., Enzyme and Microbiology Technology 35:598-604 (2004)).
All biocatalytic pathways identified to date proceed through enzymes in the shikimate pathway, or degradation enzymes from catechol. Consequently, they are limited to producing the cis, cis isomer of muconate, since these pathways involve ring-opening chemistry. The development of pathways for producing trans, trans-muconate and cis,trans-muconate would be useful because these isomers can serve as direct synthetic intermediates for producing renewable PTA via the inverse electron demand Diels-Alder reaction with acetylene. The present invention satisfies this need and provides related advantages as well.

Semi-synthetic terephthalic acid via microorganisms that produce muconic acid