There is disclosed a nasal irrigation system having an applicator or irrigating member through which a pressurized stream of irrigating fluid is passed through to the nasal passage. The applicator or irrigating member includes a tubular member, adapted for receiving a pressurized stream of fluid from a fluid source, having a bore extending therethrough. The tubular member is formed of a first portion and a second portion offset at an angle from each other. One portion of the tubular member includes an opening extending into the bore. The covering and uncovering of the opening by the user allows for the user to control the pressure of the fluid stream through the irrigating member, such that the fluid stream is directed to the nose and nasal passages when desired. A fitting is attached to an end of the tubular member for further comfort for contacting the nose. A method for using the irrigating member and the system including this irrigating member is also disclosed.

Sinusitis is caused by inflammation in the nose. This can be due to a variety of factors, including any combination of inhaled allergens, inhaled pollutants including tobacco smoke, infectious agents (including viruses such as those that cause the common cold and bacteria) abnormalities in the structure of the nasal passages, and reflux of stomach acids. As a result of these factors, the membranes lining the nasal cavity can become swollen and are unable to function properly. Sinus and nasal mucus can not be cleared, sinus cavities become clogged, and normal breathing is inhibited. In addition, bacteria can begin to grow rapidly in the accumulated sinonasal mucus, leading to sinus infections, which are potentially serious and even fatal diseases.
Accordingly, it is highly desirable to irrigate the nasal passages, to aid in the clearance of secretions, debris, intranasal crusts, and other intranasal irritants, and keep the nasal passages clear. This irrigation inhibits the chances of sinusitis, infectious processes, and other sinonasal conditions.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,847,145 (Grossan) discloses one such system, through which the nasal passages may be irrigated. The system includes a device that receives fluid from a fluid source, typically in a pulsatile mode under pressure, and transfers this fluid through a hose to an applicator, through which the fluid enters the nose (nostril) when the tip of the applicator is placed proximate thereto. This system exhibits several drawbacks.
Initially, the applicator is uncomfortable to use, for the user must position their fingers on a small fingertip grip. Additionally, the applicator lacks any structure thereon from which the user can control fluid flow therethrough. Accordingly, should the user suddenly desire to cease fluid flow to the nasal passages, the applicator must be removed from the nose, resulting in fluid squirting in all directions in an uncontrolled manner, until the device can be accessed and the fluid flow controlled, by adjusting a control mechanism or the like. In the interim time period, this uncontrolled squirting makes a mess of the surrounding area. Similarly, even a controlled cessation of the fluid flow, even if temporary, must be done by adjusting a control mechanism on the device itself. This requires the user to either leave the downwardly bent position, to properly reach the control mechanism on the device, such that fluid may fall outside of the basin, or remain in the downwardly bent position and attempt to reach the control mechanism on the device and risk potentially bumping or knocking the device, whereby it may be damaged.
Finally, the applicator of Grossan was designed to be held at a gripping portion, such that when the applicator was pressed into contact with the nose, a torque was created on the clear plastic tube, causing it to bend and subsequently break. Breakage typically occurred at the junction of the tube and the gripping portion.


A horizontal metal extrusion press has a pair of relatively stationary end plates spaced apart relative to a press axis and a plurality of spaced parallel tie rods extending parallel to the axis between the end plates, fixing same axially together, and each formed with a support face extending parallel to the axis and lying in a plane forming an acute angle with the horizontal and vertical and generally including the axis. A movable plate is displaceable axially between the end plates and carries a ram. A holder support is carried on one of the end plates and a cylinder carried on one of the end plates and braced against the movable plate for axially displacing same. Respective prismatic-section base bars on the support faces of the tie rods each have a generally vertical guide face and a generally horizontal guide face. These base bars are secured on the respective tie rods for limited movement radially of the axis. Respective vertical adjusters are braced between each of the horizontal guide faces and the movable plate and respective horizontal adjusters independent of the vertical adjusters are braced between each of the vertical guide faces and the movable plate.

Horizontal metal extrusion presses are normally provided with a press frame formed by a cylinder plate, a counter plate, and at least four tie rods therebetween. It is significant for compact construction that the tie rods act as guides for the support holder and the movable plate which are shiftable in the press frame along the press axis (German patent 2,366,117). Such direct guiding on the tie rods allows one to dispense with a base frame functioning as a guide (German patent 644,174, German published application 2,003,244).
The support of the support holder and also of the movable plate is usually on support faces that are set at an angle so that their extension cuts the press axis or lies near the press axis, that is they point toward the press axis to ensure a centered position of the holder and the ram that will not be influenced by thermal expansion caused by temperature changes. In order to centrally position the holder and the ram on the press axis supports are arranged with a base frame supporting the guides for the support holder and the movable plate between the guides and the base frame, these supports being adjustable horizontally on the base frame perpendicular to the press axis and being vertically adjustable relative to the guides (German patent 644,174).
When dispensing with the base frame acting as guide frame and forming the tie rods as guides for the support holder and the movable plate, the supports must be eliminated and the adjusters must be arranged to be effective perpendicularly to the support surfaces oriented on the press axis in the support holder and movable plate, as this is done in a support holder guided by a press frame in German 1,452,264, and also in an extrusion press provided with a base frame formed as a guide frame as in German published application 2,003,244. This arrangement of the adjusters perpendicular to the support surfaces oriented on the press axis has the disadvantage that the adjustment always works out to vertical and horizontal components that must be compensated for by a displacement of the slide shoe of the adjuster riding on the support surface transverse to the displacement direction of the support holder and movable plate. Actuation of the adjusters is first done in setting up the extrusion press when the support holder and movable plate are at rest so that as a result of friction between the slide shoes and the support surfaces an offset either does not take place at all or only somewhat on displacement of the holder or of the movable plate, thereby making adjustment of the extrusion press more difficult.
When the extrusion press is calibrated only when it is warmed up, later temperature changes are lost along with the heat expansions which arrangement of the support surfaces for the support holder and movable plate relative to the press axis are intended to correct. As a result this arrangement is to be maintained. The press frame formed of cylinder plate, counter plate, and tie rods therebetween undergoes an elastic deformation such that the cylinder plate and counter plate bow outward and the tie rods bow inward, although this is minimized but not eliminated by the considerable rigidity of the cylinder plate and counter plate. Since the elimination of a base frame forming a guide frame results in the guiding of the support holder and the movable plate by the tie rods, the arrangement of the support surfaces on the tie rods oriented to the press axis is necessary.


An anode active material includes: a core including a metal or a metalloid that can incorporate and deincorporate lithium ions; and a plurality of coating layers on a surface of the core, each coating layer including a metal oxide, an amorphous carbonaceous material, or combination thereof. Also, a lithium battery including the anode active material, and a method of preparing the anode active material.

1. Field
The present disclosure relates to an anode active material, a lithium battery including the anode active material, and a method of preparing the anode active material, and more particularly, an anode active material having improved charge-discharge rate characteristics and improved lifetime characteristics, a lithium battery including the anode active material, and a method of preparing the anode active material.
2. Description of the Related Art
Lithium batteries, and in particular, lithium ion batteries ("LIB" s) have been used as power sources for various portable devices due to their high energy density and ease of design. With recent use of LIBs as power sources for electric vehicles or power storages, and for portable information technology ("IT") devices, there has been increasing research into materials for lithium ion batteries having high energy density and long lifetime.
In particular, regarding high-capacity anode active materials, anode active materials using silicon or silicon alloys have drawn attention as high-capacity anode active materials. However, anode active materials using silicon or silicon alloys may undergo significant volume change during charge and discharge of a lithium battery. This may cause the surface of silicon in the anode active material to be continuously exposed to an electrolyte in the lithium battery, and consequently lead to capacity loss in the lithium battery. Furthermore, such anode active materials using silicon or silicon alloys may have low electrical conductivity, and thus may result in lower performing lithium batteries.
Therefore, there still is a need for an anode active material having improved charge and discharge rate characteristics and improved lifetime characteristics, a lithium battery including the anode active material, and a method of preparing the anode active material.

Anode active material, lithium battery comprising the same, and method of preparing the anode active material


A heatsink, a light-emitting diode (LED) module and a corresponding method of manufacture are described. A heatsink includes an electrically conductive heatsink core and an electrically insulating layer covering at least the first surface of the electrically conductive heatsink core. The electrically conductive heatsink core has a first pin that is integral with the electrically conductive heatsink core and protrudes from a first surface of the heatsink core. At least the first surface of the heatsink core is covered by an electrically insulating layer, which leaves at least portions of a lateral surface of the first pin exposed from the electrically insulating layer.

Light emitting diodes (LEDs) are more and more replacing older technology light sources due to superior technical properties, such as energy efficiency and lifetime. This is also true for demanding applications, for example in terms of luminance, luminosity, and/or beam shaping (such as for vehicle headlighting). However, despite their energy efficiency, LEDs, and especially high-power ones, may still develop considerable heat, which may require cooling, which may typically be done by connecting the LED to a heatsink, to keep LED junction temperatures low. Such heat sinking is often used in many other high-power semiconductor components.

Heatsink with protruding pins and method of manufacture


Disclosed is an image forming apparatus including: an image forming unit configured to form an image on a conveyed recording medium; a density detecting unit configured to detect a density of the image formed on the recording medium; a phase detecting unit configured to detect a phase of a predetermined periodic member; a control unit configured to instruct the image forming unit to form a pattern on the recording medium, and to prepare correction data for one period of the periodic member from density data obtained by detecting the density of the pattern; and a density unevenness correcting unit configured to correct image data by repeatedly applying the correction data for one period so as to match with the phase of the periodic member, and to correct the density unevenness in the conveying direction, which is caused due to the periodic member.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus having a function of correcting the density unevenness in the conveying direction, which is caused on the recording medium, and a density unevenness correcting method.
2. Description of Related Art
In an image forming apparatus for printing an image on a recording sheet, the density unevenness is caused due to various types of factors. In order to suppress the density unevenness, the following correcting process is generally carried out. In the correcting process, a test image is printed on the recording sheet to measure the density by optically reading the test image, and the correction data is prepared so as to cancel the measured density unevenness. Then, by using the correction data, the image data to be printed is corrected.
The density unevenness is caused in the sub-scanning direction which is the conveying direction of the recording sheet, in addition to the main scanning direction which is perpendicular to the conveying direction of the recording sheet. Therefore, in order to precisely correct the density unevenness, it is desirable to correct not only the density unevenness in the main scanning direction, but also the density unevenness in the sub-scanning direction.
In the density unevenness caused in the sub-scanning direction, the density unevenness is caused as the periodic unevenness of the rotary member, such as the developing sleeve, the photoconductive drum, and the like. In order to correct the above density unevenness, it is necessary to correct the density unevenness so as to match with the period and the phase of the rotary member.
Because the phase of the rotary member is asynchronous with the timing of conveying the head of the sheet, or the like, it is necessary to obtain the special signal or the like to synchronize the phase of the rotary member with the head of the sheet. As an example, there is a method in which the home position signal (hereinafter, referred to as "HP signal") of the rotary member is obtained. The HP signal is a signal for informing that the rotary member is placed in the reference position, and is generated when the rotary member passes the reference position in every one rotation.
As an example for generating the HP signal, the plate having a half moon shape is attached to the rotation shaft, and the plate is read by a photoelectric sensor. The HP signal output by the photoelectric sensor is a rectangular wave in which one rotation of the rotary member is defined as one period. Therefore, in case that the timing at which the HP signal rises is monitored, it is possible to recognize the timing at which the rotary member is placed in the specific phase (the reference position) in one rotation.
In order to correct the periodic density unevenness caused due to the rotary member by matching with the period and the phase of the rotary member, it is necessary to prepare the correction data for one period of the rotary member. As a method for preparing the correction data, the following method has been generally adopted. In the method, a pattern having the uniform density is drawn in the sub-scanning direction on the recording medium, and the density unevenness is grasped by measuring the density of the above pattern with a density sensor. Then, the correction data for cancelling the measured density unevenness is prepared.
The density data obtained by drawing the pattern on the recording medium, which corresponds to one period of the rotary member to be corrected, and by measuring the pattern with the density sensor, includes the density unevenness caused due to the members other than the rotary member to be corrected (each rotary member having the different period from that of the rotary member to be corrected, and the like). The above density unevenness becomes a noise when the periodic density unevenness caused due to the rotary member to be corrected (hereinafter, also referred to as "periodic unevenness") is precisely obtained.
The long pattern corresponding to a plurality of periods of the rotary member to be corrected is drawn in the sub-scanning direction, and the density data obtained by measuring the density of the pattern is divided into a plurality of the density data for one period of the rotary member to be corrected in order to extract a plurality of the density data. By phasing the extracted density data to superpose and average the extracted density data, the noise caused due to the members other than the rotary member to be corrected is decreased. Then, the density unevenness data for one period, which is caused due to the rotary member to be corrected, is obtained.
The process for extracting a plurality of density data for one period of the rotary member to be corrected from the obtained density data is generally carried out in accordance with the HP signal. For example, in an example of FIG. 12, the pattern is drawn for seven periods in synchronization with the HP signal, and is measured by the density sensor. Then, the head position of the pattern drawn on the recording medium is detected in accordance with the change in the output value of the density sensor, and the density data having the length corresponding to the seven rotations of the rotary member is obtained from the head position of the pattern. By equally dividing the obtained density data into 7 sections, 7 pieces of density data for one period of the rotary member, which are started from the same phase, are extracted. By averaging the extracted 7 pieces of density data and preparing the averaged density data for one period, it is possible to obtain the density data in which the components caused due to other members having the different periods are eliminated. In FIG. 12, by carrying out the FFT process and the inverse FFT process, the unrelated frequency components are eliminated. However, the above processes may be omitted.
In the averaged density data and the correction data for one period, which is prepared in accordance with the averaged density data, the head position thereof is coincident with the rising of the HP signal. Therefore, the correction process for correcting the density unevenness by using the above correction data is also carried out in synchronization with the rising of the HP signal.
As shown in FIG. 13, in case that the pattern is dense and the density difference between the pattern and the original color of the recording medium is large, it is possible to precisely judge the head position of the pattern in accordance with the change in the output value of the density sensor. On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 14, in case that the pattern is thin and the density difference between the pattern and the original color of the recording medium is small, it is difficult to judge the head position of the pattern in accordance with the change in the output value of the density sensor.
In Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2007-140402, in order to avoid the above problem, as shown in FIG. 15, the technology in which the marker having the high density is necessarily provided on the head position of the pattern, is disclosed. Therefore, it is possible to detect the head position of the pattern by using the marker even though the pattern is thin.
According to the technology disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2007-140402, it is possible to easily detect the head position of the pattern. However, the density data for one period is extracted with reference to the head position of the pattern by using the theoretical length corresponding to the one period of the rotary member. For example, as shown in FIG. 15, in case that one period of the rotary member corresponds to the T line in the sub-scanning direction, which is the theoretical value, the density data for one period is extracted by each T line from the position of the marker.
However, as shown in FIG. 16, in case that the actual length of one period of the rotary member on the recording medium (T′ line) is different from the theoretical length (T line), even though the density data is extracted by using the theoretical length, the density data is not precisely extracted by one period. Therefore, even though the extracted density data are averaged, the noise caused due to the members other than the rotary member to be corrected cannot be precisely reduced.
As a factor which causes the actual length of one period of the rotary member on the recording medium to have a different value from the theoretical length, there is an error of the rotation rate of the rotary member. Further, there is a case in which the variable magnification is caused in the sub-scanning direction. For example, in case that the intermediate transfer belt is the recording medium, the difference between the actual length and the theoretical length is caused by the tension or the flexure of the intermediate transfer belt.
As shown in FIG. 17, instead of the extract of the density data using the theoretical length (T line), the HP signal is also supplied to the density sensor. In case that the density data output from the density sensor is extracted in accordance with the period of the HP signal, the shift caused due to the error of the rotation rate of the rotary member can be cancelled. However, even in the above method, as shown by the dashed line in the drawing, when the tension or the flexure of the intermediate transfer belt, the skew or the like is caused, the error caused due to this cannot be cancelled. Therefore, the density data cannot be extracted by one period with high precision.

Image forming apparatus and density unevenness correcting method


End rings are coupled with upper and lower ends of a cylindrical body tube. A plurality of first heat exchanger tubes are fitted and held in holes provided in a pair of first tube plates. A plurality of second heat exchanger tubes are fitted and held in holes provided in a pair of second tube plates. The inside of each first heat exchanger tubes forms a first-fluid passage for carrying a reformed gas. The space defined between an outer wall of each first heat exchanger tube and an inner wall of the corresponding second heat exchanger tube forms a second-fluid passage for carrying a coolant. The space defined among an inner wall of the body tube and outer walls of the second heat exchanger tubes form a third-fluid passage for carrying compressed air.

Apparatuses consistent with the present invention relate to heat exchangers capable of heat exchange among three or more fluids.
The heat exchanger is a device for transferring heat energy from a high-temperature fluid to a low-temperature fluid, and is typically employed as a heating, cooling, or heat recovery device of various kinds in a chemical treatment system. For example, hydrogen for use in a fuel cell may generally be produced by subjecting hydrocarbon fuels (feedstocks) such as natural gases to reforming and other treatments, and a fuel reforming system for such a reforming treatment requires several types of heat exchangers. The heat exchangers for use with the fuel reforming system may include, for example: an air cooler for cooling high-temperature and high-pressure air used for reforming treatment and discharged from a compressor to render it reusable as air for driving auxiliary equipment; a gas cooler for cooling a high-temperature reformed gas generated in a reformer; and a superheater for superheating a steam fuel mixture made from steam mixed with air and natural gases.
Typically, the heat exchanger is provided for causing heat exchange to take place between two fluids (e.g., gas and gas, liquid and liquid, gas and liquid, etc.). For systems or devices that require a plurality of heat exchangers, however, is employed an integrated heat exchanger in which a plurality of fin-and-tube type heat exchangers are combined together in order to achieve reductions in footprint and manufacturing cost. By way of example, a heat exchanger making up an air conditioner/water heater of an engine-driven heat pump type is known in the art (see JP 7-4778 A, Paragraph 0013, FIG. 2), which includes three heat exchangers combining to form a single unit: a heat exchanger for a coolant, a radiator, and an outdoor heat exchanger for a refrigerant. The heat exchanger for a coolant transfers heat between the refrigerant and the coolant for cooling an engine that causes a compressor of a refrigerant circuit to do mechanical work. The radiator transfers heat between the air and the coolant for cooling the engine. The heat exchanger for a refrigerant transfers heat between the air and the refrigerant. Another example of the integrated heat exchangers known in the art is a heat exchanger making up an industrial machine, which includes an after cooler for cooling compressed air and an oil cooler for cooling engine oils or the like, combining to form a single unit (see JP 10-213382 A, Paragraph 0018, FIG. 1).
Since the above-described integrated heat exchangers are each designed to form a single unit by simply combining two or more heat exchangers together, heat exchange among three or more fluids could not be achieved in the single-unit heat exchangers without increasing the heat exchange volume.
In the heat exchangers for use with the fuel reforming system as described above, the heat exchanger for cooling the reformed gas generated in the cylindrical reformer with a coolant is preferably designed in a cylindrical shape such that the reformed gas is flowed in its axial direction because such a cylindrical shape serves to maintain the continuity of the passage of the reformed gas and conforms to the requirements imposed on the system layout. In this configuration, a plurality of pipes through which the reformed gas is flowed are disposed within a cylindrical container in which the coolant is flowed, which would increase the amount of the coolant existing in the heat exchanger and would thus require an extended period of time for warming up of the fuel reforming system, disadvantageously decreasing the operation efficiency of the fuel reforming system. Moreover, in this type of the heat exchanger, the cylindrical container would inevitably be large in volume, which would make it difficult to improve the heat exchange performance by increasing the flow rate of the coolant flowed in the cylindrical container. It could be conceivable that the flow rate of the coolant would be increased by providing baffle plates spaced at small spacings in the cylindrical container, but this would increase the pressure loss of the coolant in the cylindrical container, thus causing disadvantageous increase in the load and power consumption of the circulating pump.
Still another example of the integrated heat exchangers known in the art, which appears not to entail the above disadvantages, is a laminated board type heat exchanger making up a helium liquefier/refrigerator or the like, which includes a plurality of porous thermally conductive boards and a plurality of thermally insulating boards with hydraulic passages provided therein. The thermally conductive boards and the thermally insulating boards are laminated alternately, and two channels of hydraulic passages piercing through the laminated layers are formed so that heat exchange takes place between two fluids through the thermally conductive boards while heat transfer across the laminated layers (i.e., between adjacent thermally conductive boards) is blocked by the thermally insulating boards. In addition to the two-channel hydraulic passages for heat exchange, another hydraulic passage through which a precooling refrigerant is passed for heat exchange is formed approximately along the central axis piercing through the laminated layers (see JP 6-55070 U, Paragraphs 0011, 0012, FIG. 1).
This type of the integrated heat exchanger however has the following disadvantages in production process and in reliability of the product. In the production process, a laminated body (composed of elements of several kinds to achieve a desired heat exchange capability) is manufactured by laminating the porous thermally conductive board and the thermally insulating boards alternately with adhesive sheets interleaved between adjacent boards. Therefore, each of the elements should be formed to have holes that constitute the hydraulic passages when the elements are assembled, and should be assembled in such a manner that the angular phases of the elements are accurately aligned with each other; thus, special working tools and assembly devices are required. Moreover, the multilayer structure of this heat exchanger is produced by bonding the alternately stacked porous thermally conductive boards and thermally insulating boards with the adhesive sheets, and thus could hardly avoid incomplete bonding which would entail leakage and/or mixture of the fluids, or other undesirable consequences. To be more specific, there is a potential of peeling or the like as a result of degradation of the adhesive which would progress as the laminated body carries high-temperature fluids over a long period of time.
The present invention has been made with consideration given to the above-discussed disadvantages. The inventors has recognized that it would be desirable to provide a heat exchanger having a relatively simple structure and capable of highly efficient heat exchange among three or more fluids.
Illustrative, non-limiting embodiments of the present invention overcome the above disadvantages and other disadvantages not described above. Also, the present invention is not required to overcome the disadvantages described above, and an illustrative, non-limiting embodiment of the present invention may not overcome any of the problems described above.


A catheter includes an elongate member configured to have a longitudinal axis and formed of a thermoplastic resin; an elongate guide wire holder section configured to include a cavity into which a guide wire is insertable at an interior of the elongate member; a cross-linked section configured to have a high cross-linked section and a low cross-linked section which is adjacent to the high cross-linked section in a radial direction of the elongate member and in which the cross-linking degree is relatively lower than that of the high cross-linked section; and an opening section configured to communicate with the cavity of the guide wire holder and an outer circumferential surface of the guide wire holder in the low cross-linked section of the cross-linked section and formed in a slit shape along the longitudinal axis of the guide wire holder.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a medical catheter.
Description of Related Art
Catheters used in combination with a guide wire are known. For example, a catheter having a guide wire lumen in a direction of a longitudinal axis thereof and an opening in an outer wall thereof is disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 4443631.
In such a catheter, the guide wire is inserted into a biliary duct or a pancreatic duct from a duodenal papilla via a channel of an endoscope. Also, a grip-side end of the guide wire is inserted into a guide wire opening of a distal end of the catheter. When the guide wire approaches the opening, the catheter is bent, and thereby the guide wire can be sent out of the catheter via the opening. In this state, the catheter is inserted into the channel of the endoscope, and is guided to the biliary duct or the pancreatic duct by the guide wire.


A suspension system for wheeled vehicles which allows the body or frame of a vehicle, such as a trailer, to be lowered or tilted. The suspension system includes an off-set axle which, when rotated, adjusts the clearance beneath the wheeled vehicle so that the body or frame thereof can be lowered or tilted. The off-set axle includes a central portion which can be rotated by applying tension to a tensioning member attached thereto. In one embodiment the tensioning member is coupled to a shuttle which in turn is detachably coupled to another tensioning member that can be detached from the shuttle and used to pull a load onto the vehicle. The shuttle can be used to transfer tension between the tensioning members and lock the axle into a desired position.

There are a number of wheeled devices which are used to haul various articles such as boat trailers which are used to haul boats, flat bed trailers which are used to haul automobiles, trucks, farm equipment, etc., small trailers which are used to haul lawn mowing equipment, motorcycles, snowmobiles, and the like.
In order to haul loads, trailers need to provide a bed or load-bearing platform which is spaced above the ground by a suitable clearance distance. Moreover, it is generally desired to maintain such beds or load-bearing platforms level during transportation, so that loads provided thereon do not shift.
Loading trailers with loads which cannot be easily lifted can be difficult. In order to do so, trailers are often tilted or tipped upward at their front ends so that their back ends become positioned near the ground. Such a procedure can become dangerous when the center of mass of a heavy load being pulled onto the trailer passes over the wheel axle and the weight thereof causes the trailer to level itself.
Trailers have been developed to include hinged rear sections which can be tilted separately so that the rear of such trailers can be lowered near the ground while the front of such trailers can remain level and optionally secured to a towing vehicle.
The tilting of trailers or trailer sections to lower the rear portion thereof near the ground is limited by the height of the trailer beds or platforms over the wheel axle. This clearance height dictates the angle at which the rear portion of a trailer can be aligned with respect to the ground. For loads which have a low ground clearance, it may not be possible to achieve a suitable trailer tilt angle which will prevent such loads from bottoming out when they are pulled or pushed onto a trailer.
The present invention provides a suspension system for trailers and other wheeled vehicles which allows the beds or platforms of such devices to be lowered.


A solenoid assembly (23) includes a coil assembly (65) having at least one coil winding (73) and an electronic circuit assembly (67), which is in electrical communication with the coil assembly (65). The electronic circuit assembly (67) has a printed circuit board (79) and at least one electronic component (81), which is surface mounted on the printed circuit board (79). A coating material (85) coats all of the plurality of external surfaces of the surface-mounted electronic component (81). A casing (87) over-molds an outer longitudinal surface (77) of the coil assembly (65) and all of a plurality of external surfaces of the electronic circuit assembly (67).

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electromagnetic solenoid assembly, and more particularly to the integration of an electronic circuit assembly in the electromagnetic solenoid assembly.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many off-highway vehicles, including but not limited to skid steer loaders, backhoe loaders, and mini-excavators, have a hydraulic system which includes one or more ancillary or auxiliary hydraulic functions to control some portion of the vehicle, such as raising and lowering a boom, or extending and retracting a boom. Many of these same vehicles require that the actuation of these hydraulic functions be electronic. Therefore, electromagnetic solenoid valve systems are often used on these vehicles to control those ancillary or auxiliary functions.
A typical electromagnetic solenoid valve system includes two primary components: an electromagnetic solenoid valve assembly and an electronic circuit assembly which electronically controls the electromagnetic solenoid valve assembly. In the typical electromagnetic solenoid valve system, the electronic circuit assembly can be mounted either remotely from the electromagnetic solenoid valve assembly or directly to the electromagnetic solenoid valve assembly.
In the remote mounting scenario, the electronic circuit assembly is typically mounted to the vehicle frame or to some rigid component of the vehicle. Since the electronic circuit assembly is in a remote location with respect to the electromagnetic solenoid valve assembly, a plurality of wires is used to allow for electrical communication between the electronic circuit assembly and the electromagnetic solenoid valve assembly. In addition, another plurality of wires is used to allow for communication between the electronic circuit assembly and a power source.
In the direct mounting scenario, the electronic circuit assembly is physically connected to the electromagnetic solenoid valve assembly. Typically, this physical connection is accomplished by using a bolt which fastens the electronic circuit assembly to the electromagnetic solenoid valve assembly and by mating a connector associated with the electronic circuit assembly to a connector associated with the electromagnetic solenoid valve assembly. In addition to assisting with the physical attachment of the electronic circuit assembly to the electromagnetic solenoid valve assembly, the connectors associated with the electronic circuit assembly and the electromagnetic solenoid valve assembly also establish the electrical communication between the electronic circuit assembly and the electromagnetic solenoid valve assembly. Similar to the remote mounted scenario, in the direct mounted scenario, a plurality of wires is used to allow for communication between the electronic circuit assembly and a power source.
While typical electromagnetic solenoid valve systems, such as the ones previously described, have proven to be successful commercially and to work well in many applications, such systems have some disadvantages when used in certain commercial applications. One such disadvantage associated with the systems previously described concerns the environmental protection of the electronic circuit assembly. As stated previously, these electromagnetic solenoid valve systems are used in vehicles such as skid steer loaders, backhoe loaders, and mini-excavators. As is well known to those skilled in the art, the environments in which these vehicles operate include water, dirt, mud, gravel, snow, and ice. In certain applications, the remote mounted and direct mounted electronic circuit assemblies may be particularly vulnerable to these environments due to the numerous locations on those electronic circuit assemblies through which such environmental hazards may ingress.
Another disadvantage associated with the systems previously described concerns the space requirements for use of such systems. A recent trend in commercial applications is to require that hydraulic components used on those applications, including the electromagnetic solenoid valve systems, be compact. In the direct mounted electronic circuit assembly scenario previously described, the electronic circuit assembly is typically directly mounted to the outer perimeter of the electromagnetic solenoid valve assembly, thereby increasing the overall outer perimeter of the electromagnetic solenoid valve system. As the overall outer perimeter of the electromagnetic solenoid valve system increase, the number of electromagnetic solenoid valve systems that can be mounted in a given sized manifold block decreases. Therefore, as the overall perimeter of the electromagnetic solenoid valve system increases, the size of the manifold block housing these systems must also increase. While the remote mounted electronic circuit board assembly does not result in an increase in the outer perimeter of the electromagnetic solenoid valve system, it does require additional space on the vehicle for remotely mounting the electronic circuit assembly.

Solenoid assembly with over-molded electronics


A forgery and falsification prevention device includes: a variable material containing unit that contains a variable material in which reflected light or transmitted light is changed in response to an application of a display stimulus; and an operation unit that performs a function of changing a display state of the variable material when an external stimulus is applied, by changing light reflection characteristics or light transmission characteristics of the variable material or changing the display stimulus which is applied to the variable material.

Various techniques have been introduced to prevent counterfeit and alteration of high-priced goods or goods having contents of which authenticity is required. Conventionally, techniques using fine patterns, braille, hologram, RFID and the like have been mainly used to prevent counterfeit and alteration of goods. However, such conventional techniques have limitations in that it is difficult for an ordinary user to determine whether goods are counterfeited or altered, or have problems in that it costs a lot to manufacture a means for preventing counterfeit and alteration.
In this regard, the inventor has developed a method and apparatus which allow an ordinary user to easily determine whether an object of counterfeit and alteration prevention is counterfeited or altered using a substance of which color or light transmittance is changed as a magnetic field is applied thereto.

Forgery and falsification prevention device


A vehicle door lock device includes a latch mechanism having a latch and a pawl, and a lock mechanism having an open lever linked with the pawl. The lock mechanism is combined with the latch mechanism. A latch-side axial support portion is provided in a latch housing of the latch mechanism. The latch-side axial support portion rotatably supports a coil portion of a pawl spring for biasing the pawl toward a default position. A lock-side axial support portion is provided in a lock housing of the lock mechanism. The lock-side axial support portion rotatably supports a coil portion of an open lever spring for biasing the open lever toward a default position. At least part of the latch-side axial support portion overlaps with the lock-side axial support portion, so that pulling out of the open lever spring is prevented by means of the latch-side axial support portion.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a vehicle door lock device for being capable of holding a vehicle door in a closed state relative to a body (a vehicle body) and locking the door.
2. Related Art
An example of a vehicle door lock device is disclosed in JP2002-129810A. The vehicle door lock device disclosed in JP2002-129810A includes a latch mechanism and a lock mechanism. The latch mechanism includes a latch and a pawl, and is adapted to be capable of holding the vehicle door in a closed state relative to the body. The lock mechanism includes an open lever linked with the pawl, and combines with the latch mechanism. This vehicle door lock device is assembled in the vehicle door. As is commonly known, the latch of the latch mechanism is capable of engaging with/disengaging from a striker assembled in the body, and the pawl of the latch mechanism is capable of holding/releasing the engagement of the latch with the striker.
In the vehicle door lock device disclosed in the aforementioned JP2002-129810A, a pawl spring (54) for biasing the pawl (52) toward a default position is provided in the latch mechanism, and an open lever spring (43b) for biasing the open lever (41) toward a default position is provided in the lock mechanism.


A method for operating a processor having an architecture of a larger bitlength with a program comprising instructions compiled to produce instruction results of at least one smaller bitlength having the steps of detecting when in program order a first smaller bitlength instruction is to be dispatched which does not have a target register address as one of its sources, and adding a so_extract_instruction into an instruction stream before the smaller bitlength instruction. The extract instruction includes the steps of dispatching the extract instruction together with the following smaller bitlength instruction from an instruction queue into a Reservation Station, issuing the extract instruction to an Instruction Execution Unit (IEU) as soon as all source operand data is available and an IEU is available according to respective issue scheme, executing the extract instruction by an available IEU, setting an indication that the result of the instruction needs to be written into the result field of the instruction following the extract instruction, and writing the extract instruction result into the result field of the first instruction, and into all fields of operands being dependent of the first instruction.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improvement of out-of-order CPU architecture regarding code flexibility. In particular, it relates to a method for operating an out-of-order processor having an architecture of a larger bitlength with a program comprising instructions compiled to produce instruction results of a smaller bitlength.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The present invention has a quite general scope which is not limited to a vendor-specific processor architecture because its key concepts are independent therefrom.
Despite of this fact it will be discussed with a specific prior art processor architecture.
FIG. 1 shows a schematically depicted prior art out-of-order processor 100, in this example a IBM S/390 processor having an essential component a so-called Instruction Window Buffer, further referred to herein as IWB. This is also depicted in FIG. 2 with reference numeral 110.
After coming from an instruction cache 160 and passed through a decode and branch prediction unit 170 the instructions are dispatched still in-order. In this out-of-order processor the instructions are allowed to be executed and the results written back into the IWB out-of-order.
In other words, after the instructions have been fetched by a fetch unit 170, stored in the instruction queue 140 and have been renamed in a renaming unit 115, see FIG. 2, they are stored in-order into a part of the IWB called reservation station (RS) 120. From the reservation station the instructions may be issued out-of-order to a plurality of instruction execution units 180 abbreviated herein as IEU, and the speculative results are stored in a temporary register buffer, called reorder buffer 125, abbreviated herein as (ROB). These speculative results are committed (or retired) in the actual program order thereby transforming the speculative result into the architectural state within a register file 130, a so-called Architected Register Array (ARA). In this way it is assured that the out-of-order processor with respect to its architectural state behaves like an in-order processor. The communication between rename unit reservation station 120, reorder buffer 125 and register file 130 is done with a multiplexer element 150.
In the before-mentioned prior art, exemplarily cited processor the central components of an out-of-order processor are implemented as a unified buffer, the above said Instruction Window Buffer (IWB).
Next, the Instruction Window Buffer components are described in some more detail and with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3 while introducing the problems of handling 32 bit instruction results in said exemplarily chosen 64 bit S/390 architecture.
From the instruction queue 140 up to 4 instructions are dispatched each cycle in program order to the IWB. The IWB pipeline is depicted in FIG. 3 and starts with renaming, 310, said up to 4 dispatched instructions. The renaming process, translates the source logical register address into a physical address specifying where the speculative result resides or will be stored after execution. Furthermore, it allocates new ROB entries for the storage of the speculative results after execution of the dispatched instructions.
The detection of a dependency of a source register with the target register of an instruction that resides in the IWB is done by the renaming logic by comparing the source operand register addresses with the target operand register addresses stored for each entry.
Next, match(0 . . . 63) signals generated for each entry are ANDed with a so called "current_bit(0 . . . 63)". A current_bit(i) is only ON when an instruction i is the youngest instruction in the IWB for the specific logical target register address. It should be noted that ANDing the match(0 . . . 63) with the current_bit(0 . . . 63) string—thereby generating the RSEL(0 . . . 63) string in FIG. 2—is needed, since several matches may be found for the same logical target address. However, only the match with the youngest instructions specifies the correct dependency. It should be noted further that instead of a current bit a priority filter logic could also be used to filter out the youngest match and thereby generating the RSEL(0 . . . 63) for an operand. The generation of the RSEL(0 . . . 63) string has been described here for a single operand, but it will be clear that in the case when more operands or more instructions are renamed, then for each operand such a RSEL(0 . . . 63) string is generated.
In the next "read ROB" cycle 320, the RSEL(0 . . . 63) selects the ReOrder Buffer (ROB). As a result the tag, data validity bit and target data (if available) will appear at the output ports of the ROB 125 for each source operand at the end of the second cycle. Dependent on the protocol that the IEUs supports, the tag, validity and data may not be read in the same cycle. In other words, after the read out of the tag, the read out of the data or the validity bits may be realized in separate cycles to maintain the consistency of the data between reorder buffer ROB 125 and reservation station 120. In case that there is no dependency (RSEL(0 . . . 63)="00 . . . 00") the "read_ARA" signal is switched ON by the ROB causing that the operand data will be read from the ARA 230 addressed by the logical address. This ends the "read ROB"cycle.
Next, in the "write RS" cycle 330 the tag, validity and data is written into the reservation 220 -entry allocated to the renamed instructions. Again, the writing of data in the reservation station may be delayed for the validity and data bits dependent on the protocol for tag and data of the IEU″s.
In the next cycle, the "select" cycle 340, the instructions for which the data was written into the reservation station in the previous cycle will be included into the set of instructions that are considered by the select logic for issue. In the IWB the select logic selects the oldest instruction that waits for issue for each IEU. This logic is implemented by a priority filter like it is described in the above referenced patent application. As a result of the select logic a string issue(0 . . . 63) is generated for the IEUs. A bit issue(i)="1" specifies that this entry in the RS 220 has to be issued to an IEU.
The generation of one or more issue(0 . . . 63) strings by the select logic ends the select cycle. It should be noted that the select logic may select the instruction for issue out of the normal program order for execution dependent on the availability of the source data for each instruction.
In the issue cycle 350, the issue(0 . . . 63) strings specify the RS entry that has to be read out, and at the end of the cycle the data, control, tag, etc. bits will appear at the RS ports to the IEUs.
Finally, then the execution of the instruction is done in the cycles "exe 1",360 and "exe 2" 370. The tags, specifying the entry where the data has to be stored in the ROB 125 and the RS 120, are compared with the stored tags for the sources. In case of a match the validity bit is set and the result data is stored in the sources of the dependent instruction in the RS.
Finally the commit process will free-up the IWB entries in the original program order by copying the data from the ROB to the ARA 130.
As soon as the data has been written into the ARA it has become the architectural state of the processor and the IWB entries can be used again to store the new instructions dispatched by the fetch unit.

Method for handling 32 bit results for an out-of-order processor with a 64 bit architecture

International Business Machines Corporation


A method for combusting fuel in an engine involving decreasing a first volume of a homogeneous lean fuel/air charge to a second volume, in two stages, while increasing the pressure and temperature of that charge (a compression process having a chosen compression ratio), then increasing the pressure at constant volume while adding heat until a predetermined temperature is obtained, increasing the third volume of gas to a fourth volume, in two stages while decreasing the pressure at the predetermined temperature (an expansion process having a chosen expansion ratio much greater than the compression ratio), decreasing the pressure to atmospheric pressure while removing heat under constant volume, and finally decreasing the volume of gas to the first volume while removing heat under constant pressure to complete an over expanded, cycle. Also disclosed is an engine employing said over expanded, two-stroke HCCI cycle.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to internal combustion engines and, more particularly, to a two-stroke, over expanded homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) engine cycle designed to solve the major obstacles preventing the commercialization of HCCI engines, including controlling the timing of autoignition and operation over a wide range of load requirements. In addition to solving these problems, the cycle provides superior thermal and mechanical efficiency over existing four-stroke HCCI engines.
2. Background of the Prior Art
In the quest to develop a better internal combustion engine, satisfying emissions requirements is paramount. Potential gains in power and/or efficiency are immaterial, unless a new engine design is able to meet such requirements in a commercially feasible way. Of the three primary noxious emissions (NOx, CO and HC), developing ways to reduce nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions is perhaps the most vexing. Moreover, under current engine operating cycles, potential solutions that address NOx emissions tend to exacerbate carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrocarbon (HC) emissions.
In traditional diesel engines, the high temperature of the early burned fuel-air mixture is the primary culprit in NOx formation. More specifically, combustion is initiated by injecting fuel into compressed air and the temperature rises due to the burning of the fuel. Importantly, the combustion of the fuel results in expansion of the burning gases thereby causing a rapid increase in pressure. This rapid increase in pressure following combustion causes an additional increase in temperature of the already burned gas. The cumulative increase in temperature that results from the burning of the fuel-air mixture, plus the additional increase caused by the post-burning compression, is referred to herein as the "post-combustion temperature." In a traditional diesel engine, the post-combustion temperature exceeds the threshold temperature at which unacceptable levels of NOx are formed.
Over the past several years, HCCI engines have held the promise of providing cleaner burning and more fuel efficient internal combustion engines. Characterized by the autoignition of a compressed lean homogenous charge, the entire compressed fuel/air mixture burns simultaneously avoiding further compression of already burned gases, which is the primary cause for the high combustion temperatures that cause the formation of NOx. Several obstacles, however, have thus far hindered the development of a commercially viable HCCI engine.
First, researchers have yet to develop a viable means for controlling the timing of autoignition of the compressed homogenous charge. Combustion is initiated by the compression of the homogenous charge to the required autoignition temperature. There is no commercially viable means, however, to precisely control the timing of autoignition because in a four-stroke HCCI cycle the chemical kinetics involved in the autoignition timing have thus far proved too complex to predict or control. In addition, even if the problem of controlling autoignition timing of the homogenous charge could be solved, conventional four-stroke HCCI engines can only sustain HCCI operation over a narrow range of load conditions.


A phase shift amount measurement apparatus able to further correctly measure a phase shift amount of a phase shifter, wherein a laterally offset interference image of a phase shift mask is formed by a shearing interferometer, the interference image is captured by a two-dimensional imaging device, an output signal output from each light receiving element of the two-dimensional imaging device is supplied to a signal processing device, the phase shift amount is calculated for each light receiving element, the light receiving area of the light receiving element is very small, therefore the phase shift amount of any light receiving element outputting a peculiar phase amount due to incidence of diffraction light or multi-reflection light is excluded and the phase shift amount is determined based on the phase shift amount found from output signals of the remaining light receiving elements.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a phase shift amount measurement apparatus for measuring a phase shift amount of a phase shift mask.
Further, the present invention relates to a transmittance measurement apparatus for measuring the transmittance of a light shielding pattern of a photo-mask.
2. Description of the Related Art
As photo-masks designed to handle the miniaturization of LSIs, half-tone type phase shift masks and Levenson type phase shift masks have been put into practical use. The phase shift masks are designed so as to give a phase difference of π or an odd number of times of that to light passing through adjacent pattern elements of a mask pattern. The resolution of the exposed pattern falls along with the deviation from the design value and the quality as a photo-mask is lowered. For this reason, in the production process of a photo-mask, the phase shift amount is an important parameter for securing the quality. The phase shift amount of a phase shift mask is measured by using a phase shift amount measurement apparatus.
In a conventional phase shift amount measurement apparatus, the measurement was carried out by forming a test pattern on a corner portion of a quartz substrate of the photo-mask, measuring the phase shift amount of the test pattern, and estimating the phase shift amount of an actually used mask pattern (real pattern) based on the measurement result. However, along with the miniaturization of photo-masks, the demand for not measurement according to the test pattern, but the measurement of the phase shift amount of the mask pattern used in actual exposure has becomes stronger. Development of a phase shift amount measurement apparatus able to correctly measure the phase shift amount of an actual pattern has been demanded.
As an apparatus for measuring the phase shift amount of a half tone type phase shift mask, an apparatus projecting illumination light toward the phase shift mask to be checked, making the light transmitted from an opening portion of the phase shift mask and light transmitted from a phase shifter to interfere with each other by using a two-beam interferometer, receiving the emitted interference light by a photomultiplier, and measuring the phase shift amount based on an output signal from the photomultiplier is known (see for example Japanese Patent Publication (A) No. 11-327119).
In a case of measuring the phase shift amount of the actual mask of the half-tone type phase shift mask and a Levenson type phase shift mask, there is the inconvenience that when a pattern edge portion of the mask approaches the light measurement region, strong diffraction light generated by the pattern edge portion enters the light measurement region and becomes noise light. In particular, in a conventional phase shift amount measurement apparatus, interference light emitted from an interference optical system is received by the photomultiplier. Therefore, not only the measurement light, but also the multi-reflected light in the optical system and stray light due to aberration of the lenses strike the photomultiplier, so there was a limit to the measurement precision and reliability. Namely, when measuring interference light by using a single light receiving element having a relatively large light receiving area like a photomultiplier, the diffraction light from the pattern edge portion etc., the multi-reflected light, and so on strike the photomultiplier together with the normal measurement light. The light amount value including the amounts of these lights is output from the photomultiplier. Further, the phase amounts and luminances of these undesired external lights greatly differ from the phase amount etc. of the normal measurement light. Accordingly, when measuring the phase shift amount by using the output signal from a photomultiplier, a large error occurs in the measured phase shift amount.
Further, along with the miniaturization of LSIs, there is a strong demand for managing the transmittance of the light shielding pattern forming the actual mask and for development of a transmittance measurement apparatus able to measure the transmittance of the light shielding pattern of an actual mask with a wide dynamic range.

Phase shift amount measurement apparatus and transmittance measurement apparatus


The invention relates to self emulsifying drug delivery system based compositions of rhein or diacerein, or salts or esters or prodrugs thereof which are bioequivalent to a 50 mg diacerein formulation marketed under the trade name Art 50®. The compositions exhibit no variability in fed and fasted state conditions. The compositions also result in significant reduction in side effects such as, soft stools effects as compared to Art 50®. The invention also relates to methods for preparing such compositions.

Chemically, rhein is 9,10-dihydro-4,5-dihydroxy-9,10-dioxo-2-anthracene carboxylic acid having a structure of Formula I and diacerein is 4,5-bis(acetyloxy) 9,10-dihydro-4,5-dihydroxy-9,10-dioxo-2-anthracenecarboxylic acid having a structure of Formula II. Diacerein is widely used in the treatment of osteoarthritis and has a unique mode of action that differentiates it from non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and other conventional forms of drug therapy.

Diacerein is practically insoluble in solvents such as water, alcohols, acetone, dichloromethane and chloroform, which are generally used in pharmaceutical preparations. Although diacerein can be administered by oral route but it cannot be completely absorbed by the digestive tract, and this incomplete absorption may result in undesirable side effects such as, soft stools.
In order to overcome these problems, various derivatives, pharmaceutical compositions and specific galenic forms have been proposed in the literature. For example, European patent, EP 243,968 discloses a potassium salt of diacerein, which is water-soluble and can be used in the preparation of compositions for parenteral administration.
European Patent No EP904060 discloses pharmaceutical compositions of rhein or diacerein, wherein rhein or diacerein is co-micronized with sodium lauryl sulfate.
European Patent Nos. EP263083; 264989 and 446753 disclose controlled release or delayed release compositions like multiplicity of pellets coated with drug and coating membrane or granules of drug coated with polymers or loading polymeric particles of water swellable cross-linked polymer with drug.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,225,192 and 5,569,469 describe different poorly soluble medicaments supported on polymeric particles of water swellable cross-linked polymer with drug.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,952,383 and European Patent No. EP 862423B1 provide pharmaceutical compositions of diacerein, rhein and their salts along with liquid support systems like oils, suspending agents, homogenizing agents and other excipients.
It is known that when 50 mg diacerein formulation currently marketed under the trade name Art 50® is given orally in fasted conditions, due to fast gastric emptying, most of the diacerein remains unabsorbed and unabsorbed diacerein gets converted into rhein before reaching colon. At the colonic site, the rhein degrades to rhein-9-anthrone which causes significant soft stool effect. This soft stool effect is observed in about 50% of the patients after first few doses of Art 50®. In fact, about 30-40% soft stool effect is expected due to inherent pharmacokinetic property of diacerein, i.e diacerein undergoes enterohepatic circulation, wherein rhein gets conjugated in liver to form rhein-glucuronide, which on reaching colon gets converted to rhein-9-anthrone and hence causes soft stool effect.
On the other hand, when Art 50® is given in fed conditions, the gastric emptying is delayed in the presence of food. The longer residence time in upper part of the gastrointestinal tract accompanied with gastric fluids results in increased absorption of diacerein. This increase in absorption is up to 25% leading to comparatively less amount of unabsorbed diacerein to reach colon and hence reduction in soft stools. However, this reduction in soft stools is not significant. It was also observed that when the diacerein formulation described in EP 904060 comprising co-micronized diacerein with sodium lauryl sulfate is given, it results in only about 18% reduction in soft stools, which is not significant. This reduction in soft stools is not due to dose reduction but it is related to increased absorption of the diacerein leading to lesser amount of unabsorbed diacerein reaching colon. The diacerein formulation described in EP 904060 also exhibits drastic variation in both fed and fasted conditions. So, prior art formulations are discriminatory with respect to both fast and fed conditions. Additionally, prior art formulations are also eclipsed with undesirable soft stool effect.
Due to soft stool effect, prior art formulations (Art 50® and Art 40) are initially given once a day for about two months, so that the patient's gastrointestinal tract gets acclimatized to the side effect of diacerein. After that, the dosage regimen is scheduled for twice a day for both Art 50® and Art 40. Although, this adjustment of the dosage regimen improves patient's compliance to some extent, but there is no reduction in side effects. There still exists a need to develop new formulations or compositions which are likely to achieve a higher rate and extent of absorption of diacerein leading to improved bioavailability and at the same time shows significant reduction in side effects such as, soft stools.
In spite of the attempts in the prior art, described above, the inventors are not aware of successful attempts to improve the absorption of diacerein and significant reduction in soft stools. As described below, the inventors have surprisingly found that compositions of the invention result in a higher rate and extent of absorption from the gastrointestinal tract and significant reduction (at least 25%) in soft stools. The inventors also have surprisingly found that the compositions can be given with or without food without affecting the rate and extent of absorption. The inventors have further noticed that there is no need to co-micronize diacerein with any surfactant to get a formulation, which is bioequivalent to the commercially available diacerein 50 mg solid oral dosage form (Art 50®).
Thus, the compositions of the invention, overcome all the commonly encountered problems exemplified in the prior art. When the compositions of the invention are given orally, diacerein gets completely absorbed in upper part of intestine and there remains no unabsorbed diacerein reaching colon, resulting in a significant reduction in soft stools effect from about 60-70%. Furthermore, the compositions of the invention are bioequivalent to 50 mg diacerein formulation currently marketed under the trade name Art 50® showing no variability whether administered in fed or fasted state conditions.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Self-emulsifying pharmaceutical compositions of rhein or diacerein


A process for preparing a fluorine-containing copolymer by an emulsion polymerization method in the presence of aqueous ammonia as a pH modifier, and a molded article obtainable by melt molding or crosslinking molding the fluorine-containing copolymer. In preparing the fluorine-containing copolymer by coagulation of the fluorine-containing copolymer contained in a fluorine-containing copolymer dispersed aqueous solution, it is preferred to use a cationic surfactant and a water soluble organic solvent as a coagulating agent used for the above coagulation. The surfactant is preferably represented by the, formula (R4N+)X− wherein R is an alkyl group of 1 to 22 carbon atoms, a fluoroalkyl group obtainable by fluorine substituting at least a part of hydrogen atoms present in the above alkyl group or hydrogen, four R's may be the same or different provided that they are not hydrogen atoms simultaneously, and X is a halogen atom. The process for preparing a fluorine-containing copolymer provides a decrease in a concentration of metal elements, which act as an impurity source, for example, having a metal element concentration of not more than 1 ppm.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a process for preparing a fluorine-containing copolymer. More particularly, the present invention relates to a process for preparing a fluorine-containing copolymer in which the concentration of metal elements, which will be an impurity source, is lowered.
The present invention further relates to a fluorine-containing copolymer having a lowered concentration of metal elements, which will be an impurity source, and suitable, for example, for transportation rolls, sealing materials, hoses, tubes and the like in the field of liquid crystal and semiconductor production apparatuses, or polymer matrixes for forming polymer electrolytes of lithium secondary batteries in the electric field, and also relates to cross-linking (vulcanization) molded articles thereof.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Fluorine-containing copolymers generally tend to have enhanced chemical resistance, heat resistance and higher purity as compared with polyolefins or the like and have been conventionally used, for example, for molded articles such as transportation rolls, sealing materials, hoses, tubes and the like in the field of liquid crystal and semiconductor production apparatuses, or polymer matrixes for forming polymer electrolytes of lithium secondary batteries in the electric field.
In the liquid crystal and semiconductor production processes, impurities contained in the above molded articles formed from the fluorine-containing copolymers such as metal elements and the like are called particles and cause wafer surface contamination and thereby induce product defects. Therefore, the removal of metal elements remaining is an important subject with the view of improving the yield of products.
Accordingly, with regard to materials for use in liquid crystal and semiconductor production apparatuses, it is also desired to use materials incapable of generating impurity substances, which induce product defects.
In polymer electrolytes used for lithium ion secondary batteries, the inclusion of metal elements is undesirable because it is considered that the transfer of lithium ion will be interfered or other facts will be caused, to thereby induce a lowering of an ion conductivity of the polymer electrolyte or to induce a lowering of a discharge capacity in the cycle of charging and discharging.
Conventionally, fluorine-containing copolymers are prepared in the following manner. A fluorine containing copolymer dispersed aqueous solution synthesized by an emulsion polymerization method using a fluorine-containing anionic surfactant was dropped in an aqueous solution in which an inorganic salting out agent such as sodium chloride alone, or plural kinds of ones such as sodium chloride, potassium alum, magnesium chloride and the like with stirring and thereby the fluorine-containing copolymer contained therein is aggregated and isolated.
The salting out method, however, has a defect such that as the inorganic salting out agents used in salting out are contained and adsorbed in the fluorine containing copolymer together with aggregation of the fluorine containing copolymer, it is difficult to completely remove the inorganic salting out agents contained in the fluorine containing copolymer even if washing thereof with pure water is carried out repeatedly, and further fluorine containing copolymers having a high content of metal elements are undesirably prepared due to the inorganic salting out agent used.
As a method for isolating the fluorine containing copolymer without using a salting out agent, there is a freeze-coagulation method of carrying out coagulation by freezing a fluorine-containing copolymer dispersed aqueous solution. The fluorine containing copolymer prepared by this method has adsorbed and contained an anionic surfactant and a pH modifier used in the preparation of the copolymer so that the copolymer is disadvantageous for decreasing impurities and is not preferable in viewpoint of productivity.
As a method of isolating the fluorine containing copolymer without using the salting out method, there are a solution polymerization method and a solution suspension polymerization method.
In the case of preparing the fluorine containing copolymer in an elastomer region, it is advantageous to employ the emulsion polymerization method in view of the reactivity of the fluorine containing monomers and batch efficiency thereof.
The present invention solves the problems associated with the prior art by providing a process for preparing a fluorine containing copolymer which produces a high purity fluorine containing copolymer having a lowered concentration of metal elements from a fluorine containing copolymer dispersed aqueous solution prepared by an emulsion polymerization method, preferably an emulsion polymerization method without using metal element containing starting materials.
The present invention further provides a fluorine containing copolymer suitable, for example, for transportation rolls, sealing materials, hoses, tubes and the like in the field of liquid crystal and semiconductor production apparatuses, or polymer matrixes for forming polymer electrolytes of lithium secondary batteries in the electric field, wherein the uses are obtainable by melt molding or vulcanization (cross-linking) molding the fluorine containing copolymer prepared by the above method and have a lowered concentration of metal elements.


Methods for treating a tumor, such as a benign or malignant tumor, are disclosed herein. The methods include administering a therapeutically effective amount of a small molecule that selectively binds to and stabilizes G-quadruplex DNA in the promoter of the c-MYC gene to the subject. The methods are also of use to decrease the size and/or number of metastases. Compounds for use in the disclosed methods are also provided.

The oncogenic transcription factor c-Myc has a pleiotropic role in a wide range of cell processes and is deregulated in some 70% of human cancers. However, targeting the c-Myc protein directly has proven to be difficult due to a lack of well-defined pockets amenable to small molecule binding. An alternative approach for suppressing c-Myc levels in the cell is through stabilization of the G-quadruplex DNA formation (G4) present in the promoter of the c-MYC gene. Expression of the proto-oncogene c-MYC is regulated by a 27 base pair (Pu27) sequence found in the nuclease hypersensitive element III(1) region (NHEIII1) of the c-MYC gene known to form a G4. Formation of the quadruplex in this sequence is believed to result in a "kink" in the DNA that prevents the polymerase from continuing along its reading frame, ultimately resulting in downregulation of the c-MYC gene.
The use of small molecules to stabilize the G4 conformation and consequently decrease c-MYC expression is an attractive therapeutic goal in cancers where c-Myc is overexpressed. Unfortunately, although some quadruplex stabilizing small molecules have been shown to reduce c-Myc expression in cells, these agents may not be selective and activity cannot always be attributed to a c-MYC quadruplex-dependent mechanism of action. New classes of potent, selective quadruplex stabilizing agents that are active in tissue culture models would be of substantial utility as reagents to study c-Myc biology as well as potential therapeutics.

MYC G-quadruplex stabilizing small molecules and their use

The United States of America, as represented by the Secretary, Department of Health and Human Services


An improved toggle locking release mechanism (8) is provided, including a connecting body (10), and opposing pivoted jaw (22), and multi-pivoted floating links or movable lock/release links (30) and a movable toggle link/release lever (34). The mechanism of the present invention is adapted to provide a secure locking connection as well as facilitating multi-directional quick releasing while the mechanism (8) is under high-tensile load.

Heretofore, releasable connecting devices as applied to the marine, ocean research, and commercial fishing industries utilize locking and releasing methods such as sliding load supports, spring-loaded pins, pivoted latches, swivel locking arms, trip levers, and, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,813,731 issued to Smith on Apr. 21, 1989, which is directed to a pelican hook, and in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,934,933; 3,979,803; and 4,850,254. These and similar methods have addressed the functional locking and releasing means for light to moderate tensile loads. Unfortunately, when such methods are used with heavy tensile loads, the release mechanisms absorb an excessive amount of the tensile load, resulting in increased friction on the mechanisms that requires an inordinate amount of force by the user to unlatch or release the mechanism and also resulting in premature fatigue of the mechanisms, which compromises the safety and locking security.
In order to transfer a high-tensile load from the release mechanism to the connecting body of the device and still providing releasability and locking security, devices such as that taught by Smith provide compound release mechanisms to dissipate the tensile load. This results in complex and bulky devices not easily handled and costly to manufacture.
The increased concern regarding safety at sea has alerted users of leverage-type release devices, such as pelican hooks, to search for safer alternative release mechanisms. Pelican hooks are generally used in conditions where the tensile load upon them exceeds their intended capacity and the user is given to using a hammer to dislodge the release apparatus, which is located dangerously close to the hook retaining the connecting link.
Ocean research requires that loads, i.e., anchors, surveying or monitoring equipment, etc., be dropped into the ocean from a deck-mounted crane. As this activity often occurs during inclement weather, safety is of the greatest concern. A release mechanism is preferred that provides multi-directional releasability from a single point on the device. This enables a user to quickly and safely select different methods of releasing the load, depending on the sea conditions at the time. One method of release is by pulling on the release lanyard manually, and the other method is attaching the release lanyard to the crane boom and lowering the load with the crane's winch to thereby cause release of the load. The latter method is the safest because in the manual method rotation of the load prior to its release does not prevent the release lanyard from becoming wrapped around the device and either causing inadvertent release or failure to release when desired.
The device disclosed by the inventor in his U.S. Pat. No. 5,100,192, issued on Mar. 31, 1992, offers an improvement over non-toggle linkage release mechanisms, but it does not provide multi-directional releasability from a single point on the device.
During the course of releasing a load under tension, there is often a delay time between applying the tensile load to the release mechanism and the actual release of the load. This requires safety measures, such as providing means to securely lock the release device and thereby prevent inadvertent release of the load.
Thus, devices, such as the inventor's device disclosed in the foregoing patent and also disclosed in the inventory's U.S. Pat. No. 5,123,374, provide a releasing mechanism that secures the connecting member but does not provide a means to securely lock the device in that position to prevent inadvertent release of the load.
In the case of toggle linkage release mechanisms, the ability to release a load under tension with the least degree of effort requires that the body and the releasing portion of the device equally share the load to be released. Devices, such as those disclosed by the inventor in his previous patents, teach the tensile loads on the device acting off-center or on different planes so as to unnecessarily increase the tensile load to the movable portion of the device and, thus, cause additional wear to the releasing mechanism, additional shock to the releasing mechanism, and requiring additional effort to release the device. Finally, another desirable feature is a release mechanism that dampens shock without requiring the use of additional levers and springs, such as those disclosed in the inventor's prior patents.


When a thick frequency adjustment metal film of a tuning fork-type vibration piece is irradiated with a beam on a wafer for frequency coarse adjustment, projections are possibly formed on a roughened end of the frequency adjustment metal film. Such projections are pressurized and pushed down not to chip off under any impact, so that the risk of frequency fluctuations is suppressed.

Patent Document 1 describes a manufacturing method for a tuning fork-type vibration piece that constitutes a tuning fork-type vibrator. In this method, outer shapes of multiple tuning fork-type vibration pieces are formed on, for example, a crystal wafer by photolithography and etching. The tuning fork-type vibration pieces each have a plurality of arm portions. An electrode film and a metal film are formed on the surface of each vibration piece. The metal film is a weight member for frequency adjustment and is formed on one end side of the arm portions. The metal film is irradiated with a laser beam on the crystal wafer and thereby trimmed for coarse adjustment of frequencies of the respective vibration pieces.

Tuning fork-type vibrating reed, tuning fork-type vibrator and manufacturing method therefor


The systems and methods of enabling a collaborative application on a private network, comprising: establishing a secure and encrypted private network with a whitelist of two or more profiles using alias and digital keys; hosting an application on a computing device associated with a first profile on the whitelist; enabling the application to accept content using an application program interface, broadcasting the application with digital signature of the first profile to the profiles on the whitelist of the private network; receiving a request to send content to the application with digital signature from a second profile on the whitelist; automatically updating the content of the application after validation of the request; broadcasting the update notification to all the profiles on the whitelist of the private network.

Current social media systems are enabled by central services provided by third parties. In essence, social media is interaction between two or more end-users that mirrors real-life situation where a third-party has no business interfering. But the digital world of the internet applications of social media do not align to the real-world frameworks.
Social media typically facilitates user-generated content including text, comments, photos, videos and voice. Traditionally these various media are generated through "online" interactions and are facilitated by one or more third party platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, SnapChat, Instagram, Weibo, Linkedln and many others.
In traditional social media systems, users create profiles via a service providers website or app and all the content is maintained, processed and stored by the social media company. In such systems, users rely on the social media companies to store and protect their sensitive user data both while in flight, i.e. in transit and at rest, i.e. either at source or destination.
While users don't pay "directly" for use of these services, the services providers generate revenue from its user content and meta data through directed ads and selling access to their subscribers' content for data mining or harvesting. This revenue then offsets the cost of maintaining the centralized servers and data centers and in some cases returns dividends to their shareholders.
Unfortunately, there are a number of serious drawbacks to this architecture. Most notably is the broken business model that requires the service provider to monetize their customers, which in turn requires their customers to give some, if not all of their privacy.
Additionally, the service provides have recently gone into censorship or "de-platforming" of content based on their or their advertisers' best interests and not necessary the interest of their users or user communities. In some cases, the censorship is at the direction of a central government but in most cases, it is carried out based on arbitrary decisions of the social media service provides.
Complicating the matter, should a competitor wish to enter the market to compete against the entrenched social media companies it takes tremendous capital to build out the data centers and facilities to onboard even a single user. As users join the new network, more resources must be added to the central networks to manage the traffic load and to store the content being created by their users. At the end of the day, the new social media company would once again have to monetize their customer base, solicit advertisers and adhere to government oversight. While the new company might impose a different set of censorship policies than the legacy companies its still censorship by a third party and not by end users.
Further, social media companies typically deploy simply one-way authentication and HTTPS to secure their user's data in flight. Many enterprise networks (as well as others) are able to put a "man in the middle" of such traffic using an HTTPS proxy, thus exposing all data in flight to the intermediary and allowing that intermediary to filter, read, copy and save user content without them being aware of it.
One-way authentication only authenticates or assures the user that when they connect to a sight that "claims to be" say instagram, that in fact it is instagram. The converse is not true. The cryptographic system does not authenticate the client software used by the user and therefore must trust higher level protocols to assure that a user that claims to be user A is in fact user A, for example through passwords or other means.
Both sets of "keys", the ones that attest to the service provider's identity and the passwords used by the "user" are not changed very often, and can actually not change for years. This means that if either key is broken, that all the user's or even sights' data can be exposed. Breaking the keys to access a sights meta data can expose all data of every user in the system. Breaking a given user's key can expose all of a user's stored content.
In summary, the current architecture of social media tends to lead to: (i) Third party censorship, sometimes legally, sometimes not; (ii) Lack of Privacy either on purpose or by accidental exposure; and (iii) Lack of free association.
The last point, lack of free association can best be understood by the fact that the social media companies can and do decide what user can and can not participate in their platform. Worse is that while excluding one user A from freely joining a given community and conversing with members of that community, the same platform may allow other members to make almost any claim about user A without allowing user A the ability to refute those claims. This leads to very bad social norms in which gangs of denizens roam from social media site to social media site spreading false or unsubstantiated claims about user A without user A being able to defend herself on any of those platforms.
Furthermore, because the user's content is held by a third party and the social media companies routinely change their terms of services, most users are unaware that their content may be retained or archived, indefinite. A frivolous statement which is deemed "social acceptable today" may be judged years into the future by a new set of standards and lead to harsh consequences including ability to get into schools and colleges, ability to get a job, ability to run for public office, etc. We call this effect "Future Guilt."
Still further problems exist in the semantics of existing social interactions on social media sites. When someone creates content, they don't "own" that content, the social media company does. Even with as simple as email, "ownership" of content is fluid and the semantics of "polite" conversation are not a part of the system.
For example, if user A creates an email message and sends it to user B and in that email, user A included content that she did not want to disclose to anyone else, there is nothing in the art that would prevent user B from saving that information away, copying it or forwarding it to someone else like user C. Neither is user B prevented from replying to user A and copying additional users D, E, etc. on that reply. This sort of "lack of control" of content is pervasive in today's social media systems and this leads to a lack of polite discourse amongst members of society.
With the explosion of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, the number of devices connecting on the internet are exploding. It is unreasonable to expect any single device, for example, to have equal probability of connecting with another IoT device next to it or a personal computer remotely located in Mongolia. The current internet and networked communication do not align to the way society or human behavior operates. There are no digital equivalents that promotes good behavior in a digital or online environment that are cultivated based on existing social norms.
The current public networks assume uniform packet distribution that cannot be converged. Security is also an issue because any computing device can send a packet to any other device. The approaches to resolve digital spam including email or text spam are based on prevention and not fixing the root cause of the problem, i.e. openness of receiving packets from unauthenticated senders.
In an attempt to solve the above problems, GAB, an alternative social media company, recently launched a service called "dissenter" in attempt to address at least some of the problems mentioned above, specifically the right to comment on content on a site that one has been banned from participation in. It is embodied as an extension to a web browser: gab.com/GabDissenter. Dissenter allows users to "comment on" content that is being displayed within a browser. However, this service is still a cloud based service, the content is still controlled by GAB and it is still potentially subject to GAB's terms of service, leading to just an alternative set of censorship rules.
Another attempt in allowing free commenting and annotations includes, for example, converters at web2pdfconvert and condester.com web2pdf-ios-source-code. These products allow one to take any content visible on a web site, including social media sites which have web interfaces and then convert the content of that web site into a PDF document that can be stored, transferred and annotated with comments. In general, such actions are not consistent with "fair use" laws as they include more than 50% of the original content without modification. Furthermore, these products don't directly support collaborative discussions about the content, do not store the content safely, do not send the content safely and may allow comments from others to be re-distributed by anyone receiving the document.

Systems and methods of collaborative application on a private network


A strap of leather, for extending along the palm of a user's hand, has a finger end and a wrist end, with the wrist end anchored to a pad secured around the wrist by a belt and held in place by hook and loop materials. The finger end of the strap has a dowel extending sideways at approximately the finger tip position. Beyond the dowel are a couple of holes through which the two middle fingers extend during use, with the distal end of the strap folded back over the dowel and the fingers extending through the holes. An elastic strip is attached to the palm face of the finger end of the strap and forms a pair of loops through which the fingers extend during use. The strip is attached to the finger end distally of the dowel and finger holes so that the fingers pass through the loops prior to being inserted in the holes.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to apparatus for improving the grips of gymnasts, and in particular, to such apparatus that engage the fingers and inhibit the release of the fingers during use.
2. Statement of Related Art
Gymnastics has during recent times become a popular sport. There are many different types of exercises in gymnastics. Some of the exercises are performed on uneven horizontal, parallel bars. During these exercises, the gymnast is holding onto one of two bars while swinging around it. This puts extensive strain on the gymnasts hands, and fingers in particular. In order to facilitate sliding of the hands around the bars during the exercises, the hands are typically treated to reduce the friction, such as by the addition of powder to the palms of the hands. This very act, however, also makes it difficult to hold onto the bars. This puts severe strains on the fingers, hands, wrists and forearms.
In order to improve the holding capability of the gymnast, a grip apparatus is conventionally used that includes a strap of leather that extends along the palm of the hand, with the wrist end of the strap anchored to a belt secured around the wrist. The finger end of the strap has a dowel or other small rod extending sideways at approximately the finger tip position. Beyond the dowel are a couple of holes through which the two middle fingers extend during use, with the distal end of the strap folded back over the dowel.
This grip apparatus adds to the strength and security of the gymnast's grip, but it also occasionally releases from the fingers during use. This makes the grip apparatus less effective, and even impairs the ability of the gymnast to grip well. Thus, although these grip apparatus are generally widely used, they are not completely satisfactory.


Techniques for implementing an augmented audio conditioning (AAC) system are described herein. In some examples, the AAC system can store conditioning data comprising crowd noise experiences associated with context-relevant environments and/or actions associated with an activity. The AAC system can detect an action of a user who is training in a conditioning environment and determine that the action is associated with the activity. In some examples, the AAC system can also determine an association between the action of the user and audio data representing a crowd noise experience of a context-relevant environment during an event. Furthermore, the AAC system can, in response to detecting the action of the user, output the audio-conditioning data into the conditioning environment to simulate the crowd noise experience of the context-relevant environment during the event.

Performance is an important component of many activities, but improving performance remains a challenge for many. Most existing training resources focus on providing physical and simulated visual objects that aid users to improve the way they train, and thus improve their performance potential. These existing resources allow a user to repetitively perform activities in relation to physical and/or simulated visual tools to build strong muscle memory and/or conditioned reactions to certain situations. As a result, when the user is put in a similar situation during a competitive performance, they can draw upon previous trainings to succeed.
Often times, however, the training resources are either expensive and/or only available through a specific trainer. Moreover, even some of the most sophisticated training resources cannot fully replicate the entire experience of a high-pressure environment. Existing solutions for those seeking to improve their performance do so through one-on-one coaching and obtaining time at limited facilities that are costly. Additionally, existing solutions require large amounts of time on the part of a user and coach for limited exposure. As such, these existing solutions do not adequately create dynamic environments with dynamic feedback, and further do not create an experience that recreates a high energy, high pressure performance environment.