The invention provides anti-apoptotic compositions containing lysophosphatidic acids and methods for making and using the compositions. Such compositions may also contain LPA potentiating agents, including proteins, lipid membrane structures and polymers such as polyethylene glycols. The compositions can additionally contain other pharmaceutically effective agents such as drugs, antibiotics, wound healing agents and antioxidants.

Phospholipids.
Phospholipids are a class of amphipathic phosphorus containing lipids which are essential constituents of biological membranes. Various phospholipid preparations have been used for cooking, drug delivery (liposomes), slow release delivery systems, carrier media for hydrophobic drugs, gene transfer and replacement therapy, sunscreens, emulsions, anti-foaming agents, replacement of damaged or absent pulmonary surfactants, detergents and membrane stabilization. Phosphatidic acid (PA), phosphatidylinositol (PI), lysophosphatidic acid, lysophosphatidylinositol (LPI), and lysophosphatidylcholine (LPC) are found in a variety of plant and animal products. Lysophosphatidic acid analogs have been reported to have a variety of physiological activities including mitogenesis (i.e. prevention of hyperproliferative diseases), vasodilation, growth factor, wound healing and to be an anti-wrinkle agent. In addition, previous studies have shown that lysophosphatidic acid, when bound to serum albumin, can activate membrane currents in Xenopus oocytes and induce neurite retraction in PC12 pheochromocytoma cells.
Apoptosis.
Cell death can occur by necrosis and apoptosis is generally results from catastrophic irreversible cell damage. It is characterized by early swelling of the cell and its cytoplasmic organelles, with subsequent rupture of the cellular membrane.
Apoptosis is a normal physiologic process that leads to individual cell death. This process of programmed cell death is involved in a variety of normal and pathogenic biological events and can be induced by a number of unrelated stimuli. Changes in the biological regulation of apoptosis also occur during aging and are responsible for many of the conditions and diseases related to aging. Apoptotic cell death appears to play a significant role in the tissue damage that occurs in association with, for example, ischemia, organ transplantation, and various gastrointestinal disorders.
Studies of apoptosis suggest that a common metabolic pathway leading to apoptosis can be initiated by a wide variety of signals, including hormones, serum growth actor deprivation, chemotherapeutic agents, ionizing radiation, and infection by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Apoptosis can also be induced by mild, non-catastrophic cell injury and can be concomitant with adjacent necrosis. Agents that affect the biological control of apoptosis thus have therapeutic utility in numerous clinical indications.
Apoptotic cell death is characterized by morphologic changes such as cellular shrink age, chromatin condensation and margination, cytoplasmic blebbing, and increased membrane permeability. Specific internucleosomal DNA fragmentation is a hallmark for many, but not all, instances of apoptosis.
Several genes and gene families involved in signal transduction and modulation of apoptosis have been described. Apoptosis, however, is an active cellular response to a physiologic or external signal and can be modulated by interfering with the apoptotic pathway. Conversely, by definition, necrosis can be prevented only by decreasing cell injury. Prevention of apoptosis by upregulation of bcl-2 and bcl-x expression, or by inhibitors of ICE-like proteases are typical examples of modulation of cell death. Umansky Molekylyarnaya Biologiya 30:285-295 (1996); Vaux and Straser PNAS 93:2239-2244 (1996); Nunez et al. (1994) Immunol. Today 15:582-588; and Whyte (1996) Trends in Cell Biol. 6:245-148.
Ischemia and Reperfusion.
Ischemia is the result of decreased blood flow to a particular area or organ of the body. Ischemia is responsible for several important types of physiologic damage such as brain damage, spinal cord trauma and myocardial ischemia. Acute myocardial ischemia leads to the death of individual heart cells which can result in organ dysfunction. Although early reperfusion (i.e., restoration of blood flow) decrease heart damage caused by ischemia, cell death by apoptosis can occur upon reperfusion. In this instance, the cells that die are those that remained viable at the end of ischemia. Support for the role of apoptosis in heart injury induced by ischemia and subsequent perfusion has been provided by numerous laboratories. Gottlieb et al. (1994) J. Clin. Invest. 94:16211628; Umansky et al. (1995) Cell Death and Differentiation 2:235241; Umansky et al. (1996) Basic and Applied Myology 6:227235; and Itoh et al. (1995) Am. J. Pathol. 146:13251331. Severe cell damage during prolonged ischemia appears to result in necrotic death of myocardial cells. However, if the ischemia is relatively limited in extent and duration, the apoptotic pathway is initiated. Restoration of blood flow (reperfusion) allows apoptosis to proceed. Insulin-like growth factors (IGF) and calpain inhibitors, which are capable of preventing apoptosis in different systems, also inhibited apoptosis of cardiomyocytes following ischemia and reperfusion both in vivo and in vitro. Umansky et al. (1995); and Buerke et al. (1995) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 92:80318035.
Organ Preservation.
Transplantation of vital organs such as the heart, liver, kidney, pancreas, and lung has become increasingly successful and sophisticated in recent years. Because mammalian organs progressively lose their ability to function during storage, even at freezing temperatures, transplant operations need to be performed soon after obtaining a donor organ to minimize the period of time that the organ is without blood flow. This need diminishes the availability of organs for transplantation.
In clinical practice, the two major situations in which cardiac preservation is required are heart transplantation and cardioplegia for open heart surgery. In heart transplantation, the donor heart is flushed with approximately 1 liter of cold organ preservation solution (OPS) to arrest the heart. Cooling is supplemented by surrounding the heart with iced saline. The chilled, arrested heart is then surgically excised, immersed in cold OPS, packed in ice and rushed to the recipient center.
After placing the recipient on cardiopulmonary bypass, the diseased heart is excised. The preserved donor heart is then removed from the OPS, trimmed appropriately and transplanted into the recipient. Blood is allowed to flow to the transplanted heart. The transplanted heart will then either resume beating spontaneously or will require chemical and/or electrical treatment to restore normal rhythm. When the heart is ready to take over the circulation, the cardiopulmonary bypass is discontinued and the recipient's chest closed.
Most non-transplant surgical procedures on the heart, such as coronary artery bypass grafting, require that the heart be arrested for a period ranging from 1 to 4 hours. During this time, the heart is kept cool by external cooling as well as by periodically reflushing an OPS through the coronary arteries. The OPS composition is designed to rapidly arrest the heart and to keep it in good condition during the period of standstill so that it will resume normal function when the procedure is finished.
In cardioplegic procedures, the heart is exposed in the chest and, at a minimum, the aortic root is isolated. A vascular clamp is applied across the aorta and approximately 1 liter of cold OPS is flushed into the aortic root through a needle. Venting is provided through the left ventricle, pulmonary artery or the right atrium and the effluent, which can contain high levels of potassium, is suctioned out of the chest. This, together with external cooling, produces rapid cessation of contractions. During the period of arrest, the patient's circulation is maintained artificially using cardiopulmonary bypass.
After completion of the surgical procedure, blood flow is restored to the coronary circulation and heartbeat returns either spontaneously or after chemical and electric treatment. The ease with which stable function is restored depends to a large extent on the effectiveness of the OPS to preserve the heart. Once the heart is beating satisfactorily, cardiopulmonary bypass is discontinued and the chest closed.
It is generally understood that "living" organs, including the heart, continue the process of metabolism after removal from the donor so that cell constituents are continuously metabolized to waste products. If the storage technique is inadequate, the accumulation of these metabolic waste products, depletion of cell nutrients and consequent derangement of cell composition lead to progressive loss of function and ultimately to cell death, with loss of adequate function after transplantation into the recipient. Several procedures have been explored to successfully enable organ preservation ex vivo for useful time periods. In one method, the donor organ is cooled rapidly by flushing cold solutions through the organ's vascular system and maintaining the organ at temperatures near 0° C. for the purpose of greatly slowing the metabolic rate. In the case of the mammalian heart, the flush solution composition is designed to cause the heart to rapidly stop beating as well as to preserve it.
In 1988, University of Wisconsin (UW) solution was introduced. Belzer et al. (1988) Transplantation 45:673-676. This solution, capable of preserving the pancreas and kidney for 72 hours, and the liver for 30 hours, subsequently became the standard organ preservation solution (OPS) for transplant surgery and the benchmark against which other OPS compositions were measured. However, the heart is more recalcitrant to long-term storage than other organs, and UW solution is unreliable for storage of hearts for as short a period as 24 hours. Wicomb et al. (1989) Transplantation 47:733-734.
Improvements in the design of OPS compositions, as reviewed in Collins et al. (1992) Kidney International 41:S-197-S-202 and others described in the art, have proceeded along several paths, including: (1) modification and simplification of UW solution; (2) investigation of organ-specific requirements; (3) addition of pharmacologic agents, particularly calcium antagonists for control of acidosis; (5) the use of a terminal rinse solution; and (6) the use of solutions containing PEG.
Wicomb et al. reported the beneficial effects of a solution of PEG 8000 and horseradish peroxidase on rabbit hearts preserved by oxygenated low pressure perfusion for 24 hours. Wicomb et al. (1989) Transplantation Proceedings 21:1366-1368. The substitution of PEG20M as the colloid for hydroxyethyl starch (HES) of the UW solution also yielded excellent cardiac function. PEG20M consists of two or more molecules of PEG 6000-8000 joined by a bisphenol epoxide linker (CAS #37225-26-6; CAS name Oxirane, 2,2′[(1-methyl-ethylidene)bis(4,1-phenyleneoxy methylene)]bis-, polymer with (-hydro-(-hydroxypoly(oxy-1,2-ethanediyl). The substitution of PEG20M for HES also allowed baboon heart storage up to 48 hours and increased cardiac output (CO) under conditions of microperfusion. Wicomb et al. (1986) J. Surg. Res. 40:276; and Wicomb et al. (1989) Transplantation 48:6-9. "Microperfusion" is a hypoxic, very-low-flow perfusion with flowrates such as 3 ml/g heart wt/24 hour, which is 1/500 of that typical of conventional continuous perfusion. Wicomb et al. (1989) Transplantation 48:6-9.
An improved OPS, Cardiosol™ heart preservation solution, contained the substitution of PEG20M for HES and eliminated five components of UW solution (penicillin, dexamethasone, insulin, allopurinol, and adenosine). Wicomb et al. (1990) Transplantation 49:261-264; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,938,961. Cardiosol™ heart preservation solution contains 5% or 10% by weight PEG 20M (Union Carbide Chemicals and Plastics Co., Inc., Charleston, W. Va.), 40 mM sodium, 125 mM potassium, 5 mM magnesium, 25 mM phosphate, 5 mM sulfate, 100 mM lactobionate, 30 mM raffinose, and 3 mM glutathione. Collins et al., The Lancet 338:890-891 (1991); and Wicomb et al. (1994) J. Heart Lung Transplantation 13:891-894. This solution was found to be superior to UW solution both for 4-hour hypothermic and 24-hour microperfusion storage. Collins et al. (1992).
Gastrointestinal Disorders.
A variety of food supplements containing, in part, partially processed plant extracts have been used to ameliorate the gastrointestinal disorders that often accompany chemotherapy, radiation and AIDS. The supplements generally contain carbohydrates, fat and plant protein hydrolysates. See, e.g., Tomei and Cope et al. in Apoptosis: The Molecular Basis of Cell Death (1991) Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press. PCT Publication No. WO 95/15173, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,620,885, 5,567,425, 5,635,186 and 5,624,672 describe plant-derived extracts that produce an anti-apoptotic effect. It has now been found that these extracts contain the following phospholipids: LPA, LPC, LPI, PA and PI in the ratios of approximately 2:1:2:20:20, by weight in addition to various optional protein and carbohydrate constituents.
A need exists for improved solutions and methods for preserving or restoring cell, tissue, or organ function, and/or preventing apoptosis for a variety of therapeutic uses, particularly organ preservation. The present invention satisfies this need and provides related advantages, as well.

Compositions containing lysophosphotidic acids which inhabit apoptosis and uses thereof


A vertical probe device includes two guide members arranged in a stack manner and defining therebetween an accommodation chamber, a probe holder plate disposed between the guide members, and a plurality of probes inserted through the guide plates and the probe holder plate in such a manner that the probes are flexible within the accommodation chamber. One of the guide plates has at least one through hole. The probe holder plate is slightly moveable in horizontal and vertical directions but fixable to one of the guide plats under a force applied through the at least one through hole to the probe holder plate while the other of the guide plates is removed, thereby preventing damage of the probes or movement of the probes during a maintenance work.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a probe device and more particularly, to a vertical probe device, which facilitates the performance of a maintenance work without causing damage to each probe of the probe device.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1 shows a vertical-type probe card 1 according to the prior art. According to this design, a circuit board 10 of the vertical-type probe card 1 has multiple transmission lines 11 electrically connected to a probe set 12. The probe set 12 comprises an upper guide plate 121, a lower guide plate 122, a probe holder plate 123, and a plurality of probes 120. The upper guide plate 121, the lower guide plate 122 and the probe holder plate 123 each have a plurality of probe holes for receiving the probes 120. During installation, the probe holder plate 123 is held at a predetermined elevation relative to the lower guide plate 122, and then the probes 120 are respectively inserted through the probe holder plate 123 and the lower guide plate 122, and then the upper guide plate 121 is covered on the probe holder plate 123 to keep the probes 120 standing. Each of the probes 120 has an upper end protruding over the top side of the upper guide plate 121 and electrically connected to the transmission line 11 or other signal line on the circuit board 10, and a bottom probe tip protruding over the bottom side of the lower guide plate 122 for probing ICs in a wafer level testing. Because the probe holder plate 123 is provided for holding the probes 120 to be inserted through and aligned with the respective probe holes of the guide plate 121 and 122, it is designed to have a certain looseness relative to each of the probes 120. In addition, by means of the structure of a free space defined between the upper guide plate 121 and the lower guide plate 122 for allowing displacement of the body portion of each of the probes 120, the bottom probe tip of each of the probes 120 can flexibly be adjusted to the same probing plane when all of the probes 120 press on the testing ICs at the same time. As a result, the probe set 12 effectively eliminates the anti-force against from the stressed ICs and prevents damage to any of the probes 120, and therefore ensures an optimal contact of the vertical probe device 1 with all ICs at the test wafer.
In actual application, replacement or repair of a maintenance work is necessary for probes of a probe device after a long term test engineering. During a maintenance work of the probe set 12, the upper guide plate 12 must be taken away and then the damaged or worn probes 120 must be pulled out from the probe holder plate 123 and the lower guide plate 122 for replacement or repair. However, because the probe holder plate 123 is covered by the upper guide plate 121 without fixing to any structures of the probe set 12, it may be lifted with the upper guide plate 121 by the adhesion force induced by taking away the upper guide plate 12 in the maintenance work. As a result, the relative probes 120 standing on the lifted portion of the probe holder plate 123 are forced to be pulled out from the lower guide plate 122, thus a rework of inserting those still good probes 120 into the probe holder plate 123 and the lower guide plate 122 will be necessary. Therefore, this design requires much labor and time in maintenance. Further, once the probe holder plate 123 is lifted, the correspondingly lifted probes 120 may somewhat be distorted and/or even damaged, thus the extra cost must be paid.
FIG. 2 shows a Hybrid-buckling beam probe device 20 constructed according to US patent publication No. 2006/0066328. According to this design, a template 32 provided as the probe holder plate 123 of the aforesaid prior art is adhered to the top side of a raised boss formed above a lower die 28. Therefore, the template 32 is kept in place during the maintenance engineering to open an upper die to repair or replace the damaged or worn probes 36. However, because the template 32 is affixed to the lower die 28, it cannot provide the certain looseness and flexibility to the relative probes 36 as the aforementioned probe holder plate 123 of the vertical probe device 1. At the moment the probes 36 touch the test devices on a semiconductor wafer, the probes 36 receive a forward stress of the anti-force against from the probing devices with limitation to release out, thereby resulting in high possibility of being damaged and shortening the lifetime of the probes 36. Therefore, this design of Hybrid-buckling beam probe device is still not satisfactory in function.


A window shutter has corrosion resistant stiles with a non-metallic core and louvers, and non-metallic top and bottom rails. The shutter is resistant to the adverse effects of sunlight, humidity, rain and wind, and will retard flying objects, and will pass commonly used missile tests for building materials. The resulting shutter will also withstand substantial stresses from wind loads, so as to perform satisfactorily in wind load tests. The window covering of the invention is substantially maintenance free.

Exterior window coverings, such as window shutters, have been used for many years. Window shutters are positioned over glass windowpanes to protect the glass windowpanes from flying objects that can damage, or break, the glass, and enter the building. Window shutters may be used to secure a building against break-ins, and may be used to block sunlight from entering the building through the windowpane. The window covering, or shutter, may be pivoted away from the windowpane to lie flat against the building. When the shutter is pivoted away from the windowpane, it enhances the beauty and appearance of the building. Alternatively, the window shutter may be purely decorative.
There is a need to provide a window shutter that will pass missile tests that have been established by testing agencies to judge a material's ability to withstand and retard flying objects. The window shutter should also be able to perform successfully in commonly used wind load tests, which judge a material's ability to withstand stresses from continuous wind loads.
There is also a need for an window shutter that will not require substantial maintenance in adverse conditions. In particular, there is a need for a window shutter which will remain relatively maintenance free in hostile environmental conditions, such as the tropics and subtropics, where direct sunlight exposes the window covering to substantial heat, humidity, and ultraviolet rays from the sun. Further, these environments are typically near salt water, and the salt air contributes to the deterioration of building materials. Still further, these tropical and subtropical environments may experience frequent hurricanes, which means that the substantially maintenance free window covering is exposed to high winds and wind driven water.


The present invention provides for a food peeler having a removable blade that includes an end received in a bore of the food peeler handle and a resilient member is mounted adjacent to the end of the blade and allows for the blade to be moved between a centered and offset position so that the blade may be removed and replaced. A tool is provided in order to remove and replace the blade.

Many food peelers are known for peeling food items such as carrots, potatoes or apples that have a long flat blade having a pair of cutting surfaces for peeling the food item. In certain known devices, the blade is attached at one end and has a distal end which is free. The attached end of the blade is generally fixedly attached to a handle so that the consumer or end user of the device cannot remove the blade from the handle. Generally, the blade is secured by some mechanical means or welded in place within the handle.
Other types of peelers are either Y-shaped or have an L-shaped arm having mounting areas at each side to receive each end of the blade. In known embodiments, the blade can be mounted permanently between the two mounting areas formed by the arms by exerting sufficient force on the blade in order to forcibly insert each end of the blade into bores formed at each mounting area. The arms are generally formed of substantially rigid plastic or metal. High pressure machines are used in order to forcibly insert the blade by slightly flexing the arms away from each other or flexing the blade so that the blade may be the arms between. Upon mounting of the blade between the arms, the arms spring back to their static position and hold the blade fixedly therebetween. As the end user does not have the proper machinery to forcibly expand the arms, the blade cannot be removed. Therefore, for all of these devices where the blade is fixedly mounted, when the blade becomes dull, the entire peeling device must be discarded. Therefore, there is desired a food peeler that has a replaceable blade so that a dull blade may be removed and a new sharp blade replaced quickly and easily by an end user.


Various semiconductor chip thermal interface material methods and apparatus are disclosed. In one aspect, a method of establishing thermal contact between a first semiconductor chip and a heat spreader is provided. The method includes placing a thermal interface material layer containing a support structure on the first semiconductor chip. The heat spreader is positioned proximate the thermal interface material layer. The thermal interface material layer is reflowed to establish thermal contact with both the first semiconductor chip and the heat spreader.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to semiconductor processing, and more particularly to thermal interface material layers useful for semiconductor chip thermal management and methods of making and using the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many current integrated circuits are formed as multiple dice on a common wafer. After the basic process steps to form the circuits on the dice are complete, the individual die are singulated from the wafer. The singulated die are then usually mounted to structures, such as circuit boards, or packaged in some form of enclosure.
One frequently-used package consists of a substrate upon which a die is mounted. The upper surface of the substrate includes electrical interconnects. The die is manufactured with a plurality of bond pads. A collection of solder joints are provided between the bond pads of the die and the substrate interconnects to establish ohmic contact. After the die is mounted to the substrate, a lid is attached to the substrate to cover the die. Some conventional integrated circuits, such as microprocessors, generate sizeable quantities of heat that must be transferred away to avoid device shutdown or damage. The lid serves as both a protective cover and a heat transfer pathway.
To provide a heat transfer pathway from the integrated circuit to the lid, a thermal interface material is placed on the upper surface of the integrated circuit. In an ideal situation, the thermal interface material ideally fully contacts both the upper surface of the integrated circuit and the portion of the lower surface of the lid that overlies the integrated circuit. Conventional thermal interface materials include various types of pastes, and in some cases, a metal. Gel-type thermal interface materials consist of a polymeric matrix interspersed with thermally conductive particles, such as aluminum. More recently, designers have begun to turn to solder materials as a thermal interface material, particularly for high power-high temperature chips.
A solder thermal interface material like indium has favorable thermal properties that work well for high power-high temperature die. However, indium exhibits relatively poor adhesion to silicon. To facilitate bonding with indium, the backside of a silicon die may be provided with a metallization stack that includes a layer that readily adheres to silicon, a layer that readily wets indium and perhaps one or more intermediary barrier or other layers. An entire wafer of dice may be provided with respective metallization stacks en masse prior to dicing.
To establish favorable thermal contact between a conventional solder thermal interface material and the semiconductor chip and lid that bracket it, a reflow process is performed to wet the applicable surfaces. The goal is to achieve a relatively uniform bond line thickness after the reflow. However, the combination of the package substrate, the die, the solder and the lid behave dynamically during reflow due to differences in coefficients of thermal expansion and structural imperfections. Indeed the upper surface of the die may be non-uniform. This non-uniformity combined with irregular thermal warping can squeeze the thermal interface solder laterally, causing thin spots or even voids.
The present invention is directed to overcoming or reducing the effects of one or more of the foregoing disadvantages.

Thermal interface material with support structure


This invention relates to a method for protecting regions of a spin-on-glass(SOG) layer, which covers usable semiconductor dice, from dissolution damage during an etch step which removes SOG along the wafer edge. The endangered dice have portions which lie in the area affected by the edge rinse. Instead of performing the edge etching step immediately after the deposition of the SOG, the endangered dice are first selectively partially cured by exposure to ultraviolet radiation. This makes the SOG over these dice resistant to the SOG solvent used for the edge rinse. Up to ten percent of the total usable dice on the wafer can be salvaged by the method of this invention.

(1) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the manufacture of integrated circuit devices and more particularly to application and processing of spin-on-glasses.
(2) Description of prior art
The manufacture of large scale integrated circuits in a mass production facility involves hundreds of discrete processing steps beginning with the introduction of blank semiconductor wafers at one end and recovering the completed chips at the other. The manufacturing process is usually conceived as consisting of two segments The first is often referred to as front-end-of-line(FEOL) processing and includes those processing steps wherein the semiconductor devices are formed within the silicon surface. The second segment called back-end-of-line(BEOL) processing encompasses the formation of the various layers of interconnection metallurgy above the silicon surface. Depending on the complexity of the product and the circuit design as many as four layers of metallurgy may be required to provide the required circuit interconnections and connecting pads for the chips external connections.
The processing steps in BEOL involve depositing layers of material, patterning them by photolithographic techniques, and etching away the unwanted portions. The materials consist primarily of insulators and metal alloys.
Each time a layer of metallization is applied and circuit paths are etched within it, the next layer of insulation is preferred to flow into the contours of the metal pattern it is covering so as to render a smooth planar surface for the next metal layer. Most traditional film deposition techniques such as low-pressure-chemical-vapor-deposition(LPCVD), plasma-enhanced-chemical-vapor-deposition(PECVD), and rf sputtering cannot provide this desired surface planarization. These processes are more or less conformal and thereby replicate the topography upon which they are deposited. Only materials which can experience liquid flow during deposition are capable of providing such a planar upper surface. To this end low melting glasses such as phosphosilicate glass(PSG) can be deposited by LPCVD or PECVD and then caused to flow at elevated temperatures. However, because of the temperatures required for adequate flow, they have only found use prior to the deposition of the first layer of metallization.
Other alternatives comprise materials that can be applied in liquid form and subsequently hardened or cured to form solid insulating layers. In this category are photoresists, polyimides, and spin-on-glasses (SOG). The photoresists and polyimides remain as hardened organic materials after curing. The SOGs consist of alcohol soluble silicates and siloxanes which can attain the properties of inorganic glasses when properly cured. The SOGs have found wide acceptance in recent sub-micron semiconductor processing technology because of their low defect density, simplified processing, and low thermal budget. However, the SOG layers are limited to thicknesses of only a few thousand Angstroms. Thicker layers tend to crack and require longer curing times.
A common method of usage is to first deposit a layer of PECVD silicon oxide over the layer of patterned metallization and then lay the SOG over it. The SOG fills in the narrow features. It is then etched back by anisotropic etching to the PECVD oxide surface. The result is the original PECVD layer with the small spacings filled with SOG.
The SOG is deposited by a nozzle directed at the center of a rapidly spinning wafer. Centrifugal force distributes the liquid over the wafer. Excess liquid is flung from the edge of the wafer. The apparatus used to perform this task is of the same type that is conventionally used to deposit photoresist. The wafer is then allowed to dry. This method of application results in a layer that is somewhat thicker at the outer edge of the wafer. During the subsequent RIE etch back step, a circular clamp is used hold the wafer in place. This clamp shields a portion of the SOG preventing its removal during the etch back procedure. If this material is not removed prior to the etch back, it can crack during or after the SOG etch back thereby releasing particulate contamination.
In order to remove this edge band of SOG, an edge rinse with isopropyl alcohol(IPA) is performed prior to curing. The wafer is spun on the apparatus used to apply the SOG. The IPA is applied by a nozzle directed at the wafer edge. IPA effectively removes sufficient SOG from the edge region but in doing so tends to attack the SOG on portions of usable dice lying in close proximity to the wafer edge. These dice, which lie within the manufacturing process edge tolerance but are partly exposed to the IPA edge rinse would normally be lost.

Selective partial curing of spin-on-glass by ultraviolet radiation to protect integrated circuit dice near the wafer edge

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd.


A liquid ejection method of ejecting liquid from a movable ejection head onto a medium comprises the steps of: detecting a position of an end of the medium; and changing, according to a feed amount of the medium fed after the position of the end of the medium has been detected, at least either a starting position or a terminating position for ejecting the liquid from the ejection head being moved.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid ejection method and a liquid ejecting apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Color inkjet printers are already well known as representative liquid ejection apparatuses. These color ink-jet printers are provided with a print head, which is an example of an inkjet-type ejection head, for ejecting ink, which is an example of a liquid, from nozzles, and are configured so as to record images and characters, for example, by ejecting ink onto print paper, which is an example of a medium.
The print head is supported on a carriage in a state with the nozzle face in which the nozzles are formed in opposition to the print paper, and is moved (in a main scan) in the width direction of the print paper along a guide member, ejecting ink in synchronization with this main scan.
Moreover, color inkjet printers that allow so-called borderless printing, in which the entire surface of the print paper is targeted for printing, have become popular in recent years because, among other things, they allow an output result of an image that is comparable to a photograph to be obtained. Borderless printing for example allows printing to be carried out by ejecting ink without leaving borders at the four edges of the print paper.
In case of performing borderless printing, since printing is carried out with respect to the entire surface of the print paper, it is important that no borders are created on the end sections of the print paper being printed. In order to do so, it is advantageous to prepare print data that is somewhat larger than the print paper, i.e., that has somewhat of a margin compared to the size of the print paper, and to print on the print paper using such print data, giving consideration to situations in which the print paper is supplied in a slanted (skewed) manner.
Further, in order to alleviate the problem caused when adopting the above-mentioned method, that is, the problem that ink is wasted because printing is performed in regions outside the print paper, it is also advantageous to detect the position of the end of the print paper using a detector such as a sensor, and change the starting position and/or the terminating position for ejecting ink in accordance with the detected end position.
However, in adopting the above-mentioned measure, ink will be wasted if the starting position and/or the terminating position for ejecting ink from the print head is determined without giving any consideration to the feed amount by which the print paper is fed using a paper feed motor after the position of the end of the print paper has been detected.
More specifically, the appropriate starting position or the terminating position for ejecting ink when giving consideration to such aspects as not to create any unnecessary borders in the print paper while causing no waste of ink will change according to the magnitude of the feed amount by which the print paper is fed by the paper feed motor after the position of the end of the print paper has been detected. Despite such a fact, if the starting position or the terminating position for ejecting ink is determined irrelevant to the feed amount, the timing at which ink ejection is started will be excessively advanced and the timing at which the ink ejection is terminated will be excessively delayed as a result of placing too much importance on trying to keep unnecessary borders from being created on the print paper without taking the magnitude of the feed amount into consideration. This gives rise to the problem that ink is wasted.

Liquid ejection method and liquid ejecting apparatus


Described is a printing system including a first array of ink ejection elements formed on a first substrate surface for ejecting droplets of a first ink, a second array of ink ejection elements formed on a second substrate surface for ejecting droplets of a second ink, a memory element associated with the first and second arrays of ink ejection elements contains parameters that relate droplet ejection characteristics of the first and second array of ink ejection elements. The droplet ejection characteristics may contain ink ejection alignment data that enables the calculation of the relative alignment between the first and second arrays of ink ejection elements such that droplets of the first ink can be effectively aligned with droplets of the second ink. Also, ink droplet volume data enables the calculation of the relative drop volume between the first and second arrays of ink ejection elements such that the printing system can provide hue control.

Thermal inkjet hardcopy devices such as printers, graphics plotters, facsimile machines and copiers have gained wide acceptance. These hardcopy devices are described by W. J. Lloyd and H. T. Taub in "Ink Jet Devices," Chapter 13 of Output Hardcopy Devices (Ed. R. C. Durbeck and S. Sherr, San Diego: Academic Press, 1988) and U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,490,728 and 4,313,684. The basics of this technology are further disclosed in various articles in several editions of the Hewlett-Packard Journal [Vol. 36, No. 5 (May 1985), Vol. 39, No. 4 (August 1988), Vol. 39, No. 5 (October 1988), Vol. 43, No. 4 (August 1992), Vol. 43, No. 6 (December 1992) and Vol. 45, No. 1 (February 1994)], incorporated herein by reference. Inkjet hardcopy devices produce high quality print, are compact and portable, and print quickly and quietly because only ink strikes the paper.
An inkjet printer forms a printed image by printing a pattern of individual dots at particular locations of an array defined for the printing medium. The locations are conveniently visualized as being small dots in a rectilinear array. The locations are sometimes "dot locations", "dot positions", or pixels". Thus, the printing operation can be viewed as the filling of a pattern of dot locations with dots of ink.
Inkjet hardcopy devices print dots by ejecting very small drops of ink onto the print medium and typically include a movable carriage that supports one or more printheads each having ink ejecting nozzles. The carriage traverses over the surface of the print medium, and the nozzles are controlled to eject drops of ink at appropriate times pursuant to command of a microcomputer or other controller, wherein the timing of the application of the ink drops is intended to correspond to the pattern of pixels of the image being printed.
The typical inkjet printhead (i.e., the silicon substrate, structures built on the substrate, and connections to the substrate) uses liquid ink (i.e., dissolved colorants or pigments dispersed in a solvent). It has an array of precisely formed orifices or nozzles attached to a printhead substrate that incorporates an array of ink ejection chambers which receive liquid ink from the ink reservoir. Each chamber is located opposite the nozzle so ink can collect between it and the nozzle. The ejection of ink droplets is typically under the control of a microprocessor, the signals of which are conveyed by electrical traces to the resistor elements. When electric printing pulses heat the inkjet firing chamber resistor, a small portion of the ink next to it vaporizes and ejects a drop of ink from the printhead. Properly arranged nozzles form a dot matrix pattern. Properly sequencing the operation of each nozzle causes characters or images to be printed upon the paper as the printhead moves past the paper.
The ink cartridge containing the nozzles is moved repeatedly across the width of the medium to be printed upon. At each of a designated number of increments of this movement across the medium, each of the nozzles is caused either to eject ink or to refrain from ejecting ink according to the program output of the controlling microprocessor. Each completed movement across the medium can print a swath approximately as wide as the number of nozzles arranged in a column of the ink cartridge multiplied times the distance between nozzle centers. After each such completed movement or swath the medium is moved forward the width of the swath, and the ink cartridge begins the next swath. By proper selection and timing of the signals, the desired print is obtained on the medium.
Color inkjet hardcopy devices commonly employ a plurality of print cartridges, usually two to four, mounted in the printer carriage to produce a full spectrum of colors. In a printer with four cartridges, each print cartridge can contain a different color ink, with the commonly used base colors being cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. In a printer with two cartridges, one cartridge can contain black ink with the other cartridge being a tri-compartment cartridge containing the base color cyan, magenta and yellow inks, or alternatively, two dual-compartment cartridges may be used to contain the four color inks. In addition, two tri-compartment cartridges may be used to contain six base color inks, for example, black, cyan, magenta, yellow, light cyan and light magenta. Further, other combinations can be employed depending on the number of different base color inks to be used.
The base colors are produced on the media by depositing a drop of the required color onto a dot location, while secondary or shaded colors are formed by depositing multiple drops of different base color inks onto the same dot location, with the overprinting of two or more base colors producing the secondary colors according to well established optical principles.
For many applications, such as personal computer printers and fax machines, the ink reservoir has been incorporated into the pen body such that when the pen runs out of ink, the entire pen, including the printhead, is replaced.
However, for other hardcopy applications, such as large format plotting of engineering drawings, color posters and the like, there is a requirement for the use of much larger volumes of ink than can be contained within the replaceable pens. Therefore, various off-board ink reservoir systems have been developed recently which provide an external stationary ink supply connected to the scanning cartridge via a tube. The external ink supply is typically known as an "off-axis," "off-board," or "off-carriage" ink supply. While providing increased ink capacity, these off-carriage systems also present a number of problems.
These various problems include accurate and inexpensive methods of alignment of the multiple print cartridges, providing a reliable fluid seal between the print cartridge and the external ink supply and providing electrical connections between the print cartridge and the printer.
When using a printhead with a large number of nozzles and high resolution, correct alignment of all the nozzles so that the ink is correctly placed on the print media is extremely important. Dot alignment must be done in both the horizontal and vertical axes. The horizontal axis is generally referred to as the scan axis. The vertical axis is generally referred to as the paper advance axis. Many factors can affect alignment. For example, slight variations during manufacturing can affect alignment. Additionally, the alignment of ink placed on a page can be dynamically affected during printing, for example dependent on the volume of a drop which is generated by merged droplets.
In color printing, the various colored dots produced by each of the print cartridges are selectively overlapped to create crisp images composed of virtually any color of the visible spectrum. To create a single dot on paper having a color which requires a blend of two or more of the colors provided by different print cartridges, the nozzle plates on each of the cartridges must be precisely aligned so that a dot ejected from a selected nozzle in one cartridge overlaps a dot ejected from a corresponding nozzle in another cartridge. This requires each of the nozzle plates on the print cartridges to be aligned with respect to one another within a few tens of microns after being installed in the carriage.
One method of accomplishing this is to make the print cartridge bodies identical to one another so that, when multiple print cartridges were installed in the carriage, the print cartridge bodies were all aligned with one another in the carriage irrespective of any misalignment of the nozzle plates secured to the print cartridge bodies. To align the nozzle plate on a print cartridge so that nozzle plates are positioned in ideally the same location on all the various print cartridges, the nozzle plate is typically glued in position on the print cartridge relative to a molded-in plastic datum formed on the print cartridge body. This alignment process has a significant drawback in that the glue curing process causes the nozzle plate to slightly shift as the glue is being cured. In addition, molded-in stresses in the plastic cartridge body creep during the thermal curing process. Since this movement is substantially unpredictable, this alignment and gluing process can only produce print cartridges of minimal accuracy.
Other, more expensive techniques have been used to achieve higher alignment precision. One of these techniques automatically detects any misalignment of the nozzle plates once the print cartridges have been installed in a carriage and then mechanically adjusts the positions of the print cartridges in the carriage. Using another relatively expensive method, an ink drop detector within the ink printer measures the location of a drop of ejected ink after being ejected from a nozzle, and a software algorithm compensates for any misalignment of the nozzle plates. Both of these techniques significantly increase the cost of the ink printer.
Achieving accurate mechanical alignment between printheads using in-printer latching is very difficult and costly. Moreover, typically the desired alignment is not achieved and further ways of adjusting are used. For example, the user can print a test plot with the four pens, and then type in a code that sets an alignment algorithm in the printer. This is inconvenient and users rarely do this and print quality suffers.
Multichamber printheads which use a single substrate, typically a single piece of silicon, with multiple ink feed slots help solve the above problems, but there are still trajectory and drop volume variations within a multichamber cartridge. In addition, the multichamber printhead requires that all nozzles be on the same substrate, thus, upper limits on silicon die size limit the performance of multichamber cartridge systems.
Thus, there is needed is an accurate method of assuring precise dot-to-dot registration between multiple colorants in an inkjet printer.

Multiple cartridge printhead assembly for use in an inkjet printing system


Electrical power systems and methods of controlling electrical power systems are described. One such electrical power system comprises: a first ac bus and a first generator set configured to supply the first ac bus with ac electrical power; a second ac bus and a second generator set, configured to supply the second ac bus with ac electrical power; an interconnecting transformer connected between the first and second ac busses; a primary electrical load connected to both the first and second ac busses via a converter arrangement; an auxiliary load connected to the first ac bus; and a controller configured to control the first generator set according to a first droop control profile and to control the second generator set according to a second droop control profile, the first and second droop control profiles relating respective generator operating frequencies of the first and second generator sets to respective output powers of the first and second generator sets.

As the need to reduce carbon emissions grows and electrical technologies develop, interest in hybrid electric platforms and so-called 'more electric' platforms is increasing. Hybrid platforms use both internal combustion engines, for example reciprocating engines or gas turbine engines, and electrical machines to provide propulsive power. More electric platforms primarily or exclusively use internal combustion engines for propulsive power, but make increased use of electrical power to power systems which previously, typically, have not been electrically powered. More electric platforms may also use electrical machines to facilitate engine starting or the transfer of mechanical power between engine shafts in gas turbines, for example.
Hybrid and more electric systems typically include one or more generator sets (commonly known as gen-sets) connected to one or more electrical busses. Each generator set includes a prime mover, for example a diesel engine or a gas turbine engine, with a rotary shaft connected to an electrical machine that outputs electrical power to one or more of the busses. Propulsive and/or non-propulsive electrical loads are connected to and draw electrical power from the one or more busses.
A variety of bus architectures are possible and have been proposed. This includes DC bus architectures and ac bus architectures. Each of these architectures is associated with its own set of advantages and disadvantages.
European Patent publication EP 2765692 B1 describes an electrical system with a two-lane ac architecture. Each lane has a generator and a load connected by a bus, and a rectifier between the generator and the load. A known phenomenon in rectified electrical systems is the introduction of parasitic harmonic currents, particularly the 5th and 7th order harmonics. One way of reducing the parasitic harmonics, detailed in EP 2765692 B1, is to connect a harmonic mitigating transformer between the two ac busses to draw the 5th and 7th order harmonics and reduce the effect on the wider electrical system.
The two ac lanes described in EP 2765692 B1 are essentially independent: each bus is supplied by its own generator and supplies its own load, with no sharing of the loads between the generators. In some applications, however, it may be desirable to share loads between generators in a multi-bus architecture.


A source of IR-radiation, having an enclosure defining between its walls a sealed-off, electrode-less chamber, the walls having at least one portion transparent to IR-radiation, and the chamber containing a gas mixture of at least one, molecular, IR-active gas, of at least one buffer gas and of at least one noble gas. A method for producing a source of IR-radiation is also described and claimed.

The present invention relates to sealed-off, molecular gas-discharge sources, without internal electrodes, radiating at discrete, non-coherent and spontaneous emission frequencies in the infra-red (IR) spectrum, and to a method of producing such sources.
Sealed-off, as opposed to non-sealed continuous flow, molecular gas-discharge IR sources are known in the art. These sources are, however, in general of short life span due to dissociation and/or depletion of the IR emitting gas during operation and are weak due to non-radiative relaxation of the excited molecules. Also, the ratio of the IR output to the input power of these known sources, is low. In order to overcome some of these shortcomings, solutions were suggested which include rather complicated structures, such as the device described in Robert A. Young's U.S. Pat. No. 3,984,727 and the device described in the U.K. patent number 1,591,709, to R. S. Webley.

IR-radiation source and method for producing same

Yissum Research Development Company of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem


An electronics enclosure has a mains input and a lamp output. A power factor correction circuit is installed in the enclosure, to provide a DC output voltage. An inverter is also installed in the enclosure. Control electronics is also installed in the enclosure to control the inverter, and to receive a selection of lamp load type made manually by a user via a user interface on an outside face of the enclosure. The same lamp output can thus alternatively drive, for example, a high pressure sodium lamp and a metal halide lamp, as indicated by the selection. Other embodiments are also described and claimed.

Ballasts are an integral component of the lighting industry and are either magnetic or electronic. Magnetic ballasts utilize components which are heavy and cumbersome, while electronic ballasts use electric circuits on a light-weight and reduced size circuit board. A ballast may be used to start a high density discharge (HID) lamp, and regulates electrical current used by the lamp. HID lamps are identified by the gas within the lamp—metal halide (MH), high-pressure sodium (HPS) or mercury vapor (MV)—and the gas affects the color of the light. Buyers choose a specific HID lamp based on the color, input voltage, output wattage and the starter (regular or pulse start).
There are two categories of HID ballast: magnetic and electronic. Magnetic ballasts, also called "core and coil" ballasts, dominate the HID market. Although inexpensive, magnetic ballasts flicker, are noisy and weigh as much as 86 lbs. Ballast manufacturers have redesigned their products to reduce electronic interference and noise, and lamp manufacturers have introduced pulse-start lamps to shorten the slow start times. Despite these improvements, magnetic ballasts are still energy-inefficient. Regulatory actions and fines threatens the long-term outlook for magnetic ballasts and, as they fail, many are being replaced with electronic ballasts.
Electronic ballasts may be 30–50% more energy-efficient than magnetic ballasts and deliver a relatively non-flickering, silent light, reduce the problem of magnetic interference, and may weigh less then 8 lbs. Until now, however, most electronic ballast manufacturers have followed a short-sighted, one-to-one design approach, requiring a unique electronic ballast for every input voltage, output wattage and lamp type combination. As an example, a 400 watt GE lamp works at optimal efficiency generally with only one particular ballast, whether the ballast is magnetic or electronic. If the ballast and lamp are not compatible or matched, the operation of the lamp will not be efficient, thereby adversely affecting brightness and the life of the lamp. Additionally, in the case of magnetic ballasts, each ballast has to be specifically wired for each lamp voltage input, such as 100V, 120V and so forth. Such wiring is accomplished at the manufacturer's factory or the end user is required to wire the ballast for each lamp depending on application. Therefore, a different ballast is required for each input voltage. These manufacturers often also sell dimmers, timers and controllers as separate, auxiliary components, to be used with their particular ballast design.


An oral composition comprising a vehicle and a zinc ion source in the form of nanoparticles that are substantially non-aggregated and methods for use of such compositions are described. The composition provides antiplaque and anti malodor benefits to the user and the inclusion of nanoparticles permits a reduction in the amount of zinc ions present in the composition while maintaining efficacy.

Zinc ions in an oral care formulation provide users with a number of beneficial effects. For example, zinc ions are known to have antiplaque, anticalculus, and deodorant properties. However, zinc is associated with numerous negative organoleptic properties: for example, astringency and unpleasant lingering tastes. These properties restrict the use of zinc ion-providing compounds in oral care products as a practical matter for products having negative organoleptic properties are not acceptable to consumers. Furthermore, some zinc salts such as zinc oxide have low water solubility and the activity of those zinc salts in the operating environment is typically lower than other zinc forms. This is another limitation in using zinc source in an oral care product.
A dentifrice comprising aggregated zinc oxide particles and a liquid vehicle in an amount sufficient to provide the desired consistency is known in the art. However, an oral compound containing substantially non-aggregated zinc nanoparticles, which enables use of small amounts of zinc ion without influencing activity of the zinc ion under operating environment, has not been reported yet. It is desirable to provide an oral composition which contains low level of zinc ion source but has the same or better beneficial effect of zinc ion in addition to solving the taste problem.

Oral composition containing non-aggregated zinc nanoparticles


A battery module comprising sub-module components, or bricks, that facilitate efficient assembly utilizing common hand tools and provide integrated cooling features for increased battery configurability and performance.

It is known in the electronics industry to use battery packs to store and subsequently supply energy to an electrical system. In traditional applications, batteries either customizes to particular applications, or multiple batteries are combined in a manner to provide the desired electrical characteristics. Typically, combining multiple batteries requires external connections, such as jumper tabs, soldered wiring, or welding. Commonly, battery assemblies are formed using automated processes that typically require a high level of control and repeatability, which also requires frequent calibration.
Battery systems may be used to provide power in a wide variety of applications. Examples of transportable applications include hybrid electric vehicles (HEV), plug-in HEVs, and electric vehicles (EV). Examples of stationary applications include backup power for telecommunications systems, uninterruptible power supplies (UPS), and distributed power generation applications.
Examples of the types of batteries that are used include nickel metal hydride (NiMH) batteries, lead-acid batteries, lithium batteries, lithium-ion batteries, and other types of batteries in a cylindrical form factor. A battery module includes a plurality of cells that are connected in series, parallel, or a combination thereof. The modules themselves may be connected in series, parallel, or a combination thereof in forming a complete battery pack.
Battery system integration poses multiple challenges in various disciplines. Most of the cost of a battery system lies with the battery cells. However assembly defects, such as, for example, misaligned welds, can result in expensive recalls wherein there is no opportunity to reuse the cells. Also, in low cost manufacturing markets, which can be large producers and consumers of battery packs, battery systems are prone to quality issues as their manufacturing techniques rely heavily on manual assembly processes. An error-proof, manual assembly design that can easily be automated is key for successful production.
When fasteners are used to connect bus bars to battery cells, a large size battery pack can end up with thousands of fasteners, all which must be torqued down to the correct torque value with the risk of vibrations loosening a metal fastener that can cause a short.
Modules are often externally connected by bus bars or cables, with cables being a cheaper option. However cables must be restrained to prevent loosening of the fasteners and chafing of the cables against other parts of the battery system. To restrain the cables at the lug terminal connecting it to the module, a two-hole lug terminal is commonly employed. To keep all modules the same, this requires all module-connecting bus bars to also have two holes, which doubles the amount of fasteners used in a battery pack and introduces added complexity to the bus bars used. The invention offers a built-in lug terminal restraint, saving the extra fastener.
Manufacturers of battery modules are always facing the dilemma of making small, highly-configurable modules versus large, well-integrated modules. The smaller modules offer more packaging options and can meet more diverse market demands. But the larger modules are more highly integrated, increasing the overall power to mass/volume and energy to mass/volume ratios by, in part, reducing the number of fasteners, mounting brackets and cables or complex bus bars. Aside from constrained packaging, the other issue with large format modules is the cost of replacement since the entire module is typically replaced.
The present invention is directed to overcome one or more of the problems as set forth above.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


When performing an end-to-side anastomosis connecting the end of a first vessel to the edge region around an opening in the side wall of a second vessel, an instrument is used having a circumferential stapling anvil secured to an anvil tube accommodating the first vessel, the end of which is everted about the anvil with the intima of the end region facing the intima of the edge region, when the instrument with the first vessel in place has been inserted into the opening in the second vessel. Then, a clamping tube is advanced towards the anvil, clamping the end and edge region together against the anvil. In the next step, a number of stapling plungers carrying staples are advanced towards the anvil, the latter having staple-bending surfaces, thus stapling the two vessels together in a manner not shown. Finally, the clamping tube and the stapling plungers are withdrawn, and the whole instrument removed from the anastomosis.

A method of this kind is disclosed in the international application having the publication No. WO 95/17128. In this previously known method, the means used for interconnecting the two vessels consisted of an open springy brace carrying spikes and being capable of being bent elastically so as to make its free ends cross each other, said spikes forming angles with the brace gradually diminishing from acute angles at the free ends to substantially right angles mid-way between them. When released from the anastomotic instrument holding the brace in the elastically bent condition, it would bring the spikes into engagement with the regions to be joined so as to penetrate the latter and so to speak nail them together.
Extra-clinical trials have, however, shown that one can not always be certain that all the spikes have penetrated through the parts concerned of the two vessels to be joined, this probably being due to the limited elastic force available from the springy brace.

Method and anastomotic instrument for use when performing an end-to-side anastomosis


Antibodies to the CNA protein and to other regions from the collagen binding domain, including domain CNA19, are provided, and antibodies produced in this manner have been shown to be cross reactive to both Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis bacteria and which can thus be used in the prevention and treatment of infections caused by both of these types of bacteria. In addition, medical instruments can be treated using the antibodies of the invention in order to reduce or eliminate the possibility of their becoming infected or further spreading the infection. In particular, the proteins are advantageous because they are cross-reactive and may thus be administered to patients so as to reduce or prevent severe infection by staphylococcal bacteria of more than one species. Antibodies generated in this manner have also been shown to exhibit displacement activity and can thus be utilized advantageously in methods wherein these antibodies will be administered to patients having pre-existing staphylococcal infections because of the ability to displace bacterial proteins from binding sites on the extracellular matrix. Finally, a method of identifying, isolating and utilizing displacing antibodies is also provided.

Staphylococcus aureus is a bacterial pathogen that is capable of colonizing a wide range of host tissues and causing infections such as endocarditis, wound infections, pneumonia, osteomyelitis and septic arthritis. The initial attachment and colonization on host tissues is thought to be the first crucial step in the disease development. Staphylococci produce a family of surface proteins named MSCRAMMs (Microbial Surface Component Recognizing Adhesive Matrix Molecules) that mediate adherence to extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins. Collagen is a major ECM protein and is the main component of tissues such as skin, bone, tendon, cartilage and teeth. It is conceivable that the S. aureus developed strategies to utilize collagen as a way to colonize host tissues.
Several studies have supported this notion. For example, S. aureus cells retrieved from infected joints were shown to be predominantly attached to the cartilage (1). Switalski et al. demonstrated that a collagen-binding MSCRAMM, CNA, was necessary and sufficient for S. aureus to attach to cartilage in vitro (2). Furthermore, CNA was shown to be a virulence factor in experimental septic arthritis (3). CNA+ strains showed dramatically increased virulence compared with the isogenic CNA− strains as evaluated by the clinical symptoms and histopathological patterns of the joints. No viable S. aureus cells were recovered from the joints of mice injected with the CNA− strains, while significant numbers of S. aureus cells were isolated from the joints of those injected with the CNA+ strains. In addition, vaccination with a recombinant fragment of CNA protected mice from septic death against intravenous challenge with S. aureus (4).
Other bacteria that have been reported to express collagen-adhesins include certain strains of Escherichia coli (5), Yersinia enterocolitica (6–8), Klebsiella pneumoniae (9), Streptococcus mutans (10,11), group A streptococci (12), Streptococcus gordonii (11,13), Enterococcus faecalis (14), Lactobacilli reuteri (15) and Lactobacilli crispatus (T. K. Korhonen, personal communication). The collagen-adhesin YadA was shown to contribute to the arthritogenicity of Y. enterocolitica in a rat model (16). Substitution of two histidine residues in YadA with alanine abrogated collagen binding and cell adherence, and caused reduced virulence in mice (17), suggesting that these functions of YadA were related. Mammalian proteins that interact with collagen include extracellular matrix proteins (e.g., fibronectin, decorin, thrombospondin and von Willebrand factor) and cell receptors (e.g., integrins α1β1 and α2β1). Their interactions mediate processes such as cell adhesion and migration, platelet aggregation, and tumor metastasis. Therefore, a deeper understanding of the interactions between collagen and the staphylococcal adhesin will not only contribute to our understanding of the molecular pathogenesis of staphylococcal infections but also provide insight of how collagen-binding proteins in general interact with this ligand.
Previous studies showed that CNA recognized triple helical collagen as well as some synthetic peptides that formed a collagen-like triple helix (18). CNA was found to contain typical elements of surface proteins of gram-positive bacteria. It consists of a signal peptide, a non-repetitive A domain, several repeats (B domains), followed by a cell-wall anchor region, a transmembrane segment and a short cytoplasmic tail. The A domain of CNA (CNA55) was found to be fully responsible for the collagen-binding activity of CNA (19). The minimum binding domain was localized to a 19 kDa fragment, CNA19 (formerly designated CBD (151–318)), within CNA55 (19). The crystal structure of CNA19 was solved (20). The structure was composed of two antiparallel β-sheets and two short α-helices. β-strands A, B, part of D, E and H form β-sheet I, and strands C, part of D, F, G, I and J form β-sheet II. A trench was observed in β-sheet I into which a triple helical collagen molecule fits as shown by docking experiments using theoretical collagen probes of [(Gly-Pro-Pro)4]3 or [(Gly-Pro-Hyp)4]3. Site-directed mutagenesis of some residues in the trench of CNA19 abolished collagen binding (Y175K, R189A, F191A, N193K, and Y233A) or caused reduced binding affinity (N223K and N278K) (20,21), indicating that the trench was essential for binding. Two truncates of CNA19 that had the N-terminal 30 amino acids or the C-terminal 22 amino acids removed respectively were generated. The C-terminal truncate, CBD (151–297), did not bind collagen, while the N-terminus truncate was insoluble. The N-terminal truncate contains all but 6 of the residues in the trench and the C-terminal truncate contains all the residues, suggesting that the intact CNA19 molecule is important in presenting the trench in an active collagen-binding conformation. Structural analysis on the I domains of integrins α1β1 and α2β1, the collagen binding domains, also indicated the presence of trench-like structures (22–24). Mutations of some residues along the wall of the trench in the I domain of α2β1 affected collagen binding (25–28). Thus, it seems that using a trench structure as the site of interaction for collagen may be a general theme.
Recently, a collagen-adhesin (ACE) of Enterococcus faecalis was identified (14). ACE has similar domain organization as CNA, a signal peptide sequence, a collagen-binding region (A) followed by repeated segments (B repeats), and elements required for surface display. The A domain of ACE shares sequence similarity with the A domain of CNA in the corresponding segments and these parts of the two proteins appear to be structurally related as determined by far-UV circular dichroism analysis of the ACE A domain (14). This raised the possibility that there may also be a trench structure in the ACE A domain and the trench may be the binding site for collagen.
However, with regard to Staphylococcal bacteria, it has still remained a problem to identify and utilize the information concerning the collagen binding site so as to develop methods of more efficiently preventing and/or treating staph infections. In addition, it has still been a goal of the study of the collagen binding activity of to develop methods and compositions which could be useful in treating or preventing infections from more than one type of staph infection. Finally, it is even further desirable in the field of infectious diseases to development compositions which are particularly successful not only in preventing staph infection, but in treating existing infection by displacing proteins already bound at sites on the extracellular matrix in cells of a human or animal patient.

Cross-reactive displacing antibodies from collagen-binding proteins and method of identification and use


An information transmission method, a base station, a mobile terminal, and a computer readable storage medium are provided. The information transmission method includes transmitting, to a mobile terminal, configuration information of a target frequency point used by the mobile terminal in a random access procedure, wherein the configuration information includes time slot information corresponding to the target frequency point and/or identification information of the target frequency point.

In a random access during mobile communication, a User Equipment (UE) performs an access through a Random Access Channel (RACH) resource configured at a fixed frequency point. This access is less flexible. Moreover, in a case that the number of UEs is large, a congestion probability of a random access is increased.
Meanwhile, if a Fifth Generation (5G) New Radio (NR) is deployed on a C carrier (around 3.5 GHz), downlink budget difference over 3.5 GHz is large (a downlink transmission loss is about 10 dB less than an uplink transmission loss), causing that an uplink coverage range is obviously smaller than a downlink coverage range, and the uplink coverage is limited, and an access success rate of a mobile terminal at a cell edge is greatly reduced.

Information transmission method, base station, mobile terminal, and computer readable storage medium


This invention provides an electronic apparatus having a back display portion and a back LCD impact absorbing structure capable of preventing a front LCD from being broken through a back LCD by a load applied from a rear cover. A rear cover has a back screen attaching portion to which a back screen is attached and a back LCD display window opened by being surrounded by the back screen attaching portion on the surface and a back dustproof cushion on the back of the cover. The longitudinal one side in four sides of a back LCD display window which forms a cutout portion is broadened like a half-moon shape and thereby, a direct influence on this portion of a back LCD due to an external force added to the rear cover is moderated.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic apparatus having an LCD at both sides, particularly to a back LCD impact absorbing structure and an electronic apparatus having the structure.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A conventional electronic apparatus having an LCD such as a cellular phone is constituted by an LCD frame to which both sides an LCD having an LCD flexible board and a printed wiring board serving as a circuit board are fixed. The LCD frame is held between a front case forming a housing and a rear cover and a screen for displaying an LCD picture is set to the front case. Recently, not only a front case but also a rear cover are set to a display face and a configuration in which an LCD is set to the surface and the back is practically used. In the case of the both-side-type conventional configuration, the back display window has a rectangle corresponding to a back LCD and the periphery of the display window faces the periphery of the back LCD through a dustproof cushion.
The back LCD is housed in a guide rib set to the LCD frame held by the front case. By forming the guide rib into a structure which does not directly or indirectly contact with the rear cover and the back screen, a back LCD fixing structure is disclosed which a load from the back screen side is not directly added to a guide member. (See Patent Document 1.)
[Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-122037

Back LCD impact absorbing structure of electronic apparatus and electronic apparatus having the structure


An automatic polarity conversion circuit for providing output signals having predetermined output polarities. The automatic polarity conversion circuit includes first and second input terminals for receiving first and second input signals, respectively. Also included is a converter converting the first and second input signals into first and second output signals having predetermined first and second output polarities, respectively, regardless of the polarities of the first and second input signals. Further, a first output terminal outputs the first output signal, and a second output terminal outputs the second output signal.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automatic polarity conversion circuit, and more particularly, to an automatic polarity conversion circuit which outputs signals having a predetermined polarity regardless of the polarity of the received signals.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Generally, portable electronic devices such as, e.g., a radio set, a cellular phone, or a beeper use a battery as a power source. In such electronic devices, the battery is to be inserted with its polarities matching with the positive terminal (+) and negative (-) terminal of the power supply input.
However, if by mistake, the battery is inserted with the polarities (+) and (-) inverted in the electronic device, the inverted battery may, e.g., cause internal circuits to operate improperly, shorten the life of the electronic device, or damage the electronic device.


An image receiving material comprises an image receiving layer provided on a support. The image receiving layer contains particles of a thermoplastic compound. The image receiving layer has a porous surface formed by the particles. According to the present invention, the image receiving material is prepared by forming the image receiving layer on the support and heating the image receiving layer at a temperature of higher than a softening point of the thermoplastic compound to widen pores in the porous surface. The image receiving material is preferably used in combination with a light-sensitive material which comprises a support and a light-sensitive layer in which light-sensitive microcapsules are dispersed. The light-sensitive microcapsules contain silver halide, a reducing agent, an ethylenically unsaturated polymerizable compound and a color image forming substance. An image forming process using the light-sensitive material and the image receiving material of the present invention comprises the steps of imagewise exposing to light the light-sensitive material; heating the light-sensitive material to develop the silver halide; and pressing the light-sensitive material on the image receiving material to form a color image on the image receiving material.

Image receiving materials have been used in various image forming processes, which comprises pressing or heating an image recording material on an image receiving material to transfer an image from the recording material to the receiving material. The pressing or heating procedures can be easily handled.
Examples of the processes using the image receiving materials include a pressure sensitive copying process, an electrophotography, a thermal image transfer process, a heat sublimate process and various light-sensitive image forming processes. The photosensors of the light-sensitive image forming processes include a photopolymerization initiator, a photodecomposition resin and silver halide. Processes using a photopolymerization initiator are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,440,846 (Sanders et al.) and 4,483,912 (Sanders). Processes using silver halide are U.S. Pat. No. 4,629,676 (Hayakawa et al.) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,912,011 (Yamamoto et al.).
The process using silver halide comprises the steps of imagewise exposing to light a light-sensitive material; heating the light-sensitive material to develop silver halide; and pressing the light-sensitive material on the image receiving material to form a color image on the image receiving material. The light-sensitive material comprises a support and a light-sensitive layer in which light-sensitive microcapsules are dispersed. The light-sensitive microcapsules contain silver halide, a reducing agent, an ethylenically unsaturated polymerizable compound and a color image forming substance. At the heat development, the polymerizable compound is usually hardened within the area where the latent image of silver halide has been formed. U.S. Pat. No. 5,166,040 (Takeda) discloses another image forming process in which the polymerizable compound is hardened within the area where a latent image has not been formed.
With respect to the process using a photopolymerization initiator, U.S. Pat. No. 4,554,235 (Adair et al.) discloses a specific image receiving material. The image receiving material comprises a support, an image receiving layer and a discontinuous layer of a thermoplastic polymeric pigment. After an image is transferred to the image receiving material, the material is heated to form a thin essentially transparent polymeric film made from the thermoplastic polymeric pigment on the transferred image.
With respect to the process using silver halide, U.S. Pat. No. 4,784,932 (Nakamura et al.) discloses another specific image receiving material. The image receiving material comprises a support and an image receiving layer containing a granulated thermoplastic compound. After an image is transferred to the image receiving material, the material is heated to obtain a glossy or transparent image contained in a film made from the thermoplastic compound.
Using the image receiving materials disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,554,235 and 4,772,532, a glossy image can be obtained if the supports of the image receiving materials are opaque. If the supports are transparent, a transparent image can be obtained. The particles of the thermoplastic compound have another function of forming a porous surface on the image receiving layer. The pores increase the color density of the transferred image because they increase the amount of the transferred color image forming substance.

Image receiving material containing particles of thermoplastic compound


A footstool with a footrest platform that is adjustable to different positions/angles. The footstool includes a first sidepiece and a second sidepiece engaged by a platform, which is adjustable to one of a plurality of possible positions corresponding to one of a plurality of possible angles. In one embodiment, the sidepieces each have two notches and the platform has protrusions or extensions that engage the notches in the respective position(s). In one position, the protrusions on the platform engage one notch on each sidepiece; in the other position, the protrusions engage the other notch on each sidepiece.

A person feeding a baby will raise the baby's head during feeding—a mother, to hold the child to her breast; or any caregiver, to hold a bottle to the child's mouth. If seated with her feet on the floor, the person may use her arm to raise the baby's head, however, over prolonged periods of feeding, this is likely to result in fatigue of the arm, shoulder and back. Prolonged periods of sitting, too, can lead to discomfort in the person's legs and lower back.
A solution to both problems is for the person to elevate one or both feet on a footstool. This change in posture reduces the strain on her legs and lower back from sitting for long periods. Elevating one or both legs also allows her to rest her elbow or forearm on her raised thigh, thereby relieving the muscular strain of holding up the baby's head.
A footstool with a horizontal footrest platform may elevate the person's leg, but the force applied by her foot to the platform may be largely parallel to the surface of the footstool, depending upon the height of the platform relative to the height of her seat. The friction between her foot and the platform, which keeps her foot on the platform, is proportional to the force her foot exerts normal to the surface of the platform, rather than the force along the surface. Therefore, if the force applied by her foot to the platform is largely parallel to the surface of the footstool, her foot is more likely to slip and she will be required to exert more effort to keep her foot in position. A platform surface with a high coefficient of friction can reduce this slippage, but may be uncomfortable to a bare foot. A lower footstool may minimize the effort required, but may also not provide adequate elevation to ease the fatigue of raising the baby's head.
A footstool with a footrest platform angled toward the person can increase the normal force applied by the foot in relation to the force applied across the surface of the platform. If such a footstool has a platform at a fixed angle, however, it may still not be comfortable, depending upon the height of the person, the height of her seat, the distance of the footstool from the person, and other factors.
Many other problems and disadvantages of the prior art will become apparent to one skilled in the art after comparing such prior art with the present invention as described herein.

Footstool with footrest platform adjustable to different angles


A fast low-to-high voltage translator with immunity to latch-up. The circuit includes a voltage comparator and employs at least one transistor which is used to quickly pull up a node. If further uses another transistor which is capable of limiting the voltage at certain nodes in order to eliminate latch-up if a pumped power supply is provided to the circuit. Latch-up therefore is eliminated during power-up. Other transistors are utilized as voltage drop limiters to limit the voltage drop across other transistors during switching. This provides improved reliability by reducing substrate current and hot carriers.

With the trend of scaling down devices for higher density, many integrated circuits have both low and high voltage requirements. The low voltage is required for normal operation of the circuit. Other operations of the circuit require the higher voltage. This higher voltage may, for example, be used to write, restore, or refresh a high voltage stored in a memory cell. The power supply providing the high voltage may be a pumped voltage supply, or may be provided externally. An example of such an integrated circuit is a complementary metal oxide semiconductor ("CMOS") dynamic random access memory ("DRAM"). Typical low and high voltages are 3V and 5V, respectively.
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a circuit that converts a low voltage signal varying between 0V and VCC (e.g. 3V) to a high voltage signal varying between 0V and VCCP (e.g. 5V). Briefly, gate electrodes of transistors 10, 12 and 14 are coupled to receive an input signal IN. VCC is coupled to ground (typically 0V) through a series source-drain path of complementary transistors 12 and 14. A node 13 is located at the drain electrodes of transistors 12 and 14. Node 13 is coupled to a gate electrode of a transistor 16.
A node 18 is coupled to ground through source-drain paths of series transistors 16 and 20. A gate electrode of transistor 20 is coupled to receive VCC. Node 18 is coupled to a gate electrode of a P-channel transistor 22. VCCP is coupled to node 18 through a source-drain path of a P-channel transistor 24. A gate electrode of transistor 24 is coupled to a node 26. The bodies (or N-wells) of transistors 22 and 24 are connected to VCCP.
Node 26 is coupled to VCCP through a source-drain path of transistor 22. Node 26 is coupled to ground through source-drain paths of series transistors 28 and 10. A node 30 is coupled to the drain electrode of transistor 10. A gate electrode of transistor 28 is coupled to receive VCC. A node 32 is coupled to the drain electrode of transistor 16 and the source electrode of transistor 20. An output signal OUT is provided at node 18.
Transistors 12 and 14 form an inverter. When the signal IN is supplied to transistors 12 and 14, the voltage at node 13 is the opposite state of the signal IN. For example, if a voltage of signal IN is VCC, then the voltage at node 13 is 0V.
Referring to the operation of the FIG. 1 circuit, when signal IN is VCC, transistor 10 is turned on to pull node 30 to 0V. Since transistor 28 is configured to be on (its gate-source voltage is greater than a threshold voltage Vt.sub.N drop), node 26 will be pulled to 0V through the source-drain path of transistor 10.
Transistors 12 and 14 invert the high signal IN to provide 0V at node 13. Since this is coupled to the gate electrode of transistor 16, it turns off. Thus node 18 is not pulled to 0V through the source-drain path of transistor 20. However, node 26 provides 0V to the gate electrode of transistor 24 to turn it on (the gate-source voltage is more negative than a threshold voltage Vt.sub.p). The source-drain path of transistor 24 pulls node 18 to VCCP.
Meanwhile, node 18 supplies VCCP to the gate electrode of transistor 22. The gate-source voltage is not less than a threshold voltage Vt.sub.p, so transistor 22 is turned off. Node 26 is pulled closer to 0V. The output signal OUT provided at node 18 is VCCP.
When the voltage of signal IN is 0V, it turns off transistor 10 and unclamps nodes 26 and 30 from 0V. The 0V of the signal IN is inverted by transistors 12 and 14 to provide VCC to the gate of transistor 16. Transistor 16 is turned on to pull nodes 18 (through turned-on transistor 20) and 32 to 0V.
Node 18 provides 0V to the gate electrode of transistor 22 to turn it on (the gate-source voltage is more negative than a threshold voltage Vt.sub.p). As a result, node 26 is clamped to VCCP, which is coupled to the gate electrode of transistor 24. Transistor 24 is thereby turned off since the gate-source voltage is more negative than a threshold voltage Vt.sub.p. Thus, node 18 is pulled closer to 0V. Output signal OUT provided by node 18 is 0V.
The circuit shown in FIG. 1 suffers from slow speed since nodes 30 and 32 cannot be quickly pulled to VCC because they are not directly coupled to VCC. Pulling nodes 30 and 32 to VCC would speed up the transition of respective nodes 26 and 18 to VCCP.
Therefore, it is a general object of the present invention to overcome the above problems.
The further object of the present invention is to minimize current flow from a power supply providing VCCP to another potential, such as ground.

Low-to-high voltage translator with latch-up immunity


A method and device are provided for measuring distance and relative speed of a plurality of objects with the aid of an FMCW radar, transmitted signals being reflected by objects, and the reflected signals being received and mixed with the transmitted signals. A combination of distance and relative speed values is assigned to the mixer output frequencies of each frequency ramp for each object, and the distance and relative speed of a possible object are determined from points of intersection of a plurality of distance and relative speed combinations. The apparent (unreal) objects are eliminated by modifying the frequency slope of at least one frequency ramp according to the random principle in a subsequent measurement cycle.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and a device for measuring the distance and relative speed of multiple objects using an FMCW (frequency modulated continuous wave) radar, in which transmitted signals having linear time-frequency ramps are emitted and the signals reflected on the objects are received and mixed with the transmitted signals.
2. Description of Related Art
Published German patent document DE 42 42 700 describes a method for measuring the distance and speed of objects with the aid of electromagnetic waves, in which the frequency of a transmitted signal is modulated. The signals received during a rise and a fall of the frequency of the transmitted signal are mixed with the transmitted signal and the intermediate frequency signals resulting from the mixing are spectrally analyzed. The distance and speed of at least one object is computed from the frequency of spectral lines of the intermediate frequency signals during at least one rise and at least one fall of the frequency of the transmitted signal.
In this procedure, an intermediate frequency is obtained for each frequency ramp and each detected object; the frequency position of this intermediate frequency may be assigned to a combination of distance and relative speed values. The combination of these intermediate frequency signals and associated distance and relative speed values yields common points of intersection, which may be represented in a distance-relative speed diagram for example. These points of intersection represent the measured distances and relative speeds of the objects. When a plurality of objects is detected, for example two objects, a total of four points of intersection are obtained, two of these points of intersection representing real objects and two further points of intersection being apparent objects obtained as a result of ambiguities.
To be able to rule out such ambiguities, the FMCW radar method has been refined in such a way that a plurality of consecutive frequency rises and falls are strung next to one another, the frequency ramps having different slopes. However, even with this refined method, situations may actually arise in which such apparent objects are detected over a number of measurement cycles as a result of multiple detected objects and are processed as real objects, since these apparent reflections continue to be received over a long period of time. In particular, in traffic situations where a plurality of detected objects moves with the same dynamics, i.e., when the distances and relative speeds of the plurality of objects change only very slowly over time, apparent objects remaining unchanged may continue to be received over a number of measurement cycles, because these objects are recognized by tracking methods and processed as real objects, although they are apparent objects.

Method and device for measuring the distance and relative speed of multiple objects


This application provides a composition for preventing, alleviating and/or treating a heat illness, or cytotoxicity of cells such as vascular endothelial cells caused by load of heat stress and/or aberration associated with the production and release of a fever-inducing inflammatory cytokine(s) from blood cells caused by load of heat stress in a subject, comprising at least one substance selected from the group consisting of auraptene, tangeretin, and medium chain fatty acid as an active ingredient.

The heat illness refers to a condition in which heat in the body can no longer be released because the body temperature or body fluid regulatory function of the body is damaged by sunlight, air temperature, etc. The heat illness is divided into three stages from mild to severe cases and causes dizziness, syncope, and heat cramp caused by muscle stiffness or the like, as mild cases. Moderate symptoms such as headache, vomiting, and diarrhea occur with an overlap and are regarded as conventional heat exhaustion. Severe symptoms such as disturbance of consciousness, hyperventilation, and disturbance of motility occur with an overlap with moderate symptoms and are regarded as conventional heatstroke. Although possible causes of the heat illness are environmental or physical factors, severe heat illness reportedly becomes prone to recurrence. However, the number of patients with heat illness is increasing because of climate change caused by global warming, etc., and partly because of the absence of effective prophylactic or therapeutic drugs for heat illness. Thus, the heat illness is considered a serious social problem. There are urgent patients with heat illness not only in summer but throughout the year, and elderly people and infants are especially at higher risk.
The influence of heat stress is proposed as one of the causes of the heat illness. The heat stress refers to stress that causes various dysfunctions in living bodies due to elevation of body temperature. It is considered that in vivo heat stress disrupts homeostasis such as body temperature regulation, body fluid balance, or blood circulation adjustment and consequently damages blood vessels so that vascular endothelial cells undergo heat stress, leading to intracellular disturbance of metabolism. This reportedly causes tissues or cells to fall into a lack of oxygen and poor nutrition, causing a critical heat illness due to dysfunction. Hence, measures such as development of novel prophylactic or therapeutic drugs or symptomatic therapy have been longed for, in addition to hydration or supplementation with salts (sodium, magnesium, etc.) and sugars, which is a conventional method for preventing a heat illness.
As for previously reported prophylactic or therapeutic agents for heat illness, there are disclosed, for example, a prophylactic agent for heat illness containing a fat or oil composition comprising α-linolenic acid (Patent Literature 1), an agent alleviating heat stress in livestock, containing trehalose as an active ingredient (Patent Literature 2), a composition for alleviating heat stress, containing at least sake cake and malted rice (Patent Literature 3), and a method for preventing or treating a heat stress symptom using astaxanthin and a lactic casein hydrolysate in combination (Patent Literature 4).

Composition for prevention, alleviation, and/or treatment of heat illness