A coupler plug, in particular for a planar lambda probe, made up of a housing, i.e., a base element and a cover element, as well as electrical components, which may be placed inside in the housing and fixed in place, and a balancing unit for a probe, in particular a planar broad-band lambda probe, which is to be mounted inside the coupler plug or, via an additional contact element, outside the coupler plug, a secondary locking element being provided as locating element to fixate at least one electrical flat plug-connector placed inside in the housing. In addition to the flat plug-connectors, flat contacts are provided in the plug housing, which are able to be fixed in place simultaneously by means of the secondary locking element, the secondary locking element having, on a first level A, receiving device for the flat plug-connectors in the form of a locking plate, and, on an additional level B, a locating device in the form of a locking hook.

Coupler plugs are usually configured for the connection between a cable harness plug and a lambda probe, the connectors in the coupler plug being provided for balancing, signaling, and/or heating of the probe. The lambda probe and lambda closed loop control represent an effective exhaust gas cleaning method in conjunction with the three-way catalyst. The lambda probe, which, for example, is screwed into an exhaust gas system, includes a measuring sensor for determining the oxygen concentration of the exhaust gas.
The residual oxygen content is very suitable as a measured variable and regulates the air/fuel ratio, since it accurately indicates whether the air/fuel mixture is combusting completely.
In this regard, the lambda probe delivers a voltage signal which represents the momentary value of the mixture's composition and tracks changes in the mixture. The fuel supply to the engine is regulated by a mixture formation system in accordance with the signal from the lambda probe in such a way that a stoichiometric air-fuel ratio λ=1 will be achieved. Heated or unheated probes are utilized, depending on the design of the exhaust gas system and the operating conditions. The lambda probe has other uses apart from motor vehicles, e.g., for regulating gas motors or oil/gas burners in heating systems.
Broad-band lambda probes, in particular, are constructed in a modular way, and permit the integration of several functions in connection with planar technology. They usually have functional layers, which are made up of a porous protective layer, an external electrode, a sensor foil, an internal electrode, a reference air channel foil, an insulation layer, a heating element, a heating foil, a resistor or a balancing element, and terminal contacts.
Since the broad-band lambda probe is made up of the combination of a Nernst concentration cell (=sensor cell) with an oxygen ion-transporting pump cell, it can measure very accurately not only at the stoichiometric point where lambda=1, but also in the lean and the rich range.
Each probe has to be adjusted individually. For this, the probe has a built-in resistor (mini-hybrid). The adjustment, which is preferably made with the aid of a laser beam, is done in such a way that the resistor layer, which is on a ceramic substrate, is correspondingly removed, whereby a change in resistance is brought on, which results in an adjustment.
One specific embodiment is seen in the fact that the balancing unit, or the resistor, is arranged right on the probe. A further exemplary embodiment is seen in the fact that the resistor is accommodated outside, for example on a cable harness plug that is coupled to the probe.
To prevent moisture, dirt or similar substances from penetrating the coupler plug in which the corresponding lambda probe is arranged as well, and to ensure that the corresponding atmosphere prevails inside the coupler plug, the coupler plug has sealing elements, which are arranged on the cover element, for instance, or on additionally provided pressure-equalizing elements.
Coupler elements of the aforementioned type may be embodied in various forms. They are generally multi-pin coupler plugs, which have corresponding flat plug-connectors.
Other designs have flat plug-connectors exclusively.
Some other designs have combinations of flat plug-connectors and flat contacts.
In particular when using coupler plugs that have multiple poles and accommodate flat contacts and simultaneously also flat connectors in one coupler plug, it is provided to make available at least one secondary locking mechanism in the flat plug-connector region so as to fixate the flat contacts disposed in the housing, and to additionally include a further secondary locking mechanism for the flat contacts so as to fixate them in the housing in a corresponding manner as well.
One disadvantage of the last mentioned specific embodiment of coupler plugs is that it requires additional work and installation steps to implement a corresponding fixation by means of a secondary locking mechanism both of flat plug-connectors and flat contacts. In addition, multiple controls are necessary in order to ascertain whether the fixation of the flat plug-connectors or the flat contacts has been accomplished successfully.

Secondary locking of a plug-in connection on two planes


A two-point frequency modulation apparatus is proposed whereby the spectrum of transmission waves is kept within the spectrum mask. Voltage is supplied to the control voltage terminal of VCO 1 in accordance with modulation data via noise shaper 101 that has operating characteristics of attenuating more noise at higher frequencies. As a result, by virtue of the working of noise shaper 101, the signal level outputted from the PLL circuit combining the modulation signal and the quantization noise decreases in proportion to the distance form the central frequency, so that two-point frequency modulation apparatus 100 is made possible whereby the spectrum of an RF modulation signal is kept within the spectrum mask.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates specifically to a frequency modulation apparatus, polar modulation transmission apparatus, wireless transmission apparatus, and wireless communication apparatus that perform frequency modulation by utilizing the PLL (Phase Locked Loop).
2. Description of the Related Art
Heretofore, frequency modulation apparatuses utilizing the PLL have been widely used to modulate carrier signals with baseband modulation signals and form transmission signals (that is, to up-convert baseband modulation signals to radio frequency). Generally, frequency modulation apparatuses of this type are expected to realize low costs, low power consumption, excellent noise characteristics, and high modulation accuracy. To modulate signals using the PLL, and, in particular, to improve modulation accuracy using the PLL, the PLL frequency bandwidth (i.e. PLL bandwidth) is preferably wider than the frequency bandwidth of the modulation signal (i.e. modulation bandwidth).
However, widening the PLL bandwidth has the risk of deteriorating noise characteristics. So, the technology called "two-point modulation" is presently proposed whereby the PLL bandwidth is set narrower than the modulation bandwidth and the modulation in the PLL bandwidth and the modulation outside the PLL bandwidth are performed at two different points (see, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,308,508).
FIG. 1 shows the configuration of a frequency modulation apparatus utilizing a conventional two-point modulation PLL. Frequency modulation apparatus 10 has: a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) 1 that changes the oscillation frequency in accordance with the voltage in the control voltage terminal; frequency divider 2 that divides the frequency of an RF modulation signal outputted from VCO1; phase comparator 3 that compares the phase of the output signal of frequency divider 2 and the phase of the reference signal and outputs a signal in accordance with the phase difference between the two signals; and loop filter 4 that averages the output signals of phase comparator 3 and outputs the result. Frequency modulation apparatus 10 adds modulation data generated in modulation signal generator 5 to carrier frequency data and supplies the result as the frequency division ratio in frequency divider 2, thereby performing modulation at the first point.
In addition, frequency modulation apparatus 10 is designed to convert the modulation data into analogue voltage in digital-to-analogue (D/A) convertor 6, suppress the aliasing noise in the output of D/A convertor 6 by means of post filter 7 and thereafter add the result to the output of loop filter 4 and supply this result to the control voltage terminal of VCO 1, thereby performing modulation at the second point.
Thus, the use of the two-point frequency modulation technology such as described above makes it possible to output wideband RF modulation signals that stretch outside the PLL bandwidth, even when the PLL bandwidth is set narrower than the modulation bandwidth. As a result, the deterioration of noise characteristics due to the PLL is suppressed.
First, assuming a case using two-point modulation, frequency characteristics will be described below. FIG. 2 shows frequency characteristics in baseband area for explanation of the operation of a two-point modulation PLL. In this drawing, H(s) is a transfer function that indicates the frequency characteristics of the PLL, where s=jω. H(s) has low pass characteristics, such as shown in FIG. 2. The modulation signal added to the frequency division ratio set in frequency divider 2 is low pass filtered by the transfer function H(s) by the PLL. On the other hand, the modulation signal outputted from post filter 7 is added to the control voltage terminal of VCO 1 and thereby high pass filtered by the transfer function 1−H(s), such as shown in FIG. 2. That is, if the modulation data is Φ(s), the baseband component in the RF modulation signal outputted from VCO 1 bears no relationship to the frequency characteristics of the PLL as represented by the following formula:H(s)Φ(s)+{1−H(s)}Φ(s)=Φ(s)  (1)
Applying two-point modulation thus to the PLL makes it possible to output wideband RF modulation signals that stretch outside the PLL bandwidth, from VCO 1. Incidentally, fs is the sampling frequency (i.e. the operation frequency of D/A convertor 6).
Now, the output of D/A convertor 6 contains quantization noise such as shown in FIG. 2. suppressing this quantization noise is required from post filter 7. Post filter 7 has low pass characteristics, such as shown in FIG. 2. When the bandwidth is too narrow, this suppresses the modulation signal shown in FIG. 2. On the other hand, although widening the bandwidth too much makes it possible to avoid adversely affecting the modulation signal, this in turn makes it difficult to suppress noise enough including quantization noise.
FIG. 3 illustrates the spectrum of RF modulation signal that appears in the output of VCO 1. Quantization noise is superimposed upon the modulation signal and the resulting waveform is outputted from VCO 1. Quantization noise is suppressed near the center frequency (fVCO), by virtue of the characteristics of 1−H(s) shown in FIG. 2. Likewise, quantization noise is suppressed far from fVCO, by virtue of the frequency characteristics of post filter 7.
Now, for example, the GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) standard stipulates that the spectrum of transmission waves is not to be out of the spectrum mask such as shown by the dotted line in the drawing.
Nevertheless, according to the conventional two-point frequency modulation apparatus, the spectrum of transmission waves might go beyond the spectrum mask due to the influence of quantization noise, such as shown in FIG. 3.

Two-point frequency modulation apparatus


A magnetic sensing element is provided. A free magnetic layer has a three-layer structure including CoMnα sublayers each composed of a metal compound represented by the formula: Co2xMnxαy. The α contains an element β and Sb, the element β being at least one element selected from Ge, Ga, In, Si, Pb, Zn, Sn, and Al. The concentration x and the concentration y are each represented in terms of atomic percent and satisfy the equation: 3x+y=100 atomic percent. One of the CoMnα sublayers is in contact with a lower nonmagnetic material layer. The other CoMnα sublayer is in contact with upper nonmagnetic material layer. As a result, it is possible to achieve a high ΔRA and a lower interlayer coupling magnetic field Hin compared with the known art.

1. Field
a magnetic sensing element is provided.
2. Related Art
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication Nos. 2003-218428, 2005-51251, 2004-348850, and 2004-214251 each disclose a current-perpendicular-to-plane-mode magnetic sensing element (CPP-mode magnetic sensing element) including a free magnetic layer composed of a Heusler alloy such as Co2MnGe.
It has been known that the free magnetic layer composed of Co2MnGe increases the product ΔRA of the rate of change of magnetoresistance ΔR and an element area A. The increase in the product ΔRA is a significantly important requirement for the practical application of a CPP-mode magnetic sensing element having a higher recording density.
When the free magnetic layer is composed of Co2MnGe, an interlayer coupling magnetic field Hin acting between the pinned magnetic layer and the free magnetic layer increased. Although a Ge concentration of about 25 atomic percent increased ΔRA, the interlayer coupling magnetic field Hin also increased disadvantageously. Although a Ge content exceeding 25 atomic percent slightly reduced ΔRA, the interlayer coupling magnetic field Hin increased steeply. The increase in interlayer coupling magnetic field Hin results in an increase in asymmetry. Thus, it is necessary to reduce the interlayer coupling magnetic field Hin.
The free magnetic layer composed of Co2MnGe has relatively high coercive force and magnetostriction. Thus, to improve the stability of the read characteristics, preferably, these magnetic properties are also minimized.

Magnetic sensing element including free magnetic layer or pinned magnetic layer having two sublayers that are composed of different CoMn-based heusler alloys


Cosmetic compositions intended for topical application to the skin for lightening and/or brightening the skin are provided. The subject compositions are characterized by the presence of leukocyte extract in combination with one or more secondary skin whitening or brightening agents. A preferred group of such agents includes bearberry, arbutin, rutin, ascorbyl glucoside, ascorbyl magnesium phosphate, hydroquinone, kojic acid or combinations thereof. Another group of preferred agents includes extracts of mulberry, lemon, orange, licorice, cucumber, cinnamon, cherry (fermentate), rosemary and/or derivatives thereof. It has been found that the combination of leukocyte extract with such agents possesses enhanced efficacy over similar preparations that do not contain leukocyte extract.

The use of skin lightening cosmetics varies significantly among cultures. In Western countries, for example, skin lighteners are applied for the prevention or treatment of melasma, freckles (lentigo aesticva), age spots (lentigo senilis), or to "even out" skin tone in general. In Asian and African nations, the primary use of skin lighteners is to make the skin whiter, lighter and/or brighter.
The pigments contributing to the color of the skin are carotenoids, hemoglobin and melanin. Melanin, however, is produced in melanocytes which are the pigment-forming cells in the basal layers of the epidermis and, as such, will largely determine the color of the skin. Numerous cosmetic compositions have recently been developed to reduce the amount of melanin in the skin. The majority of these products achieve reduction in melanin by inhibiting tyrosinase, which is apparently the only essential enzyme in the biosynthesis of melanin.
There are a number available tyrosinase inhibitors used in cosmetic compositions. One of the first tyrosinase inhibitors used in skin lightening was hydroquinone, used either alone or in combination with other functional materials such as kojic acid, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,279,834 (Meybek). These materials apparently give only temporary effect, and hyperpigmentation returns if use of the described composition is discontinued.
More recently, bearberry, arbutin and rutin (usually derived from botanical sources) have been found to be effective tyrosinase inhibitors, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,980,904 (Leverett), 6,123,959 (Jones), and 5,882,658 (Simon), respectively. These preparations seem to have a cumulative effect and, with continued use, hyperpigmentation may be controlled with less frequent application of the compositions.
Functional tyrosinase inhibitors such as those mentioned above have also been used in combination with other agents. U.S. Pat. No. 5,747,006 (Dornoff) discusses a combination of acerola cherry fermentate with bearberry extract, arbutin, kojic acid and various free radical scavergers and/or botanical extracts. Similarly, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,077,503 (Dornoff) and 4,818,768 (Nazzaro-Porro) disclose the use of mercaptodexran and mercapto-derivatives of dicarboxylic acid, respectively, in combination with free radical scavergers, arbutin, kojic acid and/or various botanical extracts.
Compositions such as the above seem to be effective, to varying degrees, in whitening or lightening the skin, but room for improvement still exists.

Composition containing leukocyte extract for the whitening or lightening of skin


A periodic tester to determine the readiness of a fire pump system interfaces with a fire pump controller, an electric motor, and a sprinkler system. The fire pump controller has a power on/off sensor which interfaces with an electric motor which starts the fire pump to provide water to the sprinkler system. The power on/off system has a contactor coil as a component. The periodic tester targets two of the main components of fire system failure: the power on/off sensor and the contactor coil. The periodic tester may be retrofitted to existing systems and interface either directly or indirectly with the power on/off sensor to accommodate both systems that have a solenoid valve and those that do not. The periodic tester is designed to attempt to start the system only once during a set cycle. Any failure to start is displayed through audible and visual alarms.

The need for immediate usability of a fire pump system at the time of a fire is obvious. Periodic testing to insure this is essential but unfortunately not always applied. Moreover, the present monitoring systems require human intervention. This is a two-part problem in that first, the human has to be skilled in monitoring the system for it to be effective, and secondly, the human has to be consistent in periodically monitoring the system. A system which is less dependent on human intervention will be a desirable invention.
Also, the failure of the fire pump controller to start the fire pump motor when needed is most likely due to the failure of two key components. The components that are most likely to cause the failure are the contactor coil and the power on/off pressure switch. A system which monitors these two key components will be a useful invention.
Finally, replacing existing systems to incorporate system which monitors these key components without human intervention is expensive. A system which has these capabilities, yet can be retrofitted to existing systems will be a useful invention.

Periodic tester to determine readiness of a fire pump system


The present invention generally relates to stable pharmaceutical compositions, and methods of making and administering such compositions. In one aspect, the invention features stabilized pharmaceutical compositions that include pharmaceutically active ingredients such as levothyroxine (T4) sodium and liothyronine (T3) sodium (thyroid hormone drugs), preferably in an immediate release solid dosage form. Also provided are methods for making and using such immediate release and stabilized compositions.

Thyroid hormone preparations of levothyroxine sodium and liothyronine sodium are pharmaceutical preparations useful to the treatment of hypothyroidism and thyroid hormone replacement therapy in mammals, for example, humans and dogs.
Thyroid hormone preparations are used to treat reduced or absent thyroid function of any etiology, including human or animal ailments such as myxedema, cretinism and obesity.
Hypothyroidism is a common condition. It has been reported in the United States Federal Register that hypothyroidism has a prevalence of 0.5 percent to 1.3 percent in adults. In people over 60, the prevalence of primary hypothyroidism increases to 2.7 percent in men and 7.1 percent in women. Because congenital hypothyroidism may result in irreversible mental retardation, which can be avoided with early diagnosis and treatment, newborn screening for this disorder is mandatory in North America. Europe, and Japan.
Thyroid hormone replacement therapy can be a chronic, lifetime endeavor. The dosage is established for each patient Individually. Generally, the initial dose is small. The amount is increased gradually until clinical evaluation and laboratory tests indicate that an optimal response has been achieved. The dose required to maintain this response is then continued. The age and general physical condition of the patient and the severity and duration of hypothyroid symptoms determine the initial dosage and the rate at which the dosage may be increased to the eventual maintenance level. It has been reported that the dosage increase should be very gradual in patients with myxedema or cardiovascular disease to prevent precipitation of angina, myocardial infarction, or stroke.
It is important that thyroid hormone treatment have the correct dosage. Both under-treatment and over-treatment can have deleterious health impacts. In the case of under-treatment, a sub-optimal response and hypothyroidism could result. Under-treatment has also been reported to be a potential factor in decreased cardiac contractility and increased risk of coronary artery disease. Conversely, over-treatment may result in toxic manifestations of hyperthyroidism such as cardiac pain, palpitations, or cardiac arrhythrmia's. In patients with coronary heart disease, even a small increase in the dose of levothyroxine sodium may be hazardous in a particular patient.
Hyperthyroidism is a known risk factor for osteoporosis. Several studies suggest that sub clinical hyperthyroidism in premenopausal women receiving thyroid hormone drugs for replacement or suppressive therapy is associated with bone loss. To minimize the risk of osteoporosis, it is preferable that the dose be kept to the lowest effective dose.
Because of the risks associated with over-treatment or under-treatment with levothyroxine sodium, there is a need for thyroid hormone products that are consistent in potency and bioavailability. Such consistency is best accomplished by manufacturing techniques that maintain consistent amounts of the active moiety during tablet manufacture.
Thyroid hormone drugs are natural or synthetic preparations containing tetraiodothyronine (T4, levothyroxine) or triiodothyronine (T3, liothyronine) or both, usually as their pharmaceutically acceptable (e.g., sodium) salts. T4 and T3 are produced in the human thyroid gland by the iodination and coupling of the amino acid tyrosine. T4 contains four iodine atoms and is formed by the coupling of two molecules of diiodotyrosine (DIT). T3 contains three atoms of iodine and is formed by the coupling of one molecule of DIT with one molecule of monoiodotyrosine (MIT). Both hormones are stored in the thyroid colloid as thyroglobulin. Thyroid hormone preparations belong to two categories: (1) natural hormonal preparations derived from animal thyroid, and (2) synthetic preparations. Natural preparations include desiccated thyroid and thyroglobulin.
Desiccated thyroid is derived from domesticated animals that are used for food by man (either beef or hog thyroid), and thyroglobulin is derived from thyroid glands of the hog. The United States Pharmacopoeia (USP) has standardized the total iodine content of natural preparations. Thyroid USP contains not less than (NLT) 0.17 percent and not more than (NMT) 0.23 percent iodine, and thyroglobulin contains not less than (NLT) 0.7 percent of organically bound iodine. Iodine content is only an indirect indicator of true hormonal biologic activity.
Synthetic forms for both T4 and T3 thyroid hormone are available from a number of producers. For example, liothyronine sodium (T 3) tablets are available under the trademark Cytomel® from King Pharmaceuticals, Inc., St. Louis, Mo. Levothyroxine sodium (T 4) is available under the tradename Levoxyl® from King Pharmaceuticals, Inc., under the tradename Synthroid® from Knoll Pharmaceutical, Mt. Olive, N.J., and under the tradename Unithroid® from Jerome Stevens Pharmaceuticals, Bohemia, N.Y. In addition a veterinarian preparation of levothyroxine sodium is available under the tradename Soloxine® from King Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Levoxyl® (levothyroxine sodium tablets, USP) contain synthetic crystalline L-3,3′,5,5′-tetraiodothyronine sodium salt [levothyroxine (T4) sodium]. As indicated above, the synthetic T4 in Levoxyl® is identical to that produced in the human thyroid gland. The levothyroxine (T4) sodium in Levoxyl® has an empirical formula of C15H10I4 N NaO4.H2O, a molecular weight of 798.86 g/mol (anhydrous), and a structural formula as shown:

It is well known that the stability of thyroid hormone drugs is quite poor. They are hygroscopic and degrade in the presence of moisture or light, and under conditions of high temperature. The instability is especially notable in the presence of pharmaceutical excipients, such as carbohydrates, including lactose, sucrose, dextrose and starch, as well as certain dyes. The critical nature of the dosage requirements, and the lack of stability of the active ingredients in the popular pharmaceutical formulations, have led to a crisis which has adversely effected the most prescribed thyroid drug products. See, e.g., 62 Fed. Reg. 43535 (Aug. 14, 1997).
It is desirable, therefore, to prepare a stabilized dosage of levothyroxine and liothyronine, which will have a longer shelf life that can be used in the treatment of human or animal thyroid hormone deficiency. U.S. Pat. No. 5,225,204 (the '204 patent) is directed to improving the stability of levothyroxine sodium. In one embodiment disclosed by the '204 patent, stabilized levothyroxine sodium was prepared in a dry state by mixing levothyroxine sodium with a cellulose tableting agent using geometric dilution and subsequently combining this mixture with the same or a second cellulose tableting agent, such as microcrystalline cellulose. Other tableting aids or excipients can be used in this formulation. The '204 patent is incorporated by reference herein, in its entirety.
The microcrystalline cellulose disclosed in the '204 patent is AVICEL 101′, AVICEL102®, AVICEL103®, AVICEL105®, trademarks of FMC Company of Newark, Del., and Microcrystalline Cellulose NF, or EMCOCEL®, a trademark owned by Penwest Pharmaceuticals of Patterson, N.Y. These microcrystalline cellulose products are prepared by re-slurrylng the cellulose and spray drying the product. This produces an α-helix spherical microcrystalline cellulose product.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,955,105 and 6,056,975 (the continuation of '105) disclose pharmaceutical preparations of levothyroxine and microcrystalline cellulose, along with other excipients. The microcrystalline cellulose products used in the '105 and '975 patents were also the α-form Avicel microcrystalline cellulose products. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,955,105 and 6,056,975 are incorporated by reference herein, in their entirety.
Another microcrystalline cellulose product is a β-sheet form microcrystalline cellulose having a flat needle shape, marketed under the trademark CEOLUS KG801 ®by FMC Company of Newark, Del. The Ceolus® product has different morphology, and different performance characteristics, than those of the Avicel product. The β-sheet microcrystalline cellulose of the present invention is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,574,150, which is hereby incorporated by reference. Further disclosure relating to β-sheet microcrystalline cellulose is found in International Journal of Pharmaceutics, 182:155–164 (1999), which is hereby incorporated by reference.
The Ceolus® product (β-sheet microcrystalline cellulose) is disclosed by FMC, in its product bulletin dated October 1997, as being suitable for "smaller size tablets" and "exceptional drug carrying capacity." The Ceolus® product was said to provide superior compressibility and drug loading capacity, that still exhibited effective flowability. The examples given in the Ceolus® bulletin were of vitamin C combined with Ceolus® microcrystalline cellulose at levels of from 30 to 45 weight % Ceolus® product in the form of a tablet.
However, there have been problems using the Ceolus® product. For example, at higher levels of Ceolus® product concentration, flow problems were encountered in the process of compressing tablets, and the Ceolus® product was considered unsuitable for compression at higher concentrations than about 45 weight %.
There is a definite need for solid levothyroxine (T4) and/or liothyronine (T3) (thyroid hormone drugs) pharmaceutical compositions, preferably in an immediate release solid dosage form, with the T4 and T3 in the form of their sodium salts that are relatively stable. There is also a need for methods for making such immediate release and stabilized solid levothyroxine (T4) and/or liothyronine (T3) (thyroid hormone drugs) pharmaceutical compositions.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Methods of administering levothyroxine pharmaceutical compositions


Embodiments of the present disclosure include personalized books as well as methods and kits for providing personalized books. One method includes: providing an adult with a list of interview information to be obtained from a child; providing the adult with a list of particular drawings to be obtained from the child; obtaining the interview information from the child in the form of a number of personal comments provided by the child; obtaining a number of drawings from the list of particular drawings, the number of drawings independently created by the child at the direction of the adult; and creating a personalized book by combining the obtained number of drawings created by the child and the obtained number of personal comments in a particular arrangement.

Various examples of personalized children's books exist. Some children's books can include personalized text and/or graphics. In one specific example, a purchaser wishing to order a book can fill out and mail to the publisher a personalization form that is filled out with factual data. In accordance with the supplied data, the text is personalized to feature the child as a character in a story and individual physical characteristics of the selected child are superimposed onto a pre-printed, relatively generic, background of illustrations. In this example, a laser printer is used to overprint the personalization over preprinted background pages. Books produced under such a system may include personalization features such as a name in text, and certain other basic features in the overprinted graphics (i.e., skin tone and hair color).
In another specific example of a previous children's book, a completely pre-bound blank board book is utilized with personalized stickers that are printed and affixed to the pages of the board book. The book is printed and bound by the publisher using standard publishing methods, except that blank areas are left in specific locations on the inside pages. The purchaser buys the partially blank book. A personalization form included with the book is then filled out and the data is sent to the publisher. The publisher prints personalized stickers and mails them to the purchaser. The purchaser inserts the stickers into the appropriate blank spaces in the book. The storyline text in these books is personalized to a small degree, but the illustrations are not personalized.
In still another example, a software program containing a generic story is loaded into a computer at the point of sale. Personalized data from a customer is entered into the program and merged into the story. The personalized story text is printed onto blank areas on sheets of paper that have preprinted illustrations covering one side and partially covering the other side. The finished sheets are assembled and bound with the cover. In this example, some personalization of the generic storyline text is provided, but no personalization of the illustrations or of the cover are provided.
Various previous personalized children's books and/or kits for making personalized children's books include little creative content and input by the customer who wishes to obtain the book. For instance, previous books have focused on developing stories that are pre-written (e.g., the storyline is pre-set) with a few pieces of information provided by the customer that are inserted into the pre-set storyline. As such, little creative input of the customer is included in the book.
Also, various previous personalized books include little or no actual creative input provided by the subject of the book (i.e., the child). For instance, the child may become part of pre-written story as a character, but the book is not written by, or focused on, the child. As such, various previous approaches do not serve as a way of recording the way that a particular child thinks at a particular stage in that child's life. Moreover, various previous personalized books do not use illustrations drawn by the child, such that the books do not serve as a way of recording how the child draws at the particular stage in the child's life. Furthermore, various previous approaches can be relatively impersonal in that they do not involve interaction between an adult (i.e., a parent, guardian, or teacher, for instance) and a child in obtaining creative content to be used in the book.


The present invention concerns methods and compositions for delivery of therapeutic agents to target cells, tissues or organisms. In preferred embodiments, the therapeutic agents are delivered in the form of therapeutic-loaded polymers that may comprise many copies of one or more therapeutic agents. In more preferred embodiments, the polymer may be conjugated to a peptide moiety that contains one or more haptens, such as HSG. The agent-polymer-peptide complex may be delivered to target cells by, for example, a pre-targeting technique utilizing bispecific or multispecific antibodies or fragments, having at least one binding arm that recognizes the hapten and at least a second binding arm that binds specifically to a disease or pathogen associated antigen, such as a tumor associated antigen. Methods for synthesizing and using such therapeutic-loaded polymers and their conjugates are provided.

Targeting of drugs, toxins, and radionuclides to disease sites using tumor-selective monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) is an evolving field of biopharmaceutical research, with three approved products impacting the practice of medicine (Sharkey R M and Goldenberg D M, CA Cancer J Clin. 2006; 56:226-243).
Typically, a MAb for an antigen expressed on a disease site, such as that on the surface of a tumor cell, is modified with drugs or toxins or radionuclides to form immunoconjugates, and the latter are targeted in vivo. In the formation of immunoconjugates, only a limited number of modifying groups can be introduced on to the antibody without affecting the MAb's immunoreactivity. Moreover, many of these modifiers, such as drugs, are generally hydrophobic, and cause solubility problems if the substitution is increased beyond a threshold level. These problems have been addressed by loading drugs or other moieties on to a water-soluble polymer such as dextran, and subsequently covalently linking the drug-polymer to antibodies to the Fc region carbohydrates site-specifically. See Shih, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,699,784 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,057,313, both incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. The size of the directly conjugated antibody-polymer-drug construct can be an issue in certain applications, and an alternative approach to increasing the concentration of the drugs at the disease site, other than using a direct immunoconjugate, is desirable.
An approach that bypasses the limitations of using direct immunoconjugates, called 'pretargeting', makes use of a bi- or multispecific antibody with specificities for disease antigens as well as for a small molecular mass hapten (Goldenberg D M, et al., J Clin Oncol. 2006; 24: 823-834). In this method, the disease targeting step is temporally separated from the targeting of the drug molecule. Briefly, a bispecific or multispecific antibody is administered first to a patient. After the antibody localizes at the disease site by binding to disease-associated antigen, a second agent consisting of the drug attached to the small molecular mass hapten is administered. This drug-attached hapten selectively binds to the anti-hapten component of the bispecific antibody that has been pretargeted at the disease site. Generally, the second step agent is a small molecule, such as a peptide with hapten and drug attached to it, which clears rapidly from circulation, with a single or just a few passes at the tumor site where the material must be captured. In addition, the usual design of such second step agents results in only a few drug molecules attached. The combination of quick clearance and low drug substitution results in low specific activity of the drug at the disease site.
There thus exists a need for developing new methods for targeting a large number of therapeutic agents to disease sites selectively. A general method, applicable to both direct immunoconjugate as well as the second step agent of pretargeting approach, would be highly desirable.

Polymeric carriers of therapeutic agents and recognition moieties for antibody-based targeting of disease sites


Clients are able to use a service to obtain detailed path information. The service provides detailed information concerning which links and switches are traversed in a path in a cluster. The service allows clients to make informed decisions about which paths to use when multiple paths are available. The cluster includes a fabric of switches and a plurality of ports. A client makes a request to the service. The request identifies a source and a destination of a path. The service is operative to send a response to the request. The response identifies one or more links and switches between the source and the destination.

A data network generally includes a network of nodes connected by point-to-point links. Each physical link may support a number of logical point-to-point channels. Each channel may be a bi-directional communication path for allowing commands and message data to flow between two connected nodes within the data network. Each channel may refer to a single point-to-point connection where message data may be transferred between two endpoints or systems. Data may be transmitted in packets including groups called cells from source to destination often through intermediate nodes.
In many data networks, hardware and software may often be used to support asynchronous data transfers between two memory regions, often on different systems. Each system may correspond to a multi-processor system including one or more processors. Each system may serve as a source (initiator) system which initiates a message data transfer (message send operation) or a target system of a message passing operation (message receive operation). Examples of such a multi-processor system may include host servers providing a variety of applications or services, and I/O units providing storage oriented and network oriented I/O services.
Clients connected on a data network may have multiple ports through which to communicate with other clients or applications on the data network. There are often multiple paths between ports and a large number of ports connected to the network. It is not yet possible for a client to know how many switches and links are traversed from a source to a destination in a particular path in a network. There has been no way to provide clients with information that pertains to the links and switches traversed in various paths.

System and method for providing detailed path information to clients


A device for a drilling hammer and/or percussive hammer has a tool holding fixture for holding a tool and for transmitting a torque to the tool. A component of the tool holding fixture consists of a hollow cylindrical tool holder, which has an insertion opening for an insertion end of the tool, and has an impact opening, via which a percussive action can be applied to the insertion end. A stopping surface, which is stationary with regard to the tool holder and which acts in an axial direction of the tool holder, is provided in the tool holder in the area of the impact opening. The tool holding fixture is particularly suited for insertion ends according to the SDS-max standard.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, according to the preamble of Claim 1, to a device for a drilling and/or percussive hammer having a tool receptacle for holding a tool and transferring a torque to the tool.
2. Description of the Related Art
Such a device is known e.g. under the trade name "SDS-max," and has proven successful in practice.
A device of this sort is described in DE 37 16 915 A1. According to this patent, a percussive drilling tool has at least two grooves that open out at the end of the tool shaft, in which web-shaped dogs of a tool receptacle of the drilling hammer can engage. In addition, two recesses are provided in the tool shaft that are closed at both sides and that are situated diametrally opposite one another, in which locking elements provided on the tool shaft can engage.
The design of such a known "SDS-max" device is explained in more detail below on the basis of FIG. 1. FIG. 1 shows a sectional view of the front, tool-receiving end of a known drilling and/or percussive hammer.
In the upper half of FIG. 1, a known pneumatic spring hammer mechanism is shown in the impact position, while the lower half of FIG. 1 shows the pneumatic spring hammer mechanism in the idle position.
A component of the pneumatic spring hammer mechanism is a hollow impact piston 1, which can be set into back-and-forth motion by a drive piston (not shown) in a known manner.
On its front end, impact piston 1 strikes a header 2 that is likewise capable of axial motion, and this header in turn transmits the impact action at its opposite end to the end surface of an insertion end (not shown) of a tool (e.g., of a drill or of a chisel).
The insertion end of the tool is capable of being introduced via an introduction opening 3 into an essentially hollow cylindrical recess that forms a tool holder 4. At the end of tool holder 4 situated opposite introduction opening 3, a fictitiously defined impact opening 5 is provided through which the impact effect of header 2 can be applied to the insertion end.
Tool holder 4 is a component of a tool receptacle 6 having three web-shaped rotational drivers 7 formed on the inside of tool holder 4. Rotational drivers 7 can be inserted into rotational driver grooves (not shown) in the insertion end of the tool, as is described for example in DE 37 16 915 A1. Another rotational driver is situated opposite the two rotational drivers 7 shown in FIG. 1.
In addition, tool receptacle 6 has two locking elements 8 that are capable of axial movement in through-holes 9 of tool holder 4, and—under particular circumstances explained below—are capable of radial movement.
With the aid of a spring-loaded plate 10, locking elements 8 are fixed axially against a guide 11, so that they cannot deviate radially outwards. In this position, they are held in assigned locking recesses (not shown) in the insertion end of the tool. The locking recesses in the tool are closed on both sides in the axial direction in the tool shaft, so that locking elements 8 can prevent a tool insertion end from being withdrawn from tool holder 4.
However, the operator can move a locking sleeve 12 together with plate 10 against the action of a spring 13 (to the right in FIG. 1), whereby locking elements 8 in through-holes 9 are also moved to the right. This causes locking elements 8 to slide out of their guide 11, so that they can move radially outwards. In this way, locking elements 8 move out of their assigned locking recesses, so that the insertion end becomes capable of moving freely in the axial direction and can be withdrawn from tool holder 4.
As presented, this principle of operation is known, so that a more detailed description is not necessary.
Although tools having the brand designation "SDS-max" have developed into a kind of standard, so that the shape and execution of the insertion ends of the tools cannot be further modified to any great extent, improvements are still possible in the tool receptacle.
Thus, e.g. for the axial supporting of the insertion end, and in order to seal the pneumatic spring hammer mechanism against the entry of foreign bodies into the hammer mechanism area, a header 2 is always required that transmits the impact action from impact piston 1 to the insertion end. The resulting space requirement is relatively large, and limits the design possibilities for impact piston 1. For example, it is not easy to modify the geometry of impact piston 1 in a manner that would be desirable in order to achieve a higher impact energy. In particular in hammers having a high impact power, or a large torque that is to be transmitted, there is the danger that the insertion ends—i.e., above all the rotational driver grooves in the insertion ends—will be knocked out relatively quickly, which can result in a shortened lifespan of the tools. From GB-A-1505907, a drilling or percussive hammer is known that has a tool receptacle for holding a tool and for transmitting a torque to the tool. The tool receptacle has on its inside a locking element with which a tool end is held in the tool holder and the drive torque is transmitted to the tool end.

Drilling hammer and/or percussive hammer having a tool-holding fixture


The present invention is directed to a method for controlling electroosmotic flow by treating a surface with an organosilane having a single leaving group and optionally a ceramic oxide. This protective coating allows increased control and stabilization of electroosmotic flow by applying a radial voltage field.

This invention generally relates to electroosmotic surfaces exposed to buffers, and in particular to capillaries or channels having modified electroosmotic surfaces that are used for electrophoretic transport or separations, which permit the fall control of electroosmosis by an applied external voltage field.
Electroosmosis is the flow of liquid that is in contact with a solid, under the influence of an applied electric field, The movement of the fluid typically results from the formation of an electric double layer at the solid/liquid interface, i.e., the separation of charge that exists in a thin layer of the surface and in a thin layer of the fluid adjacent to the surface.
Typically electroosmostic flow is observed in capillary electrophoresis which employs a capillary tube having a silica inner surface and which utilizes one or more buffer fluids. In such a configuration electroosmosis arises from interaction of the electric double layer, which is present on the inner-surface/buffer interface of a silica tube, with the longitudinal voltage gradient, wherein the electroosmotic flow rate (xcexdeof) is defined by the following relationship:
xe2x80x83xcexdeof=xcex6(xcex5b/xcex7)Eapp=xcexceofxc2x7Eappxe2x80x83xe2x80x83(1)
where xcex6 is the potential drop across the diffuse layer of the electric double layer (commonly referred to as the xcex6 (zeta)-potential), xcex5b is the permittivity of the buffer solution, xcex7 is the viscosity of the buffer solution, xcexceof electroosmotic mobility, and Eapp is the voltage gradient across the length of the capillary or channel. The external flow control effect is directly related to the xcex6-potential through the changes in the surface charge density of the channel. The total surface charge density results from the chemical ionization ("sgr"si) and the charge induced by the radial voltage field ("sgr"rv), as described in Hayes et al., xe2x80x9cElectroosmotic Flow Control and Monitoring with an Applied Radial Voltage for Capillary Zone Electrophoresis,xe2x80x9d Anal. Chem., 64:512-516 (1992), which is incorporated herein by reference. According to the capacity model, the "sgr"rv is described by the following equation:
"sgr"rv=(xcex5QVr/ri)(1/ln(rori)xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(2)
where xcex5Q is the permittivity of the fused silica capillary, Vr is the applied radial voltage, ri is the inner radius of the capillary, and ro is the outer radius of the capillary. For a flat plate capacitor model the relationship is:
"sgr"rv=(xcex5QVrAe)/dxe2x80x83xe2x80x83(3)
where Ae is the projected area of the radial electrodes on the channel wall and d is the wall thickness in the flat plate capacitor. The surface charge density is related to the xcex6-potential by the following equation, as described in Bard, et al., Electrochemical Methods Fundamentals and Applications. Wiley and Sons (New York, 1980); Davies, et al., Interfacial Phenomena, 2nd Ed., Academic Press (New York, 1963); and Overbeek, Colloid Science, Kruyt ed., Vol. I, p. 194 (Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1952), which are incorporated herein by reference:
xcex6=exp(xe2x88x92xcexax)Eapp(xcex5b/xcex7)(2kT/ze)xc2x7sin hxe2x88x921[("sgr"si+"sgr"rv)/(8kTxcex5bn0)xc2xd]xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(4)
where
xcexa=(2n0z2e2/xcex5bkT)xc2xdxe2x80x83xe2x80x83(5)
and n0 is the number concentration, z is the electronic charge, e is the elementary charge, T is the temperature, xcexa is the inverse Debye length, x is the thickness of the counterion, and k is the Boltzmann constant.
Areas of the capillary, which are not under direct control of the external voltage, are still effected by the radial field by a mechanism attributed to surface conductance effects, as described in Wu, et al., xe2x80x9cLeakage current consideration of capillary electrophoresis under electroosmotic controlxe2x80x9d J. Chromatogr., 652:277-281 (1993); Hayes, et al., xe2x80x9cElectroosmotic Flow Control and Surface Conductance in Capillary Zone Electrophoresis,xe2x80x9d Anal. Chem., 65:2010-2013 (1993); and Wu, et al., xe2x80x9cDispersion studies of capillary electrophoresis with direct control of electroosmosis,xe2x80x9d Anal. Chem., 65:568-571 (1993). The magnitude of this effect may be approximated by a xcex6-potential averaging approach. The xcex6-potential in the uncovered zones is the average of the xcex6-potential in the controlled zones and the xcex6-potential from charge generated from the fused silica surface chemical equilibrium. The xcex6-potential for the surface chemical equilibrium may be obtained directly from flow measurements in the capillary without an applied external voltage, as described in Overbeek, at p. 194. The resulting flow (xcexdobs) through the capillary which is generated from these sections according to the following relationship, as described in Hayes et al., at pp.512-516:
xe2x80x83xcexdobs=xxe2x80x2xcexdr+(1xe2x88x92xxe2x80x2)xcexdavxe2x80x83xe2x80x83(6)
where xxe2x80x2 is the fraction of the capillary under the influence of the applied radial voltage (xxe2x80x2 greater than 0), xcexdr is the electroosmotic flow rate if the entire capillary were under radial voltage effects (which may be calculated from equations 1 and 4, with 2 or 3), and xcexdav is the average electroosmotic flow generated from surface charge due to chemical equilibrium and the surface charge in the controlled zone due to radial voltage effects.
The voltage gradient across the capillary also induces an additional movement of charged species according to:
xcexdem=(xcexceof+xcexcem)xc2x7Eappxe2x80x83xe2x80x83(7)
where xcexdem is the migration rate of a charged species, and xcexcem is the electrophoretic mobility of that charged species. Since xcexcem is constant under these experimental conditions, any change in xcexdem may be attributed to changes in xcexceof.
To obtain an expression directly relating changes in elution time (xcex94tel) and the change in surface charge density (xcex94"sgr"t), it is noted that elution time is tel=L/xcexdem, wherein L is the length of the capillary from the injector to the detector and xcexdem is the velocity of the analyte. The velocity of the analyte is described by equation 7 where the electrophoretic mobility of that charged species is a constant under these experimental conditions. Noting that xcexceo is equal to xcex6xc2x7(xcex5b/xcex7) (see equation 1) and the definition for tel, the following expression can be derived:
tel=L/[(xcex6(xcex5b/xcex7)+xcexcem)xc2x7Eapp].xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(8)
Equation 4 gives a function of xcex6 which includes a term for surface charge ("sgr"si+"sgr"rv) for both the chemically-generated surface charge and the external voltage-induced charge. For the surface coating assessments "sgr"rv=0 and "sgr"si is a function of the surface coating. It follows that upon coating the surface, the measured change in elution time can be used directly to calculate the change in the surface charge from the following equation:
xcex94tel=L/[({exp(xe2x88x92xcexax)xc2x7(2kT/ze)xc2x7sin hxe2x88x921[(xcex94"sgr"si)/(8kTxcex5bn0)xc2xd]xc2x7(xcex5b/xcex7)}+xcexcem)xc2x7Eapp]xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(9)
or by substituting A=exp(xe2x88x92xcexax)(xcex5b/xcex7)(2kT/ze) and B=1/(8kTxcex5bn0)xc2xd this simplifies to:
xcex94tel=L/[(Axc2x7sin hxe2x88x921[Bxcex94"sgr"si]+xcexcem)xc2x7Eapp].xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(10)
Noting that all variables in this expression except xcex94tel are constant under these experimental conditions and rearrangement results in a more useful form of this equality:
xcex94"sgr"si=[sin h{([L/(xcex94telEapp)]xe2x88x92xcexcem)/A}]/B.xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(11)
However, the usefulness of the external voltage technique is limited because it only provides control at low pH (e.g., less than pH 5) and low ionic strength buffers in standard systems.
External voltage to control fluid flow at higher buffer pH can be used if the surface charge generated by the chemical equilibrium at the buffer/wall interface is minimized, as described in Hayes, et al., xe2x80x9cEffects of Buffer pH on Electroosmotic Flow Control by an Applied Radial Voltage for Capillary Zone Electrophoresis,xe2x80x9d Anal. Chem., 65:27-31 (1993) and Poppe, et al., xe2x80x9cTheoretical Description of the Influence of External Radial Fields on the Electroosmotic Flow in Capillary Electrophoresis,xe2x80x9d Anal. Chem., 65:888-893 (1996), which are incorporated herein by reference. Minimization of the surface charge may be accomplished with surface coatings, such as coating including organosilanes, which can minimize analyte adsorption by silica surfaces for many separation techniques, including capillary electrophoresis, as described in Poppe, et al. at pp. 888-893 and Hjerten, et al., xe2x80x9cA new type of pH- and detergent stable coating for elimination of electroendoosmosis and adsorption in (capillary) electrophoresis,xe2x80x9d Electrophoresis, 14:390-395 (1993), which is incorporated herein by reference. Due to the labile silicon-oxygen-silicon-carbon bond (e.g., Sixe2x80x94Oxe2x80x94Sixe2x80x94C bond) between the silica surface and the organosilane, however, such organosilane treatments have been found to be unstable at either high or low buffer pH, as described in Hjerten, et al. at pp. 390-395; Kirkland, et al., xe2x80x9cSynthesis and characterization of highly stable bonded phases for high-performance liquid chromatography column packings,xe2x80x9d Anal. Chem., 61:2-11 (1989); and Vansant, et al., Characterization and Chemical Modification of the Silica Surface, (Elseiver, Amsterdam, 1995), which are incorporated herein by reference.
Application of coatings containing polymers to a capillary surface can also be used to eliminate the chemical equilibrium-based surface charge. As described in Srinivasan, et al., xe2x80x9cCross-linked polymer coatings for capillary electrophoresis and application to analysis of basic proteins, acidic proteins, and inorganic ions,xe2x80x9d Anal. Chem., 69:2798-2805 (1997), which is incorporated herein by reference, these coatings can minimize protein adsorption and eliminate or permanently change electroosmosis. Typically these polymers are covalently bound or physically adsorbed to the inner surface of the capillary, or used as dynamic coatings, i.e., buffer additives having surface-active properties so that the additives can adhere to the wall in an adsorbed/free-solution equilibrium. In addition to altering surface charge density, these polymers suppress electroosmosis by increasing viscosity within the electric double layer. Unfortunately, this local viscosity is unaffected by the potential gradients created by the external voltage fields, as described in St. Claire, xe2x80x9cCapillary Electrophoresis,xe2x80x9d Anal. Chem, 68:569R-586R (1996). The viscosity within the electric double layer significantly contributes to the frictional forces which retard movement of the entrained ions within the longitudinal voltage gradient, thereby directly impeding electroosmotic mobility. High-viscosity surface layers, therefore, produce low electroosmosis. In fact, high viscosity surface layers have been utilized to stop electroosmosis altogether, as described in Huang, et al., xe2x80x9cMechanistic Studies of Electroosmotic Control at the Capillary-Solution Interface,xe2x80x9d Analy. Chem., 65:2887-2893 (1993), which is incorporated herein by reference, and Srinivasan, et al., at pp. 2798-2805. Therefore, these polymer-coated approaches cannot be utilized in systems which require dynamic flow control by an applied radial field.
This deleterious increased viscosity effect can be minimized by monolayer surface coverage without the use of polymers or polymer-forming reactants. Capillaries coated with organosilane treatments to provide monolayer surface coverage have been reported, most notably for gas and liquid chromatography applications. These treatments have also been briefly explored for radial voltage flow control for capillary electrophoresis. One example is the use of commercially xe2x80x98deactivatedxe2x80x99 tubing to xe2x80x9c . . . yield[s] effective EOF [electroosmotic flow] control by applied radial voltage,xe2x80x9d as described in Hayes, et al., xe2x80x9cElectroosmotic Flow Control and Monitoring with an Applied Radial Voltage for Capillary Zone Electrophoresis,xe2x80x9d Anal. Chem., 64:512-516 (1992). Alternatively, a butylsilane monolayer surface has been used to improve the effectiveness of flow control, but resulted in a surface which was unstable above pH 5, as described in St. Claire, at pp 569R-586R; Huang et al. at pp. 2887-2893; and Towns, et al., xe2x80x9cPolyethyleneimine-bonded phases in the separation of proteins by capillary electrophoresis,xe2x80x9d J. Chromatogr., 516:69-78 (1990), which is incorporated herein by reference. While these coatings are specifically utilized for dynamic flow control, they are also unstable at pH extremes.
Electroosmosis can be used to move fluids through the small channels of instrumentation designed on single microchips, as well as in capillary electrophoresis. One limitation of using electroosmosis for fluid flow in both these applications is the lack of control and the poor reproducibility of the electroosmotic flow in standard commercial capillary electrophoresis systems.
Accordingly, there exists a need in the art for an inner-surface coating for the external voltage control of electroosmosis having several characteristics. First, the surface created must retain low surface charge density in the presence of the aqueous buffers typically used in capillary electrophoresis. Second, the surface charge density should be insensitive to pH changes of the buffer, thus remaining consistent over a large range of normally encountered pHs (e.g., 2-11) and buffer types. Finally, the surface created must not increase the viscosity of the solution near the surface.
Accordingly it is an object of the present invention to provide an arrangement and method for controlling electroosmotic flow of a fluid which can be used over a pH range of 2-11.
It is another object of the invention to provide an arrangement and method for controlling electroosmotic flow by maintaining low charge density at the electroosmotic surface.
A further object of the invention is to provide an arrangement and method for controlling electroosmotic flow which does not result in increased viscosity in surface layers near a fluid solid interface.
These objectives have been substantially satisfied and the shortcomings of the prior art have been substantially overcome by the present invention, which in one embodiment is directed to an electrophoresis apparatus including an electroosmotic surface comprising a substrate having hydroxyl groups and a coating on the substrate comprising a component formed by reacting a triorganosilane having a single leaving group with the substrate. In another embodiment, the electroosmotic surface comprises a silica and a substrate coating comprising a sterically hindered triorganosilane having a single leaving group which has reacted with the silica substrate.
In another embodiment, the present invention is directed to an electrophoresis apparatus including an electroosmotic surface comprising a substrate having surface hydroxyl groups; a coating on the substrate comprising an inert oxide; and a coating on the oxide surface comprising a component formed by reacting an organosilane having a single leaving group with the oxide surface.
In an additional embodiment, the present invention is directed to a process for providing an electrophoresis apparatus including an electroosmotic surface comprising a substrate having hydroxyl groups and a triorganosilane coating on the surface. The process includes the step of forming a coating on the substrate by reacting a triorganosilane having a single leaving group with the substrate.
In another embodiment, the present invention is directed to a process for providing an electrophoresis apparatus including an electroosmotic surface comprising a substrate having surface hydroxyl groups, an inert oxide coated on top of the substrate, and an organosilane coated on top of the oxide surface. The process includes the step of coating the substrate with an inert oxide and then forming a coating on the oxide surface by reacting the oxide surface with an organosilane having a single leaving group.

Chemical surface for control of electroosmosis by an applied external voltage field

Arizona Board of Regents Arizona State University


There is disclosed in a frequency hopping digital communications system having a transmitter for transmitting a data signal via a noisy transmission path, and a receiver responsive to the transmitted signal for receiving the same, a method for removing bias in the data signal at the receiver comprising the steps of: forming a sample amplitude histogram from the received data signal samples for a given hop frequency; correlating the amplitude histogram against a stored reference amplitude histogram to obtain a correlated output signal having a peak correlation position; determining the position difference between the peak correlation position and the correlation center position to provide an offset signal corresponding to the difference and indicative of an estimated bias offset value; and applying the estimated bias offset value to the received signal samples in response to the offset signal to obtain an output signal indicative of an unbiased received data signal.

The purpose of a digital communication system is to effectively transmit and receive information over a particular channel or communication medium. To that end, the performance of any communication system is ultimately determined (and often limited) by its ability to respond to the presence of noise in the system. Digital radios often have many modes for communicating with one another, and many methods of suppressing or limiting noise within a network, such as frequency hopping, bit and frame synchronization, and numerous modulation/demodulation and filtering techniques. The Single Channel Ground-Airborne Radio System (SINGCARS) digital radio is an example of a type of radio which employs these various modes and methods of communication. In frequency hopping signal transmission systems, a wideband signal is generated by hopping from one frequency to another over a large number of frequency choices. The frequencies used are chosen by a code similar to those used in direct sequence systems. For general background on spread spectrum systems, reference is made to a text entitled Spread Spectrum Systems, 2nd edition, by Robert C. Dixon and published by Wiley-Interscience, New York (1984).
One of the most significant impairments to frequency hopping digital radio receiver operation is bias. Bias compensation is necessary since some hops can have such a large positive bias that almost all active samples can be positive. In addition, some hops can be biased in a manner wherein almost all samples in the hop could be negative. The ideal received waveform has an eye pattern, where every "0" is positive and every "1" is negative. The eye pattern is symmetrical about the x axis so that the opening in the eye pattern, at bit sampling time, has equal margin for zeros and ones. A systematic bias occurs when some disturbance in a radio, such as those caused by hardware transients during frequency transitions, causes a constant to be added to every sample in a hop. If this constant is positive, then this reduces the margin of the negative values and may cause errors even in the absence of noise; if this constant is negative, it reduces the margin on the positive values. This represents a major problem for almost any communication system, but is particularly troublesome for military applications and emergency situations, where constant communication and informational updates are vital to mission success. Therefore, providing a method for bias compensation is desirable not only for improving bit decisions but also for enhancing system timing and enabling transmitter/receiver synchronization, since these processes are dependent upon timely and accurate detection of a signal in the presence of noise.
However, trying to estimate the systematic bias can result in the detection of a data dependent bias caused by a variation in the number of zeros relative to the number of ones in a hop which is unrelated to the true center of the eye pattern. It is then when the estimated bias is removed, which is affected by the data pattern, that systematic bias may be introduced rather than mitigated. Consequently, an improved method for estimating and removing bias that is relatively insensitive to data pattern variations, robust in noise, and operable in a frequency hopping digital communication system is greatly desired.

Method for removing bias in a frequency hopping digital communication system


A file management system includes a file link control section for relating earlier and later version files to files and a version group information getting section for getting a version group consisting of files having specific relationship with a specified file based on relation information. The file link control section relates the files to each other only with the file identifiers of the earlier and later version files and enables highly flexible registration and deletion in version relationships, and linking and separating of version groups associated with the registration or deletion. The version group information getting section traces the relation information for getting file information.

This invention relates to a file management method for executing file management of file versions, etc., and a file management system to which the method is applied.
On a network, each server manages files existing at positions that can be managed by the server itself with file identifiers. The files under the management of the server are shared by a plurality of clients. Therefore, a plurality of files different in contents may be created from one file, in which case parentage among the files, namely, version relationship is produced and the files having some bearing on each other make up a version group.
FIG. 24 is a schematic block diagram of a client-server system.
According to the system block diagram, the client-server system comprises clients 1, 2, and 3 and servers 4 and 5 which can be workstations or personal computers; they have each a communication function and are connected to each other by a local area network 6. Further, another network system 7, a mainframe computer 8, etc., may be connected to the local area network 6 via a communication link.
Such a system containing a plurality of client machines and a plurality of server machines can provide a distributed filing system or a distributed data processing system, and the servers 4 and 5 can distribute and save documents or data created by the clients 1, 2, and 3 to and in a plurality of servers. Further, the clients 1, 2, and 3 can fetch the saved documents or data, edit/update the documents or data, and register/save the resultant documents or data as different documents or data.
FIG. 25 is a block diagram to show a configuration example of a server.
A server 9 shown in the figure has a communication section 9a connected to the local area network 6, a file storage section 9b for storing document files or data files, and a file processing section 9c for performing input/output management of document files or data files, and provides a file server to enable one client in the client-server system to access and use document files, etc., created by another client.
When receiving a request for registering or editing a document file from a client through the communication section 9a, the file processing section 9c registers or fetches the document file in or from the file storage section 9b.
When the contents of a document file are updated, a new updated document file is created from the original document file existing before the update. In such file update, there is only one earlier version (before update) file of one updated document file; in the version management method, the version relationship between the document files before and after update are constructed like a linear or tree structure and version management is easy.
When the contents of a document file are updated, the relationship between the document files, namely, version information may be recorded so that the document file based on which the document file contents are updated can be seen. For example, a system described in Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei 6-103484 is available as a system for recording the version information for managing a number of document files. According to Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei 6-103484, a version relationship holding system is described wherein a version root identifier is assigned to an original file and can be used to hold a plurality of the earlier version documents. That is, the system has version management means having a plurality of earlier version files, assigns a version root identifier to the original file from which the later version files are derived, and uses the identifier to relate the later version files derived to each other, thereby managing the files derived from the same original file as a single group.
However, in the version management method having only one earlier version file, when a version management method having a plurality of earlier version (before update) files, for example, resulting from combining two files to create a new file is considered, the version relationship does not become a simple linear or tree structure; if a file is deleted, relationship management of version relationship update, etc., becomes complicated.
On the other hand, in the system described in Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei 6-103484, when a new file is registered in a version information file, a plurality of files in the same version group can be set as earlier versions, but a plurality of files in different version groups cannot be set as earlier versions, namely, a plurality of files cannot be combined to create an update file. Further, the system can hold complicated version relationship, but enables only getting earlier and later version files and getting files using version root identifiers; file handling based on the version relationship, for example, such file handling of tracing the version relationship and getting only necessary files is difficult to perform.

File management system and file management method


A system for transporting a sample in a clinical analysis system includes a sample container holding the sample, a ferromagnetic base connected to a bottom portion of the sample container, and a puck. The puck is used for transporting the sample container in the clinical analysis system. The puck comprises an embedded magnet for securing the sample container to the puck using the ferromagnetic base.

In vitro diagnostics (IVD) allows labs to assist in the diagnosis of disease based on assays performed on patient fluid samples. IVD includes various types of analytical tests and assays related to patient diagnosis and therapy that can be performed by analysis of a liquid sample taken from a patient's bodily fluids, or abscesses. These assays are typically conducted with automated clinical chemistry analyzers onto which sample containers, such as tubes or vials containing patient samples have been loaded. The analyzer extracts a liquid sample from the sample container and combines the sample with various reagents in special reaction cuvettes or tubes (referred to generally as reaction vessels) for testing or processing.
In some systems, a modular approach is used for analyzers. A lab automation system shuttles samples between sample processing modules. Modules may include one or more stations, including sample handling stations and testing stations (e.g., a unit that can specialize in certain types of assays or can otherwise provide testing services to the larger analyzer, which may include immunoassay (IA) and clinical chemistry (CC) stations). Some traditional IVD automation track systems comprise systems that are designed to transport samples from one fully independent module to another standalone module. This allows different types of tests to be specialized in two different stations or allows two redundant stations to be linked to increase the volume of sample throughput available. A track shuttles individual carrier mechanisms, sometimes called pucks between different stations. This track may be, for example, friction-based (similar to a conveyor belt) or use magnetic levitation technology to facilitate movement of the pucks. Samples may be stored in sample containers, such as test tubes that are placed into a puck by an operator or robot arm for transport between stations in an analyzer along the track.
In conventional systems, the puck has a mechanical locking mechanism used to hold the sample container during transport. For example, one popular solution is to use a spring-based apparatus in the puck to apply side spring force which creates friction to hold the sample container. Mechanical locking mechanisms have the drawback that they can quickly deteriorate over time due to normal wear and tear. For example, with a spring-based apparatus, the spring's ability to provide retention force may weaken over time, thereby causing the sample container to not be securely held by the puck during transportation. Accordingly, it is desired to provide a puck that securely holds the sampling container without the drawbacks of a mechanical locking mechanism

Magnetic puck for transporting sample containers in a clinical chemistry analyzer system


A method of detecting master/slave response time-out under continuous packet format communications protocol, which calculates the time required for the slave device to respond to a Modbus request subject to Modbus TCP/UDP protocol. The method is to continuously send Modbus requests to a slave device through a detection device and to record each Modbus request sent time, and to have the slave device provide to the detection device a response for each Modbus request. By means of calculating the precise response time-out from the response time-outs which are gotten from the slave device responds to a predetermined number of Modbus requests, the user or manager can determine the response time-out required for the slave device precisely so as to give an EXECUTE instruction or command at the accurate time point.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of detecting master/slave response time-out under continuous packet format communications protocol. By means of calculating the precise response time-out from response time-outs which are gotten from the slave device responds to a predetermined number of Modbus requests and applying the precise response time-out to the formal master/slave communication time period, the master device can give an EXECUTE instruction or command at the accurate time point.
2. Description of the Related Art
Following fast development of communication technology, communication networks have also been well developed. LAN (Local Area Network) and WAN (Wide Area Network) are categorized subject to their scope and scale. A LAN connects network devices over a relatively short distance. A WAN is a geographically-dispersed collection of LANs. The Internet is the largest WAN, spanning the Earth.
Either in LAN or WAN, Ethernet has proven itself as a relatively inexpensive, reasonably fast, and very popular LAN technology. Ethernet cables (fiber optics or twisted pair) are limited in their reach, and these distances are insufficient to cover medium-sized and large network installations. Therefore, repeaters are used in Ethernets. A repeater in Ethernet networking is a device that allows multiple cables to be joined and greater distances to be spanned. A bridge device can join an Ethernet to another network of a different type, such as a wireless network. Popular types of repeater devices are Ethernet hubs, switches and routers. By means of the combination of Ethernet cables with hubs, switches and/or routers, an Ethernet networking allows transmission or control of data or instructions among different LANs, computers, and/or other devices such as surveillance systems, security systems, automation systems, etc.
Further, there is known a network communication architecture commonly seen in industrial control and device communication protocol or rules, i.e., Modbus. Modbus is a serial communications protocol published by Modicon in 1979 for use with its programmable logic controllers (PLCs). It has become a standard communications protocol in industry, and is now the most commonly available means of connecting industrial electronic devices. The first main reason for the extensive use of Modbus over other communications protocols is that Modbus is openly published and royalty-free. The second main reason is that Modbus can be implemented in days, not months. Modbus moving raw bits or words without placing many restrictions on vendors is the third main reason.
However, because Modbus is a master/slave protocol, the master device must poll the slave devices one by one but cannot bi-directionally communication with all the slave devices at a same time. Further, every slave device connected to the master device has a unique address for allowing accurate communication with the master device. Either the other slave devices have received the instruction or request from the master device or have not received any instructions or requests, only the slave device to be in communication with the master device will process the instruction or request given by the master device.
Because Modbus is a master/slave protocol and because the master device must poll the slave devices one by one, it is important to know accurately the response time-out when the master device gives a request to the slave device. Currently slave response time-out is measured by the user's rule of experience, or trial and error. However, this nonprecise verification method tends to obtain an inaccurate response time-out. Further, manual verification is time consuming and costly. Setting of improper response time-out may cause the system unable to function. For example, in a regular industrial manufacturing line (such as wafer plant, plastic materials plant), if the slave device cannot give the instruction on accurate time due to that the response time-out required for the slave device is not accurately obtained, or if the slave device cannot execute the master device's command at accurate time point, an abnormality or interruption of the manufacturing line may occur, resulting in paralysis or damage of the machinery of the industrial manufacturing line. Further, the temperature control, emergency exit system and other control actions in a building control need to make an accurate response at accurate time point. If responding tactics cannot be started at accurate time point, it will get no help in reducing the risk of disaster and the loss resulted from such disaster.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide a method of detecting master/slave response time-out under continuous packet format communications protocol that eliminates the aforesaid problem.

Method for calculating master/slave response time-out under continuous packet format communications protocol


The disclosure describes a method of manufacturing a Group II-VI compound semiconductor thin film by a vapor-phase epitaxy using an organic metal compound of Group II element and a hydride or an organic metal compound of Group VI element as the raw material, which comprises repeating alternate introduction of an organic metal compound of Group II element and a halide gas, a halogen gas or a mixture thereof; or adding a halide gas, a halogen gas or a mixture thereof to a gas for vapor-phase epitaxy.

The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a Group II-IV compound semiconductor by a vapor-phase epitaxy and, more in particular, it relates to a method of manufacturing a Group II-IV compound semiconductor suitable to flattening of an epitaxial growth layer and preventing of deposition to a protection film for selective epitaxial growth.
Group II-VI compound semiconductors can oscillate laser covering a short wavelength region from ultraviolet ray to green light ray, as well as a long wavelength region including infrared ray. Recently, it has been succeeded in oscillation of blue laser beam by using a Group II-VI compound semiconductor lattice-matching with a GaAs substrate. Oscillation of the blue laser beam is attained by the formation of quantum well active layers and the improvement of p-type doping technique. However, for controlling a transverse mode, a current constriction structure as used in an AlGaAs-based semiconductor laser is necessary. For forming a block layer to effect a current constriction, application of selective epitaxial growth technique is necessary.
For preparing the quantum well structure, it is necessary to precisely control the epitaxial growth rate and usually, molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) or metal organic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE) is conducted. Actually, when the above-mentioned epitaxy method is used, an abrupt hetero boundary is formed at the level of an atom layer. When such a structure is applied to a device, flatness of the hetero boundary has a great effect on device characteristics. Since a migration distance of compound molecules is short in the Group II-VI compound boundary, there is a problem such as worsening of the flatness. While selective epitaxial growth has been conducted in recent years for further optimizing a device structure, since selective epitaxial growth is extremely difficult by the usual MBE method, the MOVPE method or metal organic molecular beam epitaxy (MOMBE) method has been conducted for selective epitaxial growth. Since the selective epitaxial growth is a damageless process carried out at a relatively low temperature, there has a merit capable of obtaining a selective epitaxial growth region of high quality and obtaining a high performance device.
However, in order not to deposit polycrystals on a protection film, upon conducting selective epitaxial growth it is subjected to remarkable restrictions on conditions for vapor-phase epitaxy, crystal mixing ratio and mask width. Particularly, in a case of Zn-containing Group II-VI compound, there has been arisen such a problem that polycrystals are more apt to be deposited on a protection film as the mask width is greater, failing to obtain a desired structure.
As a result of earnest present inventors' studies for solving such a problem, it has been found that use of a halide gas and/or a halogen gas upon forming a heterostructure of a compound semiconductor or upon growing crystals selectively, can flatten the surface of a epitaxial growth layer and enables to conduct a vapor-phase epitaxy of crystals at high quality without depositing polycrystals on a mask over a wide range. On the basis of the finding, the present invention has been accomplished.

Method of manufacturing a group II-VI compound semiconductor


Background collective operation management in a parallel computer, the parallel computer including one or more compute nodes operatively coupled for data communications over one or more data communications networks, including: determining, by a management availability module, whether a compute node in the parallel computer is available to perform a background collective operation management task; responsive to determining that the compute node is available to perform the background collective operation management task, determining, by the management availability module, whether the compute node has access to sufficient resources to perform the background collective operation management task; and responsive to determining that the compute node has access to sufficient resources to perform the background collective operation management task, initiating, by the management availability module, execution of the background collective operation management task.

1. Field of the Invention
The field of the invention is data processing, or, more specifically, methods, apparatus, and products for background collective operation management in a parallel computer.
2. Description of Related Art
The development of the EDVAC computer system of 1948 is often cited as the beginning of the computer era. Since that time, computer systems have evolved into extremely complicated devices. Today's computers are much more sophisticated than early systems such as the EDVAC. Computer systems typically include a combination of hardware and software components, application programs, operating systems, processors, buses, memory, input/output devices, and so on. As advances in semiconductor processing and computer architecture push the performance of the computer higher and higher, more sophisticated computer software has evolved to take advantage of the higher performance of the hardware, resulting in computer systems today that are much more powerful than just a few years ago.
Current parallel computers are running a number of processes that just a few years ago would have seemed unimaginable. For example, modern parallel computer can execute millions of processes simultaneously. With so many processes executing, the number of available geometries for collective operations and algorithms for collective operations are extremely large. Selecting an appropriate geometry, selecting an optimized algorithm, and performing other administrative tasks associated with executing a collective operation can be resource intensive.

International Business Machines Corporation


A zoom method of a small digital camera is provided that includes searching a center search line of a photographic screen according to a set photographic mode and searching upper and lower lines based on the center search line so as to extract a color average value and a deviation of a photographic object. A size of a photographic object may be calculated based on the average value and the deviation. A zoom ratio may be set according to a size of the photographic object. A portrait mode and a text mode may be implemented by software without influencing a size of a mobile communication terminal and so as to fast process the zoom function.

1. Field of the Invention
The following description relates to a zoom method of a small digital camera. More particularly, the following description relates to a small digital camera attached to a mobile communication terminal that automatically zooms according to a photographing mode, such as a portrait mode and a text mode.
2. Background of Related Art
A camera may provide a zooming function capable of enlarging/reducing an image of a subject based on a user's need. The zooming function may be divided into an optical zoom and a digital zoom. The optical zoom is for enlarging/reducing an image based on movement of a zoom lens back and forth. The digital zoom is for enlarging/reducing an image by calculating (and interpreting) a distance on a computer.
A general digital camera may not have a limitation of body size so that both the optical zoom and the digital zoom are adopted therein. The digital camera may automatically zoom according to a photographic mode.
In an automatic zoom process, various photographic modes (e.g., portrait, party, night view, close up, black and white, back light, scene, text, and etc.) may be provided in the digital camera, and an optimum exposure, a focus, a white balance, etc. may be automatically controlled according to photographic surroundings (or a subject). The portrait mode may be for photographing a natural portrait by closing up a figure and making voluminous in a clean background state. The back light mode may be for not generating a shadow of a figure at the time of photographing against the light. The text mode may be used for photographing letters or a simple text and storing these features.
In the automatic zoom process, the digital camera may automatically control a focus by using a through-the-lens (TTL) phase difference detection method, a contrast detection method, a sound wave detection measurement method, an infrared ray measurement method, etc.
The TTL phase difference detecting method is a method for measuring values of a subject through two optical devices (having different positions) and focalizing towards a direction that minimizes a difference of the values.
The contrast detecting method is a method for focalizing by comparing darkness between each image inputted through two range finders. The sound wave detection measurement method is for measuring a distance and controlling a focus by using the time for an ultra sound wave irradiated on a subject to return.
The infrared ray measurement method is for irradiating the infrared ray towards a subject and calculating a distance to the subject through an angle between a reflection light and an irradiation light of the subject and then controlling a focus by using a light source of an infrared ray irradiated on an infrared ray subject and an infrared ray reaction optical device that receives a reflection light reflected from the subject.
In order to implement the automatic focus controlling method, a distance measuring device is attached by hardware. However, a small digital camera attached to a mobile communication terminal has size limitations as compared to a general digital camera such that only a hand-operated digital zoom function may be provided for the small digital camera. That is, the small digital camera of a mobile communication terminal may provide a hand digital zoom function without any automatic focus controlling method as in general digital cameras and thereby the problems of the various photographic modes may not be automatically provided.
In small digital cameras of mobile communication terminals, it is difficult to implement an automatic focus controlling function according to a photographic mode using a hardware distance measuring device due to size limitations. Additionally, attaching the hardware distance measuring device to the small digital camera of the mobile communication terminal not only prevents a corresponding mobile communication terminal from becoming small but also increases the material cost.

Zoom method of a digital camera based on extracted values


Gas analyzer and method for measuring the concentration of a gas component in a sample gas, wherein the wavelength of the light of a wavelength-tunable light source is varied within periodically successive sampling intervals and, in the process, additionally modulated with a frequency to perform wavelength dependent sampling of an absorption line of a gas component to be measured in the sample gas.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a gas analyzer and method for measuring the concentration of a gas component in the gas analyzer.
2. Description of the Related Art
EP 1 475 618 B1 discloses a conventional method and gas analyzer.
The known gas analyzer is a laser spectrometer which, in particular, is used for optical gas analysis in process metrology. A wavelength-tunable light source comprising a laser diode generates light in the infrared range, which is guided through a process gas (sample gas) to be measured and subsequently detected. The wavelength of the light is tuned to a specific absorption line of the respective gas component to be measured, where the laser diode samples the absorption line periodically in a wavelength-dependent manner. To this end, the laser diode is actuated by a ramp-shaped or triangular current signal within periodically successive sampling intervals. During the comparatively slow sampling of the absorption line, the wavelength of the generated light is additionally modulated sinusoidally with a high frequency and small amplitude. The profile of the absorption line is nonlinear. As a result, harmonics above the modulation frequency are also generated in the measurement signal obtained during the detection. The measurement signal is usually demodulated at an n-th overtone, preferably the second harmonic, using a phase-sensitive lock-in technology and evaluated to form a measurement result for each sampling interval. In the case of a small modulation amplitude, the detection of the n-th harmonic is directly proportional to the n-th derivative of the direct measurement signal. By way of example, the evaluation is brought about by fitting (i.e., curve fitting) the profile of the demodulated measurement signal (i.e., intended curve), to be expected in the ideal case, to the actual profile (i.e., actual curve) thereof. Finally, the concentration of the gas component to be measured is determined from the measurement result obtained in the process.
The detection and determination limit for measuring the concentration of the gas component are restricted by the noise of the gas analyzer (e.g., laser noise, and/or detector noise), which is superposed on the measurement signal.

Method and gas analyzer for measuring the concentration of a gas component in a sample gas


A drive, method and a device for determining the torque of a shaft, wherein gear wheels engaged with one another in a gearbox serve to apply an axial force to the shaft, where the axial force is induced by helical teeth of the gear wheels, the axial force of the shaft is determined using a force sensor and/or a position sensor, and where the torque is determined arithmetically from the measured axial force such that a static and dynamic measurement of the torque on the shaft can be advantageously performed.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a drive unit, method and a device for determining a torque.
2. Description of the Related Art
The way in which torque is determined in the case of a drive has been hitherto been inaccurate. Furthermore, it has not hitherto been possible adequately to determine the torque of a rotating shaft of the drive. Thus, it is difficult to determine the torque dynamically.

Method and device for determining torque exerted on a shaft including transferring torque to a gearbox by the shaft and exerting axial force on the shaft dependent on the torque exerted by the shaft to the gearbox


A new cultivar of Hydrangea macrophylla named ‘Kompeito’ that is characterized by its re-blooming habit with inflorescences produced from early summer until fall with removal of spent blooms, its consistently well formed, large sized, lacecap type inflorescences with a mass of fertile flowers surrounded by large double flowers on long petioles and smaller double flowers with sepals having white margins and centers that are blue to pink in color depending on soil acidity and aluminum uptake, its compact growth habit, and its hardiness at least in U.S.D.A. Zones 5 to 9.

The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Hydrangea macrophylla and will be referred to hereafter by its cultivar name, 'Kompeito'. 'Kompeito' represents a new bigleaf hydrangea, a deciduous shrub grown for landscape use and for use as a potted plant.
'Kompeito' was derived from an ongoing controlled breeding program that focuses on developing new cultivars of Hydrangea for landscape and container use. 'Kompeito' originated from a cross made in the Inventor's nursery in June 1999 in Shizuoka, Japan between two unpatented proprietary selections of Hydrangea macrophylla; the female parent designated as H3-133 and the male parent designated as H1-101. The new Hydrangea was selected as a unique single plant from the progeny of the cross in February 2006.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar was first accomplished by the Inventor using softwood stem cuttings in Shizuoka, Japan in May 2007. The characteristics of this cultivar have been determined to be stable and are reproduced true to type in successive generations.