A piezoelectric fluid pump includes a stationary pump base and a plurality of piezoelectric elements arranged in parallel on the stationary pump base, each of the piezoelectric elements having, in a polarizing direction thereof or in a direction perpendicular to the polarizing direction, a first end fixed to the stationary pump base and a free, second end. The free, second ends of respective pairs of adjacent the piezoelectric elements are connected to each other, for respective units of the fluid pump. Between the pair of piezoelectric elements and between the stationary pump base and the connecting means, pressure chambers are defined. There are gaps are between walls of the piezoelectric elements and walls of piezoelectric elements of adjacent units.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fluid pump from which fluid is discharged by utilizing the deformation of a piezoelectric body, and also relates to a manufacturing method of the fluid pump. This fluid pump is referred to as a piezoelectric pump in this specification, hereinafter.
This type piezoelectric pump is useful when a minute quantity of fluid is accurately conveyed or a minute quantity of fluid is controlled so that it can be accurately discharged from the pump. However, in an ink jet type printer which is a typical example to which the piezoelectric pump is applied, a bubble jet type printer using heated vapor is evaluated to be more economical and compact than a printer in which the piezoelectric type pump is used. However, as compared with the bubble jet type printer in which a heating means is used for generating vapor pressure, the piezoelectric type pump is superior from the viewpoint of energy efficiency. Accordingly, it has been desired to make the piezoelectric pump compact
2. Description of the Related Art
An amount of deformation of the piezoelectric element is very small. Therefore, when the piezoelectric element is put into practical use, an amplifying mechanism to amplify the deformation is used together with the piezoelectric element in many cases. A bimorph is a typical amplifying mechanism to amplify a displacement. In an amplifying section of the bimorph or other mechanisms, the rigidity is insufficient, so that the frequency characteristic is deteriorated and the speed of response is lowered. This problem is a factor to deteriorate the competitive power of the fluid pump in which the piezoelectric element is used. In order to increase the rigidity of the amplifying mechanism to amplify a displacement, concerning the oscillation mode, it is preferable to adopt an oscillation mode in the longitudinal oscillating direction.
With respect to the deformation of a piezoelectric body, the polarizing direction is referred to as d.sub.33, and a direction perpendicular to the polarizing direction is referred to as d.sub.31. When voltage E is applied in the polarizing direction and the thickness in the polarizing direction is represented by t, the electric field is represented by E/t. In the case where no load is given, the deformation in the thickness direction (the polarizing direction) caused by the electric field E/t is expressed as follows. EQU (E/t).times.d.sub.33 .times.t=Ed.sub.33
Therefore, the deformation is irrespective of the thickness t. On the other hand, in the direction of d.sub.31, when the length in the direction perpendicular to the thickness direction is represented by L, the deformation in the direction perpendicular to the thickness direction is expressed as follows. EQU (E/t).times.d.sub.31 .times.L
As shown in the above expression, it is possible to provide a large amount of deformation when L/t is appropriately selected.
An amount of the deformation d.sub.33 in the polarizing direction is substantially twice as large as that of the normal deformation d.sub.31. In the case of a piezoelement, the amount of the deformation d.sub.33 in the polarizing direction is approximately 600.times.10.sup.-12 m/V. However, due to the restriction of a semiconductor provided in the drive circuit, only several tens voltage is allowed for the deformation in the polarizing direction. Accordingly, an amount of the obtained displacement is only 0.0X .mu.m, so that the design of the device is difficult. In order to solve the above problem, an amplifying mechanism including a bimorph is employed, or alternatively a value of L/t is increased in the direction of d.sub.31 in the process of designing. However, even if the above countermeasure is taken, it is impossible to avoid a problem of slow speed of response.
When a high voltage is provided by a method in which a transformer is used, the circumstances are different, and it is possible to obtain a predetermined amount of displacement without using an amplifying mechanism.
Concerning the mechanism by which fluid is given pressure without using an amplifying mechanism, the simplest method is to dip a piezoelectric body in fluid as it is so that a change in the volume of the piezoelectric body is directly transmitted to fluid. This technique is disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,752,788. However, the piezoelectric body is deformed in such a manner that the piezoelectric body is contracted in the direction of d.sub.31 when the piezoelectric body is elongated in the direction of d.sub.33. Accordingly, an overall change in the volume is small. Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 4-341835 is based on the concept that it is difficult to obtain a practical amount of contraction unless a large amount of deformation is provided by impressing a low voltage even in the case of a laminated piezoelectric body.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 5-169657 discloses an arrangement in which pressure of fluid is raised and lowered when a piezoelectric body pushes a pressure chamber from the outside. However, in order to obtain a larger amount of displacement, a design is put into practical use, in which a value of L/t is increased using a displacement in the direction of d.sub.31.


Provided is an electric connector, including: a housing placed on a circuit board and including a receiving concave portion formed by a substantially square-cylindrical-shaped inner wall surface and receiving a mating connector, and a center convex portion disposed between a pair of opposed walls forming the receiving concave portion; a plurality of terminals accommodated in a plurality of terminal grooves formed in each of the pair of the opposed walls; and a ground metal fitting connecting with a plate-shaped ground plate included in the mating connector, wherein the housing includes a space accommodating the ground metal fitting, where the space is disposed in the central area between the pair of the opposed walls and extends in the arrangement direction of the terminals, the upper part of the space communicates with an opening formed in the center convex portion, and receives the mating ground plate.

The present invention related to an electric connector mounted on a circuit board and connected with a mating connector. There is a type of electric connector provided with a shell around a housing of the electric connector. This shell prevents noise from being mixed into electric signals so as to remove noise effect on the electric signals.
According to the electric connector of this type, ground terminals connected with a ground pattern of the circuit board are only provided at the four corners and the respective centers of both sides of the shell. In this case, electric signals are easily subjected to noise effect when transmitted via terminals not given ground terminals nearby.


A heart rate value determined from a first physiological signal that is acquired independently from a second physiological signal, is used to control a band pass filter for controllably bandpass filtering the second physiological signal. In a system having sensors for independently acquiring both electrocardiogram (ECG) and pulse oximetry (SpO2) signals, a heart rate value determined from the ECG signal is used to controllably bandpass filter the red and infrared SpO2 signals, thereby reducing the level of artifact signal in the SpO2 signals.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for removing artifact from physiological signals, and more specifically, to using a heart rate value that is determined from a first physiological signal that is acquired independently from a second physiological signal, for controllably bandpass filtering the second physiological signal.
In a system having sensors for acquiring both electrocardiogram (ECG) and pulse oximetry (SpO2) signals, the ECG signal is used to controllably bandpass filter the red and infrared signals acquired by the pulse oximeter. As a result of the invention, more accurate measurement of blood oxygenation and pulse rate is achieved by the oximeter, and the number of false alarms due to erroneous measurements is greatly reduced.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As well known by those of ordinary skill in the art, a pulse oximeter measures arterial blood oxygen saturation and pulse rate using a sensor containing two LED's and a photodiode detector, which is applied directly to a well perfused part of a patient, such as at a finger or ear. The LED's of the sensor apply radiation of two different wavelenghts, commonly red and infrared, to the patient, and the photodiode detector responsive to red and infrared light develops red and infrared electrical signals that are affected, via transmission or reflection, by the patient's blood flow in the area between the two LED's and photodiode detector. The greater the oxygenation of the blood, the less of the emitted red light is detected, due to greater absorption of the red light by the patient's blood. Consequently, the acquired red and infrared signals can be processed to develop a measurement indicative of the blood oxygenation. Additionally, by processing of the pulsatile component of the acquired light signals, a measurment of the pulse rate of the patient can also be developed. As well known, such processing for determining blood oxygenation is based on the ratio of the AC and DC components of the red light compared to the infrared light, such as: ##EQU1## The resultant value is applied to an experimentally-determined reference table to provide the final determination of the acquired measurement of the blood oxygenation.
As well known, the blood oxygenation and pulse rate measurements made from optically acquired signals are highly prone to inaccuracies due to artifacts. Such artifacts typically result from electrical interference (lights, electro-surgical and other electrical equipment near the patient), patient movement (causing a relative movement between the LED's and detector of the sensor, or even worse, the sudden admission of room light into area of the photodiode detector), as well as the fact that the AC component of the acquired signals (which results from the pulsatile characteristic of the blood), is very small, typically on the order of only 1%-5% of the DC value of the acquired signals. Consequently, such artifacts are extremely detrimental to accurate pulse oximetry measurements, and furthermore, can easily lead to the disturbing problem of false alarms.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,955,379 entitled MOTION ARTEFACT REJECTION SYSTEM FOR PULSE OXIMETERS, issued Sep. 11, 1990, discloses the a band-pass filtering (BPF) technique for removing noise artifacts from pulse oximetry signals. More specifically, the AC components of each of the acquired red and infrared signals is initially filtered by a BPF that is broadly tuned to the expected heart rate frequency. The output of the BPF is applied to a frequency determining circuit, whose output is then used to cause the BPF to track the frequency determined by the frequency determining circuit. The theory of this technique is that most of the energy (and information) in the AC signal is contained in at the fundamental frequency, and since the fundamental frequency should be the pulse rate, the frequency determining circuit will determine the pulse rate as the fundamental frequency and control the BPF to exclude all other frequencies, along with artifacts. Unfortunately, it is quite possible that the fundamental frequency determined by the frequency determining circuit may in fact be an artifact signal, such as one that is generated by electrical equipment, causing the oximeter to process the artifact signal and report erroneous information. Consequently, this technique is undesirable.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,928,692 entitled METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DETECTING OPTICAL PULSES, issued May, 29, 1990, discloses a technique wherein the R-wave portion of a patient's ECG waveform is correlated in time with the optical signals acquired by a pulse oximeter. The correlation is used to develop an enabling signal for processing of the acquired optical signals by the oximeter. The theory is that since the pulse component of the optical signals contain the information, and the occurrence of the optical pulses can be predicted to follow an ECG R-wave by a certain amount, selective timing of oximeter enablement will prevent artifact from being admitted into the oximeter and erroneously processed. Unfortunately, since artifacts can occur at any time, and in general are not in any way correlated so as to have any relation to occurrence of an ECG R-wave, this technique is undesirable.

Method and apparatus for removing artifact from physiological signals


A method and system for extending the power output range of a power converter used for a lighting system is disclosed.

A light emitting diode (LED) lighting system requires a power converter for changing the AC line voltage received from the utility power line to the DC power specific to the LED load circuit. A simple system for this purpose produces output current to the LED load whenever the incoming AC line voltage is sufficiently removed from zero. The power converter input current can be designed to represent a resistive load to the AC line input, giving a high power factor for the AC line input. In addition, the power converter input current may be sufficient to cause a phase cut lamp dimmer with either leading edge (LE) or trailing edge (TE) phase cut to operate correctly.
One difficulty with this simple means of operation is that the majority of LE and TE phase cut dimmers have a limited control range. For example, if the AC half cycle is denoted to have 180 degrees of electrical phase shift in its half period, the dimmer may typically produce an output with a minimum of 40 degrees phase delay cut, and a maximum of 140 degrees phase delay cut. The half period always has the first 40 degrees of the undimmed AC voltage missing, and always has AC power for the last 40 degrees of AC input voltage. As a result, when the dimmer is set to the maximum phase delay to give the minimum light output, there is still substantial AC power being converted to load power. Practical dimmers never have exactly the angle range or limits stated above, so these values given are exemplary of typical performance The minimum phase delay is usually in the range of 30 to 50 degrees, and the maximum phase delay is usually from 130 to 150 degrees, with some going all the way to 180 degrees.

Method and apparatus for extending the power output range of a power converter used for a lighting system


The present invention provides methods and compositions comprising a population of alphavirus replicon particles comprising alphavirus replicon RNAs, wherein a first replicon RNA comprises nucleic acid encoding cytomegalovirus pp65 and IE1 protein or immunogenic fragments thereof, and a second replicon RNA comprises nucleic acid encoding cytomegalovirus gB protein or an immunogenic fragment thereof, and wherein each of the two replicon RNAs is contained within a separate alphavirus replicon particle.

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is a herpesvirus that causes widespread infection found across all geographic locations and socio-economic groups, with up to 85% of adults infected by age 40 in the United States. For most healthy people who acquire the virus after birth there are no long-term consequences. However, the risk of HCMV infection is significant for several high-risk groups including: (i) unborn children, (ii) adults who work with children, and (iii) immuno-compromised persons. The prevalence of these risk groups underlies the importance of the development of a safe and efficacious vaccine.
HCMV is typically secreted via a number of bodily fluids, e.g., saliva, urine and semen. Thus, transmission of the virus between people can occur through either sexual or non-sexual contact. An individual can contract HCMV through blood or organ transplants, and a mother can transmit it to her unborn fetus.
The virus demonstrates a life-long latency, but is most commonly non-symptomatic in healthy individuals. It sometimes can cause an illness with symptoms similar to those associated with mononucleosis. However, it can cause severe illness in immunocompromised individuals, e.g., transplant recipients or those with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), in addition to the severe, debilitating effects on unborn children whose immune systems have not yet matured.
In the case of transplants, bone marrow transplant recipients show a relatively high incidence of HCMV-induced pneumonia, with consequent high mortality among these patients. In solid organ transplant patients, disease triggered by HCMV can include a HCMV syndrome (consisting of fever and leucopenia), hepatitis, colitis and pneumonia. HCMV-induced disease in these transplant recipients is caused by the immunosuppressive effects of the drugs required for transplant acceptance and the induction of graft vs. host disease (GVHD). The GVHD effect is most severe in those instances where the organ/marrow donor is HCMV seropositive and the recipient is HCMV seronegative.
For AIDS patients, HCMV is the most common opportunistic infection, in large part due to the fact that greater than 90% of HIV-infected individuals are co-infected with HCMV. In these patients, the infection most commonly manifests as retinitis, and usually occurs when the CD4+ cell counts are less than 50/μl. Prior to the adoption of highly active antiretroviral (HAART) protocols, 20-44% of AIDS patients developed HCMV disease. While the use of HAART has also resulted in the reduction of HCMV disease, the unavailability of HAART for many AIDS patients, as well as the inability of many patients to tolerate HAART for extended periods of time, make the possibility of HCMV disease a continuing concern.
Congenital HCMV, a result of mother-to-fetus transmission, occurs at an overall rate of approximately 1%, but rates are much higher and symptomatic disease is more common when the mother has a primary infection. Women can be infected via sexual contact, since shedding of the virus from the cervix and in semen is common. Infected infants can remain viremic for up to five years after birth, becoming an important source for infection in day care settings.
Congenital HCMV can have horrific manifestations in infants. A fulminant cytomegalic inclusion disease can develop, characterized by jaundice, petechial rash, hepatosplenomegaly, microcephaly, and chorioretinitis. There is often progressive hearing loss and mental retardation, which can be severe. The estimated costs to society in terms of care for victims of congenital HCMV are approximately four billion dollars.
Thus, there remains a clear need for a safe and effective vaccine to combat HCMV infection, both prophylactically (for example, in adolescents or women of child-bearing potential to prevent congenital infection or in HCMV-uninfected transplant candidates) and therapeutically (for example, in HCMV-infected transplant patients prior to and after transplantation of an organ or bone marrow).

Alpha virus-based cytomegalovirus vaccines


A device for impacting a fastener in one embodiment includes a housing with an upper housing portion, a middle housing portion, and a side housing portion extending between the upper housing portion and the middle housing portion, a drive cylinder configured to vent within the housing, an air passage extending through the housing and including a mouth at the upper housing portion, and a strike plate extending over the upper housing portion and including a top portion positioned apart from the upper housing portion, and a first side extension extending downwardly from the top portion along the side housing portion to a location above and spaced apart from an outwardly extending first surface of the middle housing portion.

Fasteners such as nails and staples are commonly used in projects ranging from crafts to building construction. While manually driving such fasteners into a work piece is effective, a user may quickly become fatigued when involved in projects requiring a large number of fasteners and/or large fasteners. Moreover, proper driving of larger fasteners into a work piece frequently requires more than a single impact from a manual tool.
In response to the shortcomings of manual driving tools, power-assisted devices for driving fasteners into wood and other materials have been developed. Contractors and homeowners commonly use such devices for driving fasteners ranging from brad nails used in small projects to common nails which are used in framing and other construction projects. Compressed air has been traditionally used to provide power for the power-assisted devices. Specifically, a source of compressed air is used to actuate a piston assembly which impacts a nail into the work-piece.
In addition to driving fasteners, however, manual impacting devices are frequently used to move or adjust the position of a work piece prior to fastening the work piece. This practice is particularly common in stick framing where wood may be misaligned for a number of different reasons. In such situations, a user taps or strikes the work piece with a hammer until the work piece is properly aligned. The aligned work piece is then fastened in position. With the onset of pneumatic nailers, manual impacting devices are not always readily available. Accordingly, rather than climbing down from a work site and retrieving a hammer, many users simply use the pneumatic device as a manual impacting device. Since most pneumatic devices include a substantial amount of metal, users generally believe the pneumatic device to be able to withstand the manual impacting forces.
The top of a pneumatic nailer is typically somewhat flat and can be used as a manual impacting tool without exposing the hands of the user to the impact. Thus, users frequently use the top portion of the pneumatic tool housing as an impacting surface. The housing of pneumatic tools, however, is not commonly designed to withstand impacting forces. For example, pneumatic nailers are typically vented through the top of the device. In order to prevent blowing air into the face of the user, a deflector is positioned on the top of the pneumatic nailer to direct the vented air away from the user. The deflector may be mounted to the upper housing of the tool or the deflector may be formed integrally with the device housing.
In either event, the deflector, which is inherently weaker than other parts of the pneumatic nailer housing, is the part of the pneumatic nailer most frequently used as an impacting device. Thus, while repeated impacts can result in damage to various part of the tool and parts of the tool may even break off, the deflector is one of the most frequently damaged components of a pneumatic nailer.
What is needed is a device incorporating an element which can be used to absorb energy from an impact. What is further needed is a device incorporating an element which is simple, reliable, lightweight, and compact. A further need exists for a device that incorporates an energy absorbing element that has a long useful lifetime and that does not require extensive redesign of the device.


A denitration process for removing nitrogen oxides contained in low-temperature exhaust gas at a high denitration rate; namely, a denitration process for reductively removing nitrogen oxides contained in an exhaust gas (x) containing nitrogen monoxide and sulfur dioxide. The process comprises a preliminary step 2 of partially oxidizing nitrogen monoxide in the exhaust gas to form nitrogen dioxide, a radical formation step 3 of adding a nitrogen compound and a hydrocarbon compound to a high-temperature zone 22 to form amine radicals (r), and a denitration step 4 of mixing the amine radicals (r) with the pretreated gas (p) containing nitrogen monoxide and nitrogen dioxide that was discharged from the preliminary step 2. As a result, nitrogen oxides in the exhaust gas (x) are reductively decomposed.

In recent years, much attention has been focused on the reduction of particulate matter and nitrogen oxides exhausted from automotive diesel engines such as those on buses and trucks. Similarly, the removal of harmful substances contained in the exhaust gas of engines such as diesel engines for ships and power generators, boiler exhaust gas, and plant off-gas is an important problem. However, while automotive diesel engines use diesel fuel oil for fuel, which has a low sulfur content, diesel engines such as those on ships and power generators use high sulfur content fuel known as Class A or Class C fuel oils (JIS standard). For this reason, the exhaust gas of the latter contains a large amount of sulfur oxides, and processing the gas to remove harmful substances is a significant obstacle.
Typically, non-catalytic denitration and selective catalytic reduction (SCR) are known as denitration processes for exhaust gas. Non-catalytic denitration is widely known as a denitration process using a nitrogen-based reducing agent such as ammonia or urea, but unless the exhaust gas is in a high-temperature state (900° C. to 1000° C.), high-activity catalysis cannot be obtained (for example, see the patent literature 1 and 2). For this reason, given the relatively low-temperature (approx. 250° C. to 450° C.) exhaust gas exhausted from diesel engines such as those on ships and power generators, it is necessary to pre-treat the exhaust gas to heat it and raise the temperature thereof, which in turn leads to increased treatment costs and makes the application of non-catalytic denitration problematic.
In addition, while non-catalytic denitration using ammonia achieves a high denitration rate at the laboratory level, it has been difficult to obtain a denitration rate exceeding 50% in an actual furnace such as a boiler. For example, the non-patent literature 1 shows a denitration process wherein, for a temperature range of 900° C. to 1050° C., the supplied quantity of ammonia is divided into a pre- and a post-stage, and these ammonia quantities are respectively controlled and supplied according to the boiler load. However, the denitration rate of this process is only approximately 40% under equimolar conditions of nitrogen oxides and ammonia. Furthermore, if ammonia is excessively supplied in order to raise the denitration rate, unreacted ammonia remains and treatment costs increase. Moreover, in the case where the exhaust gas contains sulfur oxides, ammonium sulfate is created, so that the treatment thereof leads to worsened cost-effectiveness.
In contrast, the patent literature 3 proposes as an SCR process a method in which nitrogen monoxide in the exhaust gas is oxidized to nitrogen dioxide; subsequently, in the presence of an SCR catalyst, a reducing agent of ammonia, urea, a hydrocarbon, or the like is added; and the nitrogen dioxide is catalytically reduced. However, this SCR process is inferior to the non-catalytic denitration process in that it uses a large quantity of SCR catalyst. Furthermore, there is the problem that when the exhaust gas temperature is 300° C. or less, sulfur dioxide in the exhaust gas that has oxidized to sulfur trioxide and the like reacts with the ammonia to create ammonium hydrogen sulfate, which poisons the SCR catalyst and reduces catalytic activity. For this reason, the SCR process is only applied when exhaust gas is in a high-temperature state of 300° C. or greater whereby the ammonium hydrogen sulfate decomposes, or when the concentration of sulfur oxides in the exhaust gas is approx. 1 ppm or less.
In such circumstances, the patent literature 4 proposes a method in which a heating zone is formed in a flue or in a chamber communicated with the flue, the flue carrying a low-temperature exhaust gas containing sulfur oxides; subsequently, nitrogen compounds and hydrocarbons are blown toward this heating zone to form amine radicals; and these amine radicals denitrate the nitrogen oxides in the exhaust gas. However, the denitration rate in this denitration process is not entirely sufficient, and there is demand to further raise the denitration rate.    Patent Literature 1: U.S. Pat. No. 6,066,303    Patent Literature 2: Japanese patent application Kokai publication No. 2002-136837    Patent Literature 3: Japanese patent application Tokuhyo publication No. 2001-525902    Patent Literature 4: Japanese patent application Kokai publication No. 2005-254093    Non-patent Literature 1: "Fuel Conversion and SOX/NOX Countermeasure Technologies: A Focus on Exhaust Desulfurization/Denitration", by Junpei Ando (Project News, Jun. 25, 1983, p. 205-207)

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding Co., Ltd.


Plant pathogenic fungi belonging to the genus Phytophthora such as phytophthora cinnamomi which causes root rot in plants is biologically controlled with strains of fungi belonging to the genus Myrothecium. Preferred strains of Myrothecium are Myrothecium roridum ATCC 20963, 20964 or 20965. An inoculum containing Myrothecium and a substrate such as bran or a branalginate mixture is added to the surface of a plant or to soil. The Myrothecium may be grown on the substrate 5 to 7 days before use of the inoculum.

Soilborne plant diseases present an ongoing challenge to the plant pathologist. Plant pathogenic fungi cause severe economic losses throughout the world on many plant crops. For example, root rot of avocado (Persea americana Mill.) caused by Phytophthora cinnamomi Rands, is the major disease affecting avocado trees in California (Coffey, "Phytophthora root rot of avocado: an integrated approach to control in California" Plant Dis. 71:1046-1052 (1987)). Only two fungicides (metalaxyl and fosetyl-Al) are available that are only partially effective in suppressing the pathogen under conditions present in California (Cohen and Coffey, "Systemic fungicides and the control of oomycetes", Ann. Rev. Phytopathol. 24:311-338, (1986)). Total dependence on such site-specific fungicides is not recommended, because, aside from their high cost, fungicide-resistant strains of P. cinnamomi may occur through their excessive use (Cohen and Coffey, supra).
Another example is citrus postharvest disease caused by Penicillium digitatum. P. digitatum is a major source of decay of citrus fruit shipped from California and the Mediterranean region. This pathogen has developed fungicide resistance (Eckert and Brown, "Postharvest citrus diseases and their control" in "Fresh Citrus Fruits", Wardowski et al., Eds., pp. 315-361 (1986b)), rendering traditional methods of control ineffective.
An urgent need exists for an effective, broad-based, integrated approach to the management of such plant diseases. Traditional methods of control such as breeding for resistance, crop rotation and the use of chemical pesticides have been relatively unsuccessful and economically impractical.
"Biological control" involves the control of one organism by another antagonistic organism, defined as a biological agent with the potential to interfere in the life processes of plant pathogens. In the present invention "biological control" means the use of an organism to reduce the amount of inoculum or disease-producing ability of a plant pathogen. Mechanisms of biological control include 1) antibiosis, defined as the inhibition or destruction of the disease-causing organism by a metabolic product or products of the control organism, both specific and non-specific in nature, and including lytic agents, enzymes, volatile compounds or other toxic compounds, 2) competition, in which the introduced control organism successfully outcompetes the disease-causing organism for food and/or space, and 3) parasitism, in which the control organism parasitizes the disease-causing organism. Biological control may be accomplished by habitat management, for example to create an environment that favors organisms that are antagonistic to the pathogen; creation of host plant resistance to the pathogen; or by introduction of antagonists, or nonpathogenic strains. The term "biological control" as used herein may include antibiotic production and the effects of such production by the antagonistic organism in the suppression of the plant pathogen, however, the term as used herein includes the broader action of an antagonist in suppression beyond antibiotic production. Thus, demonstration of antibiotic production in vitro does not necessarily predict the ability of an organism to biologically control a plant pathogen in vivo, i.e. the ability to suppress infection by the pathogen of host plants present in soil. An antagonistic organism introduced into soil "in the field" must compete with other organisms and conditions present in the soil and on plant surfaces, including roots, stems, leaves and fruit to be effective in suppression of the pathogen. Antibiotic production alone may not be sufficient to cause suppression of the pathogen in the soil around the plant. Antibiosis often acts in concert with competition and/or parasitism. Therefore, the presence or absence of antibiotic production is not determinative of the ability of an organism to function as a biological control agent against a plant pathogen in soil (Fravel, "Role of Antibiosis in the Biocontrol of Plant Diseases", Ann. Rev. of Phytopathology 26:75-91 (1988)).
Attempts to use organisms such as bacteria and fungi to control plant diseases have been described. For example, Mishra et al. described the use of bacteria to control rust disease of wheat caused by Puccinia qraminis tritici (Mishra and Tewari, in "Microbiology of Aerial Plant Surfaces", Dickinson and Preece, eds., pp. 559-567, Academic Press, New York (1976).
Suppressive soils are defined as soils in which disease is minimal or diminishing even in the presence of susceptible host tissue, with or without reduction of the pathogen population. (Malajczuk, "Microbial antagonism to Phytophthora" in Phytophthora: Its Biology, Taxonomy, Ecology and Pathology, Erwin et al., Eds., Ch. 16 (1983)). Through introduction of single antagonistic organisms, repeated attempts have been made to enhance the suppressive effects of soils against specific plant pathogens (Ferguson, "Reducing plant disease with fungicidal soil treatment, pathogen free stock, and controlled microbial colonization", Ph.D. thesis, University of California, Berkeley (1958); Hadar et al., "Biological control of Rhizoctonia solani damping off with wheat bran culture of Trichoderma harzianum" Phytopathology 69:64-68 (1979); Papavizas and Lewis, "Physiological and biocontrol characteristics of stable mutants of Trichoderma viride resistant to MBC fungicides", Phytopathology 73:407-411 (1983); and Paulitz and Baker, "Biological control of Pythium damping-off of cucumbers with Pythium nunn: Influence of soil environment and organic amendments" Phytopathology 77:341-346 (1987)).
Species of Myrothecium, including M. roridum, are known to have strong cellulolytic activity which can be positively correlated with rhizosphere competence and strong competitive saprophytic ability (Ahmad and Baker, "Competitive saprophytic ability and cellulolytic activity of rhizosphere-competent mutants of Trichoderma harzianum" Phytopathology 77:358-362 (1987b); Domsch et al., "Myrothecium" in Compendium of Soil Fungi, Vol. 1, Domsch et al., eds., Academic Press, London, pp. 481-487 (1980)). Rhizosphere competence is defined as the ability to colonize the region of the root known as the rhizosphere, defined as the zone where maximum populations of soil organisms exist including the root surface, the adjacent soil and the external layer of the root itself (Russell, "Soil Conditions and Plant Growth", Chapter XII, in The Association between Plants and Microorganisms, Longmans, Pub., pp. 224-239 (1961)). M. roridum and other species of Myrothecium are strong antibiotic producers (Bamburg, "Biological and biochemical actions of trichothecene mycotoxins" Prog. Mol. Subcell. Biol. 8:41-110 (1983); Brian et al., "Production of antibiotics by species of Myrothecium" Mycologia 40:363-368 (1948); Jarvis et al., "Interaction between the antibiotic trichothecenes and the higher plant Baccharis megapotamica" Science 214:460-462 (1981); and Jarvis et al., "Macrocyclic trichothecene mycotoxins in Brazilian species of Baccharis" Phytopathology 77:980-984 (1987)). Myrothecium has been demonstrated to reduce root rot caused by Fusarium and Pythium in peas (Reyes and Dirks, Phytoprotection 66:23-29 (1985)).
A few attempts have been made to develop biological methods to control Phytophthora root rot of avocados in the field (Zentmyer, "Biological control of Phytophthora root rot of avocado with alfalfa meal", Phytopathology, 53:1383-1387 (1963)). Two avocado groves with soils suppressive to P. cinnamomi have been reported (Broadbent and Baker, "Behaviour of Phytophthora cinnamomi in soils suppressive and conducive to root rot" Aust. J. Agric. Res. 25:121-137 (1974a)). In this case, the continuous incorporation of large quantities of organic material and calcareous amendments partially restored some of the suppressive properties of the native rainforest soil, which naturally supports a microflora and microfauna that inhibits P. cinnamomi (Baker, "Biological control of Phytophthora cinnamomi", Proc. Int. Plant Propagators Soc. 28:72-79 (1978); Broadbent and Baker, supra (1974a); Cook and Baker, "The Nature and Practice of Biological Control of Plant Pathogens", American Phytopathological Society, St. Paul, Minn. 539 pp. (1983); and Rovira, "Organisms and mechanisms involved in some soils suppressive to soilborne plant diseases", in "Suppressive Soils and Plant Disease" Schneider, ed., American Phytopathological Society, St. Paul, Minn. 88 pp. (1982)).
Soils suppressive to Phytophthora have been described from several parts of the world, however, the nature of such suppression is still largely unresolved (Cook and Baker, supra; Scher et al., "Mechanism of biological control in a Fusarium-suppressive soil", Phytopathology, 70:412-417 (1980)). Generally, no single physical, chemical, or biological property of a soil has been identified as a primary determinant in soils suppressive to Phytophthora. No single organism has been isolated that could completely reproduce the suppression (Broadbent and Baker, "Association of bacteria with sporangium formation and breakdown of sporangia in Phytophthora", Aust. J. Agric. Res. 25:139-145 (1974)). Additionally, the suppressive phenomenon was not transferable to new soils (Cook and Baker, supra), as is the case with some soils suppressive to Fusarium (Scher and Baker, supra).
M. roridum together with another species (M. verrucaria) are well documented as soil microorganisms and have a cosmopolitan distribution (Domsch et al., "Myrothecium", pages 481-487 in: Compendium of Soil Fungi, Vol 1, Academic Press (1980); Tulloch, "The Genus Myrothecium Tode ex Fr.," Mycol. Pap. 130:1-42 (1972)). They are found in a wide range of soils, especially those high in organic matter, and on a number of other substrates (Boland et al., "Biological control of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum with fungi isolated from petals" (Abstr.) Phytopathology, 77:115 (1987); Domsch et al., supra; Thode, "Fusarium solani, Fusarium equiseti and Myrothecium verrucaria as parasites of Pythium ultimum", M. S. Thesis, University of California, Davis, (1981); Tulloch, supra).
Pathogens such as P. cinnamomi, which attack the roots of their hosts and grow internally until the plant is killed, are difficult to control once penetration of the host root has occurred. Consequently, promising biological control organisms may need to be rhizosphere-competent (Ahmad and Baker, "Rhizosphere competence of Trichoderma harzianum, Phytopathology 77:182-189 (1987a); Ahmad and Baker, (1987b)) to antagonize the pathogen before infection.
For biological control, an inoculum is used consisting of an aqueous suspension containing the antagonistic organism to be introduced into the soil, or onto a plant surface to fight the pathogen. For applications onto a plant surface, the aqueous suspension may be sprayed or, for applications to certain plant parts such as fruits and tubers, the parts may be dipped in the inoculum. Bran such as wheat bran is an effective and economic food base for introducing specific biological control agents into soils (Hadar et al., "Biological control of Rhizoctonia solani damping off with wheat bran culture of Trichoderma harzianum", Phytopathology 69:64-68 (1979); Lewis and Papavizas, "A new approach to stimulate population proliferation of Trichoderma species and other potential biocontrol fungi introduced into natural soils", Phytopathology 74:1240-1244 (1984); Lewis et al., "Effect of mycelial preparations of Trichoderma and Gliocladium on populations of Rhizoctonia solani and the incidence of damping-off", Phytopathology 75:812-817 (1985); Papavizas and Lewis, "Introduction and augmentation of microbial antagonists for the control of soilborne plant pathogens", pages 305-322 in Biological Control in Crop Production. Beltsville Symp. Agric. Res. Vol. 5, Ed. Allanheld, Osmun & Co., Totowa, N.J. (1981)).
It would be useful to provide a means of biological control of plant pathogens such as Phytophthora in soil and on plant surfaces using a microorganism capable of exerting its effect in the presence of other competing microorganisms.

Biological control of phytophthora on plants and in soil with Myrothecium roridum ATCC 20963, 20964 or 20965

The Regents of the University of California


A new hinge design is used to connect a base unit and its display panel of a notebook computer. The new hinge design consists of a hinge bracket and a hinge shaft. The hinge bracket consists of a horizontal band, a vertical band, a barrel part and a bent band. The horizontal band and the vertical band are both mounted inside the base unit via holes thereon. The bent band bends from the vertical to the desired direction so as to shift a position of the hinge shaft. Owing to the position shift of the hinge shaft, the center of gravity of a notebook computer will also shift. The hinge shaft includes an attachment plate for mounting on the display panel.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a hinge design. More particularly, the present invention relates to a hinge design of a notebook computer.
2. Description of Related Art
A notebook computer is composed of a monitor pivotally mounted on a base unit by hinges. As the LCD panel, which is part of the monitor of the notebook computer, continues to go down in price, the notebook computer might be equipped with a larger LCD panel with lower cost. The monitor composed of a larger LCD panel with a larger cover housing the panel is heavier than before. A weight ratio of the monitor to the base unit rises as the panel gets heavier.
FIG. 1 illustrates a perspective view of a conventional notebook computer. Owing to the above-mentioned circumstances, i.e., the increased weight ratio of the monitor 102 to the base unit 100, the notebook computer may flip in the direction 108 more easily when a force 130 hits the display panel 102 at upright position. Obviously, adding weight to the base unit 100 of the notebook computer can solve this issue. However, doing so also increases the total weight of the notebook computer, which is a disadvantage for a portable device.


A lighting device of a vehicle is provided. The lighting device comprises a light fitting, which comprises a first and a second light source with different color locations. Furthermore, the lighting device has a first sensing module, which senses the actual value of the color location of the light fitting. In addition, the lighting device comprises a set value generator module which presets a set value for the color location of the light fitting, and a control module which reduces the difference between set value and actual value by means of an actuator module. Here, the set value of the color location of the light fitting is dependent on a driving situation of the vehicle or a personalized driving setting.

From the publication DE 10 2004 045 515 A1 a lighting system having at least two light sources and a method for operating such a lighting system are known. In the known lighting system there is at least one light source, a light-emitting diode that is operated by means of a driver device with a direct current signal. Furthermore, the lighting system includes a sensor device, which determines at least one feature of the light emitted by the lighting system, storing it as actual value. In addition, a set value presetting device is provided in the known lighting system, which presets a set value of a control device which approximates the actual value to the set value.
The known lighting system is designed in such a manner that the brightness can be varied however without a change of the color location which remains largely constant and neither interferences of the lighting operation nor high switching losses occurring. To this end, a method is stated for the known lighting system with which a color location shift, which can occur during the dimming of light sources and simultaneously changes the wave length and thus the color of the emitted light is prevented.
In this connection, color location in a standard valiancy system is to mean a color as a sum of three composite values of a color triangle, the so-called standard color values X, Y and Z or red, yellow and blue. In such a color triangle with color locations, warm-yellow regions and cold-blue regions materialize in addition to red regions. An optical mixture between warm-yellow regions and cold-blue regions produces a daylight-similar cold-white lighting.
While in the known prior art the lighting system is controlled with at least two light sources in such a manner that the color location of a light fitting remains largely constant, it may be desirable to create a lighting device of a vehicle having at least one light fitting, whose color location does not remain constant but is largely variable. In addition, other objects, desirable features and characteristics will become apparent from the subsequent summary and detailed description, and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background.


The present invention relates to heterobifunctional compounds (degraders), compositions and methods for treating diseases or conditions mediated by Interleukin Receptor-Associated Kinases (IRAKs).

Lymphoma is the most common blood cancer. Lymphoma occurs when lymphocytes multiply uncontrollably. The body has two main types of lymphocytes that can develop into lymphomas: B-lymphocytes (B-cells) and T-lymphocytes (T-cells).
Waldenstrom's macroglobulinemia (also known as lymphoplasmacytic lymphoma or immunocytoma) is a rare, indolent (slow-growing) B-cell lymphoma that occurs in less than two percent of patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. There are about 1,500 new cases of Waldenstrom's macroglobulinemia each year. The disease is primarily found in the bone marrow, although lymph nodes and the spleen may be involved.
The disease, named after the Swedish oncologist Jan G. Waldenstrom, was first identified in 1944. The proliferation of B-cells interferes with the production of red blood cells, resulting in anemia. A characteristic of the disease is that the B-cells produce excess amounts of the immunoglobulin IgM. These high levels of IgM can cause a thickening of the blood (hyper-viscosity) resulting in symptoms such as nosebleeds, headaches, dizziness, and blurring or loss of vision. Other symptoms may include tiredness, night sweats, headaches, pain or numbness in the extremities, and increased size of the liver, spleen, and lymph nodes.
There is a 2- to 3-fold risk increase of developing Waldenstrom's macroglobulinemia in people with a personal history of autoimmune diseases with autoantibodies and particularly elevated risks associated with hepatitis, human immunodeficiency virus, and rickettsiosis (Arch. Intern. Med. 168(17): 1903-9 (2008)).
Current treatment of Waldenstrom's macroglobulinemia (WM) includes the monoclonal antibody rituximab, sometimes in combination with chemotherapeutic drugs such as chlorambucil, cyclophosphamide, or vincristine or with thalidomide. Corticosteroids, such as Prednisone, may also be used in combination. Plasmapheresis can be used to treat the hyper-viscosity syndrome by removing the paraprotein from the blood, but this treatment does not address the underlying disease. Recently, autologous bone marrow transplantation has been added to the available treatment options. However, prior to the invention described herein, there was no single accepted treatment for Waldenstrom's macroglobulinemia. There can also be a marked variation in clinical outcomes. Objective response rates are high (>80%), but complete response rates are low (0-15%).
Thus, there is a need for effective treatment of WM.


A phase locking circuit includes: a phase comparator; a pulse generation circuit; a charge pump circuit; a loop filter circuit; and a voltage-controlled oscillator. The phase comparator samples a first level in synchronization with a received reference clock, and generates a first signal to be initialized to a second level that is different from the first level by using a feedback clock. The pulse generation circuit generates a second signal in accordance with the reference clock, and controls a phase of as output signal of the voltage-controlled oscillator to be the feedback clock to have a predetermined value by inputting the first signal and the second signal as a control voltage to the voltage-controlled oscillator through the charge pump circuit and the loop filter circuit.

The present invention relates to a technique effectively applied to a phase locking circuit.
As shown in FIG. 1, a phase locking circuit (PLL: phase locked loop) includes a phase-frequency comparison circuit (also referred to as phase comparator) "PFD" (Phase-Frequency Detector), a charge pump circuit "CP" (Charge Pump), a loop filter circuit "Filter" having a frequency multiplying factor of "N", a voltage-controlled oscillation circuit "VCO" (Voltage-Controlled Oscillator) and a frequency division circuit "DIV" (Divider). The phase-frequency comparison circuit PFD compares a phase and a frequency between a reference input signal INPUT having a reference frequency "fn" and a feedback signal "FEEDBACK" output from the frequency division circuit DIV, and generates an up signal UP or a down signal DN so that the phase and the frequency of the feedback signal FEEDBACK and the phase and the frequency of the input signal INPUT match with each other. The charge pump circuit CP generates a voltage output signal "VCP" based on the up signal "UP" or the down signal "DN", and outputs this signal to the loop filter circuit Filter. The voltage-controlled oscillation circuit VCO generates an output signal "OUTPUT" having a frequency "fout" (=N×fn) that is n times the reference frequency fn in accordance with a voltage control signal "VCNT" output from the loop filter circuit Filter. A frequency of the output signal OUTPUT is divided to be 1/N times the frequency by the frequency division circuit DIV, and is input as the feedback signal FEEDBACK to the phase-frequency comparison circuit PFD.
There is disclosed a technique listed below.
[Non-Patent Document 1] X. Gao, E. Klumperink, P. J. F. Geraedts and B. Nauta, "Jitter Analysis and a Benchmarking Figure-of-Merit for Phase-locked Loops", IEEE Trans. Circuits Syst. II, vol. 56, no. 2, pp. 117 to 121, February 2009


A forming station for a thermoform packaging machine comprising a forming tool upper part with a die lid and a tool lower part. The forming tool upper part may comprises a male die part holding plate that has at least one male die part fixed thereto and which is displaceable along at least one rail provided on or in the die lid. The forming station may comprise a male die part drive drivingly connected to the male die part holding plate for generating a stroke movement of the male die part holding plate relative to the die lid. A guide element may be provided on the male die part holding plate, the guide element being movable relative to the male die part holding plate between an engagement position for engagement with an associated rail and a retracted position in which the guide element is disengaged from the rail.

Thermoform packaging machines are often provided with at least one forming station, in which troughs are formed by thermoforming in a packaging film/foil, normally a thermoformable plastic film/foil. In the case of comparatively thin films, it will suffice to apply a vacuum for thermoforming the film into troughs. In the case of thicker films, a male die part is often used, so as to at least support the forming of the film mechanically and thus accelerate the forming process.
Occasionally, it is desirable to have the possibility of exchanging such male die parts, so that packaging troughs with different geometries or different formats with different arrangements of the packaging troughs can be produced. A forming station of the generic kind allowing such exchange of a male die part is disclosed by EP 2 052 979 B1.
It is the object of the present invention to improve the exchange of a male die part at a forming station with regard to its handling as well as the subsequent operation of the forming station.

Forming station for a thermoform packaging machine and method of exchanging a male die part


An ultra-miniature magnetic device generally comprises a conductive winding and a magnetic core. The conductive winding includes an upper conductor and a lower conductor. The magnetic core is of an elongate rectangular or oval shape having two elongate sections and two short sections. The lower conductor is preferably positioned below the elongate sections of the magnetic core while the upper conductor is preferably positioned above the elongate sections of the magnetic core. The lower and upper conductors are electrically connected by conducting via structures that are formed in sequential steps using semiconductor processing technology. The result is a coil winding around the elongate sections, with the short sections being preferably free of windings. The process provides an advantage of avoiding shorting between the via structures and the magnetic core caused by overetching when etching the via holes.

High frequency magnetic components are used in many applications including computer data transmission, cable TV video, and interactive CATV, among others. These applications generally require transformers and inductors that operate efficiently in the frequency range from 5 MHz to 1 GHz and beyond. However, a problem with conventional magnetic components is that they are large and bulky in comparison to the circuits in which they operate.
Further, manufacturing techniques of magnetic components typically involve machine-winding techniques for large-cored magnetic components and hand winding for small-cored magnetic components. As operating frequencies increase, transformers and inductors typically decrease in size, having finer electrical wire and smaller magnetic cores; wire sizes of 42 gauge (0.075 mm in diameter) and core diameters of 2.5 mm are common. Machine assembly with these small cores is impractical. As such, hand winding of wire onto the magnetic core, hand assembly of the wound core on the mounting header, and hand soldering of the wire to header connectors is required. Because all of these operations require high levels of manual dexterity and are very time consuming, it is not uncommon for labor costs to represent 60–70% of the total product cost.
Some research has been performed in the area of microtransformers and micromachining using electroplating techniques to obtain very thick conductors and ferrite materials. However, since this research generally applies to sensors and higher power magnetic devices operating in lower frequency ranges, the research is generally not applicable or viable for high frequency applications.
In view of the above, there is a need for an innovative approach for manufacturing miniature high frequency inductors and transformers. The manufacturing approach preferably is automated so as to reduce manufacturing costs as well as reduce the size of high frequency magnetic components.

Method of manufacturing an ultra-miniature magnetic device


A jet mill has a disk-shaped hollow part in the interior of the mill body. The hollow part is divided into an annular grinding zone for grinding a material by high-speed swirling air flows supplied through plural air nozzles and an annular classifying zone provided inside the grinding zone and communicated to an exit space for classifying the ground material by the swirling air flows in the grinding zone. An annular first constricted passageway is arranged between the grinding zone and the classifying zone to thereby divide and communicate them, and preferably an annular second constricted passageway between the classifying zone and the inside exit thereof. Accordingly, a jet mill realizing a high classification precision for a desired particle size of ground material with a narrow size distribution and having a simple inner configuration to allow easy cleaning before and after operation can be provided.

This invention relates to a jet mill in which a high-speed air flow is supplied into a grinding chamber of a hollow part in the interior of the mill body through air nozzles inclined on the outer wall so that the coarser powder (the material to be ground) is continuously ground to fine particles (fine powder) of micron-order size in the grinding chamber while at the same time classification is effected by the swirling air flow.
In jet mills, a high-speed air flow is supplied into the grinding chamber through the air nozzles inclined on the outer wall so that the coarser material to be ground is reduced in size as it swirls and classification is also effected by the swirling air flow. Jet mills are known as grinding devices suitable for yielding superfine products (particles). They are characterized in that the interior of the grinding chamber is simple in configuration, the top and bottom surfaces of the grinding chamber are easy to separate and reassemble, and cleaning can easily be done both before and after operation.
On the other hand, the jet mill relies solely upon the air flow to grind the material in the grinding chamber, so it is difficult to grind the material to a specified particle size or control the particle size distribution to a narrow enough range. Various improvements have been attempted with a view to grinding the material to a specified particle size or narrowing the particle size distribution; three known approaches are air nozzles that permit adjustment of the angle at which the air flow is injected into the grinding chamber to enable control of the ground particle size distribution over a wide range (see, for example, JP 52-44450 A, in particular, pages 3-4 and FIGS. 2-3), a special classification mechanism such as a classification rotor provided around an exit pipe to improve classification precision (see, for example, JP 63-319067 A, in particular, pages 2-3 and FIGS. 1-3), and impact members in, for example, spherical, cylindrical or hemispherical form provided inside the grinding chamber against which the material to be ground is caused to collide with the air flow to achieve the higher grinding efficiency in the grinding chamber (see, for example, JP 57-84756 A, in particular, page 2 and FIGS. 2-3; JP 4-210252 A, in particular, pages 2-5 and FIGS. 1-2; and JP 6-254427 A, in particular, pages 3-6 and FIGS. 1-2).
However, although enabling control of the ground particle size distribution over a wide range, the swirling fluid-energy mill disclosed in JP 52-44450 A suffers from a problem of a poor classification precision, since the mill injects compressed air to grind a material and at the same time forms swirling flow to perform classification, thereby also ejecting yet large particles.
And, the horizontal swirling flow jet mill disclosed in JP 63-319067 A, while resolving the problem of a poor classification precision of the mill of JP 52-44450 A, has problems such as that a turbulence is generated in swirl and that fine particles adhere to the rotor wall, due to a difference in speed between the swirling flow formed by the compressed air and that formed by the classification rotor.
Furthermore, the jet mills disclosed in JP 57-84756 A, JP 4-210252 A and JP 6-254427 A, while improving the grinding efficiency, have problems such as that the impact member obstructs the air flow, generating a significant turbulence in the swirling flow to thereby lower the classification precision or to allow the ground material to heavily adhere to the impact member, resulting in difficulty with a stable (continuous) operation.
Moreover, these prior arts all require that complexly shaped mechanical parts be additionally provided inside the grinding chamber, as exemplified by the special mechanism for adjusting the angle at which the air flow is injected, the special mechanism for classification, and the special impact members provided inside the grinding chamber. These compromise the three advantageous features of the jet mill, that is, the interior of the grinding chamber is simple in configuration, the top and bottom surfaces of the grinding chamber are easy to separate and reassemble, and cleaning can easily be done both before and after operation. Therefore, the aforementioned prior arts have not been completely satisfactory.


A double shoulder drill stem connection for high torque applications includes a thread taper within a range between about 1.0 and 1.2 inch per foot. The thread form is characterized by a stab angle between about 35 and 42 and a load angle between about 25 and 34 degrees and by a short thread height with elliptical roots and with crests having an angle which slopes in an opposite direction with respect to the joint centerline from the thread taper. A drill string includes a tool joint having different inner diameters for a substantial axial length to provide enhanced strength in the threaded portion of the joint.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention concerns drill stem threaded connections in general. In particular the invention is for a tool joint and a resulting drill string where the tool joint connects drill pipe sections and other elements of the drill stem together from the surface to the drill bit. Still more particularly, this invention is for a tool joint having internal and external make-up shoulders for high torque application of rotary drilling.
2. Description of Prior Art
Deep wells such as for oil and gas are drilled with a rotary drill bit rotated by a drill stem which consists of a bottomhole assembly, a string of drill pipe, a kelly or top drive, and all associated equipment in the rotating string to the drill bit. The drill pipe string is made-up of individual members, each about 30 feet in length. The drill pipe members are secured together by a threaded connection, called a tool joint, typically about 1½ feet long. The tool joints must withstand the normal torque encountered during drilling, and also provide sealing to prevent drilling fluid being pumped down the drill pipe from leaking out the joints. Leakage out of the tool joints causes wear due to the abrasiveness of the drilling fluid, which can lead to early failure.
A conventional tool joint (sometimes called an API [American Petroleum Institute] tool joint) is made-up of a pin member and a box member. The pin member has external threads and an external annular make-up shoulder. The box member has internal threads and a rim or face that makes up against the make-up shoulder. In a conventional tool joint there is no internal shoulder in the box member for contact by the nose or face on the end of the pin. When the tool joint members are made-up at the surface of the well, normally they are made-up to a torque that creates a longitudinal stress in the threaded cross section that is about one-half the yield strength of the weaker of the pin or box.
In drilling horizontal or extended reach wells or when the drill string gets stuck in the borehole, it is possible for drilling torque to exceed the make-up torque, applied at the surface of the well. When the drilling torque exceeds the surface make-up torque, additional connection make-up torque occurs. The additional make-up torque imparts higher stresses in the connection which may exceed the yield strength of the pin and box and cause downhole failure. To avoid the possibility of failure, the surface make-up torque should be higher than the drilling torque. Consequently the drill pipe tool joint industry has developed so called "double shoulder tool joints" that have higher torque strength characteristics than API tool joints, allowing higher surface make-up torque. Double shoulder tool joints have not only an external make-up shoulder, but also an internal make-up shoulder and dimensions that cause both shoulders to make up under high torque conditions.
As shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,532,632, double shoulder tool joints have not only an external make-up shoulder, but an internal make-up shoulder and dimensions that cause both shoulders to make-up under high torque conditions. A double shoulder tool joint can have a substantially increased torsional yield strength (as compared to an API tool joint) without any additional thickness in the pin or box, and without increasing the yield strength of the steel.
The prior art has strived to achieve better and better operating characteristics for a double shoulder tool joint by adjusting dimensions of elements that characterize such a joint. Such elements include the relative lengths of the box counterbore, pin base, the pin nose, and the threads; the relative cross sectional thickness of the box counterbore and the pin nose; and the relative dimensions of the tool joint inner and outer diameters.
A double shouldered connection is also described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,558,431. The box is provided with an internal shoulder located below its threads. The pin has a face on the end of its nose that mates with the internal shoulder in the box. The dimensions of the pin and box are selected so that when hand tightened, the box face contacts the external shoulder of the pin. A clearance exists between the pin nose face and the internal shoulder of the box. When the tool joint is fully made-up to its normal make-up torque, the box face engages the external make-up shoulder to the normal contact pressure. A hand tight clearance is selected such that the pin face exerts little or no pressure against the internal shoulder at normal make-up torque.
The above mentioned U.S. Pat. No. 4,548,431 specifies that the pin base and box counterbore sections have a length at least one-third the length of the engaged threads and that the pin nose should have a length at least one-sixth the length of the engaged threads. For the double shouldered tool joint, described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,548,431, with a 5″ OD and 2 11/16″ ID, the torque to yield the base section of the pin or the counterbore section of the box for a double shouldered joint is 25,583 foot pounds as compared to 18,100 foot pounds for an API tool joint with the same OD and ID. The long counterbore section lowers the resistance to deflection thereby allowing reasonable manufacturing tolerances for the hand tight clearance. However, the long counterbore section tends to buckle outward under high torque.
Others in the industry select the hand tight clearance such that the internal shoulder is substantially loaded at the designed surface make-up torque. Designed in this way, the internal shoulder allows a larger surface make-up torque and may therefore be safely used in wells which require a larger drilling torque. When the tool joint is tightened beyond the initial hand tight condition, the counterbore of the box and the pin base section deflect. This deflection allows the pin face to close the hand tight clearance and engage against the internal shoulder. The loading of the pin face and internal shoulder occurs prior to any permanent deformation occurring in the box counterbore and pin base sections.
Expanding the concept of having the internal shoulder loaded at surface make-up torque, U.S. Pat. No. 6,513,804 describes still another double shouldered tool joint design in which the internal shoulder makes up first, because the length from the pin external shoulder to the pin nose is greater than the length from the box face to the box internal shoulder. The pin nose is specified to be twice as long as the box counterbore. Having the internal shoulder contact before the external shoulder creates a risk that the external shoulder may not be sufficiently loaded to effect a seal. The extra long pin nose attempts to overcome this risk by lowering the nose resistance to deflection.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,492,375 describes another design of a double shoulder tool joint with an emphasis on optimizing the torsional strength of a double shouldered connection. The optimization is achieved by assuring that under high torque conditions, the threads are very close to, but not quite at failure in shear prior to yielding of the pin nose and box counterbore or pin base. U.S. Pat. No. 5,492,375 specifies that the length of the engaged threaded section of the pin, which determines the shear area of the threads be such that At is equal to or only slightly greater than 1.73(AL+AN) where AL is the lesser of the cross-sectional area of the pin base or of the box counterbore and AN is the cross-sectional area of the pin nose. Optimization by this technique provides only small increases in connection torsional strength.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,908,212 describes another double shoulder tool joint design by requiring (1) that the sum of the cross-sectional area of the box counterbore, plus the cross-sectional area of the pin nose be at least 70% of the cross-sectional area of the box, (2) that the taper of the threads be less than one inch per foot, and (3) that the counterbore section axial length be at least 1.5 inches.
A shallow thread taper dramatically increases the strength of the internal shoulder and therefore increases the torsional strength of the connection. However, drill pipe joints with shallow thread tapers require substantially more rotations of the pin with the box during make up, as compared to conventional API tool joints. The additional rig time required to make-up these connections is very expensive and undesirable. The shallow taper also makes connection stabbing and unstabbing more difficult, because the connection must be carefully aligned to avoid thread interference and galling. Further, the shallow taper requires a large loss of the limited tool joint length when the connection is re-machined after wear or damage.
The prior art joints also provide conventional thread form designs which inhibit optimum yield torque characteristics for pipe joints generally and in particular for double shoulder drill pipe joints.
The prior art tool joints are also characterized by a thread form with a crest taper that matches the taper of the threads. FIG. 5 of the attached drawings illustrates a prior art thread form where the taper of the crest 41 is the same as the overall taper Tth of the threads. A thread form in general is characterized by a thread root 39, a load flank 35, a crest 41, a crest-load radius 43, a crest-stab radius 45 and a stab flank 33. When stabbing elements of the drill pipe joint (i.e., stabbing a pin into a box), it is inevitable that crests of one element will occasionally come to rest on the thread crests of the other. FIGS. 6A, 6B and 6C illustrate a prior art pin 5 and box 5′ being stabbed together with FIGS. 6B and 6C showing cross sections of the threads of the pin 5 and box 5′. FIG. 6B shows the crests 41 of the pin 5 resting on the thread crests 41′ of the box 5′. As FIG. 6C shows, a rotation of up to about one-half turn is required to move pin 5 axially with respect to box 5′ to get past crest 41-crest 41′ contact and cause stab flank 33-stab flank 33′ contact. If crest to crest contact occurs with an impact, the load flanks 36, 36′, stab flanks 33, 33′, or both can be permanently damaged near the crests 41, 41′, especially because of the small crest to load flank and crest to stab flank radii typically found in conventional tool joints. Even if damage does not occur on stabbing, the pin tool joint crests 41 can wedge into the box tool joint 5′. Such wedging action is exacerbated by the impact. As the thread taper is reduced, the wedging action gets worse. For a friction factor of 0.08, the thread crests 41, 41′ are self-holding for thread tapers less than 2″/ft. Self-holding means that the tool joints must be forcibly separated. Forcing the threads past wedging of the thread crests can eventually lead to galling and other damage.
3. Identification of Objects of the Invention
A primary object of the invention is to provide a drill stem connection, in particular for a drill pipe tool joint with enhanced yield torque characteristics.
Another object of the invention is to provide a drill pipe tool joint with enhanced yield torque characteristics while simultaneously having a make-up turns characteristic of a conventional API tool joint.
A specific objective of the invention is to provide a drill pipe tool joint that is characterized by a torsional strength that is at least about fifty percent or more than that of a conventional connection of comparable size and with make-up turns about the same as the conventional connection.
Another object of the invention is to provide a double shoulder drill pipe tool joint with an improved thread form in combination with an optimum thread taper such that enhanced torque characteristics result.
Another objective of the invention is to provide a tool joint with a thread design that provides enhanced stabbing characteristics when the pin is stabbed in the box during make up.
Another object of the invention is to provide a tool joint design with a box counterbore length shorter than or equal to the pin nose length in order to avoid box buckling.
Another object of the invention is to provide a tool joint design characterized by primary shoulder and secondary shoulder stresses being within a range of 70% of each other for optimization of load carrying ability within manufacturing tolerances.
Another object of the invention is to provide a thread form for tool joints where crest-to-crest wedging of threads while stabbing is substantially prevented.
Another object of the invention is to provide a thread form for tool joints that allows the pin threads to more easily center within the box threads while providing a more rugged shape with a more narrow crest without reducing the contact area of the load flank.
Another object of the invention is to provide a thread form which (1) provides a reduced stress concentration in the thread root while maximizing the contact area of the load flank and minimizing thread depth, (2) allows for larger critical areas at the primary and secondary shoulders of a double shoulder tool joint thereby providing increased torque capacity of the joint, and (3) reduces the probability of jamming the connection.
Another specific objective of the invention is to provide a double shoulder drill pipe tool joint characterized by pin nose and counterbore lengths such that stresses at the primary and secondary shoulders increase at a similar rate as connection torque increases are applied to the connection.
Another object of the invention is to provide a tool joint with an enhanced wall thickness opposite the threads in order to provide greater connection strength.


A laser diode module is provided which is capable of suppressing reduction in the efficiency of laser beam coupling with an optical fiber even in the case where a warp is caused in the mounting surface of a thermo electrical cooler on which a laser diode chip is mounted. A laser diode module has a heat sink and optical coupling portion mounted directly or indirectly on a mounting surface of a thermo electrical cooler. A laser diode chip and the optical coupling portion are located on the same side of the mounting surface along the emitting direction of a laser beam emitted from the laser diode chip, with respect to a first center line (Lcpp) intersecting perpendicularly with a tangential plane tangent to the mounting surface of the thermo electrical cooler at the center thereof and/or a second center line passing through the center of the mounting surface of the thermo electrical cooler and perpendicular to both the first center line and an axis representative of the emitting direction of the laser beam.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a laser diode module.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional laser diode module has a structure as shown in FIGS. 8 to 10, for example.
In the laser diode module 1 shown in FIGS. 8 to 10, a thermo electrical cooler (TEC) 3, a base 4, a heatsink 5, a laser diode (LD) chip 6 and an optical fiber 7 are housed in a package 2.
The TEC 3 is placed on a bottom plate 2a of the package 2, and the base 4 is fixed on a substantially central portion of an upper mounting surface 3a of the TEC for mounting thereon optical components such as the LD chip 6. As shown in the figures, the LD chip 6 is fixed on the base 4 with the heatsink 5 interposed therebetween, and the optical fiber 7 is also fixed on the base with two fixing members 8 interposed therebetween. The optical fiber 7 is a lensed optical fiber having a lensed portion 7a formed as optical coupling means at one end thereof facing the LD chip 6, and a ferrule 7b is attached to a portion of the fiber corresponding in position to the fixing members 8. The other end portion of the optical fiber 7 is extended to the outside of the module through an outlet portion 2c formed in a peripheral wall 2b of the package 2.
The laser diode module 1 has a temperature sensor (not shown) arranged at a suitable location within the package 2 for detecting the temperature of the mounting surface 3a of the TEC 3. In accordance with the temperature detected by the temperature sensor of the module 1, the operation of the TEC 3 is controlled externally by control means, not shown.
A cover 2d is normally attached to the package 2 from above the peripheral wall 2b, as shown in FIG. 8; however, in order to show the interior of the package, the cover is omitted from FIG. 9, as well as from FIGS. 2 and 7 explained later.
In the conventional laser diode module 1, to stabilize temperature dependent optical characteristics of the LD chip 6 against variations in environmental temperature and heat generated by the LD chip 6 during operation thereof, the temperature of the LD chip 6 is controlled to a predetermined temperature by the TEC 3. Especially, the temperature of the mounting surface 3a of the TEC 3 on which the LD chip 6 is mounted is controlled to a predetermined temperature.
As the temperature of the mounting surface 3a of the TEC 3 increases during operation due to heat generated by the LD chip 6, for example, the TEC 3 transfers heat to the lower surface thereof, to thereby keep the temperature of the mounting surface 3a at the predetermined temperature. Consequently, there occurs a large temperature difference between the mounting surface 3a and lower surface 3b of the TEC 3. Since the TEC 3 itself is thus subject to temperature change during operation, some expansion or contraction takes place inside the parts constituting the TEC 3. As a result, a change in flatness (hereinafter merely referred to as warp) such as a some warp with a level difference of the micrometer order occurs in the mounting surface 3a of the TEC 3, and warps the base 4 on which the LD chip 6 and optical fiber 7 are mounted, as shown in FIG. 10.
In FIG. 10, the warp of the TEC 3 and of the base 4 is exaggerated for the sake of illustration, and this is the case with FIGS. 3 and 4A explained later.
If such a warp is caused, the condition of optical coupling between the LD chip 6 and optical coupling means of the laser diode module 1 deteriorates. Especially, if a warp is caused along the direction of laser beam emission, the efficiency of laser beam coupling with the optical fiber 7 lowers, giving rise to a problem that adequate optical power cannot be output to the optical fiber 7.
The present invention was created in view of the above circumstances, and an object thereof is to provide a laser diode module which is capable of suppressing reduction in the efficiency of laser beam coupling with an optical fiber even in the case where a warp is caused in the mounting surface of a thermo electrical cooler on which a laser diode chip is mounted.
To achieve the above object, the present invention provides a laser diode module comprising a laser diode chip, a thermo electrical cooler for controlling temperature of the laser diode chip to a predetermined temperature, a heat sink arranged between the laser diode chip and the thermo electrical cooler for transferring heat from said laser diode chip, and an optical fiber for guiding a laser beam emitted from the laser diode chip to outside via optical coupling means, all of the laser diode chip, the thermo electrical cooler, the heat sink and the optical fiber being housed in a package, wherein the heat sink and the optical coupling means are mounted directly or indirectly on a mounting surface of the thermo electrical cooler, and the laser diode chip and the optical coupling means are located on an identical side of the mounting surface along an emitting direction of the laser beam, with respect to a first center line intersecting perpendicularly with a tangential plane tangent to the mounting surface of the thermo electrical cooler at a center thereof and/or a second center line passing through the center of the mounting surface of the thermo electrical cooler and perpendicular to both the first center line and an axis representative of the emitting direction of the laser beam emitted from the laser diode chip.
To achieve the above object, the present invention also provides a laser diode module comprising a laser diode chip, a thermo electrical cooler for controlling temperature of the laser diode chip to a predetermined temperature, a heat sink arranged between the laser diode chip and the thermo electrical cooler for transfering heat from the laser diode chip, and an optical fiber for guiding a laser beam emitted from the laser diode chip to outside via optical coupling means, all of the laser diode chip, the thermo electrical cooler, the heat sink and the optical fiber being housed in a package, wherein the heat sink and the optical coupling means are mounted directly or indirectly on a mounting surface of the thermo electrical cooler, and the laser diode chip and the optical coupling means are arranged in a manner such that, where an axis representative of an emitting direction of the laser beam emitted from the laser diode chip is projected onto the mounting surface of the thermo electrical cooler with use of a bundle of light rays intersecting perpendicularly with a tangential plane tangent to the mounting surface of the thermo electrical cooler at a location directly under the laser diode chip, thereby obtaining a projected line image, and also where the laser diode chip and the optical coupling means are projected onto the mounting surface with use of the bundle of light rays, thereby obtaining respective projected images, the projected images of the laser diode chip and the optical coupling means are located on the projected line image of the axis and on an identical side of the mounting surface with respect to a middle point of a line segment connecting two points at which the projected line image intersects with a contour line representative of a contour of the mounting surface.
Preferably, the laser diode chip is located closer to the center of the mounting surface of the thermo electrical cooler than the optical coupling means.
Also preferably, the optical coupling means is mounted on the thermo electrical cooler with a base interposed therebetween, and a portion of the base on which the optical coupling means is mounted partly extends beyond the mounting surface.
Further preferably, the optical coupling means is formed at an end of the optical fiber and includes a portion with an end face which is formed like a lens and on which the laser beam emitted from the laser diode chip falls.
According to the present invention, a laser diode module is provided which is capable of suppressing reduction in the efficiency of laser beam coupling with an optical fiber even in the case where a warp is caused in the mounting surface of a thermo electrical cooler on which a laser diode chip is mounted.
The center of the mounting surface of the thermo electrical cooler referred to herein represents the point of intersection of the diagonal lines in the case where the mounting surface is quadrilateral in shape, and represents the center of the circle in the case where the mounting surface is circular in shape. Also, where the mounting surface is in the form of a polygon or some other figure than quadrilateral, the center of the mounting surface denotes the point of intersection of bisectors respectively bisecting the lengths of the mounting surface along X- and Y-axis directions perpendicular to each other within the mounting surface.
The above and other objects, features and advantages of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings.


The invention is an improved portable blender for use in a vehicle that has a self-righting base capable of pivoting in order to balance out the contents contained in the blender while the vehicle is moving. The base also has a power cord with a cigarette lighter adapter.

A. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of blenders, more specifically, a blender that has a mounting base designed for use with a vehicle, and of which is electrically powered by a cigarette lighter outlet.
B. Discussion of the Prior Art
As a preliminary note, it should be stated that there is an ample amount of prior art that deals with blenders. As will be discussed immediately below, no prior art discloses a portable blender that has a mounting base designed for use with a vehicle.
The Navedo et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 6,959,562) discloses a portable frozen drink machine having an AC power adapter or a car lighter adapter. However, the machine does not secure itself to a mounting base that is designed for use with a vehicle.
The Schuecher Patent Application Publication (U.S. Pub. No. 2008/0018303) discloses a cordless power supply to be used to power an electric blender that includes a vehicle accessory power plug adapter. However, the power supply does not involve a portable blender that has a mounting base designed for use with a moving vehicle.
The Parlor, Sr. Patent Application Publication (U.S. Pub. No. 2002/0089894) discloses a device for storing, mixing, and dispensing liquids including a lighter outlet connection. However, the device does not provide portable blending capabilities and mount upon a support that is designed for use with a moving vehicle.
The Forrester Patent (U.S. Pat. No. 4,913,318) discloses a portable beverage dispenser having heating and cooling means and a cigarette lighter plug for connection in a vehicle cigarette lighter socket. However, the beverage dispenser does not include portable blending capabilities and mount upon a support base that is suited for use with a vehicle.
The Balderson Patent (U.S. Pat. No. 3,915,079) discloses a coffee making appliance having a base with a cigarette lighter plug adapter and a recess for mounting a coffee pot. However, the base of the coffee maker does not rotate as the vehicle turns but simply is mounted to a surface inside of the vehicle.
The Nakato et al. Patent Application Publication (U.S. Pub. No. 2007/0119867) discloses a chilled drink preparation control device. However, the chilled preparation drink device does not have a base designed for use with a vehicle, and of which has a cigarette lighter plug.
The Herbert Patent Application Publication (U.S. Pub. No. 2006/0193200) discloses a device for providing a visual indication of the amount of liquid or other materials in a blender cup. However, the blender cup does not include a base that is suited for use in a vehicle, and of which is powered by a cigarette lighter socket of said vehicle.
The Wulf et al. Patent (U.S. Pat. No. 6,609,821) discloses a blender base including a shell of plastic construction that has food processor capabilities. However, the blender base does not have a mount suited for use with a vehicle wherein the base pivots.
The Noles Patent (U.S. Pat. No. 6,037,570) discloses a coffee brewing device for use in a vehicle wherein the base has a power cord with a cigarette lighter adapter. However, the coffee brewing device does not blend the contents contained therein, nor does the base pivot so as to steady the contents contained therein when the vehicle is moving.
While the above-described devices fulfill their respective and particular objects and requirements, they do not describe a portable blender that provides for the advantages of the portable blender. In this regard, the portable blender departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art.


The present invention relates to a method of using antibiotic gramicidin for the therapy and prevention of herpes virus infections. Gramicidin is also useful in suppressing sperm motility without affecting its viability and may thus be used as an active ingredient of topical contraceptive formulations either alone or in combination with chelating agents such as EDTA or salts thereof.

Herpes viruses are DNA viruses and among them are herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1), herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2), varicella-zoster virus (VZV), cytomegalovirus (CMV), Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), and various other human herpes viruses (HHV) such as HHV-6, HHV-7, and HHV-8. Herpes viruses are in general transmitted by person-to-person contact by infected body secretions. The infection by said viruses can cause various diseases in humans. The severity of infection depends on the virus type and can sometimes be relatively mild, but under certain circumstances can be fatal to the host.
For example, symptomatic HSV-1 infections are fairly benign in immunocompetent individuals as HSV-caused oropharyngeal sores tend to disappear spontaneously. Primary clinical manifestations of HSV-2 infection, which is mainly transmitted sexually, are anogenital lesions. Genital herpes affects one third of the world's population, and among people with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) the incidence may be as high as 80 percent. HSV infections are particularly severe and even life-threatening to patients with acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). Only 20 percent of herpes seropositive persons have symptomatic infection. The rest of them are asymptomatic but nevertheless are able to shed the virus. In view of the high prevalence of genital herpes and its cofactor role in enhancing sex-borne HIV transmission the herpesviruses are of particular concern. Cytomegalovirus may cause eye infection which may result in blindness if left untreated. Varicella-zoster virus may cause dermatomal vesicular rash or shingles that can be quite painful. Other herpes viruses such HHV-8 were recently implicated to cause malignant diseases in humans such as lymphomas and Kaposi's sarcoma-tumors that are frequently found in persons infected with HIV. The presence of such tumors is comprised in the clinical definition of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS)--a fatal clinical condition that is commonly associated with HIV infection.
Herpes virus infections are usually treated with nucleoside analogs such as acyclovir (ACV). Although ACV is relatively safe and non-toxic, its prophylactic use to suppress HSV shedding in the genital Although ACV is relatively safe and non-toxic, its prophylactic use to suppress HSV shedding in the genital tract would require repeated exposure to the drug and may thus favor the spread of drug-resistant strains. The need for alternative agents effective against ACV-resistant mutants and which can be used topically for prophylaxis of HSV is obvious. Ideally, one must identify an effective and safe compound that could afford barrier protection against herpesviruses in general and against HSV in particular.
It would also be preferable if such an agent were also useful against common microbial sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and played a contraceptive role as well. As ACV is not suitable for these purposes alternative, multifunctional agents are needed. Nonoxynol-9 (N9), the most common spermicidal ingredient in topical vaginal formulations, initially appeared to fulfill this requirement. However, several lines of evidence exist indicating that N9 is less effective and more toxic than assumed originally.
Linear gramicidin or gramicidin D is an antibiotic first discovered in 1939 by Rene Dubos and has broad spectrum activity against gram-positive bacteria, fungi, and protozoa. Commercial gramicidin D preparation consists of a mixture of three pairs of gramicidins A, B, and C, making up approximately 80%, 6%, and 14% respectively. Each pair consists of 2 subspecies, one with valine in position one, comprising 80-95% of the component, and the other with isoleucine. Gramicidin does not irritate mucous membranes, is poorly absorbed through the skin, and it is still used today as one of the active ingredients in ophthalmic antimicrobial solutions, e.g., Neosporin. Gramicidin belongs to the porin type of antibiotics and acts by forming cation channels across the cell membrane which results in potassium efflux. Gramicidin has been used for over fifty years mainly as a broad spectrum topical antimicrobial, antifungal, and antiprotozoan agent. Cyclic or gramicidin S is used in the former Soviet Union (FSU) as an active ingredient of a spermicidal vaginal contraceptive and as antimicrobial agent. Gramicidin S is unrelated to gramicidin D as these two antiobiotics have different chemical structure and mode of action. Gramicidin S is a detergent and acts by lysing cell membranes in a manner similar to N9 detergent. The term "gramicidin" as used herein relates to the linear form of gramicidin. Gramicidin has been recently identified by this inventor as a potent anti-HIV agent as described in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,552,382 relating to the method of prevention of HIV infection. Gramicidin at 10 ng/ml concentration was active not only against lab strains of HIV but also against clinical isolates. However, the use of gramicidin against herpes viruses was not obvious as HIV and herpes viruses are not related genetically and replicate by completely different mechanisms. Thus, while the utility of gramicidin as an anti-HIV agent was known in the prior art, the utility of gramicidin as an anti-herpes agent was totally unpredictable.

Method of treating herpes virus infections with spermostatic gramicidin


Difunctional oxazoline resins, which may be produced in a convenient one-step reaction from an arylalkylene dinitrile by reaction with an amino alcohol, are used in compositions with an additional curable compound or resin containing one or more carbon to carbon double bonds. The composition can be cured to a thermoset material, the curing mechanism occurring by the zwitterion polymerization of the bisoxazoline resin with the resin containing the one or more carbon to carbon double bonds. The reaction occurs without the need for curing initiators.(I)

A common mode of electronic packaging involves affixing semiconductor devices onto substrates by means of an adhesive or encapsulant. The more prominent uses are the bonding of integrated circuit chips to lead frames or other substrates, and the bonding of circuit packages or assemblies to printed wire boards. Some of the performance properties for these applications are provided by the use of thermosetting materials for the adhesives or encapsulants.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,265,530 discloses an adhesive composition for use in electronic devices that comprises thermosetting polyfunctional maleimide compounds, polyfunctional vinyl compounds, and suitable curing initiators.
It is known that a monofunctional 2-oxazoline will react with a mono-functional vinyl compound such as p-chlorophenylmaleimide through a zwitterion polymerization (Rivas, B. L.; Sanhueza, E. Polymer Bulletin 1999, 42, 281, and references cited therein). Solution spontaneous copolymerization of 2-methyl-2-oxazoline as the nucleophilic monomer with p-chlorophenylmaleimide as the electrophilic monomer in the absence of initiator provided linear polymeric materials. However, these materials are not thermosetting materials.
The inventors discovered that the use of a bisfunctional oxazoline as a nucleophilic monomer in zwitterion polymerization in bulk provides materials capable of being thermoset.

Curable liquid compositions containing bisoxazoline

National Starch and Chemical Investment Holding Corporation