A system for monitoring performance of a pumping unit of an oil well includes a first sensor for measuring the inclination angle of a beam forming part of the pumping unit, a second sensor for measuring the load on the beam, and a third sensor for measuring the load on an electrical motor used in conjunction with the pumping unit. The first sensor includes a cantilevered pendulum member which moves in response to changes in the beam inclination angle and strain gauges affixed to the pendulum member for generating an electrical signal indicative of the instantaneous inclination angle. The second sensor includes a deformable sensor plate mounted to the beam and piezoresistive gauges attached to the plate for providing a signal indicative of the load on the beam. The third sensor includes a sensor head attached to a cable for supplying electrical power to the motor. The sensor head includes a sensor coil spaced from the cable so that the magnetic field surrounding the cable induces a current flow in the sensor coil. By measuring the voltage across the ends of the sensor coil, a signal indicative of the load on the motor is generated.

The present invention relates to a system for monitoring the performance of oil wells system includes a beam deformation sensor, a current intensity loading sensor and a beam angle sensor.
In the petroleum industry, there are many thousands of production oil wells, many in remote locations. Forty percent of these wells work with a beam type pumping unit having a beam displaceable through an angular range, a sucker rod connected to the beam and an electric driving motor for causing angular movement of the beam through a rotating member and a connecting member between the rotating member and the displaceable beam. FIG. 1 illustrates a typical beam type pumping unit of this type.
Normal wear and tear, as well as the nature of the fluid being pumped and/or abnormal pumping conditions, can cause such problems as worn-out pumps, broken sucker rods, split tubing, malfunctioning vacuum pumps, and stuck pump valves - all of which interfere with and interrupt normal pumping operations. Maintenance of these wells and their equipment demands many man-hours. Despite continuous maintenance programs, well imperfections and failures are often detected too late by maintenance crews and their supervisory personnel resulting in large repair expenses.
As mentioned above, beam pumping units are typical. In order to detect possible malfunctions in the well pumping system, two variables are measured-the load on the displaceable beam and the displacement of the beam. These two measured variables are used to obtain a diagram known as a dynagraphical chart or dynagraph. From these charts, performance of the well is monitored.
Over the years, different pieces of equipment and different types of systems have been developed to detect problems in the pumping units of these oil wells. For example, some wells are equipped with a force sensor placed directly at the polished rod of the beam pumping unit and a second sensor which measures the displacement of the beam. From the measurements recorded by these sensors, it is possible to obtain the desired dynagraphs.
Some wells are also equipped with sensors for monitoring the performance of the electrical motors used in the well. These sensors typically consist of a loading coil designed for use with an electrical motor so that the loading coil voltage is proportional to the current circulating through the motor feeder cables.
The principal deficiency of these sensors has been an inability to provide maintenance personnel with an accurate picture of the condition of the well equipment. The electrical motor sensors are further deficient in that they lack a system which permits normalization of different currents into instrumentation standard outputs.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved system for monitoring well performance.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an improved current intensity loading sensor to be incorporated into said system.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide an improved current intensity loading sensor as above having means to permit normalization of the output to industry standard outputs.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide an improved beam deformation sensor to be incorporated into the well monitoring system.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide an improved beam angle sensor to be incorporated into the well monitoring system.
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following description and drawings wherein like reference numerals depict like elements.

System for monitoring oil well performance


Disclosed are methods of purifying shiga-like toxins (SLTs) from Polymyxin B sulfate extracts of Verotoxin-producing Escherichia coli. The methods are facile, efficient and reproducible. In another aspect, the toxin is inactivated for use in a vaccine against SLT mediated disease conditions.

Field of the Invention
This invention, in one aspect, is directed to methods for recovering Shiga-like toxins (SLT) from a sample under physiologically acceptable conditions using an affinity ligand covalently attached to a solid support. The use of such a covalently attached affinity ligand enhances the purity of the product and these methods employ mildly basic conditions to effect elution of the SLT from the affinity support thereby avoiding the use of acidic conditions and, in particular, harsh acidic conditions.
In another aspect, the SLTs recovered in this invention are inactivated to provide for an immunoprotective vaccine.

Method of recovering shiga-like toxins and vaccines comprising inactivated shiga-like toxin


The present invention discloses an improved air nozzle of a pneumatic tool for being connected to the pneumatic tool that will not be tangled easily due to the rotation of the pneumatic tool during its operation, and thus preventing any hinder to the pressurized gas inputted from the air supply pipe into the pneumatic tool or any adverse influence to the efficiency of the operation. The invention comprises an air inlet member having one end connected to the pneumatic tool and the other end rotably connected to a rotary member, such that the rotary member rotates with respect to the air inlet member and drives the air supply pipe connected to the rotary member to rotate during the operation of the pneumatic tool, and thus the air supply pipe will not be tangled easily and the invention enhances the flexibility and convenience of the operation of the pneumatic tool.

In general, most conventional pneumatic tools are driven by inputting a pressurized gas through an air supply pipe connected to the pneumatic tool by an appropriate detachable air nozzle. Further, the air nozzle is connected to a handle of the pneumatic tool by a screwing method or other fixing method.
However, these conventional pneumatic tools usually have a drawback, since the air supply pipe is made of a hard and solid material and generally connected to the air nozzle, therefore the air supply pipe of the pneumatic tool cannot be rotated independently. As a result, when the pneumatic tool is rotated, an adjacent pipe section of the air supply pipe winds around the pneumatic tool, which will reduce the flexibility of controlling the pneumatic tool. In addition, the wound air supply pipe will reduce the pressurized gas supply and affect the operating quality of the pneumatic tool.
Please refer to the R.O.C. Patent No. 333485 entitled "Device, throttle and air bushing for pneumatic tools", which disclosed a rotary air bushing for rotating and connecting a pneumatic tool to a pressurized gas supply tube. The air bushing comprises a first groove formed on the external surface of the air bushing and a pillar being inserted inside the handle of the pneumatic tool to cope with its rotation. Such structure allows the air bushing to rotate along the vertical axis inside the handle of the pneumatic tool. When the soft air supply tube is connected to the outer end of the air bushing, the pneumatic tool can rotate independently.
However, this prior art needs to have a hole on the handle, and insert a pillar into the hole of the handle to fasten a complementary groove disposed on the circumferential surface of the air bushing, which complicates the manufacturing process, increases the cost and also spoils the structure of the pneumatic tool that may give rise to a leakage of the pressurized gas.


The present invention is a photographic element which includes a support, at least one silver halide emulsion layer; and at least one layer containing a binder and polymer particles. The polymeric particles are prepared by the process of mechanically forming droplets having a size less than 400 nm of an ethylenically unsaturated monomer having hydrophobic groups, the hydrophobic groups having a logP.sub.(calc) greater than a logP.sub.(calc) of the ethylenically unsaturated monomer by at least 1 unit, and polymerizing said droplets so that the polymerized droplets have a size of less than 400 nm. The present invention also is a photographic element which includes a support, at least one silver halide emulsion layer; and at least one layer containing a binder and polymer particles. The polymeric particles are prepared by the process of mechanically forming droplets having a size less than 400 nm of an ethylenically unsaturated monomer having a logP.sub.(calc) greater than 4, preferably greater than 6, and polymerizing said droplets so that the polymerized droplets have a size of less than 400 nm.

It is known to use synthetic polymer particles in silver halide photographic elements to improve physical characteristics. In particular, polymer particles from 0.5 .mu.m (500 nm) to 10 .mu.m have found wide use as matting agents in an element to increase the surface roughness so as to reduce self-adhering of the material, to reduce sticking of the material to manufacturing and processing devices, to improve the antistatic properties of the material, and to improve the vacuum adhesiveness of the material in contact exposure to prevent Newton's rings. Polymer particles smaller than 500 nm obtained by emulsion polymerization technique (polymer latex particles) have found wide use as replacements for gelatin. For example, it has been proposed to use polymer latex particles in both hydrophilic light sensitive layers and hydrophilic light insensitive layers to improve the element dimensional stability, to improve element drying characteristics during photographic processing, to improve layer adhesion and flexibility, to reduce pressure fog, to control dye and image stability, to carry photographically useful compounds such as dyes, couplers, accelerators, hardeners, etc., and to improve the scratch and abrasion resistance of the layer, in particular the surface protective layer.
Many techniques for synthesizing matting agents have been disclosed. Most commonly, a suspension polymerization technique is used. U.S. Pat. No. 5,492,960, for example, describes a microsuspension polymerization process to make polymer particles larger than 1000 nm. Polymer particles smaller than about 1000 nm, and especially smaller than about 500 nm, are typically made by emulsion polymerization. The resultant particle slurry is called latex. In emulsion polymerization, ethylenically unsaturated monomers are added to an aqueous phase which contains surfactant above the critical micelle concentration and a water-soluble initiator. The mechanism of the polymerization process has been the subject of much research and is generally agreed to include emulsification of monomer into a continuous aqueous phase to form monomer droplets having a size of about 1 to 10 .mu.m and diffusion of the monomer from the monomer droplets into surfactant micelles where the actual polymerization proceeds. Homogeneous nucleation will also occur for recipes with low surfactant concentration or monomers of relatively high water solubility, but polymerization in the monomer droplets is deemed insignificant. Thus, monomer droplets are formed to a size much larger than the resultant polymer particles and function solely as reservoirs holding the monomer until it diffuses into the growing micelles where the free radical polymerization takes place.
A conventional emulsion polymerization process prepares particles having a size and size distribution very sensitive to the type and amount of surfactant, initiator concentration, and decomposition kinetics. It does not allow a direct control of particle size and size distribution by control of monomer droplet size and distribution.
Polymer latex particles made by emulsion polymerization are typically electrostatically stabilized by using anionic surfactants. Some of the charges on the polymer particle surface may also come from the water soluble initiators used. Colloidal particles which are solely electrostatically stabilized are known to be destabilized by the presence of ions such as those in coating solutions. This is particularly so for coating solutions used to form photographic elements. It is very common to include in photographic elements various addenda, such as salts, sensitizing dyes, surfactants, thickeners, inorganic fillers, etc. The presence of these compounds in coating solutions significantly reduces the stability of polymer latex particles by reducing the electrostatic repulsion force from the interaction between electrical double layers or surface charges on the particles. Surfactants or sensitizing dyes may carry opposite charges to those on the polymer particle surface leading to latex particle flocculation through charge neutralization. This can have a significant impact on manufacturing processes such as filtering and delivering of the coating solutions. The efficiency of the coating process is therefore reduced.
In the manufacturing of photographic products, gelatin is widely used as a binder and, in solution, as a medium for the preparation of coating melts. Conventional lime-processed gelatin typically contains a significant amount of calcium ion concentration. Polymer latexes are greatly destabilized when added to coating solutions comprising gelatin, which results in manufacturing difficulties for making such coating compositions.
It is known to use sulfonic acid containing monomers in latex particles to improve the latex stability and compatibility with gelatin. However, the latexes are also known to cause coating solution viscosity increase, and degrade film physical properties such as ferrotyping resistance at high temperature and relative humidities. It is also known to prepare latex polymer particles at high percentage solids and large particle size by using a combination of ionic and nonionic surfactants. However, some nonionic surfactants are photographically active. Some ionic surfactants can significantly impact coating solution viscosity.
Recent patents have disclosed loaded latex dispersions, e.g. in which a photographically useful compound such as a coupler is loaded into the latex polymer particle. The usual procedure for preparing loaded latexes as described in US Pat. Nos. 4,203,716, 4,304,769, and 4,368,258 is to combine a solution of the photographically useful compounds in a water miscible organic solvent with the aqueous latex. The resulting mixture, which typically has about a 1:1 ratio of water to organic solvent, is diluted with water and organic solvent is removed by evaporation. Removing the water miscible solvent subsequent to loading apparently requires large scale processing equipment and lengthy processing times, which increases the expenses.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,536,628 describes a process for incorporating absorbing dyes into a pre-formed latex polymer particle. In the process a polymer latex of known solids is heated with stirring to 70 to 80 degree C. The absorbing dye is heated until it reaches its liquid state and is mixed with the polymer latex at high shear to generate an emulsion. The emulsion is then passed through a high energy homogenizer at least once to form an absorbing dye impregnated latex polymer dispersion.
The processes described above can result in incomplete loading which leaves, for example, residual dyes in the aqueous phase, which can then crystallize or form large oil droplets during storage generating coating spot defects.
The present invention provides photographic elements containing polymer particles smaller than 400 nm where the size of the polymer particles can be reproduced from run to run, where compatibility with gelatin is improved and where incorporation of photographically useful addenda is facilitated.

Photographic element containing polymeric particles made by a microsuspension process


A fuse includes a solid silicone rod that has a fuse element stitched repeatedly through the rod so that the stitches extend longitudinally along the length of the rod. The stitched silicone rod is secured within a fiberglass tube, and a silica sand pulverant is provided around the stitched silicone rod so as to provide further arc quenching capability.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fuse, and more particularly to a medium voltage fuse filled with silica to quench arcs.
2. Description of Related Art
Prior art fuses for medium voltage DC circuits used an epoxy filling around a pyrotechnic fuse wire to quench arcs. However, the process for manufacturing such fuses is complicated because of the use of epoxy. For example, the application of the epoxy required a vacuum chamber to remove air bubbles. Furthermore, the epoxy is difficult to store and clean-up.
Accordingly, other attempts to provide such fuses were sought. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,245,308, a Class L fuse is disclosed wherein flat, plate-like fuse elements 28 are sealed with a silicone rubber material. The entire package is then filled with sand or other pulverant material.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,345,210 discloses a time delay fuse that uses silicone rubber blocks to retain time delay fuse components. In addition, this fuse includes plate-like fuses elements 30 that are surrounded by a pulverant arc quenching material such as sand.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,563,809 and 4,656,453 disclose a cartridge fuse having silicone arc quenching end plugs.
Such prior art fuses are either complex to manufacture, or do not provide an adequate length for the fuse element.


An improved structure of an extendable multi-directional connecting rod for dusters, in particular a duster having a bending structure and a retractable connecting rod structure connected to a rear end thereof, including a duster handle portion, a retaining connector, a locking connector, and a retractable connecting rod. The handle portion is hollow and internally threaded for receiving outer threads of the retaining connector. The retaining connector further has a curved plate portion behind the outer threads. The curved plate portion has a central round hole and radial grooves extending from the round holes at both sides of the curved plate portion. The locking connector includes a forked portion for receiving the curved plate portion and an internally threaded rear end portion for screwably engaging the retractable connecting rod. The forked portion is provided with a locking hole and opposed faces of the forked portion are each provided with a detent point, whereby the detent points will engage the corresponding radial grooves of the retaining connector to achieve angular positioning when the locking connector is turned with respect to the retaining connector. Hence, the direction and angle of a duster body with respect to the locking connector and the retractable connecting rod are adjustable to facilitate cleaning of higher spots.

(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an improved structure of an extendable multi-directional connecting rod for dusters, and more particularly to a structure comprising a retaining connector and a locking connector pivotally connected thereto, in which the locking connector is turnable with respect to the retaining connector which is connected to a handle portion of a duster body, so that a user may use the duster to reach the top of cabinets or dead corners without needing a stool or a ladder.
(b) Description of the Prior Art
Feather dusters are common devices used in cleaning. However, due to their fixed length they cannot be used to clean higher spots. The user will need to use a stool or ladder when cleaning higher spots, which may be dangerous. Recently, there is available on the market a kind of mop or wiper used in conjunction with different kinds of cleaning layers. It basically comprises a body the bottom portion of which is a planar foamed pad. The top side of the body is provided with a soft grip jacket which is formed with teeth or Y-shaped grooves. After a cleaning cloth is placed below the foamed pad, the surplus cloth material is folded upwardly and squeezed into the teeth or grooves, which will hold the cloth in position. However, such mops or wipers can be used to clean the floor or ceiling only. They cannot reach the top of cabinets or dead corners.

Structure of an extendable and multi-directional connecting rod for dusters


A topical sustained release delivery system for delivery of antifungal agents to the finger or toenails achieving high penetration through the nails by combining the antifungal agent with a keratolytic agent and a humectant. The pharmaceutical sustained release topical preparation is provided in a varnish or spray form for treating the nail and surrounding tissues, where the active ingredient is an antifungal agent, a keratolytic agent, or preferably a combination of an antifungal and a keratolytic agent. The composition may further comprise an antibacterial, an antiviral, an antipsoriatic agents, or combinations thereof.

Fungal infections are probably the most common disorder of nails encountered in medical practice. It has been estimated that approximately 90% of elderly people have some degree of toenail involvement with fungi. Conditions of moisture and occlusion of the lower extremities favor fungal colonization. Pain may result from extreme deformity of the nail plate, but usually, the complaint is one of cosmetic appearance. The most common organisms involved in the fungal infections of the nail are Trichophyton rubrum, Trichophyton mentagrophytes, Epidermophyton floccosum, Candida albicans, Microsporum persiccolor, Cephalosporium species, Aspergillus species, and Fusarium oxysporum.
Fingernail infection is of far greater importance cosmetically and fortunately clears faster than toenail infection because of the more rapid growth rate of fingernails. Despite this, 4-6 months of oral griseofulvin may be required to bring about complete clearing of the fingernail. For toenail infections with extensive involvement of multiple digits, withholding treatment may be the best decision. One of the factors in the treatment decision is whether the patient is taking other medications, as griseofulvin interacts with several drugs, including anticoagulants.
Griseofulvin was the drug of choice for many years, but its low cure rate and the development of newer, more effective drugs has caused it to lose favor. Current therapeutic alternatives include itraconazole and terbinafine. These drugs are well tolerated, but attention to drug interactions is still necessary [Trepanier, E. F and Amsden, G. W. Annals of Pharmacotherapy, 32, 1998, 204-214].
At present, topical treatment of fungal infections directly to the nail plate is discouraging. Creams or solutions containing antifungal agents, such as imidazole derivatives, are able to deliver the active agent to the nail only for a short period of time and their permeability/penetration through the nail is very low.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,120,530 discloses an antimycotically-active nail varnish, containing an antimycotically-active substance (a morpholine derivative) and a water-insoluble film former which is a copolymerizate of acrylic acid esters and methacrylic acid esters having a low content of quaternary ammonium groups. The formulations disclosed are expected to be poorly effective because they do not contain a keratolytic agent or a humectant. As a result, the nail permeability and consequently the penetration of the antimycotic agent will be very low. In the present invention the humectant entraps the water in the film after evaporation of the organic solvents, thus enabling the solubilization of the active agents in the film. Because the water content of the nail is very low, the presence of water in the film should hydrate the nail and improve the transport of the active agents into the nail. The keratolytic agent should also help by increasing the penetration of the antifungal agent into the deeper layers of the nail.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,957,730 discloses a nail varnish comprising a water-insoluble film-forming substance and an antimycotic substance, specifically 1-hydroxy-2-pyridones. The formulations disclosed do not contain a humectant. The nail permeability of the formulations disclosed and consequently the penetration of the active agent into the deeper layers of the nail is expected to be very low, thereby failing to achieve the desired pharmacological action and cure.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,814,305 discloses a nail preparation comprising an antifungal agent, at least one hydrophilic penetration agent, and a water-alcohol solvent medium. The formulations disclosed are disadvantageous; they are in the form of a lotion or fluid gel and do not contain a film-forming agent. As a result a sustained release action is not achieved with these formulations. The formulations disclosed are disadvantageous since such a dosage form would require multiple applications of the formulation, leading to poor patient compliance. Because of the hydrophilic character of the formulations, in the presence of water or mechanical contact, the lotion or gel will likely be washed off or removed from the nail, thereby reducing the accumulation of the active agents in the nail.
UK Patent Appl. No GB2202743 A discloses a topical antifungal composition in the form of a lotion, gel or varnish, comprising at least 1% by weight (relative to the total weight of the composition) of miconazole nitrate or econazole nitrate dissolved in a mixture of water, urea, and a water-soluble dissolving intermediary. Urea is used in the formulation as a solubility increasing agent. When the composition is in the form of a varnish it contains a resin. The lotion and gel formulations disclosed are disadvantageous since such a dosage form will not provide sustained release action and would require multiple applications of the formulation, leading to poor patient compliance. Because of the hydrophilic properties of the formulations, in the presence of water or mechanical contact, the lotion or gel will likely be washed off or removed from the nail, thereby reducing the accumulation of the active agents in the nail. The varnish formulations disclosed are disadvantageous, and do not contain a humectant. As a result, the antifungal agent will not be solubilized in the film, and the hydration of the nail and transport of the antifungal agent through the nail will be very low, preventing achievement of the desired pharmacological action. In addition, UK Patent Appl. No GB2202743 A describes a delivery system specific for miconazole nitrate or econazole nitrate, which is not therefore a general delivery system for other antifungal agents.
None of these prior art references suggest or disclose the use of a combination of antifungal agent, keratolytic agent, and a humectant (glycerol at high concentrations). This combination is particularly advantageous because it increases the penetration of the active antifungal agent through the nail and thus provides better pharmacological action.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,346,692 discloses a nail lacquer for treating onychomycosis, which comprises (a) a film former agent, (b) at least one antimycotically active substance, (c) urea; and (d) a solvent which comprises (i) 50-70 wt. % of acetone; and (ii) 30-50 wt. % of 90 volume % aqueous is ethanol. The formulations disclosed are disadvantageous since they use high concentrations of the antimycotically active substance and urea, thereby causing unwanted adverse effects (for example irritation and burning) which leads to poor compliance.
The formulations disclosed do not contain glycerol which would entrap the water in the film after evaporation of the organic solvents. The presence of water in the film enables the active agents to be maintained in a soluble form that is readily available for pharmacological action. Since the water content in the nail is very low, the presence of water in the film hydrates the nail so that the active agents can be delivered into deeper layers of the nail.
There is thus a need for, and it would be useful to have, a better formulation, containing low concentrations of the antifungal and keratolytic agents, to deliver pharmacologically active agents to the nail for the treatment of fungal infection thereof. This formulation would feature a film-forming agent and a humectant preferably glycerol, for trapping water in the film formed on the nail, and the water so trapped would hydrate the nail for delivery of the agent thereto.
This formulation would be lower in cost because of the lower concentrations of the antifungal and keratolytic agents. Additionally, such formulation would reduce the unwanted side effects caused by high concentrations of the antifungal and keratolytic agents and yet be suitable for treatment of fungal infections of the nail and surrounding tissues.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Controlled delivery system of antifungal and keratolytic agents for local treatment of fungal infections of the nail and surrounding tissues


A bobby pin includes a body composed of bending members, a decorative member, a clamping member and a clamping holed member. The decorative member is provided with plural decoration recesses for placing plural decorations therein, the clamping member is connected to one side of the decorative member, and the clamping holed member is connected to the other side of the decorative member. The clamping member is provided with plural teeth and the clamping holed member is provided with a hole and a clamping rim around the hole. When the bobby pin is to clamp hair, the clamping member is made to bend by means of the bending members and inserted in the hole of the clamping holed member and clamp with the clamping rim with one of the teeth of the clamping member to let the bobby pin form a tubular shape for clamping hair stably.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a bobby pin, particularly to one having a body formed with a clamping member, clamping teeth formed on the clamping member, a clamping hole defined by a clamping rim to correspond to the clamping member. So one of the clamping teeth of the clamping member are optionally combined with the clamping rim so that the bobby pin may be kept to be bent into a tubular shape with a center hole for hair to pass through to be clamped stably in the bobby pin with various quantity of hair.
2. Description of the Prior Art
"Bobby pin" disclosed by a Taiwan patent No. 084216926 is made integral, having a decorative member and a clamping hole formed in one side of the decorative member, an insert hole bored in the clamping hole, and the clamping hole provided with a horizontal groove and a triangular groove. The decorative member has plural clamping teeth on one side, a flat plate portion formed on a side of the clamping teeth, which are of one-way direction. Then the flat plate portion of the decorative member is inserted through the clamping hole, and the clamping teeth are combined with the clamping hole for clamping hair.
The bobby pin disclosed in the Taiwan patent No. 084216926 has a disadvantage that the decorative member should be made thin, hardly making it exclusively decorative. Should it be made thick enough to make it substantively decorative, it is troublesome in use.
A conventional bobby pin available on the market shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 includes a decorative member 10 and an elastic ring 11 fixed under the decorative member 10. Then the elastic ring 11 is used for clamping hair, but its disadvantage is the elastic ring is not easy to clamp hair tightly enough, letting the hair apt to slide out of the ring 11. Therefore a user may be forced to redo it often.


An electrophotographic developer and a process for forming an image are provided in that the fixing can be conducted at a lower temperature than the conventional technique, and that are excellent in the powder storage stability, the anti-blocking property and the image storage stability after fixing without impairing the density, the coloring property and the transparency of the image after fixing, and further have appropriate electric charging property without any problem of fogging or cloud with excellent maintenance property of electric charge. The electrophotographic developer contains a toner for developing an electrostatic image containing a coloring agent and a binder resin containing, as a main component, a crystalline resin having a melting point of about from 60 to 120xc2x0 C., and a carrier having a resin film containing a nitrogen-containing resin on a surface thereof. The process for forming an image is carried out by using the electrophotographic developer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrophotographic developer that can be used in an electrophotographic apparatus utilizing an electrophotographic process, such as a duplicator, a printer and a facsimile machine, and a process for forming an image using the electrophotographic developer.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional examples of a fixing process of a toner for developing an electrostatic image include a pressure fixing process by using only a pressure roll at an ordinary temperature and a contact heat fixing process using a heating roll, and also an oven fixing process using heating with an oven, a flash fixing process using a xenon lamp, an electromagnetic wave fixing process using microwaves, and a non-contact fixing process, such as a solvent fixing process using vapor of a solvent, and processes using heat, such as an oven fixing process and a contact heat fixing process, are mainly employed from the standpoint of reliability and safety. In particular, the contact heating process using a heating roll or belt is constituted from a heating roll or a heating belt having a heating unit, and a pressure roll or a pressure belt. Fixing is effected by passing a fixing sheet (transfer material) with the toner image surface in contact with the surface of the heating roll or the heating belt under pressure. The process has such characteristics that the fixing can be effected with high heat efficiency at a high rate since the surface of the heating roll or the heating belt and the toner image surface of the fixing sheet are in direct contact with each other, and has been widely employed owing to the characteristics.
In the heat fixing process, shortening of the so-called warm up time, i.e., the time from turning on the power to the fixing device reaching the usable temperature to enable fixing, and reduction in fixing temperature for saving the consumption of energy are demanded. In particular, it is demanded in recent years that electrification to the fixing device is terminated except for the time operation for reducing the consumption of energy, and therefore, fixing at further lower temperature is demanded to reach the temperature of the fixing device to the fixable temperature at once. Furthermore, decrease in fixing temperature is preferred from the standpoint of costs because the printing rage can be increased by decreasing the fixing temperature with the same electric power consumption, and the service life of fixing members, such as a heating roll, in the contact heat fixing process can be prolonged.
However, decrease of the fixing temperature of the toner in the conventional processes brings about decrease of the glass transition point of the toner particles, and therefore the storage stability of the toner cannot be simultaneously established. In order to ensure both the low temperature fixing and the storage stability of the toner at the same time, it is necessary to endow the toner with the so-called sharp melt property, i.e., the viscosity of the toner is quickly decreased in a high temperature region with the glass transition point of the toner maintained at a high temperature.
However, since the resin used in the toner generally has certain widths in glass transition point and molecular weight, it is necessary to endow the sharp melt property that the composition and the molecular weight of the resin are aligned to an extreme extent. In order to obtain such resins, it is necessary to align the molecular weight of the resin by employing a special production process or by treating the resin with chromatography, and in such cases, the production cost of the resin in necessarily increased, and waste resins occur upon production. Therefore, it is not preferred from the standpoint of resource saving and environmental protection in recent years.
It has been studied to realize the low temperature fixing property that a crystalline resin is used as the binder resin of the toner (JP-B-56-13943, JP-B-62-39428, JP-B-63-25335, JP-B-62-39428, JP-B-4-30014, JP-A-4-120554, JP-A-4-239021 and JP-A-5-165252). When a crystalline resin is used, the hardness of the toner is maintained at a temperature lower than the melting point of the crystal, and the viscosity of the toner is suddenly decreased at a temperature exceeding the melting point owing to melting of the crystal, so as to realize the low temperature fixing.
However, the crystalline resin is difficult to retain electric charge in comparison to the conventional amorphous resins, and therefore, in the case where the crystalline resin as the binder resin of the toner, it is difficult to impart sufficient charge amount to the toner.
The invention has been made in view of the foregoing circumstances and is to solve the problems associated with the conventional art. The invention is to provide an electrophotographic developer and a process for forming an image in that the fixing can be conducted at a lower temperature than the conventional technique, whereby the energy consumption on the fixing step is greatly decreased, and the warm up tome is shortened.
The invention is to also provide an electrophotographic developer and a process for forming an image that are excellent in the powder storage stability, the anti-blocking property and the image storage stability after fixing without impairing the density, the coloring property and the transparency of the image after fixing.
The invention is to further provide an electrophotographic developer and a process for forming an image having appropriate electric charging property without any problem of fogging or cloud and being excellent in maintenance property of electric charge.
According to an aspect, the invention relates to an electrophotographic developer containing a toner for developing an electrostatic image and a carrier. The toner contains a colorant and a binder resin that contains a crystalline resin having a melting point of about from 60xc2x0 C. to 120xc2x0 C. as a main component. The carrier has a resin coating containing a nitrogen-containing resin.
According to the invention, fixing can be attained at a low temperature by using the crystalline resin having an appropriate melting point as the main component of the binder resin, so as to provide an electrophotographic developer excellent in the powder storage stability, the anti-blocking property and the image storage stability after fixing. Furthermore, a carrier having the resin film containing a nitrogen-containing resin on the surface thereof is combined with the crystalline resin, which is generally short in charging property, so as to remarkably improve the charging property, whereby the electrophotographic developer of the invention has good charging property as an entire electrophotographic developer.
In the electrophotographic developer of the invention, the carrier preferably has a nitrogen content on a surface thereof of about from 0.1 to 50% by atom, and the resin film on the surface of the carrier preferably contains at least one of a urea resin, a urethane resin, a melamine resin and an amide resin.
In the electrophotographic developer of the invention, the crystalline resin in the toner is preferably a crystalline polyester, and more preferably an aliphatic crystalline polyester. In the case where the crystalline polyester is used as the crystalline resin, it is preferred that the crystalline polyester is synthesized from an acid component and an alcohol component, with at least one of the acid component and the alcohol component containing a component containing a sulfonic acid group.
According to another aspect, the invention relates to a process for forming an image containing the steps of: forming an electrostatic latent image on a latent image bearing member; developing the electrostatic latent image formed on the latent image bearing member with a developer carried on a developer bearing member to form a toner image; transferring the toner image formed on the latent image bearing member to a transfer material; and fixing the toner image transferred to the transfer material with heat, the developer being the electrophotographic developer according to the invention.

Electrophotographic developer and process for forming image


A real time operating system (RTOS) for a vehicle electronic control unit (ECU) switches the CPU of the vehicle ECU to a low-power-consumption (LPC) mode, if there is no task in a running state and no task in a ready state and the time left before a task in a suspended state is switched to the ready state is longer than a predetermined allowable minimum duration of the LPC mode. Duration of the LPC mode is set to a length shorter than the time left before a task in the suspended state is switched to the ready state. When an interrupt occurs or the duration of the LPC mode expires, the CPU is switched to a normal mode and temporary suspension of the system clock during the LPC mode is compensated for using the duration of the LPC mode.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multitasking operating system.
2. Related Art
In some of computer systems, the CPU of a microcomputer operates in a normal mode and a low-power-consumption (LPC) mode. In the LPC mode, the CPU operates at a lower clock frequency or supply of the clock is suppressed for reducing power consumption. When the CPU switches from the normal mode to the LPC mode, execution of some programs is stopped. Therefore the computer system includes a dedicated program which determines proper time for switching from the normal mode to the LPC mode and proper duration of the LPC mode. Thereby the CPU is switched between the normal mode and LPC mode so that the operation of the computer system is not disrupted.
A door electronic control unit (ECU), which is a computer system that includes a microcomputer, controls the door lock in a vehicle switching between a normal mode and an intermittent mode (i.e., LPC mode). Referring to FIG. 8, the door ECU in the normal mode executes processes A, B, C, . . . , n every 5 ms, for example. Each of the processes A, B, C, . . . , n is an application program which implements a predetermined function. For example, the process A implements a keyless entry system, while the process B implements a door lock system.
Each of the processes A, B, C, . . . , n sets a flag, which indicates whether the LPC mode is acceptable or not, during the execution. The process B sets the flag on for indicating that the process B can accept the LPC mode, if the elapsed time after the doors are locked reaches ten minutes.
After the execution of the processes A, B, C, . . . , n completes, a manager process determines whether the CPU should operate in the normal mode or the LPC mode based on the flags. If all the flags are on, that is, all the processes A, B, C, . . . , n can accept the LPC mode, the manager sets the CPU in the LPC mode. If at least one of the flags are off, the manager sets the CPU in the normal mode.
Referring to FIG. 9, in the normal mode, the CPU executes the processes A, B, C, . . . , n every 5 ms (T1) as described above. However, the CPU may execute the processes A, B, C, . . . , n every 300 ms (T2), and then the CPU is set in the LPC mode during a time interval T3 between the completion of execution of the processes A, B, C, . . . , n and the beginning of next execution of the processes A, B, C, . . . , n. Thus the CPU is switched between the normal mode and the LPC mode so that the execution of the processes A, B, C, . . . , n is not disrupted.
However, a series of processes A, B, C, . . . , n to be repeatedly executed at regular intervals is difficult to program on a large scale. Further time (T0 in FIG. 9) required for executing the series of processes A, B, C, . . . , n may be sometimes long, and the responsiveness of the system is lowered in this case. In order to overcome this problem, a multitasking operating system such as a real time operating system (RTOS) is employed. The multitasking operating system treats a plurality of processes of a program as tasks, and executes the program switching tasks. Thus the multitasking operating system includes not only a mechanism for regularly executing a program, but also a mechanism for executing a program circumstantially switching tasks.
When the multitasking operating system executes a program switching tasks, the states of the tasks are always changing according to the priority and depending on occurrence of interrupts and issue of system calls. Accordingly a time interval between the completion of execution of the tasks and the beginning of next execution of the tasks cannot be easily estimated. Further the proper time for switching the CPU into the LPC mode cannot be easily determined.

Multitasking operating system capable of reducing power consumption and vehicle electronic control unit using same


A user equipment (e.g., C-V2X user equipment) can receive a transmission from a network device of a mobile network and decode the transmission using a first forward error correction code. The user equipment can determine an attribute of the transmission to determine a condition of the communication channel. Based on the condition of the communication channel, the user equipment can facilitate transmitting feedback to the network device, wherein the feedback is forwarded through the mobile network to an application server device that selects a second forward error correction code based on the feedback. The second forward error correction code can be transmitted to, and received by, the user equipment. The user equipment can use the second forward error correction code to decode subsequent transmissions.

Cellular communications technology, including radio access technology, has grown rapidly and evolved since the launch of analog cellular systems in the 1980s, starting from the First Generation (1G) in 1980s, Second Generation (2G) in 1990s, Third Generation (3G) in 2000s, and Fourth Generation (4G) in 2010s (including Long Term Evolution (LTE) and variants of LTE). Additionally, fifth generation (5G) access networks, which can also be referred to as New Radio (NR) access networks, are currently being developed and expected to fulfill the demand for exponentially increasing data traffic, and to handle a very wide range of use cases and requirements, including among others, mobile broadband (MBB) services, enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) services, and machine type communications (e.g., involving Internet of Things (IOT) devices).
As part of the expansion of the cellular platform for new services, and to keep track with the increasing needs of the automotive industry, functionality of the cellular infrastructure is being developed to provide enhancements specifically for "vehicle-to-everything" (V2X) communications, which can comprise, for example, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I), vehicle-to-network, (V2N) and vehicle-to-pedestrian (V2P) communications. This development of the cellular infrastructure, functionality, and protocols (e.g., standards) for V2X communications is often referred to as cellular V2X (or C-V2X) communications. Vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication leveraging cellular network infrastructure can provide reliable, actionable information flows with high definition quality services while paving the way for connected and autonomous driving into the near future. The collaboration between automotive and wireless telecommunications technologies is driving the next generation of autonomous vehicular designs. With the initial C-V2X standards developed in 2017, the LTE platform provides a means to offer new services to the automotive industry. LTE and 5G evolution will continue to further drive the C-V2X standardization efforts to meet the increasing needs of the automotive sector with new use cases that can significantly enhance the monitoring and tracking of driver behaviors, and enhance the efficiency as well as safety of intelligent transportation systems. The development and commercialization of C-V2X technology involves multiple stake holders, including carriers, technology providers, automobile original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), and infrastructure vendors, to name some stakeholders, all working together to implement and showcase the benefits and efficiency in the use of this technology for advanced vehicular connectivity and intelligent communications.
Due to its legacy capabilities and a clear roadmap with technology evolution, the 5G automotive association has advocated the use of cellular technologies to redefine and enhance the transportation services connectivity model globally. The first associated standards of C-V2X were introduced in the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) standards Release 14. C-V2X technology is expected to drive the evolution of mobility networks and communications that can enable advanced use cases such as autonomous driving, traffic flow optimization, improved safety etc., thus playing a transformative role in connected transportation communications services. LTE-based cellular technologies have enormous potential to drive innovative connectivity services in automotive sector. LTE broadcast enhancements can facilitate vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I), vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-network (V2N) communications, leveraging traditional cellular networks. While standards-based C-V2X supports a variety of operational modes such as vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I), vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-network (V2N) communications, such systems and resulting IP multicast/broadcast/unicast services need to be carefully architected to be able to utilize the mobility network infrastructure resources cost-effectively while driving maximum return on investment for operators. These services need to work concurrently with the legacy mobility services to meet the high-performance demands associated with the automotive use cases, as well as have the capability to meet the scale and needs of future use cases leveraging technological advancements. V2I and V2N communications can greatly facilitate smart cities connectivity and control initiatives (ex: traffic, parking, metering updates, cancellations).
The above-described background relating to wireless networks is merely intended to provide a contextual overview of some current issues and is not intended to be exhaustive. Other contextual information may become further apparent upon review of the following detailed description.

Forward error correction adjustments for C-V2X communications


A counterbalance valve has a first port connected to a hydraulic cylinder and a second port connected to a four-way controller, such as a four-way control valve. Disposed between the ports is a poppet biased to a closed position. The poppet opens to allow operating hydraulic fluid to drain from the hydraulic cylinder and also opens if excessive pressure builds up in the hydraulic cylinder due to thermal conditions. When an operator decides to move the piston within the hydraulic cylinder, hydraulic fluid must be drained from the cylinder. This is accomplished by moving the poppet from a blocking position to an open position with pressurized pilot fluid. On occasion, confusion caused by operator error can cause a build-up of valve backpressure from the four-way control valve, which prevents the poppet from moving upon applying pilot pressure thereto. The resulting excess pressure in the hydraulic cylinder can rupture the hydraulic cylinder. In order to minimize the chances of a rupture, the poppet is provided with a longitudinal bore extending therethrough. The bore allows backpressure from the four-way controller to be passed through the poppet so as to be applied to both ends of the poppet. Consequently, increases in valve backpressure have a corresponding increase in the relief setting. This minimizes a multiplier effect which could occur upon attempting to advance a piston while the four-way controller is inadvertently in a retracted mode.

Counterbalance valves are used to hold hydraulic fluid in hydraulic cylinders so that pistons within the cylinders retain their position without drifting. Counterbalance valves may be made in various sizes and ratios, with various numbers of ports, and can be configured as single or double valves. They are necessary when used with four-way controls because four-way controls utilize spool valves, which have leakage that tends to allow drifting. Counterbalance valves are constructed to minimize leakage and are mounted either close to or on an associated hydraulic cylinder so that if a hydraulic line breaks, the cylinder will not collapse so as, for example, to drop a load if it is associated with a lift, boom, or manned basket. Counterbalance valves include a self-relieving feature so that excessive pressure build-up in the associated hydraulic cylinder is relieved at a set pressure, allowing a portion of the hydraulic fluid to flow from the cylinder port through the counterbalance valve to a valve port.
On machines such as slag breaking machines used in steel mills and the like, the operator has a multiplicity of switches to manipulate. At times, the operator must manipulate these switches with gloved hands. Sooner or later, the operator will inadvertently combine the wrong set of circumstances with improper switch positions and cause rapid escalation of hydraulic pressure within the cylinder. For example, the rod end of a tool cylinder in a machine, such as slag breaking machine, may be inadvertently pressurized by motion from an incompatible function, such as an improper telescoping, propelling, or hoisting function. Normally, the counterbalance valve relieves pressure to accommodate such anomalies; but, for example, if the operator inadvertently operates a retract switch for the tool cylinder while the cylinder is being mechanically pulled out by an external force, such as propelling with the tool wedged in the slag, the cylinder can rupture due to rapid pressure escalation. A double counterbalancing valve may have a poppet set to relieve at 3800 psi with a 6:1 ratio, but, because of the geometry and areas of the counterbalance valve, a 6:1 ratio valve setting can have a 7:1 multiplier effect on the relief setting. This can cause the pressure within the valve to soar to 20,000 psi. Since cylinder failure can occur at 8000-10,000 psi, expensive cylinder failures can periodically occur.

Poppet configuration for counterbalance valve


An exemplary transceiver comprises a power amplifier configured to receive a source signal and generate an amplified output signal, an antenna coupled to the power amplifier, the antenna being configured to radiate the amplified output signal, and a controller coupled to the power amplifier. The controller is configured to control an effective gain of the power amplifier based on a power level of operation of the transmitter. A source amplifier configured to operate on the source signal prior to power amplification is also controlled by the controller. The controller configures the gain level of the source amplifier based on the power level of operation of the transmitter and the effective gain of the power amplifier to improve signal-to-noise ratio.

A typical wireless communication device, such as a mobile phone, comprises, among other things, a processor coupled to a memory and to a transceiver, each enclosed in a housing. A mobile power source, such as a battery, is coupled to and supplies power to the processor, the memory and the transceiver. A speaker and a microphone are also enclosed within the housing for transmitting and receiving, respectively, acoustic signals to and from a user of the wireless communication device. The wireless communication device communicates information by transmitting and receiving electromagnetic ("EM") energy in the radio frequency ("RF") band via an antenna coupled to the transceiver.
During transmission, the source signal is modulated, amplified and transmitted via the antenna. Conventional wireless communication devices include a power amplifier that has a fixed gain for amplifying the modulated signal prior to transmission. The simplicity of such an implementation, however, is achieved at the cost of reduced signal-to-noise ratio ("SNR"), particularly during low power operation. For example, in order to operate the wireless device at low power while maintaining a relatively fixed power amplification, the source signal may need to be significantly attenuated, resulting in reduced signal levels and, ultimately, in reduced SNR. Reduced SNR significantly diminishes the performance of the wireless communication device. This problem is even more pronounced for mobile handsets, such as CDMA mobile handsets, which operate in low power for a substantial amount of the time.

Variable-loss transmitter and method of operation


An information processing apparatus for accessing a server via a network transmits an issuance request of a certificate including information unique to the information processing apparatus to a certificate authority, and receives the certificate transmitted by the certificate authority in response to the issuance request. The apparatus determines whether or not it is possible to access the server by comparing information unique to the information processing apparatus with the unique information included in the received certificate, and restricts, if it is determined that it is not possible to access the server, issuance of a connection request to the server.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique of preventing spoofing.
Description of the Related Art
In recent years, the number of systems which can provide various cloud-based services is increasing, and the number of users of such services tends to increase year by year. When using such cloud service, however, the users are most concerned about a security risk. The fact that a cloud server resides on the Internet to be used by anyone from anywhere is the biggest advantage and is also a problem at the same time. In general account management on the cloud server, the cloud server holds the user IDs and passwords of registered users, and determines whether to allow connection with the user of a client by performing user authentication when the client accesses the cloud server. In this case, if a user ID and password are stolen, a malicious third party can spoof the user to access the cloud server, causing personal information leakage.
To solve this problem, a device authentication technique has been provided. This technique prevents spoofing by identifying a device which accesses a cloud server when the device accesses the server to limit connection to that from a specific device. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2009-223387 discloses a technique of rejecting authentication of apparatuses except for a specific apparatus using hardware dedicated to authentication. This technique, however, has a problem associated with cost since dedicated hardware is necessary. Furthermore, as a method of realizing device authentication, a method of performing client authentication using a client certificate and a key pair unique to a device is plausible.
However, there may be a risk even if client authentication is performed using a client certificate and a key pair unique to a device. For example, when both a client certificate and a key pair unique to a device, which are used in authentication, are stolen and attached to another device, the device can undesirably access the cloud server.

Information processing apparatus, server, method for controlling the same and storage medium


A semiconductor memory device includes memory cells, word lines, a driver circuit, and a control circuit. The driver circuit repeats a programming operation of selecting any one of the word lines, of applying a first voltage to selected one of the word lines, and of applying a second voltage to unselected one of the word lines, to write data to selected one of the memory cells connected to the selected one of the word lines. The control circuit, while the driver circuit is repeating the programming operation, steps up the first voltage and keeps the second voltage constant until the first voltage reaches a first threshold. The control circuit steps up the second voltage after the first voltage has reached the first threshold.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor memory device including a stacked gate having a charge accumulation layer and a control gate, and a method of writing data to the semiconductor memory device. The present invention relates to, for example, a technique for preventing erroneous writing to a NAND flash memory.
2. Description of the Related Art
NAND flash memories are conventionally known as nonvolatile semiconductor memories. For the NAND flash memory, a self-boost scheme is commonly used which increases the channel potential of a write inhibited cell through coupling to a gate potential to prevent electrons from being injected into a charge accumulation layer in the cell.
In this case, a program voltage is applied to a selected word line a plurality of times so as to be stepped up for every application. Thus, to prevent an increase in a difference between the channel potential and gate potential of the write inhibited cell, a known technique also steps up a voltage applied to unselected word lines. Such a technique is disclosed in, for example, Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 8-96591.
However, the above-described technique may disadvantageously excessively increase the voltage applied to the unselected word lines, resulting in erroneously write to memory cells connected to the unselected word lines.

Semiconductor memory device including stacked gate having charge accumulation layer and control gate and method of writing data to semiconductor memory device


The invention relates to carboxamide derivatives as defined in the specification and claims, to a process for their preparation, to pharmaceutical compositions comprising them and to their use as mGluR1 enhancers in the treatment and prevention of neurological disorders and diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease and dementia.

In the central nervous system (CNS) the transmission of stimuli takes place by the interaction of a neurotransmitter, which is sent out by a neuron, with a neuroreceptor. L-glutamic acid, the most commonly occurring neurotransmitter in the CNS, plays a critical role in a large number of physiological processes. The glutamate-dependent stimulus receptors are divided into two main groups. The first main group forms ligand-controlled ion channels. The metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs) belong to the second main group and, furthermore, belong to the family of G-protein-coupled receptors. At present, eight different members of these mGluRs' are known and of these some even have sub-types. On the basis of structural parameters, the different second messenger signaling pathways and the different affinity to low-molecular weight chemical compounds, these eight receptors can be sub-divided into three sub-groups: mGluR1 and mGluR5 belong to group I, mGluR2 and mGluR3 belong to group II and mGluR4, mGluR6, mGluR7 and mGluR8 belong to group III. Ligands of metabotropic glutamate receptors belonging to the first group can be used for the treatment or prevention of acute and/or chronic neurological disorders such as psychosis, schizophrenia, Alzheimer's disease, cognitive disorders and memory deficits, as well as chronic and acute pain. Other treatable indications in this connection are restricted brain function caused by bypass operations or transplants, poor blood supply to the brain, spinal cord injuries, head injuries, hypoxia caused by pregnancy, cardiac arrest and hypoglycaemia. Further treatable indications are Huntington's chorea, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), dementia caused by AIDS, eye injuries, retinopathy, idiopathic parkinsonism or parkinsonism caused by medicaments as well as conditions which lead to glutamate-deficiency functions, such as e.g. muscle spasms, convulsions, migraine, urinary incontinence, nicotine addiction, opiate addiction, anxiety, vomiting, dyskinesia and depression. Indications which are potentially treatable with mGluR1 agonists include Alzheimer's disease, cognitive disorders and memory deficits, Huntington's chorea, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and dementia.
Selective positive allosteric modulators (enhancers) of mGlu1 receptors are compounds which do not directly activate mGlu1 receptors by themselves, but binding of these compounds increase the affinity of a glutamate-site agonist at its extracellular N-terminal binding site. Positive allosteric modulation is an attractive mechanism for enhancing appropriate physiological receptor activation, and the results obtained in cerebellar slices strongly suggest that mGluR1 enhancers can modulate physiological mGlu1 activity in the brain [Knoflach et al., Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA 98:13402–13407 (2001)] by increasing the affinity of a glutamate-site agonist at its extracellular N-terminal binding site. Selective mGluR1 enhancers therefore possess important therapeutic utility and their discovery opens the possibility for therapeutically relevant positive modulation of mGlu1 receptors.


The present invention describes a mutant human tissue factor protein which binds functional Factor VII/VIIa but is substantially free of functional procoagulant cofactor activity, and compositions containing the mutant protein. Also disclosed are methods for using the mutant human tissue factor proteins, and recombinant DNA vectors for expressing the protein.

Based on a common folding pattern, proteins may be assigned to fewer than 1000 protein families (Chothia, Nature, 357:543-544 (1992) and Gonnet et al., Science, 256:1443-1445 (1992). Despite the conservation of overall structure, these families of proteins are often characterized by a large repertoire of specificities, as demonstrated, for example, by the immunoglobulin superfamily. Protein-modules are the building blocks which are conserved within a protein family. Among the receptors for various growth and differentiation regulating hormones, structural predictive algorithms identified a common protein motif, now referred to as the cytokine receptor homology domain as described by Bazan, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 87:6934-6938 (1990) and Thoreau et al., FEBS Lett., 282:26-31 (1991). This domain consists of a pair of structurally similar modules which were proposed to adopt a seven .beta.-strand fold with similarity (Bazan, supra and Patthy, Cell, 61:13-14 (1990) to the domain 2 of CD4 [Wang et al., Nature, 348:411-418 (1990) and Ryu et al., Nature, 348:419-426 (1990)] and to the fibronectin type III repeats [Main et al., Cell, 71:671-678 (1992)]. Experimental support for the proposed structure of the cytokine receptor homology domain was provided by the crystallographic solution of the three dimensional structure of the growth hormone receptor (GHR), a member of this receptor family as described by De Vos et al., Science, 255:306-312 (1992).
Tissue factor (TF) has been predicted to be a distant member of the cytokine receptor family, with structural similarity closer to the interferon receptors [Bazan, supra, and Edgington et al., Thrombosis and Haemostasis, 66:67-79 (1991)] than to the receptors for growth hormone, erythropoietin, colony stimulating factors or several of the interleukins. TF initiates the blood coagulation cascades [Davie et al., Biochem., 30:10363-10370 (1991)] by binding of its ligand, the serine protease Factor VIIa (VIIa) resulting in the formation of a catalytically active enzyme-cofactor complex as described by Edgington et al., supra. In addition, TF serves as a mediator for the auto-activation of VII to VIIa as described by Nakagaki et al., Biochem., 30:10819-10824 (1991).
Upon assembly with TF, VIIa exhibits enhanced catalytic activity evidenced by hydrolysis of small peptidyl [Ruf et al., J. Biol. Chem., 266: 2158-2166, (1991); and Lawson et al., J. Biol. Chem., 267: 4834-4843, (1992)] as well as protein substrates [Ruf et al., J. Biol. Chem., 266: 2158-2166, (1991); and Silverberg et al., J. Biol. Chem., 252: 8481-8488, (1977); Osterud et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., USA, 74: 5260-5264, (1977); Bom et al., Biochem J., 265: 327-336, (1990); and Lawson et al., J. Biol. Chem., 266: 11317-11327, (1991)]. Cleavage of small peptidyl substrates is efficient with micromolar concentrations of the divalent cation, calcium, Ca.sup.2+, whereas, the activation of macromolecular substrates such as the zymogen Factor X (X) require the presence of Ca.sup.2+ at concentrations consistent with saturation of the gamma-carboxylated amino-terminal domain of VIIa [Ruf et al., J. Biol. Chem., 266: 15719-15725, (1991)].
By serving as a cell surface receptor for a protease, TF does not follow the functional paradigm of this receptor family which is characterized by binding of growth and differentiation regulating hormones. Nevertheless, ligand binding by TF is mediated entirely by the structurally conserved extracellular domain [Ruf et al., J. Biol. Chem., 266:2158-2166 (1991) and Ruf et al., J. Biol. Chem., 266:15719-15725 (1991)], as observed for other cytokine receptors as described by De Vos, supra, and Fukunaga et al., EMBO J., 10:2855-2865 (1991).
The assembly of VIIa with its receptor TF results in the formation of a proteolytically competent enzyme-cofactor complex. In order to define the structure which mediates TF function, a combination of antibody, chemical cross-linking and mutational analysis has been applied. See, Ruf et al., Biochem. J., 278:729-733 (1991); Rehemtulla et al., J. Biol. Chem., 266:10294-10299 (1991); Rehemtulla et al., Biochem. J., 282:737-740 (1992); Ruf et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 88:8430-8434 (1991); Ruf et al., J. Biol. Chem., 267:6375-6381 (1992); and Ruf et al., J. Biol. Chem., 267:22206-22210 (1992).
As described in the latter reference, a discrete functional region in the carboxyl (C) module of the TF extracellular domain has been extensively characterized by scanning alanine mutagenesis. The detailed analysis of these mutants in the amino acid residue sequence from positions 157-168 demonstrated that residues contributing to function were neither required for high affinity binding of VIIa nor for the enhanced catalytic efficiency of the bound VIIa to hydrolyze small peptidyl substrates. Rather, residues in this particular region specifically contributed to efficient cleavage of the macromolecular substrate Factor X, indicating the existence of functionally important substrate-cofactor interactions.
Based on comparison with GHR and cytokine homology domain, previous studies have implicated the structural modules of TF as the region required for VIIa ligand binding. Sequence-specific antibodies raised against peptides corresponding to residues 40-71 of TF (C.sub.N -C'.sub.N - and E.sub.N -F.sub.N -loops) inhibited binding of VIIa to TF as described by Ruf et al., Biochem. J., 278:729-733 (1991). Monoclonal antibodies that completely blocked binding of VIIa have further been assigned to an epitope in the carboxyl aspect of the residue 1-83 sequence. Spatial proximity of residues 44-84 to ligand was further demonstrated by chemical cross-linking to VIIa after complex formation as described by Ruf et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., USA, 88:8430-8434 (1991). Antibodies to the amino acid residues at positions 94-121 of TF that encompass the inter-module junction have been shown to inhibit the binding of ligand [Ruf et al., Biochem. J., 278:729-733 (1991)], and the B.sub.C -C.sub.C -loop has been identified as a major cross-linking site in the carboxyl module of TF [Ruf et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., USA, 88:8430-8434 (1991)]. The F.sub.C -G.sub.C -loop connects two .beta.-strands that connected by disulfide bonds of two cysteine (Cys) residues in the C-module of TF. Mutational exchange of these Cys residues by Ser results in a mutant protein with diminished affinity for VIIa, consistent with a contribution of the F.sub.C -G.sub.C -loop to binding of ligand as described by Rehemtulla et al., J. Biol. Chem., 266:10294-10299 (1991).
Roy et al., J. Biol. Chem., 266:22063-22066 (1991), and Ruf et al., J. Biol. Chem., 267:6375-6382 (1991), each described TF mutants having alanine residues substituted into residue positions 165 and 166 in place of the normal human TF amino acid residues at these two positions. In these two mutants, the TF was observed to bind Factor VIIa but exhibit reduced Factor X activation, indicating that positions 165 and 166 are important for Factor X activation activity but not for ligand binding in recombinant TF proteins.
While these antibody, cross-linking and disruptive mutational analyses concordantly implicate both of the structural modules of TF in the high affinity binding of the ligand VIIa, very limited information regarding the requirements for Factor X cleavage activity is available and further the specific TF amino acid residues required for the binding of ligand have yet to be identified. The overall topographical assignment of functional and non-functional regions of TF had not been determined prior to this invention.

Human mutant tissue factor compositions useful as tissue factor antagonists


The present invention involves demodulation of radio signals modulated with M-ary modulation in the presence of intersymbol interference distortion. The invention presents a method for reducing the number of multiplications needed to implement a maximum-likelihood-sequence-estimation (MLSE) equalizer for signals modulated with M-ary modulation. In exemplary embodiments of the present invention, the number of multiplications is reduced by pre-computing certain values needed for the determination of the branch metric and storing these pre-computed values in a product table. When a branch metric computation is to be made, whether it is an Euclidean branch metric computation or an Ungerboeck branch metric computation, certain multiplication operations are replaced by simple table look-up operations. As a result, the power efficiency and speed of the system are increased. Any receiver that demodulates signals that are modulated with M-ary modulation can be implemented using the present invention. The resulting demodulator will have a lower complexity than existing demodulators.

Digital wireless communication systems are used to convey a variety of information between multiple locations. With digital communications, information is translated into a digital or binary form, referred to as bits, for communication purposes. The transmitter maps this bit stream into a modulated symbol stream, which is detected at the digital receiver and mapped back into bits and information.
In digital communications, the radio environment presents many difficulties that impede successful communications. One difficulty is that the signal level can fade because the signal may travel in multiple paths. As a result, signal images may arrive at the receiver antenna out of phase. This type of fading is commonly referred to as Rayleigh fading or fast fading. When the signal fades, the signal-to-noise ratio becomes lower, causing degradation in the quality of the communication link.
A second problem occurs when the multiple signal paths are much different in length. In this case, time dispersion occurs, in which multiple fading signal images arrive at the receiver antenna at different times, thus giving rise to signal echoes or rays. This causes intersymbol interference (ISI), where the echoes of one symbol interfere with subsequent symbols.
At the receiver, coherent demodulation is desirable, since it provides the best performance. This requires knowledge of the multipath channel. In many wireless applications, this channel is time-varying, due to transmitter motion, receiver motion, and/or scatterer motion. Thus, there is a need to track a time varying multipath channel.
To provide coherent demodulation of multipath signals, a maximum-likelihood-sequence-estimation (MLSE) equalizer may be employed. Such an equalizer considers various hypotheses for the transmitted symbol sequence, and with a model of the dispersive channel, determines which hypothesis best fits the received data. This is efficiently realized using the Viterbi algorithm. This equalization technique is well known to those skilled in the art, and can be found in J. C. Proakis, Digital Communications, 1989.
The conventional MLSE equalizer can be explained by a simple example. Suppose the transmitter transmits a symbol stream s(n), which takes on values "+B" or "−B" corresponding to bit values 0 or 1, respectively. This stream is modulated using binary-shift keying (BPSK). At the receiver, the received signal is filtered, amplified, and mixed down using the I and Q carriers, then sampled once every symbol period (T), giving a received signal stream r(n). In this example, the intervening channel consists of two rays, a main ray and an echo, where the echo arrives T seconds later and T is the symbol period. Then the received signal can be modeled asr(n)=c0s(n)+c1s(n−1)+η(n),  (1)where c0 and c1 are complex channel tap values and η(n) is additive noise or interference.
In the MLSE equalizer, at iteration n, there would be two different previous "states," 0 and 1, corresponding to the two possible values for the previous symbols:
1. s(n−1)=B  Previous State=0
2. s(n−1)=−B  Previous State=1.
Associated with each previous state there would be an accumulated metric, accumulated from previous iterations, giving rise to accumulated metrics A0(n−1) and A1 (n−1) for previous state 0 and previous state 1, respectively.
There would also be two current states corresponding to two possible values for s(n). Each possible pairing of a previous state with a current state corresponds to a hypothetical sequence {sh(n−1), sh(n)}. For each of these hypotheses, there will be a corresponding hypothesized received signal value at time n:rh(n)=c0sh(n)+c1sh(n−1)  (2)Furthermore, for each of these hypotheses, there will be a corresponding "branch" metric given byMh(n)=|r(n)−rh(n)|2.  (3)
In the example, there are four possible hypothetical sequences which can be denoted by hε{00, 01, 10, 11}, as illustrated in Table 1.
TABLE 1Naming Convention for StatesPrevious StateCurrent Stateh0(B) 0(B) 001(−B)0(B) 100(B) 1(−B)011(−B)1(−B)11
The candidate metrics for each possible current state would be the sum of the corresponding-branch metrics and the previously accumulated metric associated with sh(n−1). For each current state, there are two possible previous states. For each current state, the previous state which gives the smallest candidate metric is selected as the predecessor state, and the candidate metric becomes the accumulated metric for that current state.
Thus, for current state 0 (i.e., s(n)=B), there will be two hypothetical sequences {sh(n−1)=B, sh(n)=B} or {sh(n−1)=−B, sh(n)=B}, denoted by hypotheses h=00 and h=10. This gives rise to two candidate metrics for current state 0:C00(n)=A0(n−1)+M00(n)  (4)C10(n)=A1(n−1)+M10(n).  (5)The smaller of these two candidate metrics gives the accumulated metric for current state 0. The corresponding previous state becomes the predecessor state to state 0 at time n:
1. If C10(n)<C00(n), A0(n)=C10(n)
2. If C00(n)<C10(n), A0(n)=C00(n)
A similar procedure is applied to current state 1 (i.e., s(n)=−B), in which case the two hypotheses are h=01 and h=11.
For each n, four hypothesized received signal values must be computed according to equation (2). Computing each hypothesized value rh(n) involves two multiplication operations. Each of these multiplication operations involves the product of one of the channel taps and a hypothetical symbol value.
If B is set to +1, the multiplications become simply sign changes. However, if amplitude modulation is used, this is not possible. Also, suppose symbol values can be normalized to
      {          ⅇ              j                                      2                                                                          π                    8                        l              }        l    =    0    7(i.e., 8PSK modulation). In this case, the necessary multiplications can not be implemented as simple sign changes.
One way to increase the throughput over a digital channel is to allow each transmitted symbol to take on more than two values. In general, each symbol might be chosen from a set of M possible values {B1, B2, . . . , BM} thereby increasing the number of bits per symbol. The complexity of the conventional implementation of the MLSE equalizer increases exponentially with the number of allowed symbols (i.e., with M). Specifically, with "L" channel taps, the number of multiplications needed for the conventional implementation of the equalizer is proportional (proportionality constant greater than one) to ML-1.
Even with moderate values for M and L (e.g., 8 and 5 respectively), it is impractical to implement the equalizer in grand purpose DSPs with low power consumption. The trend in power sensitive applications is to move away from DSPs toward ASICs. ASICs can be optimized for performing one task with low power consumption and small size (i.e., small gate count). Implementing multipliers in an ASIC is much more expensive (in terms of power consumption and gate count) than implementing circuits for addition or subtraction. Therefore, it is highly desirable to avoid many of the multiplications associated with the conventional implementation of MLSE equalizers.
Because of the trend toward increasing the number of required multiplication operations and due to the fact that technology is moving away from DSPs, where multiplication operations are easy, toward ASICs, where multiplications are relatively expensive, it is desirable to reduce the number of multiplications actually performed by the MLSE.

Reduced complexity MLSE equalizer for M-ary modulated signals


An illuminating device includes a light source including a light-emitting element, an electrode electrically connected to the light-emitting element, and a heat radiation terminal electrically isolated from the light-emitting element; and a multilayer substrate including a plurality of insulating layers, a plurality of metal layers, an electrically conducting interlayer contact portion, and a heat-conducting interlayer contact portion. The insulating layers include all insulating layer having a mount surface on which the light source is mounted with the electrode and the heat radiation terminal therebetween. The metal layers include an electrically conducting metal layer electrically connected to the electrode and disposed so as to be separated from the light source by the insulating layer having the mount surface and an electrically isolated metal layer electrically isolated from the other metal layers and disposed most distant from the mount surface of all the metal layers. The electrically conducting interlayer contact portion electrically connects the electrode to the electrically conducting metal layer. The heat-conducting interlayer contact portion connects the heat radiation terminal to the electrically isolated metal layer.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an illuminating device suitably used in electro-optic devices.
2. Related Art
Liquid crystal devices, which are a type of electro-optic device, have a backlight at the rear side of the liquid crystal display panel for transmissively displaying images. In general, the backlight is a illuminating device including a light source, such as an LED (light emitting diode), and an optical waveguide allowing the rear surface of the liquid crystal display panel to be irradiated two-dimensionally with light emitted from the light source. A main type of backlight has a light source at an end surface of the optical waveguide and is, thus, called "edge light type".
In particular, vehicle-mounted backlights are larger than portable backlights and require high brightness. However, the LED used as the light source in known portable backlights has low luminous energy and inferior in reliability. Such an LED is not suitable as the light source of the vehicle-mounted backlight. Accordingly, the vehicle-mounted backlight uses as the light source a power LED (hereinafter LED referred to as power LED) that can use a high making current and consequently emit light with high brightness.
Unfortunately, as the making current is increased, the junction temperature of the LED is increased. Consequently the characteristics of the LED are varied and the reliability is degraded. In order to lower the junction temperature, the backlight requires a structure for releasing heat generated from the LED.
Illuminating devices or the like having a structure for releasing heat have been disclosed in, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication Nos. 2004-186004, 2005-283852 and 2002-162626 and Japanese Registered Utility Model No. 3098463. In the illuminating device disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-186004, the LED light source is provided so that heat is conducted to the metal chassis. Consequently, the heat generated from the LED light source is released by heat conduction to the metal chassis, so that the increase of the LED light source temperature can be prevented. Thus, thermal breakage and breaking of wire can be prevented.
Japanese Registered Utility Model No. 3098463 has disclosed a heat radiator for a backlight-including LCD in winch a metal substrate connected to the LED is bonded to a metal housing case with a heat-conductive adhesive. In this structure, heat generated from the LED is absorbed by the metal substrate and immediately conducted to the metal housing. The metal housing case evenly releases the heat from the surface so that the LCD does not retain the heat.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2005-283852 has disclosed a liquid crystal display device. In this device, an LED chip is bonded to a mounting metal film of an LED-mounting substrate with an adhesive, and the mounting metal film and a metal film pattern formed on the chip mount surface are connected to a heat radiation metal film at the rear surface side of the substrate through a metal through hole. Consequently, heat generated at the chip mount surface of the LED-mounting substrate when the LED chip lights up is conducted to the heat radiation metal film from the mounting metal film and the metal film pattern through the metal through hole, and thus the increase of LED chip temperature can be prevented.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2002-162626 has disclosed a light source for liquid crystal display. In the heat radiator of this light source, a plurality of LEDs are mounted on a film substrate with a wiring pattern. The rear surface of the film substrate is bonded to a metal support frame with a heat-conductive adhesive. In addition, communicating holes are formed in the film substrate and the support frame corresponding to the LEDs so as to avoid lands, and the holes are filled with a highly heat-conductive adhesive filler. Thus, heat from the light source chip is conducted to the film substrate mainly through the heat-conductive adhesive filler and released. The heat conducted to the film substrate is further conducted to the support frame and released. Thus, the radiator can release the heat from the light source effectively.
However, the above-mentioned Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-186004 disclosing an illuminating device and Japanese Registered Utility Model No. 3098463 disclosing a heat radiator for backlight-including LCDs do not describe the heat radiation route from the heat source, or the LED light source, and they do not necessarily provide optimal heat radiation structures.
Although Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2005-283852 disclosing a liquid crystal display device and Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2002-162626 disclosing a heat radiator of a light source for liquid crystal display describe the heat radiation route from the LED light source, the insulation between the mounting substrate and the metal case or between the film substrate and the frame is not taken into account sufficiently and is not ensured accordingly.
In particular, the liquid crystal display device of Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2005-283852 has a complicated heat radiation structure in, for example, the mounting substrate and is accordingly difficult to mass-produce. In this liquid crystal display device, the mounting metal film and metal film pattern for heat radiation and the LED chip-driving metal wire are formed on one surface of the mounting substrate. Therefore, if the areas of the mounting metal film and the metal film pattern are increased from the viewpoint of heat radiation, it becomes difficult to route the driving metal wire and the conductivity is degraded. If the driving metal wire is routed while the areas of the mounting metal film and the metal film pattern are increased, the width of the mounting substrate is disadvantageously increased. In contrast, if the areas of the mounting metal film and the metal film pattern are reduced for ease of wire routing, the heat radiation performance is undesirably degraded.

Illuminating device, electro-optic device, and electronic apparatus


The invention provides marking apparatus for a fire hydrant or other utilities fixtures comprising a mast-holding bracket comprising a hollow pipe, means for removably securing the pipe to the fire hydrant or other utilities fixtures and an elongated mast removably received in the hollow pipe, the mast comprising a solid cylindrical flexible core and a flexible outer shell for mounting on the core, further comprising fastening means for securing the mast to the pipe. The apparatus can be attached to the outlet of a fire hydrant, the hole for the lifting bolt of a transformer or to a junction box, or as part of a concrete pedestal.

In climates where there is significant snowfall, it is important to be able to locate important utilities such as fire hydrants which become buried in snow. Various devices are used to mark such utilities with something which will be visible above the snow. Examples of such devices are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,044,435; 4,478,169; and 4,908,249. These may involve an elongated mast, flag or pole which is secured to the hydrant flange. Due to the attachment to the hydrant flange, the mast, flag or pole must be pivotable or bendable so it can be moved out of the way to attach a hose to the hydrant. Some devices have the mast mounted on a fixed bracket which pivots and others are spring mounted, which reduces the durability of the device and adds cost. Further such devices are not readily adaptable to other types of utilities such as junction boxes and transformers.
The foregoing examples of the related art and limitations related thereto are intended to be illustrative and not exclusive. Other limitations of the related art will become apparent to those of skill in the art upon a reading of the specification and a study of the drawings.

Snow marker for fire hydrants and other utilities


A method according to one embodiment includes the operations of loading binary code comprising a top level task into memory on a first processor, the top level task having an associated range; determining if the top level task is divisible into a plurality of sub-tasks based on the range; for each of the sub-tasks, determining if a given sub-task is divisible into a plurality of sub-sub-tasks; and if the given sub-task is indivisible, executing the given sub-task; otherwise, if the given sub-task is divisible, dividing the given sub-task into the plurality of sub-sub-tasks.

On computer systems with multiple processors, parallel processing may enable a reduction in the time required to perform a task by distributing the workload associated with that task among the processors. In programs that utilize loop-based or recursive parallelism to increase performance in this manner, there exists a conflict between the need to decrease overhead associated with work decomposition and distribution across multiple processors, versus the desire to increase potential parallelism for improved load balancing and utilization of the processors. This conflict is often resolved by selection of a grain size, which is a lower bound on the amount of work that could benefit from parallelism. The grain size is a cut-off point that limits the number of sub-divisions that will be applied to a task.
There are a number of limitations to this approach, however. It may be difficult to choose an appropriate grain size, and the optimal level of granularity may vary between tasks and even within a given task. If workload is misbalanced across a task, a small grain size that may be efficient for sub-tasks with significant work can cause excessive overhead for other sub-tasks with less work. Alternatively, larger grain sizes suitable for sub-tasks with lighter workloads can result in overloading of the sub-tasks with greater workloads, load imbalance and underutilization of processing resources.
Although the following Detailed Description will proceed with reference being made to illustrative embodiments, many alternatives, modifications, and variations thereof will be apparent to those skilled in the art.

Method and system for work partitioning between processors with work demand feedback


A monoclonal antibody for human acid glutathion S-transferase. This monoclonal antibody can be utilized as a diagnostic for cancers such as cancer of liver, gastric cancer, and cancer of the blood.

GST is known as a detoxicating enzyme which catalyzes the conjugation (reaction) of various substances, which enter into an organism, or analogous substances (hereinafter referred to as substrates) which are produced in vivo, with glutathione of reduced type. Many of the substrates react with the in vivo protein or nucleic acid to cause a change to a morbid state (for instance, carcinogenesis) but the reactivity of these substrates are neutralized by said conjugation to be transformed into more water-soluble products and metabolized in the liver, etc. and finally excreted out of the body.
GST is found existing in various kinds of living species inclusive of mammals and is especially contained in considerable quantities in the liver, spleen, kidney, lung, brain, skeletal muscles, placenta, and small intestine, and also found in the skin, red blood cell, and white blood corpuscule though very small in amount. GST generally comprises various types of enzymes and is not only specific to species but also specific to the internal organs and tissues.
In the case of a human being, basic GST and acid GST are known (see The Journal of Biological Chemistry, vol. 259, No. 20, pp. 12,444-12,448 and pp. 12,449-12,455 (1984)). Basic GST has the isoelectric point (pI) of 7-9 and consists of two subunits, each subunit having a molecular weight of about 23,000. Acid GST has the isoelectric point (pI) of 4-5 and consists of two subunits, each subunit having a molecular weight of about 22,000. Basic GST exists mainly in the liver of a healthy normal adult and also in other places such as kidney, testicle, small intestine, brain, and lung though less in amount. While acid GST scarcely exists in the liver of a healthy normal adult but found existing in the liver of a newborn baby, placenta, such proliferous cells as liver cancer cells, stomach cancer cells, etc., red blood cell, and white blood corpuscule. Since acid GST produced by the proliferous cells is extricated out of the site of its production into the blood, it has possibilities of being utilized as a tumor marker highly specific to such digestive system cancers as liver cancer, stomach cancer, colon cancer, esophagus cancer, and cancer of the pancreas, and such blood tumors as cancer of the blood and lymphocytoma.

Monoclonal antibody for human acid-glutathione S-transferase and process for preparation thereof