A new and distinct cultivar of Hosta plant named ‘MonLisa’, characterized by its medium-sized plant with uniformly mounding plant habit; vigorous growth habit; medium bluish green-colored leaves with wide creamy white-colored borders; pale lavender-colored flowers positioned on strong peduncles; and good garden performance.

The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Hosta plant, botanically known as Hosta tardiana and hereinafter referred to by the name 'MonLisa'.
The new Hosta plant is a naturally-occurring whole plant mutation of the Hosta tardiana 'Halcyon', not patented. The new Hosta plant was discovered and selected by the Inventor in a controlled nursery environment in Dayton, Oreg. in 2010.
Asexual reproduction of the new Hosta plant by tissue culture in a controlled environment in Dayton, Oreg. since 2010 has shown that the unique features of this new Hosta plant are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.


A pipe joint includes a soft pipe, a hard pipe and a sleeve. The hard pipe includes an insert portion inserted into an inside of the soft pipe from an end portion of the soft pipe. The sleeve is arranged radially outside of the insert portion and the soft pipe, and presses the soft pipe toward the insert portion. The insert portion includes a corrugated surface, which is arranged on an outer surface of the insert portion, and a column surface, which is arranged on the outer surface at a tip side of the insert portion. The sleeve includes a first small diameter portion, which is arranged radially outside of the corrugated surface and presses the soft pipe toward the corrugated surface, and a second small diameter portion arranged radially outside of the column surface and presses the soft pipe toward the column surface.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a pipe joint.
2. Description of Related Art
A pipe joint that connects a rubber tube and a metal pipe has been known. For instance, JP 11-311384A, JP 4-18791U, JP 5-1793A and JP 2007-321857A teach a technique of the pipe joint provided with a corrugated surface, which has a plurality of annular grooves and annular projects at an outer peripheral wall surface of the metal pipe. In the pipe joint, the metal pipe is radially inwardly inserted and placed in the rubber tube, and a metal sleeve is placed outside of the rubber tube. Furthermore, the rubber tube is pressed and fitted to the corrugated surface in a manner where a small diameter portion, i.e., a pressed portion, is provided by deforming the sleeve radially inside. In the above structure, it is limited that the rubber tube is separated from the metal pipe, by the combination of the corrugated surface of the metal tube and the small diameter portion of the sleeve.
According to the conventional structure, the sleeve has one or more small diameter portions. The small diameter portions are only located radially outside of the corrugated surface, since the small diameter portions are provided to press the rubber tube to the corrugated surface.
However, in the conventional structure, the corrugated surface is formed adjacent to an end portion of the metal pipe. Therefore, stress concentration may occur at the rubber tube of the end portion of the metal pipe.
Specifically, in a case of the pipe joint recited in JP 2007-321857A, the stress concentration may occur in the rubber tube at the end portion of the metal pipe, since the small diameter portion of the sleeve is placed adjacent to the end portion of the metal pipe.
Furthermore, in JP 11-311384A and JP 4-18791 U, a straight pipe portion that has a predetermined length is formed at the end portion of the metal pipe. However, in the above described structure, the body size of a pipe joint will possibly be large.


A method of efficiently extracting the pull-in parameters of an electrostatically activated actuator. The actuator is modeled as an elastic element. For each of a plurality of deformations of the elastic element, a corresponding voltage is calculated. The highest such voltage is the pull-in voltage of the actuator. The corresponding deformation is the pull-in deformation of the actuator. Each deformation is defined by fixing a displacement of one degree of freedom of the elastic body and calculating corresponding equilibrium displacements of all the other degrees of freedom without the application of any external mechanical forces to ensure equilibrium. The actuator is altered to optimize whichever pull-in parameter is relevant to the desired application of the actuator.

The present invention relates to Microelectromechanical (MEMS) devices and, more particularly, to an efficient method for extracting the pull-in instability parameters of electrostatically actuated MEMS devices.
Electrostatic actuation is widely used in MEMS devices to deform elastic elements. The electromechanical response of these actuators may exhibit an inherent instability, shown as the pull-in phenomenon. A voltage difference is applied across the electrodes of an actuator to generate an electrostatic force that tends to reduce the gap between the electrodes. For a sufficiently low voltage, the electrostatic force is balanced by an elastic restoring force. In this stable state the gap between the electrodes is inversely proportional to the applied voltage. Above a certain voltage, the electrostatic force is larger than the restoring elastic force for any deformation. As a result, the actuator is unstable and the gap between the two electrodes rapidly vanishes. The voltage and deformation at the onset of instability are termed pull-in voltage and pull-in deformation, or in short the pull-in parameters of the actuator.
Characterization of the pull-in parameters is important when designing electrostatically actuated micromachined devices. In switching applications, either optical (Hornbeck, U.S. Pat. No. 5,061,049) or electrical (C. T. C. Nguen et al., "Micromachined devices for wireless communications", Proc. IEEE vol. 86 no. 8 pp. 1756-1768 (August 1998)), the pull-in voltage is minimized to obtain optimal performance. In analog scanning micromirror applications (D. L. Dickensheets and R. G. Kino, "Silicon-micromachined scanning confocal optical microscope", JMEMS vol. 7 no. 1 pp. 38-47 (March 1998)), the travel range of the actuator is important and therefore the pull-in deformation should be maximized. Modeling tools that can simulate the nonlinear electromechanical response and extract the pull-in parameters of electrostatic actuators arc therefore of great importance. To enable an accurate determination of optimal material and geometrical parameters of actuators, these modeling tools should be based on accurate and efficient calculations.
Several approaches for extracting the pull-in parameters have been reported in the technical literature (P. Osterberg et al., "Self-consistent simulation and modeling of electrostatically deformed diaphragm", Proc. IEEE MEMS 94, Oiso, pp. 28-32 (January 1994); S. D. Senturia, "CAD challenges for microsensors, microactuators and Microsystems", Proc. IEEE vol. 86 no. 8 pp. 1611-1626 (1998)) and have been implemented in MEMS CAD tools that are available commercially, for example from Coventor, Inc. of Cary N.C. USA and from Corning Intellisense of Wilmington Mass. USA. Approximate analytical models have been suggested for electrostatic actuators (Y. Nemirovsky and O. Degani, "A methodology and model for the pull-in parameters of electrostatic actuators", JMEMS vol. 10 no. 4 pp. 601-605 (December 2001): also see S. D. Senturia, Microsystem Design, Kluwer Academic Press, Boston, 2001). These models yield fast results but are limited to actuators with very few degrees of freedom. To accurately calculate the pull-in parameters of general deformable elements, such as beam and plate actuators, that have (in the continuum limit) an infinite number of degrees of freedom, a more general approach has been suggested (E. K. Chan et al., "Characterization of contact electromechanics through capacitance-voltage measurements and simulations", JMEMS vol. 8 no. 2 pp. 208-217 (June 1999); R. K. Gupta, Electrostatic Pull-In Test Structure Design for In-Situ Mechanical Property Measurements of Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS), PhD Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, June 1997). In this approach, which is referred to herein as the voltage-iteration (VI) method, the electromechanical response of the actuator is numerically simulated by fixing the applied voltage. The pull-in parameters are calculated by iteratively approaching the pull-in voltage with decreasing voltage increments. This algorithm has been implemented in a finite-difference scheme and in coupled finite-elements (FEM) and boundary-elements (BEM) scheme. See Osterberg et al., and also M. Fischer et al., "electrostatically deflectable polysilicon micromirrors—dynamic behaviour and comparison with results from FEM modeling with ANSYS, Sensors and Actuators A vol. 67 pp. 89-95 (1998).
A typical static equilibrium curve of an electrostatic actuator is schematically depicted in FIG. 1. The convex function describes the applied voltage as function of a representative parameter of the actuator deformation, for example, the displacement of the center of a clamped-clamped beam. For deformations smaller than the pull-in deformation, the static equilibrium state is stable (solid line). In contrast, for deformations larger than the pull-in deformation the static equilibrium state is unstable (dashed line).
Two aspects of the physical response of electrostatic actuators are apparent in FIG. 1. First, the voltage is a unique function of the deformation, whereas the deformation is not a unique function of the voltage. Second, the maximal deformation can be trivially estimated, as it is bounded from above by the gap between the electrodes. In contrast, the maximal voltage cannot be estimated a priori.
In the VI algorithm, the pull-in voltage is approached iteratively. At each iteration, the static equilibrium deformation is calculated for an applied voltage. This calculation can be carried out by a relaxation method, a Newton-Raphson method, or a host of other numerical schemes. If the deformation calculation converges, it is concluded that the applied voltage is below the pull-in value. On the other hand, if the calculated deformation fails to converge it is concluded that the applied voltage is higher than the pull-in value. Several methods have been employed in the references cited above to establish whether the deformation calculation converges. The interval between these two limits is continuously decreased until the voltage interval is smaller than a predetermined accuracy. The iterations are represented by the set of horizontal dashed lines in FIG. 1. It can easily be seen that not all the horizontal lines cross the equilibrium curve, and therefore not all lines are associated with equilibrium states.
FIG. 2 is a flow chart of the VI algorithm. In block 102, an initial trial value of an applied voltage V is selected. In block 104, an attempt is made to calculate the deformation corresponding to the present value of V. If the deformation calculation does not converge (block 106), then V is decreased (block 108) and the deformation calculation is attempted again in block 104. If the deformation calculation does converge (block 106), and V is less than its previously established upper bound by less than a predetermined accuracy (block 110) then the present value of V is taken as an estimate of the pull-in voltage (block 114). Otherwise, V is increased (block 112) and the deformation calculation is attempted again in block 104.
The main advantage of the VI algorithm is its simplicity and ease of integration into commercial CAD tools. For any applied voltage, the electro-elastic problem is solved by iteratively solving uncoupled electrostatic and elastic problems. It is therefore easy to implement this algorithm by sequentially employing existing numerical codes for each of these problems.

Efficient method of extracting the pull-in parameters of an electrostatically activated MEMS device for the purpose of designing the device

Technion Research and Development Foundation Ltd.


A method for formation of both local innerconnection and silicidation of source/drain transistors using the deposition of a blanket silicon layer over the entire top surface of the transistors and selectively stripping of unwanted portions of the silicon layer is disclosed. The method includes the step of applying a photoresist mask to map out where the local interconnection and source/drain are to be located. The final recited step is to deposit a thin metal layer to provide for the silicidation to complete the transistor. The silicon layer that is deposited has a thickness of 20 to 300 millimeters, and the thin metal layer is either cobalt or titanium having a thickness of 10 millimeters to 100 millimeters.

In recent years, to deter the worsening of short-channel effects generated by greater chip down-sizing, C. Mazure, etc. and H. Kotaki, etc. proposed employing elevated source/drain chip structure in reducing the source/drain junction depth as a method in preventing short-channel effects, refer to 1992 IEDM, December Issue, pp. 853-856, and 1993 IEDM, December Issue, pp. 839-842 respectively. The most commonly reported method of forming elevated source/drain is selective epitaxial growth(SEG) in the exposed source/drain sector.
Local interconnection is an effective means in enhancing the efficiency of circuit layout which is commonly applied in SRAM; it can be used to connect the neighboring source/drain and gate to consolidate the SRAM layout in reducing the silicon real estate. As documented in 1987 IEEE Trans. Electron Devices, March Issue, Page 682 by T. Tang and etc., the most common local interconnection is achieved by using TiN, a byproduct in producing TiSi.sub.2, for selective masking and etching. The advantage of this method is utilizing the existing TiN without any further deposition procedure except an additional micro-etching to achieve the required local interconnection. However, the drawback is that the resistance of TiN is 10 times higher than TiSi.sub.2 and only suitable for TiSi.sub.2 system; it cannot be applied in CoSi.sub.2 as TiN is not a byproduct derived from producing cobalt.

Method for simultaneously forming local interconnect with silicided elevated source/drain MOSFET's


Embodiments are directed to host discovery for firewall coordination. An embodiment of a storage medium includes instructions for discovering a network topology for a network branch, the network branch including multiple access points including a first access point, the first access point having an interface to a network, the discovery of the network topology including identifying any access point that is linked to the first access point directly or via one or more intermediary access points; discovering one or more host devices that are connected by wireless or wired connections to one or more access points in the network branch; and generating a firewall coordination plan for the network branch based on the discovered network topology and the discovered one or more hosts, the firewall coordination plan including applying a firewall process for an access point to which a first host device is attached and bypassing one or more other firewall processes.

In the operation of communications utilizing wireless access points in a network, each access point will generally provide firewall protection for any wired or wireless connections, thereby providing network security.
Wireless access points may be interconnected, resulting in a chain including multiple access points, with one of the access points operating as an interface for the network. In circumstances in which a client device is connected to one of the access points in a chain by a wireless or wired connection, packets from the attached device may be subjected to multiple firewalls.
However, the imposition of multiple firewalls for devices connected to a chain of access points is unnecessary, and results in signal delays and reduction in overall performance of the network.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP


A method for disposing of drill cuttings generated during the process of drilling oil and gas wells, by injection into the annulus of a well bore and into the earth formation, throughout the well bore operation through the use of secondary casings, injection tubes attached externally to the surface casing string and by injection into a special well bore directionally drill adjacent the primary well bore in a path leading away from the primary well.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the injection of drill cutting by deposition into the annulus around a well casing and more particularly to the injection of such cuttings in a well being drilled at a much earlier stage than is presently considered feasible.
2. General Background
In oil and gas well development operations, the handling and disposal of the waste material entrained in the fluid during the drilling process, commonly known as the drill cuttings, has become an increasingly difficult problem. Environmental regulations and considerations prohibit or make undesirable the surface disposal of so-called drilling muds and drill cutting. On the other hand certain categories of material produced in the drilling process may be reclaimable as useful construction materials such as various grades of sand or gravel. Such material may be used to back-fill reserve pits and to construct and maintain road beds etc. Moreover, although the disposal of drilling fluids and materials such as clay, shale or fine earth particles, brought to the surface in the drilling process, may be unwanted from an environmental impact perspective, the disposal of these materials into subterranean formations may be acceptable and possibly beneficial.
To this end the present inventive process has been developed with a view towards providing a unique system and method for disposing of certain materials generated during the process of drilling oil and gas wells and the like. The injection of drill cuttings into the annulus of a well bore is not unique. However, the present injection process takes place only during the last phase of the drilling process, generally during the last 20% of the well bore usually after the intermediate casing has been set. Since drill cutting are generated throughout the well drilling process, it is essential that the cutting be contained, stored or otherwise disposed of during the first 80% of the drilling operation, thereby incurring excessive high cost for collection and transportation. Therefore there is a need to utilize the cuttings injection process throughout the drilling process thus reducing cost and adverse environmental impact as a result of transport and disposal of the cuttings at a remote site.

Method and apparatus for injecting drilling waste into a well while drilling


Metering Powdery or Flaky or Fine-Grained Dosing Material, such as Coffee Powder, Milk Powder or Cocoa Powder by use of a metering device having a container for accommodating the dosing material, and a metering chamber for metering one portion of the dosing material arranged at the outlet of the container. The dosing material is discharged into a collecting receptacle via a discharge port each time an actuating element is actuated. The dosing material is acted upon by an air current generated by a blower during its metered discharge.

Patent No. DE 38 10 143 C1, discloses a coffee machine with a metering device. The metering device has an actuating element in the form of a screw conveyor that is positioned at the outlet of a container filled with dosing material. The revolutions of the screw conveyor determine whether more or less dosing material is discharged at a discharge port into a funnel situated under the discharge port. In this metering device, the funnel is located in direct contact with the brewing chamber. When the coffee machine is used several times in succession, hot steam originating from the brewing chamber can rise and moisten the discharge port of the metering device during the time period when the funnel is opened toward the brewing chamber to introduce the dosing material.
After a period of time, this process can lead to an accumulation of moisture on the discharge port. As a result, the dosing material being discharged adheres to this moisture on the discharge port. As the quantity of dosing material accumulating on discharge port increases over time, the discharge port becomes increasingly constricted. Ultimately, this can result in the discharge port becoming completely clogged, which results in the complete failure of the metering device.
Additionally, the dosing material adhering to the discharge port is constantly moistened by the rising steam. This can result in the dosing material caking and even turning moldy or growing harmful bacteria after extended use. This may lead to the metering device rendering the coffee inconsumable.

Metering powdery, flaky or fine-grained dosing material


An improved ink stick supply assembly is provided for a solid ink color printer which reliability feeds solid ink sticks from an ink stick loading bin to ink stick melt plates which melt the ink sticks on demand and guide the molten ink into individual color ink reservoirs in the printer print head. Low ink and empty ink level sensors are provided which advise the printer operator when to replenish the ink stick supply. A low friction material and spring loaded pusher blocks facilitate travel of the inks through the ink stick feed chutes to the melt plates.

Solid ink jet printers were first offered commercially in the mid-1980's. One of the first such printers was offered by Howtek Inc. and used pellets of colored cyan, yellow, magenta and black ink that were fed into shape coded openings that fed generally vertically into the heater assembly of the printer where they were melted into a liquid state for jetting onto the receiving medium. The pellets were fed generally vertically downwardly, using gravity feed, into the printer. These pellets were elongated and tapered on their ends with separate rounded, five, six, and seven sided shapes each corresponding to a particular color.
Later more successful solid ink printers, such as the Tektronix Phaser.TM. III, the Tektronix Phaser.TM. 300, and the Jolt printer offered by Dataproducts Corporation, used differently shaped solid ink sticks that were either gravity fed or spring loaded into a feed chute and pressed against a heater plate to melt the solid ink into its liquid form. These ink sticks were shape coded and of a generally small size. One system utilized an ink stick loading system that initially feeds the ink sticks into a preload chamber and then loads the sticks into a load chamber by the action of a transfer lever. These ink stick feed systems melted the entire supply of ink, requiring all of the molten ink to be kept at an elevated temperature for extended periods of time to maintain the molten state, thereby tending to cause the molten ink to degrade over time from being maintained at the elevated temperature. Earlier solid or hot melt ink systems also used a flexible web of hot melt ink that is incrementally unwound and advanced to a heater location or employed vibratory delivery of particulate hot melt ink to the melt chamber.
As phase change ink color printers have increased their printing speed the need has developed to provide larger sized ink sticks so that refill of the ink reservoir in the print head is less frequent and more output or prints can be produced between refills. In designs where there is not a steep or generally vertical feed path to the heater plate, some provisions have been made to prevent the solid masses of shaped ink from sticking to the sides of the feed chutes so that an unrestricted feed of ink sticks proceed down into the heater plate for melting and filling of the individual colored ink reservoirs that are usually located within the print head. These larger sized ink sticks are fed into receptacles or openings in a cover plate over the feed chutes. If an ink stick is inadvertently inserted within the wrong receptacle it can be difficult for the printer operator to remove the ink stick, especially because of the sticky nature of the ink sticks' waxy exterior surfaces that can cause them to become wedged in the incorrect ink stick receptacle. There is a need to provide an effective and efficient way to feed a plurality of ink sticks in an ink stick feed bin to melt plates for melting to feed molten ink into the individual colored ink reservoirs. There is also a need to feed only the amount of molten ink that is needed for printing, or to melt the solid ink on demand.
These problems are solved in the design of the present invention by providing an improved solid ink stick loading system and that guides a plurality of solid ink sticks down a plurality of individual ink stick feed chutes to heated melt plates which melt the lead solid ink sticks in each ink chute and deliver the melted ink to individual colored ink reservoirs where the ink is maintained in a heated state until jetted by the print head.


An overcurrent relay device is provided for monitoring current in a multi-phase current system including separate conductors each carrying a respective one of the current phases between a multi-phase current source and a load. The current system includes a system switch having a displaceable contact for switching the multi-phase current on and off. A plurality of electromagnets are provided, each including a magnetic core having a core pole and being associated with a respective one of the conductors for generating a magnetic attraction force in the vicinity of the core pole. The core poles all face in the same direction. An armature is rotatably mounted adjacent to the core poles and gaps are defined between the armature and the respective core poles so that the magnitude of a magnetic attraction moment on the armature generated by each electromagnet is the same for a given magnitude of the multi-phase current. The armature is disposed for moving the displaceable contact of the system switch for switching off the multi-phase current when the magnitude of the multi-phase current exceeding a predetermined trip value. A mounting mechanism mounts the armature for rotation about a point for presenting a restoring moment on the armature for returning the armature to a predetermined position defining the gaps, wherein the restoring moment presented by the mounting mechanism corresponds to the sum of the magnetic attraction moments on the armature generated by the respective current phases when the magnitude of the multi-phase current equals the predetermined trip value.

The present invention relates to an electronic device which monitors a multi-phase current with respect to an average value relating simultaneously to all current phases and which puts out a reliable signal even if a predetermined trip value is exceeded only slightly.
Prior art electronic devices of this type are known, however, they are not sufficiently reliable from a signalling technology point of view so that they must be designed in a multi-channel configuration and thus are complicated and expensive and/or do not operate sufficiently quickly.


A monitoring camera arranged to monitor a scene and a method of controlling camera settings for a monitoring camera arranged to monitor a scene wherein images are captured of different parts of the scene by altering a field of view of the camera, wherein data defining a camera settings control area within the scene is accessed, and it is determined if there is an overlapping region between a current field of view of the camera and the camera settings control area, and if there is an overlapping region, camera settings are controlled based on the overlapping region.

Monitoring cameras are used in many different applications, both indoors and outdoors, to monitor a variety of environments. In order to receive useful images of good quality from such a camera, it is important to use appropriate settings that are correctly adapted to the present conditions of the monitored scene and which allow an operator of the camera to see any events of interest within the monitored scene. Some cameras are able to monitor different parts of a scene by changing or moving a field of view e.g. by panning, tilting or zooming the camera. For such cameras it may be even more challenging to find the correct settings since e.g. the lighting conditions of the monitored environment may change as the camera moves.


A method and apparatus for automatically transferring a predetermined quantity of a sterile liquid to a vial containing a dry medicament for hydrating the medicament and then transferring the hydrated medicament to a container. To hydrate the medicament, a needle is positioned through a vial septum of the vial and an artificial sensor senses when the needle has been positioned through the vial septum and actuates a pump to transfer a predetermined quantity of sterile liquid into the vial. The needle is then removed from the vial septum and the vial is shaken to mix the liquid and medicament. To transfer the hydrated medicament to a container, another needle is positioned through the vial septum. An artificial sensor senses when the needle has been positioned through the vial septum and actuates the pump to transfer the hydrated medicament to the container.

The present invention relates to transferring liquids between containers and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for automatically hydrating powdered medicaments in vials and transferring the hydrated medicaments within the vials to a container.
Referring now to FIG. 1, in a conventional pharmacy compounding setting, medicaments are often supplied in a dry, powder form within a vial, generally designated 10. Such vials 10 are well understood by those of ordinary skill in the art. Each vial 10 includes a bottom 12 having a periphery 14 and a wall 16 extending generally upwardly from the periphery 14. The container bottom 12 and container wall 16 define an interior container portion 18 which receives the powdered medicament 20. The container wall 16 extends upwardly to form a shoulder 22 and a neck portion 24. The neck portion 24 has an opening which receives a vial septum 26 for sealing the opening and providing access to the interior container portion 18 by piercing the vial septum 26 with a medical needle 28 or spike, such as a hollow transfer or hypodermic needle, in a manner well understood by those of ordinary skill in the art. Many vials 10 include a metallic cap 27 which surrounds and maintains the vial septum 26 in the opening defined by the neck portion 24.
It is the technician's responsibility to reconstitute or hydrate the powdered medicament 20 in the vial 10 and transfer the reconstituted medicament to a sterile IV bag or bottle(not shown in FIG. 1) from which the reconstituted medicament can be dispensed, such as with a syringe. The technician places as many as one to one hundred vials 10 containing the powdered medicament 20 into a laminar flow hood (not shown). A peristaltic pump 30 with first and second sets of transfer tubing 32, 34 and a container 36 of sterile liquid 38, such as water, are also placed under the laminar flow hood. The pump 30 is used to transfer the sterile liquid 38 from the container 36 into the vials 10 for the purpose of reconstituting the powdered medicament 20. The technician connects the first transfer tubing set 32 between the pump 30 and the container of sterile liquid 36. For instance, where the container 36 of sterile liquid 38 is an IV bag, the spike end 32a of the first transfer tubing set 32 is connected to the IV bag. The second transfer tubing set 34 extends between the pump 30 and a Luer lock connector 40 to which is attached the transfer needle 28.
To reconstitute the dry, powdered medicament 20 within the vial 10, the technician pierces the vial septum 26 of the vial 10 with the transfer needle 28 and then manually actuates the pump 30 to begin transferring the sterile liquid 38 from the sterile liquid container 36 to the vial 10, as represented by the arrows 38 in the first and second sets of transfer tubing 32, 34. When the pump 30 is actuated, it automatically dispenses a preprogrammed amount of sterile liquid 38 into the vial 10. Once the predetermined amount of sterile liquid 38 is transferred to the vial 10, the pump 30 automatically ceases operation. At this point, the technician removes the needle 28 from the vial septum 26 and inserts it into another vial septum of a vial (not shown) having dry, powdered medicament therein and manually actuates the pump 30. The vial 10 which has been filled with the predetermined amount of sterile liquid 38 is then shaken to thoroughly mix the powdered medicament 20 and the sterile liquid 38. This process is carried out for each of the required vials until they all have been reconstituted.
As can be seen from the foregoing description, the method of reconstituting the powdered medicament 20 is manually intensive. There is a need in the pharmaceutical compounding industry to reduce the number of steps in reconstituting the powdered medicament 20 to save time and effort in this process.
Once the powdered medicament 20 in the vials 10 has been reconstituted, it is then necessary to transfer the reconstituted powdered medicament to an IV bag or vacuum bottle for dispensing the reconstituted medicament to a patient, either through a syringe or infusion vial.
FIG. 2 shows the conventional, manually intensive, process of transferring reconstituted powdered medicament 42 from each of the vials 10 to an empty sterile container 44, such as an IV bag or vacuum bottle. First the pharmacy compounding technician must place a selected number of vials 10, the first and second sets of transfer tubing 32, 34, the pump 30 and an empty container 44 under the laminar flow hood (not shown) for the transfer process. The first set of transfer tubing 32 is then connected between the pump 30 and the empty container 44 by using the spike end 32a of the first set of transfer tubing 32 to access the empty container 44. The second set of transfer tubing 34 is connected to the pump 30 and at its distal end includes a Luer lock connector 40 to which the technician attaches a transfer needle 28.
The technician then transfers the reconstituted powdered medicament 42 within each vial 10 to the empty container 44. This process is accomplished by having the technician hold an inverted vial 10 in one hand while the other hand pierces the vial septum 26 with the transfer needle 28. The technician then manually actuates the pump 30 to extract the reconstituted powdered medicament 42 from the vial 10 and the reconstituted powdered medicament 42 flows through the first and second sets of transfer tubing 32, 34 and the pump 30, as represented by the arrows 42. As the reconstituted powdered medicament 42 is being transferred from the vial 10, the technician must be careful to withdraw all of the reconstituted powder medicament 42 and, therefore, must locate the tip of the transfer needle 28 just beyond the inner surface 26a of the vial septum 26, as shown in FIG. 2. Once the entirety of the reconstituted powder medicament 42 is withdrawn from the vial 10, the pump 30 either turns off automatically, or the technician must turn the pump 30 off manually. This process is repeated for all required vials until all of the reconstituted powdered medicament 42 has been transferred to one or more empty containers 44. The reconstituted powdered medicament 42 is then transferred from the container 44 directly to a patient or is then transferred to sterile delivery devices, such as syringes.
The foregoing process of transferring the reconstituted powdered medicament 42 to the empty container 44 is also highly labor intensive and takes a significant amount of time for the technician to complete. There is a need in the pharmacy compounding setting to reduce the amount of work necessary to transfer the reconstituted powdered medicament 42 to the empty container 44.
The present invention resulted from the inventors' observations of the foregoing problems and their successful efforts to solve them. With respect to reconstituting the powdered medicaments 20 in the vial 10, the present invention senses when the needle 28 has pierced the vial septum 26 and automatically turns the pump 30 on to transfer the predetermined quantity of sterile liquid 38 to the vial 10. With respect to transferring the reconstituted powdered medicament 42 from the vial 10 to the empty container 44, the present invention provides a vial support station which supports the vial 10 in an inverted position and senses when the vial 10 is located on the support station to automatically actuate the pump 30 and withdraw all of the reconstituted powdered medicament 42 from the vial 10 and transfer it to the empty container 44. Consequently, use of the present invention reduces the steps necessary to reconstitute powdered medicaments which are supplied in vials.

Method and apparatus for automatically transferring liquids between containers


A chondroitin polymerase having such properties that it transfers GlcUA and GalNAc alternately to a non-reduced terminal of a sugar chain from a GlcUA donor and a GalNAc donor, respectively, and the like; and a process for producing the chondroitin polymerase.

1. Field of the Present Invention
The present invention relates to a novel chondroitin polymerase (chondroitin synthase), a DNA encoding the same, a method for producing the chondroitin polymerase, a method for producing a sugar chain having the disaccharide repeating unit of chondroitin, a hybridization probe for the chondroitin polymerase and the like.
2. Brief Description of the Background Art
First, abbreviations commonly used in the present specification are described.
In the formulae and the like, "GlcUA", "GalNAc", "GlcNAc", "UDP" and "-" represent D-glucuronic acid, N-acetyl-D-galactosamine, N-acetyl-D-glucosamine, uridine 5′-diphosphate and a glycosidic linkage, respectively.
Chondroitin is a sugar chain comprised of a disaccharide repeating structure of GlcUA residue and GalNAc residue (-GlcUAβ(1-3)-GalNAcβ(1-4)-; hereinafter also referred to as "chondroitin backbone"), and a sugar chain in which the chondroitin is further sulfated is chondroitin sulfate.
Regarding an enzyme which synthesizes chondroitin from a GlcUA donor and a GalNAc donor by alternately transferring GlcUA and GalNAc to an acceptor (chondroitin polymerase or chondroitin synthase) and DNA which encodes the same, only a Pasteurella multocida chondroitin synthase (J. Biol. Chem., 275(31), 24124-24129 (2000)) is known.
Also, certain Escherichia coli strain (Escherichia coli serotype 05:K4(L):H4, hereinafter referred to as "Escherichia coli strain K4") produces a polysaccharide having a chondroitin backbone, as a capsular antigen, but its structure is a trisaccharide repeating structure in which fructose is linked to a side chain of the GlcUA residue at the β2-3 position. Accordingly, it was unclear whether the Escherichia coli strain K4 really has a chondroitin polymerase as its own capsular antigen synthesizing system.

Chondroitin polymerase and DNA encoding the same


An organic electrolyte cell comprising an organic electrolyte and an anode and/or a cathode of a carbonaceous material of a heat-treated material of an aromatic condensation polymer having a specific surface area of at least 1,500 m.sup.2 /g measured by BET method, wherein a solvent in the electrolyte is a mixed solvent containing a chain-like carbonate of the formula R.sup.1 OC(.dbd.O)OR.sup.2 (wherein R.sup.1 and R.sup.2 are monovalent organic groups which may be the same or different) and sulfolane or its derivative.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an organic electrolyte cell having a high working voltage and a high energy density.
2. Discussion of the Background
An organic electrolyte cell using an organic semiconductor having a polyacene type structure as an electrode material, wherein electrochemical doping and dedoping of electrolyte ions into the polyacene structure are employed, has a larger energy density as compared with an electric double layer capacitor employing electric charge accumulation in the electric double layer, and also has an excellent property in respect to repeating reliability of charge-discharge cycle as compared with a lithium secondary cell using lithium or its alloy as a cathode, and is widely used as a small coin-shaped cell mainly for memory backup use.
Up to now, an operating voltage for memory IC is mainly 5.0 V, and since this type of cell has an operating voltage of about 2.5 V, two unit cells are used in series for this purpose heretofore. However, recently, a driving voltage for IC is lowered, and it is therefore strongly demanded to provide a high voltage proof grade cell of at least 3.0 V which can backup the memory IC by one unit cell.
The voltage proof of this type of organic electrolyte cell is controlled mainly by electrochemical stability of an organic electrolyte. A conventional battery electrolyte employs an alkali metal salt or a quaternary onium salt as a solute and employs propylene carbonate, .gamma.-butyrolactone, acetonitrile, dimethylformamide, sulfolane or their derivatives as a solvent.
Among them, sulfolane is a solvent excellent in oxidation resistance and having a high decomposition voltage. However, since its electric conductivity is remarkably lowered at a low temperature due to the high solidifying point (freezing point), it takes a long time for charging when the charging is conducted at a low temperature and also it causes a problem of lowering an output voltage due to an internal resistance when discharging a heavy-current.


A method for performing an operation at a non-originating node of a connection includes receiving a request for the operation; determining information associated with the connection; and signaling, based on the information and the operation, an originating node to cause the originating node to perform call connection management on the connection. A non-originating node includes a plurality of ports with at least one connection thereon; and a controller communicatively coupled to the plurality of ports and operating a control plane, wherein, for an operation of call connection management on the at least one connection, the controller is configured to: determine information associated with the at least one connection on a link formed by a port; and signal, based on the information and the operation, an originating node of the at least one connection to perform the call connection management on the at least one connection.

Optical network control planes provide automatic allocation of network resources in an end-to-end manner. Exemplary control planes may include Automatically Switched Optical Network (ASON) as defined in G.8080/Y.1304, Architecture for the automatically switched optical network (ASON), the contents of which are herein incorporated by reference; Generalized Multi-Protocol Label Switching (GMPLS) Architecture as defined in Request for Comments (RFC): 3945 and the like, the contents of which are herein incorporated by reference; Optical Signaling and Routing Protocol (OSRP) from Ciena Corporation which is an optical signaling and routing protocol similar to PNNI (Private Network-to-Network Interface) and MPLS; or any other type control plane for controlling network elements at one or more layers, and establishing connections there between. As described herein, these control planes may be referred to as control planes as they deal with routing signals at Layers 0, 1, and 2, i.e., photonic signals, time division multiplexing (TDM) signals such as, for example, Synchronous Optical Network (SONET), Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH), Optical Transport Network (OTN), Ethernet, MPLS, and the like. Control planes are configured to establish end-to-end signaled connections such as sub-network connections (SNCs) in ASON or OSRP and label switched paths (LSPs) in GMPLS and MPLS. Control planes use the available paths to route the services and program the underlying hardware accordingly.
In operation, an optical network operating a control plane includes interconnected network elements that exchange information with one another via control plane signaling. As such, each network element has a routing database with up-to-date information about the network, e.g., topology, bandwidth utilization, etc., that enables path computation at a connection's source node (i.e., an originating node). Once a path is computed for the connection, the source or originating node performs call connection management to set up the connection in the network. Conventionally, call connection management is solely triggered from the originating node, i.e., the originating node computes the path and signals the path in the network, and upon a failure, the originating node redials the connection. The fact that call connection management is only handled by the originating node is restrictive making call connection user operations cumbersome especially those which require moving a connection away from its working path, or network management operations performed on the basis of link/line state or link/line utilization. For example, user operations can include, without limitation, Manual Switch to Protect, Regroom, Manual Revert and Configure, etc. With the conventional techniques, performing such user operations requires operators to search for a related call connection when decisions are made based on link/line utilization or state. This is cumbersome and impractical. Thus, it would be advantageous to support non-originating node call connection management.

Systems and methods for managing call connections from non-originating nodes in networks


A main unit (television receiver) displays a television broadcasting program and also detects its feature. In addition, the main unit detects a scene change from the feature of the television broadcasting program, and controls a subsidiary unit (television receiver) so as to display the image data of the frame immediately after the scene change. The subsidiary unit displays the frame immediately after the scene change. Then, when another scene change occurs in image data displayed on the main unit, the image data of the frame immediately after the scene change is displayed on the subsidiary unit, instead of the image data which has been displayed so far.

For example, television receivers receive television broadcasting signals, displays images in television broadcasting programs, and outputs sound accompanying the images.
Conventional television receivers are produced so as to operate alone. Therefore, when users buy new television receivers, the users do not need to have the old ones, and discard them in many cases even if they can be used.
If a great number of connected television receivers provide a higher function than one television receiver, television receivers which can be used are prevented from being discarded, thereby contributing to the effective use of resources.
At homes with babies and little-children, or aged persons, for example, it is difficult to always monitor them, and, in general, nursing persons including persons at the homes go and look after the babies and little children or the aged persons regularly or irregularly.
In these cases, however, the nursing persons have significant loads, and therefore, means for reducing the loads of the nursing persons have been demanded.
As such means, for example, monitoring camera systems are used in which babies and little children or aged persons in rooms are image-captured, and the images are displayed at a display unit in another room.
In conventional monitoring camera systems, however, the images sent from cameras need to be checked always, regularly, or irregularly, and the loads imposed on nursing persons are reduced to some extent, but they are still large.
Television receivers are used in many houses. When a monitoring camera system is used, it is necessary to install a display unit for the system in addition to a television receiver used, and thereby reducing the house space.
The images sent from a camera of the monitoring system can be displayed at a television receiver used in the house.
When the images sent from a camera of the monitoring system are displayed at a television receiver used in the house, however, the nursing person cannot view television broadcasting programs at the television receiver.
It is also possible for the nursing person to switch at the television receiver between television broadcasting programs and the images sent from a camera of the monitoring camera system. However, this switching operation is troublesome, and further, a case may arise in which the nursing person forgets to switch and does not notice an emergency state in a worst case.


The present disclosure relates to the use of a recombinant LAG-3 or derivatives thereof in order to boost a monocyte-mediated immune response, in particular to elicit an increase in the number of monocytes in blood. This finds use in the development of novel therapeutic agents for the treatment of an infectious disease or cancer.

Technical Field
The present invention relates to the use of recombinant LAG-3 or derivatives thereof in order to boost a monocyte-mediated immune response. It enables an increase in monocyte numbers in blood. It finds many applications in particular in the development of novel therapeutic agents in cancer immunotherapy.
State of the Art
In the description which follows, the references between brackets [ ] refer to the attached reference list. The lymphocyte activation gene 3 (hlag-3) expressed in human CD4+ and CD8+ activated T cells as well as in activated NK cells encodes a 503 amino acids type I membrane protein (LAG-3) with four extracellular immunoglobulin superfamily (IgSF) domains [1]. A murine lymphocyte activation gene 3 (mlag-3) was cloned and approximatively 70% of homology was found with hlag-3, with the same proline rich motif in the intracytoplasmic tail.
LAG-3 (CD223), described as being a natural high affinity ligand for MHC class II, is known to induce maturation of monocyte-derived dendritic cells in vitro, and is used as an immunotherapy adjuvant to induce CD4 T helper type 1 responses and CD8 T cell responses in vivo [2]. Further information regarding LAG-3 and its use as an immunostimulant may be found in TRIEBEL et al. [1], TRIEBEL et al. [3], and HUARD et al. [4]. Some forms of soluble LAG-3 can bind to MHC class II molecules and can induce dendritic cells to mature and migrate to secondary lymphoid organs where they can prime naïve CD4-helper and CD8-cytotoxic T cells leading to tumour rejection [5]. More recently a recombinant soluble human LAG-3Ig fusion protein (IMP321) was shown to activate a large range of effector cells in both innate and acquired immune responses, for example inducing monocytes-macrophages to secrete cytokines/chemokines [6].
Monocytes are produced by the bone marrow from haematopoietic stem cell precursors called monoblasts. They constitute between three to eight percent of the leukocytes in the blood. Monocytes circulate in the bloodstream for about 24 hours (half-life of 8 hours) and then typically move into tissues throughout the body. In the tissues, monocytes mature into macrophages, epitheloid cells or antigen-presenting cells (APCs, for example dendritic cells). Monocytes are responsible for phagocytosis (ingestion) of foreign substances in the body. Monocytes can perform phagocytosis using intermediary (opsonising) proteins such as antibodies or complement that coat the pathogen, as well as by binding to the pathogen directly via pattern-recognition receptors that recognize pathogens. Monocytes are also capable of killing infected host cells via antibody, termed antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC). Due to their secretion and phagocytosis properties, monocytes-macrophages occur in aspecific and specific immune response.
The study of membrane markers allows the identification of monocyte populations, mature or not, dystrophic or not. The molecules present on monocyte membranes, mature or not, are almost always non specific but correspond to the following activities:                receptor for the Fc fragment of IgG (CD16, CD32, CD64),        receptor for the Fc fragment of IgE (CD23),        receptor for complement fractions (CD11b, CD21/CD35),        leukocyte adhesion proteins (CD11a, CD11c),        protein facilitating binding to LPS of Gram-bacteria (CD14),        protein with tyrosine phosphatase activity (CD45).

Use of recombinant LAG-3 or the derivatives thereof for eliciting monocyte immune response


A communication device (105,200) includes a cordless telephone (205) and a two way radio (210). The communication device (105,200) is adapted to place an active cordless telephone call in a low frequency mode in response to receiving an incoming two way radio communication. The communication device (105,200) is adapted to then establish communication within the two way radio communication. The communication device (105,200) periodically re-establishes the cordless telephone call to maintain communication with a cordless base station (120) until the two way radio communication is completed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is generally related to communication devices and more particularly to an improved communication device for providing both two way radio and cordless telephone services.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the prior art, cordless telephones typically are used in the home to allow the user to place and receive telephone calls at any point throughout the house. A cordless telephone system typically includes a portable cordless handset and a cordless base station connected to a telephone company phone system by telephone landlines. The cordless base station has an assigned landline telephone number that allows the user to place and receive calls using the cordless portable handset within a limited range of the cordless base station, such as in a home. However, due to in its limited range, the cordless portable handset provides the user with relatively local radiotelephone communication. Further, a cordless telephone call is used generally for one to one communication via the landline communication system with limited capabilities for multi-device communication using conference calling options.
Radiotelephone communication outside the range of the cordless telephone system can be provided to a user via a two way radio system. A two way radio system typically includes a plurality of two way radio handsets communicating directly together on the same radio channel. When a user of a two way radio handset initiates a communication, the communication is transmitted to all the other two way radio handsets assigned to the same radio channel. In this manner, multiple handsets can communicate directly to each other.
Recently, some cordless telephones have been developed with handset to handset capability. These units do not provide group talk, but instead provide limited telephone inter-connect and one to one, full duplex radio capability.
Further, some new communication devices combine the mobility of a cordless telephone system with the immediacy of a two way radio system. Such combined devices provide accessibility to outside callers while staying in immediate contact with internal operations. In two-way radio mode, these devices provide instant communication with others utilizing two way radios on the same radio channel at the push of a button. In cordless telephone mode, these devices have similar functionality to standard landline telephones.

Communication device and method of operation therefore


This invention relates to additives for methanesulfonic acid based tin and tin alloy plating formulations. Specifically, the invention involves the use of gallic acid in the multiple roles of antioxidant, grain refiner, selective precipitant, and selective chelator in methanesulfonic acid based tin or tin alloy plating formulations.

Electrodeposits of tin, tin/lead, tin/antimony, tin/bismuth, and the like, are utilized in the finishing of electronic components. Most plating formulations employing tin salts rely on tin in the stannous (+2) oxidation state. The normal operation of tin alloy electroplating solutions can result in significant oxidation of stannous (+2) to stannic tin (+4). Stannic tin is not readily electropdeposited from methanesulfonic acid based plating baths, and the build-up of Sn(+4 or IV) in a plating bath is undesirable.
The tin oxidation process is not fully understood, but the involvement of active oxygen is suspected. Factors which lead to increased solution oxygen concentration are known to contribute to tin oxidation, though oxidation rate acceleration beyond that attained in an oxygen saturated solution is not normally observed.
The formation of stannic tin derived sludge is a particularly undesirable aspect of tin oxidation. In practice, tin and tin alloy electroplating baths are formulated with an antioxidant which prevents the oxidation of stannous to stannic tin. Hydroquinone, catechol, phenidone, morin hydrate, and vanadium (V) oxide are representative examples of known antioxidants. Many antioxidants, such as the dihydroxybenzenes, are believed to function by reacting with the active oxygen compound(s) responsible for tin oxidation. In the case of vanadium (V), a mechanism involving catalysis of the reaction between stannic and metallic tin has been proposed.
It is well known that different plating electrolytes, under a given set of otherwise identical conditions, strongly influence the extent of tin oxidation. Methanesuffonic acid (CH.sub.3 SO.sub.3 H) and fluoboric acid (HBF.sub.4) are two well known examples of conductive electrolytes for tin and tin alloy plating. Methanesulfonic acid based tin alloy plating solutions are relatively resistant to tin oxidation when compared to fluoboric acid based tin alloy plating solutions. The tendency for tin oxidation in fluoboric acid based systems is so great that an oxygen sparged fluoboric acid based tin electrolyte without an antioxidant will be completely converted to stannic tin within an hour. A methanesulfonic acid based tin electrolyte exposed to oxygen sparging without an antioxidant will typically take several days before 50% stannic tin is present. This marked difference between methanesulfonic acid based and fluoboric acid based electrolytes has been well known within the electroplating field for many years.
While antioxidant free methanesulfonic acid based electrolytes are significantly better than antioxidant free fluoboric acid based electrolytes for tin and tin alloy plating, it is still advantageous to incorporate an antioxidant into a methanesulfonic acid based system. It is further desirable that the antioxidant added to a tin alloy electroplating formulation have additional positive influences on the electrodeposition process. These can include grain refining, selective metal coordination, and selective precipitation of bothersome impurities.
Grain refining involves all chemical processes which influence the morphology and average size of the microscopic electrodeposit surface. The importance of grain morphology and size is well known in the art.
Selective metal coordination is used in alloy plating formulations where the different reduction potentials of the metals being deposited lead to selective enrichment of one metal over the other in the electrodeposit. The proper degree of selective coordination will result in a plating formulation which deposits a consistent alloy at different current densities. A consistent alloy is particularly important in the electronics industry, where deposit solderability and performance are critically affected by alloy.
The value of materials which selectively precipitate undesirable impurities is obvious. One problem associated with tin oxidation is the removal of the finely dispersed stannic tin which forms. Stannic tin at low concentrations is seen as a cloudy impurity which is difficult to filter free from plating solutions. Normally, flocculation prior to stannic tin filtration is necessary. Chemical agents which selectively precipitate stannic tin in a form which can be removed by commonly used filter media eliminate the need for time consuming flocculation treatments. Such selective stannic tin removal also reduces the potential deleterious effects of soluble stannic tin on electrodeposit quality.

Gallic acid as a combination antioxidant, grain refiner, selective precipitant, and selective coordination ligand, in plating formulations


A surface plasmon sensor includes a light guide reflection plate, a surface plasmon resonance layer formed on a first surface of the light guide reflection plate, a light emitting unit having a light source disposed on an end surface of the light guide reflection plate, and a light receiving element. The surface plasmon resonance layer includes a metal layer. The light guide reflection plate includes at least one first reflection surface inclined against the first surface. The light guide reflection plate is configured to transmit light emitted by the light source. The at least one first reflection surface is configured reflect the light to the surface plasmon resonance layer. The metal layer is configured to reflect the light reflected by the at least one first reflection surface. The light receiving element is configured to receive the light reflected by the metal layer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical component, an optical sensor, a surface plasmon sensor and more particularly, to a surface plasmon sensor for measurement and for fingerprint matching, and an optical component and an optical sensor, etc., used in the above surface plasmon sensor.
2. Description of the Related Art
A surface plasmon sensor using a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) is a sensor that can measure a small amount of antigen, etc with high accuracy in a nondestructive manner. As human DNA sequencing has advanced, a study for using its development has been advancing. Thus, there is a need for a biosensor that can detect protein, DNA, the reaction between an antigen and an antibody at high speed and sensitivity, and thus the surface plasmon sensor has also been used as a biosensor.
FIG. 1 shows a sectional view of the structure of a surface plasmon sensor disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-38800. According to this surface plasmon sensor, a transparent optical housing 12 is detachably put on a transparent substrate housing 11. The substrate housing 11 is provided with a light source unit 13 and a plurality of photoelectric detectors 14 arranged in a row. The optical housing 12 has a pentagonal or trapezoidal sectional configuration when viewed from the side thereof. A flat mirror 15 and a surface plasmon resonance layer 16 comprising an Au thin film, etc is provided on adjacent surfaces of the outer surfaces of the optical housing 12. Reference numeral 17 designates a spectrum filter.
Thus, according to the surface plasmon sensor, divergent light (polarized light) emitted from the light source unit 13 upward is reflected by the flat mirror 15 and falls onto the surface plasmon resonance layer 16; and the light reflected by the surface plasmon resonance layer 16 passes through the spectrum filter 17 and is received by the photoelectric detector 14. Here, since the divergent light falls on the surface plasmon resonance layer 16, each photoelectric detector 14 detects the intensity of the light inputted to the surface plasmon resonance layer 16 at different incident angles.
This surface plasmon sensor can be used as the biosensor as follows. On the condition that an antibody is fixed to the surface of the surface plasmon resonance layer 16, when an inspection sample solution containing an antigen that is specifically coupled to the antibody on the surface plasmon resonance layer 16 comes in contact with the antibody, the antigen is coupled to the antibody on the surface plasmon resonance layer 16. As a result, the refractive index at the interface of the surface plasmon resonance layer 16 varies and the intensity of the light received by the photoelectric detector 14 varies. Thus, when the variation of the light intensity is analyzed, it can be detected whether or not the inspection sample solution contains the antigen that is specifically coupled to the antibody on the surface plasmon resonance layer 16, or the density of the antigen can be measured.

Optical component, optical sensor, surface plasmon sensor and fingerprint recognition device


A core-pulling mechanism for pulling a slide core and a threaded-pin core in an injection mold includes a hinge shaft having two ends with polygonal cross-section, an shaft sleeve assembled with a rear of the hinge shaft, a baffle block having axial through opening allowing the hinge shaft to pass through and rotate therein, a slider having a through hole for receiving the baffle block and a semi-closed transmission hole defined in a rear wall, a transmission shaft assembled in the transmission hole and fixed to the slider, and a guide block. The baffle block and the guide block have inclined guiding bulges and inclined guiding grooves engaging with each other to guide the baffle block to slide. While the transmission shaft drives the slider to move backward, the hinge shaft following with the slider move backward and slide in the shaft sleeve, thus, the distance of the backward movement of the cores pulled by the core-pulling mechanism is not limited.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a core-pulling mechanism for pulling a slide core and a threaded-pin core in an injection mold, and also relates to the injection mold with the core-pulling mechanism capable of molding plastic articles with an internal threaded hole and a big cave.
2. The Related Art
A conventional injection mold is convenient for manufacturing complicated plastic articles. As shown in FIG. 8, a parting surface of a plastic article 200 is designated by P, a direction of mold opening is labeled as A-A, and both the directions that the internal threaded hole 210 and the cave 220 open on to are perpendicular to the mold opening direction A-A. In order to mold the plastic article 200, a threaded-pin core and a slide core are needed to mold the internal threaded hole 210 and the cave 220 in a mold cavity of an injection mold. While mold opening, the cores should be pulled out from the mold cavity, so a core-pulling mechanism is needed for pulling the cores out from the mold cavity.
FIG. 9 shows a conventional core-pulling mechanism. A first inclined guiding slot 11a is defined in a first slider 10a to receive a first inclined pin 20a. A second inclined guiding slot 31a is defined in a second slider 30a to receive a second inclined pin 40a. A hinge shaft 50a has a front rectangular prism end 51a passing through a first hole 12a of the first slider 10a and further passing through a sleeve 13a which is connected to the front wall of the first slider 10a. The hinge shaft 50a further has a rear cylinder end 52a passing through a first rotating hole 81a and a second rotating hole 82a of a base 80a so as to rotate therein. A threaded end 61a of a threaded-pin core 60a is inserted into a second hole 32a of the second slider 30a and received in the mold cavity of the injection mold for molding an internal threaded hole. A rear of the threaded-pin core 60a has a flange 62a withstood by the sleeve 13a and a rectangular cavity 63a defined therein to receive the front rectangular prism end 51a of the hinge shaft 50a.
While the mold opening, the first inclined pin 20a slides out from the first inclined guiding slot 11a and pushes the first slider 10a backward, thus, the sleeve 13a of the first slider 10a and the flange 62a of the threaded-pin core 60a is spaced apart to allow the threaded-pin core 60a to move backward. Then, the hinge shaft 50a is driven to rotate, and the rotation of the hinge shaft 50a drives the threaded-pin core 60a to rotate and move backward until the threaded-pin core 60 is unscrewed out from the molded plastic article. The second inclined pin 40a slides out from the second guiding slot 31a and pushes the second slider 30a backward. Thus, both the threaded-pin core 60a and the second slider 30a are pulled out.
As described in the aforementioned core-pulling mechanism, the hinge shaft 50a rotates in the base 80a without backward movement. A distance S between the front end 51a and the front inner wall of the rectangular cavity 63a should be long enough to provide a space for backward movement of the second slider 30a so as to avoid colliding with the hinge shaft 50a, but the distance S should also be short enough so as to allow the hinge shaft 51a to provide adequate driving force to carry the threaded-pin core 60a to rotate and move backward. Therefore, the distance S decides the moving displacement of the second slider 30a, and the distance S is determined by the angles of the first and second inclined pins 20a, 40a. However, to mold the plastic article 200 as shown in FIG. 8 which has a big cave 220, a slider core for molding the cave 220 is required long enough and needs a long distance travel to be pulled out from the mold cavity. The core-pulling mechanism of the prior art is not qualified to pull the slider core out from the mold cavity with the restriction of the first and second inclined pin 20a, 40a. Additionally, the structures of the first slider 10a and the second slider 30a are so complicated as to result in complicated structures of the injection mold.

Core-pulling mechanism and injection mold with the same


A DRAM is provided that can carry out data reads or writes in a constant and short access time regardless of the timing with which the reads or writes, or refreshing are executed. When requests for reads from or writes to burst data are continuously input, row decoding (RD) and column decoding (CD) by a row decoder 42 and a column decoder 52, an array access (AR) and precharging (PR) by a data line driver 24, a bit switch 26, and a sense amplifier 28, and data transfer (TR) by a write buffer 52 and a read buffer 54 are executed in parallel in a pipelined manner. When the time has come to refresh a DRAM array 22, a refresh address held in a refresh controller 40 is output while the burst data is being transferred, and a series of refreshing operations comprising (RD), (AR), and (PR) is performed.

DRAMs (Dynamic RAMs), which are one type of RAMs (Random Access read write Memories), have a lower operation speed than SRAMs (Static RAMs), but are widely used as main storage devices for computers that require a large storage capacity due to its low costs and high degree of integration. On the other hand, MPUs (Micro Processing Units) have much higher operation speed than DRAMs, and some recent MPUs have a significantly improved operation speed; that is, their internal clock has a frequency of 50 to 200 MHZ. Thus, the difference in the operation speeds of DRAMs and MPUs as main storage devices is becoming larger and larger.
Consequently, to reduce the probability that the MPU accesses a memory via an external bus of a relatively low speed which operates in synchronism with an external clock of a frequency half to one-fourth of that of the internal clock, a cache memory (a primary cache) comprising an SRAM is generally provided inside the MPU. Moreover, to also reduce the probability of accessing the main storage device upon a cache miss of the primary cache, another cache memory (a secondary cache) comprising an SRAM is provided outside the MPU. The storage capacity of the secondary cache is eight to sixty-four times as large as that of the primary cache.
If such cache memories are provided, the MPU mainly accesses the main storage device in the unit of a plurality of data blocks (data reads or writes). In recent years, more and more DRAMs with a burst mode (for example, synchronous DRAMs, DRAMs with a burst EDO mode, and DRAMs conforming to the Rambus' specification) in which burst data (data read from or written to the DRAM) comprising a plurality of continuous data blocks is continuously and sequentially transferred have been used to eliminate the difference in the performance of MPUs and conventional DRAMs and to efficiently transfer data between MPUs and DRAMs. The burst mode serves to improve the bus usage efficiency to enable data to be transferred at apparently high speeds. As a result, the costs and size of computers can be reduced by, for example, using a DRAM with a burst mode as a secondary cache instead of a SRAM or as a main storage device to omit the secondary cache.
In fact, however, the DRAM must be refreshed periodically and a synchronously relative to external accesses. Thus, when an interruption for refreshing (hereafter referred to as a "refresh interruption") is carried out, refreshing is preferentially executed, and external accesses from, for example, MPUs are forced to wait for a long time, resulting in inconstant access time (the time from the input of an external request for a data read or write until data read in response to the read request is transferred or a response to the write request is returned).
In addition, the bit line connected to the storage cell of the DRAM must be precharged before a data read or write is carried out. Thus, if an attempt is made to immediately read data that has just been written to the DRAM in response to an external request, it takes long before the data can be read due to the amount of time required to precharge the bit line (that is, a large amount of cycle time is required for a data read immediately after a data write), also resulting in long access time.
Although various DRAMs (described below in detail) are currently used, no such DRAMs are guaranteed to have a constant access time as in SRAMs, and their access time depends upon the access timing. It has thus been difficult to use a DRAM as a secondary cache instead of a SRAM or to omit the secondary cache.
For example, DRAMs with a cache memory comprising a SRAM (RAMTRON EDRAMs or other cache DRAMs) have a constant access time if external accesses hit the cache memory. In this case, the DRAM array can be refreshed because it is not accessed. If, however, external accesses fail to hit the cache memory, the DRAM array will be directly accessed, and the access time will be long if a refresh interruption occurs at this point of time.
In addition, when a refresh interruption occurs, synchronous DRAMs and DRAMs with a burst EDO (Extended Data Out) mode described above abort the operation of a burst mode to sequentially execute the precharging of the bit line, the input of refresh addresses, and refreshing, thereby forcing the burst data to wait for transfer for a long time. If an attempt is made to immediately read data that has just been written, the cycle time will be long due to the amount of time required to precharge the bit line, resulting in the need of long access time to carry out reads immediately after data writes.
DRAMs conforming to the specification of Rambus Co., Ltd. (hereafter referred to as "Rambus-specified DRAMs") are also known as other DRAMs with a burst mode. Rambus-specified DRAMs basically use a sense amplifier as a cache to perform a burst operation, and external accesses are executed by sending 60 bits of request packet. If a hit does not occur in the cache and if a refresh interruption is being performed, the request packet is not accepted, and the request packet must be repeatedly transmitted every 100 nsec until it is accepted. Accesses to Rambus-specified DRAMs thus involve a large overhead in transmitting packets, so they are not suitable for applications that use a burst operation to read or write relatively short data and are mainly used for graphic processing that requires fast sequential accesses.
Pseudo SRAMs are known as DRAMs that can be accessed within a constant time regardless of external access timing. The basic idea of pseudo SRAMs is that the time required for a single cycle of a read or a write operation is set at a larger value, that the DRAM array is not accessed for a specified period of time or longer within a single cycle of a read or a write operation, and that when a refresh interruption is directed, the refreshing operation is completed within the above period of time. Accesses to these SRAMs require a very large amount of time, so they cannot be used instead of SRAMs that have a high operation speed.
On the other hand, various DRAMs with a burst mode as described above have a reduced bus usage efficiency in reading or writing burst data spanning a plurality of pages (spanning a plurality of lines with different row addresses). To improve the bus usage efficiency in reading or writing burst data spanning a plurality of pages, the applicant has already proposed a storage device pipelined into three sections: a section for decoding input row and column addresses (a row predecoder, a column predecoder, a refresh controller, and a burst mode decoder), a section for accessing a DRAM array 98 (a row decoder, a column decoder, and a sense amplifier), and a section for transferring data (a line buffer), as shown in FIG. 23 (Japanese Patent Application No. 7-317926, filed on Dec. 6, 1995).
Even with these storage devices, however, data that has just been written cannot be read immediately, and a read operation must wait until the precharging of the bit line ("PR" in FIG. 24) has been completed, as shown in FIG. 24 (FIG. 24 shows a four bit burst wherein after two continuous reads, a write is carried out, immediately after which a read is again executed). The cycle time is thus two clock longer (the period shown as "Idle" in FIG. 24) than in normal accesses, resulting in increased access time and reduced bus usage efficiency. In addition, although not shown, as in conventional examples, when a refresh interruption is directed, accesses must wait until the refreshing operation has been completed, resulting in longer access time.

DRAM/SRAM with uniform access time using buffers, write back, address decode, read/write and refresh controllers

International Business Machines Corporation


A light generating device such as a VCSEL includes a light generation layer, a top reflector, a bottom reflector, and a high thermal conductivity (HTC) layer between the light generation layer and the bottom reflector. The light generation layer is adapted to generate light having a first wavelength. Heat produced at the light generation layer is more efficiently dissipated due to the presence of the HTC layer. Alternatively, a light generating device such as a VCSEL includes a light generation layer, a top reflector, and a high thermal conductivity (HTC) bottom reflector. Heat produced at the light generation layer is more efficiently dissipated due to the fact that the bottom reflector is a HTC DBR reflector having lower thermal resistivity than a conventional DBR reflector.

The present invention relates to lasers, and more particularly, to an improved Vertical Cavity Surface-Emitting Laser.
Light emitting devices, such as lasers, are being increasingly used in a variety of applications such as communications and data storage devices. One type of laser is the vertical cavity surface emission laser (VCSEL). FIG. 1 illustrates a cutaway side view of a sample prior art VCSEL 10. The sample VCSEL 10 is a conventional oxide-confined top emitting VCSEL 10. The VCSEL 10 includes a top reflector 20 and a bottom reflector 30 sandwiching an active region 40. The reflectors 20 and 30 and the active region 40 are fabricated on a substrate 50. A bottom electrode 52 is connected to the substrate while a top electrode 54 is connected to the top reflector 20.
The substrate 50 may be n-type gallium arsenide (GaAs) doped with silicon. The bottom electrode 52 forms an ohmic contact to the substrate 50 and is typically made of electrically conductive metal such as Gold-Germanium(AuGe) alloy.
The active region 40 includes a light generation layer 42 which is typically constructed from one or more quantum wells of InGaAs (indium gallium arsenide), GaAs (gallium arsenide), AlGaAs (aluminum gallium arsenide), or InAlGaAs (indium aluminum gallium arsenide). The light generation layer 42 is separated from the top reflector 20 by a top spacer 44 and separated from the bottom reflector 30 by a bottom spacer 46. The light generation layer 42 is configured to generate light having a predetermined or known wavelength. The predetermined wavelength can vary widely, for example, within a range from approximately 650 nanometers (nm) to approximately 1,400 nanometers. The spacer layers 44 and 46 may be fabricated using, for example, AlGaAs.
The active region 40 is sandwiched between the top reflector 20 and the bottom reflector 30. The top reflector 20 and the bottom reflector 30 are distributed Bragg reflectors (DBR) including alternating quarter wavelength thick layers of materials having differing optical index of refraction such as, for example, AlAs, GaAs, or AlGaAs having differing ratios of Aluminum and Gallium. For this reason, the top and bottom reflectors 20 and 30 are also referred to as DBR mirrors 20 and 30.
Conventionally, each layer of the DBR mirrors 20 and 30 has a thickness that is one-fourth ( 1/4) wavelength of the light generated by the active region 40. For simplicity, only eight layers (four pairs of layers) are illustrated in FIG. 1 for each of the DBR mirrors 20 and 30. In actual implementations each of the DBR mirrors 20 and 30 may include many more layers such as twenty or thirty pairs of layers.
In order to create the optical gain required for a semiconductor laser to operate, the active region 40 is composed of a p-n junction and electrical current is injected into it. To facilitate the flow of electrical current through the VCSEL 10, the DBR mirrors 20 and 30 are doped with carefully designed profiles of n- or p-type dopants in order to both improve the bulk material conductivity and to minimize the voltage drop across the many heterobarriers formed at the interfaces between the alternating quarter-wave layers.
While the heat generated due to bulk resistance and heterobarrier voltage drop in the conducting DBR mirrors can be mitigated by careful design of the doping profile, the heat generated in the p-n junction of the active region is intrinsic to the operation of the device and can not be fully eliminated. Normally, one DBR mirror is doped n-type and the other doped p-type, forming the p-n junction and its associated heat dissipation in the active region 40. For example, the top DBR mirror 20 may include p-doped GaAs, AlAs, or AlGaAs layers while the bottom DBR mirror 30 include n-doped GaAs, AlAs, or AlGaAs layers. The n dopant may be silicon and the p dopant may be carbon.
In the present sample VCSEL 10, the layers of the top reflector 20 are doped as p-type semiconductors and the layers of the bottom reflector 30 are doped as n-type semiconductors. The substrate 50 is doped to create an n-type contact.
The VCSEL 10 of such structure and its operations are known in the art. To produce laser light (lasing effect), electric current is introduced to the VCSEL 10 via the electrodes 52 and 54. When the current flows through the active region 40, photons (light particles) are generated by the quantum wells of the light generation layer 42. With sufficient current through the active region 40, optical gain is created that coherently amplifies the light which reflects back and forth between the DBR mirrors 20 and 30. A portion of the light is transmitted through the DBR mirrors 20 and 30, and an opening 56 in the top electrical contact is typically employed to allow the transmitted light out of the device 10. This escaping light is indicated by arrow 58.
Current confinement barrier 60 is often used to direct the electrical current generally toward the middle of the active region 40. When used, the current confinement barrier 60 insulates all but a circular or polygon-shaped area (from a top perspective, not shown) having a diameter that is typically similar to or smaller than the contact opening width 57. Because most of the electrical current is directed toward a portion 43 of the light generation layer 42, most of the light is generated within this portion 43 referred to as the active portion 43 herein.
To generate more light from the VCSEL 10, more current is applied to the VSCEL 10. Increased current not only results in more light but also in more heat generated at the active region 40. The heat adversely impacts the VCSEL 10 limiting the amount of light that can be generated by the VSCEL 10.
Excess heat in a VCSEL has a number of adverse effects including wavelength shift, gain reduction, increased absorption, refractive index shift and associated optical loss and DBR mirror reflectivity changes, leakage current, thermal lensing, and reduced efficiency. Combination of these effects and their spatial variation ultimately limits the maximum power, maximum single-lateral-mode power, maximum modulation bandwidth, and maximum efficiency the VCSEL 10 can achieve. Further, all of these parameters are of commercial importance. For example, long-wavelength (1300 nm wavelength of emitted light) VCSELs could be commercially lucrative as light sources in optical communication links running at very high bit rates over metro-area link lengths of 10 kilometers (km) or more, but heat generation in the VCSELs makes it very challenging to simultaneously meet the modulation speed, optical power, and single-mode optical power requirements of such links.
FIG. 2 illustrates a lateral temperature distribution curve 70 along the active region 40 similar to results obtained by detailed finite element modeling. Here, layer interval 42i represents and corresponds to the extent of the light generation layer 42 of the VCSEL 10 of FIG. 1 and active interval 43i represents and corresponds to the extent of the active portion 43 of the light generation layer 42 where most of the photons are generated. As illustrated in FIG. 2, temperature is highest at the active interval 43i and the temperature drops off sharply at the edges of the active interval 43i. Temperature differential 72 between the temperature at the active interval 43i and the temperature outside the active interval 43i is relatively large. The lateral temperature distribution curve 70 suggests that heat is effectively trapped within the active portion 43 of the VCSEL 10 and is not effectively distributed or dissipated thereby exacerbating the heat problems of the VCSEL 10 of FIG. 1.
The heat is trapped within active portion 43 largely because of the normally conflicting requirements of high optical contrast, high electrical conductivity, and high thermal conductivity of the DBR mirrors 20 and 30. DBR mirrors are typically designed for high optical contrast and low electrical loss. Further, DBR mirrors normally have relatively poor thermal conductivity resulting in heat generated in active portion 43 being trapped and forming high peak temperatures as illustrated in curve 70 of FIG. 2. The high peak temperature not only exacerbates problems associated with overheating such as limited efficiency, but the narrow spatial distribution caused by the heat confinement exacerbates problems associated with the lateral heat distribution such as thermal lensing.
Accordingly, there remains a need for an improved laser with improved heat dissipation characteristics thus alleviating or eliminating the adverse effects that heat has on the light emitting device.

High thermal conductivity vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL)


The invention relates to processes for removing chlorate salts from an aqueous alkali chloride solution employed in cation-exchange membrane electrolysis, comprising the steps of adding hydrochloric acid to an aqueous alkali chloride solution to form a reaction solution, and maintaining the absolute pressure of the reaction solution at a range not higher than 600 mmHg and not lower than the saturated vapor pressure of the solution in a decomposition vessel and/or feeding the reaction solution to the bottom portion of a decomposition vessel and causing the reaction solution to flow upward in the decomposition vessel.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a process for purifying an aqueous alkali chloride solution (hereinafter referred to as a "salt solution") for cation-exchange membrane electrolysis of alkali chloride. More specifically the present invention relates to a process for removing accumulated chlorate salts in a salt solution circulating in an electrolysis system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Several processes have been disclosed regarding the removal of chlorate salts from a salt solution. In a typical process, chlorate salts in a salt solution are decomposed by the addition of hydrochloric acid through the reactions shown below and removed therefrom. EQU ClO.sub.3 +2 HCl.fwdarw.ClO.sub.2 +1/2 Cl.sub.2 +Cl+H.sub.2 O(1)
or EQU ClO.sub.3 +6 HCl.fwdarw.3 Cl.sub.2 +Cl+3 H.sub.2 O (2)
This process is disadvantageous because the reaction of hydrochloric acid with chlorate salts is slow and therefore, removal of the chlorate salts from the aqueous salt solution is a lengthy process.
Accordingly, further improvements have been disclosed for the quick removal of chlorate salts from a salt solution: for example, a method of saturating the salt solution with alkali chloride and subsequently adding hydrochloric acid (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Sho 59-20483); and a method of maintaining the concentration of hydrochloric acid in the salt solution at a level higher than 150 g/l (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Sho 57-191225). However, in the former method wherein a salt solution is saturated with an alkali chloride and hydrochloric acid is then added to the solution, problems are likely to be encountered as the result of the deposition of salts on the addition of hydrochloric acid. In the latter method wherein the hydrochloric acid concentration is maintained at a level higher than 150 g/l, the resulting hydrochloric acid concentration after decomposition of the chlorate salts is excessively high. Thus, these methods are disadvantageous because they require the posttreatment addition of chemicals as well as complicated post-treatment steps such as adding neutralizing alkali to lower the hydrochloric acid concentration and the treating salt deposits, respectively.
In a process within the present invention, chlorate salts in a salt solution are decomposed by the addition of a relatively small amount of hydrochloric acid with the resulting formation of chlorine dioxide as shown in Formula (1) above. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Sho 61-01402A discloses a method for recovering chlorine gas from chlorine dioxide formed in the decomposition and removal of chlorate salts in a salt solution in which the resulting chlorine dioxide is further decomposed into chlorine and oxygen by heating. This method, however, is disadvantageous because it requires the complicated steps of decomposing chlorine dioxide to produce chlorine and oxygen and then separating the two gases.
Another method for removing chlorate salts from a salt solution is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Sho 56-163286. In this method, a catalyst layer is provided in a salt solution which is circulated via a pipeline which feeds the salt solution to an alkali chloride electrolysis cell of an membrane ion-exchanger. The chlorate salt is decomposed and then removed by introducing hydrogen or a hydrogen-containing gas. The problems associated with this method include an increase in impurities as a result of elution of the catalyst and an increase in cost due to the complexity of the process.
Still another method for removing chlorate salts from an aqueous salt solution is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Sho 51-144399. In this method, aliquots of the circulating salt solution are removed and cooled in order to crystallize out and thereby isolate chlorate salt. The problems associated with this method include the relatively large amount of chlorate salt remaining in the salt solution, the complexity of the process, and the high cost of cooling.
In other known methods, chlorate salts are removed by the adding reducing agents such as sodium sulfite and hydrogen sulfide to the salt solution (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. Sho 53-123396 and Sho 6077982) or by decomposing chlorate salts in acidic conditions in the presence of an ion-exchange membrane (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Sho 63-129015). Problems associated with these methods include, respectively, the accumulation of sulfate salts and the high cost of the chemicals employed, as well as inefficiency of the decomposition of chlorate salts and difficulty in implementing the process for industrial use.
After an extensive investigation of the known methods of decomposing chlorate salts in a salt solution, applicants discovered that chlorate salts are effectively and efficiently removed from a salt solution by adding hydrochloric acid to the salt solution and then maintaining the salt solution at a reduced pressure in a decomposition vessel and/or causing the hydrochloric-acid-containing salt solution to flow upward in the decomposition vessel.

Process for removing chlorate salt from aqueous alkali chloride solution


A flame retardant polytrimethylene terephthalate resin composition, comprising:                30 to 99 parts by weight of (A) a polytrimethylene terephthalate resin, and        1 to 70 parts by weight of at least one flame retardant selected from the group consisting of (B-1) phosphorus-containing flame retardant and (B-2) nitrogen-containing flame retardant, is disclosed. The composition has superior mechanical characteristics, chemical resistance, electrical characteristics, weatherability, heat aging resistance and hydrolysis resistance, and has superior moldability, good appearance with less warpage deformation when molded, and furthermore has superior flame retardance and does not generate highly corrosive hydrogen halide gas upon combustion.

Thermoplastic polyesters represented by polyethylene terephthalate or polybutylene terephthalate are superior in mechanical characteristics, chemical resistance and electric characteristics, and thus are used in a wide variety of fields including automotive parts and electric/electronics parts. With the diversification of the markets in these fields, thermoplastic polyesters are required to have higher or special performance and a higher quality, depending on their applications. Polytrimethylene terephthalate resin, among other polyester resins, is superior in mechanical characteristics, weatherability, heat aging resistance and hydrolysis resistance. It also has superior properties such that when reinforced with inorganic fillers, the appearance of the molding is not impaired and warpage of the molding hardly occurs. Its uses can thus be extended to a wide variety of fields.
For the application with electric/electronics parts, which is one of the fields where the application of polytrimethylene terephthalate resin is expected to extend, a level of flame retardance based on the UL-94 standard by UNDERWRITERS LABORATORIES is required.
To satisfy this requirement, compositions containing halogen type flame retardants have conventionally been studied. For example, JP-A-50-49361 proposes a resin composition consisting of polypropylene terephthalate or polybutylene terephthalate, decabromodiphenyl ether, antimony trioxide and asbestos. U.S. Pat. No. 4,131,594 proposes a resin composition consisting of polytrimethylene terephthalate and a graft copolymer, a halogen type flame retardant, such as a polycarbonate oligomer of decabromobiphenyl ether or tetrabromobisphenol A, antimony oxide and glass fiber. However, such a halogen type flame retardant generates corrosive hydrogen halide upon combustion and also is suspected of discharging toxic substances such as dioxin. There is thus a movement to control the use of plastic products containing a halogen type flame retardant.
In this movement, JP-A-2000-169681, for example, proposes a flame retardant resin composition consisting of polytrimethylene terephthalate and red phosphorus. However, the use of this composition is limited because it has a red color and possibly generates phosphine gas during processing. Further, EP 0955338, EP 0955333 and JP 310284 propose resin compositions consisting of polybutylene terephthalate, melamine cyanurate, ammonium polyphosphate or melamine polyphosphate, phosphate ester and glass fiber. These compositions, however, have large warpage deformation and a poor appearance when molded, and thus cannot sufficiently satisfy the market's needs.

Flame-retardant polytrimethylene terephthalate resin composition