A portable stage platform includes a platform assembly having a mass and being shiftable between a stowed configuration and a performance configuration. The platform assembly has a platform that presents an upwardly directed performance surface when in the performance configuration and an opposed underside. The underside has a plurality of collapsible legs operably coupled thereto. The collapsible legs are shiftable between a collapsed configuration in which the collapsible legs are substantially flush with the underside and an extended configuration in which the collapsible legs are substantially transverse to the underside. The portable stage platform includes a platform base assembly that is shiftable between a stowed configuration and a performance configuration. The platform base assembly has apparatus for counterbalancing the mass of the platform assembly in order to minimize the effort required of an operator to shift the platform assembly between the stowed configuration and a performance configuration.

Devices providing temporary platforms above a floor have been known for many years. Such devices can be categorized in one of the two following categories: erectable in situ from a number of cooperative components and deployable from a stowed configuration. Typically, the erectable devices are more massive having a number of components that resuscitate a complex erection procedure requiring several individuals to assemble. The deployable devices on the other hand typically have rather complex linkages that unnecessarily increase the weight of the device. Even the deployable devices require several individuals to place the device in a performance configuration from a stowed configuration.
Neither the deployable nor the erectable devices provided for height adjustability further, both the deployable and the erectable devices required relatively extensive storage space and did not provide for a nestable feature. Both the deployable and erectable devices, being relatively massive, were not readily transportable between a storage location and a performance location. Finally, neither the deployable nor the erectable devices provided for any safety measures that would prevent a performer from falling from the portable stage device.
Accordingly, there is a need in the industry for a portable stage assembly that has a relatively simple linkage structure that is strong yet relatively light in weight. The portable stage assembly should be storable in a limited area, preferably having a nestable feature to minimize the footprint in the stowed configuration.
Most desirably, the portable stage assembly should be deployable from a stowed configuration to a performance configuration by a single operator. Additionally, it is desirable that the portable stage assembly be variable in height and that the variations be approximately the height of a step such that a number of the individual portable stage assemblies could be grouped in a stepped arrangement. Further, it is desirable that removable safety devices be available to minimize the chances that a performer would fall off the edge of a portable stage assembly.


A sensor head/brew cup with liquid level sensor probes which rotate down into the server to avoid damage to the probes by the server. The sensor head/brew cup moves as a unit, thereby eliminating any gap between the brew cup and the sensor head through which the brewed liquid must pour, thereby preventing spillage. The moveable sensor head/brew allows beverage brewing devices to use servers of various heights. Raising the sensor head/brew cup causes the level sensor probes to rotate upward out of the server, thereby protecting the probes from impact by the server when it is removed from the brewing device. When the level sensor probes are in the upward position they touch electrical contacts completing a self-test circuit confirming electrical continuity through the level sensor probes.

1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to sensing the fluid level in a server as used in a beverage brewing device, and securing servers of various heights in a beverage brewing device, such as a coffee maker.
2. Prior Art
Coffee makers on aircraft are used many times per month and therefore must be very reliable. The current art, U.S. Pat. No. 4,949,627, uses "swingably" mounted electrodes to detect when the coffee maker server is full and to therefore stop filling the server. These electrodes are conductive metal segments linked together by conductive pins, bolts, and nuts. The problem with this design is the fact that over time coffee residue builds up between the links and between the pins and links. This residue reduces the electrical conductivity of the electrode linkage, and thus renders the electrode sensor inoperable and causing the server to overflow. One conventional technique for solving the problem of residue interrupting electrical conductivity in electrodes is to use a probe without links. Instead of "swingably" mounted electrodes, probes mounted with springs are used. This provides an electrode without gaps to become contaminated. These probes are always oriented downward into the server. When the server is put into the coffee maker the probes are pushed out of the way by the server and then flex back into position inside the server. A problem occurs if the server is not pushed fully into position in the coffee maker. The probes of the current art will not spring back inside the server opening and the coffee maker will overfill the server since the probes are outside the server. Another problem with the current art occurs because the spring mounted probes become damaged over time with repeated flexing of the mounting springs and being repeatedly impacted by the server. The current art, U.S. Pat. No. 7,017,408, attempted to eliminate the mechanical failures associated with spring mounted probes by replacing conductive probes with infrared light emitting diodes (IRED) to detect the liquid level in the server. The IRED concept has problems with the lenses becoming dirty from steam and coffee residue which cause the IRED concept to not detect the liquid surface and therefore overfilling the occurs. The IRED also has difficulty detecting the liquid surface when the surface is vibrating due to aircraft vibration. The IRED concept also has errors detecting the maximum allowed surface level when the aircraft is not in level flight since the liquid surface is not horizontal. Problems also occur with the IRED concept in detecting the liquid surface due to the presence of steam. All of these problems cause the IRED concept to overflow the server. Another problem with the current art, U.S. Pat. No. 6,227,101, is the use of a stationary brew tray. The brew tray is in a fixed position and brewed liquid exits the "tray access port" through a "shelf access hole" and then into the coffee pot. This requires the brewed liquid to pour across a gap between the "shelf access hole" and the coffee pot. When the aircraft is not in level flight, the liquid travelling across this gap can miss entering the coffee pot, causing spillage. In order to minimize the gap across which the brewed liquid must pour, the current art requires the container into which the liquid pours to be a specific height. The current art, U.S. Pat. No. 6,227,101, secures the server in the coffee maker with "a pair of spaced apart fingers." This mechanism can only engage servers of a specific height. This forces the operator to use specific servers with specific height geometry. Also, the current art is difficult to clean due to the use of a fixed brew tray. This requires cleaning of the "tray access port" which is difficult to access.

Sensor head and brew cup for a beverage brewing device


A method and apparatus are provided for servicing a telecommunication junction box. The method enables a reduced number of tools to be utilized to service a telecommunication junction box.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to methods and apparatus for servicing a telecommunication junction box having a plurality of fasteners, wires and electrical connections.
More particularly, the invention relates to a method and apparatus for accessing and crimping a wire in a telecommunications junction box.
2. Description of Related Art including disclosed under 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98.
Telephone systems in the United States and other countries entail the use of relatively complex wiring. Telecommunication housings or junction boxes which contain many strands of telephone wires are placed in cities, towns and suburbs throughout the United States. Telephone company technicians open these junction boxes and connect, disconnect, crimp, cut, punch down, and otherwise manipulate the wire housed in the boxes. Each wire typically includes an electrically insulative coating except at points along the wire which are stripped to expose the bare metal wire.
Telecommunication junction boxes have a variety of names, including cross box, ready access point, pedestal, wall terminal, SNI (standard network interface box on the sides of homes), and demarcation point (typically in large buildings). Wires in the junction boxes typically are attached to binding posts, punch down blocks, screw terminals, or other electric terminals.
A large incoming feeder line with fifty pairs of wires connects to the pedestal. A plurality of smaller outgoing buried service lines extend from the pedestal to a plurality of homes or other building structures. Each buried service wire includes in its center two to six pairs of wires. Each pair of wires serves as one telephone line. A buried service wire extends from a pedestal to the SNI in a telecommunication box. The SNI (standard network interface) is the demarcation point at which telephone company service lines end and connect to telephone lines or wiring in a home or other building structure.
The two to six pairs of wire in each buried service wire are surrounded by a rubber insulator. The rubber insulator is surround by a layer or jacket of wound copper. The jacket further protects the two to six pairs of wire and serves as an electrical ground. Another layer of insulation is formed over the copper jacket to protect the copper. At times, it is necessary for a telephone repairman to cut through the layer of insulation formed over the copper jacket.
When a telephone company technician is accessing through a junction box door 17 a wire 15 in the junction box 16, he can use the tool 10 illustrated in FIG. 1. Tool 10 includes handle 13 and neck 11 pivotally attached to handle 13 by pin 12. The distal end of handle 11 includes hook 14. The technician uses hook 14 to engage wire 15 and pull wire 15 free from a bundle or group of other wires in box 16. Hook 14 may be utilized to pull a second wire (third wire, etc.) out from a bundle or group of wires. A wire cutter can be utilized to cut the wire 15 in half, if desired.
A "button" 100 can be utilized to crimp or "splice" together two or more wires. A variety of crimping or splicing buttons are known in the art. By way of example, 3M Company produces various SKOTCHLOK(™) connectors which are used to splice together wires without having to strip off and remove the insulation from the wires at the points at which the wires are being spliced.
The tool 20 shown in FIG. 2 is typically used to squeeze, or crimp, a button 100 inserted between gripping members 26 and 29. Handles 22 and 24 are manually displaced about pivot point 25 in the direction of arrows J and K to displace members 26 and 29 in the direction of arrows L and M to crimp button 100.
The foregoing procedure for manipulating wire in a telecommunication junction box has, along with other procedures, been used many times by telephone technicians. One disadvantage of such procedures is that they each require separate tools. This requires a telephone technician to pick up, manipulate, and put down several tools while attempting to manually hold on to and manipulate one or more wires. It would be highly desirable to provide an improved method and apparatus for crimping, splicing, or otherwise manipulating wires. One approach for minimizing the number of tools required by a telephone technician is set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 6,826,831 to Crawley. The approach set forth in the Crawley patent still, however, requires the use of at least two tools. It would be desirable to provide a single tool that would enable a telephone technician to perform many tasks.
In addition to a crimping tool 20, other tools typically carried by a telephone technician include needle nose pliers, can wrench, a screwdriver with a small flat head, a screwdriver with a large flathead, a sni tool, a Phillips screwdriver with a "star" head, a pair of scissors, a sheath or cable knife, a flashlight, a punch down, bits utilized in the punch down, a wire pick, and a can of dog spray (not shown).
One kind of bolt that is incorporated in and that is operated to open and close access doors in a telecommunication junction box has a head including an aperture with an internal hex surface and a dimple formed in the bottom of the aperture. A sni tool is used to engage and turn this kind of bolt. The sni tool includes an external hex surface shaped to conform to and be slidably inserted in the hex surface of the bolt. The distal tip of sni tool includes a detent shaped and dimensioned to conform to and fit over the dimple.
A conventional can wrench is operated by a telecommunication technician by utilizing internal hex surfaces at either end of the can wrench to loosen and tighten hex nuts.
Therefore, it is a principal object of the instant invention to provide an improved method and apparatus for servicing a telecommunication junction box.
A further object of the invention is to provide a single tool that can be utilized by a technician to accomplish servicing of a telecommunication junction box.


To provide a receiver having a plurality of receiver circuits respectively connected to different antennas and a selecting circuit for selecting a receiver circuit whose receiving level is equal to a predetermined threshold value or a receiver circuit whose receiving level is higher than the predetermined threshold value as a main processing circuit to bring at least some of the receiver circuits other than the selected receiver circuit into a non-operation state.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a receiver connected to a plurality of antennas, and particularly to a technique making it possible to reduce power consumption.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A receiver is hitherto known which is provided with a diversity mechanism for selecting and processing a signal having the highest receiving level among signals received by a plurality of antennas. Some comparatively small receivers, such as remote control units for an on-vehicle communication system (for example, radio key apparatuses), use a diversity mechanism in order to obtain a signal having a higher receiving level. For example, this type of conventional receiver is disclosed in Patent Document 1 of Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2000-78063.
However, in the case of a conventional diversity mechanism for selecting a signal having the highest receiving level, a circuit configuration becomes complex and this is one of the factors for further decreasing a receiver in size and weight. Moreover, further reducing power consumption has been a demand for this type of receiver. When it is possible to reduce power consumption, there are advantages for a receiver using batteries in that a cycle for replacing batteries is lengthened or the receiver can be decreased in size and weight by an extent proportional to the decrease in battery capacity.


Data having express or implied relationships may be displayed by selecting a starting entity in a data structure, building a relationship tree, and building and optimizing a relationship matrix based on the relationship tree. The optimized relationship matrix may be used to layout and render a graphical image that positions various elements with respect to the starting entity based on the relationships. The distance matrix may be optimized by creating a first distance matrix based on the relationship tree, developing a dissimilarity matrix based on expressed or implied relationships, and multiplying the dissimilarity matrix by a weighting factor to determine a distance matrix that may be optimized by multi-dimensional scaling. An optimized weighting factor may be determined and used to select an optimized distance matrix.

Visualizing and presenting data in a computer system can be a difficult task, especially when disparate data may be displayed. In many cases, data may have relationships between entities, which can make displaying related entities somewhat more complicated, especially when some entities have no express relationships to other entities.
Relationships can be expressed in many ways, including positive relationships, where two entities may be closely related, and negative relationships where two entities may be opposed to each other. Some relationships may be very strong, while other relationships may be categorized as weak.


A helmet mounted lighting apparatus including an identification or decorative shield that may be removably coupled with the helmet. The apparatus may include one or more of at least one light, at least one power source, a microcontroller, a switch and a heat dissipater. In at least one embodiment, the at least one power source does not protrude in front of a main surface area of the identification or decorative shield. The at least one light may be focused to point forward from the identification or decorative shield, such that the at least one light illuminates an area forward of the helmet focusing on a working area of a user. The at least one light may also point downward at an adjustable angle. The apparatus may include at least one location proximal to the identification or decorative shield to place the at least one light respectively.

1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the invention described herein pertain to the field of lighting. More particularly, but not by way of limitation, one or more embodiments of the invention enable a helmet mounted lighting apparatus and method of manufacture.
2. Description of the Related Art
Lighting apparatus such as a flashlight or headlight with head strap provide portable lighting. These apparatus use halogen, standard filament, neon and light emitting diodes (LEDs) to emit light. Various methods of powering portable lights include cylinder, coin, button, disposable and rechargeable batteries.
Currently known portable lighting apparatus are generally bulky and difficult to control, i.e., turn on or off in certain environments or situations. For example, attempting to operate a small light switch with gloves on in an environment that requires gloves is difficult. Hand held lights require use of one hand to hold the light, which is unacceptable to users that require both hands to be free.
Mining lanterns and headlamps are bulky and/or protrude from a mining helmet for example. These types of lights provide underground portable lighting for miners. The headlamps catch on objects in the environment and are not easy to operate.
For at least the limitations described above there is a need for a helmet mounted lighting apparatus and method of manufacture.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Helmet mounted lighting apparatus and method of manufacture


An electronic apparatus includes a housing having first and second cover bodies covering opposite first and second ends thereof, and a switch device including a support member, and a switch assembly mounted on and slidable relative to the support member and having first and second contact points. When one of the first and second cover bodies covers one of the ends of the housing and pushes one of the first and second contact points with the other one of the first and second contact points being unblocked, the switch assembly is placed in an OFF state. When the first and second cover bodies cover the ends of the housing and push the first and second contact points toward each other, the switch assembly is switched from the OFF state to an ON state.

A circuit board of an existing electronic apparatus has a built-in power supply unit. A repair person may decide at his discretion whether to turn ON or OFF the power supply unit by controlling a conventional switch. When the switch is operated to put the power supply unit in an ON state, the circuit board is energized. When the switch is operated to put the power supply unit in an OFF state, the circuit board is de-energized. At this time, the repair person can inspect, repair or replace the electronic components on the circuit board.
However, the repair person can only press a pushbutton of the switch in a single direction, so that the switch cannot be used on an electronic apparatus that requires movement of the switch in different directions. Hence, the use of the conventional switch is relatively limited.

Switch carrier with one contact point with a switch including second contact point


A mobile device protecting structure includes a first frame having a first frame portion and a first guard plate, a second frame having a second frame portion and a fixing edge, and the second frame portion encircling the first frame portion, and a packing element disposed in the second frame portion and inserted into a packing slot formed at the exterior of the first frame portion, and a waterproof ring installed between the first and second frames and having an internal periphery. A mobile device is covered by the first and second frames, and a second guard plate is selectively packed between the internal periphery and the fixing edge or packed between the internal periphery and the mobile device depending on the thickness of the mobile device.

As electronic and communication industries are developed and integrated rapidly, many present electronic devices including tablet PCs or Smartphones are used and required extensively in various occasions. Therefore, products of this sort are usually designed with portable and mobile features to allow people to carry and use the products for different occasions in order to meet user requirements.
To cope with the situations in different environments when a mobile device is carried to a different place for its use and assure the safety of the normal operation of the mobile device, the mobile device is wrapped tightly for protection, so that the peripherals with the dustproof and waterproof effects are introduced into the market. Among these dustproof and waterproof peripherals, waterproof box is one having the greatest demand and capable of maintaining the normal operation or use of a mobile phone in water.
However, the conventional waterproof box requires a tight wrap to achieve the good waterproof effect, and thus such conventional waterproof box is limited by the shape and size of the mobile device. In other words, mobile devices of different models require waterproof boxes with different designs, and the universal applicability of the waterproof box is limited.
In view of the foregoing problems of the prior art, the inventor of the present invention based on years of experience in the related industry to conduct extensive researches and experiments and provided a feasible solution to overcome the problems of the prior art.


A host and ancillary tool interface methodology for distributed processing is described. The host tool manages a process, except for the generation of a product used in the process. To generate the product, the host tool provides an indication to an ancillary tool that the product is to be generated, and the ancillary tool generates the product after detection of the indication with no further intervention by the host tool. To provide the indication, the host tool preferably activates a control line whose voltage is monitored by the ancillary tool, or alternatively, sets one or more bits in a memory which is periodically checked by the ancillary tool.

In the prior art system of FIG. 1, a host tool 10 includes a processor 11 managing a semiconductor process performed in a process chamber 30 on a semiconductor wafer 31 according to a process recipe stored in memory 12. Although shown as separate items in the figure, the process chamber 30 is commonly integrated with or in the host tool 10. Material sources 53 and 54 provide materials directly to the process chamber 30. For these materials, the processor 11 causes main flow control valves 73 and 74 respectively in flow lines 63 and 64 to open by activating control lines 83 and 84 with appropriate signals through input/output (I/O) ports 16 and 17 at the appropriate times according to the process recipe. Precursor material sources 51 and 52, on the other hand, provide precursor materials to a radio frequency (RF) inductively coupled plasma (ICP) torch 21 of an ancillary tool 20. For these precursor materials, the processor 11 causes main flow control valves 71 and 72 in flow lines 61 and 62 to be opened by activating control lines 81 and 82 with appropriate signals through input/output (I/O) ports 14 and 15 at the appropriate times according to the process recipe, while providing controls through bus 40 to the ancillary tool 20 so that the RF ICP torch 21 generates a product such as a chemical species from the precursor materials and provides the product to the process chamber 30 through flow line 90 for processing the semiconductor wafer 31.
In addition to managing the processing of the semiconductor wafer 31, the host tool 10 may have other important tasks to perform. Therefore, it is useful to distribute the semiconductor processing so that the ancillary tool 20 generates the product and provides it to the process chamber 30 with minimal to no supervision from the host tool 10, while at the same time, performing such function at the appropriate time according to the process recipe. When the ancillary tool 20 is manufactured and distributed by a different vendor than the host tool 10, however, the two tools may be designed for different operating systems and/or communication protocols, thus complicating the task of interfacing the two tools with each other.

Host and ancillary tool interface methodology for distributed processing


A printing machine color assembly presenting a main or cliché-carrying cylinder (2) and an interlocking or screened cylinder (3), each carried at its hubs (2a, 2b; 3a, 3b) by first (4a; 5a—operator side) and second (4b; 5b—motor side) slidable supports positioned on different sides of the printing machine and parallel displaceable independently from one another. The first support (5a) of at least said main cylinder (2) is detachable from the respective hub (2a) to cantileverwise position the main cylinder (2) on the second support (5b) thereby carrying out the sleeve replacement on the main cylinder (2). At least one auxiliary supporting means (17) at the second support (5b) of at least the main cylinder (2) is designed to engage with, and assist in supporting, it when cantileverwise positioned for replacing a sleeve.

As it is well-known, each color assembly or unit in a multicolor flexographic machine comprises a pair of cylinders, i.e. a screened and a cliché-carrying cylinder, respectively, that are parallel to one another and slidingly displaceable between a working position, in which the anilox or screened cylinder, i. e. an etched steel cylinder with a wide range of screen frames having from 3 to 200 lines per centimeter, is located in contact with the cliché-carrying cylinder positioned, in turn, in contact with a counterpressure or printing drum, and a rest position, in which the two cylinders are parallelly shifted or moved away from one another and from the counterpressure drum. Both screened and cliché-carrying cylinders have a hub member at each end thereof, which is designed to be mounted for rotation on a respective slide slidingly connected to, and supported by, a respective side of the support frame of a printing machine.
It has already been proposed, see Patent EP-1 199 167, how rotatably to support the hubs of a screened cylinder by means of a pair of cradle-shaped supports, to which a respective counter-cradle or cap member is articulated, that is angularly displaceable about a pin which is fixed to the cradle and has its longitudinal axis parallel to that of the cylinder, thereby obtaining a shape engagement with a portion of a respective hub of the cylinder supported for rotation in the cradle. Each cap member is angularly displaceable between a working position, where it is positioned abutting engagement with the cradle thereby rotatably holding the cylinder hub, and a rest position, where it opens upwards by rotating about its pin, thereby releasing the hub cylinder hub and allowing it to be removed or installed therein.
Such a solution, however, has some non-negligible drawbacks from the practical point of view. As a matter of fact, the use of a cap or counter-cradle system, also owing to the unavoidable presence of leverages operated by linear actuators, results in non-negligible clearances being created between hub and cradle-countercradle, which clearances affect the print quality at least in the long run.
It has already been also suggested—see ES-2 127 658—a method of replacing a cliché-carrying or anilox sleeve, such a method involving the following sequential operations:                detaching cylinders from counterpressure drum;        moving side counter-cradles away from their respective hub-carrying cradles of each cylinder;        displacing one hub-carrying cradle of the cylinder, so that the latter remains cantileverwise supported by its other hub-carrying cradle;        replacement of the sleeve;        return of hub-carrying cradle to a receiving position of the cylinder hub, i.e. to its starting position;        automatic or manual return of counter-cradle to its closed position on the cradle; and        return of cylinder (cliché-carrying or screened cylinder) to its working position in abutting engagement with the counter-pressure drum.
During sleeve replacement and more precisely upon disengagement of one hub from the cradle, i.e. while the other cradle on the motor side of the printing machine entirely cantileverwise supports the cylinder, the cylinder weight can be considered to be a static load, which applies a bending moment to one of the cradles and its respective pad or bushing. With the lengths and the weight involved, the bending moment generated is always high and can deform the cradle and damage the (frustoconical) pad on which the hub rests.
With presently available technical solutions, some of which have been mentioned above, the operator is actively involved throughout the entire sleeve replacing procedure to carry out the hub disengagement/engagement and removing/laying operations in relation to the cradle after replacing the sleeve, once a sleeve has been replaced.
Another drawback of printing machines of the prior art in general is the use of rotary motors with motion transmission by means of ball screws for causing linear displacements of cliché-carrying and anilox cylinder supports away from or towards a counterpressure drum. As a matter of fact, as it is known to a person skilled in the art of the printing machines, such a cylinder handling system is responsible for considerable clearance, which in any case can cause printing inaccuracies greater than a hundredth of a millimeter that cannot be tolerated if a good print quality is to be obtained. Moreover, rotary motors are provided with circular encoders, which do not allow the exact position of the operated cylinders to be detected, whereby a reckoning algorithm is required in the electronic control unit of the printing machine.

Supporting and releasably holding device for a printing cylinder hub


Provided is a transmitter which improves the flexibility of SRS resource allocation without increasing the amount of signaling for notifying the cyclic shift amount. In the transmitter, with regard to each basic shift amount candidate group having a basic shift amount from 0 to N−1, a transmission control unit (206) specifies the actual shift amount imparted to a cyclic shift sequence used in scrambling a reference signal transmitted from each antenna port, said specification being performed based on a table in which cyclic shift amount candidates correspond to each antenna port, and based on setting information transmitted from a base station (100). With regard to basic shift amount candidates for shift amount X, the table differentiates between an offset pattern comprising offset values for cyclic shift amount candidates corresponding to each antenna port and an offset pattern corresponding to basic shift amount candidates of X+N/2.

Technical Field
The present invention relates to a transmitter apparatus, a receiver apparatus, a transmission method, and a reception method.
Description of the Related Art
In 3GPP LTE (3rd Generation Partnership Project Long-term Evolution, hereinafter, simply referred to as "LTE") and LTE-Advanced (hereinafter, simply referred to as "LTE-A"), Sounding Reference signal (SRS) is used as a reference signal for measuring uplink receiving quality (refer to Non-Patent Literature 1). To be more specific, SRS includes P-SRS (Periodic SRS) and DA-SRS (Dynamic Aperiodic SRS). For both types of SRS, SRS transmission timing is controlled according to trigger information transmitted from a base station to a terminal. However, while the P-SRS is controlled by a high-order layer, the DA-SRS is controlled by a control channel (that is, PDCCH) of a physical layer.
In order to transmit the SRS from a terminal to a base station, SRS resources (hereinafter, referred to as "common resources") which are common to all terminals are set. A notification of these common resources is performed with the cell units. For example, if a notification indicating that the common resources are first, third and eighth subframes is performed using control information, all terminals in a cell stop transmission of data signals during a predetermined time period (specifically, a final symbol) of each of the first, third and eighth subframes, and use the time period as a transmission resource of a reference signal.
In addition, information regarding a resource (that is, parameters used to identify a resource) which is practically allocated to each terminal in the common resources includes leading subframe, set band, transmission bandwidth, frame interval at which an SRS is mapped, and transmission time or the like. Each terminal is notified of this information by a higher-order layer than a physical layer.
Furthermore, SRSs are scrambled by an orthogonal sequence in each terminal and then transmitted. Furthermore, for a terminal that performs MIMO communication introduced in LTE-A, an SRS transmitted from each antenna port is scrambled by an orthogonal sequence and transmitted. That is, SRSs transmitted from a plurality of terminals or a terminal that performs MIMO communication are code-division multiplexed and transmitted.
Here, as the orthogonal sequence, a cyclic shift sequence (CS sequence) is used. More specifically, the terminal generates a transmission sequence used by the terminal itself by applying a cyclic shift corresponding to one of cyclic shift amounts 0 to 7 notified of from the base station (that is, notified by 3 bits) to a basic sequence generated by a ZC (Zadoff Chu) sequence. To be more specific, the terminal applies a cyclic shift to the basic sequence by a cyclic shift amount×symbol length/16 (ms) notified of from the base station. FIG. 1 shows a situation in which a basic sequence is cyclically shifted by ¼ symbol. On an LTE or LTE-A uplink, an SRS is arranged for every two subcarriers. Furthermore, on an LTE or LTE-A uplink, the same waveform is repeated twice within one symbol. For this reason, a waveform obtained by a cyclic shift of (8 to 15)×symbol length/16 (ms) is identical to a waveform obtained by a cyclic shift of (0 to 7)×symbol length/16 (ms).
When SRSs are transmitted from a plurality of antennas of one terminal (that is, in a case of MIMO communication), if the base station notifies the terminal of cyclic shift amounts at all antennas, the signaling amount becomes enormous. Such a problem is solved by a method of notifying of a cyclic shift amount disclosed in, for example, Non-Patent Literature 2. According to this method, a base station and a terminal share an offset pattern about offset values of cyclic shift amounts of a second antenna port, a third antenna port, and a fourth antenna port from the cyclic shift amount corresponding to a first antenna port (hereinafter, simply referred to as "offset pattern"). Here, the offset pattern is fixed. In this shared condition, the base station notifies the terminal of the cyclic shift amount (CS0) of the first antenna port using 3 bits. In this way, the terminal can calculate the respective cyclic shift amounts corresponding to the second antenna port, the third antenna port, and the fourth antenna port from the notified cyclic shift amount (CS0) of the first antenna port. That is, the cyclic shift amount of an i-th antenna port can be calculated from CSi=CS0+k mod 8. Here, i is an antenna port identification number (0 to 3) and k is an offset value of an antenna port with identification number i with respect to the cyclic shift amount of the antenna port with identification number 0.
FIG. 2 shows an example of correspondence table in which with regard to eight cyclic shift amount candidates of an antenna port with identification number 0, four antenna port identification numbers are associated with cyclic shift amounts corresponding to the respective antenna port identification numbers.
As is clear from FIG. 2, in the case of 4 antenna ports (that is, the case of 4-antenna MIMO transmission), the offset pattern is "0, 4, 2, 6" (for i=0, 1, 2, 3). On the other hand, in the case of 2 antenna ports (that is, the case of 2-antenna MIMO transmission), the offset pattern is "0, 4" (for i=0, 1). Here, in FIG. 2, antenna port 10 means a first antenna port when one antenna port is used. Furthermore, antenna ports 20 and 21 mean first and second antenna ports, respectively, when two antenna ports are used. Furthermore, antenna ports 40, 41, 42 and 43 mean first, second, third and fourth antenna ports, respectively, when four antenna ports are used. Using such offset patterns causes a CS interval to become a maximum between antenna ports, and when SRSs are transmitted from two antenna ports or when SRSs are transmitted from four antenna ports, the SRS demultiplexing accuracy becomes the highest. Furthermore, by causing the first two elements of the offset pattern in the case of 4 antenna ports to match the offset pattern in the case of 2 antenna ports, it is possible to use a common correspondence table for the cases of 4 antenna ports and 2 antenna ports. A common correspondence table may be used for the cases of 1 antenna port, 2 antenna ports and 4 antenna ports as well.

Transmitter, receiver, transmission method, and reception method


A method of assembling a tower for use with a wind turbine is provided. The method includes providing a plurality of tower segments. Each tower segment includes a first interface and a second interface. The method also includes bonding the first interface of a first tower segment to the second interface of a second tower segment using an adhesive composition.

This application relates generally wind towers for use with a wind turbine, and more specifically, to wind towers that can be assembled using an adhesive composition to bond sections of the wind turbine tower together.
Wind turbines are increasingly used to generate electrical energy. At least some known wind turbines include a wind turbine tower, a nacelle located on the wind turbine tower and a rotor that is supported in the nacelle by means of a shaft. In at least some known wind turbines, the wind turbine tower includes three tower sections: a top section, a mid section, and a bottom section. Each tower section is fabricated from one to ten or more individual can segments that are typically welded together.
In known wind turbine towers, the top section is the section farthest from the ground and the bottom section contacts the ground. The mid tower section extends between the top and bottom sections. Each wind turbine tower section provides a portion of a robust structural load-path from the turbine to the ground. Moreover, the wind turbine tower sections also provide support to any mechanical and/or electrical internals that may be required by the system. Known wind turbine tower sections are connected together to form the wind turbine tower via welding, a bolted connection, and/or other known mechanical fastener assemblies. Specifically, the can segments of each wind turbine tower section are welded together to form each respective wind turbine tower section and adjacent tower sections are then coupled together to form the wind turbine tower.
With known wind turbines, the wind turbine tower is transported to the construction site using over-the-road trucks prior to being assembled. Aside from the insufficient maneuverability of a vehicle transporting a wind turbine tower section having a length of from about 60 feet to about 150 feet, road transportation of tower sections of 60 to 150 feet in length maybe costly. Furthermore, specific routes for transport have to be planned since narrow curves maybe difficult to navigate. Also, loading and unloading of long towers from the truck maybe difficult. As a result, sometimes tower sections must be transported by ship or helicopter, both of which may increase costs.
In view of the foregoing, it would be advantageous if the tower for the wind turbine could be easily assembled at the construction site. However, welding and other mechanical coupling methods that are typically used for producing a tower may not conveniently capable of being preformed at the construction site. As such, there is a need for an alternative means to connect wind turbine tower sections together to produce a wind turbine that can withstand the wind and temperature conditions to which wind turbines are typically subjected. Specifically, it would be advantageous to utilize an adhesive composition for bonding the tower sections together to create a wind turbine tower at the construction site. Additionally, it would be further advantageous to utilize the adhesive composition to bind can segments of the tower sections to create the tower sections themselves at the construction site.

Wind tower and method of assembling the same


Disclosed is a comb-vibration preventing structure for a hair cutter including a cutter body and a cutting-length adjusting comb adapted to be fitted on an upper portion of the cutter body and vertically moved in a sliding manner so as to adjust a cutting length. The comb-vibration preventing structure comprises a wire spring for urging each of opposite inner side surfaces of the cutting-length adjusting comb in an outward thrusting manner in an opposite lateral direction. The comb-vibration preventing structure can prevent vibrations of the cutting-length adjusting comb to reduce chatter noises, and achieve enhanced usability while facilitating quality control.

Heretofore, there has been known a hair cutter comprising a cutter body and a cutting-length adjusting comb adapted to be fitted on an upper portion of the cutter body and vertically moved in a sliding manner so as to adjust a cutting length of hair or beard as shown in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 01-214388
As for a mounting technique disclosed in this Patent Publication, the cutting-length adjusting comb is simply fitted on the upper portion of the cutter body. Thus, the cutting-length adjusting comb is liable to shake or wobble due to lateral vibrations in a blade block and cause a problem about occurrence of chatter noises.
While this wobbling may be avoided by improving a fitting accuracy of the cutting-length adjusting comb relative to the cutter body, this approach involves problems about poor usability due to increase in sliding resistance of the cutting-length adjusting comb, and difficulties in quality control.

Comb-vibration preventing structure for hair cutter


The present invention relates to an electric battery (10). The electric battery (10) comprises plural battery cells (12), with each battery cell comprising a container. The container contains an electrochemical arrangement. Each battery cell (12) comprises positive and negative terminals of sheet form which extend from the electrochemical arrangement. The electric battery further comprises plural measurement arrangements (14), with each of the plural measurement arrangements being electrically coupled to each of two spaced apart locations on one of the positive and negative terminals of a respective one of the plural battery cells. Each of the plural measurement arrangements (14) is configured to measure potential difference between the two spaced apart locations.

Lithium-ion battery cells have seen widespread use in small consumer devices such as laptop computers and mobile telephones. Lithium-ion batteries have recently begun to supplant conventional batteries in applications having greater electrical energy demands, such as electrical vehicles and static electricity generation apparatus. Lithium-ion batteries are seeing increased use on account of their normally superior performance over conventional batteries, such as lead-acid and NiMH batteries, in particular in respect of energy storage density and power density. To meet electrical energy demand in such larger energy demand applications a battery is typically comprised of plural lithium-ion battery cells which are arranged in at least one of series and parallel depending on current and voltage requirements. Lithium-ion batteries can be dangerous under certain conditions on account of their containing flammable material. Safe and effective use of a lithium-ion battery normally requires operation of the battery within its Safe Operating Area (SOA). Considering operation within a SOA further, most lithium-ion cells can be damaged if discharged below a certain voltage or if charged or discharged at too high a current. In addition there is often the lesser constraint of a Normal Operating Area (NOA). Breaching the NOA can result in reduction in capacity or cell life over time. These challenges are compounded by the multi-cell configuration of the typical lithium-ion battery wherein unevenness of the state of charge can arise between cells. Careful management by way of a battery management system (BMS) is therefore normally required to provide for safe and effective operation.
Battery management systems for lithium-ion battery arrangements are known. Such a battery management system typically makes measurements of properties such as current, voltage and temperature in a battery and makes determinations concerning safe and effective operation based on the measurements. Where current is measured either a discrete sense resistor or a Hall Effect device is used.
The present inventors have become appreciative of shortcomings in known approaches to measurement of current sourced from or sunk by electric batteries. The present invention has been devised in light of the inventors' appreciation of such shortcomings. It is therefore an object for the present invention to provide an electric battery comprising plural battery cells and a measurement arrangement configured to provide for measurement of current sourced from or sunk by each of at least one of the plural battery cells.


The invention relates to a method of producing ethanol by fermentation, said method comprising a secondary liquefaction step in the presence of a thermostable acid alpha-amylase or, a thermostable maltogenic acid alpha-amylase.

Ethanol has widespread application as an industrial chemical, gasoline additive or straight liquid fuel. As a fuel or fuel additive, ethanol dramatically reduces air emissions while improving engine performance. As a renewable fuel, ethanol reduces national dependence on finite and largely foreign fossil fuel sources while decreasing the net accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Fermentation processes are used for the production of ethanol. There are a large number of disclosures concerning production of alcohol by fermentation, among which are, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,231,017 and CA 1,143,677. EP 138428 mentions an Aspergillus niger alpha-amylase preparation for use in liquefaction in the alcohol industry.
There is a need for further improvement of ethanol manufacturing processes.

Secondary liquefaction in ethanol production


A supersonic compressor rotor and method of compressing a fluid is disclosed. The rotor includes a first and a second rotor disk, a first set and a second set of rotor vanes. The first set and second set of rotor vanes are coupled to and disposed between the first and second rotor disks. Further, the first set of rotor vanes are offset from the second set of rotor vanes. The rotor includes a first set of flow channels defined by the first set of rotor vanes disposed between the first and second rotor disks. Similarly, the rotor includes a second set of flow channels defined by the second set of rotor vanes disposed between the first and second rotor disks. Further, the rotor includes a compression ramp disposed on a rotor vane surface opposite to an adjacent rotor vane surface.

The present invention relates generally to a compressor, and more particularly to a rotor of a supersonic compressor.
Compressors are used to compress fluids and are widely used in systems ranging from refrigeration units to jet engines. During operation, the compressor applies mechanical energy to a fluid at lower pressure to raise pressure of the fluid to higher pressure. Compression of the fluid is ether performed in a single stage or in multiple stages. Currently available compression technology varies from centrifugal compression systems to mixed flow compression systems, to axial flow compression systems. The performance of the compressor may be measured by a pressure ratio of the fluid before and after a compression stage. Typically, the pressure ratio achieved in single stage compression is relatively low. Higher pressure ratios are achievable by multistage compression. However, compressors having multiple stages tend to be large, complex and of high cost.
Supersonic compressors are believed to overcome some of the limitations of conventional compressors. In such supersonic compressors, compression is performed by contacting an inlet fluid with a moving rotor having a plurality of rotor vanes which moves the inlet fluid from a low pressure side of the rotor to a high pressure side of the rotor. Generally, in such supersonic compressors, the velocity of the fluid at the high pressure side of the rotor is reduced to subsonic velocity due to generation of a normal shockwave within flow channels defined by the plurality of rotor vanes. An interaction of the normal shockwave with a boundary layer in the flow channels results in a local flow separation of the compressed fluid. Such local flow separation results in reduction of an overall operating efficiency of the compressor. Thus, there is a need for an enhanced supersonic compressor.

Supersonic compressor and associated method


A method for fracturing semiconductor crystal wafers or bars to form individual chips with active devices without the use of mechanical scribing of the crystal. The method involves forming where fracture is desired a shallow trench by etching in the semiconductor wafer or bar, preferably with sharp corners, or providing over where the fracture is desired the edges of a metallization layer, or both. Applying pressure will then cause the crystal to fracture as a result of strains formed in the crystal at the sharp corners or below the metallization edges. The method is particularly suitable for the fabrication of laser chips from compound semiconductors.

In the semiconductor manufacturing process, after a wafer has been processed in the usual way with growth of epitaxial layers, diffusions of dopants and other species, and formation of insulating layers, followed by metallizations that are patterned to form the desired connections to each of the active devices formed in the wafer, individual chips of one or more active devices have to be separated from the wafer or bar. One standard technique for doing this is to scribe the wafer surface with a diamond scribe and then fracture the wafer along the scribe lines by applying pressure from the back side of the wafer. Another common technique is to use a chip chopping apparatus. Both of these techniques depend upon mechanically removing material from the semiconductor crystal, which requires that the removing tool must penetrate the layers on the wafer surface before reaching the underlying crystal. There are several problems that may arise as a result. Scribing is time-consuming. Moreover, when the surface of the device is scratched, the integrity of the metallization may be compromised, which can lead to difficulties. Another problem is that scratches may cause in the semiconductor crystal dislocations which may propagate to active device regions with undesirable consequences.
Further, for certain kinds of devices, such as II-V or II-VI laser devices made in chips separated from semiconductor bars, chip chopping does not work well, leaving only the scribing process with its attendant problems. Moreover, with the laser chips, the chip device is frequently mounted upside down on a heat sink. Any metallization defects produced by the scribing process can cause operational problems of the laser device.

Semiconductor chip-making without scribing

Philips Electronics North America Corporation


Embodiments of the present invention provide a VPLS fast rerouting method and device. The method includes: generating, by a remote PE, a backup forwarding entry; and when a designated forwarder or a designated forwarder pseudo wire in a multihoming protection group fails, or the designated forwarder is switched in the multihoming protection group, forwarding, by the remote PE, a data packet according to the backup forwarding entry, thereby avoiding broadcasting the data packet to all remote PEs that belong to the same VPLS instance, and further reducing a waste of bandwidth resources in a backbone network and processing resources of the PE.

The VPLS is a layer-2 virtual private network VPN (Virtual Private Network) technology based on the Internet Protocol (IP)/Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) and Ethernet. A main purpose of the VPLS is to use a public packet switched network to connect user stations that are separated in physical locations, so that the user stations work as if they are located in a local area network. In a VPLS network, fully-meshed point-to-point pseudo wires PWs (Pseudo Wires) are established between PEs (Provider Edges), and a service provider may provide Ethernet-based multipoint-to-multipoint services for users through an IP/MPLS backbone network. For the purpose of improving reliability of services, normally a CE (Customer Edge) is connected to multiple PEs in the VPLS network through multiple links, which is referred to as multihoming. When a CE-PE link or a PE thereof fails, another link and another PE may still ensure accessibility of services. For the purpose of avoiding a traffic forwarding loop in this networking scenario, one of the multiple PEs connected to the CE is selected as a designated forwarder DF (Designated Forwarder) for traffic forwarding, and meanwhile, through a multihoming information advertisement mechanism or through a manual configuration, a remote PE may learn associations between the multiple PEs connected to the same CE.
According to an existing VPLS processing mechanism, a PE learns Media Access Control (MAC) addresses according to received data packets, and establish a MAC forwarding table. For example, in a VPLS network, fully-meshed PW connections are established between PEs that belong to the same VPLS, where CE1 is dual-homed to access PE1 and PE2, and pseudo wire connections between the PE1 and a remote PE3 and between the PE2 and the PE3 are a PW1 and a PW2 respectively. After the PE1 is elected as a designated forwarder, the PE1 is responsible for forwarding data packets sent to the CE1 and data packets sent by the CE1, and corresponding MAC addresses learned by the remote PE3 from received data packets are associated with the pseudo wire PW1. If the PW1 or PE1 fails, the PE3 broadcasts data packets destined to the CE1 to all remote PEs that belong to a same VPLS instance. This will occupy a lot of precious bandwidth resources of the backbone network and processing resources of the PE3.


A method of manufacturing a magnetoresistance effect device, including: forming a first ferromagnetic body, a nonmagnetic dielectric layer on the first ferromagnetic body, and a second ferromagnetic body on the nonmagnetic dielectric layer; etching part of an external region of a predetermined ferromagnetic tunnel junction region using a first linear mask pattern which is traversing the predetermined ferromagnetic tunnel junction region; and etching another part of the external region of the predetermined ferromagnetic tunnel junction region using a second linear mask pattern which is traversing the predetermined ferromagnetic tunnel junction region and intersecting with the first linear mask pattern.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a magnetoresistance effect device, a method of manufacturing the same, a magnetic memory apparatus, a personal digital assistance, a magnetic reproducing head and a magnetic information reproducing apparatus.
2. Discussion of the Background
Solid magnetic memories including a Magnetic Random Access Memory (MRAM) using a MagnetoResistance (MR) effect element have been proposed. Further, a Tunnel MagnetoResistance effect device (TMR device) that uses a ferromagnetic tunnel junction has recently drawn attention as a component of a memory cell of the MRAM.
A conventional ferromagnetic tunnel junction has a three-layered film including a first ferromagnetic metal layer, a nonmagnetic dielectric layer and a second ferromagnetic metal layer. A current for sensing the tunnel junction's resistance flows from the first to the second of the ferromagnetic material layers via the nonmagnetic dielectric layer. The nonmagnetic dielectric layer forms a tunnel junction of the device, sometimes referred to as a tunnel dielectric layer. Each of the two ferromagnetic layers has a magnetization direction and a resistance value of the tunnel junction that changes in proportion to a cosine of a relative angle of magnetization directions of the first and second ferromagnetic layers.
The resistance value is at a minimum value when two magnetization directions of the ferromagnetic layers are parallel to each other and is a maximum value when the magnetization directions are not parallel to each other. A change in a resistance value (resistance amplitude) of the TMR device as much as 49.7% at room temperature (Appl. Phys. Lett. 77, 283 (2000)) has been reported.
The magnetization of one of the ferromagnetic layers of the ferromagnetic tunnel junction is fixed or pinned so the magnetization does not change or is inverted in an applied magnetic field, whereby the fixed magnetization ferromagnetic layer is used as a reference layer. The magnetization of the other ferromagnetic material layer is set to be free to rotate in the specific magnetic field, whereby the free magnetization ferromagnetic layer is used as a memory layer.
Several methods for fixing the magnetization of the reference layer and for allowing the magnetization free to rotate in the memory layer are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,159,513, the entire content of which is incorporated by reference.
In addition, the magnetization direction of the memory layer is changed in an applied magnetic field and the memory layer retains the changed magnetization direction. Further, the magnetization direction of the reference layer does not change in the applied magnetic field. Thus, the relative angle (i.e., parallel or antiparallel) of the magnetizations between the reference layer and the memory layer is changed. A binary value of "0" or "1" can be denoted to correspond to each of the parallel or antiparallel states.
Further, the magnetic information is written or recorded by inverting or changing the magnetization of the memory layer by the applied magnetic field. This is accomplished by generating a current to flow through a write line, which is electrically separate from but near the memory cell. The written or recorded information is read or reproduced by detecting a tunnel resistance change from a sense current flowing through the ferromagnetic tunnel junction. Further, a magnetic memory apparatus includes a number of the memory cells usually aligned in column and row directions on a same base, such as a semiconductor substrate.
A switching transistor may also be arranged with each memory cell and be coupled to the TMR device, similar to the Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM). Thus, an integrated peripheral circuit may select an arbitrary memory cell of the memory array. In addition, a diode can be used instead of the switching transistor and be placed at an intersection of a word line and a bit line (see U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,640,343 and 5,650,958, for example), where either the word line or the bit line is coupled to the TMR device via the diode, and the other of the word line or the bit line is directly coupled to the TMR device.
To form a highly integrated memory apparatus, a size of the memory cell including the TMR device should be reduced. However, as the size of ferromagnetic layer of the TMR device is reduced, a coercive force of the reduced ferromagnetic material layer becomes larger. A magnitude of a coercive force corresponds and is proportional to a magnitude of a switching magnetic field necessary for inverting a magnetization of the ferromagnetic memory layer. Therefore, an increase of the coercive force signifies an increase in the writing current, resulting in an increase in power consumption. An important subject to solve is to build the highly integrated magnetic memory apparatus with a reduction in coercive force of each ferromagnetic memory layer.
The TMR device usually has a rectangular plane shape, however, it is known that magnetic edge domains are produced in a small rectangular shape ferromagnetic layer (J. App. Phys. 81,5471 (1997)). The magnetic edge domain is formed, because magnetization at two shorter sides of the rectangular shape forms a pattern spirally rotated in line with the side to reduce a demagnetizing field energy.
For example, FIG. 1A is a plan view of an example of such a magnetic structure. As shown, the magnetic structure is an S-shaped magnetic domain structure, in which a magnetization at a center 11 is produced in a direction parallel to a magnetic anisotropy. Further, edge magnetic domains at both end portions 12 and 13 are produced and have a magnetization in a direction different from the center 11. FIG. 1B is a plan view of a C-shaped magnetic domain structure, in which the center 11 and both end portions 14 and 15 have different magnetization directions and in which the magnetizations of the end portions 14 and 15 are antiparallel to each other.
When the magnetization of the rectangular-shaped ferromagnetic memory layer starts to change or invert, each of the edge domains areas spreads. When the edge domains have magnetization directions antiparallel to each other as shown in FIG. 1B, a domain wall surrounds the center of the ferromagnetic material memory layer, whereby the coercive force of the memory layer is increased.
In addition, a ferromagnetic memory layer having an elliptic shape for reducing the edge domains is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,757,695. The elliptic-shaped ferromagnetic memory layer is formed to reduce a production of the edge domains and to promote a single magnetic domain in the entire layer, whereby a magnetization can be uniformly inverted over the entire ferromagnetic memory layer and an inversion magnetic field is reduced.
A ferromagnetic layer having a shape of a parallelogram has been proposed as a memory layer (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H11-273337). In this case, although edge domains are present, the edge domains do not extend over a large area as in the case of a rectangular shape, and formation of very small domains during magnetization inversion is prevented. Therefore, magnetization of the memory layer can be inverted substantially uniformly. As a result, the inversion magnetic field can be reduced.
As a method of preventing a change of the complicated magnetic structure, magnetically fixing edge domains of the memory layer has been examined (see U.S. Pat. No. 5,748,524 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-100153).
Further, a tri-layered film including two ferromagnetic layers and a nonmagnetic layer interposed therebetween is also introduced as a memory layer for reducing an inversion magnetic field. The tri-layered film includes antiferromagnetic coupling between the two ferromagnetic layers and its magnetization as a whole is relatively lower than a single memory layer having a same shape (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H9-25162, Japanese Patent Application No. H9-263741 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,953,248). The two ferromagnetic layers of the tri-layered film are different in magnetic moments or in their film thickness. Further, the magnetizations of two layers are in antiparallel directions by antiferromagnetic coupling, whereby larger portions of the two magnetizations are effectively cancelled and the tri-layered film as the memory layer is substantially equivalent to a single ferromagnetic layer having a small amount of magnetization in easy magnetization axis direction.
When a magnetic field in a direction inverse to the direction of the easy magnetization axis is provided to the tri-layered memory film, each magnetization of the respective ferromagnetic layers is inverted or changes while maintaining antiferromagnetic coupling. Magnetic force lines of the multi-layered film is closed in the tri-layered film and the influence of a demagnetizing field is inconsiderable, whereby a switching magnetic field of the memory film is determined by a difference of coercive forces between the two ferromagnetic layers, and the switching magnetic field for the multi-layered film is reduced.
Some methods for manufacturing the highly integrated MRAM having memory cells of a submicron size have been researched and method of using an electron beam (EB) drawing for making patterns of the memory cells is described in a journal, W. J. Gallagher et al., J. Appl. Phys. 81,3741 (1997).

Method of manufacturing a magnetoresistance effect device


A method of monitoring operation of a dosing system for treating exhaust of an engine includes monitoring a downstream temperature of an exhaust downstream of the dosing system and injecting a dosing agent. A control module determines a temperature differential threshold based on an amount of dosing agent injected and calculates a temperature differential. The control module further evaluates operation of the dosing system based on the temperature differential and the temperature differential threshold.

Engine operation includes a combustion process and an exhaust process. During the combustion process, an air/fuel mixture is combusted within cylinders to drive pistons (not shown). A vehicle engine produces exhaust as a result from the combustion of air and fuel. During the exhaust process, exhaust is released from the cylinders into the exhaust system. The exhaust contains Nitrous Oxide (NOx) and Carbon Monoxide (CO) that is treated before the exhaust is released from the vehicle.
An exhaust treatment system is used to reduce the amount of emissions (e.g., NOx) in the exhaust. A control module monitors engine operation and emissions levels and a dosing system injects a reducing agent into the exhaust upstream from a catalyst. The treated exhaust reacts with the catalyst and a chemical reaction occurs that reduces the level of emissions.
The dosing system includes a dosing agent supply and an injector. The dosing agent must be delivered in a proper amount corresponding to the level of emissions in order to effectively treat the exhaust. A faulty injector or an insufficient dosing agent supply would result in an inadequate amount of dosing agent to properly treat the exhaust. Therefore, it is desirable to monitor the dosing system and determine whether it is operating correctly.

Exhaust treatment diagnostic using a temperature sensor


A magnetic proximity sensor assembly 10. The magnetic proximity sensor assembly 10 comprises a switch assembly 12 received in a blind bore 14 of a body tube 16. The switch assembly 12 comprises a magnetic assembly 18 moveable in the blind bore 14. The switch assembly 12 comprises an operator 42 which extends from the magnetic assembly 18 and serves as a drive for a moving contact 44 positioned between a first contact 46 and a second contact 48. The magnetic assembly 18 comprises a primary magnet 20 and a biasing magnet 22. The switch assembly 12 comprises a center magnet 26 interposed between the primary magnet 20 and the biasing magnet 22. The blind bore 14 has a uniform bore diameter. The magnetic proximity sensor assembly 10 comprises a sleeve 28 in the blind bore 14 contacting the closed end 30 of the blind bore 14. The switch assembly 12 is seated on the sleeve 28 such that the primary magnet 20 of the magnetic assembly 18 is surrounded by the sleeve 28.

Magnetic proximity sensor assemblies for monitoring the position of magnetic or ferromagnetic targets are known.
A typical magnetic proximity sensor assembly comprises a switch assembly received in a blind bore of a body tube. The switch assembly comprises a magnetic assembly moveable in the blind bore. The switch assembly also comprises and an operator which extends from the magnetic assembly and serves as a drive for a moving contact positioned between a first contact and a second contact.
When a target, such as a magnet or ferrous object, is within the sensing range of the magnetic proximity sensor assembly, the magnetic assembly moves in the blind bore from a magnetically biased position towards the target. In this position of the magnetic assembly, the moving contact is urged by the operator into contact with the first contact to complete a first electrical circuit.
In the absence of a target within a sensing range, the magnetic assembly adopts the magnetically biased position in the blind bore. In the magnetically biased position of the magnetic assembly, the moving contact is urged by the operator into contact with the second contact to complete a second electrical circuit.
In use, a controller is configured to continuously supply an electrical input signal to the magnetic proximity sensor assembly, and to monitor the electrical output signal. The electrical output signal is different for the first and second electrical circuits. Accordingly, by monitoring the electrical output signal it can be determined whether or not the target is within the sensing range of the magnetic proximity sensor assembly.
The switch assembly must be precisely positioned in the blind bore to facilitate the in-use movement of the magnetic assembly. Typically, the blind bore is provided with a varying diameter to provide a shoulder on which the switch assembly is seated at the required position in the blind bore. However, this is both challenging to achieve and difficult to detect from a quality control perspective.


A method for the production of a dental object (1) by grinding a blank (2) made of ceramic or a ceramic-plastic composite material, wherein, for the production of a preform (3) having an outer contour (4) that differs from a final outer contour (5) of the dental object (1) to be produced, a grinding channel (8) is machined into the blank (2) or into a pre-preform (9) already made from the blank (2), in at least one grinding process using a grinding tool (6) of a grinding device (7), wherein the outer contour (4) of the preform (3) is formed with the grinding channel (8) on one edge (10) thereof, and on the edge (11) of the grinding channel (8) opposing the outer contour (4) of the preform (3), at least one remaining piece (12) is removed from the blank (2) or from the pre-preform (9) at least in sections.

The present invention relates to a method for producing a dental object by grinding a blank made of ceramic or of a ceramic-plastic composite material.
Due to their hardness, blanks made of ceramic or of a ceramic-plastic composite material are often unable to be milled in order to produce dental objects. The dental object can often be machined from such blanks exclusively by grinding. For this purpose, in the prior art, the blank is ground down in regions. Except for any support webs, or for wall regions of the blank that are at a distance from the dental object, it is generally the case that the entire material of the blank not ultimately forming part of the dental object is converted to grinding dust through line-by-line grinding work. This procedure is very time-consuming. Moreover, it generates a high degree of wear on the grinding tool used for the grinding work.


The present invention to provide a method of manufacturing an analog semiconductor device capable of minimizing the CD variation of a gate and improving the integration of a semiconductor device. First, a semiconductor substrate in which isolation films are formed is provided. A gate insulating layer, a first conductive layer, a dielectric layer and a second conductive layer are then formed on the substrate in sequence. Next, a first photoresist pattern is formed on the predetermined portion of the second conductive layer. The second conductive layer and the dielectric layer are then patterned using the first pattern as an etch mask, to form a first pattern for gate electrode on the substrate between the isolation films and form a second pattern for a lower capacitor electrode on the predetermined portion of the isolation film. Next, the first photoresist pattern is removed and a second photoresist pattern for an upper capacitor electrode is then formed on the second pattern. The second conductive layer of the first and second patterns and the exposed first conductive layer at both sides of the first and second patterns are etched using the dielectric layer, the gate insulating layer and the isolation films as an etch stopper and then the second photoresist pattern is removed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device, and more particularly to a method of manufacturing an analog semiconductor device.
2. Discussion of Related Art
An analog semiconductor device stores data of various states in contrary to a digital semiconductor device having data of low and high states. In the analog semiconductor device, a resistor and a capacitor are provided each node thereof. This capacitor includes a lower capacitor electrode, an insulating layer formed on the lower capacitor electrode, and an upper capacitor electrode formed on the insulating layer.
Referring to FIGS. 1A, 1B, 1C, a conventional method of manufacturing an analog semiconductor device will be described.
As shown in FIG. 1A, isolation films 2 are formed on a semiconductor substrate 1 and then gate insulating layer 3 and a first conductive layer 4 are formed thereon. An insulating layer 5 is formed on the first conductive layer 4 to act as a dielectric of a capacitor, and a second conductive layer 6 is then formed thereon. Next, a first photoresist pattern 7 is formed on the second conductive layer 6 by photolithography.
As shown in FIG. 1B, the second conductive layer 6 and the insulating layer 5 are etched by etching process using the first photoresist pattern 7 as an each mask, thus forming an upper capacitor electrode 6a. Next, the first photoresist pattern 7 is removed and a second photoresist layer 8 is coated on the entire surface of the substrate. As shown in FIG. 1C, the second photoresist layer 8 is patterned to form a second photoresist pattern 8a.
Afterward, although not shown in drawing, the first conductive layer 4 is etched by etching process using the second photoresist pattern 8a as an etch mask, thus patterning the gate and lower capacitor electrodes. Therefore, the gate is formed on the substrate between the isolation films 2, and capacitor are formed on the predetermined portion of the isolation films 2.
Meanwhile, as a design rule semiconductor devices decrease below half-micron, patterning conditions for the gate are difficult more and more. Therefore, if there is a little bit of a change in the patterning conditions, a critical dimension (CD) of the gate varies significantly. One of the main factors due to the CD variation of the gate is the thickness variation of the photoresist layer acting as a mask during patterning the gate. The thickness of the photoresist layer varies with the surface topology of underlayer. The thickness variation of the photoresist layer increases the CD variation of the gate.
In the conventional method of manufacturing the analog semiconductor device as described above, as shown in FIGS. 1B and 1C, the thickness of the second photoresist layer 8 varies since the surface topology property is deteriorated dud to the upper capacitor electrode 6a. Therefore, the CD variation of the gate increases. To overcome this problem, although the space between the gate and the capacitor is proposed to enhance the surface topology property, this decreases the integration of a semiconductor device.

Method of manufacturing analog semiconductor device

Hyundai Electronics Industries Co., Ltd.


A fixing component for fixing an optical fiber cord to an optical connector in a press-fitting manner by compression deformation is formed with a connected combination of a tension member fixing portion for fixing, in a press-fitting manner, a tension member of the optical fiber cord put on an outer peripheral surface of the optical connector to the outer peripheral surface and a sheath fixing portion for fixing, in a press-fitting manner, a sheath of the cord put on the outer peripheral surface of the connector to the outer peripheral surface, and has a slit formed between the tension member fixing portion and the sheath fixing portion, and adapted to absorb compressed and deformed part of either or both of the two fixing portions.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fixing component for fixing an optical fiber cord to an optical connector.
2. Description of Related Art
The optical fiber cord has a tension member arranged around a fiber core, and a sheath arranged therearound, as a basic structure. For connection of such an optical fiber cord to an optical connector, it is necessary to hold a stable transmission characteristic even with tensile strength acting backward on the cord. Therefore, in the past, on an outer peripheral surface of a rear end part of an optical connector (connector housing) with fiber core inserted thereto, there were put the sheath and the tension member peeled off in advance from the fiber core, and separate fixing components (metallic rings) were put on an outside of the tension member and an outside of the sheath, and by caulking the fixing components, the tension member and the sheath were fixed in a press-fitting manner to the optical connector.
However, in consideration of reduction of component cost as well as of simplification of assembly work, it is preferable, rather than fixing the tension member and the sheath in a press-fitting manner to the optical connector by separate fixing components as described, to fix them in a lump. Therefore, recently, there is employed such a fixing component 30 as shown in FIGS. 5A to 5D. FIG. 5A is a front view of the fixing component 30, FIG. 5B is a plan view of the component 30, FIG. 5C is a side view of the component 30, and FIG. 5D is a rear view of the component 30. This fixing component 30 is integrally formed, as shown in FIG. 5B and FIG. 5C, with a tension member fixing portion 31 for fixing a tension member of an optical fiber cord in a press-fitting manner, and a sheath fixing portion 32 for fixing a sheath of the cord in a press-fitting manner. Moreover, as shown in FIG. 5A and FIG. 5D, the tension member fixing portion 31 and the sheath fixing portion 32 are both configured as a metallic tube of a substantially elliptic form in cross section. The fixing component 30 is adapted, as shown in FIG. 6, by putting the tension member fixing portion 31 on the outside of a tension member 35 of an optical fiber cord 34 put on an outer peripheral surface of a rear end part of an optical connector (connector housing) 33, putting the sheath fixing portion 32 on the outside of a sheath 36 put on the outer peripheral surface of the rear end part, and caulking them in a lump, so that the tension member 35 and the sheath 36 can be press-fitted to be fixed in a lump to the optical connector 33. Although in FIG. 6 a step is formed between the tension member fixing portion 31 and the sheath fixing portion 32, there is a case of caulking not to form a step.
The conventional fixing component shown in FIG. 5A to FIG. 5D has the following problems:
(1) For a structural reason of the optical connector, outside diameters of the tension member fixing portion and the sheath fixing portion of the fixing component must be different, and there develops a strain when the two fixing portions different in outside diameter are caulked simultaneously. More specifically, because of no escaping place for the strain developed in the tension member fixing portion, part (excessive part) of that fixing portion is caused to bulge like a wen at the sheath fixing portion side. As a result, the caulking at either or both of the tension member fixing portion and the sheath fixing portion becomes incomplete. Further, it needs a very strong force for the caulking to be complete.
(2) In order for the tension member fixing portion to have an identical cross sectional form before and after the caulking, it is necessary to evenly caulk the entirety from outside toward the center (it is necessary to evenly caulk in the direction of arrow in FIG. 5A). On the other hand, for the sheath fixing portion, such a caulking is necessary that the sheath is pinched from the left and right (it is necessary to caulk in the direction of arrow in FIG. 5D). In other words, between the tension member fixing portion and the sheath fixing portion, the caulking force and caulking direction are different. Therefore, when the tension member fixing portion and the sheath fixing portion are caulked in a lump, the two fixing portions have different contraction due to the caulking, so that the above-noted strain is yet increased.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a fixing component which is free from incomplete caulking even when a tension member fixing portion and a sheath fixing portion that are different in outside diameter are caulked in a lump, and does not need very strong forces for the caulking.
According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided an optical fiber cord fixing component which is integrally formed with a tension member fixing portion for fixing, in a press-fitting manner, a tension member of an optical fiber cord put on an outer peripheral surface of an optical connector to the outer peripheral surface by caulking, and a sheath fixing portion for fixing, in a press-fitting manner, a sheath of the cord put on the outer peripheral surface of the connector to the outer peripheral surface by caulking, and which is formed, between the tension member fixing portion and the sheath fixing portion, with a slit capable of absorbing a deformation of either or both of the tension member fixing portion and the sheath fixing portion by the caulking.


A movable contact includes a conductive member having an outer end having substantially a rectangular shape when viewed from above the conductive member. The conductive member includes a dome portion, a flange extending in a direction away from the dome portion, a connection portions provided at each of four corners of the rectangular shape, and a contact portion extending away from the flange. The connection portion, a first boundary portion where the connection portion is connected to the flange, and a second boundary portion where the connection portion is connected to the contact portion may constitute a drawn portion. Alternatively, the first and second boundary portions may be curved to be concave toward the dome portion.

A conventional movable contact disclosed in PTL 1 includes a dome portion which is convex toward a first surface, a flange, and a contact portion. The dome portion is convex from the flange toward the first surface. The contact portion is bent from the flange to an opposite side to the first surface. The outer shape of the movable contact is rectangular when viewed from the first surface. The contact portion is provided at each of four corners of the movable contact.
This movable contact is manufactured by metal stamping. The contact portion is formed by bending from the flange. In this case, in the bending, the shape of a bent portion that is a boundary between the flange and the contact portion is straight.
The movable contact functions as a switch while the movable contact contacts and is separated from a fixed contact portion formed on the bottom of a base of the switch or a printed circuit board. The fixed contact portion includes a first fixed contact and a second fixed contact that contacts the contact portion of the movable contact. Then, by pushing the dome portion, the dome portion is inverted and contacts the first fixed contact.
Another conventional movable contact disclosed in PTL 2 includes a dome portion and protrusion portions. The shape of the dome portion when viewed from the front side is a circle. The dome portion is convex from the protrusion portion to one side. The protrusion portions extend from an outer border of the dome portion in directions opposite to each other. The movable contact is mounted on a wiring board. A switch is configured by a fixed contact formed with a conductor pattern on the wiring board and the movable contact mounted on the wiring board. In order to configure a switch on the wiring board, the movable contact is mounted on the wiring board by a general-purpose component mounting machine. For mounting by the component mounting machine, the movable contact is accommodated in an embossed tape.
The embossed tape for accommodating the above conventional movable contact has a circular recess that accommodates the dome portion therein. In order to mount the movable contact on the wiring board accurately by the component mounting machine, it is necessary to regulate the position and the angle of the movable contact in the embossed tape accurately. Therefore, the embossed tape has a rectangular recess portion that accommodates the protrusion portion therein, and the angle of the dome portion is regulated by contacting the protrusion portion on the side surface of the rectangular recess portion.

Movable contact point, switch with movable contact point, and embossed tape for containing movable contact point

PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.


The invention relates to anti-inflammatory polypeptides comprising soluble CD14 related polypeptides having amino acids at position 7-10 that are different from the native sequence or having amino acids 1-14 deleted.

Sepsis is a life-threatening medical condition that can be brought on by infection or trauma. The symptoms of sepsis can include chills, profuse sweating, fever, weakness, or hypotension, followed by leukopenia, intravascular coagulation, shock, adult respiratory distress syndrome, multiple organ failure, and often, death. R. Ulevitch, et al., J. Trauma 30: S189-92 (1990).
The lipopolysaccharides ("LPS"; also, "endotoxins") that are typically present on the outer membrane of all gram-negative bacteria are among the most studied and best understood sepsis-inducing substances. While the precise chemical structures of LPS molecules obtained from different bacteria may vary in a species-specific fashion, a region called the lipid A region is common to all LPS molecules. E. Rietschel et al., in Handbook of Endotoxins, 1: 187-214, eds. R. Proctor and E. Rietschel, Elsevier, Amsterdam (1984). This lipid A region is responsible for many, if not all, of the LPS-dependent pathophysiologic changes that characterize sepsis.
LPS is believed to be a primary cause of death in humans afflicted with gram-negative sepsis. van Deventer et al., Lancet, 1: 605 (1988); Ziegler et al., J. Infect. Dis., 136: 19-28 (1987). Treatment of patients suffering from sepsis and gram-negative bacteraemia with a monoclonal antibody against LPS decreased their mortality rate. Ziegler et al., N. Eng. J. Med., 324: 429 (1991).
Sepsis is also caused by gram-positive bacteria. Bone, R. C. Arch. Intern, Med., 154: 26-34 (1994). The activation of host cells can originate from gram-positive cell walls or purified cell components such as peptidoglycan and lipoteichoic acid. Such substances induce a similar pattern of inflammatory responses to those induced by LPS. Chin and Kostura, J. Immunol. 151: 5574-5585 (1993); Mattson et al., FEMS Immun. Med. Microbiol. 7: 281-288 (1993); and Rotta, J. Z. Immunol. Forsch. Bd.: 149: 230-244 (1975).
LPS and gram-positive cell wall substances cause polymorphonuclear leukocytes, endothelial cells, and cells of the monocyte/macrophage lineage to rapidly produce and release a variety of cell products, including cytokines, which are capable of initiating, modulating or mediating humoral and cellular immune responses and processes.
One particular cytokine, alpha-cachectin or tumor necrosis factor (TNF-.alpha.), is apparently a primary mediator of septic shock. Beutler et al., N. Eng. J. Med., 316: 379 (1987). Intravenous injection of LPS into experimental animals and man produces a rapid, transient release of TNF-.alpha.. Beutler et al., J. Immunol., 135: 3972 (1985); Mathison et al., J. Clin. Invest. 81: 1925 (1988). Pretreatment of animals with anti-TNF-.alpha. antibodies can modulate septic shock. Beutler et al., Science, 229: 869, (1985); Mathison et al., J. Clin. Invest. 81: 1925 (1988).
Molecular receptors that can combine with sepsis-inducing substances, and that once combined, initiate certain chemical reactions, play a critical role in the etiology of the symptoms of sepsis. CD14 is a 55-kD glycoprotein expressed strongly on the surface of monocytes and macrophages, and weakly on the surface of granulocytes, such as neutrophils. S. M. Goyert et al., J. Immunol. 137: 3909 (1986). A. Haziot et al., J. Immunol. 141: 547-552 (1988); S. M. Goyert et al., Science 239: 497 (1988).
The cDNAs and the genes for human and murine CD14 have been cloned and sequenced. E. Ferrero and S. M. Goyert, Nuc. Acids Res. 16: 4173 (1988); S. M. Goyert et al., Science 239: 497 (1988); M. Setoguchi et al., Biochem. Biophys. Acta 1008: 213-22 (1989). CD14 is linked by a cleavable glycosyl phosphatidyl inositol tail A. Haziot et al., J. Immunol. 141: 547-552 (1988)! to the exoplasmic surface of mature monocytes, macrophages, granulocytes and dendritic reticulum cells, or renal nonglomerular endothelium, and of hepatocytes in rejected livers.
CD14 mediates responses by binding to LPS. Complexes of LPS and sCD14 exhibit a 1:1 stoichiometry (Hailman, E., et al., J. Exp. Med. 179: 269-277 (1994)), and these complexes initiate TNF-.alpha. production in monocytes (Dentener, M. A., et al., J. Immunol. 7: 2885-2891 (1993)), IL-6 production in astrocytes (Frey, E., et al., J. Exp. Med. 176: 1665-1671 (1992)), production of adhesion molecules in endothelial cells (Frey, E., et al., J. Exp. Med. 176: 1665-1671 (1992)) and activation of leukocyte integrins in PMN (Hailman, E., et al., J. Exp. Med. 179: 269-277 (1994)). Spontaneous binding of LPS to CD14 is slow, but this binding may be dramatically accelerated by LBP. LBP acts in a catalytic fashion, with one molecule of LBP transferring hundreds of LPS molecules to hundreds of CD14 molecules.
Other experiments have shown that cell activation can also be induced by interaction of CD14 with components of gram-positive bacteria such as B. subtilis, S. aureus, and S. mitus (Pugin et al., Immunity 1: 509-516 (1994). Furthermore, interaction of CD14 with lipoarabinomannan from the cell wall of Mycobacterium tuberculosis also induces cellular activation in a CD14-dependent fashion (Zhang et al., J. Clin. Invest. 91: 2076-2083 (1993); Pugin et al., Immunity 1: 509-516 (1994)). These studies suggest that CD14 is a receptor which recognizes a wide variety of bacterial structures. Interaction of CD14 with these structures initiates host inflammatory responses.
Several neutralizing monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) to CD14 have been shown to antagonize cellular responses to LPS in vitro (Wright, S. D., et al. Science 249: 1431-1433 (1990); Hailman, E., et al. J. Exp. Med. 179, 269-277 (1994); Frey, E. A., et al. J. Exp. Med. 176, 1665-1671 (1992); Arditi, M., et al. Infect. Immun. 61, 3149-3156 (1993); Wright, S. D., et al. J. Exp. Med. 173, 1281-1286 (1991); Dentener, M. A., et al. J. Immunol 150, 2885-2891 (1993); Grunwald, U., et al. J. Immunol Methods 155, 225-232 (1992)) and in vivo (Leturcq, D. J., et al. Satellite Meeting of the 3rd Conference of the International Endotoxin Society 22 (Abstract) (1994)); and Wright, et al., Science 90: 1431-1433 (1990). Additional in vivo data have demonstrated that animals injected with CD14 neutralizing monoclonal antibodies become hyporesponsive to LPS and mice lacking CD14 fail to respond to LPS. These experiments suggest that the release of inflammatory cytokines can be blocked by preventing the interaction of LPS with membrane CD14.
CD14 has also been shown to exist as a soluble protein found in normal sera or urine of nephrotic patients. Recent evidence has shown that sCD14 enables LPS-dependent responses in cells which lack membrane CD14, i.e., endothelial cells and epithelial cells. In these cells types, sCD14 in conjunction with LPS promotes inflammatory cytokine release and upregulation of adhesion molecules.
Interestingly, high concentrations of sCD14 have been shown to block inflammatory cytokine release from monocytes in a whole blood assay. Presumably, the beneficial effect of sCD14 in this assay arises from its ability to divert LPS away from mCD14 on macrophages and PMNs. Thus sCD14, like CD14 neutralizing monoclonal antibodies, could be useful in preventing LPS interactions in mCD14. However, the utility of sCD14 to treat LPS-mediated inflammatory disorders is limited by its other property of eliciting inflammatory cytokines in endothelial cells. Thus, a sCD14 molecule which retained its ability to bind LPS, yet did not activate endothelial cells should have superior properties in treating inflammation.
Monoclonal antibodies may be a useful tool to help identify domains in sCD14 required for cell activation. We have demonstrated that mAbs MEM-18 and 3C10 recognize a sCD14 mutant truncated at amino acid 152, indicating that epitopes for these two mAbs are within the first 152 amino acids (Juan, T. S. -C., et al. J. Biol. Chem. 270, 1382-1387 (1995)). We further localized the epitope of MEM-18 between amino acids 57 and 64 and found that this region is also essential for LPS binding (Juan, T. S. -C., et al. J. Biol. Chem. 270, 5219-5224 (1995)). Deletion of this region not only disrupted binding of MEM-18, but also binding of LPS.
The epitope for mAb 3C10 defines another functional domain of CD14. This mAb appears to recognize a different region from that of MEM-18 (Juan, T. S. -C., et al. J. Biol. Chem. 270, 1382-1387 (1995)). Binding of monoclonal antibody 3C10 to sCD14 does not affect LPS binding to sCD14 (Juan, T. S. -C., et al. J. Biol. Chem. 270, 5219-5224 (1995)), suggesting that this epitope may be involved in a cellular function other than LPS binding.
For the preceding reasons, it is an object of this invention to develop methods and therapies for the effective treatment, including prevention, for symptoms of inflammatory conditions, including sepsis. It is also an object of this invention to develop methods and therapies for the effective protection of individuals who are at risk of becoming afflicted by the symptoms of inflammation, including sepsis.
It is another object of this invention to develop methods and therapies for the effective treatment, including prevention, of symptoms of diseases that are mediated by LPS, gram-negative bacteraemia, gram-positive cell components, gram-positive bacteraemia, mycobacterial lipoarabinomannan, mycobacterial infections and/or CD14. Such diseases include ARDS, septic shock, acute pancreatitis, acute and chronic liver failure, intestinal or liver transplantation, inflammatory bowel disease, graft vs. host disease in bone marrow transplantation and tuberculosis.