A culture container includes a container and a cover. The container forms an opening at the top and an external threaded portion around the opening. The cover includes a main body and a flange extending from the main body. An internal threaded portion corresponding to the external threaded portion is formed on the internal surface of the flange. The cover forms a ventilation passage having an opening formed at a free end of the flange facing away from the main body. When the internal threaded portion is threaded with the external threaded portion so as to close the opening of the bottle, the interior of the bottle communicates with exterior via the ventilation passage. Thus, dust is prevented from falling into the bottle via the ventilation passage.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a culture container.
2. Description of the Prior Art
When developing plant seedlings, as shown in FIG. 5, a container 9 receiving culture media is usually utilized. The container 9 includes a bottle 91 with a cover 92 screwed with the bottle 91. The cover 92 forms a ventilation hole 921 at the top, and a membrane 922 is disposed on the ventilation hole 921 for blocking dust from entering the bottle 91. However, the membrane 922 may be blocked by falling dust so that the membrane 922 has to be displaced. Thus, cost is increased. Also, when the membrane 922 is blocked by dust, ventilation efficiency of the ventilation hole 921 is decreased. On the other hand, the cover 92 has only one ventilation hole 921. As a result, convection of the ventilation hole 921 is deficient.


A game ticket printed on a ticket substrate includes a first surface portion with a first game play area thereon and a second surface portion of the substrate with a second game play area. Each of said first and second game play areas contains game play symbols printed on the game play area covered by a scratch-off material. The ticket can be modified by folding or by separating portions so as to provide movement of the second game play area relative to said game play information to allow playing by the player of the game symbols on the second play area. The ticket includes a single prize validated by a single bar code and the result of a combination of both the first and second aspects of the play.

Lottery tickets are well known and widely sold and typically comprised of a sheet material of paper or card stock on which is printed lottery information and various indicia for the playing of one or more games. Many such games are instant win type games where the player can play the game or games by carrying out various functions, for example, opening pull tabs on a break-open ticket. Such tickets are also known variously as pull-tabs, pickle cards, jar tickets, hard cards and charitable gaming tickets.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,234,477 assigned to the present assignee and issued May 22, 2001 is disclosed a construction of lottery ticket which utilizes variable image printing techniques in combination with lamination of two substrate sheets together to form what is initially a common pouch construction with the game indicia on the inside surface where the sheets can be separated, each from the other, to form in effect two separate tickets.
In U.S. Pat. No. 7,472,926 assigned to the present assignee and issued Jan. 6, 2009 is disclosed a game ticket construction formed by laminating two substrate sheets by a band of adhesive between the sheets across a center line so as to form an initially flat construction which can be folded into a four page eight surface booklet. A plurality of different games, each defined by game indicia some or all of which are covered by a scratch-off layer are printed, one onto each of the six surfaces except the first and last which carry promotional material.
Instant ticket games typically utilize an opaque scratch-off over printed game data so that the player can remove the scratch-off to expose the game data to allow the player to determine from the data whether the game data satisfies the criteria of the game to be a winning ticket and if so how much is the prize value. Attention has been given over many years to try to improve the play action for the player to try to remove the impression that the game is merely pre-determined. Many new game formats have been developed to this effect.
Some games also use a translucent scratch-off material to mark the game play area of the ticket, for example in a bingo or cross-word format, by the player removing the translucent scratch-off from covered data so that the marked data where the scratch-off is removed has a different color appearance from that which has not been removed. However the game still relies on game play data which is covered by an opaque scratch-off layer to be exposed and played on the game play area.

Method of playing a game ticket with a folding action


A coupler is provided for implementation with front end loaders. A male face plate is connected to the arms of the front end loader, having spring biased and hydraulically released cams on the back surface thereof and maintained in juxtaposition to an aperture passing through the base plate. A female coupler portion is attached to an appropriate implement. The female coupler portion includes a pair of ribs having hooks at the top thereof for engaging the bridge pins of the male portion, and legs having cam pins extending from bottom portions of the ribs. The legs and cam pins pass through the aperture of the faced plate to make locking engagement with the cams.

It is well known that front end loaders may be used for a multiplicity of purposes depending upon the attachment or implement employed. In effect, the front end loader serves as a power source adapted for powering or driving buckets, forks, plows, scoops, and various other types of implements. As is well known in the art, such implements are removably interconnected to the front end loader by means of an appropriate coupler. The versatility and efficiency of the front end loader and the various attachments is known to be a function of the coupler employed. It is most desirable that the implement be readily engaged and disengaged with the front end loader in such a manner that, once engaged, the implement operates as though it were directly attached to the front end loader with little or no loss of performance or productivity being experienced as a result of the presence of the coupler.
Previously, a large number of coupler systems have been known for interconnecting implements with front end loaders. The present standard for "quick couplers" is set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 4,708,579 assigned to JRB Company, Inc. of Akron, Ohio, the assignee of the instant application. It is also known in the art to employ a cam lock type of coupler. Neither of these prior art systems provide a coupler which is both self tightening and self adjusting. It is well known that slack is present within a coupler as a result of manufacturing tolerances and the wear which results from use. Coupling pins, holes, stop blocks, and the like which are presented between the male and female portions of the coupler tend to wear with use. Such wear reduces the effectiveness and efficiency of the coupler system and, upon reaching an excessive level, requires replacement of the coupler or repair of portions thereof.
Even the prior art cam lock couplers are complex in design and implementation, resulting in an increase in costs and a reduction in efficiency. Such cam lock systems are also given to wear and alignment problems as presented above. In like manner, couplers made according to the aforementioned patent, while providing the most efficient systems presently available, are also given to wear and resulting alignment problems.
It is recognized that there is a need in the art for a coupler system for front end loaders which is self tightening and self adjusting, automatically compensating for wear and manufacturing tolerances within the coupler system. There is a further need for a coupler which provides multiple points of load bearing contact spaced apart within the coupler system to receive and bear the load transmitted thereto. In other words, the heavy loads passing from the implement to the front end loader arms must necessarily pass through the coupler system. It is most desirable that such forces be passed through a multiplicity of points, diminishing the load at any particular point, assuring the maintenance of system integrity. There is further a need in the art for a coupler system in which forceful engagement between the male and female portions of the coupler are continuously urged by a mechanical biasing means, disengagement of the coupler necessitating the application of manual, pneumatic, or hydraulic force.


A barcode identification system is shown that includes a user operable personal computer for creating print jobs. The personal computer is coupled to a number of printers for printing the data for a job in a selected format on a record member such as a tag, label or the like. The system employs modular software. During the initialization of each of the software modules, the system determines whether the module includes a key identification that matches a system key and if not, the operation of the software module is limited to a demonstration mode if that mode is allowable. A data entry routine aids the user entering valid data for a selected format. In response to a print command, the data entered by the user is combined with the selected format to form a job. The job is then sent to a spooler which distributes the job to one of the barcode printers of the system.

Barcode identification systems are known for printing jobs that include barcodes and associated alphanumeric characters on a web of record members such as tags, labels or the like. Known barcode information systems typically are not modular in nature in that the systems require a fixed number of software routines for controlling data entry, format creation, etc. Because the systems are not modular, if a user does not want to create his own formats for example, the user is still required to purchase system software that includes a format creation capability. Further, the data entry procedures for known barcode identification systems are typically very difficult to implement. Information to be printed on a record member by a barcode identification system is usually divided into a number of fields such as a barcode field, text field, etc. wherein the layout of the fields is determined by the format selected by the user. Once a format is selected, the user enters data for each of the fields. Often the fields have input restrictions that limit the type of valid characters that may be input. Because of the various input restrictions for data entry and the lack of prompts to aid a user to enter field data, known barcode identification systems can typically be operated only by very experienced users.


A pneumatic tire having an annular band is provided, the annular band for reinforcing a bead portion and a sidewall portion of the pneumatic tire. In one embodiment, the annular band comprises a plurality of filaments having a high extensional modulus of elasticity and a high tenacity bonded together in a matrix of resin. Further, the annular band is cured or formed with a cross-section which tapers from the tire's bead portion to the tire's sidewall portion. Preferably, the annular band may be cured or formed in situ during the curing of the tire in which it is placed. In another embodiment, a structural element having a high resistance to compression is bonded to and circumferentially within the annular band. In a third embodiment the structural element is wedge-shaped in cross-section.

Beads for reinforcing a bead portion of a pneumatic tire are well known and widely used in the art. Many examples of bead construction are provided, for example, in Mechanics of Pneumatic Tires, U.S. D.O.T., pp. 209-214 (1981). The most prevalent prior art bead comprises a steel cable made of a plurality of drawn steel wires. This construction permits a combination of some flexibility and high tensile strength. One drawback of steel beads is their relatively high mass, as compared with the same volume of tire rubber, which substantially reduces a tire's fuel efficiency. Further, it is common for prior art tire constructions of the type including a steel bead or equivalent to also have a bead filler. Bead filler, or wedges, or packing serves to provide additional stability to sidewalls and to provide a suitable return angle to carcass plies which may turn up around the beads and return back toward the sidewall. Mechanics, pp. 209-214.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,612,139 to Marzocchi et al. discloses a wheel-rim-engaging bead structure comprising a bead ring having glass filaments in particular geometric dispositions and an elastomeric matrix.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,098,316 to Carvalho et al. discloses a bead ring having glass filaments and at least one metal filament in an elastomeric matrix.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,320,791 to Fujii et al. discloses a slender bead element made of nonmetallic fiber and a matrix of liquid thermosetting resin or liquid rubber.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,711,285 to Ogawa et al. discloses a short fiber reinforced rubber bead filler designed to maximize both controllability and ride comfort.
None of the above prior art discloses a tire construction having a composite combination bead and bead filler for reinforcing a bead portion and a lower sidewall portion of a pneumatic tire.

Composite combination bead and bead filler


Disclosed is a thermal transfer recording medium comprising a substrate provided thereon at least an ink layer which is to be transferred by heat application, characterized in that the loss tangent (tan .delta.) of the ink layer in viscoelasticity measurement at a temperature of from 60.degree. to 100.degree. C. ranges from 0.4 to 2.5.

This invention relates to a thermal transfer recording medium and particularly to a hot-melt thermal transfer recording medium exhibiting high sensitivity and excellent performance in recording on an image-receiving element having a flat and smooth surface. The thermal transfer recording medium of the present invention is particularly useful for recording on a flat and smooth image-receiving element to produce a negative mask for image formation.
As is well known, hot-melt thermal transfer recording process is a recording system in which a thermal transfer recording medium comprising a substrate in sheet form coated thereon at least one hot melt ink layer is superposed on an image-receiving element with its hot melt ink layer contacting with the image-receiving element, and the hot melt ink layer is imagewise melted by the action of heat from the substrate side by means of a thermal printing head and transferred onto the image-receiving element to give a transferred image. This recording system has recently been widespread because of its utility in printing units featuring small size, lightness, competitive price and easy handling.
One of the characteristics of the hot-melt thermal transfer recording system is high freedom of choice in the kind of image-receiving elements to which it is applicable. That is, recording or printing can be conducted on not only common paper but fabric, plastic sheets or films, etc. In particular, with the recent spread of overhead projectors (OHP), occasion to record information on a transparent image-receiving element, such as a flat, smooth and transparent plastic sheet or film, has been increasing, and accordingly, the need for thermal transfer recording on such a transparent image-receiving element has been increasing.
However, when a conventional thermal transfer recording medium is used in printing on a flat, smooth and transparent image-receiving element, such as an OHP sheet, the resulting image suffers from blur, loss of definition, thickening of letters, or the tail of the printed image with reference to the recording direction and has disturbed or unprinted portions. These image defects are considered to be ascribed mainly to running or stringing of the ink at the time of ink transfer.
In order to overcome the above problem, it has been proposed to provide an ink-receiving layer on the surface of an image receiving element as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Opens 61-135791 and 1-45688. However, the proposal is not feasible for practice because the ink-receiving layer not only incurs an increase of cost but reduces transparency of the image-receiving element, resulting in reduction in contrast between image areas and non-image areas (background).
On the other hand, it is known that a negative mask for image formation can be prepared by directly printing a negative image on a transparent material by making use of the hot-melt thermal transfer recording system. According to this method, no post treatment is required, and a mask can easily be obtained by means of general purpose type business machine adopting a thermal transfer recording system, such as a word processor or a printer.
Nevertheless, conventional thermal transfer recording media could not provide a negative image having a transmission density of at least 1.5 as is required for serving as a mask.
In order to solve the above problem, multiple printing or increase of the amount of the ink transferred has been attempted. In these cases, however, the resulting negative image has a reduced resolving power, and a mask with satisfactory image quality cannot be obtained.


The present invention provides a polymerizable composition having low birefringence which contains at least two types of polymerizable compounds represented by Formula (I):Q1-Sp1A-LmSp2-Q2  (I)                in the formula, A represents a phenylene or a trans-1,4-cyclohexylene, L represents —OC(═O)—, —OC(═O)O—, and the like, m represents 3 to 12, Sp1 and Sp2 represent an alkylene of which —CH2— may be substituted with —O— or the like, and the like, and Q1 and Q2 represent a polymerizable group, and the like, in which when a number obtained by dividing the number of trans-1,4-cyclohexylenes represented by A by m is set to mc, the polymerizable compounds include a polymerizable compound satisfying 0.5<mc<0.7 and a polymerizable compound satisfying 0.1<mc<0.3. A film such as a low birefringence phase difference film or a reflection film having high selectivity in a reflection wavelength range can be provided by using the polymerizable composition.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a polymerizable composition containing a polymerizable compound. In addition, the present invention relates to a film which is prepared by using the polymerizable composition, and a half mirror for displaying a projection image which is prepared by using the polymerizable composition.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is possible to prepare various optical films such as a phase difference film or a reflection film by using a polymerizable compound having liquid crystallinity. The birefringence of the polymerizable compound is one of properties closely associated with the optical properties of an optical film to be obtained. For example, it is possible to obtain a reflection film having high selectivity in a reflection wavelength range with a film which is formed by using a polymerizable compound having low birefringence and by immobilizing a cholesteric liquid crystalline phase. In JP2004-262884A, it is disclosed that a low birefringence phase difference film, or a reflection film having high selectivity in a reflection wavelength range is obtained by using a non-liquid crystalline (meth)acrylate compound having a specific structure along with a polymerizable liquid crystal compound.

Polymerizable composition containing polymerizable compound, film, and half mirror for displaying projection image


An emissions control system for rich-burn internal combustion engines, said control system comprising:. a. a reaction chamber for oxidation of exhaust gas fuel values, PA0 b. passive means to utilize reaction chamber effluent flow energy to mix cooling air into reaction chamber effluent to lower the temperature of said effluent. PA0 c. flame arrestor means to prevent ignition of flammable fuel-air mixtures external to the engine.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to improved systems for control of exhaust emissions of gases containing sufficient fuel values to generate high combustion temperatures. In one specific aspect the present invention relates to catalytic systems for control of exhaust emissions from internal combustion engines. More specifically, this invention relates to emissions control devices for fuel-rich internal combustion engines with very high reaction effluent tempeatures.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
Exhaust emissions from small internal combustion engines, such as are used for lawn mowers and small generator sets, are a significant source of atmospheric pollution by hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide. Such engines typically operate fuel-rich and therefore are particularly dirty as compared to an automotive engine, even without a catalytic converter. Although automotive emissions are now controlled by use of catalytic converters, such conventional devices are not considered feasible for small engine use because of inherently large size, high cost and system complexity relating to the need for air addition and to the need to limit the temperature of exhaust gases and exposed converter surfaces to safe values. The high emission levels of typical small engines means that destruction of those emissions results in a greater evolution of heat with a consequent higher converter temperature than for typical automotive catalytic converters. Further, small engine systems typically are much more exposed to gasoline spills and to operator contact, creating a hazard even with temperatures comparable to those for automotive catalytic converters. Effective means of suitable size and simplicity are thus required not only for the conversion reactor itself and for the addition and mixing of the air needed for oxidation of the exhaust fuel values to carbon dioxide and water but also for limiting temperatures to safe levels.
The present invention meets these needs by providing a passive system for dilution cooling of the hot effluent gases from engine emission control conversion devices.


A sliced food product such as a cheese product or meat product having a design or figure cut or otherwise formed therein. In accordance with a preferred embodiment, the design or figure is cut entirely or substantially through the slice so that the design or figure may be removed from a surrounding peripheral portion of the slice. A method and apparatus for forming the figure or design are also disclosed. The preferred method and apparatus employ a rotary figure cutter which cuts entirely through the slice to outline a pattern or figure, and which cuts or penetrates partially through the slice to form details of the figure by embossing or indenting design components on the slice. The slice is preferably wrapped in film prior to the figure cutting operation, and the figure cutter performs its function without cutting or tearing the film wrap. The rotary figure cutter preferably comprises a pair of rotary dies between which each slice passes as the design is formed thereon.

The invention relates generally to food products sold in slice form, and more particularly to a sliced food product having a design formed therein, and a method and apparatus for forming the design in the food slice.
In the past, sliced cheese products such as natural cheese, process cheese, process cheese food, and process cheese spread, as well as sliced meat products such as ham, bologna, salami, and other cold cuts, have typically been packaged and sold in unadorned, simple rectangular or circular shapes.
One of the problems in attempting to provide designs or patterns on slices of food products such as those referred to above is that these products generally have a relatively low tensile strength and therefore are generally susceptible to separating, tearing, and/or breaking during handling. As mentioned in U.S. Pat. No. 3,887,719, this problem is particularly notable in process cheese spread, due to its high moisture content. Slices of these cheese products are often individually wrapped for consumer sale, and packaged in stacks with a plastic film overwrap.
In any operation involving formation of designs on a slice of one of the above-mentioned products, care must be taken to avoid unduly high stresses and strains which would result in loss of slice integrity, and to avoid creation of tears, cracks, or other discontinuities which could propagate under the stresses associated with later handling and packaging. It is desirable that the slices be capable of withstanding packaging operations which may entail individual wrapping of slices as well as separating, stacking and overwrapping, and that the slices also be capable of withstanding handling by the consumer, i.e., removal of overwrap and individual wrap, without loss of integrity.


A power operated surfboard which has a raised rear hollow portion at the rear in which is disposed an impeller housing having an impeller therein and a water discharge passage extending rearwardly from the housing. An internal combustion engine is supported above the impeller housing and has a short vertical axis connected to the impeller which rotates about a vertical axis. Surrounding the impeller housing is an exhaust gas housing which communicates with the exhaust gas passage of the engine and with a discharge chamber beneath the floor of the surfboard. The exhaust gas housing is gas tight and provides a gas cushion which retards the entrance of water through the discharge chamber into the exhaust passage of the engine, when the surfboard is not being operated. This is aided by a flexible valve disposed at the discharge outlet of the discharge chamber to retard the entrance of water into the discharge chamber. Associated with the exhaust gas discharge chamber and forming a part of a two chamber is a water inlet chamber which communicates with the intake of the impeller through the floor of the boat and extends over the opening to the impeller to prevent accidental contact with the rotating impeller either by an occupant or by some foreign object.. A belly pan has a bottom wall disposed between the engine and the impeller housing and surrounds the engine to form an engine compartment. Disposed at the bottom of the engine compartment is a one way valve which permits draining of water or fuel from the belly pan but hinders the access of water into the interior of the belly pan.

The present invention relates to a power operated surfboard and particularly to such a surfboard which may be used in a manner similar to a typical surfboard but with the advantage of having continuous power operation of the surfboard. In designing a powered surfboard, there are certain problems peculiar to a surfboard which are not present in connection with other watercraft construction. For one thing, the surfboard must be basically flat over the major portion of the upper surface to enable an operator to either stand or sit on the surfboard. The engine compartment must accordingly be relatively small and compact and at a position where it interferes as little as possible with the relatively flat upper surface desired for such a surfboard. Furthermore, it is imperative that the surfboard be as free of engine vibration as possible so as to enable the operator to manipulate the surfboard readily. In addition, it is highly desirable that the surfboard be relatively quiet since the operator is standing upon the surfboard and will be more disturbed by noise than an occupant of a boat. Moreover, it is highly desirable that water be kept out of the exhaust system of the engine as much as possible.
Motorized surfboards have previously been proposed. One such motorized surfboard is that shown in the Carter U.S. Pat. No. 3,324,822. This patent has the advantage that it provides for jet propulsion, thereby eliminating the need for a propeller which might cause injury to the operator or to someone in the water. The Carter patent, however, has a number of disadvantages including the fact that the drive shaft between the engine and the impeller is relatively long and horizontally disposed. This tends to make the surfboard relatively bulky in cross section throughout much of its length. Furthermore, the presence of such a long drive shaft will increase the tendency to vibration.
The Dawson U.S. Pat. No. 3,463,116 overcomes the disadvantage of a long drive shaft by placing the impeller and the engine both at the rear of the surfboard. While the Dawson arrangement was a marked advance over some of the prior surfboards, it has certain disadvantages. In the first place, the engine rests upon an auxiliary molded floor located above the floor of the surfboard and the impeller is located beneath this floor. In addition, there is no effective means in the Dawson arrangement to prevent the entrance of water into the exhaust system while the board is standing still. Furthermore, Dawson shows no particular means for ensuring a relatively quiet operation of the surfboard. It is very important with such a power operated surfboard to minimize the noise as much as possible.


A thermally conductive composition is a thermally conductive composition including (A) a spherical thermally conductive filler, (B) an alkoxysilane compound or dimethylpolysiloxane, and (C) a polyorganosiloxane (not inclusive of the dimethylpolysiloxane of component (B)), wherein component (A) is a mixture formulated with specific ratios of fillers having different average particle sizes, the mixture being formulated with a filler having an average particle size of 50 μm or more in an amount of 30% by mass or more; component (B) and component (C) are included in a total amount of 1.5 to 35 parts by mass relative to 100 parts by mass of component (A); and a content ratio of component (C) in the total amount of component (B) and component (C) is 15 to 98% by mass.

Electronic devices are undergoing increasingly higher integration and higher speed-up year by year, and accordingly the demand for heat dissipating materials as the countermeasures coping with the generated heat has been enhanced.
JP-A 62-43493 describes an invention of a thermally conductive silicone grease having a good thermal conductivity and a good electrical insulation. The document describes use of a boron nitride having a particle size of 0.01 to 100 μm as a component imparting the thermal conductivity (p.2, in the lower section of the right column), and a boron nitride having a particle size of 1 to 5 μm is used in the Example.
JP-A 2003-176414 describes an invention of a thermally conductive silicone composition, and describes as a component imparting the thermal conductivity, (B) a low-melting-point metal powder having an average particle size of 0.1 to 100 μm, and preferably 20 to 50 μm (paragraph 0011), and (D) a filler (paragraph 0014).
JP-A 2003-218296 describes an invention of a silicone resin composition including a silicone resin and a thermally conductive filler, and describes as the thermally conductive filler, for example, a low-melting-point metal powder, and an aluminum powder, a zinc oxide powder, and an alumina powder, each having an average particle size of 0.1 to 100 μm, and preferably 20 to 50 μm (paragraphs 0017 to 0021).
JP-A 2003-301189 describes an invention of a heat dissipating silicone grease composition, and describes the use of a thermally conductive filler having an average particle size falling within a range of 0.1 to 100 μm, and preferably 1 to 20 μm (paragraphs 0012 and 0013).
JP-A 2005-112961 describes an invention of a curable organopolysiloxane composition, and describes the use of a thermally conductive filler having an average particle size of 0.1 to 100 μm, and preferably 1 to 20 μm (paragraphs 0030 to 0032)
JP-A 2007-99821 describes an invention of a thermally conductive silicone grease composition, and describes the use of powders having an average particle size of 0.1 to 10 μm, and preferably 0.2 to 8 μm, as a metal oxide powder or a metal nitride powder of component (B) in order to obtain a desired thermal conductivity (paragraphs 0016 and 0017).
JP-A 2008-184549 describes an invention of a method for producing a heat dissipating material. The invention uses as (D) a thermally conductive filler, a thermally conductive filler having an average particle size of 100 μm or less, and preferably 0.1 to 80 μm (paragraphs 0027 and 0028). In Example 1, an aluminum oxide (D-1) having an average particle size of 14 μm, an aluminum oxide (D-2) having an average particle size of 2 μm, and a zinc oxide (D-3) having an average particle size of 0.5 μm are used in combination.
JP-A 2009-96961 describes an invention of a thermally conductive silicone grease composition, and describes the use of (B-1) a thermally conductive filler having an average particle size of 12 to 100 μm (preferably 15 to 30 μm), and (B-2) a thermally conductive filler having an average particle size of 0.1 to 10 μm (preferably 0.3 to 5 μm) (claims, and paragraphs 0028 to 0030).
JP-A 2010-13563 describes an invention of a thermally conductive silicone grease, and states that (A) a thermally conductive inorganic filler preferably has an average particle size falling within a range of 0.1 to 100 μm, in particular, 1 to 70 μm (paragraph 0025). In the Examples, there are used B-1: a zinc oxide powder (amorphous, average particle size: 1.0 μm), B-2: an alumina powder (spherical, average particle size: 2.0 μm), and B-3: an aluminum powder (amorphous, average particle size: 7.0 μm).
JP-A 2010-126568 describes an invention of a silicone grease composition for heat dissipation, and states that (B) a thermally conductive inorganic filler is required to have an average particle size falling within a range of 0.1 to 100 μm, and preferably has an average particle size falling within a range of 0.5 to 50 μm.
In the Examples, there are used an alumina powder C-1: (average particle size: 10 μm, specific surface area: 1.5 m2/g), an alumina powder C-2: (average particle size: 1 μm, specific surface area: 8 m2/g), a zinc oxide powder C-3: (average particle size: 0.3 μm, specific surface area: 4 m2/g), an aluminum powder C-4: (average particle size: 10 μm, specific surface area: 3 m2/g), and an alumina powder C-5: (average particle size: 0.01 μm, specific surface area: 160 m2/g).
JP-A 2011-122000 describes an invention of a silicone composition for a highly thermally conductive potting material, and describes the use of a thermally conductive filler having an average particle size of 1 to 100 μm, preferably 5 to 50 μm as (A) a thermally conductive filler (paragraph 0018). It is stated that when an alumina powder is used as (A) the thermally conductive filler, (B1) a spherical alumina having an average particle size of more than 5 μm to 50 μm or less, and (B2) a spherical or amorphous alumina having an average particle size of 0.1 μm to 5 μm are preferably used in combination (paragraph 0018).
JP-A 2013-147600 describes an invention of a thermally conductive silicone composition. It is stated that a thermally conductive filler being component (B) mainly includes alumina, and is composed of (C-i) an amorphous alumina having an average particle size of 10 to 30 μm, (C-ii) a spherical alumina having an average particle size of 30 to 85 μm, and (C-iii) an insulating inorganic filler having an average particle size of 0.1 to 6 μm (paragraph 0032). A combination of an amorphous alumina and a spherical alumina allows a specific effect to be obtained.

MOMENTIVE PERFORMANCE MATERIALS JAPAN LLC


A three-point type seatbelt system wherein ends of a lap outer webbing and a shoulder webbing are secured to the upper and lower portions of a vehicle door, whereby an occupant opens or closes said door so as to automatically fasten the webbings or unfasten same from the occupant. A non-locking retractor is provided between the lap outer webbing and said door and an emergency locking retractor between the lap inner webbing and the substantially central portion of the vehicle, whereby the waist of the occupant is moved by a certain length more forward in the vehicle than his head so that his head can be prevented from dashing against a dangerous obstacle.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a seatbelt system for restraining and protecting an occupant in an emergency of a vehicle such as a collision, and particularly to a seatbelt system capable of automatically fastening a restraining webbing to the occupant.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Heretofore, there have been proposed seatbelt systems for automatically fastening the seatbelt system to the occupant after he is seated so as to reliably protect the occupant in an emergency of the vehicle.
In the seatbelt system as illustrated above in FIG. 1 and described in U.S. Pat. Application Ser. No. 18,796, filed Mar. 8, 1979, one end of an inner webbing 10 is wound up by a biasing force into a retractor 12 provided at the substantially central portion of the vehicle, and a through-ring 14 is secured to the other end of the inner webbing 10. Said retractor 12 is a so-called emergency locking retractor for suddenly interrupting the wind-off rotation of the webbing only in an emergency of the vehicle.
One end of an outer webbing 16 is secured to a portion adjacent the upper end of a door 18 through a buckle device 20, the other end thereof is secured to a portion adjacent the lower end of the door 18 through an anchor device 22, and the intermediate portion thereof is turned back at said through-ring 14.
With the seatbelt system as arranged above, when the occupant opens the door 18 for entering the vehicle, the inner webbing 10 is wound off by a required length from the retractor 12 and a sufficient space for allowing the occupant to enter the vehicle is formed between the inner webbing 10 and an occupant's seat 24. Consequently, when the occupant closes the door 18 upon being seated at the seat 24, the inner webbing 10 is wound up by a wind-up force of the retractor 12, whereby the outer webbing 16 turned back at the through-ring 14 is automatically fastened to the shoulder and waist of the occupant, respectively.
Description will hereunderbe given of the restraining condition of the seatbelt system with the above arrangement at the seatbelt system with the above arrangement at the time of collision of the vehicle with reference to FIGS. 2A through 2C. FIG. 2A shows the normal running condition of the vehicle. If the vehicle falls into a collision from the condition as described above, then the retractor 12 instantaneously interrupts the wind-off rotation of the webbing 10, and the occupant moves forward in parallel with the movement of the vehicle by a value of clearances between the webbing 10 and himself and between the webbing 16 and himself by an inertial force of collision as shown in FIG. 2B. Subsequently, the head of the occupant 26 moves forward in the vehicle, rotating on the waist of the occupant 26. This rotating movement is a phenomenon resulted from the fact that the outer webbing 16 moves through the through-ring 14 in the direction of the buckle device 20, i.e. the direction of the restrained shoulder of the occupant. It follows that the head of the occupant may dash against a steering wheel 28 and the like, thus causing injuries to the occupant.

Kabushiki Kaisha Tokai Rika Denki Seisakusho


A sunscreen cosmetic achieves high ultraviolet ray protection effect even when restricting a blended amount of the liquid ultraviolet ray absorbing agents ethylhexyl methoxycinnamate and octocrylene, that is stable and has excellent texture, and does not resulting in an unnatural whiteness on application. A sunscreen cosmetic comprises: (A) 0.5 to 10.0 mass % of t-butyl methoxydibenzoylmethane and/or diethylamino hydroxybenzoyl hexyl benzoate; (B) 0.5 to 5.0 mass % of bis-ethylhexyloxyphenol methoxyphenyl triazine; (C) 0.5 to 5.0 mass % of ethylhexyl triazone; (D) 5 to 50 mass % of an ester oil to which the ingredients (A), (B) and (C) have a solubility, at 25° C., of 10% or more; and (E) 1.5 to 12 mass % of an ultraviolet ray scattering agent; wherein the total blended amount of the ingredients (A), (B) and (C) is 1.5 to 15 mass % and the total blended amount of ethylhexyl methoxycinnamate and octocrylene is 3 mass % or less.

Protecting the skin from damage due to ultraviolet rays is an important object in skin care and body care, and various UV-care cosmetics for minimizing the harmful effects of ultraviolet rays on the skin have been developed. Sunscreen cosmetics, which are a type of UV-care cosmetic, are cosmetics that are intended to protect the skin from damage due to ultraviolet rays, by covering the skin with a coating that contains an ultraviolet ray absorbing agent or an ultraviolet ray scattering agent, thereby absorbing or scattering UVA and UVB rays, and limiting the amount of ultraviolet rays that reach the skin (Non-Patent Document 1).
Ethylhexyl methoxycinnamate and octocrylene (2-ethylhexyl 2-cyano-3,3-diphenylprop-2-enoate) have been generally used in conventional sunscreen cosmetics, as liquid ultraviolet ray absorbing agents having absorption wavelengths primarily in the UVB range. However, these ultraviolet ray absorbing agents can sometimes irritate the skin of users with sensitive skin, and for example, a skin-care preparation for external use in which irritation due to ethylhexyl methoxycinnamate is mitigated by adding polypropylene glycol dimethyl ether has been proposed (Patent Document 1).
Patent Document 2 discloses a so-called non-chemical sunscreen cosmetic that does not contain ethylhexyl methoxycinnamate, octocrylene or avobenzone, but instead contains a combination of multiple powder ingredients that have an ultraviolet ray scattering effect, and the cosmetic does not irritate the eyes even when applied to the face. However, it is necessary to add a large quantity of powder ingredients in order to obtain high ultraviolet ray protection effects (high SPF) using only powder ingredients, and in some cases, an unnatural whiteness can occur when applied to the skin.
On the other hand, most organic ultraviolet ray absorbing agents other than ethylhexyl methoxycinnamate and octocrylene are solid at ambient temperature. In conventional sunscreen cosmetics, liquid ethylhexyl methoxycinnamate and octocrylene also served the function of solvents, so there were no problems. However, if the blended amounts of these liquid ultraviolet ray absorbing agents are reduced, the co-blended solid ultraviolet ray absorbing agents can sometimes precipitate out, and if the blended amounts of the solvents (oils) used for the solid ultraviolet ray absorbing agents are increased in order to prevent precipitation, then the blending ratio of the ultraviolet ray absorbing agents relative to the entire cosmetic decreases, so that sufficient ultraviolet ray protection effects cannot be obtained, and raising concerns regarding problems in the texture, such as stickiness being caused by the oils.


A buffer circuit for fanning out a source signal to a plurality of terminals of specified polarities in accordance with specified time constraints is designed by an automated method in which a circuit template is specified in terms of a tree structure. The terminals are ordered in increasing order of required arrival times of the source signal at each of the terminals. A first terminal in a resulting order is assigned to a highest-level potential terminal site of a same polarity as said first terminal, and buffers on a signal path between said first terminal and the source signal are sized so as to satisfy, if possible, a required arrival time of the source signal at said first terminal. So long as required times of arrival are met, additional terminals are placed in like manner. The method proceeds as far as possible using a straight forward assignment procedure of terminals to potential terminal sites, then backtracks, undoing so much of the previous assignments as necessary and making incremental adjustments to allow the method to proceed further if possible. The method is completed when either all terminals have been successfully assigned or all of the previous assignments have been undone.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the design of buffer circuits in integrated circuit design and more particularly to a design methodology for designing a buffer circuit that meets specified timing constraints, without making the circuit larger than required.
2. State of the Art
In logic synthesis, automated logic design using a library of standard cells, it is often necessary to provide a signal produced at a particular circuit node to multiple other circuit nodes. The term "fanout" is to describe the forgoing situation; i.e., a signal is fanned out to several and perhaps a multitude of different circuit nodes. Each of the circuit nodes may represent different capacitive loads and may have associated therewith timing constraints in relation to the signal that must be met. In FIG. 1 for example, the output of a NAND gate 11 is designated as a source signal S and is provided in its true form to a terminal T2 and a terminal T4 of AND gates 17 and 23, respectively, and in its inverted form via inverters 15 and 21 to a terminal T1 and a terminal T3 of an AND gate 13 and an OR gate 19, respectively.
Buffer synthesis is an area of logic synthesis that concerns itself with designing a buffer circuit to fan out a signal to multiple signal nodes, providing the necessary drive to meet the timing constraints of each of the nodes while minimizing the size and power consumption of the buffer circuit.
In more precise terms, the task of buffer synthesis is to synthesize a subnetlist which propagates a signal to a number of destinations, in positive or inverted form as specified for each destination, subject to timing and area constraints. The subnetlist is to be constructed using cells from a specified library of cells. Typically, the cells used will consist just of buffer cells and inverter cells.
The simplest way to build a buffer is to connect the source directly by wires to all destinations requiring a non-inverted signal and to the input of a single inverter cell whose output is connected by wires to all destinations requiring an inverted signal. However, this approach could be unacceptably slow if there are a large number of destinations. In general, one needs to add additional inverter or buffer cells to meet the timing constraints.
The inputs to buffer synthesis are:
1. A list of signal names, including one "source signal" and one or more destination signals or "terminals". Each terminal is identified as either a "positive terminal" or a "negative terminal". The "polarity" of a terminal is its status of being positive or negative. PA1 2. For each terminal, there are specified two times (a "rising required time" and a "falling required time") and a load capacitance. PA1 3. For the source signal, there are specified two times (a "source unloaded rising arrival time" and a "source unloaded falling arrival time"), and two numbers (a "source rising ramp factor" and a "source falling ramp factor"). The ramp factors express the drive strength of the source in units of nanoseconds per picofarad. PA1 4. A list of library cells, together with capacitance and timing parameters for each cell. Commonly this list consists of just buffer cells and inverter cells. For definiteness, the following description assumes that each cell is either a one-input one-output non-inverting buffer cell or a one-input one-output inverter cell, and that the parameters of each cell consists of an input capacitance, an output capacitance, an area, a rising propagation delay, a falling propagation delay, a rising ramp factor, and a falling ramp factor. PA1 1. The rising (falling) arrival time for the source signal equals the rising (falling) source unloaded arrival time plus the product of the rising (falling) source ramp factor and the total capacitance (that is, the sum of all cell input capacitances and terminal load capacitances) driven by the source signal. PA1 2. The rising (falling) arrival time for the output of a buffer cell equals the rising (falling) arrival time of its input plus the rising (falling) propagation delay for the cell, plus the product of the rising (falling) ramp factor for the cell and the total capacitance driven by the cell output. PA1 3. The rising (falling) arrival time for the output of an inverter cell equals the falling (rising) arrival time of its input plus the rising (falling) propagation delay for the cell, plus the product of the rising (falling) ramp factor for the cell and the total capacitance driven by the cell output. PA1 C. Leonard Berman and J. Lawrence Carter. "The Fanout Problem: From Theory to Practice". Advanced Research In VLSI, Proceedings of the Decennial CalTech Conference on VLSI March 1989, ed. Charles L. Seitz, 69-99. PA1 Kanwar Jit Singh and Alberto Sangiovanni-Vincentelli. "A Heuristic Algorithm for the Fanout Problem". 27th ACM/IEEE Design Automation Conference, 1990, 357-360. PA1 Herve J. Touati, Cho W. Noon, Robert K. Brayton, and Albert Wang. "Performance-Oriented Technology Mapping". Advanced Research In VLSI, Proceedings of the Sixth MIT Conference, 1990, ed. William J. Dally, 79-97.
In practice, the list of library cells, input (4), is fixed for the duration of the logic synthesis process, during which time the buffer syntheses process will be performed many times with differing choices for inputs (1)-(3).
The output of the buffer synthesis process is a subnetlist, which serves to propagate the source signal to all the terminals. The source signal is propagated in non-inverted form to each positive terminal and in inverted form to each negative terminal. The subnetlist is composed of cells from the list of library cells and may also utilize directly wired connections from the source to a terminal. In practice, it is desirable for the netlist to have the form of a tree, with the root of the tree being the source signal, the leaves of the tree being the terminals, and with a library cell placed at each internal node of the tree. The source signal and the output pins of the cells are each connected to one or more fanout points, where a fanout point may be either a terminal or the input pin of another cell.
If possible, the subnetlist produced will meet the timing constraints. That is, the arrival times (rising and falling) at each terminal will be no later than the corresponding required times (rising and falling) for that terminal, when delays through the subnetlist are computed by the following rules:
The overall goal is to produce a subnetlist that meets the timing constraints and, subject to meeting these constraints, has the smallest possible area, where area is defined as the sum of the areas of all the cells in the subnetlist.
Wire propagation delays (that is, the time it takes a signal to propagate through the interconnecting wires) are not explicitly considered in this process. In fact, in the usual logic synthesis design flow, individual wire lengths are not specified at the time of logic synthesis, but are determined afterward by routing software. Allowance can be made for expected wire delays by adjustments to this method; for example, by adding some fixed additional capacitance to the capacitance of each fanout point.
The input data for an example of a buffering problem are set forth in Table 1 below:
TABLE 1 ______________________________________ source rising ramp factor = 2.90 source falling ramp factor = 2.20 source unloaded rising arrival time = .30 source unloaded falling arrival time = .30 number of terminals = 4 load rising falling terminal polarity capacitance reg-time reg-time ______________________________________ T1 pos .300 2.0 1.7 T2 pos .300 3.6 3.8 T3 pos .300 4.3 3.7 T4 neg .300 4.8 4.0 ______________________________________ rise library prop rise ramp fall prop fall ramp input output cell delay factor delay factor pin cap pin cap ______________________________________ invert- ers: in01d1 0.33 2.91 .21 1.31 .100 .090 in01d2 0.26 1.51 .17 .67 .200 .100 in01d3 0.22 1.03 .16 .46 .303 .178 buffers: ni01d1 0.64 2.90 .96 1.20 .100 .090 ni01d2 0.72 1.51 1.34 .68 .100 .100 ni01d3 0.86 1.01 1.70 .48 .100 .240 ______________________________________
A possible buffering solution which might be produced is shown in FIG. 2.
In the buffering solution of FIG. 2, the various arrival times are as set forth in Table 2 below
TABLE 2 ______________________________________ source rising = .30 + 2.90*(.300 + .200) = 1.75 falling = .30 + 2.20*(.300 + .200) = 1.40 T1 same arrival times as source T4 rising = 1.40 + 0.26 + 1.51*(.100 + .300 + .303) = 2.75 falling = 1.75 + 0.17 + 0.67*(.100 + .300 + .303) = 2.39 T2 rising = 2.39 + 0.22 + 1.03*(.178 + .300 + .300) = 3.41 falling = 2.75 + 0.16 + 0.46*(.178 + .300 + .300) = 3.24 T3 same arrival times as T2 ______________________________________
It can be seen that the buffering is successful, because all terminal arrival times are less than or equal to the corresponding required times.
Buffer design often requires design engineers to draw upon their previous design experience and accumulated expertise. Attempts to fully automate buffer design, i.e., provide a general-purpose buffer synthesis tool, have been fraught with difficulties in that the number of possible solutions to a buffering problem increases exponentially with the number of terminals to which the signal is to be applied. Proposed solutions to the fanout problem are presented in the following references:
As discussed in the foregoing references, one way to deal with the computational complexity of the fanout problem is to limit choices for the buffer circuit to a few fixed trees, chosen in advance. For each tree tried, the terminals, ordered by required time, may be assigned to the leaves of the tree in some fixed order, and a heuristic approach may be used for choosing cells to place at each internal tree node. Another approach is to use a rule-based system, wherein, starting from some initial non-optimal buffering solution, a set of transformation rules is repeatedly applied. Each application of a rule causes some pattern in the existing buffer to be replaced by some other pattern, according to the rule. Usually, the buffer that exists after applying a rule is more optimal than the previously existing buffer.

Buffer circuit design using back track searching of site trees


A continuously variable transmission control system having adjustable driving and driven sheave assemblies (124,126) connected drivably by a torque transfer belt or chain (144), each sheave assembly having a fluid pressure operated servo with a pressure chamber, distribution of control pressure to one servo (150,158,162) effecting a transmission ratio adjustment, control of pressure distribution to the other servo (202,210) resulting in a clamping force, a ratio control valve (246) for controlling distribution of pressure to the ratio controlling servo to effect upshifts and downshifts, provision being made for stabilizing the ratio control valve by providing for flow entry to the ratio control valve that is unrestricted, flow distribution to the ratio controlling servo having a controlled restriction whereby stability of the ratio control valve is achieved, fluid displaced from the ratio controlling servo being adapted to circulate through the ratio control valve to the inlet side (372) of the control system pump (70,72).

The control valve system of my invention is adaptable for a transmission of the kind disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,767,384 of Richard D. Moan, which is assigned to the assignee of my present invention.
A continuously variable transmission usually includes adjustable sheaves and a chain or belt arranged between the driving sheave assembly and the driven sheave assembly. The driving sheave assembly may be connected to an internal combustion engine for a vehicle in an automotive vehicle driveline, and the driven sheave assembly may be connected through gearing and through a driveshaft and axle assembly to the vehicle traction wheels. By controlling the effective pitch radius of the sheave assemblies, the torque ratio can be varied between underdrive and overdrive. By appropriately calibrating the ratio changing characteristic and matching that characteristic with the speed/torque characteristic of the internal combustion engine, the powertrain package may achieve a minimum brake specific fuel consumption condition for each engine throttle setting.
The primary sheave assembly in a continuously variable transmission of this kind normally is used as the ratio controller, and the secondary sheave assembly normally is used to control belt loading. Each sheave assembly has a pressure operated servo with an expandable working pressure chamber. The servo is adjusted hydraulically to effect a change in the pitch radius of the sheave assembly. By varying the effective pressure on the primary sheave assembly, the ratio of the drive can be changed. The clamping force is controlled by maintaining an effective working pressure in the secondary sheave assembly.
A fluid pressure pump driven by the engine may be used as a pressure source for a control system that controls the adjustment of the primary servo and the secondary servo. A regulator valve in the control system in a preferred embodiment of the invention achieves the desired working pressure in the sheave assembly so that slippage of the belt or chain will not occur. A ratio control valve in the control system controls pressure distribution to the primary sheave assembly during ratio changes.

Radio control valve for a continuously variable transmission


A developing cartridge includes a developing roller 210d that develops, by way of a developer, an electrostatic latent image that is formed on an image bearing member 207; a developer regulating member that regulates the thickness of a developer carried on the developing roller 210d; and a frame 214a that rotatably supports the developing roller 210d and supports the developer regulating member. The frame 214a has a developing roller support section 214a1 that rotatably supports an outer peripheral face 210d6 of at least one end of the developing roller 210d. The developing roller support section 214a1 has a clearance at a position that, when viewed in the axial direction of the developing roller 210d, overlaps a contact region at which the developing roller 210d is in contact with the image bearing member 207.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a developing cartridge, a process cartridge and an image forming apparatus.
Description of the Related Art
Solid metal shafts produced through machining of steel materials have been used conventionally as metal cores of developing rollers (developer bearing members) that are utilized in image forming apparatuses; however, hollow cylindrical shaft members have been proposed (Japanese Patent Application Publication Nos. 2000-275955 and 2011-154239) in order to reduce material costs. As a configuration for rotatably supporting such cylindrical shafts on a frame, Japanese Patent Application Publication Nos. 2000-275955 and 2011-154239 disclose a configuration in which a bearing member is assembled on the inner periphery of the end of a cylindrical shaft, and the bearing member is supported on a frame, as a result of which the cylindrical shaft becomes rotatably supported on the frame.

Developing cartridge, process cartridge and image forming apparatus


Carbon dioxide emissions within a refinery are reduced by reforming a hydrocarbon containing feed at low pressure to enhance the conversion of methane to hydrogen and carbon monoxide and thereby reduce methane slip. The hydrocarbon containing feed is composed entirely or at least in part of a refinery off gas. The resulting reformed stream is then subjected to water-gas shift conversion to form a shifted stream from which carbon dioxide is separated. As a result of the separation and the low pressure reforming, hydrogen containing fuel gas streams, that are thereby necessary lean in carbon dioxide and methane, are used in firing the steam methane reformer and other fuel uses within the refinery to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. The carbon dioxide that is separated can be sequestered or used in other processes such as enhanced oil recovery.

Steam methane reforming of a hydrocarbon containing feed is practiced to produce hydrogen for such refinery uses as hydrotreating and hydrocracking. As a result, steam methane reformers are operated in connection with fuel refining facilities. A variety of off gas streams are produced in refineries from processes such as fluidic catalytic cracking, coking, catalytic reforming, hydrocracking and etc. Generally, all these streams are used for fuel in process heaters and in steam generators for making steam.
However, as may be appreciated, the combustion of fuels produces carbon dioxide. The production of carbon dioxide is seen as a contributor to greenhouse gases and potential climate change. Consequently, there has been a worldwide effort to reduce greenhouse gases that includes reducing the production of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. As indicated in Philips "CO2 Management in Refineries", Foster Wheeler Energy Limited (2002), process heaters produce roughly half of the carbon dioxide that is emitted from refinery operations to the atmosphere as greenhouse gases. As indicated in this paper, the gasification of refinery off gases could be used to produce fuels and hydrogen that would allow for a relatively easy capture of half the carbon dioxide emissions in the refinery. The captured carbon dioxide could be used in enhanced oil recovery processes.
In Simmonds et al., "A study of very large scale post combustion carbon dioxide capture at a refining and petrochemical complex", it has been proposed to gather flue gas produced in the refinery and then capture the carbon dioxide in a carbon dioxide capture plant to sequester the carbon dioxide for later use. It is proposed in this reference to capture the carbon dioxide by a duct network of approximately 2 kilometers in length and having a maximum cross-sectional area of 9 square meters. It is envisioned in this paper that the carbon dioxide be captured through the use of amine scrubbing units.
Another source of carbon dioxide emissions is the steam methane reformer itself. A steam methane reformer produces a synthesis gas in which hydrogen can be separated or used in down stream chemical processes. Such down stream processes include the production of methanol and gas to liquid processes for synthetic fuels by means of the Fischer-Tropsch process. In any case, syntheses gas is generated within a steam methane reformer by introducing a hydrocarbon containing feed, typically natural gas, into reformer tubes located within a radiant section of the steam methane reformer. The reformer tubes contain a catalyst to promote the steam methane reforming reactions in which steam is reacted with the hydrocarbons to produce hydrogen, carbon monoxide, water and carbon dioxide. The resulting reformed stream is further reacted within one or more water-gas shift reactors in which the hydrogen content is increased by reacting carbon monoxide with steam. This results in additional carbon dioxide being formed. Typically, the resulting shifted stream is cooled and then introduced into a pressure swing adsorption unit in which the hydrogen is separated. Such separation of the hydrogen results in a tail gas stream being produced that contains hydrogen, methane, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide. The tail gas stream is used in part in firing the burners of the reformer and also in process steam heaters for raising steam that is used in the steam methane reforming reaction. All of this combustion adds to the carbon dioxide emissions of the facility.
In U.S. patent application Ser. No. 2007/0232706 A1, it has been proposed to capture the carbon dioxide in the shifted stream by first separating carbon dioxide in a vacuum pressure swing adsorption unit in which the adsorbent adsorbs the carbon dioxide to produce a hydrogen-rich stream that is introduced into the pressure swing adsorption unit. During desorption of the adsorbent, a carbon dioxide-rich stream is produced that is further processed by being compressed, cooled, dried, purified and then subjected to a sub-ambient temperature distillation process within a distillation column. Resulting bottoms liquid is vaporized within a main heat exchanger that is used in connection with the sub-ambient temperature distillation process to produce a carbon dioxide-rich stream that can be further compressed and used for down stream processes, for example, enhanced oil recovery or sequestered. Carbon dioxide lean vapor that is produced as a result of the distillation can be warmed and recycled back to the pressure swing adsorption unit for further processing along with the incoming synthesis gas feed.
Refinery off gases are a hydrocarbon containing stream that could potentially be reformed in a steam methane reformer. However, such streams often have a high olefin content that will deactivate the catalyst within the steam methane reformer. In U.S. Pat. No. 7,037,485, it is disclosed that such a refinery off gas stream can be compressed and treated within a guard bed to remove metal and sulfur species and then either alone or combined with natural gas introduced into a reactor to catalytically react the hydrogen with the hydrocarbons and any sulfur compounds to form saturated hydrocarbons and hydrogen sulfide. If the incoming stream does not contain sufficient hydrogen, hydrogen can be recirculated from the pressure swing adsorption unit. Alternatively, an oxygen stream can also be added to react with the hydrocarbons, the hydrogen and sulfur compounds contained within the feed so that additional hydrogen and carbon monoxide are produced. The resultant stream can then be passed into sulfur removal beds such as a zinc oxide bed to remove hydrogen sulfide and the resulting stream can then be combined with steam and safely reacted within the steam methane reformer.
As will be discussed, the present invention provides a method of reducing carbon dioxide emissions within a refinery that, among other advantages, does not require complex piping networks to gather flue gas and does not produce a carbon dioxide-rich tail gas as dioxide that is separated in accordance with the present invention is thereby sequestered from the fuel and is available for other processes such as enhanced oil recovery.

Carbon dioxide emission reduction method


A system and method for extracting and reusing metadata to analyze messages is provided. A stream of messages is monitored. Those messages with a predetermined message component pointing to a referent are identified. Words that are related to the referent are extracted from each of the messages. A local similarity of the identified messages is determined by comparing the extracted words of each message. A global similarity of the identified messages is determined by combining the extracted words from all the identified messages and by comparing the combined extracted words with extracted words from all messages that include a different referent. A determination is made as to whether one or more of the extracted words from the identified messages are descriptive of the referent based on the local and global comparisons.

Currently, semantic capabilities are used in Web applications, such as tools for searching and browsing, data summarization, data reorganization, and automatic inferences of logical relations in the data. These capabilities are associated with heavy requirements and costs for providing "exhaustive" amounts of metadata. Yet, part of the responsibility for providing the metadata can be placed on the users. For instance, some Web-based services allow users to tag Web documents of interest for sharing or recalling by assigning one or more keywords to the documents. Data obtained from the tagging can be used to describe the documents and enhance document searches.
However, many social Web repositories, such as del.icio.us and Flickr, make available only sparse amounts of data and metadata, and authors are not encouraged to provide semantically rich content via tagging due to a lack of return value. Therefore, without the appropriate metadata, the benefits of the semantic capabilities that augment various Web applications cannot be offered. A vicious circle is created where authors are not motivated enough to provide semantically rich content because they do not see enough return value in the current applications and the semantic capabilities cannot offer the potential benefits until enough metadata is made available. This vicious cycle can be broken by enabling automatic extraction and reuse of metadata from the new growing volume of data made available by social streams in social networking or micro-blogging tools such as Twitter, Yammer, Facebook, and MySpace. For example, in the Twitter system, during 2012, about 500 million Twitter users generated between 300 to 400 million tweets per day. Further, a study of Twitter in 2011 found that about one out of every five Twitter messages includes a uniform resource locator (URL) and the text in the tweet is generally a comment about the URL. Thus, the URL and text can include useful metadata, as provided in Lichan Hong, Gregorio Convertino, Ed H. Chi. Language Matters In Twitter: A Large Scale Study. In Proceedings of ICWSM 2011.
Thus, there is a need for a system and method to automatically extract and reuse existing metadata to provide semantic capabilities for characterizing and clustering message content.

System and method for extracting and reusing metadata to analyze message content


A communication cable that comprises a jacket, a twisted wire group, and a single separator received in a core of the jacket. The separator includes a body that has first and second segments adapted to define quadrants in the communication cable. The first and second segments are substantially perpendicular to each other and define a junction point of the first and second segments. Each segment includes a main portion and a terminal end remote from the junction point of the segments. Each of the terminal ends has a shape such that each of the terminal ends is wider than the main portions of the segments. An air pocket is defined between the terminal ends of the first and second segments. The air pocket includes a gap sized such that the air pocket is substantially enclosed, wherein the twisted wire group is prevented from entering the air pocket.

Conventional communication cables, which typically transmit digital information, employ a plurality of twisted wire pairs. To satisfy high speed digital requirements, the communication cables must transmit communication at high frequencies, typically to 500 Mhz. However with high frequencies, interference or near end crosstalk occurs due to electromagnetic coupling between the twisted pairs within the cable. Such interference degrades the performance of the cable.
To reduce such interference and improve performance, the twisted pairs of the communication cable are often twisted with very short lay lengths and/or a filler is added to physically increase the distance between the pairs. Conventional communication cable fillers are very thick and often have a uniform shape to provide the necessary distance between the pairs to reduce interference. Alternatively, the twisted pairs of conventional communication cables are individually shielded from one another. All of these options, however, are costly, and often do not provide optimum flame performance and dielectric properties.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Separator for communication cable with shaped ends


In one aspect, the present invention relates to a method of identifying compounds useful in modifying the activity of Aldolase. The method includes providing a first model comprising Aldolase or residues of the amino acid sequence corresponding to SEQ ID NO: 1 said residues being at amino acid positions selected from the group consisting of 10-13, 26, 27, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 37, 39, 40, 41, 43, 44, 47, 48, 51, 52, 60, 63, 66, 79, 84, 85, 92, 93, 103, 106-109, 112-117, 138, 142, 146, 148, 151, 153, 179, 182, 183, 185, 186, 194, 196, 197, 198, 199, 208, 226-228, 231-269, 270, 272, 277-283, 285-289, 294, 295, 297-299, 301-304, 306-310, 312, 313, 316, 317, 319, 321, 323, 326, 330, 344, 345, and 347, providing one or more candidate compounds, evaluating contact between the candidate compounds and the first model to determine which of the one or more candidate compounds have an ability to bind to and/or fit in the first model, and identifying compounds which, based on said evaluating, have the ability to bind to and/or fit in the first model as compounds potentially useful for modifying the activity of Aldolase. The present invention also discloses compounds and compositions which modify the activity of Aldolase, or a complex between Aldolase and TRAP. Methods of treating or preventing malaria, or an infection by apicomplexan organisms are also disclosed.

Malaria is a serious illness that affects hundreds of millions of people worldwide and kills 700,000-2.7 million people each year. Malaria is caused by protozoan parasites that are transmitted from person to person via the Anopheles mosquito (United States Center for Disease Control, Malaria Website; World Health Organization, Global Malaria Programme), or in some cases in endemic areas, by allogeneic blood transfusion from an infected donor (Marcucci et al., "Allogeneic Blood Transfusions Benefit, Risks and Clinical Indications in Countries With a Low or High Human Development Index," Br. Med. Bull. 70:15-28 (2004)). Five species of apicomplexan protozoa can infect and cause malaria in humans: Plasmodium falciparum, P. vivax, P. ovale, P. malaria, and P. knowlesi. The disease is characterized by cyclical episodes of high fever, chills, severe pain, and nausea. In severe cases, caused by P. falciparum infection, patients present with brain ischemia ("cerebral malaria") and other end-organ damage. Children and pregnant women are highly susceptible to this form of malaria, which, without immediate and aggressive treatment, is often fatal.
Plasmodium species have a very complex lifecycle, involving sexual reproduction (gamete fusion), asexual replication (oocysts and schizonts), invasive stages (sporozoites and merozoites), and two different hosts (mosquito and mammal). Plasmodium ookinetes differentiate into oocysts within the Anopheles mosquito midgut. Sporozoites develop within and bud off of the oocysts. They are then carried by the mosquito's hemolymph to the salivary glands, where they invade the cells of the salivary ducts. When the infected mosquito bites a human, the sporozoites are injected into his or her skin, through which they migrate until they are able to penetrate a blood vessel and enter the bloodstream. The sporozoites travel to the liver where they invade hepatocytes and develop into merozoites—the invasive form of the Plasmodium blood stages (Kappe et al., "Plasmodium Sporozoite Molecular Cell Biology," Annu. Rev. Cell Dev. Biol. 20:29-59 (2004)).
When the infected hepatocytes rupture, thousands of merozoites are released into the blood and invade erythrocytes, where they proceed through a "ring" form and a trophozoite stage. During these stages, the parasite feeds off of the surrounding red blood cell, ingesting its hemoglobin along with portions of the erythrocyte's cytosol. Parasite proteins released into the host cell induce marked changes to the structure and adhesive properties of the infected red blood cell membrane, causing other cells to clump around them. These erythrocyte "rosettes" adhere to the walls of deep visceral blood vessels, preventing their destruction by the liver and spleen (Bannister and Mitchell, "The Ins, Outs and Roundabouts of Malaria," Trends Parasitol. 19:209-213 (2003); Bannister et al., "A Brief Illustrated Guide to the Ultrastructure of Plasmodium falciparum Asexual Blood Stages," Parasitol. Today 16:427-433 (2000)). After 36, 48, or 72 hours—depending on the Plasmodium species—within the red blood cell, the parasite undergoes schizogony (asexual replication). The schizont-infected cells eventually rupture, releasing many new merozoites that can either re-invade other erythrocytes or develop into gametes—the parasite's sexual stage—which can be ingested by another mosquito during a blood meal. Within the mosquito, the gametes fuse and differentiate into ookinetes, and the cycle of infection repeats (Kappe et al., "Plasmodium Sporozoite Molecular Cell Biology," Annu. Rev. Cell Dev. Biol. 20:29-59 (2004)).
The parasite's blood stages are primarily responsible for the mortality of the disease—the mass rupture of red blood cells causes the painful symptoms of malaria and subsequent anemia. The complications of cerebral malaria ensue when ruptured cells occlude blood vessels supplying the brain or other organs, and the obstruction of placental vasculature contributes to the high mortality rate among pregnant patients (Kappe et al., "Plasmodium Sporozoite Molecular Cell Biology," Annu. Rev. Cell Dev. Biol. 20:29-59 (2004); Bannister & Mitchell, "The Ins, Outs and Roundabouts of Malaria," Trends Parasitol. 19:209-213 (2003); Bannister et al., "A Brief Illustrated Guide to the Ultrastructure of Plasmodium falciparum Asexual Blood Stages," Parasitol. Today 16:427-433 (2000)).
Two Plasmodium species, P. vivax and P. ovale, also exhibit a hynozoite stage which can remain dormant in the liver for long periods of time, resulting in a relapse of the illness weeks or even years after the initial infection.
Plasmodium sporozoites are characterized by an outer pellicle composed of a double-layer inner membrane complex (IMC) surrounded by a plasma membrane (PM) and supported by a microtubule network. An actin-myosin motor lies between the IMC and PM, and is attached to transmembrane adhesive proteins that connect the interior of the parasite cell to receptors, proteoglycans, glycosaminoglycans, and glycoproteins on the host cell's surface. These adhesins are secreted through specialized structures called micronemes on the apical end of the organism. The force transduced by the actin-myosin motor results in the backward redistribution of the adhesive proteins on the parasite's surface. This movement propels sporozoites forward with a spiral-shaped trajectory. When the adhesive proteins reach the posterior end of the cell, they are shed from the zoite membrane, which—at least for sporozoites—allows the parasite's path to be visualized with fluorescently-tagged antibodies to this "protein trail" (Kappe et al., "Apicomplexan Gliding Motility and Host Cell Invasion: Overhauling the Motor Model," Trends Parasitol. 20:13-16 (2004)).
While merozoites have not been observed to glide along a surface in the same way sporozoites do, they appear to utilize the same motor machinery to propel themselves into red blood cells (Baum et al., "A Conserved Molecular Motor Drives Cell Invasion and Gliding Motility Across Malaria Life Cycle Stages and Other Apicomplexan Parasites," J. Biol. Chem. 281:5197-5208 (2006); Pinder et al., "Motile Systems in Malaria Merozoites: How is the Red Blood Cell Invaded?" Parasitol. Today 16:240-245 (2000); Pinder et al., "Actomyosin Motor in the Merozoite of the Malaria Parasite, Plasmodium falciparum: Implications for Red Cell Invasion," J. Cell. Sci. 111:1831-1839 (1998)). When Plasmodium merozoites invade host cells, their surface adhesive proteins engage host membrane receptors and form a moving junction between the host cell membrane and the parasite, characterized by a thickened ring within the host cell membrane. The parasite then enters the cell, at which point its surface proteins are cleaved, allowing it to separate from the host cell membrane at its posterior end. The subsequent resealing of the cell membrane generates a specialized "parasitophorous" vacuole within the host cell where parasite differentiation and multiplication occur (Kappe et al., "Plasmodium Sporozoite Molecular Cell Biology," Annu. Rev. Cell Dev. Biol. 20:29-59 (2004); Baum et al., "A Conserved Molecular Motor Drives Cell Invasion and Gliding Motility Across Malaria Life Cycle Stages and Other Apicomplexan Parasites," J. Biol. Chem. 281:5197-5208 (2006); Pinder et al., "Motile Systems in Malaria Merozoites: How is the Red Blood Cell Invaded?" Parasitol. Today 16:240-245 (2000); Pinder et al., "Actomyosin Motor in the Merozoite of the Malaria Parasite, Plasmodium falciparum: Implications for Red Cell Invasion," J. Cell. Sci. 111:1831-1839 (1998); Menard, "The Journey of the Malaria Sporozoite Through Its Hosts: Two Parasite Proteins Lead the Way," Microbes Infect. 2:633-642 (2000)).
Many of the proteins involved in this form of movement and invasion have been elucidated (Kappe et al., "Plasmodium Sporozoite Molecular Cell Biology," Annu. Rev. Cell Dev. Biol. 20:29-59 (2004); Baum et al., "A Conserved Molecular Motor Drives Cell Invasion and Gliding Motility Across Malaria Life Cycle Stages and Other Apicomplexan Parasites," J. Biol. Chem. 281:5197-5208 (2006); Buscaglia et al., "Sites of Interaction Between Aldolase and Thrombospondin-Related Anonymous Protein in Plasmodium," Mol. Biol. Cell. 14:4947-4957 (2003); Kappe et al., "Apicomplexan Gliding Motility and Host Cell Invasion: Overhauling the Motor Model," Trends Parasitol. 20:13-16 (2004); Matuschewski et al., "Plasmodium Sporozoite Invasion Into Insect and Mammalian Cells is Directed by the Same Dual Binding System," Embo J. 21:1597-1606 (2002); Menard, "The Journey of the Malaria Sporozoite Through Its Hosts: Two Parasite Proteins Lead the Way," Microbes Infect. 2:633-642 (2000); Mota & Rodriguez, "Invasion of Mammalian Host Cells by Plasmodium Sporozoites," Bioessays 24:149-156 (2002); Muller et al., "Thrombospondin Related Anonymous Protein (TRAP) of Plasmodium falciparum in Parasite-Host Cell Interactions," Parassitologia 35 Suppl:69-72 (1993); Sultan, "Molecular Mechanisms of Malaria Sporozoite Motility and Invasion of Host Cells," Int. Microbiol. 2:155-160 (1999); Sultan et al., "TRAP is Necessary for Gliding Motility and Infectivity of Plasmodium Sporozoites," Cell 90:511-522 (1997); Kappe et al., "Conservation of a Gliding Motility and Cell Invasion Machinery in Apicomplexan Parasites," J. Cell. Biol. 147:937-944 (1999); Green et al., "The MTIP-Myosin A Complex in Blood Stage Malaria Parasites," J. Mol. Biol. 355:933-941 (2006); Jewett & Sibley, "Aldolase Forms a Bridge Between Cell Surface Adhesins and the Actin Cytoskeleton in Apicomplexan Parasites," Mol. Cell. 11:885-894 (2003); Yuda et al., "Structure and Expression of an Adhesive Protein-Like Molecule of Mosquito Invasive-Stage Malarial Parasite," J. Exp. Med. 189:1947-1952 (1999)). While features of the motor complex were originally resolved in Plasmodium sporozoites, and in tachyzoites of the related apicomplexan parasite, Toxoplasma gondii, most of its primary components have since been characterized in Plasmodium merozoites as well. In the currently prevailing model, the actual motor consists of F-actin (Dobrowolski and Sibley, "Toxoplasma Invasion of Mammalian Cells is Powered by the Actin Cytoskeleton of the Parasite," Cell 84:933-939 (1996)) and myosin A (MyoA) (Bannister and Mitchell, "The Ins, Outs and Roundabouts of Malaria," Trends Parasitol. 19:209-213 (2003); Dobrowolski et al., "Participation of Myosin in Gliding Motility and Host Cell Invasion by Toxoplasma gondii," Mol. Microbiol. 26:163-173. (1997); Hettmann et al., "A Dibasic Motif in the Tail of a Class XIV Apicomplexan Myosin is an Essential Determinant of Plasma Membrane Localization," Mol. Biol. Cell 11:1385-1400 (2000); Heintzelman & Schwartzman, "A Novel Class of Unconventional Myosins From Toxoplasma gondii," J. Mol. Biol. 271:139-146 (1997)), and is anchored to the IMC via MyoA tail-interacting protein (MTIP) (Bannister. & Mitchell, "The Ins, Outs and Roundabouts of Malaria," Trends Parasitol. 19:209-213 (2003); Bergman et al., "Myosin A Tail Domain Interacting Protein (MTIP) Localizes to the Inner Membrane Complex of Plasmodium Sporozoites," J. Cell. Sci. 116:39-49 (2003)), glideosome associated protein 45 (GAP45), and the integral membrane glycoprotein, GAP50 (Baum et al., "A Conserved Molecular Motor Drives Cell Invasion and Gliding Motility Across Malaria Life Cycle Stages and Other Apicomplexan Parasites," J. Biol. Chem. 281:5197-5208 (2006); Gaskins et al., "Identification of the Membrane Receptor of a Class XIV Myosin in Toxoplasma gondii," J. Cell. Biol. 165:383-393 (2004)). Aldolase tetramers link F-actin to the transmembrane adhesin, thrombospondin-related anonymous protein (TRAP), in sporozoites (Buscaglia et al., "Sites of Interaction Between Aldolase and Thrombospondin-Related Anonymous Protein in Plasmodium," Mol. Biol. Cell. 14:4947-4957 (2003); Buscaglia et al., "Modeling the Interaction Between Aldolase and the Thrombospondin-Related Anonymous Protein, a Key Connection of the Malaria Parasite Invasion Machinery," Proteins 66:528-537 (2007); Bosch et al., "Aldolase Provides an Unusual Binding Site for Thrombospondin-Related Anonymous Protein in the Invasion Machinery of the Malaria Parasite," Proc. Nat'l. Acad. Sci. USA 104(17):7015-20 (2007)), or to its homolog, MTRAP, in merozoites (Baum et al., "A Conserved Molecular Motor Drives Cell Invasion and Gliding Motility Across Malaria Life Cycle Stages and Other Apicomplexan Parasites," J. Biol. Chem. 281:5197-5208 (2006)). Aldolase is therefore a critical linking molecule in the molecular motor that powers the gliding motility capability of the parasite. As Plasmodium Aldolase is highly similar to human Aldolase, and as specificity for Plasmodium Aldolase over human Aldolase is required for any potential drug targeting this site, drug development targeted at the Aldolase component of the glideosome is considered challenging to the point of non-obviousness to a reasonable practitioner of the art.
Several effective treatments for malaria exist, including chloroquine, primaquine, sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine, doxycycline, artesunate, and others (Rosenthal, "Antiprotozoal Drugs. in Basic & Clinical Pharmacology (ed. Katzung, B. G.) Lange Medical Books/McGraw Hill:New York, pp. 864-885 (2004)). However, many of these drugs have potentially serious side affects and/or are prohibitively expensive. Quinine and quinidine commonly illicit cinchonism, which in some cases can be severe (Katzung, Basic and Clinical Pharmacology, Appleton & Lange:Norwalk, Conn., (2004)). Many anti-malarials can produce hemolysis in patients with glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiencies (Katzung, Basic and Clinical Pharmacology, Appleton & Lange:Norwalk, Conn., (2004)), which due to its conference of some degree of malaria resistance, is commonly found in malaria endemic regions (Kwiatkowski, "How Malaria Has Affected the Human Genome and What Human Genetics Can Teach Us About Malaria," Am. J. Hum. Genet. 77:171-192 (2005)). Some anti-malarial agents have also been associated with rare cases of neuropsychiatric toxicities (Katzung, Basic and Clinical Pharmacology, Appleton & Lange: Norwalk, Conn., (2004)). Additionally, parasite resistance to these drugs is growing rapidly, especially in areas lacking adequate medical infrastructures and support networks (United States Center for Disease Control Malaria Website; World Health Organization Global Malaria Programme). On the other hand, artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs), while still highly effective in most regions, are cumbersome to produce and are often too expensive for patients in endemic areas (Enserink, "Combating Malaria. Malaria Treatment: ACT Two," Science 318:560-563 (2007)). Reports of parasite resistance to ACTs—the current gold-standard for malaria treatment—have begun to emerge as well (Noedl et al., "Evidence of Artemisinin-Resistant Malaria in Western Cambodia," N. Engl. J. Med. 359:2619-2620 (2008)). This is especially alarming as there are very few other drugs in the malaria pipeline. There is clearly a critical need for the discovery of novel drug targets and reagents to combat this disease.
Most anti-malarials in clinical use target the parasite's haem (quinilones: chloroquine, quinine, amodiaquine, mefloquine, and halofantrine) or folate (antifolates: sulphadoxine-pyrimethine) metabolism pathways, while others interfere with mitochondrial electron-transport via cytochrome C inhibition (atavaquone, proguanil). Additionally, some common antibiotics are effective against malaria by inhibiting prokaryote-like protein synthesis within the malarial apicoplast (tetracycline, doxycycline, and clindamycin). Newer artemisin derivatives (artemether, arteether, artesunate) are believed to rapidly kill merozoites and gametocytes via free-radical generation (Ridley, "Medical Need, Scientific Opportunity and the Drive for Antimalarial Drugs," Nature 415:686-693 (2002); Wells et al., "New Medicines to Improve Control and Contribute to the Eradication of Malaria," Nat. Rev. Drug Discov. 8:879-891 (2009)).
Considering the global impact of malarial disease, and the years of research and billions of dollars poured into attempts to eradicate it, the above list of treatments and therapeutic targets is alarmingly short. There are clearly many more pathways, mechanisms, and biological features of Plasmodium that have yet to be targeted for anti-malarial drug design. The glideosome is thus established as a promising target, and a drug inhibiting the glideosome would be new and useful. Moreover, cross species conservation of the glidoesome might have the potential to be valuable for economical reasons preventing livestock diseases in cattle (Babesia) or chicken (Eimeria).
Importantly, there are precious few drugs in clinical use that are effective against the exo-erythrocytic stages of the parasite, making the prevention of transmission and disease relapse due to dormant liver-stage hypnozoites especially difficult. Without the ability to effectively prevent initial infections by malaria sporozoites through vaccination or prophylactic drug therapy, it is unlikely to achieve complete global eradication of this deadly disease (Mazier et al., "A Pre-Emptive Strike Against Malaria's Stealthy Hepatic Forms," Nat. Rev. Drug Discov. 8:854-864 (2009)).
The present invention is directed to overcoming these and other deficiencies in the art.

Small molecule malarial Aldolase-TRAP enhancers and glideosome inhibitors


A potential analyzer for analyzing a potential at a specimen such as an LSI device or the like. This analyzer comprises: a detector to detect secondary electrons to be emitted from a specimen by radiating a primary electron beam thereto; a retarding grid, provided between the specimen and the detector, for controlling a detection amount of the secondary electrons; a circuit for applying a voltage to the retarding grid to keep the output of the secondary electron detector at a constant value; and a setting circuit for automatically setting the gain of the detector so as to allow an operating range of the voltage to the retarding grid to be within a specified value.

The present invention relates to a potential analyzer for analyzing a potential at a surface of an object to be analyzed (for example, a potential in an LSI device) using an electron beam as a probe.
It is known that a potential at a portion where the electron beam is radiated can be measured with a scanning electron microscope by equipping it with an apparatus for analyzing energy of secondary electrons (refer to Japanese Patent Publication No. 51024/72).
FIG. 1A shows this principle. A retarding grid G is arranged between a specimen and a secondary electron detector 4 disposed to face the specimen 1. The retarding grid G forms a potential barrier to discriminate energy of secondary electrons 3 emitted from the specimen 1 due to its irradiation with an electron beam 2. FIG. 1B is a diagram showing the operation of this potential barrier. In the case where the retarding grid G is not used, every secondary electron 3 is detected by the secondary electron detector 4. An energy distribution of the secondary electrons emitted from the specimen 1 at zero potential is as shown by A in FIG. 1B. When the potential at the specimen 1 is at -5 V, the resulting secondary electron energy distribution is as indicated by B. When the retarding grid G is provided and a voltage of -5 V is applied thereto, secondary electrons to be detected are limited to those having 5 eV or more, so that a change occurs in the detection quantity of secondary electrons to be detected in dependence upon the potential at the specimen 1. In this way, since the secondary electron detection quantity relates to the potential at the specimen, the potential at the specimen 1 can be known from the detection quantity of secondary electrons.
However, in this method of analyzing the potential on the basis of only the arrangement of the retarding grid G, it is difficult to quantitatively analyze the potential since there is not a linear relation between the potential at the specimen 1 and the detection quantity of secondary electrons. Therefore, for linearization of the above-mentioned relation, a feedback loop operation is known in which the potential at the retarding grid is adjusted by a specific circuit so as to always maintain the detection quantity of secondary electrons constant (H. P. Feurbaum et al, IEEE Journal of solid state circuits, Vol. SC-13, No. 3, 1978).
FIG. 2 is a block diagram to describe this feedback loop operation. An output of the secondary electron detector 4 is compared with a reference voltage 6 and the difference is amplified by an amplifier 5 and its output is given to the retarding grid G. Since the potential at the retarding grid G decreases in association with an increase in the detection quantity of secondary electrons, even if the potential at the specimen 1 changes arbitrarily, the secondary electron detection quantity will be kept constant. Since an amount of change in the potential at the specimen is made to have a one-to-one correspondence to an amount of change of the retarding grid G, a change in the potential at the specimen 1 can be quantitatively known by measuring the potential at the retarding grid G.
However, to accurately perform this measurement, a variable range of the potential at the retarding grid G has to be set within a predetermined range. The gain of the secondary electron detector 4 is usually adjusted to make the detector 4 operative within this range. However, if the intensity of the primary electron beam changes or if the material is different from a specimen to another, this operating point will be changed, which will cause a large error in measurement. For example, in the case of measuring voltage waveforms on circuit lines in an LSI, there are a number of points to be measured therein and the resulting voltages are compared with each other. However, the materials of the circuit lines in the LSI are not always identical (for instance, Al, poly-Si, gold, etc.). Due to this, an emission efficiency of secondary electrons differs, so that the gain of the secondary electron detector 4 has to be adjusted to match with a specified operating point (potential at the retarding grid G). This adjustment is needed almost whenever the measurement point is changed. Namely, in the foregoing method, the adjustment has to be performed while always paying attention to the operating point, which makes this method complicated and brings about measurement errors therein.