This application provides a method of using aptamers to determine the presence of HCP's in a recombinant protein preparation, and provides methods of preparing a plurality of aptamers for use in the method of detecting a plurality of HCP's in a recombinant protein preparation. In accordance with the description, a method of determining the presence or absence of a plurality of HCP's in a recombinant protein preparation comprises: providing a recombinant protein preparation; providing a final pool of aptamers; combining the recombinant protein preparation with the final pool of aptamers; and determining the presence or absence of a plurality of HCP's.

Recombinant proteins are typically produced in host cells. Host Cell Proteins (HCPs) are process-related impurities that arise from the host cells during the normal course of recombinant protein production [Wang et al., HCPs in Biologics Development: Identification, Quantitation and Risk Assessment, Biotechnol. Bioeng. 103(3):446-458 (2009)]. In recombinant biopharmaceuticals, HCPs carry potential clinical safety risks due to the activity of the HCPs themselves, or to the ability of the HCP to elicit an immune response. Indeed, demonstration of clearance and/or control of HCPs present in a biotherapeutic is a regulatory requirement [ICH Harmonised Tripartite Guideline Specifications: Test Procedures and Acceptance Criteria for Biotechnological/Biological Products Q6B (1999)]. Thus, the characterization, removal, and/or clearance of HCPs from recombinant biopharmaceuticals through the purification process are desirable before the biopharmaceutical may be released for use in treating humans or animals.
HCPs are currently detected in recombinant protein preparations using polyclonal antibodies (pAb) in an immunoassay format. The production of anti-HCP pAbs is time consuming and expensive, and there are significant quality and utility issues with the resulting anti-HCP pAbs: 1) Due to the immunization of animals, anti-HCP pAb production takes between 9-12 months at significant cost; 2) Recognition of all of the HCP s in a mixture is not possible due to either the lack of immunogenicity of some of the HCP in the animals used to generate the polyclonal immune response, or the low relative amounts of individual HCPs present in the HCP mixture used to immunize the animals.
A typical HCP pAb recognizes roughly 50-75% of HCPs in a recombinant protein preparation. With some estimates of 1,200 to 1,600 possible HCPs in an antigenic preparation, such an approach potentially leaves a great deal of HCPs undetectable by a pAb. Therefore, a better HCP detection reagent, one that recognizes all or nearly all potential HCPs, would be highly desirable to give better quantitative meaning to the HCP immunoassay results.
Aptamers have previously been generated against a single target (whether in purified form or as part of a complex mixture). When generating aptamers from a complex mixture, Fitter and James [Deconvolution of a Complex Target Using DNA Aptamers, J. Cell Biol., 280 (40): 34193-34201 (2005)] teaches a serial processing strategy. In this strategy, Fitter and James use a target depletion strategy to avoid convergence of aptamers only to a few targets within the mixture. Specifically, in a serial processing strategy, Fitter and James perform repeated rounds of screening and after each round, they use the aptamers generated in the previous round to remove the targets from the mixture.
The method taught here is inherently a parallel strategy that does not require any depletion of targets. Specifically, the method presented herein uses next generation sequencing (NGS) to identify aptamers for binding to all targets in the mixture in parallel, and uses the aptamer arrays to measure the actual binding simultaneously of all aptamers to all targets in the mixture. It was not previously perceived possible to accomplish such a complex task. Specifically, it was not previously perceived possible to use a parallel strategy to identify aptamers binding to different targets and to decouple the identity of the aptamers and their ability to bind to each target. The pool of aptamers obtained here may be used for determining the presence of HCPs in recombinant protein preparations.

Detecting residual host cell proteins in recombinant protein preparations

The Regents of the University of California


A PZT-based ferroelectric thin film is formed by coating a PZT-based ferroelectric thin film-forming composition on a lower electrode of a substrate one or two or more times, pre-baking the composition, and baking the composition to be crystallized, and this thin film includes PZT-based particles having an average particle size in a range of 500 nm to 3000 nm when measured on a surface of the thin film, in which heterogeneous fine particles having an average particle size of 20 nm or less, which are different from the PZT-based particles, are precipitated on a part or all of the grain boundaries on the surface of the thin film.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a PZT-based ferroelectric thin film, which can be used for a dielectric layer or the like of a thin film capacitor, and a method of forming the same. More specifically, the invention relates to a PZT-based ferroelectric thin film having superior electrical properties, long service life, and superior mass-productivity; and a method of forming the same.
Priority is claimed on Japanese Patent Application No. 2013-73150, filed on Mar. 29, 2013, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of Related Art
When a ferroelectric thin film is formed using a sol-gel method, typically, a high-temperature process such as pre-baking or baking is performed. Therefore, when an attempt to obtain a thicker film is made by increasing the coating amount applied in each coating process, tensile stress generated in the film during baking or the like is increased, which may cause a problem of cracking in the formed film.
When cracking occurs in the formed film, the electrical properties or the like of the ferroelectric thin film deteriorate. In the related art, the thickness of a film which can be formed in each coating process using a sol-gel method is limited to about 100 nm. In order to form a thick ferroelectric thin film, a method of performing coating and baking processes of a composition multiple times is adopted. However, with this method, production efficiency decreases, which leads to an increase in film forming cost. Therefore, studies and developments have been actively made regarding improvement of a material, that is, regarding a raw material solution capable of increasing the thickness of a film formed in each coating process without cracking.
In addition, one of the issues during the formation of a ferroelectric thin film using a sol-gel method is to increase the service life of a thin film. For example, the document "Influence of Film Texture on Reliability of Sol-gel Derived PZT Thin-film Capacitors (T. Noguchi, et. al. Key Eng. Mater. In press (2013))" reports that, by laminating layers of a sol-gel solution to which a specific organic dopant is added, a PZT ferroelectric thin film having grown crystal grains can be formed, and the service life of the obtained thin film is longer than that of a thin film of the related art having fine crystal grains. Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. 2012-009800 (claim 1, paragraph [0012]) focuses on a structure of a ferroelectric thin film and discloses a ferroelectric thin film in which a microstructure is controlled to improve service life reliability. The ferroelectric thin film disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. 2012-009800 has a configuration of a mixed composite metal oxide in which metal oxides B composed of Bi, Si, and the like are mixed with a PZT-based composite metal oxide A at a predetermined molar ratio. In this configuration, 2 to 23 baked layers are laminated, the thickness t of each of the baked layers is 45 nm to 500 nm, an average value x of maximum grain sizes of crystal grains present in each of the baked layers in a predetermined direction is 200 nm to 5000 nm, and all the baked layers satisfy a relationship of 1.5t<x<23t. In the ferroelectric thin film disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. 2012-009800, the grain size of crystal grains present in each of the baked layers is increased to be greater than that of crystal grains present in a thin film prepared using a CSD method of the related art, and interfaces are introduced into the film by laminating a plurality of baked layers. As a result, the service life reliability of a thin film capacitor or the like is improved.

PZT-based ferroelectric thin film and method of forming the same


A video synchronization signal removal circuit in which a synchronization signal component of an incoming video signal is detected whereupon a reference signal corresponding to a black video level is substituted substantially during the synchronization signal interval.

The present invention relates to circuitry for processing component video signals, and in particular, to circuitry for removing synchronization signals from component video signals.
As is well-known, computer monitors and, increasingly, many higher quality televisions, receive their display signals in the form of component video signals such as GBR (green, blue, red), YPbPr (luminance, blue difference, red difference). Typically, the first of the three channels (e.g., the green and luminance signals) contains a composite signal in which both the video (green or luminance) and synchronization (horizontal and vertical) components are included. As is also well-known, the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) standards (e.g., CEA-770.1-C, CEA-770.2-C and CEA-770.3-C) for component video signals specify the component video signal also containing the synchronization component to be a one-volt peak-to-peak signal, with the one extreme signal peak (e.g., minimum or lower) being that of the tip of the synchronization signal component and the opposite extreme signal peak (e.g., maximum or upper) being that of the maximum level, i.e., white, of the video signal component. For example, in conformance with the CEA-770.1-C standard, these voltage levels are −286 mV (mV) and +714 mV, respectively, while for the CEA-770.2-C and CEA-770.3-C standards, these levels are −300 mV and +700 mV, respectively. (For all three of these standards, the voltage levels for the other two component signals, Pb and Pr, are −350 mV and +350 mV.)
Successful operation within the standards often requires removal of the synchronization signal excursions, or "tips". One conventional technique removes the synchronization signal tips by forcing the signal containing the synchronization signal component, e.g. the luminance Y signal, to be fixed at or above the reference video black level. However, the tri-level synchronization signal used in high definition television (HDTV) analog component video signals (FIG. 1B) tends to be problematic since such technique cannot remove the synchronization tips completely, thereby often resulting in undesired residual signal components related to the original synchronization signal tips.

Video synchronization signal removal circuitry


A system for determining the position and orientation of a flying object such as a missile includes a ground segment having at least one pseudolite station located on the earth's surface which transmits into space a navigation signal that uniquely identifies the pseudolite station, and a user segment having at least one sensor which is situated in the missile and is designed to receive the navigation signal from the at least one pseudolite station and to determine its absolute position and orientation in space on the basis of the received navigation signal.

The invention relates to a method and apparatus for determining the position and orientation of a missile, particularly a space missile.
Inertial navigation systems and sometimes supplementary sensor systems such as barometric sensors, are generally used to determine the position and orientation of spacecraft, including space missiles (such as booster rockets and their payloads), satellites, and other exo- and transatmospheric flying devices. "Orientation" refers to the location/orientation of the space missile in space, t.e., the angles of roll, pitch, and yaw. Although such systems are independent of external devices, and in particular to external signals, they entail high costs. In addition, they do not provide information concerning the absolute position of a space missile.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,535,801 B1, the absolute position and orientation of a satellite in a geosynchronous orbit are determined using global positioning system (GPS) signals. Because GPS satellites are oriented such that their principal direction of radiation for GPS signals is pointed toward the earth, in geosynchronous orbits (which are situated above the orbits of GPS satellites) on average only one GPS signal (or even none at all, but no more than three GPS signals) is received, which is generally insufficient for a reliable determination of the absolute position and orientation of a geosynchronous satellite. It was therefore proposed to process GPS signals transmitted by the GPS satellites in secondary directions of radiation as well; however, these signals are very noisy.
According to U.S. Pat. No. 6,535,801, such processing may be enabled, for example, by using a pseudolite stationed on the earth, the signal from which is continuously received by the geosynchronous satellite and used for a highly accurate GPS time standard in the receiver of the geosynchronous satellite. A disadvantage of this method, however, is that the GPS satellites signals which are used are under the control of the United States Department of Defense, and therefore may be switched off or become degraded at any time.
One object of the present invention is to provide a system and a method for determining the position of a missile, in particular a space missile, which enables the absolute position to be determined and which is as independent as possible from GPS signals.
This and other objects and advantages are achieved by the method and apparatus according to the invention, in which at least one pseudolite (short for "pseudosatellite") station on the earth's surface transmits a navigation signal into space (i.e., the near-earth space outside the earth's atmosphere and also interplanetary space and space navigable by space missiles) which uniquely identifies the station. The navigation signal transmitted by the psetidolite station may then be received by a missile (for example a rocket) and used to determine the absolute position of the missile, either i) solely on the basis of received navigation signals from multiple pseudolite stations, ii) in interaction with inertial navigation systems that are present, or iii) with other navigation signals from satellites. By use of such a pseudolite station the above-described disadvantages of position determination by means of satellites may be largely avoided, in particular problems in reception of navigation signals at altitudes greater than the orbits of navigation satellites.
Heretofore, pseudolite stations have been used to improve navigational accuracy on the earth's surface, and have therefore transmitted their navigation signals only in the region of the earth's surface, to enable optimal reception by navigation signal receivers on the earth's surface or in the vicinity thereof. Transmitting a navigation signal from a pseudolite station into space according to the present invention provides the possibility for determining the absolute position of missiles also at very high altitudes, in particular for space missiles such as rockets, or also geosynchronous satellites.
The invention may be used alone or in addition to inertial navigation systems present in missiles to enable a particularly accurate and, above all, an absolute determination of the missile's position and orientation. For example, operators of rocket launching pads may utilize the invention to be independent from operators of satellite navigation systems and to maintain complete control over the system for determining the absolute position and orientation of rockets. The invention is suitable for any type of missile, in particular for applications in which conventional navigation systems such as GPS or the Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS or GNSS) are too imprecise, are unsuitable due to high flight altitude, or are too unreliable. Lastly, the invention may also be implemented in missiles more economically than is the case for current avionics for position and orientation determination.
According to one embodiment, the invention relates to a system for determining the position of a missile, in particular a space missile, comprising a ground segment having at least one pseudolite station which is located on the earth's surface and which transmits a navigation signal into space which uniquely identifies the pseudolite station, and a user segment having at least one sensor, situated in the missile, which is designed to receive the navigation signal of the at least one pseudolite station and to determine its absolute position in space on the basis of the received navigation signal. By use of such a system, the position of a missile may be determined largely independently of satellite navigation systems, but at a minimum the accuracy of the position determination may be significantly improved by use of satellite navigation signals. The system may also be used as a fall-back solution for the position determination, for example if an inertial navigation system of a missile fails, or satellite-based navigation is unusable due to poor reception of navigation signals.
To increase the accuracy of the position determination and in particular to enable the most accurate position determination possible at various altitudes of the missile and flight phases, the ground segment may include multiple pseudolite stations which are configured on the earth's surface according to a specified geometry, in such a way that navigation signals from at least five different pseudolite stations may be received during all phases of flight of the missile. In this manner the position may be determined with an accuracy that is sufficient in particular for critical missions such as launching and flight of a booster rocket for satellites, and which is more reliable, at least in part, than position determination based on satellite navigation signals.
Because particularly high accuracy is required for the position determination, above all in critical flight phases such as the launch, the pseudolite stations may also be configured in such a way that navigation signals may be received from a maximum number of pseudolite stations during the launch of the missile from the earth's surface. For example, multiple pseudolite stations may be provided at short distances from one another in the region of a rocket launching pad so that there is a high probability that a launching booster rocket will receive navigation signals from a large number of pseudolite stations and is able to determine its absolute position in space with a high degree of accuracy.
According to a further embodiment, the invention relates to a pseudolite station for use in a system according to the invention, wherein the psuedolite station comprises a signal generator which generates a navigation signal that uniquely identifies the pseudolite station, and transmits the navigation signal via a code multiplexing process, and a transmitter antenna for transmitting the code multiplexing signal, which signal generator uses a code uniquely associated with the pseudolite station as a spreading code.
In principle, a pseudolite station may have a design that is similar to a navigation satellite, except that it occupies a fixed, specified position on the earth's surface and transmits its navigation signals into space, not to the earth's surface as is the case with a satellite.
In particular, a control and monitoring unit may be provided which is designed to control the generation of navigation signals and to monitor the transmission of navigation signals in coordination with data for a time standard.
To ensure that multiple pseudolite stations transmit their navigation signals based on the most synchronous time standard possible, a monitor station for monitoring the pseudolite station may be provided to receive navigation signals from satellites, and to generate synchronization signals for the control and monitoring unit of the pseudolite station from the received navigation signals. Due to the curvature of the earth, however, centralized synchronization of the pseudolite station is difficult if not impossible. It is therefore advantageous to synchronize satellite navigation signals so that the signals may be easily received by the pseudolite stations.
The monitor station may be designed in particular to extract time information from navigation signals received from satellites, and to use this information to generate synchronization signals. In other words, the monitor station of a pseudolite station may make use of external satellite navigation signals as a time standard.
Alternatively or additionally, the monitor station may be designed to obtain time information by means of a two-way time transfer process, and to use this information to generate synchronization signals.
A pseudolite station may also have a high-stability oscillator reference as a local time standard, by means of which to a certain extent the pseudolite station may operate autonomously; that is, in particular, independently of external signals such as satellite navigation signals.
According to a further embodiment, the invention relates to a sensor for use in a system according to the invention, which sensor comprises at least one antenna and at least one receiver for receiving a navigation signal from at least one pseudolite station, and processing and computation means for processing the received navigation signal and computing the absolute position and orientation of the sensor from the processed navigation signal. Such a sensor may be, for example, a unit which may be installed in various missiles (for example booster rockets and their payloads, satellites, and other exo- and transatmospheric flying devices), to allow the absolute position of the missile to be determined according to the invention.
The at least one antenna and the at least one receiver may also be designed to receive navigation signals from satellites. In this manner the accuracy of the position determination may be further improved, or sometimes even increased. Received satellite navigation signals may, for example, be entered directly into the position determination, or may also be used to check the plausibility of a position which has already been determined on the basis of the navigation signals from pseudolite stations.
A further improvement in the position determination may be achieved by providing the processing and computation means to process data from an inertial navigation system of a missile, and to take the data from the inertial navigation system into account in computing the absolute position and orientation of the sensor from the processed navigation signals. In this regard, an inertial navigation system is understood to mean all components which are used for determining the relative position of a missile, i.e., also position sensors and barometric sensors, for example.
The processing and computation means in particular have a digital signal processor which is programmed to reconstruct and decode navigation signal data from the received navigation signals.
In one preferred embodiment, the processing and computation means also has a central processing unit which is programmed to compute the absolute position and orientation of the sensor from the navigation signal data generated by the digital signal processor, taking into account the position data from at least one pseudolite station. In this case the algorithms, which are used for position determination and in principle correspond to the algorithms for position determination using satellite navigation signals, are essentially implemented in software which is run by the central processing unit. However, the algorithms may also be implemented in hardware in order to achieve, for example, the most rapid position determination possible.
The processing and computation means may also have a data memory in which position data from at least one pseudolite station together with the unique code for the pseudolite station are stored. The central processing unit is then programmed in such a way that it is able to read from the data memory the position data associated with the pseudolite station on the basis of navigation signal data from a pseudolite station, and to compute the absolute position and orientation of the sensor. In this case it is not necessary, in principle, for the pseudolite stations to transmit position data in their navigation signals. In principle, the unique code for a given pseudolite station is sufficient to determine in the sensor the positions of the pseudolite station on the basis of the information stored in the data memory, and to use this information for the position determination. However, if the position data are transmitted with the navigation signals, for poor or faulty signal reception, for example, in which only the pseudolite station transmitting the signal can be ascertained, position determination is still performed, since the corresponding position data from the pseudolite station are locally present in the sensor.
Lastly, according to one embodiment the invention relates to a method for determining the position of a missile, in particular a space missile, wherein at least one pseudolite station of a ground segment which is located on the earth's surface transmits a navigation signal into space which uniquely identifies the pseudolite station, and at least one sensor for a user segment, provided in the missile, receives the navigation signal from the at least one pseudolite station and determines its absolute position in space on the basis of the received navigation signal.
In determining its absolute position in space, the sensor may also use at least one navigation signal from a satellite.
In determining its absolute position in space, the sensor may also use additional data from an inertial navigation system for the missile.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Method and apparatus for determining the position and orientation of a missile


An aluminum nitride sintered body that has been fired/formed to have a prescribed sintered configuration, is used as a substrate. A metal paste of tungsten is prepared and applied to the substrate. The metal paste of tungsten contains oxide components of at least 1 percent by weight of the paste and not more than 40 percent by weight of the paste. The oxide components include SiO.sub.2 of at least 1 percent by weight of the oxide components and not more than 40 percent by weight of the oxide components. The oxide components include CaO and Al.sub.2 O.sub.3 in a weight ratio of at least 0.5 and not more than 2 of CaO to Al.sub.2 O.sub.3. The aluminum nitride sintered body coated with the metal paste is heated/fired in a non-oxidizing atmosphere at a temperature of at least 1400.degree. C. and not more than 2000.degree. C.

In recent years, semiconductor devices have been highly integrated while achieving an increased operating speed. The degree of integration has been extremely improved particularly in LSI. Thus, the heat radiation property of the material of the substrate for carrying a semiconductor element has been increasingly emphasized.
A ceramic material for such an IC substrate has been generally made of alumina (Al.sub.2 O.sub.3). However, a conventional alumina sintered body has a low thermal conductivity and an insufficient heat radiation property. Thus, it is difficult to use such an alumina sintered body as a ceramic material for making a substrate, which can sufficiently cope with an increase in the calorific power of an IC chip.
In place of such an alumina substrate, attention has recently been directed to a substrate or a heat sink which is made of aluminum nitride having a high thermal conductivity, and much effort has been made to put the same into practice.
Aluminum nitride is a material essentially having a high thermal conductivity and a high insulation ability, with no toxicity dissimilarly to beryllia, and which does have a high thermal conductivity but is toxic. Thus, aluminum nitride is suitable as an insulating material or a package material for a semiconductor device. However, an aluminum nitride sintered body having the aforementioned characteristics is disadvantageous since it does not provide a satisfactory junction strength with respect to a metal or vitreous material. An aluminum nitride sintered body may be provided with a metallized layer on its surface, by a thick film forming method of directly applying commercially available metallized paste onto the surface of the aluminum nitride sintered body, or by a thin film forming method whereby a metal or an active metal layer is formed by a technique such as a vapor deposition. For practical purposes, so-formed metallized layers do not attain a sufficient junction strength with respect to the aluminum nitride sintered body. In practice, therefore, it is necessary to reform the surface of the aluminum nitride sintered body by some technique before or during the metallization step, in order to improve the junction strength between the metallized layer and a metal, for example.
In a well-known conventional method for such reforming, an oxide layer is formed by oxidizing a surface of an aluminum nitride sintered body.
For example, Japanese Patent Publication No. 58-11390 (1983) discloses a method of forming an oxide layer of SiO.sub.2, Al.sub.2 O.sub.3, mullite, Fe.sub.2 O.sub.3 and the like on a surface of an aluminum nitride sintered body. However, although such an oxide layer has an excellent affinity with respect to a glass layer, an alumina layer etc., it may be inferred that the same has a small affinity with respect to the aluminum nitride sintered body itself and has a questionable reliability. The term "reliability" in this context means that the junction or peel strength between the oxide layer and the aluminum nitride sintered body involves no "dispersion", in other words is uniform over the entire surface, so that a constant junction or peel strength can be maintained in a prescribed heat cycle test, and the like.
On the other hand, Japanese Laying-Open No. 63-115393 (1988) discloses a method of applying a conductive paste which is mainly composed of tungsten and/or molybdenum and an agent for reinforcing the junction strength prepared from an oxide mixture of SiO.sub.2, AlO.sub.2 and CaO onto an aluminum nitride sintered body and thereafter firing the same at a temperature of at least 1600.degree. C. However, the problem of this method is that the firing temperature is too high and the so-formed metallized layer has a rather insufficient reliability.

Method for forming metallized layer on an aluminum nitride sintered body


A foldable host unit case for a computer with joint mechanisms includes four holding posts and the upper ends of the holding posts connect with a neighboring holding post with first foldable connecting rods and second foldable connecting rods respectively. The lower ends of the holding posts are joined to four ends of a cross connecting rod set such that the holding posts are capable of being extended to constitute a firm structure. Hence, the host unit case is capable of being extended conveniently and quickly and being folded conveniently to reduce the volume thereof during being packaged.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to a host unit case of a personal computer and particularly to a built-up type host unit case of a computer.
2. Brief Description of Related Art
The host unit case is employed to receive electronic devices such as a main board, hard disks, optical disk drives, floppy disk drives and power supply device. Usually, the host unit case is set up with an unchangeable structure. The composite type host unit case has such as U.S. Pat. No. 6,961,236, which discloses a computer chassis, and Taiwan patent publication No. M258544, which discloses a host unit case accommodating ATX and BTX specifications.
Following prior art is belonged to a further type for the host unit case is made available for being disassembled into several parts before being set up as the host unit case. Taiwan Patent Publication Nos. 468811 discloses a host unit case for an industrial computer. Taiwan Patent Publication No. 490120 discloses a composite computer chassis. Taiwan Patent Publication No. 474423 discloses a computer chassis free from aid of hand tools. Taiwan Patent Publication No. 490120 discloses a composite type computer chassis. Taiwan Patent Publication No. 531142 discloses a composite type computer chassis assembly.
Further, the computer chassis free from aid of hand tools disclosed in Taiwan Patent Publication No. 474423 provides the front and rear cover plates, which are pivotally joined to a bottom plate with head pins, two frame plates for a big floppy disk drive, which are pivotally joined to the front and rear cover plates, and a cover plate for a small floppy disk drive is assembled to a frame plate and is fixedly hung to the bottom of frame plate for the big floppy disk drive. Further, four L shaped plates are fixed at four corners of the bottom plate to be joined to the two cover plates firmly. Finally, two lateral cover plates are hooked to the lateral sides of the preceding structure and fastened with set screws after the main board and the power supply frame being mounted to the preceding structure to complete the whole assembly of the computer chassis. The parts of the computer chassis are packaged separately such that less space is required for storage.
However, parts of the preceding prior art are so many and divided into several part groups and it is inconvenient to pick right parts during setting up the computer chassis such that it is hard to gather the parts before assembling and it takes a lot of time to set up the computer chassis.

Foldable host unit case for a computer with joint mechanisms


A method for treating a copper surface of a semiconductor device provides exposing the copper surface to a citric acid solution after the surface is formed using CMP (chemical mechanical polishing) or other methods. The citric acid treatment may take place during a cleaning operation that takes place in a wafer scrubber, or subsequent to such an operation. The citric acid treatment removes copper oxides that form on copper surfaces exposed to the environment and prevents hillock formation during subsequent high temperature operations. The copper surface is then annealed and the annealing followed by an NH3 plasma treatment which again removes any copper oxides that may be present. The NH3 plasma operation roughens exposed surfaces improving the adhesion of subsequently-formed films such as a dielectric film preferably formed in-situ with the NH3 plasma treatment. The subsequently-formed film is formed over an oxide-free, hillock-free copper surface.

In today's rapidly advancing semiconductor manufacturing industry, copper is becoming increasingly favored as the interconnect material of choice. The use of copper as the interconnect medium maximizes device speed but also requires special processing because of difficulties in patterning, corrosion concerns, the rapid oxidation of exposed copper surfaces and the tendency of copper alloys to form hillocks.
When a copper alloy interconnect becomes oxidized, the quality of a contact made to the copper surface decreases, for example, contact resistance increases. Therefore, it is desirable to remove copper oxides that form on copper surfaces, even native copper oxides that form in the brief duration between processing operations. Various treatment procedures have been used to remove the oxidized portion of the copper film and the conventional procedures enjoy various degrees of success in removing part of the oxidized copper. When an uneven or discontinuous copper oxide is not completely removed by such a treatment operation designed to remove the copper oxide, subsequent thermal heat treatment processes such as conventional annealing processes cause the formation of hillocks preferentially at void locations between intact portions of the Cu oxide that remains over the copper. A high concentration of hillocks may cause future patterning problems and hillocks invariably cause shorting problems between the copper and overlying layers of conductive material as the high aspect ratio of the hillocks enables them to protrude through subsequently deposited and planarized insulating materials. In contrast, non-oxidized copper surfaces are resistant to hillock formation during subsequent thermal processing.
As such, it would be desirable to provide a copper surface treatment procedure that produces a copper structure free of oxides and hillocks and enables a dielectric film to be subsequently formed over the copper surface that remains oxide-free and hillock-free. The present invention is directed to and provides such procedures.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd.


A network management system for implementing a service on a network acquires policy rules for configuring the service, determines commands corresponding to the policy rules and transmits them to network elements, and infers the rules in order to determine the commands. The rules comprise services rules and implementation rules.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of telecommunications services management. To be more precise, it relates to the management of telecommunication services using policy rules. The invention applies particularly well to networks using protocols of the Internet Protocol (IP) family or other protocols of higher level.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Such networks provide services of various types, including virtual private networks (VPN), videoconferences, etc.
The provision of these services impacts on the behavior expected of the network. The expected behavior can include compliance with a particular quality of service (QoS) associated with the service. In this case, the quality of service is negotiated between at least the operator of the telecommunication network and the provider of the service, in the form of a service level agreement (SLA). The SLA is then specified in a more technical form in a service level specification (SLS), which can conform to the specifications of the Internet engineering task force (IETF).
In other words, the SLS is derived from an SLA and contains the technical parameters that must be used to implement the service.
To provide a service on a telecommunication network, it is therefore necessary to set the network parameters to enable the service to be established, including compliance with the negotiated quality of service, for example.
The parameters can be set using policy rules, referred to for simplicity hereinafter as rules. The rules typically include a set of conditions and a set of actions. The sets can be reduced to a single element, i.e. a rule may consist of only one condition and/or only one action.
FIG. 1 shows how rules are implemented.
Conventionally, they are defined at the level of a policy manager (PM) and then transmitted to a policy server (PS). The policy server is responsible for their application by network elements which in this context are referred to as policy enforcement points (PEP).
The policy manager and the policy server are conventionally part of the network management layer (NML); to be more precise, they can belong to a network management system (NMS). However, it is important to note that a network may include only one of these elements, as the policy manager PM and the policy server PS can be two independent physical systems that can be marketed separately.
It is apparent that there is an important semantic difference between the definition of the service, for example in the context of an SLA/SLS, and the corresponding rules, which must be implemented by the network elements or PEP, in particular the configurations of the network elements.
In concrete terms, the difference can become apparent at two or more levels:
Firstly, it obliges the designer of the service to have network expert knowledge. For example, it is incumbent on the service designer to decide how a virtual private network VPN should be implemented, for example whether the IPsec protocol must be used, or if preference must be given to the multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) technology.
Secondly, it obliges the service designer to have access to the exact specifications of each network element to be configured. Depending on the manufacturer, the same type of network element (IP router, firewall, etc.) may be configured differently, because the capacities may be different.
The object of the present invention is to alleviate this drawback and to facilitate the development of new services by means of rules.

Network management system for managing networks and implementing services on the networks using rules and an inference engine


A liquid crystal display includes: first and second display panels facing each other; and a liquid crystal layer between the first display panel and the second display panel and including an alignment assisting agent. The first display panel includes: a first substrate; a first gate line and a second gate line on the first substrate and spaced apart from each other; a data line crossing the first gate line and the second gate line; a shielding electrode on the data line and insulated from the data line; a first electrode electrically connected with the first gate line and the data line; a passivation layer on the first electrode; and a second electrode on the passivation layer and electrically connected with the second gate line and the shielding electrode. The second display panel includes a third electrode on a second substrate. The second electrode includes a branch portion.

(a) Field
The invention relates to a liquid crystal display and a method of manufacturing the same.
(b) Description of the Related Art
A liquid crystal display, which is one of the more common types of flat panel displays in use, typically includes two sheets of display panels with field generating electrodes such as a pixel electrode and a common electrode disposed thereon, and a liquid crystal layer interposed therebetween.
The liquid crystal display generates an electric field in a liquid crystal layer by applying voltage to the field generating electrodes, and determines the direction of liquid crystal molecules of the liquid crystal layer by the generated electric field, thus controlling polarization of incident light so as to display images.
The liquid crystal display includes a switching element that is connected to each pixel electrode, and a plurality of signal lines such as a gate line and a data line for applying voltage to a pixel electrode by controlling the switching element.
Among the liquid crystal displays, a vertically aligned ("VA") mode liquid crystal display in which long axes of liquid crystal molecules are aligned to be vertical to display panels while an electric field is not applied thereto has been spotlighted because a contrast ratio is relatively large and a standard viewing angle is relatively wide.

Liquid crystal display and method of manufacturing the same


Methods of using individually distinctive patterns of voice characteristics to identify a speaker include computing the reassigned spectrogram of each of at least two voice samples, pruning each reassigned spectrogram to remove noise and other computational artifacts, and comparing (either visually or with the aid of a processor) the strongest points to determine whether the voice samples belong to the same speaker.

Conventional spectrograms have, for decades, been employed in the forensic context as a means of inferring the identity of a speaker. However, aspects of the aural-spectrographic method have been challenged by a number of speech scientists; early reports of 99% accuracy in identifying speakers from just four words have not been replicated; and an early report commissioned by the F.B.I. in 1979 warned that the assumption of interspeaker variability exceeding intraspeaker variability was not adequately supported by scientific theory and data. As a result, use of conventional spectrograms for voice identification have not received general approval for use in court proceedings.
The reassigned spectrogram, a lesser-known method of imaging the time-frequency spectral information contained in a signal, offers some distinct advantages over the conventional spectrogram. Reassigned spectrograms are able to show the instantaneous frequencies of signal components as well as the occurrence of impulses with increased precision compared to conventional spectrograms (i.e. the magnitude of the short-time Fourier transform (STFT) or other calculated transform). Computed from the partial phase derivatives (with respect to time and frequency) of the transform, such spectrograms are here shown to reveal unique features of an individual's phonatory process by "zooming in" on a few glottal pulsations during a vowel. These images can thus highlight the individuating information in the signal and exclude most distracting information. To date, no attempt has been made to apply this newer technology to the problems of speaker identification or verification.
One writer in 1970 envisioned "a device with a display emphasizing those sound features that are most dependent on the speaker. The patterns could then be judged with greater confidence by human experts." No such device has since been developed or discussed before the one discussed herein. Another author discussed movies of vocal fold vibration which "show large variations in the movement of the vocal folds from one individual to another." It is precisely these individual differences that are at the root of the methods set forth herein.
Speaker identification and verification may be divided into two fundamentally different approaches. The earliest approach was initially christened "voiceprinting" (Kersta 1962), but has been subsumed under the rubric of the "aural-spectrographic method" (e.g. Rose 2002). The voiceprinting technique attempted to use spectrograms of words or longer utterances to identify a person by the overall appearance of the spectrogram. The method has recently suffered withering criticism from the vast majority of credible experts. Major points against the procedure that have been singled out are: (i) no self-described voiceprinting expert was ever able to adequately state or outline the specific criteria that were used to declare a match between a pair of spectrographic voiceprints; (ii) spectrograms of words show too much linguistic information (which is largely the same across different speakers), and not enough known individuating information; (iii) because there is no articulated theory of how to match such voiceprints, the procedure is inextricably tied to the human expert, and could never be automated by any conceivable procedure. In the end, Rose (2002) went so far as to claim that there is no way for a voiceprinting procedure to work even in principle, because no one has demonstrated that a person's voice provides a single individuating biometric image—analogous to a fingerprint—by any known computational procedure.
A more recent approach to speaker identification and verification was developed by leveraging the statistical sound-matching techniques that were originally developed for automatic speech recognition. In this approach, continuous speech is analyzed frame by frame (with each one about 25 ms in length), but a spectrogram was never utilized. Instead, a cepstrum was computed for each frame, yielding a relatively small number (on the order of 24) values called cepstral coefficients. A sophisticated statistical model, known as a Gaussian mixture model, is then computed from the frames by techniques now standard in the art (Quatieri 2002). To apply the technique to speaker identification, a Gaussian model is computed for each speaker in the database. Statistical comparison techniques are then applied to new speech in order to determine if there is a probable matching speaker in the database. Recent improvements to the technology employ a modified cepstrum known as the mel-frequency cepstrum which adheres to the human auditory frequency analysis scale.
The Gaussian modeling approach to speaker identification using mel-frequency cepstral coefficients is in many ways everything that the voiceprinting process was not. It is completely specified and algorithmically defined. It is a completely automatic procedure requiring no human intervention (and indeed, provides no opportunity for human interpretation of the results). The process does not compute anything analogous to a voiceprint—a complete statistical model of the speaker's speech is developed instead. Images are not compared. The process is also reasonably successful, with near 100% accuracy on small speaker populations recorded under excellent conditions. Its accuracy breaks down considerably under more realistic acoustics, however, and generally it has proven impossible to achieve equal error rates (equal false positive and false negative matches) of less than 10% under such "normal" conditions.
The Gaussian mixture modeling of speakers using mel-frequency cepstral coefficients appears to represent the current state-of-the-art in speaker identification. Efforts to improve the procedure have made some incremental improvements to the baseline, but the whole paradigm appears to have reached a performance ceiling below that which is acceptable for most identification and verification purposes such as forensic analysis or secured access control. As promising as the Gaussian approach may be, something completely different is called for to augment this procedure at the very least (and perhaps replace it entirely under appropriate circumstances).
One proposal for closing the performance gap involves somehow extracting information about the "fine structure" of the phonation cycle (Plumpe et al. 1999) to augment the broad Gaussian speaker model obtained from the longer utterances. In this approach, some promising speaker identification results were obtained by simply computing the glottal flow derivative and submitting it to automatic classification. However, no spectral analysis was performed at this short time resolution.
It is therefore desirable to provide voice identification and verification methods that provide a high degree of accuracy (minimal false positive and minimal false negative matches) under normal acoustical conditions.

Methods of identification using voice sound analysis


The present disclosure provides a photo album management method. The method includes obtaining voice search information from a user, performing intent recognition on the voice search information to obtain an intent recognition result which indicates an intent of the user for a photo album, obtaining a voiceprint feature from the voice search information to determine identity information of the user, sending the intent recognition result and the identity information of the user, and opening the photo album according to the intent recognition result and the identity information.

Current intelligent speech devices are able to interact with users and support operations which may be conveniently conducted based on voice recognition technologies and natural language processing technologies. For example, intelligent albums can enable users to view album photos according to voice information input by a family member. However, current intelligent speech devices respond to family members in the same way. For example, intelligent albums or screens can only do the same for each member of a family, losing the personalization of push media and limiting extension of use scenarios.
In view of this, there is an urgent need in the art to develop a new photo album management method.
It should be noted that the information disclosed in the Background section above is only for enhancing the understanding of the background of the present disclosure and thus, may include information that does not constitute prior art known to those of ordinary skill in the art.

Photo album management method, storage medium and electronic device


A liquid crystal display device includes a display panel, a parallax barrier, and a spacer. The display panel includes a display area in which an image is displayed and a display surrounding area located around the display area. The parallax barrier includes a separation area and a separation surrounding area located around the separation area. The image displayed on the display panel is separated by parallax in the separation area. The parallax barrier is attached to the display panel with a space between the separation surrounding area of the parallax barrier and the display surrounding area of the display panel. The spacer is arranged in the space. The spacer is configured to define a distance between the display surrounding area of the display panel and the separation surrounding area of the parallax barrier.

An electronic device such as a mobile terminal device, a computer, and a television device includes a display device having a display panel such as a liquid crystal panel. Examples of the mobile terminal device include a mobile phone, a smart phone, and PDA. In such a device, a "parallax barrier" function may be used to display stereoscopic images. The parallax barrier function uses the characteristics of human eyes to perceive three-dimensional images based on binocular parallax, that is, difference between the images viewed through the left and right eyes.
Patent Document 1 discloses a display device having a function to display a stereoscopic image. The display device includes a display panel and a parallax barrier attached to each other with adhesive and bonded to each other so as to overlap an image displaying area of the display panel in a plan view.


A method of efficiently and conveniently inducing differentiation from bone marrow stromal cells to skeletal muscle cells, which comprises the steps of: (a) the step of adding one or more kinds of substances selected from the group consisting of a cyclic AMP increasing agent, a cAMP analogue, and a cell differentiation stimulating factor to a culture of bone marrow stromal cells, wherein said bone marrow stromal cells are not treated with a demethylating agent, and culturing the cells; (b) the step of introducing a Notch gene and/or a Notch signaling related gene into the cells obtained in the step (a), and culturing the cells to obtain a culture of myoblasts, provided that said culture does not contain the cells introduced with the gene and non-introduced cells; and (c) the step of adding a Notch ligand to the culture of myoblasts obtained in the step (b), and culturing the cells.

For muscular diseases, especially degenerative diseases of skeletal muscles such as muscular dystrophy, no effective therapeutic means is available at present. If skeletal muscle cells can be prepared from patient's own bone marrow stromal cells, autologous transplantation becomes possible, which is believed to be an effective therapeutic method. Moreover, utilization of skeletal muscle cells generated from patient's own bone marrow stromal cells is expected not only in therapeutic aspects such as the aforementioned regeneration medicine, but in engineering aspects such as artificial organs with prospect of future development. Since muscle cells can be easily prepared by a culture level procedure, use of the cells is also expected in preparation of hybrid type artificial organs and the like.
As a method for inducing differentiation of bone marrow stromal cells into skeletal muscle cells, the method disclosed in Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication (KOKAI) No. 2003-144155 is known. This method comprises, as essential steps, (1) the step of isolating bone marrow stromal cells from bone marrow and culturing the cells; (2) the step of adding a demethylating agent (5-azacytidine); (3) the step of adding a cAMP-increasing agent or a cAMP analogue (forskolin), and/or a cell differentiation stimulating factor (bFGF, PDGF-AA, Heregulin); (4) the step of introducing a Notch gene and/or a Notch signaling related gene into the cells and culturing the cells; (5) the step of co-culturing said gene-introduced cells with non-introduced cells; and (6) the step of adding a cAMP-increasing agent or a cAMP analogue (forskolin).
However, the aforementioned method includes six steps, and thus has a problem that operations are very complicated. If multiple steps with complicated operations are performed, indefinite factors increases, which may lead to decrease in induction efficiency. Moreover, this method is basically proposed as a method for inducing differentiation into nerve cells, and is not optimized for selectively inducing differentiation into skeletal muscle cells. Furthermore, this method uses a mixture system containing elements other than myocytes, and therefore, the method has a problem from a viewpoint of safety for clinical application of induced skeletal muscle cells.

Method for inducing differentiation to skeletal muscle cells


A block according to the present invention is a block comprising a base body part, a first protruding part, and a second protruding part, which are integrally formed with each other. The base body part has a left lower side face, a right lower side face, a left upper side face, and a right upper side face formed as respective sloping faces. The first protruding part has a lower surface thereof formed by first to third left-hand sloping faces, an upper surface thereof formed by fourth to sixth left-hand sloping faces, and a left side surface thereof formed by seventh and eighth left-hand sloping faces. The second protruding part has a lower surface thereof formed by first to third right-hand sloping faces, an upper surface thereof formed by fourth to sixth right-hand sloping faces, and a right side surface thereof formed by seventh and eighth right-hand sloping faces. The faces of the lower portion of the block are each formed with a fitting groove, and the faces of the upper portion of the block are each formed with a fitting protrusion.

As a block of this kind, a block (1) is disclosed in WO00/43606. In this case, the block is formed with engaging parts (2, 2), a fitting protrusion (3), a fitting groove (4), and an insertion hole (5), and a plurality of blocks (1) can be stacked one upon another to thereby assemble a wall (structure) of a house or the like. To assemble these blocks (1) into a structure, while connecting laterally adjacent blocks (1) by fitting the engaging parts thereof to each other, each of the blocks (1) is stacked on another block positioned immediately below by fitting the fitting groove thereof on the fitting protrusion of the block positioned immediately below. This method makes it possible to assemble a highly airtight structure which is capable of preventing infiltration of rain water.


An integrated process combines olefin epoxidation with production of cyclohexanone and cyclohexanol for nylon. Cyclohexanone and cyclohexanol normally produced by the oxidation of cyclohexane, in which cyclohexyl hydroperoxide is generated and is removed or decomposed down stream. However, this invention utilizes the intermediate of cyclohexyl hydroperoxide as an oxidant for the olefin epoxidation and meanwhile generates a valuable product.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a catalytic conversion process, and particularly to a process for olefin epoxidation with the co-production of a nylon precursor.
2. Background of the Art
Epoxidation of olefin is a well-established reaction, which usually requires heterogeneous catalysts containing transition metals. An early version of commercial catalyst is titanium supported on amorphous silica (cf. R. A. Sheldon, I. WL. C. E. Arends, H. E. B. Lempers, Catal Today 1998, 41, 387–407). If used in an aqueous system the catalytically active component, titanium, leaches out; and the catalyst loses catalytic activity proportionate to the loss of titanium content. Thus, organic oxidants such as tert-butyl hydroperoxide have been used. However, use of tert-butyl hydroperoxide in an organic system leads to the production of alcohol, i.e., tert-butanol, as a reaction byproduct. Reprocessing of this alcohol to its hydroperoxide significantly adds to the production cost of the epoxide.
In 1983 Taramasso et al showed a crystalline microporous titanosilicate (TS-1), isostructural to ZSM-5, exhibited high catalytic activity for olefin epoxidation in either organic or inorganic reaction systems (M. Taramasso, G. Perego, B. Notari, U.S. Pat. No. 4,410,501). While virtually all titanium catalysts leach when exposed to an aqueous environment, the titanium active species in TS-1 is one of the most stable in this regard. TS-1 opened a new area to use hydrogen peroxide as an oxidant, which gives water as a byproduct. Here, this epoxidation process is more environmentally friendly. However, crystalline microporous TS-1 and other transitional metal-containing zeolites have small pores (normally less than 1.2 nm in diameter), which prevent access of some important, bulky reactants to the active sites. For certain large reactants, a catalyst with large pores is required to have good catalytic performance.
Transition metal-containing mesoporous materials (i.e. having pore diameters between 1.5 and 30 nm) have been disclosed, such as Ti-MCM-41 and Ti-MCM-48 (Pinnavaia et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc., 1996, 118, pgs. 9164–1971). These materials have unique pore structures: Ti-MCM-41 possesses one-dimensional pores that are regularly arranged in parallel, whereas Ti-MCM-48 has three-dimensional, ordered pores.
Now, a new mesoporous material (denoted as TUD-1, U.S. Pat. No. 6,358,486 B1) has been disclosed, having a three-dimensionally interconnected pores system. This pore system has advantages over that of MCM-41 because it facilitates mass transfer of reactants and products and reduces the possibility of pore blockage. This mesoporous material can be functionalized by adding transition metals and can then be used as a catalyst for epoxidation.
The TUD-1 mesoporous material mentioned above has an amorphous character. Other, amorphous Ti materials generally have the above-cited leaching problem. Use of an organic medium rather than water can minimize metal leaching, but causes another problem, i.e., formation of undesirable byproduct alcohols. What is needed is a process to effectively utilize the corresponding byproduct alcohol as a valuable product and to permit the use of bulky reactants and organic oxidants for epoxidation without net generation of a co-product alcohol.

Process for olefin epoxidation and co-production of nylon precursor


Solid dosage forms of methylthioninium chloride (MTC) further comprise at least one diluent suitable for direct compression. The MTC exists in a substantially pure and stable polymorphic form. The solid dosage forms may preferably be prepared by direct compression methods.

Methylthioninium chloride (MTC) [3,7-bisdimethylaminophenazothionium chloride, C16H18ClN3S, 319.85 g/mol], commonly known as methylene blue, was prepared for the first time in 1876 (The Merck Index, 13th edition, Merck & Co., Inc., 2001, entry 6085). Various synthetic methods for MTC are known and have recently been summarized in WO 2006/032879. WO 2006/032879 also discloses a number of applications of methylene blue, which include use as a medical dye, as a redox indicator, as an antiseptic, for the treatment and prevention of kidney stones, and for the treatment of melanoma, malaria, and viral infections. MTC has also been used as an oxidizing agent and as an antidote in the case of carbon monoxide, nitrite and aniline poisoning.
MTC has also been proposed for treatment of mild to moderate dementia of the Alzheimer's type (DAT), also known as Alzheimer's disease (AD), a severe irreversible neurodegenerative disease resulting in complete loss of mental faculties.
For example WO96/30766 describes the use of tau aggregation inhibitors—including MTC for the treatment of various diseases of protein aggregation including AD. Other disclosures of phenothiazines in the area of neurodegenerative disorders include WO 02/075318, WO 2005/030676, WO 02/055720, WO2007110627, WO2009/060191, WO2009/044127.
MTC, in common with many solid substances useful as active pharmaceutical ingredients, exhibits polymorphism, i.e. it exists in more than one physical form, known as polymorphs, which are typically different crystalline and hydrate forms of the drug substance. Hydrates are crystalline solids containing differing amounts of water incorporated into the crystal structure.
The Fluka catalogue states in very general terms that MTC may contain up to 22% water (Fluke Catalogue 1997/1998, Fluka Chemie AG, 1997]. MTC is generally considered to exist as a trihydrate, but this was disputed as long as 80 years ago, and non-specific adsorption of water by MTC was proposed instead (H. Wales, O. A. Nelson, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 45 (1923) 1657). A pentahydrate including single crystal X-ray data was described later by several authors (J. O. Warwicker, J. Chem. Soc. (1955) 2531 and H. E. Marr III, J. M. Stewart, M. F. Chiu, Acta Cryst. B29 (1973) 847). This pentahydrate consists of π-stacked columns of MTC molecules arranged in planes perpendicular to the α-axis of the crystal. The water molecules and chloride ions are located between these layers, whereas the chloride ions are concentrated in planes almost perpendicular to the water planes and parallel to the axis of the columns. The chloride ions are coordinated with three hydrogen bonds from 3/2 water molecules. Presumably, the same structure was earlier attributed to a tetrahydrate (W. H. Taylor, Z. Krist. 91 (1935) 450).
The MTC polymorph known as "Form A" has been identified as a pentahydrate and "Form B" as a dihydrate. Form A is considered stable at high relative humidity (RH) down to approximately 35% RH. High kinetic stability of the pentahydrate (Form A) is even observed down to RH less than 20%.
Several other polymorphs of MTC, referred to as Forms C, D and E, have also been identified. It has been found that the dihydrates B and D are metastable forms over the whole range of water activity and are only kinetically favoured under certain preparation conditions. Form B seems to be the product of incomplete drying of Form A. Form D was obtained in precipitation experiments. No anhydrate form has been identified, but X-ray diffractograms include peaks that cannot be attributed to any of the five known forms. It is therefore likely that the polymorphism of MTC is even more complex than has hitherto been established.
Prior filed unpublished patent applications PCT/IB2010/002526 and PCT/IB2010/002543 relate to crystalline forms of diaminophenothiazines and provide more detailed information on the characteristic diffraction peaks of the various polymorphic forms. The disclosure of these applications (and corresponding priority documents) particularly in respect of such patterns and peaks is specifically incorporated herein.
It is known that the polymorphic forms of a drug molecule may have different chemical and/or physical properties. For example, polymorphs can differ substantially in melting point, chemical reactivity, particle size, shape, flow characteristics, caking, degree of hydration or solvation, optical and electrical properties vapour pressure, and density. As a result, certain polymorphs of a drug molecule can be more stable than others under given environmental conditions.
MTC has a number of properties which render its formulation into a dosage form quite difficult. The distinct blue colour presents processing and cleaning challenges. More significantly, the existence of numerous polymorphic forms is problematic. In particular, the physical stability of the polymorphic Form A is problematic, as during heating and/or storage it can be converted into the polymorphic Forms B and D. The interconversion of the individual crystalline polymorphic forms of MTC in a medicament, during manufacture and/or storage is undesirable as it is a general regulatory requirement that the identity of the medicament must be guaranteed throughout its entire shelf life.
The limited stability domain of all MTC polymorphic forms requires an innovative approach to formulation to produce a consistent dosage form. The product quality should be consistent and reproducible at the time of manufacture and on storage at temperatures and relative humidity levels typically encountered in most countries of the world. One may additionally seek other desirable properties in a formulation such as fast dissolution so that the tablet quickly dissolves and the medicine is available for absorption, and also properties such as good compressibility and robustness, and ease of manufacture. Accordingly, good storage stability and fast dissolution are important and desirable attributes for immediate release tablet formulations and capsules.
Processes used for tablet formulation and film coating often require the use of heat accompanied by low humidity during the drying process. Clearly, for a material such as MTC, with complex polymorphism, such processes can lead to changes in the physical form of the active ingredient, and hence potentially to instability in the performance of the product.
The most commonly used method for the preparation of solid dosage forms is wet granulation. This involves adding a granulating fluid to a powder. The granulating fluid may be water or some other solvent that is sufficiently volatile that it can subsequently be removed by drying. The granulating fluid may also include a binder. Once the solvent has been removed, the resulting mass is milled.
Wet granulation is often preferred over direct compression because wet granulation is more likely to overcome any problems associated with the physical characteristics of various ingredients in the formulation. Wet granulation provides material which has the required flow and cohesive properties necessary to obtain an acceptable solid dosage form. The content uniformity of the solid dosage form is generally improved with wet granulation because all of the granules usually contain the same amount of drug. Segregation of the drug from excipients is also avoided.
In direct compression, the individual constituents of the composition to be compressed are mixed without previous granulation and then directly compressed. Whilst this appears to be an elegant and simple process, it is difficult to obtain with it commercially usable tablets which have sufficient strength yet which also disintegrate sufficiently rapidly after administration. Also, many active substances cannot be processed by direct compression since they cannot be compressed without a granulation step.

Formulations comprising methylthioninium chloride


A text information extraction device extracts analysis networks from texts and stores them in a database. The analysis networks consist of lines each including elements and relations extracted from the texts. The analysis networks are complemented via synonym/near synonym/thesaurus process and via complementary template and the lines thereof are weighted via concept template. A text similarity matching device judges similarity of input and database analysis networks on the basis of agreements of words, word pairs, and lines. A text search system stores texts and complementary term lists prepared therefrom in respective databases. Queries are inputted in the form of analysis networks from which sets of keywords and relations are extracted. After searching the texts and complementary term lists stored in databases with respect to the keywords extracted from each input query, agreements of the sets of keywords and relations are determined.

This invention relates to text information extraction devices and methods, whereby the information is extracted from texts such as abstracts of technical papers, for classifying the information or obtaining a database therefrom. This invention further relates to text similarity matching devices and text search systems and methods, whereby semantic similarity of texts contained in a database including texts is matched or collated such that similarity information can be searched for in the database to realize reliable and efficient textual information searches.
Examples of databases including texts from which information is searched for include patent literature, technical books and papers. Such information searches are generally effected by one of the three methods: (1) search by means of keywords; (2) search by means of pattern matching of the words of texts; and (3) search method by which semantic similarity of texts are utilized.
Keyword search and pattern matching search are well known. In the case of these search methods by means of words, synonyms and near synonyms are also searched in order to prevent occurrences of oversight. In the case of the search method based on judgments upon semantic similarity of texts, texts may be subjected to morphological analysis (analysis of morphemes) and parsing (syntactical analysis), as taught by Japanese Laid-Open Patent (Kokai) No. 64-21624, such that the words and syntactic relationships therebetween, as well as the synonyms, near synonyms, together with conceptual information of words thus obtained via such analysis, are also searched for. Further, although not based upon semantic similarity judgement search method, an article by Takamatsu, Kusaka, and Nishida: "Automatic Extraction of Relational Information from Technical Abstracts", Journal of Information Processing Society of Japan, vol. 25, No. 2, March 1984, discloses a relevant method for extracting relations of terms from patent abstracts.
Conventional search methods, however, have the following disadvantages.
Keyword searches tend to produce superfluous search results and, on the other hand, to overlook essential results. Thus, analysts who are versed in the keyword system are required to devise an ingenious logical formulae for the keyword search. This is a heavy burden on the analysts.
The search method via semantic similarity judgement is meant to reduce the burden on the analysts. However, this search method has hitherto tried to judge semantic similarity on the basis of the conceptual meanings of words. The conceptual meanings or concepts of words, however, can be understood only by a small number of people, and clear definitions of concepts are difficult to give. In addition, it is not clear how such concepts of words should affect the semantic similarity judgments.
In order to obtain good semantic similarity judgments, concepts appearing in the process must be clarified one by one by human analysts. Thus, such search method can practically be implemented only for a small amount of text. For a large database such as patent literature, an inordinate amount of time and labor are required for practicing such search method, since the search system must usually be constructed by a small number of system developers. Thus this search method is not practical.

Text search system for locating on the basis of keyword matching and keyword relationship matching


A rolling machine has pairs of rolls in a horizontal line of roll pair locations, with each pair including upper and lower rolls opposed across a vertical gap. A sliding frame is mounted on the rolling machine for movement alongside the rolling machine in a direction parallel to the line of roll pair locations. A lifting frame is mounted on the sliding frame for movement vertically relative to the sliding frame beside each of the roll pair locations. Other parts include a roll cassette and a load tray. The load tray is configured to carry the roll cassette, and is mounted on the lifting frame for movement relative to the lifting frame transversely into the vertical gap between the rolls at each roll pair location.

An elongated workpiece may need to be processed uniformly along its length. This can be accomplished by driving the workpiece through a rolling machine. For example, a pipe or other tubular structure may need to be straightened, and certain rolling machines are configured to function as straightening machines. One such machine is shown is shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.
In the illustrated example, the straightening machine 10 has a base 12 and a crown 14. The base 12 stands on a shop floor 16. The crown 14 is supported on pillars 18 at a fixed height above the base 12. Both the base 12 and the crown 14 have a rectangular shape with opposite ends 20 and 22, a drive side 24, and an operator side 26.
The machine 10 further has hyperbolically shaped straightening rolls 34 and 36 between the base 12 and the crown 14. The rolls 34 and 36 are arranged in pairs that are spaced apart in a horizontal line of roll pair locations 39 reaching along the length of the machine 10. The given example is a six roll machine with three pairs of rolls, each of which includes an upper roll 34 and a lower roll 36. The upper and lower roll 34 and 36 in each pair are opposed across a vertical gap between them.
The rolls 34 and 36 are supported on the crown 14 and the base 12 for relative movement into and out of operative positions. When in the operative positions, the rolls 34 and 36 in each pair are skewed horizontally relative to one another, and the vertical gap has a reduced size defining a nip for receiving a workpiece between the rolls 34 and 36.
As shown in FIG. 2, each roll 34 and 36 is coupled to a respective drive shaft 40 at the drive side 24 of the machine 10. The drive shafts 40 project from the rolls 34 and 36 to respective motors in a drive assembly (not shown) that is mounted on the floor 16 separately from the machine 10. In operation, the rolls 34 and 36 are rotated by the drive shafts 40 to move a tube or other elongated workpiece through the nips along the line of roll pair locations 39. This straightens the workpiece as the skewed concave surfaces of the rolls 34 and 36 force the workpiece onto a working axis at each nip.


A method of a first wireless communication device adapted to perform network assisted device-to-device communication is disclosed, wherein a device-to-device communication connection comprises a device-to-device communication link between the first wireless communication device and a second wireless communication device and a device-to-network communication link between the first wireless communication device and a network node. The method comprises monitoring a synchronization of the device-to-device communication link and transmitting a device-to-device communication link report to the network node over the device-to-network communication link if the synchronization of the device-to-device communication link is lost. The method also comprises monitoring a synchronization of the device-to-network communication link and adapting) a communication of the device-to-device communication link if the synchronization of the device-to-network communication link is lost. Corresponding computer program product, arrangement and wireless communication device are also disclosed.

Device-to-Device (D2D) communication refers to direct communication between devices. In D2D communication, data to be transmitted from a first device to a second device is typically not relayed via any cellular network. Some examples of D2D communication of the prior art are Bluetooth communication, FlashlinQ communication, WLAN (e.g. IEEE 802.11) communication (e.g. WIFI Direct).
Device-to-device communication may be applicable in various scenarios. One scenario is when a cellular radio access network is present, and able to set up a cellular connection between two devices. D2D communication may be a complement to the cellular communication in such scenarios.
There may be situations when D2D communication may provide better performance (better signal quality, higher bit rate, lower latency, etc) than cellular communication. This may be due to proximity between the devices and/or specific signaling gain of the D2D protocol (e.g. hop gain).
In some situations, the network may have constraints (e.g. due to being heavily loaded) resulting in that a service cannot be provided at all using a network connection. Then, D2D communication would be an alternative.
There may also be situations when D2D communication may be preferred by the user of a device (e.g. due to billing costs).
D2D communication may improve spectrum efficiency and reduce the network load for the cellular network, since the D2D connection typically uses another spectrum range (e.g. an unlicensed spectrum) than the cellular network (typically licensed spectrum). Furthermore, since cellular communication uses an uplink-downlink pair for each of the two devices while a D2D connection would only use one link pair, spectrum efficiency is improved even if the D2D connection would use cellular spectrum resources. This would be true even for network assisted D2D communication where most of the data would be transmitted over the D2D connection and only a small mount of information is to be transmitted over the network link.
D2D communication may be ad hoc or may be network assisted. For example, a cellular network may assist a D2D connection by establishing security of the D2D link and/or partly or fully controlling the setup of the D2D connection (e.g. device/peer discovery and resource allocation). A cellular network may also assist D2D communication by controlling the interference environment. For example, if using licensed operator's spectrum for the D2D communication, higher reliability can be provided than when operating in unlicensed spectrum. To assist the D2D connection, the network may also provide synchronization and/or partial or full Radio Resource Management (RRM—may e.g. comprise time and/or frequency resource allocation for the D2D communication).
In a typical cellular communication system there are standardized procedures for connection setup and connection release (disconnection). There are typically also defined procedures for how to act in radio link failure, a scenario when a radio link is lost in an uncontrolled way (without concoction release being performed). Such scenarios may be encountered e.g. when a device goes out of coverage, due to erroneous device operation, due to battery removal, etc.
Radio link monitoring procedures is typically defined for prior art cellular systems. Such procedures may include the device monitoring the radio channel and synchronization status with the network and define how to proceed of e.g. the synchronization is lost.
For example in WCDMA and LTE, the wireless communication device monitors the down link (DL) channel conditions and determines whether the DL is in-sync or out-of-sync. This determination may be based on whether or device can reliable decode the DL information. If out-of-sync is detected, the device is to perform a number of actions, e.g. start higher layer connection release timers (indicating how long the device should try to re-synchronize before performing a formal connection release) and set transmission constraints (to limit the potential interference caused by the device if transmitting without reliable detection of DL power control information).
Prior art radio link monitoring procedures (e.g. out-of-sync procedures) typically refers to single connection, e.g. between the mobile device and the network.
Therefore, there is a need for approaches to radio link monitoring (e.g. out-of-sync procedures) for network assisted device-to-device communication.

Radio link management for network assisted device-to-device communication


A guide bar for a chain saw has an elongate main body of steel. The main body has flat sides and upper and lower peripheries defining a guide groove for a saw chain. An elongate window is formed in the main body between the peripheries and is filled with an insert made of a fiber composite material made up of resin and fibers. The fibers are in the direction of the longitudinal axis of the main body. The insert includes a plurality of fiber layers that are bonded with resin. A central layer is formed from a fiber layer and the fibers thereof are at an angle to the longitudinal axis. Two fiber layers having fibers oriented in the direction of the longitudinal axis of the main body are on both sides of the central layer. The inner fiber layers are covered outwardly by a woven fabric.

Such a guide bar for a chainsaw is known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,903,410. The guide bar is made of a one-part, elongate main body made of steel, on the opposite circumferential peripheries of which a guide groove for the engagement of drive links of a saw chain is formed. The main body has a connection section to be secured to the chainsaw, and a bar tip which serves to return the saw chain circulating on the guide bar. Provided in the main body is a cutout in the form of an elongate window, which extends from the connection section as far as the bar tip between the circumferential peripheries of the guide rail. The window in the guide bar is filled with an insert made of a fiber composite material which can be made of resin-saturated fiber layers.
A guide bar, constructed in such a way, for a chain saw has a low weight but nevertheless has sufficient strength with respect to bending loads, compressive loads, wear and torsional loads. If such guide bars are used for their intended purpose, they have proven successful in practice. However, overloads result in damage to the composite made up of the main bar body and the fiber composite material, and this can result in the guide bar failure.

Guide bar having a carbon fiber reinforced plastic insert


An electrostatic image developing carrier includes a ferrite particle that contains from about 1.0% by weight to about 14.0% by weight of elemental magnesium, wherein an average distribution ratio D of the elemental magnesium in the ferrite particle is from about 1.1 to about 2.0, wherein the average distribution ratio D is defined as an average value of D′ of at least 50 ferrite particles, wherein D′ is defined as W1/W2, wherein W1 is a weight ratio of elemental magnesium content Mg to elemental iron content Fe, Me/Fe, in a whole cross-section of the ferrite particle, and W2 is a weight ratio of elemental magnesium content Mg to elemental iron content Fe, Me/Fe, in a square, the two opposite vertices of which are located at two points on a diameter of a circle circumscribing the cross-section, each being half a radius distant from the center of the circumscribing circle.

1. Technical Field
This invention relates to an electrostatic image developing carrier, a process of making the carrier, an electrostatic image developer, a process cartridge, an image forming method, and an image forming apparatus.
2. Related Art
Methods for visualizing a latent image of image information, such as electrophotography, are widely used in various fields. An electrophotographic method, for example, includes the steps of charging, exposing, developing (developing an electrostatic latent image on the surface of an image holding member or a photoreceptor with a developer containing a toner), transferring, and fixing. The developer is divided into two types: two-component developer composed of a toner and a carrier and one-component developer containing a toner alone, such as a magnetic toner. In the two-component developer the functions as a developer are separately performed by a toner and a carrier such that the carrier bears the functions of agitation, transportation, and charging. Therefore, the two-component developer is currently widespread because of its superiority in, for example, controllability.

Electrostatic image developing carrier, process of making the same, electrostatic image developer, process cartridge, image forming method, and image forming apparatus


The present invention provides a molded motor in which the axial center of an inserted body can easily be aligned with the axial center of the rotor of the mold motor.. The molded motor of the present invention is provided with: a stator 30 having a stator core 31 laminated from a plurality of layers of thin metal coldrolled steel plate and stator coils 8 mounted in the stator core 30; a rotor 2 rotatably disposed inside the stator 30; and a molded main body 4 made of resin which covers the stator 30 and has a receiving portion 17 in which an annulus 16 is received, wherein guide portions 34 are formed in the cold-rolled steel plate closest to the annulus 16 to align the axial center of the annulus 16 with the axial center of the rotor 2.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a molded motor provided with: a stator; a rotor rotatably disposed inside the stator; and a molded main body composed of resin which covers the stator.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 3 is a cross-section of a conventional molded motor, and this molded motor is provided with: a stator 1; a rotor 2 rotatably disposed inside the stator 1; bearings 3 disposed at both ends of the rotor 2 to support the rotor 2 so that it can rotate freely; and a molded main body 4 composed of resin which covers the stator 1.
The stator 1 is provided with: a stator core 6 laminated from a plurality of layers of thin cold-rolled steel plate 5, which is a magnetic plate (the stator core 6 shown in FIG. 3 is a cross-section along line A--A of the stator core 6 in FIG. 4); stator coils 8 mounted on the tooth portions 22 of the stator core 6; a first guide 9 and second guide 10 which fit into the stator core 6 from the top and bottom respectively to insulate between the stator coils 8 and the stator core 6; and a terminal 11 fixed by heat crimping to the second guide 10 and connected to the stator coils 8.
The cold-rolled steel plate 5 has a plurality of tooth portions 22 extending radially inward which are formed equidistantly around it.
The rotor 2 is provided with: a shaft 12 supported at both ends by the bearings 3 so that it can rotate freely; and magnets 13 fixed to the shaft 12 with adhesive, arranged with alternating north-seeking (N) poles and south-seeking (S) poles.
The molded main body 4 has: a connector portion 40; flange portions 15 integrated with bushes 14 into which bolts (not shown) are inserted; and a receiving portion 17 which receives an annulus 16, which is an inserted body.
The molded motor of the above construction is connected by means of bolts inserted into the bushes 14 to a throttle valve device, which regulates the amount of air delivered to an internal combustion engine.
The throttle valve device is provided with: an annulus 16 which is inserted into the receiving portion 17 of the molded main body 4 and which has an internal gear 18 on its inner wall; a sun gear 19 connected to the shaft 12; a planetary gear (not shown) which engages with the sun gear 19 and the internal gear 18; and a shaft (not shown) which passes through the center of the planetary gear.
In the molded motor of the above construction, the molded main body 4 is formed integrally with the stator 1 by insertion molding, in which resin is injected into a metal mold in which the stator 1 and a bush 20 have been placed, then the bearing 3, which is secured to the shaft 12, is inserted into the bush 20, and the stator 1 and rotor 2 are integrated.
In the molded motor of the above construction, rotating magnetic fields of north-seeking (N) poles and south-seeking (S) poles are generated in the stator core 6 by passing an electric current through the stator coils 8, and the magnets 13 and the shaft 12 secured to the magnets 13 follow this rotating magnetic field and rotate.
The sun gear 19 of the throttle valve device rotates with the rotation of the shaft 12. The planetary gear, which is engaged with the sun gear 19 and the internal gear 18 of the annulus 16, rotates and revolves around the sun gear 19. With the rotation of the planetary gear, a shaft and a gear (not shown) rotate and the throttle valve (not shown) rotates. The amount of air delivered to the internal combustion engine varies in response to the rotational angle of this throttle valve.
In the conventional molded motor, the annulus 16, which is an inserted body, is inserted into the receiving portion 17 formed in the molded main body 4, but because the molded main body 4 is formed from resin, the engaging portion 17a of the receiving portion 17 may not be formed in a true circle of the required dimensions due to variations in the thermal contraction of different portions of the molded main body 4 during natural cooling, etc., and the axial center of the shaft 12 of the mold motor and the axial center of the annulus 16 of the throttle valve device may not be aligned, and thus; it suffers from the following problems:
a) the boss portion 21 of the annulus 16 cannot be inserted into the engaging portion 17a of the molded main body 4, and so product yield is poor; and PA1 b) the gears of the throttle valve device do not engage each other smoothly, and so undesired noise is generated and the gears wear down in a short time.


A medical capsule is provided which includes at least a housing, transceiver, ultrasonic transducer(s), a power source, a microprocessor, and is capable of carrying a medical payload. The capsule is ingestible or implantible in a human or animal body and communicates wirelessly via ultrasonic signals with one or more transceivers attached to the outside of the body. The capsule payload can perform diagnostic, analytical, treatment or imaging functions and its position within the body can be accurately monitored. A wireless system employing the capsule and external transceiver can also include a remote monitoring station accessed by radio frequency electromagnetic signals. Further, collaborative activity among the internal capsules is enabled by an inter-capsule and capsule-to-external transceiver acoustic communications net.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a medical payload carrying capsule with wireless communication which can be swallowed for diagnostics, treatment, internal viewing and the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
Devices which are implantable or ingestible in the human body are known. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,400,338 discloses an implantable device with a passive integrated transponder which can be used for tracking the location of an animal or human into which it is implanted.
Various ingestible devices include miniature cameras for providing imaging of the interior of the stomach or colon to detect bleeding, polyps, and other conditions. Such devices provide an alternative to more invasive techniques such as colonoscopy or endoscopy.
What is needed is an ingestible device which can be wirelessly tracked and remotely controlled, and which can perform various medical functions to aid in the diagnosis, treatment, and/or imaging of the interior of a human or animal body.

Ingestible medical payload carrying capsule with wireless communication


A rechargeable lithium battery includes a non-aqueous electrolyte, a negative electrode including a silicon-based negative active material, and a positive active material including a compound represented by a Chemical Formula 1, Li1+xCo1−yMyO2, wherein, −0.2≦x≦0.2, 0<y≦0.2, and M includes Ni and one selected from Mn, B, Mg, Ca, Sr, Ba, Ti, V, Cr, Fe, Cu, Al, and a combination thereof.

1. Field
A positive active material in a rechargeable lithium battery and a method for preparing the positive active material are disclosed.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the size and weight of portable electronic equipment have become smaller, there is a greater interest in developing batteries having higher performance and larger capacity for use in such portable electronic equipment.
Batteries generate electric power using an electrochemical reaction material (referred to hereinafter as the "active material") for each of a positive electrode and a negative electrode. Rechargeable lithium batteries generate electrical energy from changes in chemical potential during the intercalation/deintercalation of lithium ions at the positive and negative electrodes.
Rechargeable lithium batteries use materials that reversibly intercalate or deintercalate lithium ions during charge and discharge reactions for both positive and negative active materials, and include an organic electrolyte or a polymer electrolyte between the positive electrode and the negative electrode.
For positive active materials of a rechargeable lithium battery, lithium composite metal compounds have been used, and lithium composite metal oxides such as, for example, LiCoO2, LiMn2O4, LiNiO2, LiNi1−xCoxO2 (0<x<1), LiMnO2, LiNi1−x−yCoxMnYO2 (0<x<1, 1<y<1) or the like have also been considered.

Method for preparing positive active material for rechargeable lithium battery and rechargeable lithium battery including positive active material