An oil based ink composition for inkjet printer comprising a coloring agent and a binder resin in a non-aqueous dispersion medium, wherein the binder resin comprises a block copolymer having a repeating unit (a) corresponding to a monofunctional monomer containing an aliphatic cyclic hydrocarbon group having from 5 to 30 carbon atoms or a graft copolymer having the repeating unit (a) in the main chain thereof.

Hitherto, inkjet recording systems are broadly divided into two groups, a continuous type and an on-demand type. In the continuous type, ink droplets are continuously generated, charge amounts of the ink droplets used for the formation of image are controlled, and the ink droplets are passed through a electrostatic field formed between deflecting electrodes to control the flight passages thereof. In the on-demand type, ink is discharged only when printing is carried out.
The mainstream inks to be used for such inkjet recording systems are inks prepared by dissolving various water-soluble dyes in water or a solvent composed of water and a water-soluble organic solvent and optionally adding various additives thereto (hereinafter referred to as "aqueous dye ink"). However, in the case where printing is practically carried out using the aqueous dye ink, many drawbacks are encountered in that the ink blurs on recording paper depending on the kind of paper, whereby high-quality print can not be obtained, in that a formed recorded image is poor in water resistance and light fastness, in that drying of ink on recording paper is so slow that streaks occur, and in that a recorded image is deteriorated due to color mixing (color turbidity or color unevenness occurred on the interface when dots having different colors are printed adjacent to each other).
For improving the water resistance and light fastness of recorded image that are the problems of aqueous dye ink as described above, there have been made various proposals to apply pigment based ink comprising fine particles of pigment dispersed in an aqueous dispersion medium or a non-aqueous dispersion medium to the inkjet recording system. For example, inks for inkjet printer comprising a pigment dispersed in a solvent mainly composed of water are proposed (refer to Patent Documents 1 to 5 shown below). However, there is a problem in that since the pigment is insoluble in the medium, dispersion stability of the ink is ordinarily poor to likely cause clogging in a nozzle section.
On the other hand, ink comprising a pigment dispersed in a non-polar insulating solvent (hereinafter referred to as "oil based pigment ink") has advantages in that it is less in blur due to good absorption into paper and in that a recorded image is good in water resistance. For example, oil based pigment ink in which pigment is finely divided with an alcoholamide based dispersant (refer to Patent Document 6 shown below) and oil based pigment ink in which pigment is finely divided with a sorbitan based dispersant (refer to Patent Document 7 shown below) are proposed. However, such inks still have a problem in that the clogging of ink in a nozzle section is liable to occur, because it is not sufficient to uniformly disperse the pigment particles in the state of fine particles in the non-polar insulating solvent and the dispersion stability thereof is inferior. In addition, there is a severe defect in that the ink is poor in scratch resistance because the pigment itself does not have a fixing ability on recording paper.
For resolving these problems, there are proposed resin dissolution type oil based inks using a resin soluble in the non-polar insulating solvent as both a fixing agent and a pigment dispersant. For example, ink containing a terpene phenol based resin as the above-described resin is proposed in Patent Document 8 (JP-A-3-234772) (the term "JP-A" as used herein means an "unexamined published Japanese patent application"). However, the ink is still insufficient with respect to the dispersion stability of pigment and is questionable in its reliability. Moreover, since the resin is dissolved in the non-polar solvent, the resin does not remain in an amount sufficient for completely fixing the pigment on recording paper, so that water resistance and scratch resistance are not sufficient.
Further, inks containing an alicyclic saturated hydrocarbon as a resin soluble in the non-polar insulating solvent are proposed in Patent Document 9 (JP-A-5-202329) and Patent Document 10 (JP-A-5-320551). However, the inks are insufficient in the dispersion stability and scratch resistance and when the amount of resin added is increased in order to ensure the scratch resistance, viscosity of the ink increases to cause a problem in that the ink cannot be discharged.
Thus, for obtaining high-level scratch resistance, it is proposed to coat pigment particles with a resin insoluble or semi-soluble in the non-polar insulating solvent. For example, oil based ink comprising a pigment coated with a resin by microencapsulation, etc. is proposed in Patent Document 11 (JP-A-4-25574). However, since it is difficult to uniformly disperse the pigment-included resin particles in the state of fine particle and the dispersion stability thereof is not sufficient, there is a problem in its reliability as ink. In addition, in recent years, high image quality of photographic image is attained by ordinary inkjet printers using the aqueous dye ink. With respect to the pigment ink, for increasing color forming property and transparency, it is required to make pigment fine as far as possible and to keep the dispersion state thereof stably.
In contrast, however, when the pigment is made finer, crushing of primary pigment particles occurs simultaneously with pulverization of the pigment. Further, since cohesive energy simultaneously becomes large due to increase of surface energy, re-coagulation of the pigment particles is apt to occur. As a result, a problem occurs in that storage stability of the finely divided pigment dispersion is impaired. As described above, with respect to the pigment dispersion used in oil based pigment ink for inkjet printer, pulverization at a higher level is demanded. However, high-level techniques are required for dispersing pigment in the state of fine particle, and it is very difficult to increase the dispersion stability thereof. Therefore, development of oil based pigment ink capable of meeting the above-described requirements has been desired.
A black ink for electrostatic inkjet recording device having a volume resistivity of from 107 to 1011 Ω·m and containing carbon black, a phthalocyanine blue pigment and at least one synthetic resin selected from a hydrocarbon resin, an alkyd resin and an acrylic resin is described in Patent Document 12 (JP-A-2001-279139)
It is required for the binder resin for dispersing and coating a coloring agent to ordinarily have characteristics, for example, (1) that it can sufficiently coat the surface of pigment to form a colored admixture, which reveals an appropriate fluidity upon heat, etc., (2) that it can well disperse a coloring agent in a dispersion medium by coating, (3) that it is as transparent as possible, and (4) that it firmly adheres to a recording medium by fixing to exert sufficient scratch resistance.
In view of the characteristics required to the binder resin, for example, the function of being adsorbed onto a coloring agent to well disperse the coloring agent in the dispersion medium and the function of firmly adhering to a recording medium to exert sufficient scratch resistance, it is ideal that the binder resin has as fundamental components a component solvating with the dispersion medium, a component hardly solvating with the dispersion medium and a component having a polar group. However, it is difficult to find out the binder resin that satisfies all of the characteristics described above.
Patent Document 1: JP-A-2-255875
Patent Document 2: JP-A-3-76767
Patent Document 3: JP-A-3-76768
Patent Document 4: JP-A-56-147871
Patent Document 5: JP-A-56-147868
Patent Document 6: JP-A-57-10660
Patent Document 7: JP-A-57-10661
Patent Document 8: JP-A-3-234772
Patent Document 9: JP-A-5-202329
Patent Document 10: JP-A-5-320551
Patent Document 11: JP-A-4-25574
Patent Document 12: JP-A-2001-279139

Oil based ink composition for inkjet printer and method of forming image using the same


The present invention provides an isolated nucleic acid encoding an approximately 120-128 kilodalton antigen of Helicobacter pylori, or an antigenic fragment thereof, wherein the antigen is associated with peptic ulceration. The present invention also provides methods of detecting the presence of a Helicobacter pylori strain possessing the 120-128 kilodalton antigen in a subject, comprising the steps of contacting an antibody-containing sample from the subject with a detectable amount of the tagA antigen or antigenic polypeptide of the present invention and detecting the binding of the antigen or fragment and the antibody. The detection of a strain expressing the TagA antigen is an indication of predisposition to peptic ulceration and gastric carcinoma. A mutant H. pylori not expressing a functional TagA antigen is also provided.

Helicobacter pylori is now recognized as an important pathogen of humans in that the chronic gastritis it causes is a risk factor for the development of peptic ulcer disease. There is also increasing evidence that persistent infection with Helicobacter pylori is a risk factor for the development of gastric adenocarcinoma (1,2), especially of the distal stomach (3-5). The evidence comes mainly from epidemiologic investigations (6-9), including nested case-control studies (4,5,10), and molecular and pathological studies support its biological plausibility (11). However, although essentially all infected persons develop gastritis, clinical consequences of H. pylori infection are recognized in only a minority of persons. Also, while H. pylori infection is highly prevalent in patients with gastric cancer, most H. pylori-infected persons never develop these neoplasms (12). Thus, it is important to identify other factors that more precisely determine risk among H. pylori-infected persons.
H. pylori strains are highly diverse (13-15) at a genetic level, but most phenotypic characteristics are well-conserved. Furthermore, individuals can be infected with more than one strain (4,15). Thus, it is important to isolate particular characteristics of H. pylori strains that might affect risk of gastric cancer development.
Two exceptions to the phenotypic homogeneity are currently recognized. First, about 50%-60% of H. pylori strains produce a vacuolating cytotoxin in vitro (20,39), and toxin production is associated with peptic ulceration (40). Second, there is heterogeneity in whether an antigenic protein migrating at approximately 120-128 kilodalton (kDa) on reducing sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis SDS-PAGE! is produced (20). More recent measurements of this protein (referred to interchangably as TagA or CagA) have yielded molecular weights as high as 140 kDa. Although toxic activity is mediated by an 87 kDa protein (23,41), toxin production itself is associated with the presence of the antigenic 120-128 kDa protein (20). Previous studies have found that about 60-80% of H. pylori isolates express the 120-128 kDa protein (20,42). Notably, presence of antibodies to the 120-128 kDa protein in either serum or mucosal secretions is associated with the presence of peptic ulceration (18,20).
Until now, little was known about the association between toxin production, ulcers or gastric carcinoma and the 120-128 kDa antigen. This is due to the previous inability to further characterize the 120-128 kDa antigen after its initial visualization.
In previous studies, the 120-128 kDa antigen was visualized by Western blotting, but virtually no other characterization was performed (20). In contrast to the ease with which this antigen has been visualized by Western blotting, the 120-128 kDa band has not been easily visualized by other methods such as silver staining (FIG. 2 in Cover et al., 1990 (20)). The explanation for this phenomenon is that this antigen is present only in minute quantities, relative to other H. pylori proteins. Recently, Gerstenecker et al. (43) have reported the isolation of an approximately 120 kDa protein from H. pylori which reacts with positive human control serum. However, virtually no characterization (such as N-terminal sequencing) of this antigen has been performed.
Despite the difficulty of purification, the present invention provides the cloning and sequence of the gene and deduced amino acid sequence encoding the 120-128 kDa protein. This data was obtained using alternate methodology that did not require purification of the 120-128 kDa antigen. The invention also provides diagnostic, therapeutic, and prophylactic compositions and methods.
Immunoblot studies suggest that persons infected with tagA.sup.+ strains have higher degrees of gastric inflammation and epithelial cell damage than do persons from whom tagA.sup.- strains have been isolated (18). Persons infected with tagA.sup.+ H. pylori strains have enhanced expression of IL-1.alpha., IL-1.beta., and IL-8 in gastric biopsies, compared to uninfected persons, and patients infected with tagA.sup.- strains (19). Both intensity of inflammation and epithelial damage may be involved in the pathogenesis of gastric cancer (1). Thus, there is a need to examine the importance of tagA expressing H. pylori strains in this context.
The invention meets these needs by providing a new serologic assay based on a recombinant fragment of tagA, and a method of determining predisposition to gastric cancer.


Provided is an improved method for producing a silicon wafer whose surfaces exhibit precise flatness and minute surface roughness, and which allows one to visually discriminate between the front and rear surfaces, the method comprising a slicing step of slicing a single-crystal ingot into thin disc-like wafers, a chamfering step of chamfering the wafer, a lapping step for flattening the wafer, an etching step for removing processing distortions on the wafer surfaces, a mirror-polishing step for mirror-polishing the surface of the wafer, and a cleaning step for cleaning the wafer. The etching step further comprises a first acid-etching phase and a second alkali-etching phase, and a rear surface mild polishing step is introduced between the first and second etching phases in order to abrade part of roughness formed on the rear surface of the wafer as a result of the first etching phase.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention provides a method for producing a silicon wafer whereby it is possible to fabricate a wafer both of whose surfaces exhibit a high precision flatness and minute surface roughness, and which allows one to visually discriminate between the front and rear surfaces of the wafer.
2. Description of the Related Art
The conventional method for producing a semiconductor silicon wafer comprises the steps of separating a silicon block from a silicon single-crystal ingot pulled upward, slicing the silicon block to produce wafers, subjecting the wafer to chamfering, mechanical polishing (lapping), etching, and mirror-polishing (polishing), and cleaning the wafer. Thus, a wafer is obtained that has a high precision flatness. The steps constituting the conventional method may be modified in various manners depending on given purposes: some foregoing steps may be exchanged in order for other later steps; a certain step may be repeated two or more times; a heating step or a scraping step may be added or put in the place of an existent step.
A wafer having undergone mechanical processing such as block separation, peripheral abrasion, slicing, lapping, etc., suffers from processing deformations on its surfaces, or has degraded superficial layers which may cause, in later processing, crystallization defects such as slip dislocations or the like, thereby lowering the mechanical strength of the wafer, or exerting adverse effects on the electrical properties of the wafer. Therefore, superficial layers containing such processing distortions must be thoroughly eliminated from the wafer. Usually, to eliminate such superficial layers, the wafer is subjected to etching treatment. The etching treatment can be classified into acid etching based on an acid etching solution comprising mixed acid, and alkali etching based on an alkali etching solution comprising alkali such as NaOH.
As for acid etching, its etching rate on the surface of a wafer markedly varies depending on the species of reactive molecules and concentration gradients of reaction products because the dispersive layer of the etching solution in contact with the wafer surface fluctuates in its thickness as a result of non-uniform flow of the etching solution etc. Therefore, the uniform flatness of the surface obtained as a result of lapping may be damaged during etching, and undulations having an amplitude of the order of a millimeter (mm) or indentations called peel may develop on the surface.
On the other hand, the etching rate in alkali etching is not affected by the species of reactive molecules and concentration gradients of reaction products, and thus the uniform flatness of the surface obtained as a result of lapping is retained even after etching. As long as the obtainment of a wafer having surfaces with a high flatness is concerned, etching based on alkali solution is better than the acid-based counterpart. However, when a wafer is subject to alkali etching, pits (to be called facets hereinafter) having a diameter of several to a few tens micrometers (μm) and a depth of a few micrometers (μm) may be formed on the surfaces depending on the orientation of crystal there. In alkali etching, the etching rate greatly differs according to the direction of etching with respect to the orientation of crystal, e.g., etching rates in the crystal directions <100>, <110> and <111> are widely different from each other, namely, the ratios of etching rate among the crystal directions <100>, <110> and <111> are widely different (crystal anisotropy). This crystal anisotropy is responsible for the development of facets in alkali etching. The flaw characteristic with alkali etching includes not only facets but also deep pits having a diameter of several micrometers (μm) or less, and a depth of a few to several tens micrometers (μm). If there is a dot-like local flaw or stain on the surface of a wafer, the dot-like flaw will cause reaction to proceed abnormally which may result in the development of a deep pit.
The condition of the rear surface of a wafer after etching is retained until the wafer is processed into a device. Because of this, a problem mentioned below will arise.
When the rear surface of a wafer is attached to a sucking plate for photolithography in order to fabricate a device from the wafer, undulations having an amplitude of the order of a millimeter (mm) of the rear surface formed as a result of acid-based etching are transmitted as they are to the front surface, and the undulations having an amplitude of the order of a millimeter (mm) transmitted to the front surface degrade the resolution of patterned light incident thereupon, which will in the end cause the yield of devices produced to be reduced.
On the other hand, when the rear surface of a wafer having undergone alkali-based etching is attached to a sucking plate for photolithography, the sharp, ragged edges of facets and pits formed on the rough surface of the wafer are tipped off to be scattered into air to produce numerous particles which may cause the lowered yield of device production. A wafer having undergone alkali-based etching causes the development of dust consisting of 4000-5000 particles, and a wafer etched with acid solution is responsible for the development of dust consisting of 2000 particles. In contrast, a wafer both of which surfaces have been mirror-polished evokes scarcely any particle, and does not cause the development of dust.
Thus, if both surfaces of a wafer are mirror-polished, its rear surface will have no coarse roughness that may cause the development of dust, and no undulations with an amplitude of the order of a millimeter (mm) will be evoked. This will ensure the high degree flatness of the surface. In short, such a wafer will be relieved of the problems caused by etching. However, a new problem arises in relation to the mirror-polished wafer. If both surfaces of a wafer are mirror-polished, not only its front surface but its rear surface also have a mirror surface. Because of this, a commonly used wafer detecting sensor which detects the presence of a wafer by receiving light scattered from the surface of the wafer could not detect such a mirror-polished wafer.
To solve the above problem, proposed is a method for producing a semiconductor wafer wherein etching is based on alkali solution, and a rear-surface polishing step is inserted between the etching step and a surface-polishing step, in order to eliminate part of roughness formed on the rear surface of the wafer as a result of alkali-based etching (Japanese Patent No. 2910507). According to this method, it is possible to allow a commonly used wafer detecting sensor to detect the rear surface of a wafer etched by alkali solution, to allow the front surface of the wafer to have a high degree flatness, and to raise the yield of device production.
However, the method disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 2910507 is not completely free from problems. According to this method, etching is performed using an alkali solution whose etching rate varies depending on the etching direction with respect to the orientation of crystal, and thus a wafer etched by the solution will have numerous small facets and even deep pits formed on both of its surfaces. At the succeeding mirror-polishing step, then, it is necessary to remove a sufficiently thick superficial layer from the surfaces of the wafer which may damage the flatness reached as a result of lapping.
Another problem is as follows. Assume that a wafer which has, on its surface particularly of an edge, an abnormal spot consisting of a notch, local flaw or stain as shown in FIG. 10(a) must be etched. If the wafer is etched with an acid solution which etches uniformly being unaffected by the orientation of crystal, a round etched surface is formed around the abnormal spot as shown in FIG. 10(b). On the other hand, if the same wafer is etched with an alkali solution which etches differently with respect to the orientation of crystal, abnormal reaction occurs around the abnormal spot to cause a deep pit to develop there as shown in FIG. 10(c) whose edge might be broken or tipped off to produce particles.


A vehicle step tube comprising a one-piece elongated extrusion having a plurality of vertical ribs extending from the upper surface. The ribs are relatively short in a step portion of the extrusion to form a step platform. The ribs are relatively tall in the non-step portions flanking the step portion. The ribs define transverse recesses in the step portion to enhance traction and aesthetics.

This application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 10/855,265 filed May 27, 2004 by Mulder entitled "Vehicle Step Tube" (now U.S. Pat. No. 7,168,721).
The present invention relates to step tubes for vehicles and to a method for making step tubes.
Step tubes, which are substitutes for running boards, are commonly mounted on vehicles for assisting a user of the vehicle to climb into and out of the vehicle. They are also commonly used for aesthetic reasons, and to. protect the side of the vehicle.
Step tubes can be fabricated from aluminum extrusions. An example of such a step tube is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,588,782 to Coomber. The Coomber step tube includes an elongated support portion 100, multiple cap portions 200, a step pad 300, and a mounting bracket 400. The cap portions 200 and the step portion 300 attach to the support portion 100 to form an upper surface of the assembly that is aesthetically pleasing and functional for assisting vehicle users. The step portion 300 may include a name plate 962, a plurality of perforations 964 to allow passage of light through the step pad 300, and a plurality of ridges 972 to provide traction for users stepping on the step portion 300.
The Coomber step tube requires a considerable fabrication and assembly of multiple extruded components. Consequently, manufacture of the Coomber step tube requires significant labor and therefore expense.


An antenna assembly providing selectable omnidirectional or directional reception of radio transmissions in a frequency band in accordance with the invention includes an electrically conductive reflector (432) defining a cavity (702) having a bottom (708), an opening (714) and a surface (704 and 706) extending from the bottom to the opening and an electrical output (763); an electrically conductive loop (431) coupled to ground and having an electrical outlet (766) for coupling to an RF amplifier (407), the loop being positioned between the bottom opening of the cavity; a RF switch (406) having an input (760) and first and second outputs (762 and 764), the RF switch having a first switching state electrically connecting the input to the first output and a second switching state electrically connecting the input to the second output, the first switch output being electrically coupled to ground and the second switch output being electrically coupled to the output of the electrically conductive loop; and wherein the first switching state provides the directional reception and the second switching state provides the omnidirectional reception of the radio transmissions.

Parents are becoming increasingly concerned that their children may be harmed when they are out of their sight. Almost daily the media reports events involving small children being harmed when the small children have wandered from sight of their parents. Furthermore, in today's increasingly mobile society families with small children regularly visit malls, amusement parks and other public places where crowds of people are found which provide an environment where small children can be harmed or become lost or wander from sight of their parents because of their natural inquisitiveness, tendency to explore their surroundings, or their desires to be free from control of their movements by their parents.
Devices are commercially available to limit or monitor movements of children. Devices exist for tethering children to their parents. Further radio systems are commercially available which generate an alarm when children move outside a radius from a radio receiver which receives transmissions from a transmitter worn by children. The tethering devices have a limited restraint radius and create animosity between a child and the parents. The radio systems have a fixed radius of approximately fifteen feet which is too small to permit useful monitoring if a parent does not wish to totally keep a child in sight and cannot be used for tracking.
Numerous radio tracking systems have been proposed which utilize radio communications to locate a mobile radio transmitter and/or to determine when a mobile radio transmitter carried by a person has exceeded a set range measured from a radio receiver. These systems have one or more radio transmitters which broadcast a coded identification of each radio transmitter which is received by a radio receiver and processed to determine the distance and, in some of these systems, the direction between each transmitter and receiver. See U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,785,291, 5,115,223, 5,119,072, 5,245,314, 5,289,163, 5,307,053 and 5,357,259, Patent Application WO 87/06748, U.K. Patent Application GB 2182183A and Japanese Patent Application No. 64-311842. A wide range of implementations of radio tracking systems are described in the above-referenced patents and published applications.
The determination if a mobile radio transmitter has moved out of range from a radio receiver receiving an identification code of the radio transmitter is accomplished in many different ways in these patents and applications. Two ways which are described for determining if a mobile transmitter has moved out of range are by determining if the received identification code signal has dropped below a predetermined signal strength or the received identification code signal has not been received for an elapsed time interval.
Radio communication systems which are designed to determine when a mobile transmitter worn by a person has moved outside of a set range and/or to track a person encounter severe problems because of (1) limitations of transmitter power imposed by the Federal Communications Commission which limit broadcast power below 100 milliwatts, and (2) various environmental factors which cause interference, fading, or signal attenuation of the identification code signal which is periodically sent from the mobile radio transmitter to the monitoring radio receiver. The transmitter identification code signal may be severely attenuated by passage through the bodies or body parts of people or other structures in the line of site between the radio transmitter and the radio receiver. The presence of people and structures in the line of sight causes substantial attenuation of the transmitted identification code signal which may cause the identification code of the radio transmitter to be periodically or permanently attenuated below the discrimination level of the radio receiver causing a false indication that the mobile radio transmitter has moved out of a set range and an inability to further track the mobile radio transmitter.
Furthermore, natural fading phenomena, such as Rayleigh fading, which is a function of the transmitting frequency and the relative velocity between the mobile radio transmitter and radio receiver are severely aggravated by low speed movement, such as when a child or patient is walking with a transmitter attached to their person to facilitate their tracking. These fading phenomena affect the determination if a set range has been exceeded and a direction determination of the transmitter relative to the receiver. Additionally, other man-made interferences, such as electrical noise and multipath interference caused by buildings, can periodically cause the identification code signal transmitted from the radio transmitter to be attenuated to a level below the discrimination level of the radio receiver tracking the transmitter which also causes a false indication that the radio transmitter is outside a set range and/or the inability to track the direction of the radio transmitter movement relative to the radio receiver with a directional antenna.
Error correction code may be transmitted in a frame of bits encoding the identification code of the radio transmitter. One or more frames encoding the identification code of the transmitter may each contain a set number of error correction code bits which are processed by the radio receiver to correct minor bit errors such as one or two bits which occur within the identification code frame bits. One well known error correction code for accomplishing this function is the BCH code.
The serial processing of the bits of frames which contain error correction code is typically implemented with a series of EXCLUSIVE OR gates. When a number of bit errors in a frame exceeds the error correction capacity of error correction code, the data within the frame is erroneous. The prior art methods of wireless data transmission do not permit the recovery of valid data bits from a frame containing a number of bit errors which exceed the bit error correction capacity of the error code therein which error correction capacity, for most types of error correction codes, is two bits.
The cumulative effects of mis-synchronization of a radio receiver to receive transmissions from radio transmitters, Rayleigh fading, and man-made noise noticeably reduces the reliability of current digital radio receivers to receive error free data. A gap in a data transmission in excess of 1 millisecond may cause a radio receiver to terminate the receiving process. In a situation of tracking a radio transmitter with a radio receiver which receives a periodic digital transmission of the radio transmitter's identification code, termination of the receiving process results in the correct identification of the radio transmitter not being received. As a result, the transmission from a radio transmitter which is, in fact, within a set range of a radio receiver which is monitoring the distance of the radio transmitter from the radio receiver is falsely received as being out of range. This results in an erroneous condition of monitoring the distance of the radio transmitter from the radio receiver and further, may cause a panic situation or otherwise cause the person using the radio receiver to not trust the reliability of the radio tracking system.
An analysis of wireless prior art data transmission protocols in accordance with accepted mathematical relationships for their evaluation reveals that they are poorly suited for data transmissions of more than a few characters in length. The following mathematical relationships are used to analyze fading:

Method of radio transmission between a radio transmitter and radio receiver


An ion trap mass spectrometer system providing superposition of an AC dipole and/or monopole field on the quadrupole field to provide one preferential ejection direction.

Mass spectrometers enable precise determinations of the constituents of a material. There are several distinctly different types of mass spectrometers. They all provide separations of all the different masses in a sample according to its mass to charge ratio. The molecules of the sample are disassociated/fragmented into charged atoms or groups of atoms, i.e. ions, and the ions are introduced into a region where they are acted upon by magnetic or electric fields which can be manipulated to separate the ions because the forces on the ions depend upon their mass to charge ratio.
The quadrupole mass spectrometer is one form of spectrometer device which does not employ magnets but utilizes radio frequency and/or DC fields in conjunction with a specifically shaped electrode structure. Inside the structure, the RF fields are shaped so that they can interact with certain ions causing a restoring force to induce such ions to oscillate about an electrically neutral position. A form of the quadrupole known as the quadrupole ion trap (QIT) has become important in recent years as a result of the development of more convenient techniques for handling the ions. The QIT device enables restoring forces in all three directions and can actually trap ions of selected mass/charge ratio inside the structure. The ions so trapped are capable of being retained for long periods of time which enables and supports various experiments which are not convenient in other apparatus.
In the use of a QIT, ions are usually confined by the RF field and then sequentially ejected to a detector by either ramping the RF trapping field voltage applied to the ring electrode or by applying a supplemental secular resonance frequency excitation to the end caps or applying a scan and a supplemental field simultaneously.
Another application of the QIT is in the so called MS/MS mode where a range of masses are trapped; mass scanning and/or resonance ejection employed to confine particularly chosen ions; then, disassociating the parent ions by collisions and separating/ejecting the fragments and obtaining a mass spectrum of the daughter ions.
When ejecting ions from the trap to the detector, in most prior art apparatus, equal percentages of ions were ejected toward both end caps. Since the ion detector was installed in only one end cap, the sensitivity was not maximized.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,882,484, an apparatus and technique is disclosed and described for compressing the path of oscillations of ions in a trap so that the ions which impact the end cap are focussed toward the center of the end cap. This patent claimed a significant sensitivity improvement. This '484 patent also recognized that it would be beneficial to impact the ions on the correct end cap containing the detector. To accomplish this result, it is proposed to introduce a third order field non-linearity by shaping the ring and the end caps or to apply a small static DC voltage between the end caps. This '484 patent also describes static superimposition of higher order field distortions made possible by changing the shapes of the electrodes from a pure hyperbolic. German Patent No. DE4017264A1 and the journal article at Int. J. Mass Spectroscopy and Ion Process, Vol. 106, 1991, p. 63-78, also describe superimposition of multipole fields as a means to improve sensitivity.
The creation of special complicated surfaces as described by DE4017264A1 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,882,484 is very expensive and difficult. Also, due to the requirements for non-linear resonance, only certain selected ejection excitation frequencies are possible, such as 1/3 RF trapping field frequency in a hexapole field. Another disadvantage is that the relative magnitude of the quadrupole and hexapole or octapole field is fixed for a given set of shaped electrodes. The use of a small DC bias voltage applied to the end caps provides a superimposed static dipole field across the QIT. For small values of DC bias, no significant preferential effect in intensity is seen. For larger values of DC bias, intensity of larger mass ions is reduced. In addition, the application of a DC dipole field will cause the mass calibration curve for the trap to become nonlinear.

Ion trap mass spectrometer method and apparatus for improved sensitivity


An indoor unit of an air-conditioning apparatus includes: a main body provided with an opening port; and a rectangular decorative panel attached to the main body to cover the opening port. The decorative panel includes a rectangular suction grille provided to face the opening port of the main body. The suction grille has one side rotatably supported on one side of the decorative panel, and is detachably attached to the decorative panel. The one side of the suction grille and the one side of the decorative panel are secured to each other by a plurality of fall prevention strings. The decorative panel is provided with two panel claw portions to which the plurality of fall prevention strings are to be hooked. The suction grille is provided with two grille claw portions to each of which respective end portions of the plurality of fall prevention strings are to be hooked.

It is known that in an existing indoor unit of an air-conditioning apparatus, a suction grille is detachably attached to a decorative panel such that the suction grille can be opened and closed. Furthermore, in a proposed indoor unit, a decorative panel and a suction grille are connected to each other by a string to prevent the suction grille from falling when the suction grille is attached to or detached from the decorative panel (see Patent Literature 1).

Indoor unit for use in air-conditioning apparatus and air-conditioning apparatus including the same


A method for evaluating the surface state of a silicon wafer is here disclosed which comprises the steps of directly bringing an internal reflection element having a larger refractive index than that of silicon into close contact with the surface of the silicon wafer, selecting a light source having a wave length range which compounds present on the surface can absorb, entering light having a larger incident angle than critical angle from the light source into the element, and then evaluating a chemical bond state on the surface containing impurities or impure atoms by means of a multi-reflection method.

(i) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for evaluating the surface state of a polished silicon wafer, and more specifically it relates to a method for evaluating the terminal bond state of different kinds of atoms on the surface of a silicon wafer, a natural oxide film, or molecular pollutants adhered onto the wafer surface in accordance with a multi-internal reflection method.
(ii) Description of the Prior Art
Heretofore, for the elemental analysis of the surface of a substance, there can be utilized, for example, an X-ray microanalyzer which comprises irradiating a sample with electron beams, and an ion micro-analyzer which comprises irradiating the sample with ion beams. According to these techniques, the kinds of elements on the surface and the structure of the surface can not be analyzed without destroying the surface.
Furthermore, another multi-internal reflection method has been suggested by Takahagi et al. in which silicon crystal itself is used as an internal reflection element and an incident angle is larger than a critical angle [T. Takahagi, I. Nagai, A. Ishitani, H. Kuroda, and Y. Nagasawa, J. Appln. Phys., 64, 3516 (1988)], and they have reported on the bond state of the different kinds of atoms on the silicon surface being an Si-H bond and the oxidation process of the surface.
However, in most cases of these analytical methods of applying the certain kind of beams, the sample must be disposed in vacuo, and a chemical bond on the surface may be destroyed on occasion, depending upon the energy of the beams. Thus, some restriction has been put on these techniques.
Additionally, in the multi-internal reflection method suggested by Takahagi et al. in which silicon itself is used as the internal reflection element, this internal reflection element as a reference must have a chemically clean silicon surface and this surface state must be well known. Accordingly, it has been substantially impossible to directly evaluate the surface of the silicon wafer.
FIG. 7 is a spectrum drawing obtained by measuring an oxide film on the silicon surface in accordance with an infrared multi-internal reflection method in which the silicon crystal is used as the internal reflection element. The transmittable wave length range of silicon extend from 1.1 to 6 .mu.m (9,100 to 1,700 cm.sup.-1), and therefore the measurement is possible in the wave length range of about 2,000 cm.sup.-1 or more, but chemical species having absorption bands at wave-numbers (1/wave length less than the wave numbers can not be observed.
However, it is necessary to directly evaluate the surface of the silicon wafer from the viewpoint of controlling a wafer manufacturing process. For example, a washing treatment step with a hydrofluoric acid solution is a pretreatment step for a silicon device process such as a thermal oxidation step or an epitaxial growth step, and it is strongly desired from the viewpoint of the process control to evaluate the wafer surface treated in this step.

Method for evaluating surface state of silicon wafer


A rotation transmission member is composed of a shaft-like metal insert member having a first gear section on the external surface thereof and a resin gear resin-molded on the external surface of one end of the metal insert member and having a second gear section on the external surface thereof. The first gear section is formed almost over the entire length of the metal insert member and provides one end thereof as an insert portion on which the resin gear is to be resin-molded. Thus, it becomes unnecessary to provide a joint portion (the insert portion) between the metal insert member and the resin gear with the machining of any particular shape for preventing the coming-off therebetween.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a rotation transmission member in which a resin gear is molded by insert molding on the external surface of one end of a gear section formed almost over the entire length of a metal insert member. It also relates to a method of manufacturing the rotation transmission member.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Automotive parts often use resin gear sections for rotation transmission at parts of a rotation transmission device. Such resin gear sections are useful because they can damp rotation vibration in a rotation transmission train to enhance quietness. Generally, a resin gear section is bodily joined by resin molding or the like with the external surface of a cylindrical metal member, wherein it is required that the resin gear section does not fall or come off the metal member even when loads act on the resin gear section in the circumferential direction as well as in the axial direction.
To this end, in the prior art described in, e.g., Japanese Unexamined, Published Patent Application No. 2003-21223, a part of resin material is filled in cutouts or holes formed on a metal part (metal member) at the time of the injection molding of the resin gear section, so that the resin gear section can be prevented from falling or coming off the metal member even when loads act on the resin gear section in the circumferential direction as well as in the axial direction.
Because the technology described in the aforementioned prior art is of the method that a part of resin material is filled in the cutouts or holes formed on the metal part (metal member) at the time of the injection molding of the resin gear section, there arises a problem that the technology cannot be utilized for a rotation transmission member which does not have any cutout or hole on the metal part.
For this reason, it may be conceived that as shown in FIG. 7, a shape machining section 4 such as knurling or serration is machined on an insert portion 3 of a metal member 2 which section is to have a resin gear section 1 resin-molded thereon, to prevent the resin gear section 1 and the metal member 2 from falling or coming off each other.
However, where the metal member 2 constitutes a gear section 5 for rotation transmission as is the case of FIG. 7, it becomes necessary to machine the gear section 5 for rotation transmission and the shape machining section (knurling or serration) 4 for coming-off prevention separately on the external surface of the metal member 2. These are distinctive machinings, thereby increasing in machining steps as well as in part cost.

Rotation transmission member and manufacturing method therefor


Building a carcass structure of a tire for vehicle wheels includes associating, at each end edge of a carcass ply laying on a forming support, at least one respective annular reinforcing structure obtained by depositing at least one respective reinforcing element. The deposition process includes feeding a continuous reinforced band-like element at a cutting unit, cutting to size at least one first reinforcing element from the continuous reinforced band-like element, moving the first reinforcing element from the cutting unit toward a first end edge of the carcass ply, positioning the first reinforcing element on the first end edge, cutting to size at least one second reinforcing element from the continuous reinforced band-like element, moving the second reinforcing element from the cutting unit toward a second end edge of the carcass ply opposite said first end edge, and positioning the second reinforcing element on the other end edge.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a process for manufacturing tyres for vehicle wheels.
The invention further relates to an apparatus for the deposition of an annular reinforcing structure in the building step of a carcass structure of a tyre for vehicle wheels, said apparatus being usable in carrying out the aforementioned process.
2. Description of the Related Art
A tyre for vehicle wheel generally comprises a carcass structure comprising at least one carcass ply comprised of reinforcing cords incorporated in an elastomeric matrix. The carcass ply has end edges respectively engaged with annular anchoring structures arranged in the zones usually identified with the name of "beads" and normally consisting each of a substantially circumferential annular insert on which at least one filling insert is applied, in a radially outer position thereof. Such annular structures are commonly identified as "bead cores" and have the task of keeping the tyre well fixed to the anchoring seat specifically provided in the rim of the wheel, thus preventing, in operation, the radially inner end edge of the tyre coming out from such seat.
At the beads specific reinforcing structures may be provided having the function of improving the torque transmission to the tyre. The region of the bead, indeed, is particularly active in the torque transmission from the rim to the tyre in acceleration and braking, and therefore the provision of appropriate reinforcing structures in such an area ensures that the torque transmission occurs with the maximum possible reactivity.
In a radially outer position with respect to the carcass ply, a belt structure comprising one or more belt layers is associated, said belt layers being arranged radially one on top of the other and having textile or metal reinforcing cords with crossed orientation and/or an orientation substantially parallel to the direction of circumferential extension of the tyre.
Between the carcass structure and the belt structure a layer of elastomeric material, known as "under-belt", can be provided, said layer having the function of making the radially outer surface of the carcass structure as uniform as possible for the subsequent application of the belt structure.
In a radially outer position with respect to the belt structure a tread band is applied, also made from elastomeric material, as well as other structural elements making up the tyre.
Between the tread band and the belt structure a so-called "under-layer" of elastomeric material can be arranged, said layer having properties suitable to ensure a steady union of the tread band itself.
On the side surfaces of the carcass structure respective sidewalls of elastomeric material are also applied, each extending from one of the side edges of the tread band up to the respective annular anchoring structure to the beads.
Throughout the present description and in the following claims, the term "reinforcing element" is used to indicate a cut to size element comprising one or more thread-like reinforcing elements substantially parallel to one another, such as textile or metal cords, embedded in, or coated with, a layer of elastomeric material.
The term: "elastomeric material" on the other hand is used to indicate a composition comprising at least one elastomeric polymer and at least one reinforcing filler. Preferably, such a composition further comprises additives such as, for example, a cross-linking agent and/or a plasticizer. Thanks to the provision of the cross-linking agent, such material can be cross-linked by heating, so as to make the end product.
The traditional processes for manufacturing tyres for vehicle wheels essentially provide for the components of the tyre listed above to be first made separately from one another, to be then assembled in a subsequent building step of the tyre.
However, the current tendency is that of using manufacturing processes that allow the production and storage of semi-finished parts to be minimised or possibly eliminated. In such processes, each component of the tyre is directly formed on a forming support, for example as illustrated in EP 0 928 680 in the name of the same Applicant.
More specifically, attention has now turned towards process solutions that allow the individual components of the tyre to be made by directly applying them, according to a predetermined sequence, onto the tyre being built on a forming support, typically toroidal or cylindrical.
JP 2006-205769 describes a process for manufacturing a reinforcing structure of the bead region of the tyre, wherein such a reinforcing structure is obtained in the form of a strip by reciprocally joining a plurality of reinforcing elements obtained cutting to size band-like pieces of a continuous band-like element which incorporates metal reinforcing elements. According to an embodiment described in the aforementioned document, a sheet of elastomeric material is made by arranging a plurality of cords in the same direction and coating them with elastomeric material. Said sheet is then repeatedly cut along the direction of the cords to obtain band-like pieces having a parallelogram shape. A ring-shaped sheet of reinforcing material is then formed by sequentially attaching each band-like piece along a circumference defined on a side surface of a tyre being formed in toroidal configuration, the band-like piece being deformed in such a way that the length of an outer peripheral portion of the sheet of reinforcing material forms a curve arc longer than the length of the inner peripheral portion of the sheet of reinforcing material. The same document illustrates an embodiment wherein each band-like piece is attached, without being deformed, to a portion defined on the same circumference corresponding to the portion of the bead of the tyre being formed in toroidal configuration.
Patent application published as WO 2007/138374, in the name of the same Applicant, describes a process for manufacturing a tyre for vehicle wheels wherein the reinforcing structure is formed by depositing a plurality of reinforcing elements along a curvilinear deposition path defined at each end edge of a carcass ply laying on a toroidal support. The reinforcing elements are obtained cutting to size band-like pieces of a continuous reinforced element and deforming these band-like pieces according to the bending of the portion of the deposition path where they will actually be deposited.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,379,493 describes an apparatus for carrying reinforcing elements previously cut from a continuous band-like reinforced element and depositing them on a forming support. The apparatus comprises two opposite arms, each provided, at the respective free end thereof, with a plurality of needles adapted to penetrate the reinforcing element for moving it up to the forming support, where it is then deposited. The needles are movable along respective longitudinal directions for allowing the pick up and the release of the reinforcing elements. The arms are mounted on a crosspiece sliding towards and away from the forming support, along a direction tangential to the forming support. Such arms are rotatable around respective rotation axes so as to be lifted during the movement of the crosspiece away from the forming support and so as to be lowered again for picking up the reinforcing element and moving it towards the forming support for the subsequent deposition.
The Applicant has noted that in the processes described in the aforementioned patent applications WO 2007/138374 and JP 2006-205769, deposition of the reinforcing elements occurs first at an end edge of the carcass ply and, only after the reinforcing structure at such end edge has been completed, deposition of the reinforcing elements begins at the other end edge, so as to form a reinforcing structure also at this other end edge. In the process described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,379,493, on the other hand, deposition of the reinforcing elements is carried out simultaneously on opposite end edges of the carcass ply, working in parallel through two separate pivoted arms.

Process and apparatus for manufacturing tyres for vehicle wheels


This composition for stripping paints coating a substrate, in particular for stripping paints and primers with a high degree of crosslinking, in particular of the epoxy, polyurethane and alkyd type, is characterized in that it consists of or comprises: (A) 50 to 80 parts by weight of water; (B) 20 to 50 parts by weight of benzaldehyde and/or of benzyl alcohol; (C) 5 to 15 parts by weight of at least one activator chosen from formic acid, formic acid totally or partially neutralized with a base, and bases; and (D) 0.5 to 10 parts by weight of at least one thickener, the said thickener necessarily being a thickener of acrylic nature when (B) consists solely of benzyl alcohol, (A)+(B) representing 100 parts by weight.

Aircraft primers and paints are among the most difficult paints to strip. An aircraft is stripped every 5 to 10 years for aesthetic reasons, and also in order to reveal possible faults in the aircraft structure. Aircraft paints are often highly crosslinked two-component paints. High-altitude flying amplifies this initial crosslinking by the UV radiation emitted by the sun. This produces areas which are more crosslinked than others depending on their degree of UV exposure. It is common, for these areas, to add stripper and to leave it to act for longer. An aircraft is stripped by spraying it with a thickened stripper which must not run down vertical walls.
The stripper is left to act for a certain period (rarely less than one hour in the case of stripping aircraft), and is then rinsed off with a jet of pressurized water. The flakes and shreds of paint are then carried away by the water through a grille into a catch pit. After settling in the catch pit, the sludge is incinerated and the liquid phase is distilled.
For environmental and toxicity reasons, it is currently sought to replace aircraft strippers based on methylene chloride and/or phenol (Ind. Finish 45(10) 1969, 28-31). These two compounds have proven to be very effective at stripping aircraft, especially in the presence of an acidic or alkaline activator, but they pollute the environment. In order to strip aircraft primers and paints (of the polyurethane, epoxy and alkyd type), it is necessary to use a very effective solvent base. The development of aqueous formulations containing a solvent fraction is particularly advantageous in order to limit the environmental and toxicity problems. It will thus be sought to incorporate as much water as possible into the formulations and to limit the contents of toxic products.
For this application, effective formulations based on benzyl alcohol have already been developed. These are water/benzyl alcohol emulsions activated with an acid or a base. American patent U.S. Pat. No. 5,405,548 describes a mixture based on benzyl alcohol, water and formic acid for stripping aircraft. According to the authors, the efficacy of their stripper is due to the "benzyl formate" ester formed in situ in the course of formulation, that is to say during mixing between the benzyl alcohol and the formic acid. Benzyl formate is thought to be the active compound and, on account of its cost, it is much more advantageous to synthesize it during the formulation operation than to introduce it as a constituent.

Aqueous compositions for stripping paints and primers with a high degree of crosslinking


An image forming apparatus comprises an exposure department for exposing photographic paper conveyed at a first conveying speed, a development department for developing the photographic paper, conveyed at a second conveying speed lower than the first conveying speed, after being exposed in the exposure department. In the image forming apparatus, the relationship between 1) the distance along the conveying direction from a reference area to a micro area being the target of exposure correction, both the reference area and the micro area being on the photographic paper, and 2) the difference in tone between images formed at the reference area and the micro area when the reference area and the micro area are exposed to the same amount of light in the exposure department, and the relationship between the exposure of the photographic paper and the tone of the image at the reference area are stored.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus for applying an exposure process and a development process to a photosensitive member.
2. Description of the Related Art
A photograph processing apparatus is known, that can automatically apply processes such as exposure, development, bleaching and fixing and stabilization to photographic paper being a photosensitive member. In a photographic processing apparatus described in the Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2003-019825, a sheet of photographic paper is exposed in an exposure department at an intensity according to the pixel level of each pixel in image data. Then, a latent image formed on the sheet appears when the sheet on which the latent image has been formed is developed in a development department.
In such a photograph processing apparatus, the processing capacity of the development department is generally smaller than the processing capacity of the exposure department. Therefore, the speed for conveying sheets of photographic paper in the development department is required to be lower than the speed for conveying the sheets of photographic paper in the exposure department. As above, when conveying speed is different in the exposure department and the development department, the time period from the moment at which the exposure process is applied to the moment at which the development process is applied (hereinafter, referred to as "latent image time") is not same between areas for each of which the distance from the front end in the conveying direction on a sheet of photographic paper is different from each other. More specifically, the latent image time of an image formed in an area in the vicinity of the back end of a sheet of photographic paper is longer than the latent image time of an image formed in an area in the vicinity of the front end of the sheet. The difference in the latent image time appears as the difference of the tone of the images obtained by developing. In other words, the tones in areas having the latent image time different from each other are not same even when the whole area of the sheet of photographic paper has been exposed according to the same pixel level. As a result, the images obtained have a low tone-reproducing property and low image quality. Especially, because the difference in the latent image time between the vicinity of the front end and the back end of the sheet of photographic paper is drastically large when the sheet of photographic paper is exposed over a very long range along the conveying direction, the image quality is considerably degraded.

Image forming apparatus including a controller for controlling an exposure of a photosensitive member for minimizing the difference in tone between areas on the photosensitive member


The invention relates to a golf ball test hitter used for testing the performance of a golf club after manufacture of the club, which comprises a first arm corresponding a man's arm, a second arm corresponding to a wrist, being supported at a free end of the first arm, clamping means provided in the second arm for clamping a golf club, first swivel means for swiveling and manipulating the first arm, second swivel means for swiveling and manipulating the second arm, changeover means for stopping power swivel of the second arm by the second swivel means at an arbitrary position, and changing over the second arm from power swivel to inertial swivel, and brake means for braking the second arm changed over to inertial swivel, whereby arbitrary and varied motions ranging from beginners to professional players can be obtained, and hence varied test results corresponding to various patterns (club swivel trajectories including the motion of the wrist) can be obtained.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a golf ball test hitter used for testing a club after manufacture of a golf club.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The following constitution is known as a conventional golf ball test hitter.
That is, using a base member composed to be adjustable in angle, the golf ball test hitter comprises a first arm controlled in swivel by a servo motor about the central axis of this base member, and a second arm, provided at a free end of this first arm, which swivels about 1.5 times in the same direction of the swivel angle of the first arm by gear ratio or pulley ratio, in which the second arm includes clamping means for detachably fixing and holding a golf club, and twisting means for twisting the clamping means by a specified angle from a back swing top position to a follow-through end position of the golf club.
According to the conventional apparatus, a club swivel trajectory nearly equivalent to a form of a model player such as a first-class professional can be obtained by the twisting action by a specified angle, and reliable testing can be executed, but, to the contrary, since the clamping means is twisted by a single servo motor through gear coupling means (so-called uniaxial control constitution) in order to obtain the twisting angle by a specified angle, that is, a motion corresponding to the move of the wrist of the model play (so-called wrist turn), only a single monotonous specified club swivel trajectory (so-called pattern) is obtained, and various arbitrary patterns corresponding to the beginner, experienced amateur and professional cannot be obtained, and varied test results corresponding to various patterns cannot be obtained.


A drug delivery system including: an oblong housing including a setting structure to set a dose of a drug via an angular position; and a sensor structure to determine the dose, including a magnet and a magnetic sensor, arranged so that at least one of an angular position and a displacement of the magnetic sensor relative to the magnet may be determined as a function of the electrical resistance of the magnetic sensor. The sensor structure is arranged in relation to the setting structure so that the angular position of the setting structure is determined as a function of the angular position and/or the displacement of the magnetic sensor. A sensor structure is also described including: a flexible foil, including a magnetic sensor, in a cylindrical shape configuration comprising an axis; and a magnet arranged at a line parallel to or collinear with the axis.

Conventional drug delivery systems do not have a dose detection function. For example, the use of conventional insulin pens may require the user to manually record the dose for tracking the injections. A so-called "intelligent insulin pen" incorporates an additional adapter to be added as a cap over the pen. The module detects actuation of the device and the delivery event. Such systems include an optical motion detection system for detecting the actuation of the injection device or linear potentiometers for measuring position changes of a dose selector for determining the dose injected by a user. These systems are relatively bulky and costly.


Estimating the speed of movement of a mobile terminal includes estimating the impulse response of the transmission channel at a given instant, and estimating the time derivative of the estimated impulse response. Estimating the speed also includes determining of a ratio of the energy of the estimated impulse response to the energy of the estimated time derivative.

Each base station of a communication system radiates within a cell, and consequently, talks to all the telephones situated in this cell. When the user of a telephone moves and reaches the border of a cell, the base station can decide, depending on specific parameters measured by the telephone, to hand the telephone over to another base station.
Estimation of the speed of movement of the mobile telephone is a parameter which may be taken into account by the base station in deciding whether to transfer to another base station. There is a need to better estimate the speed of movement of such a mobile terminal.

Process and device for estimating the speed of movement of a mobile terminal of a wireless communication system


A compute cycle brokering apparatus and method includes a network and a plurality of machines connected to the network wherein some machines are idle and some machines are busy. A process power broker is connected to the network for locating available process power on idle machines and directing pending jobs from busy machines to the idle machines for processing. Further, a job director is provided for directing job output either back to the busy machine for output or to the first available idle machine on the network for output once processing is completed.

Time is one commodity no business can afford to waste. In their efforts to conserve time, businesses have turned more and more to machines. As machines have become increasingly advanced technologically, their usefulness to businesses have increased. As the march of progress has continued, single machines now handle multiple tasks. These so-called "Multi functional peripherals" (MFPs), are capable of accomplishing multiple tasks such as printing, copying, and the like. A business with several MFPs may network them for greater efficiency.
Nonetheless, even networked machines, including MFPs, do not ensure that a business will be able to process jobs as quickly as possible. One difficulty encountered is that machines that are busy may not process new jobs. This results in a "stack" or a "job queue" of pending jobs for busy machines.
One prior art "solution" is for a business person to access the network and attempt to determine which machine(s) may be idle and available for processing jobs. Here, the solution is sometimes worse than the problem in that the time spent searching is greater than the time required to just wait for the job to come up in its normal course. Additionally, not all business people are skilled in manipulating networked machines.
Thus, there is a need in the art for providing an apparatus and method that enables a user to enhance the speed of processing a job by means of a group of networked machines.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Network printing system using a process power broker for directing print job from busy machines to idle machines for processing only before printing

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


A method is provided for measuring the cooling curve of melts and/or the heating curve of melt samples with an optical fiber, wherein an immersion end of the optical fiber having an at least partially free surface is surrounded with a spacing by a temperature-resistant sample-receiving chamber. The optical fiber is immersed with its immersion end in the melt, and a sample is thereby formed in the sample-receiving chamber. The sample-receiving chamber with the sample and the optical fiber are thereafter pulled out of the molten metal. The cooling curve of the sample and/or, after previous solidification of the sample, the temperature profile during heating is measured with reference to a signal obtained by the optical fiber and forwarded to a measurement device. In addition, a corresponding device is provided for the measuring method.

The invention relates to a method for measuring the cooling curves of molten masses (melts) and/or the heating curves of melt samples by an optical fiber. For this measurement an immersion end of the optical fiber having an at least partially free surface is surrounded with a spacing by a temperature-resistant sample-receiving chamber, such that the optical fiber is immersed with its immersion end in the melt. In this way, a sample is formed in the sample-receiving chamber, and the sample-receiving chamber with the sample and the optical fiber is thereafter pulled out of the molten metal. The cooling curve of the sample and/or, after previous solidification of the sample, the temperature profile during heating is measured with reference to a signal obtained by the optical fiber and forwarded to a measurement device. In addition, the invention relates to a corresponding device as well as to its use. Here, melts are understood to include both melts of pure metals, such as iron, copper, or steel, or alloys, as well as cryolite melts, molten salts, or molten glass.
Temperature measurement methods and devices, in which liquid temperatures are measured with the aid of optical fibers at high temperature, are known from European Patent EP 646 778 B1, among others. Additional devices are known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,355,907. There, an immersion sensor is described, with which a sample of a molten metal is taken. The sample thereby adheres in a hollow space. A graphite plate is arranged between the hollow space and the optical fiber receiving the measurement values.
A sample vessel, into which molten metal is poured and in which the temperature of the molten metal is then measured by means of an optical fiber, is known from German published patent application DE 36 31 645 A1. Other devices for measuring the temperature in molten metals are known from Japanese published patent applications JP 62-185129 and JP 62-185130. In addition, methods for measuring the melting-point temperature in a smelting crucible with the aid of optical radiation are known from U.S. Pat. No. 6,106,150 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,004,031, or from European published patent application EP 802 401 A1.

Method for measuring cooling/heating curves of molten masses


A method for achieving site specific integration of a desired DNA at a target site in a mammalian cell via homologous recombination is described. This method provides for the reproducible selection of cell lines wherein a desired DNA is integrated at a predetermined transcriptionally active site previously marked with a marker plasmid. The method is particularly suitable for the production of mammalian cell lines which secrete mammalian proteins at high levels, in particular immunoglobulins. Novel vectors and vector combinations for use in the subject cloning method are also provided.

Technology for expressing recombinant proteins in both prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms is well established. Mammalian cells offer significant advantages over bacteria or yeast for protein Production, resulting from their ability to correctly assemble, glycosylate. and post-translationally modify recombinantly expressed proteins. After transfection into the host cells, recombinant expression constructs can be maintained as extrachromosomal elements, or may be integrated into the host cell genome. Generation of-stably transfected mammalian cell lines usually involves the latter; a DNA construct encoding a gene of interest along with a drug resistance gene (dominant selectable marker) is introduced into the host cell, and subsequent growth in the presence of the drug allows for the selection of cells that have successfully integrated the exogenous DNA. In many instances, the gene of interest is linked to a drug resistant selectable marker which can later be subjected to gene amplification. The gene encoding dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) is most commonly used for this purpose. Growth of cells in the presence of methotrexate, a competitive inhibitor of DHFR, leads to increased DHFR production by means of amplification of the DHFR gene. As flanking regions of DNA will also become amplified, the resultant coamplification of a DHFR linked gene in the transfected cell line can lead to increased protein production, thereby resulting in high level expression of the gene of interest.
While this approach has proven successful, there are a number of problems with the system because of the random nature of the integration event. These problems exist because expression levels are greatly influenced by the effects of the local genetic environment at the gene locus, a phenomena well documented in the literature and generally referred to as "position effects" (for example, see Al-Shawi et al, Mol. Cell. Biol., 10:1192–1198 (1990); Yoshimura et al, Mol. Cell. Biol., 7:1296–1299 (1987)). As the vast majority of mammalian DNA is in a transcriptionally inactive state, random integration methods offer no control over the transcriptional fate of the integrated DNA. Consequently, wide variations in the expression level of integrated genes can occur, depending on the site of integration. For example, integration of exogenous DNA into inactive, or transcriptionally "silent" regions of the genome will result in little or no expression. By contrast integration into a transcriptionally active site may result in high expression.
Therefore, when the goal of the work is to obtain a high level of gene expression, as is typically the desired outcome of genetic engineering methods, it is generally necessary to screen large numbers of transfectants to find such a high producing clone. Additionally, random integration of exogenous DNA into the genome can in some instances disrupt important cellular genes, resulting in an altered phenotype. These factors can make the generation of high expressing stable mammalian cell lines a complicated and laborious process.
Recently, the use of DNA vectors containing translationally impaired dominant selectable markers in mammalian gene expression has been described. (This is disclosed in co-owned U.S. Ser. No. 08/147,696 filed Nov. 3, 1993, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,736,137).
These vectors contain a translationally impaired neomycin phosphotransferase (neo) gene as the dominant selectable marker, artificially engineered to contain an intron into which a DHFR gene along with a gene or genes of interest is inserted. Use of these vectors as expression constructs has been found to significantly reduce the total number of drug resistant colonies produced, thereby facilitating the screening procedure in relation to conventional mammalian expression vectors. Furthermore, a significant percentage of the clones obtained using this system are high expressing clones. These results are apparently attributable to the modifications made to the neo selectable marker. Due to the translational impairment of the neo gene, transfected cells will not produce enough neo protein to survive drug selection, thereby decreasing the overall number of drug resistant colonies. Additionally, a higher percentage of the surviving clones will contain the expression vector integrated into sites in the genome where basal transcription levels are high, resulting in overproduction of neo, thereby allowing the cells to overcome the impairment of the neo gene. Concomitantly, the genes of interest linked to neo will be subject to similar elevated levels of transcription. This same advantage is also true as a result of the artificial intron created within neo; survival is dependent on the synthesis of a functional neo gene, which is in turn dependent on correct and efficient splicing of the neo introns. Moreover, these criteria are more likely to be met if the vector DNA has integrated into a region which is already highly transcriptionally active.
Following integration of the vector into a transcriptionally active region, gene amplification is performed by selection for the DHFR gene. Using this system, it has been possible to obtain clones selected using low levels of methotrexate (50 nM), containing few (<10) copies of the vector which secrete high levels of protein (>55 pg/cell/day). Furthermore, this can be achieved in a relatively short period of time. However, the success in amplification is variable. Some transcriptionally active sites cannot be amplified and therefore the frequency and extent of amplification from a particular site is not predictable.
Overall, the use of these translationally impaired vectors represents a significant improvement over other methods of random integration. However, as discussed, the problem of lack of control over the integration site remains a significant concern.
One approach to overcome the problems of random integration is by means of gene targeting, whereby the exogenbus DNA is directed to specific locus within the host genome. The exogenous DNA is inserted by means of homologous recombination occurring between sequences of DNA in the expression vector and the corresponding homologous sequence in the genome. However, while this type of recombination occurs at a high frequency naturally in yeast and other fungal organisms, in higher eukaryotic organisms it is an extremely rare event. In mammalian cells, the frequency-of homologous versus non-homologous (random integration) recombination is reported to range from 1/100 to 1/5000 (for example, see Capecchi., Science, 244:1288–1292 (1989); Morrow and Kucherlapati, Curr. Op. Biotech., 4:577–582 (1993)).
One of the earliest reports describing homologous recombination in mammalian cells comprised an artificial system created in mouse fibroblasts (Thomas et al, Cell, 44:419–428 (1986)). A cell line containing a mutated, non-functional version of the neo gene integrated into the host genome was created, and subsequently targeted with a second non-functional copy of neo containing a different mutation. Reconstruction of a functional neo gene could occur only by gene targeting. Homologous recombinants were identified by selecting for G418 resistant cells, and confirmed by analysis of genomic DNA isolated from the resistant clones.
Recently, the use of homologous recombination to replace the heavy and light immunoglobulin genes at endogenous loci in antibody secreting cells has been reported. (U.S. Pat. No. 5,202,238, Fell et al, (1993).) However, this particular approach is not widely applicable, because it is limited to the production of immunoglobulins in cells which endogenously express immunoglobulins, e.g., B cells and myeloma cells. Also, expression is limited to single copy gene levels because co-amplification after homologous recombination is not included. The method is further complicated by the fact that two separate integration events are required to produce a functional immunoglobulin: one for the light chain gene followed by one for the heavy chain gene.
An additional example of this type of system has been reported in NS/0 cells, where recombinant immunoglobulins are expressed by homologous recombination into the immunoglobulin gamma 2A locus (Hollis et al, international patent application #PCT/IB95 (00014).) Expression levels obtained from this site were extremely high—on the order of 20 pg/cell/day from a single copy integrant. However, as in the above example, expression is limited to this level because an amplifiable gene is not contegrated in this system. Also, other researchers have reported aberrant glycosylation of recombinant proteins expressed in NS/0 cells (for example, see Flesher et al, Biotech. and Bioeng., 48:399–407 (1995)), thereby limiting the applicability of this approach.
The cre-loxP recombination system from bacteriophage P1 has recently been adapted and used as a means of gene targeting in eukaryotic cells. Specifically, the site specific integration of exogenous DNA into the Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell genome using cre recombinase and a series of lox containing vectors have been described. (Fukushige and Sauer, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 89:7905–7909 (1992).) This system is attractive in that it provides for reproducible expression at the same chromosomal location. However, no effort was made to identify a chromosomal site from which gene expression is optimal, and as in the above example, expression is limited to single copy levels in this system. Also, it is complicated by the fact that one needs to provide for expression of a functional recombinase enzyme in the mammalian cell.
The use of homologous recombination between an introduced DNA sequence and its endogenous chromosomal locus has also beer reported to provide a useful means of genetic manipulation in mammalian cells, as well as in yeast cells. (See e.g., Bradley et al, Meth. Enzymol., 223:855–879 (1993); Capecchi, Science, 244:1288–1292 (1989); Rothstein et al, Meth. Enzymol., 194:281–301 (1991)). To date, most mammalian gene targeting studies have been directed toward gene disruption ("knockout") or site-specific mutagenesis of selected target gene loci in mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells. The creation of these "knockout" mouse models has enabled scientists to examine specific structure-function issues and examine the biological importance of a myriad of mouse genes. This field of research also has important implications in terms of potential gene therapy applications.
Also, vectors have recently been reported by Cell-tech (Kent, U.K.) which purportedly are targeted to transcriptionally active sites in NSO cells, which do not require gene amplification (Peakman et al, Hum. Antibod. Hybridomas, 5:65–74 (1994)). However, levels of immunoglobulin secretion in these unamplified cells have not been reported to exceed 20 pg/cell/day, while in amplified CHO cells, levels as high as 100 pg/cell/day can be obtained (Id.).
It would be highly desirable to develop a gene targeting system which reproducibly provided for the integration of exogenous DNA into a predetermined site in the genome known to be transcriptionally active. Also, it would be desirable if such a gene targeting system would further facilitate co-amplification of the inserted DNA after integration. The design of such a system would allow for the reproducible and high level expression of any cloned gene of interest in a mammalian cell, and undoubtedly would be of significant interest to many researchers.
In this application, we provide a novel mammalian expression system, based on homologous recombination occurring between two artificial substrates contained in two different vectors. Specifically, this system uses a combination of two novel mammalian expression vectors, referred to as a "marking" vector and a "targeting" vector.
Essentially, the marking vector enables the identification and marking of a site in the mammalian genome which is transcriptionally active, i.e., a site at which gene expression levels are high. This site can be regarded as a "hot spot" in the genome. After integration of the marking vector, the subject expression system enables another DNA to be integrated at this site, i.e., the targeting vector, by means of homologous recombination occurring between DNA sequences common to both vectors. This system affords significant advantages over other homologous recomboination systems.
Unlike most other homologous systems employed in mammalian cells, this system exhibits no background. Therefore, cells which have only undergone random integration of the vector do not survive the selection. Thus, any gene of interest cloned into the targeting plasmid is expressed at high levels from the marked hot spot. Accordingly, the subject method of gene expression substantially or completely eliminates the problems inherent to systems of random integration, discussed in detail above. Moreover, this system provides reproducible and high level expression of any recombinant protein at the same transcriptionally active site in the mammalian genome. In addition, gene amplification may be effected at this particular transcriptionally active site by including an amplifiable dominant selectable marker (e.g. DHFR) as part of the marking vector.

Method for integrating genes at specific sites in mammalian cells via homologous recombination and vectors for accomplishing the same


Hue, lightness, and saturation signals are obtained from an input signal, and hue direction intensity signals with respect to respective unit colors are determined using color corrective intensity functions for respective hues which have been established based on measured values. These hue direction intensity signals are multiplied into corrected intensity signals with respect to the respective colors, which are multiplied by desired correction coefficients. Resulting product signals for the respective unit colors are added into corrected signals with respect to given color signals.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of and an apparatus for correcting a color in accordance with the hue, lightness, and saturation of a color signal.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the art of printing and platemaking, there have widely been used image reading, recording, and reproducing systems for electrically processing image information read from original images to produce film plates in order to make printing and platemaking processes more efficient and improving the quality of images reproduced from such film plates.
In such an image reading, recording, and reproducing system, it has been customary to use a color correction circuit to determine the hue of a color signal produced when an original image is scanned and correct the color represented by the color signal for the purposes of making clear colors of a reproduced image and removing color impurities therefrom. To make clear colors of a reproduced image, the number of necessary colors may be increased, and to remove color impurities, unwanted colors may be eliminated.
The conventional color correction circuit decides the hue of an input signal from the magnitudes of the three color signals of C, M, Y of the input signal, determines which one of six hues of C, M, Y, B, G, R the decided hue belongs to, and produces a corrective quantity by multiplying, by a corrective coefficient, a reference quantity that is given as a saturation or intensity with respect to the determined hue.
According to the above process of producing a corrective quantity, the calculated hue may possibly differ from the actual hue which the human eye visually recognizes, possibly resulting in the correction of a color which is not intended. Furthermore, since the saturation as the reference quantity is obtained as the density difference between two color signals, the same corrective quantity is produced for light colors and dark colors whose density differences are the same. If the corrective quantity for the dark colors are to increase, then the contrast of the light colors will be increased, with the result that an image which will be reproduced based on those color signals is unnatural to the eye.
To avoid the above drawback, it may be effective to correct the corrective quantity using a function dependent on the lightness. According to such a correcting scheme, however, if the corrective quantity for light colors is to be suppressed, then dilute colors, which have a high lightness but a low saturation, cannot be sufficiently corrected.

Method of and apparatus for correcting color


A foldable table includes a table top including confronting sections that are removably engageable so that a rectangular top surface is formed when the sections are abutted. The top surface spans across the back seat of the vehicle and is position within the vehicle. First and second sections have coextensively shaped front edges spanning along an entire top surface length. Third and fourth sections have coextensively shaped rear edges spanning along the entire top surface length. A guard rail is conjoined to an outer periphery of each section, wherein first, second, third and fourth rails are detachably abutted at an end-to-end orientation. First and second legs are coupled to the third and fourth sections, and have bottom ends positioned on a floor of the vehicle. A mechanism is included for releasably locking all the sections at an engaged position during transit, and is spaced from the legs.

1. Technical Field
This invention relates to tables and, more particularly, to a two-legged table for vehicles for specifically providing a support surface along a back seat of a vehicle and for transporting goods thereon.
2. Prior Art
Many businessmen, especially those involved in home improvement sales and construction work, find it necessary to work from their vehicles each day. Bids must be left with the homeowner or property owner at the same time as the sales call. This necessitates writing and drafting documents while in the vehicle. While the need for a mobile office has been partially recognized by prior art, unresolved shortcomings still remain such as lack of open, easily accessible storage areas, lack of a simple way to remove and store the unit, as well as many other needs.
One prior art example discloses a portable shuffle desk which can be used on the lap of the owner or on other uneven surfaces by adjusting pellets in a bottom portion thereof to fit contoured surfaces. This assembly can be utilized in a vehicle by the driver (if placed on the passenger side), but provides no storage or room for supplies. Thus, it is of very little use to the businessman who wanted desk-type convenience from the driver position. No provision is provided for securing the apparatus into a seat to prevent possible injury in case of an accident.
Another prior art example shows a portable desk/briefcase, but the assembly lacks a large work area that is so necessary when working with rulers, calculators, etc. The organizer file featured in this desk/briefcase is positioned on the back rest of the passenger seat, causing possible obstruction to the right arm when drawings, sketches, or contracts are being written. In addition, no convenient area for a portable telephone or computer is available. All storage is inside the briefcase and inconveniently located.
A further prior art example discloses an auto desk, which features an enclosed chamber. This assembly is unhandy for most businessmen who do bids and contracts at a customer's home site because it necessitates opening up the cover each time materials are needed, instead of having them easily accessible. There is no openly accessible filing area for larger items, instead they must stored sideways inside the box portion.
Accordingly, a need remains for a two-legged table for vehicles in order to overcome the above-noted shortcomings. The present invention satisfies such a need by providing a table assembly that is convenient and easy to use, is durable yet lightweight in design, is versatile in its applications, is easily adaptable to a variety of vehicles, and provides a convenient work surface within a vehicle. Such a table assembly provides users a simple way in which to transport a variety of items within their vehicle. Whether one is transporting a beautiful vase of flowers, a terrarium containing a pet turtle, or business materials, the assembly enables users to move these items safely and easily without having to worry that they might slide about and fall.


A child seat capable of being easily and securely fixed to a vehicle seat. After placing the child seat on the vehicle seat and latching a tongue with a buckle, a belt is pulled by gripping a handle. Then, a lever of a tensioner is pivoted to increase the tension on the belt, thereby fixing the child seat. The tensioner includes two clamp portions. The belt is prevented from moving by the second clamp portion and the belt hung on a belt-hanging bar is pulled, thereby tightening the belt between the tensioner and the buckle.

The following structure is one of conventional structures for fixing a child seat, in which an infant may be seated, to a vehicle seat. The vehicle seat is previously provided with a latch member. The child seat is provided with a belt winder in which a belt is wound. The belt is withdrawn from the belt winder, the end of the belt is latched to the latch member, and the belt is then tightly wound by the belt winder (JPA 5-254367). In this conventional example, the belt is wound by gripping and turning a disk-like operating knob.
The conventional structure is inconvenient because it is necessary to strongly grip the operating knob for winding the belt.