A touch screen apparatus, including a display unit including a touch surface, a number of light pulse emitting units, connecting to the display unit, for emitting light pulses over and across the touch surface, a number of light pulse receiving units, connected to the display unit, for measuring amounts of light received from the light pulse emitting units, circuitry, connected to the light pulse emitting units and to the light pulse receiving units, for selectively activating, at any given time, one or more of the light pulse emitting units and the light pulse receiving units, wherein the circuitry activates three or more light pulse emitting units and only one light pulse receiving unit during a designated time interval, and a calculating unit, connected to the light pulse receiving units, to determine the location of an object touching the touch surface, based on the measured amounts of light received at the receiving units.

Mobile telephone displays normally consist of an LCD unit and an associated keypad, where depression of a key activates one or more telephone functions.
It can be mentioned with regard to known technology, that the use of a touch screen has been proposed with regard to hand-carried computer terminals, with the intention of reducing the dimensions of a display surface, wherein selected functions can be activated through the medium of visible digits or other symbols, by exerting pressure on a surface section corresponding to the surface section of the symbol concerned, with the aid of a pointer.
Touch screens, or touch sheets, of this kind have been produced in the form of two mutually parallel plastic sheets, where a mechanical actuation of an uppermost sheet within a chosen surface section creates conditions for a resistance measurement perpendicular to said surface section, wherein the geographical position of said surface section on the touch screen can be established by a calculating circuit, with the aid of the resistance values established, and therewith generate a significant signal for a function related to a touched symbol.
In this case, there is used a hand-held and hand-maneuvered elongate pointer having a tip, comparable to that of a pencil or pen, which requires physical actuation on and pressure against the chosen surface section of the display unit.
Also known to the art are touch screens that have relatively large external dimensions, where the dimensions chosen and a chosen screen thickness are of small account and constitute no limitation to the chosen application.
For example, it is known in respect of this use application to allow the touch screen to be comprised of a display unit in the form of an LCD unit, with edge-orientated and mutually opposite light-emitting units and light receiving units.
More particularly, in the case of this application the light-emitting units and the light receiving units are orientated in two rows and two columns over the upper surface of the display unit, with the transmitting and receiving directions of the light rays orientated and directed immediately above the upper surface of the display unit, with said units directly opposite each other.
Light emitting circuits and light receiving circuits are also mutually co-ordinated and connected to a calculating or computing unit in this case, so as to evaluate and calculate a position representative of the geographical position on the upper surface of the display unit, where mutually intersecting light rays are shadowed by an object serving as a pointer, depending on the position of one or more coordinate-orientated light receiving units, having associated circuits which are intended to indicate the presence of light.
It is known in the case of this latter application to use the tip of an index finger as a pointer, and no physical actuation of or pressure against said display surface section is required in this particular technique, even though such is usual.
The contents of the patent publications listed below also belong to the earlier standpoint of techniques with regard to the use of a touch screen, in which light emitting and light receiving units and the tip of an index finger or the like function to activate signals corresponding to a chosen symbol presented on a surface section of the display surface.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,847,606
This publication illustrates and describes a control system (10), which in addition to a display panel (22) comprised of liquid crystals also includes a light source (20) and a light detector (36).
More specifically, the publication is concerned with allowing light from the light source to be directed through at least part of the liquid crystal display panel and onto the light detector.
The system (10) includes a casing (12), which is formed to be fitted to the instrument panel of a car, said panel including a sunken surface part (14) and being produced from a transparent material.
A casing part (18) is adapted to enclose the components related to the control system (10).
The light source (20) is illustrated in the form of a fluorescent lamp and is adapted to extend across the full width of the casing.
Light is able to pass through a number of "windows" (24) in the panel (22) and is reflected through 90 degrees by a mirror surface (26).
The light shall then pass a transparent casing-wall portion (28), and then through the sunken surface portion (14), and thereafter through an opposite wall portion (32), so as to be reflected onto the light detector or light receiver (36) by a mirror surface (34).
FIG. 1 of this patent publication shows that when a fingertip (49) is placed within the sunken surface (14), a number of light rays are shadowed within a defined area (48a), enabling this area to be detected.
FIG. 8 shows a system in which light sources and light detectors or light receivers are orientated in perpendicular co-ordinates.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,880,969
This patent publication describes and illustrates a programmable touch screen.
FIGS. 3 and 4 in particular illustrate an optical keyboard (12) which includes an IR-adapted light source (32), a light receiver (34) and optical "prism" or mirror surfaces (36, 38).
In this regard, FIG. 3 shows that these mirror surfaces (36, 38) are related to mutually opposite edge portions of a window surface (22).
EP-A1-0 330 767
This publication illustrates and describes a touch screen, which is adapted to create control signals by means of which a function can be selected in response to the movement and displacement of an operator's fingertip relative to the screen (1).
More particularly, this publication is concerned with the activation of a time circuit immediately when a finger or a fingertip touches the touch screen, where a particular movement direction and a particular distance of movement are detected and an electronic unit or the like is activated in response to these parameters.
The touch screen or touch panel (1) is provided along its four sides with light-emitting diodes (LED) (101-114) and light receiving devices in the form of phototransistors or photodiodes (201-214), as illustrated in FIG. 2.
The finger or the fingertip shadows one or more light beams orientated in a right-angled co-ordinate system, wherein shadowed light receiving devices and detected changes in shaded devices constitute magnitudes from which desired functions are evaluated and initiated.

On a substrate formed or resting display arrangement


A method of recovering a most likely value of each symbol transmitted through an optical communications network using a high speed optical signal. A stream of multi-bit digital samples of the optical signal is processed to generate a respective multi-bit estimate X′(n) of each transmitted symbol. A first function is applied to each symbol estimate X′(n) to generate a corresponding soft decision value {tilde over (X)}(n). Each soft decision value {tilde over (X)}(n) is processed to generate a corresponding hard decision value. {circumflex over (X)}(n) having an ideal amplitude and phase. A plurality of successive soft decision values and hard decision values are processed to determine a second function, which is applied to each soft decision value {tilde over (X)}(n) to generate a most likely symbol value {circumflex over ({circumflex over (X)}(n).

Optical signals received through conventional optical links are typically distorted by significant amounts of chromatic dispersion (CD) and polarization dependent impairments such as Polarization Mode Dispersion (PMD), polarization angle changes and polarization dependent loss (PDL). Chromatic dispersion (CD) on the order of 30,000 ps/nm, and polarization rotation transients at rates of 105 Hz are commonly encountered. Various methods and systems intended to address some of these limitations are known in the art.
FIG. 1 schematically illustrates a representative coherent optical receiver capable of implementing the methods of Applicant's co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 11/294,613 filed Dec. 6, 2005 and entitled "Polarization Compensation In A Coherent Optical Receiver"; 11/315,342 filed Dec. 23, 2005 and entitled "Clock Recovery From An Optical Signal With Dispersion Impairments"; 11/315,345 filed Dec. 23, 2005 and entitled "Clock Recovery From An Optical Signal With Polarization Impairments"; 11/366,392 filed Mar. 2, 2006 and entitled "Carrier Recovery In A Coherent Optical Receiver"; and 11/423,822 filed Jun. 13, 2006 and entitled "Signal Acquisition In A Coherent optical Receiver", the content of all of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference.
As may be seen in FIG. 1, an inbound optical signal is received through an optical link 2, split into orthogonal received polarizations by a Polarization Beam Splitter 4, and then mixed with a Local Oscillator (LO) signal 6 by a conventional 90° optical hybrid 8. The composite optical signals 10 emerging from the optical hybrid 8 are supplied to respective photodetectors 12, which generate corresponding analog electrical signals 14. The photodetector signals 14 are sampled by respective Analog-to-Digital (A/D) converters 16 to yield raw multi-bit digital signals 18 corresponding to In-phase (I) and Quadrature (Q) components of each of the received polarizations.
The resolution of the A/D converters 16 is a balance between performance and cost. It has been found that a resolution of n=5 or 6 bits provides satisfactory performance, at an acceptable cost. The sample rate of the A/D converters 16 is selected to satisfy the Nyquist criterion for the highest anticipated symbol rate of the received optical signal.
From the A/D converter 16 block, the respective n-bit I and Q signals 18 of each received polarization are supplied to a respective dispersion compensator 20, which operates on the raw digital signal(s) 18 to at least partially compensate chromatic dispersion of the received optical signal.
The dispersion-compensated digital signals 22 appearing at the output of the dispersion compensators 20 are then supplied to a polarization compensator 24 which operates to compensate polarization effects, and thereby de-convolve transmitted symbols from the complex signals 22 output from the dispersion compensators 20. If desired, the polarization compensator 24 may operate as described in Applicant's co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/294,613 filed Dec. 6, 2005. The output of the polarization compensator 24 is a pair of multi-bit estimates 26 X′(n) and Y′(n) of the symbols encoded on each transmitted polarization. These symbol estimates 26 X′(n), Y′(n) contain both amplitude and phase information of each transmitted symbol, and include phase error due to the frequency offset between the Tx and LO frequencies, laser line width and phase noise. In some embodiments, the symbol estimates 26 are 10-bit digital values, comprising 5-bits for each of real and imaginary components of each symbol estimate.
The symbol estimates 26 X′(n), Y′(n), appearing at the output of the polarization compensator 24 are then supplied to a carrier recovery block 28 for LO frequency control, symbol detection and data recovery, such as described in Applicant's co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/366,392 filed Mar. 2, 2006.
As may be seen in FIG. 2, the carrier recovery block 28 is divided into two substantially identical processing paths 30; one for each transmitted polarization. Each processing path 30 receives a respective stream of symbol estimates 26 output by the polarization compensator 24, and outputs recovered symbols 32 of its respective transmitted polarization. Each processing path 30 includes a decision circuit 33 and a carrier recovery loop comprising a carrier phase detector 34 and a phase rotator 36. In general, the phase rotators 36 use a carrier phase estimate generated by the respective carrier phase detector 34 to compute and apply a phase rotation K(n) to the symbol estimates X′(n) and Y′(n) received from the polarization compensator 24. The resulting phase-rotated symbol estimates X′(n)e−jk(n) and Y′(n)e−jk(n) are assumed to lie within the correct quadrant of the QPSK phase diagram. Accordingly, the decision circuits 40 use each successive phase-rotated symbol estimate X′(n)e−jk(n) and Y′(n)e−jk(n) to generate corresponding recovered symbol values X(n) and Y(n) having ideal phase and amplitude values for the quadrant in which the phase-rotated symbol estimates are located. The phase detectors 34 operate to detect respective phase errors Δφ between the rotated symbol estimates X′ (n)e−jk(n) and Y′ (n)e−jk(n) and the corresponding recovered symbol values X(n) and Y(n). This operation is described in detail in Applicant's co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/366,392 filed Mar. 2, 2006.
An advantage of the system of FIGS. 1 and 2 is that reliable signal acquisition, clock recovery, compensation of dispersion and polarization effects, carrier recovery and Local Oscillator (LO) control can be accomplished, even in the presence of moderate-to-severe optical impairments. Taken in combination, these elements enable the deployment of a coherent optical receiver in real-world optical networks, with attractive signal reach and line rate characteristics. A limitation of this system, however, is that in severely impaired environments, the bit error rate (BER) of the recovered symbol values X(n) and Y(n) may be undesirably increased by residual Inter Symbol Interference (ISI) and DC offset in the rotated symbol estimates X′(n) e−jk(n) and Y′ (n)e−jk(n).
Accordingly, methods and techniques that enable cost effective compensation of DC offset and residual ISI in a receiver unit of an optical network remain highly desirable.

Non-linear equalizer in a coherent optical receiver


There is disclosed a method of combining mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) with a bone substrate. In an embodiment, the method includes obtaining tissue having MSCs together with unwanted cells. The tissue is digested to form a cell suspension having MSCs and unwanted cells. The cell suspension is added to the substrate and the MSCs are allowed to adhere. The substrate is rinsed to remove unwanted cells. In an embodiment, there is disclosed an allograft product including a combination of MSCs with a bone substrate made according to the described method. Other embodiments are also disclosed.

Regenerative medicine requires an abundant source of human adult stem cells that can be readily available at the point of care.
Adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs), which can be obtained in large quantities, have been utilized as cellular therapy for the induction of bone formation in tissue engineering strategies.
Allografts may be combined with stem cells. This requires a significant amount of tissue processing and cellular processing prior to seeding the allograft substrate.
Allografts seeded with living cells generally provide better surgical results.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Allografts combined with tissue derived stem cells for bone healing


Disclosed are a system and method that control integrated circuit chip temperature using frequency scaling based on predetermined temperature-frequency settings. During integrated circuit chip operation, a controller causes a variable clock signal generator to adjust the frequency of a clock signal that coordinates operations of an integrated circuit chip based on the temperature of the integrated circuit chip and on predetermined temperature-frequency settings. The temperature-frequency settings are predetermined in order to ensure that the frequency of the clock signal, as adjusted, remains sufficiently high to meet a chip performance specification, but sufficiently low to prevent the temperature from rising above a predetermined maximum temperature in order to limit power consumption. Also disclosed is a method of generating such temperature-frequency settings during timing analysis.

The present disclosure relates to the effect of temperature variations on integrated circuit chip power consumption and, particularly, to a system and method for controlling integrated circuit chip temperature and, thereby power consumption, using timing closure-based adaptive frequency scaling.
Total power consumption is a key concern of integrated circuit (IC) chip designers. Those skilled in the art will recognize that there are two components to total power consumption: dynamic power consumption, which refers to power consumption during active operation of the IC chip; and static power consumption, which is refers to power consumption with the IC chip is inactive. More specifically, dynamic power consumption refers to the amount of power required to operate an IC chip and is proportional to the value of the supply voltage (Vdd) squared and to the frequency of operation. Static power consumption refers to the amount of power consumed by the IC chip when it is inactive and is proportional to the value of the supply voltage (Vdd) and to the leakage current. Leakage current refers to the total current that flows through the device when the IC chip is in active. Those skilled in the art will recognize that there is an exponential relationship between the supply voltage and temperature and also an exponential relationship between temperature and the leakage current. Since leakage current and, thereby static power consumption at high temperature is a huge contribution to the total power consumption, techniques are often employed to reduce IC chip temperature when some predetermined maximum temperature is achieved. These techniques can include, for example, reducing the activity level on the IC chip and/or reducing the supply voltage (Vdd) to the IC chip. However, since the activity level and/or supply voltage can only be reduced when the IC chip is operating above a minimum activity level and/or above a minimum supply voltage, respectively, such techniques may not be available to reduce temperature when necessary.

Systems and methods for controlling integrated circuit chip temperature using timing closure-based adaptive frequency scaling


An Enterprise Energy Management (“EEM”) software system is disclosed that displays EEM data and allows a user to interact with the data to better understand and manage their electrical system. The EEM software system collects real-time, near real-time and historical input data from various data sources, creates useful information from that data by filtering and isolating relevant data and performing analytics on the data, displays that data to the user in an easy to understand format, and allows the user to interact with the displayed data. The EEM software allows the user to perform what-if analysis, make changes in their system and verify results of those changes. The graphical user interfaces provide context sensitive and relevant guidance to novice and expert users.

The evolving global energy environment is more closely connecting the needs of large industrial, commercial and institutional energy consumers with those of the power utilities and energy services companies. In some regions, deregulation of the electricity industry is introducing consumer choice, competition amongst energy suppliers, and significant demands on the electrical industry. Beyond price, large energy consumers are increasingly demanding higher value for their energy investment. Many businesses are likewise increasing their expectation that energy will be delivered at high levels of quality and reliability. These factors are driving both the suppliers and consumers of energy to seek better strategies to manage the cost and quality of the energy product and energy assets that produce, deliver, control and consume it. There are several fundamental challenges: the need to support the economic and efficient delivery, purchasing and use of energy; the need to guarantee higher levels of power quality and reliability; and, the need to supply the increasing demand for energy in a market based pricing system.
Users and suppliers of energy are well positioned to take advantage of these opportunities but the tools to effectively and efficiently manage energy resources and make informed decisions are lacking. There is a lack of understanding on what drives the costs and how they can be reduced by changes in the operational usage patterns of their particular business. Facility managers will also want to normalize usage patterns with respect to occupancy, temperature, weather and other variables in order to accurately project energy requirements into the future and also determine where further efficiencies can be realized.
Historically, energy management has been a difficult task to accomplish for a variety of reasons. Not all forms of energy can be stored successfully for long periods or, in some cases, at all. Purchasing energy to cover short falls can be expensive, so being able to predict and control the use of energy is an excellent way to reduce these costs. Before energy use can be predicted or controlled it must be measured, not only in real-time but also over a period of time to gather data on trends and cycles of energy usage. With historical energy usage data, predictions can be made how energy will be used in the future. Additionally, changes to energy usage can be patterned, modeled and analyzed using historical databases and other non-measured information to see how costs may change.
Using this information, changes in usage patterns can be implemented to optimize the usage of energy assets to meet the goals of the user. Likewise, over time the same energy measurement system can verify that the goals were actually realized, and if not, then help plan further changes as needed. This will help personnel to better manage capital expenditures, extend equipment life and economically schedule maintenance. Reliability of the network can be analyzed and weak points identified for further action. The costs of the loads can be apportioned to the actual uses of energy so the true costs of products and services can be realized.

Human machine interface for an energy analytics system


A circuit breaker including a pyrotechnic element configured to ablate, tear, or cut a portion of the circuit. The portion of the circuit to be broken may be formed to be readily broken and/or may be a current load-based fuse. Also, the circuit breaker may be configured to ensure predictable progressive lateral tearing of the portion of the circuit to be broken; the circuit breaker may optionally be configured so that substantially all of the pyrotechnic element's output is focused on breaking the circuit; and the circuit breaker may optionally include a positive displacement mechanism that, after actuation of the pyrotechnic igniter, prevents the circuit breaker from inadvertently re-closing.

This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/688,020 entitled "Pyrotechnic Circuit Breaker," filed Oct. 17, 2003.
The present invention is directed generally to the field of circuit breakers, and more particularly, to a circuit breaker including a pyrotechnic element for breaking the circuit.
The circuit breakers used in various electrical systems in motor vehicles such as automobiles, trucks, buses, fixed wing aircraft, helicopters, marine vessels and the like, have conventionally employed fuse-type resistor elements that burn out when an excessive level of current passes through the element, causing a break in the circuit.
Various substitutes for such conventional fuses have also been devised, such as to permit breaking of a circuit in response to abnormal conditions (such as the collision of a vehicle) that would not necessarily create an immediate excessive current load in a fuse. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,194,988 to Yamaguchi et al. teaches the use of a sort of "hot plate" that is spring-biased against a relatively low melting point fuse section, with the hot plate being heated by an attached igniting device that contains a solid combustion agent; the igniting device is rapidly activated such as in the case of a collision, heating the hot plate which then melts the adjacent fuse section and (due to the spring bias) drives through the molten fuse section, cutting it out and thereby breaking the circuit. Devices such as that of the '988 patent based on melting that is induced by conducted heat, however, cannot exploit the rapidity of a pyrotechnic ignition because the process of heat conduction is quite slow in comparison to the speed of a pyrotechnic ignition. Such devices can also be relatively complex and costly.
There are also a number of recent battery cable clamp breaker devices that include a pyrotechnic device (configured to ignite in response to an abnormal condition such as a collision of the vehicle containing the device) that physically drives apart two parts of the clamp or terminal so that they are no longer electrically connected, such as in U.S. Pat. No. 5,725,399 to Albiez et al. and U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,818,121, 6,144,111, and 6,171,121 to Krappel et al. This type of device is generally capable of deploying quickly, e.g., in the case of a collision so as to reduce the chance of an electrical fire in the damaged vehicle irrespective of whether the conditions would rapidly cause a conventional fuse to blow. Yet such devices are in general a relatively complex, costly, and/or bulky way to provide the function of pyrotechnically-induced circuit breaking. Moreover, such devices do not intrinsically involve a conventional (i.e., current load-based) fuse, so if it were desired to also retain the conventional function of current load-based breaking in such a circuit breaker, a conventional fuse would need to be added as a distinct additional component, thus rendering the resulting device yet more complicated and costly.
Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 3,991,649 to Patrichi and U.S. Pat. No. 5,877,563 to Krappel et al. teach circuit breaker devices in which a pyrotechnic device is used to propel a cutter through a wire or to unplug a connector. Neither patent, however, teaches the pyrotechnically-driven breaking of a current load-based fuse in a circuit.


A lane recognition image processing apparatus can improve lane marking recognition performance by preventing false detection by addition of a condition without changing the basic principle of an one-dimensional image filter. A search area is set for each lane marking with respect to images stored in a image storage part through a window. A candidate point extraction part extracts candidate points of each lane marking from the search area thus set. A lane marking mathematical model equation is derived by approximating sets of extracted candidate points by a mathematical model equation. The candidate point extraction part includes a kernel size setting part, a filtering part that outputs, as a filtering result, the smaller of differences between the gray value of a pixel of interest and those of pixels forwardly and rearwardly apart a kernel size from the pixel of interest in a scanning direction, respectively, and a binarization part that binarizes the filtering result.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lane recognition image processing apparatus which is installed on a vehicle for recognizing a lane of a road based on the sensed or picked-up image of lane markings on the road on which the vehicle is travelling, and which is applied to an advanced vehicle control system such as a lane departure warning system (LDWS) intended for use with preventive safety of the vehicle such as an automobile, a lane keeping system (LKS) serving the purpose of reducing a cognitive load on drivers, etc. More particularly, the invention relates to a technique capable of improving reliability in the result of the recognition by providing vehicle lateral or transverse position information in the lane.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a conventional lane recognition image processing apparatus, there has been known one using an image filter (for example, see a first patent document: Japanese patent application laid-open No. H10-320549 (JP, H10-320549, A)).
This type of image filter is constructed of a relatively simple circuit that can extract an area of a gray scale picture or image which is brighter than its surroundings and which is less than or equal to a predetermined width.
The processing disclosed in the above-mentioned first patent document is called a one-dimensional image filtering process in which the gray value g(h) of a pixel of interest is compared with the gray values g (h−Δh) and g (h+Δh) of pixels distant a kernel size Δh from the pixel of interest forwardly and rearwardly in a search scanning direction, and the smaller value of the differences {g (h)−g (h−Δh)} and {g (h)−g (h+Δh)} thus obtained is made to be a filter output value.
In the conventional lane recognition image processing apparatus, when the forward view of the vehicle is taken by a camera installed thereon in a direction in which the vehicle is travelling, objects on an image thus taken become linearly smaller toward a vanishing point. Therefore, when the width of the neighborhood of the pixel of interest (i.e., a kernel size Δh) to be referenced or viewed by a one-dimensional image filter is fixed, the actual width of an area extracted by the filter increases linearly in accordance with the increasing distance thereof from the camera. Accordingly, in case where a lane marking of a predetermined width on a road is detected as a physical quantity, the possibility of the presence of objects other than the lane marking becomes higher as the distance from the camera increases, so there arises a problem that reliability in the result of the recognition of a distant portion of the lane marking, which is needed to exactly grasp the shape of the road, is reduced.
In addition, when the image filter for use with the extraction of lane markings is applied to an road image that includes noise components of high intensity in a range on the road, there will be another possibility of misdetecting noise portions as lane markings. In particular, in case where a binarization threshold is controlled to decrease so as to extract degraded or thinned lane markings, or where a search area includes only high-intensity noise components but no lane marking such as in the case of discontinuous portions of an intermittent lane marking, there will be a problem that noise can be misdetected with a very high possibility.
Moreover, in the case of using a CMOS image sensor as an image sensing means, the CMOS image sensor is superior to a CCD image sensor with respect to the reduction in size and cost of peripheral circuits, but has a lower S/N ratio, so there is a higher possibility that the images taken by the CMOS image sensor contain noise. Accordingly, when the binarization threshold of the image filter is controlled as usual with respect to the images taken by the CMOS image sensor, the noise component passes through the filter, thus giving rise to a problem of decreasing lane marking recognition performance
Further, in recent years, CMOS image sensors with a wide dynamic range are being developed, and intermittent high intensity parts are becoming visually recognizable. However, when an image made to have a wide dynamic range is expressed as a gray scale image of a plurality of gradations (for instance, 256 steps), the entire image becomes a low contrast, so there arises a problem that in the ordinary control of the binarization threshold, it is often difficult to extract lane markings.
Furthermore, in the conventional lane recognition image processing apparatus, lane markings are extracted by using one binarization threshold with respect to one image. Thus, in general, the contrast in the output result of the image filter is high in near regions and low in distance regions, so there is a problem that in the case of extracting lane markings by the use of a single binarization threshold, it is impossible to extract a distance lane marking though a near lane marking can be extracted.
In addition, even if the binarization threshold is simply controlled to decrease in accordance with the increasing distance, there will happen a situation where the contrast can be varied at a distant or near location due to the shades of road structures depending upon the road-surrounding environment.
Moreover, in setting a window, in order to set the position of the window at a location including a lane marking and properly limit the size of the window, it is appropriate to set a current window based on the last window position calculated from a lane marking mathematical model equation, but in a situation where the number of extracted candidate points is limited and a lane marking mathematical model equation cannot be derived (i.e., the state of lane markings being lost sight of), there exists no setting reference position, so it is necessary to set a window of a wide or large size so as to search for a lane marking from the entire screen. At this time, an extended period of time for processing is required due to a wide or large search area. Therefore, it takes time for the condition to return from a lane marking lost-sight state to a lane marking recognition state, thus posing a problem that the performance of the lane recognition image processing apparatus is reduced to a substantial extent.
Further, in lane recognition image processing, it has been proposed to extract top-hat shapes (i.e., having a constant width and a luminance higher than that of the road surface) by using a one-dimensional image filter. However, such a proposal has a problem in that with respect to images of low contrast or images of low S/N ratios taken by an image sensor of a wide dynamic range, there is a possibility of misdetecting objects other than lane markings, and that once a lane marking is lost sight of, it takes time until recognition of the lane marking is restored.

Lane recognition image processing apparatus


Accesses to critical tokens are monitored and malicious changes to the security privileges of those critical tokens are detected and prevented.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the protection of computer systems. More particularly, the present invention relates to detection and prevention of malicious changes to tokens, such as access tokens.
2. Description of Related Art
Spyware is typically a software application that covertly gathers information about a user's computer related activity and transmits that information to a third party. Spyware is typically bundled with another program, such as a freeware or a shareware program, and installed on a user's computer system without the user's knowledge or permission. As spyware operates covertly, it is generally viewed as malicious code.
Similar to spyware, adware is typically a software application bundled with another software program and loaded onto a user's computer. Adware typically generates advertising, such as pop-ups and banners, while the other software program is running. While adware is generally identified in an agreement provided to the user and is noticeable due to the advertising presence, some adware also gathers information about the user's computer related activity and provides the information to a third party, and thus in some instances is spyware disguised as adware.
As both spyware and adware are generally unwanted and often invade a user's privacy, user's are increasingly using computer security software, sometimes called anti-spyware or anti-adware software, to detect and remove the spyware and adware applications from the computer system. Recently, however, some spyware and adware programs have begun to implement malicious code like features to protect themselves from computer security applications that detect and attempt to remove them.

Method and apparatus to detect and prevent malicious changes to tokens


A control device for an internal combustion engine includes first and second intake ports (16a, 16b) independent of each other, and first and second fuel injection valves (30a, 30b) provided for the first and second intake ports (16a, 16b), respectively, in each cylinder. Under a situation where an exhaust variable valve mechanism (38) is controlled such that a first exhaust valve (32a) is opened earlier than a second exhaust valve (32b), first and second air-fuel ratios A/F1, A/F2 are respectively obtained in a first half and a second half of an exhaust stroke. When the obtained first air-fuel ratio A/F1 (or the second air-fuel ratio A/F2) is lean, a fuel injection amount in a next cycle by the first or second fuel injection valve (30a, 30b) corresponding to the first air-fuel ratio A/F1 (or the second air-fuel ratio A/F2) that is lean is reduced.

Conventionally, for example, Patent Document 1 discloses an air-fuel ratio learning control device for an internal combustion engine that includes a fuel injection valve for each of two intake ports provided in each cylinder. In order to separately learn and correct deviations of injection characteristics of the two fuel injection valves in the each cylinder, this conventional control device executes following control. More specifically, the two fuel injection valves in the each cylinder are arranged to be temporarily driven one after another, and, based on air-fuel ratio feedback correction amounts before and after the other injection valve stops injection, the deviation of the injection characteristic of the each fuel injection valve in the cylinder to be learned is learned independently by using output of an air-fuel ratio sensor disposed in an exhaust passage.
As in the internal combustion engine described in Patent Document 1, in the internal combustion engine that includes the fuel injection valve for each of the plural intake ports provided independent of each other in each cylinder, an amount of fuel that flows together with air from the each intake port into the cylinder can vary in each cycle due to factors such as adhesion of the fuel to the each intake port or the like and the deviation in the injection characteristic of the each fuel injection valve. However, in a method described in Patent Document 1, if the plural (two, for example) fuel injection valves in the each cylinder are simultaneously driven, it is impossible to detect the variation in the amount of the fuel for the each intake port per cycle that is injected by the each fuel injection valve and flows from the each intake port into the cylinder. In addition, as in the method described in Patent Document 1, if the fuel is injected only from one of the fuel injection valves to learn the deviation in the injection characteristic thereof, it is concerned that the fuel supplied to the cylinder becomes unbalanced (becomes inconsistent) and that fuel economy and exhaust emission (THC, CO, and the like) may be worsened.
In addition to the above document, the applicant recognizes the following documents to be related to the present invention.

Control device for internal combustion engine


Playing an interactive multimedia presentation involves pre-rendering a media object at certain times based on a frame rate of the interactive content, a frame rate of the video content (which may include video, audio, data, or any combination thereof), and a play speed of the presentation. Certain actions taken include calculating a current elapsed play time representing an amount of the presentation's play duration that has passed. Based on the calculated time, a current interactive content presentation time is ascertained from an interactive content timeline. The interactive content timeline represents times at which the media object is presentable. A subsequent interactive content presentation time is selected from the interactive content timeline. The presentation state of the media object is predicted for the subsequent interactive content presentation time. The media object is pre-rendered within a time offset period before the subsequent interactive content presentation time occurs.

Multimedia players are devices that render combinations of video, audio or data content ("multimedia presentations") for consumption by users. Multimedia players such as DVD players currently do not provide for much, if any, user interactivity during play of video content—video content play is generally interrupted to receive user inputs other than play speed adjustments. For example, a user of a DVD player must generally stop the movie he is playing to return to a menu that includes options allowing him to select and receive features such as audio commentary, actor biographies, or games.
Interactive multimedia players are devices (such devices may include hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof) that render combinations of interactive content concurrently with traditional video, audio or data content ("interactive multimedia presentations"). Although any type of device may be an interactive multimedia player, devices such as optical media players (for example, DVD players), computers and other electronic devices are particularly well positioned to enable the creation of, and consumer demand for, commercially valuable interactive multimedia presentations because they provide access to large amounts of relatively inexpensive, portable data storage.
Interactive content is generally any user-selectable visible or audible object presentable alone or concurrently with other video, audio or data content. One kind of visible object is a graphical object, such as a circle, that may be used to identify and/or follow certain things within video content—people, cars, or buildings that appear in a movie, for example. One kind of audible object is a click sound played to indicate that the user has selected a visible object, such as the circle, using a device such as a remote control or a mouse. Other examples of interactive content include, but are not limited to, menus, captions, and animations.
To enhance investment in interactive multimedia players and interactive multimedia presentations, it is desirable to ensure accurate synchronization of the interactive content component of interactive multimedia presentations with the traditional video, audio or data content components of such presentations. Accurate synchronization generally prioritizes predictable and glitch-free play of the video, audio or data content components. For example, when a circle is presented around a car in a movie, the movie should generally not pause to wait for the circle to be drawn, and the circle should follow the car as it moves.
It will be appreciated that the claimed subject matter is not limited to implementations that solve any or all of the disadvantages of specific interactive multimedia presentation systems or aspects thereof.

Synchronization aspects of interactive multimedia presentation management


A system and method for identifying a customer's location at a business and provide notification to a company representative upon arrival of the customer at the business location. Real-time location determinations for the customer and customer location tracking can be provided. One or more wireless beacons communicate with the customer's electronic device. The beacons provide the system with real-time data about the customer's whereabouts, allowing for the confirmation and tracking of the customer at the location. A first non-limiting example of use, include a company that provides food and beverage allowing the customer to place an order for food and beverages on their electronic device and having the order delivered to the person at their current location as determined by the system. Another non-limiting example includes a company using the notification system to have assigned staff members notified of the customer's arrival.

The hospitality industry is highly competitive with companies always looking for competitive advantages, whether it be on price, features or customer service. In recent years, in an effort to differentiate themselves from other competitors, many hospitality companies such as Hotels, Restaurants and Casinos have implemented customer reward and tracking programs. These programs reward customers for a variety of reasons including, but not limited to, spending time at specific locations, spending money at specific locations and/or performing certain activities. Additionally, the reward programs provide a treasure trove of data for the companies on their customers, which assist in marketing efforts, administrative decisions and more.
Current systems require both the customer and company to proactively perform a task in order to be recognized at the location and receive the proper rewards program recognition. Most of the time this is done by the customer handing a card to a company representative and that card information then entered into an existing system. This process is often insufficient for proper tracking of the customer and it is to addressing or reducing these problems that the current disclosure is directed.

Electronic identification, location tracking, communication and notification system with beacon clustering


A mail opener comprises a cuffily device which is movable between an operating position and a retracted position where it is inoperative. The position of the cutting device is controllable by a drive device controlled by the postage meter. The arrangement is such that a single post station can be provided for both applying postage and opening mail. The post station incorporates a safety measure to prevent newly franked outgoing mail from being inadvertently opened or damaged by the mail opener.

This invention relates to mail opener apparatus for use in combination with a postage meter.
Mail opener devices are well known. Generally these devices comprise a cutting device, typically a blade, which is used to slice open a closed mail piece such as an envelope or a small package allowing the contents to be removed. Such cutting devices may be hand operated or driven by mechanical means.


An apparatus comprising a burst-mode laser comprising an active layer and configured to emit an optical signal during a burst period, wherein a temperature change of the burst-mode laser causes the optical signal to shift in wavelength, and a heater thermally coupled to the active layer and configured to reduce a wavelength shift of the optical signal during the burst period by applying heat to the active layer based on timing of the burst period.

Passive optical networks (PONs) have user or customer end devices and operator end devices in communication with each other. PONs may employ time-division multiplexing, in which end users share a wavelength in different time periods to communicate with the operator end (e.g., optical line termination (OLT)) via an upstream link. Accordingly, some transmitters on the user or customer side, such as those in an optical network unit (ONU), may have lasers working in a burst mode. In the burst mode, an ONU transmitter may be assigned a small time period and may send upstream signals only within its own time period. At other times, the ONU transmitter may have a bias current (or voltage) below its threshold current value (e.g., zero bias current), and therefore stay inactive.
When a burst-mode laser is enabled, it may emit or transmit an optical signal, on which radio frequency (RF) signals may be added. During emission, a temperature of the laser chip may increase slowly, causing the optical wavelength to drift or shift. In a time- and wavelength-division multiplexing (TWDM)-PON system that shares both time and wavelengths, multiple wavelengths may be used in both a downstream direction and an upstream direction. In the upstream direction, for example, a demultiplexer (DeMUX) may be used to separate different wavelengths sent from multiple ONUs. Each output channel in the DeMUX, similar to a filter, may have pass bands of various shapes such as a flat shape or a Gaussian shape. The wavelength shift of an optical signal during a burst period may cause problems at the filter. For example, if the peak-intensity wavelength of the optical signal is close to an edge of the filter pass band, after wavelength shift a portion of the optical signal may be filtered out because the shifted wavelength falls out of the pass band. The optical signal may consequently vary in power, which may cause data error problems. Therefore, the wavelength shift of burst-mode lasers is a problem to be solved.

Thermal compensation for burst-mode laser wavelength drift


The invention relates to crystalline salts of the compound (E)-7-[4-(4-fluorophenyl)isopropyl-2-[methyl(methylsulfonyl)amino]pyrimidin-5-yl]-(3R,5S)-3,5-dihydroxyhept-6-enoic acid of formula (I), as well as processes for their manufacture, pharmaceutical compositions containing them, and their uses

The present invention relates to pyrimidine derivatives, and more particularly to novel crystalline salts of (E)-7-[4-(4-fluorophenyl)-6-isopropyl-2-[methyl(methylsulfonyl)amino]pyrimidin-5-yl]-(3R,5S)-3,5-dihydroxyhept-6-enoic acid of the formula
which are useful as inhibitors of the enzyme 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A reductase (HMG CoA reductase) and as intermediates in the manufacture of, for example, the non-crystalline calcium salt of (E)-7-[4-(4-fluorophenyl)-6-isopropyl-2-[methyl(methylsulfonyl)amino]pyrimnidin-5-yl]-(3R,5S)-3,5-dihydroxyhept-6-enoic acid of the formula

The invention also concerns pharmaceutical compositions which include the crystalline salts, as well as processes for the manufacture of the crystalline salts. The invention further concerns methods of treating medical conditions in which HMG CoA reductase is implicated using the crystalline salts, for example hyperlipidemia, hypercholesterolemia and atherosclerosis, and the use of the crystalline salts in the manufacture of a medicament. The invention further concerns the use of the crystalline salts in the manufacture of the non-crystalline calcium salt of (E)-7-[4-(4-fluorophenyl)-6-isopropyl-2-[methyl(methylsulfonyl)amino]pyrimidin-5-yl]-(3R,5S)-3,5-dihydroxyhept-6-enoic acid.
European Patent Application, Publication No. 521471 (hereinafter EPA 521471), discloses an amorphous (powder) form of the calcium salt of (E)-7-[4-(4-fluorophenyl)-6-isopropyl-2-[methyl(methylsulfonyl)amino]pyrimidin-5-yl]-(3R,5S)-3,5-dihydroxyhept-6-enoic acid, and the sodium salt is obtained therein as "powdery crystals". These salts are HMG CoA reductase inhibitors and the calcium salt is undergoing clinical trials.
A powdery or amorphous form of a compound intended for pharmaceutical use may give rise to manufacturing problems and there is therefore a need to identify alternative salts of (E)-7-[4-(4-fluorophenyl)-6-isopropyl-2-[methyl(methylsulfonyl)amino]pyrimidin-5-yl]-(3R,5S)-3,5-dihydroxyhept-6-enoic acid which are crystalline. Such crystalline salts can generally be purified more easily than an amorphous form and may possess other advantageous properties. A difficulty is also experienced in obtaining pure amorphous calcium salt using the procedure disclosed in EPA 521471, because of the difficulty in purification of the precursor sodium salt arising from its physical form. A further feature of the crystalline salts is that they can also advantageously be used as intermediates in the manufacture of the non-crystalline calcium salt, to enable isolation of non-crystalline calcium salt with a purity level and uniformity suitable for formulation to meet exacting pharmaceutical requirements and specifications.

Crystalline salts of 7-′4-(4-fluorophenyl) -6-isopropyl-2-′methyl (methylsulfonyl) amino!pyrimidin-5-yl!- (3R, 5S) -3, 5-dihydroxyhept-6-enoic acid


The invention concerns a stylus for use with a digitizing tablet, such as that associated with the display of a portable computer. The stylus contains memory which stores data such as operating state (i.e., states of user-controlled buttons, state of charge of battery), a stylus identification code, and fault codes, which indicate error conditions which arise. The invention transmits the contents of memory, by a serial bit stream, to the computer.

Pen-based portable computers contain digitizing tablets, usually coinciding with the computer's display, by which a user enters information, using a stylus. The stylus transmits a position signal, by which the computer ascertains the position of the stylus.
In addition to transmission of a position signal, the present invention transmits other data indicative of operating conditions of the stylus.


A static gas turbine component includes an inner and an outer annular support member and a plurality of circumferentially spaced radial struts arranged between the support members for transmitting structural loads. Each of a plurality of the struts includes a load carrying core rigidly fixed to both the inner and the outer support member forming a unitary carcass with the support members, an impact resistant shell surrounding the core, and an energy absorbing material arranged between the core and the shell.

The present invention relates to a static gas turbine component comprising an inner and an outer annular support member and a plurality of circumferentially spaced radial struts arranged between said support members for transmitting structural loads. The invention also relates to a method for repairing the static gas turbine component.
The gas turbine component may be used in stationary gas turbine engines, but is especially advantageous for aircraft jet engines. Jet engine is meant to include various types of engines, which admit air at relatively low velocity, heat it by combustion and shoot it out at a much higher velocity. Accommodated within the term jet engine are, for example, turbojet engines and turbo-fan engines. The invention will below be described for a turbo-fan engine, but may of course also be used for other engine types.
An aircraft gas turbine engine of the turbofan type generally comprises a forward fan and booster compressor, a middle core engine, and an aft low pressure power turbine. The core engine comprises a high pressure compressor, a combustor and a high pressure turbine in a serial relationship. The high pressure compressor and high pressure turbine of the core engine are interconnected by a high pressure shaft. The high-pressure compressor, turbine and shaft essentially form a high pressure rotor. The high-pressure compressor is rotatably driven to compress air entering the core engine to a relatively high pressure. This high pressure air is then mixed with fuel in the combustor and ignited to form a high energy gas stream. The gas stream flows aft and passes through the high-pressure turbine, rotatably driving it and the high pressure shaft which, in turn, rotatably drives the high pressure compressor.
The gas stream leaving the high pressure turbine is expanded through a second or low pressure turbine. The low pressure turbine rotatably drives the fan and booster compressor via a low pressure shaft, all of which form the low pressure rotor. The low pressure shaft extends through the high pressure rotor. Most of the thrust produced is generated by the fan. Engine frames are used to support and carry the bearings, which in turn, rotatably support the rotors. Conventional turbo fan engines have a fan frame, a mid-frame and an aft turbine frame.
The engine is mounted to the aircraft at a forwardly located fan frame forward mount on the fan frame and at a rearwardly located turbine frame aft mount on the turbine frame.
The structural strength of the gas turbine engine hinges upon a limited number of engine structures, also known as cases or housings. These structures therefore represent the skeleton of the engine. The structures are highly loaded during operation of the engine. The structures usually comprise a bearing house for the engine shafts, a gas flow channel in the form of an annular duct and radial struts which form the link between the inner and outer parts of the engine. Thus the air is forced rearwardly through the openings between adjacent struts. The inventive gas turbine component forms such a structure.
Aircraft engines should be as light as possible. In order to build as light engines as possible, the engine's non-rotating, load transmitting, structural parts should be as stiff and rigid as possible. One way of achieving this is to use composites due to the fact that they have a high specific stiffness and strength.
Aircraft engines must be able to work for different load cases and certain occurrences in order to operate safely. One specific problem is so-called Foreign Object Damage (FOD). One category of FOD's is when particles, birds or hail are sucked in through the engine intake and hit a strut (located either before or after the fan). If the strut is not arranged for transmitting loads during operation, deteriorated mechanical functionality may be accepted, but if the strut is arranged for transmitting loads during operation, it must either be sufficiently strong for enduring the operational loads with a deteriorated mechanical functionality or be repaired or exchanged.
Depending on the geometrical complexity and the risk for geometrically extended damages, it is difficult to make local repairs.
It is desirable to achieve a static gas turbine component comprising an inner annular support member, an outer annular support member and a plurality of circumferentially spaced radial struts arranged between said support members, with a design that creates conditions for easy repair when it has been damaged during use.
According to an aspect of the present invention, each of a plurality of said struts comprises a load carrying core rigidly fixed to both the inner and the outer support members forming a unitary carcass with the members, an impact resistant shell surrounding the core, and an energy absorbing material arranged between the core and the shell.
Thus, the carcass forms a unitary load transmitting structure. In the event of a foreign object colliding with a strut, the impact resistant shell is designed to withstand a smaller impact energy without being damaged. In the event of a larger impact energy, the shell will be severely damaged while the energy absorbing material will absorb a larger portion of the impact energy. In this way, the load transmitting core is protected even for large energy impacts. Thus, the carcass can be maintained intact during use.
The shell and the energy absorbing material are removably connected to the load transmitting carcass. Thus, when it is time for repair, the shell and the energy absorbing material are removed from the carcass, leaving the carcass homogeneous, ie in the form of one single piece. The shell is preferably removed mechanically, while the energy absorbing material may be removed mechanically or chemically.
A new impact resistant shell and a new energy absorbing material are thereafter applied to the cores of the used unitary carcass.
According to an aspect of the invention, the energy-absorbing material forms a continuous structure around the core. Thus, the energy-absorbing material completely surrounds the core in a cross section of the strut, forming a distance between the shell and the core around its complete circumference. In other words, the core is completely embedded in the energy-absorbing material.
According to an aspect of the invention, the energy absorbing material comprises a polymer composite. This creates conditions for a light, stiff and strong structure.
It is also desirable to achieve a time and/or cost efficient method for repairing the static gas turbine component.
According to an aspect of the present invention, after use of the component, the used impact resistant shell and the used energy absorbing material of each strut are removed from each core of the unitary carcass, and that a new impact resistant shell and a new energy absorbing material are applied to the cores of the used unitary carcass.
Further advantageous embodiments and further advantages of the invention emerge from the detailed description below.

Static gas turbine component and method for repairing such a component


A recombinant antibody in which at least the constant regions in the heavy chain and the light chain have been converted into human-origin regions and which inhibits the binding of an integrin recognizing the RGD sequence to osteopontin or its fragment and inhibits the binding of an integrin recognizing the SVVYGLR sequence or a sequence corresponding thereto to osteopontin or its fragment. This antibody is useful as a remedy for autoimmune diseases and a remedy for rheumatism or rheumatoid arthritis. Thus, a method of treating autoimmune diseases, rheumatism or rheumatoid arthritis is provided. This osteopontin antibody is useful in a diagnostic for rheumatism and a method of diagnosing rheumatism too.

Osteopontin (referred to as "OPN" hereinbelow) is an acidic, calcium-binding glycoprotein abundant in bone. It has been known that three types of human OPN isoforms namely osteopontin-a (referred to as "OPN-a" hereinbelow), osteopontin-b (referred to as "OPN-b" hereinbelow) and osteopontin-c (referred to as "OPN-c" hereinbelow) are naturally generated by alternative splicing (Y. Saitoh et al., (1995): Laboratory Investigation, 72, 55–63). It has been believed that among them, the precursor of OPN-a has an amino acid sequence shown below as SEQ ID NO. 1 in the Sequence Listing, where the signal peptide is cleaved on secretion, so that the mature form OPN-a of I17-N314 is prepared. Additionally, the mature OPN is cleaved at the C-terminal side of the 168-th residue arginine with thrombin in a biological organism into two fragments, namely N-terminal and C-terminal fragments.
OPN described above has various physiologically, pathologically significant functions, for example cell adhesion, cell migration, tumorigenesis, immune response and inhibition of complement-mediated cytolysis. Various types of receptors on cellular surface mediate the various functions. OPN has the RGD sequence therein (for example, OPN-a has the sequence from the residue at position 159 to the residue at position 161). Integrin species recognizing the RGD sequence such as αVβ3, αVβ1 and αVβ5 are major OPN receptors; specifically, the integrin species αVβ3, αVβ1 and αVβ5 mediate cell adhesion in vascular smooth muscle cells. Further, αVβ3 is involved in the migrations of macrophages, lymphocytes, endothelial cells, and smooth muscle cells and the like.
Further, research works so far have elucidated that OPN also binds through the sequence SVVYGLR (residues 11–17 of SEQ ID NO: 1) to α9β1, α4β1 and α4β7 integrin species and that a difference in the mode is also found such that α4β1 binds to both OPN not yet cleaved with thrombin (non-cleavage-type OPN) and the N-terminal fragment of thrombin-cleaved OPN (cleavage-type OPN), while α9β1 binds only to the thrombin-cleavage-type OPN. (Y. Yokosaki et al., (1999): The Journal of Biological Chemistry 274, 36328–36334/P. M. Green et al., (2001): FEBS Letters 503, 75–79/S. T. Barry et al., (2000): Experimental Cell Research 258, 342–351). These integrin subunits α9 and α4 or the integrin subunits β1 and β7 are highly similar in terms of amino acid sequence to each other. Additionally, the integrin species α4β1 and α4β7 are mainly found in lymphocytes and monocytes, while in neutrophils, the integrin species are expressed very slightly. Alternatively, α9β1 is highly expressed selectively in neutrophils and has functions essential for neutrophil migration through VCAM-1 and Tenascin-C. Additionally, the integrin is also expressed diversely in muscular cells, epithelial cells and liver cells and the like. As described above, the cytoplasm domains of the integrin subunits α4 and α9 cooperatively promote leukocyte migration toward inflammatory sites and aggregation therein, via individual cellular signal transmission pathways subtly differing from each other, to enhance their infiltration activities. In such manner, the integrin subunits are involved in various inflammatory reactions.
As described above, various types of integrin species promote leukocyte migration and are thus involved in inflammatory reactions. Therefore, pharmaceutical substances inhibiting these integrin activities may have a potential usefulness as an anti-inflammatory agent. For example, the integrin αVβ3 is expressed in osteoclast cells, vascular endothelial cells and smooth muscle cells and the like. An anti-αVβ3 antibody is now under way of development, which will work to inhibit the binding between the integrin αVβ3 and various binding ligands thereof to potentially exert for example an action to suppress articular damages.
Because receptors of the integrin family commonly emerge in diverse tissues to provide essential functions for the control of vital activities, however, the use of antibodies against integrin for the therapeutic treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis may possibly elicit the same inhibition at other sites and may also cause the occurrence of side effects.
Additionally, WO 01/71358 discloses a screening method for a substance inhibiting the binding between the α4 integrin and osteopontin and a method for therapeutically treating inflammatory diseases, using the substance recovered by such screening.
Various factors have been indicated for the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis. Thus, many reports have been issued therefor. However, not any of them is reliable. Further, currently known therapeutic methods thereof are nosotropic and have not been essentially satisfactory.
Hence, it has been strongly desired to definitely elucidate the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis and provide a more excellent therapeutic method thereof. It is an object of the invention to solve such problems.
Further, rheumatoid arthritis is hardly discriminated from osteoarthritis. Therefore, it is an additional object of the invention to provide a diagnostic method thereof.
The inventors found that the OPN concentration in the articular cavity fluids of rheumatism patients and osteoarthritis patients was at a higher value. Additionally, the inventors found the increase of the ratio of the N-terminal fragment of the thrombin-cleavage type in the total OPN in rheumatism patients for the first time. Thus, the inventors speculated that OPN might be deeply involved in the onset of these diseases. Then, the inventors verified the findings at experiments using OPN knockout mice.
Further, the inventors prepared antibodies individually recognizing the N-terminal fragment and the C-terminal fragment discriminatively from the thrombin-cleaved OPN. Then, the inventors found at experiments using them that the N-terminal fragment of the thrombin-cleaved OPN was at a high concentration in the articular cavity fluids of patients with rheumatoid arthritis, in particular.
Still further, the inventors focused their attention to the fact that the N-terminal fragment of high concentration is observed in the case of the patients with rheumatoid arthritis, and the fragment contains both the RGD and the SVVYGLR (residues 11–17 of SEQ ID NO: 1) sequence sites capable of being recognized by human-type integrin. Then, the inventors anticipated that an antibody capable of blocking both the sequence sites simultaneously would inhibit the binding between OPN and integrin so broadly that the antibody could be effective for the therapeutic treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis.
Further, OPN is distributed in kidney, placenta, ovary, brain, skin and the like, but is mainly expressed in bone tissue. The inventors considered that for the therapeutic treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, the binding between OPN and integrin would preferably be blocked by a method more specific to the OPN side. Because the diverse integrin species might be involved in inflammation in a cooperative manner, then, the inventors considered that it would be effective to more broadly block the binding to these diverse integrin species.
Therefore, the inventors prepared an antibody which can inhibit the binding between the RGD sequence site of human OPN and integrin and also the binding between the SVVYGLR (residues 11–17 of SEQ ID NO: 1) sequence site of human OPN and integrin, and then verified the effects thereof at experiments for cell adhesion and cell migration and the like. Further, the inventors recovered an antibody against a synthetic peptide corresponding to the inner sequence of murine OPN, to examine the efficacy of such antibody as a therapeutic agent, using an arthritis-diseased model in mouse.
More specifically, because murine OPN has the sequences RGD and SLAYGLR (SEQ ID NO: 52) recognizable by murine integrin, which are located at positions homologous to human OPN in terms of amino acid sequence, an antibody M5 was recovered as an antibody simultaneously blocking these sequences. It was verified that the binding of the antibody M5 with murine OPN and the thrombin digestion products thereof was inhibited by the peptide GRGDSP (SEQ ID NO: 55) including the sequence RGD and that the antibody M5 inhibited the migration of TNF-α-activated monocyte derived from murine spleen. It was also observed that the antibody M5 had an action to suppress bone damage when examined in a murine calvaria organ culture system. Further, it was confirmed that the antibody had an apparent therapeutic effect when administered to a murine collagen arthritis model.
The aforementioned results strongly suggest that the antibody, which can simultaneously block the binding of the RGD and SVVYGLR (residues 11–17 of SEQ ID NO: 1) sequence sites with human-type integrin, can inhibit the binding between OPN and integrin so as to be effective for the therapeutic treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and the like. Furthermore, the results suggest that the antibody can possibly be effective not only for rheumatism such as juvenile articular rheumatism and chronic rheumatism but also for psoriatic arthritis and psoriasis. Furthermore, chronic rejections after organ transplantation are characterized by complication with vascular and bronchial occlusive disorders. The results of histological examinations thereof suggest that activation of T cell and macrophage triggers generation of cytokine and growth factors, leading to disorders of vascular endothelial cell and proliferation of vascular smooth muscle cell which may lead to, via fibrogenesis and the like, vascular occlusion (P. Freese et al., (2001): Nephrol Dial Transplant, 16, 2401–2406/J. R. Waller et al., (2001): British Journal of Surgery, 88, 1429–1441/S. R. Lehtonen et al., (2001): Transplantation, 72, 1138–1144). And it is reported that OPN has an essential function for macrophage activation and fibrogenesis of vascular smooth muscle cell (A. O'Regan et al., (2000): Int J Exp Pathol, 81, 373–390). Thus, the OPN inhibitory antibody of the invention suppresses the migration of monocyte and neutrophil, thereby possibly suppressing a process toward such fibrogenesis. Thus, the antibody suppresses chronic rejections after organ transplantation, with the resultant contributions to organ adhesion. Additionally, the antibody will be effective for the therapeutic treatment of autoimmune diseases including systemic autoimmune diseases, erythematosus, uveitis, Behcet disease, multiple myositis, skein proliferative nephritis, sarcoidosis and the like.
Based on the above mentioned findings, the inventors found an anti-osteopontin antibody, which can inhibit the binding between an integrin recognizing the site of the amino acid sequence RGD and osteopontin or a fragment thereof, and can also inhibit the binding between an integrin recognizing the site of the amino acid sequence SVVYGLR (residues 11–17 of SEQ ID NO: 1) or a corresponding sequence thereto and osteopontin or a fragment thereof. The inventors filed an international application (PCT/JP02/03382) about the antibody.

Recombinant anti-osteopontin antibody and use thereof

Juridical Foundation the Chemo-sero-therapeutic Research Institute


A urethral cap is provided for alleviating urinary incontinence when attached to the body of the user. The cap has at least a partially deformable cap body with a hand gripping portion and a body contacting encircling surface. The body defines a chamber so as to allow for a vacuum seal when applied to the body so that there is an atmospheric air pressure seal between the urethral cap and the body to prevent urinary flow beyond the urethral cap.

Urinary incontinence, such as stress incontinence, in females is a substantial problem throughout the world. A variety of mechanisms have been suggested for use to alleviate the condition which can be a social as well as medical problem to those afflicted with the problem.
Many suggested medical devices to alleviate urinary incontinence in females require the use of internal components such as catheters, balloons, pessary or the like which pass into the urethra and are positioned within the body in use. Such internal components can be a source of irritation to the body and is in some cases can result in infection or other unwanted body reactions. Moreover, such devices as are known can be expensive and/or inconvenient to use and transport for use.


Silicon-germanium-based compositions comprising silicon, germanium, and carbon (i.e., Si--Ge--C), methods for growing Si--Ge--C epitaxial layer(s) on a substrate, etchants especially suitable for Si--Ge--C etch-stops, and novel methods of use for Si--Ge--C compositions are provided. In particular, the invention relates to Si--Ge--C compositions, especially for use as etch-stops and related processes and etchants useful for microelectronic and nanotechnology fabrication.

The present invention relates to silicon-germanium-based compositions comprising silicon, germanium and carbon (Si--Ge--C), methods for growing Si--Ge--C epitaxial layer(s) on a substrate, etchants especially suitable for Si--Ge--C etch-stops, and novel methods of use for Si--Ge--C compositions. In particular, the present invention relates to Si--Ge--C compositions, especially for use as etch-stops, related processes and etchants useful for microelectronic and nanotechnology fabrication.
The invention was made with U.S. Government support under (i) Phase I SBIR N00014-93-C-0114 awarded by the Office of Naval Research (BMDO), (ii) F49620-93-C-0018 awarded by AFOSR (DARPA), and (iii) DMR-9115680 awarded by the National Science Foundation, and the Government has certain rights in the invention.
In etching we remove a film or layer from a substrate, in some instances defining the layer to be removed by photolithography. One way to etch is to immerse the substrate in a bath of some chemical that attacks the film. Preferably, the chemical should react with and etch the film or layer in a smooth and reproducible manner, producing soluble products that can be carried away from the substrate. In particular, an ideal etchant will not attack any layer underneath the film being etched, so that the etch process will be self-limiting. Unfortunately, the etching is often not self-limiting and therefore goes below the desired depth. Etch-stops are designed to address this problem.
Semiconductors have the interesting property that when they are alloyed with certain elements, the rate of wet chemical etch in the alloy will vary from that of the unalloyed semiconductor. Alloys with different etch rates can be used to cause etching to slow at a pre-defined interface. Typically, a layer with a particular composition etches at a known rate in an etchant A second adjacent layer may etch at a different rate because it has a different composition. The layer with the lower etch rate is often referred to as the etch-stop layer.
Etch-stops are used to fabricate devices for a wide variety of applications. Membranes and diaphragms formed via etch-stops are used in sensors such as pressure transducers, as elements in experimental x-ray lithography systems, as windows for high energy radiation, and as low thermal mass supports for microcalorimeter and bolometric radiation detectors. Additional uses for selective etch-stops are in micromachining applications such as accelerometers, gears, micro-beams, miniature fluid lines, pumps and valves, and in flow sensors. Another application with a potentially large commercial market is in fabricating silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrates by the bond-and-etch-back silicon-on-insulator (BESOI) process.
Silicon-based selective chemical etch-stop layers such as Si--B, Si--Ge, Si--Ge--B, Si--P, and Si--As have major problems and disadvantages which are overcome by the present invention. The disadvantages can be illustrated by examining examples pertaining to the commonly used Si--Ge--B etch-stops. First, the specially doped layer (e.g., Si--Ge--B) and the lightly doped silicon have limited selectivity. Selectivity is defined as the etch rate of lightly doped silicon divided by the etch rate of the etch-stop layer, or in some cases its reciprocal as discussed below. Limited selectivity increases the manufacturing cost by creating a need for tightly controlled, and sometimes labor-intensive processing to prevent the etch from going beyond the intended depth. This problem is exacerbated when fabricating the thin layers that are required for submicron electronic devices.
Certain chemical solutions etch a lightly doped silicon layer more rapidly than a heavily doped layer. For this purpose lightly doped means less than approximately 1E17 dopant atoms per cm.sup.3, and heavily doped means more than approximately 1E19 dopant atoms per cm.sup.3. For example, 21 weight percent (wt %) potassium hydroxide in H.sub.2 O (KOH--H.sub.2 O) at about 70.degree. C. etches the (100) plane of lightly doped silicon rapidly (approximately 1 micrometer per minute), but the etch rate becomes slow (less than 0.01 micrometer per minute), making possible selective etching, as the boron concentration in the silicon increases to more than about 5E19 atoms per cm.sup.3.
The conventional formulations of these etchants have serious problems when used with the above-mentioned etch-stop layers. For example, KOH--H.sub.2 0, an inexpensive etchant, is prone to producing a rough surface when it etches silicon. Ethylenediamine pyrocatechol in water (EDP--H.sub.2 O) provides somewhat better etch selectivity and is less prone to developing surface roughness than KOH--H.sub.2 O, but has limited application in that it emits extremely toxic vapors and is relatively expensive. Another etchant, cesium hydroxide in water (CsOH--H.sub.2 O), can provide smoother surfaces than KOH--H.sub.2 O for conventional etch-stop layers but is even more expensive than EDP--H.sub.2 O.
Surface roughness arises from the anisotropic etch properties of the solutions that preferentially etch lightly doped silicon. These solutions etch certain crystallographic directions in the material faster than other directions. For example, a chemical solution consisting of 21 wt % KOH--H.sub.2 O at 70.degree. C. will rapidly etch the (100) plane of lightly doped silicon, but only slowly etch the (111) plane. This leads to the etched surface being rough as illustrated in FIGS. 1A-B. As shown in FIG. 1A, a solution of KOH--H.sub.2 O (11) will rapidly etch lightly doped silicon (12). If a small particle such as particle (13) adheres to the surface of the lightly doped silicon (12), the etch rate will be locally retarded under the particle (13). Slow etching planes (14) on the (111) plane will form as the particle (13) is undercut by the etch solution. This leads to the formation of a slow-etching pyramid under the particle (13). If the etch selectivity is not sufficiently high, these pyramids will propagate into the etch-stop layer (15), shown in FIG. 1A as peaks (16), resulting in a rough surface.
Another problem with conventional etch-stop compositions, especially those containing a high boron concentration, is they leave an insoluble staining residue on the surface of the substrate. This residue both roughens and contaminates the substrate surface. Increasing the KOH concentration of the etch solution, for example, from 21 wt % to 40 wt % will eliminate the surface staining, but will also substantially decrease the etch selectivity.
In contrast to the above etchants, conventional formulations of 1:3:8 and 1:3:12 parts by volume of HF--NHO.sub.3 --CH.sub.3 COOH (HNA) etch lightly doped silicon somewhat less rapidly than heavily doped silicon and are therefore used preferentially to remove etch-stop layers. In this case, selectivity is defined as the etch rate of the etch-stop layer divided by the etch rate of the lightly doped silicon. The above formulations of HNA have major drawbacks, including relatively low selectivity, and selectivity decreasing rapidly with time during etching due to reduction of the HNO.sub.3 to HNO.sub.2.
Still another problem with conventional etch-stop compositions is that the impurity which provides the etch selectivity is also a donor or acceptor dopant in the silicon. Thus, for example, when a Si--Ge--B etch-stop is used to fabricate a BESOI substrate, boron diffusing out from the etch-stop layer during a bonding anneal causes unwanted electrically active dopant in the device layer. This problem is illustrated in FIGS. 2A-B which show concentration profiles of boron and germanium as a function of depth in a substrate layer, an etch-stop layer, and a device layer, before a bonding anneal (FIG. 2A) and after the anneal (FIG. 2B). FIG. 2A illustrates the boron (21) and germanium (22) concentration profiles in the substrate (23), the etch-stop layer (24), and in the device layer (25) after epitaxial layer growth and before the bonding anneal. FIG. 2B shows the changed boron (26) and germanium (27) concentration profiles after the bonding anneal. Because boron diffuses through the material faster than germanium during the bonding anneal, its profile is broadened such that significant "diffusion tails" extend from the etch-stop layer into the substrate (23) and the device layer (25). In a BESOI structure, the boron diffusion tail causes an unacceptable level of electrically active dopant to exist in the device layer (25).
There are reports in the literature of Si--Ge--C layer fabrication. However, to the best of applicants' knowledge, none of the existing processes for forming Si--Ge--C are suitable for producing Si--Ge--C layers as part of a large scale manufacturing process. Feijoo et al., Etch Stop Barriers in Silicon Produced by Ion Implantation of Electrically Non-Active Species, Journal of the Electrochemical Society (1992) describe silicon layers implanted with silicon, germanium, and carbon at doses between 1E14 and 3E16 ions/cm.sup.2 and energies between 35 and 200 keV and testing them as etch-stop barriers in an EDP--H.sub.2 O based solution (p. 2309, Abstract). When ions are implanted in this range of dose and energies, the lattice structure is damaged. Feijoo states the results obtained indicate that the effectiveness of the etch-stop is influenced (i.e., improved) by both the implantation damage and the chemical interaction between the implanted ions and the defective crystal (Abstract). The resulting damage greatly restricts the number of useful commercial applications for Feijoo's etch-stop barriers. Accordingly, Feijoo's methods and results are substantially different from the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,885,614 to Furukawa et al., Semiconductor Device with Crystalline Silicon-Germanium-Carbon Alloy, describes another process of producing a silicon-germanium-carbon alloy film principally by molecular beam epitaxy, but also by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (CVD), photoenhanced CVD, microwave-excited CVD, thermal CVD and metal-organic CVD methods. Molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) might provide good crystalline quality, but it is a slow and expensive process. With regard to a description of the thermal CVD process (col. 10, lines 37-43) Furukawa describes that the surface of a silicon substrate was cleaned and the temperature thereof adjusted to 650.degree. C. Gaseous SiH.sub.4, GeH.sub.4 and CH.sub.4 were allegedly introduced into a reactor so as to give a total pressure of 100 torr. Thus, a Si--Ge--C alloy film was purportedly formed on the substrate by a thermal CVD method. However, applicants believe methane at the stated process temperature is far too stable to function as a carbon source for thermal CVD formation of the silicon-germanium-carbon film. Further, Furukawa et al. do not recognize or discuss the use of Si--Ge--C as an etch-stop.
Regolini et al., Growth and characterization of strain compensated Si.sub.1,xy Ge.sub.x C.sub.y epitaxial layers, Materials Letters (1993) describe metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) for fabricating epitaxial Si--Ge--C layers with less than 1 atomic percent carbon, which is far less than desirable for etch-stops. Further, there is no mention in the Regolini et al. publication of using Si--Ge--C as an etch-stop.

Silicon-germanium-carbon compositions in selective etch processes

Lawrence Semiconductor Research Laboratory, Inc.


A device for forming a flexographic printing plate is disclosed. A preformed, imagewise irradiated sheet of film is heat treated by the device of the present invention to remove unwanted portions of a top layer, leaving radiation hardened relief images on the plate. The device has a heating means for supplying heat to said film, a first delivery means for delivering a sheet of absorbent material to a surface of the film, a second delivery means for supplying film to the heating means, pressure means for causing liquified material to be absorbed onto an absorbent material, and a separation means for separating the absorbent material from the film.

The present invention relates to flexographic printing. In particular, it relates to devices for forming flexographic printing plates.
"Flexography" is a term that broadly applies to a printing format which uses a flexible substrate bearing an elastomeric or rubbery relief printing surface.
A "composite" film is one with multiple layers, the adjacent layers being formed from different materials.
"Elastomer" and "elastomeric" refer to rubbers or polymers having resiliency properties similar to those of rubber. In particular, elastomers are capable of being substantially elongated and then returned to their original dimensions upon release of the stress elongating the elastomer. In all cases an elastomer must be able to undergo at least 10% elongation (at a thickness of 0.5 mm) and return to its original dimensions after being held at that elongation for 2 seconds and after being allowed 1 minute relaxation time.
More typically an elastomer can undergo 25% elongation without exceeding its elastic limit. In some cases an elastomer can undergo elongation to as much as 300% or more of its original dimensions without tearing or exceeding the elastic limit of the composition. Elastomers are typically defined to reflect this elasticity as in ASTM Designation D883-866 as a macro-molecular material that at room temperature returns rapidly to approximately its initial dimensions and shape after substantial deformation by a weak stress and release of the stress. ASTM Designation D012-87 can be an appropriate procedure for testing rubber properties in tension to evaluate elastomeric properties. Generally, such compositions include relatively high molecular weight compounds which, upon curing, form an integrated network or structure. The curing may be by a variety of means, including: the use of chemical curing agents, catalysts, and/or irradiation.
The first flexographic printing plates were produced from natural or synthetic rubber compositions which were chemically cured under heat and pressure in a mold using conventional rubber curatives such as mercapto compounds. Recently, photopolymer elastomeric compositions (elastomer containing compositions curable upon exposure to actinic radiation) useful to produce relief printing plates have been described. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,369,246 and 4,423,135 describe solvent-insoluble, elastomeric printing relief plates which are formed by applying to a flexible polymer film substrate layer a layer of a photosensitive composition. A cover sheet is laminated to a surface of the photo-sensitive layer to form a flexible film. A Flexographic plate is then formed by stripping off the cover sheet, imagewise exposing the composition layer to actinic radiation through the film, and removing the film and unexposed areas of the composition layer by solvent washing. Another known plate forming process is similar to the process described above, except that the relief areas of the plate are produced by washing out the areas not exposed to radiation with an aqueous developer.
With both the aqueous and solvent washing methods described above, multiple processing steps are required which are time consuming and are therefore expensive. In addition, these technologies produce potentially toxic by-product wastes when forming flexographic plates.
Due to the limitations of the above-mentioned prior art methods of forming flexographic printing plates, a new family of radiation curable polyurethane elastomers was developed which has the advantage of being useful to form flexographic printing plates without requiring the use of solvents or aqueous wash systems. An application having the title Flexographic Printing Plate Compositions, Ser. No. 558,301 filed on Jul. 26, 1990, has been made for the above-mentioned flexographic printing plate compositions by John Martens, one of the co-inventors of the present invention.
A flexographic printing plate 11 formed by a compound disclosed in the Martens composition application is shown in cross-section in FIG. 1. The printing plate 11 has a first base layer 15 which may be a polymer or a metal. Preferred polymers include polyester, polycarbonate, or polyimide, for example. The base material can also be made of steel or aluminum, for example. The base material is selected to be tear resistent and must have a fairly high melt point, for example, above the melt temperature of the next layer formed on the base layer. A second substantially uniform layer 17 is applied onto the base layer. The second layer is formed of a radiation curable polymer such as a polyurethane elastomer. The elastomer layer may be adhesively or chemically bonded to the base material (not shown). The base layer in combination with the radiation curable polymer together forms a "flexible film."
The flexible film is next exposed to actinic radiation from a surface 23 of the base layer 15 to chemically cross-link and cure a portion of the second layer 17 to form a floor layer 25 as described in an application having the title Flexographic Printing Plate Process, by John Martens, a co-inventor of the present invention, Ser. No. 558,301, filed Jul. 26, 1990, hereinafter referred to as the Martens "process" reference. A portion of the film is imagewise exposed to actinic radiation from the opposite surface 27 and a visible image appears in the exposed areas of the radiation curable layer.
The portions 29 of the flexible film exposed to radiation chemically cross-link and cure. The cured portions have an elevated melting temperature, and are insoluble in flexographic printing inks under normal conditions. "Normal" conditions include printing plate temperatures of between about 12 degrees Centigrade and 31 degrees Centigrade.
An absorbent material is selected having a melt temperature exceeding the melt temperature of the unexposed or "uncured" portions of the radiation curable composition and having good tear resistance at the same operating temperatures. Preferably, the selected material withstands temperatures required to process the film at an unsteady state, for example, where the plate does not reach a state of thermal equilibrium during heating. The absorbent sheet contacts a surface 27 of the radiation curable layer of the heated flexible film, o and absorbs the liquified portions 31 of the elastomer off of the upper surface, forming a flexographic printing plate 11. As described in the Martens "process" application, it is necessary to bring the most preferred printing plate and a sheet of the most preferred absorbent material into contact three times to remove the liquified, uncured elastomer.
The printing plates as described in the Martens et al. "process" application are heated to between 40 and 200 degrees Centigrade and while in contact with the absorbent layer, the uncured composition liquifies and flows into the absorbent layer. It is preferred that most of the composition in the uncured areas be removed from the flexible substrate and e absorbed into the absorbent material.
It is also desirable that the elevated temperatures used to cause the uncured composition to flow (reduce its viscosity, or exceed its softening temperature, e.g., see ASTM designation D 1238-86) into and be absorbed by the absorbent layer should not distort the flexible substrate or the hardened composition by more than 2% in any surface dimension. The actual temperatures will vary with the specific substrate and composition used.
Following curing of portions of the elastomeric layer, the uncured portions are removed to reveal a raised structure which becomes the printing surface of the plate. The "relief" portions are the raised portions of the flexographic printing plate which are coated with ink and which contact print media. The relief structure is bound to the support layer by physical and/or chemical action and remains in place during the printing process through repeat impressions. The exposed surface of the cured elastomeric layer therefore becomes the ink receiving surface which both receives ink from the inking row and transfers it to the substrate to printed during the printing process.
The hardening or curing step of the process (by irradiation) can also act to increase the adhesion of the composition to the substrate. This can be by direct adhesion of the curing composition to the substrate, for example, either chemical adhesion by reaction or physical adherence to surface structure on the flexible layer. The primer layer may be photosensitive or photoinsensitive to aid in this adherence effect. Flexographic plates having a layer for forming relief images are preferably formed from polymers which have a low melt temperature, a high melt index, are radiation curable, and are elastomeric polyurethane compositions. The composition should have sufficient resistance to swelling after curing. The cured elastomer compositions should be particularly resistant to increases in volume and swelling when immersed in flexographic inks, such as water based inks utilized in the flexographic printing process. This low swell feature is critical to the ultimate printing quality achieved with the printing plate because swelling causes the dimensions of the relief image to enlarge.
The press life or wear life of the plate on press (the number of impressions until failure occurs) may also be greatly reduced by swelling which may result in a loss of physical strength of the cured elastomer composition. Radiation curable polyurethane printing plates cure or cross-link when exposed to actinic radiation without the need of additional vinyl containing monomeric additives, such as monomers containing more than one vinyl group per molecule. Using a curing process which does not require the use of solvents avoids the harmful effects on the environment caused by pollution.
Radiation curable elastomer coated sheet material is resistant to cold flow during storage. Elastomers which undergo too much cold flow result in printing plates having unacceptable variation in plate thickness. The radiation curable polyurethane elastomers have good to superior resistance to cold flow prior to irradiation induced cross-linking or curing.
The use of flexographic printing plates is popular because the process is a "direct" printing process. The printing plate and its temporarily bound ink layer are in direct contact with the substrate, for example, the paper or film being printed. Before the Martens inventions, no devices existed to process flexographic printing plates by liquefying a portion of the flexible sheet, and removing the liquefied portions with an absorbent material.

Device for forming flexographic printing plate

Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company