There is described a sliding drawer guide comprising a u-shaped guide rail (1), and a drawer rail (8) which is supported on a track roller (7) in the front end portion of the guide rail (1), and in the rear end portion carries a track roller (11) rolling on a lower guiding web of the guide rail (1). A pivoted supporting lever (13) extends beyond the rear wall of a drawer (5). A guide bracket (21) is provided in a rear end portion of the mounting flange of the guide rail (1) for the supporting lever (13), which can be swivelled between an upper rest position and a lower, stop-limited working position, and carries at its free end a guiding member (24) engaging in the guide bracket (21). Furthermore, a supporting roller (18) cooperates with an upper guiding web of the guide rail (1). To create advantageous constructional conditions, it is proposed that the drawer rail (8) provided on the bottom surface of the drawer (5) extends inside the guide rail (1), whose outer leg (2) forms the mounting flange, and whose web (12) connecting the outer and the inner leg (2, 3) forms the lower guiding web, whereas the upper guiding web consists of a marginal web (19) of the inner leg (3) of the guide rail (1), which is angled with respect to the mounting flange, on which marginal web the track roller (7) for the drawer rail (8) is supported.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to sliding drawer guide comprising a guide rail substantially forming a U-section, a drawer rail which is supported on a track roller in the front end portion of the guide rail and in the rear end portion carriers a track roller rolling on a lower guiding web of the guide rail, and can be prolonged by a pivoted supporting lever beyond the rear wall of the drawer, as well as a guide bracket provided in the rear end portion of the mounting flange of the guide rail for the supporting lever. The lever can be swivelled between an upper rest position and a lower, stop-limited working position, and in the vicinity of its free end accommodates a guiding member engaging in the guide bracket and a supporting roller coopering with an upper guiding web of the guide rail.
2. Description of the Prior Art
To be able to fully draw out the drawers without having to provide an intermediate rail between the guide rail and the drawer rail of a sliding drawer guide, it is known (DE-29 46 113A1) to pivotally mount in the rear end portion of the drawer rail a supporting lever which can be swivelled from an upper rest position into a lower, stop-limited working position, so that the drawer rail is prolonged by this supporting lever when the drawer is drawn out. Since the supporting lever may carry a supporting roller in the vicinity of its free end, and the drawer rail may carry a track roller in its rear end portion, the drawer rail may be guided between the two legs of the guide rail U-shaped in cross-section, which legs form an upper and a lower guiding web for the supporting roller and the track roller, where the web connecting the two legs constitutes a mounting flange. The drawer rail Z-shaped in cross-section additionally rests on a track roller supported in the front end portion of the guide rail above the upper guiding web, which track roller takes away part of the weight of the drawer. By means of the rear track roller of the drawer rail the remaining load is carried away to the guide rail, as long as the center of gravity of the drawer lies behind the track roller of the guide rail. When upon drawing out the drawer, the center of gravity of the drawer is shifted by means of the track roller of the guide rail, the supporting roller of the supporting lever resting against the upper guiding web prevents the drawer from tilting, which can thus be drawn out until the track roller of the drawer rail reaches the end of the guide rail. Since the track roller of the guide rail is disposed above the upper guiding web, the two track rollers of the guide rail and the drawer rail can lie one above the other, when the drawer has been fully drawn out. To ensure that the supporting lever can be swung up from its working position into the rest position when the drawer is pushed in, the guide rail constitutes a guide bracket for the supporting lever in the rear portion of the mounting flange prolonged beyond the upper guiding web, which supporting lever engages into the guide bracket by means of a guiding pin laterally protruding against the guide bracket. The main disadvantage of this known drawer slide is the fact that due to the guide rail extending laterally beside the drawer, a comparatively large gap must be provided between the side walls of the drawer and the inner wall of the cabinet, so that the possible drawer width is limited. In addition, the fastening screws for the guide rail are disposed between the two guiding webs, so that there is a risk that in the case of an inclined fastening screw or a fastening screw not fully screwed in, the head thereof might protrude into the path of movement of the track roller or the supporting roller of the drawer rail.
To achieve a large drawer width it is already known (DE 94 13 108 U1) to provide the guide rail below the drawer between the front and the rear face wall of the cabinet, and to dispose the drawer rail on the bottom surface of the drawer beside the guide rail. Apart from the fact that with this known construction a significant torsional stress is applied onto the rails, such sliding drawer guide does not allow to fully draw out a drawer, as the rear track roller of the drawer rail must not be moved up to the front track roller of the guide rail, so as to prevent the drawer form tilting forward.


A piston pump includes a first piston pump including a first piston and a first pump chamber, a second piston pump including a second piston and a second pump chamber, the second piston operating to follow the first piston, a pressure release passage formed in communication with the second pump chamber, and a relief valve provided at the pressure release passage and defining an upper limit discharge pressure of the second piston pump. When a discharge pressure of the second piston pump is equal to or smaller than the upper limit, a discharge fluid of the second piston pump is added to that of the first piston pump so as to flow into an outlet port. When the discharge pressure exceeds the upper limit, the discharge fluid is released to the pressure release passage and the discharge fluid of the first piston pump only flows to the outlet port.

Known piston pumps each used for a hydraulic brake apparatus for a vehicle are disclosed in JP2001508854A (Reference 1), DE102005034571A1 (Reference 2), and DE10053992A1 (reference 3).
According to the piston pump disclosed in the Reference 1, an annular-shaped body is attached onto an outer periphery of a piston that is driven by a cam so as to perform a reciprocating movement. The body is axially displaceable (i.e., slidable) on the piston and is pressed towards one side by a spring. The body and the piston are inserted into a hydraulic block (precisely, a cylinder formed at the hydraulic block) while respective end portions of the body and the piston face a same pump chamber (i.e., positive displacement chamber).
According to the piston pump disclosed, the piston constitutes a first pump while the body constitutes a second pump. In cases where a thrust force caused by a pressure within the pump chamber is smaller than a pre-stressing force of the spring, the body moves together with the piston. On the other hand, in cases where the thrust force caused by the pressure within the pump chamber is larger than the pre-stressing force of the spring, the body is pressed towards a movement end portion thereof that is located in a direction away from the pump chamber.
That is, until the pressure in the pump chamber reaches a predetermined value (i.e., pump discharge pressure is low), the first pump and the second pump are operated together. When the pressure in the pump chamber exceeds the predetermined value (i.e., pump discharge pressure is high), the operation of the second pump is stopped and only the first pump is operated. Accordingly, a pump discharge volume is changed between cases where the pump discharge pressure is high and low.
In the same way as the piston pump in the Reference 1, according to the piston pumps disclosed in the References 2 and 3, respectively, the operation of the second pump is stopped when the pressure in the pump chamber exceeds a predetermined value though structures of the piston pumps in the References 1, 2, and 3 are slightly different from one another.
The piston pump disclosed in each of the References 1, 2, and 3 can increase the pump discharge volume at a time of low pump discharge pressure as compared to the pump discharge volume at a time of high discharge pressure without an increase of capacity of a motor that drives the piston pump (i.e., piston driving motor). Accordingly, in the ABS control, for example, a fluid stored in a reservoir (i.e., brake fluid) can be rapidly pumped. In addition, in the ESC control, the TRC control, and the like, a responsiveness of pressurization of the wheel cylinder pressure can be enhanced to thereby improve each control performance.
As mentioned above, the piston pump disclosed in each of the References 1, 2, and 3 can increase the pump discharge volume at a time of low pump discharge pressure as compared to the pump discharge volume at a time of high discharge pressure without an increase of capacity of the piston driving motor to thereby enhance responsiveness of the ABS control, the ESC control, and the like. However, the pressure in the pump chamber upon the change of the pump discharge volume may not be stable.
That is, the pressure in the pump chamber when the pump discharge volume is changed (i.e., the operation of the second pump is stopped) is determined on the basis of a sum of a load of the spring that biases the body and a sliding resistance of the body. In this case, the sliding resistance of the body is variable depending on a size of the sliding portion, temperature, and the like. Accordingly, the pressure in the pump chamber when the pump discharge volume is changed varies due to the variation in the sliding resistance of the body, which may negatively affect the stability of the hydraulic control.
A need thus exists for a piston pump which is not susceptible to the drawback mentioned above.


A flat flexible cable connector includes an insulative housing defining a receiving cavity for movably receiving an actuator. The housing defines a plurality of channels for receiving and retaining conductive contacts. Each contact has a fixed arm retained in the housing and a resilient arm extending into the space. The actuator has a tongue insertable into the receiving cavity. The tongue has a top face for retaining a leading end of a flat flexible cable whereby when the tongue is inserted into the cavity, the flat flexible cable engages with the resilient arms of the contacts. A plurality of spaced slots are defined in a bottom face of the tongue for guidingly receiving the fixed arms of the contacts thereby guiding the insertion of the actuator into the housing and eliminating transverse oscillation of the actuator.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a flat flexible cable (FFC) connector, and in particular to an FFC connector having a contact alignment/stabilizing feature.
2. The Prior Art
Flat flexible cables (FFCs) are widely used to connect components, such as a printed circuit board, arranged in a confined space inside an electronic device, such as a computer, for reducing the overall size of the electronic device. An FFC may be directly connected to a circuit board by soldering. Alternatively, an FFC connector may be used to connect an FFC to a circuit board. Examples of FFC connectors are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,194,017, 5,308,262, 5,401,186, and 5,474,468.
An FFC connector comprises a housing retaining a plurality of conductive contacts therein. A receiving cavity is defined in the housing and exposed to an opening thereof. An actuator defining a recess on a top side thereof for receiving an FFC is inserted into the receiving cavity through the opening. The contacts extend into the cavity and electrically engage with the FFC when the FFC is brought into the cavity by the actuator. The actuator is provided with side latches on opposite sides thereof for engaging with corresponding projections formed on the housing thereby securing the actuator to the housing.
During insertion into the cavity of the housing, the actuator is not only moved into the receiving space, but also oscillates in a transverse direction with respect to the housing and may become skewed. The oscillation or skewing of the actuator, if not properly controlled, may damage or even break the side latches. Furthermore, the conventional FFC connector does not have guiding means for properly guiding the actuator into the housing. Thus, undesired mechanical interference may occur between the actuator and the conductive contacts.
It is thus desired to provide an FFC connector comprising a contact alignment/stabilizing feature for addressing the above problems.


A touch panel includes an upper substrate, an upper conductive layer, a lower substrate, a lower conductive layer, and dot spacers. The upper substrate includes a substrate layer and a hard coat layer disposed on the top surface of the substrate layer. The upper conductive layer is disposed on the bottom of the upper substrate. The lower conductive layer is disposed on the top surface of the lower substrate in such a manner as to confront the upper conductive layer with a predetermined space therebetween. The dot spacers are disposed on the lower conductive layer. The hard coat layer has an outer surface with a ten-point average roughness Rz in the range from 17.7 μm to 40.0 μm, inclusive.

1. Technical Field
The technical field relates to touch panels mainly used to operate various electronic apparatuses.
2. Background Art
Many electronic apparatuses such as mobile phones and electronic cameras have been equipped with a light-transmitting touch panel on the top surface of a liquid crystal display with their increased functionality and diversity in recent years. Such an apparatus allows the user to switch between various functions by touching the panel with a finger, pen, or other pointing device while watching the screen of the liquid crystal display through the panel.
A conventional touch panel will now be described with reference to FIG. 4. In FIG. 4, which is a sectional view of the conventional touch panel, the dimensions of some parts are enlarged for easy understandings.
Touch panel 10 includes upper substrate 1, upper conductive layer 2, lower substrate 3, lower conductive layer 4, a pair of upper electrodes 5, a pair of lower electrodes 6, dot spacers 7, and frame-shaped spacer 8. Of these components, upper substrate 1, upper conductive layer 2, lower substrate 3, lower conductive layer 4, and dot spacers 7 are light-permeable. Rectangular upper conductive layer 2 is disposed on the bottom surface of upper substrate 1. Rectangular lower conductive layer 4 is disposed on the top surface of lower substrate 3.
Upper electrodes 5, which are made, for example, of silver paste are disposed along the left and right edges of upper conductive layer 2 and lower electrodes 6 are disposed along the front and rear edges of lower conductive layer 4 in FIG. 4. One end of each of upper electrodes 5 is extended to the front of the outer periphery of upper substrate 1, and one end of each of lower electrodes 6 is extended to the front of the outer periphery of lower substrate 3. Dot spacers 7 are disposed on the top surface of lower conductive layer 4, whereas spacer 8 is disposed along the inside of the outer periphery between upper substrate 1 and lower substrate 3. Dot spacers 7, which are made of an insulating resin, are shaped like hemispherical domes and arranged at intervals of 2.5 mm or less.
Upper substrate 1 and lower substrate 3 are bonded together at their outer peripheries via an adhesive (not shown) applied to one or both of the top and bottom surfaces of spacer 8. Thus, upper conductive layer 2 and lower conductive layer 4 are opposed to each other with a predetermined space therebetween.
Upper substrate 1 includes substrate layer 11, hard coat layer 12 disposed on the top surface of substrate layer 11, and light diffusing layer 13 disposed on the bottom surface of substrate layer 11. Substrate layer 11 is made, for example, of polyethylene terephthalate. Hard coat layer 12 is made of a synthetic resin such as an acrylic resin mixed with a fluorine-based resin. The top surface of hard coat layer 12 is made lipophilic so as not to leave fingerprints when the user touches it. As a result, hard coat layer 12 has a surface tension of 30 N/mm or less. Light diffusing layer 13 contains an acrylic base, and silicon dioxide filler dispersed in the base. This filler functions to form asperities on the bottom surface of light diffusing layer 13.
Touch panel 10 thus structured is mounted on liquid crystal display 15 and installed on an electronic apparatus. Upper electrodes 5 and lower electrodes 6 are electrically connected to a control circuit (not shown) such as a microcomputer included in the apparatus.
When the user presses the top surface of upper substrate 1 with a finger or pen according to the display on liquid crystal display 15, upper substrate 1 is bent. Under the touched area of upper substrate 1, upper conductive layer 2 comes into contact with lower conductive layer 4. Then, the control circuit sequentially applies voltages to upper electrodes 5 and lower electrodes 6, thereby detecting the touched area from the voltage ratio between these electrodes. This enables switching between various functions of the apparatus.

Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.


An optical head for an optical disc drive is provided with a first laser diode that emits a shorter wavelength laser beam, a second laser diode that emits a longer wavelength laser beam, and an objective lens for converging the beams emitted by the laser diodes on the data recording surface of the optical disc. Each of first and second surfaces of the objective lens is rotationally symmetrical, and a rotational axis of the first surface and a rotational axis of the second surface are arranged to be deviated from each other.

The present invention relates to an objective lens and an optical head for an optical disc drive capable of recording and/or reproducing data to/from various types of optical discs having different characteristics, such as a thickness of a protective layer and a data recording density.
There are a plurality of standards regarding the characteristics of the optical discs, including the thickness of the protective layer which covers a data recording surface of the optical disc and/or the data recording density. For example, the thickness of the protective layer of a CD (Compact Disc) or a CD-R (CD recordable) whose recording density is relatively low is 1.2 mm, while that of a DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) whose recording density is relatively high is 0.60 mm.
For recording and/or reproducing data to/from the DVD, since it has a relatively high data recording density, in order to make the size of a beam spot sufficiently small, a laser beam whose wavelength is in a range of approximately 635-660 nm is to be used. For the CD-R, in view of its reflection characteristics, a laser beam whose wavelength is approximately 780 nm is to be used.
The above-described optical discs may preferably be used in a single optical disc drive. In order to allow a single optical disc drive to use both the DVD and the CD-R, the disc drive is required to have at least two laser sources respectively emitting the laser beams as described above.
In the meantime, in view of downsizing of the disc drive, it is preferable that the optical system adopted in an optical head for the disc drive is as compact as possible. In particular, optical elements such as an objective lens is preferably used for both laser beams, which enables the laser sources (i.e., laser diodes) to be implemented in a single package and provided as a light source module. An example of such an optical disc drive is described in Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. HEI 10-261240.
If the two laser diodes are incorporated in a single package, beam emitting points of the two laser diodes are aligned in a direction perpendicular to an optical axis of the objective lens. Therefore, at least one of the beam emitting points is located off the optical axis.
According to an embodiment described in the above-described publication, a semiconductor laser chip (wavelength: 660 nm) for a DVD, whose allowable aberration is relatively small, is positioned on an optical axis of a lens system including an objective lens, a collimating lens and the like. The other semiconductor laser chip (wavelength: 780 nm) for the CD is located off the optical axis of the lens system. Therefore, the optical disc drive described in the publication has a disadvantage such that aberration, in particular coma, is relatively large for the CD (or CD-R).
Another example of the optical disc drive is disclosed in Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. HEI 10-261241. The optical disc drive disclosed in this publication includes the optical system similar to that disclosed in the aforementioned publication (i.e., HEI 10-261240), and further, a holographic optical element (HOE) is added. With this element (HOE), an optical path of the laser beam, whose beam emitting point is located off the optical axis, is deflected (bent) so that the beam is incident on an objective lens in a direction parallel to the optical axis, thereby suppressing the coma.
The HOE disclosed in the latter publication (i.e., HEI 10-261241) utilizes a zero order component of the beam for the DVD and a xe2x88x921st order diffraction component of the beam for the CD. Therefore, it is difficult to exhibit high diffraction efficiency for both wavelengths, and loss of light is relatively large. Further, since an additional element (i.e., HOE) having a special function as above is added, the manufacturing cost of the optical disc drive increases.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide an improved objective lens and an optical head for an optical disc drive that utilizes a light source module including at least two laser diodes emitting laser beams having different wavelengths, and a single objective optical system for both wavelengths. In this optical disc drive, aberration can be well suppressed with allowing recording and reproducing of data to/from a plurality of types of optical discs to be performed, without adding a special optical element such as the HOE.
For the above object, according to an aspect of the invention, there is provided an objective lens that converges a first laser beam having a first wavelength on a first optical disc having a first protective layer, and a second laser beam having a second wavelength on a second optical disc having a second protective layer, the first wavelength being shorter than the second wavelength, data recording density of the first optical disc being greater than data recording density of the second optical disc, a thickness of the first protective layer being smaller than a thickness of the second protective layer, the objective lens consisting of a single lens element. The objective lens further includes a first surface located on a laser emitting side, the first surface being rotationally symmetrical about a first rotational axis, and a second surface located on an optical disc side, the second surface being rotationally symmetrical about a second rotational axis, the first rotational axis and the second rotational axis being deviated relative to each other. The objective lens is configured to satisfy the following condition under a hypothetical condition where the first rotational axis coincides with the second rotational axis:
xe2x88x924.0 less than SC1/SC2 less than xe2x88x920.25,
where,
SC1 represents an offence SC against sine condition at the peripheral portion of the first region when the first laser beam is converged on the first disc,
SC2 represents an offence SC against sine condition at the peripheral portion of the first region when the second laser beam is converged on the second disc.
The offence SC against sine condition is defined by the formula below:
SC=nH1/(nxe2x80x2sinUxe2x80x2)xe2x88x92f(1xe2x88x92m)
where,
n represents a refractive index on the beam incident side medium,
nxe2x80x2 represents a refractive index on the beam emerging side medium,
Uxe2x80x2 represents an angle of the emerging beam with respect to the optical axis,
m represents a paraxial magnification,
H1 represents a ray height on a principal plane, and
f represents a focal length.
If the thus configured objective lens is employed in an optical disc drive, aberration can be well suppressed with allowing recording and reproducing of data to/from a plurality of types of optical discs to be performed, without introducing an extra optical element such as the HOE.
Optionally, the first rotational axis and the second rotational axis are inclined relative to each other.
Alternatively, the first rotational axis and the second rotational axis can be parallely shifted from each other.
Still optionally, a mark indicative of a direction of deviation is formed on an outer peripheral portion of the objective lens. The mark may be printed on the outer peripheral area of the objective lens. Alternatively, if the lens is made in accordance with the injection molding process, the mark is formed by adjusting a position of a gate.
Further optionally, the objective lens may be configured such that, under a hypothetical condition where the first rotational axis coincides with the second rotational axis, the objective lens exhibits a minimum coma for a hypothetical disc that has a protective layer whose thickness is intermediate between the thickness of the first and second discs.
According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided an optical head for an optical disc drive, which is provided with a first laser diode that emits a first laser beam having a first wavelength, a second laser diode that emits a second laser beam having a second wavelength which is longer than the first wavelength, an objective lens having a first surface which is a laser diode side surface and a second surface which is an optical disc side surface, the objective lens converging the first laser beam on a first optical disc having a first protective layer to form a beam spot, the objective lens converging the second laser beam on a second optical disc having a second protective layer to form the beam spot, a thickness of the first protective layer being smaller than a thickness of the second protective layer.
The first surface is rotationally symmetrical with respect to a first rotational axis, and the second surface is also rotationally symmetrical with respect to a second rotational axis. The first rotational axis and the second rotational axis being deviated (e.g., inclined or shifted) relative to each other. A beam emitting point of the first laser diode is positioned at a first position, coma that is caused as the first laser beam is converged on the data recording surface of the first disc being minimized when the first laser beam is emitted from the first position, and a beam emitting point of the second laser diode is positioned at a second position which is different from the first position, coma that is caused as the second laser beam is converged on the data recording surface of the second disc being minimized when the second laser beam is emitted from the second position.
Optionally, the beam emitting points of the first and second laser diodes-may be located on opposite sides with respect to a reference axis, the reference axis being an optical axis of the objective lens under a hypothetical condition where the first rotational axis coincides with the second rotational axis, and the first rotational axis and the second rotational axis, which are deviated from each other, are included in a reference plane, the reference plane being a plane including the beam emitting points of the first and second laser diodes and the reference axis.
Still optionally, the first and second positions are determined such that, by inclining the first rotational axis relative to the second rotational axis, the first laser beam is converged on a side where a thickness of the objective lens decreases and the second laser beam is converged on a side where a thickness of the objective lens increases.
Furthermore, the objective lens may be configured such that, under a hypothetical condition where the first rotational axis coincides with the second rotational axis, the objective lens exhibits a minimum coma for a hypothetical disc that has a protective layer whose thickness is intermediate between the thickness of the first and second discs.

Objective lens and optical head for optical disc drive


An external ear canal drying apparatus 10 comprising a hinged clam shell style housing 11 containing a forced air generating unit 12 having a blower motor 25 and a heating element 26 operatively associated with an air intake and exhaust conduit 22 that has an exhaust port nozzle 24 dimensioned to receive a conduit 32 centrally disposed within a tapered resilient housing 31 having return air passageways 39 that surround the central conduit for introducing forced hot air into and out of the auditory canal 100.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of medical implements in general, and in particular to a forced air device for removing moisture from a person's ear.
2. Description of Related Art
As can be seen by reference to the following U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,797,475; 3,986,272; 4,206,556; and 5,404,652, the prior art is replete with myriad and diverse forced air and other types of drying implements.
While all of the aforementioned prior art constructions are more than adequate for the basic purpose and function for which they have been specifically designed, they are uniformly deficient with respect to their failure to provide a simple, efficient and practical and safe way of removing moisture from a person's external ear canal.
As most physicians and otologists are all too well aware, there is not currently available an ear canal drying apparatus that can be used to remove moisture from a patient's ear canal which presents problems for those individuals having chronically moist and/or diseased ear canals, mastoid cavities, tympanic membrane perforations, user's of hearing aids and swimmers.
As a consequence of the foregoing situation, there has existed a longstanding need for a new and improved type of heated forced air device that is designed to introduce a flow of circulating air into a user's external ear canal to remove moisture from a person's external ear canal.

External auditory canal drying apparatus


A pill dispenser (10) and a related method of pill dispensing including a container (12) having a holder (14), a gate (16), a controller (18) a sensor (20) and a neutralizing device (22). The dispenser (10) releases pills at a prescribed release rate. The sensor (20) detects tampering with the container (12). Upon detection of tampering, the neutralizing device (22) renders the contents of the pill dispenser (10) impotent.

In the past few years, the abuse of prescription oral narcotics has grown at an alarming rate. These narcotics are often addictive and abused by patients who may take the medication more frequently than their prescribed rate. Such abuse can lead to severe medical problems for the abuser and can result in death, due to overdosing or extended exposure to the narcotics. Programs designed to treat and prevent such abuse costs society millions of dollars annually. For these reason, physicians are often reluctant to prescribe narcotics to individuals who may need them.
While many types of pill dispensers are known in the art, none limit pill dispensing to a prescribed rate, while reducing the chance for patient abuse of the prescribed medication. Therefore, the need exists for a dispenser that dispenses pills no faster than a prescribed rate and detects tampering with the dispenser. The need also exists for a dispenser that, in the event of user tampering, renders the pills impotent thereby reducing the chance of abuse by the patient. Additional aspects, advantages and other novel features of the invention will be set forth in part in the description that follows and in part will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon examination of the foregoing or may be learned with the practice of the invention.


Provided are an illumination lighting apparatus that provides various and intuitional light in response to a motion of a user, and an illumination controlling method. The illumination lighting apparatus may include a lamp unit including at least one light emitting part that is selectively turned on and off, a motion sensing unit including at least one motion sensor, transmitting a sensed signal when the at least one motion sensor senses a motion of a user, and enabling the lamp unit to provide a light corresponding to the sensed signal, and a control unit to receive the sensed signal from the motion sensing unit to adjust a light emitting type of the lamp unit in a plurality of modes, and the motion sensing unit may transmit, based on a mode of the control unit, different sensed signals to the control unit to change the light emitting type of the lamp unit.

1. Field
Example embodiments relate to an illumination lighting apparatus and an illumination controlling method, and more particularly, to an illumination lighting apparatus and an illumination controlling method that may provide various and intuitional light in response to a motion of a user including a touch, a drag, and a motion.
2. Description of the Related Art
A fluorescent light and an incandescent lamp using a common alternating current (AC) power source are commonly used as a lighting device. The fluorescent light that has excellent power efficiency and has a relatively higher illuminance is more popular. The lighting device may be installed in any place that provides a power source and that has no difficulty in installing the lighting device. As demand for the lighting device increases and a number of fields using the lighting device increases, and loads with respect to a total power consumption increases. Accordingly, there are various attempts to decrease the power consumption.
A light emitting diode (LED) has been drawing attention as the lighting device and has been applied to various fields. The LED is applied to a keypad light of a mobile phone, a camera flash, and a small liquid crystal display (LCD) backlight. Also, the LED is applied to a large full-color outdoor electronic display board, a traffic light, a dashboard, a warning light and an approach light for a harbor, an airport, and a tall building.
A life span of the LED in a lighting device, particularly, a high-luminance LED device, reaches about 100,000 hours. Therefore, the LED is semi-permanent, and has high efficiency in power consumption and the like. Accordingly, the LED may be adopted as a lighting device for homes sooner or later.
A conventional lighting device or lighting equipment is simply switched on and off by a separate switch. When lighting is needed, the lighting device is switched on and when the lighting is not needed, the lighting device is switched off. Therefore, the user performs a limited motion to operate the lighting device.
However, the lighting equipment may need to be operated by various motions associated with the user, and a smart lighting device that differently responds to motions of the user is required. Accordingly, there is a desire for lighting equipment that is intuitive and user-centric by providing an effect as if the user produces light.

Illumination lighting apparatus and method of controlling illumination


An analyzer characterized by comprising a chip and a detector, wherein the chip is an organic polymer member having a fine capillary through which a fluid sample or a fluid sample and a fluid reagent flow and can perform a chemical reaction on the sample in the capillary without using a separate weighing means, and the detector is a photothermal conversion detector for measuring a physical quantity change such as a refractive index change caused by a partial temperature change of the sample and the reagent by applying an excitation light to a substance to be measured produced by the chemical reaction, thereby providing a small analyzer excellent in chip waste-disposal, capable of analyzing inexpensively, simply and in a short time and being suitable for a POC analysis.

Attention is given to the importance of performing analysis or measurement at or near locations where analysis or measurement is required (hereinafter referred to generally as "POC analyses etc."), such as analysis for bedside diagnosis performing measurement necessary for medical diagnosis near a patient (POC (point of care) analyses), analysis of hazardous substances in rivers and wastes at locations such as rivers, dumping grounds and the like, and inspection of contamination in each location of cooking, harvesting, and importing foods, and emphasis is currently put on the development of detection methods and equipment applied to these POC analyses etc. These POC analyses etc. are required to be performed simply, in a short time and inexpensively.
As for conventional micro analyses methods, GCMS equipment and LCMS equipment for quantifying samples by a mass spectrometer after separating the sample by capillary gas chromatography (CGC), capillary liquid chromatography (CLC) and the like have been generally used. However, these analyzers are not suitable for use in such measurement locations as the bedside of patients, contaminated rivers and dumping grounds because mass spectrometers are large in size and operations are complicated. Furthermore, for analyzers for use in medical diagnosis using blood and the like as samples, it is desirable that sample contacting portions are disposable.
To solve these problems, a concept of analysis method generally called μTAS (micro total analysis system) intended to make conventionally used analyzers smaller and carry out reaction and separation of samples using chips of a few centimeter square including capillaries to perform electrophoresis for simply performing micro analysis has been proposed (Sensors and Actuators, B1 (1990), 244–248, A. Manz et al.). This μTAS has advantages that the amount of samples and reagents required for detection of components and the amount of wastes and effluent waste of consumable items used for detection and the like are reduced, and detection can be done in a short time.
The μTAS is constituted by samples consisting of liquids, gases and the like in the chip (hereinafter referred to as "fluid"), means for transporting reagents and means for achieving their reactions, etc. in addition to the aforesaid chips and analysis methods, for each of which research is being performed. However, each of them has disadvantages as describe below, and a comprehensive μTAS combining all of these components is not completed yet in the present circumstances.
For example, materials forming capillary are generally glass and silicon that can be finely processed with high accuracy (For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-245655), but they also have disadvantages that the process cost is high and careful handling is required because they are apt to break, and the like. Furthermore, as described above, for use in medical diagnosis and the like, it is desirable that chips are disposable because they contact samples originated from patients such as blood etc., but materials such as glass and silicon are incombustible, thus raising problems also in waste treatment. As research intended to solve these problems arising when glass and silicon are used, a method in which chips are produced from resin (R. M. McCormick et al./Anal. Chem. Vol. 69, No. 14 (1997) 2626–2630, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-259557, Japanese Patent No. 2639087 (Registration: Apr. 25, 1997, Shimadzu Corp.). The method of producing resin chips includes a method in which the surface of Si-wafer is processed applying semiconductor fine processing technology, followed by electrocasting Ni and removing Si by dissolution and the like to fabricate a master processed with resin, and then acrylic resin or the like is injection-molded using the above described master as a matrix to mold chips (Analytical Chemistry 69, 2626–2630 (1997) (Aclara Biosciences)).
In this way, chips made of resin are excellent in disposability and mass-producibility, but have problems as described below if fluorescent methods, absorptiometric methods and the like used in conventional detection equipment are adopted as means for detecting substances in the chip as in case of glass and silicon.
Prior arts will be further described below with emphasis on detection equipment.
Methods of analyzing samples flowing in the capillary generally include fluorescence spectroscopic methods (for example, S. C. Jacobson et al., Anal. Chem. Vol. 66, 4127–4132, 1994, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-245655), absorptiometric methods (for example, N. Kuroda et al., J. Chrom atogr., Vol. 798, 325–334, 1998), and chemical luminescent methods (for example, M. F. Regehr et al., J. Capillary Electrophor, Vol. 3, 117–124, 1996).
Of these methods, the chemical luminescent method and fluorescent method are methods in which a substance to be detected is changed into a compound in excited state in the presence of a catalyst such as an oxidizer and energy emitted as light when the compound changes from this state to a ground state is detected (in case of fluorescent method, energy is transferred to an energy acceptor coexisting with the excited compound and the energy emitted when this acceptor changes from an excited state to a ground state is detected). On the other hand, the absorptiometric method is a method in which light is introduced in a solution containing a substance to be detected for measuring the intensity of transmitted light and determining the ratio of the intensity of the transmitted light to the intensity of the incoming light. As for sensitivity, it is generally said that the ranking is, from lowest to highest, the absorptiometric method, the fluorescent method and the chemical luminescent method.
As major chemical luminescent reactions, methods by luminol and lucigenine have been known for a long time. Also the chemical luminescent reaction has advantages such as high speed and high sensitivity and relatively inexpensive equipment because no light source is required for detection, but it has disadvantages that luminescence is rapidly decayed, reagents for use are unstable, the background is high and so forth.
In a similar way, the fluorescent method has an advantage that its reaction system has been known for a long time, but it requires the source of excitation light as an optical system and optical filters for separating excitation light and fluorescence, and the like.
Also, these methods using luminescent phenomena have a problem of poor light-intercepting efficiency because emitted light is diverged in all directions. In case of fluorescent method, general versatility is not high because the yield of emitting fluorescence is low and it is necessary to establish a reaction system for converting an object substance to be measured into a limited fluorescent substance.
In particular, in the field of clinical investigation for medical diagnosis, since integration of measured values into those with standard methods defined by academic societies and the like is in progress, substantial changes in measurement systems may raise problems.
Also, the absorptiometric method has a disadvantage that it is necessary to make the length of optical path large so as to obtain accurate results and particularly long optical path is obtained for detecting a trace amount of samples, thereby making the structure of detection cells complicated, because the ratio of incoming light to transmitted light is detected in principle.
In this way, the detection with conventional absorptiometric methods and fluorescent methods using cuvettes and the like can be carried out using relatively small equipment, but the measurement with chips equipped with capillaries intended for application to the POC analyses etc. allows only small length of optical path because the diameter of the capillary is reduced, and only low sensitivity can be obtained.
Methods in which light is not applied to the capillary vertically but is applied in the flow direction in order to make the length of optical path larger have been proposed (for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 8-304339), but these methods have a disadvantage that detection in the flow direction is not easy in case of capillaries formed on the plane chips and the chip structure and the structure of detecting portions are more complicated.
As another method of detecting a trace amount of components, the photothermal detection method (thermal lens detection method) has been long known in which samples in liquid are excited with an excitation light to form so-called thermal lens and changes in the thermal lens are measured with a detection light (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 60-174933, A. C. Boccara et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 36, 130, 1980).
In the photothermal detection method, a thermal lens with thickness of about 0.1 μm to 1 mm is usually formed by excitation light. In case sufficient length of optical path, for example, about 1 cm can be provided, the photothermal detection method is not usually used because two kinds of light sources, i.e. excitation light and detection light are usually required, in contrast to the absorptiometric method and fluorescent method. Also, the excitation light and detection light are made coaxial and are let in the capillary, thus causing the equipment to be complicated. However, methods in which two lasers are not made coaxial but made to cross or face each other (J. Liquid Chromatography 12, 2575–2585 (1989), Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-142177 (Molecular Biophotonics)) and methods in which one laser is diverged for use and the shift in focal position itself due to photothermal conversion is detected (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 4-369467 (Yokogawa Electric Corp.)) have also been proposed.
One example of photothermal detection methods using Ar laser and He—Ne laser is a method in which a sample is placed on a glass plate and sandwiched with another glass plate (Anal. Chem. 65, 2938–2940 (1993)).
Furthermore, there is an example that application has been made from the outside of a plane chip comprising capillaries to an analyzer that sends liquid using pumps. (Analysis No. 4, 280–284, 1997, M. Harada et al., Anal. Chem. Vol. 65, 2938–2940, 1993, Kawanishi et al., Japan Analytical Chemistry, Abstracts of 44th Annual Meeting, p. 119, 1995, etc.)
These photothermal detection methods are mainly intended to improve local absolute sensitivity as of "How many molecules can be detected." Thus, methods are dominating in which laser is focused as much as possible, the excitation light is concentrated in a small volume and the thermal lens occurring in the micro space is detected.
Furthermore, among these examples, those showing a concept that chemical reaction systems such as reaction tanks, fluid control elements and detecting portions are integrated in a chip (Journal of Japan Mechanics Association 100, 615–617 (1997), Sensor/Actuator/Week 1997 General Symposium Abstracts "Microsensor" Session 3, pp. 19–23 (Apr. 17, 1997)) are also found. Furthermore, in these examples, capillaries are formed and thus glass is used as a material for making grooves on the surface.
In case silicon and glass are used as materials for chips, etching protection coats (Cr etc.) are formed in thickness of several thousand Å on a substrate made of glass, quartz or Si substrate using a technique such as vacuum evaporation, and patterning resists are applied thereon using a spinner. Then, the resist is exposed to ultraviolet light using a mask for photolithography, followed by carrying out development (removing a non-cured portion with a solvent) patterning resulting in a desired shape. Next, using the patterned resist as an etching mask, the etching protection coat is dissolved and removed with potassium ferricyanide solution and the like resulting in patterning. Next, using the patterned resist and the etching protection coat as masks, the substrate is etched with hydrofluoric acid solution, for example, to form a groove. Then, the resist and the protection coat are etched away. Also, in addition to the above described substrate, a substrate such as glass provided with through holes using a technique such as ultrasonic processing is prepared. Finally, after the substrate provided with grooves and the substrate provided with through holes are laminated with the groove being at the inner side thereof and the laminated substrates are heated, for example, in a vacuum furnace (in case both of them are glass plates, at around 600° C. for several hours), followed by leaving them to cool for fusion to produce the chip.
As described above, in case of glass, a groove must be formed on plane glass one by one to produce chips using a method as an extension of a technique for producing semiconductor integrated circuits (a combination of photolithography technique and etching technique). Also, in the process of production, many hazardous chemicals are used, and the production process takes long hours and requires expensive large equipment for use in production of semiconductors and the like. Furthermore, the above described chip made of glass has a disadvantage that it is apt to splinter and should be handled carefully.
Furthermore, for use in medical diagnosis and the like, the chip may be contacted by samples originated from patients such as blood, and it is desirable that the above described chip is made disposable, but glass material is incombustible, thus raising problems also in waste disposal. Therefore, it is not suitable for POC analyses etc. requiring inexpensiveness.
On the other hand, for medical diagnosis, the concentrations of a variety of substances in samples originated from biological bodies such as blood, urine and cerebrospinal fluid are widely detected quantitatively or qualitatively. Items to be detected in samples originated from biological bodies include the enzyme activity of GOT, GPT, γ-GTP and ALP, total cholesterol, triglyceride, glucose, hemoglobin Alc (HbAlc), and further proteins such as creatinine kinase, C reactive proteins (CRP) and cytokinins, antigens originated from bacteria and virus and antibodies against them.
Detection of these substances to be detected is performed by reacting the sample with an enzyme and antibody specific to the substance to be detected to thereby convert the substance ultimately to a substance (coloring dyes, fluorescent substances, luminescent substances, etc.) that can be detected by absorbance, fluorescence, chemical luminescence and so forth and determining the amount of the final substance (Ogawa, Z. et al., Clinical Investigation, 41:981 (1997), Kanno, T., Clinical Investigation, 42:309 (1998)).
These detection reactions are carried out by weighing a fixed amount of a sample and one kind or more of reagent solutions respectively and mixing them to implement reaction at a predetermined temperature for fixed time period.
In central laboratories of major hospitals and automatic analyzers adopted by clinical examination companies, a fixed volume or weight of samples and reagent solutions are weighed respectively with automatic pipettes. Also, in case of manual analysis, examiners weigh a fixed amount of samples and solutions using pipettes and quantitative capillaries.
Examination of contamination for food is performed in a similar way (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 4-64063, Method of Detecting Food Contaminating Bacteria).
In case of determining the amount of environmental pollutants, various kinds of reagents are often made to react using river water and soil extracts as samples to detect object substances (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 9-72898, Method of Analyzing Soils).
Methods in which these reactions for detection are carried out in the chip, that is, some reactive reagents and standard reagents are mixed with samples in the chip to implement reaction, and the post-reaction sample is analyzed include methods described below.
One of them is a method in which predetermined amounts of the sample and reagent solutions are weighed outside the chip and are then injected in the chip. Also, there is a method in which a predetermined volume of channel (reservoir) such as messcylinder is provided in the chip and delivered liquid is controlled accurately by means of combination of a pump with valves or applying electric field, thereby weighing and mixing the sample and reagent solution in the chip (for example, A. Manz et al., Trends Anal. Chem., Vol. 10, 144, 1991). Furthermore, there is a method in which the sample and reagent solution are poured into the chamber and are mixed to implement reaction, followed by weighing a fixed amount of them to separate components and analyzing quantitatively the amount of each of the separated components (S. C. Jacobson et al., Anal. Chem., Vol. 6, 4127,1994). In any of these methods, a process of weighing the sample and reagent solution or their mixture is required, and a method in which analysis is carried out while delivering liquid continuously at a constant flow rate ratio has not been proposed.
On the other hand, a concept of mixing two liquids in a predetermined ratio without weighing operations has also been proposed (U.S. Pat. No. 5,785,831 (HP), Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 8-261986 (Japanese Patent of corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 5,785,831)). However, the concept is to simply mix two liquids in the diverged channel, and it does not include a concept of carrying out predetermined chemical reaction continuously and using the reaction for detection of specific substances. Similarly, methods in which among two laminar flows contacting each other at a predetermined flow rate, interaction near the interface is used have also been proposed (WO 9739338, U.S. Pat. No. 5,716,852, WO 9747390). However, also in this case, it is basically means for extracting or measuring necessary molecules and particles using difference in diffusion rate due to difference in sizes of particles and molecules contained in each flow, and is not to implement predetermined chemical reaction.
Also, there are examples of carrying out necessary chemical reactions without weighing operations (J. Micromech, Microeng. 4, 246–256 (1994), Verpoorte E. M. J., //Manz A., deRooij N. F. INTERFACIAL DESIGN AND CHEMICAL SENSING, Chapter 21 pp. 244–254, America Chemical Society (1994)). That is, two or more chips made of silicon having grooves on the surface are overlaid on one another to form the capillary and reactive reagent solution is delivered by a pump to the capillary at a constant flow rate, thereby mixing the sample solution with the reactive reagent solution at a predetermined ratio and implementing reaction in the capillary.
However, in this method, the sample solution is simply mixed with the reactive reagent solution at a predetermined ratio, and for actual implementation processes, it is not substantially different from the batch system in which the sample solution and the reactive reagent solution are put in a mixing tank at a predetermined ratio.
Furthermore, in a structure like this having a plurality of chips overlaid on one another, a channel has a three-dimensional structure, thus making it difficult to go up step by step in the channel and obtain measured values at variety of reaction time. That is, quantification can be done at the endpoint of the enzyme reaction, but it is difficult to do quantification in a rate assay in which the amount of enzyme is determined from the reaction rate.
For analyzers, research and development aimed at POC analyses etc. is currently in progress, including the fact that chips comprising capillaries have been proposed. However, as described above, the material of chip comprising capillaries is generally glass and silicon to which fine processing can be applied with high accuracy. Therefore, the cost for processing is high and there are also disadvantages that the chip is apt to splinter and careful handling is required, and so on. Furthermore, for use in medical diagnosis and the like, the chip may be contacted with samples originated from patients such as blood, and it is thus desirable that the chip comprising a capillary is disposable, but glass material is incombustible thus raising problems also in waste disposal.
Also, considering an analyzer combining channel equipment and detection equipment, for a method using luminescent phenomena, light-intercepting efficiency is not high because emitted light is diverged in all directions.
Of methods using luminescent phenomena, chemical luminescent reactions have advantages of high speed and high sensitivity and of relatively inexpensive equipment because no light source is required for detection, but have disadvantages that luminescence is rapidly decayed, reagents are unstable, the background is high, and so forth.
Furthermore, in a similar way, the fluorescent method has an advantage that its reaction system has been known for a long time, but it requires as optical systems, excitation light sources and optical filters for separating excitation light from fluorescence, and so on.
Also, the fluorescent method is not suitable for the case in which a trace amount of sample in a fine capillary for use in the present invention is detected because the yield of emitting fluorescence is low and so on.
Also, the absorptiometric method has a disadvantage that it is necessary to make the length of optical path large so as to obtain accurate results and particularly long optical path is obtained for detecting a trace amount of samples, thereby making the structure of detection cells complicated, because the ratio of the incident light to the transmitted light is detected in principle.
In this way, for analyzers detecting a trace amount of sample in the fine capillary for use in the present invention, those that are easy for handling and economical, and are capable of performing analysis of high sensitivity, and can be downsized are not available, and analyzers suitable for POC analyses etc. are desired in the present circumstances.
On the other hand, detecting paper that enables the value of blood sugar and the like to be detected by dissolving solid reagents (freeze-dried reagents or paper and fiber impregnated with a predetermined amount of reagents) in the sample using only plasma are on the market. These solid reagents are convenient because it is not necessary to weigh reagents, but have a disadvantage that they are poor in quantitative accuracy compared to liquid reagents.
Furthermore, methods in which the sample and reagent are weighed outside the chip and are injected into the chip thereafter to implement reaction for detection not only require much manpower but also produce wastes in addition to wastes of chips. Also, in case man does not weigh the sample and reagent, a weighing system is required in addition to the chip, thus leading to large scale equipment as a whole. Furthermore, it is necessary to provide a channel in the chip for weighing the sample and reagent, thereby making the channel in the chip more complicated and leading to high costs. Also, these methods have a disadvantage that introduction of the operation of weighing the sample and reagent causes the process of analysis to be more complicated without distinction of inner and outer sides of the chip. Furthermore, the prior art requires additional means for adjusting timing for each process that is continuous and needs to control time accurately, because of the batch-type sample process and detection.


An air-powered web slasher features a cylindrical housing having an interior chamber and a sidewall with a spiral groove machined into it. A piston slides within the interior chamber and has a slasher needle attached to it. The slasher needle protrudes through the spiral groove. A housing cap covers one end of the housing and pressurized air is supplied to the portion of the interior chamber between the housing cap and the piston so that the piston travels away from the housing cap. As a result, the needle travels along the spiral groove and thus up into and through a web of material, such as paper, to create a slash in the cross-machine direction. A turnup blow pipe provides air to the slasher. In addition, slits in the turnup blow pipe direct streams of air against the web in proximity to the slash so that the web is severed. The air streams then blow the newly severed end of the web onto an empty rotating spool. A compression spring positioned between the piston and the slasher housing bottom returns the piston and needle to their initial positions when the flow of air to the slasher is terminated.

The invention relates generally to devices for cutting a web of material as it is being wound onto a roll and, more particularly, to a device that slashes and tears the web to create a free end that is thereafter blown onto an empty core or spool so that the web material may be wound continuously.
Flexible sheet materials, such as paper, are often produced as continuous sheets or "webs" by lines of machinery. When a line of papermaking machinery is initially activated, such as at the beginning of a work shift, adjustments must be made before the resulting web of paper is of acceptable quality. These adjustments consume a considerable amount of time and effort. In addition, a significant amount of papermaking material is wasted as the adjustments are fine-tuned. As a result, it is desirable to run a papermaking line continuously once it is fully adjusted.
Paper webs are typically wound upon a roll at the end of the papermaking line for storage or to await further finishing work. As the web of paper is continuously drawn off of the end of the papermaking machine line and wound about the roll, the size of the roll will increase until it becomes necessary to begin a new roll. To avoid machinery readjustments and the disadvantages associated therewith, it is desirable to cut the paper web and feed the resulting free end onto an empty core or spool without stopping or slowing the papermaking line. Various devices and arrangements have been proposed to accomplish such a function.
Blades are frequently used to cut paper webs. These blades may have a length extending over the entire cross-machine width of the web, or, alternatively, a short knife may be used that is moved transversely across the width of the web. An example of the latter is the device disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,365,992 to Dreher. Dreher shows a carriage assembly with a short knife pivotally mounted to its bottom and an adhesive sprayer positioned on its top. The carriage is mounted upon cross-machine spanning rails so that it may travel across the width of the web. This allows the knife to cut the web. As the knife is cutting the web, adhesive is sprayed upon an adjacent empty spool. As a result, the web is wound about the spool as the newly-cut portion contacts the sprayed adhesive.
While the device of Dreher is effective, it requires the use of adhesive to feed the web onto a spool. This is an additional material cost. Furthermore, the web is actually cut obliquely due to the web's continuous movement as the knife travels across it. This results in greater paper waste. The cross-web travel of the knife also limits the speed at which the device may be operated. An additional disadvantage to Dreher is that the knife blade must occasionally be sharpened. This translates into increased maintenance requirements. Features such as the moving carriage mechanism and the adhesive spray nozzles add to the bulkiness and complexity of the device and thus also increase maintenance and space requirements.
A device utilizing a cross-machine length blade is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,049,311 to Birch. The Birch device features a bottom-hinged curved grating mounted upon a hydraulic cylinder that is positioned beneath the exit side of a driving roller. The grating is elevated in a direction perpendicular to web travel when the hydraulic cylinder is activated. A cutting blade is positioned across the top of the grating so that the web is cut when the grating is elevated. A number of small rollers are positioned near the top of the grating so that the newly cut web is wrapped about a spool positioned above the driving roller as the grating is further elevated.
While this device overcomes the cost of using adhesive and does not produce as much waste as the device of Dreher, it is still mechanically complex and bulky. In addition, the cutting blade would require periodic sharpening. As a result, the device of Birch would also suffer from significant maintenance and space requirements. Furthermore, the bulk of the device would make high-speed operation difficult.
Devices have also been developed that utilize jets of air to lap a severed web onto an empty spool. An example of such a device is presented in U.S. Pat. No. 3,845,914 to Straujups. Straujups uses a chain-cutting mechanism that spans the width of the web. This mechanism is powered by an electric motor and cuts the web from below as it is elevated via a hydraulic cylinder. A series of air jets are positioned across the cutting mechanism. This allows the severed end of the web to be blown or "air lapped" onto a waiting spool as the mechanism is elevated beyond the cutting position.
While Straujups eliminates the additional material costs and some of the complexity of earlier lapping arrangements, the cutting mechanism is still bulky and mechanically complex. The cutting chain requires periodic sharpening and lubrication and the hydraulic cylinder has maintenance requirements. The electric motor powering the cutting chain would also consume energy and occasionally require servicing or replacement. The bulk of the cutting portion would once again make high-speed operation difficult.
Turnup blow pipes, or gooseneck turnups, have long been used in the paper manufacturing industry to lap the free end of a paper web about a spool. A primary advantage of turnup blow pipes is their compactness and simplicity. These devices typically consist of a pipe positioned in a primarily vertical orientation. The pipe features an opening at its top end and is connected to a source of pressurized air. The top portion of the pipe is angled slightly so that a stream of air travels through the opening in a direction tangential to the spool. Turnup blow pipes are typically oriented below the spool and downstream from the driving roller of the papermaking line.
While turnup blow pipes have proven to be an effective means of lapping paper about a spool, attempts to use the devices as cutters have been less successful. More specifically, the air streams produced by the devices have thus far been found to be suitable only for cutting and tearing very thin grades of paper. This is because a very high air pressure is required to initially burst through the web to start the tear. After this initial burst, however, a lower air pressure will suffice in completing the tear. Most turnup blow pipes do not provide sufficient air pressure to reliably perform the initial bursting function.
If a turnup blow pipe featured a device that would allow it to make a more direct or "positive" initial burst, that is, more of an initial mechanical slash, it could be used to cut thicker grades of paper, or other materials without the use of very high air pressure. Such a device would drastically increase the utility of turnup blow pipes.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a web cutting and lapping device that allows for continuous and high-speed operation of the web-producing machinery.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a web cutting and lapping device that does not utilize knives or blades.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a web cutting and lapping device that is relatively compact.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a web cutting and lapping device that possesses simple construction and low maintenance requirements.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a web cutting and lapping device that does not use adhesives and that minimizes paper waste.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a web cutting and lapping device that provides for a positive initial slashing of the web.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a web cutting and lapping device that may incorporate existing turnup blow pipes.


A chemical source of electrical energy may include a positive electrode (cathode) made of an electrically conductive material, a mixture of lithium sulphide and sulphur, a permeable separator or membrane, and a negative electrode (anode) made of an electrically conductive material or a material that is able reversibly to intercalate lithium ions, wherein an aprotic electrolyte comprising at least one lithium salt in at least one solvent is provided between the electrodes.

Throughout this application various patents and published patent applications are referred to by an identifying citation. The disclosures of the patents and published patent applications referred to in this application are hereby incorporated into the present disclosure by reference to more fully describe the state of the art to which this invention pertains.
An electroactive material that has been fabricated into a structure for use in a battery is referred to as an electrode. Of a pair of electrodes used in a battery, herein referred to as a chemical source of electrical energy, the electrode on the side having a higher electrochemical potential is referred to as the positive electrode, or the cathode, while the electrode on the side having a lower electrochemical potential is referred to as the negative electrode, or the anode.
An electrochemically active material used in the cathode or positive electrode is referred to hereinafter as a cathode active material. An electrochemically active material used in the anode or negative electrode is hereinafter referred to as an anode active material. A chemical source of electrical energy or battery comprising a cathode with the cathode active material in an oxidized state and an anode with the anode active material in a reduced state is referred to as being in a charged state. Accordingly, a chemical source of electrical energy comprising a cathode with the cathode active material in a reduced state, and an anode with the anode active material in an oxidized state, is referred to as being in a discharged state.
There is a significant requirement for new types of rechargeable batteries, having high specific energy, long cycle life, safety for the user and the environment, as well as low cost. One of the most promising electrochemical systems is the lithium-sulphur system, which has high theoretical specific energy (2600 Wh/kg), safety and low cost. Sulphur or sulphur-based organic and polymeric compounds are used in lithium-sulphur batteries as a positive electrode depolarizer substance. Lithium or lithium alloys are used as depolarizer substances in the negative electrode.
Elemental sulphur (U.S. Pat. No. 5,789,108; U.S. Pat. No. 5,814,420), sulphur-based organic compounds (U.S. Pat. No. 6,090,504) or sulphur-containing polymers (U.S. Pat. No. 6,201,100, U.S. Pat. No. 6,174,621, U.S. Pat. No. 6,117,590) usually serve as a depolarizer for the positive electrode in lithium-sulphur batteries. Metallic lithium is normally used as a material for the negative electrode (U.S. Pat. No. 6,706,449). It has been suggested that it might be possible to make use of materials that can reversibly intercalate lithium for the negative electrode material. These materials include graphite (D. Aurbach, E. Zinigrad, Y. Cohen, H. Teller; "A short review of failure mechanism of lithium metal and lithiated graphite anodes in liquid electrolyte solutions"; Solid State Ionics; 2002; vol 148; pp 405-416), and oxides and sulphides of some metals (U.S. Pat. No. 6,319,633). However, the present applicant has not been able to find specific examples of intercalation electrodes for lithium-sulphur batteries in the available literature. It must be stressed out that it is only possible to use intercalation electrodes (negative or positive) when they are present in lithiated form. It is also necessary to take into account that intercalated compounds (where lithium is involved) are chemically active and have chemical properties close to the properties of metallic lithium.
One of the disadvantages of lithium-sulphur batteries (limiting their commercialization) is a moderate cycle life caused by a low cycling efficiency of the lithium electrode. Accordingly, twice to ten times the theoretically required amount of lithium is usually provided in lithium-sulphur batteries so as to provide a longer cycle life. In order to improve cycling of the lithium electrode, it has been proposed to add various compounds to the electrolyte (U.S. Pat. No. 5,962,171, U.S. Pat. No. 6,632,573) or to deposit protective layers of polymers (U.S. Pat. No. 5,648,187, U.S. Pat. No. 5,961,672) or non-organic compounds (U.S. Pat. No. 6,797,428, U.S. Pat. No. 6,733,924) on the electrode surface. The use of protective coatings significantly improves the cycling of the lithium electrode but still does not provide a sufficiently long cycle life for many commercial applications.
It is known that graphite intercalate electrodes possess good cycling capabilities (D. Aurbach, E. Zinigrad, Y. Cohen, H. Teller; "A short review of failure mechanism of lithium metal and lithiated graphite anodes in liquid electrolyte solutions"; Solid State Ionics; 2002; vol 148; pp 405-416). However, in order to use such electrodes as a negative electrode, it is necessary to have a source of lithium ions. In traditional lithium-ion batteries, this may be lithiated oxides of transition metals, cobalt, nickel, manganese and others that are depolarizers for the positive electrode.
It is theoretically possible to use the end products of sulphur electrode discharge (lithium sulphide and disulphide) as the source of lithium ions. However, lithium sulphide and disulphide are poorly soluble in aprotic electrolyte systems, and are thus electrochemically non-active. Attempts to use lithium sulphide as a depolarizer for the positive electrode in lithium-sulphur batteries have hitherto been unsuccessful (Peled E., Gorenshtein A., Segal M., Sternberg Y.; "Rechargeable lithium-sulphur battery (extended abstract)"; J. of Power Sources; 1989; vol 26; pp 269-271).
Lithium sulphide is capable of reacting with elemental sulphur in aprotic media so as to produce lithium polysulphides, these being compounds that have good solubility in most known aprotic electrolyte systems (AES) (Shin-Ichi Tobishima, Hideo Yamamoto, Minoru Matsuda, "Study on the reduction species of sulphur by alkali metals in nonaqueous solvents", Electrochimica Acta, 1997, vol 42, no 6, pp 1019-1029; Rauh R. D., Shuker F. S., Marston J. M., Brummer S. B., "Formation of lithium polysulphides in aprotic media", J. inorg. Nucl. Chem., 1977, vol 39, pp 1761-1766; J. Paris, V. Plichon, "Electrochemical reduction of sulphur in dimethylacetamide", Electrochimica Acta, 1981, vol 26, no 12, pp 1823-1829; Rauh R. D., Abraham K. M., Pearson G. F., Surprenant J. K., Brummer S. B., "A lithium/dissolved sulphur battery with an organic electrolyte", J. Electrochem. Soc., 1979, vol 126, no 4, pp 523-527). The solubility of lithium polysulphides in an aprotic electrolyte system depends on the properties of the components (solvents and salts) thereof, as well as on the length of the polysulphide chain. Lithium polysulphides may undergo disproportionation in solutions according to the following schema:

Accordingly, lithium polysulphides of various lengths may be found simultaneously in the electrolyte solution at the same time, being in thermodynamic equilibrium with each other. A molecular mass distribution of the polysulphides is governed by the composition and physical/chemical properties of the electrolyte solution components. These solutions of lithium polysulphides possess high electroconductivity (Duck-Rye Chang, Suck-Hyun Lee, Sun-Wook Kim, Hee-Tak Kim "Binary electrolyte based on tetra(ethylene glycol) dimethyl ether and 1,3-dioxolane for lithium-sulphur battery", J. of Power Sources, 2002, vol 112, pp 452-460) and high electrochemical activity (Taitiro Fujnaga, Tooru Kuwamoto, Satoshi Okazaki, Masashi Horo, "Electrochemical reduction of elemental sulphur in acetonitrile", Bull. Chem. Soc. Jpn., 1980, vol 53, pp 2851-2855; Levillain E., Gaillard F., Legit P., Demortier A., Lelieur J. P., "On the understanding of the reduction of sulphur (S8) in dimethylformamide (DMF)", J. of Electroanalytical Chemistry, 1997, vol 420, pp 167-177; Yamin H., Penciner J., Gorenshtain A., Elam M., Peled E., "The electrochemical behavior of polysulphides in tetrahydrofuran", J. of Power Sources, 1985, vol 14, pp 129-134; Yamin H., Gorenshtein A., Penciner J., Sternberg Y., Peled E., "Lithium sulphur battery. Oxidation/reduction mechanisms of polysulphides in THF solution", J. Electrochem. Soc., 1988, vol 135, no 5, pp 1045-1048).
It has been proposed to use polysulphide solutions in AES as liquid depolarizers for lithium-sulphur batteries (Rauh R. D., Abraham K. M., Pearson G. F., Surprenant J. K., Brummer S. B., "A lithium/dissolved sulphur battery with an organic electrolyte", J. Electrochem. Soc., 1979, vol 126, no 4, pp 523-527; Yamin H., Peled E., "Electrochemistry of a nonaqueous lithium/sulphur cell", J. of Power Sources, 1983, vol 9, pp 281-287). Such batteries are generally known as "lithium-sulphur batteries with liquid cathodes". The degree of sulphur utilization in such batteries with liquid sulphide cathodes depends on the nature and polarization conditions of the AES. In many cases it is close to 100% if counting full sulphur reduction and lithium sulphide formation (Rauh R. D., Abraham K. M., Pearson G. F., Surprenant J. K., Brummer S. B., "A lithium/dissolved sulphur battery with an organic electrolyte", J. Electrochem. Soc., 1979, vol 126, no 4, pp 523-527). An energy output of liquid cathodes based on lithium polysulphides is determined by their solubility. In some solvents (tetrahydrofuran, for example) sulphur solubility in the form of lithium polysulphides can reach 20M (Yamin H., Peled E., "Electrochemistry of a nonaqueous lithium/sulphur cell", J. of Power Sources, 1983, vol 9, pp 281-287). The energy output of such liquid cathodes is more than 1000 Ah/l. The cycle life of lithium-sulphur batteries is also determined by the metal lithium electrode behaviour and is limited by the cycling efficiency of this electrode, which is about 80-90% in sulphide systems (Peled E., Sternberg Y., Gorenshtein A., Lavi Y., "Lithium-sulphur battery: evaluation of dioxolane-based electrolytes", J. Electrochem. Soc., 1989, vol 136, no 6, pp 1621-1625).

Lithium sulphide battery and method of producing the same


Disclosed is a system using a large area flat panel imager which is specifically adapted for rare cell detection methods. The system generally includes an imager having a sample receiving surface which can provide a digital or electronic image of a sample deposited on the surface. The system also includes a selectively positionable microscope and/or camera which are used to obtain high resolution images of the deposited samples. An electronic controller can also be used in conjunction with the imager, microscope, and/or camera to selectively position at least one of those components to focus on desired regions of the deposited sample. The noted system is particularly adapted for use with chemiluminescence or other tagging technologies.

The present exemplary embodiment relates to cell screening techniques. It finds particular application in conjunction with cell screening methods and related instrumentation, and will be described with particular reference thereto. However, it is to be appreciated that the present exemplary embodiment is also amenable to other like applications.
Many medical applications would benefit from the ability to detect rare cell events. For example, it is known that fetal cells circulate in the maternal blood stream. See Oosterwijk et.al., Am. J. Hum. Genet., 63: 1783-1792 (1998); Bajaj et. al., Cytometry, 39: 285-294 (2000), the contents of which are incorporated by reference herein. Cancer cells can be found circulating in the bloodstream depending on the stage of cancer. See Hochten-Wollmar et. al., Int. J. Cancer, 70: 396-400 (1997), the contents of which are incorporated by reference herein. Shed tissues of people infected with viruses can also be detected in the circulation system at an early stage. See Musiani et. al., J. Histochem. Cytochem., 45(5): 729-735 (1997), the contents of which are incorporated by reference herein. Early detection of these rare cells would allow invasive diagnostic procedures such as amniocentesis to be avoided, cancer development to be properly monitored and treatment to be prescribed, or viral outbreak to be prevented. Detection of these rare cells would also find use in other diagnostic or research applications.
To provide statistically significant information, it is necessary to screen about 50-100 million blood cells in order to detect rare cell events occurring at scales of 1 in 1 to 10 millions. Therefore, a system that could efficiently and quickly process a large number of cells, such as up to 100 million, at a time would be beneficial. However, these numbers are exemplary and should not be construed as limiting.
Measuring emitted light has become a widely used method in detecting rare cell events. Two methods may be used to create these emitted photons. Chemiluminescence (CL) refers to the light emitted by a chemical reaction, especially when the chemical reaction is catalyzed by an enzyme. For example, luciferase catalyzes the oxidation of luciferin and produces green light. Alkaline phosphatase can be used with 1,2-dioxetane substrates such as CSPD and CDP-Star to produce light as well. In one method, the enzyme is linked to an antibody specific to a protein marker and the antibody binds the protein. Reagents are introduced which are cleaved by the enzyme and cause CL. A second analytical technique known as fluorescence uses a molecule (usually an organic dye or fluorchrome but more recently inorganic semiconductor nanocrystal material such as quantum dot is also used as a tagging molecule) which absorbs light at one wavelength and emits light at a different wavelength. The molecule is first bound to a cell or cell component such as a protein, lipid, chromosome, or other such components. A light (usually a laser) is then used at the wavelength absorbed by the molecule to excite it and the amount of light emitted at the emission wavelength is measured. These assays are useful because the amount of light emitted is proportional to, and thus can be used to determine the number of cells or cell components to which the molecule is bound that is present in the sample. Similarly, the rate of light output can also be used to determine the concentration of the cells or cell components present in the sample. These assays are very sensitive, have a wide dynamic range within which they can be used, and have low background noise. The kinetics of CL also allow for two different types of kinetics. In "flash" kinetics, light output peaks rapidly, then dies off quickly. In "glow" kinetics, light output is steady for a comparatively long period of time. Because of these characteristics, they are widely used in studying gene expression and regulation within living cells as well as for protein/nucleic acid blots.
Cell detection based on illumination to generate fluorescence is currently used in two main categories: flow cytometry and, image cytometry, which includes conventional or digital microscopy as well as laser scanning microscopy. In flow cytometry, cells are suspended in solution and travel one by one past a sensing point. Fluorescent compounds can be attached to the cells or cell components and detected using a laser which excites the compound and causes it to fluoresce. In conventional fluorescent microscopy, cells are fixed on a slide and stained with a fluorescent compound, then viewed under a microscope. Broad spectrum light sources (such as mercury arc lamp or Xenon flash lamp) coupled with specific excitation/emission filters are used to block undesired excitation lights and allow detection of weaker fluorescence. They usually include automatic stage movement and use low-magnification scanning to identify potential cells of interest followed by high magnification to reject false positives. Bajaj described one such setup of a fluorescent microscope. It's also noted that laser can be used to excite these fluorescent compounds in a system called laser scanning cytometer (LSC). Both of these image-based cytometry methods direct the excitation light and collect the fluorescence through a microscope objective.
However, both flow cytometry and fluorescent microscopy have several problems which hinder their use in clinical applications. Bajaj et al. concluded that flow cytometry could be used to screen cells quickly, but generated high numbers of false positives due to autofluorescence, nonspecific staining, and cell aggregates. See also Radbruch et. al., Curr. Opin. Immunol. 7:270-273 (1995), the contents of which are incorporated by reference herein. Also, in practice a high number of cells bunch or clump together, making it impossible to examine each cell separately. The cells being examined cannot be saved for confirmation of the diagnosis, nor can the high-resolution images needed for such confirmation be taken by current instrumentation.
Conventional fluorescent microscopy or laser scanning cytometry are unsuitable for clinical use because it usually requires at least 10-20 microscope slides and from 5 to 30 hours to scan 100 million blood cells. In addition, the use of fluorescence creates the need to filter strong exciting light and also leads to the possibility of bleaching, both of which affect the sensitivity of the assay. However, microscopy allows the cells to be saved for confirmation or for images to be captured either digitally or on film. Finally, the equipment costs of both techniques are very high.
A significant cause of delay in imaging is related to the process by which cells or samples are examined. In current image cytometry systems, the cell samples are usually processed in two steps. First, the imaging device (e.g., a microscope with a CCD camera) is used at low resolution and passes over the entire area of the slide in order to detect all "potential hits." However, with a typical field of view of only a few square millimeters through a low-magnification 4× objective and a CCD camera, moving the objective across entire surfaces of multiple slides is a very time-consuming bottleneck. After this "pre-screening," the imaging device then reexamines the "potential hits" at high resolution (such as 20× or 40×) by making a second pass over the slide. This second pass increases the amount of time required for a complete examination of the cell samples.
There is therefore a need for methods and systems which are less expensive, have higher throughput of cells, and allow for confirmation of results. The present exemplary embodiment contemplates a new and improved approach for rare cell detection methods and systems which overcome the above-referenced problems and others.

Rare cell detection using flat-panel imager and chemiluminescent or radioisotopic tags


A semiconductor package includes a wiring board and a semiconductor device mounted on the wiring board. At least one penetration hole extends from one surface of the semiconductor chip to an opposite surface of the semiconductor chip. A penetration electrode is situated inside the penetration hole without contacting a wall of the penetration hole. The penetration electrode has one end fixed to the one surface of the semiconductor chip and an opposite end protruding from the opposite surface of the semiconductor chip. A connection terminal is formed on the opposite end of the penetration electrode and electrically connected to the wiring board.

Conventionally, there is known a semiconductor package in which a semiconductor device is mounted on a wiring board. FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a part of a conventional semiconductor package 300. Referring to FIG. 1, the semiconductor package 300 includes a semiconductor device 400 and a wiring board 500. The semiconductor device 400 includes a semiconductor chip 410 and connection terminals 420.
The semiconductor chip 410 has a structure in which a semiconductor integrated circuit (not illustrated in the figure) and electrode pads (not illustrated in the figure) are formed on a semiconductor substrate (not illustrated in the figure) formed of a semiconductor material such as silicon. The connection terminals 420 serving as electrodes are formed on the electrode pads. For example, solder bumps may be used as the connection terminals 420.
The wiring board 500 includes an insulation layer 530, wiring layers 540, a solder resist layer 550 and pre-solders 570. In the wiring board 500, the wiring layers 540 are formed on the insulation layer 530, and the solder resist layer 550 having openings 550x is formed over the insulation layer 530 and the wiring layers 540. The pre-solders 570 are formed on portions of the wiring layers 540 exposed in the respective openings 550x. The wiring layers 540 may be formed of, for example, copper (Cu). The insulation layer 530 may be formed of, for example, an epoxy resin or a glass-epoxy, which is an epoxy resin containing a glass fiber cloth.
The connection terminals 420 of the semiconductor device 400 are electrically connected to the pre-solders 570 formed on the wiring layers 540 of the wiring board 500 (for example, refer to Patent Documents 1 and 2).
Patent Document 1: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2003-188209
Patent Document 2: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2006-324393
If a glass-epoxy is used to form the insulation layer 530, the thermal expansion coefficient of the insulation layer 530 is about 18 ppm/° C. On the other hand, if silicon is used to form the semiconductor substrate of the semiconductor chip 410, the thermal expansion coefficient of the semiconductor chip 410 is about 3 ppm/° C. Accordingly, if a glass-epoxy is used for the insulation layer 530 and silicon is used for the semiconductor substrate of the semiconductor chip 410, there is a large difference in thermal expansion coefficient between the insulation layer 530 and the semiconductor chip 410. Thus, when the semiconductor package 300 is heated, a relatively large stress is generated in joining parts between the connection terminals 420 and the pre-solders 570. Such a stress may cause a problem of cracking in the joining parts.

Semiconductor package and manufacturing method thereof


Antibodies that selectively bind to quadruplex nucleic acids are described. Isolated cells that produce such antibodies, and methods utilizing these antibodies, are also described.

Telomeric and other guanine-rich DNAs can form a variety of novel four-stranded structures containing G--G base pairs that are stabilized by physiologically important cations such as Na.sup.+ and K.sup.+. See, e.g., E. Henderson, et al., Cell 51, 899-908 (1987); Y. Oka and C. A. Thomas, Nucleic Acids Res. 15, 8877-8898 (1987); D. Sen and W. Gilbert, Nature 334, 364-366 (1988). A number of quadruplex conformational variants have been described and several biological and biotechnological roles have been suggested, including telomere-telomere interactions, telomerase inhibition, chromatin condensation, aptamer structure, mitotic and meiotic chromosomal pairing, promotion of recombination, eukaryotic intron RNA recognition, and repression of eukaryotic transcription and viral replication. See. e.g., E. Henderson et al., supra; M. K. Raghuraman and T. R. Cech, Nucleic Acids Res. 18, 4543-4552 (1990); E. H. Blackburn, J. Biol. Chem. 265, 5919-5921 (1990); D. E. Huizenga and J. W. Szostak, Biochemistry 34, 656-665 (1995); R. F. Macaya et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 90, 3745-3749 (1993); A. T. Pluta and V. A. Zakian, Nature 337, 429-33 (1989); N. Abdul-Manan, et al., Biochemistry 35, 3545-3554 (1996).
In vitro studies of a consensus SPl transcription factor binding sequence motif oligonucleotide, d(CGC G.sub.4 GCG) (abbreviated G.sub.4 -DNA, SEQ ID NO:1), have shown that four of these oligonucleotides form a parallel intramolecular quadruplex at moderate ionic strengths. See, C. C. Hardin et al., Biochemistry 32, 5870-5880 (1993); D. R. Goodlet et al., Biol. Mass. Spec. 22, 181-183 (1993). Circular dichroism and NMR studies have shown that this quadruplex is inherently stable (T.sub.m of ca. 90.degree. C.) when formed in 20 mM K.sup.+. The biological roles of such a stable complex are clearly worthy of probing, yet definitive detection of these structures in vivo has heretofore not been accomplished.
Several studies have demonstrated the utility of antibodies in elucidating structural features of native and modified nucleic acids. See C. C. Hardin et al., Biochemistry 27, 4169-4177 (1988). Right- and left-handed RNAs and DNAs and triplex DNAs have been studied in vitro and in vivo using polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies. Id.; see also E. M. Lafer et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 78, 3546-3550 (1981); C. C. Hardin et al., Biochemistry 26, 5191-5199 (1987). Anti-DNA antibodies have been obtained from murine models of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Specifically, (NZB/NZW)F.sub.1 and MRL/Mp-lpr/lpr mice have been shown to produce antibodies that are specific for single- and double-stranded DNA, Z-DNA, RNA and rRNA. See, e.g., C. Andrzejewski et al., J. Immunol. 124, 1499-1502 (1980); M. Herrmann et al., Eur. J. Immunol. 25, 1897-1904 (1995). However, the production of antibodies useful in detecting and characterizing quadruplex nucleic acids has heretofore proved elusive. Accordingly, there exists a need for means and methods to easily detect and study quadruplex nucleic acids, in order to further elucidate the biological functions related thereto.

Antibodies that selectively bind quadruplex nucleic acids


A communication interception method by a base station, a device and a terminal belonging to device-to-device (D2D) communication includes: receiving a message sent by a device, where the message is used to instruct interception of D2D data of the terminal belonging to the D2D communication; obtaining the D2D data according to the message; and sending the obtained D2D data to the device.

Due to security concerns, a public security organ or another department may intercept communication content of a user within a legally authorized scope, and such interception is called "lawful interception". Currently, when a user performs communication by means of a mobile communications network and the like, data such as a voice of the user is carried by the network. For example, after a user A and a user B set up a call, a voice of the user A is sent to a base station where the user A is located, the base station of the user A sends the voice of the user A to a PGW (Packet Data Network Gateway, packet data network gateway) and an SGW (Serving Gate Way, serving gateway), the PGW and the SGW forward the voice of the user A to a base station where the user B is located, and the base station where the user B is located sends the voice of the user A to the user B, to implement transmission of the voice of the user A to the user B; the transmission of a voice of the user B to the user A is similar. Because the data such as the voice of the user is carried by the network, when the data such as the voice of the user needs to be intercepted in the prior art, the data such as the voice of the user is directly obtained from the SGW or the PGW, thereby implementing interception on the user. However, with the development of a mobile communications technology, an idea of position-based D2D (device to device) is being discussed and has brought about some applications. The core of the D2D idea is that data between users can be directly transmitted without being carried by a network if the distance between the users is short enough.

Communication interception method, base station, and terminal