A conference call may involve participants with video conferencing systems and participants with speakerphone systems. In some embodiments, sound from speakerphone participants may be sent through a speakerphone sound system while sound from video participants may be sent through the video sound system (e.g., near a video monitor). Sound may be localized through a combination of both the video sound system and the speakerphone sound system to produce a spatially correct sound field for in room participants.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to audio and, more specifically, to audio for video conference calls.
2. Description of the Related Art
People may communicate vocally through various devices including telephones, cellular phones, and Internet phones. People may also communicate with each other through video communication devices (e.g., through video conferencing systems). In a video conference, cameras and microphones located at local and remote sites may capture video and audio of conference participants to transmit to the other respective site. In addition, each video conference site may include a display and a speaker for reproducing the received video and audio signals.
Video conference calls allow multiple participants at different video conference sites to interact with each other face to face (i.e., through video). Because a conference system may be communicating with several other conference systems, each with multiple participants, it may become very difficult to discern who is speaking or from which conference site the current participant is speaking.

Audio output in video conferencing and speakerphone based on call type


A scanning microscope (100) possesses at least one illumination source (4), an objective (10), and at least one detector (12). An optical circulator (14) is arranged between the at least one illumination source (4), the objective (10), and the at least one detector (12). In a further embodiment, the scanning microscope (100) is configured as a confocal scanning microscope.

This invention claims priority of a German patent application DE 100 31 458.9-42 which is incorporated by reference herein.
The invention concerns a scanning microscope having a circulator. Furthermore the invention concerns a confocal scanning microscope with a circulator.
In scanning microscopy, a specimen is illuminated with a light beam in order to observe the reflected light or fluorescent light emitted from the specimen. The focus of the illuminating light beam is generally moved in a specimen plane by tilting two mirrors, the deflection axes usually being perpendicular to one another so that one mirror moves in the X direction and the other in the Y direction. Tilting of the mirrors is brought about, for example, using galvanometer positioning elements; both fast, resonant galvanometers and slower (and more accurate) nonresonant galvanometers are used. The output level of the light coming from the specimen is measured as a function of the position of the scanning beam.
The general construction of a scanning microscope is disclosed in the textbook by James B. Pawley xe2x80x9cHandbook of Biological Confocal Microscopy,xe2x80x9d 1990, Plenum press, New York. The principle of confocal microscopy is described, for example, on pages 4 through 7 (see FIG. 2 in Pawley). In this context, a specimen is scanned using a precisely focused light beam. The light proceeding from the specimen passes through a beam splitter to a detector, in front of which an entrance pinhole is positioned.
In confocal scanning microscopy in particular, a specimen is scanned in three dimensions with the focal point of a light beam. A confocal scanning microscope generally comprises a light source, a focusing optical system with which the light of the source is focused onto a stop (called the xe2x80x9cexcitation stopxe2x80x9d), a beam splitter, a scanning apparatus for controlling the beam, a microscope optical system, a detection stop, and the detectors for detecting the detected light or fluorescent light. The illuminating light is coupled in via a main beam splitter. The fluorescent light or reflected light coming from the specimen arrives via the same scanning mirror back at the main beam splitter, and passes through the latter and is then focused onto the detection stop, behind which the detectors (usually photomultipliers) are located. Detected light that does not derive directly from the focus region takes a different light path and does not pass through the detection stop, thus yielding a point datum that results, by sequential scanning of the specimen, in a three-dimensional image. A three-dimensional image is usually achieved by recording image data in layers.
Since the wavelengths of the exciting light and detected light differ because of the Stokes shift, dichroic main beam splitters are usually used to observe the fluorescent light. They are designed in such a way that the detected light can pass without hindrance, whereas the illuminating light is deflected at a right angle. No substantial losses occur with this arrangement.
Dichroic beam splitters cannot be used when a specimen (for example one prepared with several dyes) is simultaneously illuminated with light of several wavelengths, and/or when the detected light is polychromatic. Dichroics are not suitable in particular in reflection microscopy, in which the exciting light and detected light have the same wavelength. Broadband beam splitters are used in these situations.
The problems associated with the use of beam splitters in scanning microscopy will now be explained. When the beam splitters used are not polarization beam splitters or chromatic beam splitters, considerable losses of exciting light and/or detected light occur. If a 50:50 beam splitter is used, only 50% of the exciting light arrives at the specimen. Even assuming total reflection at the specimen, of that amount only 50% (i.e. 25% of the illuminating light output) reaches the detector. The detected light loss can be reduced to 10% by using a 90:10 beam splitter, but this entails a loss of 90% of the exciting light. This solution is therefore practical only if sufficient exciting light output is available. There are certain light sources, however, for example blue laser diodes, whose light output is very limited.
It is the object of the invention to eliminate losses of exciting light and/or detected light at the main beam splitter in scanning microscopy. A further object of the invention is for as much as possible of the light generated by the light source to be directed onto the specimen and received by the specimen, in order to limit the light output of the illumination source.
According to the present invention, the object is achieved by a scanning microscope which comprises: at least one illumination source, an objective, at least one detector, and an optical circulator being arranged between the at least one illumination source, the objective, and the at least one detector.
It is a further object of the invention to eliminate losses of exciting light and/or detected light at the main beam splitter in a confocal scanning microscope.
According to the present invention, the object is achieved by a confocal scanning microscope which comprises at least one illumination source, an objective, at least one detector, an optical circulator being arranged between the at least one illumination source, the objective, and the at least one detector, and a detection stop that is arranged in front of the at least one detector.
An advantage of the invention is that the beam splitter is replaced by a circulator. Circulators have been known for some time from microwave technology. Optical circulators are usually magnetooptical components which operate on the basis of the Faraday effect or the Cotton-Mouton effect. One example of a component that is related in principle is the optical isolator, which allows light to pass through in only one direction. Circulators, on the other hand, have not just two but three or more inputs, linked together in circular fashion. In the case of a circulator having inputs 1, 2, and 3, light that is coupled into, for example, input 1 comes back out of input 2. Light that is coupled into input 2 leaves the circulator through input 3.
If, in a microscope arrangement, the illumination light source is then associated with input 1, the specimen with input 2, and the detector with input 3, the circulator then performs the task of the main beam splitter completely and in almost lossless fashion (apart from minor insertion damping).
The reflectivity or transmissivity of beam splitters is generally polarizationdependent. Even high-quality beam splitters cannot be completely optimized, so that differences always occur in reflection and transmission behavior in terms of S and P polarization. If the linear polarization direction of the illuminating light fluctuates, which often happens especially when the light is coupled in with a glass fiber, fluctuations in the illuminating light at the specimen then occur.
Presently available circulators operate independently of polarization, so that these problems do not occur. The data sheets of presently available circulators expressly demonstrate polarization independence.
In particular, fiber-optic circulators can be used. As a particular embodiment, the fiber end at the output associated with the specimen could serve as both the illumination stop and the detection stop. Spectrally broadband circulators are preferably used.

Scanning microscope and a confocal scanning microscope having a circulator


A zinc active material containing a calcium-zincate constituent is formed external of a battery. The zinc active material is used as the active material for a zinc electrode used in the battery.

Many types of electrochemical storage devices containing zinc electrodes are known and have been practiced in the art. These electrochemical energy storage devices may be electrically or mechanically rechargeable (secondary batteries) or not rechargeable (primary batteries). Typical zinc electrodes used in these devices include nickel-zinc, silver-zinc, zinc-oxygen, zinc-air, zinc-mercuric-oxide, zinc-carbon and zinc-manganese-oxide.
In rechargeable batteries, the zinc electrode exhibits a relatively short charge/discharge cycle life due to the solubility of the zinc in the alkaline battery electrolyte. During battery charge/discharge cycling, zinc is dissolved in the alkaline electrolyte and then re-plated onto the electrode. The zinc does not necessarily re-plate back to the same place from which it was dissolved. This results in a redistribution of the zinc active material over the surface of the electrode which can cause lower cell capacity, reduced cycle life and premature cell failure.
Many factors influence the zinc redistribution process, known as shape change. These factors include cell design and construction, the type of separator used, thermal effects, electrolyte concentration gradients, current density distribution and others. The complex nature of the process and the many factors and variables which affect it, make it very difficult to control.
A number of approaches have been tried including a variety of electrode additives, electrolyte additives and separator types. Other more elaborate approaches involve electrode, cell, battery and system designs. Illustrative of these are circulating zinc-slurry type batteries and mechanically rechargeable batteries in which the spent zinc anode is physically replaced with fresh zinc.
Zinc electrode additives previously used include calcium-hydroxide and others. U.S. Pat. No. 3,516,862 issued to W. Van der Grinten, discloses adding calcium-hydroxide to the zinc-oxide active material mixture. Also U.S. Pat. No. 5,460,899 issued to Allen Charkey and assigned to the same assignee hereof, discloses a method of making a calcium-hydroxide/zinc-oxide electrode in a sealed nickel-zinc cell. In both cases, the zinc electrode is fabricated by combining calcium-hydroxide and zinc-oxide into the electrode mixture and forming calcium-zincate in situ in the alkaline electrolyte-activated cell.
Calcium-hydroxide in combination with zinc-oxide forms an insoluble phase known, and identified by x-ray diffraction, as calcium-zincate, having the structural formula CaZn(OH).sub.3 !.sub.2 .multidot.2H.sub.2 O. This relatively insoluble structure effectively ties up the zincate anion keeping it from diffusing into the bulk electrolyte where it is lost from the electrode. The calcium-zincate structure thus helps to hold the zinc active material in place on the electrode where it can be electrochemically utilized to provide energy storage capacity.
In prior approaches, calcium-hydroxide is added to the zinc-oxide active material during electrode fabrication. The electrode comprising the mixture of calcium-hydroxide and zinc-oxide is then incorporated into an alkaline electrolyte battery. Over the course of electrical charge/discharge cycling of the battery, the calcium-hydroxide, in combination with the zinc-oxide active material, then forms an insoluble phase of calcium-zincate, in situ. However, the conversion of the calcium-hydroxide and zinc-oxide to calcium-zincate is non-uniform, due to the effects of current density distribution, electrolyte concentration gradients and other factors.
There are additional disadvantages in using the in situ procedure for forming the calcium-zincate additive. One disadvantage is the dissolution of zinc active material into the battery electrolyte. This occurs during wetting down of the cell with electrolyte and during the initial cycles prior to complete conversion of the calcium-hydroxide to calcium-zincate. It results in loss of electrochemical zinc capacity. Another disadvantage is the changes that occur in the electrolyte concentration and distribution due to the consumption of water from the battery electrolyte. These disadvantages reduce battery charge/discharge cycle life.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide an improved zinc electrode active material containing calcium-zincate, and a method of making same.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a zinc electrode and zinc battery incorporating such improved zinc electrode active material.

Calcium-zincate electrode for alkaline batteries and method for making same


A method and a device are proposed for driver information and for a reaction upon the leaving of the traffic lane by the vehicle. The driver warning and the driver intervention are a function, in this context, of the driving situation, especially of the type of an edge marking of the traffic lane.

Warning systems, which warn the driver when he leaves the lane, or rather, threatens to leave the lane, are known in the related art. European Published Patent Application No. 1074430, for example, shows a procedure in which, based on image sensor systems, the lane in which the vehicle is moving is ascertained, and the driver is warned when the vehicle leaves the lane or threatens to do so. Information on the exact boundary conditions, under which such a warning is given, is not stated. In particular, the respective driving situation is not taken into consideration, so that disagreeable false warnings to the driver may occur.
From German Published Patent Application No. 196 37 053 it is known that one may detect objects on a neighboring traffic lane, with the aid of an angle-resolving distance and speed sensor, preferably a radar or laser sensor, and ascertain their travel direction in the light of the relative speed of these objects.

Method and device for driver information and to react to leaving the lane


A jewelry product whose ring shank is strengthened after ring sizing by securing a protective reinforcement plate made of a material to a recess in the ring shank. The ring shank is less susceptible to wear from abrasion than is the ring shank. The ring shank may have a decorative portion facing outwardly located diametrically opposite the recessed portion. An insert may be seated about the decorative portion.

The present invention relates to reinforcing or strengthening a ring shank.
It is known to adjust a ring shank size to fit on a wearer's finger. One conventional ring sizing process involves sawing the ring shank at a location diametrically opposite the decorative portion of the ring to form a cut, filing the ring shank at the cut until enough material is removed to attain a desired size of the wearer and then soldering together opposite sides of the cut.
The ring sizing process itself is known to cause physical changes to occur to the ring shank. For instance, there is usually a reduction in the shank dimension where the sizing process took place. Such reduction further weakens the ring shank than would otherwise be the case. The texture of the ring shank appearance may become altered in that it may no longer match as before, particularly if the sizing process causes the formation of visible solder seam lines, cold solder joints, incomplete solder joints or pits in the solder seam. Indeed, the inside contour of the ring may no longer be perfectly round after sizing.
It would therefore be desirable to form the ring shank in a manner to address undesired alterations to the ring shank appearance attributed to the ring sizing process. That is, to make provision for strengthening the ring shank after ring sizing and for hiding seams from view should they arise from the ring sizing process. It is further desirable to increase the wear of a ring shank by rendering it less susceptible to wear from abrasion.


This invention discloses a method of realizing a variety of movements which are controlled while maintaining their complexity by generating complex movements, which appear irregular at a glance, by the deterministic method. A neural network which connects a plurality of neurons to each other is set. The neurons perform calculations that generate chaotic oscillation, and are set in correspondence with the moving direction of an object. The movement vector of the object is calculated from time-series data obtained by the calculations.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus having a variety of complex movements generated by the deterministic method and also to a simulator for analyzing the movement of a living body and, more particularly, to a movement control method and an information processing unit for controlling the movement of, e.g., a pseudo living body.
2. Related Background Art
As a conventional method of generating complex movements, a technique of classification based on a procedure group using programs for setting conditions such as IF statements is known. Also, a technique for performing arithmetic control in consideration of indefinite elements using pseudo random numbers is also known.
Furthermore, on the research level, various mathematical models such as (i) a stochastic technique using a distribution function, (ii) a deterministic technique using differential and difference formulas, and the like have been proposed. In recent years, attempts have been made to understand complex systems such as a turbulent flow, brain, and the like using chaos.
However, with the techniques based on the procedures, the number of cases for generating complex movements becomes very large. For this reason, it is difficult to select a movement matching with a particular objective. Also, a partial change influences the entire procedures, resulting in cumbersome operations. Furthermore, with the technique using the pseudo random numbers, movements tend to be monotonous. For this reason, operations for complicatedly combining many random numbers are required to introduce complexity, and it is difficult to attain such operations.

Movement control method and chaotic information processing unit using chaotic neural network, and group movement control method


A method of inhibiting the emigration of cells from the intravascular compartment into tissues (or through any membrane limiting any body compartment from another) by confronting the cells with an agonist specific for receptors involved with migration of said cells via a receptor thereby making the cell unresponsive to further activation.

The role of inflammation in allergic diseases, especially in asthma is widely recognized, and inflammation of the airways is one of the three major characteristics of asthma1;2. The major infiltrating effector cells in asthma contributing to the inflammatory response are eosinophils, mast cells and Th2 lymphocytes3-5 all contributing to a complex pathologic process that ultimately leads to reduced lung function.
The molecular mechanisms involved in the recruitment of these cells from the circulation are complex6, Chemokines are of fundamental importance in this multistep process. Being present on the endothelium bound to glycosminoglycans, chemokines trigger integrin activation on rolling leukocytes resulting in their firm adhesion on the endothelial surface7. Transendothelial migration of the leukocytes into the surrounding tissue also strongly depends on chemokines and their receptors8. Key molecules involved in asthma belonging to the chemokine system have been recently elucidated. CCL11 (eotaxin) was the first specific chemokine identified as an attractant for eosinophils in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) obtained from an experimental model of allergen exposure of sensitized guinea pigs9 and was subsequently shown to be present in humans10. The functionally related chemokines CCL24 (eotaxin-2) and CCL26 (eotaxin-3) were described thereafter11;12 Besides the eotaxins, the MCPs, CCL5 (RANTES) and a truncated chemokine derived from CCL14 (HCC-1) are attracting the same type of inflammatory cells being involved in asthma13;14. An important role of CCL11 for the attraction of eosinophils into the lung was recently shown by several groups in human asthmatic subjects. The influx of eosinophils correlates strongly with increased peptide and mRNA expression of CCL1115;16.
The common feature of the eotaxins, the MCPs and CCL5 are their ability to mediate chemotaxis via the chemokine receptor CCR3, which has been shown to be expressed on eosinophils17, mast cells18, basophils19, and Th2-cells20;21. The involvement of other chemokines was clearly demonstrated in vivo showing that different chemokines, in the majority activators of CCR3, contribute at different levels to the complex pathophysiology of asthma22. Only this year a major breakthrough for the extraordinary role of CCR3 in asthma was achieved. Targeted disruption of CCR3 was successfully performed showing that eosinophils and other inflammatory cells were arrested in the subendothelial space of pulmonary vessels after bronchial allergen challenge in OVA-sensitized mice23, implicating that the local inflammatory response can be abolished targeting CCR3 already in the circulation. Furthermore airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR) is completely abrogated in CCR3-deficient mice in which the animals are sensitized by the epicutaneous route24. Therefore the common receptor CCR3 is exceptionally attractive as a drug target, and its blockade is already propagated as a therapy for asthma25.
CCL14 was recently isolated from human hemofiltrate based on its high concentrations in human blood plasma26. The originally isolated molecular form of CCL14 containing 74 amino acid residues was shown to be a very weak activator of monocytes. Later on, chemically synthesized N-terminal truncated forms of CCL14 were shown to be more potent activators of monocytes acting via CCR127. Further screening of human hemofiltrate fractions for novel natural ligands of chemokine receptors led to the identification of the variant CCL-14[9-74], being a potent agonist for CCR1, CCR3, and CCR528.
Other objects, features, advantages and aspects of the present invention will become apparent to those of skill in the art from the following description. It should be understood, however, that the following description and the specific examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only. Various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the disclosed invention will become readily apparent to those skilled in the art from reading the following description and from reading the other parts of the present disclosure.

Method of inhibiting the emigration of cells from the intravascular compartment into tissues


A joystick device includes a case so that first and second rocking members are respectively supported in a overlapped manner by first and second bearings formed in the case with their first and second elongate holes positioned perpendicular to each other. The operation of the lever inserted through the first and second elongate holes causes tilt movement in at least one of the rocking members so that the movement of the rocking member is supplied as a pulse signal by a detecting device. The lever includes an engaging portion engaged with the rocking member on the upper side, and a spherical portion formed at a position above the same rocking member. The cover has a hole having an inner peripheral edge with which an outer peripheral surface of the spherical portion is contacted so that the lever is operable in every direction. A spring is provided with the case, which acts to press down the rocking member thereby returning the lever to a neutral position.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to joystick devices. More particularly, this invention is concerned with a joystick device having an operating axis (lever) arranged for tilt movement in a desired direction so as to output an electric signal depending upon a state of inclination in the lever (the direction and the angle of inclination).
2. Prior Art
One example of a joystick device is described for example in Japanese Provisional Utility Model Publication No. H2-68404. This conventional art joystick device has a pair of rocking members, each having an elongate hole arranged such that these elongate holes are placed perpendicular to each other. A lever is inserted through the respective elongate holes of the pair of the rocking members so that the lever is allowed to tilt in every direction about a predetermined point as a fulcrum point. The lever is projected to extend from a predetermined location of a cover attached to a case in which the rocking members are accommodated.
In the above conventional art, the lever has a lower portion inserted through an elongate hole of one rocking member to be attached to the same rocking member through a shaft extending perpendicular to a lengthwise direction of the elongate hole, thereby preventing the lever from being removed and from rotating about its own axis. Consequently, the fulcrum point of the lever is located on the shaft where the lower portion of the lever is attached to the rocking member. To this end, it is necessary to provide a relatively large opening in the cover in order to obtain a sufficient range of tilt movement of the lever.
However, if a large opening is formed in a cover, dust or dirt is often allowed to intrude into an interior of the case through the opening, impairing operational reliability in rotational or sliding portions of the joystick device.


A focal device for a telescope includes an eyepiece tube, a main body, a fixing washer, a direction restricting member, a focus adjusting ring, a focus adjusting tube, an eyepiece, an eyepiece clamping member and a tightening ring. The eyepiece-clamping member is fixed with the eyepiece and with the focus adjusting tube, having male threads at the other end. The focus adjusting tube and the eyepiece have the same axial line and are able to shift axially only for restricted by the direction-restricting member. The focus adjusting ring engages with the focus adjusting tube, having the same axial line as the focus adjusting tube does, limited to rotate at its site for activating the focus adjusting tube to shift axially. All the axial lines of the eyepiece and the telescope overlap with each other, enabling focusing absolutely precise.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a focal device for a telescope, particularly one able to keep the axial lines of the ocular and the telescope aligned to obtain an absolutely precise focus by adjusting the focus.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A focal device of the conventional telescope, as shown in FIGS. 1-3, has a structure that, having not been improved any until now, has an eyepiece connecting tube 11, and an eyepiece 12 fitted at the front end of the combining tube 11 of an eyepiece tube 10. The conjunction of the eyepiece tube 10 and the eyepiece connecting tube 11 counts on a rack 110, set on the bottom of the eyepiece connecting tube 11 and meshing with a gear 100 set on the bottom of the eyepiece tube 10. Then the gear 10 is activated by a rotary wheel 101 to rotate at its site, as shown in FIG. 2. So, when the focus is to be carried out, we need only to rotate the rotary wheel 101 that can activate the gear 100 to drag the rack 110 to move to and fro, making the ocular connecting tube 11 and the ocular 12 move together synchronously. The conventional focal device, though be able to keep the ocular connecting tube 11 and the ocular 12 moving to and fro, has a practical defect, unable to adjust the focus precisely. The reason is described as below:
The precision of focusing is dependent on if the telescope axial line (A) overlaps totally with the ocular axial line (B) or not. As the meshing position between the eyepiece connecting tube 11 and the gear 100 locates below the telescope axial line (A) and the eyepiece line (B) the supporting pivotal point of the eyepiece connecting tube 11 and the gear 100 are below the two axial lines (A), and (B), the eyepiece axial line (B) always remains bias, not overlapping totally with the telescope axial line (A) despite rotating the gear wheel 100 to move forwards, as shown in FIG. 2, or to move backwards, as shown in FIG. 3. Therefore, a precise focus can never be obtained.


A method for installing an inner blade part or a wind turbine blade and to a lifting bracket for use in performing said method, e.g., a inner blade part for a partial pitch wind turbine blade comprising an inner blade part and an outer blade part, said inner blade part comprising a first flange for connection to a hub flange at a wind turbine hub and a second flange for connection to an outer blade part, said flanges all comprising a number of bolts and/or bolt holes. The lifting bracket has a flange for connection to a suitable number of bolts and/or bolt holes at said second flange on the inner blade part, the flange having a first surface and an opposite second surface arranged for interfacing with the first flange, and further the lifting bracket also has at least one lifting lug and at least one counter weight.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for installing an inner blade part of a wind turbine blade, said method comprising the steps of hoisting said inner blade part and arranging said inner blade part in relation to said hub flange.
2. Description of Related Art
The invention further relates to a lifting bracket suitable to be used during installation of an inner blade part of a wind turbine blade, e.g., a inner blade part for a partial pitch wind turbine blade comprising an inner blade part and an outer blade part, said inner blade part comprising a first flange for connection to a hub flange at a wind turbine hub and a second flange for connection to an outer blade part, said flanges all comprising a number of bolts and/or bolt holes.
Finally, the invention relates to the use of a lifting bracket and a method as mentioned above.
It is well known that blades for modern wind turbines have to be handled during production, transport and installation and as such blades easily can have a length of 40 to 60 meters or in the near future up to approximately 80 meters, handling can be quite a challenge.
Most of the wind turbines produced are so-called pitch controlled or active stall controlled. The blade is installed at some kind of bearing at the hub and via said bearing it is possible to rotate the blade about a central axis of the flange at the hub. When a wind turbine blade has to be installed at the hub, the blade will be hoisted and positioned at said hub and typically the bearing will be rotated and/or adjusted into the right position in relation to bolt holes in a flange at the root end of the blade. Typically, the right position is the nearest bolt hole as the blade can be positioned in its final position after installation by activating the pitch system. In this way many blades have been installed over the years and the method works very well.
Due to the fact that the blades are becoming longer and longer, to be able to produce more power, several attempts to produce dividable blades for a wind turbine have been made. Until now, nobody has come up with a solution that really works. As the blades during use are facing quite drastic deformations there is a large challenge in designing the interface on the respective parts of a dividable blade.
One way of dealing with the problems incurred by manufacturing and handling long blades is to design a wind turbine having blades with partial pitch. Such blades are typically stall controlled on the innermost part, also called the inner blade part, and pitch controlled at the outermost part, also called the outer blade part. There is thus provided a pitch bearing at the joint between the inner and the outer blade part. Such a blade will typically be divided between ⅓ and ½ of the length when measured from the root end of the blade and towards the tip end. The inner blade part is designed as a rigid component that is suitable for having a pitch bearing installed at the interface towards the outer blade part.
When installing the outer blade part to the inner blade part the same method as discussed above can be used with no problems. When it comes to installing the inner blade part to the hub, which typically will take place before installing the outer blade part, a number of other problems arise. As there is no pitch bearing between the hub and the inner blade part to rotate the blade into any position, the blade can not be installed in just any position, it has to be aligned according to and installed into the exact bolt holes. Such a handling will often take place at the erection site of the wind turbine. Even though the blade is divided into an inner blade part and an outer blade part, the two parts are still big, heavy and are not easy to handle. The diameter at the root end will typically be 2.5 to 3.5 meters or even more and the inner blade part can e.g., have a weight of approximately 10 to 20 metric ton or more and a length of e.g., 20 to 40 meters or even more. It is thus clear that this is a job for a crane or even for two cranes. But still the inner blade part has to be positioned at the exact bolt holes.

Method and equipment for turning a blade or a blade part for a wind turbine during production or installation


A method of casting concrete structures using a "flexible formwork assembly". The assembly has flexible sheets suspended from a fixed location, preferably from a supporting frame assembled on top of the reinforcing members, with rigid stress distribution members located to the outer surface of flexible sheets in predetermined spacings so as to carry load directly and to redistribute stress in the sheet so as to aid the sheet to withstand the concrete pressure. The majority of stress distribution members are arranged in pairs which are directly connected to each other by ties in wall type structures. Reinforcing members are used as a main frame or skeleton to hold and suspend the formwork assembly. Spacers are used to aid in maintaining the sheets in a desired location which ensure adequate concrete cover to the reinforcing prior to pouring of the concrete. Stress distribution members provide external shape, configuration and pattern to the concrete surface by their shape and arrangement. In-situ concreting of walls of most shapes and configurations under water is made viable by this system.

Traditionally formwork has consisted of rigid material such as sheets. Typically, the sheet would be plywood and would be held in position by timber brace members.
The above discussed traditional formwork is time consuming and expensive to erect.
Further to the above, in-situ casting of concrete structures in wet areas is difficult. This is particularly a problem with forming marine structures due to difficulties which exist in setting up the formwork under water.


An injection molding apparatus includes a manifold and a nozzle, which is received in an opening in a mold plate, including a nozzle channel for receiving the melt stream from the manifold channel, the nozzle channel being aligned with a first axis. A nozzle tip is received in a downstream end of the nozzle. The nozzle tip includes a melt channel for receiving the melt stream from the nozzle channel of the nozzle. A valve pin guiding portion is provided at a downstream end of the nozzle tip including an outwardly extending flange having a peripheral edge that abuts an inner wall of the opening to align the melt channel with a second axis through a mold gate. A valve pin is movable through the melt channel to selectively open the mold gate. Wherein the nozzle tip is flexible in order to compensate for the first axis and the second axis being out of alignment.

In an injection molding apparatus in which a valve pin reciprocates through a nozzle to open and close a mold gate, proper alignment of the valve pin is necessary in order for high quality molded parts to be produced. Improper valve pin alignment often results in leaking at the mold gate, which may cause blemishes around the gate area of the molded part. Further, improper valve pin alignment may result in damage to or pre-mature wear of the valve pin and/or the mold gate. Such damage necessitates frequent repair or replacement of the valve pin and/or mold gate components, which can be costly.
Prior art solutions for improving valve pin alignment have typically included a guide positioned towards the downstream end of the nozzle melt channel to capture and align the free end of the valve pin. Because melt is required to flow past the guide when the valve pin is in the open position, a plurality of circumferentially spaced slots are typically provided in either the valve pin or the guide. Furthermore, having a guide in the nozzle melt channel typically causes less efficient in-process changes in the melt stream, such as a color change.
Misalignment of the valve pin relative to the mold gate may also be caused by poor tolerances in the gate area. Often, the nozzle tip is mounted in a seal, which is in turn mounted in a forward end of a nozzle, which may be coupled to a manifold. In this arrangement, the melt channel outlet may be misaligned as a result of the cumulative effect of the tolerances of each of the individual parts. Further, manufacturing errors may exist in the components, which can introduce a misalignment between the valve pin and the mold gate.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an improved valve pin guide for aligning the valve pin with the mold gate.


The present invention relates to a simple and efficient process for the preparation of pencil lead from the spent or waste pot liners of aluminum industries, said process comprising steps of crushing the liners into small sizes, adding chromic acid to the crushed liners, washing the reacted product with distilled water, thermally shock-treating the dried mass to obtain a fine flowing graphite powder, mixing the powder with binder(s), moistening the mixture with requisite amount of water to form a stiff dough, extruding the dough under pressure to obtain product in the form of a discs, heating the dried discs in an inert/reducing atmosphere in a furnace at temperature ranging between 400–1200° C. for time duration ranging between 1 to 6 hours, and obtaining the pencil lead.

Pencil leads are essentially baked ceramic rod of clay bonded graphite. The suitability of graphite for pencil industry is judged by the dark streak it leaves on the paper by scratching. Synthetic graphite though has less ash content and very fine particle size, produces very little smear and thus, is unsuitable for pencil manufacturers. Usually pencil manufacturers prefer amorphous graphite with about 90% purity and free from gritty particles. Amorphous graphite gives better smear than the flaky graphite. Indian Standard Institute (ISI) has thus set norm for graphite suitable for pencil industry as—amorphous graphite with size −300 BS mesh and ash less than 50%. Micronised amorphous graphite accordingly is the very much sought after raw material for the manufacture of high class lead for pencils.
General procedure followed for making pencil lead for these micronised amorphous graphite involves, ball-milling or hammer-milling a water slurry containing clay and graphite, drying the slurry to required consistency and form a stiff dough in a mixer, followed by compacting it into a cylinder to form and extruding under pressure through a die. The wet strands are then dried, packed in saggers and kiln fired in a temperature range of 800–1100° C. The fired leads are then impregnated with waxes and fats or fatty-acids, or both. This latter step preclude glazing of the point of use. The quality of the lead depends on the quality of the ingredients used and the manufacturing process adopted. The degree of hardness depends on the ratio of clay to graphite. Clay percentage used varies from 20–60%. Pencils marked No. 1 (softest) lead contains about 20% clay while No. 4 (hardest) has about 60% clay. Hardness is a product requirement and not a quality factor such as the uniformity, smoothness or strength of the sharpened point. Indelible leads, on the other hand, are mixtures of graphite, methyl violet and binders such as gum-tragacanth or methyl-cellulose, with or without mineral fillers and insoluble soaps. Although above account exemplifies traditional and time tested industrially proven receipt and process for the production of pencil leads, a great variety of ingredients and processes have been reported in recent times.

Simple and efficient process for the preparation of pencil lead from spent pot-liners

Council of Scientific & Industrial Research


A tool for use by a machinist in testing the accuracy of a workpiece has an edge to be abutted against the workpiece to be tested and an encased light source connected by a plurality of passages extending within the member to conduct light emitted from the source to an array of apertures spaced at intervals in a bevel of the edge. The array of apertures directs the light at the workpiece on one side of the edge so that defects in accuracy are illuminated to the machinist viewing the workpiece from the other side of the edge. Preferably, a plurality of fiber optic cords extend in the passages from the light source to the apertures.

This invention relates generally to machinist's tools and more particularly concerns tools for checking the accuracy of machining on a workpiece.
The known method for testing the accuracy of a machined workpiece is to hold a flat surface test tool against the piece to be tested with one hand. A light source is then held on one side of the tool with the other hand and the machinist observes from the other side of the tool whether light appears between the tool and the workpiece. This approach is not very efficient for many reasons.
First of all, without even considering the test procedure itself, it is necessary to have both the tool and the light source close at hand. In reality, they are never where you expect them to be when you need them. They are used for other reasons and not returned to the test area or at least not to the place the machinist would look for them. Some machinists keep a light source with them, but pockets and belts can become quickly cluttered and cumbersome.
Secondly, the light sources themselves are not very efficient. They are, typically, point sources such as a flashlight or the like. A proper test should desirably indicate not only the existence of a flaw on the workpiece surface but the location and severity of the flaw as well. Point sources do not disperse light evenly across the surface to be tested. Therefore, they may not always provide accurate information about the flaw.
Finally, the use of an independent light source with the test tool is at best inefficient and cumbersome and, in some applications, nearly if not entirely impossible. The machinist must deal with at least three objects, the workpiece, the test tool and the light source, with only two hands. The machinist's eyes must be on one side of the test tool while one hand holds the tool and the other hand holds and properly directs the light source on the opposite side of the tool. This frequently must be accomplished in situations of limited access so that hand positions are dictated or even prohibited by the workpiece. Often, other objects such as surface plates must be simultaneously manipulated.
It is, therefore, an object of this invention to provide a machinist's accuracy testing tool which has a light source built into the tool. Another object of this invention is to provide a machinist's accuracy testing tool which disperses light from multiple points along the surface of the workpiece. A further object of this invention is to provide a machinist's accuracy testing tool which directs the light from a light source to the appropriate workpiece surface. Yet another object of this invention is to provide a machinist's accuracy testing tool which eliminates the need for holding a light source. It is also an object of this invention to provide a machinist's accuracy testing tool which makes testing more easy, efficient and accurate. Still another object of this invention is to provide a machinist's accuracy testing tool which enables testing to be performed in areas of limited space which might otherwise render testing impossible.


An image forming apparatus, including an image forming unit configured to form an image on a recording medium, a pair of resin frames configured to support the image forming unit at least partially from mutually opposite sides, a pair of metal-made upper enhancing pieces arranged along upper faces of the resin frames, and a pair of first metal beams, each of which is arranged to bridge over a position between the paired upper enhancing pieces and forms a four-sided opening in conjunction with each other and with the paired upper enhancing pieces, is provided.

1. Technical Field
An aspect of the present invention relates to an image forming apparatus with an image forming unit for forming an image on a recording medium. More specifically, the present invention relates to an image forming apparatus including a pair of resin frames to support at least a part of the image forming unit at laterally opposite sides.
2. Related Art
An image forming apparatus for forming an image on a recording medium in an electro-photographic method may often have a pair of metal frames (e.g., steel plates), which support an image forming unit at laterally opposite sides (e.g., right and left sides). The metal frames may often increase manufacturing cost and weight of the image forming apparatus. Therefore, the metal frames may be replaced with resin frames. However, the resin frames may not provide substantial rigidity to hold the image forming unit but may be more deformable to external force than the metal frames.
In order to reinforce the less rigid resin frame, steel-made coupling members to support the resin frames may be provided to bridge between the resin frames. For example, the image forming apparatus may have a pair of resin frames to hold the image forming unit and three steel-made flat bars bridged between the resin frames to support the resin frames together from inside.


A modular construction micro-reactor with parallel microchannels on fluid guide plates for chemical reactions, but not for evaporation purposes is known. A modular construction falling film evaporator is disclosed, comprising a stack of alternate gap-like evaporation chambers and sheet-like evaporator modules with an assembly of parallel microchannels, whereby the evaporation chambers are open above and/or below across the whole width of the module and the stack is arranged in a container. The falling film evaporator is used in a method for obtaining a gaseous phase from a liquid medium on a technical scale and is suitable for the concentration of thermolabile solutions and rapidly adjustable production of a gas stream.

The invention relates to a process for the recovery of a gaseous phase from a liquid fluid by at least partial evaporation of the liquid fluid or at least one of the components contained therein or by setting free a component formed by decomposition. The process is implemented in a modular falling-film evaporator comprising stacked vertical or inclined plate-type modules that form gap-type evaporation chambers between the adjacent modules.
The device according to the invention is a reactor that can be operated on an industrial scale, especially on a scale in terms of tonnes.
Falling-film evaporators, which can be designed in the form of vertical tube bundles or vertical plate stacks, have manifold uses in the chemical processing industries. The advantage of falling-film evaporators as compared to conventional forced-circulation or natural-circulation evaporators is the low superheating of the liquid. Whereas in the case of falling-film evaporators the liquid film flows over the surface exclusively by gravity—reference is made to a typical layout in U.S. Pat. No. 5,203,406—thin-film evaporators are used for especially thermolabile substances, mechanical means being employed to create a thin film on the evaporator surface, the mass and heat transfer being improved by turbulence in the film—U.S. Pat. No. 6,173,762 being referred to as an example. The following examples for the application of falling-film evaporators can be cited: Removal of organic solvents from solutions in order to enrich the thermolabile products dissolved therein and to recover the solvent; concentration of fruit juices (food industry); winning fresh water from salt water or brackish water.
The falling-film evaporator according to U.S. Pat. No. 5,203,406 comprises a package of essentially vertically arranged heat exchanger plates spaced apart by a definite distance, every second space between the said plates forming an evaporation chamber. The structuring of the evaporator plates cannot be deduced from this document.
It is known from U.S. Pat. No. 6,173,762 B1 to structure the film-wetted surface of a heat exchanger tube with fins and grooves for the purpose of improving the heat and mass transfer. The height of the fins is specified as 0.2 mm to 0.8 mm, and the number of fins is specified as 900 to 1100 per meter.
In conventional falling-film evaporators, the spraying density and film thickness may not fall below certain minima, namely around 1 mm in the case of falling-film evaporators and around 0.5 mm in the case of thin-film evaporators, because otherwise film interruptions, dry running and undesirable hot spots may occur, possibly resulting in undesirable decomposition phenomena when concentrating a liquid fluid that contains a thermolabile component.
DE 100 36 602 A1 teaches a modular micro-reactor for the performance of reactions between a liquid and a gaseous reactant. This micro-reactor comprises a stack of any number of vertical or slanted fluid guide plates, the same number of intermediate plates and gap-shaped reaction chambers formed between two adjacent plates. The fluid guide plates feature parallel micro-channels in which a liquid can flow by gravity and/or capillary forces in continuous capillary filaments and come in contact and react with a gas. The fluid guide plate can be coated with a catalyst and can come in contact with a heat transfer fluid on its reverse side. The reaction mixture that forms in the process is withdrawn at the lower end of the fluid guide plates via collecting channels. The disadvantages of the micro-reactor according to DE 100 36 602 A1 are the many feed and discharge lines, collecting and distribution channels, pressure loss barriers and special slopes and the resulting highly complicated technical construction. Although the modular construction can improve the throughput to a certain extent, no proposals are made in the document as to how the miniaturised reaction system has to be modified in order to make it economically suitable for commercial-scale applications. Proposals for using the micro-reactor as an evaporator cannot be deduced from the document.
WO 02/18042 A1 describes a further commercial-scale reactor for performing reactions between at least two fluid reactants. The reactor comprises a stack of essentially rectangular vertical wall elements with an integrated cooling device and gap-type reaction chambers between the adjacent wall elements. Although the wall elements can be structured and coated with a catalyst, nothing can be found in the document neither with regard to the structure consisting of a set of parallel micro-channels nor with regard to the reactor being usable as an evaporator.
DD patent 246 257 teaches a process micro-equipment consisting of a stack of individual small substrate plates with worked-in hollows, the small plates being covered to form closed channel-shaped cavities. This micro-reactor contains channel-type reaction chambers, in which not only chemical reactions but also evaporation processes can take place. Such a micro-reactor is suitable for use as a reaction vessel in chemical micro-analysis but not for use as an evaporator for a commercial-scale process (in terms of tonnes).
DE published document 1 667 241 describes a reactor for chemical reactions comprising a stack of plate-type modules which may, if required, be coated with a catalyst and further comprising gap-type reaction chambers formed by the modules including spacers for delimiting the reaction chamber sizes and inlet and outlet devices. The spacing between the plates is in the order of 0.001 and 6.3 mm, so that the effective reaction chamber can be enlarged as compared with micro-reactors. The surface of the plates on which the liquid film flows by centrifugal force may be etched, but nothing can be found in the document with regard to the presence of parallel micro-channels. Although the plate stack can be temperature-controlled as a whole, nothing can be found in the document with regard to controlling the temperature of individual plates, so that this device is not directly suitable for commercial-scale use.
The reactor according to U.S. Pat. No. 5,811,062 comprises several laminates arranged above each other with microstructured elements therein, such as micro-channels in particular. By interconnecting a plurality of such micro-reactors, reactions can be performed on a macro scale. The dimensions of the micro-components are in the order of 1 μm to 1 cm. The width of the grooves in the laminates forming the channel covers is cited as being 1 μm to 1 mm; insofar as a gap is present above the grooves, the gap width is said to be less than 100 μm and especially less than 10 μm. Although the reactor can be used as an evaporator, nothing is contained in the document in the way of a concept to arrange the laminates with the micro-structures, i.e. the reaction channels, in any other way than vertically. The reactor is not used as a falling-film evaporator. Moreover, it is a disadvantage of this reactor that the size of the grooves is such that, even if there is a small space above the grooves, evaporation of a liquid flowing through the grooves is only possible within extremely narrow limits.
EP patent 0 688 242 teaches an integral structure for chemical processing and production comprising a plurality of interconnected small plates forming at least one three-dimensional continuous loop-type channel between adjacent plates and at least one inlet and outlet port for the substances to be circulated. This modular micro-reactor may also feature channels between adjacent plates for a heat-transfer fluid. This micro-reactor, too, is unsuitable to be enlarged indefinitely by connecting many reactors in parallel and/or by increasing the number of plates within a stack, in order to permit a process to take place on a commercial scale. No concepts can be derived from this document with regard to modifying the micro-reactor in such a way that it becomes suitable for the use as a falling-film evaporator.

Method for obtaining a gaseous phase from a liquid medium and device for carrying out the same


A fastening system for applying, over an opening and surrounding fascia of a structure, a covering material including either of a flexible or rigid outer reinforced extending perimeter within which is configured a plurality of receiving apertures. At least one elongated rail adapted to being secured to the fascia in extending fashion proximate the opening, each of the rails exhibiting a three dimensional cross sectional shape with a forwardly projecting support surface within which is configured an outwardly facing narrowed slot. A plurality of fasteners each include a planar shaped base installable through an accessible end location of each of the rails so as to be traversable along an interior channel defined in the rail. A further rotatable portion of each fastener projects from the insertable base through the outwardly facing slot and in order to be rotated from a first position aligning with and seating over perimeter defined receiving apertures of the covering material to a second position in order to affix the material.

Filter screen assemblies, such as utilized for covering an intake opening associated with an air handling unit, are known. Such screens are usually either affixed to the surrounding fascia extending around a perimeter of the intake opening, suspended from a curtain rod extending over the opening, or secured in some other fashion. Examples drawn from the prior art include such as U.S. Pat. No. 7,323,028, U.S. Pat. No. 7,842,116, U.S. Pat. No. 7,416,577, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,370,722, all to Simmons.
Wade, U.S. Pat. No. 6,974,622 recites both a method and a related track mounting and alignment kit for installing a rigid covering to a perimeter extending face surrounding a window opening so that a gap exists between the edges of the covering and the associated mounting tracks. Referring to FIGS. 4 and 5, the kit and assembly may utilize mounting tracks mounted to opposite sides (two only) of an opening, the mounting tracks being mounted along the top or bottom or along the lateral sides of the opening (window) utilizing any suitable fastener. The covering in Wade can be secure to the track utilizing a wing nut or other key type fastener.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Assembly, kit and method for securing a covering to an air intake face


Disclosed here is a system to automatically predict and resolve issues within a telecommunication network. Initially, the system builds a service registry to store dependence information within the network, which can include software components and hardware components. Various components of the network create logs of their operations. Machine learning models examine the logs and detect any issues. Upon detecting an issue or abnormal event, the system can automatically resolve the issue by determining the most similar issue occurring previously and determining a solution that resolved the previous most similar issue. In addition, the system can propagate the fix to dependent systems and/or notify the dependent systems of the issue.

Computer networking enables creation of increasingly complex systems, such as telecommunication networks, that span the whole globe and include billions of devices capable of communicating with each other. Increasing complexity makes network behavior, and individual device behavior, unpredictable. Issues that arise in complex systems are difficult to pinpoint and resolve due to complex interdependencies, where an issue occurring in one device can propagate in unpredictable ways through a majority of the network.

Predicting and resolving issues within a telecommunication network


A lever-type connector has tubular fitting (13) with an outer regulating wall (20) on a side opposite to a lever accommodating portion (16) across a terminal accommodating portion (10). A receptacle (41) includes an inner regulating wall (44) arranged along the outer regulating wall (20) and a facing wall (45) arranged along the lever accommodating portion (16) and facing the inner regulating wall (44). Regulating protrusions (48) are formed on an inner surface of the inner regulating wall (44). Posture inclination between a female housing (F) and a male housing (M) is regulated by contact of a tip outer edge (44E) of the inner regulating wall (44) and an inner surface of the outer regulating wall (20) and by the contact of a tip outer edge (10E) of the terminal accommodating portion (10) and the regulating protrusions (48).

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a lever-type connector.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2004-014142 discloses a lever-type connector that has a male housing with a receptacle and a female housing with a terminal accommodating portion to be fit into the receptacle and connected by rotating a lever on the female housing. The lever is a single plate arranged along an outer wall of the terminal accommodating portion. Further, a clearance for making a connecting operation smooth is secured between the peripheral surfaces of the housings in consideration of dimensional tolerances. Thus, in the process of connecting the two housings, the postures of the two housings may incline with an engaged part of a cam groove of the lever and a cam follower of the receptacle as a supporting point. Sliding resistance between a terminal fitting of the male housing and a terminal fitting of the female housing increases if the inclination of the two housings increases, and, as a result, connection resistance increases.
The invention was completed based on the above situation and aims to suppress inclination of a male housing and a female housing in a connecting process of a lever-type connector that uses a single plate-shaped lever.


A magnetic tape apparatus for loading and unloading magnetic tape having first and second rotatable reel winders with first and second reel brake arms for providing a braking force to the reel winders. A locking device is provided for locking the first reel winder when unloading the magnetic tape upon release of the first reel winder by the first brake arm while allowing the second reel winder to freely rotate.

This invention relates to a magnetic tape apparatus and, more particularly, to a magnetic tape apparatus having a reel brake mechanism.
FIG. 12 is a view of the main portion of a conventional magnetic tape apparatus. Reference numeral 1 is a taking-up reel winder of a taking-up reel gear and, 2 is a feed reel winder of a feed reel gear. Reference numberal 3 is a first reel brake arm on the take-up side with a first reel brake pad 3a on the take-up side for limiting the rotation of the taking-up reel winder 1, a first actuator pin 3b for actuating the first reel brake arm 3 on the taking-up side, and pivot shaft 3c about which the first reel brake arm 3 rotates. Numeral 4 is a second reel brake arm on the feed side with a second reel brake pad 4a on the feed side for limiting the rotation of the feed reel winder 2, a second actuator pin 4b for actuating the second reel brake arm 4 on the feed side, and a pivot shaft 4c about which the second reel brake arm 4 rotates. Numeral 1 is a plunger. 6 is a first lever for pressure-contacting the plunger. 7 is a second lever for holding the operation. 8 is a drive lever for changing the operation with a pivot shaft 8a about which the drive lever 8 rotates, an actuating pin 8b of the drive lever 8, and a drive pin 8c, 9 is a driving rotary cam for rotating the drive lever 8 about the pivot shaft 8a. 10 is a lower plate for controlling operation of the first and second reel brake arms 3 and 4 with a take-up side cam portion 10a formed for controlling the operation of the first reel brake arms 3, and a feed side cam portion 10b for controlling the operation of the second reel brake arm 4. 11 is an upper plate for controlling the first and the second reel brake arms 3 and 4 with a feed side cam portion 10b for controlling the second reel brake arm 4 formed on the upper plate 11.
FIG. 12 illustrates the brake mode upon the completion of the unloading or retrieval of the magnetic tape. FIG. 13 illustrates the brake mode upon the loading and unloading of a magnetic tape. FIG. 14 illustrates the brake mode upon the recording or reproducing of a magnetic tape, FIG. 15 illustrates the brake mode upon the quick feed of a magnetic tape. FIG. 16 illustrates the brake mode upon the instantaneous stoppage. The brake modes can be shifted by rotation of the drive lever 8 from that are progressively shown in FIGS. 12-14 during magnetic tape recording and reproducing, from that shown in FIG. 14 through 16 (instantaneous stoppage) during the tape quick feed, and that shown in FIG. 16.fwdarw.FIG. 13.fwdarw.FIG. 12 the magnetic tape take-up operation.
Next, the operation will now be described. FIG. 12 illustrates the reel brake mode in which the unloading of the magnetic tape has been completed and both the take-up reel winder 1 and the feed reel winder 2 are subjected to a braking force by the first and the second reel brake pads 3a and 4a. By rotating the drive pin 8c of the drive lever 8 in a clockwise direction using the rotary cam 9, the upper plate 11 shifts to the left. At this time, the lower plate 10 is prevented from moving to the left because its bent plate end face 10e engages against the pivot shaft 4c.
Therefore, the first and second actuating pins 3b and 4b are in a free state, and each reel brake arm 3 and 4 is pulled respectively by the first and the second springs 13 and 14 so that the first reel brake arm 3 is urged in a clockwise direction and the second reel brake arm 4 is urged in a counter-clockwise direction, and the take-up reel mount 1 and the feed reel mounts 2 are respectively engaged by the reel brake pads 3a and 4a.
FIG. 13 illustrates the reel brake mode upon loading of the magnetic tape. From the position shown in FIG. 12, the drive lever 8 is rotated in a counter clockwise by the rotation of the rotary cam 9. Therefore, the upper plate 11 is moved to the right by the elastic force of the third spring 17 connected at its left end to the upper plate 11 and at its right end to the lower plate 10 until the upper plate engages the drive pin 8c and stops. By the movement of the upper plate 11, the actuation pin 4b of the second reel brake arm 4 abuts against the feed side cam portion 11a and the counter-clockwise rotating motion of the second reel brake arm 4 is limited so that the second reel brake pad 4a and the feed reel winder 2 are slightly engaged. The first reel brake arm 3 is in the state similar to FIG. 12, and the brake force of the take-up reel winder 1 is supplied from the first spring 13. When this engagement force (brake torque) is expressed as T.sub.BL and, as shown in FIG. 9, when the feed side tape wound diameter is R.sub.A and the take-up side tape wound diameter is R.sub.S, then it is always necessary that the feed side brake engagement force (brake torque) T.sub.AL has a relationship of T.sub.AL /R.sub.A <T.sub.BL /R.sub.S. This ensures that the magnetic tape for loading is delivered only from the side of the feed reel winder 2. When the loading magnetic tape is at the tape end condition illustrated in FIG. 10, the tape loading (pullingout) force F must satisfy a relationship F<T.sub.2 =T.sub.BL /R.sub.max in order to pull out the tape from the reel on the shaft 21 while causing the slip of the brake on the reel on the shaft 21. That is, T.sub.BL must be made small in order to make the magnetic tape pulling force small. Considering digital audio tape (DAT) recorders for example, since R.sub.max =.phi.36.5 mm and R.sub.min =.phi.15 mm, R.sub.B /R.sub.A .sup.. T.sub.AL .apprxeq.2.5.sup.. T.sub.AL (max)<T.sub.BL <F.sup.. R.sub.max must be satisfied.
FIG. 14 illustrates the reel brake mode of the magnetic tape recording and reproducing states once the magnetic tape has been pulled out. The rotation of the rotary cam 9 causes a counter-clockwise rotation of the drive lever 8 to its limit. This causes the lower plate 10 which engages the drive pin 8c to move to the right. Therefore, the take-up side cam portion 10a and the feed side cam portion 10b lift the first and the second actuator pins 3b and 4b, the first and the second reel brake pads 3a and 4a disengage from the reel winders 1 and 2, whereby the reel winders 1 and 2 are brought into a freely rotatable state. At this time, the upper plate 11 is pulled by the third spring 17 and is urged to the right and stopped at a position where the stopper portion 11b abuts against the pivot shaft 3c. At the same time, a plunger pressing lever pressing pin 10c planted in the lower plate 10 is brought into a sliding contact with the cam portion 6a of the first lever 6, so that the first lever 6 which is for pressing the plunger rotates about the rotary central axis 23. At this time, since the engagement end 6b of the first lever 6 disengages from the bent portion 7a of the second lever 7 which is for pressing the plunger, the fourth tension spring 16 causes the second lever 7 to be urged and be rotated in counter-clockwise direction abutting the pivot central axis 23. The plunger contacting portion 7b of the rotated second lever 7 causes the movable iron core 5a of the plunger 5 to be actuated until it abuts against the iron core 5b disposed within the plunger holder.
FIG. 15 illustrates the reel brake mode in the magnetic tape rapid feed state. In the magnetic tape recording and reproducing state as shown in FIG. 14, the plunger 5 is energized and excited so that the movable iron core 5a is magnetically attracted and held and when the rotary cam 9 is rotated to rotate the drive lever 8 in the clockwise direction until immediately before the drive pin 8c abuts against the upper plate 11 of which stopper portion 11b is engaged and blocked by the pivot shaft 3c is shown in FIG. 15. By this operation, the tape quick feed state illustrated in FIG. 15 is realized. By the exciting of the plunger 5, the engagement pin 10d engages against the tip engaging portion 7c of the second lever 7 which is the engaged plunger pressing lever, so that the lower plate 10 is brought into the state where the first and the second reel brake arms 3 and 4 are not engaged with the first and the second reel winders 1 and 2.
FIG. 16 illustrates the reel brake mode in which the instantaneous stoppage from the magnetic tape quick feeding state shown in FIG. 15 has been completed. In the reel brake mode in the quick feeding state shown in FIG. 15, when the plunger 5 is deenergized, the second lever 7 is rotated clockwise by the tension of the fifth spring 15. By this rotation, the engagement portion 7c disengages from the engagement pin 10d, whereby the lower plate 10 is moved in the left-hand direction by the tension force of the third spring 17 until its bent end face 10e abuts and stops against the pivot shaft 4c. At this time, the first and the second actuation pins 3b and 4b disengage from the take-up side cam portion 10a and the feed side cam portion 10b to release the first and the second reel brake arms 3 and 4. The first reel brake arm 3 is rotated by the tension forced of the first spring 13 so that the first reel brake pad 3a engages against the take-up reel winder 1 to brake its rotation. The second reel brake arm 4 is rotated by the tension force of the second spring 14 so that the second reel brake pad 4a engages against the feed reel winder 2 to brake its rotation.
Next, the reel brake mode upon the magnetic tape unloading will be described. The feed reel winder 2, to which the second reel brake pad 4a is slightly engaged in the same mode as the reel brake mode upon the magnetic tape loading as shown in FIG. 13, is rotated in the counterclockwise direction by a power transmission mechanism (not shown) to take up the magnetic tape. The torque relationship at this time will now be discussed.
The take-up reel winder 1 shown in FIG. 13 is given a brake torque of T.sub.BUL (=T.sub.BL) in FIG. 10. When the winding torque at the time of taking up the tape of the feed reel winder 2 is T.sub.rAUL, then in order that the feed reel winder 2 takes up the magnetic tape without simultaneously rotating the take-up reel winder 1, a relationship Tr.sub.AUL /R.sub.min <T.sub.BUL /R.sub.max (=T.sub.BL /R.sub.max) must be satisfied.
That is, Tr.sub.AUL <R.sub.min /R.sub.max.sup.. T.sub.BL =0.4 T.sub.BL (for DAT min.) must be held. As understood from this, for an appropriate magnetic tape loading force F, T.sub.BL must be small, and for a small T.sub.BL, T.sub.rAUL must be further small.
The cassette pack discharge operation after unloading the magnetic tape is achieved after the shifted as shown in FIG. 13 to FIG. 12. During this shift, the first and the second reel brake arms 3 and 4 keep the taking up reel winder 1 and the feed reel winder 2 braked.
Since the conventional magnetic tape apparatus is constructed as above described, in order to keep the magnetic tape loading force small, the reel brake force must be small and the magnetic tape take-up torque upon the magnetic tape unloading torque must be even smaller. Thus when the taking-up torque is increased within the cassette half due to a magnetic tape winding disturbance, when the magnetic tape is released outwardly of the cassette half for any reason, and when the magnetic tape is disturbed by the magnetic tape being caught outside the cassette half, the magnetic tape cannot be unloaded or retrieved into the cassette due to an insufficient taking-up torque during unloading of the magnetic tape.
Also, when the winding torque upon the magnetic tape unloading is made large so that the magnetic tape can be taken up even when the magnetic tape is disturbed, the magnetic tape is pulled by the magnetic tape unloading side reel (A side) and the non-feeding side reel (B side) is forced to rotate, whereby the tape position before and after the unloading of the magnetic tape shifts and, when the tape is to be reproduced, the reproducing position is substantially shifted from the previous reproducing prior to the unloading of the magnetic tape.


In various embodiments of the present invention a circuit apparatus having a rounded trace, a method to manufacture the circuit apparatus, and a design structure used in the design, testing, or manufacturing of the circuit apparatus are described. An artwork layer having an adaptable-mask section allows a graded amount of light to pass into an underlying photoresist layer. Subsequent to developing the photoresist layer, the graded amount of light creates a rounded geometric void used as a mold or sidewall for the creation of at least a portion of a rounded trace. The photoresist layer is removed resulting in a circuit apparatus having a rounded trace.

1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of this invention relate generally to electronic systems and more specifically relate to a circuit apparatus having an electrically conductive trace, methods of manufacturing the circuit apparatus, and design structures used in the design, manufacturing, and/or test of the circuit apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
A printed circuit board (PCB), flex circuit, or the like are used to mechanically support and electrically connect electronic components using conductive pathways, or traces.
PCBs consist of various insulating dielectric layers that may be laminated together with epoxy or equivalent material. A variety of different dielectrics can be chosen to provide different insulating values depending on the requirements of the circuit. Some of these dielectrics are polytetrafluoroethylene, FR-4, FR-1, CEM-1, CEM-3, polyimide, etc. Well known epoxy materials used in the PCB industry are FR-2 (Phenolic cotton paper), FR-3 (Cotton paper and epoxy), FR-4 (Woven glass and epoxy), FR-5 (Woven glass and epoxy), FR-6 (Matte glass and polyester), G-10 (Woven glass and epoxy), CEM-1 (Cotton paper and epoxy), CEM-2 (Cotton paper and epoxy), CEM-3 (Woven glass and epoxy), CEM-4 (Woven glass and epoxy), CEM-5 (Woven glass and polyester).
Some PCB traces are made by bonding a layer of copper over the entire substrate, sometimes on both sides of the substrate, then removing unwanted copper after applying a temporary mask (e.g. by etching), leaving only the desired copper traces. Other PCB traces are made by adding traces to the bare substrate or a substrate with a very thin layer of copper usually by a process of multiple electroplating steps.

Circuit apparatus having a rounded trace


A shield device helps prevent selected surface areas from being painted by a paint material. The shield device includes a sheet member; and a handle member pivotable in a plane defined by the sheet member. The shield device is arranged between a folded configuration where the handle member is positioned generally parallel to an attachment edge of the sheet member, and an unfolded configuration, and an unfolded position.

During the application of paint, adhesives, architectural texturizing materials, or similar materials to construction surface areas, such as walls, ceilings, window panes, doors, or the like, unintended surfaces need to be protected from overspray, splatters, or like contamination. Methods of protecting unintended surface areas from being oversprayed are taping or laying sheets of paper, cloth, or plastic or using a conventional spray shield to protect the unintended surface areas from being oversprayed.

Shield device with pivotable handle and method of use


A wireless communication method and system for controlling an enhanced uplink (EU) radio access bearer (RAB). The wireless communication system includes at least one wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU), at least one Node-B and a radio network controller (RNC). The RNC configures an EU RAB to operate on an enhanced dedicated channel (E-DCH). At least one of the WTRU and the Node-B report EU traffic statistics and EU performance statistics to the RNC. The RNC then adjusts the configuration of the EU RAB in accordance with the received EU traffic statistics, the EU performance statistics, and information collected by the RNC itself.

Methods for improving uplink (UL) coverage, throughput and transmission latency are currently being investigated in the 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP). In order to achieve these goals, control, (i.e., scheduling and assigning), of UL resources, (i.e., physical channels), will be moved from the RNC to the Node-B.
The Node-B can make decisions and manage uplink radio resources on a short-term basis more efficiently than the RNC. However, the RNC should retain coarse overall control of the EU RAB in terms of an allowed transport format combination set (TFCS), maximum allowed transmit power, or the like.

Wireless communication method and system for configuring radio access bearers for enhanced uplink services


A system for processing a material includes a pre-processing module configured to receive the material, mechanically stress the received material, and output the mechanically stressed material. The system also includes a pyrolysis module communicatively coupled to the pre-processing module and downstream of the pre-processing module. The pyrolysis module is configured to receive the mechanically stressed material from the pre-processing module and to perform a pyrolysis process on the received mechanically stressed material, thereby to produce one or more pyrolysis products.

Many processes produce waste materials, for example solid organic matter. Examples of such solid organic waste material includes plastic materials, polymeric materials, rubber, wood (e.g. wood shavings or saw dust), paper, and cardboard.
Many waste materials are difficult to dispose of. By way of example, the disposal of tyres from cars, tractors, trucks etc. is a serious problem in the modern automotive economy. The disposal of tyres tends to be problematic due to, for example, the large volume produced, the durability of the tyres, and the components in the tyres.
It is generally desirable, when recycling waste materials, to extract as much useful material as possible. For example, finely shredded rubber from scrap tyres (which is often referred to as "crumb rubber") may be combusted and used as fuel. Also, recycled rubber from tyres may be used as a component of various products including, for example, construction materials. It is also known to implement pyrolysis processes on whole or shredded tyres to break down the rubber polymers into smaller molecules.


This invention relates to the use of R(+)-N-propargyl-1-aminoindan and pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof for the treatment of dementia.

The subject invention is in the field of selective irreversible inhibitors of the enzyme monoamine oxidase (hereinafter MAO) and provides the R!(+)enantiomer of N-propargyl-1-aminoindan (also referred to herein as PAI) which is a selective irreversible inhibitor of the B-form of monoamine oxidase enzyme (hereinafter MAO-B). The subject invention also provides pharmaceutical compositions containing R!(+)PAI which are particularly useful for the treatment of Parkinson's disease, a memory disorder, dementia, depression, hyperactive syndrome, an affective illness, a neurodegenerative disease, a neurotoxic injury, brain ischemia, a head trauma injury, a spinal trauma injury, schizophrenia, an attention deficit disorder, multiple sclerosis, and withdrawal symptoms.
Parkinson's disease is widely considered to be the result of degradation of the pre-synaptic dopaminergic neurons in the brain, with a subsequent decrease in the amount of the neurotransmitter dopamine being released. Inadequate dopamine release, therefore, leads to the onset of disturbances of voluntary muscle control, which disturbances are symptomatic of Parkinson's disease.
Various methods of treating Parkinson's disease have been established and are currently in widespread use, including, for example, the administration of L-DOPA together with a decarboxylase inhibitor such as L-carbidopa or benserazide. The decarboxylase inhibitor protects the L-DOPA molecule from peripheral decarboxylation and thus ensures L-DOPA uptake by the remaining dopaminergic neurons in the striatum of the brain. Here, the L-DOPA is converted into dopamine resulting in increased levels of dopamine in these neurons. In response to physiological impulses, these neurons are therefore capable of releasing larger amounts of dopamine at levels which approximate the normal required levels. L-DOPA treatment thus alleviates the symptoms of the disease and contributes to the well-being of the patient.
However, L-DOPA treatment has its drawbacks, the main one being that its effectiveness is optimal only during the first few years of treatment. After this period, the clinical response diminishes and is accompanied by adverse side effects which include dyskinesia, fluctuation in efficacy throughout the day ("on-off effect") and psychiatric symptoms such as confusional states, paranoia, and hallucinations. This decrease in the effect of L-DOPA treatment is attributed to a number of factors, including the natural progression of the disease, alteration in dopamine receptors as a consequence of increased dopamine production or increased levels of dopamine metabolites, and pharmacokinetic problems of L-DOPA absorption (reviewed by Youdim, et al., Progress in Medicinal Chemistry, 21, 138-167 (1984)).
In order to overcome the drawbacks of L-DOPA treatment, various treatments have been devised in which L-DOPA is combined with MAO inhibitors with the aim of reducing the metabolic breakdown of newly formed dopamine.
MAO exists in two forms known as MAO-A and MAO-B which are selective for different substrates and inhibitors. For example, MAO-B more efficiently metabolizes substrates such as 2-phenylethylamine, and is selectively and irreversibly inhibited by (-)deprenyl as described below.
It should be noted, however, that treatments combining L-DOPA with an inhibitor of both MAO-A and MAO-B are undesirable, as they lead to adverse side effects related to an increased level of catecholamines throughout the neuraxis. Furthermore, complete inhibition of MAO is also undesirable as it potentiates the action of sympathomimetic amines such as tyramine, leading to the so-called "cheese effect" (reviewed by Youdim et al., Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology, ed. by Trendelenburg and Weiner, Springer-Verlag, 90, ch. 3 (1988)). As MAO-B was shown to be the predominant form of MAO in the brain, selective inhibitors for this form are thus considered to be a possible tool for achieving a decrease in dopamine breakdown on the one hand, together with a minimization of the systemic effects of total MAO inhibition on the other.
Many inhibitors of MAO are chiral molecules. Although one enantiomer often shows higher relative potency towards MAO-A or MAO-B, it is impossible to predict a priori which configuration will be the more active or the degree of selectivity between them. Several examples of enantiomeric pairs of MAO inhibitors are tabulated in Costert, P., Medicinal Research Reviews, 9, 45 (1989). In general, there is only a small (less than a factor of ten) difference in potency between R and S isomers in a pair.
N-propargyl-1-aminoindan (PAI), as disclosed herein, is unique in regard to the relative potency between its R and S isomers, when compared with other MAO inhibitors, particularly (R)-N-methyl-N-propargyl-1-aminoindan (R-1-MPAI). The R and S enantiomers of PAI show a 7,000-fold difference in potency, whereas the R and S enantiomers of MPAI show only about a ten-fold difference in potency. Accordingly, this 7,000-fold potency difference would certainly not have been expected, and indeed would have been highly surprising to one of ordinary skill in the the art.
Table I lists the IC.sub.50 (mmol/L) of enantiomeric pairs of propargyl amines in a rat brain preparation of MAO. These results show small differences in potency in MAO-B inhibition between the R and S enantiomers. Both enantiomers are selective for MAO-B. For example, in rat liver homogenate, R!(-)deprenyl is only 15 times as potent as the S enantiomer. (B. Hazelhoff, et al., Naunyn-Schmeideberg's Arch. Pharmacol., 330, 50 (1985)). In other pharmacological activity assays, such as for the inhibition of tyramine uptake, deprenyl shows different stereoselectivities. The S form is in certain cases the more potent epimer. (J. Knoll and K. Magyar, Advances in Biochemical Psychopharmacology, 5, 393 (1972)).
N-Methyl-N-propargyl-2-aminotetralin (2-MPAT) is a close structural analogue of deprenyl. The absolute stereo-chemistry of 2-MPAT has not been assigned. However, the (+) isomer is selective for MAO-B and the (-) isomer is selective for MAO-A. The difference in potency between the 2-MPAT enantiomers is less than 5-fold. (B. Hazelhoff, et al., id.). The lack of data in Table I showing clear structure-activity relationships between isolated (+) or (-)2-MPAT makes it impossible to predict the absolute stereochemistry thereof. Likewise, in contrast to expectations based on PAI, it was found that (S)-N-propargyl-1-aminotetralin (1-PAT) is a slightly more potent inhibitor of MAO-B than its (R) enantiomer. In any case, the difference in potency is small.
After extensive computer modeling, Polymeropoulos recently predicted that R-1-MPAI would be more potent than (S) as a MAO-B inhibitor. (E. Polymeropoulos, Inhibitors of Monoamine Oxidase B, I. Szelenyi, ed., Birkhauser Verlag, p. 110 (1993)). However, experiments described below show that R-1-MPAI is only a slightly more potent inhibitor of MAO-B than is S-1-MPAI, but is an even more potent inhibitor of MAO-A. Both the selectivity between MAO-A and -B and the relative potency of the R and S epimers are low. Thus, contrary to expectations in the art, 1-MPAI is useless as a pharmaceutical agent.
The data presented below demonstrate that high selectivity for MAO of one enantiomer versus the other cannot be predicted. The structure of the MAO active site is not well enough understood to permit the prediction of the relative potency or selectivity of any given compound or pair of enantiomers thereof.
TABLE I __________________________________________________________________________ IC.sub.50 (mmol/L) Data for Rat Brain MAO Inhibition by Propargylamines RELATIVE POTENCY INHIBITION +/- COMPOUND REF EPIMER A B A/B A B __________________________________________________________________________ 2-MPAT a + 140 16 8.8 3 0.2 - 46 88 0.5 DEPRENYL a S 3600 16 120 R/S R 450 6 75 80 2.6 1-MPAI b S 70 50 1.4 23 5 R 3 10 0.3 2-PAT c S 3800 50 76 4 0.5 R 900 90 10 1-PAI c S 26000 17000 1.5 356 6800 R 73 2.5 30 __________________________________________________________________________ a. B. Hazelhoff, et al., NaunynSchmeideberg's Arch. Pharmacol., 330, 50 (1985). b. European Patent Application 436,492 A2, published July 10, 1991. c. Present inventors.
One selective MAO-B inhibitor, (-)deprenyl, has been extensively studied and used as a MAO-B inhibitor to augment L-DOPA treatment. This treatment with (-)deprenyl is generally favorable and does not cause the "cheese effect" at doses causing nearly complete inhibition of MAO-B (Elsworth, et al., Psychopharmacology, 57, 33 (1978)). Furthermore, the addition of (-)deprenyl to a combination of L-DOPA and a decarboxylase inhibitor administered to Parkinsons's patients leads to improvements in akinesia and overall functional capacity, as well as the elimination of "on-off" type fluctuations (reviewed by Birkmayer & Riederer in "Parkinson's Disease," Springer-Verlag, pp. 138-149 (1983)). Thus, (-)deprenyl (a) enhances and prolongs the effect of L-DOPA, and (b) does not increase the adverse effects of L-DOPA treatment.
However, (-)deprenyl is not without its own adverse side effects, which include activation of pre-existing gastric ulcers and occasional hypertensive episodes. Furthermore, (-)deprenyl is an amphetamine derivative and is metabolized to amphetamine and methamphetamines, which substances may lead to undesirable side effects such as increased heart rate (Simpson, Biochemical Pharmacology, 27, 1951 (1978); Finberg, et al., in "Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors--The State of the Art," Youdim and Paykel, eds., Wiley, pp. 31-43 (1981)).
Other compounds have been described that are selective irreversible inhibitors of MAO-B but which are free of the undesirable effects associated with (-)deprenyl. One such compound, namely N-propargyl-1-aminoindan HCl (racemic PAI.HCl), was described in GB 1,003,686 and GB 1,037,014 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,513,244, issued May 19, 1970. Racemic PAI.HCl is a potent, selective, irreversible inhibitor of MAO-B, is not metabolized to amphetamines, and does not give rise to unwanted sympathomimetic effects.
In comparative animal tests, racemic PAI was shown to have considerable advantages over (-)deprenyl. For example, racemic PAI produces no significant tachycardia, does not increase blood pressure (effects produced by doses of 5 mg/kg of (-)deprenyl), and does not lead to contraction of nictitating membrane or to an increase in heart rate at doses of up to 5 mg/kg (effects caused by (-)deprenyl at doses over 0.5 mg/kg). Furthermore, racemic PAI.HCl does not potentiate the cardiovascular effects of tyramine (Finberg, et al., in "Enzymes and Neurotransmitters in Mental Disease," pp. 205-219 (1980), Usdin, et al., Eds., Wiley, New York; Finberg, et al. (1981, in "Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors--The State of the Art," ibid.; Finberg and Youdim, British Journal Pharmacol., 85, 451 (1985)).
One underlying object of this invention was to separate the racemic PAI compounds and to obtain an enantiomer with MAO-B inhibition activity which would be free of any undesirable side effects that are not a direct consequence of the exclusive inhibition of MAO-B, in the treatment of disorders discussed infra.
Since deprenyl has a similar structure to PAI and it is known that the (-)enantiomer of deprenyl, i.e. (-)deprenyl, is considerably more pharmaceutically active than the (+)enantiomer, the (-)enantiomer of PAI would be expected to be the more active MAO-B inhibitor.
However, contrary to such expectations, upon resolution of the enantiomers, it was found that the (+)PAI enantiomer is in fact the active MAO-B inhibitor while the (-)enantiomer shows extremely low MAO-B inhibitory activity. Furthermore, the (+)PAI enantiomer also has a degree of selectivity for MAO-B inhibition surprisingly higher than that of the corresponding racemic form, and should thus have fewer undesirable side effects in the treatment of the indicated diseases than would the racemic mixture. These findings are based on both in vitro and in vivo experiments as discussed in greater detail infra.
In addition, in whole animal behavioral studies infra relating to neuroprotection or to restoration of normofunction after deliberate lesion to the CNS, the highest active dose of racemic PAI was found to be greater than twice the highest active dose of R!(+)PAI, suggesting interference from S!(-)PAI present in the racemic mixture (see Example 32, Tables 11 and 12).
In certain cases disclosed infra, the in vitro EC.sub.50 of racemic PAI is larger than twice the EC.sub.50 of R!(+)PAI, suggesting interference from S!(-) PAI, as in Table 2, page 46.
Therefore, R!(+)PAI has better potential to be a more effective and safe drug for the treatment of the above-mentioned disorders than does racemic
because it has potentially fewer side effects. Furthermore, in some biological assays S!(-)PAI seems to antagonize the beneficial activity of R!(+)PAI.
It was subsequently shown that (+)PAI has the R absolute configuration. This finding was also surprising based on the expected structural similarity of (+) PAI in analogy with deprenyl and the amphetamines.
The high degree of stereoselectivity of pharmacological activity between R!(+)PAI and the S!(-) enantiomer as discussed hereinbelow is also remarkable. The compound R!(+)PAI is nearly four orders of magnitude more active than the S!(-) enantiomer in MAO-B inhibition. This ratio is significantly higher than that observed between the two deprenyl enantiomers (Knoll and Magyar, Adv. Biochem. Psychopharmacol., 5, 393 (1972); Magyar, et al., Acta Physiol. Acad. Sci. Hung., 32, 377 (1967)). In fact, based on the data in Table I, this high degree of stereo-selectivity by R!(+)PAI over S!(-)PAI in MAO inhibition is unique. Furthermore, in some physiological tests, (+)deprenyl was reported to have activity equal to or even higher than that of the (-)enantiomer (Tekes, et al., Pol. J. Pharmacol. Pharm., 40, 653 (1988)).
MPAI is a more potent inhibitor of MAO activity, but with lower selectivity for MAO-B over A (Tipton, et al., Biochem. Pharmacol., 31, 1250 (1982)). As only a small degree of difference in the relative activities of the two resolved enantiomers was surprisingly observed with MPAI, the remarkable behavior of R!(+)PAI is further emphasized (See Table 1B).
The subject invention also provides methods of using the pharmaceutically active PAI-enantiomer alone (without L-DOPA) for treatment of Parkinson's disease, a memory disorder, dementia, depression, hyperactive syndrome, an affective illness, a neurodegenerative disease, a neurotoxic injury, brain ischemia, a head trauma injury, a spinal trauma injury, schizophrenia, an attention deficit disorder, multiple sclerosis, or withdrawal symptoms (see review by Youdim, et al., in Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology, Trendelenberg and Wiener, eds., 90/I, ch. 3 (1988)).
The subject invention further provides a method of using the pharmaceutically active PAI-enantiomer alone for pretreatment of Parkinson's disease. The subject invention also provides pharmaceutical compositions comprising R!(+)PAI and synergistic agents such as levodopa. The use of such agents has been studied with respect to (-)deprenyl which was shown to be effective when administered alone to early Parkinson's patients, and may also have a synergistic effect in these patients when administered together with .alpha.-tocopherol, a vitamin E derivative (The Parkinson's Study Group, New England J. Med., 321(20), 1364-1371 (1989)).
In addition to its usefulness in treating Parkinson's disease, (-)deprenyl has also been shown to be useful in the treatment of patients with dementia of the Alzheimer type (DAT) (Tariot, et al., Psychopharmacology, 91, 489-495 (1987)), and in the treatment of depression (Mendelewicz and Youdim, Brit. J. Psychiat. 142, 508-511 (1983)). The R!(+)PAI compound of this invention, and particularly the mesylate salt thereof, has been shown to restore memory. R!(+)PAI thus has potential for the treatment of memory disorders and dementia, especially of the Alzheimer's type.
In addition, as disclosed herein, R!(+)PAI has a neuroprotective activity in various in vitro and in vivo models, as well as being effective in models relevant to hyperactive syndrome, stroke, brain trauma, and other neurological disorders, and therefore has potential for treating various neurological disorders, such as hyperactive syndrome, stroke, and brain trauma. R!(+)PAI has significant potential, as disclosed herein, to be a more effective and safer drug for the treatment of the above mentioned disorders than racemic PAI, because R!(+)PAI has potentially fewer side effects than S!(-)PAI. Moreover, in some biological assays, as further disclosed, S!(-)PAI seems to antagonize the beneficial activity of R!(+)PAI.
Finally, the subject invention provides highly stable salts of R!(+)PAI with superior pharmaceutical properties. The mesylate salt is especially stable.

R-enantiomer of N-propargyl-1-aminoindan for the treatment of dementia

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