A single-circuit quadrature surface coil is formed from two ladder resonator coils and includes a first mode circuit path for detecting or generating magnetic flux in a vertical axis from a body under investigation and a second mode circuit path for detecting or generating magnetic flux in a parallel axis, with the first mode and second mode currents 90 degrees out of phase. The surface coil, which supports two resonance current modes for quadrature operation on only one single coil conductor structure, provides a high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and a good B.sub.1 homogeneity over the imaging volume. This coil alone may be used either for both transmitting and receiving RF signals or for detecting RF signals as "receive only." This coil is well suited for imaging the human neck, spine and heart.

MRI provides a unique non-invasive imaging method for discriminating the main components of human disease pathology. As a result, MRI is one of the most widely used diagnostic imaging tools in today's hospitals throughout the world. A typical MRI system includes a main magnet to generate a uniform DC magnetic field, three gradient coils to generate linear and orthogonal magnetic field gradients, a transmitting and receiving radio frequency (RF) antenna to generate imaging pulses and receive the resulting RF emissions, and an operator interface and control station. For human imaging the magnet is mainly superconducting in nature and has a cylindrical shape, although at the present time open "C" arm magnet geometries are also used for imaging the human body. For higher strength magnetic fields (0.5 T and higher), the superconducting magnet is used to generate a highly uniform static magnetic field with a clear bore diameter of 90 cm or larger for human patient access.
Gradient coils are electromagnetic coils capable of generating linearly varying and axially directed static magnetic fields along the three spatial directions (x,y,z) of a Cartesian coordinate system. The function of each one of the three orthogonal gradients is to encode the spatial information as a frequency or phase variation. In general, higher gradient strengths of 40-100 mT/m with faster rise times of 40-150 .mu.sec at full strength are required for faster imaging techniques. Standard methods for production of linear magnetic field gradients in MRI systems consist of driving discrete coils with a current source of limited voltage. The discrete coils are wound in a bunched or distributed fashion on an electrically insulating hollow light cylinder coil-form.
A digital radio frequency transmitter transmits radio frequency pulses or pulse packets to a whole body RF coil to deliver RF pulse into the examination region. The RF pulses are used to excite, prepare, saturate, invert, refocus, or manipulate the resultant bulk magnetization due to ensemble average of the magnetic moment of a specific nuclear spin such as proton in selected portions of the examination region. For whole body applications, the resonance signals are commonly picked up by the same whole body RF coil. For other more regional focused applications, the signals are often picked up by local coils placed at the vicinity of the examination region other than the whole body coil. Alternatively, a receive-only coil can be used to receive resonance signals induced by the body RF coil. For example, in human head imaging, an insertable head coil can be inserted surrounding a human brain at the isocenter of the magnet used for receiving the RF signal. Conventional RF coils for MRI application are the birdcage coil, single loop surface coil and surface array coil.
In MRI, the resultant radio-frequency signals, which are spatially encoded, are picked-up by the receiver RF coil, amplified and then demodulated/digitized by a receiver. A sequence controller controls or schedules the timing sequence of the three orthogonal gradients, RF pulse waveforms, frequency offset, RF phase, data sampling window of the receiver, as well as other events such as triggering to generate a variety of MRI sequences, such as spin echo imaging, gradient echo imaging, fast spin echo imaging, and echo planar imaging. An image reconstruction processor sorts the spatially encoded image data according to the order in which they are received and transforms the data to form the final MR image.
More specifically for RF antenna, a simple conductor loop interrupted with some capacitors of proper values can serve as a local RF antenna that is capable of transmitting RF signal to its vicinity and detecting minute RF signal from its vicinity with a relatively high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Such a coil can only transmit and detect one component of the magnetization signal during M imaging, and often is referred as a linear (RF) coil. Since the detectable magnetization for MRI is a two dimensional vector, to improve the SNR and B.sub.1 uniformity, a quadrature version which receives two orthogonal components simultaneously was then introduced for the same geometry configuration.

Single circuit ladder resonator quadrature surface RF coil


Configuration data indicative of interface requirements for interfacing to a host adapter card are automatically serially loaded on reset from an external device on the card into a host adapter integrated circuit on the card. A driver program can then read the configuration data from the host adapter integrated circuit and thereby determine how to interface with the host adapter card.

FIG. 1 is a simplified block diagram of an architecture of a personal computer comprising a host 1, a CD ROM 2, a disk drive 3, a printer 4, and three host adapter cards 5-7. Host 1 comprises a CPU 8, a main memory 9 containing software for the CPU, a local bus 10 interconnecting the CPU and the main memory, a bridge 11, an ISA bus 12, and three card edge connectors 13-15. The card edge connectors 13-15 are designated "slots" in the figure. Host 1 also comprises a decoder 16 which outputs three address enable signals 17-19, one to each of the host adapter cards 5-7. A host adapter integrated circuit is disposed on each host adapter card.
The three host adapter cards 5-7 have different features and capabilities. Host adapter card 5 provides an interface for a single ended 8-bit SCSI bus for communication with CD ROM 2, host adapter card 6 provides an interface for a single ended 16-bit SCSI bus for communication with disk drive 3, and host adapter card 7 provides an interface for a differential 8-bit SCSI bus for communication with printer 4. The host adapter card 7 interfacing with printer 4 may have a relatively small buffer which is written by CPU 8 with data to be printed whereas host adapter card 6 may have a relatively large buffer which stores data to be read from disk 3 as well as data to be written to disk 3. A driver program residing in main memory 9 must therefore be able to determine the different interfacing requirements of the various cards in slots 13-15 so that the host can correctly interface to those different cards.
Not only must the driver software be able to determine the interfacing requirements of the different cards plugged into the slots 13-15, but it is desired to realize the different host adapter cards using one host adapter integrated circuit layout. If, for example, a single manufacturer produces two types of cards 5 and 6, the manufacturer can realize considerable cost savings associated with producing two different integrated circuits if the same integrated circuit layout is used on both types of cards.
Accordingly, host adapter cards 5 and 6 use the same type of host adapter integrated circuit. Because the host adapter integrated circuits are identical at the silicon level, the driver software cannot read different configuration data from a hardwired register located at a predetermined address inside the integrated circuits. The hardwired contents of such registers would be identical. An additional external register is therefore provided which can be read by the driver software.
Host adapter card 5, for example, comprises a host adapter integrated circuit 20 and an external register 21 coupled to slot 13. Similarly, host adapter card 6, for example, comprises a host adapter integrated circuit 22 and an external register 23 coupled to slot 14. The driver program in main memory 9 reads register 21 from a predetermined and fixed address (using address enable signal 17) and determines from the contents of register 21 information on the requirements for interfacing with card 5. Similarly, the driver reads register 23 from another predetermined address (using address enable signal 20) and determines from the contents of register 23 information on the requirements for interfacing with card 6. Host adapter integrated circuits 20 and 22 therefore can be identical integrated circuits.
If the bus which couples the host 1 to the adapter cards 5-7 is now upgraded from an ISA bus to a PCI bus, a problem arises. The PCI bus specification does not generally permit more than one load to be present on a terminal of a slot. In card 5, there are two loads on a terminal of slot 13, one load for the register 21 which is also coupled to slot 13, and a second load for the host adapter integrated circuit 20 which is coupled to slot 13. A different scheme is therefore required for supplying configuration information to the driver program when a PCI bus is used.
A second scheme is illustrated in connection with host adapter card 7 and host adapter integrated circuit 24. Host adapter integrated circuit 24 has a plurality of terminals 25, each which is soldered to Vcc or ground on the printed circuit board. The driver program reads a register at a predetermined address in host adapter integrated circuit 24 (using the address enable signal 19) and obtains therefrom configuration information determined by the setting of the terminals 25. If there are four such terminals, then there is a total of sixteen possible different configurations that can be selected. To increase the number of configurations supportable by the host adapter integrated circuit 24 using this scheme, more terminals must be provided on the integrated circuit package thereby incurring additional costs and space associated with providing more terminals.
A scheme of providing different configuration information from two different host adapter cards having identical host adapter integrated circuits is therefore desired which overcomes problems associated with existing schemes.

Method and apparatus for automatically loading configuration data on reset into a host adapter integrated circuit


A method and system for facilitating a keyword search request initiated at a client station within a multilevel data network, wherein the multilevel data network includes multiple local sites each containing multiple data pages. Multiple keywords from each of the data pages within the local sites of the multilevel data network are stored locally and indexed such that each of the keywords points to one or more of the data pages in which the keywords are contained. The keywords and their index associations are locally updated. A central database is utilized to compile and index the locally indexed keywords from each of the local sites, such that each of the keywords in the central database points to one or more local sites from which those keywords came in response to a keyword search initiated at the client station.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an improved method and system for accessing a network database, and in particular to a method and system for efficiently searching a distributed, hierarchical network database, such as the World Wide Web (WWW). More particularly, the present invention relates to improving network search efficiency by distributing search engine functionality via links among various public or private data networks.
2. Description of the Related Art
The development of computerized information resources, such as the Internet, allows users of data-processing systems to link with other servers and networks, and thus retrieve vast amounts of electronic information heretofore unavailable in an electronic medium. The term xe2x80x9cInternetxe2x80x9d is an abbreviation for xe2x80x9cInternetwork,xe2x80x9d and refers commonly to the collection of networks and gateways that utilize the TCP/IP suite of protocols, which are well-known in the art of computer networking. TCP/IP is an acronym for xe2x80x9cTransmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol,xe2x80x9d and is a software protocol developed by the Department of Defense for communication between computers. The Internet can be described as a system of geographically distributed computer networks interconnected by computers executing networking protocols that allow users to interact and share information over the networks. Because of such wide-spread information sharing, the Internet has thus far generally evolved into an xe2x80x9copenxe2x80x9d system for which developers can design software applications for performing specialized operations or services, essentially without restriction.
Electronic information transferred between data-processing networks is usually presented in hypertext, a metaphor for presenting information in a manner in which text, images, sounds, and actions become linked together in a complex non-sequential Web of associations that permit the user to xe2x80x9cbrowsexe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cnavigatexe2x80x9d through related topics, regardless of the presented order of the topics. These links are often established by both the author of a hypertext document and by the user, depending on the intent of the hypertext document. For example, traveling among links to the word xe2x80x9cironxe2x80x9d in an article displayed within a graphical user interface in a data-processing system might lead the user to the periodic table of the chemical elements (i.e., linked by the word xe2x80x9cironxe2x80x9d), or to a reference to the use of iron in weapons in Europe in the Dark Ages. The term xe2x80x9chypertextxe2x80x9d was coined in the 1960s to describe documents, as presented by a computer, that express the nonlinear structure of ideas, in contrast to the linear format of books, film, and speech.
The term xe2x80x9chypermedia,xe2x80x9d on the other hand, more recently introduced, is nearly synonymous with xe2x80x9chypertextxe2x80x9d but focuses on the nontextual components of hypertext, such as animation, recorded sound, and video. Hypermedia is the integration of graphics, sound, video, or any combination thereof into a primarily associative system of information storage and retrieval. Hypermedia, as well as hypertext, especially in an interactive format where choices are controlled by the user, is structured around the idea of offering a working and learning environment that parallels human thinkingxe2x80x94that is, an environment that allows the user to make associations between topics rather than move sequentially from one to the next, as in an alphabetic list. Hypermedia, as well as hypertext topics, are thus linked in a manner that allows the user to jump from one subject to other related subjects during a search for information. Hyper-link information is contained within hypermedia and hypertext documents, which allow a user to move back to xe2x80x9coriginalxe2x80x9d or referring network sites by the mere xe2x80x9cclickxe2x80x9d (i.e., with a mouse or other pointing device) of the hyper-linked topic.
A typical networked system that utilizes hypertext and hypermedia conventions follows a client/server architecture. The xe2x80x9cclientxe2x80x9d is a member of a class or group that uses the services of another class or group to which it is not related. Thus, in computing, a client is a process (i.e., roughly a program or task) that requests a service provided by another program. The client process utilizes the requested service without having to xe2x80x9cknowxe2x80x9d any working details about the other program or the service itself. In a client/server architecture, particularly a networked system, a client is usually a computer that accesses shared network resources provided by another computer system (i.e., a server or Internet Service Provider (ISP)).
A request by a user for news or other information can be sent by a client application program to a server. A server is typically a remote computer system accessible over the Internet or other telecommunications medium. The server scans and searches for raw (e.g., unprocessed) information sources (e.g., newswire feeds or newsgroups). Based upon such requests by the user, the server presents filtered electronic information as server responses to the client process. The client process may be active in a first computer system communicating with the server process which is active in a second computer system, over a telecommunications medium, thus providing distributed functionality and allowing multiple clients to take advantage of the information-gathering capabilities of the server.
Client and server communicate with one another utilizing the functionality provided by Hypertext-Transfer Protocol (HTTP). The World Wide Web (WWW) or, simply, the xe2x80x9cWeb,xe2x80x9d includes those servers adhering to this standard (i.e., HTTP) which are accessible to clients via a computer or data-processing system network address such as a Universal Resource Locator (URL). The network address can be referred to as a Universal Resource Locator address. The client and server may be coupled to one another via Serial Line Internet Protocol (SLIP) or TCP/IP connections for high-capacity communication. Active within the client is a first process, known as a xe2x80x9cbrowser,xe2x80x9d which establishes the connection with the server and presents information to the user. The server itself executes corresponding server software which presents information to the client in the form of HTTP responses. The HTTP responses correspond to xe2x80x9cWeb pagesxe2x80x9d constructed from a Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), or other server-generated data. Each Web page can also be referred to simply as a xe2x80x9cpage.xe2x80x9d
The evolution of personal computers over the last decade has accelerated the Web and Internet toward useful everyday applications. The graphical portion of the World Wide Web itself is usually stocked with more than twenty-two million xe2x80x9cpagesxe2x80x9d of content, with over one million new pages added every month. Readily accessible computer software applications such as Internet xe2x80x9csearch enginesxe2x80x9d provide a means for Internet users to track down sites at which information on a topic of interest can be found. A person may type in a subject or key word which the search engine utilizes to locate a list of pertinent network sites (i.e., Web sites) and Web pages. Thus, with xe2x80x9chome pagesxe2x80x9d published by thousands of companies, universities, government agencies, museums, and municipalities, the Internet can be an invaluable information retrieval resource. The market for Internet access and related applications is expanding at an explosive pace.
All search engine applications available today are equipped with a search-and-find facility that is accessed when a user types in a requested search item and xe2x80x9cclicksxe2x80x9d on the application""s xe2x80x98Searchxe2x80x99 button. The data sought may potentially be stored at as many as tens of thousands of Web pages within thousands of network sites. Each of these Web pages may include hypertext links which point to other sites and/or pages at which related information may be found. The process of searching or browsing the Web is therefore an extremely time consuming and computation intensive multiple recursive process possible covering many thousands of possible Web sites and pages.
Conventional search engines maintain internal indices in which the network addresses of Web sites and pages are associated with particular xe2x80x9ckeywordsxe2x80x9d. When a user types in one or more keywords during a Web search, the search engine examines its internal keyword index to determine first whether the keyword is present within the index, and if so, the addresses of the pages at which the keyword(s) is/are located. Given the explosive growth of the Internet as an information repository, storing and updating such an index is proving burdensome both in terms of information storage capacity and computation bandwidth.
From the foregoing, it can be appreciated that a need exists for a method and system for strategically distributing the search engine functionality across rapidly growing electronic data networks such as the Internet. If implemented, such a method and system would improve both efficiency and comprehensiveness of distributed data network searches.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide an improved information-retrieval method and system.
It is another object of the invention to provide an improved method and system for efficiently searching a distributed, hierarchical network database, such as the World Wide Web (WWW).
It is a further object of the invention to improve network search efficiency by distributing search engine functionality via links among various public or private data networks.
The above and other objects are achieved as is now described. A method and system are disclosed for facilitating a keyword search request initiated at a client station within a multilevel data network, wherein the multilevel data network includes multiple local sites each containing multiple data pages. Multiple keywords from each of the data pages within the local sites of the multilevel data network are stored locally and indexed such that each of the keywords points to one or more of the data pages in which the keywords are contained. The keywords and their index associations are locally updated. A central database is utilized to compile and index the locally indexed keywords from each of the local sites, such that each of the keywords in the central database points to one or more local sites from which those keywords came in response to a keyword search initiated at the client station.

International Business Machines Corporation


A guide system is provided to slidingly guide a reciprocating dynamic balancer weight within a press machine. An elongate stationary guide rail is disposed within a vertical channel formed at one side of the balancer mass. In this configuration, the guide rail is arranged in guide support relationship to the balancer mass. An arrangement of wear plates is mounted to the guide rail to provide additional bearing support to the reciprocating balancer mass. An arrangement of hydrostatic pads is mounted to the guide rail in facing opposition to the balancer mass to enable the formation of a hydrodynamic/hydrostatic lubricating action therebetween during reciprocation of the balancer mass. A machined steel plate is secured to the balancer mass at the same side where the guide rail is located and includes a set of lateral apertures formed therethrough that receive guide support members extending therethrough. The guide support members anchor the guide rail to the press crown.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a press machine environment, and, more particularly, to a guide system for use in providing slide-type guiding support to a reciprocating dynamic balancer weight.
2. Description of the Related Art
Mechanical presses of the type performing stamping and drawing operations have a conventional construction comprising a crown and a bed portion configured within a frame structure. A slide supported within the frame is adapted for reciprocating movement toward and away from the bed. The slide is driven by a crankshaft having a connecting arm coupled to the slide. These mechanical presses are widely used for a variety of workpiece operations employing a diverse array of die sets, with the press machine varying substantially in size and available tonnage depending upon its intended use.
In a conventional arrangement, the frame structure is formed and/or integrated with a gib apparatus having a known function and configuration. For example, in a typical machine configuration, the frame includes a set of upright support members (e.g., four) extending between the crown and bed at respective corner locations. Transverse cross-beams are used to provide a connection between a pair of same-side uprights. At the upper portion of each upright, a gib member is employed in a known manner to provide guidance-type bearing support to the slide. For example, the gib member includes an engagement surface that is adapted for full surface-to-surface abutting contact with a corresponding surface on the slide or a coupling piece secured to the slide.
Various approaches have been taken to reduce, dampen or otherwise minimize the vibrations generated by the inertial forces associated with the reciprocating movement of the slides and upper dies. In one arrangement, the press machine is adapted to include a balancer mass device that reciprocates in a manner relative to the slide and die configuration so as to counteract the inertial forces generated by the reciprocating slide. In effect, the balancer device serves as a counterbalance against the moving slide. As a result, the vertically-directed inertia forces creating the vibrations are reduced by an opposing vertical inertia force produced by the balancer device, thereby reducing the vibrations.
The balancer device is typically driven by the same rotary components that power the reciprocating movement of the slide, namely, the crankshaft. For this purpose, the crankshaft would include a suitable connection assembly for mounting and otherwise coupling the balancer device to the crankshaft.
As with the slide, the press machine must likewise provide some form of gib-type frame for locating and otherwise guiding the reciprocating movement of the balancer in order to maintain the precise counterbalancing relationship between the slide and balancer device. Any misalignment or disruption in the travel of the balancer device will impair the counterbalancing relationship and thereby diminish its effectiveness in reducing the vibrational activity.
The gib structure for the massive balancer device must be carefully constructed because the same operational and environmental concerns that are addressed in designs for slides gibs are also a factor with balancer gib constructions. For example, thermally-induced clearance close-outs remain a serious issue as it relates to the elimination of clearance spaces between the balancer device and any bearing surfaces of the balancer frame. Otherwise, any undue expansion in the bearing surfaces may cause the frame to interfere with and retard the reciprocating travel of the balancer mass.
A need therefore exists to provide a gib frame for the balancer mass that provides optimal guiding support in terms of minimizing the thermally-induced close-out effect that is potentially experienced by the bearing surfaces.


The present invention relates to an apparatus for transferring a liquid capable of accurately performing detection of a liquid level using a pipetting probe even in a case of a high electric conductivity of a in-flow-passage moving fluid which transmits sucking and discharging operation of a syringe (107) to the pipetting probe (100, 400, 500, 600). The probe has a liquid level sensing electrode (103, 401, 501, 601) and an inner tube (102, 402, 502, 602). The liquid level sensing electrode capable of contacting with a liquid to be pipetted is electrically separated from an inner tube filled with the moving fluid, and the both are insulated by an electric insulating member (104B, 403, 503) between them. A container (111) containing the liquid to be pipetted is held by a container holder (112), and a liquid level can be detected by change in an electrostatic capacitance between the container holder and the liquid level sensing electrode of the probe when the probe is moved downward. During sucking the liquid, the inner tube is not brought in contact with the liquid. The inner tube and the container holder are grounded.

The present invention relates to an apparatus for transferring a liquid having a liquid level sensing function, and more particularly relates to an apparatus for transferring a liquid suitable for applying a clinical automatic analyzer for analyzing body fluid samples.
In an automatic analyzer for automatically analyzing biological samples, as a pre-treatment of analysis there is a process in which a sample and a reagent are pipetted and reacted. Further, the reacted reaction solution sometimes needs to be pipetted. It is a necessary condition for accurately performing the measurement of the sample to accurately perform the pipetting work.
In pipetting the sample and the reagent, a pipetting probe is dipped in the sample or the reagent to suck the sample or the reagent into the pipetting probe using a sucking means such as a syringe. Then, the probe having pipetted the sample or the reagent is moved down inside a reaction container to discharge the sample or the reagent in the probe into the reaction container by a discharging operation of the syringe. Pure water is generally used as a medium for transmitting the operation of the syringe to the probe, that is, as an in-flow-passage moving fluid.
The depth of dipping the probe into the sample or the reagent should be minimized. The reason is as follows. Since the sample or the reagent is attached onto the outer surface of the probe when the probe is dipped into the sample or the reagent, the sample or the reagent attached onto the surface must be cleaned. However, if the probe is inserted into the sample or the reagent more deeply than a necessary depth, the outer wall of the probe is not sufficiently cleaned and the remaining fluid attached on the probe may become a source of contamination. Further, a large amount of water cleaning the outer wall of the probe is necessary if the probe is inserted into the sample or the reagent more deeply than a necessary depth, which is not preferable from the viewpoint of economy.
In order to minimize the depth of the probe inserted into the sample or the reagent, it is inevitable to provide a function for detecting that the probe reaches a level of necessary minimum depth in the sample or the reagent, that is, a level detecting function. For this purpose, a liquid level sensor of electrostatic capacitance type disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No.1-178826 is used. The detection of a liquid surface utilizes the fact that the body fluid sample and the reagent are conductive fluids.
In the liquid level sensor of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No.1-178826, the inside of the vertically movable probe is filled with pure water as an in-flow-passage movable fluid, and the sample is sucked into the probe by operation of the syringe. A sample container is placed on a metallic container holder. The probe formed of a single tube is used as a one electrode for detecting a liquid surface, and the container holder is used as the other electrode. The probe serves as the electrode for detecting liquid surface, and the container holder is grounded. An electrostatic capacitance between the electrodes is converted to an electric signal corresponding to the electrostatic capacitance using a converting circuit. Since the electrostatic capacitance between the electrodes changes before the probe is in contact with a liquid surface of the sample and after the probe is in contact with the liquid surface, a detection circuit detects that the probe reaches the liquid surface when the capacitance changes, and the downward movement of the probe is stopped.
A liquid level sensor using a pipetting probe having two tubes is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No.7-43369. An inner tube is used as an electrode for detecting liquid surface, and an outer tube is used as an electric conductive shield member. The outer tube is grounded. The end of the inner tube is positioned at a level lower than the end of the outer tube so that the inner tube may be brought in contact with a sample to be pipetted. An electric insulator insulates between the inner tube and the outer tube.
In both of the above-mentioned liquid level sensors disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No.1-178826 and in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No.7-43369, the inside of the tube used as the electrode for detecting liquid surface is filled with the in-flow-passage movable fluid which is moved by operation of the syringe of pipetting pump. Even if pure water not having electric conductivity is used as the movable fluid, the electric conductivity of the movable fluid is increased due to the breeding of microbes and the whole flow passage becomes electrically conductive when the movable fluid is used for a long period. Thereby, the electrostatic capacitance between the pipetting probe and the container holder becomes large.
Therefore, the electrostatic capacitance between the pipetting probe and the container holder changes as the probe is moved upward or downward. Such change disturbs the measurement of detecting a liquid surface of a liquid to be pipetted.
On the other hand, in a case of analyzing a trace quantity of ingredient in a sample, occurrence of carry-over between samples is a problem. It is known to use disposable nozzle tips in order to avoid this problem. In a case of using disposable nozzle tips made of an electrically conductive plastic, since the electric conductivity is smaller than that in a case where a straight nozzle of non-disposable type made of stainless steel is used as the probe, the liquid level sensing becomes sensitive to the effect of an increase in electric conductivity of the movable fluid.

Apparatus for trasferring liquid having liquid level sensing function


A camera system for capturing an image of a predetermined scope, having a plurality of monitoring cameras operable to change a monitoring area respectively, comprises a camera controller, when changing its monitoring area of one of the monitoring cameras, operable to control the other monitoring cameras to monitor a dead area that is outside of the monitoring area of the monitoring camera. When the camera controller controls the monitoring camera to zoom into a subject, the camera controller may control the other monitoring cameras to monitor the dead area of the monitoring area by zooming out the subject.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a camera system and a camera control method, including a plurality of monitoring camera, and relates to a program for the camera system and the camera control method. More particularly, the present invention relates to the camera system and the camera control method for monitoring a predetermined scope by the plurality of monitoring cameras, and the computer program for controlling the plurality of the monitoring cameras.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, the monitoring system for capturing a face image of a person as an intruder with a magnified image by controlling the monitoring camera to pan and zoom in the intruder who invades into the monitoring scope has been in practical use. (For example, see the article from the J-Net Corporation's web site "http://www.gazou.co.jp/Products/index.html"; entitled "Image Monitoring System")
However, there is a problem that in the monitoring scope a dead area is generated, when capturing a specific area in more detail by controlling the camera to pan and zoom in.

Camera system, camera control method and program


The present invention relates to at least one novel anti-TNF antibodies, including isolated nucleic acids that encode at least one anti-TNF antibody, TNF, vectors, host cells, transgenic animals or plants, and methods of making and using thereof, including therapeutic compositions, methods and devices.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to antibodies, including specified portions or variants, specific for at least one tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF) protein or fragment thereof, as well as nucleic acids encoding such anti-TNF antibodies, complementary nucleic acids, vectors, host cells, and methods of making and using thereof, including therapeutic formulations, administration and devices.
2. Related Art
TNF alpha is a soluble homotrimer of 17 kD protein subunits (Smith et al., J. Biol. Chem. 262:6951-6954 (1987)). A membrane-bound 26 kD precursor form of TNF also exists (Kriegler et al., Cell 53:45-53 (1988)). For reviews of TNF, see Beutler et al., Nature 320:584 (1986); Old, Science 230:630 (1986); and Le et al., Lab. Invest. 56:234 (1987).
Cells other than monocytes or macrophages also produce TNF alpha. For example, human non-monocytic tumor cell lines produce TNF alpha (Rubin et al., J. Exp. Med. 164:1350 (1986); Spriggs et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 84:6563 (1987)). CD4+ and CD8+ peripheral blood T lymphocytes and some cultured T and B cell lines (Cuturi et al., J. Exp. Med. 165:1581 (1987); Sung et al., J. Exp. Med. 168:1539 (1988); Turner et al., Eur. J. Immunol. 17:1807-1814 (1987)) also produce TNF alpha.
TNF alpha causes pro-inflammatory actions which result in tissue injury, such as degradation of cartilage and bone (Saklatvala, Nature 322:547-549 (1986); Bertolini, Nature 319:516-518 (1986)), induction of adhesion molecules, inducing procoagulant activity on vascular endothelial cells (Pober et al., J. Immunol. 136:1680 (1986)), increasing the adherence of neutrophils and lymphocytes (Pober et al., J. Immunol. 138:3319 (1987)), and stimulating the release of platelet activating factor from macrophages, neutrophils and vascular endothelial cells (Camussi et al., J. Exp. Med. 166:1390 (1987)).
Recent evidence associates TNF alpha with infections (Cerami et al., Immunol. Today 9:28 (1988)), immune disorders, neoplastic pathologies (Oliff et al., Cell 50:555 (1987)), autoimmune pathologies and graft-versus-host pathologies (Piguet et al., J. Exp. Med. 166:1280 (1987)). The association of TNF alpha with cancer and infectious pathologies is
often related to the host's catabolic state. Cancer patients suffer from weight loss, usually associated with anorexia.
The extensive wasting which is associated with cancer, and other diseases, is known as "cachexia" (Kern et al., J. Parent. Enter. Nutr. 12:286-298 (1988)). Cachexia includes progressive weight loss, anorexia, and persistent erosion of lean body mass in response to a malignant growth. The cachectic state causes much cancer morbidity and mortality. There is evidence that TNF alpha is involved in cachexia in cancer, infectious pathology, and other catabolic states (see, e.g., Beutler and Cerami, Ann. Rev. Immunol. 7:625-655 (1989)).
TNF alpha is believed to play a central role in gram-negative sepsis and endotoxic shock (Michie et al., Br. J. Surg. 76:670-671 (1989); Debets et al., Second Vienna Shock Forum, p. 463-466 (1989); Simpson et al., Crit. Care Clin. 5:27-47 (1989)), including fever, malaise, anorexia, and cachexia. Endotoxin strongly activates monocyte/macrophage production and secretion of TNF alpha and other cytokines (Kornbluth et al., J. Immunol. 137:2585-2591 (1986)). TNF alpha and other monocyte-derived cytokines mediate the metabolic and neurohormonal responses to endotoxin (Michie et al., New Engl. J. Med. 318:1481-1486 (1988)). Endotoxin administration to human volunteers produces acute illness with flu-like symptoms including fever, tachycardia, increased metabolic rate and stress hormone release (Revhaug et al., Arch. Surg. 123:162-170 (1988)). Circulating TNF alpha increases in patients suffering from Gram-negative sepsis (Waage et al., Lancet 1:355-357 (1987); Hammerle et al., Second Vienna Shock Forum, p. 715-718 (1989); Debets et al., Crit. Care Med. 17:489-497 (1989); Calandra et al., J. Infect. Dis. 161:982-987 (1990)).
Thus, TNF alpha has been implicated in inflammatory diseases, autoimmune diseases, viral, bacterial and parasitic infections, malignancies, and/or neurodegenerative diseases and is a useful target for specific biological therapy in diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn's disease. Beneficial effects in open-label trials with a chimeric monoclonal antibody to TNF alpha (cA2) have been reported with suppression of inflammation and with successful retreatment after relapse in rheumatoid arthritis (Elliott et al., Arthritis Rheum. 36:1681-1690 (1993); and Elliott et al., Lancet 344:1125-1127 (1994)) and in Crohn's disease (Van Dullemen et al., Gastroenterology 109:129-135 (1995)). Beneficial results in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial with cA2 have also been reported in rheumatoid arthritis with suppression of inflammation (Elliott et al., Lancet 344:1105-1110 (1994)).
Antibodies to a "modulator" material which was characterized as cachectin (later found to be identical to TNF) were disclosed by Cerami et al. (EPO Patent Publication 0212489, Mar. 4, 1987). Such antibodies were said to be useful in diagnostic immunoassays and in therapy of shock in bacterial infections. Rubin et al. (EPO Patent Publication 0218868, Apr. 22, 1987) disclosed monoclonal antibodies to human TNF, the hybridomas secreting such antibodies, methods of producing such antibodies, and the use of such antibodies in immunoassay of TNF. Yone et al. (EPO Patent Publication 0288088, Oct. 26, 1988) disclosed anti-TNF antibodies, including mAbs, and their utility in immunoassay diagnosis of pathologies, in particular Kawasaki's pathology and bacterial infection. The body fluids of patients with Kawasaki's pathology (infantile acute febrile mucocutaneous lymph node syndrome; Kawasaki, T., Allergy 16:178 (1967); Kawasaki, T., Shonica (Pediatrics) 26:935 (1985)) were said to contain elevated TNF levels which were related to progress of the pathology (Yone et al., supra).
Other investigators have described mAbs specific for recombinant human TNF which had neutralizing activity in vitro (Liang, C-M. et al. (Biochem. Biophys. Res. Comm. 137:847-854 (1986); Meager, A. et al., Hybridoma 6:305-311 (1987); Fendly et al., Hybridoma 6:359-369 (1987); Bringman, T. S. et al., Hybridoma 6:489-507 (1987); Hirai, M. et al., J. Immunol. Meth. 96:57-62 (1987); Moller, A. et al. (Cytokine 2:162-169 (1990)). Some of these mAbs were used to map epitopes of human TNF and develop enzyme immunoassays (Fendly et al., supra; Hirai et al., supra; Moller et al., supra) and to assist in the purification of recombinant TNF (Bringman et al., supra). However, these studies do not provide a basis for producing TNF neutralizing antibodies that can be used for in vivo diagnostic or therapeutic uses in humans, due to immunogenicity, low specificity and/or pharmaceutical unsuitability.
Neutralizing antisera or mAbs to TNF have been shown in mammals other than man to abrogate adverse phaysiological changes and prevent death after lethal challenge in experimental endotoxemia and bacteremia. This effect has been demonstrated, e.g., in rodent lethality assays and in primate pathology model systems (Mathison, J. C. et al., J. Clin. Invest. 81:1925-1937 (1988); Beutler, B. et al., Science 229:869-871 (1985); Tracey, K. J. et al., Nature 330:662-664 (1987); Shimamoto, Y. et al., Immunol. Lett. 17:311-318 (1988); Silva, A. T. et al., J. Infect. Dis. 162:421-427 (1990); Opal, S. M. et al., J. Infect. Dis. 161:1148-1152 (1990); Hinshaw, L. B. et al., Circ. Shock 30:279-292 (1990)).
Putative receptor binding loci of hTNF has been disclosed by Eck and Sprang (J. Biol. Chem. 264(29), 17595-17605 (1989), who identified the receptor binding loci of TNF alpha as consisting of amino acids 11-13, 37-42, 49-57 and 155-157. PCT application WO91/02078 (priority date of Aug. 7, 1989) discloses TNF ligands which can bind to monoclonal antibodies having the following epitopes: at least one of 1-20, 56-77, and 108-127; at least two of 1-20, 56-77, 108-127 and 138-149; all of 1-18, 58-65, 115-125 and 138-149; all of 1-18, and 108-128; all of 56-79, 110-127 and 135- or 136-155; all of 1-30, 117-128 and 141-153; all of 1-26, 117-128 and 141-153; all of 22-40, 49-96 or -97, 110-127 and 136-153; all of 12-22, 36-45, 96-105 and 132-157; all of both of 1-20 and 76-90; all of 22-40, 69-97, 105-128 and 135-155; all of 22-31 and 146-157; all of 22-40 and 49-98; at least one of 22-40, 49-98 and 69-97, both of 22-40 and 70-87.
Non-human mammalian, chimeric, polyclonal (e.g., anti-sera) and/or monoclonal antibodies (Mabs) and fragments (e.g., proteolytic digestion or fusion protein products thereof) are potential therapeutic agents that are being investigated in some cases to attempt to treat certain diseases. However, such antibodies or fragments can elicit an immune response when administered to humans. Such an immune response can result in an immune complex-mediated clearance of the antibodies or fragments from the circulation, and make repeated administration unsuitable for therapy, thereby reducing the therapeutic benefit to the patient and limiting the readministration of the antibody or fragment. For example, repeated administration of antibodies or fragments comprising non-human portions can lead to serum sickness and/or anaphylaxis. In order to avoid these and other problems, a number of approaches have been taken to reduce the immunogenicity of such antibodies and portions thereof, including chimerization and humanization, as well known in the art. These and other approaches, however, still can result in antibodies or fragments having some immunogenicity, low affinity, low avidity, or with problems in cell culture, scale up, production, and/or low yields. Thus, such antibodies or fragments can be less than ideally suited for manufacture or use as therapeutic proteins.
Accordingly, there is a need to provide anti-TNF antibodies or fragments that overcome one more of these problems, as well as improvements over known antibodies or fragments thereof.

Anti-TNF antibodies, compositions, methods and uses


A method for invoking an application in a Screen Lock screen is disclosed herein. The method for invoking an application in a user equipment includes the steps of selecting at least one unlock application that is to be displayed on a Screen Lock screen among multiple applications, and displaying an unlock application icon respective to each of the select at least one unlock application on the Screen Lock screen.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for invoking a specific application that is designated by a user and a method for resolving problematic issues regarding security and remote (or long distance) device control respective such invocation.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
With the expansion in the IoT/WoT environment, and as a variety of electronic devices can be controlled based upon mobile applications, users are installing and using a wider range of device controlling applications in their mobile user equipment environments. However, when the user seeks to use individual application, the user is required to run (or execute) the corresponding application each time. And, during this process, multiple user manipulation (or user operation) may be required. For example, when providing a related art card-type application list, it is inconvenient in that a specific application is required to be invoked after flipping a series of cards until a wanted card is reached. Additionally, when the user has locked an initial screen, since the user is required to unlock the initial screen and then run the wanted application, a larger number of user manipulations may be required. In order to resolve such problems, a method for directly invoking a specific application, which is designated by the user, from a Screen Lock screen may be provided. And, by doing so, it is intended to provide a function enabling the user to invoke a specific application more easily and conveniently. Additionally, a method for resolving issues of security and remote device control, which may be problematic in this case, and a solution for limiting functions at application levels will also be proposed herein.

Method for invoking application in screen lock environment

Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology


A weaving machine weaves pile fabrics having weft yarns, backing warp yarns, and pile warp yarns. One or several spacers extend between the pile warp yarns either to realize a constant pile height between two pile fabrics formed, or to determine the pile loop height in one or several pile fabrics comprising pile loops. One or several holders clamp the spacers. One or several shed forming devices, drive heddles through which backing and/or pile warp yarns extend to position these warp yarns with respect to the weft yarns. A zone for supplying pile warp yarns extends between a yam supply and the heddles. One or several holders installed between the yarn supply and the one or several shed forming devices clamp the spacers. The holders are installed outside the said supply zone, in such a manner that the pile warp yarns will extend into the supply zone without any hindrance.

The invention firstly relates to a weaving machine for weaving pile fabrics consisting of weft yarns, backing warp yarns and pile warp yarns comprising:                one or several spacers extending between the pile warp yarns and which are provided either to realize a constant pile height between two pile fabrics formed, or to determine the pile loop height in one or several pile fabrics comprising pile loops;        one or several holders for clamping the spacers;        one or several shed forming devices, driving heddles through which backing and/or pile warp yarns extend in order to position these warp yarns with respect to the weft yarns;        a yarn supply;a zone for supplying pile warp yarns extending between the yarn supply and the heddles controlled by the shed forming device, and one or several holders being installed between the yarn supply and the one or several shed forming devices in order to clamp the spacers.
Secondly, the invention relates to a method for weaving such pile fabrics.
Thirdly, the invention relates to a spacer for such a weaving machine.
When weaving pile fabrics, most of the time, lancets are used as spacers. These spacers are used for the following functions:                to keep the fabrics formed at a distance in order to realize a uniform pile height. For a long period already, this technique is used for weaving face-to-face on face-to-face weaving machines with one single lancet for each reed dent or for each warp system;        to determine the loop height in a loop fabric. With this technique the backing fabric is formed on the one side (upper or lower side) of the spacer, and a pile yarn is laid around an additional weft, forming a loop, which most of the time is provided to be removed from the fabric later on, when this part of the fabric has left the spacer. Such a weft yarn is called a lost pile loop weft yarn. This technique is used both for single fabrics, when only one fabric with pile loops is produced and for face-to-face weaving, where one or two sets of spacers are used and two fabrics with pile loops are produced at the same time.
In EP 1 347 087 a device and a method are described to weave two fabrics with pile loops at a time on a face-to-face weaving machine by using upper and lower spacers (lancets), a weft insertion device being provided in order to insert weft yarns between the upper and lower spacer. These spacers are comprising at least two parts, the first parts of which are extending between the upper and the lower ruler. These parts are situated at a short distance from one another and each of them is serving to determine the loop height of the pile loops of the upper and the lower fabric respectively. Furthermore, these spacers have second parts situated at a greater distance from one another. To that effect, the spacers have been buckled between the first and second parts. In this manner it has been made possible that one of the weft insertion means will be able to move between the spacers in order to insert a weft yarn. The spacers have a back part taken up in the holder. In one of the preferred embodiments of the invention described in EP 1 347 087 this spacer is represented as used in practice, i.e. a compact holder clamping the back parts of both the upper and the lower spacer, this holder being connected to the frame of the machine.
Also with face-to-face weaving techniques using one single set of spacers for weaving fabrics with a cut pile and with weaving techniques for single fabrics for weaving pile loop fabrics, the extremities of the spacers of the single set of spacers at the far side of the weaver, are taken up by a similar holder.
When weaving pile fabrics, the warp yarns are supplied from the rear of the weaving machine and they are brought into the right position by the shed forming elements in order to realize the shed necessary to obtain the pattern desired for the backing and pile fabrics. In the shed, the backing warp yarns (binding and tension warp yarns) to form the backing fabric for the upper and lower fabrics are brought into their requested position in accordance with the weave structure desired by means of heddle frames moving up and down, comprising a set of heddles which are distributed right across the width of the weaving machine. Each heddle being provided with a heddle eye, through which a backing warp yarn is conducted. The backing warp yarns are supplied from one or several backing warp beams through separating bars distributing the backing warp yarns between the upper and the lower fabric. The backing warp yarns, which are destined for the upper fabric, are conducted above the holder of the spacers to further extend through heddle eyes. The backing warp yarns for the lower fabric are conducted below the holder of the spacers before they extend through the heddle eyes.
This manner to supply the yarn will enable the backing warp yarns to obtain the position required to realize the shed which is required for the backing weave selected, without the backing warp yarns getting in touch with the holder of the spacers.
The angle formed between the direction in which the backing warp yarn is moving before and after its passage through the heddle eye may be thus kept limited, so that the force component of the stretching force in the yarn, more particularly the component to be surmounted by the weaving frame in order to move up and down the backing warp yarn will remain limited. Thus the load on the weaving frame will be restricted and operating and positioning the weaving frame will be simplified.
Pile warp yarns may be supplied from a pile warp beam in case the same amount of all the pile warp yarns situated next to one another will be used, but more often they are supplied from a weaving creel in which a bobbin spindle is provided for each pile warp yarn on which a bobbin containing the pile warp yarn having the required properties (e.g. the color) is provided. From the bobbin, the yarn is conducted through a separating grid which is situated between the weaving creel and the weaving machine and further via spindles separating the pile warp yarns in order to split up the pile warp yarns in layers per color, so that for each layer one yarn per warp system and usually also, for each layer, one yarn for each reed tooth is supplied to form the fabric in the weaving machine. The pile warp yarns being conducted through heddle eyes of heddles of either a weaving frame or a harness arrangement of a Jacquard machine. The shed forming device is controlling the movement of the heddles and therefore the position of the pile warp yarns, on the basis of data relating to the pattern to be obtained. The pile warp yarns are tensioned in the weaving creel, for instance, by applying a weight element to strain the yarn.
In weaving machine where lancets are used as spacers, because of the presence of a lancet holder on the center line of the shed, the pile warp yarns are divided into a part of the pile warp yarns being conducted through the separating spindles for the pile warp yarns which are situated above the lancet holder (for instance, for the pile warp yarns that are woven in as dead piles in the upper fabric) and into a part of the pile warp yarns being conducted through the separating spindles of the pile warp yarns situated below the lancet holder (for instance for the pile warp yarns being woven in as dead piles in the lower fabric). Separating these separating spindles for the pile warp yarns into two parts also requires an independent adjustability of the two sets of separating spindles for the pile warp yarns. Thus preventing the holders for the separating spindles for the pile warp yarns to be provided with partitions to strengthen them. Without these partitions the separating spindles for the pile warp yarns must have a considerably larger diameter in order to reduce the deflection of the separating spindles for the pile warp yarns. This larger diameter in combination with the larger number of pile warp yarns, will cause not only a layer of pile warp yarns to be running over its own separating spindle, but also that it will get in touch with another separating spindle. Because of this, the tension of the yarn will be increased, but most of all will cause problems and the risk of yarn breaks.
Because, contrary to the backing warp yarns, the pile warp yarns may be tied up around weft yarns in both the upper fabric and the lower fabric, the yarn selection positions may be further apart when the shed is formed. In case the weaving machine is equipped with lancets, it becomes difficult, if not impossible, to supply the pile warp yarns when the fabric is formed, not in a single selection position to form the shed of these pile warp yarns, these yarns may come in contact with the lancet holder. Such a contact may conduce to a greater tension to be built up and to an increased wear of the pile warp yarns. Causing an increase of the risk of yarn breakage, which may cause machine downtime and fabrics of an inferior quality. The consequences of such contacts will be an increase of the load the pile warp yarn is exerting on the heddle, because the force component in the direction of motion of the heddle will be increased. This means an increase of the load on the shed forming device and may cause an inaccurate or incorrect formation of the shed and an increased energy consumption.
A further disadvantage consists in the fact that a motion from a position in which there is a contact with the lancet holder to a position without any contact with the lancet holder, causing the yarn to be returned to the weaving creel, this returning of yarn will be greater when the pile warp yarn is in touch with the lancet holder, than when the pile warp yarn is not in touch with the lancet holder. This has a particularly harmful influence on the return springs of the harness. When returning the yarns during a downward motion, the return spring, as an element controlled in a negative sense, will be unable to follow rapidly enough to absorb this greater return of yarns to the weaving creel. This will conduce to pile warp yarns being no longer tensioned for a short period, which has an adverse effect on the weaving process. Finally, this may cause pile warp yarns and harness cords to get entangled, which finally may cause machine downtime, so that important manual interventions may be required. The resulting shock load on the return springs will cause in turn a shorter life of these return springs. These problems will become the greater as the operating speeds will be increased, the shed required to operate the machine is increasing and the number of pile warp yarns will be increased (more colors or higher densities).
In order to avoid contact between pile warp yarns and the lancet holder, it is best to bring the separating spindles for the pile warp yarns as close as possible to the fell of the fabric. However, it is a matter of course that these guiding spindles should be arranged after the heddle devices controlled by the shed forming devices for backing and pile warp yarns. However, the closer to the fell of the fabric the separating spindles for the pile warp yarns, the greater the force component of the strain in the pile warp yarn will become, the shed forming device in one of its selection positions of the shed has to overcome to bring the pile warp yarns from that position into a position required. In order to keep this force component as restricted as possible, the separating spindles for the pile warp yarns should be installed as much to the rear of the weaving machine as possible. Indeed, bringing the separating spindles for the pile warp yarns as more to the rear of the weaving machine, will lead to a contact between the pile warp yarns and the lancet holder in certain positions.
Furthermore, when weaving fabrics with a long pile where pile heights of more than 70 mm, more than 100 mm and up to over 200 mm long are realized, so-called spoon lancets are used (see publication of the Belgian patent BE 1005394 and the publication of the European patent EP 536551). These lancets have a profiled length, the height of the top part being greater than the height of the central part of the rapiers.
Up to the present, these so-called spoon lancets are taken up in one central lancet holder, having the disadvantage that these lancets, because of their weight at the top, are sagging and are difficult to install. The suspension thus obtained is rather unstable.
The purpose of the present invention is to find a solution for the above-mentioned problem, where, in a compact design, the pile warp yarns may be supplied to the zone where the shed is formed by shed forming devices, such that the load on the heddles controlled by the shed forming devices, exerted by the pile warp yarns will be kept within certain limits, and where the pile warp yarns will not come in touch, or to a lesser extent, with the holder of the spacers, and where a stable suspension and positioning of the spacers in the weaving machine will be obtained.

Weaving machine and method for weaving pile fabrics and spacer for such a weaving machine


A thermostat has a movable place where a spring point and a securing plate portion are integrally formed. The spring point is provided with a movable contact at a position that faces a fixed contact, a protrusion with which a bimetal that counter turns comes into contact, a hole for inserting the head of a bimetal holding point, and a protrusion for holding the bimetal, and the spring point is valley-folded at a folding point so as to face the securing plate portion. The securing plate portion is integrally constituted of a terminal point connected to one external terminal, a fixation point for securing an insulating plate, which has the fixed contact in a manner to hold the plate from both sides, and a holding point folded and set up, penetrating a central hole of the bimetal to hold the bimetal.

A bimetal thermoswitch employing a ceramic substrate has been proposed in the past as an insulating support for a thermostat (see, for example, Patent Document 1).
FIG. 1A is a side view showing an example of such a bimetal thermoswitch employing a conventional ceramic substrate as an insulating support for a thermostat, FIG. 1B is a top view of the bimetal thermoswitch shown in FIG. 1A, and FIG. 1C is a back view of the bimetal thermoswitch shown in FIG. 1A.
The bimetal thermoswitch comprises a thin and rectangular support 1 made of alumina ceramic, as shown in FIG. 1A, FIG. 1B and FIG. 1C. A groove 2 is formed in the center of the support 1, and both of the longitudinal ends of a basal surface 1a are metalized.
Terminal tabs 3 and 4 are fixed on either of the metalized longitudinal ends of the support 1.
The terminal tabs 3 and 4 have a soldering hole 5 on one end, another end is divided into three parts in a fork-like form, and a pair of protrusions 6 on both sides of the fork and protrusion 7 in the middle are formed in a manner such that they are at different levels. The pair of protrusions 6 at the lower level is joined to the metalized end of the basal surface 1a of the support 1, and the protrusion 7 at the upper level is simply connected to the superior surface of the support 1.
A contact spring 8 has a hole 11 in the approximate center, and a plastic pin 12 is inserted into the hole 11. A head 13 of the pin 12 is caught at the top surface of the contact spring 8, and the lower rod point of the pin 12 penetrates a hole 14 that is provided in the center of a bimetal plate 15 and the groove 2 of the support 1.
The bimetal plate 15 lies between the support 1 and the contact spring 8. A collar 16 of the pin 12 that lies between the contact spring 8 and the bimetal plate 15 serves as a spacer and produces a heat insulating effect between the contact spring 8 and the bimetal plate 15.
A film resistance 17 is placed on the basal plane 1a of the support 1. The film resistance 17 is electrically connected to the terminal tabs 3 and 4 via a conductive strip 18.
When the bimetal plate bends in the opposite direction in response to the higher than switching temperature and lifts up the contact spring 8, electrical current flows only via the film resistance 17, consequently heating the support 1, and the bimetal plate 15 is heated via the support 1. This prevents the bimetal plate 15 from causing a return movement to the initial position where the bimetal plate 15 closes the switch.
As explained above, because the collar 16 of the pin 12 serves as a spacer and produces a heat insulating effect between the contact spring 8 and the bimetal spring 15, the bimetal plate 15 is hardly influenced by Joule heat generated in the contact spring 8.
In the technology in Patent Document 1, it is assumed that the heat source for operating a bimetal thermoswitch (hereinafter referred to as a thermostat) is provided externally, or in other words that the bimetal thermoswitch itself is used as a thermostat, and has a configuration for sensing the external hot air.
However, when a thermostat with a configuration such as that in Patent Document 1 is used for the purpose of the temperature control of a hot plate type heater that has been incorporated into a hair iron or other such device, or for the purpose of the protection of the hot plate type heater by preventing overheating, heat sensing may not function properly due to low thermal responsiveness, and may consequently cause a safety problem.
The thermostat may also be consisted of a large number of components which require many welding and soldering operations to be performed in order to engage each other, and the complex configuration may requires a lot of time and effort for assembly.
Patent Document 1: National Publication of Translated Version No. 63-501833


Disclosed are nucleic acid and amino acid sequences encoded by a novel Neuroendocrine-like marker (NELM) and diagnostic techniques for the detection of human prostate cancer utilizing such nucleic acid and amino acid sequences. Genetic probes and methods useful in monitoring the progression, diagnosis, and response to therapy of prostate cancer, as well as identifying compounds that promote prostate cancer are described.

Prostate cancer (PC) is a prominent cause of death in men in the United States (Boring et al., 1993; Wingo et. al., 1997). The development of diagnostic methods for this disease has demonstrated that it is one of the most prevalent of all cancers (Carter and Coffey, 1990). Although prostate cancer is the most common cancer found in United States men, the molecular changes underlying its genesis and progression remain poorly understood (Boring et al., 1993). The cancer statistics for the year 2004 predicts 230,110 new cases and 29,900 deaths from PC (Jemal et al, 2004). Significant advances have been made in the detection of PC over the last decade, which has been largely associated with the widespread use of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening. As a result, a dramatic increase in the incidents of PCs have occurred in the late 1980s and early 1990s, followed by a more recent fall in the incidence (Jemal et al, 2004)].
While prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening has been useful in identifying PC patients in earlier stages of the disease, high PSA levels alone are not sufficient for the diagnosis of PC. In fact, recent evidence suggests that almost 20% of patients with "normal PSA" levels harbor prostate tumors, and a significant number of those are aggressive (Thompson et al, 2004). On the other hand, higher PSA levels are not sufficient proof for PC, as PSA levels rise in response to benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) as well as in response to increases in serum testosterone or prostate growth factors (Polascik et al, 1999). Specifically, serum PSA levels do not discriminate between the cases of BPH and PC (Catalona et al, 2000; Naya et al, 2003; Suzuki et al, 2004). This is because PSA protein is produced by normal as well as malignant prostate cells, and is not a cancer-specific protein, and serum PSA levels depend on the size of the prostate as well as serum testosterone levels. Therefore, the PSA test alone is not sufficient for PC diagnosis.
Numerous recent studies have identified several recurring genetic changes in prostate cancer including: allelic loss (Bova. et al., 1993; Macoska et al, 1994; Carter et al, 1990), generalized DNA hypermethylation, (Isaacs et al., 1994), point mutations or deletions of the retinoblastoma (Rb) and p53 genes (Bookstein et al., 1990a; Bookstein et al., 1990b; Isaacs et al., 1991), alterations in the level of certain adhesion molecules (Carter et al., 1990); Morton et al., 1993a; Morton et al., 1993b; Umbas et al., 1992), and aneuploidy and aneusomy of chromosomes (Macoska et al., 1994; Visakorpi et al., 1994; Takahashi et al., 1994; Alcaraz et al., 1994).
Commonly utilized current tests for prostate cancer are digital rectal examination (DRE) and analysis of serum prostate specific antigen (PSA). Although PSA has been widely used as a clinical marker of prostate cancer since 1988 (Partin and Oesterling, 1994), screening programs utilizing PSA alone or in combination with digital rectal examination have not been successful in improving the survival rate for men with prostate cancer (Partin and Oesterling, 1994). While PSA is specific to prostate tissue, it is produced by normal and benign as well as malignant prostatic epithelium, resulting in a high false-positive rate for prostate cancer detection (Partin and Oesterling, 1994).
Another serum marker associated with prostate disease is prostate specific membrane antigen (PSMA) (Horoszewicz et al., 1987; Carter et al., 1996; Murphy et al., 1996). PSMA is a Type II cell membrane protein and has been identified as Folic Acid Hydrolase (FAH) (Carter et al., 1996). Antibodies against PSMA react with both normal prostate tissue and prostate cancer tissue (Horoszewicz et al., 1987). Murphy et al. (1995) used ELISA to detect serum PSMA in advanced prostate cancer. As a serum test, PSMA levels are a relatively poor indicator of prostate cancer. However, PSMA may have utility in certain circumstances. PSMA is expressed in metastatic prostate tumor capillary beds (Silver et al., 1997) and is reported to be more abundant in the blood of metastatic cancer patients (Murphy et al., 1996). PSMA messenger RNA (mRNA) is down-regulated 8-10 fold in the LNCaP prostate cancer cell line after exposure to 5-alpha-dihydroxytestosterone (DHT) (Israeli et al., 1994).
There remains deficiencies in the art with respect to the identification of genes linked with the progression of prostate diseases, the development of diagnostic methods to monitor disease progression, and the development of therapeutics to treat prostate diseases and cancers. The identification of genes that are differentially expressed in prostate diseases would be of considerable importance in the development of a rapid, inexpensive method to diagnose prostate diseases, including cancer. The identified genes would also be useful in therapeutic compositions, or in screening assays for therapeutic compounds.

Human cancer cell specific gene transcript


An apparatus for removing recyclable materials from bags. The apparatus includes a conveyor having tines which engage and assist the conveyor in transporting the bags of materials to a discharge bin. A cutting element cooperates with the conveyor to open the bags allowing the materials to be emptied from the bags at one end of the conveyor into the bin where the materials are subsequently discharged onto compost piles. The bags are then removed from the tines and transferred into a mechanism where they are bundled for disposal or recycling.

This invention generally relates to waste recycling. More particularly, the invention relates to an apparatus which opens plastic bags containing recyclable materials and which disperses the materials at a large scale recycling facility. While the present invention will have utility with a wide range of recyclable materials, it is believed that the invention will have particular utility with compostable materials such as yard and garden waste.
As people have become more involved with recycling, composting has increasingly become a viable alternative for the disposal of organic waste such as leaves, branches and twigs. While the compost pile has been popular with homeowners for some time, composting has only recently gained popularity with municipalities as an effective method for reducing the volume of waste being disposed in general landfills.
A large scale compost yard, as would be used by a municipality or other community, generally includes a large number of compost rows or piles. Depending on the size of the municipality and the amount of composting being done, these rows may vary widely in size. Typically, however, the compost rows are six to eight feet in height, with taller compost rows being possible.
In collecting compostable materials from households for composting at the community site, the compostable materials are received in bags which are tied or otherwise closed. At the compost yard, the bags containing the compostable materials, hereinafter referred to as bales, must be manually opened, the compostable materials manually separated from the bags and manually spread onto the compost piles. This process is both time consuming and labor intensive. Obviously, it is desirable to mechanize this process enabling it to be done faster and in a more cost efficient manner.
In view of the procedure outlined above, it is an object of the present invention to substantially automate the opening of the bales and spreading of the compostable materials. In achieving this, the present invention provides an apparatus which efficiently and effectively opens the bales in which compostable materials are received at the compost yard. After opening the bales, the apparatus of this invention separates the compostable materials from the bags and disperses the compostable materials onto the compost rows. As such, the apparatus enhances the dissemination of the compostable materials once they are received at the compost yard.
The present invention generally includes an inclined conveyor of the endless belt variety. The belt of the conveyor is provided with projecting tines which, as the bales are loaded onto the conveyor, pierce the bags of the bales and hold the bales in position. As the bales are carried by the conveyor, a cutting element engages the bales and cuts the bags lengthwise. Spreading elements also act upon the bales to laterally spread open the bags and fully expose the compostable materials.
Located at the upper end of the conveyor is a receiving bin. Once an opened bale reaches the upper end of the conveyor, the tines pull the bale over the end of the conveyor, effectively dumping and emptying the compostable materials into the receiving bin. A blower operates to forcibly disperse the compostable materials through a discharge chute formed in one end of the receiving bin. The floor of the receiving bin is defined by another conveyor which further assists in forcibly discharging the compostable materials.
After the compostable materials have been emptied from the bags, the bags remain engaged on the tines and are drawn along the return or lower side of the conveyor. When drawn along the return side of the conveyor, the bags are wiped to remove any remaining compostable materials and are then removed from the tines.
To remove the bags from the tines, openings are provided in the conveyor belt and another blower blows on the bags through the openings forcing the bags into engagement with a pair of stripper conveyors. The stripper conveyors are oriented to provide a "pinch point" which effectively grabs the bags and pulls them off of the tines. In addition to the second blower, one of the stripper conveyors has tabs formed thereon which operate during rotation of the conveyors to "catch" and "slap" the bags into the pinch point. The stripper conveyors feed the bags into a conventional baling or bundling machine which, upon receiving an appropriate number of bags, produces a bale of used bags which can also be recycled.
Additional benefits and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art to which this invention relates from the subsequent description of the preferred embodiment and the appended claims taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Apparatus for removing recyclable materials from bags


Disclosed is a therapy for treating and for preventing periprosthetic bone loss by the administration of a bisphosphonate bone resorption inhibitor, e.g., alendronate, in patients who have an orthopedic implant device.

A major problem with patients who have orthopedic implant devices or joint prosthesis, such as hip replacements, is that many of these begin to fail after five years or so from the time that they are inserted. The failure rate increases exponentially with time so that many patients with an aging hip prosthesis (10 to 15 years), experience pain at the site of the implant and eventually require revision to the original procedure. Although initially this was considered to be a result of fragmentation of the cement substances utilized in older hip prostheses, the problem continues to be observed even in the newer devices which do not rely on the use of cement. A hallmark of these patients is that at the time they develop pain and loosening of the joint they have markedly increased bone turnover, especially bone resorption, in the bone immediately adjacent to the implant. Evidence for this bone turnover can be seen from the fact that bone scanning agents, which are bisphosphonates tagged with technetium, are often taken up at very high concentrations in these areas indicating that there may well be significant targeting of bisphosphonates to the periprosthetic bone.
There is a need in the art for localized controlled/extended release dosage forms of bone growth promotant since in the United States, there are approximately 5 million fractures and 265,000 prosthetic implants per year. Of this population, there is about a 20-30% failure rate within five years of the operation, requiring a repeat surgery and device implant.
Normal bones are living tissues which undergo constant resorption and new bone formation, with the net effect of maintenance of a constant mineral balance. The dual process is commonly called "bone turnover". In normal growing bones, the mineral deposition exceeds the mineral resorption, whereas in certain pathological conditions, bone resorption exceeds bone deposition, for instance due to malignancy or primary hyperparathyroidism, or in osteoporosis. In other pathological conditions the deposition of new bone may take place in undesirable amounts and areas leading to e.g. heterotopic ossification, osteosclerosis, and Paget's disease which is a combination of an abnormal high bone resorption followed by an abnormal calcium deposition. With orthopedic implants, bone resorption may occur at an accelerated rate in the periprosthetic area leading to net bone loss.
Most of the currently available therapeutic agents for the treatment of osteoporosis, e.g. estrogens, act by reducing bone resorption in the osteoporotic patient. See the review article, "British Medical Bulletin" 46 (1), p. 94-112 (1990).
Bisphosphonates are also known in the art as bone resorption inhibitors.
Alendronate, 4-amino-1-hydroxybutylidene-1,1 -bisphosphonic acid monosodium trihydrate is a known bone resorption inhibitor and is described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,922,007 and 5,019,651 (Merck).
Clodronate, (dichloromethylene)bisphosphonic acid disodium salt (Proctor and Gamble, is described in Belgium Patent 672,205 (1966) and its preparation is found in J. Org. Chem 32, 4111 (1967).
Tiludronate, ([(4-chlorophenyl)thiomethylene]-bisphosphonic acid) (Sanofi) is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,876,248 issued Oct. 24, 1989.
YM 175 ([(cycloheptylamino)methylene]bisphosphonic acid, disodium salt) by Yamanouchi is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,970,335 issued Nov. 13, 1990.
BM 21.0995 (1-Hydroxy-3-(methylpentylamino)-propylidene-bisphosphonate) by Boehringer-Mannheim--is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,927,814 issued May 22, 1990.
A study by Proctor and Gamble (Norwich Eaton Pharmaceuticals) using risedronate, whose chemical name is sodium trihydrogen [1-hydroxy-2-(3-pyridinyl)ethylidene]bisphosphonate, in combination with estrogen showed a positive effect on bone loss in ovariectomized rats (published in Abstracts 731 and 732 at the Fall 1992 ASBMR meeting in Minn.).
The article, "J. Clin. Invest.", January 1992, 89 (1), p. 74-78 by J. Chow et al., describes the effect of estrogen on ovariectomized rats in which bone resorption was suppressed by pamidronate whose chemical name is 3-amino-1-hydroxy propylidene-bisphosphonic acid disodium salt. They concluded that estrogen inhibits bone resorption and also stimulates bone formation.
Another Proctor and Gamble compound, piridronate, [2-(2-pyridinyl)ethylidene]-bisphosphonic acid, monosodium salt is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,761,406 as having bone resorption inhibition activity.
The article, "Monatschefte" 99, 2016 (1968) by F. Kasparet describes the synthesis of etidronate, (1-hydroxyethylidene)-bisphosphonic acid, disodium salt, (Proctor and Gamble).
However, the above cited art does not suggest or describe the use of a bisphosphonate in situations to specifically prevent bone resorption in the periprosthetic bone area of an orthopedic implant device.
What is desired in the art is a therapy to optimally treat the bone resorption in the periprosthetic area of an implant device i.e., the bone area which is in contact and close proximity to the device implant, to retard the loosening of the device and to alleviate the pain associated with this condition.

Alendronate therapy to prevent loosening of, or pain associated with, orthopedic implant devices


A guide device for an endless torque-transmitting member. The guide device includes at least two corresponding guide tongues between which the endless torque-transmitting member is at least partially guided. The guide tongues are held at a predetermined distance from each other by a connection region. The distance between the guide tongues is maintained substantially constant when there is a temperature change by the use in the guide device of materials having different coefficients of thermal expansion. A mold for producing a guide device is disclosed and includes two corresponding mold halves, where at least one connecting component formed from a material having a lower coefficient of thermal expansion than that of the guide tongues is held in one mold half.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a guide device for guiding an endless torque-transmitting means. The guide device includes at least two corresponding guide tongues, between which the endless torque-transmitting means is at least partially guided, the guide tongues being held at a predetermined distance from each other by means of a connection region. The invention also relates to a mold for producing a guide device for an endless torque-transmitting means, and including two corresponding mold halves.
2. Description of the Related Art
A guide device is known in the automotive engineering field for guiding or receiving an endless torque-transmitting means for a transmission, in particular for a belt-driven conical-pulley transmission (CVT transmission). In the belt-driven conical-pulley transmission the endless torque-transmitting means is used to transmit torque between two pairs of pulleys, the endless torque-transmitting means being, for example, a chain or a belt. To fulfill desired acoustic requirements it is necessary to reduce the so-called strand vibrations of the endless torque-transmitting means, in order thereby also to lower the noise level. For that purpose, a receiving rail is provided as a guide device to partially receive the endless torque-transmitting means. The receiving rail includes corresponding tongues, between which the endless torque-transmitting means is guided.
It has been found that the dimensions of a chain-receiving guide channel formed between the two corresponding tongues can change due to temperature fluctuations. As a result, it is possible for too large a play to occur between the endless torque-transmitting means and the guide surfaces of the chain-receiving channel, so that the latter can no longer reduce the strand vibrations adequately. Hence the acoustical requirements are no longer fulfilled. In particular, at low temperatures jamming of the endless torque-transmitting means can occur, and thus undesired high wear.
Thus, an object of the present invention is to provide a guide device of the type identified above that is designed so that the distance between the guide tongues can be held substantially constant, independent of temperature fluctuations.

Guide device for an endless torque-transmitting means, and mold for producing a guide device

Luk Lamellen und Kupplungsbau Beteiligungs KG


A combination of a compass and a connecting arrangement. The compass includes a compass housing having a base wall, a circular wall connected to and upstanding from the base wall and a transparent window connected to the circular wall to define a sealed chamber in which is located the compass works. The compass housing has a radially outwardly extending flange thereon which is greater in dimension than the outer diameter of the circular wall. The connecting arrangement includes a strap for securing the compass housing to an archer's bow. The strap includes an elongated, uniformly thin strip of material having oppositely facing surfaces. The strap has a centrally disposed, circular-shaped first hole therethrough, the diameter of the circular-shaped hole being less than the diameter of the aforesaid flange. The compass housing is received in the circular-shaped first hole, the flange abutting the second surface on the strap. A pair of uniformly thin patches of material straddle the strap, the first patch having a circular hole therein through which the circular wall of the compass housing extends. The first and second patches are secured together with the strap being oriented therebetween to secure the compass housing to the strap. A connecting structure is provided for connecting the second patch to the archer's bow whereas additional connecting structure is provided for securing the ends of the strap together enabling the strap to encircle the archer's bow to effect a securement of the compass housing to the aforesaid bow.

During hunting, a hunter usually moves about a terrain with which there is no familiarity. If the hunter is not careful, the hunter can easily become lost and not be able to make it back to the place whereat entrance into the terrain occurred. Accordingly, most hunters will use a compass to monitor the directions that they have travelled.
It is often desired to mount a compass onto a weapon, an example of a compass mounted on a rifle is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 2,653,390. However, mounting a compass onto a part of an archer's bow or rifle is somewhat problematic in that there is usually no structure conveniently available to which the compass can be mounted.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a combination of a compass and a connective arrangement for facilitating a connection of the compass to a part of an archer's bow or any desired object.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a combination of a compass and a connective arrangement, as aforesaid, which will facilitate a mounting of a compass on the archer's bow or any desired object without necessitating the use of any tooling or a modifying of the structure of an archer's bow or the desired object. It is a further object of the invention to provide a combination of a compass and a connective arrangement, as aforesaid, which will be secure and will not inadvertently become released should the hunter move through underbrush and snag component parts of the connective arrangement onto the brush.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a combination of a compass and a connective arrangement, as aforesaid, which is of a weather tolerant construction.


A pet collar (10) includes a first web portion (18) attached to a second web portion (19) by a locking device (16). The locking device (16) includes opposed plates (22, 23) each of which have a plurality of apertures (27, 28, 29) therein which receive the web portions (18, 19). A lock barb (26) is positioned at each end of each plate (22, 23) and the lock barbs (26) of opposed plates (22, 23) are opposed to each other so that when tension is placed upon a web portion (18, 19), the opposed lock barbs (26) will engage the web portion (18, 19) positioned therebetween.

Pet collars which can be adjusted in size are known in the art and, in fact, are quite popular in that the pet owner need not be aware of the exact size of the neck of the pet when purchasing a collar. Thus, the owner can merely adjust the size of the collar at home when first putting it on the pet. Moreover, such collars are ideal for younger pets in that they may be adjusted in size as the pet grows.
Most adjustable collars are provided with a loop and a slide such that as the slide is moved along the web of the collar, its size or length is adjusted. While such adjustment is a simple process for the pet owner, the collar itself can be a hazard to the pet. For example, the loop utilized for adjustment can quite often get caught on various items such as tree limbs, fences, or the leg of the pet itself or that of another animal. Upon such an occurrence, the natural tendency of the pet is to try to pull itself free which will pull out the loop which in turn tightens the collar on the pet's neck, potentially choking the pet.
Thus, while adjustable collars have many advantages, the need exists for such a collar which does not present a safety hazard to the pet.

Safety lock for an adjustable pet collar