A lancet device used to pierce a user's skin and including a lancet with a body portion and a piercing tip, a primary housing, a cover assembly with a piercing opening and structured to be matingly coupled with the primary housing to define an interior chamber, and a lancet receiving assembly movably disposed within the interior chamber and structured and disposed to hold the lancet during its driven movement between a cocked orientation, a piercing orientation and a fired orientation. The lancet device further includes a retention member including a pair of elongate fingers, and an engagement hub disposed in the interior chamber and structured to be cooperatively engaged by inwardly depending protrusions on the elongate fingers when the lancet receiving assembly is in the cocked orientation so as to maintain the lancet receiving assembly in the cocked orientation until the retention member is affirmatively released from its cooperative engagement with the engagement hub by an exteriorly actuatable actuation assembly which urges the elongate fingers out of their engagement with cooperative structure on the engagement hub.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lancet device, and in particular a mini lancet device which is structured in such a manner as to be manufacturable in a small, compact configuration, yet which is substantially easy to use and is effective to pierce a user's skin, such as at a finger for conducting a blood test. Furthermore, the lancet device is easy to manipulate and actuate, and is structured in a manner which facilitates accurate determination that the device is in a ready to use orientation.
2. Description of the Related Art
The field of art associated with lancet devices is quite crowded, with a variety of often complex and intricate structures being utilized to drive a piercing tip of a lancet into the flesh of a patent. In particular, the typical lancet device generally utilizes a disposable lancet, often of a standard dimension, contained in a housing for firing. As such, a variety of different, full size lancet devices have been provided, some providing for re-use through internal or external cocking of the firing mechanism and providing an actuation button on a side thereof for triggering of the piercing action.
In addition to the conventional, elongate, full-size lancet devices, however, there is also the need for compact "mini" lancet devices which are substantially small and manageable, yet which are equally as effective as the larger, full size lancet devices. For example, when designing either a full-size or a mini lancet device, some primary concerns associated therewith include its economy of use and manufacture, the minimize of malfunctions or mis-fires, and various safety considerations such as those associated with inadvertent usage, incorrectly perceived malfunctions or accidental re-use of a used and possibly contaminated device. While many designs do seek to address one or more of these concerns, however, there is still a need for a device which effectively addresses all of these concerns, and which can be effectively configured in both a full size or a mini configuration.
In particular, a primary drawback associated with the mini lancet devices relates to its limited internal space, and as such, its inability to utilize various existing design features associated with the larger, full-size devices. For example, known mini device have not been able to utilize or incorporate a safe and effective structure to enable facilitated cocking or re-cocking of the lancet device. Specifically, as with the larger full-size lancet devices, it would be beneficial if a user were able to cock the assembly without having to internally actuate the mechanism in close proximity to the piercing tip of the lancet, especially in a re-cocking situation wherein removal of the lancet from the device prior to re-cocking is not practical. Moreover, existing devices, both full-size and mini have not been able to provide effective structures to clearly and effectively indicate to a user, and especially an infirmed user with some vision limitations, in a tactile and easy to identify manner,that the lancet device has been effectively cocked and is ready for use, or that it has been used such that re-cocking or removal of the lancet is necessary.
As such, despite the many features which have been incorporated into full-size devices, the generally small, compact nature of the mini lancet devices, substantially limits the ability of conventional structures, a majority of which require intricate internal designs and button actuation at a side of a housing, to be merely shrunk to define a mini device. Accordingly, there is a need for an effective lancet device which is sufficiently simple in design, yet which is highly effective for use as a mini lancet device, incorporating a variety of necessary and effective features from full size devices. Moreover, there is a need for a lancet device which is substantially easy and effective to actuate, whether in a full-size or mini form, and which enables a user to clearly and safely identify the ready status of the device in either a cocked orientation or a fired orientation. Further, such a device should be cost effective to manufacture, conveniently re-useable, easily manipulable, and minimally susceptible to accidental firing as is often the case with side actuated devices.


According to one embodiment, a first electrode is formed on a first face of a first semiconductor chip, and a second electrode and a protrusion are formed on a second face of a second semiconductor chip. The first semiconductor chip and the second semiconductor chip are spaced from one another by the protrusion in such a manner that the first face and the second face face each other. The first semiconductor chip and the second semiconductor chip are subject to reflow to be electrically connected to each other, and then the protrusion is cured at a temperature lower than a reflow temperature.

To achieve miniaturization and high functionality of a semiconductor device, a semiconductor device having a system in package (SiP) structure in which a plurality of semiconductor chips are laminated in one package and are sealed therein has been developed. In the semiconductor device having the SiP structure, high-speed transmission and reception of electrical signals between semiconductor chips are required. In this case, a micro-bump is used for electrical connection between the semiconductor chips. For example, the micro-bump has a diameter of approximately 5 μm to 50 μm, and is formed on a surface of each of the semiconductor chips and is formed of individual solder bumps having a pitch of approximately 10 μm to 100 μm.
In the semiconductor device, it is preferable to suppress bonding failures at or in the micro-bump.

Semiconductor device and method of manufacturing the semiconductor device


A hydraulic flushing system includes an indicia reader adapted to read indicia on a hydraulic fluid container and a data processor coupled to the indicia reader to determine if the indicia has been utilized before in the hydraulic flushing system. The hydraulic flushing system may include a pump to pump hydraulic fluid from the container. The data processor may prevent operation of the pump if the indicia has been utilized before in the hydraulic flushing system or if the indicia does not indicate a proper grade of hydraulic fluid for a type of vehicle being serviced.

Vehicles utilize a number of fluid systems to operate components. A significant vehicular fluid system is a hydraulic brake system in which force applied to a brake pedal is amplified and transmitted to brake drums or disks via a hydraulic system. Therefore, the present invention will be discussed in the context of a hydraulic automotive brake system but is not so limited. Other automotive fluid systems include, for example, power steering, oil, and automatic transmission systems.
The basic functions performed by a system for removing and replacing vehicle hydraulic fluid include removing old hydraulic fluid from a master cylinder, vacuuming out old fluid through bleeder valves, refilling the brake fluid lines and master cylinder while keeping moisture and other contaminants from entering the new fluid and keeping air out of the brake fluid lines. The old fluid must be delivered to a suitable waste container. Such functions have been performed by prior art system.
Prior systems, however, do not address considerations that have become more significant in view of the increasing sophistication of brake fluid and brake systems, federal regulations, and quality assurance. It is desirable to have a hydraulic fluid changing apparatus that can require that input information is provided to assure that the container of brake fluid being utilized is appropriate for use. It is desirable to assure that the container from which the brake fluid is drawn has not been refilled and reused. This can prevent the use of counterfeit, contaminated, or inappropriate products. The United States Department of Transportation has established grades such as DOT 3, DOT 4, DOT 5, and DOT 5.1. Each has a different formula and characteristics. DOT 3 fluid is the least expensive grade, most widely available and most widely used. DOT 4 fluid is more expensive. DOT 4 fluid has a higher boiling point making it more suitable for high-performance applications such as Automatic Brake Systems (ABS). Capacity to recognize that the appropriate fluid is being used in a particular car is a desirable capability.
While prior systems have accounted for proper disposal of used brake fluid, disposal of remaining new, clean brake fluid has not been addressed. However, clean brake fluid is a hazardous material in terms of disposal regulations just as well as used brake fluid. It is further desirable to provide a system that communicates many different conditions to a service technician to maximize ease of use of the apparatus and minimize improper handling of new or used hydraulic fluid.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Apparatus and method for removing and replacing vehicle system fluid


An irrigation sprinkler includes an outer case, a riser telescopically extensible from the outer case, and a nozzle at an upper end of the riser. A coil spring surrounds the riser and normally holds the riser in a lower retracted position within the outer case. The coil spring is dimensioned and configured to permit extension of the riser to a raised upper position when pressurized water is introduced into the outer case. A shock absorber is positioned between a lower end of the riser and a rigid structure in the lower end of case for lessening the forces otherwise exerted on the riser during rapid retraction of the riser.

The artificial distribution of water onto plants through irrigation systems is in wide use throughout the world today. Many irrigation systems are installed for watering lawns, shrubs, golf courses, and athletic fields. The typical irrigation system for such applications includes a programmable electronic irrigation controller that turns a plurality of solenoid actuated valves ON and OFF in accordance with a watering schedule. The valves deliver water through subterranean pipes to a plurality of sprinklers spaced around the irrigation site. One of the most popular sprinklers currently in use for watering golf courses and athletic fields is the pop-up rotor-type sprinkler. This sprinkler includes a vertically telescoping cylindrical riser that is normally in a retracted position within an outer cylindrical case whose flanged upper end is flush with the surface of the ground. The riser is surrounded by a coil spring that holds the riser in its lowered position within the outer case. When the water to the sprinkler is turned ON, the riser telescopes to its raised position. The riser contains a turbine that drives a nozzle turret through a gear train reduction. The riser also usually contains a reversing mechanism that is manually adjustable to set the arc of oscillation of the nozzle turret. Some rotor-type sprinklers can be set to a full circle rotation mode. Large rotor-type sprinklers sometimes include an ON/OFF valve in the lower portion of the outer case. These sprinklers are referred to as valve-in-head sprinklers.
Rotor-type sprinklers that are used on golf courses and playing fields often eject a stream of water seventy feet or more. These sprinklers sometimes operate at water pressures above one-hundred pounds per square inch. They are subjected to extreme forces over their lifetime of use which can damage them and reduce their useful life. The most serious of these forces results from water hammer and high pressure surges that occur during system winterization and spring recharge. Winterizing involves blowing high pressure air through the pipes to remove the water to prevent damage to the sprinklers from water freezing in the sprinklers. In the spring, high pressure water is re-introduced into the pipes that lead to the sprinklers. The high impact forces experienced by a pop-up rotor type sprinkler are especially prevalent when an empty pipe is being filled with water at a high water pressure. Slugs of water separated by air pockets accelerate down the length of the pipe, and rapidly open the valve in the bottom of the outer case and slam the lower end of the riser to the end of its stroke against a retaining ring positioned at the upper end of the outer case. Due to the high water pressures and large pipe sizes for large turf applications these forces can be extremely high and frequently cause damage to the gear train reduction, reversing mechanism, and other delicate parts of the sprinkler. This often necessitates removal and replacement of the riser. In some cases, the entire sprinkler must be dug out of the ground and replaced. This is especially difficult and inconvenient on a golf course.
Hunter Industries, Inc., the assignee of the subject application, has obtained several patents disclosing sprinkler that are constructed to minimize damage due to rapid extension of the riser. See U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,823,439; 5,823,440 and 5,918,812. See also U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/445,055 filed Apr. 12, 2012, of Michael L. Clark et al. entitled "POP-UP IRRIGATION SPRINKLER WITH SHOCK ABSORBING RISER DAMPING CUSHION."
Heretofore the problem of sprinkler damage due to rapid retraction of the riser has not been solved.

Pop-up irrigation sprinkler with shock absorbing riser retraction springs


The invention is directed to techniques for attempting to restore a patient to a normal sinus rhythm. In a patient experiencing asystole or pulseless electrical activity, defibrillation therapy may be ineffective. The invention is directed to techniques for delivering one or more shocks to induce ventricular fibrillation in the patient, followed by one or more defibrillation shocks to restore normal sinus rhythm. A defibrillator may deliver the fibrillation and defibrillation therapies. The invention may also include techniques for estimating the probability that the patient will respond favorably to the defibrillation therapy, and delivering defibrillation therapy when the therapy has a good probability of success.

Asystole and pulseless electrical activity (PEA) are cardiac rhythms with a very poor prognosis. When a patient suffers from asystole, the heart of the patient fails to contract. No ventricular depolarization takes place in the heart, cardiac output stops, and the patient is near death. The failure of the heart to generate a ventricular depolarization may be due to a failure of the electrical system of the heart, or may be caused by factors other than the electrical system.
PEA is the term applied to a group of conditions in which there may be detectable cardiac electrical activity but no detectable pulse. Although electrical activity is present in PEA, cardiac contractions may be absent. As a result, the heart of a patient suffering from PEA may produce insufficient cardiac output.
Asystole and PEA are grave cardiac rhythms. A patient experiencing either rhythm will die unless the heart assumes a contractile rhythm that restarts circulation. Unfortunately, asystole and PEA are typically not responsive to a defibrillation shock. Even if treated with medication and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), the odds of survival for the patient are low.

Apparatus and methods for fibrillation and defibrillation


A system for scanning and measuring a surface charge of a sample immersed in a conductive medium, such as an aqueous electrolytic solution or a gel, or positioned on a conducting plate. The system has a semiconductor with a probing surface clad in a charge-sensitive layer. The probing surface moves over the sample during scanning while a bias voltage V.sub.BIAS is applied to create a depletion layer in the semiconductor and to induce the system to alter a measurable electrical property. The electrical property is monitored with the aid of a measuring device and the measurement is correlated to the sample's surface charge. In a preferred embodiment the semiconductor is a part of a cantilever structure of the type having a probing tip and the probing surface is located on the apex of the probing tip thereby enabling examination of the topology and surface charge of the sample concurrently.

The light-addressable potentiometric sensor (LAPS) is a device developed to potentiometrically measure changes in pH, redox potential and transmembrane potential in a highly sensitive manner (see Hafeman et al., Science, Vol. 240, 1182 (1988)). The LAPS consists of an insulated semiconductor device which is immersed in an electrolyte. The sample of interest is placed on the surface of the insulator (at the insulator-electrolyte interface) and a bias voltage is generated such that the solution is negative with respect to the semiconductor. The insulator consists of a pH-sensitive material, such as silicon nitride or silicon oxinitride, or other charge-sensitive material. Electron-hole pairs are created in the semiconductor by a pulsed intensity-modulated light source, resulting in separation of charges in an area called the depletion region of the semiconductor. The electrons in the depletion region migrate, thereby causing a current of a magnitude that depends on the bias voltage and the chemistry of the sample at the adjacent insulator-solution interface. This movement of electrons yields a detectable alternating current in the external circuit.
An alternative measurement approach is based on the fact that the width of the depletion layer is related to the surface potential. The width of the depletion layer can be determined by measuring the capacitance between the semiconductor and the electrolyte.
A useful feature of using light excitation, is that different regions of the device may be monitored by selectively irradiating the location of interest, thereby allowing multiple potentiometric measurements with the use of multiple LEDs. The resultant photocurrent is monitored, giving a real-time measurement of, for instance, pH changes. Such measurements typically yield an RMS noise of 0.0005 to 0.001 pH units in a 1 Hz bandwidth. The primary utility of LAPS has been in commercial microphysiometers to measure the rate of proton excretion from cells by measuring the pH of a nearby surface (see McConnell et al., Science, Vol. 257, 1906 (1992)). The existing art in the field of LAPS provides for monitoring cell metabolism in terms of overall pH changes, redox potentials, and quantitative determinations of analytes for bulk samples. These systems, however, are not suitable for uses such as mapping charge distribution over very small areas or detecting chemical dynamics on the molecular level with high spatial resolution.
In the field of surface inspection several techniques have been developed for detecting charge on a surface. These methods exploit features of the general technique of scanning probe microscopy (SPM). One variant of SPM is based on an atomic force microscope (AFM) designed to map surface charge (for details about AFM see, e.g., Binning et al., Phys. Rev. Lett., Vol. 56, 930 (1986). Briefly, in traditional AFM a tip is mounted on a cantilever with a small spring constant and scanned over a surface such that the repulsive interatomic forces between the surface and the tip cause deflections in the cantilever. A feedback system is used to monitor and control the force between the tip and sample, and optical detection techniques such as interferometry or laser beam deflection are used to measure the resultant cantilever deflection during scanning.
An adaptation of AFM for SPM to map a charge distribution on a sample surface is discussed by B. D. Terris et al. in "Contact Electrification Using Force Microscopy", Physical Review Letters, Vol. 63, No. 24, pp. 2669-72 (1989). The charge measurement is based on the fact that the presence of charge on the scanned surface alters the spring constant of the cantilever. In the absence of any surface charge the typical spring constant is on the order of 0.2 N/m and the resonant frequency around 25 kHz. When the tip of the cantilever approaches a charge the tip-to-surface force gradient changes due to the Coulomb field. This change affects the cantilever's spring constant and consequently its resonant frequency. For efficient charge measurement an AC bias is applied between the tip and a back electrode to produce an oscillating charge on the tip. This enables one to measure surface charge via variations in the cantilevers oscillation response. For additional information refer to J. E. Stern et al., "Deposition and Imaging of Localized Charge on Insulator Surfaces Using a Force Microscope", Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 53, pp. 2717 (1988).
Improvements to SPM instrumentation have allowed for increased sensitivity and speed; however, there is no existing SPM that successfully scans a surface and measures its electrical properties in such a way that the measured signal is unaffected by incongruent tip-sample force interactions from topographic features. Additionally, the existing techniques do not allow one to measure charge with high sensitivity by scanning a sample while immersed in a fluid or gel.

The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University


A method for calculating the temperature of a medium traveling through a measuring tube, while with the aid of at least one field coil a magnetic field is generated which permeates the measuring tube. The electrical resistance of the field coil is measured and the temperature of the field coil, constituting a first temperature, is calculated based on the measured resistance of the field coil. A temperature measurement, constituting the second temperature, is taken at a location other than that of the field coil and the temperature of the flowing medium is calculated on the basis of the first and second temperatures. This provides the user of the flow measuring method an added benefit in that it gives the possibility, in simple fashion, to determine the temperature of the flowing medium. A flowmeter for measuring the medium temperature according to the method is also disclosed.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a magnetoinductive flow measuring method for measuring the flow of a medium traveling through a measuring tube, for which, with the aid of at least one field coil, a magnetic field is generated that contains a magnetic field component extending perpendicular to the axis of the measuring tube, the electric resistance of the field coil is measured and, as the first temperature, the temperature of the field coil is calculated on the basis of the measured resistance of the field coil. The invention further relates to a magnetoinductive flowmeter that serves to measure the volume flow of a medium traveling through a measuring tube, incorporating a field coil for generating a magnetic field with a magnetic field component that permeates the measuring tube in a direction perpendicular to the direction of flow, as well as an output device allowing the readout, as the first temperature, of the field-coil temperature calculated on the basis of the measured electrical resistance of the field coil.
2. The Prior Art
A magnetoinductive flow measuring method and a magnetoinductive flowmeter of the type referred to above have been described for instance in JP 08014971 A. According to that publication, the coil temperature in a magnetoinductive flowmeter is determined by measuring the voltage on the field coil. That is to detect changes in the flow rate which are caused by temperature changes of the medium flowing through the measuring tube.
In general, magnetoinductive flow measuring methods and magnetoinductive flowmeters have been well known for some time and have been employed in a variety of different fields of application. The underlying concept of a magnetoinductive flowmeter for measuring the volume flow of a medium traveling through a measuring tube goes all the way back to Faraday who in 1832 proposed applying the principle of electrodynamic induction for measuring flow rates. According to Faraday's Law of Induction, a medium that contains charge carriers and flows through a magnetic field will produce an electric field intensity perpendicular to the direction of flow and perpendicular to the magnetic field. A magnetoinductive flowmeter utilizes Faraday's Law of Induction in that a field coil generates a magnetic field that contains a magnetic field component perpendicular to the direction of flow. Within that magnetic field, each volume element of the medium flowing through the magnetic field and containing a certain number of charge carriers, will contribute the field intensity generated in the volume element concerned to the voltage that can be collected by way of measuring electrodes.
In conventional magnetoinductive flowmeters, the electrodes are designed either for conductive coupling with the flowing medium or for capacitive coupling with the flowing medium. A salient feature of magnetoinductive flowmeters is the proportionality between the measured voltage and the flow rate of the medium averaged across the diameter of the measuring tube, i.e. between the measured voltage and the volume flow.
There are some magnetoinductive flowmeters with a so-called idling detection feature, giving the user information on the fill level of the measuring tube. Then there are magnetoinductive flowmeters that give the user information on the composition of the medium flowing through the measuring tube along the definitions of "liquid" versus "gaseous". This is particularly necessary for correct flow measurements involving strongly foaming substances.
There is also a magnetoinductive flowmeter, described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,651,286, that is equipped with an alarm unit that can emit an alarm signal when the field coil of the magnetoinductive flowmeter is either open or short-circuited. Finally, DE 101 18 001 C2 describes a magnetoinductive flowmeter and a method for operating that flowmeter, in which the temperature of the field coil, hereinafter the first temperature, is determined on the basis of the measured impedance of the field coil, and a shut-off device is provided by means of which the power supply to the field coil is disconnected when the first temperature of the field coil exceeds a predefined temperature level. This is to prevent temperature-induced damage to the magnetoinductive flowmeter, especially to its field coils, without requiring an additional temperature sensor.

Method and apparatus for calculating flowing medium temperature in a magnetoinductive flowmeter


A disc drive includes a recording head preamplifier circuit having a plurality of preamplifiers. Each preamplifier includes a receiver circuit and a preamplifier enable circuit. The receiver circuit receives a serial command having command address bits. The preamplifier enable circuit is operatively coupled to the receiver circuit and generates an enable output for enabling the preamplifier when the command address bits match a first predetermined logic pattern which is unique to chat preamplifier and when the command address bits match a second predetermined logic pattern which is universal to the plurality of preamplifiers.

The present invention relates to disc drive storage systems and, in particular, to a disc drive storage system having a serial preamplifier interface with broadcast mode addressing for enabling multiple preamplifiers individually and simultaneously.
Disc drives of the "Winchester" type are well known in the industry. Such drives use rigid discs coated with a magnetizable medium for storage of digital information in a plurality of circular, concentric data tracks. The discs are mounted in a pack on a spindle motor which causes the discs to spin and the surfaces of the discs to pass under respective hydrodynamic (e.q. air) bearing disc head sliders. The sliders carry transducers known as heads which read information from and write information to the respective disc surfaces through one or more read and write preamplifiers. High storage capacity disc drives typically have a large number of heads and thus have multiple read and write preamplifiers. Each read and write preamplifier drives a plurality of individual heads, typically on a multiplexed basis.
An actuator mechanism moves the heads from track to track across the surfaces of the discs under control of a drive controller located within the disc drive. The actuator mechanism includes a track accessing arm and a suspension for each head gimbal assembly. The drive controller positions the heads based on address information received from a host processor and servo information that is written on the disc surfaces.
The servo information is written on the disc surfaces during manufacture of the disc drive. With high volume production, it is desirable to reduce the number of disc revolutions that is required to write the servo information onto the disc pack since added revolutions directly translate to added time in the manufacturing process. One method used for reducing the number of revolutions is to read and write with all of the preamplifiers simultaneously. In this method, each preamplifier has its own set of serial interface control inputs and its own set of read and write signal wires. This adds pins and signal wires to the printed circuit board (PCB) interface connector and the flex cable which are coupled between the disc drive electronics and the actuator assembly, where space is already an issue. Another difficulty with adding pins and signal wires to the disc drive is that it increases susceptibility to noise. Therefore, it is very undesirable to add pins or signal wires within the disc drive assembly. The present invention provides a solution to this and other problems, and offers other advantages over the prior art.

Disc drive having a serial preamplifier interface with broadcast mode addressing


A water boiler comprises an inner tank, an electric heating pipe, and a controller. A lower cover is attached to a mouth of the inner tank. The lower cover comprises an inlet pipe and an outlet pipe, wherein an outlet port at a lower part of the inlet pipe is in communication with lower part within the inner tank. An inlet port of a lower part of the outlet pipe is in communication with an upper part of the inner tank. The lower cover is arranged beneath the upper cover. An upper part of the inlet pipe passes through the upper cover. A cavity is formed between the lower cover and the upper cover. The cavity is partitioned into an upper chamber and a lower chamber by a diaphragm. The lower chamber is in communication with an outer space.

Steam is generated and thermal expansion occurs when water is boiled. To decompress the inner tank of a water boiler, water boilers currently available on the market typically have an inner tank with an open design. However, the open inner tank causes the following problems: steam generated within the inner tank may find its way out and cause scalding; and the leakage of steam will undoubtedly waste energy. A closed inner tank addresses the problems caused by the open inner tank, but requires more pressure resistance, which increases the manufacture cost due to the material and thickness of the inner tank.


The present invention relates to a method for increasing the expression and/or promoting correct folding of a heterologous polypeptide of interest in a plant cell, comprising co-expressing the heterologous polypeptide of interest with a polypeptide encoding a mammalian chaperone protein. The invention also relates to plant cells and plants, which either transiently or stably, co-express the heterologous polypeptide of interest and the chaperone protein.

This invention relates to a method for increasing the expression and/or promoting the correct folding of a heterologous polypeptide of interest in a plant cell, wherein the method comprises co-expressing the heterologous polypeptide of interest with a polypeptide encoding a mammalian chaperone protein. The invention further relates to plant cells and plants which, either transiently or stably, co-express the heterologous polypeptide of interest and the mammalian chaperone protein.
Conventional pharmaceutical production platforms are increasingly unable to meet global demands due to limitations in terms of scalability, long production times and high costs. In recent years, plants have gained attention as a potentially cheap and scalable system for the production of heterologous proteins that is particularly suited to the needs of developing countries. Plant-based expression systems are especially appealing to resource limited countries due to the lower raw material and infrastructure cost requirements which often pose formidable barriers to entry. The commercial viability of any plant-made pharmaceutical is largely governed by the expression yield which generally needs to exceed 1% of the total soluble protein. This threshold however is seldom realized and expression levels remain a challenge for many heterologous proteins, particularly viral glycoproteins (Margolin et al, submitted for publication). Instead, a threshold of 50 mg/kg has inadvertently become the gold standard after the development of a plant-produced influenza haemagglutinin candidate for clinical trials by Medicago (D'Aoust et al., 2008; Landry et al., 2010).
The invention encompasses the co-expression of the human molecular chaperones (calreticulin, calnexin, GRP78/BiP, protein disulphide isomerase and/or ERp57) in plants to improve the expression of heterologous glycoproteins. The present inventors have demonstrated the utility of this approach using an engineered soluble HIV Envelope glycoprotein as a model antigen and subsequently demonstrated the broader applicability of this approach. This is the first report to describe the co-expression of a heterologous chaperone in planta to improve the production of a recombinant protein. Based on 3 independent experiments, the relative expression of the HIV Envelope gp140 glycoprotein was improved 12.7-fold by calreticulin (CRT) co-expression and 1.17 fold by calnexin (CNX) co-expression respectively. The inventors have further demonstrated that this approach is broadly applicable to other glycoproteins by showing a similar effect for a soluble Rift Valley Fever virus glycoprotein, a near full-length HIV Envelope glycoprotein and an antibody. The inventors propose that many viral glycoproteins may be incompatible with the endogenous plant chaperones due to the divergent evolution of plants and mammalian hosts for common pathogens. The co-expression of a heterologous glycoprotein with its cognate chaperone described herein establishes a new paradigm for the production of viral glycoproteins in plants. This approach is broadly applicable to other heterologous proteins, especially those usually produced in mammalian expression systems such as mammal-infecting viruses, and could potentially enable the production of low yielding vaccine antigens, or other reagents or diagnostic proteins, at commercially viable levels.
Given that expression yields in plants are often the deciding factor that limits the viability of plant-made proteins or plant-made pharmaceuticals, strategies to improve production levels and/or folding are of considerable interest. A recent trend to improve the yield and quality of plant made pharmaceuticals (PMPs) has resulted in extensive efforts to manipulate the plant host cell environment beyond just the expression of the heterologous protein of choice. This has been most widely used to address differences in the plant-glycosylation machinery compared to conventional expression platforms.
Recently, the co-expression of companion protease inhibitors have shown promise to mitigate the effects of endogenous plant proteases in planta during expression and ex planta during purification. Notably, co-expression of tomato cystatins (S/CYS8 and S/CYS9) and tomato cathepsin D inhibitor were reported to increase the accumulation of a prototype monoclonal antibody migrating towards the leaf apoplast, although this effect may be less profound in older leaves. The use of gene knockdown has also garnered attention to mitigate the harmful effects of specific proteases, however the central role of proteases in growth and development complicates this approach. Recently D'Aoust and colleagues reported that the co-expression of the influenza M2 ion channel significantly improved the yields of recombinant influenza haemagglutinin antigen in N. benthamiana (Jutras et al., 2015). Lastly, the protease furin has been co-expressed in N. benthamiana to enable the production of biologically active transforming growth factor-β1 (Wilbers et al., 2016). These examples highlight the remarkable plasticity of the plant proteome which can be manipulated for the production of high levels of pharmaceutically-relevant proteins. To our knowledge, no study has addressed the impact of co-expressing heterologous mammalian chaperones in planta to improve the production of a recombinant protein in terms of both yield and protein folding. This approach represents a new paradigm for the production of high yields of heterologous glycoproteins in plants.

Co-expression of human chaperone proteins in plants for increased expression of heterologous polypeptides


Disclosed herein is an intelligent agent to analyze a media object. The agent comprises a trained model comprising a number of state layers for storing a history of actions taken by the agent in each of a number of previous iterations performed by the agent in analyzing a media object. The stored state may be used by the agent in a current iteration to determine whether or not to make, or abstain from making, a prediction from output generated by the model, identify another portion of the media object to analyze, end analysis. Output from the agent's model may comprise a semantic vector that can be mapped to a semantic vector space to identify a number of labels for a media object.

There is a vast amount of media objects available in digital form. A media object is typically stored in one or more media files. While the media files may be accessible to computer users it is difficult for them to discern the content of the media files and/or to locate the digital media of interest to them. Additionally, the quality and diversity of content of such digital media objects varies, which makes it even more difficult for the computer users to locate digital media objects of interest to them.

Media content analysis system and method


The invention discloses a method of identifying a gene associated with stage III primary cancer or lymph node metastasis. The genes so identified include CAV1, CST3, LIMK1, MMP2, MMP15, VEGF, ETV4, MMP9, PIK3C2B, and SERPIN1. Also disclosed are methods for diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of cancer. The invention further discloses compositions for preventing and treating diseases.

Both incidence and mortality from melanoma continue to rise in the United States. In 1992, the projected annual incidence and mortality from melanoma were 32,000 and 6,700, respectively.[1] By 2004, these figures had increased to 55,100 and 7,910, respectively.[2] The lifetime risk of developing melanoma was only 1:1500 in 1935, but had reached 1:75 in 2000.[3] The mortality rate due to melanoma correlates with advancing stage, which is determined by thickness and ulceration of the primary lesion, presence of regional lymph node (LN) metastasis or distant metastasis.[4] There is no adequately proven treatment for metastatic melanoma. Localized cutaneous melanoma is often curable by surgery alone, yet once lymph node metastasis occurs (which marks the beginning of AJCC (American Joint Committee on Cancer) stage III disease), likelihood of systemic disease and mortality increase. Whereas the estimated 10-year survival-rate for stage II melanoma patients is approximately 55%, that of stage III melanoma patients is only about 35%.[5]
Regional LN status is the single most important prognostic factor in melanoma. Patients with regional LN metastasis (AJCC stage III disease) have worse prognosis than those without (AJCC stage I/II), even if they have the same Breslow thickness.[5] Among the AJCC stage 1V patients, the patients with no history of intervening stage III disease (no history of regional lymph node metastasis) have significantly better prognosis than those with history of intervening stage III disease (history of regional lymph node metastasis).[6] These findings suggest that lymph node metastasis is not just a passive event dependent on time, but rather an active event based upon differential metastatic potential among different primary lesions. Furthermore, ability of melanoma to metastasize to regional lymph nodes is an independent measure of overall aggressive potential. Therefore, identification of factors associated with, if not causative of, regional lymph node metastasis is a crucial step in understanding pathophysiology of regional and possibly distant metastasis.


A one-pack polyurethane adhesive containing a polyisocyanate prepolymer and at least one aminoether polyol, having a molar ratio of ether groups to amino nitrogen in the aminopolyether polyol of 7 to 30.

This invention relates to a fast, one-pack polyurethane adhesive at least containing a polyisocyanate prepolymer and at least one aminopolyol.
The fast, durable fixing of workpieces is a problem frequently encountered in the home, in the workshop and in industry. In cases where mechanical fixing is not possible or is undesirable, corresponding workpieces are very often bonded. An adhesive suitable for this purpose has to be meet a variety of requirements according to the constituent material of the workpieces to be bonded and the stresses to which the bonded workpieces are subjected by outside influences, for example by moisture.
Thus, several materials, for example paper or paperboard, can be permanently fixed particularly quickly with known cyanoacrylate adhesives. However, known cyanoacrylate adhesives have disadvantages which prevent them from being used in many areas of workpiece bonding. For example, the adhesion of cyanoacrylate adhesives to wood is unsatisfactory so that the strength level of a wood-to-wood bond involving cyanoacrylate adhesives is poor. In addition, cyanoacrylate adhesives cannot be used for bonds where there are one or more gaps in the adhesive joint because such adhesives do not have any gap-filling properties.
In addition, wood glues typically based on polyvinyl acetate dispersions are already known, particularly for wood-to-wood bonding. These known wood glues show good adhesion to many substrates, especially to wood. Unfortunately, the setting time of such glues, i.e. the time elapsing before a strong bond is developed, is very long so that continuous mechanical fixing of the workpieces to be bonded is generally essential. In addition, the use of such adhesives is often problematic when the bond is exposed to moisture because wood glues normally have only limited resistance to water.
Polyurethane adhesives (PUR adhesives) are also suitable for bonding wooden workpieces. Polyurethane adhesives are marketed as one-pack or two-pack adhesives. In many cases, the use of two-pack adhesives is difficult for the user because application of the adhesive itself is preceded by often problematic mixing of the two adhesive components. In addition, the setting times of known two-pack PUR adhesives are still too slow for the rapid fixing of workpieces.
One-pack PUR adhesives are also known (see, for example, Habenicht, Gerd: "Kleben: Grundlagen, Technologie, Anwendungen", 2nd Edition, 1990, pages 65 and 66). They normally contain aromatic polyisocyanates and polyols or NCO prepolymers produced therefrom and catalysts and other additives. In the presence of atmospheric moisture, they set in 10 to 60 minutes. The catalysts are usually tin compounds and/or tertiary amines used in concentrations of up to 1% by weight.
One-pack PUR adhesives containing aliphatic diisocyanates are also known. Trimerization products of aliphatic diisocyanates are used in such one-pack PUR adhesives because they contain only small amounts of volatile isocyanates and, hence, are toxicologically safer and do not have to be identified on labelling. Unfortunately, aliphatic isocyanates are attended by the disadvantage that they react far more slowly than aromatic isocyanates. Accordingly, they are unsuitable for many applications where particularly quick setting of the adhesive is crucial.
Although the setting rate of polyurethane adhesives can be accelerated by increasing the quantity of catalyst in the adhesive, this does lead to problems which affect the quality of the adhesive and hence its acceptance by the user. Relatively high concentrations of catalyst often lead to non-storable adhesives because secondary reactions are also accelerated by the increased amount of catalyst and cause the viscosity of the adhesive to increase excessively within a few months, so that the adhesive becomes unusable. In addition, the open time of the adhesive, i.e. the time available to the user for assembling, aligning and pressing the workpieces together after application of the adhesive, is reduced to an unacceptable level.
WO 97/19122 describes a one-pack polyurethane adhesive based on at least one polyisocyanate, at least one isocyanate-reactive oligomer compound and at least one catalyst which comprises at least one tertiary amine with at least one functional group for incorporation in the polymer chain. The incorporable tertiary amine may contain inter alia OH groups as functional groups, for example dimethylaminoethoxy ethanol. In addition, typical catalysts which are not incorporated, for example triethylamine, may also be used. The polyisocyanates may be both aliphatic and aromatic; preferably they are aromatic. The effects described in WO 97/19122 are in need of improvement. This applies in particular to the storage stability of prepolymers based on aromatic polyisocyanates, to setting times of under 5 minutes and to the tensile shear strengths where unusual applications are also to be covered.
Accordingly, there was a need for adhesives which would allow particularly quick fixing and bonding of workpieces, especially wooden workpieces; the bond would be both gap-filling and would have sufficient resistance to outside influences, such as moisture or direct contact with water. The acceleration of fixing would both relate to the open time and would also be absolute.
There was also a need for adhesives which would have the properties mentioned above and which, in addition, would have an adequate open time.
Accordingly, the problem addressed by the present invention was to provide such an adhesive.
The problem stated above is solved by a one-pack polyurethane adhesive as described in the following.


A method for a surface being plated locally includes a fixture for holding at least a work piece and the fixture is supported with two opposite lateral walls of a plating tank. Hence, a plated zone on a surface of the work piece can be immerged into the liquid contained in the plating tank for the plated zone being coated with de-oxide layer and plating layer sequentially.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to a method for a surface being plated locally and particularly to a method which is capable of plating a specific plated zone on a surface of a work piece without wasting plating material.
2. Brief Description of the Related Art
The conventional radiator assembly is made of two different materials, such as aluminum alloy and copper, that is, the radiator itself is made of aluminum and a base, which is attached to the radiator, is made of copper. In order to join the radiator and the base together, the joining end of the radiator is plated with a layer of nickel and then adhesive such as soldering paste is coated on the layer of nickel to adhere the base once the adhesive is cool down.
The method for plating the preceding radiator assembly is shown in FIG. 1. The work piece is processed with oil removal and water cleaning sequentially twice first. Then, the work piece is performed with zinc replacement and water cleaning sequentially twice (a step of zinc removal is performed after the first zinc replacement and water cleaning). After that, the work piece is immerged into plating solution completely to allow the surface of the work piece being plated. Once the plating job is finished, the work piece is taken out to be cleaned with water and dried with oven.
However, it is a problem of the conventional method for nickel plating that the entire radiator assembly has to be immerged in the nickel solution for plating the joining ends of the aluminum radiator and the copper base with nickel only. It results in longer plating time and excessively consumed nickel spending on the unnecessary plated area of the work piece such that not only production cost increases but also heat dissipation efficiency of the radiator assembly decreases due to the heat dissipation efficiency of nickel is worse than the materials of the radiator assembly.

Method for a surface being plated locally


A light source is disclosed. For example, the light source includes an enclosure forming an internal volume, the enclosure having at least one side, a top and a bottom. At least one light emitting diode (LED) may be deployed within the internal volume of the enclosure. Optionally, an optic may be coupled to each one of the at least one LEDs. The light source also includes a potting compound surrounding said at least one LED and substantially filling said internal volume or covering said top of said enclosure and substantially sealing said enclosure.

There are many industrial environments where explosive atmospheres are present due to the nature of the products produced or processed. Facilities such as oil refineries, gas processing plants, grain elevators, etc. are some examples of such environments where electrical discharges must be tightly controlled in order to prevent explosions.
Over the years standards have been developed to minimize the potential for electrical discharges such as sparks or arcs in electrical products placed in environments where explosive atmospheres are present. For example Class 1 hazardous environments include those containing flammable gases, vapors or liquids; Class 2 includes combustible dusts; Class 3 includes ignitable fibers. Environments where those explosive atmospheres are sometimes present are further classified as Division 2 environments. Therefore, an environment where flammable gases were sometimes present would be considered a Class 1, Division 2 area.
As with any type of environment, lighting is an important element. Lighting fixtures in locations where explosive atmospheres could be present require lighting fixtures which are resistant to exposing electrical discharges. In other words, the lighting fixtures used for Class 1, Division 2 areas should be fabricated such that they are safe for installation in Class 1, Division 2 areas.


A method and system for route optimization during switching and an access network element. In a process that a terminal is switched from a source access network element to a target access network element, the target access network element obtains identity information of a correspondent node of the terminal from the terminal, and triggers an access network element of the correspondent node to update a correspondent node mapping relationship. In the present solution, information of a correspondent node is obtained by adding a signaling interaction procedure between the network and the terminal host, so that the information of the correspondent node which is performing data communication is obtained in real time, and a subsequent data stream route optimization process is performed in time, thereby solving the problem of low processing performance and poor real-time performance resulted from an access gateway monitoring, detecting and maintaining correspondent node information.

The traditional IP network does not support the terminal mobility, and in the related art, all kinds of different solutions are proposed, mainly including the mobile IPv4, the mobile IPV6, the agent mobile IPV6 of the IETF, the GPRS Tunneling Protocol (abbreviated as GTP) mode of the 3GPP, etc. This technology supports the terminal mobility by adopting the mode of the fixed anchor point, such as, the GPRS supporting node (GGSN) is stipulated in the WCDMA as the terminal mobile anchor; the mobile IP protocol is adopted in the CDMA network, and a local agent (HA) is treated as the anchor point. But the fixed anchor point will bring the problem that the data packet route is indirect, thus increasing the transmission delay and the bandwidth waste. With the development of the mobile wireless packet technology, such as, 2G/3G/4G, etc. the number of users and the flow rate in the mobile Internet are increased gradually, and a gateway device, such as, a GGSN, etc., shifts downward gradually, which will make the problem of the indirect route more serious.
The technology 1 correlated to the present document:
the patent application 1 of which the application number is 200910174823.5: "Method for obtaining/notifying information, forwarding and switching data message, and an access node".
The above-mentioned patent application 1 proposes a switching management method and data message forwarding method under the Location-ID separation architecture based on the network, which solves the indirect route problem in the communication process of the mobile terminal data. What is involved during the switching is that:
(1). after the location of a mobile node is changed, the access gateway to which the mobile node is switched allocates a new location identification for the mobile node, and the mobile node will communicate with the correspondent node by using the new location identification;
(2). in order to ensure an optimal data forwarding path between the mobile node and the correspondent node, the access gateway to which the mobile node is switched initiates a procedure for updating the correspondent node mapping to realize the route optimization;
(3). in a procedure of updating the correspondent node mapping, the access gateway needs to obtain the correspondent node information, to determine which correspondent nodes it initiates the procedure of updating the correspondent node mapping to;
(4). in the method disclosed in the above-mentioned patent application, the access gateway mainly obtains the correspondent node information by monitoring and detecting the data flow, and maintaining information of the correspondent node which is performing the data communication with the mobile node.
The main problems in the patent application 1 are as follows:
(1). in order to acquire the correspondent node information, the access gateway needs to monitor and detect the data flow to judge the existence condition of the connection of the end-to-end host to maintain information of the correspondent node which is performing the communication with the mobile node. That process has consumed a large amount of handling capacity of the access gateways.
(2). the access gateway defines the aging mode of the correspondent node table, and the basic principle is to monitor the data flow of both ends of the communication; if there are data flows forwarded in a certain time period T1, then it means that the communication with the correspondent node is on-going; otherwise, the correspondent node in the correspondent node table is aged. Wherein, 1) if the both ends of the communication keep the communication connection, but there is no data message sent in a certain time period T2, and T2>T1, then the access gateway ages the connection of the both ends of the communication at this moment; 2) if the set value of T1 is too large, then after the service connection of the both ends of the communication is disconnected, the longest time required by the access gateway to age the connection of the both ends of the communication is T1. In the above-mentioned case, the correspondent node table of the access gateway cannot reflect the situation of the end-to-end communication connection in real time.
The technology 2 correlated to the present document:
the Location-ID Separation Protocol (abbreviated as LISP) adopts the route technology, and changes the current route topology structure to some extent, utilizes the minimum transformation to optimize the current route transport technology by combining the current transport network.
The host uses the IP address (called the end identification EID in the LISP system) to track socket connections, send and receive data packets.
The router transmits the data packets based on the IP destination addresses (route locations RLOCs).
The tunnel routers are introduced into the LISP system, the encapsulation is performed while initiating the host packet, and the data packet is de-capsulated before transmitting to the destination place finally. In an LISP data packet, the IP address of "the outer layer header" is RLOC. In the procedure of performing the end-to-end packet switching between the hosts of two networks, the ITR encapsulates each packet with a new LISP head, and strips the new head at the egress channel route. The ITR performs the EID-to-RLOC searching to determine the route path to the ETR, and the ETR regards the RLOC as its one address.
The proposition of the LISP is not to solve the mobility problem, while mainly solves the problem of the network size and aims at the problem that the route table is too big; for the problem that the mobility and the multi-home are solved incidentally after location-ID separation, there is no specific scheme and implementation method now.
The method of an access gateway monitoring, detecting and maintaining the correspondent node information defined in the solution of the patent application 1 consumes a large amount of processing capacity of the access gateway, and the real time performance is bad; the solution of realizing the route optimization during the switching is not found in the related art 2.

Method and system for route optimization during handover and access network element


An ultra compact, easy to operate folding vehicle seat includes a seat back, seat base and support leg members and is movable between a stow position and a design position. The folding vehicle seat includes a folding mechanism having an upper member for connection to the seat back and a lower member for supporting the seat base; the upper and lower members of the folding mechanism include integrated teeth aligned in meshing relationship such that movement of the seat back causes the lower member to rotate and lift the seat base to move the folding vehicle seat to a design position. A pair of upper cams are provided for selective engagement with the upper member and a third cam tab of the lower member of the folding mechanism.

The present invention relates generally to the field of seats. More particularly, it relates to folding vehicle seats for vehicle non-operator positions.
A wide variety of vehicle non-operator designs and devices (e.g., other than the driver's position) are known. The variety of such seats is increasing at a rapid pace due to the increasing popularity of non-traditional vehicles as compared to the standard two-row sedans, wagons and trucks. For example, vans, sport utility vehicles (SUV), cross-over utility vehicles (CUV), station wagons, pick-up trucks, and other vehicles include additional rows of seating, and many of them provide for the reconfiguration and/or removal of the second and/or third row of seats thereof to increase the cargo storage space for the vehicle.
In larger SUVs, vans and even minivans, there is sufficient room within the entire vehicle that there is less of a need to provide a second and/or third row vehicle seat that can be stowed in a relatively ultra compact package. However, to have such an option would be advantageous. Notwithstanding, it has been common to provide conventional vehicle seats in such larger vehicles and to provide some level of adjustment or folding to give the vehicle user additional storage options and area. Further it is known to make such seats so they may be removed from the vehicle. In this regard, there has been an effort to make such seats lighter. Despite these efforts there remains a significant need to continue to make such seats lighter and more compact.
In relatively smaller SUVs, minivans, CUVs and station wagons, there is less room to provide a relatively bulky and massive vehicle seat since the vehicle user typically desires as much cargo space as possible but still needs the ability to provide occupant seating for up to seven or eight occupants. In many cases, the seats which are used for such purposes (and in particular for third row applications) are used by vehicle passengers on only limited occasions, and the result has been that such seats are not particularly comfortable. Such seats also tend to be relatively bulky and, if left in the vehicle, reduce the amount of cargo space which may be used for a wide variety of purposes. Ultimately, many of the seating systems known to the art can be removed at the option of the operator and stored in the garage or other location where the vehicle is kept. However, conventional seats tend to be too heavy and bulky for removal by even an average user let alone smaller operators or people who are elderly or otherwise do not have the sufficient strength to manipulate the heavy and bulky seat designs. While some devices have been developed to help in this regard such as by adding wheels to the seat, they have proved insufficient and there is a continued need to improve seats in this regard.
In addition to the above, as the increase for higher efficiency vehicles continues, reduced weight and size remain core objectives to achieving this goal. Accordingly, the amount of interior space allowed for vehicle seats continues to be reduced. This fact is further emphasized for seating in the cargo area of the vehicle such as with third row seats. Commonly, there is very little floor space available for folding and stowing these types of seats.
In view of the above, there is a current trend to develop thinner profile and lighter seats. However, these efforts have focused on optimizing current designs to simply be thinner and lighter resulting in decreased occupant comfort.
Numerous types of conventional folding seats are known for use in vehicle seats. For example, many of these devices involve traditional recliner mechanisms for reclining the vehicle seat back and which may also be used for folding the vehicle seat. Other types of mechanisms include latch mechanisms for folding the vehicle seat such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,268,086; 4,484,779; 4,822,100; 6,089,664; 6,152,533 and 6,328,381. While these mechanisms will provide a folding seat, they do not provide a sufficiently simple and compact folding mechanism.
While other conventional approaches are known to provide a folding seat that can be stowed in the vehicle floor or bottom, conventional seats have not been designed to provide less than approximately a 200 millimeter thickness. Despite the above efforts, there is a need to develop a vehicle seat that is foldable for storage or removal to a highly compact thickness and significantly less than a 200 millimeter thickness. In particular, the remains a continued need to provide even more storage area in a vehicle's cargo area while retaining as much functionality and convenience as possible. While some folding seat solutions help in this regard they have many drawbacks such as taking up substantial floor space because they do not fold in a compact manner, taking up substantial cargo space because they do not have a thin profile, are expensive and heavy due to complicated and bulky mechanisms.
Thus, there is a continued need to develop a vehicle seat that can be made foldable for storage and/or removal to less than a 150 millimeter thickness and optimally to approximately a 100 millimeter thickness package while still providing a vehicle seat occupant relative comfort and support.
Conventional folding seats have also been poorly designed since they require a large amount of floor space to be folded and stowed. Thus, there remains a need to provide a vehicle seat capable of providing a fold in spot, compact footprint package. There also remains a continued need to develop a vehicle seat that will, in a folded position, provide a minimized and light-weight cartridge and that will, in a deployed position, provide the support and comfort of a conventional non-stow, type vehicle seat. Some conventional systems have attempted to develop solutions to vehicle seating which undesirably require changes to the vehicle's body in white resulting in significant additional cost and a highly undesirable lack of flexibility. Some conventional folding vehicle seat systems have provided foldable seats but once in the folded position have the highly undesirable drawback of not having a vehicle seat design capable of providing a flat load floor.
Thus, there remains a continued need to provide a vehicle seat capable of overcoming the noted deficiencies with the conventional vehicle seats. In particular, there is a continued need for a vehicle seat having a very compact footprint in both the design and stow positions and which may be very easily and intuitively operated and removably provided in a passenger or cargo area of a vehicle.


Disclosed is a locking assembly for use with a pump type dispenser to dispense material from a container. The assembly includes an actuator including at least one timing pin and a locking mechanism coupled to the actuator for limiting movement of the actuator until the timing pin is properly aligned with the locking mechanism. Alignment is achieved by rotating the actuator a first predetermined distance in a first direction and subsequently rotating the actuator a second predetermined distance in a second direction.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to child resistant locks for product containers. More particularly, the invention relates to child resistant locks designed for use with pump type dispensers.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Pump dispensers are conveniently used by consumers to draw fluid materials from within containers. These dispensers apply pressure to draw the material from within the container and force the material out of an outlet nozzle for use by the consumer. The controlled pumping mechanisms provided by these pump dispensers permits consumers to dispense fluids, and other materials, in a convenient, controlled manner.
Unfortunately, however, these pump type dispensers are often used to dispense materials that are harmful to human beings, animals, and surrounding structures. As such, it is desirable to provide these pump type dispensers with locking assemblies to prevent unwanted pumping of the pump dispenser, particularly, to prevent unwanted pumping by children. The structures of these pump type dispensers make it difficult to incorporate effective locking assemblies capable of preventing a child from actuating the pump dispenser, while readily permitting an adult to pump material from the dispenser after the locking assembly has been disabled.
After reviewing prior pump dispensers, it is apparent that a need exists for a pump dispenser which incorporates a locking assembly to effectively prevent unwanted pumping of material therefrom, while permitting a user to conveniently disable the locking assembly to permit pumping of materials from the pump dispenser. The present invention provides a convenient, reliable and inexpensive child resistant locking assembly for use with pump dispensers, which overcomes the limitations of prior pump dispensers. Additionally, because the present locking assembly relies on coordination rather than force to be opened, it is ideal for use by elderly or arthritic persons.


Epidural catheters include a tubular member and at least one bend indicator located proximate a distal end of the tubular member to provide a reference point for a user to bend the catheter. Catheter assemblies may include such catheters. Methods of inserting an epidural catheter having a bent distal end into a patient include bending a catheter at a location proximate at least one bend indicator formed proximate a distal end of the catheter and inserting at least a portion of the catheter into a patient. Methods of making an epidural catheter include forming a tubular member having a proximal end and a distal end and forming at least one bend indicator on the catheter proximate the distal end of the tubular member to provide a reference point for a user to bend the catheter.

During insertion and placement of a conventional catheter, it may be desirable to control (e.g., steer) the catheter in a selected direction. For example, a needle, sometimes referred to in the art as a "cannula," may puncture the skin of a patient and be inserted to an initial penetration depth. A catheter, typically reinforced by a stylet inserted within the catheter, may be introduced into the patient through the needle. The distal end of the catheter may then be advanced into the patient beyond the tip of the needle toward a desired destination, such as, for example, a location within the epidural space where it is desired to administer an analgesic. Upon exiting the needle, the ability to control the direction in which the distal end of the catheter proceeds may be necessary to prevent damaging sensitive tissues and neural structures through unintended contact with the distal end of the catheter, to prevent mistaken administration of medications with unintended effect, and otherwise prevent harm to the patient. U.S. Pat. No. 7,601,138 B2, issued Oct. 13, 2009 to Goebel et al., discloses that the tip of a cannula may include a bend to bias advancement of the catheter inserted therethrough in a desired direction. Alternatively, it is known in the art that a user (e.g., a doctor or other medical personnel) may bend (i.e., plastically deform) the catheter at a location near the distal end. The user may then steer the catheter in a desired direction by twisting an external portion thereof, causing the distal end to point in a known direction due to the bend placed near the distal end of the catheter.

Catheters including bend indicators, catheter assemblies including such catheters and related methods


A fastening assembly is provided for fastening a fixing element, for example a plate, a brace, an angle, a profile, an armature, a retainer or the like to a substructure by means of at least one screw, which can be passed through at least one bore in the fixing element and can be screwed into the substructure. A bushing is arranged in the bore to be able to be swiveled in arbitrary spacial direction. The screw is passed through the bushing. The bushing comprises a seat for at least partially receiving a head of the screw.

The invention relates to a fastening assembly for fastening a fixing element, for example a plate, brace, angle, profile, armature, retainer or the like, to a substructure by means of at least one screw which can be passed through at least one bore in the fixing element and can be screwed into the substructure.
Numerous fastening assemblies of the mentioned type are known, which are provided for many different types of applications.
For example, such fastening assemblies are used in the household, for example to mount objects on the wall or ceiling, such as lamps, shelves or the like. Normally, fixing elements in the form of wall fixtures, profiles or the like are provided for such objects which must then be secured to the wall or the ceiling by means of one or more screws.
Such fixing elements normally have one or more bores through which a screw is passed and screwed into the substructure. In such cases, a hole is first drilled into the wall or the ceiling into which a dowel is inserted and the screw is then screwed into the dowel. By completely and firmly tightening the screw, the screw head forces the fixing element against the substructure.
Due to inexperience of the user in household applications or due to improper tools, it frequently occurs that the hole in the wall or the ceiling is not perpendicular to the surface, but is drilled at an angle. In particular, it is difficult to drill a perpendicular hole in the wall or ceiling when located close to a corner of the room, because the housing of the drilling machine makes it difficult or impossible to place the drill perpendicular to the ceiling or the wall.
If the hole in the wall or the ceiling is slanted, the screw must necessarily be screwed in at an angle through the bore in the fixing element and into the substructure. The shaft of the screw normally has a diameter which is only slightly smaller than the bore so that the shaft of the screw can clamp with the upper and/or lower edge of the bore. The screw can then only be applied with increased force exertion. In the worst case, it is not even possible to completely tighten down the screw and the fixing element is then not securely and immovably fixed to the substructure. This drawback can also not be avoided by an elongated configuration of the bore.
Even if the screw can be completely tightened and drawn down to the substructure, the screw head only contacts the edge of the bore. In the case of a countersunk screw, in some cases only a point contact is made with the fixing element. This does not ensure a solid play-free securement of the fixing element to the substructure.
Another application of such fastening assemblies is the do-it-yourself assembly of furniture, for example mounting hinges on cabinet doors or the like. In such cases, self-cutting wood screws are used as the screws. When mounting an angle, it is also frequently difficult to turn down the wood screws to be perpendicular to the cabinet wall because of the difficult access in the region of the angle. As soon as a few windings of the screw engage with the substructure, the orientation of the shaft with respect to the substructure and therefore with respect to the fixing element normally can not be corrected. The same problem then arises that the screws can not be completely tightened or only with excessive force to secure the fixing element immovably to the substructure.
A further important application of the mentioned fastening assembly lies in the medical field. Braces or splints are implanted in patients to heal bone fractures by fixing the broken bone portions, which are formed as elongated metal plates. At least two bores are provided in the brace, so that the brace can be applied across the fracture connecting the two bone portions. Bone screws are used as the screws, which are directly applied to the bones. Due the anatomical conditions of the patient or the location of bone fracture, it is also often necessary to apply the bone screws at an angle with respect to the bone brace. The same problem arises here as described above in conjunction with the technical applications.
In addition, for this application the bone parts to which the brace is to be secured do not have a flat uniform surface but have concave and convex undulations. In order to fix the brace immovably to the bone parts, the bone screw can not be screwed into the bone with excessive force. This would cause undesired tension or could even lead to an additional fracture of the bone. It is therefore necessary that the bone screws establish a rigid connection of the brace with the bone parts without having to exert an excessive force, through which the bone parts would otherwise be pressed onto the brace and placed under stress.
A fastening assembly allowing a screw to be screwed into the substructure at an angle with respect to the fixing element without increased force exertion and allowing an immovable connection free of play is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,388,921. This known fastening assembly comprises a bushing arranged in the bore of the fixing element, through which the screw can be passed for screwing the screw into the substructure. The bushing of this known fastening assembly is able to swivel in several spacial directions when seated in the bore. The bushing further comprises a seat for receiving the head of the screw. An inner surface of the bore and an outer surface of the bushing are formed to be about spherically curved, wherein a region of largest diameter of the inner surface of the bore is situated at the upper edge of the bore. By that the bushing can fall out of the bore as long as the screw is not screwed into the substructure. Therefore, the handling of this known fastening assembly is somewhat cumbersome because there are three parts, namely the fixing element, the screw and the bushing which must be held by hand when using the fastening assembly. In particular, in case that the fastening assembly must be fastened under a ceiling the bushing can fall out when manipulating the fixing elements and the screw. In medical applications there exists the risk that the bushing is lost in the human body.
The object of the present invention is therefore to provide a fastening assembly which is improved in terms of its handling properties.

Fastening assembly with improved handling properties


A system and method for implanting and stabilizing spinal cord stimulators in an epidural space of the spinal column of a patient to prevent or limit axial movement of the stimulators once implanted in the epidural space. The system includes a drill assembly, a guide wire assembly, and a guide wire receiver. The drill assembly includes a cannula, a drill for creating access points in the patient's spinal column for implanting the stimulators, and an incremental drill adjuster for drilling into the patient's lamina a pre-set, discrete distance. The guide wire assembly includes a hollowed guide wire sleeve, a guide wire housed within the sleeve, and a magnet disposed on a proximal end of the guide wire assembly. The guide wire receiver includes a scoop for receiving and catching the magnet to assist in feeding the stimulators through the epidural space.

1. Field
Embodiments of the invention provide a system and method for stabilizing implanted spinal cord stimulators implanted in the epidural space of a spinal cord of a patient.
2. Related Art
Spinal cord stimulators ("SCSs" or "stimulators") output electrical pulses to control chronic back pain. The stimulator generally comprises an implantable pulse generator (IPG), a plurality of implanted stimulating electrodes, and conducting lead wires connecting the electrodes to the generator. The electrodes are positioned on a lead that is implanted in the epidural space of the spinal column proximate the spinal cord, and multiple leads may be implanted. The IPG is implanted subcutaneously proximate the lumbar region of the back and includes a power supply and remote controls. The electrodes commonly come in two forms—percutaneous form and paddle form. Embodiments of the invention are primarily directed to percutaneous type electrodes. The lead wires are coupled to the percutaneous leads having an array of electrodes and are fed through the spinal column and to the IPG implanted in the lumbar region. A patient can then control an amount of voltage and current exerted by the electrodes to address chronic pain or other disorders.
Percutaneous electrodes comprise a very long, thing wire (also known as a "lead wire" or "lead line") connected to the lead(s). A plurality of leads may extend from the single wire, or multiple wires with one or more leads may be implanted in the epidural space. Because the percutaneous electrodes extend axially through the spinal column, the electrodes are susceptible to axial movement within or dislodgement from the spinal column when the patient moves. This may be undesirable if the electrodes move out of position relative to the location where the voltage should be applied.

System and method for stabilizing implanted spinal cord stimulators


The present invention relates to nucleotides encoding for the production of novel regulatory proteins for Nox enzymes involved in generation of reactive oxygen intermediates that affect cell division. The present invention also provides vectors containing these nucleotides, cells transfected with these vectors, antibodies raised against these novel proteins, kits for detection, localization and measurement of these nucleotides and proteins, and methods to determine the activity of drugs to affect the biological activity of the regulatory proteins of the present invention.

Reactive oxygen intermediates (ROI) are cytotoxic and mutagenic. They modify and damage critical biomolecules including DNA and lipids. The partial reduction products of oxygen are: 1 electron reduces O2 to form superoxide (O2−), and 2 electrons reduce O2 to form hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). The cytotoxic property of ROI is exploited by phagocytes, which generate large amounts of superoxide and hydrogen peroxide as part of their armory of bactericidal mechanisms. ROI have been considered an accidental byproduct of metabolism, particularly mitochondrial respiration. However, recent studies give evidence for regulated enzymatic generation of O2− and its conversion to H2O2 in a variety of cells. The conversion of O2− to H2O2 can also occur spontaneously, but is markedly accelerated by superoxide dismutase (SOD). Exposure of cells to platelet derived growth factor and epidermal growth factor induces the production of H2O2, which activates components of signaling pathways including p42/p44 MAPK and tyrosine phosphorylation.
Several biological systems generate reactive oxygen. Exposure of neutrophils to bacteria or to various soluble mediators such as formyl-Met-Leu-Phe or phorbol esters activates a massive consumption of oxygen, termed the respiratory burst, to initially generate superoxide, with secondary generation of H2O2, HOCl and hydroxyl radicals. The enzyme responsible for this oxygen consumption is the respiratory burst oxidase (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate-reduced form (NADPH) oxidase).
There is growing evidence for the generation of ROI by non-phagocytic cells, particularly in situations related to cell proliferation. Significant generation of H2O2, O2−, or both have been noted in some cell types. Fibroblasts and human endothelial cells show increased release of superoxide in response to cytokines such as interleukin-1 or tumor necrosis factor (TNF) (Meier et al. (1989) Biochem J. 263, 539-545; Matsubara et al. (1986) J. Immun. 137, 3295-3298). Ras-transformed fibroblasts show increased superoxide release compared with control fibroblasts (Irani, et al. (1997) Science 275, 1649-1652). Rat vascular smooth muscle cells show increased H2O2 release in response to PDGF (Sundaresan et al. (1995) Science 270, 296-299) and angiotensin II (Griendling et al. (1994) Circ. Res. 74, 1141-1148; Fukui et al. (1997) Circ. Res. 80, 45-51; Ushio-Fukai et al. (1996) J. Biol. Chem. 271, 23317-23321), and H2O2 in these cells is associated with increased proliferation rate. H2O2 in the transformed fibroblasts and in vascular smooth muscle cells is associated with an increased proliferation rate. The occurrence of ROI in a variety of cell types is summarized in Table 1 (adapted from Burdon, R. (1995) Free Radical Biol. Med. 18, 775-794).
TABLE 1SuperoxideHydrogen Peroxidehuman fibroblastsBalb/3T3 cellshuman endothelial cellsrat pancreatic islet cellshuman/rat smooth muscle cellsmurine keratinocyteshuman fat cellsrabbit chondrocyteshuman osteocyteshuman tumor cellsBHK-21 cellsfat cells, 3T3 L1 cellshuman colonic epithelial cells
ROI generated by neutrophils have a cytotoxic function. While ROI are normally directed at the invading microbe, ROI can also induce tissue damage (e.g., in inflammatory conditions such as arthritis, shock, lung disease, and inflammatory bowel disease) or may be involved in tumor initiation or promotion, due to damaging effects on DNA. Nathan (Szatrowski et al. (1991) Canc. Res. 51, 794-798) proposed that the generation of ROI in tumor cells may contribute to the hypermutability seen in tumors, and may therefore contribute to tumor heterogeneity, invasion and metastasis.
In addition to cytotoxic and mutagenic roles, ROI have ideal properties as signal molecules: 1) they are generated in a controlled manner in response to upstream signals; 2) the signal can be terminated by rapid metabolism of O2− and H2O2 by SOD and catalase/peroxidases; 3) they elicit downstream effects on target molecules, e.g., redox-sensitive regulatory proteins such as NFκ-B and AP-1 (Schreck et al. (1991) EMBO J. 10, 2247-2258; Schmidt et al. (1995) Chemistry & Biology 2, 13-22). Oxidants such as O2− and H2O2 have a relatively well defined signaling role in bacteria, operating via the SoxI/II regulon to regulate transcription.
ROI appear to have a direct role in regulating cell division, and may function as mitogenic signals in pathological conditions related to growth. These conditions include cancer and cardiovascular disease. O2− is generated in endothelial cells in response to cytokines, and might play a role in angiogenesis (Matsubara et al. (1986) J. Immun. 137, 3295-3298). O2− and H2O2 are also proposed to function as "life-signals", preventing cells from undergoing apoptosis (Matsubara et al. (1986) J. Immun. 137, 3295-3298). As discussed above, many cells respond to growth factors (e.g., platelet derived growth factor (PDGF), epidermal derived growth factor (EGF), angiotensin II, and various cytokines) with both increased production of O2−/H2O2 and increased proliferation. Inhibition of ROI generation prevents the mitogenic response. Exposure to exogenously generated O2− and H2O2 results in an increase in cell proliferation. A partial list of responsive cell types is shown below in Table 2 (adapted from Burdon, R. (1995) Free Radical Biol. Med. 18, 775-794).
TABLE 2SuperoxideHydrogen peroxidehuman, hamster fibroblastsmouse osteoblastic cellsBalb/3T3 cellsBalb/3T3 cellshuman histiocytic leukemiarat, hamster fibroblastsmouse epidermal cellshuman smooth muscle cellsrat colonic epithelial cellsrat vascular smooth muscle cellsrat vascular smooth muscle cells
While non-transformed cells can respond to growth factors and cytokines with the production of ROI, tumor cells appear to produce ROI in an uncontrolled manner. A series of human tumor cells produced large amounts of hydrogen peroxide compared with non-tumor cells (Szatrowski et al. (1991) Canc. Res. 51, 794-798). Ras-transformed NIH 3T3 cells generated elevated amounts of superoxide, and inhibition of superoxide generation by several mechanisms resulted in a reversion to a "normal" growth phenotype.
O2− has been implicated in maintenance of the transformed phenotype in cancer cells including melanoma, breast carcinoma, fibrosarcoma, and virally transformed tumor cells. Decreased levels of the manganese form of SOD (MnSOD) have been measured in cancer cells and in vitro-transformed cell lines, predicting increased O2− levels (Burdon, R. (1995) Free Radical Biol. Med. 18, 775-794). MnSOD is encoded on chromosome 6q25 which is very often lost in melanoma. Overexpression of MnSOD in melanoma and other cancer cells (Church et al. (1993) Proc. of Natl. Acad. Sci. 90, 3113-3117; Fernandez-Pol et al. (1982) Canc. Res. 42, 609-617; Yan et al. (1996) Canc. Res. 56, 2864-2871) resulted in suppression of the transformed phenotype.
ROI are implicated in the growth of vascular smooth muscle associated with hypertension, atherosclerosis, and restenosis after angioplasty. O2− generation is seen in rabbit aortic adventitia (Pagano et al. (1997) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 94, 14483-14488). Vascular endothelial cells release O2− in response to cytokines (Matsubara et al. (1986) J Immun. 137, 3295-3298). O2− is also generated by aortic smooth muscle cells in culture, and increased ° 2-generation is stimulated by angiotensin II which also induces cell hypertrophy. In a rat model system, infusion of angiotensin II leads to hypertension as well as increased O2− generation in subsequently isolated aortic tissue (Ushio-Fukai et al. (1996) J. Biol. Chem. 271, 23317-23321; Yu et al. (1997) J. Biol. Chem. 272, 27288-27294). Intravenous infusion of a form of SOD that localizes to the vasculature or an infusion of an O2− scavenger prevented angiotensin II induced hypertension and inhibited ROI generation (Fukui et al. (1997) Circ. Res. 80, 45-51).
The neutrophil NADPH oxidase, also known as phagocyte respiratory burst oxidase, provides a paradigm for the study of the specialized enzymatic ROI-generating system. This extensively studied enzyme oxidizes NADPH and reduces oxygen to form O2−. NADPH oxidase consists of multiple proteins and is regulated by assembly of cytosolic and membrane components. The catalytic moiety consists of flavocytochrome b558, an integral plasma membrane enzyme comprised of two components: gp91phox (gp refers to glycoprotein; phox is an abbreviation of the words phagocyte and oxidase) and p22phox (p refers to protein). gp91phox contains 1 flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD) and 2 hemes as well as the NADPH binding site. p22phox has a C-terminal proline-rich sequence which serves as a binding site for cytosolic regulatory proteins. The two cytochrome subunits, gp91phox and p22phox appear to stabilize one another, since the genetic absence of either subunit, as in the inherited disorder chronic granulomatous disease (CGD), results in the absence of the partner subunit (Yu et al. (1997) J. Biol. Chem. 272, 27288-27294). Essential cytosolic proteins include p47phox, p67phox and the small GTPase Rac, of which there are two isoforms. p47phox and p67phox both contain SH3 regions and proline-rich regions which participate in protein interactions governing assembly of the oxidase components during activation. The neutrophil enzyme is regulated in response to bacterial phagocytosis or chemotactic signals by pbosphorylation of p47phox, and perhaps other components, as well as by guanine nucleotide exchange to activate the GTP-binding protein Rac.
ROI generated in many non-phagocytic tissues are now thought to originate from Nox enzymes. These Nox enzymes are homologs of gp91phox, the catalytic subunit of the phagocyte NADPH oxidase. The Nox family consists in human of seven unique gene products: Nox1, Nox2 (same as gp91phox), Nox3, Nox4, Nox5, Duox1 and Duox2. Each member of the Nox family has a specific expression pattern in tissues. For example, Nox1 is highly expressed in colonic epithelium, while Nox4 is highly expressed in kidney epithelium. Although these enzymes are thought to account for much of the ROI generated in many of these tissues, except for Nox2, the mechanism by which these enzymes are regulated is unknown. While not wishing to be bound to any particular theory, it is believed that the molecular candidates related to gp91phox and involved in ROI generation in cells have been located in the Nox and Duox family of proteins. (Lambeth et al. (2001) Gene May 16; 269 (1-2):131-40; Edens et al. (2001) J. Cell Biol. August 20: 154(4):879-91; Lambeth et al. (2000) Trends Biochem Sci. October 25, (10); 459-61)
However, regulatory proteins for this family of enzymes have not been determined. This deficiency has blocked the development of an in vitro system in which the enzymatic activity to generate ROIs can be analyzed. Furthermore, the regulatory proteins would provide an additional target for controlling ROI generation. Accordingly, what is needed is the identity of the regulators of proteins involved in ROI generation, particularly in non-phagocytic tissues and cells. What is also needed are the nucleotide sequences encoding for these proteins, and the primary sequences of the proteins themselves. Also needed are vectors designed to include nucleotides encoding for these proteins. Probes and PCR primers derived from the nucleotide sequence are needed to detect, localize and measure nucleotide sequences, including mRNA, involved in the synthesis of these proteins. In addition, what is needed is a means to transfect cells with these vectors. What is also needed are expression systems for production of these molecules. Also needed are antibodies directed against these molecules for a variety of uses including localization, detection, measurement and passive immunization.


An additive manufacturing system is disclosed. The additive manufacturing system may include a plate having a plurality of print heads arranged in a grid and each configured to discharge a curable material, and at least one shuttle having a plurality of print heads arranged in a row and each configured to discharge a curable material. The additive manufacturing system may also include at least one cure enhancer associated with at least one of the plate and the at least one shuttle. The at least one cure enhancer may be configured to cure the curable material as the curable material is being discharged. The additive manufacturing system may further include at least one actuator configured to move at least one of the plate and the at least one shuttle during discharge of the curable material.

Extrusion manufacturing is a known process for producing continuous structures. During extrusion manufacturing, a liquid matrix (e.g., a thermoset resin or a heated thermoplastic) is pushed through a die having a desired cross-sectional shape and size. The material, upon exiting the die, cures and hardens into a final form. In some applications, UV light and/or ultrasonic vibrations are used to speed the cure of the liquid matrix as it exits the die. The structures produced by the extrusion manufacturing process can have any continuous length, with a straight or curved profile, a consistent cross-sectional shape, and excellent surface finish. Although extrusion manufacturing can be an efficient way to continuously manufacture structures, the resulting structures may lack the strength required for some applications.
Pultrusion is a common way to manufacture high-strength composite parts. During pultrusion manufacturing, individual fiber strands, braids of strands, and/or woven fabrics are pulled from corresponding spools into a resin bath and through a stationary die. The resin is then allowed to cure and harden. Due to the pulling of the fibers prior to curing, some of the fibers may retain a level of tensile stress after curing is complete. This tensile stress can increase a strength of the composite part in the direction in which the fibers were pulled. Although pultrusion manufacturing can be used to produce some large composite parts, it can also be problematic. In particular, conventional pultrusion manufacturing processes may provide little flexibility in the design and/or use of the composite part.
The disclosed additive manufacturing system is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems set forth above and/or other problems of the prior art.

Additive manufacturing system for fabricating custom support structure


An in-vehicle hand-free apparatus that is for ensuring hand-free talk by a short-range wireless communication system in compliance with the Bluetooth includes a notification unit which notifies the status of the in-vehicle hand-free apparatus. As the in-vehicle hand-free apparatus notifies the status thereof by the notification unit, the user can easily perceive the status of the in-vehicle hand-free apparatus.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an in-vehicle hand-free apparatus, and is suitable for application to an in-vehicle hand-free apparatus which includes a hand-free remote controller which is wirelessly connected to, for example, a cellular phone, and enables voice talking.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2002-111831 discloses an in-vehicle hand-free apparatus which enables a user to talk on a cellular phone without holding the cellular phone while driving, for example, a car.
In practice, the in-vehicle hand-free apparatus comprises a control unit which controls the whole in-vehicle hand-free apparatus, and a hand-free remote controller which has wired connection to the control unit, and ensures wireless connection to a cellular phone by wireless communication conforming to the Bluetooth (registered trademark) as wireless communication standard. This apparatus enables a user to talk on a cellular phone or a wired telephone through the hand-free remote controller.
The in-vehicle hand-free apparatus with such a structure permits the hand-free remote controller to be located on a pillar which is positioned near the front of the head of the user sitting at a driver's seat, making it possible to prevent the interruption of wireless communication between the cellular phone and the hand-free remote controller due to an obstacle or the like, and ensure talking without holding the cellular phone.
The in-vehicle hand-free apparatus employing the above-described structure, however, does not confirm the status of the hand-free remote controller as to, for example, whether or not the cellular phone currently performs talking through the hand-free remote controller.
With the in-vehicle hand-free apparatus employing the above-described structure, in particular, no voice talking is carried out in a state where the cellular phone directly connected to the hand-free remote controller in a wireless manner does not establish a call with a base station, i.e., the cellular phone is in a standby mode. It is difficult to make the user recognize whether or not the cellular phone and the hand-free remote controller are properly wirelessly connected to each other (that is, establish synchronization).
The invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and it is an object of the invention to provide an in-vehicle hand-free apparatus which enables a user to easily confirm the status of the in-vehicle hand-free apparatus.