A group of molecular biomarkers having the genes SLC35D3, POSTN, KLK6 and MUC2 can be used in objective and quantitative methods for the classification, prediction of prognosis and for guiding treatment decisions of a subject with colorectal cancer. More specifically, a method for determining the metastatic potential and/or tumor aggressiveness of a colorectal cancer in a subject can include determining the gene expression levels of genes SLC35D3, POSTN, KLK6 and/or MUC2 in a regional lymph node, a primary intestinal tumor, blood, or feces sample obtained from the subject.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second leading cause of mortality among cancer patients in the world and the third most diagnosed form of cancer globally. It represents a huge burden on healthcare systems. The most important prognostic characteristic of CRC is presence or absence of lymph node metastasis (Chang G. J. et al. J. Natl. Cancer Inst., vol. 99, p. 433-441 (2007); Iddings D. and Bilchik A. J. Surg. Oncol., vol. 96, p. 671-677 (2007); Nicastri D. G. et al. J. Mol. Diagn., vol. 9, p. 563-571 (2007)). Relevant lymph nodes are accessible for investigation only when patients are resected for cure. Therefore, thorough determination of the lymph node status in the resected tumor specimen is crucial. Currently, approximately 50% of patients with tumor-cell-positive lymph nodes, i.e. stage III CRC (anyTN1-2M0) and about 25% with no detected tumor-cell positive lymph nodes, i.e. stage I (T1-2 N0M0) and stage II (T3-4N0M0) patients will recur (Bockelman C. et al. Acta Oncol., vol. 54, p. 5-16 (2015)). These results strongly suggest that tumor cells in lymph nodes may vary in aggressiveness, and that presence of tumor cells in the node in many cases is missed by the present standard method. Therefore it is of utmost importance to 1) accurately detect presence of tumor cells in lymph nodes and 2) determine their metastatic potential i.e. their aggressiveness. By improving determination of lymph node status, N-staging, and introducing the aggressiveness parameter for the spread tumor cells, improved staging will be achieved thereby avoiding undertreatment of stage I and II patients and overtreatment of stage III patients. Moreover, if patients with tumor cells in their lymph nodes can be classified into subgroups according to differences in risk of recurrence and cancer death this information may be used not only for treatment with the current arsenal of drugs but also in the development of new drugs, new treatment schedules as well as for follow-up schedules adjusted to the risk of recurrence, etc.
In clinical practice, presence or absence of lymph node metastasis is currently determined by histopathological examination of hematoxylin & eosin (H&E) stained tissue sections of resected regional lymph nodes. Present guidelines require that at least 12 lymph nodes should be examined (Tsai H. L. et al. BMC Surg., vol. 16, p. 17 (2016)) In the TNM classification, N1 signifies that 1 to 3 examined nodes were positive for presence of tumor cells and N2 that 4 to 6 nodes were positive. N2 patients have poorer prognosis than N1 patients. Moreover, the lymph node ratio, i.e., number of positive lymph nodes over total number of examined lymph nodes, is an important prognostic factor—the higher ratio the worse prognosis (Parnaby C. N. et al, Br. J. Cancer, vol. 113, p. 212-219 (2015)). The main reasons why tumor cells are missed by the routine method are twofold: too small sample size and inadequate sensitivity. At best, only a few % of the volume of the lymph node is examined by H&E staining of tissue sections. An alternative method is to determine the mRNA level of one or several biomarkers that is expressed in all tumor cells of this type, and to extract RNA from the entire lymph node or, as for ethical reasons is the current option, half the node. It has been shown that real time quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) analysis with copy standard is a most useful method for mRNA analysis of biomarkers. It is highly sensitive, objective, quantitative, and amendable for automation. It was found that mRNA analysis of the biomarker carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA, CEACAM5) is very useful for detection of tumor cells originating from the large intestine. This biomarker allowed the identification of stage I and stage II patients with tumor cells in their lymph nodes that were not detected by the present gold standard, i.e. histopathology of H&E stained sections (Ohlsson L. et al. Br. J. Cancer, vol. 95, p. 218-225 (2006); Ohlsson L. et al. Int. J. Cancer, vol. 130, p. 1833-1843 (2012)). Some of these patients have succumbed from recurrent disease (Ohlsson L. et al. Br. J. Cancer, vol. 95, p. 218-225 (2006); Ohlsson L. et al. Int. J. Cancer, vol. 130, p. 1833-1843 (2012)). Thus, a more sophisticated stratification was obtained by using this marker compared to the gold standard only. The biomarker cytokeratin 20 (CK20) is also useful for this purpose, albeit somewhat less sensitive (Ohlsson L. et al. Br. J. Cancer, vol. 95, p. 218-225 (2006). Currently there is only one published biomarker for CRC that displays the properties of an aggression marker, namely kallikrein related peptidase 6 (KLK6) (Ohlsson L. et al. Br. J. Cancer, vol. 107, p. 150-157 (2012)). It is ectopically expressed in CRC tumor cells and appears to be expressed at increasing levels with increasing aggressiveness.
A generally accepted pathway for the development of distant metastases in CRC is that tumor cells leave the primary site in colon or rectum via lymphatic vessels, first settle in a regional lymph node, and thereafter, spread to distant sites like the liver. It is the distant metastasis that eventually kills the patient. Evidence for this pathway is the fact that presence or absence of tumor cells in a regional lymph node is the best prognostic marker for CRC death or survival.
The present invention concerns: 1) the identification of two new aggression biomarkers for CRC; one expressed in the CRC tumor cells themselves and the other in supporting cells in the microenvironment of the lymph node. 2) A method for determination of lymph node status, which accurately detects presence or absence of tumor cells in the lymph nodes, and in addition provides information on the aggressiveness of these cells. In the proposed method, quantitative mRNA levels of the 2 new biomarkers and 3 previously described biomarkers are determined. If applied for CRC lymph node analysis, it will accurately determine lymph node involvement and allow classification of CRC patients into different risk groups with respect to risk for recurrence and cancer death after the primary treatment, i.e. surgical resection of the tumor. This goal has hitherto not been possible to achieve.

Marker genes for colorectal cancer classification, method for judging lymph node metastasis for prognosis of colorectal cancer and kit therefor


The invention relates to an arrangement for dispensing hot beverages and comprises a container (3) having thermally insulated walls which fully seal the interior of the container. The container can be inserted into a holder (1) and drawn from said holder through a given distance to a lockable position in which the container interior can be connected to a pouring spout (5) and pump means (7), owing to the fact that the spout (5) can be extended from a protected position in a recess in the upper side of the container (3) and therewith expose holes (10a, 31a) in the containerwalls (31) and sealingly connect these holes to the pouring spout (5a) and the pump means (7).

The present invention relates to an arrangement for dispensing hot beverages.
There has long been a need for such dispensers and a wide variety of dispensers are known to the art.
Large stainless steel beverage dispensing containers which are fitted with a lid incorporating a filling opening, and a pouring spout fitted in the lower region of the container and provided with valve means are well known to the art. The valve means is often self-closing, so as to eliminate the risk of the valve being left open unintentionally.
Other types of beverage dispensers include so-called pump thermoses which are replenished from a larger hot beverage source as the need arises.
The simplest hot beverage dispenser, and perhaps the most suitable, or more correctly the least unsuitable, is the conventional thermos flask or thermos jug having a volumetric capacity of about 1-2 liters.
All of these beverage dispensers are encumbered with serious drawbacks, however, at least in the context of large dispensers. The large dispensers fitted with a pouring spout and valve means are clumsy and are seldom cleaned properly. Furthermore, the valve is not always properly closed, therewith allowing more or less liquid to run from the dispenser container, causing serious damage to the surfaces on which the liquid runs.
Pump thermoses are often cleaned by quickly rinsing the thermos in water. Such cleaning is highly inadequate. When such thermoses are replenished or filled, liquid will readily spill from the thermos, and due to the tall, narrow shape of the thermos, there is a risk of the thermos toppling, therewith spilling a large part of its contents. Thermos flasks and jugs are also encumbered with these drawbacks. An additional drawback resides in the injury to arms and shoulders due, among other things, to the strains occasioned by uncomfortable working positions when serving beverages from such dispensers.
One area where these problems are particularly manifest and where every conceivable attempt to reach a good solution has been made for more than 50 years is the passenger aircraft field. The problem is exacerbated by confined spaces and stress. In an attempt to solve these problems, SAS have recently carried out analyses at a cost of SEK 3 million. The best solution that could be reached was a carefully ergonometrically refined coffee and tea thermos made of plastic.
With regard to those drawbacks which were analyzed but for which no suitable solution could be found it can be mentioned that the thermos flask system requires:
1. That an electric water heater is installed on the aircraft, which necessitates summoning a repair technician in the event of a breakdown; PA0 2. That a system of water-carrying vehicles is provided, wherein prior to starting-up an aircraft, it must be possible for such a vehicle to reverse in towards the aircraft and deliver, for instance, 40 liters of water through a hose fitted with an external filling nipple; PA0 3. That the water supplied shall be of uniform good quality, which is not always the case since the vehicle must often wait over long periods in a hot environmental atmosphere; PA0 4. That the water heater, the tank of the water-carrying vehicle and the thermos flasks must be cleaned on a regular basis.
Other drawbacks are that the thermoses take-up a large area of the free space on the serving trolleys that are used to serve hot beverages and accessories, such as cakes, sugar, milk, cream, etc. Furthermore, there is a risk that the thermos flasks will topple, for instance when the aircraft flies in air pockets or yaws in flight, etc. When the beverages are poured out in the pantry, a large amount of liquid is usually spilled. This liquid spillage gradually collects in the bottom of the aircraft fusilage, causing serious corrosion and rot damage, which is difficult to prevent.


A current-limiting switch, with current connections and contacts, at least one of which is movable, having an associated drive, for opening the moving contact when a predefined electric current intensity is exceeded, are provided. The drive is a thermoelectric drive where a disk-shaped resistor body is present, in a closed housing made of insulating material, for high-intensity discharges, plurality of resistor bodies and associated electrode disks, acting as contacts, are connected electrically in parallel and mechanically in series in the housing made of an insulating material (1). This results in increased switching capacity with compact design.

In the international patent application WO-A-95/03619, a switch of the aforementioned type is proposed for us as a limiter. A large-surface resistor body, with an electrical resistivity that is considerably higher than that of a metal, is used to prevent localized fusing of the electrodes n the case of a short-circuit shutoff due to the plane propagation of the current flow; uniform heating of a gas volume present in the closed housing made of insulated material is also favored by the high-intensity discharges on the resistor material.
Switching with thermoelectric drive, which is the principle of the above-described switch, is therefore based on heating suitable resistor elements, such as disks made of carbon black-filled polyethylene, instantaneously at the contacting boundary surfaces and producing a high-pressure gas blanket through material decomposition that releases mechanical energy through a piston in the case of a short circuit. The thermal and electrical properties of the best resistor materials currently available require that the nominal current be limited to a current density of approximately 1 A/cm.sup.2 at a contact pressure of approximately 100 N/cm.sup.2 for AC3 operation. Electrodes and resistor disks of approximately 18 cm diameter and contact forces of approximately 25 kN would be needed to extend the above-mentioned switching principle to nominal currents of 250 A, for example.
This means that the mechanical design of a thermoelectric switch suitable for higher nominal currents must be extremely sturdy, with it individual components having a relatively high weight. However, the necessity of moving large electrode weights makes achieving a sufficient speed of the thermoelectric drive difficult.


An optical illumination device reflects and condenses light from a mercury-arc lamp by a light reflecting and condensing member and then reflects and deflects the light, thereafter the reflected and deflected light is transferred to a relay-lens system through a collimator lens or input lens, band-pass filter and fly-eye lens. Gas from which impurities are removed by a filter is flown around optical elements to separate the optical elements from air containing material causing clouding of the optical elements to thereby restrain clouding of the optical elements. On the other hand, or in addition, the reflectance of the light reflecting and condensing member and/or miller for the light of the absorption band of sulfur dioxide is made small to prevent the optical elements from clouding.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical illumination device for illuminating objects by light from a discharge lamp such as a mercury-arc lamp, and, more particularly, to a device suited for use in the optical illumination system of an exposure apparatus for manufacturing semiconductors.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Devices for illuminating objects using light from discharge lamps have been used in various fields in various applications. In reduction projection type exposure apparatus (steppers, aligners, etc.) used in photolithography for manufacturing LSI chips and other semiconductor or liquid crystal display elements, a device is used for illuminating reticles on which patterns for transfer are formed with a light beam of specified wavelengths (e.g., the i-line of a wavelength of 365 nm or the g-line of a wavelength of 436 nm) among the light radiated from an extra-high-pressure mercury-arc lamp (Hg lamp, Xe-Hg lamp, etc.).
In such projection exposure apparatus, however, efforts are continuing to transfer finer patterns at higher resolution to photosensitive substrates. In general, the resolution, R, and the depth of focus, DOF, of a projection exposure apparatus are expressed by the following equations: EQU R=k.sub.1 .multidot..lambda./NA (1) EQU DOF=k.sub.2 .multidot..lambda./NA.sup.2 ( 2)
where NA is the numerical aperture of the projection optical system in the projection exposure apparatus, .lambda. is the wavelength of light for exposure, and k.sub.1 and k.sub.2 are factors each decided by the process. It will be understood from the above equations that the finesse of the pattern is achieved by either one of the following methods:
(1) Increasing the numerical aperture (NA) of the projection optical system PA1 (2) Decreasing the wavelength of the light for exposure (exposure wavelength).lambda.. PA1 (1) First excited state: 105-180 nm PA1 (2) Second excited state: 180-240 nm PA1 (3) Third excited state: 260-340 nm PA1 (4) Fourth excited state: 340-390 nm
Of the two methods, projection optical systems with an NA of 0.5 to 0.6 or larger have recently been developed and resolution has been improved significantly. However, if the NA of a projection optical system is merely increased, as equation (2) shows, the DOF will decrease in inverse proportion to the square of the NA. In actual semiconductor manufacturing processes, in general, since circuit patterns must be projected onto a wafer having different levels produced in the preceding step and the flatness error of the wafer itself must also be absorbed, the DOF must be sufficiently large.
On the other hand, in the method of decreasing the exposure wavelength (.lambda.), as equation (2) shows, the DOF varies in proportion to the wavelength of exposure light. Therefore improving resolution R by decreasing the wavelength .lambda. of exposure light (as in the above method (2)) is more advantageous than improving resolution R by increasing the numerical aperture NR (as in the above method (1)) from the point of view of securing a large DOF. For these reasons, the bright-line called an i-line (a wavelength of 365 nm) emitted from a mercury-arc lamp is used more frequently in recent years than the conventionally used bright-line called a g-line (a wavelength of 436 nm) emitted from the same mercury-arc lamp.
FIG. 1 shows an example of a prior-art optical illumination device using a mercury-arc lamp as its light source used in a projection exposure apparatus. In FIG. 1, the luminescent point of a mercury-arc lamp 1 is located on the first focal point, F1, in a light reflecting and condensing member or elliptical mirror 2. On the top of the elliptical mirror 2 is formed an opening through which the electrode of the mercury-arc lamp 1 passes and, on the internal surface of the elliptical mirror 2, are vapor-deposited aluminum or various multilayer dielectric materials, thus causing the internal surface to function as a reflector. Light L emitted from the mercury-arc lamp 1 is reflected by the internal surface of the elliptical mirror 2 toward a mirror 3 for deflecting the optical path. Aluminum or various multilayer dielectric materials are also vapor-deposited on the reflecting surface of the mirror 3. Light reflected from the mirror 3 is collected on a second focal point, F2, of the elliptical mirror 2, thereby forming a light source image on the second focal point.
Divergent light from the light source image is converted to substantially parallel luminous flux by a collimator lens or input lens 4 and impinges on a narrow band-pass filter 5. The illuminating light of a wavelength selected by the band-pass filter 5 impinges on a fly-eye lens 6, which functions as an optical integrator, and many secondary light sources are formed on the focal plane behind the fly-eye lens 6 (on the reticle side). Divergent light from these many secondary light sources is reflected by a mirror 7 for deflecting the light path, converged by the condenser lens 8, and illuminates the pattern-formation surface of the reticle 9 on the surface to be illuminated so that light beams overlap. Aluminum or various multilayer dielectric materials are vapor-deposited on the reflecting surface of the mirror 7.
The entire optical system is compactly constructed by the use of mirrors 3 and 7 for deflecting the light path. The internal surface of the elliptical mirror 2 functioning as a convergent mirror, and the reflecting surfaces of the mirrors 3 and 7 are designed so that the reflectance of exposure light of a selected wavelength is maximized.
A super-high-pressure mercury-arc lamp is used as the mercury-arc lamp 1 in FIG. 1. The emission spectrum distribution of this super-high-pressure mercury-arc lamp is shown in FIG. 2. The wavelength dependence of the reflectance of the aluminum reflecting mirror having an aluminum vapor-deposited surface is shown in FIG. 3(a), and the wavelength dependence of the reflectance of a typical conventional dielectric multilayer reflecting mirror having a reflection surface on which multilayer dielectric materials are vapor-deposited is shown in FIG. 3(b). The wavelength dependence of transmissivity of the band-pass filter 5 in FIG. 1 when the exposure light is the i-line (a wavelength of 365 nm) is shown in FIG. 4. By such a structure, the i-line illumination light is selected, the pattern of a reticle 9 is illuminated by uniform illumination distribution, and the pattern of the reticle 9 is imaged through a projection optical system (not shown) onto the photosensitive substrate.
When a conventional optical illumination device as described above is operated under a condition open to the exterior, the surfaces of optical members (the elliptical mirror 2, the mirror 3, the collimator or input lens 4, and the band-pass filter 5 in FIG. 1) from the mercury-arc lamp 1 to the band-pass filter 5 are clouded, and reflectance and transmissivity gradually decrease, lowering illumination efficiency. This clouding phenomenon is known to be caused when clouding substances adhere to optical elements. The results of analysis using ion chromatography showed that the major substance causing clouding is ammonium sulfate ((NH.sub.4).sub.2 SO.sub.4).
The results of analysis using ESCA and SEM (scanning electron microscopy) showed that silicon oxides (SiO.sub.x) had also occasionally adhered to the surface of mirrors and lenses. If silicon oxides have adhered, scattering occurs if the surface is not smooth. Even if the surface is smooth, when silicon oxides have adhered to antireflection and high-reflection coating, the antireflection and reflection coatings are out of an optimum condition, and transmissivity or reflectance decreases, consequently lowering illumination. These clouding substances are considered to be ammonium ions (NH.sub.4.sup.+), sulfate ions (SO.sub.4.sup.2-), or organic silanol photochemically deposited optical elements where far ultraviolet (UV) rays impinge.
These ions or molecules of compounds have been considered to be those formed from the surface of materials such as black alumite (BAm) widely used in support or shield elements in illuminating optical systems, those originally existing in air, or those ionized by the irradiation of UV light. Since a diazo dye is used in BAm and sulfuric acid is used in the BAm process, BAm may be the sources of ammonium and sulfate groups, which are the constituents of ammonium sulfate. When UV light was irradiated onto a black alumite material in a nitrogen (N.sub.2) environment, oxygen (O.sub.2) environment, and normal atmospheric environment containing a large amount of water vapor, and the contamination of the optical element was compared, the largest amounts of ammonium groups and sulfate groups were formed in air containing water vapor, and the second largest amounts of these ions were formed in the (O.sub.2) environment. This proved that the possibility of accelerated contamination was heightened by the presence of water in air.
The irradiation of UV light to O.sub.2 is considered to cause O.sub.2 to be converted to ozone, which accelerates the formation of ions from the wall of the support element and the ionization of gases in air. However, the source of silicon oxides could not be found in the optical illumination system. When the dependence on the installation environment of the device was investigated, the presence of large amounts of ionic substances such as ammonium group, sulfate group, and nitrate group was found in a clean room, and, the presence of organic silanes such as hexamethyl disiloxane (HMDS) and trimethyl silanol was found. HMDS is a material widely used as a surface-treatment agent in applying photosensitive materials to wafers, and trimethyl silanol is formed when HMDS hydrolyzes. Investigation results showed a very close relationship between the amount of substances clouding optical elements and the amount of the above impurities. A detailed study on contamination showed that the source of clouding substances is present in the environment where the device is installed, but not in the device itself.
In filtering air passing through optical devices, a high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter has conventionally been used. However, since the HEPA filter is for removing particles, it cannot remove ions or impurities which cause the photochemical reaction as described above.
As a method of avoiding the adherence of ammonium sulfate ((NH.sub.4).sub.2 SO.sub.4), U.S. Pat. No. 5,207,505 to the applicant of the present invention discloses a method for maintaining the optical device at a temperature of 120.degree. C. or more because the decomposition of ammonium sulfate begins at about 120.degree. C. (Kagaku Daijiten Vol. 9, p. 690, published by Kyoritsu Shuppan in 1964). However, although the light condensation mirrors, which are near the mercury-arc lamp, a large "heat source," can be maintained at a high temperature relatively easily, other optical elements require a considerably large separate heat source, and the dissipation of heat is very important in a semiconductor exposure apparatus which requires strict temperature control.
A prior-art device for preventing the clouding of optical elements (elliptic and direction-changing mirrors) by accommodating the light source and such optical elements in a container and introducing ion-particleless gas in this container is disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Publication No. 4-139453. However, the device disclosed in this publication prevents only the formation of ammonium sulfate in the above optical elements. Furthermore, invention shown in this publication does not intend to prevent ammonium sulfate formation in optical elements disposed downstream side from the direction-changing mirror.
Meanwhile, the inventors of the present invention also examined the process in which ammonium sulfate ((NH.sub.4).sub.2 SO.sub.4) is formed from substances present in air in minute quantities. Results showed that a photochemical reaction in which light of a wavelength less than 5 nm is involved is assumed in an optical illumination device of prior art using the i-line (a wavelength of 365 nm) of a mercury-arc lamp shown in FIG. 1, because the adhesion of white ammonium sulfate powder is limited to within the area between the elliptical mirror 2 and the surface of the band-pass filter plate 5 on which light impinges.
Sulfur dioxide (SO.sub.2) and ammonia (NH.sub.3) are normally present in the air in very small amounts, and this is true also in a clean room in which a semiconductor exposure apparatus is operated. Therefore, the following reaction processes using oxygen (O.sub.2) and water (H.sub.2 O) in the air and the energy of UV light are considered.
(1) Sulfur dioxide (SO.sub.2) acquires the energy h.nu. (where h is Planck's constant) of UV light of a frequency .nu., to form activated sulfur dioxide (SO.sub.2.sup.): EQU SO.sub.2 +h.nu..fwdarw.SO.sub.2.sup. (i)
(2) The activated sulfur dioxide (SO.sub.2.sup.) is oxidized as the following formula to form sulfur trioxide (SO.sub.3): EQU 2SO.sub.2.sup. +O.sub.2 .fwdarw.2SO.sub.3 (ii)
(3) Sulfur trioxide (SO.sub.3) reacts with water as follows to form sulfuric acid (H.sub.2 SO.sub.4): EQU SO.sub.3 +H.sub.2 O.fwdarw.H.sub.2 SO.sub.4 (iii)
(4) Ammonia (NH.sub.3) reacts with water as follows to form ammonium hydroxide (NH.sub.4 OH): EQU NH.sub.3 +H.sub.2 O.fwdarw.NH.sub.4 OH (iv)
(5) The sulfuric acid (H.sub.2 SO.sub.4) formed in formula (iii) reacts with the ammonium hydroxide (NH.sub.4 OH) formed in formula (iv) (neutralization) as follows to form ammonium sulfate ((NH.sub.4).sub.2 SO.sub.4): EQU H.sub.2 SO.sub.4 +2NH.sub.4 OH.fwdarw.(NH.sub.4).sub.2 SO.sub.4 +2H.sub.2 O(v)
The above description refers to "Chiba University Environmental Science Research Report," Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 165-177.
The inventors of the present invention noted that, if the reaction of formula (i) could be inhibited, formation of ammonium sulfate may be prevented. Therefore, if the reflectance of the light reflecting and condensating or converging element or member (2A) for the light having the light absorption band for sulfur dioxide is first decreased, the radiation of light activating sulfur dioxide decreases in subsequent optical elements, and, finally, the amount of ammonium sulfate, which causes white powder or white clouding to form, decreases. Thus, an optical illumination device which maintains a high illumination efficiency even in operation for a long period can be realized.
Next, the absorber of sulfur dioxide is described in detail. According to a different reference (H. Okabe, Photochemistry of Small Molecules, p. 248, Wiley-Inter-Science, 1978), sulfur dioxide has four absorption bands corresponding to the following first to fourth excited states:
Although the wavelength range of (1) and the wavelength range of (2) are continuous, and, similarly, the wavelength range of (3) and the wavelength range of (4) are continuous, these wavelength ranges or bands are separated because the electron states of excited sulfur dioxide formed by absorbing light of these wavelengths differ from each other. Therefore, if the light reflectance of the light reflecting and condensing or converging element (2A) for the light having at least one of the absorption bands from (1) to (4) is decreased, the radiation of light activating sulfur dioxide decreases in subsequent optical elements, and finally, ammonium sulfate formation, which causes white powder or white clouding to form, decreases.


A merchandise display panel comprises a plurality of profiles including outer edges, the profiles being arranged in a stacked edge-to-edge configuration; and a plurality of stiffeners glued to the back surfaces of the profiles across the edges between adjacent profiles.

The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) is requiring that all materials used in the construction of slat walls be of Class A fire rating. Although present materials used in slot wall construction include fire-resistant profiles, wood products such as plywood, fiberboard and the like are still used as backerboards, generally making the resulting assembly Class C. Additionally, the use of co-extensive backerboards make the assembly relatively heavy, incurring penalties in freight cost in shipping to the job site and labor cost in installing the panels.
There is therefore a need for a merchandise display panel that is relatively fire resistant that meets the NFPA fire safety code and a lightweight assembly that would be relatively cheaper to handle and ship.


A contactor for use in testing integrated circuit chips. The contactor is made with an array of V-shaped contact elements. The V-shaped contact elements are nested so that the contact elements can be longer than the pitch of the contact points. In this way, the compliance of the beam portions of the contact elements can be increased. Also, the V-shape is very robust. Further, the V-shape allows xe2x80x9cfly-byxe2x80x9d testing, which is very useful at high speeds.

This invention relates generally to electrical contactors and more specifically to improved robustness of small contactors suitable for very high frequency signals.
Integrated circuit chips are tested at least once and sometimes several times during their manufacture. In order to test the integrated circuit chips rapidly, automated handling equipment inserts the chips very rapidly into an automatic test system. The automatic test system includes a device which makes electrical contact to the integrated circuit chip, allowing the automatic test system to generate and measure electrical test signals at the chip being tested.
When the integrated circuit chips are tested after they have been packaged, the device which makes electrical contact to the chips is called a xe2x80x9ccontactor.xe2x80x9d When the integrated circuit chips are tested before they are packaged, the device which makes electrical contact is called a xe2x80x9cprobe card.xe2x80x9d A wafer containing integrated circuit chips is pressed against the probe card by an automated handling device for testing the integrated circuits on the wafer.
A contactor is generally made of conductive beams that provide compliance in one direction. Sometimes, the beams are curled to provide greater spring force in that direction. To make electrical contact, the chip to be tested is pressed against the contactor. Conductive leads or contact pads on the chip make contact with beams in the contactor such that the spring force of the beam causes electrical contact to be made with the chip.
A probe card has some similarities, though the scale is much smaller. A probe card traditionally contains an array of needle-like wires that make contact with pads on the surface of the integrated circuit chip. However, in some instances, probe cards have been made using beams that provide compliance in the direction in which the wafer is moved to press it against the probe card.
There are various limitations with existing contactors for testing packaged parts and probe cards for testing integrated circuit chips on wafers. Probe cards are generally difficult and costly to make. In addition, because the wires or beams used to make the probe cards are so small, they are fragile and can be easily damaged. The probes are designed for compliance only in one direction, specifically the direction in which the wafer is pressed against the probe card. Thus, the probe cards are particularly susceptible to damage from forces that are orthogonal to this direction.
Contactors suffer from similar limitations, but in recent years the limitations have not been as noticeable because contactors are made on a larger scale. The leads on a packaged part have traditionally been spaced much further apart than the pads inside an integrated circuit chip. However, new packaging techniques have reduced the spacing between contact points (or the xe2x80x9cpitchxe2x80x9d) on the packaged parts. For example, one current packaging technique is called Ball Grid Array, or xe2x80x9cBGAxe2x80x9d packaging. A BGA package has an array of pads to which solder balls are attached. To attach the BGA package to a printed circuit board, the solder balls are aligned with conductive pads on the printed circuit board. The solder balls are heated, forming a solder joint between the pad on the chip package and the pad on the printed circuit board.
The pads on a BGA package are typically on a 1.27 mm pitch. Future BGA packages will likely be on a 0.5 mm pitch. Forming beams in a contactor that make good electrical contact with the solder balls requires that the beams have a relatively long aspect ratio. The xe2x80x9cstrokexe2x80x9d or amount of compliance of the beam must be sufficient to ensure that all beams press firmly against all contact points when the BGA Package is pressed against the contactor. For a given width beam, the compliance of the beam will increase as the third power of its length. However, when the pitch of the pads is very small, the length of the beams is limited. Therefore, the beams must be made very narrow and thin to provide the required aspect ratio. Thin, narrow beams are not robust and even more prone to damage. Alternatively, to provide more robustness using known designs, the beams would have to be made too short to provide enough compliance and range of motion to make good, repeatable electrical contact.
Some companies have made contactors with lay-down beams. The beams of these contactors are intended to deflect downwards, towards the substrate to which the beams are attached. However, the beams of these contactors have been so long that they can bend sideways and sometimes do not stay aligned with the contact points on the chips. Additionally, the surface of the substrate below the beams has been made as a conductor. In use, the beam is intended to be pressed down against the conductor to make a low resistance electrical path. However, in practice, it has been observed on occasion that air gaps exist between the beam and the conductor, which can alter the electrical properties of the contact element. It would be desirable to have a contact element with consistent electrical properties even if deflection of the beam is not uniform
Another limitation with existing contactors and probe card designs also relates to the difficulty in making robust beams with very small pitch. In addition to being made smaller, integrated circuit chips are also operating at higher and higher frequency. The test systems that test the chips must test those chips at those high frequencies. However, at high frequencies, the transmission line effects of the connections between the test system and the chip can become a significant source of error. For example, when testing a chip, signals are sometimes measured at a test point and are at other times driven to that same test point. The test system includes, for each test point, a driver and a comparator so that a signal can be either generated or measured. If the driver and comparator are connected to the test point through the same path, the comparator can not operate until the transmission line effects from the driver have faded away. Likewise, the driver can not operate until the comparator has completed measurement, taking into account the transmission line effects. Thus, the transmission line effects limit the time between successive test operations and therefore the speed at which the test system can operate.
One way that has been used to limit the impact of the transmission line effects is called xe2x80x9cfly byxe2x80x9d testing. The drivers and comparators are connected to the test points through completely separate paths. In this way, the transmission line effects triggered by drive signals do not impact measurements made by the comparators. However, making completely separate paths requires two points of contact to each test point on the chip. Thus, the pitch of the contactors would be even smaller than the pitch of the test points, which increases the difficulty in providing a robust mechanical design. As a compromise between the electrical and mechanical properties, the signal paths between each test point and the drivers and comparators is separate for as much as possible, but is not separate in the contactor. Nonetheless, these designs are still limiting for frequencies of 1 GHz or above.
With the foregoing background in mind, it is an object to provide a contactor design that is on a very small scale.
It is also an object to provide a contactor design that is robust.
Further, it is an object to provide a contact design that facilitates fly-by testing.
The foregoing and other objects are achieved with a contact element having at least two conducting members that intersect at a contact point.
In a preferred embodiment, an array of contact elements is disposed on a carrier member with the conducting members interspersed, thereby reducing the pitch between contact points. In one embodiment, the contact point of one contact element is disposed between the conducting members of an adjacent contact element.
In a preferred embodiment, the conducting members of each contact element will be joined at an angle that is less than 90xc2x0.
In a preferred embodiment, one conducting member of each contact element will be connected to a driver and the other conducting member will be connected to a comparator, thereby allowing fly by testing.

Robust, small scale electrical contactor


A film-forming composition that attains an improvement in the solubility of a hole-injecting/transporting material and/or an electron-accepting compound and has a drying rate appropriate for stable formation of a uniform coating film, being suitable for the formation of a hole-injecting/transporting layer. This composition comprises a hole-injecting/transporting material and/or an electron-accepting compound and a liquid in which the hole-injecting/transporting material and/or the electron-accepting compound are dissolved. This liquid mainly contains a solvent whose molecule has an aromatic ring and/or an aliphatic ring and an oxygen atom and which has either a boiling point of at least 200° C. or a vapor pressure of 1 torr or lower at 25° C.

In Patent Documents 1 to 3 below, wet film-forming methods used to produce a hole-injecting layer of an organic electroluminescent device are described.
Patent Document 1 discloses a method used to form a hole-injecting/transporting layer by a spin-coating technique wherein a solution containing a hole-transporting material, polyether with aromatic diamine, and an electron-accepting compound, tris(4-bromophenyl)ammonium hexachloroantimonate (TBPAH), in dichloromethane is used.
Patent Document 2 discloses a method used to form a hole-injecting layer by a spin-coating technique, wherein a solution containing polyether with aromatic diamine in 1,2-dichloroethane is used.
Patent Document 3 discloses a method used to form a hole-injecting layer by a spin-coating technique, wherein a solution containing a mixture of 4,4′-bis[N-(m-tolyl)-N-phenylamino]biphenyl and an electron-accepting compound, antimony pentachloride, in 1,2-dichloroethane is used.
In Patent Documents 4 and 5 below, compositions for forming a hole-injecting/transporting layer by an inkjet technique are described.
Patent Document 4 discloses a coating liquid prepared by dispersing copper phthalocyanine or a conductive polymer, polyethylenedioxythiophene (PEDT), and polystyrene sulfonate (PSS) in a mixed solvent of water, lower alcohol and other components.
In Patent Document 5, a coating liquid prepared by dispersing PEDT and PSS in a solvent composed of water, ethanol and dipropylene glycol is disclosed.    Patent Document 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. H11-283750    Patent Document 2: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2000-36390    Patent Document 3: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2002-56985    Patent Document 4: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2000-106278    Patent Document 5: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-204114
Compositions for the formation of a hole-injecting/transporting layer that are used in known wet film-forming methods often contain water as solvent. In general, the presence of water would impair the properties of an organic electroluminescent device. Therefore, as much water as possible must be removed from the formed layer when such a water-containing composition is used. It is difficult to eliminate water from the formed hole-injecting/transporting layer. Existing organic electroluminescent devices have deteriorated properties due to the moisture remaining inside the layer. In manufacturing of the organic electroluminescent devices, fluctuations in the remaining moisture amounts among individual organic electroluminescent devices that occur during the film-forming step results in the devices having inconsistent properties.
Most film-forming materials used for producing a hole-injecting layer or a hole-transporting layer of an organic electroluminescent device, such as 4,4′-bis[N-(m-tolyl)-N-phenylamino]biphenyl and polyether with aromatic diamine, have low solubility in commonly used solvents, thus making it difficult to prepare a solution of an appropriate concentration when producing a thin layer of organic material by a wet film-forming method.
To form a highly uniform hole-injecting/transporting layer, it is important that the layer has a high affinity for the substrate. Accordingly, a solvent used to prepare a solution used in a wet film-forming method is required to have not only a capability of dissolution of a hole-injecting/transporting material but also a high affinity for the substrate. However, it has been difficult to prepare a solution that satisfies both these requirements evenly.
When producing an organic electroluminescent device, wherein two or more layers are laminated, by an inkjet film-forming technique, a drying rate of the coating liquid is significantly important for controlling the efficiency of manufacturing processes. For example, the use of a solvent with a higher vapor pressure causes the solvent to evaporate during spraying of the coating liquid from a spray nozzle onto a surface to be coated and clogging in the nozzle to occur, thus making it difficult to form a highly uniform organic layer.

Film forming composition and organic electroluminescent device


The invention provides compounds of formula (I) or (II) and tautomers and salts thereof, wherein variables are as described in the specification, as well as compositions comprising a compound of formula (I) or (II) or a tautomer or salt thereof, methods of making a compound of formula (I) or (II) or a tautomer or salt thereof, and methods of using a compound of formula (I) or (II) or a tautomer or salt thereof as, e.g., inhibitors of bacterial RNA polymerase or as antibacterial agents.

Bacterial infectious diseases kill 100,000 persons each year in the US and 11 million persons each year worldwide, representing nearly a fifth of deaths each year worldwide (Heron et al., Final Data for 2006. National Vital Statistics Reports, Vol. 57 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta Ga.) and World Health Organization (2008) The Global Burden of Disease: 2004 Update (World Health Organization, Geneva)). In the US, hospital-acquired bacterial infections strike 2 million persons each year, resulting in 90,000 deaths and an estimated $30 billion in medical costs (Klevins et al., (2007) Estimating health care-associated infections and deaths in U.S. hospitals. Public Health Reports, 122, 160-166; Scott, R. (2009) The direct medical costs of healthcare-associated infections in U.S. hospitals and benefits of prevention (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta Ga.)). Worldwide, the bacterial infectious disease tuberculosis kills nearly 2 million persons each year. One third of the world's population currently is infected with tuberculosis, and the World Health Organization projects that there will be nearly 1 billion new infections by 2020, 200 million of which will result in serious illness, and 35 million of which will result in death. Bacterial infectious diseases also are potential instruments of biowarfare and bioterrorism.
For six decades, antibiotics have been a bulwark against bacterial infectious diseases. This bulwark is failing due to the appearance of resistant bacterial strains. For all major bacterial pathogens, strains resistant to at least one current antibiotic have arisen. For several bacterial pathogens, including tuberculosis, strains resistant to all current antibiotics have arisen.
Bacterial RNA polymerase (RNAP) is a proven target for antibacterial therapy (Darst, S. (2004) Trends Biochem. Sci. 29, 159-162; Chopra, I. (2007) Curr. Opin. Investig. Drugs 8, 600-607; Villain-Guillot, P., Bastide, L., Gualtieri, M. & Leonetti, J. (2007) Drug Discov. Today 12, 200-208; Ho, M., Hudson, B., Das, K., Arnold, E., Ebright, R. (2009) Curr. Opin. Struct. Biol. 19, 715-723; and Srivastava et al. (2011) Curr. Opin. Microbiol. 14, 532-543). The suitability of bacterial RNAP as a target for antibacterial therapy follows from the fact that bacterial RNAP is an essential enzyme (permitting efficacy), the fact that bacterial RNAP subunit sequences are highly conserved (permitting broad-spectrum activity), and the fact that bacterial RNAP-subunit sequences are highly conserved in human RNAP I, RNAP II, and RNAP III (permitting therapeutic selectivity).
The rifamycin antibacterial agents function by binding to and inhibiting bacterial RNAP (Darst, S. (2004) Trends Biochem. Sci. 29, 159-162; Chopra, I. (2007) Curr. Opin. Investig. Drugs 8, 600-607; Villain-Guillot, P., Bastide, L., Gualtieri, M. & Leonetti, J. (2007) Drug Discov. Today 12, 200-208; and Ho, M., Hudson, B., Das, K., Arnold, E., Ebright, R. (2009) Curr. Opin. Struct. Biol. 19, 715-723). The rifamycins bind to a site on bacterial RNAP adjacent to the RNAP active center and prevent extension of RNA chains beyond a length of 2-3 nt. The rifamycins are in current clinical use in treatment of both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacterial infections. The rifamycins are of particular importance in treatment of tuberculosis; the rifamycins are first-line anti-tuberculosis agents and are among the few antituberculosis agents able to kill non-replicating tuberculosis bacteria.
The clinical utility of the rifamycin antibacterial agents is threatened by the existence of bacterial strains resistant to rifamycins (Darst, S. (2004) Trends Biochem. Sci. 29, 159-162; Chopra, I. (2007) Curr. Opin. Investig. Drugs 8, 600-607; Villain-Guillot, P., Bastide, L., Gualtieri, M. & Leonetti, J. (2007) Drug Discov. Today 12, 200-208; and Ho, M., Hudson, B., Das, K., Arnold, E., Ebright, R. (2009) Curr. Opin. Struct. Biol. 19, 715-723). Resistance to rifamycins typically involves substitution of residues in or immediately adjacent to the rifamycin binding site on bacterial RNAP—i.e., substitutions that directly decrease binding of rifamycins.
In view of the public-health threat posed by rifamycin-resistant and multidrug-resistant bacterial infections, there is an urgent need for new antibacterial agents that (i) inhibit bacterial RNAP (and thus have the same biochemical effects as rifamycins), but that (ii) inhibit bacterial RNAP through binding sites that do not overlap the rifamycin binding site (and thus do not share cross-resistance with rifamycins).

Antibacterial agents: arylalkylcarboxamido phloroglucinols

RUTGERS, THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW JERSEY


An image pickup apparatus capable of preventing foreign matters from adhering to an optical member and excellent in assembly workability. Alight shield mask has a base member affixed to an object side of an optical low pass filter, which is disposed on an object side of an imaging device. An electrically conductive sheet affixed to the base member of the light shield mask is urged by an electrically conductive urging member toward the optical low pass filter. Through the electrically conductive sheet and the electrically conductive urging member mounted to a main unit chassis, the optical low pass filter is electrically connected to the main unit chassis that provides reference potential.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image pickup apparatus having an imaging device and an optical member such as an optical filter, and more particularly, to an image pickup apparatus capable of preventing foreign matters such as dust from adhering to an optical member.
2. Description of the Related Art
An electronic image pickup apparatus such as a digital still camera or a video camera is excellent in immediacy and in compatibility with a personal computer and therefore has been rapidly widespread. The electronic image pickup apparatus having an imaging device on which an object image is formed by an image pickup optical system such as lenses and by which the object image is photoelectrically converted into image data. In general, an optical member such as an optical low pass filter or an infrared cut filter is disposed between the imaging device and the image pickup optical system.
In the image pickup apparatus, foreign matters such as dust sometimes adhere to the imaging device or to the optical member. For example, in a digital single-lens reflex camera having a replaceable lens, dust or the like, which is generated in a mechanical operation part such as a shutter or a quick return mirror, adheres to a surface of a cover glass of the imaging device or to a surface of the optical member such as an optical filter, which are disposed near the operation part. Upon lens replacement, foreign matters such as dust enter into the camera main unit through an opening of a lens mount and adhere to e.g. the optical member. In that case, images of foreign matters are included in a captured image, resulting in a degraded appearance of the image.
To obviate this, there has been proposed an image pickup apparatus capable of removing foreign matters such as dust adhered to an optical member, which is disposed in front of an imaging device (see, for example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2009-33441).
In the proposed image pickup apparatus, an electrically conductive tape affixed to a surface of the optical member is pressed by an electrically conductive elastic member to make the potential at the surface of the optical member equal to that of the electrically conductive elastic member connected to a reference potential portion of a camera main unit, thereby making the potential at the surface of the optical member equal to the reference potential, whereby dust or the like can be prevented from adhering to the optical member due to electrostatic force generated when the surface of the optical member is charged.
However, the above-described construction requires an assembly step of affixing the electrically conductive tape to the optical member. The electrically conductive tape is generally soft and small in elasticity, and is therefore easy to be deformed during the assembly work. In addition, the electrically conductive tape is small in size. This results in poor assembly workability.

Image pickup apparatus capable of preventing foreign matters from adhering to optical member


A system, method, and computer program product are provided for determining incremental code coverage of a software project. In operation, a system provides computation of project specific incremental (delta) code coverage in parallel in scenarios of multiple project teams working on different projects on a same module (or in the same repository). Further, an incremental code/mutation coverage analyzer engine associated with the system may be integrated with a project management tool and a version control software to obtain the changed code lines with respect to each project, using what it calculates as the incremental code and/or the mutation coverage.

In computer software, code coverage refers to a measure used to describe the degree to which the source code of a program is tested by a particular test suite. A program with high code coverage is thoroughly tested and has a lower chance of containing the software bugs than a program with low code coverage. The most important aspect of code quality maintenance is to test the runtime behavior of application logic on a day to day basis. However, in a typical product development and maintenance environment, new software projects often involve dealing with enormously complex legacy code along with new development.
With the growing demand of updating the existing codes with constantly changing customer requirements and having a need for the frequent releases, determination of incremental code coverage is vital for software development organizations. Incremental code coverage gives information about the code coverage only for the portion of codes that are changed instead of giving information about the code coverage for the entire source code. Existing systems fail to provide incremental code coverage per project.
There is thus a need for addressing these and/or other issues associated with the prior art.

System, method, and computer program for determining incremental code coverage of a software project


A dilator includes a first section, a second section, a third section, and a fourth section which have different diameters and are adjacent to each other in an axial direction, an angle formed by an outer peripheral surface of the first section with respect to the axial direction is smaller than an angle formed by an outer peripheral surface of the second section with respect to the axial direction, the angle formed by the outer peripheral surface of the second section with respect to the axial direction is larger than an angle formed by an outer peripheral surface of the third section with respect to the axial direction, and the angle formed by an outer peripheral surface of the third section with respect to the axial direction is smaller than an angle formed by an outer peripheral surface of the fourth section with respect to the axial direction.

The Seldinger method is a method of percutaneously introducing a catheter into the inside of a living body, such as into a blood vessel. In the Seldinger method, a hole which communicates the outside with the inside of a living body is formed by puncturing the skin with a needle. Then, a dilator, which has been inserted through the inside of a tubular introducer sheath through which a catheter can be inserted, is inserted into the hole.
The dilator protrudes from a distal end of the introducer sheath, and expands the diameter of the hole with a taper-shaped outer peripheral surface while passing through the hole. Accordingly, an operator senses resistance at the time of inserting the introducer sheath and the dilator into the hole. Here, a proposal is made to decrease the resistance.
In JP-A-2008-11867, for example, to realize decrease of the resistance, puncture resistance at the time when a distal endmost portion of the dilator punctures the hole, and diameter expansion resistance at the time when the dilator passes through the hole and expands the diameter thereof, as the resistances sensed by the operator, are set to be separately applied, rather than being applied substantially at the same time as is generally the case.

Dilator, introducer assembly, and medical tool


A process for measuring a property of a sample is provided. The sample has an external surface enclosing an inner portion, and firstly, the sample is deformed by applying a predetermined non-contact pressure to deform a portion of the sample. Then a signal, which is at least suitable for transmission over the air, is directed towards the deformed portion of the sample, and further propagates through the external surface and the inner portion of the sample. Then an echoed signal generated by the inner portion of the sample in response to the propagation of the signal is detected; wherein the echoed signal incorporates information relating to a deformation of the inner portion of the sample. The property of the sample is determined from the deformation of the inner portion of the sample.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to technologies for measuring the properties of materials such as biological tissues or engineering materials without the measurement apparatus being in contact with the samples.
2. Background of the Invention
Conventionally, mechanical properties of materials such as biological tissues or engineering materials are measured by using a testing probe to contact the samples for the measurement. In such a conventional measurement, it may be difficult to quickly image an area larger than the probe in that the probe needs to be loaded and unloaded repeatedly, which can be time-consuming.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,783,503, entitled "Method and Device for Testing the Rigidity of Biological Tissue" and assigned to Karl Storz, GmbH & Co. KG, discloses a contact-free measurement of the mechanical rigidity of a biological sample. Specifically, the sample is deformed by a jet of fluid, and the deformation is detected by optically measuring the distance between the measuring surface and the measuring device.
Disadvantages exist with the design of the '503 patent in that firstly, it failed to consider the thickness of the sample, which may affect the deformation of the sample and consequently the measurement of the mechanical rigidity of the biological sample. Furthermore, the optical distance measurement of the '503 patent merely provides limited information, i.e., the distance between the measuring surface and the measuring device, about the sample, which may not be satisfactory in a situation, where more complicated information is required.

Non-contact measurement of material property


A rotation angle sensor has a moveable sleeve (1) coupled with a rotating shaft, and a box (3) connected with the movable sleeve (1) rotatablely. An upper part of the moveable sleeve is equipped with a threaded ring (5). An inner side of the threaded ring (5) is equipped with a locking mechanism (6) which is matched with the rotating shaft tightly. The periphery of the threaded ring (5) is screwed with a fixed ring (7). The movable sleeve (1), the threaded ring (5) and the fixed ring (7) are all coaxial detachable ring structure comprising two or more arc modules. Teeth are distributed on an outer edge of the movable sleeve (1) along the circumferential direction. A reduction gear, which is engaged with the teeth and provided with multiple gears sets, is installed in the box (3). The reduction gear is fixed on a circuit board module, and a sensor module is fixed on the periphery of the reduction gear.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an angle sensor; and more particularly to a sensor that is capable of sensing rotation angles.
2. Brief Description of the Related Art
Rotation angle sensors are commonly used in lathe, electromechanical apparatus, vehicle, ship and airplane to detect the rotational speed or angle of the rotating shaft structures thereof. The sensor can be different kinds such as inductive, resistive, capacitive, photoelectric or other types. Chinese Patent No. 200720063163.X, and the filing date was at May 5, 2007. The name of invention is "The display device for detecting the rotation angle through vehicle turning", and it disclosed an angle sensor installed in the vehicle rotational mechanism, wherein the angle sensor is coupling with a signal processing circuit, and the signal processing circuit is coupling with a display circuit. This prior art is capable of displaying vehicle rotation angle by the display circuit, thereby assists with the vehicle control and increases driving safety. However, the existing angle sensors are difficult install and usually require disassembling of the whole device thereof while installing. Further, detecting the rotational speed or angle of the rotating shaft structures by the existing angle sensors has the problem of poor accuracy and stability.

Guangdong Coagent Electronic Science & Technology Co., Ltd.


The mobile terminal adequately reports when the mobile terminal receives an impact due to an accident of a vehicle. When it is determined in step S1 that the mobile terminal is set on a charge pad and it is determined in step S2 that the mobile terminal is set to a normal mode, the mobile terminal is set to an automatic report mode in step S3. Meanwhile, when it is determined in step S1 that the mobile terminal is not set on the charge pad and it is determined in step S6 that the mobile terminal is set to the automatic report mode, and when a timeout time is set in step S7 and it is determined in step S10 that the timeout time passes, the mobile terminal is set to the normal mode in step S11.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a mobile terminal, a report control method and a report system, and, more particularly, relates to a mobile terminal, a report method and a report system which automatically report an occurrence of an accident of a vehicle.
2. Related Art
Conventionally, a system which, when a vehicle receives an impact due to an accident, and a vehicle-mounted device detects an occurrence of the accident, the vehicle-mounted device causes a mobile telephone to call a specific report dial to enable the mobile telephone to automatically report the occurrence of the accident is proposed (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-250183). More specifically, when a user who carries the mobile telephone gets on the vehicle, the mobile telephone and the vehicle-mounted device perform link processing by way of Bluetooth (registered trademark), hold the linked state and stand by. Further, when the vehicle-mounted device detects an occurrence of an accident, the vehicle-mounted device transmits information related to the accident to the mobile telephone, and the mobile telephone calls a specific report dial and reports the occurrence of the accident to an accident information center.
Furthermore, conventionally, transmitting an abnormal state to a server by using a charging cradle device of a mobile telephone installed in a vehicle, and the mobile telephone is proposed (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2009-177294). More specifically, when the mobile telephone is set on the cradle device, the mobile telephone starts capturing images using a built-in camera, supplies captured image information to the cradle device and store the information. Further, when a built-in G sensor detects acceleration which exceeds a predetermined range, the cradle device transmits captured image information of a certain time before and after a time of this detection, to a server through the mobile telephone.
Furthermore, conventionally, automatically reporting using a mobile telephone alone without using other devices is proposed (see, for example, International Publication 2006/085380). More specifically, when detecting a certain impact or more due to an accident of a vehicle, the mobile telephone which has a shock sensor automatically reports, for example, position information to an emergency contact number.
Further, conventionally, providing a non-contact charging device of a mobile telephone in a vehicle is proposed. Furthermore, issuing a warning that the mobile telephone is left when a predetermined time passes while the mobile telephone is left on the non-contact charging device after an accessory power source of the vehicle is turned off is proposed (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2013-38870).

Mobile terminal, report control method, and report system


An illumination system including at least one coherent light source, a light uniforming device and a lenticular sheet module is provided. The coherent light source is capable of emitting a coherent beam. The light uniforming device is disposed on a transmission path of the coherent beam. The lenticular sheet module disposed on a transmission path of the coherent beam and between the coherent light source and the light uniforming device, includes a first lenticular sheet and a second lenticular sheet. The first lenticular sheet includes a plurality of first rod-like lenticulars disposed side by side extending along a first extending direction. The second lenticular sheet disposed between the first lenticular sheet and the light uniforming device, includes a plurality of second rod-like lenticulars disposed side by side extending along a second extending direction. The first extending direction and the second extending direction make an angle greater than 0 degree.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an illumination system. More particularly, the present invention relates to an illumination system using a coherent light source.
2. Description of Related Art
Referring to FIG. 1, a conventional laser projection apparatus 100 includes an illumination system 110, a digital micro-mirror device (DMD) 120 and a projection lens 130. The illumination system 110 includes a laser light source 112, a plurality of lenses 114 and a light integration rod 116. The laser beam 113 emitted from the laser light source 112 is expanded by the lenses 114 and uniformed by the light integration rod 116 to become an illumination beam 113a. After being projected onto the DMD, the illumination beam 113a is converted by the DMD into an image beam 113b. The image beam 113b is projected onto a screen (not shown) through the projection lens 130, thus forming a display image.
Because of the high coherence of the laser beam 113, a speckle pattern is generated in the display image on the screen due to the interference phenomenon of the laser beam 113 after the laser beam 113 passes through optical components (such as a lens, a reflector, etc.) having a slightly uneven surface in the laser projection apparatus 100. The speckle pattern is an irregular noise pattern. The speckle phenomenon causes a non-uniform brightness of the display image, thus degrading the display quality of the laser projection apparatus 100.


An anti-skipping sprinkler includes a frame defining a central longitudinal axis, the frame including a base portion defining an orifice, and first and second arms extending away from the base portion and joining at a lower end of the frame; a deflector located at the lower end of the frame; an orifice plug held over the orifice by a trigger element including a heat sensitive element; and an anti-skipping shield extending circumferentially around the heat sensitive element. The anti-skipping shield has an upper end and a lower end. The anti-skipping shield is open at the upper end and at the lower end to permit airflow to the heat sensitive element around the upper end and the lower end of the anti-skipping shield.

Automatic sprinklers for use in fire protection typically include a trigger comprising a heat sensitive element, such as a fusible link or glass bulb. The trigger causes the sprinkler to automatically open and dispense water when the heat sensitive element reaches a predetermined temperature, for example, in response to a nearby fire. In the case of multiple sprinklers located near one another, the water dispensed from an open sprinkler may land on the heat sensitive element of a nearby closed sprinkler, thereby cooling the heat sensitive element of the closed sprinkler, and undesirably delaying or preventing it from opening. This phenomenon is typically known in the art as "skipping." To reduce the possibility of this happening, sprinklers are sometimes installed at a certain distance from one another. However, when a fire is located under an open sprinkler, the rising gasses, smoke, etc., caused by that fire can carry water droplets from the sprinkler upward and sideways, and can cause those droplets to land on the heat sensitive element of nearby, closed sprinklers. These water droplets can cool the heat sensitive element of the nearby, closed sprinklers, causing "skipping" of the nearby closed sprinklers.


Embodiments of the present invention provide a system which executes a load instruction or a store instruction. During operation the system receives a load instruction. The system then determines if an unrestricted entry or a restricted entry in a store queue contains data that satisfies the load instruction. If not, the system retrieves data for the load instruction from a cache. If so, the system conditionally forwards data from the unrestricted entry or the restricted entry by: (1) forwarding data from an unrestricted entry that contains the youngest store that satisfies the load instruction when any number of unrestricted or restricted entries contain data that satisfies the load instruction; (2) forwarding data from an unrestricted entry when only one restricted entry and no unrestricted entries contain data that satisfies the load instruction; and (3) deferring the load instruction by placing the load instruction in a deferred queue when two or more restricted entries and no unrestricted entries contain data that satisfies the load instruction.

1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention relate a store queue. More specifically, embodiments of the present invention relate to a store queue that provides efficient data forwarding and store merging.
2. Related Art
Most modern processors contain store queues to prevent the processor from experiencing delays associated with committing stores to the next level of the memory hierarchy. Generally, when a store is executed by a processor the store is buffered in a store queue, making it appear that the store has been completed. However, the store may be held in the store queue until updates to the next level of the memory hierarchy have finished.
Because a store can be held in the store queue for an extended period of time, processors typically forward data from buffered stores to subsequent dependent loads. In order to determine if data should be forwarded to a subsequent load, processors compare the addresses of subsequent loads to the address for each entry in the store queue. This process typically involves using a content addressable memory (CAM) circuit to perform the comparison. Unfortunately, CAM circuits require considerable semiconductor area, consume significant power, and complicate the processor's design. Moreover, because the size of the CAM circuit scales with the number of entries in the store queue, the designers have been forced to limit the number of entries in store queue.
In addition, when forwarding data for a load that matches multiple entries in the store queue, the processor is required to determine which entry is the youngest entry. Hence, processors typically include an "age" value with each entry in the store queue. When determining if data should be forwarded from the store queue, the processor compares the ages of each matching entry. This age comparison is on the critical path of a forwarding operation, which further limits the number of entries that can be used in a store queue.
Hence, what is needed is a store queue without the above-described problems.

Store queue having restricted and unrestricted entries


A canister that adsorbs and desorbs fuel vapor generated in a fuel tank of a vehicle includes a housing and at least one expansion inhibitor. The housing is in a form of a cylinder configured to be filled with activated carbon. The housing includes a filled portion which is an area in the housing filled with the activated carbon; an unfilled portion which is an area in the housing not filled with the activated carbon; a boundary portion that defines a boundary between the filled portion and the unfilled portion; and a center portion which is situated at the axial center of the filled portion. The at least one expansion inhibitor inhibits an expansion of the boundary portion in an outward direction from being greater than an expansion of the center portion in the outward direction.

The present disclosure relates to a canister.
A fuel tank of a vehicle is coupled to a canister that inhibits fuel vapor in the fuel tank from being released into the atmosphere. The canister is for causing activated carbon to adsorb the fuel vapor, as well as for carrying out purging by drawing air to cause the activated carbon to desorb the fuel vapor and supply the desorbed fuel vapor to an internal combustion chamber of an engine.
The activated carbon used in the canister is formed into pellets and granules and packed into a filling chamber of the canister. Japanese Examined Patent Application Publication No. 7-042899 discloses a fuel vapor storage canister that prevents activated carbon granules from falling out from the filling chamber by disposing an upper tray and a lower tray across a bed of activated carbon granules. More specifically, the fuel vapor storage canister is designed to have the upper tray nested within the lower tray such that a peripheral flange of the upper tray is arranged within a coaming of the lower tray to form a gap that is smaller than the activated carbon granules.


Heparin-binding peptides are provided of the formula R1(X1B1B2X2B3X3Y1R2)RnR3, R1(X1B1B2B3X2X3B4X4Y1R2)RnR3, and C(X1B1B2B3X2X3B4X4)nC; wherein X1, X2, X3, and X4 are independently selected from the group consisting of hydropathic amino acids; B1, B2, B3, and B4 are independently selected from the group consisting of basic amino acids; C is cysteine; Y1 is zero or one to ten amino acid residues, wherein at least one amino acid residue is proline; n is an integer from one to ten; and R1, R2, and R3 are independently selected segments containing from zero to twenty amino acid residues, provided, at least one of the segments R1, R2, and R3 comprises at least one hydrophobic amino acid residue. The peptide C(X1B1B2B3X2X3B4X4)nC is optionally cyclized via a disulfide bond formed between cysteine residues. The peptides are administered to reduce plasma LMWH and heparin levels and to reduce the anticoagulant effects of heparin and LMWH. The peptides are also administered to inhibit microbial growth and to inhibit mast cell serine proteases involved in various diseases and disorders. The peptides are also administered as carriers to deliver active agents.

Heparin, a glycosaminoglycan, is a highly sulfated polyanionic polysaccharide composed of alternating residues of N-acetyl-glucosamine and glucuronic acid, and is the most widely used clinical anticoagulant. The major clinical applications for heparin include treatment of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and thromboembolism (TE), prophylactic treatment of patients at high risk for DVT and TE from numerous medical conditions, post-operative prevention of DVT and TE, and prevention of clotting and thrombus formation resulting from interventions in the circulatory system. The circulatory system intervention procedures include cardiovascular diagnostic procedures, catheterization, surgery of the heart and vessels, and many other procedures including extracorporeal circulation, such as hemodialysis, use of artificial organs, and organ transplantation. However, once the procedure has been completed, in many cases the anticoagulation effects of heparin must be neutralized or reversed in order to prevent the patient from bleeding. Protamine is the only agent approved by the FDA for heparin reversal, and administration of protamine has a high incidence of adverse hemodynamic and anaphylactic events. Low molecular weight heparins (LMWH) are being used increasingly as a substitute for conventional unfractionated heparin (UFH) in thromboprophylaxis for numerous medical conditions and for post-surgical prophylaxis, e.g., following hip or knee replacement. Treatment of these patients with either UFH or LMWH results in significant incidence of serious bleeding. Protamine can neutralize the activity of UFH but is not effective in neutralizing LMWH in vivo.
The protamines, purified from fish sperm, are a family of basic proteins rich in arginine residues. Protamine appears to neutralize heparin's biologic effects by overwhelming the carbohydrate with cationic charges. Unfortunately, it may be toxic due to high charge density or distribution of charged residues and its administration frequently causes such problems as hypotension, pulmonary artery hypertension, myocardial depression, complement activation, thrombocytopenia, and leukopenia.
Glycosaminoglycans (GAG)s such as heparin also modulate enzyme activities (e.g., of antithrombin III or heparin cofactor II), regulate cell behavior (e.g., cell adhesion, growth, and differentiation), and control the function of extracellular matrices (e.g., diffusion of ions through basement membranes, and fibrillogenesis and lateral associations of collagens), largely through non-covalent interactions with proteins. (Jackson, R. L., et al., Physiol. Rev. 71:481-539, 1991; Lindahl, U. and M. Hook, Ann. Rev. Biochem. 47:385-417, 1978; San Antonio, et al., Connective Tissue Res., 37:87-103, 1998; WO00/45831). Although many proteins exhibit high affinity interactions with heparan sulfate, heparin, and other GAGs, the specificity of such interactions has been defined for only a small number of them. As heparan sulfates and heparin are among the most structurally diverse and biologically active GAGs, their protein-interactive features have been the most thoroughly studied.
A specific heparin pentasaccharide sequence is known to be an antithrombin III binding site. The site is a pentasaccharide composed of a 6-O-sulfated glucosamine in the first position, a 3-O-sulfated central glucosamine, two N-sulfated glucosamines, and a carboxylated iduronic acid. Other modifications may increase the activity of heparin on antithrombin III, but are not essential for activity.
Cardin and Weintraub identified two potential consensus sequence motifs for heparin-binding, X-B-B-X-B-X or X-B-B-B-X-X-B-X, where X represents a hydropathic or uncharged amino acid, and B a basic amino acid (Cardin, A. D. and H. J. R. Weintraub, Arteriosclerosis 9:21-32, 1989). For example, such consensus sequences were identified in proteins including apolipoprotein B-100, apo E, and vitronectin. Molecular modeling of these consensus sites predicts the arrangement of amino acids into either α-helices or β-strands. This allows for the clustering of noncontiguous basic amino acids on one side of the helix, thus forming a charged domain to which GAGs could bind. Indeed, for some heparin-binding proteins, disruption of the heparin-binding consensus sequences hinders heparin binding. For example, chemical modification of the heparin-binding consensus site in thrombospondin (Lawler, J. and R. O. Hynes, J. Cell Biol. 103:1635-1648, 1986) or site-directed mutagenesis of a heparin-binding sequence in fibronectin (FN) (Barkalow, F. J. B. and J. E. Schwarzbauer, J. Biol. Chem. 266:7812-7818, 1991) eliminates or diminishes heparin-binding affinity. On the other hand, peptide mimetics of proposed heparin binding consensus sequences often fail to reveal the high affinities demonstrated by the native heparin-binding proteins (Conrad, H. E, Heparin-Binding Proteins. Academic Press, 1998). Proteins often contain multiple, distal heparin-binding sequences that may come into proximity upon protein folding or multimerization, hence enabling binding through cooperativity.
The heparin-binding domain of von Willebrand factor resembles the motif XBBXXBBBXXBBX, a palindromic sequence in which the spacing and clustering of basic residues is important for heparin binding (Sobel, M., et al., J. Biol. Chem. 267:8857-8862, 1992). A third novel sequence has been demonstrated to be sufficient for weak heparin-binding in thrombospondin: WSXW (Guo, N. H., et al., J. Biol. Chem., 267:19349-19355, 1992). However, for high affinity binding, this sequence must be flanked by basic residues. Other proteins including type I collagen (Sweeney, S. M., et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 95:7275-7280, 1998), extracellular-superoxide dismutase (Sandstrom, J., et al., J. Biol. Chem., 267:18205-18209, 1992), and mast cell chymases (Matsumoto, R., et al., J. Biol. Chem., 270:19524-19531, 1995), bind heparin via highly-basic binding regions which do not conform to any consensus sequence. In fact, in certain proteins, domains rich in basic amino acids have sometimes been shown to be unimportant for heparin binding. For example, the two heparin-binding consensus sequences identified in the FGFs were shown not to mediate heparin-binding (Wong, P., et al., J. Biol. Chem., 270:25805-25811, 1995; Thompson, L. D., et al., Biochem., 33:3831-3840, 1994).
GAG structure may also play a role in determining binding affinity and selectivity for proteins. A classic example is the antithrombin-binding site on heparin, which is present on only about one third of heparin chains (Lam, L. H., et al., Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun., 69:570-577, 1976), but which has a thousand-fold greater affinity for antithrombin III than the overall heparin structure (Lee, M. K., and A. D. Lander, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 88:2768-2772, 1991). Several other sequences or structural motifs have been identified in GAGs which underlie their binding interactions with basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) (Maccarana, M., et al., J. Biol. Chem., 268:23898-23905, 1993), lipoprotein lipase (Parthasarathy, N., et al., J. Biol. Chem., 269:22391-22396, 1994), and interleukin-8 (Lindahl, U., et al., J. Biol. Chem., 273:24979-24982, 1998).
Other aspects of GAG structure also contribute to specific interactions with proteins. For example, heparin displays high affinities for sequences in short basic peptides with contiguous clusters of basic amino acids, whereas heparan sulfate displays high affinities for those sequences in which clusters of basic amino acids are separated by non-basic residues (Fromm, J. R., et al., Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 343 (1):92-100, 1997). Such binding preferences may relate to the increased spacing between highly sulfated domains found throughout heparan sulfate as compared with the more uniformly densely sulfated heparin. Heparin is capable of binding to a wide array of proteins, due to its high degree of flexibility.
There is a long felt need in the art for heparin-binding peptides which have greater affinity for heparin and a greater ability to neutralize heparin activity and LMWH activity and little or no hemodynamic toxicity compared to present heparin-binding peptides. The present invention satisfies these needs.

Heparin-binding peptides and uses thereof


Disclosed is a plain bearing comprising a back metal, a bearing alloy layer provided on the inner surface of the back metal, an intermediate layer provided on the bearing alloy layer and an overlay provided on the intermediate layer. The bearing alloy layer has a textured uneven inner surface, comprising a number of protrusions, which has been formed by etching of the inner surface provided with a mask. A feature and a pattern of the uneven surface can be optionally and accurately formed by designing appropriately the mask. For example, the protrusions may be a form of square, circle or lozenge cross-section, or a ridge extending in an optional direction, e.g. circumferentially, perpendicularly or obliquely to the circumference. After the overlay considerably wears, there will appear a surface state in which the bearing alloy layer, the intermediate layer and the residual soft overlay in the etched recess coexist.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a plain bearing and a producing method thereof.
2. Brief Description of the Art
There has been known a plain bearing in which a bearing alloy layer is provided on a back metal and an overlay layer is provided on the bearing alloy layer thereby providing the bearing with improved properties of conformability and embeddability for foreign substances, the overlay layer consisting of a soft material such as a Pbxe2x80x94Sn alloy. In the case where the bearing alloy layer is of a copper alloy system, there has been provided a hard intermediate layer made of Ni, for example, between the bearing alloy layer and the overlay layer in order to prevent a compositional change of the overlay layer due to diffusion of alloy components of the overlay layer into the bearing alloy layer. Also in the case where the bearing alloy layer is of an aluminum system, there has been provided a hard intermediate layer made of Ni, for example, between the bearing alloy layer and the overlay layer in order to securely bond the both layers. However, in the case where the overlay layer wears to expose the hard intermediate layer over a broad area with the operation of the bearing, a mating shaft becomes to be in direct sliding-contact with the hard intermediate layer resulting in that seizure is liable to occur quickly. Thus, there have been known various techniques which were proposed in order to keep anti-seizure property of the composite plain bearings, according to which the bearing alloy layer is provided with an uneven inner surface and the intermediate layer is formed on the bearing alloy layer so as to follow the uneven inner surface and also have an identical uneven surface thereto, whereby, even if the overlay layer formed on the intermediate layer wears to expose the intermediate layer, the soft overlay layer will partially remain in recesses of the uneven surface of the intermediate layer.
According to an invention of JP-A-60-205014, for example, when producing a composite plain bearing having a back metal, a bearing alloy layer, an intermediate layer and an overlay layer, a spiral groove(s) is formed circumferentially on the inner surface of the bearing alloy layer by the boring machining thereby providing an uneven surface to the bearing alloy layer, and subsequently the intermediate layer and the overlay layer are formed on the bearing alloy layer in this order.
According to another invention of JP-A-62-124321, when producing a composite plain bearing having a back metal, a bearing alloy layer, an intermediate layer and an overlay layer, the inner surface of the bearing alloy layer is subjected to a shot peening treatment with ceramic particles to form an uneven surface, and subsequently the intermediate layer and the overlay layer are formed on the bearing alloy layer in this order.
According to still another invention of JP-A-62-283216, when producing a composite plain bearing having a back metal, a bearing alloy layer, an intermediate layer and an overlay layer, the inner surface of the bearing alloy layer is subjected to an electrolytic etching treatment to form recesses each having 5 xcexcm of depth, and subsequently the intermediate layer having 0.3 xcexcm of depth and the overlay layer having 5 xcexcm of depth are formed on the bearing alloy layer in this order.
But, in the case of the uneven surface formed by the boring machining, because of circumferentially extended parallel grooves thereon, when the overlay layer wears, there will appear a stripe pattern surface state consisting of a combination of linear material zones which extend circumferentially and are parts of the intermediate layer and the overlay layer. Whereas, when a foreign substance enters between the bearing and the shaft, a long scratch is formed on the linear overlay material zones resulting in deteriorated anti-seizure property and/or occurrence of fatigue cracks which might extend circumferentially.
In the case of the uneven surface formed by the shot peening, because the surface of the bearing alloy layer is work-hardened, the bearing can not have desired bearing properties including the sliding-contact property.
Further, in the case of the uneven surface formed by the electrolytic etching, because the etching treatment relies on the characteristics that grain boundaries are preferentially eroded while inter-grains are eroded slowly, the etched surface state is limited to have forms of crystal grains of the bearing alloy, so that it is hard to have deep recesses with around 10 xcexcm while shallow recesses with not more than around 5 xcexcm may be possible. Thus, in the case where the intermediate layer is provided between the bearing alloy layer and the overlay layer to have an enough large thickness so as to well exhibit the above mentioned functions thereof, as schematically shown in FIG. 6, when a wear loss advances to the depth level Y, the intermediate layer 4 is exposed through the almost overall sliding-contact surface. In order to avoid this, it is necessary to make the intermediate layer extremely thinner. Although the prior art of JP-A-62-283216 teaches to form 0.3 xcexcm of the intermediate layer, it will be hard to absolutely coat the bearing alloy layer with such a very thin intermediate layer resulting in lack of reliability.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a plain bearing which can be obtained by an etching treatment with utilization of a mask so that an inner surface of a bearing alloy layer can be an optional form of an uneven surface having a fully deep recess without changing properties of the bearing alloy layer.
According to a first aspect of the invention, there is provided the plain bearing which comprises a back metal, a bearing alloy layer, an intermediate layer and an overlay layer provided on the intermediate layer, wherein the bearing alloy layer has a textured uneven surface formed by the etching treatment and the intermediate layer is formed on the uneven surface of the bearing alloy layer so as to follow the textured uneven surface so that the intermediate layer has also a textured uneven surface.
According to the plain bearing, when the overlay layer wears to expose the hard intermediate layer, there appears a surface state that a number of exposed protrusions of the intermediate layer and the soft overlay layer being filled in the recess coexist because the intermediate layer has the uneven surface, whereby the hard intermediate layer can be prevented to expose through a broad area thereby preventing occurrence of seizure.
Also according to the plain bearing, because the textured uneven surface of the bearing alloy layer can be formed by the etching treatment to have an exactly identical to an etching pattern of the mask, the uneven surface state can be optionally formed.
For example, the protrusions of the textured uneven surface in the intermediate layer as well as the bearing alloy layer may be a form of square, circle or lozenge cross-section, or ridges extending in an optional direction, for example, circumferentially, perpendicularly or obliquely to the circumference.
The mask may be of pad printing, screen printing, a photoresist film and so on.
According to a second aspect of the invention, there is provided a method of producing a plain bearing which comprises a back metal, a bearing alloy layer provided on the inner surface of the back metal, an intermediate layer provided on the bearing alloy layer and an overlay layer provided on the intermediate layer, the method comprising the steps of:
coating the inner surface of the bearing alloy layer with a masking material defining a surface area part of the bearing alloy layer to be etched;
etching the coated inner surface of the bearing alloy layer to form a textured uneven surface comprising a number of protrusions;
removing the coated masking material from the inner surface of the bearing alloy layer;
providing the intermediate layer on the etched inner surface of the bearing alloy layer so as to follow the textured uneven surface of the bearing alloy layer so that the intermediate layer has also a textured uneven surface; and
coating the surface of the intermediate layer with an overlay layer.
According to the method, because the uneven surface of the bearing alloy layer is formed by the etching treatment, bearing characteristics of the bearing alloy layer can be maintained in contrast to a case where the uneven surface is formed by shot-peening resulting in occurrence of work-hardening.
Also according to the method, because the mask well defines an opening part corresponding to a recess at the uneven surface which is formed by etching, the uneven surface state of the bearing alloy layer can be formed optionally and accurately.
In the invention, because the bearing alloy layer is provided with the uneven inner surface with a recess, which is formed by the masking-etching method, and the intermediate layer is formed on the bearing alloy layer so as to follow the uneven surface of the bearing alloy layer, the uneven surface can be an optional state so that the plain bearing has excellent anti-seizure property and can be produced easily.

Plain bearing and producing method thereof


Embodiments relate to controlling a lighting control according to at least one of received signal strength indication (RSSI) and a preset lighting mode. Brightness or/and color temperature of the lighting device may be automatically controlled to two or more levels according to the RSSI and a user's taste. A switch application of the lighting device using the RSSI is operated to facilitate a control by a user, and On/Off or/and brightness of the lighting device are controlled according to the RSSI.

Embodiments relate to controlling a lighting device based on at least one of a received signal strength indication (RSSI) received from the lighting device, and a preset lighting mode.
A general lighting device may be controlled when a power switch and a lighting device are connected one to one and a desired switch is known.
Also, color temperature or/and brightness of each lighting device should be manually controlled based on a user's determination.
Further, when a user goes out or returns to home, the user has to turn off or on each lighting device, personally.
The above-mentioned control method, however, causes inconvenience in use since the user personally performs an action.
Meanwhile, as one of endeavors toward environment-friendly/low carbon energy and energy saving, social and national needs for an LED lighting have been sharply increased. However, in spite of efficiency and technical advantages of the LED lighting, the LED lighting has a realistic problem in that it is not widely used due to a high prices and a limitation in technical difference able to overcome the price issue compared to an existing lighting device.