An optical fiber that controllably taps and distributes light propagating through an the optical fiber that comprises an optical fiber having multiple regions each having a different index of refraction from one another such that when light traverses the optical fiber along a length it travels from a region of one index of refraction to another region having a different index of refraction the light is sufficiently deflected such that it is distributed out a side of the optical fiber along its length. In a preferred embodiment, at point in the length of the fiber where a change in index of refraction occurs, light traversing the fiber is efficiently diverted out of the optical fiber through the side of the fiber. The light so diverted alternatively is refracted by one or more refractive regions, and alternatively focused by prism films applied to the exit side of the fiber where it may then be put to an advantageous use.

Systems incorporating optical fibers are well known and find an ever-increasing variety of applications. Such systems include optical fiber communications systems, medical instruments, copiers, printers, facsimile machines, scanners, optical displays and lighting.
Contemporaneously with the increased use of systems utilizing optical fibers, polymer optical fiber (POF) is being recognized as a cost-effective alternative to conventional glass optical fiber for many of the above-mentioned applications. See for example, F. Suzuki, "Novel Plastic image transmission fiber," Proc. SPIE, 1592, 112-132, (1991); G. Brun, C. Farget, M. Reglat, M. Druetta, J. P. Goure, and J. P. Montheard, "Plastic optical fiber for lateral illumination: chemical studies and optical measurements," in Proc. 4.sup.th International Conf. Plastic Optical Fibers & Applications, Boston, MA, Oct. 17-19, 1995, pp. 187-192; J. Farenc, and P. Destruel, "Illumination, signalisation, and decoration using plastic optical fibers," in Proc. 4th International Conf. Plastic Optical Fibers & Applications, Boston, MA, Oct. 17-19, 1995, pp.203-205; S. Sottini, D. Grando, L. Palchetti, and E. Giorgetti, "Optical fiber-polymer guide coupling by a tapered graded index glass guide," IEEE J. of Quantum Electronics, 31, 174-180 (1995). Among the most frequently cited advantages of using a POF are its fundamental low weight, flexibility, resistance to breaking, low material and connection cost, and immunity to electromagnetic interference.
In many of the applications employing optical fibers, polymer or otherwise, small amounts of light traversing the fiber need to be tapped and subsequently emitted from the fiber. Consequently, a number of prior art methods have been developed for causing optical fibers to emit light from the fiber.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,466,697 discloses a light dispersive optical lightpipe and method of making same. The optical lightpipes are doped in a core region with refractive and/or reflective light scattering particles. When light traversing the lightpipe strikes a particle, it is scattered and some of the scattered light exits the lightpipe through a side. As disclosed in this patent, the light scattering particles are preferably incorporated into the lightpipe during manufacture, by adding light scattering material with the molten core before extruding the material as an optical fiber.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,037,172 discloses a method of manufacturing a reflective notch coupler for an optical fiber. The coupler is formed in an optical fiber by a pair of angled surfaces extending from the cladding of the optical fiber and meeting in the fiber's core to form an indentation in the fiber. One surface of the fiber is reflectively coated and couples light into and out of the core of the optical fiber.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,432,876 discloses an illumination device and optical fibers for use within the illumination device. According to the patentees, an optical fiber is provided with a light emitting region along at least a portion of its length. In the light emitting region, there are constructed a number of optical elements which include reflecting surfaces, at least one of which has a cross sectional area less than that of the fiber. Light traversing the fiber which strikes the reflecting surface is reflected out of the fiber. In order to maintain a substantially uniform output illumination along the light emitting region of the fiber, the morphology, pattern and spacing of the optical elements are varied as desired.
Finally, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/667,164 and a subsequent article entitled "Distribution of Light Power and Optical Signals Using Embedded Mirrors Inside Polymer Optical Fibers" by Y. Li and T. Wang (the inventor of the present application), which appeared in IEEE Photonics Technology Letters in October, 1996, there is shown how light may be distributed through side-emitting ports along a polymer optical fiber. The ports include an imbedded mirror region, which is produced by cutting and refilling a portion of the optical fiber.
While these prior-art techniques and devices exist for tapping a light signal conducted by an optical fiber, a continuing need exists for methods and devices which tap and control the emission of light from an optical fiber.


One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that reduces timing pessimism during Static Timing Analysis (STA). During operation, the system receives parametric variation data which describes the on-chip variation of timing-related parameters. Next, the system computes region-specific derating factors using the parametric variation data. The system then identifies a set of worst-case violating paths using the region-specific derating factors. Next, the system computes path-specific derating factors for one or more paths in the set of worst-case violating paths using the parametric variation data and the path properties. Finally, the system identifies zero or more realistic-case violating paths from the set of worst-case violating paths using the path-specific derating factors.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the process of verifying timing constraints in an integrated circuit. More specifically, this invention relates to the process of reducing timing pessimism during static timing analysis.
2. Related Art
Rapid advances in computing technology have made it possible to perform trillions of computational operations each second on data sets that are sometimes as large as trillions of bytes. These advances can be largely attributed to the exponential increase in the size and complexity of integrated circuits.
Due to the increase in size and complexity of integrated circuits, it has become necessary to use sophisticated tools to verify timing constraints.
Before the advent of Static Timing Analysis (STA), timing constraints were typically verified using simulation-based techniques. As the complexity of integrated circuits grew, using simulation-based techniques to verify timing constraints became impractical because of their long runtimes, low capacities, and incomplete analyses.
Unlike simulation-based techniques, STA verifies timing by computing the worst-case delays without enumerating all possible paths. Because of this, STA can perform a thorough timing analysis for large integrated circuits within a reasonable amount of time. As a result, STA has emerged as the method of choice for verifying timing constraints for large integrated circuits.
A number of factors must be considered while performing STA. The design and fabrication of integrated circuits involve complex physical and chemical processes, which cause on-chip variation of timing-related parameters. Typically, STA techniques model this on-chip variation using a global derating factor, which is used to change (or derate) delays to reflect on-chip variation. Since a global derating factor is globally applied to every delay, it ignores the context or location where each delay occurs.
Consequently, present STA techniques usually solve for the worst case scenario for on-chip variation, which typically results in a safe but pessimistic timing analysis.
Unfortunately, due to the continuing miniaturization of feature sizes, timing constraints for integrated circuits are becoming increasingly stringent. As a result, it is becoming extremely difficult to design integrated circuits using present STA techniques due to their overly pessimistic timing analyses.
Hence, what is needed is a method and apparatus that reduces timing pessimism during STA without significantly increasing the computational time.

Method and apparatus for reducing timing pessimism during static timing analysis


An apparatus for receiving, from a wide container stream upstream from the apparatus, single-lane container streams and creating package units of containers includes a separating and/or combining unit, application elements, and a linear transporter. The unit separates and/or combines containers to form partial packaged units that are then combined into a package unit. The application elements are disposed so that at least one container of a package unit has, on a contact surface thereof, adhesive or glue. The linear transporter comprises transport elements circulate along a guide element, and a controllable drive. Each transport element of the linear transporter comprises as many head guides as there are containers in the package unit, each of which is axially movable or rotatable relative to the transport element.

It is known to combine or form several articles into an article group and to then create firm, transportable storage and transport units or packaged units from the article groups using shrink film. A disadvantage of using shrink films is that shrinking of the films by heat or energy application incurs not insignificant costs.
It has already been proposed to create transportable packaged units by wrapping the containers into a container group using a wrapping that surrounds or loops around the container group. The wrapping can also be glued to the containers.
The disadvantage of using a wrapping, however, is that, on first removal of a container from such a packaged unit, the containers remaining in the unit are no longer held together by the wrapping. This applies not only when the wrapping is torn or cut, but also in those cases in which one removes a container from the packaged unit without tearing the wrapping.
Furthermore, on transport of such packaged units on a conveyor belt, there is always the risk that cylindrical or largely cylindrical articles, such as cans, bottles, or containers, will assume a nested position due to vibration, impact etc. In a nested position, the cylindrical article slips into gaps in an adjacent row. To prevent this, considerable tension must be applied to the wrapping.
Another known method relies on a rotary star provided on both sides of the track. The rotary star presses the bottle necks into clamps on bottle carriers. Inn this method, the bottle pack is still surrounded with a strap or wrapping, or film.
It is also know to apply adhesive to containers in narrow areas or strips. The containers adhere to each other at these areas or strips. Meanwhile, adjacent surfaces not provided with adhesive can be used to grip and carry the pack.

Device for the creation of packaged units


A sequencer for use with a countermeasure defense system includes an input signal indicative of firing an expendable, a circuit card that receives the input signal indicative of firing the expendable and an output analog signal from the circuit card that fires the expendable. The parameters of the output analog signal correspond to parameters of a digital waveform.

A CMDS dispenses expendables (i.e., chaff or flares) from a platform such as an aircraft in order to counter an incoming threat. The expendables may be released based on an input from a pilot or may automatically be released based on a threat detection unit interfaced with the CMDS that detects an incoming threat. The CMDS includes a fire source that supplies a current pulse that electrically initiates a pyrotechnic impulse cartridge. The pyrotechnic impulse cartridge is used to dispense chaff or flare expendables from the aircraft. Generally, a CMDS includes at least two fire sources that operate at a duty cycle, such as 50%, limiting the fire rate of expendables. As a result, an aircraft may have available expendables, but may not be able to dispense them during a time of need. Also, different expendables may require different voltages in order to initiate their corresponding pyrotechnic impulse cartridge. A CMDS may be capable of supplying only one current to a pyrotechnic impulse cartridge limiting the type of expendable the CMDS may be capable of firing. Furthermore, a CMDS may be susceptible to undesired fire pulse that may electrically initiate a pyrotechnic impulse cartridge thereby causing a misfire.

Apparatus and control of a single or multiple sources to fire countermeasure expendables on an aircraft

BAE Systems Information and Electronic Systems Integration Inc.


Methods and systems are provided for a cancellation server maintaining a database of identifiers of cryptographic puzzles. A cryptographic puzzle is created from a unique identifier and a timestamp, and is attached to an electronic mail message, along with the puzzle's solution. The recipient verifies that the solution is correct and that the timestamp is current, and further queries the cancellation server with the puzzle identifier. If the identifier does not exist in the database, then the recipient knows the received message is legitimate. If the identifier already appears in the database, the received message can be automatically removed from the recipient's computer.

Electronic messaging, particularly electronic mail (e-mail) carried over the Internet, has become a preferred method of communication for many individuals and organizations. Unfortunately, e-mail recipients are increasingly being subjected to unsolicited and unwanted mass mailings. With the growth of Internet-based commerce, a wide and growing variety of electronic merchandisers are repeatedly sending unsolicited mail advertising their products and services to an ever-expanding universe of e-mail recipients. For example, users of the Internet who merely provide their e-mail addresses in response to perhaps innocuous appearing requests for visitor information generated by various web sites, often find, later upon receipt of unsolicited mail and much to their displeasure, that they have been included on electronic distribution lists. This can have a negative effect on the users' experiences and can diminish the productivity of users who receive such unwanted e-mail, or "spam", at their place of business.
Once a recipient finds himself on an electronic mailing list, that individual cannot readily, if at all, remove his address from it, thus effectively guaranteeing that he or she will continue to receive unsolicited mail. This occurs simply because the sender either prevents a recipient of a message from identifying the sender of that message (such as by sending mail through a proxy server) and hence precludes that recipient from contacting the sender in an attempt to be excluded from a distribution list, or simply ignores any request previously received from the recipient to be so excluded.
An individual can easily receive hundreds or thousands of pieces of unsolicited ordinary postal mail over the course of a year, or less. As bad as that is, given the extreme ease and insignificant cost through which electronic distribution lists can be readily exchanged and e-mail messages disseminated across extremely large numbers of addressees, a single e-mail addressee included on several distribution lists can expect to receive a considerably larger number of unsolicited email messages over a much shorter period of time. Furthermore, while many unsolicited e-mail messages are benign, others, such as pornographic, inflammatory and abusive material, are highly offensive to their recipients. Some (viruses) are even harmful to computers. All such unsolicited messages collectively constitute so-called "junk" mail or "spam".
One proposed method of addressing the junk-email problem requires a digital "postage stamp" to be attached to an e-mail message. More generally, these stamps can constitute a "proof-of-work." The basic idea can be summarized as follows: Whenever a sender transmits e-mail to an intended recipient, a digital postage stamp will be generated. Unlike physical postage, the sender does not spend money but instead spends CPU cycles or other computer system resources by solving a puzzle, the solution to which becomes a postage stamp. The theory is that the economics of bulk e-mail changes when e-mail is required to have postage. A single digital postage stamp is not hard to create, requiring perhaps a few seconds of computing time. Bulk e-mailers, however, rely on being able to send thousands or hundreds of thousands, or more, of messages very quickly; if they need to calculate postage stamps for every message, it will slow them down and consume CPU resources. Making spam more expensive in this manner is intended to deter spammers from operating, since a sender of a bulk e-mail in such a scheme must spend significant computational resources—at a real cost—in order to send a mass mailing, while the cost to each recipient is negligible. Another advantage to putting electronic postage on e-mail is that it can also be used as a key for filtering out spam. By adding an easily detectable and verifiable postage stamp, users would be able to filter out e-mail that does not have this postage stamp.
In some known digital postage systems, the stamp takes the form of a cryptographic puzzle and solution. The puzzles are mathematical problems possessing the general quality that they are moderately difficult to solve (i.e., they require more than a nominal amount of time and computing power), yet are easy to verify once the solution is in hand. Several researchers have investigated mathematical functions with the desired qualities, as well as protocols and systems for effectuating the use of cryptographic puzzles as digital postage stamps. These researchers include: Dwork and Naor, who proposed the use of cryptographic puzzles as a deterrent to unwanted email ("Pricing via Processing or Combatting Junk Mail," Lecture Notes in Computer Science 740 (Proceedings of CRYPTO '92), 1993, pp. 137-147; Adam Back, who later proposed Hash Cash for use in protecting mailing lists and in stopping denial-of-service attacks (see "Hashcash—a Denial of Service Counter-Measure, August 2002, available from http://cypherspace.org/˜adam/hashcash/); Abadi, et al., who researched particularly useful mathematical functions ("Moderately Hard, memory-bound Functions", Proceedings of the 10th Annual Network and Distributed System Security Symposium, February 2003); and Dwork et al., who conducted similar research ("On Memory-Bound Functions for Fighting Spam", Proceedings of the 23rd Annual International Cryptology Conference (CRYPTO 2003), August 2003). The above references are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety for all that they teach without exclusion of any parts thereof.
One problem with digital postage is ensuring that a cryptographic puzzle-solution used as a stamp for one email message cannot be re-used as a stamp for a second email message. If puzzle-solutions are allowed to be re-used, an ill-intended email sender could copy one puzzle-solution for use in multiple messages, and the recipients would have no way of knowing these messages were illegitimate. Some existing digital postage systems, such as those of the aforementioned Dwork-Naor and HashCash, address this problem by insisting that the puzzle be a mathematical function of the message itself. The puzzle-solution in such systems is thus uniquely tied to the message. Although these systems preclude a puzzle-solution from being re-used, they necessarily require that the message has already been composed prior to the puzzle-solution's creation.
Other known digital postage systems address this limitation by use of a "ticket server." The ticket server is a centralized server that generates cryptographic puzzles offline. An email sender obtains a ticket by, for example, solving a cryptographic puzzle. The ticket is attached to an email message intended for a recipient, who then verifies the ticket's validity by checking with the centralized ticket server. The ticket server "cancels" used tickets to ensure that the same ticket cannot be used more than once. Although these systems allow for creating digital postage prior to message composition, they require the email sender and recipient to use and trust the same centralized server. Such a ticket server system is described by M. Abadi, A. Birrell, M. Burrows, F. Dabek, and T. Wobber, in Bankable Postage for Network Services, Proceedings of the 8th Asian Computing Science Conference, Mumbai, India, December 2003, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety for all that it teaches without exclusion of any part thereof.

Cryptographic puzzle cancellation service for deterring bulk electronic mail messages


In one aspect of the present invention, a degradation assembly comprises a holder attached to a driving mechanism and comprises a longitudinal central bore. The bore comprises an opening at a distal end from the driving mechanism. A pick comprising a body intermediate a shank and an impact tip is connected to the holder, the shank being disposed in the central bore of the holder and the body extending from the opening of the bore. A tensioning mechanism is disposed within the bore and is adapted to put the shank in axial tension.

In the asphalt industry, pavement may be degraded using attack picks, and in the mining industry, attack picks may be used to break minerals and rocks. Attack picks may also be used when excavating large amounts of hard materials. In asphalt recycling, often, a drum supporting an array of attack picks disposed within holders attached, together making up a degradation assembly, may be rotated and moved so that the attack picks engage a paved surface causing the picks and/or holders to wear.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,274,678 to Herridge, which is herein incorporated by reference for all that it contains, discloses a mineral mining pick boss having a socket therein for the reception of a shank of a mineral mining pick and a locking arrangement for retaining the shank, the locking arrangement comprising a plug received in a bore extending through the boss transversely of the socket the arrangement being such that the bore intersects the socket, the plug comprising a body of a resilient material (e.g. neoprene) having bonded into the periphery thereof at spaced locations a plurality of metallic members one of which protrudes from the bore into the socket for frictional engagement with the shank of the tool so as to retain the tool in position, the other(s) of the metallic members being disposed within the bore, and the arrangement of the metallic members being such that the plug may be removed from the bore, rotated and re-inserted to change the metallic member which protrudes into the socket.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,484,783 to Emmerich, which is herein incorporated by reference for all that it contains, discloses a mining bit to be mounted for rotation in a bore of a support block or on a drill steel having a retention configuration opposite the working end. A bit shank is formed opposite the working end. A bit shank is formed with an abutment flange at the insertion end and a recess adjacent said flange to receive flexed resilient fingers of a resilient retention ring during insertion of said ring in said bore. A fulcrum land supports an un-split end of said ring. The resilient fingers carry an annular bulge projection which engages an annular recess in a support bore. The ring can extend the length of the retention shank to serve as a wear sleeve. With a drill steel, the retention ring is mounted on an extending insert to cooperate with a female recess in a hollow bit.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,382,733 B1 to Parrott, which is herein incorporated by reference for all that it contains, discloses a mounting member, for a mining cutting apparatus, which has an enlarged head incorporating an annular seating shoulder, whilst a circular section pin extends integrally from the head and is adapted to be received in a circular section socket of a pick box and to be retained therein, a circular groove being provided intermediate the ends of the pins to receive a fluid sealing member, with a first portion of the pin being of such diameter that, in use, it is an interference fit within a pick box socket. The invention also includes a pick box; a mounting member and a pick box combination; a drum for a mineral cutting apparatus; mineral cutting apparatus; a road planning machine; a mining machine, and a tunneling machine.
Examples of degradation assemblies from the prior art are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,863,352 B2 to Sollami, U.S. Pat. No. 5,392,870 to Clapham et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,537,448 to Ketterer, U.S. Pat. No. 3,397,013 to Krekeler, U.S. Pat. No. 4,575,156 to Hunter et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,796,464 to Hansen et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,678,238 to Emmerich, which are all herein incorporated by reference for all they contain.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A dental prophy cup includes an elastically flexible rim which includes a flexure region of reduced thickness. The rim thickness increases to a region of maximum thickness at a location forwardly of the flexure region and then tapers downwardly toward a front end of the rim. A forwardly facing surface of the cup which contacts the tooth surface comprises two convex surface portions joined by a radiused bridge surface portion located at the flexure region. Abrasive particles are distributed within the body of the cup and are released as the base material of the cup breaks down.

The present invention relates to a dental prophy cup used in dental prophylaxis procedures and, in particular, to a novel configuration and construction of such a cup.
A dental prophylaxis procedure typically involves the application of an abrasive paste (i.e., a paste containing abrasive particles) to a tooth surface upon which pressure and rotational motion are applied. The removal of plaque, calculus and stains is facilitated by the resultant abrasion at the interface between the abrasive particles and tooth surface.
The pressure and rotational motion are applied to the abrasive paste by means of a prophy cup which comprises a cup-shaped element of about one-quarter inch diameter, the outer peripheral wall of which is elastically flexible. The cup is mounted on a drive shaft which rotates the cup at high speed, e.g., about 1,500 rpm. An operator presses the cup against a tooth following the insertion of abrasive paste into the cup. The paste serves as a lubricant, and the abrasives in the paste function to abrade away plaque, calculus, and stains from the tooth surfaces.
This procedure has traditionally exhibited certain shortcomings. For example, during the prophylaxis procedure, the paste becomes diluted when coming into contact with saliva, blood and/or water. Since the amount of paste contained in the cup is small, e.g., about 0.1 gram, even a slight dilution has a pronounced adverse effect on the concentration of abrasive particles. As dilution increases, abrasion and performance decreases.
Additionally, the centrifugal force generated by a prophy cup rotating at 1,500 rpm causes the paste to be displaced in a radial direction. The amount of paste retained at the interface of the cup and tooth surface after one second (25 rotations) is a small fraction of the initial volume. The decreased amount of paste results in reduced abrasion and performance.
The above-described shortcomings involve a reduced availability of abrasive at the working area. Additional shortcomings, however, relate to the geometry of the cup. In that regard, prophy cups are designed to be flexible. That is, as the operator presses the cup against a tooth surface, the outer annular rim of the cup is intended to flex outwardly in order to increase the area of surface contact between the cup and the tooth. The present inventor has determined, however, that the amount of flexing exhibited by presently used cups results in a relatively narrow area of surface contact being established. That area is ring-shaped and less than 0.02 inch wide. This makes it difficult for the operator to control the magnitude and placement of abrasion.
If the cup rim were made thinner in order to increase its flexibility, then the outer portion of the rim may apply only weak forces to the abrasive particles, whereby the cleaning action is ineffective.
In one reported clinical test involving seventy-six patients, it was observed that following a prophylaxis cleaning procedure with conventional prophy cups, deposits remained on interproximal surfaces of all test teeth and on facial surfaces of over half the test teeth.
It would be desirable to provide a dental prophy cup which minimizes or obviates the above-described shortcomings.


In client-server architectures, systems and methods for implementing an extensible resource management platform at a server are described. The extensible resource management platform is developed based on a plug-in based architecture which includes one or more subsystems for performing functions associated with resource management. Different implementations can be provided by new or different components or plug-ins. The resource management platform is thus a platform over which one or more functionalities can be further added to supplement existing and varying functions.

Currently available computing-based devices allow plurality of processes to run on them. One or more applications may also be hosted on such devices that allow access by other users connected to them. Such processes and applications use resources (e.g., memory and processors), of the host computing based devices. Resource management tools allow a system administrator to manage resources that are allotted to the processes or applications. Allocation of resources to applications can be done on the discretion of the system administrator or can be dictated through a policy for managing resources. An example of such an application includes Windows® System Resource Manager (WSRM) developed by the Microsoft® Corporation.
Presently existing resource management tools are application based and are rigid. Systems today are complex, serve a spectrum of needs and thus have varying requirements. Resource management tools may have to be modified from time to time to cater to the developing needs. Unfortunately, modifying resource management tools is a code extensive task.


A wear surface for helicopter shoes is constructed by forming a railed enclosure on a curved base plate, placing a mosaic of smooth-surfaced tungsten carbide blocks on the base plate within the enclosure, brazing the blocks to the plate and rails, and grinding the rails to form a smooth, edgeless transition between the wear surface and the plate surface.

The skids on which helicopters rest when they are on the ground are exposed to severe wear because helicopters generally do not land exactly vertically but rather with a certain amount of forward or sideways motion. This imposes a considerable frictional stress on the skids when the helicopter touches the ground. Skids are expensive components and have weight limitations; consequently, it has been customary to attach wear-resistant skid shoes to the underside front, center and rear, or even the entire length of the skid tubes. These shoes typically have a welded hard-faced surface, and they are readily replaceable when they wear through.
As shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,544,116 to Shwayder, it has previously been proposed to use as helicopter shoes a steel channel containing crushed tungsten carbide particles in a copper-based binder. Similarly, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,117,845 to Reed, a steel plate is coated with a coating of tungsten carbide particles distributed in a copper-based binder and covered with a flame-sprayed copper-nickel alloy.
The prior art wear surfaces described above have several disadvantages. For one, the crushed tungsten carbide particles embedded in a softer binder form a rough surface which produces considerable friction. This is undesirable because a pilot has better control over the helicopter if it slides smoothly on the ground when landing. Secondly, both the channel of U.S. Pat. No. 4,544,116 and the plate of U.S. Pat. No. 3,117,845 have sharp side edges. These can catch in a gouge or groove in a runway surface when there is a transverse component to the helicopter's motion on landing, and cause a serious accident. Thirdly, as the surface wears, tungsten carbide particles break loose from the binder and reduce the life of the shoe. Fourthly, the clamp mounting of U.S. Pat. No. 4,544,116 is unsatisfactory because it allows the shoe to shift on the skid under strong impacts.
It has previously been proposed in the street sweeping industry to braze small blocks of tool-tip grade tungsten carbide into a groove milled in a sweeper drag shoe. This approach, however, is unsuitable for helicopter skids because it suffers from the same disadvantages as the channel of U.S. Pat. No. 4,554,116. Furthermore, tool-tip grade tungsten carbide tends to fracture under the impact of a helicopter landing.
There consequently exists a need for a smooth, wear-resistant helicopter skid shoe that has no sharp edges that can catch on lateral movement, and that can be bolted directly to the skids.

Curved wear surface for helicopter skid shoes


A monocrystal of a R-T intermetallic compound containing R (at least one lanthanide element inclusive of Y) and T (at least one transition metal element such as Fe, Co, Ni, Cr and Mn) is grown by a solid phase method. First a precursor in which a primary phase of the intermetallic compound and a low-melting eutectic crystal phase exist is prepared. The precursor is successively heated from one end to another end while it is often contacted at one end with a seed crystal. Then the low-melting eutectic crystal phase functions as a flux intergranular substance to ensure the consistent manufacture of a monocrystal aligned with the crystallographic orientation of the seed crystal or at the start-of-heating point.

For the manufacture of monocrystals of various metals, ceramics and the like, a number of techniques are known in the art as listed below.
(1) Unidirectional solidification involving melting followed by unidirectional cooling for solidification, resulting in aligned crystallographic orientation.
(2) Bridgman method involving pulling up a melt while allowing solidification in alignment with a monocrystalline plane.
(3) Zone melt method which is one form of the unidirectional solidification.
(4) Molding in a magnetic field.
(5) Vapor phase method including evaporation, sputtering, CVD, etc.
(6) Solid phase reaction method in which a ceramic monocrystal is prepared by interposing a flux of a material other than the elements of a ceramic such as glass between a monocrystal and a polycrystal and successively moving a heating zone, thereby utilizing movement of the flux along the grain boundary.
There are also known magnetostrictive materials in the form of RT.sub.2 intermetallic compounds such as RFe.sub.2. These materials are prepared (a) by unidirectional solidification and zone melting methods as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,308,474, 3,949,351, 4,378,258, 4,375,372, and 4,158,368.
Although it is described in these patents that monocrystals of RFe.sub.2 were obtained, Sm systems or the like could not be obtained in monocrystalline form because of peritectic formation during solidification. According to the report of the same inventor in IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, Vol. MAG.-22, No. 5, September 1986, (Tb.sub.x Dy.sub.1-x)Fe.sub.2 acquired (112) orientation. The (112) orientation, however, is low in magnetostriction, especially in magnetostriction during magnetization process as compared with (111) orientation.
Also, U.S. Pat. No. 4,308,474 discloses (b) RT.sub.2 prepared by Bridgman method. This does not yield a monocrystal oriented in (111) direction.
Further, U.S. Pat. No. 4,152,178 discloses (c) that molding is finished in a magnetic field in preparing RT.sub.2 by powder metallurgy. This does not yield a monocrystal.
No examples are known as to the use of solid phase reaction process for RT.sub.2 intermetallic compounds. This is also true for other R-T intermetallic compounds.


A multidimensional address generator for generating one-dimensional addresses respectively corresponding to P.sub.1 .times.P.sub.2 .times. . . . .times.P.sub.N data of a predetermined region of an N-dimensional entire data array (N is a positive integer larger than one) which has Q.sub.1 .times.Q.sub.2 .times. . . . .times.Q.sub.N data (P.sub.1, . . . and P.sub.N and Q.sub.1, . . . and Q.sub.N are positive integers and P.sub.1 .ltoreq.Q.sub.1, . . . and P.sub.N .ltoreq.Q.sub.N). The generator comprises a first to third multiplexers, an adder and a first to Nth accumulating registers. In the generator, the first multiplexer selects one of a first to Nth increments respectively corresponding to a first to Nth directions, in which data to successively be accessed are arranged. Further, the second multiplexer selects one of data stored in the first to Nth accumulating registers, and the third multiplexer selects between the start address and an output of the adder. Moreover, data selected by the first multiplexer is added by the adder to data selected by the second multiplexer, and data selected by the third multiplexer is inputted to the first to Nth accumulating registers. Furthermore, a start address is written to the first to Nth accumulating registers when the address generator is activated. Moreover, the first increment is added to the data held in the first accumulating register in each of Cycles 1 to (P.sub.1 -1) and . . . and Cycles (P.sub.N P.sub.N-1 . . . P.sub.2 -1)P.sub.1 +1 to (P.sub.N P.sub.N-1 . . . P.sub.2 P.sub.1 -1), the first increment is added to the data held in the first accumulating register, and a result is written thereto. Additionally, an nth increment (n=2, 3, . . . , N) is added to the data held in the nth accumulating register, and a result is written to the first to nth accumulating registers, every P.sub.n-1 P.sub.n-2 . . . P.sub.1 cycles during Cycles P.sub.n P.sub.n-1 P.sub.n-2 . . . P.sub.1 to (P.sub.n -1)P.sub.n-1 P.sub.n-2 . . . P.sub.1 and so on. The data finally obtained in the first accumulating register is outputted. Consequently, an operation of accessing a plurality of multidimensional data can be performed easily and quickly.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to an address generator for generating addresses, at which data to be accessed is stored, assigned to locations of a memory provided in a digital signal processor (hereunder abbreviated as a DSP) and of an external storage, and more particularly to a multidimensional address generator for generating addresses assigned to locations of a memory, in which data (e.g., image data) to be accessed is physically arranged as a one-dimensional array is stored, when accessing and treating the data as a multidimensional array (i.e., an array of two or more dimensions).
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, when two-dimensional data such as image data is stored in a memory, it is required to perform a mapping of the two-dimensional data into a one-dimensional address space. In case of image data, a mapping of image data to one-dimensional addresses is usually carried out in accordance with order of raster scan of positions corresponding to the image data. Further, when the image data is treated as two-dimensional data, it is often to extract a part of image data corresponding to picture elements (i.e., pixels) of a rectangular region from all of the image data and use the extracted part of the image data for various image processing. In case of image data which is a typical example of two-dimensional data, such rectangular regions including, for instance, 3.times.3 or 8.times.8 pixels are employed as processing objects of various picture processing to be performed by using image data corresponding to pixels of a local neighborhood of a pixel and as objects of image data compression to be effected by dividing an entire image into image blocks.
Referring to FIGS. 4(a), (b) and (c), there is illustrated the manner of mapping image data into a one-dimensional address space. In these figures, reference numeral 41 indicates an entire image composed of a rectangular region including Q.sub.1 .times.Q.sub.2 pixels (incidentally, reference characters Q.sub.1 and Q.sub.2 denote positive integers); 42 a rectangular region including P.sub.1 .times.P.sub.2 pixels to be accessed (incidentally, reference characters P.sub.1 and P.sub.2 designate positive integers and P.sub.1 .ltoreq.Q.sub.1 and P.sub.2 .ltoreq.Q.sub.2); 43A an actual memory map corresponding to the entire image; and 43B another actual memory map corresponding to the rectangular region 42 to be accessed.
As illustrated in FIGS. 4(a), (b) and (c), the rectangular region 42 arbitrarily extracted from the entire image comprised of the rectangular region including Q.sub.1 .times.Q.sub.2 pixels is divided and arrayed in a memory. Thus, in order to successively access image data included in the rectangular region 42 to be accessed, and address generator for generating addresses is needed. Further, a direct memory access (DMA) transfer of image data from an external image memory to an internal image memory of a DSP is performed by using this address generator, and then the DSP effects various processing of the transferred image data in synchronization with the access by the address generator to the image memories.
Referring next to FIG. 10, there is shown an example of a conventional two-dimensional address generator. Here, as illustrated in FIG. 4, a rectangular region including P.sub.1 .times.P.sub.2 pixels in an entire image comprised of a rectangular region including Q.sub.1 .times.Q.sub.2 is employed as an object to be accessed.
In FIG. 10, reference numeral 101 denotes a first increment setting device for setting an increment to be used to calculate addresses assigned to locations at which image data corresponding to pixels arranged in a first scanning direction (i.e., a secondary scanning direction (e.g., X-direction as viewed in FIG. 4(a))) to be accessed is stored; 102 and adder; 103 an accumulating register; 104 a start-address setting device for setting and address (hereunder referred to simply as a start address) from which an operation of accessing image data is started; and 105 a control circuit. Incidentally, in the instant specification, a direction, in which elements such as pixels to be accessed are arranged, will be referred to as a scanning direction.
Hereinafter, an operation of this conventional two-dimensional address generator will be described with reference to FIG. 10.
First, in Cycle 0, data (hereunder referred to as start-address data) indicating an address, which corresponds to image data 0 of a pixel to first be accessed in the rectangular region 42 of FIG. 4(a), of the map 43A of FIG. 4(b) is set by the start-address setting device 104 in the accumulating register 103 as an initial value of an address (i.e., a start address) corresponding to image data of a pixel to be accessed.
Thereafter, in Cycles P.sub.1, 2P.sub.1, . . . and (P.sub.2 -1)P.sub.1, the start-address setting device sets addresses of locations, at which image data P.sub.1, 2P.sub.1, . . . and (P.sub.2 -1)P.sub.1 are stored, of an image memory, in the accumulating register 103, respectively, as a start address. Further, in each of Cycles 1, . . . and (P.sub.1 -1), data held in the accumulating register 103 is added to the first increment set by the first increment data setting device 101 by the adder 102, and moreover a result of the addition is written to the accumulating register 103. Similarly, an addition of data held in the accumulating register 103 to the first increment, as well as a writing of a result of the addition to the accumulating register 103, is performed in each of Cycles (P.sub.1 +1) to (2P.sub.1 -1) and (P.sub.2 -n 1)P.sub.1 to (P.sub.2 P.sub.1 -1). Finally, the conventional two-dimensional address generator outputs data obtained in the accumulating register 103 as a result of performing operations of Cycles 0 to (P.sub.2 P.sub.1 -1).
With the configuration of FIG. 10, the conventional address generator, however, needs to calculate a start address and set the calculated start address in the accumulating register 103 every time the scanning direction is changed. Thus, the conventional address generator has a drawback in that many number of cycles are needed to generate addresses required to access multidimensional data such as image data. The present invention is created to eliminate the above described drawback of the conventional address generator.
Accordingly, and object of the present invention is to provide a multidimensional address generator which can access multidimensional data by performing a relatively small number of cycles.
Further, another object of the present invention is to provide a control system for controlling a multidimensional address generator such that the address generator can have successive accesses to a specific address of a memory (for example, can read data stored at a specific address of a memory, then perform an operation on the read data and further write a result of the operation to the specific address of the memory).

Multidimensional address generator and a system for controlling the generator

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


Techniques for voice instant messaging (VIM) on a programmable telephone set include receiving configuration data that includes VIM ID data that indicates a particular group of telephone sets. A start signal is received that indicates a start of a new message directed to the particular telephone set over a particular communication channel associated with the VIM ID. In response, VIM audio data received over the communication channel is recorded. It is determined whether the particular telephone set is currently in use. If not, then the VIM audio data is played over a speaker on the particular telephone set. These techniques allow instant, persistent audio messages to multiple recipients without a computer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to communicating voice data over a packet-switched or circuit-switched network with a telephone set for use by a human; and, in particular relates to providing a voice instant messaging (VIM) service on a programmable telephone set.
2. Description of the Related Art
Networks of communications devices, general-purpose computer systems and specific purpose devices connected by external communication links are well known and widely used in commerce. The networks often include one or more network devices that facilitate the passage of information between end stations, such as telephones and general purpose computing devices, which originate or receive the information. A network node is a network device or end station connected by the communication links. Information is exchanged between network nodes in discrete data packets according to one or more of many well known, new or still developing protocols. In this context, a protocol consists of a set of rules defining how the nodes interact with each other based on information sent over the communication links. The protocols are effective at different layers of operation within each network node, from generating and receiving physical signals of various types, to selecting a link for transferring those signals, to the format of information indicated by those signals, to identifying which software application executing on a computer system sends or receives the information. Signaling between nodes is typically effected by exchanging special data packets called control plane data packets. Each data packet typically comprises 1] header information associated with a particular protocol, and 2] payload information that follows the header information and contains information that may be processed independently of that particular protocol. Often, the data in the payload for the particular protocol includes a header and payload for a different protocol associated with a different, usually higher layer protocol. The payload protocol is said to be encapsulated in the header protocol.
Commercial services that provide voice data communicated over a packet-switched network predominately use the Internet Protocol (IP) as the internetworking layer protocol to communicate with devices on different networks. A voice data session over IP between end stations is set up predominately using IP datagrams that include in the IP payload the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) header and payload. The SIP header provides information about the party that originated the voice data, e.g., a caller network identifier ("caller ID") and the called party, e.g., a target network identifier ("target ID").
Many telephone sets, including wireless mobile telephone sets and computers so configured, include one or more speakers for presenting audio data, microphones for collecting audio data and displays for presenting visual data. Some include visual recorders, such as digital cameras and video recorders. On programmable telephone sets, functions of at least some of these elements can be controlled by instructions, called software, that can be changed without a change in equipment. The software is executed by processor either on the telephone set itself or on a remote host in communication with the telephone set either directly or indirectly through a network. For various telephone sets, the software provides services such as call forwarding and voice mail and text messaging.
Many services are known using communication networks. A popular service is instant messaging (IM), whereby a server connected to a computer via a network detects when the computer is active and allows other users on the network to send text to the computer when the computer is active. When text is delivered to the active computer, the computer displays the text instantly in at least a portion of a visual display screen. The IM service, however, does not include both instant audio play of voice or other audio data generated in real time and persistence. Furthermore, IM requires a computer or similar device and a display with sufficient display area for a substantial amount of text. Although a computer with at least one speaker and one microphone linked to a network can be programmed to operate as a telephone set, in general, computers are more expensive and less available than telephone sets that do not do general purpose computing.
Voicemail is a service whereby one sender uses a telephone set to record an audio message directed to a particular recipient. The sender must dial the recipient, listen to a message that the recipient is not available and wait for a prompt to begin recording. The recorded audio message lies dormant until the recipient decides to retrieve and listen to the message, typically using another telephone set. One shortcoming of voicemail is the requirement to wait for a prompt before the audio content can be recorded. Another shortcoming of voicemail is that id does not provide instant presentation of the audio data. The content can become stale or obsolete before the listener plays the message.
An intercom is a service by which one button on one telephone set activates speakers on several telephone sets. However, an audio message sent in real time over the intercom service is transient and does not persist to be replayed in case the intended recipient is not in the vicinity of the telephone set speaker, or did not understand the audio message completely.
Based on the foregoing, there is clear need for techniques that allow instant audio messaging for voice and other real-time audio data, which do not suffer the disadvantages of prior art approaches.

Techniques for voice instant messaging on a telephone set


A multi-layered paper product that has bridging regions for inhibiting nesting is provided. For example, the paper product can contain a first and second layer that define ridges and valleys. Bridging regions are formed into at least one of the outer surfaces of the layers. In particular, the bridging regions are positioned at an angle of between about 0° to about 180° relative to the ridges and also have a length sufficient to extend between the peaks of at least two of the ridges. The bridging regions can be formed in a variety of ways, such as with an embossing roll that contains embossing elements. Moreover, the bridging regions can also have a variety of shapes, sizes, orientations, and/or patterns.

Paper products are commonly formed from pulp fibers, either alone or in combination with other types of fibers. For example, to form a paper web, a dilute aqueous suspension of pulp fibers may be deposited onto a foraminous surface using a headbox. A vacuum device is often located beneath the foraminous surface for removing water away from the web to facilitate web formation. After the web passes over the vacuum device, it is then dried using a conventional drier, such as a through-air dryer.
As a result of a papermaking process, such as described above, the paper web is sometimes formed with an undulating surface that includes multiple ridges and valleys. For example, the foraminous surface on which the pulp fiber suspension is deposited may contain certain features that cause the wet paper web to be formed with ridges and valleys when it passes over the vacuum device. These ridges and valleys can become further defined when the wet web is passed over a dryer that does not utilize compressive forces, such as a through-air dryer.
Although these ridges and valleys can provide many benefits to the resulting paper web, problems sometimes arise when the paper web is incorporated into a paper product. For example, a rolled or stacked paper product containing multiple layers of a paper web having ridges and valleys can possess a certain degree of "nesting". Specifically, "nesting" occurs when the ridges and valleys of one layer are placed adjacent to corresponding ridges and valleys of another layer, which causes the roll (or stack) to become more tightly packed, thereby reducing roll bulk (increasing density) and making the winding of the product less consistent and controllable. For example, referring to FIG. 3, one example of a nested paper product is illustrated.
As such, a need currently exists for a method to inhibit nesting in paper products.

Method for reducing nesting in paper products and paper products formed therefrom


There is provided by the present invention an image processing apparatus for outputting a multiple gradation color image with a printer which can express colors fewer than those specified in input image data comprising an output color predicting section for predicting colors, which will be reproduced by a printer, from color control signals given to the printer, an error computing/error adding section for computing an error between colors specified in input image data and those predicted by the output color predicting section, diffusing the error to peripheral pixels and adding the diffused error to a value of each of the pixels, and an output color selecting section for selecting colors to be reproduced by the printer, which are closest to colors specified in the input image data, according to an output from the error computing/error adding section.

In the conventional color printer which reproduces input image data with a smaller number of colors than those specified by the data in one dot, an image processing for reproducing an image with the same number of colors as those specified by the input data is executed. For instance, each output color such as Y (Yellow), M (Magenta), C (Cyan), or R (Red), G (Green), and B (Blue) is adjusted to a number of gradations which can be reproduced in one dot by using the intermediate gradation reproducing method known as the dither method or error diffusion processing to express the image with multiple gradations, thus a number of reproduced colors being increased.
For instance, as a typical one, there is an image processing apparatus, as shown in FIG. 11, comprising a color correcting section 1101, a dither or error diffusing section 1102, and a printer 104. With this configuration, color data Lab inputted to the color correcting section 1101 is subjected to the dither processing or the error diffusion processing and is then subjected to a color correction processing to convert the input color data to signals for controlling an output from the apparatus, namely 8-bit data for Y, M, C, and K, respectively.
Then in the dither or error diffusing section 1102, the signals are corrected to 1 to 7-bit data for output for each of Y', M', C', and K', and the data is sent to the printer 104, thus a multi-gradation image being outputted.
However in the image processing apparatus as described above, as a simulated intermediate gradation image is reproduced with dot configuration by subjecting Y, M, C and K signals to the intermediate gradation reproducing processing such as the dither processing or the error diffusion processing, sometimes an unpreferable image called texture a image may be generated, and also as either one of the two types of processing described above is executed independently, it has been difficult to reproduce accurately the same colors as those specified by the data.


A remote control device capable of controlling a plurality of apparatuses is provided. The remote control device includes an external slit portion, an internal slit portion, a light receiving element, and a control circuit. The external slit portion and internal slit portion are arranged such that a prolonged line of each opening crosses a reception region of the light receiving element. The light receiving element is connected to the control circuit via a signal line. The external slit portion is formed such that the opening is located vertically when the remote control device is operated. The internal slit is formed such that the longitudinal direction of the opening is placed vertically when the remote control device is operated.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to remote control devices. More particularly, the present invention relates to a remote control device capable of controlling a plurality of apparatuses.
2. Description of the Background Art
In the field of remote control devices capable of controlling a plurality of apparatuses, a terminal end user had to select the apparatus that is the subject of control (hereinafter, referred to as control target apparatus), and conduct manipulation such as entering the setting and data in order to control a certain control target apparatus.
In view of operating a remote control device capable of controlling a plurality of apparatuses, directed towards an apparatus of interest, the technique of functioning as a remote control device for a relevant apparatus is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laying-Open Nos. 08-275259, 2004-253869, 08-111893, and 2003-284169, for example.
According to the technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 08-275259, for example, an image pick up device such as a camera is required to transmit and receive an identification signal in the form of an optical signal. This leads to the problem that the remote control device will be increased in weight, and also significantly in cost.
There is also a problem that it is not easy for the user of the remote control device to properly direct the remote control device to the signal emitting region to obtain an identification signal.


Provided here is a novel construction for making and attaching wire handles to folded boxes from straight pieces of wire for both automatic pail box machines and vending cabinets. The mechanisms for making and attaching handles include: a container for containing wire blanks and feeding them only one piece per cycle, a bed die mechanism and reciprocated shuttle. The lead wire blank, which is fed from the container is placed on the receiver portion of the shuttle. At the same time from the bed die mechanism, a handle is pushed which has been made in the previous cycle. This handle is placed on the shipping portion of the shuttle. In its motion the shuttle attaches the made handle to the folded box and in cooperation with the bed die mechanism bends the lead wire blank to form a new handle. Thus, the process of each cycle includes fastening the made handle to the folded box and bending a new handle for fastening it in the next cycle. Permanent magnets are provided for holding the wire blank and the made handle in a suitable position during the making and the attaching of the handle.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to machinery for making paper board containers and, more particularly, to machines for making boxes with handles, preferably from wire.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A well known semi-automatic machine made by Saranac Co. produces boxes with handles made from a coil of wire. In this machine prepared blanks are automatically fed by conveyor. The machine then folds, forms, attaches wire handle from a wire coil, ejects, nests and counts the boxes. Finished boxes are delivered in packages of needed quantity to users. This method of producing boxes by machines of the Saranac type has a number of imperfections which have kept the pail box from wider use:
a. Pail boxes are more expensive relative to other types of boxes with the same purpose;
b. There are problems in automatically separating boxes one from another;
c. Boxes are subject to damage during transportation and storage;
d. Present machinery, designed for production of pail boxes in a factory, can't to be installed in an automatic production line for goods;
e. There are problems with advertising the users name and packing the box with goods.
In application 07/697,254 filed May 8, 1991 I presented a hand-operated and automatic machine for producing pail boxes from pre-made blanks of paper and pre-made wire handles bonded together in the form of a bar. Relative to the hand-operated machine with its small capacity, the pre-made handle bar allows successfully using the machine directly in restaurants, stores, small production companies, etc. But in the case of the automatic machine for continuously producing boxes the machine must be equipped with a mechanism for automatically feeding the handle bars. The other question is a packing problem because the fully made handles require more space for storage.
These disadvantages are overcome by the present invention in the matter of feeding the machine with blank handles which are accomplished by the use of a fully straight pieces of wire blanks.


The present invention relates to a pituitary adenylate cyclase activating polypeptide (PACAP) receptor protein or a salt thereof which is capable of binding PACAP and a method for preparing said receptor protein or salt thereof.

PACAP was first isolated from the hypothalami of sheep as a peptide promoting adenylate cyclase activity of the pituitary glands Biochemical Biophysical Research Communications, 164, 567-574 (1989)!. PACAP first isolated was one consisting of 38 amino acid residues. However, the presence of PACAP consisting of 27 residues on the N-terminal side was also revealed. Both are nearly equal in adenylate cyclase activating ability to each other. The former is referred to as PACAP38, and the latter is referred to as PACAP27. The expression of a PACAP having the same structure as that of sheep was also proved in humans, which suggested that PACAPs are important peptides conserved beyond species Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun., 166, 81-89 (1990)!. For the distribution thereof in organs, they are observed not only in the brain hypothalami, but also in the pituitary glands, the testes and the adrenals (Endocrinology, 129, 2787-2789). At present, PACAPs such as PACAP27 to PACAP38 (U.S. Pat. No. 5,128,242) and PACAP23 to PACAP26 (European Patent Publication No. 0467279A3) have been reported.
Physiological actions of PACAPs diversely varies according to their occurrence sites. Various actions of the PACAPs as described below have hitherto been reported:
(1) Promotion of cAMP production in primary culture cells of the rat pituitary glands A. Miyata et al., Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun., 164, 567-574 (1989)!;
(2) Promotion of secretion of GH, ACTH, PRL and LH in the rat pituitary gland superfusion process A. Miyata et al., Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun., 164, 567-574 (1989)!;
(3) Production of cAMP in adrenomedullary chromaffinoma-derived cells PC12h and promotion of neurite outgrowth T. Watanabe et al., Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun., 173, 252-258 (1990), and K. Okazaki et al., FEBS Letters, 298, 49-56 (1992)!;
(4) Promotion of interleukin-6 production in pituitary gland culture cells I. Tatsuno et al., Endocrinology, 129, 1797-1804 (1991)!; and
(5) Promotion of cAMP production in primary culture of rat astrocytes and promotion of action preventing nerve cell death Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun., 168, 1027-1033 (1990)!.
In order for PACAP to exhibit its action, the presence of a receptor specific for PACAP in target organs and cells is indispensable.
Receptor binding experiments using radioactive iodine-labeled PACAP27 (.sup.125 I! PACAP27) have proved the presence of a PACAP receptor. Namely, when a membrane fraction prepared from a tissue is mixed with .sup.125 I ! PACAP27 and reacted for an appropriate period of time, binding of .sup.125 I! PACAP27 to the membrane fraction is observed. This binding is inhibited by unlabeled PACAP27 or PACAP38, but not inhibited by VIP, an analogous peptide of the PACAPs. This result suggests that a substance specifically binding to the PACAPs occurs in the tissue. Such binding activity is highest in membrane fractions of the brain hypothalami, and also observed in the pituitary glands, the adrenals and the like Endocrinology, 127, 272-277 (1990)!. Further, a body of PACAP binding activity observed in membrana cerebri fractions, namely a receptor, is deduced to be a protein having a molecular weight of 57,000 from a technique (so-called affinity-label experiment) comprising binding .sup.125 I! PACAP27 to the membrana cerebri fraction, crosslinking .sup.125 I! PACAP27 and the body of its binding activity with a crosslinking reagent, then subjecting the product to polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis in the presence of sodium dodecylsulfate, and analyzing by autoradiography Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun., 171, 838-844 (1990)!.
It is expected that clarification of some fundamental properties of this specific receptor allows elucidation of additional various properties of the PACAP receptor to proceed more than before. In particular, cloning of cDNA coding for the receptor protein and structure analysis thereof enable elucidation of the mechanism of its mutual interaction with a ligand, production of receptor-agonists and antagonists and detailed analysis of sites of action by in situ hybridization using said cDNA. Although cloning of the VIP, secretin and growth hormone releasing factor receptor proteins cDNA has been reported, the cloning of the PACAP receptor has not. These three kinds of bioactive peptides have also showed a capital similarity in the structures of their receptor proteins. For the PACAP receptors, however, cloning of cDNA has hitherto not been carried out.
Recently, the following five documents reported amino acid sequences for a rat PACAP receptor protein and nucleotide sequences of DNAs coding for the protein Document 1: Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communication, 194, 1, pp.133-143, 1993; Document 2: Federation of European Biochemical Societies (FEBS), 329, 1 and 2, pp. 99-105; Document 3: Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, USA, 90, pp. 6345-6349, 1993; Document 4: Nature, 365, pp. 170-175, 1993 and Document 5: Neuron, 11, pp.333-342, 1993). Among them, the amino acid sequences and the nucleotide sequences described in the Documents 1, 2, 4 and 5 are identified with the amino acid sequence for a rat PACAP receptor protein and with the nucleotide sequence for a DNA coding for the protein. The amino acid sequence described in Document 3 is different from the amino acid sequence of the present invention for a rat PACAP receptor protein in one amino acid, and the nucleotide sequence of Document 3 is also different from the nucleotide sequence of the present invention in one nucleotide. All of the five documents were published after Jun. 24, 1993 which is one of the priority dates of the present invention.
In general, when specific binding substances such as receptors are purified, affinity column chromatography applying its mutual interaction with the specific binding substance (for example, ligands for receptors) are frequently used. A process using an affinity column in which a ligand is fixed on a carrier is simplest. However, many successful examples of complicated affinity chromatography are known in which the specific mutual interaction between avidin and biotin is utilized for purification of receptors. This process comprises synthesizing a biotinylated ligand in which biotin is bound to an appropriate site, and specifically capturing a receptor on a carrier on which avidin is fixed through the biotinylated ligand Methods in Enzymology, 184, 244-274 (1990)!. This process suffers from the problem of designing the biotinylated ligand having affinity for both the receptor and avidin, and examination is required in purifying PACAP receptor.
PACAP38 and PACAP27 are peptides represented by the following amino acid sequences, respectively:
__________________________________________________________________________ PACAP38 His Ser Asp Gly Ile Phe Thr Asp Ser Tyr Ser Arg Tyr 1 5 10 Arg Lys Gln Met Ala Val Lys Lys Tyr Leu Ala Ala Val 15 20 25 Leu Gly Lys Arg Tyr Lys Gln Arg Val Lys Asn Lys-NH.sub.2 30 35 (SEQ ID NO: 46-NH.sub.2) PACAP27 His Ser Asp Gly Ile Phe Thr Asp Ser Tyr Ser Arg Tyr 1 5 10 Arg Lys Gln Met Ala Val Lys Lys Tyr Leu Ala Ala Val 15 20 25 Leu-NH.sub.2 (SEQ ID NO: 47-NH.sub.2) __________________________________________________________________________

Method for preparing PACAP receptor protein


A contactless power transmitting device is provided including a power transmitting device functioning as a charger, a power transmitting-receiving sharing device functioning as a charger and including a secondary battery, and a power receiving device including a secondary battery. The power transmitting-receiving sharing device is used as a power supply for portable computers. The power receiving device is used as a power supply for cellular phones. The power transmitting device forms a contactless power transmitting device respectively by electromagnetically coupling to either the power transmitting-receiving sharing device or the power receiving device to charge the secondary battery or the secondary battery. The power transmitting-receiving sharing device forms the contactless power transmitting device by electromagnetically coupling to the power receiving device. In this case, the power transmitting-receiving sharing device charges the secondary battery included in the power receiving device.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a contactless power transmitting device that includes a power transmitting circuit and a power receiving circuit which are both electromagnetically coupled by a transformer and can charge a secondary battery by utilizing an output electric power of the power receiving circuit
2. Related Art
As shown in FIG. 8, a device including an alternating current/direct current (AC/DC) converter 1, a power transmitting circuit 2, a transformer 5 having a primary coil 3 and a secondary coil 4, a power receiving circuit 6 and a secondary battery 7 is known as a kind of contactless power transmitting device. Further, the primary coil 3 and the second coil 4 that are included in the transformer 5 are used by approaching each other so as to be electromagnetically coupled when the secondary battery 7 is charged. After use, they can easily and physically be separated. (For example, refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication Nos. 10-23677 and 2002-272020).
In the contactless power transmitting device configured in this way, the AC/DC converter 1 converts an alternating voltage to a direct current voltage. The power transmitting circuit 2 produces the alternating voltage having a predetermined frequency by utilizing the direct current voltage from the AC/DC converter 1 so as to supply the produced alternating voltage to the primary coil 3. An alternating current is induced by the alternating voltage supplied to the primary coil 3 in the secondary coil 4, the alternating current induced in the secondary coil 4 is supplied to the power receiving circuit 6. The power receiving circuit 6 rectifies the alternating current induced in the secondary coil 4 to the direct current voltage so as to be output. The secondary battery 7 is charged by the direct current voltage.
As above-mentioned, in the conventional contactless power transmitting device shown in FIG. 8, the primary coil 3 and the second coil 4 included in the transformer 5 are used by approaching each other when the secondary battery 7 is charged. After charging is complete, both can be easily physically separated. Therefore, it is convenient to use the conventional contactless power transmitting device as a power supply (secondary battery) for cellular phones and portable personal computers.
Meanwhile, cellular phones are remarkably spreading in popularity. Unfortunately, a cellular phone cannot be used after it runs out of power (loses the charge in its power supply). This often occurs when a user is away from his or her office. The conventional contactless power transmitting device cannot cope easily and promptly with this situation.
In addition to cellular phones, portable computers are also remarkably spreading in popularity. The number of businessmen and the like carrying both when they are away from their office is increasing. Notably, cellular phones have a smaller power supply capacity than that of portable computers.
Thus, when the power supply charge for the cellular phone is exhausted, it would be extremely convenient to charge the power supply of the cellular phone by utilizing the power supply for a portable computer, which could easily and promptly cope with the situation.
It should also be noted that in the conventional contactless power transmitting device, the secondary battery 7 is charged by bringing the primary coil 3 and the secondary coil 4 in the transformer 5 toward each other as above mentioned. Thus, the device offers convenience for use as a power supply for cellular phones, portable computers, or the like.
However, in the case in which the power transmitting circuit 2 starts operation in conditions where the coils 3 and 4 are next to each other, if the power transmitting circuit 2 and the power receiving circuit 6 are mismatched in specifications or the like, proper operation is not performed between the power transmitting circuit 2 and the power receiving circuit 6, thereby causing defects and the like. This is not preferable from a safety point of view.
Taking the aforesaid situation into account, if a power supply for cellular phones or the like runs out when a user is away from his or her office and the power supply is charged without contact, the present invention firstly aims to provide a contactless power transmitting device that can easily and promptly be charged at the place where the user is located.
In addition, taking the aforesaid situation into account, if a power supply for cellular phones, portable computers or the like runs out and the power supply is charged without contact, the present invention secondly aims to provide a contactless power transmitting device that can achieve an improvement in safety and fraud prevention in the charging operation.
Further, if a power supply for cellular phones or the like runs out when a user is away from his or her office and the power supply is charged without contact, the present invention thirdly aims to provide a contactless power transmitting device that can perform the charging easily and promptly, and achieve an improvement in safety and fraud prevention in the charging operation at the place where the user is located.


Combustion turbine power plants and methods of operating the same are provided in which air is cooled using solar energy and supplied to an air inlet of the power plant to support combustion. Also, combustion turbine power plants and methods of operating the same are provided in which steam is produced using solar energy and injected into a turbine of the power plant.

The present invention relates to combustion turbine power plants utilizing solar energy to increase their capacity and efficiency.
Combustion turbine power plants can be brought on line quickly to meet peak demands for electric power. The demand for power in warmer climates generally is greater during the day when temperatures are higher and solar energy is available.
Various schemes have been proposed, therefore, for making use of solar energy in a combustion turbine power plant for improving its heat rate (fuel usage per unit electric energy output, typically measured in Btu""s per kWh) and/or its power capacity, to reduce the cost of supplying electric power to satisfy peak demand. For example, it has been proposed to utilize solar energy to heat air supplied from the turbine""s air compressor before it is introduced into its combustion chamber.
This scheme has several serious drawbacks which result in reduced plant capacity and efficiency. Heating the inlet air to the combustor of a gas turbine decreases the air""s density, which reduces the power output. More serious constraints on gas turbine output are imposed by the strict temperature limits which must be observed to avoid premature failure of critical components. Increasing inlet air temperature requires a concomitant decrease in the rate at which air and fuel are supplied to the gas turbine in order to avoid exceeding such temperature limits, resulting in reduced power output. However, gas turbine parasitic losses increase as a percentage of gross output when the latter decreases, leading to higher specific fuel consumption. This proposal if implemented, therefore, would not serve its intended purpose.
Another scheme would add heat to combustion gases by means of solar energy. However, the solar energy collection system would then need to operate at very high temperatures and pressures, since it would need to augment the energy content of combustion gases which are already at high temperature and pressure. The solar collection system thus would require a high capital investment, and would suffer large parasitic heat losses due to the high temperatures at which it would operate.
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, a combustion turbine power plant comprises a combustion turbine having an opening to receive inlet air, and means for cooling the inlet air using solar energy.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a method of operating a combustion turbine power plant comprises supplying fuel to a combustion turbine power plant, supplying air which has been cooled using solar energy to an air inlet of the power plant, mixing the air received at the air inlet with the fuel to produce an air/fuel mixture, burning the air/fuel mixture to form combustion gas, and supplying the combustion gas to a turbine of the power plant.
In accordance with a further aspect of the present invention, a combustion turbine power plant comprises a turbine having a port for injecting augmenting steam and means for producing the augmenting steam using solar energy.
In accordance with a still further aspect of the present invention, a method of operating a combustion turbine power plant comprises producing steam using solar energy, and injecting the solar energy produced steam into a turbine of the combustion turbine power plant.
The above, as well as further features of the invention and advantages thereof, will be apparent in the following detailed description of certain illustrative embodiments thereof which is to be read in connection with the accompanying drawings forming a part hereof, and wherein corresponding parts and components are identified by the same reference numerals in the several views of the drawings.

Solar power enhanced combustion turbine power plant and methods


A system and method for emulating a telephone driver of a mobile device to assist in the development and testing of mobile telephony applications is described. An emulated telephony driver maintains internal states of a wireless network and characteristics of the mobile device. A wireless network is simulated such that neither a cellular radio nor a mobile subscription are required for handset application development and testing.

Mobile computing devices, such as cellular telephones, have become commonplace in modern times. Telecommunications companies are constantly expanding the functionality of mobile devices. As a result, new applications to be used with cellular telephones are tested using wireless networks.
Cellular telephone application development and testing is typically performed with a computing device, such as a personal computer, coupled to a cellular radio. A radio interface layer (RIL) driver provides an interface between system software in the computing device and the cellular radio. The RIL receives requests from protocol layers in the computing device and then sends commands and data to the cellular radio. The cellular radio transmits signals to the wireless network to perform the function requested by the computing device, such as making a telephone call. The cellular radio then receives responses to the commands from the network. The RIL driver passes the received responses and data from the cellular radio back to the protocol layers. The RIL also notifies the computing device of changes in cellular radio status.
The RIL driver is difficult to test because the cellular radio is unreliable and unstable. The cellular radio often skews test results. Furthermore, the cellular radio commonly crashes during testing. Another problem that arises during testing involves the network itself. For example, a wireless network may become over-congested during testing such that inaccurate results may be produced.

System and method for emulating a telephony driver


The present invention is directed to a composition for causing photodynamic damage to target cells comprising a photosensitiser, a photosensitiser carrier component, a component which enables target cell recognition and transport of the photosensitiser toward the interior of the target cell by specific receptor-mediated endocytosis, and a component capable of effective targeted transport of the photosensitiser within the target cells. The invention is also related to a method for causing photodynamic damage to target cells comprising the steps of: adding the composition to the cells; keeping the cells at a temperature of normal vital activity of cells with the composition for causing photodynamic damage to the target cells, said composition comprising the above-mentioned components; and exposure of the cells to light.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to biotechnology, cellular and molecular biology and, more particularly, to a method for causing photodynamic damage to target cells which may be used in experimental medicine and pharmacology.
2. Description of Related Art
The essence of the photodynamic therapy consists in the introduction to the organism of a photosensitiser (hereinafter referred to as xe2x80x9cPSxe2x80x9d) taken up practically by all cells. Due to differences in microcirculation, distribution, exchange intensity and so on, the PS remains a longer time in target cells, for example cancer cells, than in normal cells. If at that time, target cells and PS molecules occurring therein are exposed to light, the latter shall cause photochemical reactions resulting in the death of target cell.
The main side effect of the photodynamic therapy resides in an enhanced light sensitivity of skin and eyes: patients need to be carefully protected against sunlight within six weeks and more. Another side effect consists in nausea and vomit caused in patients by the introduction of the PS in high amounts (Photodynamic Therapy. Cancer Facts, National Cancer Institute, NIH, CancerNet, 1994).
Both side effects are caused by a combination of two factors: an insufficient PS selectivity as respects target cells, and its excessive concentration in the patient tissues. Improvements in the efficiency of photodynamic damage (hereinafter referred to as xe2x80x9cPDDxe2x80x9d) may be achieved by using the PS as a part of a composition.
There is a prior art composition based on microspheres was abto to enter the cell non-specifically by phagocytosis and penetrate into lysosomes. The application of the compositions of PS with microspheres results in the enhancement of PDD to the cell.
A drawback inherent in compositions with microspheres is that the photodynamic action of these compositions is not specific with respect to a cell type (Bachor, R., Shea, C. R., Gillies, R., and Hasan, T. Photosensitised destruction of human bladder carcinoma cells treated with chlorin e6xe2x80x94conjugated microspheres. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA, 88, 15 80-15 84, 1991).
Another prior art composition comprised chlorin e6 with monoclonal antibodies. This prior art composition contains a component for the target cell identification, a PS carrier component and a PS itself. A disadvantage with such a composition lies in its ability to act on a target cell surface only, wherein PDD induced by the composition does not affect the most PDD-sensitive target cell compartments (Rakestraw, S. L., Tompkins, R. D., and Yarmush, M. L. Antibody-targeted photolysis: In vitro studies with Sn(IV) chlorin e6 covalently bound to monoclonal antibodies using a modified dextran carrier. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 87, 4217-4221, 1990).
This disadvantage is avoided in a composition consisting of a PS, a PS carrier component and a component for target cell recognition and PS transport toward the interior of target cells by specific receptor-mediated endocytosis, said composition being the closest prior art composition to the present invention.
This composition is characterized by the presence of three components performing the same functions: a PS, a PS carrier component and a component for target cell recognition and PS transport toward the interior of the target cells by specific receptor-mediated endocytosis.
An insulin-BSA-chlorin e6 composition, after binding to specific receptors on the surface of target cells, has the ability of receptor-mediated endocytosis and, accordingly, of transport toward the interior of cells where, after cell irradiation, the process of generating active oxygen species takes place, said species being a real cytotoxic agent in inducing PDD to the cell. This composition has an advantage over the aforementioned compositions with monoclonal antibodies or microspheres in that it is capable, through specific binding to cell surface receptors characteristic of this cell type, of being intemalised by receptor-mediated endocytosis owing to which the formation of active photooxidation products occurs inside the cells near to damage-sensitive cell compartments. Although a number of the drawbacks associated with known compositions are removed, the composition lacks any special component to direct the PS transport within of target cells, e.g. transport into the most sensitive cell compartments for TDD. As a result, there is no efficient transport into these compartments, and PDD is not as great as it might be in the presence of said component for directing the transport inside the cells (Akhlynina, T. V., Rosenkranz, A. A., Jans, D. A., Sobolev, A. S. Insulin-mediated intracellular targeting enhances the photodynamic activity of chlorin e6, Cancer Res., 55, 1014-1019, 1995).
As indicated above, side effects are caused by two reasons: an insufficient PS selectivity as respects target cells and their excessive concentration in the patient tissues. Therefore, one of the directions in the development of this subject matter resides in the enhancement to the target cell PDD.
Enhancement of PDD to the target cell, while decreasing an acting PS concentration, is possible by using PS derivatives having other intracellular localisation which are most sensitive to the photodynamic action. As alluded to above, a prior art PDD method employed PS derivatives which penetrate into the cell by non-specific intemalisation and localise in membrane components and lysosomes (Kessel, D. Determinants of photosensitisation by mono-L-aspartyl chlorin e6. Photochem. Photobiol., 49, 447-452, 1989). As also alluded to above, it is also possible to use PS conjugates with microspheres which enter the cell nonspecifically by phagocytosis and penetrate into lysosomes (Bachor, R., Shea, C. R., Gillies, R., and Hasan, T. Photosensitised destruction of human bladder carcinoma cells treated with chlorin e6xe2x80x94conjugated microspheres. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 88, 1580-1584, 1991). Both known methods have the same disadvantage: PS and their derivatives may accumulate both in target cells and normal cells, that is to say, they are non-specific to a cell type (Aizawa, K., Okunaka, T., Kawabe, H., Yasunaka, Y., O""Hata, S., Ohtomo, N., Nishimiya, K., Konaka, C., Kato, H., Hayata, Y., and Salto, T. Localisation of mono-L-aspartyl chlorin e6 (NPe6) in mouse tissues. Photochem. Photobiol., 46, 789-793, 1987).
Improvements in the PDD specificity may be achieved by the PS conjugation with a ligand having specific receptors on the target cell surface. For this purpose, PS compositions with monoclonal antibodies to these cells are proposed. Such an approach enables improvements in the PDD selectivity and efficiency at the expense of a specific recognition of target cells and binding of the compositions to the surface of these cells.
As alluded to above, a prior art method for the target cell PDD comprises a target cell PDD enhancement using PSxe2x80x94chlorin e6 compositions with monoclonal antibodies (Rakestraw, S. L., Tompkins, R. D., and Yarmush, M. L. Antibody-targeted photolysis: In vitro studies with Sn(IV) chlorin e, covalently bound to monoclonal antibodies using a modified dextran carrier. Proc. Nad. Acad. Sci. USA, 87, 4217-4221, 1990): In accordance with this method, a composition comprising the PS is added to target cells, keeping the cell therewith and then exposed to light. Due to the composition properties, the PS is subjected to targeted transport into the cells as a part of the composition, the latter being bound to specific cell receptors. With such a method, plasma membranes are the main target for the PS. This is not optimal, however, since PDD does not extend to include much more sensitive intracellular targetsxe2x80x94the nucleus or lysosomes (Alper, T. Cellular Radiobiology. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, 1979).
This disadvantage is avoided in the PDD method chosen by the applicant as the closest prior art method to the claimed one.
This method is characterized by the following essential features: a composition for PDD is introduced to target cells; then keeping the cells at a temperature of normal cellular vital activity with the result that target cells uptake a PS as part of the composition; and the PS is subsequently photo-activated (light-irradiated). This method, however, also suffers from disadvantages consisting in that, after cells have uptaken the PS, the latter, owing to the properties of the composition used, follows the way predetermined by the properties of the ligandxe2x80x94a component used for the recognition and receptor-mediated endocytosis of cells. In so doing, it will not necessarily find its way (or finds its way to a slight extent) into other PDD-sensitive cell parts (Akhlynina, T. V., Rosenkranz, A. A., Jans, D. A., Sobolev, A. S. Insulin-mediated intracellular targeting enhances the photodynamic activity of chlorin e6. Cancer Res., 55, 1014-1019, 1995).
It is an object of the present invention to provide compositions and method for causing photodynarnic damage (PDD) to target cells to enable enhancement of target cell PDD owing to a composition capable of effective targeted transport of a photosensitiser (PS) within the target cells, thereby making it possible to improve safety and economy of the method.
This object is solved in a composition producing the target cell PDD in low concentrations due to the fact that the composition, in addition to a PS, a PS carrier component and a component which effects target cell recognition and receptor-mediated endocytosis, also comprises a component capable of effective targeted transport of the PS within the target cells, said composition resulting, due to the PS delivery to the most PDD-sensitive compartments, in the PDD enhancement.

Composition and method for causing photodynamic damage to target cells

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