Methods and systems are described for estimating of the level of contamination of downhole fluid using physical property measurements, and mathematical modeling of contamination functions and fluid property mixing laws. The proposed approaches enable computation of estimates of the pumping time needed to achieve a certain contamination threshold level.

Many oil industry applications require the analysis of downhole fluids. In the prior art this was typically done by bringing samples to the surface using sealed containers, and sending the samples for laboratory measurements. A number of practical limitations are associated with this approach. The main concern usually is that the samples taken to the surface may not be representative of the downhole geologic formation. This is due to the fact that only limited sample material from a limited number of downhole locations can be extracted and taken to the surface, and thus laboratory testing provides only an incomplete picture of the downhole conditions. Furthermore, samples are often contaminated with mud filtrate, and therefore are not truly representative of the native formation fluids.
More recently, fluid analysis became possible using pumpout formation testers that provide downhole measurements of certain fluid properties and enable the collection of a large number of representative samples stored at downhole conditions. Three families of such tools have been introduced in the past—the modular dynamic formation tester (MDT) by Schlumberger, the Reservoir Characterization Instrument (RCI) by Baker Atlas, and most recently the Reservoir Description Tool (RDT) by Halliburton. These tools are generally designed to obtain representative formation fluid samples and provide key petrophysical information to determine the reservoir volume, producibility of a formation, type and composition of the movable fluids, and to predict reservoir behavior during production.
One of the remaining problems encountered in the operation of such tools is to avoid contamination of the fluid naturally present in the formation with other fluids, in particular the various types of drilling muds used in drilling operations. Drilling mud, also known as drilling fluid, is typically pumped down the center of the hollow drill stem to emerge again at the surface of the borehole. It lubricates the drill shaft, cools the borehole, carries away the drilling detritus, and serves as a wetting-phase, which facilitates the flow of hydrocarbons from the formation and into the borehole. Various types of drilling muds are generally classified based on the type of filtrate used therein. The mud filtrate chosen dictates the mud's function and performance, as well as formation invasion effects.
There are two major types of mud filtrates: water-based and oil-based. Water-based mud (WBM) filtrates include, but are not limited to, freshwater, seawater, saltwater (brine) and others, or a combination of any of these fluids. In the oil-based mud (OBM), the filtrate is an oil product, such as diesel or mineral oil. More generally, oil-based mud is characterized as any type of non-aqueous fluid. For the purposes of the present disclosure, oil-based mud also includes the recently developed variety of oil mud that is also referred to as synthetic-based muds. These synthetic-based muds include, without limitation, olefinic-, naphthenic-, and paraffinic-based compounds. Dependent on the type of mud used in the drilling process, different factors affect the ability of the tool the accurately estimate the contamination levels at a given point during pumpout.
For WBM drilling, mixing with the formation fluid is considered an immiscible process, and determination of the degree of contamination of the fluid using is relatively straightforward. More challenging is the problem of estimating the degree of contamination in OBM drilling when attempting to obtain high quality formation fluid samples, because these mud filtrate fluids are mixed in the formation oil. This mixing can be immiscible or miscible, but either way complicate the determination of the degree of contamination (with immiscible invasion the fluids to not dissolve with each other but mix, with miscible mixing the fluids dissolve in a diffusion process). For example, the presence of even small volumes of oil-base filtrate in the sample can significantly alter the properties of the formation oil. As a result, in-situ quantification of the oil-base material contamination in the formation oil is difficult, and poorly quantified samples may not be representative of the formation fluid of interest.
Additional difficulties are presented in differentiating oil-based mud from connate oil when oil-based filtrate invades the formation. One method for differentiating oil-based mud from connate oil is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,107,796, owned by the assignee of the present invention, which is incorporated herein by reference. However, no reliable method has been provided for determining the level of contamination of mud filtrate in formation fluids.
The most frequently used prior art approach to estimating contamination has been based on the optical properties of the fluids entering a tool. Schlumberger provides for in-situ contamination estimation using an Optical Fluid Analyzer (OFA). Baker-Atlas also offers a service similar to the OFA. The OFA exploits the differences in the absorption spectrum (i.e., color contrast) between the OBM contaminant and the formation fluid to deconvolute the spectrum from a fluid measurement (see, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,178,815, 6,274,865, 6,343,507 and 6,350,986, which are incorporated herein by reference for background). The OFA measures the optical density (OD) of the flowing fluid and uses empirical relationships to transform the OD into data on contamination by determining the composition of the measured absorbed light spectrum from the sample. Based on this absorption spectrum one can estimate the types of materials present in the fluid and the proportion of each material in the fluid. While the industry has learned how to interpret OFA data over the years, it still is not robust in certain applications where the color contrast is small, or is masked, as is frequently the case in light oils and condensates. One problem with this approach is that it assumes that the measured property is directly linked to the contamination, which may not necessarily be the case.
Another approach to contamination estimation is to use electrical resistivity methods, which involve the measurement of the apparent resistivity of fluids entering the tool. While these measurements are straightforward to implement and, for example, can easily distinguish between oil and water it cannot reliably distinguish contaminants in OBM situations. Various other sensors measuring optical properties, resistivity, capacitance and others within formation sampling tools have been used to estimate levels of fluid contamination during the pump-out phase, but no robust solution has been found yet.
A more recent approach to contamination estimation is provided by the use of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) measurements. NMR measurements of geologic formations may be done using, for example, the MRIL® tool made by NUMAR, a Halliburton company, and the CMR family of tools made by Schlumberger. Details of the structure of the MRIL® tool and the measurement techniques it uses are discussed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,710,713; 4,717,876; 4,717,877; 4,717,878; 4,939,648; 5,055,787; 5,055,78; 5,212,447; 5,280,243; 5,309,098; 5,412,320; 5,517,115, 5,557,200; 5,696,448; 5,936,405; 6,005,389; 6,023,164; 6,051,973; 6,107,796; 6,111,408; 6,242,913; 6,255,819; 6,268,726; 6,362,619; 6,512,371; 6,525,534; 6,531,868; 6,541,969; 6,577,125 and 6,583,621, all of which are commonly owned by the assignee of the present application. The CMR tool is described, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,055,787 and 5,055,788 to Kleinberg et al. and further in "Novel NMR Apparatus for Investigating an External Sample," by Kleinberg, Sezginer and Griffin, J. Magn. Reson. 97, 466-485, 1992. NMR devices, methods and pulse sequences for use in logging tools are also in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,350,955 and 5,557,201. The content of the above patents and publications is hereby expressly incorporated by reference for background. A brief discussion of the main NMR measurement parameters follows.
Basic NMR Properties and Measurement Parameters
NMR measurements are based on exposing an assembly of magnetic moments, such as those of hydrogen nuclei, to a static magnetic field. The assembly tends to align along the direction of the magnetic field, resulting in a bulk magnetization. A magnetic field having direction perpendicular to the static magnetic field is applied to rotate the magnetic moments away from the direction of the bulk magnetization. The rate at which the rotated moments return to the equilibrium bulk magnetization after application of the oscillating magnetic field is characterized by the parameter T1, known as the spin-lattice relaxation time. T1 values are in the range of milliseconds to several seconds.
Another related and frequently used NMR parameter is the spin-spin relaxation time constant T2 (also known as transverse relaxation time), which is an expression of the relaxation due to inhomogeneities in the local magnetic field over the sensing volume of the fluid in the analyzer, e.g., a logging tool. In bulk fluids T2 basically equals T1, but may differ in heavy oil components, such as asphaltenes, resins, etc. Both relaxation times provide information about the properties of the formation fluid, such as the formation porosity and the composition and quantity of the formation fluid.
Another measurement parameter used in NMR is the formation diffusivity. Generally, diffusion refers to the motion of atoms in a gaseous or liquid state due to their thermal energy. The self-diffusion coefficient (D) of a fluid is inversely proportional to the viscosity (η) of the fluid, a parameter of considerable importance in borehole surveys. Stokes' equation yields that:D∝kT/η, (k=1.38×10−23 J/K)  (1)
Viscosity and diffusivity are both related to the translational motion of molecules and therefore are interrelated. At higher temperatures T, a molecule contains more energy and can move faster against a given "friction" η, therefore D is proportional to the temperature. Diffusivity is a property that can be precisely determined by NMR techniques without disturbing or altering the fluid. The relationship D∝T/η has been verified over a wide range of viscosities at different temperatures and pressures by NMR spin-echo experiments.
Relationships involving the NMR relaxation times T1 and T2 must be examined with care. The applicability of expressions of the form:T1, T2∝kT/η  (2)
is more limited than that of Eq. (1). The main reason is that gas/liquid mixtures have more than one relaxation mechanism: dipole-dipole for the liquid phase and mainly spin-rotation for the gas phase.
In a uniform magnetic field, diffusion has little effect on the decay rate of the measured NMR echoes. In a gradient magnetic field, however, diffusion causes atoms to move from their original positions to new ones, which also causes these atoms to acquire different phase shifts compared to atoms that did not move. This contributes to a faster rate of relaxation.
Recently, Halliburton introduced MRILab®, a logging tool with the ability to analyze key reservoir fluid properties, including fluid type, viscosity and gas-to-oil ratio (GOR), in real-time at reservoir temperature and pressure. MRILab® is based on NMR measurements and operates as a component of Halliburton's Reservoir Description Tool™ (RDT), making laboratory-quality measurements on reservoir fluids that are necessary for reservoir engineering and completion design. FIG. 5 shows a simplified diagram of a downhole NMR fluid analysis apparatus, such as the MRILab®, that provides NMR measurements to which the contamination estimation methods of the present disclosure can be applied in an illustrative embodiment. Fluids enter the device at the top and pass through two sections, referred to as polarization and resonance sections, respectively. Measurements are performed as the fluid flow passes through the device. U.S. application Ser. No. 10/109,072, which is hereby incorporated by reference, discloses details of this device, which are summarized for reference in Appendix A.
Turning back to the problem of contamination estimation, the fundamental difficulty in NMR-based approaches to such estimation is the lack of models that can predict the relaxation spectrum (i.e., the T1 or T2 spectrum) of a mixture of two fluids that are miscible. Existing NMR methods for estimating contamination, including when the MRILab® was first introduced, were based initially on a parameter called "sharpness." The sharpness of an NMR distribution is defined as:
                              S          =                                    N                                                              ∑                  i                                                                                a                      i                      2                                                                                (                                                                        ∑                                                      i                            =                            1                                                    N                                                                                a                          i                                                                    )                                                        2                                                                                (                                  N                  -                  1                                )                                                                            (                                                            ∑                      i                                                                                a                      i                                                        )                                2                                                    ,                                                                for                                                                          1                    ≤          i          ≤          N                ,                            (        3        )
where ai are the amplitudes, and N is the number of components in a T1 distribution. (See Bouton, J. et al. "Assessment of Sample Contamination by Downhole NMR Fluid Analysis", SPE-71714, presented at SPE ATCE, New Orleans, La. (2001) incorporated herein for background). Although it was thought that sharpness was sensitive to contamination levels down to 10%, experience has shown that sharpness in general is not a very robust indicator of contamination.
The driving idea behind the use of the sharpness parameter was that, while OBM has a narrow distribution (implying a lower S value), distributions associated with native crudes are broader. However, relaxation spectra of low viscosity crudes are also very narrow and in the low viscosity/high GOR case, it may not be possible to distinguish one species from the other. Furthermore, both bulk water and natural gas have narrow distributions. The information from sharpness is relative, in that it is an indicator of the changes taking place, but it may not be sufficient to define end point states quantitatively. Additionally, the sharpness parameter is derived from the T1 distribution, which to a certain extent can be affected by the level signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) or distribution shape, which may lead to changes in the T1 spectra that are unrelated to changes in contamination.
Given the difficulties using the prior art approaches, there exists a need for more accurate and robust methods for determining the level of contamination of mud filtrate in formation fluids.

Contamination estimation using fluid analysis models


The present invention provides novel tricyclic indole-2-carboxylic acids of the following chemical formula, which have potent NMDA receptor antagonistic activity.

The present invention relates to a tricyclic indole-2-carboxylic acid compound which is a potent N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist.
JP 7-188166-A (EP 657427; U.S. Pat. No. 5,496,843) discloses tricyclic indole-2-carboxylic acid derivatives useful as NMDA receptor antagonists. WO 97/38681 (EP 903144) discloses that some tricyclic nitrogen-containing compounds are useful for treating retinal neuropathy. However, those documents do not disclose specifically the tricyclic indole-2-carboxylic acid compound of the present invention.
The present invention is intended to provide a potent NMDA receptor antagonist. The present inventors found that the tricyclic indole-2-carboxylic acid compound of the present invention is a potent NMDA receptor antagonist and has efficient anti-convulsive activities. Thus, the present invention has been accomplished.
That is, the present invention provides a compound which is a tricyclic indole-2-carboxylic acid of formula(1):
or a prodrug thereof, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt of the said acid or prodrug, or a solvate of the said acid, prodrug or salt.
In one aspect of the invention the compound is a hydrochloride monohydrate represented by formula(2):
Preferably the monohydrate of formula (2) has a powder X-ray diffraction pattern having average values of diffraction angle(2xcex8) and relative intensity as given by the following table:
The present invention further provides a compound of the invention as defined above for use in a method of treatment of the human or animal body by therapy.
The invention also provides a pharmaceutical composition comprising a compound of the invention as defined above and a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier or diluent.
In one embodiment the compound of the invention as defined above is for treating damage to the central nervous system induced by ischemic or hypoxic conditions.
In a second embodiment the compound of the invention as defined above is for treating damage to the central nervous system induced by a stroke.
In a third embodiment the compound of the invention as defined above is for treating convulsions.
The present invention further provides the use of a compound of the invention as defined above in the preparation of a medicament for treating damage to the central nervous system induced by ischemic or hypoxic conditions.
The invention also provides a method of treating damage to the central nervous system induced by ischemic or hypoxic conditions which comprises administering a compound of the invention as defined above to a patient in need thereof.

Tricyclic indole-2-carboxylic acid compound used as NMDA receptor antagonist

Sumitomo Pharmaceuticals Company, Limited


The promoter of the human p27Kip1 gene is provided. The promoter region is useful to screen a compound that regulates the promoter of the human p27Kip1 gene or regulates the activity of the promoter. It enables the gene therapy utilizing the promoter.

The present invention relates to a promoter of human p27Kip1 gene and to a method of screening a compound capable of regulating activity of the promoter.
In the eukaryotic cell cycle, several positive and negative factors control the cell cycle progression. Among the positive factors, the protein kinase family plays an important role. Each member of the family comprises a regulatory subunit, or cyclin, and a catalytic subunit named cyclin-dependent kinase (cdk). A number of reports have suggested that cyclin D-cdk4, cyclin D-cdk6, and cyclin E-cdk2 play important roles in promoting the transition from the GI phase to the S phase by the phosphorylation of retinoblastoma protein (pRB). Recently, one further level of control has become apparent, namely the expression of cdk inhibitors (Sherr, C. J. and Roberts, J. M. (1995) Genes and Dev. 9:1149-1163). Two families of cdk inhibitor with different modes of action have already been identified in mammalian cells. One group, comprised of related proteins known as p21Cip1, p27Kip1, and p57Kip2, appears to function as specific inhibitors of the cyclin/cdk complexes (Harper, J. W., Adami, G. R., Wei, N., Keyomarsi, K. and Elledge, S. J. (1993) Cell 75: 805-816; Polyak, K., Lee, M.-H., Erdjument-Bromage, H., Koff, A., Roberts, J. M., Tempst, P., and Massague, J. (1994) Cell 78: 59-66; Toyoshima, H. and Hunter, T. (1994) Cell 78: 67-74; Matsuoka, S., Edwards, M. C., Bai, C., Parker, S., Zhang, P., Baldini, A., Harper, J. W., and Elledge, S. J. (1995) Genes and Dev. 9: 650-662). The second family of the cdk inhibitors is called INK4 family proteins. The four members of this family, called p15, p16, p18, and p19, bind directly to cdk4 and cdk6, and are therefore specific inhibitors of the cyclin D-dependent kinases (Hannon, G. J. and Beach, D. (1994) Nature 371: 257-261; Serrano, M., Hannon, G. J., and Beach, D. (1993) Nature 366: 704-707, Hirai, H., Roussel, M. F., Kato, J., Ashmun, R. A., and Sherr, C. J. (1995) Mol. Cell. Biol. 15: 2672-2681).
Although the precise roles of p27Kip1 are far from clear, its level decreases when cells are stimulated to enter the cell cycle, and increases when cells are arrested by either the change in TGF-xcex2, concentration or contact inhibition (Polyak, K., Kato, J., Solomon, M. J., Sherr, C. J., Massague, J., Roberts, J. M., and Koff, A. (1994) Genes and Dev. 8: 9-22) p27Kip1 was cloned as a binding protein with cyclin E-cdk2 (Polyak, K., Lee, M.-H., Erdjument-Bromage, H., Koff, A., Roberts, J. M., Tempst, P., and Massague, J. (1994) Cell 78: 59-66) or cyclin D-cdk4 (Toyoshima, H. and Hunter, T. (1994) Cell 78: 67-74). p27Kip1 inhibits the activity of most cyclin-cdk complexes and can inhibit the phosphorylation of cyclin-cdk complexes by CAK (cdk-activation kinases) (Kato. J., Matsuoka, M., Polyak, K., Massague, J., and Sherr, C. J. (1994) Cell 79: 487-496). Therefore, p27Kip1 functions as a negative regulator of the G1/S progression.
Tumor-specific mutations of the p27Kip1 gene are rare, whereas several cell cycle regulators, such as p16, p13, and pRB, are frequently mutated in some cancers and have been shown to be tumor suppressor genes (Ponce-Castaneda, M. V., Lee, M.-H., Latres, E., Polyak, K., Lacombe, L., Montgomery, K., Mathew, S., Krauter, K., Sheinfeld, J., Massague, J., and Cordon-Cardo, C. (1995) Cancer Res. 55: 1211-1214). However, the p27Kip1-deficient mice were observed to have increased body size, multiple organ hyperplasia, retinal dysplasia, and formation of pituitary tumors (Fero, M. L., Rivkin, M., Tasch, M., Porter, P., Carow, C. E., Firpo, E., Polyak, K., Tsai, L.-H., Broudy, V., Perlmutter, R. M., Kaushansky, K., and Roberts, J. M. (1996) Cell 85: 733-744; Kiyokawa, H., Kineman, R. D., Manova-Todorova, K. O., Soares, V. C., Hoffman, E. S., Ono, M., Khanam, D., Hayday, A. C., Frohman, L. A., and Koff, A. (1996) Cell 85: 721-732; Nakayama, K., Ishida, N., Shirane, M., Inomata, A., Inoue, T., Shishido, N., Horii, I., Loh, D. Y., and Nakayama, K. (1996) Cell 85: 707-720). These data are in part similar to the case of the RB heterozygous knockout mice (Hu, N., Gutsmann, A., Herbert, D. C., Bradley, A., Lee, W.-H., and Lee, E. Y.-H. P. (1994) oncogene 9:1021-1027). In addition, it has been shown that lower expression of the p27Kip1 protein correlated with poorer survival in breast cancer and colorectal cancer (Porter, P. L., Malone, K. E., Heagerty, P. J., Alexander, G. M., Gatti, L. A., Firpo, E. J., Daling, J. R., and Roberts, J. M. (1997) Nature Medicine 3: 222-225; Catzavelos, C., Bhattacharya, N., Ung, Y. C., Wilson, J. A., Roncari, L., Sandhu, C., Shaw, P., Yeger, H., Morava-Protzner, I., Kapsuta, L., Franssen, E., Pritchard, K. I., and Slingerland, J. M. (1997) Nature Medicine 3: 227-230; Loda, M., Cukor, B., Tam, S. W., Lavin, P., Fiorentino, M., Draetta, G. F., Jessup, J. M., and Pagano, M. (1997) Nature Medicine 3: 231-234). These results clearly indicate that p27Kip1 plays an important role in inhibiting tumor formation and tumor progression. There have also been reports on the importance of the p27Kip1 gene in enhancing the susceptibility of tumor cells to anticancer drugs and in influencing the prognosis factors of cancers (Croix, B. S., Florenes, V. A., Rak, J. W., Flanagan, M., Bhattacharya, N., Slingerland, J. M., and Kerbel, R. S. (1996) Nature Medicine 2: 1204-1210; Loda, M., Cukor, B., Tam, S. W., Lavin, P., Fiorentino, M., Draetta, G. F., Jessup, J. M., and Pagano, M. (1997) Nature Medicine 3: 231-234; Hengst, L. and Reed, S. I. (1996) Science 271: 1861-1864; Pagano, M., Tam, S. W., Theodoras, A. M., Beer-Romero, P., Sal, G. D., Chau, V., Yew, P. R., Draetta, G. F., and Rolfe, M. (1995) Science 269: 682-685). Consequently, it has been desired to develop drugs that regulate the transcription of the p27Kip1 gene in order to prevent or treat malignant tumors.
Recent reports showed that p27Kip1 mRNA is induced by vitamin D3 in U937 cells (Liu, M., Lee, M.-H., Cohen, M., Bommakanti, M., and Freedman, L. P. (1996) Genes and Dev. 10: 142-153) and by neuronal differentiation (Poluha, W., Poluha, D. K., Chang, B., Crosbie, N. E., Schonhoff, C. M., Kilpatrick, D. L., and Ross, A. H. (1996) Mol. Cell. Biol. 16: 1335-1341). These facts suggest that the transcriptional regulation of the p27Kip1 gene might also be important in cellular. differentiation.
An object of the present invention is to provide the promoter of the human p27Kip1 gene and a method of screening a compound capable of regulating the activity of the promoter.
The present inventors earnestly studied to achieve the above object. As a result, the inventors succeeded in isolating an upstream region of the human p27Kip1 gene by preparing a partial fragment of the p27Kip1 cDNA and screening a human leukocyte genomic library using this fragment as a probe. Furthermore, the inventors succeeded in identifying the basal promoter activity region within the upstream region by preparing deletion mutants of the upstream region and detecting their promoter activities. In addition, the inventors found that it is possible to screen compounds capable of regulating the promoter activity by using the isolated promoter region.
Namely, the present invention relates to a promoter region of the human p27Kip1 gene and a method of screening a compound using the promoter region. More specifically, the invention relates to:
(1) a DNA comprising at least part of the nucleotide sequence of SEQ ID NO:1;
(2) a DNA comprising at least part of the nucleotide sequence of SEQ ID NO:1 and having the promoter activity;
(3) a vector comprising the DNA of (2) above;
(4) a cell carrying the vector of (3) above;
(5) a method of screening a protein capable of regulating the promoters activity of the DNA of (2) above,. which comprises the steps selected from:
(a) steps of bringing a test sample into contact with the DNA of (2) above and selecting a protein that binds to the DNA of (2) above;
(b) steps of introducing a test DNA into cells carrying a reporter gene fused downstream of the DNA of (2) above and selecting an expression product that regulates the reporter gene expression; and
(c) steps of bringing a test sample into contact with cells carrying a reporter gene fused downstream of the DNA of (2) above and selecting a protein that regulates the reporter gene expression;
(6) a method of screening a DNA encoding a protein capable of regulating the promoter activity of the DNA of (2) above, which comprises the steps selected from:
(a) steps of bringing an expression product of a test DNA into contact with the DNA of (2) above and selecting a DNA encoding a protein that binds to the DNA of (2) above;
(b) steps of introducing a test DNA into cells carrying a reporter gene fused downstream of the DNA of (2) above and selecting a DNA encoding an expression product that regulates the reporter gene expression; and
(c) steps of bringing an expression product of a test DNA into contact with cells carrying a reporter gene fused downstream of the DNA of (2) above and selecting a DNA encoding an expression product that regulates the reporter gene expression;
(7) a method of screening a compound capable of regulating the promoter activity of the DNA of (2) above, which comprises the steps selected from:
(a) steps of bringing a test sample into contact with the DNA of (2) above in the presence of a test compound and selecting a compound that promotes or inhibits the binding between the DNA of (2) above and a protein in the test sample; and
(c) steps of bringing a test compound into contact with cells carrying a reporter gene fused downstream of the DNA of (2) above and selecting a compound that regulates the reporter gene expression;
(8) a protein capable of regulating the promoter activity of the DNA of (2) above;
(9) the protein of (8) above, which can be isolated by the method according to (5) above;
(10) a DNA encoding a protein that regulates the promoter activity of the DNA of (2) above;
(11) the DNA of (10) above, which can be isolated by the method according to (6) above;
(12) a compound capable of regulating the promoter activity of the DNA of (2) above; and
(13) the compound of (12) above, which can be isolated by the method according to (7) above.


It is decided whether or not the reception is performed with respect to signals of 1650 Hz, 1750 Hz and 185O Hz passed through band pass filter (BPF) 4031 up to 4033 and processed for the energy calculation in energy calculating circuit 4041 up to 4043 respectively. Low speed signals that are processed for the energy calculation in energy calculation circuit 4041 up to 4043 respectively are added in adding section 405. At this time, a timer in decision circuit 406 starts. When a predetermined time passes in the timer in decision circuit 406 with a predetermined energy level of signals of 1650 Hz, 1750 Hz and 1850 Hz kept, the signals are identified as EOP signal that comes after PIX signal. Thereby the apparatus is controlled to shift to the low speed signal reception mode.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device for switching communication speed in a modem.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a facsimile protocol such as V.17 and V.29 in the recommendation T.30, a calling side first transmits DIS signal, DCS signal and so on at a low speed of 300 bps, next transmits TCF signal, an image signal PIX at a high speed, then transmits EOP signal again at a low speed.
In the latter half of the image signal PIX RTC signal is added. In the above recommendation, the RTC signal is intended to be detected in an answering side. When the answering side detects the RTC signal, the answering side shifts an apparatus mode from a high speed signal reception mode to a low speed signal reception mode, which enables the answering side to receive the EOP signal that is a low speed signal coming next.
However the RTC signal is hard to recognize because the generation time is short. And it sometimes occurs that the RTC signal can not be detected when a switching device is momentarily interrupted by impulse noise and so on, because the noise resistance of the RTC signal is low. In this case, the low speed is received at the high speed signal reception mode, which remains the problem that the low speed signals after the EOP signal can not be received.
It is an object of the present invention is to provide a communication speed switching device capable of shifting assuredly from a high speed signal reception mode to a low speed signal reception mode.
The object is achieved by a communication speed switching comprising a detecting section for detecting a first frequency used in a low speed reception mode, and a reception mode switching section for switching the mode to the low speed reception mode when the detecting section detects the first frequency for a predetermined interval.

Matsushita Graphic Communication Systems, Inc.


A biofilm resistant fluid handling system is provided having at least one structural component adapted to retain or deliver fluid. The at least one structural component is formed from a biofilm resistant material comprising polymeric resin and an inorganic carrier conjugated with a biocidal metal ion. When a surface of the at least one structural component is exposed to a continuous or intermittent aqueous solution environment the formation of active biofilm on the surface is prevented and planktonic bacteria in proximity of said surface is killed. Additionally, methods for extending the biocidal properties of a biofilm resistant fluid handling system are provided. One includes continuously or periodically introducing a biocidal metal ion into contents of the aqueous solution environment resulting in equilibrium of biocidal metal ion exchange between the biofilm resistant material of the handling system and the aqueous solution environment, Another includes affixing a solvent, comprising an inorganic carrier conjugated with a biocidal metal ion, to the surface of the fluid handling system.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to polymeric resin based enclosed water systems comprising biocidal metal-ions preventing the formation of biofilm. The enclosed water systems commonly include reservoirs and/or delivery tubing having intermittent or continuous flow. Such water systems are most commonly used in the dental and medical fields.
2. Background of the Invention
The formation of sessile bacteria on water-bearing surfaces results in communities of live biofilms. Biofilms are implicated in a significant amount of human bacterial infections. Bacterial biofilms also cause fouling, product contamination, equipment failure, and decreased productivity due to downtime for system cleaning and replacement. Biofilms also cause fouling of the water that passes through the system and results in high levels of suspended, free-swimming (planktonic) bacteria. Planktonic bacterial cells alight on a surface, arrange themselves in clusters and attach. The collected cells begin producing a gooey matrix. The cells signal one another to multiply and form a microcolony. Chemical gradients arise and promote the coexistence of diverse species and metabolic states. Some cells return to their planktonic form and escape, forming new biofilms.
Conventional methods of killing bacteria (such as antibiotics, and chemical disinfection) are often ineffective with biofilm bacteria. The huge doses of antimicrobials required to rid systems of biofilm bacteria are undesirable environmentally (and perhaps not allowed by environmental regulations) and impractical medically (since what it would take to kill the biofilm bacteria would also potentially harm the patient). Standard chemical disinfectants and antibiotics often fail to eliminate biofilms because they do not penetrate biofilms fully or do not harm bacteria of all species and metabolic states in the films. Furthermore, typical biocides kill the bacteria by damaging the cell wall structure. This often results in the release of more toxic endotoxins.
In particular, biofilms present an ever-growing concern due to their prevalence in dental unit water systems. These systems provide particularly well-suited conditions for biofilm formation. The tubing has a very narrow bore (⅛ to 1/16-inch), providing a high internal surface-area-to-volume ratio. Low water pressure, low flow rates, and frequent periods of stagnation also encourage any bacteria introduced from the public water supply or saliva retraction to accumulate within the tubing. Numerous studies conducted over the past thirty years have identified the presence of waterborne opportunistic pathogens in dental unit water. For these reasons, the American Dental Association (ADA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have established guidelines for delivery of dental water with less than 500 colony-forming units (CFU) of heterotrophic bacteria per milliliter of water. In response to the need to abate this problem, many products have been developed, generally falling into one of four categories: independent water systems, chemical treatment methods, point-of-use filters, or sterile water delivery systems. Despite the available the aforementioned products, most of the systems available yield only marginal results.
Current approaches to improve the quality of water, and particularly, dental water include waterline flushing, independent reservoirs filled with distilled water, chemical "shock treatment", continuous chemical treatment, mechanical filtration and automated in-line treatment devices. Waterline flushing may temporarily reduce bacteria levels however the biofilm remains completely active and at any given time a person may be exposed to elevated levels of bacteria. Independent water reservoirs filled with distilled water may begin free of bacteria, however without a residual disinfectant the water is readily contaminated from the biofilm within the reservoir and/or tubing. Mechanical filtration may be temporarily effective at filtering bacteria, however, problems with breakthrough, time and costs of replacement are prohibitive. In dentistry, "shock treatments" utilizing solutions with bleach, peroxide, or chlorhexidine have been administered, but the "shock treatments" must be repeated weekly and often daily because the biofilm actually begins to regrow in that short period of time. This type of system also requires use of only sterile water to slow down the biofilm formation. Mature biofilms are notoriously resistant to chemical disinfection including these "shock treatments". Thus, if a practitioner does not treat his system for several weeks, the biofilm will become resistant to this method.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,158,454 incorporates an automated in-line ozone generator that is effective at continuous disinfection. The disadvantage of this device and similar others are that they are bulky and take up limited space from the operatory unit and are expensive to install and operate.
Another system utilized in controlling the presence of infectious microbes in water supplied to dental units is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,230,624. Here, an in-line filter is provided in a supply line leading to a dental instrument, such as a drill or the like, and contains a polyiodide purification resin. The resin functions to neutralize and kill bacteria by the release of iodine from the resin surface to the bacteria through a demand release process involving electrostatic attraction. The resin is positively charged such that the negatively charged microorganisms are attracted to the resin to the point where iodine is released directly into the microorganism. The disadvantage of the system is that the filters must be changed and the bacteria many times is not effectively controlled.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,106,771 describes a portable system and method for softening and disinfecting dental waterlines. Although period chemical treatment of water lines has been shown to provide temporary improvements in water quality, this approach has failed to provide continuous supply of bacteria free water.
Another system to control the presence of infectious microbes in water supplied to dental units is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,709,546. This invention provides a process by which mature biofilms, including biofilms of the type produced by gram negative bacteria such as pseudomonas aeruginosa, are reduced to the point of elimination through the use of a hydroxycarboxylic acid in relatively low concentrations so as not to be harmful to human tissue. Although the use hydroxycarboxylic acid in relatively low concentrations has been shown to provide temporary improvements in water quality, this approach has also failed to provide continuous supply of bacteria free water.
In light of the failure of the aforementioned techniques to control biofilm, a number of inventions have focused on developing antibacterial polymeric structures. U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,238,575 and 6,261,271 describe an enclosed fluid system structure conjugated with an organic antimicrobial agent as resistant to the formation of biofilm. Although test data indicates a zone of inhibition of bacteria growth, it does not demonstrate long-term resistance to biofilm formation. Biofilm resistance to organic antimicrobials and antibiotics are well documented. Furthermore, the leaching of toxic antimicrobials and antibiotics into the aqueous environment prohibits the use of the aforementioned inventions in potable water or medical/dental water applications.
Furthermore, silver, copper and zinc metal ion biocides have been developed and utilized as antimicrobial agents on and within many different substrates and surfaces. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,933,178, 6,126,931, and 5,614,568 incorporate metal ion based biocides. Although these inventions present improvements to prior art, the practical application is inappropriate for sensitive end uses including potable, medical and dental water.
A need exists for a fluid handling system which resists the formation of biofilms. Ideally, the fluid handling system would be manufactured from a material which is capable of resisting the formation of biofilms when exposed to an aqueous environment. As a result, existing system designs and conventional component elements, such as tubing, containers, and receptacles could be utilized. In particular, only minimal changes to these systems would be required to replace non-biofilm resistance materials with biofilm resistant materials. Moreover, it would be beneficial to provide a biofilm resistant fluid handling system which requires minimum maintenance and is economically feasible.

Anti-biofilm forming structure and method of manufacturing the same


A mask for use in measuring flare produced by a projection lens of a photolithography system, a method of manufacturing the mask, a method of identifying a flare-affected region on a wafer, and a method for correcting for the flare to produce photoresist patterns of desired line widths are provided. A first photolithographic process is performed to form photoresist patterns on a test wafer using a mask including a light shielding region having a plurality of light transmission patterns and a light transmission region, and the photoresist patterns formed by light passing through the light transmission patterns of the light shielding region are compared to the photoresist patterns formed by light passing through the light transmission region. The amount of flare produced by the projection lens is quantified using the results of the comparison, and thus it is possible to identify a flare-affected region on the wafer. In addition, it is possible to form uniform photoresist patterns on the wafer by determining the open ratio of the flare-affected region and calculating an effective amount of the flare in the flare-affected region from the amount of flare of the lens and the open ratio. More specifically, a mask is produced in which the line widths of mask patterns are configured, i.e., corrected compared to the first mask, taking into consideration the effective amount of the flare.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to photolithography. More particularly, the present invention relates to a projection lens of an exposure apparatus of a photolithography system, and to the associated phenomenon of flare that causes defects in a pattern formed on a wafer by light focused on the wafer by the projection lens.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, flare is a phenomenon that produces a bad exposure in a photolithographic process due to defects of a projection lens of the exposure apparatus of the photolithography system. More specifically, when a portion of the surface of the lens is defective, the exposure light is dispersed at the defective portions, and photoresist patterns are formed incorrectly by the exposure light. Here, the defects at the surface of the lens which may produce flare include contaminants, scratches, or a difference in refractory indices between portions of the lens. Light passing through such defective portions of the lens during exposure scatters and thus, the light does not focus properly on the photoresist layer.
The flare phenomenon will be described more fully with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2. Referring to FIGS. 1A and 1B, an exposure apparatus for performing a photolithographic process includes a lens 14 for scaling down and projecting a light shielding pattern 11 of a mask 10 onto a predetermined portion of a wafer 12. The lens 14 is interposed between the mask 10 and the wafer 12. The top surface of the wafer 12 is coated with a photoresist layer (not shown).
As shown in FIG. 1A, if no defect occurs at the surface of the lens 14, the shielding pattern 11 on the mask 10 is projected on a reduced scale onto the photoresist layer. Accordingly, photoresist patterns 12a are formed on the wafer 12.
On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 1B, if defects occur at the surface of the lens 14, light disperses at the defective portions 15 of the lens 14. The dispersion of light results in an irregular distribution of light on the photoresist layer during the exposure, and decreases the contrast of the image. In addition, portions of the wafer 12 corresponding to and adjacent to the defective portions 15 may become excessively exposed. As a result, an on chip variation phenomenon occurs in which photoresist patterns 12b on the wafer 12 are deformed, or the widths of photoresist patterns 12b formed in one field vary. As the photolithographic process is repeated, the lens 14 of the exposure apparatus becomes more severely defective, and the amount of flare varies.
Accordingly, in photolithography, the amount of flare of a lens and the position on the wafer which is affected by flare must be measured and determined for every exposure process if the photoresist patterns are to be formed as desired.
However, conventional photolithography systems do not have tools for identifying whether flare is produced by a projection lens, for identifying whether a wafer is affected by flare, and/or for determining the extent of a flare-affected region on a wafer. Thus, it is difficult to correct for the flare, i.e., to avoid bad exposures.

Mask for use in measuring flare, method of manufacturing the mask, method of identifying flare-affected region on wafer, and method of designing new mask to correct for flare


The provision of an easily laterally opened type paper container includes: a paper base material which is made of material having thermoplastic resin layers on both sides thereof; an opening piece which is formed of a resin film, and sandwiched and bonded between an upper piece and a lower piece of an overlap width portion of the paper base material which is overlapped and laminated on each other with a picking length; a notch portion defined in the upper piece of said overlap width portion in correspondence with both ends of said opening piece laterally; and an oriented polyolefine film having such a characteristic that an orientation magnification of the film in one direction is larger than that in a direction orthogonal to the one direction, which is stacked on an inner surface of the paper container material in such a manner that the one direction having the larger orientation magnification coincides with an opening direction of the paper container.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a laminated paper container (hereinafter referred to as paper container, simply) for containing liquid such as juice or a gel-like food such as bean-curd or jelly, and more particularly to a paper container which is easily laterally opened.
2. Description of the Related Art
Paper containers have been popularly used for the purpose of containing a liquid such as juice or sake, or a gel-like food such as bean-curd or jelly, because the paper container as used can be readily disposed of and the liquid or the gel-like food contained in the paper container can be preserved at room temperature for a long period of time. Up to now, as a means for opening the above paper container, there has been known a type in which, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. Sho 55-154240, a perforated line 3 is indicated on a corner of an upper lateral seal portion 2 of a paper container (FIG. 17), and the corner of the lateral seal portion 2 is pulled up and cut along the perforated line 3 when opening the paper container so that a spout 4 and an air passage 5 are opened as shown in FIG. 18, and a type in which a spout 6 is formed on a top wall of the paper container 1, and a pull tab tape 7 is laminated on the spout 6 as shown in FIG. 19.
However, when taking out the gel-like food such as bean-curd or jelly from the paper container with such an opening structure, it is difficult to take it out without destroying the contents thereof. As a result, a pair of scissors, a cutter or the like must be used to open the paper container, thereby causing a problem in that it gives a considerable amount of trouble.

Easily laterally opened type paper container


In a silicon wafer having a CVD film formed on one main face and having the other main face mirror-polished, the components and/or composition of the CVD film change in the thicknesswise direction of the film. This makes it possible to provide a silicon wafer having a thin film provided on the back surface, which thin film has excellent and persistent gettering capability that can remove a greater variety of types of elements and can prevent autodoping.

1 . Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a silicon wafer and a method of manufacturing the silicon wafer, and more particularly a silicon wafer which has a film formed by chemical vapor deposition (a CVD film), particularly a film formed by plasma chemical vapor deposition (a plasma CVD film), serving as both a gettering layer and a protective film for preventing autodoping. Further, the present invention relates to a silicon epitaxial wafer produced from the silicon wafer.
2 . Description of the Related Art
Of the two main faces of a silicon wafer other than its edge, a device is fabricated on one main face (hereinafter referred to as a "front surface") of the silicon wafer. The technique of forming a thin film on the other main face (hereinafter referred to as a "back surface") of the silicon wafer has two principal objects.
One object is to utilize the thin film as a layer for gettering impurities such as heavy metals, and the other object is to utilize the thin film as a protective film for preventing autodoping that would otherwise occur when a layer is epitaxially grown on the silicon wafer.
Gettering is the technique of collecting impurities, such as heavy metals, produced during the course of manufacture of a silicon electronic device on the silicon wafer outside the regions in the vicinity of the front surface of the silicon wafer where devices are fabricated. By virtue of this technique, there can be prevented the degradation of the characteristics of the devices by impurities such as heavy metals, which in turn allows an increase in the ratio of non-defective silicon devices to the entire silicon devices to be manufactured.
As disclosed in, e.g., Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 59-186331, one representative gettering technique is the technique of forming a gettering layer by depositing polycrystalline silicon on the back surface of the silicon wafer through use of low-pressure chemical vapor deposition (the low-pressure CVD method). In order to improve the gettering capability, there has been proposed a method of depositing amorphous silicon in place of the polycrystalline silicon (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 4-2133).
Autodoping is a phenomenon in which a dopant evaporates principally from the back surface of the silicon wafer into the gas phase to be used for epitaxial growth when a silicon epitaxial wafer is manufactured, and the thus-evaporated dopant is incorporated into the epitaxial layer.
In a case where the resistivity of the silicon wafer to be subjected to epitaxial growth is low, or where there is a high concentration of dopants, autodoping occurs to a noticeable extent. If the epitaxial layer containing dopants in small concentration is grown, a transition width (i.e., the width of an area where the concentration of dopants changes in the vicinity of the interface between an epitaxial layer and the silicon wafer) is extended, which makes it difficult to control the resistivity of the epitaxial layer. If a silicon device is fabricated through use of a silicon wafer having an epitaxial layer with a wide transition area, the device fails to exhibit its originally-designed characteristics, thereby rendering the device defective.
For this reason, in a commonly-used technique, a protective film for the purpose of preventing autodoping is formed on the back surface of a silicon wafer in order to prevent the autodoping in a case where the silicon wafer having a high concentration of dopants is subjected to epitaxial growth. An atmospheric-pressure silicon oxide film (an atmospheric-pressure CVD oxide film) grown in an atmospheric-pressure chemical vapor deposition apparatus (an atmospheric-pressure CVD system) is primarily used as the protective film.
As the integration and performance of the silicon devices have been improving in recent years, there has arisen a demand for improvements in persistency of gettering capability of the silicon wafer to be used as a material of the silicon electronic devices, in addition to a demand for improvements in the gettering capability.
However, if the gettering layer is formed by depositing the polycrystalline silicon or amorphous silicon, there are only a limited number of elements which can be expected to be removed by gettering. For this reason, there is a limit to the gettering capability of the gettering layer. As the silicon wafer receives heat during the fabrication of the device, transformation of the polycrystalline silicon or amorphous silicon into monocrystalline silicon proceeds, thereby resulting in deterioration of the gettering capability. Thus, there is a problem with the persistency of the gettering capability of the silicon wafer.
In a case where a silicon monocrystal is epitaxially grown on the front surface of the silicon wafer having a gettering layer of polycrystalline or amorphous silicon on the back surface, dopants easily penetrate through the polycrystalline or amorphous silicon. Particularly, in a case where the silicon wafer to be subjected to epitaxial growth contains a high concentration of dopants, polycrystalline or amorphous silicon is deposited on the back surface of the silicon wafer, and an atmospheric-pressure CVD oxide film is further deposited on the polycrystalline or amorphous silicon, thereby preventing autodoping. These deposition operations are carried out in individual steps, so that the production cost increases.

Silicon wafer having plasma CVD gettering layer with components/composition changing in depth-wise direction and method of manufacturing the silicon wafer


A magnetic head including a lead overlaid read head component in which the electrical current passing through the overlaid passive regions of the sensor layers is reduced. The parts of the electrical leads that overlay the sensor layers are comprised of gold. The exceptional electrical conductivity of gold allows most sensor electrical current to flow through the overlaid leads and significantly reduces the amount of sensor electrical current that passes through the overlaid sensor layers. The operational characteristics of the read head are improved because the overlaid passive regions of the sensor layers do not contribute to the sensor signal. Noise and side reading effects are thereby reduced. In alternative embodiments of the present invention of gold is also used to overlay portions of the electrical leads that are away from the overlaid portions. This further reduces the sensor electrical current that passes through the overlaid sensor layers.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to read head portions of magnetic heads for hard disk drives, and more particularly to a read head having a lead overlaid magnetoresistive sensor.
2. Description of the Prior Art
One well known way to increase the performance of hard disk drives is to increase the areal data storage density of the magnetic hard disk. This can be accomplished by reducing the written data track width, such that more tracks per inch can be written on the disk. To read data from a disk with a reduced track width, it is also necessary to develop sufficiently narrow read head components, such that unwanted magnetic field interference from adjacent data tracks is substantially eliminated.
The standard prior art read head elements include a plurality of thin film layers that are deposited and fabricated to produce a GMR read head, as is known to those skilled in the art. Significantly, where the width of the thin film sensor layers that comprise the GMR read head is reduced below certain values, the magnetic properties of the layers are substantially compromised. To overcome this problem, GMR read heads have been developed in which the thin film sensor layers have an ample width and the electrical leads are overlaid on top of portions of the thin film sensor layers. This lead overlaid configuration has the effect of creating an active read head region having a width that is less than the entire width of the deposited layers, such that the magnetic properties of the thin film layers can be substantially preserved. Thus, in the lead overlaid GMR read heads of the prior art, active magnetic layer portions exist between the inner ends of the electrical leads and passive magnetic layer portions exist beneath the electrical leads.
A problem that has been recognized with regard to such prior art lead overlaid read heads is that the passive region of the magnetic layers of the read head, and particularly the free magnetic layer, is not entirely passive. That is, external magnetic fields, such as from adjacent data tracks, can create magnetic field fluctuations within the passive regions of the free magnetic layer beneath the electrical leads. When some electrical current from the overlaid leads passes through the passive sensor regions, signal noise is created. The present invention seeks to solve this problem by reducing the electrical current that passes through the passive regions of the sensor magnetic layers.
As will become clear from reading the detailed description herebelow, the present invention utilizes gold in the electrical lead overlay structure due to its superior conductivity. A problem that has occurred in the prior art where gold has been employed for magnetic head components has been that the low ductility of gold results in the creation of gold nodules and smearing at the ABS surface of the head. That is, gold structures at the ABS have a history of extruding outwardly from the ABS surface to form projecting bump-like structures termed nodules. The projecting gold will also smear across the magnetic head structures at the ABS and can electrically short the magnetic head components, leading to significant noise and ultimately the total failure of the head. The present invention solves this problem through the utilization of only thin films of gold that are applied only in small, critical areas, such that the quantity of gold is minimized and the smearing and nodule formation problems are avoided.

Use of gold leads in lead overlaid type of GMR sensor

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Netherlands, B.V.


The invention relates to a cosmetic treatment method intended to stimulate hair growth, restore hair growth, and/or limit hair loss. The cosmetic treatment method includes providing a composition comprising at least one corn (Zea mays L.) peptidic hydrolyzate, as an active agent to stimulate hair growth, or reduce hair loss and applying it topically to an area having hair follicles.

Hair growth and renewal are mainly determined by the activity of hair follicles and their matrix environment.
The hair follicle is a complex autonomous cutaneous annex that comprises six large compartments, some of dermic origin (connective tissue sheath and hair papilla), others of an epithelial nature (inner and outer root sheath, hair shaft and sebaceous gland). At the base of the follicle the matrix is found, which is the site of intense mitotic activity, at the origin of 3 concentric layers of hair essentially constituted of keratin.
The hair follicle renews in situ in a cyclic and asynchronous manner from a double reservoir of stem cells, according to an activity cycle that comprises three phases: The anagen phase, the catagen phase and the telogen phase.
The anagen phase (growth phase) lasts from one to ten years and is characterized by the constant elongation of the hair. During this phase, the outer root sheath cells overexpress beta 1 integrin (Commo & Bernard, 1997, Cell mol. life Sc. 53:466-471). The proliferative cells from this area express proliferation markers such as the Ki67 protein and the p63 transcription factor (Chikh et al., 2007, Biochem Biophys Res Commun., 14; 361(1):1-6).
The following catagen phase is very transient and lasts some weeks. It seems to be initiated by certain factors such as EGF, TGF beta (Foitzik et al. 2000, FASEB J. 14(5):752-60), or else the p53 protein that is temporarily overexpressed (Botchkarev et al., 2001, Am. J. Pathol. 158(6): 1913-1919). During this phase, the follicle cells undergo an active apoptosis process, the follicle atrophies and retracts to the surface, with the well-known exception of the hair papilla that will be the key element in future regeneration.
The terminal phase or telogen phase, which lasts some months, corresponds to a follicle rest phase at the end of which the hair finishes by falling. At the end of this rest period, a new follicle is regenerated and a new cycle starts.
In addition, it has been clearly described that the differentiation mechanisms of keratinocytes from the epidermis and hair follicle are substantially different. Therefore, it is known that keratins from the hair shaft represent a family of keratins that is distinct from that expressed in the epidermis (Langbein et al., 2001, J. Biol. Chem. 276), thus the K6irs keratin (Porter et al., 2001, Br. J. Dermatol. 145: 558-568) is expressed in the inner sheath of the hair follicle but not in the epidermis, while epidermal differentiation markers such as K1 and K10 keratins are not expressed in the hair follicle (Lenoir et al., 1988, Dev. Biol. 130: 610-620).
The natural fall or loss of hair may be estimated, on average, as a hundred hairs per day for a normal physiological condition. This ongoing renewal process may be disturbed by many extrinsic and intrinsic factors, leading to a significant loss of hair, temporary or definitive, that may be grouped together under the generic term of alopecia.
As with the rest of the organism, the ongoing physiological hair renewal process is subject to aging. Whereas the most visible sign of hair aging is the graying of hair, the quality of the biological environment of the hair follicle is also affected. From among the manifestations of hair aging are observed a lesser protein synthesis of the extracellular matrix (collagen, laminin, fibronectin), leading to a loss of elasticity and tonus of the subcutaneous tissue. There is also a reduction in the consistency and organization of hair follicles, a reduction in the anagen phase duration and an extension in the telogen phase duration (Courtois et al., 1995, Br. J. dermatol., 132:86-93). In fact, the hair loses its elasticity, it is more fine and therefore more fragile. With regard to the entire scalp, aging is manifested by a lowering in capillary density and by the progressive reduction in follicle diameter, giving the hair a poorer, more sparse appearance (Pelfini, C. et al., J. Méd. Esth. Et Chir. Derm 1987; Birch M P et al. Br. J. Dermatol 2001; 144:297-304).
Independently from intrinsic aging, alterations in the hair or hair follicle may be produced during external stresses. In fact, whereas the hair has a remarkable stability, certain external factors, such as the sun, responsible for photoaging, free radicals, pollution or else certain inappropriate treatments may result in a premature deterioration in the hair structure and depletion of follicles.
The expression "external stress" is understood to refer to stresses that the environment may produce. By way of example, stresses such as pollution, UV radiation or else products with an irritating character such as surface active agents that are too detergent, colorings and bleachings, too frequent permanents or hair straightening treatments, mechanical stresses such as the rubbing of clothes, hair styles causing repeated stretching of the hair, too intense brushing, blow-dryings and drying with air that is too hot may be cited. Pollution is understood to refer to both "external" pollution, due for example to diesel particles, ozone or heavy metals and to "internal" pollution, that may be particularly due to the emissions from paint, adhesive or wallpaper solvents (such as toluene, styrene, xylene or benzaldehyde), or else to cigarette smoke. These external stresses result in an alteration in the external structure of the hair and in its mechanical properties, but may also affect the hair follicle and cause premature aging.
The cosmetic or pharmaceutical industry always seeks compositions eliminating or reducing hair loss or stimulating hair growth. As a known molecule, 2,4-diamino 6-piperidinopyrimidine 3-oxide or "minoxidil" (patents U.S. Pat. No. 4,139,619 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,596,812) may be cited. Another patent document by Shiseido (JP 07316023) also describes the use of arginine and its derivatives in the treatment of alopecia. Lastly, document EP 1885323 describes the use of a synthetic peptide to stimulate hair growth.
However, certain available products present side effects, such as in the case of minoxidil, or have a relative effectiveness confined to the treatment duration. Also, a need remains for a novel physiologically acceptable composition to encourage hair growth and/or reduce hair loss, presenting a rapid and long-lasting action.
Corn peptidic extracts have previously been described for their effects on the skin (FR 2904543, FR 2915382, FR 2925326).
The inventors have now demonstrated that such corn peptidic hydrolyzates have an activity on the hair follicle. In particular, it has been demonstrated that the peptidic hydrolyzate, when it is applied to the hair, activates the hair follicle and stimulates hair growth.

Use of a corn peptidic hydrolyzate as an active agent stiimulating hair growth


A sheet feeding device which blows air to placed sheets, separates and conveys the sheets includes a sheet containing portion which contains the sheets, an air blowing portion which blows air to the sheets contained in the sheet containing portion, and an air supply unit which supplies air to the air blowing portion. The air supply unit is constituted by connecting two or more centrifugal fans, and the air blown out from an upstream side fan in an air flow passage is sucked by an adjacent downstream side fan via a spiral flow passage.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sheet feeding device having a mechanism for blowing air to a placed sheet stack and floating and loosening the sheets.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, in sheet feeding devices provided in image forming apparatuses such as printers and copying machines, an air loosening mechanism which blows air to an end of sheet stack and floats and loosens the sheets is provided in order to securely feed sheets one by one from the sheet stack placed in a containing portion. As shown in FIG. 9, with the air loosening mechanism, air is blown to the end of the sheet stack contained in a containing portion 100 from a loosening nozzle 101 and a separation nozzle 102, a plurality of upper sheets are floated and loosened. The floated top sheet is stuck to a conveying belt 103 and is simultaneously conveyed so that the sheets are separated one by one. The separated sheets are further conveyed to a downstream side by a drawing-out roller pair 104 provided on a downstream side. The device having such a constitution is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-196187.
An auxiliary air loosening mechanism, which blows air to a side of placed sheet stack (a direction perpendicular to a sheet feeding direction) and floats and loosens the sheets, is added so that also sheets of large size can be securely floated and loosened. As shown in FIG. 9, in this mechanism, auxiliary separating fans 105 and 106 are provided on a side of sheet stack, and air is blown to the side surface of the sheet stack from openings 105A and 106A, so that the sheets can be securely floated. The device having such a constitution is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-182873.
In the case where sheets to be fed are so-called coated paper which is used for printing and whose surface is coated with a coating material, the sheets are possibly stuck to each other. The sticking power of the sheets (the power of sticking the sheets) occasionally becomes 1 kgf or more according to temperature and humidity of a use environment. In such a case, two sheets which are stuck to each other are fed and also occasionally ten or more sheets which are stuck to each other are fed, thereby causing paper jam. In order to float heavy and large sheets whose basis weight is 200 g/m2 or more, even if an influence of the sticking is not present, very strong wind pressure is required only for floating.
In the case where a device, which can output about 70 to 100 sheets of A4 size per minute, is assumed, loosening time per sheet reduces, and a sheet feeding condition becomes further strict.
For example, in the case where it is assumed that about 50 coated sheets of A3 size whose basis weight is 200 g/m2 in an environment such that room temperature is 30° and relative humidity is 60 to 80% are output perminute, it is found according to an experiment that about 650 Pa of the wind pressure of air to be blown in order to securely float the sheets is necessary.
In centrifugal fans such as sirocco fans which are used in copying machines or the like being capable of outputting 50 to 70 sheets of A4 size per minute, comparatively large fans have a diameter of impeller which is about 80 mm to 120 mm. Such fans can obtain air whose pressure is higher than that of axial fans with the same diameter.
However, even in the case where a sirocco fan having impeller with a diameter of 120 mm is used, only the wind pressure of about 420 Pa is obtained.
In order to generate high-pressure air, a compressor or a large-sized centrifugal fan (for example, a turbo fan or a sirocco fan) is occasionally used, but devices mostly become large, heavy and expensive in all the cases. For this reason, a sheet feeding device becomes large and expensive.

Sheet feeding device and image forming apparatus


A system and method for monitoring the remaining useable life, or “wellness,” of a contactor or motor starter, and for predicting impending faults of such a device, is disclosed. By monitoring actuating coil current, actuating coil voltage, line current, and/or line voltage, the present invention can calculate wellness metrics which, when compared to threshold values, may be used as indicators of remaining life and/or imminent failures. The invention also provides non-mechanical positive indications of proper closures and openings of contacts for safety interlocking.

The present invention relates generally to electrical switching devices, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for monitoring the wellness of contactors and motor starters, especially electromagnetic contactors and motor starters. The present invention measures various currents and voltages in one or both of the switched line and the actuating coil to monitor performance and determine indications of impending faults of the device.
Contactors are generally used in motor starter applications to switch on/off a load as well as to protect a load, such as a motor, or other electrical devices from current overloading. As such, a typical contactor has three contact assemblies—a contact assembly for each phase or pole of a three-phase electrical device. Each contact assembly, in turn, includes a pair of stationary contacts and a pair of moveable contacts. One stationary contact will be a line side contact and the other stationary contact will be a load side contact. The moveable contacts are controlled by an actuating assembly comprising a contact carrier and an armature magnet assembly which is energized by a coil to move the moveable contacts to form a bridge between the stationary contacts. When the moveable contacts are engaged with both stationary contacts, current is allowed to travel from the power source or line to the load or electrical device. When the moveable contact is separated from the stationary contacts, an open circuit is created and the line and load are electrically isolated from one another.
Each contact assembly, and each set of moveable and stationary contacts thereof, corresponds to a pole or phase of the same three phase input. Thus, in some contactors, the three pairs of moveable contacts are all moved between open and closed positions in unison. Other contactors, however, provide for independent or timed control of each pair of moveable contacts, such as in systems that use so-called "Point-on-Wave" switching. In addition, many contactors utilize variations intended to render them more tolerable or more sensitive to current overloads, such as contacts that automatically blow open upon an overload before an open command is received. The development of these alternatives illustrates a general recognition in the art that, despite their relative durability, all contactors have a finite useable life. Component wear, contact surface erosion, friction, jam, contact welding, arc-generated debris, and other factors limit the length of time and/or number of operations through which a contactor may be used.
Since contactors and motor starters are important components of both automation and control systems, monitoring their remaining useable life, or "wellness," to predict impending faults before occurrence is essential. Un-predicted failures of contactors not only cause costly work stoppages, but also can cause damage to the load and other related systems and equipment. In contrast, over-cautious approaches to contactor monitoring and replacement increase maintenance costs and slow or delay usage of the motor/load.
Currently, most methods for estimating the working life of contactors rely upon the manufacturer's life test data or guidelines. That is, most commercially available contactors have a designated number of operations or cycles after which the manufacturer recommends replacement to avoid failure in use. Thus, many systems and methods for predicting failure simply count the number of operations that a contactor completes. However, each contactor will not necessarily operate for the same number of cycles before failure. And, the causes of failure vary among contactors as well as the conditions which lead to possible failure issues. How a contactor is operated, the conditions under which it is used, and the characteristics of the environment in which it is used cause even more variation in the number of operations a contactor might undergo before failure. Therefore, to be useful, counting methods must be overly cautious in setting replacement schedules, or risk contactor failures while in use.
Other approaches for monitoring contactors have been centered on determining whether a connection between the movable and stationary contacts was actually made properly. Thus, some systems have compared actuating coil current to reference values to determine whether contacts have fully closed. Similar systems have measured the impedance of the actuating coil by monitoring the decay rate of current therethrough during a period when a supply regulator is turned off. Since impedance will vary appreciably depending on whether the contacts are fully open or closed, the state of the contacts can be determined. More simplistic methods of monitoring contactors have involved the use of simple mechanical translations of the position of the contacts, whether open or closed. Other approaches use optical devices to detect the presence or brightness of arc emissions indicating that a failure has occurred. However, such approaches are not believed to have the ability to reliably predict impending failures, only to detect existing failures.
Systems similar to those described above are also used for safety interlocking. That is, an additional set of contacts are coupled to the primary moveable and stationary contacts such that they engage in a closed position when the primary contacts engage and separate when the primary contacts separate. These additional sets of contacts are known as interlocks or mirror contacts. The drawback to such a method of ensuring proper contact closure is that only a rough mechanical translation of contact closure is available. Thus, the interlock contacts are just as susceptible to jam, friction, wear, erosion, and other problems as are the primary contacts. Also, even when working properly, the interlocks provide limited information—whether the contacts are properly closed. In contrast, a system which predictively monitors currents and/or voltages of the electromagnetic contactor itself can provide more data on contact movement and can provide such data throughout a complete operating cycle (initiation through coil operation and current flow to contact opening).
Drawbacks of the above methods are that they cannot accurately predict failures (they detect failures), they require additional costly hardware, they require add-ons that are bulky and not durable, they use components susceptible to damage from contact arcing, they waste contacts which have significant remaining life, and worst, they are unreliable for indicating contactor wellness and predicting impending faults.
It would therefore be desirable to have a system and method capable of accurately monitoring the remaining useable life of a contactor and impending faults thereof. Preferably, such system should not rely upon manufacturer recommended operation counts and should predict rather than merely detect failures. In addition, it would be desirable if such a system could also perform safety interlock or mirror contact functions.

Method and apparatus for monitoring wellness of contactors and starters


A memory device may include a plurality of cell arrays, a first interface suitable for inputting/outputting first data between the plurality of cell arrays and a host apparatus, a second interface suitable for inputting/outputting second data between the plurality of cell arrays and a device other than the host apparatus, and a data erasure circuit suitable for erasing the first data of the plurality of cell arrays when a first mode in which the first interface is used switches to a second mode in which the second interface is used.

1. Field
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention relate to a memory device and, more particularly, to a technology for improving the data security of a memory device.
2. Description of the Related Art
In most electronic systems, semiconductor memory devices are used as a storage device. Semiconductor memory devices are being developed to increase not only their data storage capacities but also their data processing speeds. Furthermore, various attempts to mount memory devices of higher capacity within a smaller area and to efficiently drive the memory devices are being made.
In order to improve memory device integration, two-dimensional (2D) arrangement methods have been supplanted by three-dimensional (3D) arrangement methods in which memory chips are stacked. High bandwidth memory (HBM) and three-dimensionally stacked (3DS) memory devices generally include an interface for connecting to a host apparatus and a separate interface for tests, etc. However, there may data security issues where data of the host apparatus is lost through the other interface.

Memory device and operation method thereof


A portable telephone set has a power supply in which a secondary cell is employed. A charging detector for detecting whether a charger for charging the secondary cell is connected to the power supply, wherein the charging detector generates a detection signal when it detects that the charger is connected to the power supply. A power controller turns on power of the portable telephone set when it receives the detection signal from the charging detector.

A conventional portable telephone set comprises a power supply in which a secondary cell is employed and a power controller for controlling power consumed by the telephone. The power supply can be connected with a charger through charging terminals to charge current into the secondary cell. When the power supply is connected to the charger, a constant current (charging current) flows into the telephone from the charger, regardless of whether the power of the telephone is turned ON or OFF.
For example, Japanese patent application laid-open No. 3-30262 discloses a charger of a portable telephone set which can function as both a charger and an external power supply to omit a part of a power supply circuit and a circuit-changing switch in the telephone set.
However, in the conventional telephone, if the level of the charging current is set to match the current drawn by the telephone set when it is turned ON, the charging current may exceed a maximum value and overcharge the cell when the telephone is turned OFF.
On the contrary, if the level of the charging current is set to correspond to the current drawn by the telephone set when it is turned OFF, the charging current may be below the required minimum current value required for charging when the telephone is turned ON.

Portable telephone set having a power controller causing a current charging of a battery to be held constant


A scissors that is designed for use by a particular handed person that is modified to be used by an other-handed person (e.g., a left-handed scissors for use by a right handed person) includes a pivot joint, and two blade members pivotally coupled together. At least one blade member has a levered handle behind the pivot joint. The levered handle acts on a fulcrum member to apply a lever force to a portion of the pivot joint to increase the tension and friction between the cutting edges of the blade members, when the motion of the users thumb and fingers would otherwise tend to pull the blade members apart and decrease tension and friction between the blade members, if no levered handle was present.

Typically, scissors are constructed with two separate, slightly bowed blade members being pivotally coupled together by a pivot joint. The blade members are attached to handles, one handle for the thumb and the other for the fingers of one hand. The blade members contact each other at three main points: along the opposing cutting edge of each blade member, through the pivot joint, and by the contact between the blade members in back of the pivot joint and before the handle of the scissors (the ride area). The pivot joint is placed under an axial load directed along the pivot axis of the pivot joint to keep the blade members together, while the contact in back of the pivot joint acts as a lever with the pivot joint as the fulcrum to produce tension and friction between the cutting edges of the blade members which ensures proper cutting action.
The normal pushing action of a user's thumb against the thumb handle acts on the blade member attached to the thumb handle to lever it, with the pivot joint as the fulcrum, towards the opposing blade to further increase the tension between the cutting edges of the blade members. Typically the user of a haircutting scissors will actuate the cutting motion of the scissors blades by moving the thumb while keeping the fingers relatively still in relation to the rest of his body. The blade member attached to the thumb handle is therefore commonly known as the moving blade while the blade member attached to the finger handle is known as the still blade. Typical prior art haircutting scissors are of necessity made with the still blade facing the users palm and the moving blade facing away from the user when the scissors i held with the fingers above the thumb (the most common position for using haircutting scissors), this orientation is required so that the pressure of the thumb will force the blade members together under increased tension rather than spread them apart. Unfortunately this orientation positions the moving blade in closest contact with the fingers of the other hand as they hold the hair to be cut. The moving blade is also the one in contact with a comb or other implement as it is used to hold the hair being cut. This common blade orientation is found in scissors intended for left handed users and also in scissors for right handed users. Having the still blade facing the palm renders haircutting scissors awkward, because neither scissors blade can be rested easily against a steady guide such as a comb or the fingers of the hand holding the hair to be cut. Thus, there is, in most haircutting operations, the constant risk of cutting either the fingers or the comb that is being used as a guide because the moving blade is the blade in closest proximity to that guide.

Scissors using a reversed handle orientation with a levered handle


An electric shaver generally includes a handle and a head connected to the handle. The head includes an outer cutter blade and an inner cutter blade arranged in shearing contact with the outer cutter blade. The electric shaver further includes a drive system having a motor and a plurality of drive components drivingly connecting the motor to the inner cutter blade for driving rotation of the inner cutter blade relative to the outer cutter blade. The plurality of drive components includes a first drive component and a second drive component connected to the first drive component. At least one of the first drive component and the second drive component has a liner for cushioning the interface between the first drive component and the second drive component to mitigate noise associated with operation of the shaver.

The present invention relates generally to electric shavers and, more particularly, to a drive component for an electric shaver.
Conventional rotary shavers include a handle and a head mounted on the handle, and the head carries at least one set of inner and outer cutters. The outer cutters are typically cup-shaped and are supported by a frame of the shaver head, thereby collectively defining a skin contacting surface of the shaver head. Openings or slits formed in the outer cutters allow hair to protrude through the outer cutters as the shaver head is moved along the skin. Each inner cutter is housed in the shaver head below, and in contact with, a respective one of the outer cutters. The shaver is operated via an electric motor, typically housed within the handle, whereby rotation of the inner cutters by the motor acts to cut hairs protruding through the outer cutters. An arrangement of drive shafts and gears is conventional for operatively connecting the inner cutters to the motor.
The outer cutters of at least some conventional rotary shavers are configured for pivoting movement on the shaver head to facilitate uninterrupted contact of the outer cutters with the skin as the outer cutters are moved along the contours of the skin (e.g., along the skin covering the cheek bones, the jaw line, etc.) Because the inner cutters are disposed within the outer cutters, it is also typical for the inner cutters to be configured for pivoting movement to facilitate maintaining shearing engagement between the inner and outer cutters when the outer cutters pivot.
In that regard, the shaver drive system typically has at least one pivot joint located between the motor and the inner cutters to enable driving of the inner cutters during pivoting. The pivot joint therefore includes at least one rotating component that can pivot relative to another rotating component. However, the engagement of these rotating and pivoting components can be a source of undesirable noise during operation of the shaver. As such, there is a need for a drive system that facilitates quieter operation of a rotary shaver having pivotable cutters.


This invention provides a drug-inducible promoter that can be used for sugarcane plants and plants related thereto. Such drug-inducible promoter comprises a polynucleotide comprising a first nucleotide sequence having 90% or higher identity to the nucleotide sequence as shown in SEQ ID NO: 1, a second nucleotide sequence having 90% or higher identity to the nucleotide sequence as shown in SEQ NO: 2, a third nucleotide sequence having 90% or higher identity to the nucleotide sequence as shown in SEQ ID NO: 3, a fourth nucleotide sequence having 90% or higher identity to the nucleotide sequence as shown in SEQ ID NO: 4, and a fifth nucleotide sequence having 90% or higher identity to the nucleotide sequence as shown in SEQ ID NO: 5 in such an order from the 3 terminal side toward the 5′ terminal side.

Genetic information of an organism is transferred through a procedure referred to as the "central dogma" in which DNA information of a functional gene is transcribed into mRNA and mRNA information is translated, so as to synthesize a functional protein. As a result, biofunctions thereof are developed. In the case of plants, in general, genomic DNA, which is an assembly of genetic information formed via aggregation of the parents' haploids, designates the destiny of the cell, which comprises the genomic DNA and that of a plant derived from such cell.
In order to accurately transfer the information of a functional gene of genomic DNA possessed by a cell and develop biofunctions, it is necessary that an adequate gene be expressed under adequate conditions (e.g., adequate time, site, environmental conditions, and drug exposure) at adequate intensity. It is also necessary that expression of a particular gene be strictly regulated.
The time, the site, and the expression intensity of a functional gene are regulated by gene expression regulatory DNA existing in a 5′ upstream region of the functional gene.
Genomic DNA of a sugarcane plant, which is a commercial crop, is not decoded. Accordingly, it is not easy to obtain gene expression regulatory DNAs for various functional genes. When a gene was to be introduced into a sugarcane plant in the past, accordingly, expression of the gene to be introduced was regulated with the use of gene expression regulatory DNA derived from another plant (Plant Mol. Biol., February 1992; 18 (4): 675-89, Planta 1998, 206: 20-27).
When a functional gene was expressed in a sugarcane plant with the use of gene expression regulatory DNA derived from another plant, occasionally, the time, the site, the intensity, and other conditions of expression thereof were not strictly regulated. Accordingly, development of gene expression regulatory DNA derived from a sugarcane plant, and, in particular, tissue-specific gene expression regulatory DNA, has been strongly awaited in the art.
For example, JP Patent No. 5472089 discloses gene expression regulatory DNA having activity of promoting photosynthetic-tissue-specific gene expression, and, in particular, mature-leaf-specific gene expression, in a sugarcane plant and a technique for regulating gene expression with the use of such gene expression regulatory DNA. Also, JP 2014-003917 A discloses a technique of promoting sugarcane flowering (ear emergence) by allowing a flowering-inducing gene to express under the control of gene expression regulatory DNA having activity of promoting mature-leaf-specific gene expression in a sugarcane plant. In addition, JP Patent No. 5,655,947 discloses gene expression regulatory DNA having activity of promoting mature-leaf-specific gene expression in a sugarcane plant.
Gene expression regulatory DNAs that activate transcription activity in the presence of a given compound are known. Gene expression regulatory DNAs having such features are referred to as "drug-inducible promoters," and drug-inducible promoters in rice and maize plants have been reported (WO 2014/136793 A1).

Drug-inducible promoter and method of inducting gene expression using the same


A hydraulic shock absorber is provided with a cylinder formed of a straight pipe, and inside the cylinder, opposite end portions of a base piston are fixed to the inner face by a pair of retainer member C-rings so that a free piston can be received in a lower portion of the cylinder.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a hydraulic shock absorber.
2. Discussion of the Background Art
A conventional hydraulic shock absorber for vehicles disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication (JP-B) No. 5-26050. The hydraulic shock absorber comprising a cylinder; a piston rod which is inserted into the cylinder; a piston which is connected to an end portion of the piston rod inserted in the cylinder while including a damping valve, and which partitions the cylinder into a rod-side chamber where the piston rod is received, and a counter rod-side chamber where the piston rod is not received; a base piston which is fixedly provided on the counter rod-side chamber, and includes a damping valve; a sub-cylinder which is communicated with a side opposite to the piston and between the base piston in the counter rod-side chamber of the cylinder, and a free piston being movably received in the sub-cylinder. The conventional hydraulic shock absorber is constructed in a manner that a hydraulic fluid is inserted into the cylinder side of the free piston of the sub-cylinder, and a counter cylinder side of the free piston of the sub-cylinder is defined as a gas chamber.
In the prior art, a case end is welded to an end portion of a cylinder formed of a straight pipe, and the case end is formed with a closed recess portion having a stepped portion at the inner part thereof. A base piston is abutted against the stepped portion of the case end, and is fixed by means of a come-off preventive member attached to an opening side of the closed recess portion.
The following problems exist in the prior art.
(i) The base piston is fixed in a state of being abutted against the closed recess portion formed in the case end; for this reason, there is a need of subjecting the case end to a complicate processing. PA1 (ii) For the free piston to receive in the cylinder in addition to the base piston, the free piston must be received in the most inner part of the closed recess portion formed of the case end of the cylinder. For this reason, the inner face of the closed recess portion formed in the case end must be subjected to a complicate processing to securing slidability of the free piston.

Hydraulic shock absorber with removable components


Ultrasonic acoustic imaging finds many uses, particularly in the field of non-invasive medical testing. Detection of Doppler shifted acoustic frequencies permits observation of flow of a particle-containing liquid, for example, blood flow. In order to see slower moving blood by Doppler ultrasound investigation, as the blood moves from major blood vessels into arterioles and capillaries, it is necessary to lower the pulse repetition frequency. The herein disclosed invention is an interleaving technique that lowers the effective pulse repetition frequency at each probe position without exacting these system penalties.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to ultrasonic acoustic imaging, primarily for medical purposes.
2. Brief Description of the Background Art
Ultrasonic acoustic imaging finds many uses, particularly in the field of non-invasive medical testing. Direct detection of the emitted acoustic frequency permits, for example, prenatal fetal imaging. Detection of Doppler shifted acoustic frequencies permits observation of flow of a particle-containing liquid, for example, blood flow. Acoustic imaging equipment utilizes a probe that is applied to the skin of the patient overlying the part of the body being investigated. At the end of the probe is an array of transducers, usually piezoelectric, that are excited by bursts of electrical energy at the ultrasonic frequency and modulated to transmit pulses of ultrasonic energy into the body region being investigated. The subsurface structures reflect some of that energy, either at the transmitted frequency or Doppler shifted, back to the probe, where it is detected by piezoelectric receiver elements in the probe. One application of this technology to the three dimensional mapping and tracking of blood flow is disclosed in parent U.S. application Ser. No. 09/926,666, which issued on Jan. 27, 2004 as U.S. Pat. No. 6,682,483. The pertinent text of that application is included herein below.

Pulse interleaving in doppler ultrasound imaging