The nucleotide sequences of the genomes of eleven molecular clones for non-subtype B isolates of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 are disclosed. The invention relates to the nucleic acids and peptides encoded by and/or derived from these sequences and their use in diagnostic methods and as immunogens.

The present invention is in the field of virology. The invention relates to the nucleotide sequences of the genomes of 11 molecular clones for non-subtype B isolates of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1), and nucleic acids derived therefrom. This invention also relates to peptides encoded by and/or derived from the nucleic acid sequences of these molecular clones, and host cells containing these nucleic acid sequences and peptides. The invention also relates to diagnostic methods, kits and immunogens which employ the nucleic acids, peptides and/or host cells of the invention.
A critical question facing current AIDS vaccine development efforts is to what extent HIV-1 genetic variation has to be considered in the design of candidate vaccines (11,21,42,72). Phylogenetic analyses of globally circulating viral strains have identified two distinct groups of HIV-1, a major M group and an O group (33,45,61,62). Within the M group, ten sequence subtypes (A-J) have been proposed (29,30,45,72). Sequence variation among viruses belonging to these different lineages is extensive, with envelope amino acid sequence variation ranging from 24% between different subtypes to 47% between the two different groups. Given this extent of diversity, the question has been raised whether immunogens based on a single virus strain can be expected to elicit immune responses effective against a broad spectrum of viruses, or whether vaccine preparations should include mixtures of genetically divergent antigens and/or be tailored toward locally circulating strains (11, 21, 42, 72). This is of particular concern in developing countries where multiple subtypes of HIV-1 are known to co-circulate and where subtype B viruses, which have been the source for most current candidate vaccine preparations (10, 21), are rare or nonexistent (5, 24, 40, 72).
Although the extent of global HIV-1 variation is well defined, little is known about the biological consequences of this genetic diversity and its impact on cellular and humoral immune responses in the infected host. In particular, it remains unknown whether subtype specific differences in virus biology exist that need to be considered for vaccine design. Only a comprehensive analysis of genetically defined representatives of the various groups and subtypes will address the question of whether certain variants differ in fundamental viral properties and whether such differences will need to be incorporated into vaccine strategies. Obviously, such studies require well-characterized reference reagents, in particular full length and replication competent molecular clones that can be used for functional and biological studies.
Full-length reference sequences representing the various subtypes are also urgently needed for phylogenetic comparisons. Until about 1994, it was generally thought that individuals do not become infected with multiple distinct HIV-1 strains, and so the possibility that recombination between divergent viruses could contribute to the evolution of HIV-1 was not widely considered. However, recent analyses of subgenomic (23,52,54,58) as well as full-length HIV-1 sequences (7,18,53,60) identified a surprising number of HIV-1 strains which clustered in different subtypes in different parts of their genome. All of these originated from geographic regions where multiple subtypes co-circulated and are the results of co-infections with highly divergent viruses (52,60,62).
Recombinant viruses can be detected because their phylogenetic affinities vary depending on the region of genome analyzed. A useful initial approach is to examine the extent of sequence divergence/similarity between a new sequence and a bank of reference sequences of different subtypes, for example as a diversity plot (18), or using the RIP program (75); if the extent of relative similarity to different subtypes varies along the sequence, this may indicate that the sequence is a recombinant. However, fuller investigation must involve a phylogenetic approach, comparing trees derived by analyses of different regions of the genome, and assessing the confidence of phylogenetic clustering by a statistical approach such as the bootstrap. A thorough analysis would involve taking a window of sequence of a certain size, and moving this window along the genome in steps of a defined size, generating perhaps hundreds of trees for visual examination in the process. There are at least two short cuts. One is to analyze only a few windows, defining selected regions according to the output of the diversity analysis. Another is to not examine the entire phylogenetic tree of all subtypes, but to focus on one particular phylogenetic question. Thus, if the initial analyses suggest that a sequence may be a recombinant between two particular subtypes, it is possible to ask simply what is the bootstrap value for the clustering of the new sequence with one or another particular subtype, and plot these values as a function of position along the genome; this is the basis of the xe2x80x9cbootscanningxe2x80x9d approach (57). Once the subtypes putatively involved in the recombination event have been identified, and the crossover points have been approximately localized, more precisely defined breakpoints can be determined, and their statistical significance assessed, using informative site analysis (19, 52, 53).
Detailed phylogenetic characterization revealed that most of the recombinant viruses have a complex genome structure with multiple points of crossover (7,18,53,60). Some recombinants, like the xe2x80x9csubtype Exe2x80x9d viruses, which are in fact A/E recombinants (7,18), have a wide-spread geographic dissemination and are responsible for much of the Asian HIV-1 epidemic (69,70). In other areas, recombinants appear to be generated with increasing frequencies as many randomly chosen isolates exhibit evidence of mosaicism (4,8,31,66,71).
Since recombination provides the opportunity for evolutionary leaps with genetic consequences that are far greater than the steady accumulation of individual mutations, the impact of recombination on viral properties must be monitored. Full-length non-recombinant reference sequences for all major HIV-1 groups and subtypes are thus needed to map and characterize the extent of inter-subtype recombination.
Non-subtype B viruses cause the vast majority of new HIV-1 infections worldwide. Although their geographic dissemination is carefully monitored, their immunogenic and biological properties remain largely unknown, in part because well-characterized virological reference reagents are lacking. In particular, full length clones and sequences are rare, since subtype classification is frequently based on small PCR-derived viral fragments. There are currently only five full length, non-recombinant molecular clones available for viruses other than subtype B (45), and these represent only three of the proposed (group M) subtypes (A, C and D). Moreover, only three clones (all derived from subtype D viruses) are replication competent and thus useful for studies requiring functional gene products (45,48,65). Given the unknown impact of genetic variation on correlates of immune protection, subtype specific reagents are critically needed for phylogenetic, immunological and biological studies.
The present invention pertains to the isolation and characterization of the genomic sequences of 11 molecular clones for non-subtype B HIV-1 isolates of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1), and nucleic acids derived therefrom. Of these 11 molecular clones, 94IN476.104, 96ZM651.8, and 96ZM751.3 are non-mosaic reference clones of HIV-1 subtype C; 93BR020.1 is a reference clone of HIV-1 subtype F; 90CF056.1 is a reference clone of HIV-1 subtype H; 92RW009.6 is a double recombinant of HIV-1 subtypes A/C; 92NG083.2 and 92NG003.1 are double recombinants of HIV-1 subtypes A/G; 93BR029.4 is a double recombinant of HIV-1 subtypes B/F; 94CY017.41 is a double recombinant of HIV-1 subtype A and a new, as yet undefined, subtype; and 94CY032.3 is a triple recombinant of HIV-1 subtypes A/G/I.
In particular, the present invention relates to nucleic acids comprising the genomic sequences of one or more of these 11 clones for non-subtype B HIV-1 isolates, as well as nucleic acids comprising the complementary (or antisense) sequence of one or more of the genomic sequences of these 11 clones, and nucleic acids derived therefrom.
The invention also relates to vectors comprising the nucleic acid genomic sequence of one or more of these 11 clones, as well as nucleic acids comprising the complementary (or antisense) sequence of one or more of the genomic sequences of these clones, and nucleic acids derived therefrom.
The invention also relates to cultured host cells comprising the nucleic acid genomic sequences of one or more of these 11 clones for non-subtype B HIV-1 isolates, as well as nucleic acids comprising the complementary (or antisense) sequence of one or more of the genomic sequences of these clones, and nucleic acids derived therefrom.
The invention also relates to host cells containing vectors comprising the genomic sequences of one or more of these 11 clones for non-subtype B HIV-1 isolates, as well as nucleic acids comprising the complementary (or antisense) sequence of one or more of the genomic sequences of these clones, and nucleic acids derived therefrom.
The invention also relates to synthetic or recombinant polypeptides encoded by or derived from the nucleic acid sequences of one or more of the genomes of these 11 clones for non-subtype B HIV-1 isolates, and fragments thereof.
The invention also relates to methods for producing the polypeptides of the invention in culture using one or more of these 11 clones for non-subtype B HIV-1 viruses or nucleic acids derived therefrom, including recombinant methods for producing the polypeptides of the invention.
The invention further relates to methods of using the polypeptides of the invention as immunogens to stimulate an immune response in a mammal, such as the production of antibodies, or the generation of cytotoxic or helper T-lymphocytes.
The invention also relates to methods of using the polypeptides of the invention to detect antibodies which immunologically react with non-subtype B HIV-1 viruses in a mammal or in a biological sample.
The invention also relates to kits for the detection of antibodies specific for non-subtype B HIV-1 viruses in a biological sample where said kit contains at least one polypeptide encoded by or derived from the nucleic acid sequences of the invention.
The invention also relates to antibodies, which immunologically react with the virions of one or more of these 11 viruses and/or their encoded polypeptides.
The invention also relates to methods of detecting virions of non-subtype B HIV-1 viruses and/or their encoded polypeptides, or fragments thereof, using antibodies of the invention.
The invention also relates to kits for detecting the virions of non-subtype B HIV-1 viruses and/or their encoded polypeptides, wherein the kit comprises at least one antibody of the invention.
The invention also relates to a method for detecting the presence of non-subtype B HIV-1 viruses in a mammal or a biological sample, said method comprising analyzing the DNA or RNA of a mammal or a sample for the presence of the RNAs, cDNAs or genomic DNAs which will hybridize to a nucleic acid derived from one or more of these 11 non-subtype B HIV-1 molecular clones. Usually, when a completely complementary probe is used, high stringency conditions are desirable in order to prevent false positives. However, conditions of high stringency should only be used if the probes are complementary to target regions which lack heterogeneity. The stringency of hybridization is determined by a number of factors during hybridization and during the washing procedure, including temperature, ionic strength, length of time, and concentration of formamide, if any. The nucleic acid sequences used in probes should be unique to HIV, i.e., the nucleic acid sequences should be absent from individuals not infected with HIV.
The invention also provides diagnostic kits for the detection of non-subtype B HIV-1 viruses in a mammal using the nucleic acids of the invention. In one embodiment, the kit comprises nucleic acids having sequences useful as hybridization probes in determining the presence or absence of the RNAs, cDNAs or genomic DNAs of non-subtype B HIV-1 viruses. In another embodiment, the kit comprises nucleic acids having sequences useful as primers for reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis of RNA for the presence of HIV-1 viruses in a biological sample.
The invention further relates to isolated and substantially purified nucleic acids, polypeptides and/or antibodies of the invention.
The invention further relates to compositions comprising one or more of the nucleic acids, polypeptides and/or antibodies of the invention.
The invention also relates to computer-generated alignments of the nucleic acid sequences of the viral genomes clones of the 11 clones of this invention, as well as alignments of the encoded amino acid sequences. These sequence alignments serve to highlight regions of homology and non-homology between different sequences and hence, can be used in preparing diagnostic reagents as described herein.

Reference clones and sequences for non-subtype B isolates of human immunodeficiency virus type 1


A steering console system for a machine includes a longitudinally-extending rail configured to be fastened to a surface of the machine, the rail including a pair of convex-shaped edges, a steering console, and a console carriage slidably connected to the rail, the console carriage including a bracket, a plurality of rollers connected to the bracket, a support arm connected to the bracket to support the steering console, and a vertical pivot connected to the bracket and to the support arm. Each of the rollers has a concave groove configured to roll along the convex shaped edges, and each of the rollers is configured to rotate about an axis of rotation extending approximately normal with respect to the rail.

Machines used for earth moving, paving, and other tasks may include consoles to control one or more operations performed by the machine. For example, a console for a machine may include a control device such as a steering wheel or joystick that allows an operator to maneuver the machine. Consoles may include additional control devices the enable operation of one or more implements or aspects of the machine. During the operation of the machine, it may be beneficial for an operator to have a clear line of sight of a side surface of the machine, for maneuvering the machine and/or monitoring the operation of the machine. For example, in machines used for paving operations, an operator may view a paving edge at a side of the machine to ensure desired placement of the mat.
In some applications, it may be desirable to have the ability to provide a console at both sides of the machine, and thus operate the machine while viewing a desired side of the machine. To accomplish this, some machines have been provided with multiple consoles, for example two consoles on opposite sides of the machine. To avoid the cost and complication involved with the provision of two consoles, machines have been provided with systems that allow the console to move between opposite sides of the machine. Thus, a single console may be used in multiple locations with respect to the machine.
Movable structures for changing the position of a console frequently involve complicated structures having multiple linkages and pivots. Thus, such structures may be difficult to manufacture, expensive, and prone to require routine maintenance. Such structures may also place important components in an exposed location where they may be crimped, snagged, or otherwise damaged or interfere with proper operation.
An exemplary road finishing machine with a mobile control panel is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 9,156,498 ("the '498 patent") to Herzberg. The mobile control panel disclosed in the '498 patent is shiftable in a width direction by the operation of thrust bearings. The thrust bearings rotate about vertical axes, and are loaded in an axial direction of the thrust bearings. While the mobile control panel of the '498 patent may be useful in some situations, the thrust bearings used to shift the mobile control panel may be unable to withstand significant radial forces that may be introduced by acceleration, deceleration, and/or vibration of the machine. Thus, the mobile control panel of the '498 patent may require frequent maintenance, and even possibly fail.
The disclosed machine console system may solve one or more of the problems set forth above and/or other problems in the art. The scope of the current disclosure, however, is defined by the attached claims, and not by the ability to solve any specific problem.


A threshing mechanism is formed with a first threshing drum and a second threshing drum disposed one behind the other in a direction of crop flow. A first concave encloses the first threshing drum and the second threshing drum in sections in a circumferential direction. A second concave encloses the second threshing drum in sections in the circumferential direction. The concaves are displaceable in a radial direction of the threshing drums and are formed with at least one crop-processing device disposed at the first concave. The first concave and the second concave are swivellable about a common axis connecting the concaves. The enclosure of the second threshing drum by the first concave and the second concave is approximately identical.

The invention relates to a threshing mechanism comprising first and second threshing drums disposed one behind the other, a first concave enclosing the first threshing drum and the second threshing drum in sections in the circumferential direction and, a second concave enclosing the second threshing drum in sections in the circumferential direction. The concaves are displaceable in the radial direction of the threshing drums and at least one crop-processing device is disposed at the first concave.
A threshing mechanism of the initially described type is known from EP 0 745 317 A1. EP 0 745 317 A1 describes a threshing mechanism that operates according to the principle of tangential flow and comprises at least two threshing drums disposed one behind the other and are driven in the same direction, with concaves assigned thereto. The first concave, which encloses the first threshing drum, is angled in the region thereof facing the second threshing drum and, there, comprises a crop-processing device designed as a friction or threshing element and is displaceably supported in the frame of the first concave. The concaves can be adjusted by a lever arrangement in the radial direction of the threshing drums, thereby changing the concave gap in order to permit adaptation to different types of crops to be processed. While the first concave is displaceable parallel to itself, the second concave is rotatably supported at the end thereof facing away from the first concave. As a result, when the distance of the two concaves from the first and the second threshing drum is jointly adjusted, the respective inlet gap at the first and the second threshing drum is changed in the same direction.
By contrast, the gap profile between the second threshing drum and the first concave, which wraps around this second threshing drum in sections, and the second concave is characterized by an increasingly convex profile as the concave separation is adjusted with increasing separation from the thrashing drums. This means that the gap profile from the inlet gap between the first concave and the second threshing drum to the outlet gap between the second concave and the second threshing drum follows a non-uniform, bulged course. This arrangement has an unfavorable effect on the crop flow and the quality of the threshing process.

Threshing mechanism with swivellable concaves

CLAAS Selbstfahrende Erntemaschinen GmbH


The invention provides carriers that enhance the absorption, half-life or bioavailability of Ghrelin peptides. The carriers comprise targeting groups that bind the Vitamin D Binding protein (DBP), conjugation groups for coupling the targeting groups to the therapeutic compounds, and optionally scaffolding moieties.

The invention relates to improving the potency, absorption or pharmacokinetic properties of therapeutic compounds. The addition of poly(ethylene glycol) or (PEG) is a known method of increasing the half-life of some compounds by reducing kidney clearance, reducing aggregation, and diminishing potentially unwanted immune recognition (Jain, Crit. Rev. Ther. Drug Carrier Syst. 25:403-447 (2008)). The PEG is typically used at a considerably large size (20-40 kDa) to maximize the half-life in circulation. This can be accomplished by using either a single large PEG or multiple smaller PEGs attached to the compound. (Clark et al. J. Biol. Chem. 271:21969-21977 (1996); Fishburn, J. Pharm. Sci. 97:4167-4183 (2008)).
Absorption is a primary focus in drug development and medicinal chemistry since a drug must be absorbed before any medicinal effects can take place. A drug's pharmacokinetic profile can be affected by many factors. Additionally, the absorption properties of therapeutic compounds vary significantly from compound to compound. Some therapeutic compounds are poorly absorbed following oral or dermal administration. Other therapeutic compounds, such as most peptide- and protein-based therapeutics, cannot be administered orally. Alternate routes of administration such as intravenous, subcutaneous, or intramuscular injections are routinely used for some of compounds; however, these routes often result in slow absorption and exposure of the therapeutic compounds to enzymes that can degrade them, thus requiring much higher doses to achieve efficacy.
A number of peptides have been identified as therapeutically promising. The chemical and biological properties of peptides and proteins make them attractive candidates for use as therapeutic compounds. Peptides and proteins are naturally-occurring molecules made up of amino acids and are involved in numerous physiological processes. Peptides and proteins display a high degree of selectivity and potency, and may not suffer from potential adverse drug-drug interactions or other negative side effects. Thus peptides and proteins hold great promise as a highly diverse, highly potent, and highly selective class of therapeutic compounds with low toxicity. Peptides and proteins, however, may have short in vivo half-lives. For such peptides, this may be a few minutes. This may render them generally impractical, in their native form, for therapeutic administration. Additionally, peptides may have a short duration of action or poor bioavailability.
Fibroblast growth factor 21 (SEQ ID:2) is a protein that circulates in serum. Encoded by the FGF21 gene, it is a member of a family of atypical fibroblast growth factors (FGFs), which include FGF19 and FGF23. It lacks the conventional FGF heparin-binding domain. FGF family members possess broad mitogenic and cell survival activities and are involved in a variety of biological processes including embryonic development, cell growth, morphogenesis, tissue repair, tumor growth and invasion. FGF21 is specifically induced by HMGCS2 activity. FGF21 stimulates glucose uptake in adipocytes but not in other cell types. This effect is additive to the activity of insulin.
In vitro studies indicate that FGF21 prefers binding to the FGFR1c/b-Klotho receptor complex over those containing other FGFR isotypes (Kliewer and Mangelsdorf, Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 91:254S-257S (2010)). FGF21 promotes glucose uptake by adipocytes in vitro. Administration of FGF21 to diabetic animals reduces circulating glucose levels while excess FGF21 does not induce hypoglycemia as seen with administration of excess insulin (Kharitonenkov and Shanafelt, Curr. Opin. Investig. Drugs 10:359-364 (2009)). Therefore, FGF21 is a promising therapeutic protein for the treatment of diabetes. FGF21, however, was administered frequently to see therapeutic benefits in an animal model (Kharitonenkov et al., J. Clin. Invest. 115:1627-1635 (2005)). FGF21 in its natural state has an extremely short half-life in serum (1.1 hr) making exogenous addition of FGF21 in its natural state not clinically practical as a treatment (see WO03/011213). Additionally, FGF21 exhibits poor bioavailability when injected subcutaneously. In a comparative pharmacokinetic study, 1 mg/kg of FGF21 was injected either intravenously (IV) or subcutaneously (SC) and the concentration of FGF21 was analyzed over time. The results showed a significant reduction in bioavailability using a subcutaneous route of administration (Cmax 73 nM) compared to the intravenous route (Cmax of 1890 nM; see Table 1 in Xu J et al., 2009. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab 297: E1105-E1114). The foregoing references are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
Ghrelin peptide (SEQ ID NO:5) is naturally secreted from the stomach in mammals into circulation to stimulate appetite and release of growth hormone. Ghrelin stimulates the release of growth hormone (GH) from the pituitary gland through the cellular receptor GHS-R and plays important roles in energy homeostasis. In addition, ghrelin acts directly on the central nervous system to decrease sympathetic nerve activity. Ghrelin receptors (GHS-Rs) are concentrated in the hypothalamus-pituitary unit. GHS-R is distributed in peripheral tissues, including the heart, lung, liver, kidney, pancreas, stomach, small and large intestines, adipose, and immune cells.
Ghrelin has been used therapeutically to increase weight and lean body mass in patients suffering from cachexia or involuntary weight loss resulting from a chronic disease such as cancer (Hiura et. al., Cancer Jan. 26, 2012, http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cncr.27430/abstract). Ghrelin, however, has a naturally short half-life of 11 mins in humans (Akamizu et al., Eur J Endocrinol 150:447-55 (2004)) and thus must be dosed often to see therapeutic effects.
Infliximab (Remicade®, Janssen Biotech Inc., U.S. Pat. No. 5,919,452 and US 2002/0141996, incorporated herein by reference in their entirety) is a monoclonal antibody that binds tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α, SEQ ID:10) that is used to treat autoimmune diseases. Infliximab was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of psoriasis, Crohn's disease, ankylosing spondylitis, psoriatic arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and ulcerative colitis. TNF-α is a chemical messenger (cytokine) and a key part of the autoimmune reaction. Infliximab is administered intravenously by a healthcare professional and is not approved for subcutaneous dosing.


Compositions for photocurable coatings are disclosed. The compositions comprise (a) an epoxidized vegetable oil, (b) a low molecular weight epoxy resin, (c) a photoinitiator for cationic polymerization and (d) a wax. Processes for making and using the coatings are also disclosed as are containers coated according to the invention.

Although largely unappreciated, coatings have made possible the tremendous growth in the use of aluminum cans that has occurred in recent years. In this role, coatings not only serve an esthetic purpose in providing a highly attractive, clear, glossy consumer product, but they must possess many functional properties as well. For example, the coatings must protect the underlying printed surface from abrasion and from scratching during distribution and handling. Successful coatings must possess excellent adhesion, toughness, lubricity and hardness. The coating must especially possess excellent abrasion resistance for protection against abrasive failure of the container and loss of its contents. Coatings should also possess sufficient hydrolytic stability and adhesion to survive sterilization for those situations in which the container will be sterilized after coating. In addition, the coating materials in the uncured state should have good flow and leveling properties and be capable of high speed application and cure. Further, the components of the coating should have a low level of oral, skin, and eye toxicity and should not contribute to or change the taste of any food contents in the container. Lastly, the cost of a coating material designed for one-time use must be inherently low.
With one exception, discussed below, virtually all major manufacturers of aluminum cans coat the cans with thermally cured polymer coatings. In a thermal cure process, the polymer, in solution, is applied to the container and the container is transferred to a long pin chain which travels through a thermal dryer. The conventional thermal drying oven used to accommodate speeds of 1500 cans per minute (cpm) would be approximately 50 feet long, 25 feet high and 8 feet wide. The pin chain required could be 400 feet long since the ink and coating chemistry require a peak metal temperature of 350 degrees F to initiate cross-linking. Conventional thermally cured resin mixtures contain 30 to 40% solvents, which, under the curing conditions, are volatilized to leave behind a solid film. The thermal process has a number of unattractive features: (1) it generates significant VOC (volatile organic compound) emissions which will soon come under more stringent regulation; (2) starting up and shutting down for repairs are time-consuming because a very large mass must be heated and cooled; and (3) thermal curing ovens are several times more expensive to buy and, because they use a lot of energy, several times more expensive to operate than UV curing chambers.
The alternative to thermal curing is UV curing. In the UV process, cans are coated in the same manner as in the thermally cured system, but instead of a long pin chain taking them into a thermal oven, the cans travel on a short section of pin chain, are picked up by a vacuum belt conveyor, and then are conveyed inside the UV chamber. Once inside the chamber, the non-rotating cans are cured using a bank of UV lamps. A 1500 cpm UV curing oven is about 15 feet long, 6 feet high and 3 feet wide. Approximately 40 feet of vacuum belt are used to carry the cans through the chamber. Curing temperatures for the UV chamber are approximately 120.degree. F. Since UV lamps are instant on/off, the chamber is at room temperature in a matter of minutes from shutdown. In addition, the UV chamber has simpler controls because there are no gas valves, heat dump system or large blowers necessary to remove oven exhaust. UV chambers have virtually no moving mechanical parts and all the electrical components are modular (a faulty lamp or power supply can be easily replaced). The UV coating process generates much less VOC emission because there is no solvent.
With all the apparent advantages of a UV-curable coating system, the question arises, "why does it constitute only a small fraction of the present market?" The process is fine: the problem is with the resins. Primarily because of cost factors, the only UV-curable resins presently in use are acrylates. They suffer from several drawbacks: (1) they have poor adhesion to metal; (2) the monomers are potent irritants and sensitizing agents; (3) they are polymerized by a free-radical mechanism, and the polymerization is inhibited by oxygen (air) and (4) their abrasion resistance is only marginally acceptable.
There is thus a need for an inexpensive, UV-curable coating resin that has good adhesion, is non-toxic and non-sensitizing, releases no VOCs on curing, is rapidly cured, and which results in a coating that is attractive and durable.


Systems and methods are provided for obtaining measures of blood oxygen saturation using an implantable device implanted within a patient and a non-implanted device external to the patient, while limiting the amount of processing that need be performed by the implantable device. Other embodiments limit the amount of processing that is performed within the implantable device by monitoring changes and blood oxygen saturation without determining actual measures of blood oxygen saturation.

Conventionally, measures of arterial oxygen saturation (also referred to as O2 saturation) are produced using the well-known technique of pulse oximetry in the following manner. Light of two different wavelengths, typically red (e.g., about 660 nm wavelength) and infrared or near infrared (e.g., about 940 nm wavelength), are alternately transmitted through or reflected by patient tissue such that a light detector receives incident light that alternates between red and infrared light. More specifically, one LED transmits red light and an another LED that transmits infrared or near infrared light. The LEDs are serially pulsed to produce an interleaved signal stream that is transmitted through or reflected from tissue of a patient. As the light passes through and/or is reflected from tissue, some of the energy is absorbed by arterial and venous blood, tissue and the variable pulsations of arterial blood. The interleaved red and infrared light stream is received by the light detector. The amplitudes of the red light pulses in the light stream are differently effected by the absorption than the infrared light pulses, with the absorptions levels depending on the O2 saturation level of the blood.
Using electronic circuitry, firmware and/or software, the received light signals in the infrared and red wavelengths are analyzed so that O2 saturation levels can be determined. At a high level, demultiplexing is used to produce a signal path for the received red light and a separate signal path for the received infrared light. Each signal path will typically include one or more filters and an analog-to-digital (A/D) converter to sample the received light signals. More specifically, each signal is typically filtered, amplified and converted to a digital signal using an (A/D) converter (not necessarily in this order). For example, each signal may be sampled at 500 Hz (i.e., 500 samples per second) using a high resolution A/D converter, and then the samples may undergo relatively intensive post-acquisition digital filtering (e.g., using a 1000-point filter).
The samples of the red light signal are then used to determine the DC offset (i.e., average) and pulse amplitude of the received red light. Similarly, the samples of the infrared light signal are then used to determine the DC offset (i.e., average) and pulse amplitude of the received infrared light. Each pulse amplitude is then normalized (e.g., by dividing the pulse amplitude by the corresponding DC offset) and a ratio of the red-to-infrared light is determined by dividing the normalized red pulse amplitude by the normalized infrared pulse amplitude. Then, a one dimensional look-up table is typically used to determine the O2 saturation level. Such a look-up table is typically used because there is a well known one-to-one correspondence between the red-to-infrared ratios and O2 saturation levels.
Recently there has been interest in using implantable devices to obtain measures of O2 saturation. Exemplary patents that indicate such interest include, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,040,533 (Fearnot) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,556,421 (Prutchi et al.), both of which concentrate of mechanical features of the implantable devices.
While the above described conventional scheme for obtaining measures of O2 saturation have worked well for non-implanted devices, it would be beneficial if the amount of processing and power consumption can be reduced to a level acceptable for implantable devices. More specifically, the relatively intensive processing associated with conventional pulse oximetry techniques consume large amounts of power and processing resources. While this may not be much of a concern with non-implanted pulse oximetry devices, minimizing power consumption and processing is very important when it comes to implantable devices. This is in part because invasive surgery is required to replace the battery of an implanted device. Accordingly, there is a desire to reduce, and hopefully minimize, both the processing required to obtain measures of O2 saturation using an implantable device, which in turn will reduce and hopefully minimize power consumption.

Methods and systems for reducing data acquisition, power and/or processing for pulse oximetry applications


An object is shot continuously at such a high shutter speed that blur is not caused due to camera shake, and plural shot images are combined such that object images in the plural shot images coincide with each other, whereby one sharp image of the object is obtained. A correction direction mark is displayed together with a through image during a shooting operation. The correction direction mark indicates a direction and amount to be corrected by its size, when a location of the object image in each shot image shifts from an initial location in an initial shot image out of a predetermined allowable range. Watching the correction direction mark, a user can correct the shooting range so as to meet with the initial shooting range, whereby the shooting range can be prevented from shifting greatly from the initial shooting range during the shooting operation.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image pick-up apparatus, an image pick-up method, and a program for realizing the apparatus and method, which are appropriately used in a digital camera.
2. Description of the Related Art
When a picture is taken with a camera in a long-exposure mode, the camera body often vibrates due to hand shake, which blurs and deteriorates the photographed image. A method for preventing deterioration of the image has been proposed, in which an object is shot continuously at such a high shutter speed that prevents blurring a photographed image, and plural images of the object obtained by the continuous shooting are combined or composed, whereby one sharp image of the object is obtained, as if the object is shot under an appropriate exposure in a normal long-exposure mode.
But even in the above method, if an object to be photographed should move while plural images of the object are being photographed to be combined into one image, the finally obtained image of the object can blur. To solve this defect, Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 2001-45359 discloses a technology, in which when plural images of an object photographed during a certain period are combined, an image-to-image variation of locations of the object in the photographed images is detected, and the positions of the images to be composed or combined are adjusted in unit of pixel based on the detected variation. Using the technology, even if the object locates at different positions respectively in photographed images, blur can be avoided in the finally obtained image.
Even though the positions of the images to be composed or combined are adjusted depending on the image-to-image variation of the object locations respectively in the photographed images, a user of a camera gradually changes a photographing or shooting range unintentionally, while he or she holds the camera to shoot the object in a long exposure mode, which causes the following problems.
That is, when the positions of plural images are adjusted in unit of pixel to be combined and composed into one image, the size of such composed image is limited to a size of a common image area among the plural images obtained by continuous shooting. In case that the size of the image to be combined finally is set to a predetermined size, when images to be combined are moved more than a predetermined amount as a shooting range changes gradually, the common image area among these images reduces less than the predetermined size. As the result, an image which is exposed appropriately over the whole image area cannot be obtained. Therefore, to avoid the above defect, the size of the image to be photographed has to be set to a somewhat small size, in other words, a resolution of the photographed image has to be set low. When the image to be composed finally is set variable in size, another problem occurs that the size of an available photographed image reduces (the resolution of the image decreases) as the shooting range changes greatly.
Further, when an amount which a location of an object image changes within image is detected from plural images obtained by continuous shooting, characterizing points used as a basis for combining the images are set in each image and the images are composed or combined into one image based on the characterizing points. In this case, accuracy in detecting the characterizing points decreases as the shooting range changes greatly, and therefore the images cannot be combined precisely. As the result, a quality of the photographed image decreases. On the contrary, to increase accuracy in detecting the characterizing points, still another problem occurs that complex and time consuming processes are required.

Image pick-up apparatus having function of detecting shake direction


What provided is a biosensor including: a substrate having a surface with first and second regions adjacent each other; a magnetoresistance effect element disposed on the first region; a soft magnetic thin film on the second region; a protective film disposed on both the first region and the second region, covering a surface of the soft magnetic thin film, and disposed on the top part of the second region and contains an affinity substance recognizing the biomolecule on the outer surface of the second region exclusively; and an MR cover film disposed on at least the top part of the first region, disposed on the protective film above the magnetoresistance effect element, and being free of the affinity substance, wherein the soft magnetic thin film transmits an in-plane component of a stray magnetic field of magnetic beads to the magnetoresistance effect element.

As a magnetic sensor, a magnetoresistance effect element such as a giant magnetoresistive effect (GMR) element, a magnetic tunnel junction (TMR) element, and an anisotropic magnetoresistive effect (AMR) element is often used (for example, refer to Published Japanese Translation No. S/H 2005-513475 of the PCT International Publication). A magnetoresistance effect element is an element whose output resistance value changes according to an input magnetic field, and it is possible to measure a change in the detected magnetic field on the basis of the output resistance value.
FIG. 5 and FIG. 6 are diagrams for explaining a biosensor 500 of the related art. As shown in FIG. 5, the biosensor 500 includes a substrate 101, a magnetoresistance effect element 102, a protective film 107, and a biomolecule capturing layer 109 that captures target biomolecules in that order. When biomolecules in a sample are captured on the biomolecule capturing layer 109, magnetic beads having affinity for the biomolecules are captured on the biomolecule capturing layer 109 via the biomolecules and a magnetic field is then horizontally applied (an applied magnetic field 105), a stray magnetic field 111 is generated from magnetic beads 104 and the stray magnetic field 111 is input to the magnetoresistance effect element 102.
FIG. 6 is a diagram showing details of the magnetoresistive element 102 of the related art used in the biosensor 500 of the related art. As shown in FIG. 6, the magnetoresistance effect element 102 has a meander structure with sets of three lines.


A non-volatile memory device on a substrate layer (2) comprises source and drain regions (3) and a channel region (4). The source and drain regions (3) and the channel region (4) are arranged in a semiconductor layer (20) on the substrate layer (2). The channel region (4) is fin-shaped and extends longitudinally (X) between the source region and the drain region (3). The channel region (4) comprises two fin portions (4a, 4b) and an intra-fin space (10), the fin portions (4a, 4b) extending in the longitudinal direction (X) and being spaced apart, and the intra-fin space (10) being located in between the fin portions (4a, 4b), and a charge storage area (11, 12; 15, 12) is located in the intra-fin space (10) between the fin portions (4a, 4b).

For reasons of scaling, the use of planar MOSFET structures in device generations with a 65 nm design rule and smaller is becoming more and more complicated due to so-called short channel effects.
An improvement of device characteristics can be obtained by application of a finFET structure.
In a finFET, on top of an insulating layer a (relatively narrow) silicon line (a fin) is created between a source region and a drain region to serve as a channel. Next, a line-shaped control gate is created which crosses the fin. The control gate, which is separated from the fin by a thin gate oxide film surrounds (in cross-section) both the sidewalls and the top of the fin, which allows for a relatively large field effect by the gate on the fin channel.
For Flash memory, an application of a finFET structure as described above has been disclosed in US2005/013983A1. Between the control gate and the fin material a charge trapping layer stack is positioned. Here, the charge trapping stack is positioned on top of the fin. The control gate layer abuts the profile of the charge trapping stack, and also covers the sidewalls of the fin so as to form sidewall transistors.
Disadvantageously, during the manufacturing of prior art finFET flash memory devices, creation of the fin structures and the charge trapping stack on top of them requires lithographic processing with relatively high accuracy to ensure that respective dimensions of fin and charge trapping stack have a minimal variation, since such dimensional variations would strongly influence electronic properties of the finFET memory device.
Moreover, the relatively small contact area between the fin channel and the charge trapping stack results in relatively small currents during sensing (reading) of the memory device and additional amplification of signals may be required. Circuitry for amplification disadvantageously requires an additional footprint on the semiconductor substrate. For such prior art devices with, in particular, relatively small fin dimensions, the lower level of current per cell adversely limits the speed of the device.


The present invention relates to a novel pyrrolidine compound, which has a potent antagonistic activity against central cannabinoid (CB1) receptor, having the formula [I]: wherein each of R1 and R2 is (A) optionally substituted aryl (or heteroaryl) group, or (B) both of the groups combine to form a group of the formula: one of R3 and R4 is hydrogen and another is hydrogen, hydroxyl, hydroxyalkyl, etc., or both of R3 and R4 combine to form oxo group, R5 is hydrogen or alkyl, Y is single bond, oxygen atom or a group of the formula: —N(R7)—, R6 is optionally substituted hydrocarbon group or optionally substituted cyclic group, R7 is alkyl or alkyloxycarbonylalkyl, provided that R6 is not 4-amino-5-chloro-2-methoxyphenyl group when Y is single bond and one of the R3 and R4 is hydrogen and another is hydroxymethyl, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof.

It is well known that, by intake of marijuana, various psychiatric or neurological reactions such as confusion of temporal or space sense, euphoria, alteration of memories, analgesia, hallucination and the like would be produced. The compounds generally referred to as "cannabinoid" including 9-tetrahydrocannabinol (9-THC) are responsible for many of such reactions. The effect of cannabinoid is considered to be produced by an interaction between the compound and its endogenous specific/high-affinity receptors. Two subtypes of cannabinoid receptors (CB1 and CB2) have been identified and cloned. The CB1 receptor is distributed in central nervous system (CNS) regions including brain (Nature, Vol. 346, 1990, pp 561-564) while the CB2 receptor is distributed in immune system including spleen (Nature, Vol. 365, 1993, pp 61-65).
Substances having affinity to such cannabinoid receptors (agonists, antagonists or inverse agonists) may produce various pharmacological effects like marijuana. In particular, substances having affinity to central CB1 receptor may be useful for treatment of a CNS disease such as a psychotic disorder, a neurological disorder and the like.
Examples of the known substances having affinity to CB1 receptor include a 4,5-dihydro-1H-pyrazole compound (WO01/70700, WO03/026648, WO03/026647), a 1H-imidazole compound (WO03/027076, WO03/007887, WO03/063781, WO03/040107), a pyrazine compound (WO03/051850, WO03/051851), a 1H-pyrazole compound (U.S. Pat. No. 5,624,941, U.S. Pat. No. 6,509,367), a pyridine compound (WO03/084930, WO03/084943, WO03/082191), an azethidine compound (WO01/64632, WO03/020314), an arylamide compound (WO03/087027, WO03/082190), a 1,5,6,7-tetrahydropyrrolo[3,2-c]pyridine compound (WO03/027114), a pyrrole compound (WO03/027069) and a 1,2,4-triazole compound (WO03/082833). Meanwhile, JP1993-17434 discloses that specific pyrrolidine compounds such as 4-amino-5-chloro-N-[1-(diphenylmethyl)-5-(hydroxymethyl)-3-pyrrolidinyl]-2-methoxy-benzamide increased gastric motility in mice, but there are no suggestion on whether or not the pyrrolidine compound has an antagonistic activity against CB1 receptor.

Pyrrolidine compound and a process for preparing the same


Provided is a phase change memory device including a graphene layer inserted between a lower electrode into which heat flows and a phase change material layer, to prevent the heat from being diffused to an outside so as to efficiently transfer the heat to the phase change material layer, and a method of fabricating the phase change memory device. The phase change memory device includes a lower electrode; an insulating layer formed to enclose the lower electrode; a graphene layer formed on the lower electrode; a phase change material layer formed on the graphene layer and the insulating layer; and an upper electrode formed on the phase change material layer. Since a phase of the phase change material layer is changed at a small amount of driving current, the phase change memory device is fabricated to have a high driving speed and a high integration.

1. Field
The present disclosure relates to a graphene-inserted phase change memory device and a method of fabricating the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
As semiconductor products gradually have small volumes, they demand higher capacity data processing. An operation speed and/or an integration of a nonvolatile memory device used in such a semiconductor product are to be increased.
A technology that uses a phase change material as a nonvolatile memory device has been developed. Examples of the nonvolatile memory device include a phase change memory (PCM) device that uses a phase change material as a memory device. The memory device that uses the phase change material is a memory device that uses changes in a resistance caused by a phase change of a material, e.g., uses reversible changes in the phase of the material depending on an amplitude and a duration time of an applied voltage.
The PCM device may be scaled to an area having a several nanometer size and exhibit fast switching. Therefore, the PCM device takes center stage as a next generation memory. The PCM device has a faster speed and a more stable characteristic than a NOR device having a large size.
However, a speed of the PCM device may be improved so as to be used as a next generation memory that replaces a place of an NAND flash device regarded as a mainstream memory device. For this, consumption of driving power of a PCM is to be reduced. This is related to a driving speed, and thus crystallization and amorphousness of a phase change material may be fast performed according to a current input in terms of a structure of the PCM so as to increase the driving speed. Therefore, the PCM may be driven at a low current to increase the driving speed.

Graphene-inserted phase change memory device and method of fabricating the same

The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University


A high-speed MOS-technology power device integrated structure includes a plurality of elementary functional units formed in a lightly doped semiconductor layer of a first conductivity type, the elementary functional units including channel regions of a second conductivity type covered by a conductive insulated gate layer including a polysilicon layer; the conductive insulated gate layer also including a highly conductive layer superimposed over the polysilicon layer and having a resistivity much lower than the resistivity of the polysilicon layer, so that a resistance introduced by the polysilicon layer is shunted with a resistance introduced by the highly conductive layer and the overall resistivity of the conductive insulated gate layer is lowered.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a high-speed MOS-technology power device integrated structure, e.g. a power MOSFET or an Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT), and to a related manufacturing process.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
The need is known for high-speed (i.e. low switching time) MOS-technology power devices, for example in the field of Zero Crossing Switch (ZCS) power supplies wherein frequencies of up to 2 MHZ are common.
A MOS-technology power device chip includes a matrix of many millions of elementary vertical MOSFET units which individually contribute to the overall current of the power device; typically, the elementary units are polygonal-plan cells including a body region of the P conductivity type formed in a lightly doped semiconductor layer of the N conductivity type; the body region including a channel region which is covered by an insulated gate layer, i.e. a thin oxide layer and a polysilicon layer, forming a mesh over the surface of the N type layer; an N type annular source region is formed inside the body region. An insulating material layer covers the surface of the chip.
Narrow gate metal (aluminum) fingers connected to a gate metal pad extend on the surface of the chip to contact the underlying polysilicon gate layer through contact windows in the insulating material layer, and are interdigited with wider source metal fingers which, also through windows in the insulating material layer, contact the source regions and the body regions of all the elementary cells. The gate metal fingers are spaced about 1 mm, corresponding to about 60 elementary cells.
Due to the relatively high resistivity of polysilicon (50 Ohm/square) with respect to aluminum (10-3 Ohm/square), a gate resistance is introduced between the gate metal pad and the cells. Such a resistance, together with the input capacitance of the elementary cells, forms an RC circuit, and is one of the main parameters affecting the speed of the power device.
A straightforward solution to this problem consists in augmenting the number of the gate metal fingers, thus reducing the spacing between them: if necessary, one gate metal finger every one elementary cell can be provided; in this way, the gate resistance of the elementary cells is obviously reduced, but a lot of chip area is wasted; while in fact the source metal fingers extend over the elementary cells, no elementary cells can be integrated under the gate metal fingers. Furthermore, the width of the source metal fingers must be reduced and their number must be correspondingly increased, with the consequence of a reduced uniformity in the source current distribution.
In view of the state of the art just described, it is an object of the present invention to provide a MOS-technology power device integrated structure wherein the gate series resistance can be reduced without necessarily augmenting the number of the gate metal fingers.

Low gate resistance high-speed MOS-technology integrated structure

Consorzio per la Ricerca sulla Microelettronica nel Mezzogiorno


A ceramic porous body including at least Si as a chemical component, the ceramic porous body being obtained by adding a porous silica powder or a porous silica-containing compound powder to a forming raw material to prepare a clay, forming the resulting ceramic clay into a specific shape, and firing the formed product. The ceramic porous body according to the present invention does not produce carbon dioxide or toxic gas during firing and allows the firing time to be reduced in comparison with the case of using a resin powder or a carbon powder as a pore-forming agent by using the porous silica powder or the porous silica-containing compound powder as the pore-forming agent during production. Moreover, a change in pore-forming characteristics or deformation of a formed product rarely occurs.

A ceramic porous body has been widely used for filters, catalyst carriers, and the like. For example, the ceramic porous body has been used for an exhaust gas purifying device provided in a heat engine such as an internal combustion engine or combustion equipment such as a boiler, a liquid fuel/gaseous fuel reforming device, a service water/sewage purification device, and the like. The ceramic porous body is generally obtained by adding a pore-forming agent to a ceramic powder, adding a binder, forming agent, water, and the like to the mixture, kneading the resulting mixture, forming the kneaded product into a specific shape, and firing the formed product. The pore-forming agent is used to increase pores in the ceramic porous body and control the size and the number of pores.
As the pore-forming agent used to produce the ceramic porous body, a resin powder or a carbon powder which is burned during firing has been generally used. However, such a powder increases the firing time or produces carbon dioxide or toxic gas during firing due to high combustible content.
In order to prevent the above problems, attempts have been made to use hollow resin particles such as a resin foam or water-swellable particles such as crosslinked starch as the pore-forming agent (e.g. patent documents 1 and 2). However, the hollow resin particles are easily crushed during kneading, deaerating, or forming, whereby desired pore-forming characteristics may not be achieved. In particular, when integrally forming a hard formed product or producing a formed product using a continuous forming machine, the hollow resin particles such as a resin foam exhibiting poor mechanical strength are easily crushed, thereby making it difficult to obtain a ceramic porous body with a high porosity. When using the water-swellable particles, a problem does not occur in which the particles are crushed. However, since the combustibles cannot be eliminated, a problem similar to that arising when using the carbon powder or the like occurs to a certain extent.
[Patent document 1] JP-A-2002-326879
[Patent document 2] JP-A-2003-238271

Ceramic porous body and method for producing molded body


A link member having a curved bearing surface and a conveyor belt comprising a link member having a curved bearing surface are described. The link member can be comprised in any type of conveyor belt, including a grid-type conveyor belt, a smaller-radius grid-type conveyor belt or a flat-wire conveyor belt. The link member eliminates the objectionable noise caused by pivot rods jumping the corner of conventional links having curved bearing surfaces. According to one embodiment, the link member comprises a pair of leg portions, each leg portion comprising a first opening at a distal end and a second opening at a proximal end, and a connecting portion that connects the pair of leg portions, the connecting portion comprising a curved bearing surface between first and second side surfaces. The first and second side surfaces extend in a direction toward the proximal end of the leg portions.

1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the claimed invention relate to conveyor belt systems, and in particular, to a link member having a curved bearing surface for connecting adjacent rods of a conveyor belt system.
2. Description of Related Art
Conveyor belt systems are used in various industrial fields for material handling and processing purposes. For instance, conveyor systems are used within food processing systems in which food items are placed on the support surface of a conveyor belt and processed, while being conveyed from one location to another. Various types of conveyor belts exist, including modular conveyor belts, which are especially popular in food processing systems. Moreover, conveyor systems are often used in a helical accumulator such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,070,999 to Layne et al. which allows storage of a large number of items in the conveyor system.
One type of conveyor belt system comprises transverse rods connected by links disposed along the opposite transverse edges of the belt. For example, the belt can have generally U-shaped nestable links with slotted holes that allow the links to slide on the rods. The relative sliding action between the links and rods provides lateral flexibility which enables the belt to turn right or left, when such nestable links are used on both sides of the belt. When such a belt proceeds around a lateral curve, the rod ends along the inside concave edge of the belt collapse. The opposite transverse ends of the rods along the outside convex edge of the belt either remain at the same pitch as when the belt travels in a straight line direction, such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,225,898 to Roinestad, or expand to a greater pitch in order to allow the belt to proceed around a smaller radius, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,078,655 to Roinestad and U.S. Pat. No. 4,867,301 to Roinestad et al., each of which is herein incorporated by reference in their entireties. These types of conveyor belts are often referred to as grid-type belts. FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional grid-type conveyor belt as in U.S. Pat. No. 3,225,898 to Roinestad. FIG. 2 illustrates a conventional smaller-radius grid-type conveyor belt as in U.S. Pat. No. 4,867,301 to Roinestad et al.
Another type of conveyor belt system comprises rows of pickets with repeated bends formed from a flat strip of metal. A plurality of cross rods connect adjacent rows of pickets through openings therein. The openings can be circular and similar in radius to the cross rods so as to create a noncollapsible belt configured for straight travel. Alternatively, the openings can be slotted so as to create a collapsible belt configured for both straight travel of the belt and travel around lateral curves, such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,846,339 to Roinestad, herein incorporated by reference in its entirety. These types of conveyor belts are often referred to as flat wire conveyor belts. FIG. 3 illustrates a conventional flat-wire conveyor belt as in U.S. Pat. No. 4,846,339 to Roinestad.
FIG. 4 illustrates a spiral low tension conveying system 100 of the type shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,078,655 and 3,348,659. Since the low tension system is fully described in these patents, which are herein incorporated by reference in their entireties, only a brief description will be given here. In such a low tension system 100, a cage type driving drum 102 frictionally engages the inner edge of a conveyor belt 10 to drive it with relatively low tension through a helical path around the drum. In addition, a positive sprocket drive 104 engages the belt 10 along a straight portion thereof. A motor 105 drives the drum 102 through gearing 106 and also drives the positive sprocket drive 104 through interconnected gearing 107. The belt 10 travels from the sprocket drive 104, past weighted tension take up roller 110 and idler pulleys 111 to a straight loading portion 108, then in helical loops around the drum 102 to a straight discharge portion 109 and around another idler 111 back to the drive sprocket.
FIG. 5 is a cutaway view of a conveyor belt comprising a conventional link having a curved bearing surface, such as that described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,932,925 to Roinestad et al., which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety. As seen in FIG. 5, each leg portion 28A has a pair of holes 34A, 35A for receiving adjacent rods 12A and 12A′. Hole 35A, which is adjacent to its respective connecting portion 30A, is in the form of an elongate slot, which allows rod 12A to move from a collapsed position during straight line conveying, to an expanded position during conveying about lateral curves. Holes 34A and 35A are positioned at a proximal end and a distal end, respectively, of their respective leg portion 28A.
As shown in FIG. 5, connecting portion 30A connects leg portion 28A to another leg portion (not shown). Connecting portion 30A has a curved bearing surface 32A between first and second side surfaces, 36A and 36A′, respectively. In this embodiment, curved bearing surface 32A substantially mates with the outer surface of rod 12A, i.e., curved bearing surface 32A has substantially the same radius as rod 12A. First and second side surfaces 36A and 36A′ extend perpendicular to leg portion 28A.
Because side surfaces 36A and 36A′ expand perpendicular to leg portion 28A within opening 35A, a corner is created in connecting portion 30A between curved bearing surface 32A and side surfaces 36A and 36A′. When link 16A turns tangentially in the expanded position, such as about a roller (e.g., roller 110 of FIG. 4), rod 12A can be forced from curved bearing surface 32A back into opening 35A. This causes rod 12A to jump the corner and creates a potentially objectionable noise. FIG. 6 illustrates this situation in which rod 12A has jumped the corner due to link 16A—s tangential movement about roller 40.

Link member having a curved bearing surface


An ink set including at least a yellow ink composition, a magenta ink composition, and a cyan ink composition; the magenta ink composition containing as a colorant at least one type of compound expressed by the Formula M-1 in claim 1; the yellow ink composition containing as a colorant at least one type of compound expressed by the formula Y-1 in claim 1; and the cyan ink composition containing as a colorant at least one type of compound selected from the group consisting of compounds or salts thereof expressed by the Formula C-1 in claim 1.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an ink set, and particularly to an ink set that is capable of forming an image with excellent moisturefastness and rapid drying properties while maintaining a practical level of lightfastness and ozonefastness, as well as to an ink cartridge, inkjet recording method, and recorded matter that use this ink set.
2. Related Art
In recent years attention has focused on the inkjet recording method. The inkjet recording method is a printing method where printing is performed by spraying an ink composition as small droplets, and these small droplets adhere to a recording medium such as paper or the like. This method has the characteristics of enabling high-speed printing of a high-resolution high quality image using a relatively inexpensive device. Furthermore, inkjet recording devices that use this method have wide acceptance in the market because of the excellent printing quality, low cost, relatively quiet operation, and excellent graphics capability. Of these devices, thermal (bubblejet (registered trademark)) and piezoelectric drop on demand printers have been especially commercially successful, and are widely used as printers for personal computers at the office and home.
Furthermore, in recent years, printed matter has been obtained by forming a color image using an inkjet recording method that uses a plurality of color ink compositions. Generally, formation of a color image is performed using three colors, namely a yellow ink composition, a magenta ink composition, and a cyan ink composition, or if desired, using four colors by adding a black ink composition. Furthermore, color images are also formed using six colors with the addition of a light cyan ink composition and a light magenta ink composition to the aforementioned four colors, or using seven colors by also adding a dark yellow ink composition. Combinations of two or more of these ink compositions are referred to as an ink set.
The ink compositions which are used in forming the aforementioned color image are required to have good coloring properties for the individual color of each ink composition, as well as the capability to create favorable intermediate colors when a plurality of ink compositions are combined, and the recorded matter obtained thereby must not discolor when stored.
Furthermore, in recent years continuous improvements have been made in the head, in the composition, recording method, and media in order to achieve "picture quality" printing using a color inkjet printer, and the image quality obtained is similar to a photograph and at a level indistinguishable from a "silver chloride photograph". On the other hand, efforts are underway to improve the storage properties of the images of recorded matter obtained using a color inkjet printer by improving the ink compositions and the media, and in particular the lightfastness of the image has been improved to a practical level (for example, refer to JP-A-2000-290559 and JP-A-2001-288392). However, degradation of the image occurs not only because of the effect of light, but also because of oxidation due to oxidative gases existing in the environment such as ozone, and water (humidity) in the environment, and therefore discoloration and fading of the image will proceed. Therefore, in order to further improve the storage properties of the image of the recorded matter, the ozonefastness and humidityfastness should also be improved along with improving the lightfastness of the image formed by the ink. composition. Therefore, various investigations have been performed in order to improve the lightfastness, ozonefastness, and humidityfastness of the inkjet recorded matter, but in particular, efforts to date have been made to improve the ozonefastness of the colorants used in the ink composition (refer to International Patent WO02/060994 and JP-A-2002-371214).
Furthermore, in an ink set, if the lightfastness, ozonefastness, and humidityfastness of a specific ink composition are noticeably inferior to the lighffastness, ozonefastness, and humidityfastness of the other ink compositions, the color formed by that specific ink composition will fade and discolor faster than the other colors, so the color balance of the entire image will be poor, and an observer will be aware of the degradation in the picture quality of the image in a shorter period of time than they could be aware of fading of an image formed by only one ink composition, Therefore, with an ink set, in addition to improving the lightfastness, ozonefastness, and humidityfastness of each of the ink compositions which form the ink set, preferably the level of the lightfastness, ozonefastness, and humidityfastness of each of the ink compositions, or in other words the degradation speeds and the fading speeds of an image formed by each of the ink compositions due to light, ozone, and water will preferably be as similar as possible. In other words, the lighffastness, ozonefastness, and humidityfastness of each of the ink compositions that make up the ink set should be excellent, and preferably the difference in the lightfastness, ozonefastness, and humidityfastness of each ink composition will be small.
Furthermore, images with varying color intensities can be formed and an image without a grainy feel can be obtained by using an inkjet that includes two different tints of ink compositions with different color concentrations in the same color system. An ink set that includes two types of ink compositions with different color concentrations in this manner is used primarily for printing photograph images, but when forming the photographic image, generally an ink composition with a low color concentration is usually used in order to relieve or eliminate the graininess of the image. Furthermore, when evaluating the lightfastness, ozonefastness, and humidityfastness, a pattern with an optical concentration near 1.0 is formed as an evaluation sample using ink compositions with low color concentration. Therefore, in order to improve the lightfastness, ozonefastness, and humidityfastness of the overall ink set and the lightfastness, ozonefastness, and humidityfastness of recorded matter with photographic images, improving the lighffastness, ozonefastness, and humidityfastness of the ink compositions with low color concentration is critical. On the other hand, ink compositions with rich color concentrations are used for printing extremely vivid images and graphic art patterns, so improving the lightfastness, ozonefastness, and humidityfastness of these ink compositions is also important.
Furthermore, a black ink composition plays an important role from the viewpoint of achieving image contrast in the image, and therefore black ink compositions are commonly included in an ink set. Therefore, when a black ink composition is included in the ink set, the black ink composition must have excellent lightfastness, ozonefastness, and humidityfastness, while at the same time the degradation speed of the black ink composition due to light, ozone, or water must not differ extremely from the degradation speed of the other ink compositions which make up the ink set.
As described above, in an ink set, each of the individual ink compositions that make up the ink set must have good lightfastness, ozonefastness, and humidityfastness, while at the same time the balance between the lightfastness, ozonefastness, and humidityfastness of the different ink compositions must be good, and when exposed to light, ozone, and water, a specific color must not fade and/or discolor faster than the other colors. Furthermore, a bronzing phenomenon may occur when attempting to improve the lightfastness, ozonefastness, and humidityfastness of each of the ink compositions which make up an ink set, and this bronzing phenomenon must also be reduced. Bronzing phenomenon refers to the phenomenon of floating red visible ink printed regions when printing is performed at high duty, and is thought to have a tendency to easily occur particularly when fill printing (printing to fill in an area at 100% duty) using an ink composition that uses a metal phthalocyanine based dye as the colorant. The bronzing phenomenon affects the color balance of the entire image, and can lead to poor image quality.
Furthermore, any ink set that improves the degradation of image quality or the like and that is capable of recording and image with good ozonefastness on a recording medium, as well as an ink cartridge that stores this ink set, a recording method that uses this ink set, and recorded matter that is recorded using this ink set has previously been proposed (for example, refer to JP-A-2005-105135).
This ink set and the like achieves a level of lighffastness and ozonefastness practical for consumer applications.
Recent inkjet printers are printing at higher speeds, and the time provided for drying the printed matter has become extremely short. In the past, several minutes were required for printing text and images on a single page of recording medium, so this time could be used for the drying time. However, the printing speed will further accelerate in the future due to technology such as line head printers and the like, and printing in less than one second is considered possible. In this case, drying time for the ink will essentially be nonexistent.
Furthermore, the handling instructions for the printed matter of current inkjet printers encourages the user to "take care in storing the printed matter after printing" or to "take care not to overlay printed surfaces after printing and to ensure sufficient drying". However, this type of handling places a significant burden on the user. In actuality, these instructions are often not followed. Furthermore, the printed matter output from a printer is commonly stored in an album or the like immediately after output.
Under these conditions, accommodating high-speed printing and improving the handling properties for the user are extremely important issues. Therefore, there is demand for an ink set that can maintain lightfastness and ozonefastness at a practical level while being able to record an image with good humidityfastness and rapid drying properties on a recording medium.

Inkset, ink cartridge, inkjet recording method, and recorded matter


This invention relates to a spinal osteosynthesis assembly comprising the head of an anchoring member consisting of at least one arm and a tool for fixing said head to a spinal osteosynthesis system. The inventive assembly is characterized in that the tool can hold the head by creating at least one lateral support on at least one lateral edge of the arm and an additional support on the head in the opposite direction of the lateral support.

The invention relates to assemblies for osteosynthesis of the spine, and in particular to the tools used while fixing such assemblies.
Numerous assemblies are known for the osteosynthesis of the spine, for example the assembly disclosed in document EP-0885 598. Such assemblies generally include anchor members in the form of screws or hooks that are connected to one another by one or more link elements in the form of rods or plates. The function of such assemblies is to rectify the shape of a deformed vertebral column or to enable osteosynthesis to take place in one or more fractured vertebrae. For this purpose, the anchor members are fixed rigidly to the vertebrae.
Each such member must be placed in a very precise position. For this purpose, tools are known that enable the member to be held temporarily so as to assemble it rigidly to the other parts in a desired position. Nevertheless, most such tools do not give satisfaction, either because they do not hold the member in satisfactory manner or because their size makes it necessary to release the member in order to be able to fix it to the other elements of the assembly. In particular, such tools do not give satisfaction when it is necessary to hold an anchor member whose head includes at least one branch.

Spinal osteosynthesis assembly comprising the head of an anchoring member and a tool for fixing said head


A microprocessor including memory storage into which ISA customer code routines can be stored after having been decoded into their machine-native microinstructions. The customer code store is not subject to eviction and the like, as a cache memory would be. ISA level code can specify a routine for storage into the customer code store, at a time prior to its execution. The customer code store thus serves as a write-once execute-many library of pre-decoded routines which ISA level applications can subsequently use, permitting a system manufacturer to create a highly customized and optimized system.

1. Technical Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to microprocessors, and more specifically to an improved microprocessor which includes storage into which customer-defined code routines or code segments can be explicitly loaded and held for future execution.
2. Background Art
FIG. 1 depicts an exemplary, conventional microprocessor 10. The microprocessor has an Instruction Set Architecture (ISA) such as X86, MIPS, ARM, Alpha, PowerPC, or the like. Software is written in a source code language such as C++, Pascal, Lisp, or the like, or in the ISA's assembly language, and is then compiled or assembled into native, executable ISA code. The ISA includes the complete set of things which are visible to or expressly usable by the ISA code, including instructions, registers, flags, and the like. The microprocessor typically also has a microarchitecture which is not directly visible to the ISA code, and which is used at a lower level to implement the ISA. Many microprocessors' microarchitectures are microcoded, in that they have their own "native" software format and control constructs. Typically, such microprocessors fetch ISA code, decode it, and generate a corresponding microcode flow to accomplish the functionality specified by the ISA code.
In the example shown, the microprocessor retrieves and executes this ISA code from a memory 12 under control of an instruction fetcher 14. To improve performance, the ISA code is typically stored in an instruction cache 16, and may be speculatively brought in from memory by a prefetcher 18 in coordination with a branch predictor 20. There may also be a separate data cache 22 in some instances. In the context of this invention, "memory" may be DRAM, SRAM, ROM, flash memory, hard disk, CD-ROM, DVD-RAM, or any other form of storage, and may be coupled directly to the processor or it may be coupled indirectly via one or more intervening systems or transmission means.
Regardless of how or when the ISA code is brought into the microprocessor, before it can be executed, an instruction decoder 24 parses the incoming ISA code to ascertain which instructions are contained in the code. In many machines, the instruction decoder generates microcode including a series of one or more microinstructions which correspond to a given ISA instruction. While the ISA code may be thought of as being the "native" instructions of the architecture, the microcode (μcode) is the "native" instructions of the microarchitecture or the execution units 26 in the microprocessor. Two microprocessors may share the same ISA but have wildly different microcode instruction sets.
Some ISA instructions, such as trigonometric math functions, require complex operations, and result in lengthy microcode flows. In many instances, it is beneficial to permanently store these microcode flows in a microcode read-only memory (ROM) 28. When the instruction decoder detects such an ISA instruction, the instruction decoder triggers the microcode ROM to output the corresponding microcode flow.
The microcode from the instruction decoder and/or from the microcode ROM is sent to a microinstruction scheduler 30 which controls the delivery of the microcode instructions to the various execution units of the microprocessor, in accordance with the availability of the execution units, the availability of the required input data operands for the microinstructions (μops), and so forth. Ultimately, the microinstructions are executed and their results are written to the memory (typically through the data cache).
The contents of the microcode ROM are determined by the microprocessor manufacturer at manufacturing time, and cannot be changed by the customer, the ISA-level programmer, nor the end user. So, although the microcode ROM holds code flows for later execution, it cannot be modified nor customized by the customer. A few microprocessors have included the ability for the manufacturer to "patch" the microcode at any time after manufacturing, by loading a sequence of microcode into a microcode patch RAM (not shown). The patch facility is typically used by the manufacturer to work around errata in the microprocessor. The ability to load a patch is among the most tightly protected trade secrets of the manufacturer, with strong encryption protection and verification mechanisms, and is absolutely not exposed to customers or users for their use.
The customer does have some limited control over the contents of the instruction cache. If the customer has a good measure of control over, and knowledge of, all code that may potentially be running on the microprocessor, the customer can to a limited extent control the contents of the instruction cache simply by e.g. making sure that his code ("customer code") is small enough to fit within the instruction cache without causing evictions and overwriting. However, if other code, such as the operating system, interrupt handler, or another software application suddenly becomes active, it may cause the eviction of the code which the customer wanted in the cache. This will result in degraded performance and, significantly, non-deterministic execution time (both in terms of throughput and latency) of the customer code, when the customer code must be re-fetched into the cache. Some processors allow the cache to be locked, preventing eviction of its contents. In some instances, it may be advantageous for the customer to load the instruction cache with the customer code, and then execute the instruction which locks the cache (typically by setting a bit in a control register). This requires that the customer have a great deal of control over exactly what software is running on the processor. Otherwise, he cannot guarantee that the customer code will, in fact, be present in the cache when he locks it. Also, the code which is to be locked in the cache must be executed in order to be loaded into the instruction cache; merely reading the code would cause it to be loaded into the data cache. The customer cannot load the instruction cache without executing the customer code once. And, once the instruction cache is locked, it cannot be used to improve performance of other code, and overall system performance suffers.
Furthermore, the instruction cache holds ISA code, not microcode. The contents of the instruction cache must be decoded at every execution instance, such as when looping. In a few existing microprocessors, such as the Intel Pentium 4 processor, a "trace cache" holds decoded and loop-unrolled microcode. However, the customer has essentially zero control over the contents of the trace cache.
Microprocessor manufacturers typically do not disclose the format of their microcode to customers or anyone else, and often take extreme measures to prevent others from gaining access to the microcode or writing code in its format.
What is desirable, then, is an improved microprocessor which includes a customer code store which is not subject to the vagaries of cache eviction, which stores pre-decoded microcode which can be fed directly to the execution units without using or being limited by instruction decoder bandwidth, which can be loaded without executing the code, and which permits the customer to control the contents of the customer code store in terms of what algorithms are stored therein, for what time they are so stored, and when that code gets executed.


When a specified air-fuel ratio F/B control condition is established during supply of a secondary air provided, an air-fuel ratio F/B control is executed, and at this time, an initial value of a target air-fuel ratio is set to a before-catalyst air-fuel ratio detected by an A/F (air-fuel ratio) sensor. The target air-fuel ratio subsequent to this is gradually changed from the initial value to a specified air-fuel ratio. By this, the initial value of the target air-fuel ratio can be suitably set at a start time of execution of the air-fuel ratio F/B control during the supply of the secondary air. The target air-fuel ratio subsequent to this is gradually changed to a stoichiometric air-fuel ratio, so that a change in engine rotation speed is suppressed and the drivability can be improved.

Conventionally, as related art documents relating to a secondary air supply control apparatus of an internal combustion engine, JP-A-5-171973 is known. This document discloses a technique to warm up a catalyst early without using a high capacity air pump.
In the above related art, an air-fuel ratio supplied to the internal combustion engine is set to a rich side and secondary air is supplied, so that the catalyst can be early warmed up and activated. Conventionally, an air-fuel ratio feedback control during supply of secondary air has not been generally carried out since it is difficult. Thus, there has been a disadvantage that when the air-fuel ratio is disturbed by some disturbance factor during the supply of the secondary air, the engine rotation speed is much changed and the drivability becomes worse.
In order to cope with this, it is effective to execute the air-fuel ratio feedback control during the supply of the secondary air, however, when setting of a target air-fuel ratio at the time of start of the execution is not suitable, the air-fuel ratio supplied to the internal combustion engine is suddenly changed by this target air-fuel ratio, and a change occurs in the engine rotation speed, and as a result, there is fear that there occurs such a disadvantage that the drivability becomes worse.
Besides, according to JP-A-6-212959, after an upstream side catalyst is activated among plural catalysts, and when secondary air is being supplied to an exhaust system, heat energy, together with exhaust discharged to the exhaust system from the internal combustion engine, to be conveyed to the plural catalysts is increased, and since the heat energy, together with the exhaust, to be conveyed to the respective catalysts is not increased before the activation of the upstream side catalyst, degradation of emission is suppressed by that, and warm-up of the catalyst can be quickly performed.
Besides, according to JP-A-2001-263050, since exhaust gas from an internal combustion engine is heated up to the temperature at which it can burn in an exhaust passage at an upstream side of a catalyst, afterburning occurs, and the catalyst can be warmed up early by its burning heat, and unburned HC (hydrocarbon) exhausted from the internal combustion engine is burned by the afterburning.

Secondary air supply control apparatus for internal combustion engine


A touch panel is provided, that can prevent, for example, the occurrence of Newton's rings. The touch panel includes: a first substrate having a first principal plane and a second principal plane on which a first transparent conductive film is formed; and a second substrate having a third principal plane on which a second transparent conductive film is formed and a fourth principal plane. The touch panel is configured such that the first substrate and the second substrate are disposed so that the first transparent conductive film and the second transparent conductive film are opposed to each other. The first substrate is warped to be convex from the second principal plane toward the first principal plane.

In recent years, mobile devices, cellular telephone devices, and car navigation devices include a display device, such as of liquid crystal display elements, on which a touch panel for enabling operational input thereon is disposed. The touch panel may also be referred to as a touch screen.
Touch panels of various types have been suggested. A typical one of those that have been suggested is a resistance film type touch panel. The resistance film type touch panel is configured such that two transparent conductive films are opposed to each other with a spacer interposed therebetween, the spacer being made of an insulating material such as acrylic resin. The two transparent conductive films serve as an upper electrode and a lower electrode of the touch panel, respectively. The transparent conductive film is formed on a surface of a transparent substrate and made of a material of a high refractive index (for example, about 1.9 to about 2.1) such as indium tin oxide (ITO).
Touch panels such as of the resistance film type may cause a phenomenon called Newton's rings to occur in some cases. Newton's rings are interference fringes that are caused by interference of light in a narrow gap between the upper and lower electrodes of the touch panel. The occurrence of Newton's rings would lead to deterioration in display quality of the display device. Thus, there have been suggestions for preventing the occurrence of Newton's rings. For example, disclosed in Patent Document 1 below is a touch panel in which the laid-around electrode is made greater in thickness than the sealing material so as to curve the upper substrate, thereby preventing the occurrence of Newton's rings.

Touch panel having a warped substrate and method for manufacturing the touch panel


A device for housing a smart card is provided which consists of a compartment for receiving the card and a support onto which the card is secured, the device further including elements that allow the support to be temporarily fixed onto the receiving compartment, the receiving compartment being part of an item of electronic equipment or a storage wallet.

The present invention relates to the field of cards that incorporate a memory frequently known as smart cards or chip cards.
Numerous devices currently operate with such cards or are intended to be able to operate with them. The cards consist of a rectangular plate in a plastic material incorporating an integrated circuit which is more or less complex but which at the minimum includes a memory and a logic circuit. The dimensions of the plastic rectangle are standardized (length: 85.6 mm, width: 53.98 mm, thickness: 0.76 mm). The dimensions of the integrated circuit with its contact pads are much smaller than the dimensions of the rectangle.
Such cards, referred to hereinafter as "smart cards" have to date been used in association with items of apparatus that are relatively voluminous compared to the size of the cards (consider, for example, telephone cards used with public telephones). The size of the standardized card does not present any problem with this type of apparatus. It is moreover particularly well-suited to being handled by the user, and it can readily be stored in a pocket or a wallet.
Moreover, in the telephone field a new product in the form of portable radio telephones has appeared on the scene. These items of equipment which were fairly voluminous originally are now appearing with much smaller dimensions. Parallel to this and for various reasons (access control, charge metering), an idea is to make them operate with a smart card which should be able to be readily introduced and withdrawn from the equipment. Miniaturization of portable radio telephones has now arrived at such a stage that the conventional smart card is too big for the equipment especially if account is taken of the fact that the latter must include some device for housing the card to ensure normal operation.
As the integrated circuit with its contact pad only occupies a restricted area, reducing the size of the card does not per se create any problems. Thus, reducing the dimensions of smart cards enables them to be used and integrated into products having reduced dimensions while still keeping the cards protected from the outside environment. A smart card of reduced dimensions however leads to difficulties regarding the possibility of withdrawing it from the product to which it is assigned. Moreover, the card needs to be handled and transported when it is withdrawn from the product that receives it. Its extraction and insertion should not reduce its operating capacity and positioning of the card needs to be unambiguous.
When the card is withdrawn from the user equipment it further needs to be protected from the effects of the outside environment. Its small size should not increase its chances of being lost. The invention sets out to overcome these disadvantages.

Societe Anonyme Dite: Alcatel Radiotelephone


An aircraft trolley retention device may include a retention latch with a shaft including a first component of an interlocking assembly and a sleeve including a second component of the interlocking assembly and configured to receive the shaft, and an interlocking assembly. The retention latch may be configured to actuate between a closed position and an open position. The interlocking assembly may be configured to guide the retention latch during the actuation between the closed position and the open position. The retention latch may be configured to retain an aircraft trolley within an aircraft trolley bay when the retention latch is in the closed position. A portion of the retention latch may be configured to be positioned in front of a striker plate corresponding to a handle of an aircraft trolley bay door of the aircraft trolley bay when the retention latch is in the open position.

An aircraft cabin may include one or more aircraft monuments. An aircraft monument may include one or more aircraft trolley bays. An aircraft trolley bay may include one or more aircraft trolley bay doors. The aircraft trolley bay may be configured to house one or more aircraft trolleys. An aircraft trolley may include an aircraft trolley content door. An aircraft trolley bay door may be required to act as a secondary means of retention for the one or more aircraft trolleys when housed in the corresponding aircraft trolley bay. However, the aircraft trolley bay door may fail under an applied load.