An exposed edge of a conductive liner in a Damascene trench provides a high aspect ratio geometry of a non-volatile memory cell that can be scaled to arbitrarily small and nanoscale areas and thus provides an extremely compact non-volatile memory array layout that is applicable to any non-volatile memory technology such as resistive memory (RRAM), magnetic memory (MRAM), phase change memory (PCRAM) and the like. The high aspect ratio of the non-volatile memory cell area offsets the sharp increase in filament forming voltage required in conductive bridge memories (CBRAMs) as the non-volatile memory cells are scaled to very small sizes. The compact memory cell layout is also tolerant of lithographic overlay errors and provides a high degree of uniformity of electrical characteristics which are tunable by maskless and non-lithographic processes.

Numerous practical considerations have driven semiconductor integrated circuit designs to smaller size regimes and minimum feature dimensions and higher integration densities of electronic elements. In logic circuits and processors, smaller element size allows increased functionality to be developed on a chip of given area. Increased element integration density allows reduction in signal propagation time and increased noise immunity due to shorter interconnection lengths. In memory devices, reduced memory element size and increased integration density provides much the same benefits as well as greater memory capacity and decreased manufacturing process costs per memory element or cell.
Depending on the performance requirements (e.g. access time) and operating conditions (e.g. power and refresh requirements, if any), many types of memory elements have been designed and fabricated. An important type of memory element is one capable of storing data for long periods of time without any requirement for power other than at times data is being written, erased or read. Such memory elements or cells are referred to as being non-volatile (NV) and memories containing such non-volatile memory elements or cells are referred to, simply, as NV memories. An early type of NV cell included a field effect transistor with an insulated or floating gate such that a high voltage applied across the insulator caused tunneling of electrons to or from the floating gate. The memory cell could be read by applying a lower voltage to another gate to induce an electrical field in the transistor channel with the floating gate interposed therebetween. The resulting electrical field in the transistor which would be enhanced (or reduced, depending on transistor conductivity type) by charge storage on the floating gate would and thus cause differences in the conduction of the transistor channel which could be read to determine if charge had been stored in the floating gate.
While such NV memories using floating gate transistors were highly successful, the formation of transistors with floating gates required complex and expensive manufacturing processes and were subject to a significant degree of lack of uniformity in electrical characteristics of such transistors on a chip; reducing manufacturing yield and increasing manufacturing costs per chip. Also, the degree of possible size reduction and integration density was limited by lithographic exposure resolution and, importantly, the tunneling effect upon writing or erasure caused small but finite damage to the insulation of the floating gate; limiting the number of times a given memory cell could be written or erased and leading to charge leakage and loss of the data stored therein.
While these drawbacks were not particularly severe where write and erase operations were performed only infrequently, these drawbacks have led to the exploitation of other phenomena to avoid them. One phenomenon that has been exploited using an electrochemically active electrode such as copper or silver migration within an insulating material to form conductive filaments of the active electrode material. Another phenomenon that has been exploited in this manner does not require an electrochemically active electrode material and the filament is formed by oxygen vacancy motions. In this mechanism, the oxygen vacancies can agglomerate at grain boundaries within a metal oxide insulator and locally create metal-rich filaments.
When filaments are grown, they essentially become fuses that can be ruptured by joule heating in response to a high current and re-grown by a voltage significantly less than the voltage used to initially form them since the short distance of the discontinuity of a ruptured filament increases the electric field across the discontinuity. This reversible process provides high performance NV memory cells operable in much the same fashion as the two phenomena alluded to above but using other materials and other physical mechanisms. It has been found that, in either the ruptured or re-grown state, the filaments (and discontinuities) are extremely stable over time and a wide range of environmental conditions and require no power to maintain. Among the few drawbacks of such a device are that the voltage required to initially form the filaments may be large enough to present criticality in supplying sufficient current to the memory cells during manufacture and an observed lack of uniformity of electrical characteristics of memory cells on a chip during filament growth. Methods exist for providing some reduction in the voltage required for filament formation but at the cost of dielectric film density modification or special oxygen exchange layers, adding process complexity. Additionally, scaling of such devices to smaller sizes has been lithographically limited.

Structure and method for BEOL nanoscale damascene sidewall-defined non-volatile memory element


The present invention relates to a method of expressing an objective protein at a high level and stably as well as for a long period even in the absence of a selection drug with a recombinant mammal cell. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method of producing an objective protein by providing a recombinant mammal cell having multiple copies of the exogenous objective protein gene expression unit integrated into a hypoxanthine-phosphoribosyl transferase enzyme (hprt) gene locus and culturing said cell.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recombinant mammal cell and a method of producing a protein with use of the cell.
2. Background Art
There are known a variety of recombinant protein producing systems with procaryotes or eucaryotes as a host cell. According to the recombinant protein producing system with a mammal cell as the host cell, it is possible to subject proteins derived from higher animals including human to post-translational modifications such as the addition of polysaccharide chain, folding and phosphorylation in a similar manner to those produced in vivo.
The post-translational modification is necessary for reproducing physiological activities of a native protein in the recombinant protein. Thus, a protein producing system with a mammal cell as the host cell is preferably used in recombinant protein producing systems used in medicaments for which such physiological activities are particularly needed.
In the industrial production of pharmaceutical proteins, it is important to stably maintain the expression of a protein in a high level. Particularly, the maintenance of the stable expression level is important not only to the respect of cost but also to the verification of the identity and safety as pharmaceutical proteins. In order to use the recombinant protein producing cell for its production in industrial scales, it is necessary to magnify a scale for culturing the clone of the recombinant protein producing cell. It is usually estimated for magnifying the scale that the clone just developed must be subjected to at least 60 cell divisions (Brown, M. E. et al. (1992) Cytotechnology, 9, 231-236.), and the expression level must be maintained constant during the cell division.
The specific productivity of the recombinant clonal cell may also be reduced to such a level that is hardly used as production cells during or after period for magnifying the culture scale, and in this case the development period over several months will come to nothing (Barnes, L. M. et al. (2003) Biotechnol. Bioeng. 81, 631-639).
The use of selection drugs during the periods of scale-up and practical production rises the costs not only of culture but also of purification processes in order to avoid the risk of polluting pharmaceuticals with toxic agents. Thus, the production of the recombinant clonal cell is generally carried out without addition of selection drugs.
The recombinant mammal clonal cell which produces the objective protein is required to have the specific productivity at high level as well as the property which enables to stably maintain the specific productivity level without addition of the selection drug.
Specific productivity in high levels is generally achieved by a process for increasing the copy number of an exogenous gene which codes for an objective protein by gene amplification technology, and systems such as CHO-DHFR and GS-NSO have been established as practical techniques (Japanese Patent Publication No. 7-40933; Werner R. G. et al. (1998) Arzneim.-Forsch./Drug Res 48, 870-880, and the like).
However, it has been confirmed that when clonal cells having increased levels of specific productivity are selected and then the selected clonal cells are continuously cultured in a medium containing no selection drugs, the level of specific productivity is lowered or vanished in most of the clones. Furthermore, it has also been described in literatures that the expression level of an objective protein is not always increased in proportion to the increased copy number of an integrated gene (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Disclosure No. 2002-541854; Kim, N. S. et al. (1998) Biotechnol. Bioeng., 60, 679-688; and the like).
It has been reported that the decreased level of specific productivity or the disappeared production of the objective protein are primarily caused by the decreased copy number of genes (Kim, N. S. et al. (1998) Biotechnol. Bioeng., 60, 679-688, Kim, S. J. (1998) Biotechnol. Bioeng. 58, 73-84, Yoshikawa, T. et al. (2000) Biotechnol. Progr. 16, 710-715; and the like).
It has been described in the literatures as Repeat-Induced Gene Silencing (RIGS) that such decrease or disappearance of the specific productivity levels are also caused by repeated integrations of multiple gene copies of identical sequence in tandem (Henikoff, S. (1998) Bioessays 20, 532-535; Garrick, D. et al. (1998) Nat. Genet. 18, 56-59). It has been reported that RIGS may be caused also in 2-3 copies of gene (McBurney, M. W. (2002) Exp. Cell Res. 274, 1-8).
Furthermore, no satisfactory solutions have hitherto been presented with respect to stability of the specific productivity level of an objective protein. Clonal selection is now empirically carried out on the basis of data which have been accumulated with regard to the growth rate and productivity during the culture of clone for a long period. According to this empirical process, it is rarely accomplished to get a clonal cell having a stable specific productivity level of the objective protein, which can probably be obtained by chance (Barnes, L. M. et al. (2003) Biotechnol. Bioeng. 81, 631-639).
The present inventors have previously reported a method for obtaining a recombinant cell in which an expression unit of the green fluorescent protein (GFP) as a single copy is integrated into the locus of the hypoxanthine-phosphoribosyl transferase (hprt) gene by homologous recombination (Biotechnol. Bioeng., 95(6): 1052-1060, 2006). The clonal cell stably maintains the specific productivity level even during its cultivation for a long period in the absence of the selection drug.
In the case of obtaining usual random recombinant clonal cells, multiple copies of exogenous genes are often integrated into the identical chromosomal site (Martin, D. I. K. and Whitelaw, E. (1996) Bioessays, 18, 919-923). These copies may be a target of RIGS. On the contrary, it is possible to avoid RIGS in the integration of one copy by homologous recombination (Whitelaw, E. et al. (2001) Methods in Mol. Biol. 158, 351-368).
On the other hand, it is known also in the integration of one copy that the stability of the specific productivity level largely varies depending on chromosomal sites for integration (Walters, M. C. et al. (2007) Genes Dev. 10, 185-195).
It can be found from these facts that the hprt genetic site having a copy of an exogenous gene integrated therein is excellent for maintaining the stability of the specific productivity level. On the other hand, it is however impossible to estimate the stability of the specific productivity level as well as the possibility of avoiding RIGS when multiple copies of an exogenous gene are integrated into the hprt genetic site.
In addition, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Disclosure No. H7-500969 discloses that an erythropoietin gene expression unit has been integrated into the hprt gene locus of HT1080 cell derived from human fibrosarcoma by homologous recombination. However, no expression of erythropoietin gene has been confirmed, nor integration of multiple copies has been found.

Recombinant mammal cells, method of producing thereof, and method of producing proteins of interest


A location server configured to determine a location of communications devices with respect to a location of infrastructure equipment of a wireless access network from observed time differences between receiving positioning reference signals transmitted by a plurality of the infrastructure equipment and received by the communications devices.

Third and fourth generation mobile telecommunication systems, such as those based on the 3GPP defined UMTS and Long Term Evolution (LTE) architecture are able to support sophisticated services with an improved radio interface and enhanced data rates. However, whilst fourth generation networks can support communications at high data rates and low latencies from devices such as smart phones and tablet computers, it is expected that future wireless communications networks will need to support communications to and from a much wider range of devices, including reduced complexity devices, machine type communication devices, devices which require little or no mobility, high resolution video displays and virtual reality headsets. As such there is expected to be an increase in the variety of communications devices as well as the number of devices served by a cell. Indeed, the so-called internet-of-things envisages many low power or low cost devices being used.
In the case of reduced bandwidth and/or capability devices, a narrow band IoT (NB-IoT) communications device can be used to communicate low bandwidth data to support a variety of low data rate applications. As such, Enhanced Machine Type Communications (eMTC) devices can be created from such low cost devices which are both power efficient and can operate in an extended coverage mode, for example such as inside basements. One of the applications for such low cost devices is to improve a facility for tracking objects to which such communications devices are attached by tracking a location of the devices so that the objects themselves can be tracked.
One location technique which has been previously proposed is based on determining a location of communications devices from reports of an observed time difference between receiving known reference signals which have been transmitted by a plurality of base stations of a wireless communications network. The communications device reported the observed time difference of arrival to a location server attached to the wireless communications network. The Location Server calculates the location of the communications device based on these observed time differences of received reference signals to the wireless communications network. The location server can then perform a triangulation technique based on a determined distance from each of the base stations based on the observed time differences to determine the location of the communications device. However a desire for low cost and low power communications devices can present new challenges.

Location server, infrastructure equipment, communications device and methods for the use of supplementary positioning reference signals


The present invention concerns a pneumatic delivery device having three successively-arranged chambers, a membrane element arranged in the third chamber so as to ensure a tight separation of the third chamber into a lower chamber and upper chamber, a membrane element arranged between the second chamber and the lower chamber of the third chamber so as to ensure a tight separation between said lower chamber and second chamber, a stem integrally fixed to the first membrane element and to the second membrane element, a valve cooperating with an outlet orifice arranged between the first chamber and the second chamber, and a flow adjustment element arranged on a gas conduct in fluid communication with the gas outlet of the second chamber, said flow adjustment element being operable by a user for setting a quantity of gas circulating in said gas conduct.

The invention concerns a pneumatic delivery device for gas delivery, in particular adapted and designed to be connected to a source of gaseous nitric oxide (NO) and the breathing pathway of a resuscitation bag.
Nitric Oxide (hereafter NO) is a colorless gas which, when inhaled, dilates the pulmonary blood vessels and increases oxygenation by improving gas exchanges in the lungs. These properties of NO are used for treating several medical conditions, such as Persistent Pulmonary Hypertension of the Newborn (PPHN) or Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS).
NO gas is usually mixed in low amounts to a respiratory oxygen-containing gas inhaled by a patient, according to a posology set by a physician. Usually, the O2-containing gas is a N2/O2 mixture or air. Typically, the NO concentration in the gas, after mixing, is of between 5 and 100 ppm in volume (ppmv), depending on the treated population of patients, e.g. infants or adults.
The gas inhaled by the patient, that contains NO and oxygen, is usually delivered by the mean of a specific delivery device usually connected to a mechanical ventilator as described by U.S. Pat. No. 5,558,083. This delivery device, which is connected to gas cylinders containing a mixture of nitrogen (N2) and NO containing between 200 and 800 ppmv of NO, generally includes an injection module located in the inspiratory line of a breathing circuit, whose distal ends are respectively connected to a mechanical ventilator and a patient.
The injection module includes a flow sensor which measures the flow delivered by the mechanical ventilator and sends back the measure to the NO delivery device, which computes and determines the right amount of NO to be delivered, based on the desired posology.
The delivery of NO is performed by the mean of a proportional solenoid valve in association to a dedicated flow sensor, e.g. internal to the delivery device, and supplied to the NO injection module via a dedicated gas line. The administration is continuous in a way that the delivery device continuously receives the measure of flow spreading into the inspiratory line of the breathing circuit and adjusts in real time the amount of NO to be delivered with respect to the set posology. In other word, whatever the flow delivered to the patient, this flow contains the right NO concentration.
However, there are many situations where NO therapies are initiated without the use of such devices. This is particularly true in emergency situations, either at the very place of the emergency or during transportation in mobile unit. In these situations, medical teams rely on a pneumatic delivery device, such as a NO blender, in conjunction with a resuscitation bag to perform mechanical ventilation.
Typically, the pneumatic delivery device is connected to two sources of gas, namely an oxygen supply and a cylinder containing NO as described above. In such a system, the user sets both a flow of oxygen, for instance between 5 to 15 L/min and a NO concentration of between 5 to 40 ppmv to add the right amount of NO coming from the NO cylinder. The resulting flow feeds the oxygen line of the resuscitation bag on which insufflations are performed to deliver mechanical ventilation to the patient.
Such a NO-administration mode suffers severe drawbacks which can impact the efficacy of the NO therapy.
The supply of NO is constant and independent on the minute ventilation of the patient, e.g. the depth (volume) and rate of insufflations with the resuscitation bag
Indeed, the reserve of gas of the resuscitation bag is a mix of oxygen, at a given NO concentration, and air drawn from ambient. The balance of the mixture is determined by the depth and rate of the insufflations: it is therefore almost impossible to deliver the right NO concentration to the patient.
The NO carrier is only oxygen which favors hyperoxic situations. For instance, one could privilege the consistency of the NO concentration, e.g. 20 ppmv, and set to this purpose a high oxygen flow, up to 15 L/min, to make sure the resuscitation bag is always filled with pure oxygen at the right NO concentration.
However, this will generate fractions of inspired O2 of 100% with, as a consequence, a potential harmful hyperoxia. This is especially true in the pediatric population (e.g. PPHN) or complex adult conditions, such as ARDS.
The NO carrier is oxygen which accelerates the formation of nitrogen dioxide (NO2), that is a harmful compound. This NO2 formation is even greater in a resuscitation bag as the ventilation is intermittent and the NO volume stagnates in the bag, thereby favoring the oxidation of NO by O2 species.
In other words, while keeping in mind a simple pneumatic delivery device to work in conjunction with a resuscitation bag, it would be safer and relevant to deliver the right amount of NO independently of the depth and rate of mechanical insufflations and not rely on the oxygen source as the sole NO carrier.

L'Air Liquide, Société Anonyme pour l'Etude et l'Exploitation des Procédés Georges Claude


A method and related control logic for performing in line recovery from deferred exceptions generated by speculative operations. The control logic includes a re-execution register to mark operands of operations that should be re-executed in a special recovery mode. When the processor detects a deferred exception, it branches to the operation that generated the exception and enters the special in-line recovery mode. The processor executes operations non-speculatively in the recovery mode, and marks the result registers of these operations with re-execution flags. The processor then knows whether to re-execute an operation by checking for re-execution flags associated with the operands of an in-line operation. The processor exits recovery mode when it returns to the point where it detected the deferred exception. The re-execution register enables the processor to recover from deferred exceptions using the program code only, without any additional fix-up code or recovery code.

In the field of computer processor design, developers are always looking for ways to increase the rate at which the processor executes instructions. To accomplish this goal, the processor can be designed to execute several operations at once, or the cycle time of the processor can be reduced. One type of processor, referred to as a superscalar processor, includes special hardware to identify operations in the instruction stream that can be executed simultaneously. The superscalar processor improves performance by executing operations in the instruction stream simultaneously.
Another type of processor, referred to as superparallel or Very Long Instruction Word (VLIW), relies on the compiler to schedule operations in bundles that can be executed in parallel. Since the hardware is simpler than in superscalar processors, the cycle time can be reduced further.
One problem with processors that can execute more than one operation in parallel is that there often are not enough independent operations to keep the hardware resources busy. The phrase commonly used to refer to the extent to which operations can be executed in parallel is "Instruction Level Parallelism." Programs executed on VLIW processors are typically optimized to improve instruction level parallelism. This optimization can be performed in the compiler, in the hardware, by hand, or using some combination of these techniques.
Speculative code motion is a form of optimization that can improve instruction level parallelism. In general, it involves moving an operation across a conditional branch that controls its execution. In speculative code motion, one or more operations are moved from their home basic block to a previous basic block in the program. A "basic block" is a straight line sequence of operations followed by a branch. The home block is the basic block in which the speculative operation originally resides in the program. The previous basic blocks for a given basic block include all the basic blocks that can branch to the given basic block or that sequentially precede the basic block.
An operation moved in this manner is referred to as "speculative" or "anticipatory" because it is executed before it is known whether the operation will be used in the program. The result of a speculative operation may never be used because a conditional branch that leads to the home block of the operation may take a different path.
While speculative code motion can improve the performance of VLIW and superscalar processors, a problem can arise when a speculative operation generates a fault. Consider, for example the following source code: EQU if(A|=0) B=*A
A non-speculative version of this code would be:
. . (some code here)
branch to instruction X if register A holds a 0
load register B from the address in register A
X: . . .
The speculative version of this code would be:
load register C speculatively from the address in register A
. . (some code here)
branch to instruction X if register A holds a 0
copy the contents of register C to register B
X: . . .
In this example, the speculative code motion improves the instruction level parallelism, and has the additional benefit of reducing the impact of the latency incurred in the load operation. However, a speculative operation may generate a fault even if the result of the operation is never used in the program. For instance in this example, the speculative load operation may generate a fault when register A holds a zero. If a speculative operation generates a fault, it should not be reported or processed immediately. Instead, processing of the fault should be deferred until it is known that the result of the operation will actually be used in the program. This point is sometimes referred to as the commit point, the point where we know that the result of the operation will be needed.
There are a number of possible approaches to deal with exceptions generated during speculative execution. One conservative approach is referred to as "safe speculation." In this approach, only operations that do not generate exceptions are moved speculatively. This approach does not improve instruction level parallelism sufficiently because it precludes speculative motion of many operations. Moreover, it does not allow load operations to be executed speculatively, and therefore, does not have the benefit of hiding memory latency.
Another alternative approach is referred to as boosting. In this approach, a speculative operation is tagged with the path back to its home basic block. To defer an exception, this state information must be saved until the processor takes a different execution path or it uses the result of the operation in a non-speculative operation.
The need to save this state information is a drawback of the boosting technique. Additional memory is required to store this state information. This gives rise to a trade off between the extent to which boosting can be achieved and the additional memory required to store the state information. The number of branches that an operation can be moved across is limited by the memory available to store the state information.
Another approach involves the use of a poison bit to defer exceptions. In this approach, the processor marks the result register of a speculative operation with a poison bit when an exception has been generated. When another speculative operation uses the result of this operation, the processor propagates the exception by setting a poison bit in the result register of the operation. Processing of the exception is deferred until a non-speculative operation consumes the poison bit. At that point, the processor reports or processes the exception.
Yet another approach is referred to as tagging. In this approach, each operation has a tag associated with it. Typically, a tag of zero indicates that the operation is non-speculative. For speculative operations, the tag refers to memory in the processor such as a tag table that stores information about deferred exceptions. In this scheme, a commit operation is inserted at the home block of an operation to check for a deferred exception.
While these approaches of deferring exceptions improve ILP by increasing the number of operations that can be executed speculatively, the processor needs a method for processing deferred exceptions when they are detected. The process of handling a deferred exception includes re-executing one or more of the speculative operations in a non-speculative manner. This process is generally referred to as "recovery," while the process of re-executing operations in the recovery mode is referred to as "re-execution."
One way of performing recovery is to branch to block of fix-up code when a deferred exception is detected. Fix-up code is a block of code added to the program by the compiler to handle an exception from a speculative operation. In this approach, the compiler is responsible for adding a block of fix-up code for every chain of speculative operations in the program. The fix-up code includes each of the operations in the speculative chain, but they are in non-speculative form so that any exceptions generated while the processor recovers from the exception are handled immediately. When the processor detects an exception, it branches to the fix-up code, executes the fix-up code, and then resumes processing at the point where it detected the exception.
If a program is scheduled with several speculative operations or chains of operations, then a great deal of fix-up code has to be generated. As a result, the fix-up code can cause the size of the program to balloon. The need to generate fix-up code also complicates the compiler design. It is possible to have several operations interspersed within a sequence of code that should not be re-executed. For example, if an operation is not dependent on a speculative operation or any consumer of the results of the speculative operation, it should not be re-executed in the event that the speculative operation generates an exception. Because of operations like this, the compiler has to ensure that the fix-up code only includes the operations necessary to recover from the exception. As such, the compiler design is complicated by the need to compute the fix-up code for each speculative chain, whether or not the results of the speculative chain are actually used by non-speculative operations during execution of the program.

Method and system for selecting instructions for re-execution for in-line exception recovery in a speculative execution processor


A functional fluid is disclosed which comprises. (A) at least one triglyceride; PA0 (B) at least one detergent-inhibitor additive; and PA0 (C) at least one viscosity modifying additive and further comprising (D) at least one synthetic oil.

A functional fluid is a term which encompasses a variety of fluids including, but not limited to, tractor fluids, automatic transmission fluids, manual transmission fluids, hydraulic fluids, power steering fluids, fluids related to power train components and fluids which have the ability to act in various different capacities. It should be noted that within each of these fluids such as, for example, automatic transmission fluids, there are a variety of different types of fluids due to the various transmissions having different designs which have led to the need for fluids of markedly different functional characteristics. One type of functional fluid is generally known as a tractor fluid which can be used in connection with various types of tractor equipment in order to provide for the operation of the transmission, gears, bearings, hydraulics, power steering, mechanical power take off and oil immersed brakes of the tractor.
The components included within a functional fluid such as a tractor fluid must be carefully chosen so that the final resulting fluid composition will provide all the necessary characteristics required and pass a variety of different types of tests. In general, a tractor fluid must act as a lubricant, a power transfer means and a heat transfer means.
Tractor fluids have a number of important specific characteristics which provide for their ability to operate within tractor equipment. Such characteristics include the ability to provide proper frictional properties for preventing wet brake chatter of oil immersed brakes while simultaneously providing the ability to actuate wet brakes and provide power take-off (PTO) clutch performance. A tractor fluid must provide sufficient antiwear and extreme pressure properties as well as water tolerance/filterability capabilities.
The extreme pressure (EP) properties of tractor fluids are demonstrated by the ability of the fluid to pass a spiral bevel test as well as a straight spur gear test. The tractor fluid must pass wet brake chatter tests as well as provide adequate wet brake capacity when used in oil immersed disk brakes which are comprised of a bronze, graphitic composition, asbestos and paper. The tractor fluid must demonstrate its ability to provide friction retention for power shift transmission clutches such as those clutches which include graphitic and bronze clutches.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,783,274 (Jokinen et al, Nov. 8, 1988) is concerned with hydraulic fluids based on oily triglycerides of fatty acids. This reference relates to the need for fluids for hydraulic purposes which are based on renewable natural resources, and which are, at the same time, environmentally acceptable. One such a natural base component for hydraulic fluids would be the oily triglycerides, which are esters of natural fatty acids with straight-chained alkyl, alkenyl, alkylamines and alkatrienyl chains having a length of commonly C.sub.9 -C.sub.22, and of glycerol, which triglycerides have an iodine number illustrating their degree of unsaturation, of at least 50 and not more than 128. The possibilities to make hydraulic fluids by using the said triglycerides as the base component were investigated.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,776,847 (Pearson et al, Dec. 4, 1973) relates to a lubricating oil composition for the hot rolling of metals comprising (a) from about 50 to about 85% by weight of a natural fatty oil, (b) from about 0.1 to about 10% by weight of an alkaline earth metal salt of an oil-soluble sulfonic acid and (c) from about 5 to about 49.9% by weight of a mineral lubricating oil having a viscosity index of at least 50.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,330,773 (Zimmer et al, Sep. 28, 1943) relates to adding to a suitable mineral oil base stock a small amount of a high molecular weight, oxygen-containing polymer which is depolymerizable at high temperature without charring. Small amount of fatty materials may be, and preferably are, also present.
The oxygen-containing polymer should be of a high molecular weight, e.g., at least 1000 and may be 50,000, 100,000, or even considerably higher, although it must not be so high in molecular weight as to be insoluble in the mineral oil base stocks referred to. In general, these polymers are obtained by polymerizing unsaturated monomeric chemical compounds, such as, esters, ethers, acids, etc. A particularly preferred class of polymers are those produced from esters of acrylic acid and alkyl derivatives thereof, such as methacrylic acid containing a methyl substituent in the alpha position, or other higher alkyl groups, such as, ethyl, propyl, etc., in a similar position; these esters should be derived from monohydric alcohols preferably containing more than 4 carbon atoms, such as amyl, hexyl, heptyl, octyl, lauryl, cetyl, octadecyl, etc. Such acrylic compounds contain the group CH.sub.2 --C, and have attached to this latter carbon atom a carboxylic ester group and either a hydrogen or a hydrocarbon group, such as, an alkyl or aryl group.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,389,227 (Wright, Nov. 20, 1945) involves the blending of a viscose hydrocarbon oil, such as a petroleum lubricating oil fraction, with a non-drying viscous oxidized or thickened fatty oil and with a small amount of an oxygen-containing high molecular weight polymer which normally is substantially solid. By a proper selection and proportioning of these ingredients, a blend can be obtained having suitable viscosity and pour point characteristics to assure proper flowing and penetration and which protectively stays on rubbing surfaces under severe operating conditions.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,413,353 (Hunter et al, Dec. 31, 1946) relates to improved cutting oil compositions.
Various types of fixed fatty oils may be used in the cutting oil compositions of this reference. These oils are intended primarily to increase the oiliness or lubricity of the resultant composition and are customarily used in amounts corresponding to 0.5 to 15.0 per cent by weight. Lard oil is particularly satisfactory for this purpose. However, other animal oils such as tallow oil, neat's-foot oil, sperm oil, wool oil, whale oil and the like may be used. Also certain fish and vegetable oils may be used. The fish oils are generally less advantageous due to their offensive odor and the vegetable oils are likewise less advantageous because of their tendency to oxidize and form gum at the temperatures encountered in cutting operations. However, by the use of a sufficient amount of oxidation inhibitor this defect may be minimized, and vegetable oils such as olive oil, rapeseed oil, corn oil and castor oil may be used.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,640,860 (Miller, Feb. 8, 1972) is concerned with a lubricating composition suitable for use in the continuous casting of metals. More specifically, this reference is concerned with a composition useful for lubricating the metal-mold interface during the continuous casting of metals, which composition contains both dimer and trimer of an unsaturated fatty acid, a glyceride oil, especially a triglyceride, as a solubilizing agent, and a mineral lubricating oil component low in carbon residue and aromatic carbon content. The mineral lubricating oil can be made by a two-state catalytic hydrogenation process.

Functional fluid with triglycerides, detergent-inhibitor additives and viscosity modifying additives


A method for transmitting a data packet in a transmitting apparatus in a wireless communication system is provided. The method includes receiving first feedback information including buffer status information indicating information related to a status of a buffer included in a receiving apparatus from the receiving apparatus, determining a number of first data packets to be transmitted to the receiving apparatus based on the buffer status information, determining a number of second data packets which is identical to at least one of the number of first data packets based on a data packet loss rate for each of a plurality of paths, and encoding the determined number of first data packets and the determined number of second data packets and transmitting encoded first data packets and encoded second data to the receiving apparatus through each of the plurality of paths.

A mobile communication system has evolved to provide various high-speed large-capacity services to mobile stations (MSs). Examples of a mobile communication system include a high speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) mobile communication system, a high speed uplink packet access (HSUPA) mobile communication system, a long-term evolution (LTE) mobile communication system, an LTE-advanced (LTE-A) mobile communication system, a high rate packet data (HRPD) mobile communication system proposed by the 3rd generation partnership project 2 (3GPP2), and an institute of electrical and electronics engineers (IEEE) 802.16m mobile communication system.
Recently, the number of MSs which support a plurality of radio interfaces for a communication such as in a 3rd generation (3G) system, a Wi-Fi system, and the like, has increased, so significance for an MPTCP in which a plurality of network links may be recognized and used in a transport layer has increased.
The MPTCP has been proposed for increasing transmission control protocol (TCP) throughput and reliability based on diversity by allowing usage of a plurality of paths per TCP session, compared to a single path TCP of the related art.
A process of transmitting/receiving a data packet based on an MPTCP in a wireless communication system of the related art will be described with reference to FIG. 1.
FIGS. 1A and 1B schematically illustrate a process of transmitting/receiving a data packet based on an MPTCP in a wireless communication system of the related art.
Referring to FIG. 1A, a transmitting apparatus 100 may transmit data packets to be transmitted to a receiving apparatus 120 through a plurality of paths. The transmitting apparatus 100 may transmit a data packet #9, a data packet #8, a data packet #6, and a data packet #4 among the data packet #9, the data packet #8, a data packet #7, the data packet #6, a data packet #5, and the data packet #4 as the data packets to be transmitted to the receiving apparatus 120 through a path #1 110 among two paths, and transmit the data packet #1 and the data packet #5 through a path #2 130 to the receiving apparatus 120 through a path #2 130 among the two paths.
Referring to FIG. 1B, the transmitting apparatus 100 may duplicately transmit the same data packet through the two paths in order to prevent loss of the data packets to be transmitted. That is, the transmitting apparatus 100 may transmit the data packet #7, the data packet #5, the data packet #9, the data packet #8, the data packet #6, and the data packet #4 to the receiving apparatus 120 through the path #1 110, and may transmit the data packet #7 and the data packet #5 as a part of data packets which have been transmitted through the path #1 110 to the receiving apparatus 120 through the path #2 130.
In this case, even though the data packets which have been transmitted through the path #2 130 are lost, the receiving apparatus 120 may receive all data packets through the path #1 110, so the receiving apparatus 120 may successfully perform a decoding operation.
In the wireless communication system supporting the MPTCP, TCP throughput may decrease due to data packet loss which may occur in each path. For this reason, there are out-of-ordered data packets if data packet loss occurs, so a TCP window size decreases.
In the wireless communication system supporting the MPTCP, qualities of paths are different one another, so a transmission delay for a data packet may occur. If the transmission delay for the data packet occurs, a decoding delay for the data packet also occurs, so data throughput decreases.
Accordingly, in the wireless communication system supporting the MPTCP, there is a need for a method of effectively transmitting/receiving a data packet by considering a characteristic of each path and a problem which may occur in each path.
The above information is presented as background information only to assist with an understanding of the present disclosure. No determination has been made, and no assertion is made, as to whether any of the above might be applicable as prior art with regard to the present disclosure.

Method and apparatus for transmitting and receiving data packet in wireless communication system


A design is disclosed for a catheter assembly used during interventional and/or diagnostic procedures. The catheter includes a plurality of openings that allow for controlled fluid flow as the fluid exits the lumen of the catheter and can be inserted into the vascular system over a guidewire. As a result, the openings balance the fluid forces and, thereby, stabilize the distal tip to accommodate a wide range of injection parameters. The particular design of the catheter assembly of the present invention also reduces and/or eliminates recoil of the catheter tip during high volume injections, such as those associated with coronary or ventricular angiography.

Catheters are commonly used in the diagnosis and treatment of various medical conditions and advancements in catheter designs and materials have made them particularly well-suited for intravascular procedures and intravascular therapies. A conventional catheter includes a small, elongated tube made of flexible, biocompatible materials that enable the catheter to be easily maneuvered through body passages and vascular structures. During an angiographic procedure, the distal end of the catheter is typically inserted into the body via small incisions in the groin area or upper arm and guided through anatomical passages and/or blood vessels to a target site using guide wires and associated imaging techniques. The proximal end is then connected to the device for performing the desired procedure. One such device is an angiographic injector such as the injector disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/957,228 and/or the injector disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,800,397, both of which are commonly assigned to the owner of the present application and both of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
An example of a procedure using a catheter is angiography. Angiography is a procedure used to specifically image, diagnose and treat abnormalities in the heart or vascular structures. During angiography, a physician inserts a catheter and injects contrast material through the catheter into a vein or artery of a patient. The area of the patient's body injected with the contrast material is imaged using x-ray energy or magnetic fields (as used in magnetic resonance imaging) and the resulting image is recorded and/or displayed on a monitor. The images can be used for many purposes, including diagnostic activities as well as interventional procedures such as angioplasty, wherein a balloon is inserted into a vascular system and inflated to open a stenosis.
During the injection procedure, fluid typically flows out of the open distal end of the catheter tip. However, the fluid dynamics associated with some catheter designs often cause the catheter to be pushed back or to recoil as a result of the velocity of the fluid as it exits the distal tip. In effect, the recoil force of the catheter is directly proportional to the fluid velocity at the tip.
Such undesirable recoil movement is particularly acute when using a catheter of small size, e.g. less than about 4 French, since these catheters experience particularly high fluid exit velocities due to the flow requirements in a typical angiographic procedure. However, even larger catheters may be prone to higher recoil if fluid flow out of the tip is of sufficient velocity. Overall, however, smaller angiographic catheters are more prone to severe whipping and recoil at the outset of an injection than catheters of a larger size. This, in part, is due to the structural characteristics of the catheters. In particular, as catheter shaft diameter decreases, the bending force is reduced by the diameter to the third power. Thus, a reduction in shaft diameter from 6 to 4 French gives a four fold reduction in bending force given the same load and distance at which the load is applied.
Catheter designs incorporating valves or openings located along the distal portion of the catheter wall have been considered in an attempt to better facilitate control of the fluid flow. An example of such a device may be found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,250,034, which discloses a pressure responsive valve catheter. The catheter is formed of a relatively non-compliant material, such as nylon, to prevent the sidewalls of the catheter from expanding under the high internal fluid pressures. Slits formed in the catheter wall act as pressure responsive valves to permit fluid to exit the internal lumen of the catheter while preventing material from entering the catheter lumen via the slits. The catheter also includes a distal end hole which may be sealed with an occluding ball located on a guide wire, thereby causing all the fluid to flow from the slits. Alternatively, when the occluding ball is not seated in the end hole, both the fluid and guide-wire may exit from the end hole.
Another example may be found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,807,349, which discloses a catheter having a valve mechanism to permit the infusion or aspiration of fluids between the catheter and the vessel in which the catheter is positioned. The valve is located at the distal end of the catheter and, preferably, is in a plane which is oriented at an angle to the longitudinal axis of the catheter.
The above-described catheters used during angiographic procedures (and other similar devices not specifically described) offer many advantages to control fluid flow. However, it has been discovered that these catheter designs do not adequately address problems with catheter recoil within the vessel or body cavity. Further, these and other state of the art catheter valve mechanisms may still suffer from erratic opening and closing of the valves which can trigger catheter recoil. Furthermore, none of these designs nor any other designs known to the inventors appear to address the particularly acute problem of recoil with small (e.g. less than about 4 French) catheters used in angiography procedures.
In this connection, it is also important to note that there is a continuing need and desire in the medical field to reduce trauma to patients that are undergoing invasive therapies. In the context of catheter placement, this desire has led to a consideration of how to reduce patient trauma during the placement and removal of the interventional catheter.
In current techniques, the catheters that are used require a sizable incision in the patient such that there is considerable pain encountered by the patient and considerable attention to wound control is demanded of the clinician. Indeed, the wound created for such procedures requires the clinician to apply a sizable bandage or other wound containment device (e.g., a product known as Perclose from Percutaneous Vascular Surgery) in order to ensure proper treatment and closure of the wound. Furthermore, such a wound requires significant time in order for proper healing to occur.
As a result, there is an increasing desire to use smaller sized catheters in such interventional therapies so as to make the intervention as minimally invasive as possible. Such small catheters require a significantly smaller incision and thus trauma is reduced and quicker healing is obtained. However, as stated previously, such smaller catheters typically are accompanied with drawbacks such as undesirable flow characteristics (e.g. recoil).
In view of the above, although presently available catheters seem well accepted by the medical community and generally function as required, it is desirable to have a catheter with more controlled fluid flow characteristics and less invasive attributes. In particular, it is desirable to have a small diameter catheter that allows for the management of fluid forces to stabilize the distal tip over a wide range of injection parameters. It is also desirable that there be substantially low or no recoil of the catheter tip in a small diameter catheter during high volume injections, such as those associated with coronary or ventricular angiography. In addition, it is desirable to have a "universal" catheter that may be used for a variety of surgical procedures and that reduces trauma inflicted on the patient. The concept of a "universal" catheter, as applied to the present invention, is similar to a muzzle brake device that attaches to the outside barrel of any firearm and functions to reduce recoil of the firearm while maintaining discharge accuracy. Therefore, as with the muzzle brake device, it is desirable that the present invention is adaptable to a variety of catheter designs and reduces catheter movement during various medical procedures.


Provided is a mobile device including a magnetic sensor and a posture detection sensor for detecting a posture of the mobile device independently of the magnetic sensor, which acquires output data of the magnetic sensor as a plurality of sampling data items in a plurality of states in which the posture detection sensor determines that the mobile device is directed in directions different from one another, the plurality of sampling data items respectively corresponding to the plurality of states, and calculates an offset value which is estimated to be output by the magnetic sensor when the magnetic sensor is not sensing geomagnetism based on the acquired plurality of sampling data items.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mobile device that calibrates an integrated magnetic sensor, a calibration method for a magnetic sensor, and an information storage medium having a program stored thereon, which is used for calibrating a magnetic sensor.
2. Description of the Related Art
A magnetic sensor is used for detecting the direction (azimuth) of a mobile device. The direction of the mobile device incorporating the magnetic sensor can be identified based on the direction of the geomagnetism detected by the magnetic sensor. The magnetic sensor has one or more reference axes, and outputs output values indicating magnitudes of magnetism along directions of the respective reference axes. The output value of the magnetic sensor is a sum of an offset value (output value acquired if the geomagnetism is not present) and a value corresponding to the magnitude of the geomagnetism, and the offset value changes depending on an influence of a surrounding magnetic field. It is thus necessary to precisely estimate the offset value in order to identify the direction of the geomagnetism using output data of the magnetic sensor. Calibration processing is thus carried out for estimating the offset value. Specifically, the mobile device acquires the output data of the magnetic sensor while prompting a user to perform an action of rotating the mobile device, for example. As a result of this operation, both an output acquired when the reference axis of the magnetic sensor coincides with the geomagnetism, and an output acquired when the reference axis is opposite to the geomagnetism are acquired. The offset value is then calculated by means of a method such as averaging the maximum value and the minimum value of the output value of the magnetic sensor acquired during this operation.
It is necessary to prompt a user to intentionally perform a special action in order to carry out such calibration processing as described above. If the calibration to be carried out by simply using sampling data items acquired by sampling outputs of the magnetic sensor for certain number of times without the special action, the offset value having a sufficient accuracy may not be obtained. This is because sampling data items are necessary respectively obtained before and after a relatively large change in the posture of the mobile device in order to carry out the calibration processing, and it is not possible to guarantee that such a change of the posture occurs in the mobile device unless the user is prompted to perform the special action.


This utility model disclose one kind of vibration light-emitting devices, including base plate, power supply set at one side of the base plate, vibration switch and LED light set at the other side of the base plate, the said LED light is set on the same side as the vibration switch. This utility model also disclose one kind of electronic light-emitting rings assembled with vibration light-emitting devices, the said electronic light-emitting ring is integrated silica gel, there are one opening and one cavity at the internal side of the said light-emitting ring, the said opening and cavity are connected, and the said vibration light-emitting device is set inside the cavity. This utility model can enhance the decorative effects and entertainment effects, with simple structure, it is convenient to wear and not easy to fall off.

Bangles, rings, vervels, shoelaces, accessories, backpacks, soles products used for cheering, performance costumes, and safety products currently in the market are setting LED lights inside as decoration, however, the application of LED lights in such products is single and far from satisfying current market's demands.
Given this, it's necessary to provide a kind of vibration light-emitting devices with extensive application and electronic light-emitting rings with simple structure and easy for wearing.
Contents of Utility Model
The objective of this utility model is to provide one kind of vibration light-emitting devices with extensive application in bangles, vervels, shoelaces, accessories, backpacks, sole safety lights, bouncing balls, cup bottom lights, bottle lights and other products used for cheering, performance costumes and safety products etc., and a kind of electronic light-emitting rings with simple structure and easy for wearing, so as to enhance the decorative effects and entertainment effects.
In order to achieve the aforesaid objective, this utility model provides one kind of vibration light-emitting devices, including base plate, power supply set at one side of the base plate, vibration switch and LED light set at the other side of the base plate, the said LED light is set on the same side as the vibration switch.
The said vibration switch is elastic vibration switch.
The said vibration switch also includes capacitor.
The said vibration light-emitting device includes several the said LED lights, and several the said LED lights are surrounding the said vibration switch setup.
One kind of electronic light-emitting rings assembled by the kind of vibration light-emitting devices, the said electronic light-emitting ring is integrated silica gel, there are one opening and one cavity at the internal side of the said light-emitting ring, the said opening and cavity are connected, and the said vibration light-emitting device is set inside the cavity.
The said vibration switch includes base plate, power supply set at one side of the base plate, vibration switch and LED light set at the other side of the base plate, the said LED light is set on the same side as the vibration switch.
The said vibration switch is elastic vibration switch.
The said vibration switch also includes capacitor.
The said vibration light-emitting device includes several the said LED lights, and several the said LED lights are surrounding the said vibration switch setup.
Comparing with the current technology, the kind of vibration light-emitting device provided by this utility model is used to enhance decorative effects and entertainment effects, the vibration light-emitting device drives vibration light-emitting and is set inside the light-emitting bangle. The light-emitting bangle is transparent or semitransparent with light diffusion and light guide capacity, and it can be made into various colors according to requirements, scattering various lights, and the light-emitting effects are great. This utility model use vibration light-emitting device as switch control, when in vibration, the shrapnel or spring of the elastic switch will connect the power to turn on the LED light and to store tittle electricity into the capacitor of the vibration switch, and the LED light will go dark gradually until it goes out. When switching on and off vibration switch ceaselessly, the LED light shift between light and dark frequently, displaying good decorative effects, especially in a night light conditions in a concert etc. where interaction is needed, better effects can be achieved. This utility model provides one kind of vibration light-emitting devices and one kind of electronic light-emitting rings, which can help to enhance decorative effects and entertainment effects, with simple structure, it is convenient to wear and not easy to fall off, which is of significant meanings.


A method for programming a programmable logic controller (PLC) is disclosed. The PLC may be used to control devices of a secured facility, such as a detention center, jail, or prison. The disclosed method may include creating a spreadsheet including information relating to devices and functions of a system to be controlled by the PLC, such as the number and type of door locks and the functionality of the door locks. The method may further include analyzing the spreadsheet to detect errors in the information stored in the spreadsheet. The method may further includes writing PLC logic to control the system based in the information in the spreadsheet.

A Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) is an industrial computer used to control and automate complex systems. PLCs are typically found in factory type settings. PLCs are used to control robots, assembly lines and various other applications that require a large amount of data monitoring and control. In addition to the PLC itself, there are many different components that can be connected to the PLC using either an open protocol, such as, for example, RS-232, or a proprietary protocol, such as, for example, Allen-Bradley® Remote I/O (input/output) available from Rockwell Automation, Milwaukee, Wis. The PLC and all of the peripheral components linked to the PLC define the control system.
PLCs can be programmed using different development platforms. One common development platform is called ladder logic. Ladder logic is a programming language based on executing commands on a line-by-line permission system. As a PLC program executes, the processor checks to see if there is a permissive statement on the left side of a ladder rung. If that permissive statement is true or if there is no permissive statement, the processor performs the operation on the right side of the ladder rung. When one rung is executed, the processor moves to the next rung down of the ladder in a sequential fashion. This process is called a ladder scan. Depending upon the manufacturer of the PLC, the exact scan sequence may be different. Typically, the PLC will determine if the states of the various peripherals, such as a Remote I/O, have changed since the previous scan. If the state of any peripheral has changed, the PLC will update the information in its memory, and then perform its ladder scan based upon the most current information.

Method for programming a programmable logic controller


A shock absorbing shoe with improved assembly and operational performance is provided. The shock absorbing shoe includes: an outsole; an upper sole arranged on the outsole and having a guide portion; a support unit including: a first support body connected to the outsole; and a second support body connected to the upper sole and having a guide part corresponding to the guide portion; an elastic member arranged between the first and second support bodies of the support unit; and a supporting member connected to the first and second support bodies of the support unit, the supporting member being movable upward and downward along the guide portion and the guide part of the second support body.

Generally, shoes function to protect the feet of a user and to absorb shocks, thereby providing the feet with relief from fatigue. In recent years, a variety of functional shoes that have such foot protecting and shock absorbing functions have been proposed.
Particularly, in shock absorbing shoes that have the specific function of absorbing shock, coil springs are assembled in various manners in an effort to realize easy repair and easy maintenance of the coil springs that are elastically deformed in order to absorb shocks.
In the prior art, to assemble a coil spring in a shock absorbing shoe, the coil spring may be embedded in the heel of the shoe or may be assembled in the shoe using a support unit and a bolt or may be assembled to the support unit by inserting the coil spring into the support unit.
However, the above-mentioned conventional manners for assembling the coil springs in the shock absorbing shoes cannot reliably support the coil springs.
Further, when the coil springs of the conventional shock absorbing shoes are loaded and compressed, the turns of each coil spring may come into contact with each other so that the coil springs may be broken by shocks.
The broken coil springs of the shoes must be repaired or replaced by new springs, thereby imposing a financial burden on users.
Further, due to the above-mentioned coil springs, the conventional shock absorbing shoes cannot realize reliability and cannot appeal to consumers.

Shock absorbing shoes with improved assembly and operational performance


There is disclosed an opacifying material of micrgranular protein opacifying material having a mean particle size distribution of 0.1 microns to 10 microns with fewer than 20% of the total number of particles exceeding 10 microns, which is prepared by wet milling denatured whey protein isolate.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to opacifying materials. In particular this invention relates to water-dispersible microgranular protein opacifying materials which are suitable for use in food products, processes for their manufacture, and methods of use.
2. Statement of Related Art
Continuing public demand has led to ongoing efforts to develop new food products with suitable taste and appearance. A product which does not have an expected appearance may not even be purchased from a grocery shelf. Even if purchased, a product which imparts an unusual visual perception may be unfavorably received, even if its other organoleptic properties are acceptable. Duplication of opacity, creaminess, and whiteness is especially important in products which try to mimic cream and cream-like materials.
Titanium dioxide, which is a classic whitener for paints, can be a very effective opacifier and whitener for food products. Although considered safe in food products, titanium dioxide is an inorganic additive which by its very nature would be expected to find decreasing favor with greater public awareness of food additive contents.
Additionally, the brilliant whiteness of titanium dioxide is not necessarily desirable for mimicking the off-white creamy color desired for many food products. Resorting to artificial colors to correct this problem would be expected to compound the problem of public acceptance.
The use of opacifiers derived from protein materials would be expected to alleviate consumer acceptance problems especially if the materials are derived from readily identifiable and acceptable "natural" sources.
Singer, U.S. Pat. No. 4,734,287, discloses a proteinaceous water-dispersible macro-colloid comprising substantially non-aggregated particles of heat denatured whey protein coagulate having particle size distributions of about 0.1 microns to 2.0 microns. The macro-colloid may be produced by controlled or extent limited denaturation of whey protein concentrate with very high shear. The macro-colloid is suggested as I5 lacking utility for high temperature applications due to the extent limited denaturation. Singer additionally indicates that mechanical size reduction of proteins does not produce acceptable protein material for incorporation into food products.
Singer, U.S. Pat. No. 4,985,270, discloses food products containing proteinaceous water-dispersible macrocolloids, wherein a preferred protein is dairy whey.
Petrowski, U.S. Pat. No. 4,045,589, discloses a coffee whitener prepared without the use of protein by incorporating modified dextrinized starch in an aqueous emulsion containing fat or oil and a conventional emulsifier.
Burge, U.S. Pat. No. 3,852,506, discloses a dispersible whey protein composition prepared from demineralized and delactosed whey protein which is spray dried, and then ground in a hammermill or similar mill using hammer- or knife- milling action to obtain particles of which at least 55% are less than 44 microns. The particles are subsequently agglomerated.
Hakkaart, published European Patent Application No. 412590, discloses a heat denatured protein in the form of microcolloidal particles having a mean size in the o range of 0.1 to 10 microns in which the .alpha.-lactalbumin to .beta.-lactoglobuline ratio is greater than 0.43. The heat denatured protein is prepared by successively heating and concentrating whey protein concentrate at neutral pH.
Rialland, U.S. Pat. No. 4,782,138, discloses a process for separating .alpha.-lactalbumim from whey by heat treating the whey at a pH less than 4 and recovering the precipitated .alpha.-lactalbumin.
Pisecky, U.S. Pat. No. 4,490,403, discloses a process for spray drying whey and added fat.

Microgranular protein opacifying material


A cellulose dope comprising an aqueous sodium hydroxide solution and cellulose dissolved in the solution, wherein the cellulose dope has a sodium hydroxide concentration (CNa) of from 6.5 to 11% by weight, a cellulose content (Cc) of from 5 to 10% by weight, a viscosity average degree of polymerization (DPc) of the cellulose of from 350 to 1,200 and a cellulose dissolution ratio (Sc) of 99.0% by weight or more, and wherein the zero-shear viscosity (η0) and the cellulose content (Cc) of the cellulose dope and the viscosity average degree of polymerization (DPc) of the cellulose in the cellulose dope satisfy the following formula (1):η0=kCcm×DPcp   (1)                wherein:        η0 represents the zero-shear viscosity (mPa·s) of the cellulose dope,        Cc represents the cellulose content (% by weight) of the cellulose dope,        DPc represents the viscosity average degree of polymerization of the cellulose in the cellulose dope,        k=3.9×10−11,        m is a number of from 5 to 7, and        p is a number of from 3 to 4.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cellulose dope. More particularly, the present invention is concerned with a cellulose dope comprising an aqueous sodium hydroxide solution and cellulose dissolved in the solution, wherein the cellulose dope has a sodium hydroxide concentration (CNa) of from 6.5 to 11% by weight, a cellulose content (Cc) of from 5 to 10% by weight, a viscosity average degree of polymerization (DPc) of the cellulose of from 350 to 1,200 and a cellulose dissolution ratio (Sc) of 99.0% by weight or more, and wherein the zero-shear viscosity (η0) of the cellulose dope, the cellulose content (Cc) of the cellulose dope, and the viscosity average degree of polymerization of the cellulose in the cellulose dope satisfy a specific relationship. The present invention is also concerned with a method for producing the cellulose dope. The cellulose dope of the present invention is stable and free from gelation even when the cellulose dope has a high content of cellulose having a high degree of polymerization. By the use of the cellulose dope of the present invention, it becomes possible to produce, without using a large amount of a poisonous substance, a regenerated cellulose shaped article (such as a fiber or a film) which has a mechanical strength sufficient for practical use. Therefore, the cellulose dope of the present invention is commercially very advantageous. Further, the present invention is also concerned with a cellulose shaped article obtained by subjecting the cellulose dope to coagulation treatment, and a cellulose slurry used for producing the cellulose dope.
2. Prior Art
Cellulose is a polysaccharide having a linear chain comprising a number of D-glucose (D-glucopyranose) molecules, wherein the mutually adjacent molecules are bonded to each other through β-1,4-bond. Cellulose is a very important substance in industries, which has been used in various fields.
An important example of the usage of cellulose is the use as a material for the so-called regenerated cellulose shaped article. A regenerated cellulose shaped article can be produced by a method which comprises dissolving cellulose in an appropriate solvent to obtain a cellulose solution, and subjecting the obtained cellulose solution to an appropriate chemical treatment, thereby coagulating the cellulose solution. However, cellulose is insoluble in any of water and organic solvents generally used in the art (e.g., alcohols). Therefore, for producing a cellulose solution for use in the production of a regenerated cellulose shaped article (hereinafter, such a solution is frequently referred to as a "cellulose dope"), a special solvent and a special chemical treatment for cellulose are needed.
Most representative examples of regenerated cellulose shaped articles include a fiber and a film. A fiber of regenerated cellulose is called a "rayon", and a film of regenerated cellulose is called a "cellophane". Both of them are very widely used. Further, in some cases, regenerated cellulose shaped articles are used in a particulate form or used in the form of a coating formed on a substrate.
Further, by coagulating a cellulose dope having incorporated therein various edible components, such as a polysaccharide, a polypeptide and a natural resin, an edible shaped article containing the cellulose as a substrate can be obtained (hereinafter, such an edible shaped article is frequently referred to as an "edible cellulose article").
At present, the method for the production of regenerated cellulose shaped articles which is commercially practiced is performed mainly by either of two processes, namely, the viscose process and the cuprammonium process.
The viscose process comprises reacting cellulose with carbon disulfide in the presence of sodium hydroxide to obtain sodium cellulose xanthate, dissolving the sodium cellulose xanthate in an aqueous sodium hydroxide solution to obtain a cellulose dope (viscose), and coagulating the cellulose dope by contacting the cellulose dope with an aqueous acidic solution to thereby obtain a regenerated cellulose shaped article.
On the other hand, the cuprammonium process comprises dissolving cellulose in a cuprammonium solution to thereby obtain a cellulose dope, and contacting the cellulose dope with water and then, with an aqueous acidic solution to coagulate the cellulose dope, thereby obtaining a regenerated cellulose shaped article.
However, both of these two processes need a large amount of a poisonous substance, such as ammonia, carbon disulfide or a heavy metal (copper), in the step for preparing the cellulose dope or for shaping the cellulose dope. Therefore, the environment in the workshop for performing these processes is inevitably polluted.
Moreover, needless to say, these processes necessitate a step for recovering a poisonous substance. If the recovery step is incomplete, a large amount of the poisonous substance is inevitably caused to be discharged in the environment. Therefore, these processes are also disadvantageous from the viewpoint of protection of the environment.
Furthermore, these processes are disadvantageous in that these processes cannot be employed for producing an edible cellulose article.
In order to solve the problems of these processes, various proposals have been made and reported with respect to the environment friendly methods for producing regenerated cellulose shaped articles, which do not use a poisonous substance. As an example of such methods, there can be mentioned a method in which cellulose is dissolved in an aqueous alkali solution, such as an aqueous sodium hydroxide solution, to obtain a cellulose dope, and the obtained cellulose dope is used for producing a regenerated cellulose shaped article.
For easy understanding of the techniques for producing a regenerated cellulose shaped article by using a cellulose dope, abbreviations used for indicating the characteristics of cellulose and a cellulose dope are enumerated below.                DPc: viscosity average degree of polymerization of cellulose.        Cc: cellulose content (% by weight) of a cellulose dope, that is, the ratio of the weight of the cellulose contained in the cellulose dope (i.e., the sum of the weight of the cellulose dissolved in the cellulose dope and the weight of the cellulose remaining undissolved in the cellulose dope) to the weight of the cellulose dope.        CNa: sodium hydroxide concentration (% by weight) of a cellulose dope.        Sc: dissolution ratio (% by weight) of cellulose in a cellulose dope, that is, the ratio of the weight of the cellulose dissolved in the cellulose dope to the weight of the cellulose contained in the cellulose dope (i.e., the sum of the weight of the cellulose dissolved in the cellulose dope and the weight of the cellulose remaining undissolved in the cellulose dope).        Rc: amount of undissolved cellulose in a cellulose dope, more specifically, the volume (ml) of the undissolved cellulose contained in 20 liters of the cellulose dope.
An explanation is made below with respect to specific examples of the above-mentioned environment friendly methods. Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Specification Nos. 62-240328 and 62-240329 disclose a method in which cellulose is subjected to steam explosion treatment to render the cellulose soluble in an aqueous alkali solution, the obtained cellulose is dissolved in an alkali solution to thereby obtain a cellulose dope, and the cellulose dope is subjected to wet shaping. The cellulose dope obtained and shaped in this method has a cellulose content (Cc) of only about 5% by weight.
In the above-mentioned method, any of poisonous substances, such as carbon disulfide, a heavy metal and an organic solvent, is not used. However, in the above-mentioned method, the solubilization of the cellulose is unsatisfactory.
In the process for producing a fiber, a film or the like from a cellulose dope, when the cellulose dope used has a Cc value of 5% by weight or more, it is required that the dissolution ratio (Sc) of the cellulose in the dope be 99.0% by weight or more.
When the cellulose dope has a Cc value of 5% by weight and an Sc value of 99.0% by weight, the cellulose dope has an undissolved cellulose amount (Rc) of about 7.9 ml. In the above-mentioned process, a filter is used in order to remove the undissolved cellulose contained in the cellulose dope. When the cellulose dope has a high Rc value, the filter is likely to be clogged. Specifically, when the cellulose dope has an Rc value higher than about 7.9 ml (which is an Rc value obtained when, for example, the cellulose dope has a Cc value of 5% by weight and has an Sc value lower than 99.0% by weight), the filter is frequently clogged, so that a commercial scale production of a fiber, a film or the like becomes practically impossible.
In an actual process for producing a fiber, a film or the like from a cellulose dope, it is required that the Rc value of the cellulose dope be lowered to about 1.6 ml by increasing the Sc value of the cellulose dope to about 99.8% by weight.
In view of this requirement, the cellulose dope obtained by the methods disclosed in the above-mentioned Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Specification Nos. 62-240328 and 62-240329 cannot be used in an actual process for producing a fiber, a film or the like, because the cellulose dopes obtained in these methods have a cellulose dissolution ratio (Sc) of less than 99.0% by weight and, hence, have an undissolved cellulose amount (Rc) as large as 10 ml or more.
As a method which solves the problem accompanying the techniques of the above patent documents, a method is proposed in which, in an attempt to solubilize the cellulose to a satisfactory level (i.e., to increase the Sc value) to thereby lower the Rc value of the cellulose dope, a slurry comprising cellulose dispersed in an aqueous medium is prepared, and a cellulose dope is produced by using the obtained slurry.
For example, Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Specification No. 9-316101 discloses the following two methods.
1) Cellulose is added to a first aqueous alkali solution having a low alkali concentration, wherein the particle size of the cellulose has not been adjusted and the viscosity average degree of polymerization (DPc) of the cellulose has been adjusted to 750 or less. The resultant mixture is stirred to disperse the cellulose in the first aqueous alkali solution, thereby obtaining a slurry. To the obtained slurry is added a second aqueous alkali solution having a high alkali concentration, followed by stirring at a high speed to dissolve the cellulose in the aqueous alkali solution, thereby obtaining a cellulose dope, wherein the second aqueous alkali solution is used such that the final alkali concentration of the cellulose dope becomes 7 to 11% by weight.2) Cellulose is pulverized in water such that the average particle diameter of the cellulose becomes 20 μm or less, thereby obtaining a slurry. To the obtained slurry is added an aqueous alkali solution having a high alkali concentration, followed by stirring at a high speed to dissolve the cellulose in the aqueous alkali solution, thereby obtaining a cellulose dope, wherein the aqueous alkali solution is used such that the final alkali concentration of the cellulose dope becomes 7 to 11% by weight.
The above-mentioned Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Specification No. 9-316101 describes that, by the above-mentioned two methods, it is possible to produce cellulose dopes having a cellulose content (Cc) of 2% by weight or more and a cellulose dissolution ratio (Sc) of 99% by weight or more.
Specifically, the cellulose dopes obtained in the above-mentioned patent document include cellulose dopes which respectively contain 8% by weight of cellulose having a DPc value of 230, 5% by weight of cellulose having a DPc value of 350 and 2% by weight of cellulose having a DPc value of 750. These cellulose dopes have a cellulose dissolution ratio (Sc) of 99% by weight or more.
However, in the methods of the above patent document, if cellulose having a DPc value higher than that of the cellulose used in the above patent document is used or if a cellulose dope having a Cc value higher than that of the cellulose dope produced in the above patent document is produced (for example, if a cellulose dope containing 10% by weight of the cellulose having a DPc value of 230 is produced), the produced cellulose dope has a problem in that the cellulose is not satisfactorily dissolved in the aqueous alkali solution or in that the cellulose dope is very unstable and susceptible to gelation. Needless to say, such a cellulose dope susceptible to gelation cannot be used in the commercial scale production of a regenerated cellulose shaped article. As seen from the above, in the above-mentioned methods, at least one of the Cc value of the cellulose dope and the DPc value of the cellulose cannot be satisfactorily increased.
Generally, it is considered that the gelation of a cellulose dope occurs due to the association of molecular chains of cellulose, which association of the molecular chains is formed through the hydrogen bonds. (The association of the molecular chains of cellulose is one of the inherent characteristics of cellulose.) Specifically, it is considered that a plurality of molecular chains of the cellulose are associated with each other, wherein unsatisfactorily dissolved portions of the cellulose molecular chains, which portions are not satisfactorily solvated in the aqueous alkali solution, serve as cores of the association, so that the cellulose dope as a whole loses its fluidity, leading to a gelation of the cellulose dope.
By a method generally employed in the art, it is difficult to produce a cellulose shaped article having a strength sufficient for practical use from a cellulose dope containing cellulose having a low DPc value or a cellulose dope having a low Cc value. For obtaining a cellulose shaped article having a strength sufficient for practical use from such a cellulose dope, it is required to coagulate the cellulose dope in a special medium having a very high dehydration ability, such as a concentrated aqueous sulfuric acid solution having a concentration as high as 50 to 80% by weight.
Further, when a cellulose dope containing cellulose having a low DPc value or a cellulose dope having a low Cc value is used for producing a cellulose shaped article, it is very difficult to produce a desired cellulose shaped article (especially, a fiber or a film) by a method generally employed in the art and, hence, it becomes necessary to conduct the production of a cellulose shaped article by a special method. As an example of such special method, there can be mentioned a method in which, in a process for producing a fiber or a film from a cellulose dope, which comprises coagulating a cellulose dope, a net is used in an early stage of the coagulation (see Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Specification No. 7-278941). The reason for the use of a net is as follows. The fiber or film during the course of the coagulation has an unsatisfactory mechanical strength such that it is impossible to reel up the fiber or film by a generally employed process. Therefore, a net is used for reinforcing the fiber or film during the course of the coagulation. However, when a net is used, the operations involved in the production become cumbersome and the production efficiency becomes disadvantageously low.
In addition, as in the case of the production of a fiber or a film, the use of the cellulose dope containing cellulose having a low DPc value or the cellulose dope having a low Cc value in the production of the above-mentioned edible cellulose article is also accompanied by the problem caused by the poor mechanical strength of a cellulose shaped article (i.e., edible cellulose article) during the course of the coagulation. Therefore, the shape of the cellulose shaped article produced is inevitably limited. For example, in the case of the production of an edible cellulose article in the form of a fiber, the diameter of the edible cellulose article needs to be large; and, in the case of the production of an edible cellulose article in the form of a film, the thickness of the edible cellulose article needs to be large. Further, the blending ratio of a polysaccharide, a polypeptide or a natural resin in the edible cellulose article needs to be low. Therefore, the characteristics (such as palatableness) of the edible cellulose article cannot be satisfactorily improved.
With respect to the slurry comprising cellulose dispersed in an aqueous medium, many other examples are known. For example, such a slurry is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,123,962. However, the slurry described in this patent document is intended to be used as an edible additive, and is not intended to be used in a process in which a cellulose dope is produced from the slurry and the obtained cellulose dope is used for producing a general cellulose shaped article. Further, the cellulose used for producing the slurry has a DPc value of about 200 or less, so that, at least by an ordinary method, it is impossible to produce from the slurry a cellulose shaped article having a strength sufficient for practical use.
Descriptions on slurries used for producing a cellulose dope are also found in patent documents other than the above-mentioned Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Specification Nos. 62-240328, 62-240329 and 9-316101. For example, Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Specification No. 9-124702 discloses a technique for rendering cellulose soluble in an aqueous alkali solution by microfibrillating cellulose. In the technique of this patent document, cellulose is subjected to wet pulverization treatment using a stone mill type wet pulverizer to obtain a slurry comprising a microfibrillated cellulose dispersed in an aqueous medium, in which the number of microfibrils having a fiber diameter of 1 μm or less amounts to 95% or more, based on the total number of microfibrils (in a preferred mode, the number of microfibrils having a fiber diameter of 500 nm or less amounts to 90% or more, based on the total number of microfibrils).
This patent document also describes that, when a cellulose dope having a cellulose content (Cc) of 5.4% by weight is produced by using a slurry obtained by subjecting cellulose having a DPc value of about 700 to the above-mentioned treatment, and an aqueous sodium hydroxide solution having a sodium hydroxide concentration of 9.2% by weight, the produced cellulose dope has a cellulose dissolution ratio (Sc) of about 95%.
Further, the above patent document also describes that, when a cellulose dope having a cellulose content (Cc) of 7% by weight is produced by using a slurry obtained by subjecting to the above-mentioned treatment cellulose having a DPc value of about 300 (crystal type: cellulose II) which is produced from an alkali cellulose for use in the production of a rayon, and an aqueous sodium hydroxide solution having a sodium hydroxide concentration of 8.5% by weight, the produced cellulose dope has a cellulose dissolution ratio (Sc) of about 90%.
However, as mentioned above, in the process for producing a fiber, a film or the like from a cellulose dope, when the cellulose dope used has a Cc value of 5% by weight or more and has an Sc value of less than 99.0% by weight, it is practically impossible to produce a fiber, a film or the like on a commercial scale. Therefore, the cellulose dope cannot be used in an actual process for producing a fiber, a film or the like unless an operation for removing a substantial amount of the undissolved cellulose from the cellulose dope is conducted.
Further, as mentioned above, in the technique of Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Specification No. 9-124702, cellulose is microfibrillated by using a stone mill type wet pulverizer in order to produce a slurry containing a microfibrillated cellulose. However, the produced slurry has an extremely high viscosity, so that, in the production of a cellulose dope by the use of the slurry, the slurry needs to be stirred under a very high shearing stress. As described below, the extremely high viscosity of the slurry is considered to be caused by a network of microfibrils formed by the interaction between microfibrils of the cellulose. Further, as the degree of polymerization of the cellulose increases, the yield shearing stress of the slurry increases, so that a high shearing stress is needed for stirring the slurry. Therefore, it is very difficult to produce a cellulose dope by using the above-mentioned slurry.
In general, as a pretreatment conducted prior to the production process of the above-mentioned viscose (i.e., cellulose dope obtained by dissolving sodium cellulose xanthate in an aqueous sodium hydroxide solution), the cellulose is pulverized in an aqueous alkali solution. As the aqueous alkali solution, an aqueous alkali solution having an alkali concentration as high as 10% by weight is generally used. It is considered that the aqueous alkali solution having such a high alkali concentration is used for the purpose of improving the pulverization efficiency. However, when cellulose is contacted with an aqueous alkali solution having such a high alkali concentration, the cellulose is converted into a crystalline alkali cellulose. Since a crystalline alkali cellulose is completely insoluble in an aqueous alkali solution, the slurry obtained by the above-mentioned method cannot be used for producing a cellulose dope containing an aqueous alkali solution as a solvent.
Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Specification No. 4-348130 discloses a method for producing particulate cellulose by aging cellulose in the presence of an alkali.
However, the cellulose used has a viscosity average degree of polymerization (DPc) of from 20 to 150. As already explained above, it is extremely difficult to produce a cellulose shaped article for practical use by the use of cellulose having such a low degree of polymerization. Moreover, it should be noted that the above-mentioned aging in itself is a technique for converting cellulose into a crystalline alkali cellulose which is completely insoluble in an aqueous alkali solution. Therefore, the technique of the above patent document cannot be used for the production of a cellulose dope containing an aqueous alkali solution as a solvent.
From the above, it is apparent that a conventional cellulose dope containing an aqueous alkali solution as a solvent for cellulose, which is produced by the conventional method, has various problems caused by the unsatisfactory solubilization of the cellulose. The problems can be enumerated as follows:
the cellulose dope contains a large amount of undissolved cellulose, so that the cellulose dope cannot be used in an actual production process;
the amount of cellulose having a satisfactory degree of polymerization, which is dissolved in the cellulose dope, is not sufficient for producing a cellulose shaped article having a sufficient strength for practical use; and
the cellulose dope is unstable and susceptible to gelation.
Thus, the conventional cellulose dope has a problem in that there are fatal defects with respect to the mechanical properties of the cellulose shaped article produced from the conventional cellulose dope and the procedure necessary for producing the cellulose shaped article from the conventional cellulose dope.

Cellulose dope and method for producing the same


Example embodiments presented herein are directed towards an optical testing node, and method therein, for establishing transmission parameters for optical communications in an iterative manner. The establishment of the transmission parameters may comprise adjusting various parameters such as a modulation scheme, a light path length, and/or a spectral width.

The focus for DWDM transport systems has, since the inception in the mid 1990's, been on increasing the bitrate per wavelength channel, the transmission distance, and reducing the cost. The transmission of 100 G (and beyond) signals over long distances over SMF has been enabled by a set of technologies like polarization-multiplexed and multi-level signalling, together with coherent detection and digital post-processing. For this reason, Dual-Pol QPSK (Quadrature Phase Shift Keying), 16-QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation) and so on, are attractive solutions for high-speed transmission, both for a single carrier and multi-carrier approach (OFDM). For example, 100 G signals carried by DP-QPSK can be fit into a 50 GHz grid and it is likely that a 400 G signal carried by DP-16-QAM could be fit into a 100 GHz grid. As the spectrum of a single fibre is limited, and traffic per wavelength channel has steadily increased, the issue of spectral use has become increasingly important.
Firstly, this is due to the so-called ITU grid which divides the transmission spectrum into 100 GHz or 50 GHz slots. Thus, if a 10 Gbps channel is upgraded on a 50 GHz slot to 100 Gbps, the 100 G signal will be much more spectrally efficient per bit vs. the 10 G channel. Secondly, as the total traffic demand of the DWDM transport system increases, while new fibres are still very expensive to be deployed, the overall spectral efficiency (SE) becomes an issue.
Thus, in the last couple of years, the field of Elastic optical network has been born. The idea is to allocate as little spectrum as possible to each traffic demand. The traffic demand is simply put as an element on the network traffic matrix between two end nodes. For demands having short transmission distances and few node hops, the allocated spectrum can be made smaller since higher modulation formats can be used (more bits/symbol at the same symbol rate, i.e., more bit/s·Hz), with less effect of filter narrowing from node cascades. Also, there is a fundamental trade-off between spectral efficiency and OSNR as it is well known from communication theory. In other words, when the number of symbols used to encode the information grows and the overall power is kept constant, the average distance between the symbols in the constellation decreases and hence their tolerance to the noise.

Node and method for iterative improvement of spectral use