The production of butanol by the mutant Clostridium acetobutylicum MTCC 5587 using an acid pretreated biomass such as jatropha seed cake, pongamia seed cake and banana stems as renewable feedstock. Chemical mutagenesis was carried out for improvement of the strain for better butanol tolerance and production. This leads to a high yield of butanol obtained in single batch fermentation using acid pretreated jatropha seed cake.

Petroleum-derived fuels have served the mankind for ages. However, the recent awakening to the realization of dismal scenario of fossil fuel availability, perils of petroleum resource exhaustion, and stringent environmental legislation governing worldwide, has led to search for alternative energy sources (Herrera et al., 2004; Li et al 2010). Therefore, several alternative fuels are being investigated, which can either completely replace the petroleum derived fuels (gasoline and diesel) or can be blended with petroleum fuels to certain proportions, without requiring specially adopted engines in vehicles.
Amongst the other alternative fuels, Butanol was found to be of the best choice as it is superior replacement for gasoline, meeting the societal needs. Biobutanol is unequivocally a better fuel replacement for gasoline and is preferred in other industries for safety reasons. Being renewable, butanol helps in curbing the now so-called notorious "carbon" and other harmful emissions in the form of hydrocarbons; particulate matter; benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylene (BTEX); and other undesirable elements (Sharma et al., 2010).
Butanol or butyl alcohol (sometimes also called biobutanol when produced biologically), is a primary alcohol with a 4 carbon structure and the molecular formula of C4H10O. It is primarily used as a solvent, as an intermediate in chemical synthesis, and as a fuel. Today, there is a paramount interest in producing fuels like butanol and ethanol using microorganisms by fermentation focusing on the environmental aspects and renewable nature of this mode of production. Butanol is a superior fuel and has more calorific value than ethanol (Qureshi and Blascher, 2000). Butanol has higher energy content (110,000 Btu's per gallon for butanol vs. 84,000 Btu per gallon for ethanol). It is six times less "evaporative" than ethanol and 13.5 times less evaporative than gasoline, can be shipped through existing fuel pipelines where ethanol must be transported via rail, barge or truck (Jones and 'Woods, 1986).
Butanol is an important industrial solvent and potentially a better fuel extender than ethanol. Current butanol prices as a chemical are at $3.75 per gallon, with a worldwide market of 370 million gallons per year. The market demand is expected to increase dramatically if green butanol can be produced economically from low cost biomass. In addition to its usage as fuel, butanol can be used as a solvent for a wide variety of chemical and textile processes, in organic synthesis and as a chemical intermediate. It is also used as paint thinner and a solvent in other coating applications where it is used as a relatively slow evaporating latent solvent in lacquers and ambient-cured enamels. It finds other uses such as a component of hydraulic and brake fluids (Mutschlechner et al, 2000)/It is also used as a base for perfumes, but on its own has a highly alcoholic aroma.
Since the 1950s, most butanol in the United States is produced commercially from fossil fuels. The most common process starts with propene, which is run through an hydroformylation reaction to form butanal, which is then reduced with hydrogen to butanol. Butanol is produced by fermentation, from corn, grass, leaves, agricultural waste and other biomass.
Production of industrial butanol and acetone via fermentation, using Clostridium acetobutylicum, started in 1916. Chime Wizemann, a student of Louis Pasteur, isolated the microbe that made acetone. Up until the 1920s, acetone was the product sought, but for every pound of acetone fermented, two pounds of butanol were formed. A growing automotive paint industry turned the market around, and by 1927 butanol was primary and acetone became the byproduct.
The production of butanol by fermentation declined from the 1940s through the 1950s, mainly because the price of petrochemicals dropped below that of starch and sugar substrates such as corn and molasses. The labor intensive batch fermentation system's overhead combined with the low yields contributed to the situation. Fermentation-derived acetone and butanol production ceased in the late 1950s.
Acetone butanol ethanol (ABE) fermentation by Clostridium acetobutylicum is one of the oldest known industrial fermentations. It was ranked second only to ethanol fermentation by yeast in its scale of production, and is one of the largest biotechnological processes ever known. The actual fermentation, however, has been quite complicated and difficult to control. ABE fermentation has declined continuously since the 1950s, and almost all butanol is now produced via petrochemical routes. In a typical ABE fermentation, butyric, propionic, lactic and acetic acids are first produced by C. acetobutylicum, the culture pH drops and undergoes a metabolic "butterfly" shift, and butanol, acetone, isopropanol and ethanol are formed. In conventional ABE fermentations, the butanol yield from glucose is low, typically around 15 percent and rarely exceeding 25 percent.
The key problem associated with butanol production is butanol toxicity/inhibition of the fermenting microorganism, resulting in low butanol titer in the fermentation broth. (Ezeji et al, 2007). The production of butanol was limited by severe product inhibition. Butanol at a concentration of 1% can significantly inhibit cell growth and the fermentation process. Consequently, butanol concentration in conventional ABE fermentations is usually lower than 1.3 percent. Butanol is highly toxic to biological systems at quite low concentrations of 2% (Jones and Wood, 1986). This toxicity may be because butanol localizes in the plasma membrane and disrupts a number of physiological processes including membrane permeability, solute transport, and maintenance of proton motive force, conformation and activity of intrinsic membrane proteins. Efforts are being made to improve the butanol tolerance level in different species of Clostridia with varying degree of success (Evan and Wang, 1988). Recent interest in the production of butanol has led to re-examination of ABE fermentation, including strategies for reducing or eliminating butanol toxicity to the culture.
In the past 20+ years, there have been numerous engineering attempts to improve butanol production in ABE fermentation, including cell recycling and cell immobilization to increase cell density and reactor productivity and using extractive fermentation to minimize product inhibition. Despite many efforts, the best results ever obtained for ABE fermentations to date are still less. Optimizing the ABE fermentation process has long been a goal of the industry.
Butanol is currently produced worldwide at over 1.4 billion gal/year by chemical route. The market demand is expected to increase dramatically if butanol can be produced economically from low-cost biomass. Therefore, development of processes to produce biobutanol using renewable energy sources such as lignocellulosic crops is gaining impetus (Qureshi et al., 2010).
U.S. Pat. No. 4,521,516 provides a novel asporogenic strain of C. acetobutylicum produced by growing a spore-forming strain in a continuous culturing reactor. Culturing is conducted at a dilution rate which prevents accumulation of butanol and acetone in the medium. Culturing at this dilution rate is continued until the asporogenic strain is obtained.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,192,673 provide a biologically pure asporogenic mutant of C. acetobutylicum is produced by growing sporugenic C. acetobutylicum ATCC 4259 and treating the parent strain with ethane methane sulfonate. The mutant which has been designated C. acetobutylicum ATCC 55025 is useful in an improved ABE fermentation process, and produces high concentrations of butanol and total solvents. However the fermentation herein includes three stage continous fermentation hereby making the process expensive and time consuming.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,358,717 provide a method of producing high levels of butanol using a fermentation process that employs a mutant strain of Clostridium beijerinckii. The mutant is a hyperamylolytic strain that is able to produce high titres of butanol in a glucose/starch rich medium. However there is no claim on the solvent tolerance of the strain.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,757,010 and European patent application EP 00111683 provides an improved strain of Clostridium for increased tolerance to butanol. JP03058782 provides Clostridium pasteurianum CA 101 stock (FERM P-10817) as a mutant of genus Clostridium bacterium having analog resistance to fermented intermediate of butanol and butanol producibility. U.S. Pat. No. 4,539,293 demonstrates the use of co-culture of microorganisms of the Clostridium genus, one favors the production of butyric acid and the other supports the formation of butanol. Japanese patent application J P 63157989 provides production of butanol by culturing a different strain Clostridium pasteurianum var. 1-53 (FERM P-9074) in a liquid medium containing a carbon source, a nitrogen source and other inorganic salts at 28-33 deg. C. under slightly acidic pH condition in anaerobic state for 2-4 days.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,777,135 describes a method of producing butanol by fermentation which comprises culturing under anaerobic conditions a butanol-producing microorganisms in a culture medium containing fluorocarbons. This process is not feasible on a commercial scale as the fluorocarbons are environmentally not safe
U.S. Pat. No. 4,605,620 provides a process for butanol by using a medium containing carbohydrate and phosphate, wherein the experiments were performed with a total phosphate content of 1.0-0.4 mmoles. This process poses a restriction wherein the phosphate limiting medium is required.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,560,658 provides a process for the production of butanol by fermentation of carbon containing compounds with C. acetobutylicum wherein the fermentation is conducted in an aqueous medium containing a sufficient concentration of dissolved carbon monoxide. However the use of carbon monoxide makes the process environmentally unsound.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,520,104 provides a process for the continuous production of butanol by fermentation of carbohydrates with C. acetobutylicum. This process combines continuous inoculum production at a high dilution rate and cycling the fermentation broth through material which adsorbs butanol whereby a vigorous cell population is maintained in the fermentation reactor for extended periods of time. The process is devised to remove the butanol produced in the broth so as to prevent its toxicity on the cells
Japanese patent JP 62278989 provides a fermentation process for the production of acetone and butanol, by keeping a butanol-producing strain in resting state, adding a carbon source to the cell to effect the production of acetone and butanol in a short time, recovering and concentrating the butanol-producing strain, subjecting to the heat shock and adding to a fermentation tank Heat shock is required in the process.—to activate the spores of Clostridium and is pretty routine.
Japanese patent application provides an anaerobic cellulolytic germ, e.g. Clostridium cellobioparum ATCC 15832 or Ruminococcus albus ATCC2721 1, and Clostridium saccharoperbutylacetonicum are inoculated into a culture medium containing a material containing cellulose, e.g. wood, waste paper or pulp, as a main carbon source, and cultivated at 25-45° C. and 4-9 pH under anaerobic conditions for about 2-20 days to collect the aimed compound, containing oxygen, and consisting essentially of butanol from the resultant culture. This process is time consuming and takes about 20 days for completion, hence not feasible on a large scale.
Japanese patent 63269988 discloses butanol fermentation wherein yeast is subjected to autodigestion in a fermentation tank and proliferated prior to the inoculation of butanol-producing strain. The space in the fermentation tank becomes anaerobic and the temperature increases by the proliferation of yeast to perform butanol fermentation. An inefficient autodigestion would lead to contamination of the broth by the yeast
US20050233031 provides a process for producing butanol which includes treating plant derived material to provide an aqueous liquor containing sugars in a fermentation process to produce a fermentation product. The process involves several steps and therefore cumbersome and tedious.
Japanese Patent JP 200535328801 provides a method for producing butanol in which a culture solution is prepared by using a formulation of the food residue with the Japanese distilled spirit lees and water and butanol fermentation is carried out in the culture solution. The use of Japanese distilled spirit is limited to the production experiments performed in Japan.
French patent FR2550222 provides a two stage process wherein a first stage of seeding with C. acetobutylicum and a second stage of seeding with yeast which produces ethanol, the second stage being commenced when the pH of the fermentation medium of the first stage has reached a minimum value. The invention applies in particular to the production of butanol, acetone and ethanol from sugar beet and Jerusalem artichoke juices.
Indian patent application 2544/MUM/2007 provides a process for production of high yields of butanol by Clostridium acetobutylicum ATCC 10132. The process can be completed in a shorter span of time, using batch process through manipulation of various process parameters. The process can also be used for biomass based production of butanol. The process requires commercial media whereas in the present invention acid pretreated feedstock is utilised along with the mutant strain of Clostridium acetobutylicum resulting in higher yields of butanol with enhanced butanol tolerance.
The commonly employed feedstocks as reported in the literature for biobutanol synthesis are corn (Zea mays), banana stems (Musa sapientum), jatropha (Jatropha curcas), and karanja (Pongamia pinnata) (Liang et al., 2010, Pfromm et al., 2010). However, the use of food crops like corn, sugarcane, etc. will lead to the food v/s fuel situation. In order to avoid this situation, it becomes imperative to explore the potential non-edible feedstocks and their suitability for biobutanol synthesis.
Among the many feedstocks available for biobutanol production, jatropha and karanja have been found to be most suitable due to their favourable attributes such as hardy nature, short gestation time of about 3 years, productive life of 50-100 years, not browsed by animals, adaptability to varied agro-climatic conditions and soil type, drought resistance and non competing with food crops for land and water sources.
The present invention provides the use of lignocellulosic biomass like jatropha seed cake and pongamia seed cake which is acid pretreated to disarray the cellulosic structure for extracting maximum reducing sugar. The hydrolysed sugar was used along with AnS medium components for biobutanol production.
The present invention also provides the use of the cellulose rich biomass i.e. banana stems which is acid pretreated to that release sugar which after hydrolysis produces biobutanol.
Although, there are reports where microbes have been exploited for the production of butanol by fermentation, there arises the need for an economically viable biosynthetic process for butanol production yet to be developed (Jesse et al, 2002).
The drawback associated with butanol production is butanol toxicity/inhibition of the fermenting microorganism, resulting in low butanol titer in the fermentation broth. Economic analysis has suggested that if butanol titers could be raised from 12 to 19 g/L, the separation cost could be cut down to half (Papoutsakis, 2008). Normally, the final titer of butanol in fermentation does not surpass 13 g/L because of feedback inhibition (Jones and Wood, 1986). Beyond this level, butanol is toxic to the bacterial cell and disrupts the membrane fluidity and function (Volherbst-Schneck et al., 1984).
In order to combat the effect of butanol toxicity, tolerant strains over express certain heat shock proteins (HSPs) like GroEL (Thomas et al., 2003, 2004) and alters its lipid composition by having more saturated fatty acids. This response known as 'homeoviscous adaptation', is believed to offset the physical changes caused by the environment and permits the cell to maintain its membrane at proper viscosity and surface ionic milieu for optimal cellular function (Baer et al., 1987).
According to the literature (Nishino and Yamaguchi, 2004), rhodamine 6G is P-glycoproteins substrate, mediates the energy-dependent efflux of certain toxic compounds from the bacterial cells. The existence of solvent efflux pumps in the cells can therefore be confirmed by rhodamine 6G accumulation in bacterial cells (Lazaroaie, 2009). The inventors of the present invention have used the above literature reference for assaying the solvent tolerant mutant strain and the wild type strain of C. acetobutylicum used for production of butanol.
Techniques such as gas stripping have been practiced to overcome the inhibitory effect of butanol produced during fermentation run (Ezeji et al., 2007). However, the process is plagued with inconsistent results and high energy expenditure. In the present invention, the inhibitory effect of butanol was overcome by improving the butanol tolerance of the microbe using chemical mutagenesis.
To combat the drawbacks of earlier inventions as cited in the prior art there arises the need for a process which yields enhanced production of butanol. In light of this the present invention has been focused on developing an ideal culture condition for the mutant strain of Clostridium which will result in enhanced butanol tolerance and subsequently the increase in yields of butanol.

Butanol fermentation using acid pretreated biomass


The suction feeder for glass processing includes a housing containing a material; a heatable noble metal or noble metal alloy feed line embedded in the housing in a thermally insulated fashion; a connection element at one end of the feed line for connection with a molten glass supply device and an outlet element for operative engagement with a suction device at the other end of the feed line. To prevent aspiration of bubbles through the feed line the material together with the housing surrounds the heatable feed line and has a composition and/or structure such that in operation a negative pressure can be produced on an outer side of the feed line. Preferably this negative pressure is lower than a minimum internal pressure within the feed line that is established during a suction process.

The invention relates to a suction feeder for glass processing, with a feed line of noble metal or a noble metal alloy which is heatable in operation and is embedded, in thermally insulated fashion, in a housing that has a connection element for connection with a delivery device for molten glass and an outlet element for operative engagement by a suction element, in particular a suction ball, that takes a gob of glass from the feed line.
In the production and processing of glass, molten gobs of glass are typically needed as the starting product. In most glass processing facilities, the glass is taken by glassmakers from an open surface, from so-called front fixtures. However, it is also known for the gobs of glass to be taken from droplet feeders or suction feeders. In these suction feeders, to which the invention draws its attention, the gob of glass is generated from a melt by suction. These suction feeders are used in both the channel region and the feeder region.
In FIGS. 2 and 3, two typical known suction feeders are shown. The suction feeder of FIG. 2 comprises a tube 1, made from a noble metal (alloy), which is surrounded by a plurality of layers 2, 3 of refractory material, that is, a backing composition 2 and an insulation 3. Together, they are built into a steel chest 4, which lends the overall structure the requisite stability. The noble metal tube 2 itself is heated directly with the aid of alternating current, in that the requisite heating current is fed in via two or more flanges 5, 6 (depending on the length of the assembly). As a rule, this noble metal tube 2 is curved upward by 90°. The suction feeder is designed such that the level of glass in the entire system is just at the upper edge of the upper flange 6. As a rule, so-called suction rings are also placed on this flange 6, the diameter of these rings being selected as a function of the range of articles involved. In this technology, the possible vaporization of the glass at hot open surfaces is reduced to a minimum.
A so-called suction ball 7, whose diameter is also dependent on the article involved, is placed on the upper flange 6, or on the associated suction ring, and with the aid of a predefined negative pressure, this ball aspirates the glass from the noble metal tube 2, which is what has led to its being called a "suction feeder". Once the suction ball 7, after a predetermined course of pressure and time, is filled with glass, it is lifted from the suction feeder, and the gob of glass contained in it is carried elsewhere for further processing. As a rule, the further processing is done by glassmakers, and the gob of glass is either blown up or compressed.
The suction feeder can be positioned at any arbitrary point on an existing glass distribution and channel system. The attachment is done either at a so-called brick part 8 with a corresponding through bore, or directly to a platinum channel.
The curved noble metal tube 1 has a typical diameter of about 120–300 mm, for a length of approximately 500–1000 mm; usually, it tapers conically from the entrance site of the glass to the outlet. The magnitude of the diameter is dependent on the desired range of articles, and discontinuous withdrawal must be taken into account along with the requisite heating capacity (process temperatures and heat balance in the apparatus).
For small gobs (articles) of glass that can still readily be picked up by glassmakers (≦=15 kg), the suction feeder of FIG. 2 is as a rule used. For larger gobs (up to 150 kg, again with processing by a glassmaker using a special machine), a suction feeder of FIG. 3 is used, that is, a combination of a container 9 (so-called bowl) made of refractory bricks, and a noble metal cone 10 seated on the container. The noble metal cone 10 is again heated directly; the brick container 9 is heated via a electrode heater that heats the glass directly.
Compared to the still widespread technique today of withdrawing glass from front fixtures, in suction feeders, by the use of noble metals (noble metal alloys), the temperatures required for the process can be established better and more stably. However, if there is a refractory lining of the feeder, then because the heater heats the volume of glass asymmetrically, it can happen that glass of different temperatures is united in one article, causing so-called "cold streaking", which can be avoided by means of a suitable, adapted temperature control. Bits of brick, streaking, or bubbles resulting from corrosion of the refractory material are also found in the product. These bubbles originate in the corrosion of the refractory material itself.
The avoidance of bubbles, which pass through porous refractory materials from outside into the glass melt, is described in a German Patent DE 42 02 278 C2. The bubble problem caused by porous refractory materials can be avoided if only very dense material (with stability to corrosion at high temperatures) is used in contact with the glass.
In practice, still other inadequacies, which can have an extremely adverse effect on the glass quality, are linked with the above-described known suction feeders shown in FIGS. 2 and 3.
The first problem is the stability of the noble metal components used, that is, the tube 1 and cone 10:
In use in the glass melt, a maximum temperature must not be exceeded. The closer one gets to the melting temperature of the applicable material, the lower is its mechanical stability. At the typical temperatures in use in the glass melt (at least for special glasses, which require a comparatively high temperature), platinum becomes soft and then has a consistency similar to paper. The mechanical stability then permits only a very limited duration of use. To improve the mechanical stability, the noble metal tubes are provided with so-called beads. Additionally attached reinforcing rings, which are anchored in the refractory material behind them, provide additional stability, but this has an adverse effect on the heat balance.
By means of the negative pressure applied to the glass side during the suction process in the interior of the noble metal component 1 and 10—the buildup and reduction of the negative pressure takes place within only seconds—the noble metal envelope is exposed at periodic intervals to severe pressure fluctuations, since atmospheric pressure always prevails on the outside of the noble metal envelope and particularly in the vicinity of the suction ball 7 can cause the component to collapse. This changes the temperature conditions, and as a restricts the throughput so severely restricted that production is no longer possible. This problem becomes even more serious at weld seams and with long use, since the material is additionally made brittle by the high temperatures and the glass attack, and the initial stability is severely reduced. Thus until now, only suction feeders with relatively small diameters have been used.
The second problem is aspirated air bubbles:
The suction feeder unit is located directly at the point of transfer to postprocessing, so that at this position there is no longer any opportunity of removing existing bubbles from the glass melt.
Above all, in the embodiment of FIG. 3, there are several critical positions where air bubbles can be aspirated from outside because of the negative pressure prevailing in the glass composition. On the one hand, these are the connections between the noble metal cone 10 and the fireproof bowl 9 and the feed-throughs for the thermocouples in the bowl, where cracks can develop, along with the bores for the heating electrodes. Although glass is capable of penetrating into seams and cracks, thereby sealing them, still the course of the temperature and negative pressure differs from one article to another, making for unstable sealing or vitrification and allowing the aforementioned aspiration of air bubbles.
Since as a rule the noble metal components 1, 10 are embedded in a backing composition 2 of a ceramic material, known by the tradename "Quarzal", which because of the curing process is not completely leakproof, air can also be aspirated through cracks occurring in these noble metal components as a consequence of embrittlement from long usage or from chemical or mechanical attack.


A method for modulating RNA with tetracycline compounds is described.

Molecules of RNA are transcribed from DNA. RNA molecules are relatively short compared to DNA molecules. RNA transcripts that direct the synthesis of protein molecules are called messenger RNA (mRNA) molecules, while other RNA transcripts serve as transfer RNAs (tRNAs) or form the RNA components of ribosomes (rRNA) or smaller ribonucleoprotein particles.
The amount of RNA made from a particular region of DNA is controlled by gene regulatory proteins that bind to specific sites on DNA close to the coding sequence of a gene. In any cell at any given time, some genes are used to make RNA in very large quantities while other genes are not transcribed at all. For an active gene thousands of RNA transcripts can be made from the same DNA segment in each cell generation. Because each mRNA molecule can be translated into many thousands of copies of a polypeptide chain, the information contained in a small region of DNA can direct the synthesis of millions of copies of a specific protein.
In eukaryotes, a primary RNA transcript is synthesized; this transcript contains both introns and exons. Intron sequences are cut out and exon sequences on either side of an intron are joined together by RNA splicing.
The translation of mRNA into protein depends on a set of small RNA molecules known as transfer RNAs (tRNAs), each about 80 nucleotides in length. A tRNA molecule has a folded three-dimensional conformation that is held together in part by noncovalent base-pairing interactions like those that hold together the two strands of the DNA helix. In the single-stranded tRNA molecule, however, the complementary base pairs form between nucleotide residues in the same chain, which causes the tRNA molecule to fold up in a unique way.
The codon recognition process by which genetic information is transferred from tRNA via tRNA to protein depends on the same type of base-pair interactions that mediate the transfer of genetic information from DNA to DNA and from DNA to RNA. The mechanics of ordering the tRNA molecules on the mRNA require a ribosome. Each ribosome is a large protein-synthesizing machine on which tRNA molecules position themselves so as to read the genetic message encoded in an mRNA molecule. The ribosome first finds a specific start site on the mRNA that sets the reading frame and determines the amino-terminal end of the protein. Then, as the ribosome moves along the mRNA molecule, it translates the nucleotide sequence into an amino acid sequence one codon at a time, using tRNA molecules to add amino acids to the growing end of the polypeptide chain. When a ribosome reaches the end of the message, both it and the freshly made carboxyl end of the protein are released from the 3′ end of the mRNA molecule into the cytoplasm.
Although most tRNAs are initially synthesized as a larger precursor RNA, an RNA molecule has been shown to play the major catalytic role in an RNA-protein complex that recognizes these precursors and cleaves them at specific sites. A catalytic RNA sequence also plays an important part in the life cycle of many plant viroids. Most remarkably, ribosomes are now suspected to function largely by RNA-based catalysis, with the ribosomal proteins playing a supporting role to the ribosomal RNAs (rRNAs), which make up more than half the mass of the ribosome. The large rRNA by itself, for example, has peptidyl transferase activity and catalyzes the formation of new peptide bonds.
The development of compositions and methods for modulation of RNA would be of great benefit in modulating numerous cellular processes and in the treatment of disorders.

Methods of using substituted tetracycline compounds to modulate RNA


A measuring apparatus for determining the location of a point in space using a coordinate measuring machine, such as a laser tracker. The apparatus comprises a retroreflector releasably coupled to a sphere of a tooling ball. The tooling ball is rigidly coupled to a mechanism whose position is to be found and whose movements can be monitored by repeatedly determining the position of the center point of the sphere of the tooling ball. The retroreflector is formed of solid glass and has a corner cube having a vertex which has a predetermined dimensional relationship with and represents the virtual location of the point in space, that is, the center point of the sphere. The retroreflector is configured to receive a beam of light from the laser tracker and then reflect and retroreflect the beam to the laser tracker to determine the location of the vertex of the corner cube and, thus, the center of the tooling ball. The retroreflector is movable along the outer surface of the sphere of the tooling ball and maintains the various positions to which it is moved in a free-standing manner without any external assistance or support. Additionally, the retroreflector is easily removed from the tooling ball and placed on the same or other tooling balls.

The use of tooling balls rigidly secured on a mechanism is known to locate reference positions on the mechanism. Examples of such mechanisms are manufacturing equipment, robotic apertures, and devices subject to expansion or contraction where close dimensional tolerances must be maintained. Coordinate measuring machines precisely determine the position of the center of each tooling ball used. Often, these coordinate measuring machines are optical systems using lasers; such as laser trackers. Typically, a hand-held reflective device is positioned against the sphere of the tooling ball to reflect a beam of light from the laser back to the coordinate measuring machine. The reflective device is then moved manually to other locations on the sphere to again reflect a beam of light back to the coordinate measuring machine. This procedure continues until enough positions on the sphere of the tooling ball have been determined to precisely locate of the center of the sphere. The entire procedure is repeated each time it is desired to check for movement of the mechanism. Thus, determining the center of the sphere of a tooling ball in this manner is time consuming. Additionally, since the reflective device is often moved around the tooling ball by hand, the procedure is cumbersome and tiring for the users.
Attempts have been made to simplify this procedure by replacing conventional tooling balls with devices whose center is more easily determined. However, in addition to requiring the discarding of conventional tooling balls, such devices are often expensive, less durable, and/or bulky.
Examples of prior tooling ball related devices and of prior optical measuring systems are disclosed in the following U.S. Pat. Nos.: 3,188,739 to Olsen et al.; 3,730,470 to Mitchell; 4,543,729 to Holbrook; 4,621,926 to Merry et al.; 4,714,339 to Lau et al.; 4,790,651 to Brown et al.; 4,964,218 to Morghen; 5,007,175 to Schwarz; 5,073,005 to Hubbs; 5,119,564 to Hamilton et al.; 5,177,563 to Everett et al.; 5,231,539 to McMillen; 5,305,091 to Gelbart et al.; and 5,530,549 to Brown, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference. Another prior device and optical measuring system is disclosed in WO 95/35480 to Ehbets.
Thus, there is continuing need to provide improved devices for determining the location of a point in space, especially for determining the center of the sphere of a tooling ball.

Retroreflector for use with tooling ball


A computing device is configured to receive a plurality of sets of sonar data, current locations associated with the sonar data, and condition parameters associated with the plurality of sets of sonar data from one or more marine electronic devices. The computing device receives a request from a user to display a condition and location based fishing activity s report. The request indicating a location and a condition parameter associated with desired fishing activity. The computing device filters the plurality of sets of the sonar data based on the request to generate a fishing activity report including one or more portions of the plurality of sets of the sonar data that are associated with the indicated location and the condition parameter and causes display of the fishing activity report on a screen such that the one or more portions of the plurality of sets of the sonar data are displayed.

Sonar data may be used for a number of different purposes, such as to detect features of and/or objects in an underwater environment. For example, when analyzed, sonar return data may be used to determine depths of a marine environment, detect fish or other waterborne objects, locate wreckage, among other things.
Fishing logs may be used to track a number and/or type of fish caught at a particular location or body of water. Additionally, fishing logs may include one or more condition parameters associated with each log entry, such as weather, temperature, date, number of lines or fisherman, or the like.
Applicant has developed apparatuses, systems, and methods described herein to more easily utilize sonar data and fishing logs for current and future fishing trips.

Systems and associated methods for generating a fish activity report based on aggregated marine data


A system for increasing a temperature of a battery includes: an inverter comprising a plurality of legs corresponding to a plurality of phases, respectively, wherein each of the legs comprises a pair of switching elements connected in series to both terminals of the battery, respectively; a motor comprising a plurality of coils corresponding to the plurality of phases, respectively, wherein each of the plurality of coils has one end connected to a connection node between the pair of switching elements included in each leg of the inverter, each leg corresponding to each of the plurality of coils, and other ends of plurality of coils are connected to each other; and a controller generating a battery application AC current applied to the battery by controlling on and off states of the pair of switching elements included in the legs of the inverter.

In general, each of eco-friendly vehicles driven using electrical energy may include a battery storing electrical energy, an inverter converting the electrical energy stored in the battery into alternating current (AC) power having a plurality of phases, and a motor generating rotating kinetic energy of rotation using the AC power converted by the inverter.
Batteries used in eco-friendly vehicles have been mainly manufactured as lithium (Li)-ion batteries. Li-ion batteries have excellent energy density at room temperature and outstanding performance in consideration of charge and discharge cycles. However, Li-ion batteries have drawbacks, such as reduced capacity, increased resistance, and reduced efficiency at low temperature, due to characteristics of electrolytes thereof. In particular, when Li-ion batteries are charged at low temperature or overcharged, Li ions may be non-uniformly deposited on the surface of an anode, thereby reducing the lifetime of batteries. In this regard, Li-ion batteries require a temperature-increasing device able to rapidly and efficiently increase the temperature of batteries from a low-temperature state to a high-temperature state.
In the related art, a method of directly heating a battery or circulating cooling water supplied to the battery by heating the cooling water by adding a heater (e.g., a positive temperature coefficient (PTC) heater) to batteries has been used. However, since a separate heater must be added, the related-art method of increasing the temperature of a battery has problems, such as additional increases in cost and volume.
As another method of increasing the temperature of a battery in the related art, a method of generating heat within a battery by an electrical method has been studied. This method uses the internal resistance of the battery. That is, this method causes current to flow through the battery so as to use loss produced in proportion to the amount of current flowing through the battery as heat. This method has an advantage in that heat is uniformly increased in the battery since current uniformly flows through the battery. However, a separate dedicated circuit for causing current to flow to the battery must be used, thereby resulting in additional increases in volume and cost as well. In addition, the dedicated circuit for generating and flowing current for increasing the temperature of the battery must be additionally managed, thereby causing the management of a vehicle to be complicated, which is problematic.
Accordingly, the applicant of this application previously filed a system and method for increasing the temperature of a battery. The previously-filed system and method may apply an AC current to a battery using a motor drive system without a separate dedicated circuit in order to increase the temperature of the battery.
The previously-filed system and method for increasing the temperature of a battery using the motor drive system are configured to apply a high-frequency AC current to the battery using an inverter circuit for driving the motor and coils provided in the motor while reducing torque generated by the motor as most as possible. The frequency of the AC current applied needs to be properly determined according to the characteristics of the system.
The foregoing explained as the background is intended merely to aid in the understanding of the background of the present disclosure, and is not intended to mean that the present disclosure falls within the purview of the related art that is already known to those skilled in the art.

System and method for increasing temperature of battery


A sheet material storage includes a housing space structure that forms a housing space to house a sheet material and an acoustic device that uses a Helmholtz resonator. At least a part of a cavity of the Helmholtz resonator is formed in the housing space structure.

Technical Field
The present invention relates to a sheet material storage, sheet feeding device, and image forming apparatus.
Description of Related Art
An image forming apparatus including a sheet feeding device has been conventionally known. The sheet feeding device includes a sheet material storage such as a sheet feeding cassette, which is detachably attached to a main body of the apparatus to store a sheet material such as paper, and a paper feeder such as a paper feeding roller, which abuts on the sheet material stored in the sheet material storage to apply a conveying force.
Patent Literature 1 (Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2003-89437) describes an image forming apparatus including a sheet feeding device (paper storage) having an acoustic member attached to a bottom face and side faces of an inside of using a paper feeding tray as a sheet material storage member. Patent Literature 1 also describes to use an acoustic device (silencer) using a Helmholtz resonator instead of the acoustic member. Patent Literature 1 describes that noise in a sheet feeding operation is absorbed by the acoustic member to reduce the noise.

Sheet material storage, sheet feeding device, and image forming apparatus


A catalytic converter for accelerating at least one reaction between at least two reactants of a gas mixture includes a catalyst carrier, and a catalytically active substance. The catalytically active substance has a varable chemical composition which is varied along a flow direction of a gas mixture, for suppressing undesired side reactions.

Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a catalytic converter for accelerating at least one reaction between at least two reactants of a gas mixture, including a catalyst carrier and a catalytically active substance.
In a number of technical and industrial applications, catalytic converters that are especially adapted to the particular reaction of the reactants and to the reaction conditions are used for the catalytic conversion of reactants of a gas mixture. Examples thereof are so-called oxidation catalytic converters and deNO.sub.x catalytic converters.
Oxidation catalytic converters, having catalytic activity which is determined essentially by the content of noble metals and/or oxides of the transition metals, catalytically convert carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons, for instance, into carbon dioxide and water, in the simultaneous presence of oxygen from the air. With that type of exothermic reaction, heating of the catalyst occurs, which favors undesirable side reactions, such as the formation of nitrogen oxides. DeNO.sub.x catalytic converters, in the simultaneous presence of ammonia, catalytically convert nitrogen oxides into nitrogen and water by the process of selective catalytic reduction (SCR). Flue gases in which nitrogen oxides are present usually also contain sulfur dioxide. Therefore deNO.sub.x catalytic converters, because of the catalytically active substances contained in them, favor the undesired side reaction of the conversion of sulfur dioxide SO.sub.2 to sulfur trioxide SO.sub.3. The ammonium sulfates that form at the catalytic converter from ammonia and sulfur trioxide are highly hydrophilic. If the temperature drops below the dew point, the ammonium sulfates adhere and stop up all of the components downstream, which is extremely disadvantageous.
Typical deNO.sub.x catalytic converters are manufactured on the basis of titanium dioxide TiO.sub.2, with one or more of the additives tungsten trioxide WO.sub.3, molybdenum trioxide MoO.sub.3 and vanadium pentoxide V.sub.2 O.sub.5. The catalytic activity is essentially determined by the content of vanadium pentoxide V.sub.2 O.sub.5 and V.sub.x Mo.sub.x O.sub.32-z. The aforementioned side reaction is made even stronger because, as a result of the preceding catalytic conversion, the content of ammonia and nitrogen oxides decreases in the flow direction of the flue gas in the catalytic converter. Due to the decrease of ammonia and nitrogen oxides, the catalytically active centers are increasingly used for SO.sub.2 /SO.sub.3 conversion.

Catalytic converter for converting reactants of a gas mixture


A circuit board assembly comprising a laminate substrate and a surface mount device having a CTE less than that of the laminate substrate and attached with at least one solder joint to a first surface of the laminate substrate. The assembly further includes a localized stiffener attached to a second surface of the laminate substrate so as to be directly opposite the circuit device. The localized stiffener is formed of a material and is shaped so that, when attached to the laminate substrate, the stiffener is capable of increasing the thermal cycle fatigue life of the one or more solder joints that attach the device to the substrate.

(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to surface-mount circuit devices. More particularly, this invention relates to a laminate circuit board substrate modified to have a localized stiffener on a surface opposite a surface-mount circuit device so as to improve the fatigue life of one or more solder joints securing the device to the substrate.
(2) Description of the Related Art
Electronic circuit assemblies are often required to be capable of surviving in hostile operating environments, including those commonly found in automotive and aerospace applications. Such assemblies often employ surface-mount (SM) integrated circuit (IC) devices, which are generally characterized as being electrically and mechanically attached to the substrate of a circuit assembly with one or more terminals or leads that are soldered to conductors on the substrate surface. A prominent example of a SM IC device is a flip chip which has bead-like terminals typically in the form of solder bumps along the perimeter of the chip. After registering a flip chip to its corresponding conductor pattern on a substrate, heating above the liquidus temperature of the solder causes the solder bumps to reflow, forming solder joints that secure the chip to the substrate and electrically interconnect the chip circuitry to the conductor pattern.
Due to the numerous functions typically performed by the microcircuitry of a flip chip, a relatively large number of solder joints are typically required, resulting in the joints being crowded along the edges of the chip. To reduce device profile and the overall size of circuit board assemblies, a current IC packaging trend is for smaller solder joints to reduce bump pitch, which also reduces device standoff height resulting in solder joints that are less compliant. Such size constraints result in solder joints of minimal size and therefore reduced strength. Complicating this is the fact that solder joints are subject to thermal stresses as a result of temperature fluctuations in the working environment of the assembly and differences in coefficients of thermal expansion (CTE) of the various materials used in the construction of the assembly. A CTE mismatch particularly exists for flip-chip-on-board (FCOB) processes in which a flip chip is mounted to an organic laminate circuit board, such as a printed wiring board (PWB) or printed circuit board (PCB). As a result of their multilayer laminate construction and compositions, such substrates typically have CTE's in the circuit plane of about 17 ppm/EC, which is significantly higher than CTE's of the materials (e.g., silicon, alumina, quartz, etc.) of which SM devices are formed, e.g., typically not higher than about 10 ppm/EC. Thermal stresses arising from this CTE mismatch can potentially fatigue and fracture the solder joints, particularly if the device is subject to many temperature excursions, high temperatures, and/or intense vibration.
To reduce and distribute stresses on their solder joints, SM devices mounted to laminate organic substrates are typically underfilled to encapsulate their solder joints. For example, epoxy resins containing a glass filler have been used as underfill materials for SM IC devices, including flip chips. The glass filler reduces the CTE of the underfill material in order to mitigate the thermal mismatch between the flip chip and circuit board. Other approaches to improving solder joint fatigue life include modifying the solder composition and increasing the solder bump (joint) height. While such approaches have the ability to improve solder joint fatigue life, further improvements would be desirable.

Circuit board with localized stiffener for enhanced circuit component reliability


A computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer usable program product for binding a process to a selected node of a multi-node system. Input/output activity statistics for a process are retrieved from a set of probes. The set of probes detects a flow of data through an input/output device utilized by the process. A topology of the multi-node system that comprises a location of the input/output device is identified. A node is selected according to a decision policy to form a selected node. The process is bound to the selected node according to the decision policy.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an improved data processing system and in particular to a non-uniform memory access system. More particularly, the present invention is directed to a computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer usable program product for binding a process to a selected node in a non-uniform memory access system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many computer systems today have multiple nodes. A multi-node system is often referred to as a non-uniform memory access system because memory access across nodes is slower than the access of memory within a node. A node is a block of memory with each byte the same distance from the central processing unit and any system component, such as a central processing unit, input/output (I/O) device, or any other known or available component that is physically located on the same bus as the memory. The nodes of a non-uniform memory access system are generally connected by an internode bus, which is a high speed or high bandwidth bus connection that enables the transfer of data from one node to another. The separate nodes of the non-uniform memory access system operate together to run a single instance of an operating system.
Problems may arise when a process generating or requiring substantial amounts of input/output data is initiated on one node, referred to as the local node, but the input/output adapter through which the input/output data passes, or from which the input/output data is generated, is located in a second node. The second node is referred to as a remote node. This movement of input/output data through a non-uniform memory access system is referred to as input/output traffic. As the amount of input/output traffic passing through the internode bus increases, data transfer latency may occur. The increase in traffic across the bus consumes central processing unit resources which decreases processor efficiency.
For example, an application for watching streaming video from the Internet is initiated on the local node. However, the input/output adapter, which is a network card in this illustrative example, is located on a remote node. To run the streaming video application, data received from the network card of the remote node must be transmitted to the local node via the internode bus for processing. A single instance of a process of a local node requiring input/output data from an input/output adapter of a remote node may not result in substantial latency across the internode bus. However, in many instances, numerous processes are run from the numerous local nodes, all of which are requiring input/output data from remote nodes. Thus, the movement of input/output traffic through the internode bus increases exponentially thereby increasing the latency in the transmission of data over the internode bus.
Currently, non-uniform memory access systems processing heavy input/output traffic have duplicate adapters in each node and use multipathing to select the input/output adapter in the local node to generate the input/output data. Multipathing is a method in which an operating system selects a physical path from a set of paths between a process and a component, such as an input/output device utilized by the process. This solution, however, is inefficient because it requires redundant components in each of the nodes. Furthermore, many non-uniform memory access system users fail to configure their systems to operate with the multipath function. Moreover, not all drivers and operating systems fully support multipathing.
Another current solution to the problem is manually assigning a process to a node containing the input/output adapter generating the input/output data. Assigning a process to a node consists of specifying which node or nodes of the non-uniform memory access system are capable of running a particular process. However, once a process is assigned to a node, the process must be run from that node or nodes until the process is reassigned to a different node. The process must run from the assigned node despite the fact that there may be a different node better suited to run that particular process. Consequently, a user is required to spend significant amounts of time micromanaging the assignment and reassignment of numerous processes of a non-uniform access system to various nodes.
As described above, the current solutions for optimally running processes in a non-uniform memory access system can be inefficient, as in the instance where a user is required to manually assign processes to certain nodes within a non-uniform memory access system. In other instances, current solutions may be difficult for users to implement, if the solutions can be implemented at all.

Binding processes in a non-uniform memory access system

International Business Machines Corporation


A sealing device comprises a container and a synthetic resin cap attached to the mouth portion thereof. The synthetic resin cap has a cap main body composed of a top plate portion and a tube portion extending downward from the periphery thereof, the tube portion being separated by means of a tearable weakening line into an upper main portion and a lower tamper-evidence ring portion, a threaded portion being formed on the inner wall surface of the main portion, and erectable engaging projections being provided on the inner wall surface of the tamper-evidence ring portion. The container has an external thread formed on the outer circumference of the upper end of the mouth portion thereof, an annular expanded portion formed underneath the external thread, and at least one depressing portion formed on the expanded portion which engages the engaging projections on the cap and pushes down the engaging projections when the synthetic resin cap attached to the container mouth portion is twisted in the cap-opening direction.

The present invention relates to sealing devices comprising containers and synthetic resin caps having tamper-evidence capabilities for sealing the mouth portions of these containers.
In recent years, synthetic resin containers composed of polyethylene terephthalate (PET bottles) have come into common use as beverage containers. Synthetic resin containers have the advantageous properties of being light and shatterproof in comparison to conventional glass bottles.
Additionally, as caps for this type of synthetic resin, metallic caps of aluminum alloy or the like have been conventionally used. The use of synthetic resin caps is also being advanced to replace these types of metallic caps.
With regard to these types of synthetic resin caps, those disclosed in Japanese Patent Application, First Publication No. Sho 62-251352 and Japanese Patent Application, First Publication No. Hei 2-296666 are known.
These conventional synthetic resin caps are screwed onto containers having an external thread formed on the mouth portions and annular expanded portions below the external thread; the caps are composed of a synthetic resin cap main body formed by a top plate portion and a tubular portion which extends downward from the peripheral portions thereof, and a thin liner provided on the inner surface of the top plate portion of the cap main body, the cap main body being such that the bottom portion thereof is separated, by means of a horizontal score formed around the circumference while leaving a plurality of thin bridges, into a main portion above and a tamper-evidence ring portion below the horizontal score. A threaded portion for screwing onto the external thread on the container mouth portion is formed on the inner wall surface of the main portion of the cap main body, and multiple wings or tabs are provided so as to be capable of being uplifted on the inner wall surface of the tamper-evidence ring portion.
Additionally, as the containers, those having an external thread formed on the outer circumference of the top end portion of the mouth portion and provided with an annular expanded portion (locking ring) below the external thread are used.
With these types of caps having tamper-evidence capabilities, the relationship between the rotational angle (the seal release angle, hereinafter abbreviated to SRA) at the moment the seal of the container is released due to the top end of the container mouth portion being separated from the inner surface of the cap or the liner when the cap attached to the container mouth portion is rotated from the initial position in the direction of opening, and the rotational angle (the bridge breaking angle, hereinafter abbreviated to BBA) at the position where the bridges are broken when the cap attached to the container mouth portion is rotated from the initial position in the direction of opening is held to preferably be such that SRA --BBA=0 degrees or greater, more preferably +30 degrees or greater.
However, with the above-mentioned synthetic resin caps, there are cases wherein the bridges formed from synthetic resin expand and the engaging projections (wings or tabs) are so soft as to bend when engaging with the annular expanded portion, as a result of which the BBA can increase and SRA-BBA can become less than 0 degrees; thus, there are points requiring improvement from the point of view of tamper-evidence capabilities.
As sealing devices designed to increase the above-described tamper evidence capabilities using synthetic resin caps, those described in Japanese Patent Application, Second Publication No. Hei 3-56990 are known. These sealing devices comprise engaging claws having engaging side edges extending downward with a tilt in the cap-opening direction underneath the external thread of the container, and engaged claws which cooperate with the above-mentioned container engaging claws formed on the inner walls of the tamper-evidence ring portion of the cap. With the sealing device of Japanese Patent Application, Second Publication No. Hei 3-56990, when the cap is turned in an cap-opening direction with the cap attached to the container mouth portion, the engaged claws formed on the tamper-evidence ring portion are guided to the tilted engaging side edges of the engaging claws so as to be forced downward, and the tamper-evidence ring portion is forced to move downward to accelerate tearing along the tear line formed on the cap tube portion.
However, in these conventional sealing devices, since the engaged claws formed on the cap have a fixed structure such as not to bend, the engaged claws on the cap side must be forced past the engaging claws on the container when the cap is attached to the container, so that the plurality of bridges which couple the main portion of the cap tube portion with the tamper evidence portion must be reinforced to some extent, as a result of which the resistance to breakage of the bridges when the cap is opened is large and the seal cannot be easily opened. Additionally, in order to prevent the bridges from breaking when the cap is attached (sealing), the tamper-evidence ring portion could be given an engaging structure for preventing relative movement in the cap-closing direction, but this presents a problem in that it would become difficult to mold the cap and the costs would increase. Furthermore, since these containers according to the conventional art are for engaging the engaged claws having fixed structures such as not to bend, these containers cannot be applied to caps provided with multiple wings or tabs which are capable of standing on the inner wall surface of the tamper-evidence ring portion as described in Japanese Patent Application, First Publication No. Sho 62-251352 and Japanese Patent Application, First Publication No. Hei 22-96666. That is, with the structure of the container described in Japanese Patent Application, Second Publication No. 3-56990, only engaging claws having engaging side edges extending downward while tilting in the cap-opening direction are formed underneath the external thread, so that when the cap is turned in a cap-opening direction and the wings or tabs contact the tips of the engaging claws, their tips are bent upward, allowing the engaging claws to pass without engaging the engaging claws, as a result of which the cap can be removed without breaking the bridges.
Additionally, as another example of conventional art, those described in Japanese Patent Application, First Publication No. Hei 7-291317 have been proposed.
The sealing device described in this publication comprises an external thread on the mouth portion of the container, an annular chin portion positioned therebelow, and ratchet claws positioned therebelow spaced along the circumferential direction. An internal thread is formed on the inner circumferential surface of the main portion of the tube portion of the synthetic resin cap, and engaging flaps which extend upward at an incline in the radial inward direction from the base end are formed on the inner circumferential surface of the tamper-evidence ring portion spaced in the circumferential direction.
When this type of sealing device formed by combining a container with a cap has the mouth and neck portions sealed by attaching the cap to the mouth portion of the container, the rotation of the cap, not the movement in the upward direction, is inhibited due to the tips in the circumferential direction of the engaging flaps formed on the tamper-evidence portion of the cap contacting the rear surfaces of the ratchet claws which rapidly extend at an incline.
That is, the conventional sealing device composed of a synthetic resin cap and a container as mentioned above has a format wherein, when the cap attached to the container mouth portion is turned in the cap-opening direction, the engaging flaps formed on the inner circumferential surface of the tamper-evidence ring portion of the cap are engaged with the ratchet claws formed on the container mouth portion to inhibit the rotation of the tamper-evidence ring portion in the cap-opening direction, as a result of which a force in the rotational direction is directly applied to a plurality of bridges which couple the main portion of the cap tube portion with the tamper-evidence ring portion to break the bridges.
However, with regard to the above-mentioned conventional sealing devices, since the bridges are severed by pulling apart the plurality of bridges at once, there is a risk that the rupture resistance of the bridges could increase so that the bridges are not sufficiently severed, or that the engaging flaps could be folded back due to the strong rupture resistance so as to pass the ratchet claws.
That is, in the weakened line of a cap tube portion formed from a horizontal score cut along the circumferential direction of the tube portion while leaving a plurality of thin bridges, each bridge has a thin pillar shape composed of synthetic resin. This type of bridge is comparatively easily stretched when a tensile force is applied in the longitudinal direction, and easily and reliably severs after a certain degree of stretching. However, when shear stress arising from the movement of the main portion which is turned in the cap-opening direction with respect to the fixed tamper-evidence ring portion is instantaneously applied to this type of bridge, the bridge has a high rupture resistance. In other words, tamper-evidence portions coupled to main portions by means of multiple bridges in this way are not easily torn even when a rotational force is applied in the cap-opening direction.
Additionally, with formats wherein bridges are severed according to conventional products as mentioned above, a large cap-opening torque is required in order to separate the tamper-evidence ring portion from the main portion, and this makes it difficult for children to open the cap. Additionally, even if one attempts to open the cap by applying a large cap-opening torque, this large force can be applied to the engaging flaps so as to cause the engaging flaps to be folded back and pass the ratchet claws, thereby making it impossible to separate the tamper-evidence ring portion.
The present invention has been achieved in consideration of the above-described situations, and has the object of offering a sealing device and container which prevents the cap-opening torque from becoming high due to the rupture resistance of the bridges when the cap attached to the container mouth portion is turned in the cap-opening direction, and which can yield good tamper-evidence capabilities by reducing the BBA when the cap is being opened.


In a thermomechanical measuring device and a thermogravimetry device, partition walls are provided in two sections such that two kinds of atmospheric gasses, which have passed a sample chamber and a detector chamber, respectively, do not flow back, and a thermally insulated gas mixing chamber is manufactured anew in the middle of the sample chamber and the detector chamber to make it possible to dilute a reactive gas and a water vapor gas having a high partial pressure. Consequently, it is possible to prevent moisture concentration to reduce an influence of water drops even in a high temperature and high humidity state at the time of humidity control and measurement.

The present invention relates to a thermal analyzer including a sample chamber and a detector chamber that houses a detector for detecting a physical change due to temperature of a sample stored in the sample chamber as a displacement.
In the thermal analyzer including the sample chamber and the detector chamber that houses the detector for detecting a physical change due to temperature of a sample stored in the sample chamber as a displacement, when a gas is fed, different kinds of gasses are used as an atmospheric gas in the sample chamber and am atmospheric gas in the detector chamber that is provided to be connected to the sample chamber via a tubular member. In particular, when an atmospheric gas around a sample contains water vapor, a purge gas for protecting this water moisture from condensing on the detector is introduced into the detector.
In such a case, in the conventional thermal analyzer, an exhaust port is provided in the middle between the sample chamber and the detector chamber such that the atmospheric gases and the purge gas join to be discharged out of the thermal analyzer (see, for example, Japanese Patent No. 3084472, FIG. 2 and JP-A-2002-148230, FIG. 1).
In the conventional thermal analyzer, although the two kinds of atmospheric gasses having passed the sample chamber and the detector chamber, respectively, join to be discharged, since the sample chamber and the detector chamber communicate with each other, there is a problem in that it is likely that a part of the gasses flow back to the sample chamber and the detector chamber to damage gas purge performance. As the atmospheric gas fed to the sample chamber, an inert gas or an atmospheric gas, which has interaction with a sample and affects a change in a physical amount of the sample, is often selected. A highly reactive gas or water vapor may be often contained in the atmospheric gas. In addition, a cracker gas generated from the sample may be contained in the atmospheric gas. Thus, in general, it is desirable that the thermal analyzer has a structure in which the atmospheric gas does not flow back to the detector chamber.
In the case in which the air having an adjusted water vapor pressure is fed into the sample chamber to measure a change in physical properties of the sample in an atmosphere subjected to humidity control, when the sample chamber comes into a high-temperature and high-humidity state with temperature of 80° C. and relative humidity of 60% to temperature of 90° C. and relative humidity of 90%, in the structure of the thermal analyzer for performing thermomechanical measurement (TMA) shown in FIG. 2 of Japanese Patent No. 3084472, water vapor of a high partial pressure flows to a position near an entrance on the detector side crossing the middle between sample chamber and the detector chamber. Consequently, it is likely that the water vapor is liquefied and water drops are generated on a wall surface in the middle or a surface of a sample tube or a bar probe that is closer to the detector chamber and has temperature close to a room temperature. There are problems in that, for example, a weight of the water drops adhering to the bar probe causes an error in measurement of a weight of the sample, a load applied to the sample changes to cause an error in measurement of a physical amount of the sample, and, since the thermal analyzer is constituted vertically in FIG. 2 of Japanese Patent No. 3084472, the water drops drop to a sample part below the thermal analyzer to make the relative humidity unstable.
It is an object of the invention to solve the problems and provide a thermal analyzer that prevents back-flow of atmospheric gases to a sample chamber or a detector chamber by clearly distinguishing a location where the atmospheric gasses are mixed in a process in which the atmospheric gasses join to be discharged, prevents generation of water drops by clarifying a mixing location such that a part of water vapor does not flow into the detector chamber side even in the case in which the inside of the sample chamber is subjected to humidity control to be brought into a high-temperature and high-humidity state, and makes it possible to also mix the water vapor and a dry gas on the detector chamber side to lower a concentration of a highly reactive gas or lower a partial pressure of the water vapor to make it less likely that water drops are generated.

Thermal analyzer with gas mixing chamber


An artificial seed manufacturing apparatus in which enclosures can be inserted into capsules without fail, and the diameter of the capsule can automatically be controlled. This apparatus comprises: an enclosure supply mechanism with a container, a tip, and a driving source; a coating material delivery mechanism with a passage, a pressure plunger, a hollow nozzle plunger, and a stepping motor; and a control unit for controlling the enclosure supply mechanism and the coating material delivery mechanism, comprising: moving distance storing means for erasably storing setting data which are inputted through setting operation to designate moving distance of the pressure plunger; and stepping motor control means for supplying driving pulse, the stepping motor control means allowing the pressure plunger to reciprocate by the moving distance, to the stepping motor based on the data stored in the moving distance storing means.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an artificial seed manufacturing apparatus, and more particularly to an artificial seed manufacturing apparatus which encloses cultured tissues such as adventive embryos into capsules.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional artificial seed manufacturing apparatus of this kind is disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication Laid-Open No. Heisei 3-127920, in which cultured tissues such as adventive embryos disperses is enclosed into a gelling agent with a material capable of gelling according to chemical reactions, and liquid droplets of the cultured tissues are supplied through a small hole into hardener, and the liquid droplets during the process of falling are sphericalized by surface tension. In the same Patent Publication, another conventional means continuously protrudes the cultured tissues from a nozzle into hardener to form them in a long string-like shape and cuts them in appropriate lengths.
A technique of Japanese Patent Publication Laid-Open No. Showa 63-197530 moves an end of a hose connected to a sol supply tank in a planetary motion by using a planetary gear to drop sol, which has enclosures dispersed in a coating agent, from the end of the hose into a hardener tank below. A technique of Japanese Patent Publication Laid-Open No. Showa 62-266137 uses centrifugal force to make the liquid droplets.
Of the means disclosed in the Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Heisei 3-127920, the former has a disadvantage that it is difficult to uniformly disperse a number of enclosures in a coating agent, so that the coating materials supplied into the hardener include those that contain the enclosures and those that do not, and these coating materials are mixed, making it necessary to provide a processing for sorting out those coating materials containing the enclosures.
The latter means has a disadvantage that it is extremely difficult to determine the position where the string-like coating materials into blocks are cut and that the number of cultured tissues enclosed in the cut coating blocks becomes unstable.
With the techniques of Japanese Patent Publication Laid-Open Nos. Showa 63-197530 and Showa 62-266137 also, it is difficult to uniformly disperse a number of enclosures.
The cultured tissues as the enclosures, are valuable, so that when the number of enclosures is one, there is no waste but when it is more than one, they may be wasted. The coating blocks without enclosure must be removed by a troublesome selection process. With the above-mentioned methods, it is impossible to make arbitrary changes to the size of the coating materials and the number of enclosures.
With a seed coating apparatus (Japanese Utility Model Publication Laid-Open No. Heisei 5-7016) which coats an enclosure with a film of the coating material, it is possible to change the size of the coat diameter and the number of enclosures arbitrarily. In order to change the size of the coat diameter, however, it is necessary to adjust by manual the amount of coating material to be delivered. This apparatus, therefore, cannot be applied to an artificial seed manufacturing apparatus in which cultured tissues such as adventive embryos generally installed in an aseptic room are enclosed into capsules.


An electronic apparatus includes a remote control device that transmits a predetermined key code signal, excluding a unique key code (signal) for identifying the device itself, and an operation information signal of a user, a receiving unit that receives the signals to be transmitted by the remote control device, an arithmetic unit, and an ID number setting unit that sets an ID number peculiar to a main body. The arithmetic unit receives the operation information signal when information specified by a set of the key code received by the receiving unit and numerals is consistent with information specified by the ID number set by the ID number setting unit.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an electronic apparatus that operates by a remote control device, and a projector.
2. Related Art
As a technology about a remote control device transmitting an ID code, there is known a remote control device described in JP-A-2001-245371. In the remote control device, when a communication start key of a remote control device is depressed, the remote control device transmits an ID code transmission request signal to all apparatuses within a remote control signal transmission range. Then, the remote control device receives all ID codes returned by apparatuses receiving the ID code transmission request signal and selects an arbitrary apparatus among the apparatuses to set its display and operation keys required for the operation of the apparatus so as to operate the apparatus.
When a plurality of electronic apparatuses operate by the remote control device, the remote control device has a function of transmitting the ID code and controls a reception-side electronic apparatus to response an operation signal of the remote control device only when the corresponding ID code is consistent with an ID code set by the reception-side electronic apparatus.
However, the remote control device having an ID code transmission function is expensive compared with a general remote control device.


According to the manufacturing method for an organic electroluminescence device comprising luminescent layers between an anode and a cathode, electron transport layer forming materials are introduced in the liquid phase process so as to form electron transport layers. First materials composed of prescribed elements, such as halides (e.g., LiF) or oxides of alkali metals, alkali earth metals, and rare earth metals, are introduced into openings of organic bank layers so as to form electron transport layers on blue-color luminescent layers realizing blue-color emission; and second materials composed of organic metallic complex (e.g., β-diketone complex), generally expressed in a chemical formula MAn using a center atom M (e.g. Ca) and a ligand A (e.g., acetylacetone (acac)), are introduced into openings of organic bank layers so as to form electron transport layers on red-color and green-color luminescent layers realizing red-color and green-color emission.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to manufacturing methods for organic electroluminescence (EL) devices, and also relates to electronic devices using them.
This application claims priority on Japanese Patent Application No. 2003-15102 and Japanese Patent Application No. 2003-308968, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, organic electroluminescence (EL) components adapted to organic electroluminescence devices have structures in which organic luminescent materials are arranged as thin films sandwiched between anodes and cathodes (or positive electrodes and negative electrodes), wherein electrons and holes injected by both electrodes are reunified in luminescent layers, thus causing excitation of energy to emit light. These organic electroluminescence devices have relatively high charge injection barriers between electrodes and luminescent layers. For this reason, they normally use the laminated structure comprising hole transport layers (or hole injection layers) serving as anode buffer layers and electron transport layers (or electron injection layers) serving as cathode buffer layers. In this laminated structure, the electron transport layer is in particular composed of lithium fluoride (LiF) or magnesium oxide (MgO), whereby it is possible to produce an organic electroluminescence device actualizing low-voltage drive. This is disclosed on page 152 of Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 70 (1997), for example.
Presently, organic luminescent materials used for electroluminescence devices are mainly classified into two groups, namely, a low-molecular group and a high-molecular (or polymer) group. Organic luminescent materials of the low-molecular group are normally subjected to the gaseous phase process such as vacuum evaporation to form thin films, which are then subjected to patterning using masks. This is disclosed on page 34 of Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 51 (1997), for example. Organic luminescent materials of the polymer group can be dissolved in solvents, so that they are subjected to the application method (or coating method) to form films, which are then subjected to patterning by the liquid-drop discharge method such as the inkjet method. This is disclosed on page 34 of Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 71 (1997), for example. Manufacturing methods for an organic electroluminescence device formed by the liquid-drop discharge method are known, an example of which is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. Hei 10-12377.
Materials that can be subjected to the application method to form film have been developed with respect to hole transport layers serving as anode buffer layers, which allows formation of films by a gaseous process. This is disclosed in the article on page 477 of Nature, Vol. 357 (1992).
The vacuum evaporation method is normally used for the formation of films with respect to electron transport layers serving as cathode buffer layers. However, this may increase the manufacturing cost in terms of energy consumption and supply of materials. In addition, this may cause an unwanted factor interfering enlargement of sizes of substrates for organic electroluminescence devices, which will be practically used and incorporated into displays in the future. When organic electroluminescence devices are formed by the gaseous process, organic substance beds or substrates must be exposed to high-temperature environments; therefore, various problems such as deterioration of luminescence characteristics and deformation of substrates may occur in the case of prescribed materials having poor heat resistance.
When electron transport layers are formed on luminescent layers in the liquid phase, luminescent layers serving as beds therefor must be dissolved due to some solvent actually used.
Various examples have been developed with respect to the formation of cathode buffer layers (serving as electron transport layers) in the liquid phase process. For example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2000-252076 discloses the method in which layers are formed by the wet method using polymers having electron transportability (where one to five alkyl or alkoxyl elements are included in each repeat unit) that are dissolved or dispersed. In addition, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2000-252079 discloses the method in which electron injection layers are formed by the wet method using the solution (or dispersed solution) in which tetrahydro-aluminate elements are dissolved or dispersed.
The conventional examples regarding the formation of electron transport layers in the liquid phase process fail to disclose the formation of electron transport layers that are formed in the liquid phase process using alkali metals and alkali earth metals, which produce good results in the conventional gaseous process, as well as halides (e.g., LiF) and oxides of rare earth metals.

Manufacturing method for organic electroluminescence device, and electronic device therewith


Systems and methods are described herein for determining which components of a source operating system are required to be included in a target operating system to support selected source operating system features in the target operating system. Data objects are constructed to represent each component and feature of the source operating system, each data object identifying Exports and References for the component or feature it represents. The dependency model identifies, for each component, other components that must be included in a target operating system having the component. A target operating system builder program receives input from a user as to the features the user desires to include in the target operating system. The dependency model is utilized to identify and select the components from the source operating system necessary to support the selected features. The selected components are then linked to create the target operating system.

An embedded or appliance computing device typically provides a smaller set of features compared to a general-purpose computer. For such devices, it is desired that a more compact operating system, tailored to the defined set of features be used, as opposed to using a general-purpose operating system. Although conventional comprehensive operating systems can be used to drive such embedded/appliance devices, providing the memory and processing power for such operating systems burdens the device manufacturers with expensive overhead that is unnecessary for their product. An ideal solution would be to allow manufacturers of special purpose electronic devices to choose desired features from a comprehensive source operating system to include in a target operating system, and then to build the target operating system that provides only those features that have been chosen. Doing so would allow the device to be smaller and less expensive, thereby making the device more attractive to consumers.
The problem with such a solution, however, is that operating systems are complex programs comprised of a multitude of components. Some components export data or functionality to other components. Some components cannot function properly unless other components are present to provide data or functionality to them. In addition, features of an operating system typically do not map directly to the various components of the operating system. These interdependencies among components of an operating system and the fact that operating system features do not map directly to operating system components provide an obstacle to building a target operating system simply by first selecting features from a source operating system and then building the target operating system from the source operating system based on the selected features. Typically, implementation of a particular feature of an operating system depends on more than one component of the operating system. Furthermore, one component may be required by more than one feature.
Therefore, given a subset of all the features of a source operating system, there is a problem of how to select an appropriate set of operating system components that are necessary to implement the desired feature subset in a target operating system.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

System and method for building a target operating system from a source operating system


A fastening system (10) for hanging mountable overhead containers (12) is provided. The system includes at least one pair of support lugs (20, 22) mounted on a support structure (14) or on the overhead container (12). The support lugs (20, 22) can be detachably connected to each other by a pin (30) that can be drawn back in a pin guide (40) and thereby spring-loaded in the exit direction. When the support lug (22) attached to the overhead container (12) is inserted into the support lug (20) having the pin guide (40) when installing the container, the pin (30) is unlatched in the pin guide (40) and automatically moves out into the support eye (22) attached to the overhead container (12). Using a lever joined (60) to the pin guide (40) by a hinge, the pin (30) can be moved out completely into an end position, and locked in said position. In order to remove the overhead container (12), the lever (60) must simply be pivoted back.

The invention relates to a fastening system for hanging, mountable overhead containers, such as baggage compartments in aircraft, with at least one pair of support lugs attached to a support structure or to an overhead container, with a pin for the detachable interconnection of the support lugs, and with receptacle sleeves for the pin, wherein these sleeves are attached to the support lugs and are flush with each other in a mounted position of the overhead container. Below, such a fastening system is indeed described in its use for the mounting of overhead containers, such as baggage compartments, on the support structure of aircraft, but such a fastening system could be used anywhere the task is to mount hanging overhead containers. One support lug provided with the pin guide is indeed fastened advantageously to the support structure, but the support lugs of a pair could be interchanged. In the development of cabins for newer types of aircraft, such as, for example, the Airbus A350, one goal is to design each element to be fastened to the fuselage of the aircraft, such as restrooms, galleys, passenger seats, cabin power networks, cabin lighting, and air nozzles, overhead containers, and rear-panel shelves, as a complete cabin module, wherein, however, all of the connection points should be constructed as flexible, standardized interfaces and wherein simplified fastener designs should be used that allow assembly and disassembly without the use of tools (cf., the article "Cabin Development—New Approach for the A350—Cabin Customization," One (magazine), German edition, Dec. 18, 2006, pg. 23).
In a known fastening system of the type noted above, which is used for the hanging assembly of baggage compartments in aircraft, more than three persons are required for the assembly of each baggage compartment. At least three persons lift the baggage compartment into an assembly position. The support lugs of each pair are connected to each other by a respective bolt (which is a loose part). For the assembly of these bolts, special tools, such as hammers, pliers, etc. are required. Furthermore, the known fastening system does indeed allow a secure fastening of the baggage compartments to the support structure, wherein the fastening system distinguishes itself through light weight, good force absorption, low parts prices, and a small number of components, but in contrast to these features, it has long assembly and disassembly times, a relatively large number of persons required for the assembly and disassembly of a baggage compartment, and the requirement of tools. The loose bolts can also be lost. These restrictions lead to the result that, in the cabin configuration of aircraft, attention must be given to managing with as few variants as possible. This is associated with a loss of flexibility in the cabin configuration. A disadvantageous effect is that the disassembly is complicated, because the bolts can be detached again only with difficulty and typically only with special tools.
From the document EP 0 514 957 A1, a fastening system for hanging mountable overhead containers such as baggage compartments on an airplane is known, that uses suspended mounting rails that are attached to the fuselage of the aircraft. The baggage compartments are mounted rollers which engage in longitudinal cavities formed in the rails. To lock the hanging-mounted luggage compartments, two types of locks are used, namely, overhead bars, which are fastened to the rails and keep the wheels on the rails, but manually releasable, so that the rollers and thus the luggage compartments can be removed from the rails. The second type of locking is done by outboard couplings, the compartments are mounted on the ceilings and engage outboard bolts which are fastened to the supporting structure. The outboard bolts are coupled to the overhead rails and work simultaneously with the overhead rails. A mechanic can manually operate the overhead bars, whereby both the overhead bars as well as moving the outboard latch in the unlocked position allow removal of the ceiling compartment. The outboard bolts are used to further secure the baggage compartments in their position however, they do not provide a support function for the suspended installation of baggage compartments.

Fastening system for hanging mountable overhead containers


A corona treatment apparatus has a rotating roller electrode and a stationary electrode assembly for treating material passing over the roller electrode. The stationary electrode assembly includes an electrode support that extends along the roller electrode and is spaced therefrom. A one-piece dielectric element is positioned between the electrode support and the roller electrode with the material to be treated passing therebetween. A plurality of conductive electrode elements are separately movable into a first position in contact with the one-piece dielectric element to produce a corona that treats material passing over the roller electrode. A separate over-the-center spring mechanism is provided to hold each conductive electrode element in the first, treatment position, or in a second, withdrawn position in which no corona is produced.

The field of the invention is corona treatment stations, and particularly, the construction of electrodes for such stations.
Corona treatment stations for sheets, or webs of plastic materials take many forms. Typically, the material to be treated is fed through a treatment zone in which one surface of the material is bombarded with ions produced by a high voltage alternating electric field. The material is supported in the treatment zone by a conductive roller which also serves as one electrode for the corona treater. A second, active electrode is supported in the treatment zone and is spaced from the conductive roller equidistantly along its length. For many years the active electrode has taken the form of metal segments pivotally attached to a bar or beam, so as to be selectively swung away from the roller for removal from the treatment zone. In this manner, the width of the treatment zone can be adjusted to accommodate webs of different width.
One difficulty is that such segmented electrodes produce an uneven treatment. This may be caused either by an uneven spacing of the segments from the roller electrode or by changes in the electric field strength at the junction of adjacent segments.
Treatment station reliability has been significantly increased recently by employing an elongated active electrode having a coating, or jacket, made of a heat resistant insulating material. Such a structure is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,446,110 entitled Treating the Surface of Articles by Electrical Brush Discharge, where the active electrode is constructed from a hollow quartz rod which is filled with a conductive material and which extends the entire length of the roller electrode. While such constructions provide relatively uniform treatment, the width of the treatment zone is fixed by the length of the active electrode.
A number of attempts have been made to provide a segmented active electrode in which each segment is covered with an insulating jacket. Characteristically, such structures have employed a metal bar or beam which extends along the length of the roller electrode and which supports a series of metal fingers that each extend from the beam toward the roller electrode. In this respect they are very similar to the well known segmented metal electrodes in that the separate metal fingers can be removed or swung away to adjust the width of the treatment zone. The difference is that a jacket of insulating material is slipped over the end of each metal finder to allow bare roll treating. The uneven treatment produced by segmented active electrodes is greatly amplified when the segments are insulated in this manner, and such constructions thus far have not been commercially successful.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,575,379 entitled Electrode Element For Corona Treater describes another approach to providing an insulated active electrode which is segmented to allow alteration of the treatment zone. Individual insulated segments are mounted to a track and selectively connected to a conductive electrode. Uneven treatment is reduced by angling the ends of each insulated segment. While the uniformity of treatment is improved with this construction, it is still uneven and the individually shaped segments are costly to manufacture.


In an alkaline battery, a positive electrode 2 containing manganese dioxide, a negative electrode 3, and a separator 4 interposed therebetween are housed in a closed-end cylindrical battery case 1 whose opening 1b is sealed with a gasket. The positive electrode contains graphite in such a manner that a ratio of graphite to the positive electrode is in the range of 2.5-4.3 mass %. A half-width of a 110 plane of the manganese dioxide measured by a powder X-ray diffraction analysis is in the range of 2.00-2.40 degrees.

Alkaline batteries are currently widely used as main power sources for toys as everyday items, game machines, mobile electronic equipment, and other devices, and are thus desired to have long lifetime when being used in such devices. To achieve a long driving time of a device, it is necessary to fill a battery with a large amount of an active material, which requires an increase in content of manganese dioxide serving as a positive electrode active material.
Patent Document 1 describes a technique for increasing the capacity by reducing the ratio of graphite in a conductive agent to be added to the positive electrode and also by using expanded graphite with priority.
Patent Document 2 describes a technique for obtaining a large-capacity battery with reduced expansion of a battery case by employing a thin body for the battery case and defining the filling density of graphite.
Patent Document 3 describes a technique for improving discharge performance under an intermediate load by controlling the half-width of a 110 plane of the crystal structure of manganese dioxide and the potential thereof. Patent Document 4 describes a technique for improving discharge performance under a high load and a low load by adjusting the ratio of the 110 plane to a 021 plane within a predetermined range.

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