The present invention relates to Lithium Metal batteries. In particular, it is related to lithium metal batteries containing a polyimide-based electrolyte. The present invention concerns a new concept of polyimide-based electrolytic component having an electrolyte consisting of at least one solvent and at least one alkali metal salt, with specific amounts of solvents, to optimize the properties of conductivity of the polyimide-based electrolyte and the mechanical properties of the polyimide-based electrolyte separator towards metallic lithium anode to prevent dendrites growths.

During the last ten years, lithium batteries of the primary and rechargeable type have been the object of a considerable number of research and development works. The intent was to develop a battery which is safe, inexpensive, having a large energetic content and good electrochemical performances. In this context, a plurality of a battery designs were developed to meet different applications, such as microelectronics, telecommunications, portable computers and electrical vehicles, to name only a few.
Electrochemical batteries or generators, whether rechargeable or not, are all made of an anode which can consist of a metal such as lithium and alloys thereof, or an insertion compound which is reversible towards lithium, such as carbon, a cathode which consists of an insertion compound which is reversible towards lithium such as transitional metal oxide, a mechanical separator and an electrolytic component placed in between the electrodes. The term electrolytic component means any material placed inside the generator and which is used as ionic transport except electrode materials in which the ions Li+ may be displaced. During the discharge or charge of the generator, the electrolytic component ensures the transport of ionic species through the entire generator from one electrode to the other and even inside the composite electrodes. In lithium batteries, the electrolytic component is generally in the form of a liquid which is called liquid electrolyte or a dry or gel polymer matrix which may also act as mechanical separator.
When the electrolytic component is in liquid form, it consists of an alkali metal salt which is dissolved in an aprotic solvent. In the case of a lithium generator, the more common salts are LIPF6, LiBF4 and LiN(SO2 CF3)2 and the polar aprotic solvents may be selected from propylene carbonate, ethylene carbonate, Y-butyrolactone and 1,3-dioxolane or their analogs to name only a few. At the level of the separator, the liquid electrolyte is generally impregnated in a porous polymer matrix which is inert towards the aprotic solvent used, or in a fiberglass paper. The use of a liquid electrolyte which is impregnated in an inert polymer matrix enables to preserve a sufficient ionic mobility to reach a level of conductivity of the order of 10-3 S/cm at 25° C. At the level of the composite electrodes, when the latter are made of an insertion material which is bound by a polymer matrix which is inert towards aprotic solvents, which have only little interaction with the latter, the liquid electrolyte fills the porosity of the electrode. Examples of batteries utilizing a liquid electrolytic component are found U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,422,203; 5,626,985 and 5,630,993.
When the electrolytic component is in the form of a dry polymer matrix, it consists of a high molecular weight homo or copolymer, which is cross-linkable or non cross-linkable and includes a heteroatom in its repeating unit such as oxygen or nitrogen for example, in which an alkali metal salt is dissolved such as LiN(SO2 CF3)2, LiSO3 CF3 and LiClO4.
Polyethylene oxide is a good example of a polymer matrix which is capable of solving different alkali metal salts. Armand, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,303,748 describes families of polymers which may be used as electrolytic component in lithium batteries. More elaborated families of polymers (cross-linkable or non cross-linkable copolymers and terpolymers) are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,578,326; 4,357,401; 4,579,793; 4,758,483 and in Canadian Patent No. 1,269,702. The use of a high molecular weight polymer enables to provide electrolytes in the form of thin films (of the order of 10 to 100 μm) which have sufficiently good mechanical properties to be used entirely as separator between the anode and the cathode while ensuring ionic transport between the electrodes In the composite, the solid electrolyte serves as binder for the materials of the electrode and ensures ionic transport through the composite. The use of a cross-linkable polymer enables to utilize a polymer of lower molecular weight, which facilitates the preparation of the separator as well as the composite and also enables to increase the mechanical properties of the separator and, by the same token, to increase its resistance against the growth of dendrites when using a metallic lithium anode. As is well known in the art, repeated charge/discharge cycles can cause growth of dendrites on the lithium metal electrode. These dendrites can grow to such an extent that they penetrate the separator between positive and negative electrodes and create an internal short circuit. For this reason, metallic lithium anode are used exclusively with solid polymer electrolyte separator sufficiently resistant and opaque to prevent dendrite growth from piercing its layer and reaching the positive electrode. Contrary to a liquid electrolyte, a solid polymer electrolyte is safer because it cannot spill nor be evaporated from the generator. Its disadvantage results from a lower ionic mobility obtained in these solid electrolytes which restricts their uses at temperatures between 40° C. and 100° C.
The gel electrolytic component is itself generally constituted of a polymer matrix which is solvating or non-solvating for lithium salts, aprotic solvent and an alkali metal salt being impregnated in the polymer matrix. The most common salts are LiPF6, LiBF4 and LiN(SO2 CF3)2 and the polar aprotic solvents may be selected from propylene carbonate, ethylene carbonate, butyrolactones and 1,3-dioxolane, to name only a few. The gels may be obtained from a high molecular weight homo or copolymer which is cross-linkable or non cross-linkable or from a cross-linkable homo or copolymer. In the latter case, the dimensional stability of the gel is ensured by cross-linking the polymer matrix. Polyethers including cross-linkable functions such as alkyls, acrylates or methacrylates are good examples of polymers which may be used in formulating a gel electrolyte, such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,830,939. This is explained by their capacity to solvate lithium salts and their compatibility with polar aprotic solvents as well as their low cost, and ease of handling and cross-linking. A gel electrolyte has the advantage of being handled as a solid and of not spilling out of the generator as is the case with liquid electrolyte generators. Ionic transport efficiency is associated with the proportion of aprotic solvent incorporated in the polymer matrix. Depending on the nature of the polymer matrix, the salt, the plasticizing agent and its proportion in the matrix, a gel may reach an ionic conductivity of the order of 10-3 S/cm at 25° C. while remaining macroscopically solid. As in the case of a dry electrolyte, a gel electrolyte may be used as separator between the anode and cathode while ensuring ionic transport between the electrodes. In the composite electrode(s) of the generator, the gel electrolyte is used as binder for the materials of the electrode(s), and ensures ionic transport through the composite electrode(s). However, the loss of mechanical property resulting from the addition of the liquid phase (aprotic solvent) should generally be compensated by the addition of solid fillers, by cross-linking the polymer matrix whenever possible, or in some cases, when the proportion of liquid is too high, by using a porous mechanical separator which is impregnated with the gel which serves as electrolytic component in the separator.
The poor resistance of polyethers towards oxidation is however an important problem which is associated with the utilization of solid and gel electrolytes based on polyether as the electrolytic material in which the voltage in recharge may reach and even exceed 3.5V to 3.7 V. This results in an important loss of capacity of the generator which is caused by the more or less massive degradation of the polymer matrix during consecutive cycles of discharge/charge.
Gustafson et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 5,888,672) disclose a battery where the anode, the cathode, and the electrolyte each comprise a soluble, amorphous, thermoplastic polyimide. Since the polyimides are pre-imidized prior to the fabrication of the battery, there is no need to further cure them at high temperatures, thus reducing the risk of damaging the battery. The polyimide based electrolyte is resistance towards oxidation and capable of high ionic conductivity at or near room temperature. Nor is there a chance of incidental condensation as the battery temperature rises. In addition, since no further polymerization will occur, there are no by-products of the condensation reaction (water) to interact with the lithium salts. The battery of Gustafson et al. is said to be a dry cell.
In fabricating the battery, an electrolyte solution comprising a soluble, amorphous, thermoplastic polyimide solution and a lithium salt is prepared. The thermoplastic polyimide solution is prepared by mixing about 8% to about 20% by weight of a thermoplastic polyimide powder with about 80% to about 92% by weight of a solvent. About 20% to about 35% by weight of a lithium salt is dissolved in about 65% to about 80% by weight of a solvent to form a solution. The solution is then mixed with the thermoplastic polyimide solution to form the electrolyte solution. The electrolyte comprises from about 2% by weight to 10% by weight of soluble, amorphous, thermoplastic polyimide, from about 1% by weight to 12% by weight of the lithium salt and from about 78% by weight to 97% by weight of the solvent. An electrolyte layer is then formed by casting a film of the electrolyte solution which is fully dried in an oven at about 150° C. for about 30 to 60 minutes to create a dry, opaque, flexible, smooth, tough film. The polyimide based electrolyte solution is dried at the flash point of the solvent for the purpose of removing the solvent such that a dry electrolyte is obtained. The soluble, amorphous, thermoplastic polyimide may be any soluble, amorphous, thermoplastic polyimide known to those skilled in the art.
Laboratory tests have since demonstrated that a dried polyimide based electrolyte separator has poor ionic conductivity and as such is inadequate for battery applications with a metallic lithium anode. As described above, a lithium metal anode requires an electrolyte separator that presents enough mechanical resistance to prevent potential dendrite growths from piercing the electrolyte separator layer, reaching the positive electrode and causing a short circuit but it also requires a minimum of ionic conductivity to perform as an electrochemical generator.
Gustafson et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 6,451,480 issued Sep. 17, 2002) later on disclosed a Polyimide-based lithium-ion battery in which the anode and the cathode are prepared from an electrolyte polyimide binder solution comprising from about 9% by weight to about 15% by weight of a pre-imidized soluble, amorphous, thermoplastic polyimide powder dissolved in about 75% by weight to about 85% by weight of a polar solvent; and from about 6% by weight to about 12% by weight of a lithium salt and an electrolyte separator consisting of a typical separator film saturated with a liquid electrolyte solution of lithium salts dissolved in a variety of organic solvents such as ethylene carbonate mixed with dimethyl carbonate. A cell stack is assembled and placed in a container which is then filled with the electrolyte and sealed. Evidently, the ionic conduction is achieved by the solvent content of the electrolyte separator and of the composite anode and cathode. The cell is based on Li-ion technology using a liquid electrolyte and therefore cannot be combined with a metallic lithium anode as the high solvent content renders the electrolyte separator unable to prevent dendrites growth. Furthermore, the typical solvent used in Li-ion technology are unstable with metallic lithium anode; their resistance increasing with time.
Thus there is a need for an improved polyimide-based electrolyte having good ionic conductivity and capable of operating with a lithium metal anode.


A programmable mobile terminal which includes a thumb wheel for selecting among a plurality of functions executable by the mobile terminal. The programmable mobile terminal allows a user to employ the same hand that is holding the mobile terminal to scroll through and select a function among a plurality of functions via the thumb wheel. The wheel portion of thumb wheel is rotated either clockwise or counter clockwise by the user's thumb or other finger to scroll a screen cursor through the functions and once the screen cursor of the mobile terminal is positioned at a desired function, the user can depress the wheel portion in a transaxial direction with the same thumb or finger to select the desired function. Also, the programmable mobile terminal allows a user to scan bar code information and use the thumb wheel for selecting among a plurality of functions relating to the scanned bar code information.

In recent years, the use of wireless communication systems having mobile transceivers which communicate with a hardwired network, such as a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN), has become widespread. The mobile transceivers, commonly referred to as mobile terminals, may take one of several different forms. For instance, in retail stores hand-held scanning units may be used to allow for scanning inventory bar codes. In a warehouse, portable units mounted to a vehicle may be used to gather information from the warehouse floor. In a medical environment, the mobile terminal may take the form of a pen based workslate which allows medical personnel to work with full page screens.
In a typical wireless communication system, each mobile terminal communicates with a networked system via a radio or optical link in order to allow for a real time exchange of information. The mobile terminals communicate through one of several base stations interconnected to the network. The base stations allow for a wireless data communication path to be formed. Consequently, such mobile terminals significantly facilitate worker efficiency since data can be gathered, transmitted and even processed at a remote site in real time.
However, despite the aforementioned advantages associated with mobile terminals, there is a strong need for a more ergonomic mobile terminal. For example, mobile terminals are typically held in one hand and a user has to use the other hand to scroll through functions and select a function. Thus, both hands are usually occupied at one time or another when using a mobile terminal. As a result, a user is physically limited by such conventional mobile terminals since the user would have to cease interaction with the mobile terminal to free at least one hand to accomplish another task such as taking a patients temperature, writing on a piece of paper, using the telephone, etc.
In view of the aforementioned drawbacks associated with conventional mobile terminals, there is a strong need in the art for a mobile terminal which eliminates or at least reduces the need for a user to use both hands while employing a mobile terminal.

Programmable mobile device with thumb wheel


A safety needle device for tattooing body and eyebrows comprises a body; a needle; a needle cover for receiving the needle; a holding cover combinable to a rear end of the needle cover; a needle clamper received in the holding cover for clamping the needle at one end and engaged to the body at another end thereof; and a telescopic element installed between the holding cover and a rear end of the needle clamper. The body has a joint; one end of the joint has a combining portion and the needle clamper has a combining block; two wedge recesses are formed at two sides of a connection area between the combining block and the joint. In the unused state, the needle and the needle clamper are received within the needle cover. An interior of the needle cover is formed with a protecting space for receiving the needle.

In the prior art safety needle device for tattooing body and eyebrows, the needle is arranged at a front end thereof. The needle is exposed from the tattoo machine, which will pierce the skin of a person with dye therein. In such a process, the blood or bacteria will pollute the needle. This will possibly pollute other users or pierce the operator in faulty operation. Thus there is an eager demand for a novel design which can improve the prior art defects.
In one improvement, a middle section is installed between the tattoo body and a handle. A movable portion is installed in the middle section for pivotally installing with a sleeve. The sleeve is installed with a needle which passes through the handle for exposure from the tattoo machine. The sleeve and the middle section can stop pollutants and can be changed.
In another improvement, a hollow head receiving a plurality of needles has a sleeve for exposing a single needle.
However, although the prior art can prevent the dye or other undesired objects from flowing back and the needle can be changed, normally, the needle is exposed from. It is possible that the needle will pierce other people and the pollutant blood or bacteria will transfer to the body of such a person. Thus, the prior art deficiencies of the tattoo needle still exists. Moreover, the structure for preventing the dyes, blood, or bacteria from flowing back is too complicated to be made and the cost is high.

Safety needle device for tattooing body and eyebrows


The present invention discloses a biochip detection system for detecting a biochip labeled with multiple fluorophores. The biochip detection system comprises a broadband light source for generating a light beam, a stand for supporting the biochip, a light integrator positioned between the broadband light source and the biochip, a lens set for adjusting the cross-sectional area of the light beam, a first filter module positioned on the optical path of the light beam, a detector, e.g., CCD camera, photodiode array, for detecting a fluorescence beam emitted from the biochip, and a second filter module positioned on the optical path of the fluorescence beam. The light integrator can be a light tunnel, a lens array or a holographic diffuser for uniforming the intensity distribution of the light beam and changing the cross-sectional shape of the light beam into a rectangle.

(A) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a biochip detection system, and more particularly, to a biochip detection system using a single broadband light source and capable of fast analysis.
(B) Description of the Related Art
The purpose of sequencing human gene is to identify the function of an individual human gene. Given an understanding of the functions of human genes, researchers may develop therapeutic methods of the treatment for various diseases that affect human beings, particularly therapeutic methods of the treatment for genetic diseases. Hence, the completion of sequencing human gene has a revolutionary impact on the test method used in detecting diseases. For instance, a person's blood is analyzed to check whether the blood contains a biomarker of a specific disease so as to check whether being attacked by a specific disease, wherein the analysis sample can be DNA and proteins, etc.
The detection process of a biochip is the key to the performance of the biochip and thus a very important step with respect to the application of biochips. Confocal laser scanning fluorescence microscopy is widely used in the detection of biochips nowadays since it is characterized in highly precise 3-D resolution for a dramatic improvement of signal-to-noise. However, it possesses a drawback of time-consuming whenever it scans a large area or numerous analysis points through a point-by-point manner. Instead of a point-by-point manner, the intensity of illumination has to be extremely uniform within the analyzing region; otherwise the detection signals can not been relatively quantized. In addition, light sources with different spectrum are required for different fluorescence biomarkers.
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a biochip detection system 10 according to the prior art, wherein the biochip detection system 10 analyzes biochips by the confocal laser scanning fluorescence microscopy. As shown in FIG. 1, the biochip detection system 10 uses a red beam 32a and a green beam 32b generated by a red laser 12a and a green laser 12b, respectively. The red beam 32a transites a first dichroic mirror 16, while the green beam 32b is reflected by the first dichroic mirror 16. Both the red beam 32a and the green beam 32b are then reflected by a second dichroic mirror 18, and focused on a biochip 22 by means of an objective lens 20. The red beam 32a and the green beam 32b illuminating on the biochip 22 excite the biomarkers on the biochip 22 to emit a first fluorescence 34a and a second fluorescence 34b, respectively. The first fluorescence 34a and the second fluorescence 34b pass through the objective lens 20, a pinhole 23 and the second dichroic mirror 18 in sequence and then reach a third dichroic mirror 24. The first fluorescence 34a transites the third dichroic mirror 24 and a red filter 28a, and is then detected by a first photo-multiplier tube 30a for measuring the intensity. The second fluorescence 34b is reflected by the third dichroic mirror 24 and transites a green filter 28b in advance, and is detected by a second photo-multiplier tube 30b for measuring the intensity.
In the conventional biochip detection system 10, laser beams of two different wavelengths are illuminated on the biochip 22 to excite the biomarker to emit fluorescence, noise is filtered out at the focus by means of the pinhole 23, and the fluorescence intensity of the two fluorescence 34a, 34b are then detected by two photo-multiplier tubes 30a, 30b. The overall cost of the conventional biochip detection system 10 is rather high. Furthermore, the above-mentioned confocal laser scanning fluorescence microscopy analyzes the sample in a point-by-point manner, thus it will be very time-consuming whenever it scans a large area or a microarray biochip with numerous detection points.

Industrial Technology Research Institute


The present invention is a method for producing a peptide or a protein in which a side chain contains a modified amino acid residue, which comprises chemically producing a peptide fragment containing an amino acid residue having a modified side chain using an weak acid-cleavable resin, producing a peptide fragment containing no amino acid residue having a modified side chain using a genetic recombination method or/and an enzymatic method, and condensing the resulting two kinds of peptide fragments and, according to the present invention, a peptide or a protein containing modification such as acylation, glycosylation and phosphorylation can be obtained effectively and at high quality.

An endogenous growth hormone secretagogue (GHS) for a growth hormone secretagogue receptor (GHS-R) which is one of orphan receptors was purified and isolated from rat stomach in 1999, and was named ghrelin (Kojima et al., Nature, vol. 402, p. 656–660, 1999). This peptide is known to have a characteristic structure in which a hydroxy group of a serine residue is acylated with a fatty acid. Further, ghrelin in which a serine residue or a threonine residue at the 3-position contains a fatty acid-modified site was isolated also from a vertebrate other than rat, such as human, mouse, pig, fowl, eel, cow, horse, sheep, frog, trout or dog, or was presumed from a cDNA (Table 1). For example, human ghrelin consists of 28 amino acids, and the serine side chain at the 3-position is acylated with a fatty acid (N-octanoic acid). It has been found that this novel peptide has strong growth hormone secretagogue activity, and modification of 3-positional serine or threonine with a fatty acid is essential for manifestation of the activity (Kojima et al., Nature, vol. 402, p. 656–660, 1999). In addition, it has been clarified that ghrelin secreted from stomach functions as a blood hormone in regulating secretion of growth hormone, and thus much attention has been paid to a physiological role of ghrelin and its application to medicaments.
TABLE 1HumanGSS (n-octanoyl) FLSPEHQRVQQRKESKKPPAKLQPRGSS (n-octanoyl) FLSPEHQRVQRKESKKPPAKLQPR RatGSS (n-octanoyl) FLSPEHQKAQQRKESKKPPAKLQPRGSS (n-octanoyl) FLSPEHQKAQRKESKKPPAKLQPR MouseGSS (n-octanoyl) FLSPEHQKAQQRKESKKPPAKLQPR PorcineGSS (n-octanoyl) FLSPEHQKVQQRKESKKPAAKLKPR BovineGSS (n-octanoyl) FLSPEHQKLQRKEAKKPSGRLKPR OvineGSS (n-octanoyl) FLSPEHQKLQRKEPKKPSGRLKPR CanineGSS (n-octanoyl) FLSPEHQKLQQRKESKKPPAKLQPR EelGSS (n-octanoyl) FLSPSQRPQGKDKKPPRV-NH2 TroutGSS (n-octanoyl) FLSPSQKPQVRQGKGKPPRV-NH2GSS (n-octanoyl) FLSPSQKPQGKGKPPRV-NH2 ChickenGSS (n-octanoyl) FLSPTYKNIQQQKGTRKPTARGSS (n-octanoyl) FLSPTYKNIQQQKDTRKPTARGSS (n-octanoyl) GLSPTYKNIQQQKDTRKPTARLH BullfrogGLT (n-octanoyl) FLSPADMQKIAERQSQNKLRHGNMGLT (n-decanoyl) FLSPADMQKIAERQSQNKLRHGNMGLT (n-octanoyl) FLSPADMQKIAERQSQNKLRHGNMN TilapiaGSS (n-octanoyl) FLSPSQKPQNKVKSSRI-NH2 CatfishGSS (n-octanoyl) FLSPTQKPQNRGDRKPPRV-NH2GSS (n-octanoyl) FLSPTQKPQNRGDRKPPRVG EquineGSS (n-butanoyl) FLSPEHHKVQHRKESKKPPAKLKPR
In addition to an octanolyl group-(C8)-modified peptide, there are butanoyl group (C4)-, hexanoyl group (C6)-, decanoyl group (C10)- and dodecanoyl group (C12)-modified peptides. Furthermore, there are unsaturated fatty acid-modified peptides.
Some peptides or proteins, like ghrelin and cholecystokinin, manifest their physiological role when a specific amino acid residue in the amino acid sequence has undergone modification such as acylation, sulfonation, glycosylation or phosphorylation. It is thought that these modifications are given by an elaborate enzyme system in a living body, and a general method for producing a modified peptide or protein in a high quality and effective manner in large quantities has not been reported yet. For example, since ghrelin exhibits growth hormone secretagogue activity by modification of a specific amino acid side chain with a long chain fatty acid, fatty acid modification is an essential structural element. However, what enzyme system of a living body is involved for ester-binding of a fatty acid to a hydroxy group of a specific amino acid side chain or for extention of a fatty acid has not been known yet. Since, in particular, ghrelin is the first physiologically active peptide clarified to have a structure in which a hydroxy group of an amino acid side chain is modified with a fatty acid, although the present peptide is a useful peptidic hormone which is expected to be a promising medicament as a curative medicine for eating disorder, a drug for promoting growth hormone, secretion, etc., production of a peptide having fatty acid modification in a specific hydroxy-containing amino acid side chain has not been generalized. That is, an industrial production method which is advantageous for mass production of such peptide has not been established at present.
Currently, various peptide or protein preparations such as insulin, growth hormone, calcitonin, atrial natriuretic peptide, LH-RH derivative and adrenocorticotropic hormone derivative are used as a medicament. As a method for producing these peptides or proteins, production by a chemical synthesis method, an enzymatic method and a genetic recombination method are known. Although, which method to be employed is appropriately selected, generally a chemical synthesis method is selected when the number of residues is small, and an enzymatic method or a genetic recombination method is selected when the number of residues is large.
A chemical synthesis method, for example, is a method by which a physiologically active peptide or protein having modification such as ghrelin, etc. can be steadily produced. Many production methods using a chemical synthesis method have been already reported as a method for producing a modified peptide or protein. In the case of ghrelin, methods are reported by Bednarek et al. (J. Med. Chem., vol. 43, p. 4370–4376, 2000) and Matsumoto et al. (Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun., vol. 284, p. 655–659, 2001). Also, International Publication No. WO 01/07475 describes a production method by a chemical synthesis method, as a method for producing a peptide which is ghrelin or a ghrelin derivative, or a salt thereof. However, in a production by a chemical synthesis method, there is usually a limitation to a chain length of a peptide which can be synthesized, while retaining constant quality (purity). Although a liquid phase chemical synthesis method can synthesize a peptide of high purity, the method is not common for synthesis of a long chain peptide due to the solubility, long producing step and special techniques necessary for the reaction treatment. Namely, effective production in large quantities is difficult in a production method using a liquid phase chemical synthesis method. On the other hand, a solid phase chemical synthesis for extending a peptide chain on a resin has a simplified step, and is more advantageous for mass production, but this method also has a limitation on a constructable chain length to obtain desired products having constant quality. In addition, there is also a problem that the method is inferior in economic property because of excessive reagents used, in particular, in production of a long chain peptide.
Meanwhile, a method for enzymatically coupling a peptide fragment such as an enzymatic method is excellent in that protection of an amino acid side chain can be minimized. In this method, however, since a reverse reaction of hydrolysis is usually used, the condition setting is in principle difficult, and thus the method is not practical.
On the other hand, production of a physiologically active peptide or protein by a genetic recombination method is a useful production method suitable for mass production. However, in a method using a prokaryote such as Escherichia coli having high productivity, it is difficult to directly produce a peptide having a modified site, since a prokaryote has no posttranslational modification system. In a genetic recombination method using a eukaryote such as yeast and various egg cells, modification such as glycosylation, acylation, sulfonation and phospholyration is possible, however, regarding a fatty acid, for example, it is difficult to introduce only fatty acid having a constant length. Among isolated ghrelins, ghrelins having not only octanoic acid (C8) but also butanoic acid (C4), decanoic acid (C10), or unsaturated fatty acid of them have been found, and thus it is clear that controlling the introduction of a fatty acid having a specific chain length is difficult. In addition, since productivity by a eukaryote is generally low, production system of yeast and various egg cells having modification system has much room for improvement from a viewpoint of mass production of a modified peptide or protein such as ghrelin.
As described above, although a chemical synthesis method has been known as a method for synthesizing a modified peptide or protein, and there are already various reports, such method has a room for improvement in yield and cost for the purpose of mass production. It is difficult to directly produce a modified peptide or protein by a genetic recombination method using a prokaryote such Escherichia coli. Also, production by a genetic recombination method using a eukaryote such as yeast has a problem in unity or productivity, and thus there is a room for improvement in order to overcome this problem. In an enzymatic method using a reverse reaction of hydrolysis, it is difficult to set respective condensation conditions and, therefore, this method cannot be said an advantageous method for mass production.
As described above, there has been a room for further improvement in an effective production of a peptide or a protein having modification such as glycosylation, acylation, sulfonation, phosphorylation, etc., which satisfies quality and quantitative elements, by the independent application of a conventionally known chemical synthesis method, an enzymatic method or a genetic recombination method alone.
Then, as one of methods utilizing advantages of the aforementioned methods and compensating the defects of the methods, there may be exemplified a semi-synthesis method obtained by combination of a chemical synthesis method and a genetic recombination method. An important point of the production method is to effectively produce a peptide fragment in a form suitable for condensation. A peptide fragment having a modified amino acid residue (hereinafter, also referred to as modified component) and a peptide fragment having no modified amino acid residue (hereinafter, also referred to as non-modified component) may be in an N-terminal side or a C-terminal side, or there may be a plurality of modified components. A production method can be designed appropriately depending on a desired peptide or protein. As one example, the case where a modified component is present on an N-terminal side, and another peptide fragment to be condensed with the peptide fragment (modified component) is a non-modified component will be described in detail.
A native chemical ligation method (Dawson et al., Science, vol. 266, p. 776–779, 1994) which has been paid attention to recently has a defect that a Cys residue remains on a ligation site. Recently, however, a thioester method obtained by improvement of the aforementioned method has been proposed. For example, Kawakami et al. have reported a phosphorylated peptide synthesis by a method using thioester (Tetrahedron Letter, vol. 41, p. 2625–2628, 2000).
A specific example of the thioester method will be described below. In an example of synthesis of a phosphorylated p21Max protein (Kawakami et al., Tetrahedron Lett., vol. 39, p. 7901–7904, 1998), a peptide fragment (modified component)(13 mer) containing a phosphoric acid-modified site is produced as thioester by a solid phase chemical synthesis method. On the other hand, a peptide fragment having a sequence in which one amino acid residue is added to the N-terminus of a non-modified component is produced in Escherichia coli, glyoxylic acid is acted on this in the presence of a divalent copper or nickel ion to convert an amino acid residue added to the N-terminus into an α-ketoacyl group, and a side chain amino group is protected with a Boc group. Then, an α-ketoacyl group is removed with phenylenediamine, thereby a peptide fragment (non-modified component) in which only an amino acid group in the N-terminal amino acid residue is freed is produced. Finally, these both fragments are condensed by adding an active esterifying agent such as silver salt, excessive HOOBt, etc.
Also in the aforementioned method, there still remains the following problem. There is a problem on stability of the thioester in production of a peptide fragment (modified component), and it is reported that the yield is 11%. In addition, for production of a peptide fragment (non-modified component), the said method using an α-ketoacyl group is a potential choice as a chemical method of freeing a N-terminal amino group. However, the method has a safety problem in that an α-ketoacyl group is unstable, and a mutagenic substance such as phenylenediamine is used for eliminating the group, when a physiologically active peptide or protein for a medicament is produced. In addition, an active esterifying agent such as silver salt, excessive HOOBt, etc. is used in a reaction of condensing both fragments and, therefore, there is also a problem on racemization, toxicity and cost.
A semi-synthesis method combining a chemical synthesis method and a genetic recombinant method is described in International Publication No. WO 01/07475 as a method for producing a peptide which is ghrelin or a ghrelin derivative, or a salt thereof. More specifically, there is described a method for producing rat ghrelin (1–28) by condensing rat ghrelin (1–5) prepared by a chemical synthesis method with rat ghrelin (6–28) prepared by a genetic recombination method. However, since such method also has the following problem, there is a room for much improvement in order to obtain an efficient and industrially advantageous production method. That is, there is a room for improving productivity in consideration of that, when rat ghrelin (1–5) is obtained by eliminating a peptide chain with TFA from a resin, a Boc group and a t-Bu group are at the same time removed, and thus it is necessary to introduce again a Boc group into a N-terminus, and that since a Ser side chain becomes unprotected, a strong activating agent can not be used for condensation with rat ghrelin (6–28), etc. Furthermore, in a process of condensing protected rat ghrelin (1–5) and protected rat ghrelin (6–28), a C-terminal amino acid of an acylpeptide fragment part may be racemized, and therefore there is a room for improvement in order to prevent this problem. Herein, ghrelin (m–n) means a peptide having an amino acid sequence of mth to nth from an N-terminus of ghrelin. Hereinafter, the same.
In addition, there are some problems in preparation of a protected peptide fragment (non-modified component). A method for producing protected rat ghrelin (6–28) described in International Publication No. WO 01/07475 fundamentally adopts a two-step enzyme treatment method (International Publication NO. WO 99/38984) and, as a processing enzyme therefor, two kinds of enzymes, i.e. a recombinant V8 protease derivative (rV8D5)(JP-A No. 9-47291) and a Kex2 protease (JP-A No. 10-229884), are used. However, since a plasmid (pG97s rGR) expressing a fusion protein containing protected rat ghrelin (6–28) is constructed based on a plasmid (JP-A No. 9-296000) which highly expresses a fusion protein of Escherichia coli β-galactosidase derivative and human parathyroid hormone (1–34), a linker sequence suitable for its amino acid sequence may need to be selected in preparation of a protected peptide fragment (non-modified component).
Furthermore, since there is phenomenon that a protecting group for protected rat ghrelin (6–28) is eliminated in an aqueous solution, a recovery rate in purification step is very low as 10%, and therefore there is still a problem for stable supply of ghrelin in large quantities.
As described above, even a combination of a chemical synthesis method and a genetic recombinant method has a further problem in order to realize a method for efficiently producing a modified physiologically active peptide or protein, which is very safe enough to be used as a medicament.


A photomask arrangement is disclosed to prevent the reticle patterns of a photomask from peeling caused by electrostatic discharge damage. The photomask includes: a substrate; a plurality of metal shielding layers formed on the surface of the substrate to provide the reticle patterns, wherein each two of the metal shielding layers are spaced apart by a clear scribe line; and a plurality of metal lines formed on the clear scribe line to connect the adjacent metal shielding layers, thereby increasing the effective surface area of the reticle patterns.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to a photomask arrangement for preventing reticle patterns from peeling caused by electrostatic discharge damage. More particularly, the invention provides a modified photomask which increases the effective surface area of the reticle patterns by forming a plurality of metal lines on a clear scribe line to connect the adjacent metal shielding layers.
2. Description of Related Art
Photolithography is one of the most important techniques utilized in the manufacture of today's semiconductor integrated circuits. Most semiconductor device structures are defined by this process. In fabricating a transistor, for example, both of the thin film patterns and the impurity diffusion regions are defined by a photolithography process. Therefore, the smallest feature line width that can be achieved by the photolithography process is usually used to determine the capability of a semiconductor plant.
FIG. 1 shows a conventional photolithography process. First, a photosensitive material 12, such as a photoresist layer, is coated on the surface of a silicon wafer 10. A parallel light (indicated by the arrows) then passes through a photomask 14 made of glass or quartz into the photosensitive material 12. An exposor (not shown) is used to provide the parallel light. As is known in the art, the minimum resolution depends on the wavelength of the light source. For example, an I-line (with a wavelength of 3650 .ANG.) stepper normally can provide a minimum resolution of about 0.35 .mu.m.
Next, by using a photochemical reaction of the photosensitive material 12, patterns in the photomask 14 are transferred to the surface of the silicon wafer 10. Usually, the patterns in the photomask 14 are provided by forming a chrome reticle thereon (the shaded area in the drawing). Since the parallel light emitted from an exposor is passed through the photomask 14 into the photosensitive material 12, the photochemical reaction selectively occurs in an area of the photosensitive material 12 not shielded by the chrome reticle. After developing, the photosensitive material 12 has the desired patterns corresponding to those of the photomask 14. The patterned photosensitive material 12 is then used as a mask for defining various structures in the silicon wafer 10.
This is the basic principle of a photolithography process that transfers the patterns of the photomask 14 into the photosensitive material 12. Generally, a so-called positive-type photolithography process is used for fabricating a device having a feature size smaller than 3 .mu.m. That is, the remaining pattern of the photosensitive material 12 is the same as that of the photomask 14.
FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view schematically illustrating a conventional photomask. As shown in the drawing, the photomask includes a glass (or quartz) 20, a chrome film 22, and a pellicle 28 placed on a base 30 which is fixed by a supporting frame 26. The glass 20 is the body of the photomask. The chrome film 22 is formed on the surface of the glass 20 to provide the reticle pattern. The pellicle 28 is used to segregate particles from the surface of the chrome film 22. Thus, any particles adhering to the photomask will not act as a shield during the photolithography process because they are out of focus. Furthermore, a pod 24 covers the glass 20 of the photomask to prevent it from being stained with particles which generally cause repeating defects on the silicon wafer.
During handling of the photomask, such as during inspecting, cleaning and transporting, the operators may rub the pod 24 with their PVC glove by accident. Static charges are formed on the surface of the pod 24 which, in turn, induce corresponding charges on the surface of the glass 20 and the chrome film 22. Because the chrome film 22 has a small area, the induced charges on the glass 20 and the chrome film 22 form a relative high static potential thereon. Generally, a conventional photomask can sustain a static potential no more than 14 kv/inch. However, the static potential caused by the PVC glove would be greater than 15 kv/inch. This high static potential finally causes electrostatic discharge damage to the reticle pattern, i.e., the chrome film 22 peels.
FIG. 3A illustrates, in top view, the chrome film layout of a conventional photomask. As can be seen in the drawing, there are four spaced-apart chrome films 22a, 22b, 22c, and 22d formed on a photomask. A clear scribe line 32 is formed around these four chrome films 22a, 22b, 22c, and 22d for their isolation. Since each of the chrome films 22a, 22b, 22c, and 22d has a small area and no line is formed therebetween, there is no path to spread the static charges caused by an accidental rub from one chrome film to the other. Thus, the static charges form a relative high static field on the chrome films 22a, 22b, 22c, and 22d, causes electrostatic discharge damage.
Referring to FIG. 3B, a break on the chrome film 22 caused by a high static field is depicted. As shown in the drawing, the break usually appears at a corner 34 of the chrome film 22, i.e., the area where the electrostatic discharge occurs.
Accordingly, several modified photomask designs have been disclosed to overcome the problem of electrostatic discharged damage. One of the modified photomasks is shown in FIG. 4. A gold film 40 having a thickness of about 60 .ANG. is sputtered on the surface of the photomask to connect all of the chrome films 22. However, there are some drawbacks to forming such gold film 40 on the surface of photomask. First, it is not easy to form a gold film 40 with a thickness of only 60 .ANG. using today's process techniques. The yield from fabricating this kind of photomask is poor. Furthermore, the additional step of forming a gold film 40 on the surface of a photomask increases the manufacturing complexity and cost.
Another approach to the problem has been to neutralize the static charges on the chrome film 22 with opposite-type ions generated by an ionizer. The static field can be reduced since the amount of static charge on the chrome film 22 is decreased. Hence, the reticle patterns of photomask can be prevented from incurring electrostatic discharge damage.
FIG. 5 is a chart showing the relationship of the static potential and the ionizer treatment time. As shown in the drawing, the static potential of the chrome film 22 can be reduced from 15 kv/inch to less than 1 kv/inch in 20 minutes. However, the chrome film 22 is damaged before the ionizer treatment since the static potential has increased to more than 14 kv/inch. Therefore, a break caused by the high static potential occurs at the corner of the chrome film 22 as well.

Photomask arrangement protecting reticle patterns from electrostatic discharge damage (ESD)

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.


A slide window and door lock includes a connecting device selectively mounted on a vertical jamb of a sliding panel at a predetermined height with respect to a base slider track of a supporting frame and a locker panel having one pivot edge pivotally connecting to the connecting device and another opposed locking edge adapted for inclinedly biasing against the base slider track at a predetermined angle so as to lock up the sliding panel in a slidably movable manner.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a sliding side window and door, and more particularly to a side window and door lock which is adapted for selectively locking the side window and door at a predetermined opened position, so as to prevent the side window and door from being slidably opened unintentionally.
2. Description of Related Arts
Referring to FIG. 1A, a conventional sliding door/window assembly 1 comprises a door/window frame 10 for supporting the door/window thereon wherein the door/window frame 10, having a sliding panel 12 and a fixed panel 11, is supporting on the supporting frame 20 in such a manner that the sliding panel 12 of the door/window frame 10 is slidably mounted on a base slider track 21 of a supporting frame 20 in such a manner that the sliding panel 12 is vertically and reciprocally sliding along the base slider track 21 of the supporting frame 20 to open and close the door/window assembly 1.
Generally, the conventional door/window assembly 1 further comprises a lock mechanism for locking the sliding panel 12 on the supporting frame 20 at a fully closed position. As shown in FIGS. 1B through 1D, the lock mechanism varies from use of a pin that penetrates through the sliding panel 12 and the fixed panel 11, a hook that hooks the sliding panel 12 to the supporting frame 20 at fully closed position, or by clamping a locker on the base slider track 21 of the supporting frame 20 so as to block the sliding panel 12 from being slid aside. One problem with the existing lock mechanisms is that the lock mechanisms can only lock up the sliding panel 12 at the fully closed position. 1f one wants to lock the door or window at an opened position, the lock is rendered useless. Although an adjustable lock that is detachably mounted at the base slider track 21 of the supporting frame 20 can solve the above mentioned problem, however, the current adjustable lock requires constant attaching and detaching in order for one to change the opening position of the door/window assembly 1.
As shown in FIG. 1E, an improved lock mechanism comprises a handle hinge rotatably mounted on a vertical jamb 121 of the sliding panel 12 and a locking arm extended sidewardly for biasing against the fixed panel 11 wherein the handle hinge is arranged to move the locking arm from a locking position, i.e. the locking arm is biased against the fixed panel 11, to an unlocked position, i.e. the locking arm is moved away from the fixed panel 11, so as to selectively lock up the sliding panel at a predetermined opened position. However, the original structure of the door/window assembly must be altered its original structure in order to install the lock mechanism thereinto, which will increase the manufacturing cost and installation fee of the door/window assembly.
A main object of the present invention is to provide a slide door and window lock which is adapted for securely locking a slide door/window in a slidably movable manner, so as to prevent the slide door/window from being slidably opened.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a slide door and window lock which is adapted for selectively locking the slide door/window at a predetermined opened position.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a slide door and window lock which can be fitted for an existing slide door/window without altering its original structural design so as to minimize the cost of manufacturing cost of the slide door/window having a vertical jamb.
Accordingly, in order to accomplish the above objects, the present invention provides a slide window and door lock for window/door assembly which comprises a sliding panel, having a vertical jamb, slidably mounted on a base slider track, wherein the slide window/door lock comprises:
a connecting device selectively mounted on the vertical jamb at a predetermined height with respect to the base slider track; and
a locker panel having one pivot edge pivotally connecting to the connecting device and another opposed locking edge selectively moved between a locked position and an unlocked position, wherein in the locked position, the locking edge of the locker panel is inclinedly biased against the base slider track at a predetermined angle so as to lock up the sliding panel in a slidably movable manner and in the unlocked position, the locking edge of the locker panel is moved away from the base slider track such that the sliding panel is capably of freely sliding along the base slider track.


Devices and methods are provided for forming a hole in bone and implanting a suture anchor in the bone hole. The devices and methods disclosed herein allow a suture coupled to tissue to be passed through a shaft that is also configured to receive a drill bit. Exemplary guide devices are provided having a shaft with a cross-sectional shape that allows the suture to be seated in a secondary region that is offset from a primary region that receives the drill bit therethrough. A drill bit can be passed through the shaft without causing any damage to the suture extending through the shaft, and subsequently an anchor can be advanced along the suture through the shaft and guided into the bone hole.

When soft tissue tears away from bone, reattachment becomes necessary. Various devices, including sutures, screws, staples, wedges, anchors and plugs have been used in the prior art to secure soft tissue to bone. In ball-and-socket joints, such as the shoulder or hip, reattachment is often necessary due to the high stress and movement demanded of the ball-and-socket bone structures. Often, such procedures involve surgical reattachment of labral tissue. The labral tissue, or labrum, is a type of soft tissue or cartilage that surrounds the socket of ball-and-socket joints, such as the shoulder and the hip joint. The labrum forms a ring around the edge of the bony socket of the joint, and helps to provide stability to the joint, yet unlike bone, it also allows flexibility and motion.
Current procedures can involve the use of a knotless suture anchor for reattaching the labrum to the bone, as knotless anchors avoid the need to tie a knot in a constricted space, such as a ball-and-socket joint. A suture is first passed through the tissue to be reattached, and the trailing ends of the suture extending outside of the patient are then loaded onto the anchor. A drill guide is typically passed through the tissue and positioned in alignment with the anchor site, and a drill bit is passed through the drill guide to form a hole in the bone. The suture is positioned off to the side while the hole is being formed. Once the bone hole is prepared, the drill guide is removed and the anchor can be inserted into the bone hole using an inserter tool. The suture is tensioned during advancement of the anchor so as to pull the tissue toward the bone hole, thereby anchoring the tissue to the bone.
While knotless anchors can be very effective in reattaching soft tissue to bone, the small size of the anchor and the tight constraints of the ball-and-socket joint can make it difficult to locate the bone hole and to insert the anchor into the bone hole. In the shoulder joint, for example, the humeral head will typically return to its resting position within the socket after the drill guide is removed, obstructing the path to the hole. In the hip, visualization of the hole can be a challenge due to challenging angles and the tight nature of the joint space.
Accordingly, there is a need for improved methods and devices for guiding an anchor, such as a knotless suture anchor, into a bone hole.


A fluid valve has a valve plug configured as follows. In order to control a flow rate of a fluid between a first pressure chamber and a second pressure chamber, the valve plug is provided so as to be openable and closable in accordance with a difference between forces generated by pressures in the pressure chambers and resilience of an elastic member. The fluid valve includes an opening motion promoting portion. The opening motion promoting portion promotes an increase in degree of opening of the valve plug after the valve plug has been opened.

There is known a technique described in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2016-70450 ("the '450 Publication") and related to a hydraulic valve that is a type of fluid valve for controlling a fluid pressure such as a hydraulic pressure, a pneumatic pressure, or a water pressure in a particular pressure chamber.
The hydraulic valve has two pressure chambers, each of which includes a port connected to a hydraulic device. The two pressure chambers are partitioned from each other with an opening/closing portion composed of a valve plug and a valve seat. The valve plug and the valve seat move relative to each other, and when the valve plug and the valve seat are separated from each other to form a gap therebetween, the two pressure chambers are connected to each other. When a difference (a pressure difference) between a pressure in one of the pressure chambers and a pressure in the other pressure chamber becomes equal to or higher than a preset value, the two pressure chambers are connected to each other, and thus the pressure difference is eliminated.

Fluid valve and opening motion promoting device


An apparatus or support having a hammock member, a hammock support member, and a frame that can be disposed in an expanded configuration and a collapsed configuration. The hammock member has a first end portion connected to a first end portion of the frame and a second end portion connected to a second end portion of the frame. The hammock support member extends from a first side portion of the hammock member to a second side portion of the hammock member.

This invention relates generally to a support having multiple configurations, and in particular, to a support, such as a hammock support, that can be disposed in an expanded configuration and in a collapsed configuration.
Conventional hammocks and hammock supports can be used to support a user. Such hammocks and hammock supports are often transported and used in various outdoor settings, such as in a backyard or at a campground. Conventional hammocks and hammock supports, however, are difficult to transport because of their size and weight.
A need, therefore, exists for a hammock and hammock support that can be easily converted from an expanded configuration to a collapsed configuration and easily transported from one location to another.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A process is provided for the preparation of 1,3-diamino-4,6-dinitrobenzene by amination of 1,3-dihalo-4,6-dinitrobenzene. The presence of water advantageously results in a highly pure product, free or essentially free of glycol ether impurities.

The compound 1,3-diamino-4,6-dinitrobenzene ("DADNB"), which is represented by the structure of the following Formula (I):
is conventionally used as a starting material or intermediate in the preparation of a variety of products, which include dyes, pharmaceuticals, and monomers for incorporation into polybenzimidazole polymers such as those described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,783,137.
DADNB can be made by contacting a suspension of 1,3-dichloro-4,6-dinitrobenzene ("DCDNB") in glycol with ammonia and heating, according, for example, to the method described in Boyer et al, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 82, 2213 (1960). Current processes for making DADNB produce a by-product glycol ether, as represented by the structure of the following Formula (II):

DADNB is very difficult and costly to recrystallize because of its poor solubility in common solvents, and this glycol ether impurity thus remains in the final DADNB product. As a consequence, the purity and properties of downstream products made directly or remotely from DADNB, such as 1,2,4,5-tetraminobenzene ("TAB"), is compromised.
For example, TAB is a precursor to high-performance polymers such as polybenzimidazoles, which are used to make high-performance, high-strength fibers. The purity of the precursors affects the polymer molecular weight that can be achieved, which in turn determines whether satisfactory fibers can be produced.
There thus remains a need for an improved process for making high-purity 1,3-diamino-4,6-dinitrobenzene.

Process for the synthesis of 1,3-diamino-4,6-dinitrobenzene


An event execution method includes executing a first event by a first application client logged in on a mobile terminal of a user by using a first account of the user to obtain first event result information, the first event result information indicating an account resource to be deducted, displaying the first event result information on a screen of a processing device, and requesting to execute a second event by using the processing device, the second event being to deduct an amount of resource from a second account associated with the first account.

With the development of mobile Internet technologies, an increasingly large number of applications are ported from personal computers (PC) to mobile terminals. Although it is very convenient and fast to execute different events in an application by using mobile terminals, events in some applications are subject to various restrictions due to the mobile terminals. For example, as compared with a PC, a mobile terminal has a limited processing capability. Therefore, some applications only open processing rights of some events for a client installed on the mobile terminal. For example, the application may reject processing by the mobile terminal when an excessively large amount of data needs to be processed for the involved events.
Further, normal execution of these application events cannot be ensured when these applications only allow registration and login on a mobile terminal but not registration on a PC, or when a mobile terminal and a PC have different account systems and therefore an account registered on the mobile terminal cannot be logged in on the PC.
That is, methods for executing events by using mobile terminals provided in the related technology are subject to many restrictions, resulting in a problem that an event on a mobile terminal cannot be executed on a PC.

Event execution method, device, and system

TENCENT TECHNOLOGY (SHENZHEN) COMPANY LIMITED


A debonding leveling device and a debonding method are for leveling during a process for debonding a first object and a second object. The first and second objects are retained by a first fixation plate (11) and a second fixation plate (21), respectively. The device includes: a mounting plate (30), disposed at an outer side of one of the first (11) and second (21) fixation plates; a connecting rod assembly (40) fixed around a center position of the mounting plate (30), the connecting rod assembly (40) connected to the one of the first (11) and second (21) fixation plates sequentially via a sliding pair (50) and a spherical pair (60) connected to the sliding pair (50); and at least three elastic assemblies (70) disposed between the mounting plate and the one of the first and second fixation plates, each of the elastic assemblies coupled to the mounting plate (30) and the one of the first (11) and second (21) fixation plates. The combination of the spherical pair and the sliding pair allows an adaptation of leveling objects to dynamic changes of the reference, and the elastic assemblies performs a leveling for the leveling objects in real-time based on an orientation of the reference. This entails a simple structure with a reasonable layout, which is easy to use in practice and is particularly helping in dynamic leveling applications without requiring an active control.

In today's era of big data, the semiconductor industry is growing and expanding rapidly, constantly impacting every aspect of the society, including automotive, industrial, medical, network, mobile communications, consumer electronics and etc.
Modern society is now undergoing revolutionary changes. In the semiconductor industry, wafer fabrication is a vital part and larger production capacities are always pursued.
Debonding is an important step in a wafer fabrication process and is targeted to separate a wafer that is bonded to a glass substrate. During debonding, the wafer and the glass substrate are individually retained, and an external force is then applied to one of them along a bonding surface of the wafer and the glass substrate so that the wafer and the glass substrate are separated from each other. As shown in FIG. 1, a bonded wafer comprises a silicon wafer 10 and a glass substrate 20. The silicon wafer 10 and the glass substrate 20 are fixed by a first fixation plate 11 and a second fixation plate 21, respectively. During debonding, a force F is exerted on one of them until the silicon wafer 10 is completely separated from the glass substrate 20, as shown in FIG. 2. During their separation, the silicon wafer 10 and the glass substrate 20 must be kept in parallel to each other. Otherwise, damage may result due to progressively increasing squeezing pressure. There are mainly two factors that may destroy the parallelism: 1) residual errors remaining from system commissioning; and 2) geometric irregularities in the wafer, which occur randomly and vary dynamically, and thus a leveling device is required to perform an adjustment. Although a conventional mechanical leveling device can solve the problem of residual errors, as only one attitude can be maintained after adjusting, the device is typically incapable of a real-time leveling during a whole separation process. Although a real-time monitoring can be achieved by using photoelectric sensors forming a closed-loop system, it tends to be too expensive, so that the device may lose its competitiveness in the market.
Chinese Patent No. CN2559457Y, issued on Jul. 9, 2003, discloses a three degree of freedom (3-DOF) mechanism capable of rotating in both the Rx- and Ry-directions with the aid of three sliding pairs, three spherical pairs, one revolute pair and one 2-DOF universal joint and translating in the Z-direction with the aid of three sliding pairs. During rotation of an upper platform in the Rx- or Ry-direction, only one of the kinematic pairs positioned at the right-angle vertex of a right triangle remains horizontally stationary. In order to maintain the upper platform horizontally stationary relative to a lower platform, the right-angle vertex of the right triangle needs to be aligned with geometric centers of the two platforms. As such, the 3-DOF mechanism assumes an eccentric configuration. In the disclosed structure of this patent, in order to achieve a 3-DOF movement, the kinematic pairs on the upper and lower platforms are required to be arranged at the vertices of respective two congruent right triangles. However, due to fabrication and assembly tolerances, it is difficult to achieve a perfect congruence.
In addition, structural details of three telescopic rods mentioned in the above document remain unclear from the disclosure thereof. It is inferable that their horizontal rigidity and vertical damping must be high enough to ensure desirable overall stiffness and positional control, which may lead to a high structural complexity.

De-bonding leveling device and de-bonding method

Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment (Group) Co., Ltd.


An image forming system includes a first image forming apparatus and a second image forming apparatus. The first image forming apparatus includes a register and a first custom box. The register registers a share program for executing particular processing. The first custom box stores a job transmitted from the second image forming apparatus. The second image forming apparatus includes a communication device and a remote instructor. The communication device transmits the job to the first custom box of the first image forming apparatus. The remote instructor gives an instruction to the first image forming apparatus to start processing based on the share program. The first image forming apparatus includes a processing executor. Upon receipt of the instruction to start processing from the remote instructor, the processing executor executes the particular processing based on the share program on the job stored in the first custom box.

The present disclosure relates to image forming systems and particularly relates to a technique in which, in an image forming system where a plurality of image forming apparatuses including higher-level and lower-level ones are connected via a network, a performance or function possessed by the higher-level apparatus only is utilized by the lower-level apparatus.
Some image forming systems including a plurality of image forming apparatuses connected via a network perform parallel printing. For example, in a general image forming system, a plurality of image forming apparatuses having parallel printing function (for example, which is composed of a single master apparatus and two slave apparatuses) are connected via a network and the three apparatuses can concurrently do printing in such a manner that the master apparatus shares a single copy job accepted by itself with the two slave apparatuses. When the single copy job accepted by the master apparatus is, for example, a job of printing nine copies of an original document, each of the three apparatuses prints three copies. Thus, the copying efficiency is increased and, particularly during mass copying, the operation time can be significantly reduced.

Image forming system including plural image forming apparatuses connected via network


Provided are a pointing device allowing accurate depressing operation on a key top and involving no erroneous input or erroneous operation, and a key sheet for the pointing device. On the back surface of a base sheet (14) of a key sheet (15) for a pointing device, an accommodating portion (17) for a magnet (13), for accommodating portion greatly protrudes toward a board (P) beyond a pusher (14b) is provided. When the key top (12) is depressed, the accommodating portion (17) and the magnet (13) come into contact with the board (P), and causes the depressed key top (12) to tilt using the point of contact as a fulcrum, thereby pressing the pusher (14b) against a contact switch (Pi, Po). Thus, it is possible to reduce the thickness and weight of the pointing device (10) and the key sheet (15) for the pointing device. Further, a reduction is achieved in terms of the possibility of erroneous input and erroneous operation, making it possible to reliably effect confirmation input.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a pointing device to be used as an operating device of an electronic apparatus, such as a mobile phone, a PDA, or a game controller, and to a key sheet to be used in the pointing device, in particular, a magnetism detection type pointing device which detects a change in magnetic flux density through lateral movement operation of a key top to determine a lateral position of the key top and which also functions as a key capable of performing confirmation input through key top depressing operation, and to a key sheet for the pointing device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Operating devices for electronic apparatuses and the input systems for them are being diversified. In this context, there is known a magnetism detection type pointing device which detects with a magnetic sensor a change in magnetic flux density due to "lateral movement" of a magnet through, for example, tilting of a key top, and which utilizes this change as a lateral position input signal. Above all, a pointing device which also functions as a key capable of confirmation input through key top depressing operation is used as an input key of a mobile phone, etc., and is disclosed, for example, in JP 2004-62447 A. As shown in FIG. 10, in such a pointing device, a magnet is embedded and retained in a key top to be operated.
In a magnetism detection type pointing device (1) as shown in FIG. 10, a magnet (2) is inside a key top (3), so the distance between the magnet (2) and magnetic sensors (4) is rather large. Thus, to attain a sufficient sensitivity property, it is necessary for the magnet (2) to be large or for the magnetic force to be strong. An attempt to meet this demand results in an increase in the thickness of the key top (3), an increase in the weight of the pointing device (1), etc. Further, when a magnet with strong magnetic force is used, there is a fear of the magnetic force being leaked to the exterior to adversely affect peripheral devices, a magnetic card, etc.
Further, the key top (3) is used to effect directional input (lateral position input) through lateral movement operation and confirmation input through depression of a contact belleville spring (Po) on a board (P) by depressing the key top in a direction substantially perpendicular to the lateral movement direction to thereby bring a board contact (Pi) into conduction, so that it is necessary for the key top (3) to be capable of moving vertically and horizontally. However, a large movable range for the key top (3) and a high degree of freedom in movement thereof can lead to an increase in the looseness of the key top (3) at the time of operation, making it rather difficult to effect accurate depressing operation. When the depressing operation is not properly effected on the key top (3), erroneous input or erroneous operation results.

Pointing device and key sheet for pointing device


A cleaner for the inside of a water tank is designed to draw up water stored within the water tank for aquarium fishes such as goldfishes, tropical fishes and the like to discharge the water to the outside. In this cleaner, a draw-up pipe is comprised of a body portion, and a grip portion connected at an angle of 90xc2x0 or more to the body portion. A first one-way valve and a second one-way valve are mounted within the draw-up pipe. Thus, the cleaner has a good manipulatability, so that air stored in the cleaner can be reliably discharged, and the discharging of water can be carried out reliably.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improvement of a cleaner for the inside of a water tank, which is designed so that water stored within the water tank used for breeding or rearing and bringing up aquarium fishes such as goldfishes, tropical fishes, saltwater fishes and the like, particularly, dirty water stored in the bottom of the water tank, can be drawn up and discharged to the outside of the water tank.
2. Description of the Related Art
To breed or rear and bring up aquarium fishes such as goldfishes, tropical fishes and the like within a water tank, in general, a purifying means is provided which comprises an internal-type or external-type filter device placed in the water tank and including an air pump or an underwater pump, so that the water stored in the water tank is forcibly circulated into the filter device by driving the pump. Water having a satisfactory quality required for breeding or rearing and bringing up fishes cannot be obtained by use of only such purifying means. For this reason, it is conventionally necessary to periodically renew the water within the water tank. There is a cleaner for such renewal of the water, which is known, for example, from Japanese Patent Publication No.6-55087.
Such cleaner is designed to draw up the water within the water tank through a draw-up pipe to the outside by utilizing a siphonage, and is comprised of the hard draw-up pipe and a flexible water conduit pipe which is withdrawably connected to a base end of the draw-up pipe. The draw-up pipe includes a straight body portion having a tip end opened, and a grip portion integrally connected at substantially right angles to a base end of the body portion. Further, a single one-way valve is provided within the draw-up pipe to permit flowing of the water from the front end to the base end of the draw-up pipe. Such cleaner is widespread, because it has an advantage that dirty water within the water tank, particularly, a filth such as leftover and excrement sedimented in the bottom of the water tank can be drawn up and discharged efficiently along with the dirty water.
However, the following disadvantages have been found in the course of servicing of the above cleaner, and it has been made clear that there. is room for further improvement in the cleaner.
(1) The draw-up pipe of the cleaner is bent to form an angle of substantially 90xc2x0 between the body portion and the grip portion. Therefore, during service of the cleaner, the grip portion may hit an edge of the water tank and as a result, it may sometimes be difficult to manipulate the cleaner.
(2) Depending on the service state of the cleaner, air may remain accumulated in that upper portion of a bent section between the body portion and the grip portion which is an uppermost portion of the draw-up pipe, and this may obstruct the smooth drawing-up of the water by the siphonage.
(3) The connected portion of the flexible water conduit pipe to the draw-up pipe may be deteriorated with the passage of time, resulting in an insufficient water-tight connection of the conduit pipe to the draw-up pipe, or in slipping-off of the conduit pipe from the draw-up pipe.
(4) If the angle of bending of the connected portion of the flexible water conduit pipe to the draw-up pipe is too large, a narrower area is formed to obstruct the flowing of the water. Therefore, to prevent the above disadvantages, it is required that the connected portion of the conduit pipe is formed so that it is prevented from being bent, e.g., is formed into a double-pipe construction, thereby bringing about an increase in cost.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a novel cleaner for the inside of a water tank, wherein all the above-described disadvantages have been solved.
To achieve the above object, according to a first aspect and feature of the present invention, there is provided a cleaner for the inside of a water tank, which is designed to draw up water stored in the water tank by the siphonage to discharge the water to the outside of the water tank, and which comprises a draw-up pipe comprised of a straight body portion, and a grip portion connected to the body portion at 90xc2x0 or more in communication therebetween, a flexible water conduit pipe connected to a downstream end of the draw-up pipe, a first one-way valve mounted in an appropriate place within the draw-up pipe to permit flowing of water from the draw-up pipe only to the conduit pipe, and a second one-way valve mounted within the draw-up pipe at a location downstream of the first one-way valve to permit flowing of water from the draw-up pipe only to the conduit pipe. p With the above arrangement, the draw-up pipe is less likely to hit an edge of the water tank and hence, it is easy to manipulate the cleaner within the water tank. Moreover, even if the draw-up pipe is in any drawing-up attitude within the water tank, air resident within the draw-up pipe, particularly within an upper portion of the draw-up pipe can be reliably discharged to the outside along with water, and the water discharging efficiency can be enhanced.
According to a second aspect and feature of the present invention, in addition to the first feature, a joint pipe attached to the water conduit pipe is connected to a downstream end of the draw-up pipe, and a hard outer pipe is fitted over and covers an outer periphery of a connection between the drawn-up pipe and the joint pipe, so as to prevent the slip-off of the water conduit pipe by the outer pipe, and to prevent the water conduit pipe from being folded to such an extent as obstructing the flowing of water therein.
With the above arrangement, it is possible to ensure the connection of the draw-up pipe to the water conduit pipe, and to prevent the extreme folding of the flexible water conduit pipe, so that water always flows smoothly within the water conduit pipe. Thus, it is possible to enhance the water discharging efficiency.
The above and other objects, features and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following description of the preferred embodiments taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.


A power output apparatus 110 includes a planetary gear 120 having a planetary carrier, a sun gear, and a ring gear, an engine 150 having a crankshaft 156 linked with the planetary carrier, a first motor MG1 attached to the sun gear, and a second motor MG2 attached to the ring gear. Part of the torque generated by the engine 150 is output to a power feed gear 128 via the ring gear, while the first motor MG1 receives the residual torque. The second motor MG2 outputs a torque having a greater magnitude than and an opposite direction to this torque, so as to rotate the ring gear reversely. The electric power consumed by the second motor MG2 is supplied by the electric power regenerated by the first motor MG1. This structure enables the power output from the engine 150 to be converted to a power of reverse direction and output to the ring gear.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a power output apparatus and a method of controlling the same. More specifically the present invention pertains to a power output apparatus for outputting power to a drive shaft and a method of controlling such a power output apparatus.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Known power output apparatuses for carrying out torque conversion of power output from an engine and outputting the converted power to a drive shaft include a combination of a fluid-based torque converter with a transmission. In the torque converter, an input shaft and an output shaft of the power are not fully locked. This causes a slip between the input shaft and the output shaft and leads to an energy loss corresponding to the slip. The energy loss is expressed as the product of the revolving speed difference between the input shaft and the output shaft and the torque transmitted to the output shaft, and is consumed as heat.
In the conventional power output apparatus, the transmission is used as a reverse gear for reversing the rotation of the output shaft of the engine and transmitting the reversed rotation, in order to rotate the drive shaft in reverse of the rotation of the output shaft of the engine.
In a vehicle having such a power output apparatus mounted thereon as its power source, at the time when significantly large power is required, for example, at the time of starting the vehicle or running the vehicle on an upward slope at a low speed, a large energy loss in the torque converter undesirably lowers the energy efficiency. Even in a stationary driving state, the efficiency of power transmission in the torque converter is not 100%, and the fuel consumption rate in the known power output apparatus is thereby lower than that in a manual transmission.
In order to solve such problems, the applicants have proposed a system that does not include the fluid-based torque converter but has an engine, a planetary gear unit, a generator, a motor, and a battery and outputs the power from the motor to the drive shaft by utilizing the power output from the engine or electric power stored in the battery (JAPANESE PATENT LAYING-OPEN GAZETTE No. 50-30223). In this reference, however, there is no description of the technique of outputting a power in reverse of the rotation of the output shaft of the engine to the drive shaft with the power output from the engine.

Power output apparatus and method of controlling the same


Novel TNF receptor death domain ("TNF-R1-DD") ligand proteins are disclosed. Polynucleotides encoding the TNF-R1-DD ligand protein are also disclosed, along with vectors, host cells, and methods of making the TNF-R1-DD ligand protein. Pharmaceutical compositions containing the TNF-R1-DD ligand protein, methods of treating inflammatory conditions, and methods of inhibiting TNF-R death domain binding are also disclosed. Methods of identifying inhibitors of TNF-R death domain binding and inhibitors identified by such methods are also disclosed.

The present invention relates to the field of anti-inflammatory substances and other substances which act by inhibiting binding to the intracellular domain of a tumor necrosis factor receptor (hereinafter "TNF-R"), such as, for example, the P55 type (or TNF-R1) TNF receptor. More particularly, the present invention is directed to novel ligands which bind to the TNF-R intracellular domain and to inhibition or modulation of signal transduction by this receptor.
Tumor necrosis factor (herein "TNF") is a cytokine which produces a wide range of cellular activities. TNF causes an inflammatory response, which can be beneficial, such as in mounting an immune response to a pathogen, or when overexpressed can lead to other detrimental effects of inflammation.
The cellular effects of TNF are initiated by the binding of TNF to its receptors (TNF-Rs) on the surface of target cells. The isolation of polynucleotides encoding TNF-Rs and variant forms of such receptors has been described in European patent publication Nos. EP 308,378, EP 393,438, EP 433,900, EP 526,905 and EP 568,925; in PCT patent publication Nos. WO91/03553 and WO93/19777; and by Schall et al., Cell 61:361-370 (1990) (disclosing the P55 type TNF receptor). Processes for purification of TNF-Rs have also been disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,296,592.
Native TNF-Rs are characterized by distinct extracellular, transmembrane and intracellular domains. The primary purpose of the extracellular domain is to present a binding site for TNF on the outside of the cell. When TNF is bound to the binding site, a "signal" is transmitted to the inside of the cell through the transmembrane and intracellular domains, indicating that binding has occurred. Transmission or "transduction" of the signal to the inside of the cell occurs by a change in conformation of the transmembrane and/or intracellular domains of the receptor. This signal is "received" by the binding of proteins and other molecules to the intracellular domain of the receptor, resulting in the effects seen upon TNF stimulation. Two distinct TNF receptors of .about.55 kd ("TNF-R1") and .about.75 kd ("TNF-R2") have been identified. Numerous studies with anti-TNF receptor antibodies have demonstrated that TNF-R1is the receptor which signals the majority of the pleiotropic activities of TNF. Recently, the domain required for signaling cytotoxicity and other TNF-mediated responses has been mapped to the 80 amino acid near the C-terminus of TNF-R1. This domain is therefore termed the "death domain" (hereinafter referred to as "TNF-R death domain" and "TNF-R1-DD") (see, Tartaglia et al., Cell 74:845-853 (1993)).
While TNF binding by TNF-Rs results in beneficial cellular effects, it is often desirable to prevent or deter TNF binding from causing other detrimental cellular effects. Although substantial effort has been expended investigating inhibition of TNF binding to the extracellular domain of TNF-Rs, examination of binding of proteins and other molecules to the intracellular domain of TNF-Rs has received much less attention.
However, ligands which bind to the TNF-R intracellular domain have yet to be identified. It would be desirable to identify and isolate such ligands to examine their effects upon TNF-R signal transduction and their use as therapeutic agents for treatment of TNF-induced conditions. Furthermore, identification of such ligands would provide a means for screening for inhibitors of TNF-R/intracellular ligand binding, which will also be useful as anti-inflammatory agents.

TNF receptor death domain ligand proteins


A method of preparing a compound of formula (I), and pharmaceutically acceptable salts and solvates thereof. Polymorphs of this compound and their use as PPAR ligands are also disclosed

Peroxisome Proliferator Activated Receptors (PPARs) are orphan receptors belonging to the steroid/retinoid receptor superfamily of ligand-activated transcription factors. See, for example, Willson, T. M. and Wahli, W., Curr. Opin. Chem. Biol., (1997), Vol. 1, pp 235-241.
Three mammalian Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptors have been isolated and termed PPAR-alpha, PPAR-gamma, and PPAR-delta (also known as NUC1 or PPAR-beta). These PPARs regulate expression of target genes by binding to DNA sequence elements, termed PPAR response elements (PPRE). To date, PPRE's have been identified in the enhancers of a number of genes encoding proteins that regulate lipid metabolism suggesting that PPARs play a pivotal role in the adipogenic signaling cascade and lipid homeostasis (H. Keller and W. Wahli, Trends Endocrin. Met 291-296,4 (1993)).
Certain compounds that activate or otherwise interact with one or more of the PPARs have been implicated in the regulation of triglyceride and cholesterol levels in animal models. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,847,008 (Doebber et al and U.S. Pat. No. 5,859,051 (Adams et al.) and PCT publications WO 97/28149 (Leibowitz et al.) and WO99/04815 (Shimokawa et al.).
WO 01/40207 describes novel compounds having the following general formula and pharmaceutically acceptable salts, solvates and hydrolysable esters thereof:

Wherein;
X1 represents O or S;
R1 and R2 independently represent H, halogen, —CH3 and —OCH3;
n represents 1 or 2;
X2 represents NH, NCH3 or O;
One of Y and Z is N, and the other is O or S;
R3 represents phenyl or pyridyl (wherein the N is in position 2 or 3) and is optionally substituted by one or more halogen, NO2, NH2, CF3, OCF3, OC1-6 straight or branched alkyl, C1-6 straight or branched alkyl, alkenyl or alkynyl with the provision that when R3 is pyridyl, the N is unsubstituted;
R4 represents CF3 or CH3.
These compounds are agonists of hPPAR alpha and have utility in treatment of diseases or conditions mediated by hPPAR alpha.
WO 01/40207 describes the routes by which the above compounds may be prepared. The compounds may be conveniently prepared by a general process (I) wherein a moiety like (A) is coupled to an acid (B) using a peptide coupling reaction or by acylation of (A) using a suitable non nucleophilic amine with an acid chloride (C). Preferably, R is C1-6 alkyl which can be hydrolyzed off to give an acid of the above compound, or if readily hydrolyzable, the resulting ester can be administered.

Alternatively, the compounds may be prepared by a second method in which compounds of formula (D) are reacted with ethyl 2-bromo-2 methyl propionate to produce the ethyl ester of the compound which then may then be hydrolysed to produce the free acid.

Compounds of formula (D) may be prepared from the reaction between compounds of formula (B) and compounds of formula (E) with HOBT/EDC/NEt3 when X2 is NH or NCH3 or DIC/DMAP/NEt3 when X2 is O.

A particularly preferred compound described in WO 01/40207 is 2-methyl-2-[4-{[4-methyl-2-[4-trifluoromethylphenyl]thiazol-5-yl-carbonyl)amino]methyl}phenoxy]propionic acid and salts, solvates and hydrolysable esters thereof.
The synthesis of this compound in WO 01/40207 follows the two general methods described above. For general method (I), R in moiety (A) represented ethyl.
The present inventors have found that synthesis of this compound by the former method (I), wherein R represents H or methyl is advantageous over the previously exemplified route wherein R is ethyl.

Process for preparing a thiazole PPAR-ligand and polymorphs thereof