A cleaning fluid reservoir handle scrub brush is formed by a bristle brush attached to one end of an elongated tube having a piston adjacent one end portion forming a reservoir of fluid. The piston includes a piston rod which is gripped by a manually operated trigger mechanism to move the piston toward the bristle brush and force cleaning fluid through check valve closed apertures into the bristles of the brush.

This invention relates to utility brushes and more particularly to a brush which includes an elongated reservoir handle.
1. Field of the Invention
Cleaning various objects such as automobiles, building siding or windows and other structures usually involve the use of a brush to dislodge dirt or stains on the surface being cleaned and a cleaning fluid such as soap or soapy water. The hand held brush and a bucket of soapy water, as the cleaning fluid, is an inefficient and time consuming operation since the brush bristles hold very little of the cleaning fluid when applied to the surface to be cleaned after being dipped in the soapy water.
It is therefore desirable to provide a brush preferably having an elongated handle containing a quantity of the cleaning fluid which facilitates cleaning the article by a scrubbing action and applying the cleaning fluid to the brush head by a trigger device operated by the user. This invention provides such a cleaning tool.
2. Description of the Prior Art
U.S. Pat. No. 4,507,004, issued Mar. 26, 1985 to Moffitt, Jr. for Side Handle Reservoir Brush. This patent discloses a utility brush for cleaning automobiles or windows.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,364,198, issued Nov. 15, 1994 to Skenderi for Self Contained Window Cleaning Implement. This patent discloses an elongated tubular member having a container at one end portion and a squeegee attached to its other end. This patent features a pump action dispensing system by a manually operated trigger adjacent the reservoir bottle which ejects fluid through a tube and nozzle at the forward end of the instrument adjacent the squeegee which may be utilized for removing fluid from a window or windshield.
This invention is believed distinctive over the above named patents by providing a manually operated trigger mechanism for incrementally moving a piston against cleaning fluid contained in a tubular reservoir connected with a brush head for forcing the cleaning fluid into the brush head during the scrubbing action.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,118,166, issued Jan. 21, 1964 to Bell for Window Cleaning Device and U.S. Pat. No. 4,372,700, issued Feb. 8, 1983 to Moffitt, Jr. for Suction Pump Reservoir Brush are believed good examples of the further state-of-the-art. Both of these patents disclose a manually operated piston which draws cleaning fluid into a tube for exhausting the cleaning fluid into a brush head.


Methods and systems for source separation based on determining a number of bases for a nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF) model are disclosed. A method includes receiving, at a computing device, a mixed signal including a combination of first signal data and second signal data. The method also includes generating, by the computing device, a time-frequency representation of the mixed signal. The method further includes determining, by applying a structured stochastic variational inference (SSVI) algorithm to the NMF model, a number of bases for a dictionary of signal-related components of the mixed signal. The method uses the number of bases and the time-frequency representation to construct the dictionary and an activation matrix of weights, the weights indicating how active each one of the signal-related components is at a given time. The method then uses the dictionary and the activation matrix to separate the first signal data from the second signal data.

In an audio or video signal, background noise is an unwanted signal that is transmitted together with the wanted audio or video signal. Conventional speech denoising and speech enhancement techniques use source separation to isolate this unwanted signal. The techniques model a noise signal with a single spectral profile that is estimated from several clean noise signal frames beforehand. However, when a background noise is non-stationary (i.e., having a noise spectrum that fluctuates or changes significantly and rapidly over time), these conventional techniques perform poorly. This is because non-stationary noises, such as keyboard noises or sirens, cannot be modeled well by a single spectrum.
Probabilistic formulations of nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF) source separation models have been used for audio source separation. In particular, Bayesian approaches have been used to handle uncertainty, enable hierarchical formulations, deal with hyperparameter learning, and automatically discover how many latent components are needed to model the data. These approaches use a dictionary comprising signal-related information such as representative signals and model parameters. An appropriate size for the dictionary is needed so that the dictionary is large enough for source separation algorithms to function properly. One issue with the NMF approaches is that they require that an appropriate number of dictionary elements be chosen a priori, before data modeling is performed.
Bayesian nonparametric (BNP) models have been used to address the requirement of choosing an appropriate number of dictionary elements a priori in NMF source separation models. For example, a Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) model has been proposed. However, using such models can be computationally expensive and inefficient. Attempts to choose a number of dictionary elements using BNP models with variational inference algorithms to improve efficiency have been generally undesirable because using the variational algorithms has involved breaking dependencies between model parameters and variables. Breaking such dependencies can introduce local optima and thus reduce the accuracy of a source separation algorithm. Thus, prior techniques have only gained greater efficiencies at the cost of significantly sacrificing accuracy.

Source separation using nonnegative matrix factorization with an automatically determined number of bases


One embodiment of the present subject matter includes an apparatus with a first housing portion which is thermally conductive and which has a first case opening; a second housing portion which is thermally conductive and which has a second case opening, the second case opening being hermetically sealed to the first case opening, with the first housing portion and the second housing portion at least partially defining an interior volume; cardiac rhythm management electronics disposed in the interior volume; a thermal shunt disposed in the interior volume; and a thermoelectric energy converter disposed in the interior volume and adjacent the thermal shunt, the thermoelectric energy converter having a first pole and a second pole, with the first pole thermally connected to the first housing portion, and the second pole thermally connected to the shunt.

As electronics become increasingly miniaturized, existing applications of electronic technology become more space efficient, and new applications of electronic technology become possible. For example, self-powered electronic devices continually become smaller and more space efficient, creating opportunities for new applications. This trend is demonstrated by implantable medical devices.
But self-powered devices could benefit further from reductions in the sizes of their power sources. Current applications do not supplement or replace power sources inside devices with available external energy sources. Energy could be gathered from external power sources so long as design changes do not reduce the useable energy available to self-powered devices, or negatively impact the rate at which energy is available.
One external energy source available in some applications is a thermal gradient. The tendency for heat to flow across a thermal gradient creates opportunities to generate energy. Some devices have used this phenomenon to generate electricity. But existing designs are not compatible with the size or power requirements of some self-powered implantable devices. Thus, what are needed are new thermoelectric power system designs compatible with these applications, which can supplement the energy available from traditional power sources.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method and apparatus for shunt for in vivo thermoelectric power system


A independent free standing foot operated engine starter aid for hand held portable equipment having a hand operable starting cord. The assemblage comprising of: A base, a upright post fastened to the far right corner of the base with a directing pulley near the top of post, a hinged foot pedal to the opposit corner of base from post, a pulley fastened to the top of pedal""s opposit end from the hinge, a flexible cable that one end fastened to top of the post, the free end of the cable goes down through the pedal pulley then up and over directing pulley on top of post then down and looped around handle of the engine pull cord. The portable equipment is held securely to the base while being started.

This invention relates to a foot activated starting aid specifically for hand held equipment employing a internal combustion with a pull cord starter mechanism.
Small, internal combustion engines have utilized the pull cord starting mechanism as a standard in the industry for a long time. These engines are commonly used in chain saws, string trimmers, leaf blowers. This action is fairly easy for an adult male without any physical handicap. Thus, any person with a physical limitation of upper body strength was precluded from starting their yard equipment or cutting their own wood with a chainsaw.
Other starting devices and aids have been tried and used to ease the abrupt back pulling physical force needed to start a hand held engine powered machine. One is a partial compression release valve that opens during the starting period of time. This method of easing the possible compression ignition kick back is troublesome because of possible compression loss during engine running causing power loss and also poor fuel-air ignition during starting operation on small engines.
Electric starters with self contained rechargeable batteries have been used but this method adds extra weight to the hand held machine and the unreliability of a fully charges battery leaves no other way to start the engine when a low charged battery is in the machine.
In search for other mechanical devices to aid the starting of portable hand held machines that are powered by a internal combustion engine that have an existing pull cord starting device, none was found.
Foot starting aids were researched for push-type and motorized lawnmowers including: U.S. Pat. No. 2,850,003 (1958) to Konle; U.S. Pat. No. 3,040,726 (1962) to Mayer; U.S. Pat. No. 3,174,471 (1965) to Welglage et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 3,381,677 (1968) to Hunter; U.S. Pat. No. 3,885,544 (1975) to Pfeiffer; U.S. Pat. No. 4,109,538 (1978) to Glenday ed al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,257,367 (1981) to Fujikawa et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,397,274 (1983) to Tarnedde; U.S. Pat. No. 5,133,312 (1992) to Schede. They are not applicable to hand held, portable machines.
The main object of the invention is to change the physical effort of using a person""s hand, arm, shoulder and upper back muscles to using the sizable and vital muscles of the leg and foot for the main thrust of a person""s effort on starting a portable hand held combustion engine machine. A person""s activities of daily living such as walking, climbing, going to a flight of stairs is what is needed and used to operate this foot operated starting aid. It should be noted here that these activities are also necessary to use the machines for their said purpose.
Another advantage of the invention is built into the design as the xe2x80x9cmeans of holdingxe2x80x9d the equipment in place while the engine is being started. Due to the small engine""s possible compression-ignition kick-back, it can cause loss of standing posture balance to the person attempting to start the machine with its pull cord starter only. This foot powered starting aid provides a positive controlled fast pull to the existing pull cord starter mechanism of small engines with out the possible physical harm done to an operator.
Also relating another advantage to the xe2x80x9cmeans of holdingxe2x80x9d the independent foot starting aid provides is the ability of the machine operator to use both hands to adjust the choke and carburetor.
Further relating to the advantage the xe2x80x9cmeans of holdingxe2x80x9d the independent foot starting aid provides is the conversion of physical effort that is exerted by the use of pulling the existing starting pull cord by hand, possibly many times.
An object of the invention is to provide a starting aid that can be fabricated from commonly available materials that are low in cost and use existing methods of fabrication.
A further object of the invention is the provision of a piece of equipment that requires no further lubrication or extensive maintenance.
An advantage to the invention with foot power depressing the foot pedal from the upper end of the foot pedal""s arc swing, to the base, causes a multiplied travel of one to two (1:2) of the down travel of the pulley on the foot pedal in relation to the pull travel of the handle on the free end of the engine starter pull cord. For every one inch of down travel of the pulley on the foot pedal there is a 2 inch pull travel transmitted by the cable to the handle on the free end of the engine starter pull cord.
Also inherent to the advantage of using a foot pedal for power gives the action of depressing the pedal with a person""s foot and in turn causes the engine to rotate twice as fast or maybe faster than the backward pull of the starter pull cord with an exerted effort a person""s hand, arm, shoulder and upper back muscles during the starting operation of the engine.
Another advantage of the invention specifically gives 4 advantageous benefits to rotating a two stroke cycle internal combustion engine faster, during the starting phase of starting a internal combustion engine with this invention. They are: A) better carburation, B) higher compression, C) better ignition, D) less chance of xe2x80x9ccompression ignition kickbackxe2x80x9d.

Foot activated independent standing starter aid for hand held internal combustion engine machines employing a pull cord starter mechanism


Structures for a wavelength-division multiplexing filter and methods of forming a structure for a wavelength-division multiplexing filter. A waveguide core of the wavelength-division multiplexing filter includes a first bend having a first curvature and a second bend having a second curvature different than the first curvature. The structure further includes a waveguide core region having a first end surface, a second end surface, and a bend arranged between the first and second end surfaces. The bend is positioned over the first bend of the waveguide core in an overlapping relationship.

The present invention relates to photonics chips and, more specifically, to structures for a wavelength-division multiplexing filter and methods of forming a structure for a wavelength-division multiplexing filter.
Photonics chips are used in numerous applications, such as data communication systems and data computation systems. A photonics chip monolithically integrates optical components, such as waveguides, optical switches, couplers, and modulators, and electronic components, such as field-effect transistors, into a unified platform. Among other factors, layout area, cost, and operational overhead may be reduced by the chip-level integration of both types of components on the same chip.
Wavelength-division multiplexing is a technology that multiplexes multiple data streams onto a single optical link. In a wavelength-division multiplexing scheme, a set of data streams is encoded onto optical carrier signals with a different wavelength of laser light for each data stream. These optical carrier signals of the individual data streams are then combined by a wavelength-division multiplexing filter, which has a dedicated input for the data stream of each wavelength and a single output at which the individual data streams are combined (i.e., multiplexed) into a single multi-wavelength data stream for further transport through a single optical link. At the receiver side of the optical data link, a wavelength-division multiplexing filter of the same type, but used in reverse, separates (i.e., de-multiplexes) the optical carrier signals of the individual data streams and the separated optical carrier signals may be routed to corresponding photodetectors.
A wavelength-division multiplexing filter may rely on cascaded Mach-Zehnder interferometers (MZIs) that are realized in a silicon-based photonics technology. Because silicon exhibits a weak electro-optic effect, Mach-Zehnder interferometers are characterized by a large form factor having lengthy silicon-based phase shifters that are arranged in dual arms. Mach-Zehnder interferometers suffer from linewidth variation and spectral offsets arising from cross-sectional variations at different locations along the arms. Mach—Zehnder interferometers are also characterized by optical power splitting ratios that are wavelength dependent.
Wavelength-division multiplexing filters fabricated from silicon are sensitive to temperature drift due to the relatively high thermal optical coefficient of silicon, which may result in phase error. Resistive heaters may be used to provide thermal tuning that is intended to compensate for the temperature shift. However, the addition of resistive heaters adds complexity to chip fabrication, as well as adding complexity to operational overhead because of the need to control the operation of the resistive heaters. In addition, the resistive heaters require the dissipation of significant amounts of electrical power to provide the requisite heating for temperature shift control.
Improved structures for a wavelength-division multiplexing filter and methods of forming a structure for a wavelength-division multiplexing filter are needed.

Wavelength-division multiplexing filters including assisted coupling regions

Khalifa University of Science and Technology


Four embodiments of a novel display assembly as a door handle are described. The first embodiment is used with a cable conduit and associated electrical wire, and comprises an outrigger and a handle having a display accessory. The second embodiment does not require an electrical wire. Like the first embodiment, the second embodiment comprises an outrigger and a handle having a display accessory. The third embodiment uses an inset handle for opening and a flat surface for a sticker advertisement with no cover. The fourth embodiment is a display case door handle accessory with a recessed panel for holding advertising material. Finally, a method is described for performing a retrofit install of the first and second embodiments.

U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/540,534 to Larry English, which applicant hereby incorporates by reference, describes a display assembly that does not require replacement of a cooler door handle. As described, the display assembly allows advertisements to receive consumer attention at or near the moment of purchase, and allows for quick and easy advertisement changes. The invention of the '534 application overcomes the prior art in part because it enables the display assembly to be installed on a wide variety of existing legacy cooler door handles, rather that it being an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) part or a full handle replacement. However, it would be advantageous to have an OEM display assembly door handle that can include features and conveniences not possible in a legacy-handle accessory. Another application, namely U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/570,011, hereby incorporated by reference, describes a door handle display assembly capable of generating multisensory stimuli when a person approaches the handle. For example, it describes a motion or proximity sensing device, physically coupled to the surface of the display assembly, and at least one lighting device electrically coupled to the motion or proximity sensing device. The present invention advantageously incorporates these features while being an OEM factory door handle installation, which allows for synergies not possible to realize in the '011 embodiments.
As one example, an OEM factory install display assembly door handle is designed to interoperate with a cooler's electrical system. It is able to be used with modules for lighting, audio, scent, as well as paper ads or for product pricing communication.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,383,654 to Olivier et al. ("Olivier") describes an apparatus and method for providing a door handle adapted to receive interchangeable display inserts. Olivier describes a handle body having a securable portion and graspable portion, together with a support surface for receiving a display insert. However, Olivier does not describe placement of a display surface as a door handle in an OEM factory construction with a cable chase or conduit, specifically designed to interoperate with a cooler's electrical system, constructed with attachment standoffs as will be described below.

Display assembly as a door handle in an OEM factory construction


Systems and methods image zooming with intensity preservation is disclosed. In one aspect, embodiments of the present disclosure include a method, which may be implemented on a system, of minimizing energy levels over a set of high-resolution image pixels of a high-resolution image via total variational filtering to obtain the high-resolution image from at least a portion of a low-resolution image; the low-resolution image having a first energy level, the high resolution image having a second energy level, and the first energy level to be substantially similar in value as the second energy level. One embodiment can include, determining a pixel value of a particular high-resolution image pixel based on the pixel values of a plurality of pixels of the at least a portion of the low-resolution image and the pixel values of the high-resolution image pixels not including the particular high-resolution image pixel.

Digital image zooming provides a focused field of view on one area of an image. The image may be from a digital photography or a video image. In most instances, digital zooming can be achieved by interpolating adjacent pixels of the area of the image to be zoomed in on. Image zooming techniques are typically used in several areas of image processing, including but are not limited to, photographical enlarging, image reconstruction, and reducing artifacts. These functions are valuable for image processing in consumer graphics editors, video processing, video players, medical imaging, computer graphics, defense applications, etc.
Many algorithms have been developed for enlarging images. For example, Interpolation functions can be applied to an image for resampling. Typical Interpolation algorithms used for image resampling include the nearest neighbor interpolation which is similar to a sinc function in the frequency domain, a linear function, which attenuates frequencies near the cutoff frequency, a sinc function, a radial basis function, the cubic B-spline, the high-resolution cubic spleens, and the generalized spline filters, for example.
Oftentimes, interpolation functions result in artifacts such as, edge halos, aliasing, and blurring. Therefore, adaptable interpolation techniques suitable for varying local structures of an image have been developed in an attempt to preserve the resolution at edges during interpolation. In addition, structurally adaptive techniques have also been utilized to take advantage of bandwidth and intensity variations unapparent to the human eye.
Images can be segmented into many regions to apply different interpolation functions based on the analysis of the local structure. For example, interpolation, extrapolation or pixel replication can be applied depending on the detected image structures, including a homogeneous area, edge area, or isolated feature area. However, although adaptive interpolation techniques that depend on image content are able to generate sharper images with fewer artifacts compared to that with the non-adaptive interpolation method, they are generally more complex and resource intensive.
However, most of the algorithms for image zooming do not preserve image intensity between the original image and the zoomed image. The perceived intensity by the human eye can potentially affect the perception of sharpness in the zoomed image.

System and method of image zooming with intensity preservation


The present invention provides an integrated circuit chip which includes a processor; a contact pad unit connected to a host through a plurality of contact pads; a host interface detector including at least one pull-up resistor and one pull-down resistor, for selectively connecting the pull-up resistor and the pull-down resistor to the contact pad unit to detect a host interface status; and an interface unit including a plurality of interface protocols, for communicating with the host using a part or all of the plurality of contact pads, wherein the processor receives a status of the host from the host interface detector, identifies a protocol of the host based on the received status of the host, and controls the interface unit so as to enable an interface protocol that is used to communicate with the host.

In case of a mobile product, an IC card uses a variety of protocols. The protocols include USB (Universal Serial Bus), IC-USB (Inter-Chip Universal Serial Bus), MMC (Multi-Media Card), ISO 7816 and so on.
The USB is a protocol implemented by INTEL, COMPAQ, IBM, DEC, Microsoft, NEC, and Northern Telecom to interface with PC peripherals. The IC-USB protocol is a new protocol established to facilitate communication between chips, and uses a conventional USB protocol. The MMC is a flash memory card, such as those used in a mobile digital device, and uses an MMC protocol. The ISO 7816 (International Organization for Standardization 7816) is a protocol of a contact-type IC card governed by the ISO.
Because IC cards generally support one protocol, they do not support a host using another protocol. This creates communication limitations with respect to the IC cards and the host.

Device of identifying host protocol and smart card including the same


A preventative treatment for Dutch elm disease is disclosed which provides susceptible elm trees with induced resistance to Dutch elm disease-causing fungi such as Ophiostoma ulmi. The treatment comprises administering to a susceptible elm tree an amount of an elicitor effective to cause a defence reaction in the tree. The defence reaction comprises a cascade of events including accumulation by the tree of mansonones, which are sesquiterpene quinones having antifungal properties. The preferred elicitor for use as a treatment for Dutch elm disease is a novel elicitor isolated from cultures of O. ulmi. The preferred elicitor is non-toxic and heat stable and is shown to be effective for inducing resistance to Dutch elm disease in susceptible elm trees.

The invention relates to treating Dutch elm disease by administering to elm trees an elicitor obtained from a Dutch elm disease-causing fungus.
Since its introduction from Europe during the first half of the twentieth century, Dutch elm disease (DED) has decimated North American elm tree populations, the American elm (Ulmus americana L.) being particularly susceptible to DED.
DED is known to be caused by the fungus Ophiostoma ulmi sensu lato (O. ulmi), which is transported between elm trees by the native and European elm bark beetle. The beetle forms tunnels, also known as galleries, in the bark of the elm tree, and leaves spores of O. ulmi in these tunnels. The fungus then spreads through the tree""s water-conducting tubes (vessels). The observable symptoms of DED, namely wilting, yellowing and loss of leaves, and eventually death, are believed to be caused by toxins released by the fungus. One such toxin, which has been associated with DED-like symptoms in American elms, is cerat-oulmin (CU).
Numerous approaches have been tried over the years to eradicate or prevent the spread of DED in elm populations.
One approach has been to control elm bark beetle populations through the use of pesticides or by cutting infected limbs from elm trees. Another approach is to control or inhibit growth of the fungus by treating infected trees with fungicides or less commonly with antagonistic organisms such as bacteria.
However, all of these approaches have disadvantages which limit their effectiveness. In particular, the use of large amounts of chemical pesticides and fungicides is undesirable from an environmental standpoint, particularly in urban areas.
Another approach has been to develop strains of elm trees which are resistant to DED, for example by selective breeding. However, such approaches are typically time consuming and do nothing to prevent the spread of DED in existing elm populations. Furthermore, until recently little was known about the mechanisms of DED resistance in elm trees or the means by which O. ulmi kills its host. Therefore, it was unclear whether or not long-term resistance could be bred into elm trees.
Furthermore, the importance of the American elm lies in its umbrella-shaped crown, which makes it a particularly effective shade tree. No other species of elm can compete with the American elm in this respect. Therefore, developing resistance by cross-breeding the American elm with resistant species of elms is useless if the form of the American elm is not maintained.
None of the above approaches has been completely successful in treating or controlling the spread of DED. Therefore, remaining elm populations remain at risk of being decimated by DED.
Recent research has shown that the American elm, which is particularly susceptible to DED, nevertheless produces a defence reaction when infected by a DED-causing fungus. Specifically, it has been shown that elm trees infected with DED produce several sesquiterpene quinones possessing antifungal properties, these compounds being known collectively as xe2x80x9cmansononesxe2x80x9d, Dumas et al., Experientia 39 (1983), pp. 1089-1090. The mansonones known as mansonones xe2x80x9cAxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cCxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cDxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cExe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cFxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cGxe2x80x9d have all been shown to inhibit the growth of strains of O. ulmi. The structural formulas of these mansonones are shown below.
Mansonone accumulation in elms is believed to be triggered by specific compounds produced by O. ulmi which are recognized by the elm tree after it is infected by the fungus. These compounds which cause mansonone accumulation are commonly referred to as xe2x80x9celicitorsxe2x80x9d. Mansonone-inducing elicitors are present in the culture filtrate, cytoplasm and cell walls of O. ulmi and have been shown to induce production of mansonones in elm tissue cultures, Yang et al., Eur. J. For. Path. 23 (1993) 257-268, Can. J. Bot. 67 (1989) 3490-3497, and Mycol. Res. 98(3): 295-300 (1994).
Although all strains of O. ulmi produce elicitors, it has been found that the less virulent, xe2x80x9cnon-aggressivexe2x80x9d, strains of O. ulmi cause elm tissue to accumulate mansonones more quickly and in larger amounts than virulent, xe2x80x9caggressivexe2x80x9d, strains of O. ulmi (often referred to as Ophiostoma novo-ulmi). This is consistent with the observation that, although all strains can kill susceptible elm trees, the progress of the disease is slower in trees infected by non-aggressive isolates.
Several mechanisms have been proposed to explain the higher virulence of aggressive strains of O. ulmi. It is believed that differential elicitation and/or suppression of mansonone production in elms is at least partially responsible for the higher level of pathogenicity of aggressive strains of O. ulmi. Therefore, it appears that aggressive strains of the fungus may at least partially suppress the production of mansonones in elm trees.
Attempts have been made to use this difference in virulence to induce resistance to highly virulent strains of O. ulmi in susceptible elm trees. Some early inoculation trials using elm seedlings and elm tissue cultures were encouraging. For example, see, Hubbes and Jeng, Eur. J. For. Path. 11 (1981) 257-264, and Hubbes, Naturaliste can. (Rev. Ecol. Syst.), 115: 157-161 (1988). However, a more recent study conducted with European and hybrid elms concluded that, although there is some benefit to be derived from preventatively inoculating elms with O. ulmi or other fungi, there is little reason to think that the method has immediate promise for the control of DED, Sutherland et al., Eur. J. For. Path. 25 (1995) 307-318.
Therefore, extensive research has been conducted into the defence reactions of elms to DED-causing fungi. However, this research has thus far not resulted in any treatments for DED capable of being successfully used on a widespread basis.
The inventor has overcome the problems in the prior art by inventing a treatment for DED which comprises a method for inducing resistance to DED in DED-susceptible elm trees. The treatment of the invention may be used preventatively to induce DED-resistance in uninfected elm trees, or may be used to treat elm trees which have been infected with a DED-causing fungus.
The method of the present invention comprises administering to a DED-susceptible elm tree an amount of an elicitor obtainable from a DED-causing fungus. Preferably, the method of the present invention utilizes a novel elicitor isolated from the culture filtrate of O. ulmi and having an amino acid sequence identified by the inventor.
The elicitors of the present invention, when administered to a DED-susceptible elm tree, cause a defence reaction in the tree which inhibits the growth of DED-causing fungi. When used as a preventative treatment, the defence reaction allows the tree to resist subsequent infection by a DED-causing fungus such as O. ulmi. One of the most obvious responses making up this defence reaction is the accumulation of mansonones by the tree.
Therefore, the DED treatment according to the invention mobilizes the elm tree""s defence mechanism to protect it from present or future infection by a DED-causing fungus. The elicitors of the invention are non-toxic and stable and may easily be produced in large quantities from cultures of O. ulmi. Furthermore, only a small quantity of elicitor is required to trigger a defence reaction in an elm tree. The small quantities required may be easily administered without damaging the tree.
Therefore, the treatment according to the present invention provides significant advantages over known treatments, which typically require administration to the tree of large quantities of toxic materials either through a large number of holes in the tree or into the tree""s root system.
Therefore, it is one object of the present invention to provide a treatment for DED utilizing elicitors obtainable from DED-causing fungi.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a preventative treatment for DED utilizing elicitors obtainable from DED-causing fungi.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a treatment for DED utilizing a novel elicitor isolated from culture filtrates of O. ulmi.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a treatment for DED which utilizes the elm tree""s natural defence reaction to DED-causing fungi.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a treatment for DED which causes the accumulation of fungistatic compounds such as mansonones in elm trees.
Accordingly, in one aspect, the present invention provides a method for inducing resistance to Dutch elm disease (DED) in a DED-susceptible elm tree, comprising administering to the tree a glycoprotein elicitor in an amount sufficient to cause a defence reaction in the tree. The defence reaction comprises accumulation of fungal inhibitory compounds in tissue of the tree, and the elicitor is obtainable from a DED-causing fungus.
Preferably, the elicitor is obtainable from the cell interior, cell wall or culture filtrate of a DED-causing fungus, the preferred DED-causing fungus being Ophiostoma ulmi (O. ulmi), most preferably a non-aggressive strain of O. ulmi.
The elicitor is preferably a glycoprotein obtained from a culture filtrate of O. ulmi strain Q412, and having an amino acid sequence which includes Seq. ID No. 1, described below, which preferably begins at the N-terminal of the amino acid sequence of the elicitor. The molecular weight of the elicitor is preferably at least about 21 kDa.
Preferably, the fungal inhibitory compounds accumulated by the elm tree are mansonones selected from the group comprising mansonones A, C, D, E, F and G. Although the defence reaction comprises accumulation of mansonones, it also preferably comprises lignification and release of hydrogen peroxide.
Preferred DED-susceptible elm trees to be treated according to the present invention are selected from the group comprising Ulmus americana L., Ulmus thomassii Sarg., Ulmus rubra Muhl., Ulmus carpinifolia Gleditsch., Ulmus glabra Huds., Ulmus procera Salisb. and Ulmus laevis Pall., and DED-susceptible cultivars thereof. The most preferred DED-susceptible elm tree is Ulmus americana L.
The amount of elicitor effective to cause the tree to exhibit a defence reaction is preferably from about 5 mg to about 150 mg. In one preferred aspect of the present invention, administering of the elicitor to the elm tree comprises injection of a liquid composition containing the elicitor into the tree, the liquid composition preferably comprising an aqueous solution of the elicitor in a preferred concentration of from about 0.1 mg/mL to about 5 mg/mL. Preferably, the injection delivers the liquid composition inside the vascular system adjacent to the bark of the tree.
In another preferred aspect of the invention, administering of the elicitor to the elm tree comprises insertion of the elicitor in a solid form into the tree, the solid form of the elicitor preferably comprising a solid composition comprising the elicitor, and which is preferably contained in a capsule. The solid composition may preferably additionally comprise acceptable fillers and carriers. Insertion of the elicitor into the tree preferably comprises drilling a hole through the bark of the tree, and inserting the capsule into the hole so that the elicitor is received inside the vascular system adjacent to the bark of the tree.
In another aspect, the present invention provides a program for prevention of Dutch elm disease (DED) in a DED-susceptible elm tree, comprising annual treatment of the tree according to the method of the invention.

The Governing Council of the University of Toronto


The present invention provides a coke resistant catalyst and process for sequestration of carbon dioxide via reforming of methane to synthesis gas (a mixture of CO and H2). The process provides a direct single step selective vapor phase carbon dioxide reforming of methane to syngas over gadolinium promoted mesoporous Ni-ZSM catalyst. The process provides almost 11-95% conversion of methane with H2 to CO ratio of 0.82 to 1.

The world's demand for energy continues to grow due to population growth and improving standards of living. At the same time, the days of fossil fuel and gas are diminishing constantly. Although, the existing resources will be able to meet the global demand of fuel and chemicals for next two decades. Time has come to discover alternative resources for potential future fuel and more efficient up gradation of natural fuel resources. Globally, there are abundant supplies of natural gas, much of which can be developed at relatively low cost. The current mean projection of global remaining recoverable resource of natural gas is 16,200 Trillion cubic feet (Tcf), 150 times current annual global gas consumption, with low and high projections of 12,400 Tcf and 20, 800 Tcf, respectively. Natural gas is basically having a methane conc. of up to 85% alongside impurities such as sulphur and carbon dioxide as the chief impurities. Some time, it may contain sizeable amount of CO2 (upto 25%) as impurity. Hence, any transformation requiring direct conversion of natural gas must be having robust catalytic system with least possible time bound deactivation.
The up gradation of methane or natural gas to valuable chemical feedstock proceeds through indirect routs by initial conversion to syngas (a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen). The production of syngas can be carried out by steam reforming (SR) (very large scale process) and even through partial oxidation of methane (PDX). Although partial oxidation of methane have high methane conversion with excellent syngas selectivity and extremely fast reaction kinetics, but is suffer from local heat generation over the catalyst and safety issues. Whereas the SR do not suffer from those safety issues but steam reforming of methane produce CO2 along with syngas which need to remove before its downstream GTL applications.
However, despite of unfavorable thermodynamics dry reforming of methane has some unique advantages; it can generate syngas at unite CO/H2 ratio, moreover it becomes advantageous because of the use of two greenhouse gases at a time. Low quality natural gas can be utilized for syngas production in near future; even the source gas does not need any further purification. A fundamental option currently explored is to reduce CO2 to chemicals and energy carriers using reduction equivalents from renewable resources. From this perspective the dry reforming of methane over metal based solid catalyst has drawn much attention in recent years and is now viewed as an area to produce ultra pure hydrogen or syngas for future fuel alternatives. As this would conceptually allow the efficient valuation of methane and the reforming technology requires the preparation of thermally stable and coke resistant CO2 reforming catalyst. The conventional supported nickel catalyst used for methane reforming are very active for carbon formation leads to rapid deactivation of catalyst, while coke-resistance alternatives (Rh, Ru, Pt etc) are bounded by its availability and high cost. So economic boundary conditions dictate the use of Ni based catalysts. There are reports on dry reforming of methane over different solid catalyst but to the best of our knowledge there is no reference for the use of gadolinium (Gd) promoted Ni-ZSM-5 catalyst for this purpose.
ZSM-5 (ZEOLITE SOCONY MOBIL-5) is an aluminosilicate zeolite belonging to the pentasil family of zeolites. Its chemical formula is NanAlnSi96-nO192.16H2O (0<n<27). Reference may be made to article in the Catalysis Today, 2011, 171, 132-139 by I. Sarusi et al. where they got about 19% methane conversion with CO/H2 ration of over doped Rh/Al2O3 catalyst.
Reference may be made to article in the Green Chemistry, 2007, 9, 577-581 by S. Williams and his group reported the use of O2 permeable ceramic membrane for the CO2 reforming of methane to syngas. On this article they described a very high concentration of feed gas (notably 80% feed concentration) to get 28% methane conversion. The meanwhile it is been observed that the membrane reactor which catalyses the reaction itself get deactivated (50%) after 14 h.
Reference may be made to US patent no US2007/0253886A by Abatzoglou and his group. Where they used active metal (mainly Ni) deposited on non-porous metallic and ceramic support; the catalyst shows very high methane conversion of 98% at 800° C. with CO/H2 ratio of 0.98. But the catalyst stability was limited up to 18 h time on stream.
Reference may be made to article in the Chem Cat Chem, 2011, 3, 593-606, in which Glaser et al and his group reported a highly stable and porous zirconia as support. With 5% Ni supported on ZrO2 they achieved 75% methane conversion at 750° C. with a comparatively slow GHSV of 7.2×104 ml h−1 g−1.
Reference may be made to article in the Chemical Communication, 2001, 415-416 in which Japanese worker Fujimoto and his group reported the production of syngas by pulse irradiation technique on a mixture of CH4 and CO2 at low temperature and atmospheric pressure. They achieved almost 42% methane conversion with H2/CO ratio of 1.5 with 1:1.5 CH4 to CO2 feed ratio at 180° C. while in presence of NiMgO catalyst the same technique gives almost 69% methane conversion while the H2/CO ration goes down to 0.86 with 1:1 CH4 to CO2 feed ratio.
Reference may also be made to article in the ACS Catalysis, 2012, 2, 1331-1342, which Chou et al. reported a mesoporous tri-metallic composite of NiO—CaO—Al2O3 in the dry reforming of methane. In this report they found 89% of methane conversion at 750° C. whereas the GHSV is 15000 ml g−1 h−1. But the H2/CO ratio is only able to rise up to 0.88 at 750° C.
Reference may be made to article in the Catalysis Communication, 2001, 2, 255-260, in which Aika et al reported the use Ru supported titania catalyst over dry reforming of methane. At industrial condition, at 0.1 MPa and 800° C. the catalyst shows a stable activity for 25 h time on stream with CO2 conversion of −46%.
The drawback of the processes reported so far is that although they exhibit sufficiently high conversions of methane for high selectivity of syngas of unit H2/CO ratio but the rapid formation of coke causes deactivation of reforming catalyst. To overcome the deactivation many researchers used novel metals such as Pt, Ru, Rh etc but the rising cost and relatively poor availability desiccates the use of those catalyst in industrial purpose. On this economic boundation, Ni based catalyst will be the holy grail for methane reforming in coming future. There is, therefore, an evident necessity for further improvements in the Ni based catalyst and process for the dry reforming of methane with carbon dioxide.

Coke resistant solid catalyst, process for the preparation thereof and a process for vapour phase dry reforming of methane

COUNCIL OF SCIENTIFIC & INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH


A self-locking device with continuous locking positions includes a housing with an internal cavity, a wall of the cavity including a first frictional contact face and a fourth frictional contact face; a locking member with a second frictional contact face and a third frictional contact face, which is movable in the cavity, with the second and third frictional contact faces facing the first and fourth frictional contact faces, respectively; and a first lock block and a second lock block, with the first lock block being arranged between and contacting with the first and second frictional contact faces, and the second lock block being arranged between and contacting with the third and fourth frictional contact faces. The first and second lock blocks allow the locking member to be movable with respect to the housing in a first direction but locked in a second direction opposite to the first direction.

The existing fastener may be locked by a screw, a buckle, a pin, etc., to fasten objects in position. If the relative positions of the fastened objects are improper, however, the fastener needs to be unlocked, and then locked again after the positions of the objects are adjusted properly, which is timing consuming and strenuous. For example, fasteners (e.g. construction fasteners) are used for connecting pipes (e.g. metal pipes) to build a falsework in the construction field. These fasteners are locked by screws to fasten the pipes, which is timing consuming, strenuous and inefficient.
To address this problem, a self-locking fastener, which includes a ratchet wheel and a detent or locking teeth, is proposed in the prior art, but is defective for a retracting stroke during its locking and for discontinuous self-locking instead of continuous self-locking, which degrades its locking effect.

Self-locking device and locking and unlocking equipment thereof


A method of indicating and manipulating a zoom region of a waveform being displayed includes a zoom region indicator. The zoom region indicator has an associated marker that spans the zoom region but is never less than a minimum span to allow ease of identifying or locating the zoom region on the displayed waveform. Manipulating the associated marker with a pointer device causes the zoom region to move accordingly along the displayed waveform. The portion of the displayed waveform that is within the zoom region is displayed as a zoomed waveform on the display.

The present invention relates to waveform displays on a measurement instrument, and more particularly to a method of easily indicating and manipulating a zoom region of a waveform on a display.
When zooming on waveforms in a measurement instrument with large zoom scale factors, it is often difficult to identify which region of a displayed waveform is being zoomed. Also when the zoom scale factors become extremely large, manipulation of zoom regions becomes very difficult as the indication of the zoom region on the displayed waveform becomes very small. When multiple regions of the displayed waveform are zoomed simultaneously, the difficulty of identifying and manipulating the unique zoom regions is compounded.
In order to look at particular portions of a long data record representing the displayed waveform acquired by the measurement instrument, such as a digital storage oscilloscope, in order to see details about the displayed waveform, regions within the long data record are selected by a zoom function. These zoom regions of the displayed waveform have previously been indicated by drawing a zoom box with the displayed waveform represented by the long data record, or by displaying the zoom regions as different colors within the displayed waveform, also referred to as shading. When the zoom region for the displayed waveform becomes smaller than two or three pixels on a display, i.e., appear essentially as a very narrow vertical line that may be lost in the displayed waveform, these regions are difficult to quickly identify and very difficult to manipulate except via conventional knobs.
Zoom regions also have been indicated via a summary view that uses a single line representing the displayed waveform with paired square brackets on the line to indicate which portion of the displayed waveform is being displayed on a zoomed waveform view. Vertical bars and a dashed line represent the displayed waveform and the square brackets indicate on the dashed line the region of the displayed waveform currently being displayed in the zoomed waveform view.
Horizontal manipulation of the zoom region position is typically accomplished through the use of knobs. Use of knobs does not easily allow the zoom region to move in large increments in either direction, i.e., using knobs to move the zoom region to a different portion relatively distant from the original portion is slow.
What is desired is a method of easily indicating and manipulating a zoom region of a waveform being displayed.

Indicating and manipulating a zoom region of a waveform


A device and method for tensioning a vehicle seatbelt are disclosed. The device has a motor, a pulley, a first cable, and a seatbelt buckle. The motor has a motor output for transferring rotational energy developed in the motor. The pulley is in communication with the motor output for receiving the rotational energy developed in the motor. The first cable has first and second ends. The first end is coupled to the pulley. The seatbelt buckle is coupled to the second end of the cable. The rotation of the pulley causes movement of the seatbelt buckle.

Devices for pre-tensioning a seatbelt prior to a vehicle collision have been in existence for many years and under constant development. The tensioning of the seatbelt prior to the sensing of vehicle impact and prior to the pre-tensioning that occurs just before vehicle impact is a more recent development in seatbelt tensioning and is known in the art as "pre-pretensioning". These systems employ a motorized pre-pretensioning retractor that is activated during pre-impact situations and/or in non-impact situations when the sensing system initiates a vehicle pre-impact signal.
Early tensioning of the seatbelt can improve occupant kinematics during a vehicle collision and help reduce or prevent injury to an occupant. Another advantage of pre-crash/impact tensioning of the seatbelt is the tactile feedback that a driver receives from the seatbelt that warns the driver to take action. Pre-pretensioning devices are reversible allowing for early activation prior to impact and in cases where impact does not occur, the system returns to a normal tensioning level.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,616,186 issued to NSK Autoliv discloses systems and methods for undertaking pre-pretensioning and is hereby incorporated by reference. Further, U.S. Pat. No. 6,616,186 discloses systems having multiple belt tensioning devices and a motor driven retractor and is hereby incorporated by reference.
While current pre-pretensioning devices and methods for pre-pretensioning a vehicle seatbelt achieve their intended purpose, many enhancements and additional features are needed. Therefore, a new and improved pre-pretensioning system and method would be desirable.


A method is provided for detecting broken rail, unintentionally misaligned turnouts, and track occupancy ahead of or behind a railway vehicle traveling on a railroad track. Shunts extend between the rails at intervals along the railroad track. Each shunt has electrical signal transmission characteristics differing from those of adjacent shunts. A test unit on the railway vehicle induces a test signal in a first rail to create a track circuit in which the test signal propagates along the first rail, through at least one of the shunts, returns to the railway vehicle along the second rail, and through the wheels and axle of the railway vehicle. The test signal has electrical properties selected to interact with at least one of the shunts. The received test signal on the second rail is analyzed to identify predetermined conditions concerning the status of the railroad track.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to safety and efficiency of train movement. More particularly, the present invention is in the field of railroad signaling and train control, including positive train control (PTC), centralized traffic control (CTC), automatic block signaling (ABS), and communications-based train control (CBTC).
2. Background of the Invention
Rail breaks, unintentionally misaligned turnouts, and occupied track present potential hazards to moving trains. Traditionally, rail breaks, misaligned turnouts and occupied track are directly detected by use of track circuits. Railroad track is physically divided into electrically distinct blocks. An electrical current is caused to flow from a source located at the terminus of each block, through the rails, and is detected at both ends of the block, forming a track circuit.
Electrical current in a track circuit is detected by an electronic circuit or by use of an electromechanical relay. The presence of current in a track circuit indicates electrical continuity in the rails and thus the absence of broken rail. The absence of current indicates that either a broken rail or open switch is causing an electrical open circuit, or that the presence of a train is shunting current between the rails, causing a short circuit. In either case, the current will not be detected. Either condition indicates a potential hazard, and will cause the wayside or in-cab signaling system governing movement on the track to indicate a "stop" condition. Information that the block, or one of a group of blocks, is unavailable or occupied may also be communicated to a central train dispatching system.
A fundamental limitation of such traditional fixed-block wayside signaling systems is that by dividing railroad track into discrete blocks, they impose a limit on how closely trains can approach each other and still sense both broken rail and occupied territory ahead; thus they artificially limit maximum traffic density and therefore fundamentally restrict how efficiently a given track can be utilized. It therefore would be highly desirable to have a true "moving-block" or "virtual block" signaling system, whereby moving locomotives would have the ability to detect rail breaks or occupied track ahead of (or behind) their current positions, rather than being dependent on traditional fixed-block track circuits for rail break, open switch, and track occupancy detection.
A second fundamental limitation of traditional fixed-block track circuit systems is their inherent inability to detect a rail break which occurs ahead of or behind a moving train within the same block as the train. Also undetectable with track circuits is a rail break between two trains in the same block. In a traditional fixed-block track circuit, the loss of current from one end of the block to the other, caused by (intended) track occupancy is indistinguishable from the loss of current caused by a broken rail. It would be highly desirable not to lose the ability to detect broken rail when a block is occupied.
A third fundamental limitation of traditional track circuits is that they require installation of considerable track infrastructure, such as insulated joints between blocks, bond wires to ensure continuity between rail sections, wayside power, and wayside relay-based, code-relay, or (more commonly) electronic systems. This infrastructure and equipment is costly to install and requires very significant ongoing maintenance. It would be highly desirable to reduce these costs and simplify the track structure.
A fourth fundamental limitation of traditional track circuits is that they are not usually optimized to detect rail breaks, but instead are optimized for wayside signal system operation. It would be desirable to have better wayside detection of broken rails to improve train safety.
The present invention overcomes these fundamental limitations by eliminating the need for traditional, fixed-block track circuits for rail break detection, open switch detection, and track occupancy. By using equipment affixed to the leading or trailing locomotive(s) or cars of a train, in conjunction with passive (or active) shunts installed in the railroad track bed, and eliminating expensive wayside track circuit apparatus and associated track components used in traditional track circuits, the present invention reduces considerably both the track infrastructure cost and ongoing maintenance costs needed to detect broken rail and track occupancy.
Further, the present invention can be implemented in such a way so as not to be incompatible with existing traditional track circuit-based block signaling systems; it will not interfere with track circuits and wayside signal systems, if encountered, thus serving as an additional broken rail detection system capable of working in tandem with, and further, allowing existing traditional fixed-block systems to be optimized for broken rail detection.
A limitation of some implementations of PTC or CBTC systems that employ GPS data to determine which track a train is travelling on in multiple track territory is that even the best available GPS systems are unable to reliably distinguish which of two adjacent tracks a train is occupying with sufficient accuracy to be considered certain for safety-critical applications. An embodiment of the present invention solves this problem by providing the PTC system with a continuous, positive, unambiguous indication of which track the train is travelling on. This is a great advantage for practical implementation of a PTC system.
When used in conjunction with a route database or GPS location data, the present invention is capable of providing an additional method of estimating of train position, which can be optimally combined with GPS or other location system data or can be supplied to the CBTC/PTC system. The present invention is also able to detect rail breaks and track occupancies for a distance ahead of (or behind, if the system is mounted on the rear of the train) a moving train, enabling an improved implementation of CBTC/PTC.

System and method for detecting broken rail and occupied track from a railway vehicle


A paint brush holder having a threaded opening for receiving a standard threaded extension rod of any desired length. The paint brush holder further includes a unique handle clamp for securely retaining the handle of the paint brush at multiple angles with respect to the received extension rod. By securing the paint brush at the desired angle and attaching the extension rod, a painter is able to access and paint, in a controlled manner, high, hard to reach painting locations such as ceiling corners, edges, moldings and trim.

The safest location for a painter is on the ground. Unfortunately, both professional and amateur painters are often called upon to paint high, hard to reach places, such as ceilings or eaves, that are not readily accessible to painters of average height. The use of a ladder is (and has been) the preferred method for facilitating painter access to such difficult and potentially dangerous locations.
It is well known that the use of ladders presents a certain danger of injury to the painter most often caused by a fall. Most such ladder related injuries are directly traced to misuse of the ladder (for example, by placing the ladder on uneven ground or by standing on the top step). In other cases, the painter is accidentally injured while properly using the ladder (for example, by tripping or slipping on the ladder while painting or climbing).
In response to the danger of injury presented by the use of ladders it is commonplace for painters to utilize extension rods, most often in conjunction with paint rollers, to paint high locations such as ceilings and eaves without having to climb a ladder. While adequately painting open, flat locations, paint rollers are not the preferred tool for painting high, delicate or hard to reach places, such as corners, edges, moldings and trim, where controlled paint application is required to achieve satisfactory results. Thus, the painter must still make use of a ladder and a paint brush to finish the painting job.
Accordingly, there is a need for an apparatus that will facilitate the use of a paint brush or other painting apparatus by a painter to access and paint, in a controlled manner, high, hard to reach places such as ceiling corners, edges, moldings and trim.


A composite charged particle beam apparatus includes a FIB column for irradiating a thin sample with a FIB and a GIB column for irradiating the thin sample with a GIB. The thin sample is placed on a sample stage, and a tilt unit tilts the thin sample about a tilt axis of the sample stage, the tilt axis being orthogonal to the FIB irradiation axis and being located inside a plane formed by the FIB irradiation axis and the GIB irradiation axis. A tilt sample holder is mounted on the sample stage and fixes the thin sample such that a cross-sectional surface of the thin sample is tilted at a constant angle with respect to the GIB irradiation axis and the azimuth angle of the GIB column can be changed by rotation of the sample stage.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a composite charged particle beam apparatus for preparing a thin sample by using an ion beam.
2. Related Art
There has been proposed a technology of preparing a thin sample used for transmission electron microscope (TEM) observation by using a focused ion beam (FIB) apparatus. Further, it has been known that gallium, which is an ion species, is injected to the thin sample by irradiation of the Focused Ion Beam so that a damage layer is formed.
In recent years, as means for removing the damaged layer, finishing processing has been proposed in which the thin sample is irradiated with a gas ion beam (GIB) and the damaged layer is removed (refer to JP-A-2007-066710).
According to such means, it is possible to form the thin sample having fewer damaged layers.

Composite charged particle beam apparatus and thin sample processing method


There is provided a production line having a plurality of mounting apparatus of electronic components in which the overall production efficiency is sustained by an alternation scheme when a mounting apparatus has a long cycle time due to a high malfunction rate. At a predetermined timing, the rate of unsuccessful pick-up procedure for an electronic component is compared to a predetermined value. If the rate is higher than the value, CPU finds out if the mounting apparatus 2, or 3 is available as an alternate. When the alternate is the apparatus 2, CPU 10 changes the command parameter of the particular mounting procedure, stored in RAM 12, from xe2x80x9cMxe2x80x9d to xe2x80x9cSxe2x80x9d, and stops mounting the same component. In the mean time, the mounting apparatus 2 accepts the alternate request from the apparatus 1, changes the command parameter as required, and mounts the same component on a print circuit board.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for mounting electronic components utilizing a plurality of mounting apparatus of electronic components, which have a plurality of component feeding units, and a component mounting unit for receiving electronic components from the feeding units and for mounting electronic components on a print circuit board.
2. Prior Art
Mounting apparatus of electronic components having an alternate capability are described in publications including Japanese patent laid-open publications No. Hei 5-167286 and No. Hei 8-172296. Such alternate capability is to alternate means for supplying electronic components and includes such alternate schemes as cassette-alternate, stage-alternate, and tray-alternate. These alternate schemes are, however, confined to a single mounting apparatus of electronic components.
Recently, there has been an increasing need for a production line for mounting electronic components where a plurality of mounting apparatus are simultaneously used, as the variety of the electronic components to be mounted has been increased.
In this type of multiple mounting-apparatus production line, there can be unpredicted imbalance of workload among the mounting apparatus due to the difference in their malfunction rates even when the original workload distribution is carefully designed among the mounting apparatus. This results in a lower throughput (number of print circuit boards through the mounting process per unit time) of the production line as a whole.
The present invention involves a production line for mounting electronic components having a plurality of mounting apparatus in which a mounting apparatus assumes a responsibility of another mounting apparatus for improving the overall production efficiency of the production line when the latter mounting apparatus has a longer cycle time than originally planned due to a higher malfunction rate of one of its component feeding units for supplying an electronic component, and when the former mounting apparatus can mount the same electronic component which is planned to be mounted by the latter mounting apparatus.
In the present invention, there is provided an apparatus as well as a method utilizing a plurality of mounting apparatus of electronic components, which have a plurality of component feeding units, and a component mounting unit for receiving electronic components from the feeding units and for mounting electronic components on a print circuit board. The apparatus has a memory means for recording a malfunction rate for each of its feeding units, and a computation means for comparing the malfunction rate to a predetermined value at a predetermined time for evaluating the malfunction rate. When the malfunction rate is higher than the value for a component feeding unit of a mounting apparatus, a selection means of the apparatus tries to choose an alternate component feeding unit on a different mounting apparatus, which supplies the same electronic component as the unit having a higher malfunction rate than the predetermined value. When there is such an alternate component feeding unit available, a control means of the apparatus has the alternate component feeding unit supplying the electronic component for mounting on the print circuit board, and has the component feeding unit with the malfunction rate higher than the predetermined value discontinuing supplying the electronic component.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the memory means records the numbers both for total and unsuccessful pick-up procedures for each of the component feeding units of all the mounting apparatus in the production line, and the malfunction rate is calculated from the two numbers at a predetermined time for evaluating the malfunction rates.
The configuration described above is able to prevent, utilizing the alternation scheme, the production line for mounting electronic components from having a lower production efficiency than expected even when one of the mounting apparatus has a longer cycle time due to a higher malfunction rate of its component feeding unit.

Production line for mounting electronic components


A puffer jacket configured to provide improved temperature regulation through graduated venting. In one embodiment, the jacket includes a back panel with baffles and insulation arranged to provide reduced insulation and increased venting of heat and humidity toward the center of the back. The back panel may include an alternating arrangement of insulation baffles (containing insulation) and vent baffles (free of insulation). The insulation baffles and vent baffles may be formed by joining inner and outer layers of fabric with laterally extending lines of stitching. The lines of stitching may follow paths selected to progressively change the relative size of the vent baffles and the insulation baffles toward the center of the back. For example, the lines of stitching may give the insulation baffles a somewhat hourglass shape shortening toward the center of the back resulting in increasingly greater venting of heat and humidity toward the center of the back.

The present invention relates to outerwear, and more specifically to insulated outerwear, such as jackets, coats and vests.
A wide variety of coats and jackets are available on the commercial market. Many coats and jackets are designed with insulation provided to contain body heat and maintain warmth. One common types of insulated coat or jacket is a puffer jacket (also known as a down jacket). A conventional puffer jacket includes an inner fabric layer and an outer fabric layer that are joined together in a way that creates a plurality of open, internal baffles between the layers. The baffles are filled with down insulation, synthetic insulation or a blend of down and synthetic insulation. These types of jackets are well known for providing warmth while still being light-weight and easily packable. Unfortunately, the highly insulative nature of these jackets can cause excessive build=up of heat and humidity in high-output activities, such as hiking, backpacking and other outdoor sports.
Outerwear manufacturers have developed a number of techniques for addressing the buildup of heat and humidity within coats and jackets. For example, some coats and jackets are provided with vents that allow heat and humidity escape. In some cases, the vents are fixed in the panels of the coat or jacket and remain open at all times. Although vents of this nature can be helpful, they provide for the free flow of air into and out of the jacket. To prevent the vents from allowing too much air exchange, vent are usually limited to relatively small regions of the coat or jacket. As a result, these types of conventional vents do not provide uniform temperature regulation throughout the jacket, but instead have a tendency to create excessively cool spots at each vent. These cool spots can be even more evident and potentially uncomfortable to the wearer during and after high-output activities. In some cases, the vents are configured to be opened by the wearer when it is desirable to allow venting. To illustrate, a number of commercially available coats and jackets include strategically located zippers that can be opened selectively (unzipped) to provide venting and closed (re-zipped) to preclude venting. With some products, a zipper is located in each armpit that can be unzipped to create a vent opening adjacent to the armpits to facilitate venting of heat and humidity from the armpit region. While this type of construction allows selective venting, the presence of a zipper in the armpit can cause discomfort, can create reliability issues and may affect the ability to provide a waterproof coat or jacket. Further, when the zippers are open, they may allow too much venting, thereby forcing the wearer to open and close the zippers repeatedly as the wearer becomes alternately too hot and then too cold.
As a result, there remains a long-felt and unmet need for outerwear capable of providing more balanced and controlled venting, and that results in improved temperature regulation and in more effective management of heat and humidity throughout.

Jacket with graduated temperature regulation


A baby bather has an open mesh coated fabric envelope filled to a soft cushion shape with lightweight buoyant foam plastic beads for supporting a baby floating in a tub or over a sink. The center portion of the cushion has a gradual depression having a centrally located panel for free flow of water. The cushion facilitates bathing, provides support and protection for baby's head, and is completely non-absorbent, machine washable and quick drying. Methods of manufacture are provided.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to devices for simplifying the bathing of infants in a floating cushion infant support.
2. Background
Infants and small babies frequently need washing and bathing to keep them clean and in good health. They are vulnerable to being injured during the bathing operation and, during the early months of life, the baby's head must be supported at all times because the little neck is not strong enough.
It is difficult for the caretaker of the baby to support the baby and still perform the bathing operation with the other hand. In addition, babies are often provided with slippery oils to help control redness and chapping which makes it more difficult to keep the baby from slipping out of the hands of the caretaker. Soap itself is slippery when applied. It is difficult to support a slippery, squirming baby.
Although it is possible to place the baby on a flat surface, thus freeing both hands to use a washcloth, it is more desirable to periodically bathe the infant at a sink or tub where the water can be freely splashed over the surface of the baby's body.


The present invention relates to a novel KDI protein which is a member of the interferon family. In particular, isolated nucleic acid molecules are provided encoding a human interferon polypeptide, called “KDI”. KDI polypeptides are also provided as are vectors, host cells and recombinant methods for producing the same. The invention further relates to screening methods for identifying agonists and antagonists of KDI activity. Also provided are therapeutic methods for treating immune system-related disorders.

Human interferons (IFNs) are a well known family of cytokines secreted by a large variety of eukaryotic cells upon exposure to various stimuli. The interferons have been classified by their chemical and biological characteristics into five groups: IFN-alpha (leukocytes), IFN-beta (fibroblasts), IFN-gamma (lymphocytes), IFN-omega (leukocytes) and IFN-tau (trophoblasts). IFN-alpha, IFN-beta, IFN-omega and IFN-tau are known as Type I interferons; IFN-gamma is known as a Type-II or immune interferon. A single functional gene in the human genome codes for interferon omega (IFN-omega), a monomeric glycoprotein distantly related in structure to IFN-alpha and IFN-beta, but unrelated to IFN-gamma. IFN-omega is secreted by virus-infected leukocytes as a major component of human leukocyte interferon. The IFNs exhibit anti-viral, immunoregulatory, and antiproliferative activity. The clinical potential of interferons has been recognized, and will be summarized below.
The Interferons (IFNs) were initially identified by their anti-viral activity and are divided into two classes: type 1 and type II. The type I IFNs are further subdivided into three sub-groups. IFN alpha, a group of 14 individual genes with 13 functional and one pseudogene; their major site of synthesis is in leukocytes and they are 165-166 amino acids in length.
IFN Beta, a group of 1 functional gene and no pseudogenes; its major site of synthesis is in viral induced fibroblasts and epithelial cells and it is 166 amino acids in length. IFN omega, a group of 7 individual genes with 1 functional and 6 pseudogenes; the functional gene is expressed upon viral induction in leukocytes. The third sub-group within the type I interferons is trophoblast interferon, IFN tau, which was originally discovered in ruminant trophoblasts and later in humans as well. Whaley et al., J. Biol. Chem. 269: 10864-8 (1994).
The structural genes for all type I IFNs are located within a 400,000 base pair region on the short arm of chromosome 9 (human). None of the genes contain an intron and the proteins encoded by the functional genes all appear to share a common receptor, the type I IFN-R composed of IFNAR1 and IFNAR2 subunits. IFNAR2 has a short, long and soluble form. IFN induced receptor dimerization of the IFNAR1 and IFNAR2c chains initiates a signaling cascade that involves tyrosine phosphorylation of the Tyk2 and Jak1 tyrosine kinases and subsequent phosphorylation of the STAT1 and STAT2 protiens (Stark et al., Ann. Rev. Biochem. 67:227-64 (1998)). Association of the phosphorylated STATs with the p48 DNA binding subunit, forms the ISGF3 multisubunit complex that translocates to the nucleus and binds to interferon-stimulated response elements (ISRE) found upstream of the interferon inducible genes. While the type I IFNs bind the same receptor there appears to be subsequent signaling differences. In contrast to the type I IFNs there is only one member of the type II IFN, namely IFN gamma, which is encoded by a single gene (containing three introns) located on chromosome 12. The protein is produced predominantly by T lymphocytes and NK cells, is 166 amino acids in length and shows no homology to type I interferons.
A range of biological activities are associated with IFNs including antiviral, anti-microbial, tumor anti-proliferative, anti-proliferative, enhancement of NK cell activity, induction of MHC class I expression, and immunoregulatory activities. IFN alpha is marketed by Schering Plough (Intron; IFN alpha 2B) and Hoffman La Roche (Roferon; IFN alpha 2A). Therapeutic uses include the treatment of Hairy Cell leukemia, Chronic myelogenous leukemia, low grade non-Hodgkin lymphoma, cutaneous T cell lymphoma carcinoid tumors, renal cell carcinoma, squamous epithelial tumors of the head and neck, multiple myeloma, and malignant melanoma. With regards to viral disease, Interferon alpha has been found to aid the treatment of chronic active hepatitis, caused by either Hepatitis B or C viruses. IFN Beta has been demonstrated to have clinical benefit in the treatment of multiple sclerosis. Clinical trials with Interferon gamma have shown potential in the treatment of cutaneous and also visceral leishmanias.
Both recombinant interferons and interferons isolated from natural sources have been approved in the United States for treatment of auto-immune diseases, condyloma acuminatum, chronic hepatitis C, bladder carcinoma, cervical carcinoma, laryngeal papillomatosis, fungoides mycosis, chronic hepatitis B, Kaposi's sarcoma in patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus, malignant melanoma, hairy cell leukemia and multiple sclerosis.
Members of the type I interferon family have also been shown to influence neural cell activity and growth (see, for example, Dafny et al., Brain Res. 734:269 (1996); Pliopsys and Massimini, Neuroimmunomodulation 2:31 (1995)). In addition, intraventricular injection of neural growth factors has been shown to influence learning in animal models (see, for example, Fischer et al., Nature 329:65 (1987)).
Anti-viral: IFNs have been used clinically for anti-viral therapy, for example, in the treatment of AIDS (HIV infection) (Lane, Semin. Oncol. 18:46-52 (October 1991)), viral hepatitis including chronic hepatitis B, hepatitis C (Woo, M. H. and Brunakis, T. G., Ann. Parmacother, 31:330-337 (March 1997); Gibas, A. L., Gastroenterologist, 1:129-142 (June 1993)), hepatitis D, papilloma viruses (Levine, L. A. et al., Urology 47:553-557 (April 1996)), herpes (Ho, M., Ann. Rev. Med. 38:51-59 (1987)), viral encephalitis (Wintergerst et al., Infection, 20:207-212 (July 1992)), respiratory syncytial virus, panencephalitis, mycosis fungoides and in the prophylaxis of rhinitis and respiratory infections (Ho, M., Annu. Rev. Med. 38:51-59 (1987)).
Anti-parasitic: IFNs have been suggested for anti-parasite therapy, for example, IFN-gamma for treating Cryptosporidium parvum infection (Rehg, J. E., J. Infect. Des. 174:229-232 (July 1996)).
Anti-bacterial: IFNs have been used clinically for anti-bacterial therapy. For example, IFN-gamma has been used in the treatment of multidrug-resistant pulmonary tuberculosis (Condos, R. et al., Lancet 349:1513-1515 (1997)).
Anti-cancer: Interferon therapy has been used in the treatment of numerous cancers (e.g., hairy cell leukemia (Hoffmann et al., Cancer Treat. Rev. 12 (Suppl. B):33-37 (December 1985)), acute myeloid leukemia (Stone, R. M. et al. Am. J. Clin. Oncol. 16:159-163 (April 1993)), osteosarcoma (Strander, H. et al., Acta Oncol. 34:877-880 (1995)), basal cell carcinoma (Dogan, B. et al., Cancer Lett. 91:215-219 (May 1995)), glioma (Fetell, M. R. et al., Cancer 65: 78-83 (January 1990)), renal cell carcinoma (Aso, Y. et al. Prog. Clin. Biol. Res. 303:653-659 (1989)), multiple myeloma (Peest, D. et al., Br. J. Haematol. 94:425-432 (September 1996)), melanoma (Ikic, D. et al., Int. J. Dermatol. 34:872-874 (December 1995)), myelogenous leukemia, colorectal cancer, cutaneous T cell lymphoma, myelodysplastic syndrome, glioma, head and neck cancer, breast cancer, gastric cancer, anti-cancer vaccine therapy, and Hodgkin's disease (Rybak, M. E. et al., J. Biol. Response Mod. 9:1-4 (February 1990)). Synergistic treatment of advanced cancer with a combination of alpha interferon and temozolomide has also been reported (Patent publication WO 9712630 to Dugan, M. H.).
Immunotherapy: IFNs have been used clinically for immunotherapy or more particularly, for example, to prevent graft vs. host rejection, or to curtail the progression of autoimmune diseases, such as arthritis, multiple sclerosis, or diabetes. IFN-beta is approved of sale in the United States for the treatment (i.e., as an immunosuppressant) of multiple sclerosis. Recently it has been reported that patients with multiple sclerosis have diminished production of type I interferons and interleukin-2 (Wandinger, K. P. et al., J. Neurol. Sci. 149: 87-93 (1997)). In addition, immunotherapy with recombinant IFN-alpha (in combination with recombinant human IL-2) has been used successfully in lymphoma patients following autologous bone marrow or blood stem cell transplantation, that may intensify remission following translation (Nagler, A. et al., Blood 89: 3951-3959 (June 1997)).
Anti-allergy: The administration of IFN-gamma has been used in the treatment of allergies in mammals (See, International Patent Publication WO 8701288 to Parkin, J. M. and Pinching, A. J.). It has also recently been demonstrated that there is a reduced production of IL-12 and IL-12-dependent IFN-gamma release in patients with allergic asthma (van der Pouw Kraan, T. C. et al., J. Immunol. 158:5560-5565 (1997)). Thus, IFN may be useful in the treatment of allergy by inhibiting the humoral response.
Vaccine adjuvantation: Interferons may be used as an adjuvant or coadjuvant to enhance or simulate the immune response in cases of prophylactic or therapeutic vaccination (Heath, A. W. and Playfair, J. H. L., Vaccine 10:427-434 (1992)), such as in anti-cancer vaccine therapy.
Miscellaneous. Interferons have been used to treat corneal haze.
Clearly, there exists a need in the art for the discovery of novel interferon proteins for numerous applications, in e.g., immunotherapy, as well as anti-viral, anti-parasitic, anti-bacterial, or anti-cancer therapies, or any medical condition or situation where increased interferon activity is desired.


A gradation image forming apparatus comprises a gradation data generation section. The gradation data generation section generates gradation data in each pixel of a gradation image based on at least one table of a reference color number corresponding to a pixel value of a reference color which is a start color of the gradation image, at least one table of a difference number corresponding to a difference in pixel values between adjacent pixels in the gradation image, and a pixel value of each pixel of the gradation image.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a gradation image forming apparatus and a gradation image forming method for forming gradation images.
2. Description of the Related Art
A gradation image is often used in an image of a small number of colors (data amount) such as image material or a Web banner in addition to full-color computer graphics. The use of the gradation image enables formation of a picturesque and more natural image even when the number of colors is small.
For formation of such a gradation image, for example, Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 9-259258 presents a method of generating gradation data which has a one-dimensional inclination based on a start color of a gradation image, a unit width for changing a grayscale therein, and a grayscale change rate for each unit width. According to the method of Publication No. 9-259258, gradation data can be generated from the start color of the gradation image, the inclination thereof, and a step width. Thus, it is not necessary to store all data of pixel values of the gradation image in memory, and the volume of data can be reduced.

Gradation image forming apparatus and gradation image forming method


A child-safety electrical socket includes a cover having at least two contact introduction apertures, which cover is disposed on a housing, and underneath which cover a slider is positioned, which stands under the influence of a spring, which supports itself on an intermediate bottom in the housing, wherein the intermediate bottom has at least two apertures and the slider has at least two apertures, which are provided with inclined surfaces, and the slider is disposed in the housing so as to rotate. The slider has a plate-like shape and stands in contact with guides on its circumference, which guides are provided on the cover, on the side facing toward the intermediate bottom.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a child-safety electrical socket comprising a cover having at least two contact introduction apertures. The cover is disposed on a housing, and underneath the cover a slider is positioned, which stands under the influence of a spring, which supports itself on an intermediate bottom in the housing. The intermediate bottom has at least two apertures and the slider has at least two apertures, which are provided with inclined surfaces.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electrical outlets usually consist of an insulation material socket, which can be mounted in a box inserted into or onto a wall, a cable duct or a piece or furniture. The socket has electrical contact elements for connecting the supply wires as well as accommodation contacts for the contact pins of a plug. A cover is set in front of the insulation material socket.
Child-safety electrical outlets have the task of preventing a child who is attempting to place a pointed metal object into an electrical outlet from coming into contact with voltage-carrying contacts and being injured by an electrical shock. For this purpose, a safety device is provided, which closes off the contact introduction apertures of the cover in the unused state of the electrical outlet. This device is configured so that the contact introduction apertures are released only when at least two plug contact pins are inserted at the same time; in contrast, if only one pointed object or only one plug contact pin is inserted, release is prevented.
From U.S. Pat. No. 8,242,362 B2, a child-safety electrical outlet is known, in which a slider is disposed underneath a cover, which slider is spring-loaded and has an aperture. The slider is provided with a rib that has an inclined surface that interacts with a cutout in the housing of the electrical outlet, which cutout also has an inclined surface. If no plug is inserted into the electrical outlet, the slider lies against the cover. If a plug is inserted into the contact introduction apertures in the cover, with both of its plug contact pins at the same time, the plug contact pins enter into contact with the slider. When the plug pins are inserted further, the slider slides along the inclined surface with its rib, counter to the force of the spring, downward into the cutout, and, at the same time, radially into the interior of the electrical outlet, until a stop has been reached. In this position, the slider releases the insertion slots for the plug contact pins, so that the plug can assume its functional position. If, in contrast, only one plug contact pin or a pointed object is inserted into a contact introduction aperture, the slider tilts and is held captured, so that the insertion slots remain covered.
An alternative embodiment is known from U.S. Pat. No. 3,980,372 A. It describes a child-safety electrical outlet, which has a housing having an upper part and a lower part, and comprises contact introduction apertures for plug pins. A protective crosspiece composed of two wings is rotatably mounted underneath the contact introduction apertures. The protective crosspiece stands under the influence of a spring, which turns the wings of the protective crosspiece under the contact introduction apertures. A centered axle journal is provided at the surfaces of the upper housing part and the lower housing part that face toward one another, about which journal the protective crosspiece can be rotated. For this purpose, the protective crosspiece has a central bearing bore. Furthermore, the protective crosspiece has a contour that comes to a point in the center, on its side facing the lower housing part. If a plug is inserted into the contact introduction apertures in the upper housing part with both of its plug contact pins at the same time, the plug contact pins enter into contact with the wings of the protective crosspiece. When the plug contact pins are inserted further, the pins slide along the inclined surfaces of the wings, thereby causing the protective crosspiece to perform a rotational movement counter to the force of the spring, until the wings make contact with the housing. In this position, the protective crosspiece releases the insertion slots for the plug contact pins, so that the plug can assume its functional position. If, in contrast, only one plug contact pin or a pointed object is inserted into a contact introduction aperture, the protective crosspiece tilts about the tip and is held captured. Rotation is thereby prevented, so that the insertion slots remain covered.
The known child-safety electrical outlets fundamentally meet the demands made on them. Nevertheless, because of the very slight construction size of the slider or of the protective crosspiece, which is brought about by the limited construction space present in the electrical outlet, functional problems can occur, particularly during proper use by means of insertion of a plug. As a result, the known child-safety electrical outlets are inconvenient to use. In addition, the embodiments having a rotating protective crosspiece are capable of functioning only when the mounting of the rotating crosspiece is mounted centered relative to the apertures of the voltage-conducting contacts.


A process for producing a garlic-egg yolk composite food include the step and stirring raw garlic to prepare a garlic paste, admixing the garlic paste with egg yolk to form a garlic-egg yolk composite in a gelled condition, heat-treating the gelled garlic-egg yolk composite, and powdering or granulating the heat-treated garlic-egg yolk composite. The step of admixing the garlic paste with egg yolk to form a garlic-egg yolk composite is carried out in such a manner that the temperature following the admixing of the garlic paste with the egg yolk is at least 40.degree. C. Preferably, the raw garlic is steam-treated in advance, the heat-treatment is carried out by irradiating the gelled garlic-egg yolk composite with far-infrared rays. The step of powdering the heat-treated garlic-egg yolk composite is carried out with hard alumina rollers.

Based on practical experience, both garlic and eggs (particularly chicken eggs) have been valued as excellent, nutritious food materials from ancient times. More recently, science has thrown light upon their composition and efficacy.
It was found around the middle of this century that the peculiar smell of garlic derives from allysine. Studies made since this discovery show that allysine is predominantly responsible for a variety of the efficacies of garlic. For example, allysine combines with vitamin B.sub.1 to form allithiamin, an activity-persistent vitamin, which functions in a similar manner to vitamin B.sub.1 and is efficiently absorbed and stored in the body to accelerate the intake of vitamin B.sub.1. It has also been reported that allysine functions to promote the secretion of acetylcholine, providing a tonic effect. Furthermore, it has been found that allysine has germ-killing or antibacterial effects and also that it combines with lipids to develop vasocleaning and hematogenous effects like vitamin E.
As to eggs, a French chemist successfully isolated phosphatidyl-choline, generally known as lecithin, from chicken egg yolk, around the middle of 19th century. Recent studies have reported that lecithin serves to improve and strengthen the brain activity. It has also been found that lecithin functions to remove LDL (low density lipoproteins: the so-called bad cholesterol) adhering to the walls of the arteries, helping to restore normal blood flow.
Thus, modern science has confirmed the efficacious effects of garlic and chicken egg yolk as nutritious foods. However, they are separately eaten in most cases and no composite foods comprised of garlic and chicken egg yolk was available. It is said that, in the southern part of Kyushu Island in Japan, a certain food made of a mixture of garlic and chicken egg yolk was produced as a food for home consumption in the feudal ages. However, the manufacture thereof was kept secret and no information was available.
Recently, interest in foods combining garlic and chicken egg yolk has increased in Japan and studies are being made regarding their preparation. Thus, a certain type of such foods is found to have been introduced in a magazine for housewives as a nutritious food which can easily be prepared at home. Besides, some such foods have been marketed commercially. The present inventor has also made an independent study to elucidate the process for preparing a composite food primarily comprised of garlic and chicken egg yolk based on the traditional technique.
The process for preparing such composite garlic-chicken egg yolk food generally includes the steps of heating and stirring garlic as a starting material to prepare a paste of garlic, mixing the paste with chicken egg yolk, and heat-treating the resultant mixture, followed by, when necessary, processing the heat-treated mixture into the form of powder or granules.
When preparing the food on a small scale at home, such steps can easily be carried out without any special contrivance or device. Even if some failure should occur and a poor product is obtained, there will be no serious problems. However, the present inventor has noticed that the simple practice of the above-mentioned steps will not produce the desired product in producing the composite food of garlic and chicken egg on a commercial scale. Several technical barriers must be overcome for production of a commercial product.
For example, for obtaining a product of high-quality substantially free of garlic smell, simple physical mixing of garlic with chicken egg yolk is not satisfactory but a sufficient chemical reaction must take place between the two components so as to form a composite product. In addition, in mass production on a commercial scale it will be necessary to reduce the repugnant garlic smell as much as possible in order to ensure for a comfortable working environment for the operators.
While the heat-treatment of a garlic-egg yolk mixture is the most important step, an ordinary heat-treatment may result in a high degree of carbonization of the mixture due to overbaking and thus the diminishment or complete loss of the efficacious ingredients,i.e. allysine and lecithine.
It should be further noted that such composite food is generally marketed in the form of a capsule with a soft capsulating material and therefore a device must be made so as to charge as much food material as possible in a unit capsule for a highly efficacious commercial food product.
It is therefore the primary object of the present invention to overcome the above-mentioned technical issues and provide a process for producing, on a mass scale, a composite food comprised of garlic and egg yolk with a high quality acceptable as a commercial food product.
While the term "egg yolk" generally refers to chicken egg yolk, it will be understood that the principle of present invention can be applied to any composite food comprised of garlic and egg yolk of other fowl such as geese or turkeys or of turtles. The term "egg yolk" as termed here includes the egg yolk of such animals.

Process for producing a composite garlic-egg yolk food