A compressor includes a compression mechanism and a resin layer including a stack of three or more layers formed on a whole area or a portion of at least one surface of at least one part of the compression mechanism. A hardness of a layer most distant from a base in the resin layer is smaller than a hardness of a layer closest to the base in the resin layer. A difference in hardness between two adjacent layers in the resin layer is smaller than a difference in hardness between the layer most distant from the base and the layer closest to the base.

As a compressor, there has traditionally been a rotary compressor including a cylinder and a roller disposed inside the cylinder. In this rotary compressor, the roller is attached to a shaft that eccentrically rotates, and moves along the inner circumference surface of the cylinder with the rotation of the shaft.
In the rotary compressor, there is a minute gap between an end surface of a roller and an end plate member disposed to oppose this end surface, and between the outer circumference surface of the roller and the inner circumference surface of a cylinder, for the purpose of preventing seizure caused by sliding. The size of the gap is preferably as small as possible so as to prevent leakage of a refrigerant or lubricating oil. Even with such a gap however, the gap may close up and seizure may take place due to sliding, if the amount of thermal expansion of the roller is greater than that of the cylinder. Such a case may take place for example when the compressor is activated at a high speed.
Further, as a compressor other than the rotary compressor, there is a scroll compressor including a fixed scroll having a fixed-side wrap having a spiral shape, and a moveable scroll having a moveable-side wrap having a spiral shape that engages with the fixed-side wrap. In this scroll compressor, the moveable scroll is mounted to a shaft that eccentrically rotates, and circles with rotation of the moveable scroll.
In this scroll compressor, there is a small gap between an end surface of the wrap and a surface facing this end surface, and between a side surface of the wrap and a side surface (including a side surface of the other wrap) facing this side surface, for the purpose of preventing seizure caused by sliding. However, the gap closes up and seizure takes place, depending on the operation conditions.
To address the issue of seizure in the compressors, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 275280/2006 (Tokukai 2006-275280) suggests a use of resin coating to improve the slidability. This allows prevention of seizure without enlarging the gap.

Compressor with different resin hardness layers


A method for shortening a circuit switch fallback (CSFB) performing time includes determining a plurality of weighting values each associated with one of a plurality of frequencies to be measured during a CSFB procedure, determining a frequency measurement sequence for scheduling the frequencies to be measured in sequence according to the determined weighting values, and measuring a signal quality on the frequencies according to the frequency measurement sequence.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to methods for shortening CSFB performance time.
2. Description of the Related Art
The evolution of wireless communication technologies often requires that newer systems and networks be compatible with existing systems and networks. A communication specification defining the operation of new technology often provides requirements for the new system to interface with these legacy systems. For example, the 3GPP Long term Evolution (LIE) standard requires that a wireless communication device be able to use circuit switched networks for voice calls as well as utilizing the LTE network. For example, LTE allows a circuit switched fall back (CSFB) procedure, in which an LTE handset can leverage the existing infrastructure of previous 2G or 3G technologies to make or receive voice calls. In other words, the LTE handset can drop an existing LTE connection with an LTE evolved Node B (eNB) and fall back to a 2G or 3G cell (e.g., Node B or base station). During the CSFB procedure, the LTE session is suspended. Upon completion of the call, the LTE handset can then re-establish a connection with the LTE network.
However, when performing CSFB, long delay times usually occur. A long delay time can be frustrating for the user and contribute to a high failure rate in establishing voice calls.
Therefore, a method for shortening CSFB delays is highly required.

Methods for shortening CSFB performance time and communication apparatuses utilizing the same


In a multiplex circuit arrangement, particularly for actuating load stations in motor vehicles, with the circuit including a bus system, an arrangement secure against malfunctions is realized in that the end of each data line (L.sub.D) is provided with a bidirectional bus coupling network (station network SN and distributor network VN) including two oppositely connected analog amplifiers (OP1, OP2), with at least a plurality of central bus coupling networks (distributor networks VN) being combined into a star-shaped central bus distributor arrangement (ZVA).

The invention is directed toward a multiplex circuit arrangement, particularly for the actuation of load stations in motor vehicles. More particularly, the invention relates to such a multiplex circuit arrangement wherein each station includes a hardware processor for the rapid serial exchange of data and a driver circuit, with the multiplex circuit arrangement comprising a bus system operating with an active level and a passive level, and with the individual stations being connected via a network structure, e.g. a star structure.
A circuit arrangement of this type is disclosed, for example, in DE 3,730,468.A1. This circuit arrangement has a star-shaped structure, with the actual star point, however, extending practically over the length of the entire vehicle. This results in a significant drawback because damage to the central data line may lead to the total malfunction of the system. The large local expanse of the star point has also been recognized as a problem in this publication. Another drawback of the prior art arrangement is that a large amount of circuitry is required for the individual stations. Each station requires control devices including microprocessors and appropriate software, data converters, data processors and bus transfer members, with the function of these subscriber stations ultimately being only to realize decoupling of the individual interface units.
DE 3,149,142.A1 discloses a circuit arrangement having a relatively complicated central station that is equipped with two computers. This circuit arrangement operates according to the master-slave principle, which is also its primary drawback. Modern arrangements do not operate with a central electronic unit, but with equivalent interconnected groups (multi-master principle). Moreover, in this prior art each sub-group is star-shaped and is approached over a separate line which is a drawback since in the automobile art it must be assumed that a plurality of sub-groups will exist, for example, for the four doors, the four corners of the vehicle, the air-conditioning system, the seat adjustment, the sunroof, at various locations in the engine compartment, at the center console, etc. According to the prior art system, no two such sub-groups must be connected to the same data line if their mutual decoupling is to be ensured. If data must be exchanged between two sub-groups, this can be effected only by way of an intermediate stop in the central unit, for example, for the transmission of operator actuated keys in the region of the rear seats in order to operate a door window.
Based on this, it is the object of the invention to configure a circuit arrangement of the above-mentioned type in such a way that the load lines are distributed in a favorable manner and can be secured by way of a central fuse box, with the central region being locally limited if the circuit is realized in a star structure. Moreover, it should be possible to provide coupling to any existing data line by way of a network without incurring decoupling losses. Each station should be able to communicate with every other station without switching processes and without data transfer by way of a microprocessor, with the data of highest priority being transmitted in each case. Finally, it should also be possible to add further subscriber stations to the network without affecting the remaining system, with addresses being assigned to each individual station.

Multiplex circuit arrangement, particularly for the actuation of load stations in motor vehicles


Disclosed are an open type POI service system using an SNS method and a method thereof. The open type POI system includes an SNS media studio server which opens a POI to a user and registers an interest location designated by a user as an open type POI. Therefore, the SNS media studio server includes a database which stores an open type POI related to a user, and supplies the open type POI to another user who is related to the user by connection of the open type POI and SNS.

Field
The present invention relates to an open-type POI service system and method where a user directly generates map data and shares the map data with another user based on an SNS.
Discussion of the Background
As communication technologies have developed, devices used when an individual forms social relations through a web have been gradually advanced. Particularly, an SNS (Social Networking Service) that is based on the interactivity of a web and the active participation of users has drawn attention. Meanwhile, the users of the day use map information (including traffic information) through various media such as a smart phone, a web, a navigation, and the like, but the users, as receivers, obtain original data provided from an information provider in a uni-direction. However, in the current IT market, an SNS has been considered as a great issue and has been utilized in most IT services regardless of the characteristics of services. This means that costumers do not prefer to passively do information-related activities any longer.
Therefore, a role of a user as a provider is reconsidered in the market related to map information, and there is a need for enhancement of a service that enables a user to directly generate data and provides data.

Open type POI service system using SNS method and method thereof


A chip package structure and a method of manufacturing the same are provided. The chip package structure includes a package portion and a plurality of external conductors. The package portion includes a distribution layer, a chip, a plurality internal conductors and a sealant. The distribution layer has a first surface and a second surface, and the chip is disposed on the first surface. Each internal conductor has a first terminal and a second terminal. The first terminal is disposed on the first surface. The sealant is disposed on the first surface for covering the chip and partly encapsulating the internal conductors, so that the first terminal and the second terminal of each internal conductor are exposed from the sealant. The external conductors disposed on the second surface of the distribution layer of the package portion are electrically connected to the internal conductors.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates in general to a package structure and a method of manufacturing the same, and more particularly to a chip package structure and a method of manufacturing the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, electronic devices have been widely used in people's everyday life, and the manufacturers are dedicated to the development of miniaturized and multi-function electronic products to meet the market demands. Among the package structures used in the semiconductor components of electronic products, the wafer level chip scale package (WLCSP) is the most commonly used package structure.
Referring to FIG. 1, a conventional chip package portion is shown. The package portion 10 includes a distribution layer 20, a sealant 30, an insulation layer 40, a chip 50, a plurality of internal wires 70 and a plurality of solder balls 90. The sealant 30 encapsulates the insulation layer 40, the chip 50 and the internal wires 70. The sealant 30 is disposed on one side of the distribution layer 20. The solder balls 90 are disposed on the other side of the distribution layer 20. The insulation layer 40 is located between the distribution layer 20 and the chip 50. One terminal of the internal wires 70 is disposed on the chip 50, and the other terminal of the internal wires 70 is connected to the distribution layer 20. The chip 50 is electrically connected to the solder balls 90 by the internal wires 70 via the distribution layer 20.
Due to the restriction on the shape of the internal wires 70, a thickness H30 of the sealant 30 is far larger than a thickness H50 of the chip 50, hence increasing the volume of the package portion 10 and restricting the miniaturization of electronic devices. In order to provide multiple functions, a multi-function electronic device must integrate a plurality of chips within. Thus, how to provide a package portion with increased packaging density and a method of manufacturing the same has become an important direction of the research and development in the semiconductor industry.

Chip package structure and method of manufacturing the same

Advanced Semiconductor Engineering, Inc.


The cDNA that encodes a glycoprotein receptor from the tobacco hornworm which binds a Bacillus thuringiensis toxin has been obtained and sequenced. The availability of this cDNA permits the retrieval of DNAs encoding homologous receptors in other insects and organisms as well as the design of assays for the cytotoxicity and binding affinity of potential pesticides and the development of methods to manipulate natural and/or introduced homologous receptors and, thus, to destroy target cells, tissues and/or organisms.

It has long been recognized that the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (BT) produces bacteriocidal proteins that are toxic to a limited range of insects, mostly in the orders Lepidoptera, Coleoptera and Diptera. Advantage has been taken of these toxins in controlling pests, mostly by applying bacteria to plants or transforming plants themselves so that they generate the toxins by virtue of their transgenic character. The toxins themselves are glycoprotein products of the cry gene as described by Hofte, H. et al. Microbiol Rev (1989) 5:242. It has been established that the toxins function in the brush border of the insect midgut epithelial cells as described by Gill, S. S. et al. Annu Rev Entomol (1992) 37:615. Specific binding of BT toxins to midgut brush border membrane vesicles has been reported by Hofmann, C. et al. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA (1988) 85:7844; Van Rie, J. et al. Eur J Biochem (1989) 186:239; and Van Rie, J. et al. Appl Environ Microbiol (1990) 56:1378.
Presumably, the toxins generated by BT exert their effects by some kind of interaction with receptors in the midgut. The purification of a particular receptor from Manduca sexta was reported by the present inventors in an article by Vadlamudi, R. K. et al. J Biol Chem (1993) 268:12334. In this report, the receptor protein was isolated by immunoprecipitating toxin-binding protein complexes with toxin-specific antisera and separating the complexes by SDS-PAGE followed by electroelution. However, to date, there has been no structural information concerning any insect receptor which binds BT toxin, nor have, to applicants' knowledge, any genes encoding these receptors been recovered.

Polynucleotide encoding a receptor for a Bacillus thuringiensis toxin and methods of use


To provide a light guide member such that more uniform brightness can be ensured in a wide region. A light guide member according to the present invention that receives light through side surfaces and outputs the light through main surfaces includes recesses formed by a machine in at least one of the main surfaces in a groove-like or dot-like shape, the recesses having bottom surfaces formed of molten material at the deepest part of the recesses. Thus, there can be provided the light guide member that has the groove-like or dot-like recesses with the bottom surfaces formed by a molten mark and that can output light with more uniform brightness through the main surfaces when a wide region is observed.

As a light guide member that receives light through one or more side surfaces thereof and that guides the light out through one or more main surfaces, a configuration with dot-like recesses or groove-like recesses in the main surfaces as a means for diffusing the light toward the main surfaces has been often proposed (see Patent Document 1, for example).
However, light guide plates with dot-like recesses or groove-like recesses have the problem that, although brightness can be ensured in a small area in the vicinity of each recess, sufficient brightness of light cannot be ensured in a relatively wide region around each recess.

Light guide member and method of manufacturing light guide member


Indicators of incremental brush wear are disclosed. Versions of the indicators may comprise signal wire assemblies embedded in brushes so that they continuously contact rotating components of electrical machines. Each such wire assembly typically is chosen so that its nominal electrical resistance differs from that of its corresponding brush, while its mechanical properties remain similar to those of the brush.

Certain motors, generators, and other rotating electrical machinery conventionally include commutators or analogous rotor contact surfaces. These machines additionally utilize low-resistance brushes, typically positioned in holders, to transfer electric current between the commutators and stationary components of the devices. Because the brushes of a machine frictionally contact its rotating commutator, wear is likely to occur. To avoid (or at least reduce) erosion of the commutator--which often is constructed of copper bars--corresponding brushes are made of softer materials, typically carbon and graphite. As a consequence, conventional brushes deteriorate in use.
Rather than protecting the commutator surface, however, excessive brush wear may damage it. If substantially or completely eroded, the relatively soft carbon and graphite of the brush no longer is available to engage the commutator surface. Instead, the surface of the commutator may contact the copper shunt wire typically connected to the brush or some portion of the brush holder itself. Either contact is likely to be sufficiently detrimental to continued operation of the commutator that premature replacement of the brush may be desirable.
Notwithstanding the potential desirability for this reason of replacing brushes before they wear substantially, disadvantages of doing so exist. In particular, prematurely replacing brushes obviously increases over time the cost of materials, as more brushes than optimal must be used to produce the same electrical output. Additionally, stopping rotation of the machinery to replace brushes ceases output entirely.
Monitoring systems were thus created to address these brush-wear issues. Exemplary existing systems are illustrated in FIGS. 1-4 of U.S. Pat. No. 4,316,186 to Purdy, et al., which patent is incorporated herein in its entirety by this reference. Each system includes a sensing wire embedded longitudinally in part of its corresponding brush. Both the periphery and the tip of the sensing wire are electrically insulated from the brush, thereby isolating the wire electrically from current flowing through the brush. The tip, moreover, is remote from the edge of the brush that initially contacts the commutator surface.
As the brush of the Purdy patent wears in use, the commutator surface eventually contacts the insulated tip of the sensing wire. Continued use of the brush causes the insulation to erode from the tip of the wire, exposing the wire to the surface of the commutator. Upon this exposure, the voltage present on the commutator surface also becomes present on the sensing wire, providing an electrical signal indicating that the contact has occurred. Because the sensing wire extends further through the brush than the current-carrying output leads, it contacts the commutator surface--and thus senses such contact--before the (harder) output leads do so. According to the Purdy patent:
This is to allow the dynamoelectric machine to be operated until the next opportunity for maintenance, and brush replacement, of the dynamoelectric machine, rather than causing a sudden shut down of the dynamoelectric machine, which is not desirable in most applications for dynamoelectric machines.
See col. 5, lines 56-62.
German Patentschrift No. 4137384 appears to disclose another existing wear-indicating system. When the sensing wire of the system disclosed in the German document contacts the commutator and has its insulation removed frictionally, it begins conducting electricity. The conducted electricity illuminates a warning light, effectively indicating that further use of the brush might damage the commutator. Other uses of the conducted electrically may be made as well.
In each of the above-referenced systems, the sensing wire functions as a discrete, two-state device: if the brush has worn to a predetermined level sufficient to cause the sensing wire to contact the rotating surface, the wire conducts electricity; if the brush has not, the sensing wire does not conduct. No continuous or incremental information respecting brush erosion is thus supplied by these systems. None, moreover, necessarily operates reliably under conditions where the sensing wire is stressed. If the sensing wire breaks under such stress, for example, it will fail to provide the requisite signal indicating that the insulation at its tip has been worn away. Similarly, if the sensing wire separates from the brush, no wear signal will be supplied.


Embodiments of a HVAC electrical system power supply packaging system within an ultimate enclosure are provided. The HVAC electrical system power supply packaging system provides serviceability, safety, manufacturability, and system management failure diagnostic reporting enhancements over conventional packaging systems while conforming to agency safety requirements. The embodiments disclosed herein also reduce equipment and service costs for HVAC electrical system power supply components provided within the HVAC electrical system power supply packaging system by reducing delays in servicing these components. Thus, customer uptime of the HVAC system can be increased.

A HVAC system typically includes a compressor, a condenser, an evaporator and an expansion valve forming a refrigeration circuit. The HVAC system also typically includes a number of electrical and mechanical components (e.g., a power supply, a Variable Frequency Drive (VFD), and a motor to run the refrigeration circuit. These and other components of the HVAC system may require NEC class 1 voltage levels to operate correctly. These voltage levels can be hazardous to service personnel who are exposed to these voltage levels while assembling and servicing components of the HVAC.


An apparatus and method for measuring plasma uniformity and RF uniformity within a plasma chamber. A measurement device is provided within the plasma chamber, where the measurement device includes an electrically conductive surrogate wafer (10) including a planar end wall (12) that is exposed to plasma within the plasma chamber and a printed circuit substrate (20) positioned within the surrogate wafer. The end wall has an aperture (18), and the printed circuit substrate has an ion current collector (26) aligned with the aperture in the end wall. The ion current collector preferably extends within the aperture in the end wall, and the ion current collector has an exposed planar surface that is coplanar with an outer surf of the planar end wall. The device measures ion current flux using the ion current collector, and transmits data from the ion current collector to a receiver located outside of the plasma chamber. The data from the ion current collectors is transmitted using an optical transmitter (50) mounted on the printed circuit substrate and connected to the ion current collector by an electronic circuit element (58).

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a measurement device and method for a semiconductor processing system, and more specifically, for a plasma processing system including an apparatus for measuring the uniformity of the plasma at multiple locations adjacent to a surface of a semiconductor wafer being processed.
2. Discussion of the Background
Ion current flux is a parameter that can be used to characterize a plasma in the reaction chamber of a semiconductor wafer processing system. This parameter provides a useful measure of the effectiveness of the plasma in a particular process step and may also, for a suitably designed measurement tool provide information about the uniformity of the plasma at the surface of a wafer being processed.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,801,386 hereinafter "the '386 patent") describes an ion current probe used to measure ion current flux in a plasma chamber. For many probe configurations, the calculation of the ion current flux density is complicated because the side walls of the current collectors have a thickness typically in excess of one millimeter, which allows the side walls to be exposed to the plasma. Consequently the side walls collect an appreciable ion current, and the calculation of ion current flux density for the placebo wafer must account for the ion current the side walls collect. An additional problem with such probe configurations is that the exposed edges at the juncture of the planar surface and the side walls of the ion current collectors are also a potential source of electrical arcs. Such arcing affects the accuracy of the ion current measurements and may damage the ion current probe as well.
In such current probes, the ion current collectors are usually attached to the placebo wafer with the aid of an adhesive such as an epoxy resin. The attachment is usually not precisely repeatable from placebo wafer to placebo wafer. For example, a collector may not be flat against the surface of the placebo wafer or its location might be slightly displaced from the location of the equivalent ion current collector on another placebo wafer. Consequently, different placebo wafers do not, in general, yield identical data.
In addition, adhesives used to attach the ion current collectors to the placebo wafer are potentially a source of chamber contamination. Furthermore, an adhesive exposed to the plasma may deteriorate physically. In particular, it may become brittle and crack, and the ion current collectors may, consequently, separate from the surface of the placebo wafer.
Moreover, the connecting tail restricts movement of the placebo wafer within the plasma chamber. In addition, it also precludes placing the placebo wafer within or extracting it from the chamber without opening the chamber. The use of a connector tail also makes the measurement less accurate than a measurement made with a truly floating placebo wafer, because the connection to ground influences both the voltage and impedance to ground of the placebo wafer.

Measuring plasma uniformity in-situ at wafer level


An apparatus is provided for mounting a coat rack, bookshelf or the like to a wall panel. The apparatus includes a pair of side supports which support opposing ends of the coat racks, bookshelves or the like. The apparatus is provided with a mounting mechanism which allows the apparatus to mount to either a top edge of the wall panel or to a set of slotted standards on a front surface of the wall panel. One of two specific mounting mechanisms are provided. The first, an L-shaped bracket, allows the apparatus to be mounted over the top edge of the wall panel. The second, a V-shaped hook plate, allows the apparatus to be mounted into slotted standards. Thus, a single pair of side supports accommodates either mounting arrangement. A leveling mechanism is also provided for leveling the apparatus.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention generally relates to accessories for mounting to wall panels and, in particular, to a coat rack accessory for mounting to a wall panel.
2. Description of Related Art
Wall panel systems are widely used. Such systems typically include a plurality of wall partition panels connected by means of vertical standards, with the wall panels configured to provide individual offices for employees. The individual offices may be rather small, and it is desirable to provide an efficient means for mounting an office accessory such as a coat rack or bookshelf directly to the wall panel system, thus freeing space on the office desk or floor which would otherwise be occupied by the office accessory.
An example of an apparatus for mounting a coat hanger, or the like, to a wall panel system is provided in U.S. Pat. No. 5,110,079. A coat hanger is hung from an extending portion of the apparatus. Although useful, the apparatus of U.S. Pat. No. 5,110,079 does not provide a mounting apparatus for mounting an entire coat rack or a bookshelf to a wall unit. Furthermore, the apparatus of U.S. Pat. No. 5,110,079 must be mounted into the slots of a slotted wall standard and cannot be mounted to other portions of a wall panel. The apparatus of U.S. Pat. No. 5,110,079 does not allow for mounting of a bookcase or any other office accessory having a pair of opposing ends which must be mounted horizontally along a front portion of a wall panel.
Thus, although providing a useful apparatus for hanging a single coat hanger from a wall panel, U.S. Pat. No. 5,110,079 does not provide an ideal mounting apparatus capable of mounting an entire coat rack or a bookshelf onto a wall panel.


A liquid sporulation method is described. A liquid culture is prepared by adding bacterial cells to a sporulation broth. The liquid culture is incubated. Spores are harvested from the incubated liquid culture by separating the spores from a culture supernatant. In some embodiments, the harvested spores are suspended in an aqueous medium to form a spore suspension. At least a portion of the culture supernatant is combined with the spore suspension.

In the health care industry as well as in many other commercial and industrial applications, it is often necessary to monitor the effectiveness of processes used to sterilize equipment such as medical and non-medical devices, instruments and other articles and materials. A biological indicator including spores can be included in the batch of articles to be sterilized to assay the lethality of the sterilization process. Such a biological indicator can also be used to validate the effectiveness of sterilization equipment and sterilization cycles used in such equipment. Following the sterilization process, the biological indicator can be exposed to a growth media or other detection media for the purpose of determining the viability of the spores.
Spores are a highly resistant, dormant cells formed by some types of bacteria. Endospores (or simply spores) form within the vegetative mother cell in response to adverse changes in the environment, most commonly nutrient depletion. The mother cell undergoes an asymmetrical cell division, where it replicates its genetic material, which is then surrounded by multiple concentric and spore-specific layers. The mother cell then disintegrates, releasing the mature dormant spore which requires neither nutrients, water, nor air for survival and is protected against a variety of trauma, including extremes of temperature, radiation, and chemical assault. The resistance of the spore to such trauma is typically higher than the vegetative cell variant. One type of method for producing spores used in connection with a biological indicator is a plate-based culture method in which bacterial cells cultured using a series of sets of Petri plates to produce spores that meet the desired product's acceptance criteria.
In some embodiments, viability of the spores subsequent to the sterilization process is determined by germination of viable spores into vegetative cells, where spore outgrowth may be identified via an associated color change of media within the biological indicator. However, traditional growth-dependent biological indicators require a significant time investment as even an unexposed positive control biological indicator can take several hours of incubation to produce sufficient acid to induce a color change. In other embodiments, viability of the spores subsequent to the sterilization process is determined using a proxy indicator of spore survival, where the proxy is an enzymatic hydrolysis of a non-fluorescent substrate into a fluorescent moiety from enzymes of the spores. However, growth or nascent enzyme production by spores can lack the rapidity needed for verifying the sterilization process in many health care settings.

Post-sporulation modification of spores and biological indicator


A sheet-supply device supplying sheets one at a time from a stack of sheets in a sheet feeding direction. The device includes a slanting plate on which a stack of sheets is mounted. A sheet feed roller is positioned above the slanting plate applying a force to an uppermost sheet in the stack to move the sheet in a sheet feed direction. A fixed separation plate is fixed at a downstream end portion of the slanting plate. The separation plate is formed with a slot in which a high friction separation member is disposed. The high friction separation member is held by a resilient support plate 39 supported by the fixed separation plate. The resilient support plate has a comb like slats on which the high friction separation member is held. In a normal condition, the high friction separation member protrudes from the slot toward the leading edges of the sheets. When a leading edge of the sheet presses the high friction separation member by the rotation of the sheet feed roller, and the sheet has a predetermined stiffness, a part of the high friction separation member sinks into the slot by the deformation of the comb like slats.

The present invention relates to a sheet-supply device for supplying cut sheets and to an image forming device provided with the sheet-supply device.
Recently, image forming device such as laser printers, color ink jet printers, facsimile machines, and copy machines, are provided with a sheet-supply device that supplies one cut sheet at a time to an image forming section of the image forming device. U.S. Pat. No. 6,158,733 and Japanese Patent Application Publication Nos. 2001-253580 and 2000-168980 disclose sheet-supply devices that include a slanting tray plate, a separation plate, and a sheet-supply roller. A plurality of sheets is stacked on the tray plate. The sheet-supply roller is provided in confrontation with the tray plate and supplies sheets downstream in a sheet-supply direction. The separation plate is disposed downstream from the tray plate in the sheet-supply direction. The separation plate has a separation slanted surface that extends in a direction that forms an obtuse angle with respect to the surface of the tray plate.
In one known sheet-supply device, the separation plate is modified such that the separation plate is formed with a slot extending in the direction in which the separation slanted surface extends. A high-friction insert member provided with a protruding part is fitted into the slot from the under side of the separation plate so that the protruding part is directed upwardly. The high-friction insert member is made from polyurethane resin. A foam-rubber member is provided at a lower surface of the high friction insert member for resiliently supporting the high-friction insert member.
The sheets stacked on the tray plate are supported with their leading edges, i.e., downstream-side (with respect to the direction of sheet supply) edges in abutment with the protruding part that protrudes from the surface of the separation plate. When the sheet-supply roller is driven to rotate while pressed against the uppermost sheet in the stack on the tray plate, then the leading edge of the sheet presses against the protruding part of the high-friction insert member. Therefore, the protruding part is resiliently deformed and sinks into the slot from the surface of the separation plate. As a result, the leading edge of the sheet is released from the high friction resistance of the high-friction insert member and so slides across the surface of a separation plate having a coefficient of friction lower than that of the high friction insert member, so that one sheet at a time is separated from the stack.
However, the separation plate is made completely from a synthetic resin in a block shape. Therefore, changes in temperature, humidity, or other environmental conditions, or in forming conditions, may change Young's modulus and friction coefficient of the synthetic resin. Thus, sheet separation ability varies with the season of the year, so that sometimes two sheets are fed out at the same time.


A system includes a processor and a non-transitory computer readable medium coupled to the processor. The non-transitory computer readable medium includes code, that when executed by the processor, causes the processor to receive input from a user of a user device to generate an optimal payment location on an application display, generate a first boundary of the optimal payment location on the application display of the user device based upon a first motion of a payment enabled card in a first direction and generate a second boundary of the optimal payment location on the application display of the user device based upon a second motion of the payment enabled card in a second direction. The first boundary and the second boundary combine to form defining edges of the optimal payment location.

The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
Traditional mobile devices are designed to operate primarily as communication devices and secondarily as payment terminals. Furthermore, because users of mobile devices prefer higher data transmission rates for high-quality video and internet applications, mobile devices generally are not suited to operate as payment terminals in a payment system. This is especially true for mobile devices that utilize near-field communication (NFC) systems, since NFC systems are generally designed to operate at lower transmission data rates and transmit data within a few centimeters. Therefore, a need exists to enable the development of mobile devices that operate effectively as payment terminals.

System and method for payment terminal optimization


The present invention is a fibrin sealant and a method for producing a fibrin sealant from fish blood. Whole blood is drawn from the donor fish and centifuged to separate blood cells from plasma. Prothrombin and fibrinogen are extracted from this plasma, and the prothrombin is activated to thrombin. The fibrinogen and thrombin components are then combined as needed to form the fibrin sealant.

Fibrin sealants are well-established as effective hemostatic agents with numerous applications in cardiac, thoracic, plastic, and neurosurgery; skin grafting, repair of bony defects, and treatment of gastric ulcers (Gibble and Ness, 1990). The common denominator of these applications is the need for a biodegradable tissue sealant that serves to diminish bleeding or serosol leakage, or to provide additional strength to surgical anastamoses. Current fibrin sealants consist of human fibrinogen and Factor VIII derived from human plasma cryoprecipitate, and thrombin from bovine plasma (Martinowitz and Saltz, 1996). Outside the United States, commercially prepared fibrin glue kits are available which contain pasteurized human fibrinogen, bovine thrombin, and other ingredients. The FDA has not approved use of these kits due to concerns for efficacy and safety including possible viral disease risks. Therefore, U.S. surgeons frequently prepare homemade "glues". These consist of fibrinogen extracted from the patient's own plasma (autologous plasma), combined with bovine thrombin to form a glue mixture (Silver et al., 1995).
Problems with fibrin sealants now in use center on the possibility of disease transmission from both the human-derived fibrinogen from non-autologous sources, and the bovine thrombin. Recent experience in Britain linking bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) and Creutzfelt-Jakob Disease in humans demonstrates the dangers of cross-mammalian infectious agents (Will et al., 1996). The dangers of viral infection from non-autologous human blood products is well known. Although various techniques are available to detect and inactivate human and other mammalian viruses, they offer relative safety only from known risks, and little if any protection from thermoresistant viruses or new infectious agents such as prions (Murphy, 1996). Also, an emerging problem with bovine thrombin is the development of antibodies to bovine blood proteins by some patients (Nichols, 1994).
The rapid clotting of blood from most teleosts (bony fish) is well-known. The mechanism is a cascade of clotting factors ending in the conversion of fibrinogen to fibrin by thrombin, similar to clotting in humans (Doolittle and Surgenor, 1962). However, these authors and others (Smit and Schoonbee, 1988; Kawatsu and Kondo, 1989) found many of the clotting proteins in fish to be species-specific. Clotting factors in fish have received little attention for human applications for several reasons. First, species-specificity of some fish plasma proteins pointed to a general incompatibility of fish and human blood proteins, discouraging further investigation. Second, only in the past few years have the dangers, both real and perceived, from human and bovine blood products been publicized. Third, until the recent establishment of commercial aquaculture, large quantities of aseptic blood of consistent composition and quality were not available.

Method of producing fibrin sealant from clotting factors in fish blood


A method and an apparatus for a parameter sharing speech recognition system are provided. Speech signals are received into a processor of a speech recognition system. The speech signals are processed using a speech recognition system hosting a shared hidden Markov model (HMM) produced by generating a number of phoneme models, some of which are shared. The phoneme models are generated by retaining as a separate phoneme model any triphone model having a number of trained frames available that exceeds a prespecified threshold. A shared phoneme model is generated to represent each of the groups of triphone phoneme models for which the number of trained frames having a common biphone exceed the prespecified threshold. A shared phoneme model is generated to represent each of the groups of triphone phoneme models for which the number of trained frames having an equivalent effect on a phonemic context exceed the prespecified threshold. A shared phoneme model is generated to represent each of the groups of triphone phoneme models having the same center context. The generated phoneme models are trained, and shared phoneme model states are generated that are shared among the phoneme models. Shared probability distribution functions are generated that are shared among the phoneme model states. Shared probability sub-distribution functions are generated that are shared among the phoneme model probability distribution functions. The shared phoneme model hierarchy is reevaluated for further sharing in response to the shared probability sub-distribution functions. Signals representative of the received speech signals are generated.

The broad goal of speech recognition technology is to create machines that can receive spoken information and act appropriately upon that information. In order to maximize benefit and universal applicability, speech recognition systems (SRSs) should be capable of recognizing continuous speech, and should be able to recognize multiple speakers with possibly diverse accents, speaking styles, and different vocabularies and grammatical tendencies. Effective SRSs should also be able to recognize poorly articulated speech, and should have the ability to recognize speech in noisy environments.
Acoustic models of sub-word sized speech units form the backbone of virtually all SRSs. Many systems use phonemes to define the dictionary, but some SRSs use allophones. The best recognition performance is typically obtained when acoustic models are generated for the sub-word units conditioned on their context; such models are called context-dependent sub-word models. When the chosen sub-word unit is the phoneme, the context-dependent modeling can capture allophonic variation and coarticulation. In the case of phones, context-dependent modeling only attempts to capture the effects of coarticulation.
Once a speaker has formed a thought to be communicated to the listener, they construct a phrase or sentence by choosing from a collection of finite mutually exclusive sounds, or phonemes. The basic theoretical unit for describing how speech conveys linguistic meaning is called a phoneme. As such, the phonemes of a language comprise a minimal theoretical set of units that are sufficient to convey all meaning in the language; this is to be compared with the actual sounds that are produced in speaking, which speech scientists call allophones. For American English, there are approximately 50 phonemes which are made up of vowels, semivowels, diphthongs, and consonants. Each phoneme can be considered to be a code that consists of a unique set of articulatory gestures. If speakers could exactly and consistently produce these phoneme sounds, speech would amount to a stream of discrete codes. However, because of many different factors including, for example, accents, gender, and coarticulatory effects, every phoneme has a variety of acoustic manifestations in the course of flowing speech. Thus, from an acoustical point of view, the phoneme actually represents a class of sounds that convey the same meaning.
The most abstract problem involved in speech recognition is enabling the speech recognition system with the appropriate language constraints. Whether phones, phonemes, syllables, or words are viewed as the basic unit of speech, language, or linguistic, constraints are generally concerned with how these fundamental units may be concatenated, in what order, in what context, and with what intended meaning. For example, if a speaker is asked to voice a phoneme in isolation, the phoneme will be clearly identifiable in the acoustic waveform. However, when spoken in context, phoneme boundaries become difficult to label because of the physical properties of the speech articulators. Since the vocal tract articulators consist of human tissue, their positioning from one phoneme to the next is executed by movement of muscles that control articulator movement. As such, there is a period of transition between phonemes that can modify the manner in which a phoneme is produced. Therefore, associated with each phoneme is a collection of allophones, or variations on phones, that represent acoustic variations of the basic phoneme unit. Allophones represent the permissible freedom allowed within a particular language in producing a phoneme, and this flexibility is dependent on the phoneme as well as on the phoneme position within an utterance.
Prior art SRSs can recognize phonemes uttered by a particular speaker. A speaker-dependent SRS uses the utterances of a single speaker to learn the models, or parameters, that characterize the SRS's internal model of the speech process. The SRS is then used specifically for recognizing the speech of its trainer. Accordingly, the speaker-dependent SRS will yield relatively high recognition results compared with a speaker-independent SRS. Prior art SRSs also perform speaker-independent recognition. The speaker-independent SRS is trained by multiple speakers and used to recognize many speakers who may be outside of the training population. Although more accurate, the disadvantage of a speaker-dependent SRS is the need to retrain the system each time it is to be used with a new speaker.
At present, the most popular approach in speech recognition is statistical learning, and the most successful statistical learning technique is the hidden Markov model (HMM). The HMMs are capable of robust and succinct modeling of speech, and efficient maximum-likelihood algorithms exist for HMM training and recognition. To date, HMMs have been successfully applied to the following constrained tasks: speaker-dependent recognition of isolated words, continuous speech, and phones; small-vocabulary speaker-independent recognition of isolated words; and speaker-independent phone recognition in large vocabulary continuous and isolated word recognition.
The HMMs provide a sound basis for modeling both the interspeaker and intraspeaker variability of natural speech. However, to accurately model the distributions of real speech spectra, it is necessary to have complex output distributions. For example, continuous density HMM systems require multiple Gaussian mixture components to achieve good performance. Furthermore, context-dependent triphones are required to deal with contextual effects such as coarticulation. Thus, a speaker-independent continuous speech HMM system will generally contain a large number of context-dependent models, each of which contains a large number of parameters. Unfortunately, the ability to arbitrarily increase model complexity is limited by the limited amount of training data and the statistical confidence of this data. Thus, the key problem to be faced when building a HMM-based continuous speech recognizer is maintaining the balance between model complexity, the corresponding processor requirements, and the available training data, and finding the best method by which to estimate the model parameters.
Traditional methods of dealing with this problem tend to be model-based. For example, for discrete and tied-mixture systems it is common to interpolate between triphones, biphones and monophones. One prior art technique of speaker-independent phone recognition generates a model based on multiple codebooks of linear predictive coding-derived parameters for a number of phones and then applies co-occurrence smoothing to determine the similarity between every pair of codewords from all phones, smoothing the individual distributions accordingly. However, a speaker-independent phone model is unstable because in actual speech the context depends on the preceding and the following phone; thus, each different context of a phone requires a different model which increases the speech recognition system memory requirements as well as decreasing system accuracy, efficiency, and speed.
In an attempt to avoid the need for smoothing, both stochastic decision trees and maximum a posteriori estimation approaches have been proposed. Another prior art speech recognition method produces a context-dependent Gaussian mixture HMM in which acoustic phone states are merged and then any cluster with insufficient training data is merged with its nearest neighbor. There also exists a prior art speech recognition system in which phones are clustered depending on their phonetic context into left and right contexts.
However, one of the limitations of the prior art model-based approaches is that the left and right contexts cannot be treated independently and since the distribution of training examples between left and right contexts will rarely be equal, this leads to a suboptimal use of the data.
In addition to the HMM, another approach available in speech recognition is the knowledge engineering approach. Knowledge engineering techniques integrate human knowledge about acoustics and phonetics into a phone recognizer, which produces a sequence or a lattice of phones from speech signals. While hidden Markov learning places learning entirely in the training algorithm, the knowledge engineering approach attempts to explicitly program human knowledge about acoustic/phonetic events into the speech recognition system. Whereas an HMM-based search is data driven, a knowledge engineering search is typically heuristically guided. Currently, knowledge engineering approaches have exhibited difficulty in integrating higher level knowledge sources with the phonetic decoder as a result of decoder complexity. Consequently, there is a requirement for a speech recognition system that combines knowledge engineering in an interchangeable way with stochastic methods including HMMs comprising phoneme models to produce and use a model for speech recognition that reduces memory requirements of the SRS while maximizing the use of available training data to reduce the error in parameter estimation and optimize the training result.

Method and apparatus for a parameter sharing speech recognition system


The present disclosure relates to RNAi agents, e.g., double stranded RNAi agents, able to inhibit Angiopoietin-like 3 (also called ANGPTL3, ANGPL3, angiopoietin-like protein 3) gene expression, and compositions that include ANGPTL3 RNAi agents. Also disclosed are methods of use of ANGPTL3 RNAi agents and compositions. The ANGPTL3 RNAi agents disclosed herein may be conjugated to targeting ligands to facilitate the delivery to cells, including to hepatocytes. Pharmaceutical compositions that include one or more ANGPTL3 RNAi agents, optionally with one or more additional therapeutics, are described. Delivery of the ANGPTL3 RNAi agents in vivo provides for inhibition of ANGPTL3 gene expression, and can result in lower triglycerides and/or cholesterol levels in the subject. The RNAi agents can be used in methods of treatment of ANGPTL3-related diseases and disorders, including cardiometabolic diseases such as hypertriglyceridemia and hyperlipidemia.

Angiopoietin-like 3 (also called ANGPTL3, ANGPL3, ANG3, or angiopoietin-like protein 3) is an angiopoietin protein encoded by the human angiopoietin-like 3 gene that is reported to be involved in regulating lipid metabolism. ANGPTL3 is a 460-amino acid polypeptide that consists of a signal peptide, N-terminal coiled-coil domain, and a C-terminal fibrinogen (FBN)-like domain. ANGPTL3 is known to be primarily produced in hepatocytes in humans, and after synthesis is secreted into circulation. ANGPTL3 acts as an inhibitor of lipoprotein lipase, which catalyzes hydrolysis of triglycerides, and endothelial lipase, which hydrolyzes lipoprotein phospholipids. Inhibition of these enzymes can cause increases in plasma levels of triglycerides, high-density lipoproteins (HDL), and phospholipids. Further, loss-of-function mutations in ANGPTL3 lead to familial hypobetalipoproteinemia, which is characterized by low levels of triglycerides and low-density lipoprotein (LDL-C) in plasma. In humans, loss-of-function in ANGPTL3 is also correlated with a decreased risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.
An effective therapeutic that targets ANGPTL3 could provide a beneficial impact in the treatment (including prophylactic treatment) of cardiometabolic diseases such as hypertriglyceridemia, obesity, hyperlipidemia, abnormal lipid and/or cholesterol metabolism, atherosclerosis, type II diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease, coronary artery disease, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, homozygous and heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia, statin resistant hypercholesterolemia and other metabolic-related disorders and diseases. While certain double-stranded RNA-based compounds have been identified as being capable of inhibiting the expression of an ANGPTL3 gene (see, e.g., International Patent Application Publication Nos. WO 2012/177784, WO 2016/168286, and WO 2016/154127), the ANGPTL3 RNAi agents disclosed herein were not previously disclosed or known, and provide for highly potent and highly efficient ANGPTL3-specific inhibition of expression of an ANGTPL3 gene.

RNAi agents and compositions for inhibiting expression of angiopoietin-like 3 (ANGPTL3), and methods of use


The container consists of two shells which face each other and are mounted to each other at their port edges by means of wedge type fastener structures. To this end each shell includes a plurality of semi-wedges arranged distributed along the circumference. Two opposite semi-wedges of the two shells complete themselves to a complete wedge. A separately provided wedge clams is slid over every complete wedge, which wedge clamp grips around the complete wedge and presses the two semi-wedges of each complete wedge and accordingly the two port edges together.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a container having a lower shell with an upper port edge, and having an upper shell with a lower port edge, and having coupling structures by means of which the two shells are coupled along their port edges, which container features a longitudinal axis which is common to both shells, which longitudinal axis extends vertically when the container is in its operational position.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Such a container is disclosed in the German Utility Model Specification No. 94 16 968. The coupling structures which are disclosed in mentioned specification are threaded bolt structures or such disconnectable couplings which need a plurality of holes (bore holes) which are arranged distributed along the circumference of the shell edges, such as can be seen in FIG. 2 of mentioned Utility Model Specification. This plurality of holes distributed along the circumference is a drawback. At the one hand these holes must be drilled and, at the other hand, coupling members (threaded bolts) must thereafter be inserted into all of these holes. Because commonly a metal is used for such coupling members, there exists the danger of corrosion. A bolting together of the two shells for forming the complete container has, therefore, a number of drawbacks which shall be eliminated by the present invention.
Coupling members which make use of wedges and wedge clamps are known to be used at pipe sockets (CH-PS 677 395 and EU-publication 0 011 252). This prior art discloses a coupling of two channel shaped sections of a pipe which are coupled to form a complete pipe (socket). The two socket half shells differ, from each other, however, so that when assembled to a complete socket a complete wedge is formed at either side of the socket.
The U.S. Pat. No. 5,222,619 discloses a container with a cover lid in which wedge clamps are arranged between the container and the lid in order to fasten the lid onto the container. The container and lid are two separate structures.


There is provided a method and system for identifying the location of an obstruction in a pipeline comprising: sensing the magnetic field generated by a pipeline at an initial pressure from a first location along the length of the pipeline to obtain a baseline reading; altering the pressure from a first end until a maximum pressure or minimum pressure is attained; sensing the magnetic field at the maximum or minimum pressure from the first location to obtain a stress reading; and identifying the location of the obstruction as a) being between a second end and the first location when there is a deviation between the stress reading and the baseline reading at the first location or as b) being between the first end and the first location when there is an absence of a deviation between the stress reading and the baseline reading at the first location.

Pipelines are comprised of ferromagnetic materials, such as iron, nickel, steel and other materials. Large Standoff Magnetometry (LSM) technology is known be used to identify and locate elevated levels of stress through the measurement of the magnetic field surrounding steel pipelines. LSM detects inverse magnetostriction (also known as the Villari effect) which is the change of the magnetic susceptibility of a material when subjected to mechanical stress. LSM technology has been used to detect defects as they appear as changes in the magnetic field around the pipeline which can indicate the presence of stress on the pipe wall (e.g. due to dents, buckles, cracks, and corrosion metal loss. Thus, LSM can identify stress concentration by performing an indirect inspection.
When a pipeline flow is severely restricted or blocked due to stuck pigs (pipeline inspection gauge), or product build up, the location must be identified to facilitate remedial action. When a blockage cannot be located by conventional means, then the pipe is exposed, tapped and a pressure gauge is used to verify if that location is before or after the blockage by comparison/identification of the pressure increase. This process requires large excavation and a process called hot tapping when the pipe is full of petroleum product. Each excavation and hot tap can cost tens of thousands of dollars, and as many as a dozen or more may be required to adequately pin-point the location of the blockage.
There is a need to identify the location of an obstruction in the pipeline without requiring repeated pipeline excavation, exposure, and tapping, in order to pin-point the location of the blockage.

Method and system for identifying the location of an obstruction in a pipeline


A system and method of a variable speed cooling fan for a skid mounted compressor. A magnetic variable speed clutch is mounted to the cooling fan drive shaft. The clutch mechanism is driven via by a drive pulley on the crankshaft of the engine driving the compressor. The speed of the fan is varied dependent upon the temperature of the fluids being cooled.

Skid mounted compressor assemblies are commonly used on well sites for compressing natural gas so it can be shipped via a pipeline. Skid mounted compressor assemblies may also be used at pipeline compressor stations to maintain proper gas pressure in a pipeline. These skid mounted compressor assemblies typically also include, in addition to the compressor, an internal combustion engine which is oftentimes fueled by a small portion of the natural gas being produced. The skid mounted compressor assemblies also typically have a fin fan heat exchanger used to cool the engine and natural gas after and between compression stages. The fin fan heat exchanger has a fan which pushes or pulls ambient air across the heat exchanger to remove heat from the compressed gas and engine coolant. The fan is typically driven via a belt directly off of the crankshaft of the engine without the ability to independently adjust the fan speed. This puts additional load on the engine, leading to additional fuel consumption and additional heat from the engine.
These skid assemblies (i.e., the compressor, the internal combustion engine and the fin fan heat exchanger mounted on a common skid) may operate in extreme conditions including temperatures in excess of 100° F. Thus the heat exchanger, including the fan, should be designed to operate at this extremely high temperature. While the heat exchanger should be capable of operating at this extreme temperature, this extreme temperature is encountered only for a few days every year. Even on those days where the temperature exceeds 100° F., it only does so for a few hours. Nevertheless, the fans used in these skid assemblies have traditionally operated 24 hours a day, 365 days a year at the fan speed necessary for the extreme temperatures. But as noted, these extreme temperatures may exist only for a few hours in the afternoon of the hottest days of the year. Thus, the majority of the time, the fan is operated at a speed that greatly exceeds the fan speed necessary for the temperature conditions. Continually operating the fan at this excess fan speed leads to extraordinary additional fuel consumption and costs of over the course of a year.
Attempts have been made to provide an adjustable cooling fan speed on skid mounted compressor assemblies like those described above. These have been limited to using a hydrostatic clutch mechanism and electrical VFD (variable frequency drive) systems. Electric VFD (variable frequency drive) systems tend not to be a useful solution as they require explosion proof components and enclosures, thus making them cost prohibitive. A hydrostatic clutch mechanism requires additional gearing and drive mechanisms, and does not allow for the direct drive of the cooling fan in an efficient manner. The complexity and expense of these attempted solutions have led to few installations in the industry.

System and method involving a variable speed cooling fan used with a compressor and an internal combustion engine


The present invention relates to a process for the preparation of dabigatran etexilate of the formula

It is known that ethyl-3-[(2-{[4-(hexyloxycarbonylamino-imino-methyl)-phenylamino]-methyl}-1-methyl-1H-benzimidazole-5-carbonyl)-pyridin-2-yl-amino]-propionate having the INN dabigatran etexilate of the Formula
is an oral anti-coagulant of a thrombine inhibitory mechanism.
Dabigatran etexilate was first described by Hauel et al in EP 966 454 (Hungarian equivalent HU 223 754). The dabigatran etexilate base of the Formula 1 is prepared by the synthesis route shown on reaction scheme 1. In the last step the hydrochloride salt of the amidine of the Formula
is coupled with the hexyl chloro formiate of the Formula

The key step of the synthesis route is the conversion of the nitrile of the Formula
into the amidine/2XHCl//Pinner reaction/. The low yields of the Pinner reaction can be derived from the water sensibility of the reaction on the one hand while the realization of the reaction is rendered more difficult on the other by the fact that the ester function of the molecule is susceptible to hydrolysis. According to Example 58b of said patent—in an analogous manner to Example 25d 1.2 g of 1-methyl-2-[N-(cyanophenyl)-aminomethyl]-5-benzimidazole-carboxylic acid-N-(2-pyridyl)-N-[2-(ethoxycarbonylethyl]-amide (4) is reacted with ethanol saturated with hydrochloric acid in large dilution. The evaporated crude product is then converted with 100 ml of ethanol and ammonium carbonate into the hydrochloric acid salt of 1-methyl-2-[N-(4-amidinophenyl)-aminomethyl]-5-benzimidazole-carboxylic acid-N-(2-pyridyl)-N-[2-(ethoxycarbonyl)-ethyl]-amide (2). Said compound is purified by repeated removal of the solvent and column chromatography. The base thus obtained (1) is characterized only by TLC Rf value and mass chromatography data. Thus it does not appear whether the product is crystalline or amorphous.
                The synthesis route of dabigatran etexilate according to the basic patent is shown on reaction scheme 1.
The purification step performed by using large dilutions and column chromatography makes the scaling up and industrial scale realization of the process impossible or strongly limited. According to Example 113 the last step (2XHCl to 1) is carried out by coupling 1-methyl-2-[N-(4-amidino-phenyl)-aminomethyl]-5-benzimidazole-carboxylic-acid-N-(2-pyridyl)-N-[2-(ethoxycarbonyl-ethyl]-amide (2XHCl) and hexyl chloro formiate (3). The total yield of the process/5→1/is only 22%, related to the 3-amino-4-(methylamino-benzoic) acid-N-[2-/ethoxycarbonyl-ethyl]-amide (5) starting material.
In their article (J. Med. Chem. 2002, 45, 1757-1766) Hauel et al describe a process identical with that set forth in the basic patent but the preparation of the coupling agent (5) is explained in details on reaction scheme 2. via the amino-nitro compound of the Formula

The dabigatran etexilate base/1/is characterized by mass spectrum, 1H NMR and melting point (128-129° C.). The latter value is identical with that indicated later for the anhydrous III modification (WO 2008/059029 Tmp=128±3° C.).
The broadened synthesis route of dabigatran etexilate is shown on reaction sequence 2 (J. Med. Chem. 2002, 45, 1757-1766).

A new synthesis route of dabigatran etexilate is disclosed in WO 2006/000353. The steps of the synthesis are shown on reaction sequence 3. This synthesis route contains more steps than the process described in the basic patent. According to Examples 1 and 2 the 2-[4-(1,2,4-oxadiazole-5-on-yl)-phenylamino]acetic acid of the Formula
is prepared in several steps; said compound contains the necessary amidino group in a cyclic form. This compound is coupled with 3-amino-4-(methylamino)-benzoic acid-N-[2-(ethoxycarbonyl-ethyl]-amide (5) according to the method described in the basic patent. In Example 3 the coupling step is described in three variants (A. B C) to yield the diacetate salt of 1-methyl-2-{N-[4-(1,2,4-oxadiazole-5-one-3-yl)-phenyl]-amino/methyl}-benzimidazole-5-yl-carboxylic acid-N-(2-pyridyl/-N-[2-(ethoxycarbonyl-ethyl]-amide of the Formula

In the coupling reaction 1,1′carbonyl-diimidazole (CDI), triproplyl-phosphonic acid anhydride (T3P) or pivaloyl chloride is used as auxiliary reactant. From the diacetate salt of (8) by hydrogenation and addition to the crude product an excess of p-toluenesulfonic acid the tosylate salt of 1-methyl-2-[N-(4-amidino-phenyl)-aminomethyl]-5-benzimidazole-carboxylic acid-N-(2-pyridyl)-N-[2-(ethoxy-carbonyl)-ethyl]-amide (2) is obtained. In Examples 4A, 4B and 4C a base:acid ratio of 1:1 is stipulated for this product. The latter tosylate salts are characterized by melting point (DSC) and purity (HPLC) and from these measurements one can not conclude to the base:acid ratio.
                The new synthesis route of dabigatran etexilate according to WO 2006/000353 is shown on reaction scheme 3.
According to WO 2006/000353 dabigatran etexilate (1) is prepared as described in Examples 5A and 5B by reacting the tosylate salt (2Xp-TsOH) and hexyl chloro formiate (3) in an acetone-aqueous medium. The product dried at 45° C. is not characterized by any analytical data. On the basis of the calculations the product is presumed to be anhydrous.
The diacetate structure (8) of the starting material of the hydrogenation (polyvalent base) shows that the product formed (2) will also be capable of binding more than one acids. This is substantiated by a subsequent patent application (WO 2010/045900, reaction sequence 7, 2X2HCl).
On repeating the experiments in our laboratory in accordance with examples 4A, 4B and 4C we obtained tosylate salts of non-stoichiometrical composition. In the latter case the base:acid ratio was 1:(1.6-1.8) and this is in conformity with the fact that in said examples p-toluenesulfonic acid monohydrate was used in a 1.6-fold excess. For this reason the actual yield of the process (8X2AcOH to 2X1.8p-TsOH) is significantly lower than that given in said international patent application.
According to WO 2006/000353 dabigatran etexilate (1) is prepared by crystallization from an acetone/water system (see/Example 5A) and in said process no drying agent or other dehydrating agent is used.
In a later International application (WO 2006/131491, Example 3) originator described the tetrahydrate form dabigatran etexilate (1) which was prepared by carrying out crystallization from an acetone-water mixture as well. Thus it is highly probable that the precipitation of the anhydrous base from an acetone-water mixture or from another water-containing mixture is not at all likely and can not be expected with a reasonable possibility.
We have also repeated Example 5A of WO 2006/000353 and failed to obtain anhydrous dabigatran etexilate (1) but rather the modification thereof containing four moles of water. The correction of the molecular weight to the water containing base results in a lower yield for this process too (2Xp-TsOH→1X4H2O).
The three modifications of the dabigatran etexilate (1) base—two anhydrous and the tetrahydro form—are described by Hauel et al in WO2006/131491. In this international patent application no process is disclosed for the preparation of 1 but reference is made rather to the basic patent. For this reason said new forms are obtained by recrystallization of a modification of unknowns structure from ethyl acetate (anhydrous form I and anhydrous form II; Examples 1 and 2) and a mixture of acetone and water (tetrahydrate form, Example 3), respectively.
In WO 2007/1742 one-pot procedures are protected by combining two different steps each described in earlier WO 2006/000353. The steps of the process are shown on reaction scheme 4. In one of said reaction routes dabigatran ethexylate (1) base is prepared by hydrogenating the intermediate (8X2AcOH) containing the oxadiazole ring rather than by preparing the tosylate salt of the benzamidine derivative (2). The catalyst is filtered off and acylation is carried out in a mixture of acetone and water at 15° C. without isolating the reduced product (2). The dabigatran etexilate (1) base is not characterized but the calculations are related to the anhydrous form. The base (1) is converted into the mesylate salt (1XMsOH) by reacting with methanesulfonic acid. According to Example 7 in the base synthesis the product (1) is recovered from a mixture of acetone and water without including a dehydrating step. Taking into consideration Example 3 of WO 2006/131491 the formation of the anhydrous product can not be expected. The yield corrected to the molecular weight of dabigatran etexilate (1) tetrahydrate is decreased in this case as well. (8X2AcOH→1X4H2O).
                The synthesis routes of dabigatran etexilate (1) according to WO 2007/071742 are shown on reaction scheme 4.
In WO 2007/007142 three further variants are disclosed for the preparation of dabigatran etexilate (1) starting from the tosylate salt of the amidine (2); said procedures differ from each other in the reaction conditions and the method of working up. Thus Example 6A is identical with Example 5A of WO 2006/000353, however in the working up method of new variants 6B and 6C an azeotropic distillation is applied dehydration step. Accordingly in these cases actually the anhydrate of dabigatran etexilate (1) is formed and consequently the yield is lower (2*p-TsOH→1).
According to an other process of WO 2007/071742 (reaction scheme 4) the benzamidine derivative (2) is obtained after hydrogenation in the form of the tosylate salt, whereupon the dabigatran etexilate (1) formed in course of the acylation is not isolated from the reaction mixture but is used in the one-pot synthesis to yield the mesylate salt (1XMsOH). In this case the tosylate salt of the amidine (2) is not characterized either but in the calculations it is presumed to be the monotosylate. On the basis of the indicated values the mesylate salt of the end-product (1) is obtained with a total yield of 79-81%, starting from the coupled oxadiazolone (8X2AcOH) derivative (8X2AcOH→1XMsOH). The purity of the product is 99%.
Thus according to the reaction variant described in WO/2007/071742 the mesylate salt of the end-product (1) is prepared with a lower total yield when starting from the coupled oxadiazolone derivative (8*2AcOH→1*MsOH). A further significant drawback of the process is that no purification step is used during the preparation of the mesylate salt of the end-product (1). The indicated HPLC purity (>99%) is per se insufficient to meet the strong purity requirements of internationally accepted ICH Directives defined for pharmaceutical active ingredients by pharmaceutical monograph. Accordingly the amount of identified impurities can not exceed 0.15% and that of the unidentified impurities 0.10%. The HPLC method provides no information about the possible inorganic impurities of the active ingredient. The latter phenomenon can easily appear in course of crystallization by precipitation following the combination of several steps. A further disadvantage resides in the fact that while several methods are disclosed for the recrystallization (purification) of the base (1) (see WO 2006/000353, Example 5A; WO 2005/028468 Example 1-5), no procedures are known for the recrystallization of the mesylate salt of the end product (1*MsOH). Since the reliable fulfilment of the above criteria requires the insertion of at least purification step/s/into the manufacturing procedure, the above process is unable to guarantee the purity of the end product.
WO 2007/0718743 is practically an extension of WO 2007/071742; on carrying out the one pot synthesis route from the components of the coupling step (5,7) via the crude product of the hydrogenation (8*2AcOH), the process is continued as far as the mesylate salt of dabigatran etexilate (1). The HPLC purity (higher than 99%) of the product of the process (5→1*MsOH) is per se insufficient to comply with the severe purity requirements of pharamacopoeia. The process fails to use a purification step and this is a drawback. On combining more steps the risk of the appearance of contaminating impurities is significantly increased and said impurities can in optimal cases be removed from the active ingredient by means of recrystallization. In said process the end product is obtained by combining three steps but without including a purification step; according to our best knowledge the final recrystallization step is not settled yet and therefore the quality of the ends product can not be warranted.
A new variant of the extended basic patent (reaction scheme 2) is disclosed in WO 2009/111997. (reaction scheme 5). The preparation of the diamine derivative (5) is not carried out by catalytic hydrogenation of the nitro derivative (6), reaction scheme 2) but by sodium dithionite reduction of the hydrochloride salt of the nitro derivative (6*HCl). The compound (5) is coupled to the benzimidazole derivative (4) by known methods. Said intermediate is converted into the oxalate salt (4*(COOH)2). In accordance with the basic patent the further steps of the synthesis of dabigatran etexilate (1) start from said oxalate salt. However these steps are not supported by examples and therefore no yields are known.
                Reaction variant 5: Synthesis route of the intermediates of dabigatran etexilate (1) according to WO 2009/111997.
Taking into consideration the process of the originator described in WO 2006/000353 said reaction route according to WO 2009/111997 can not be regarded as economical
Also in WO 2009/153214 a modified variant of the extended basic patent synthesis (reaction variant 2) is set forth. In this WO an improved process is reported for the reduction of the methylamino-nitro derivative (6). On performing the catalytic reduction of the nitro group both the utilization of the catalyst and the yield of the product (5) are improved.
In WO 2009/153215 a further one-pot embodiment of the synthesis route according to reaction scheme is disclosed. Thus the tosylate salt of the amidine (2) is prepared in a one-pot process starting from the phase products (5,7) obtained before the coupling step (reaction scheme 6). After the coupling reaction the non-isolated oxadiazole derivative (89 obtained is hydrogenated in the presence of ammonia and p-toluenesulfonic acid to yield the desired tosylate salt (5→2*p-TsOH). The tosylate salt formed is only characterized by HPLC data and the calculations infer a monotosylate structure.
                Reaction scheme 6: Synthesis route of the intermediate of dabigatran etexilate (1) according to WO 2009/153215
An article published in 2009 (UP. Com. Journal 2009, 9, 20) reports a detailed process for the realization of the Pinner-reaction mentioned in the basic patent. Hydrolysis of the nitrile derivative (4) is carried out at room temperature with the aid of an approximately 100 molar amount of hydrochloric acid. Thus the end product (2*HCl) is obtained in an appropriate purity by five recrystallization steps. The hydrochloride of the amidine product (2) is characterized only by X-ray powder diagram. The low yield, the high dilution ratio and the difficulties of the purification step make said process unsuitable for industrial scale manufacture.
WO 2010/045900 provides a discussion of the modified basic patent route (reaction scheme 2). This international patent publication is essentially a continuation of an earlier international patent application of the authors (WO 2009/111997, reaction scheme 5). According to reaction scheme 7 the inventors started from the oxalate salt of the nitrile compound (4) and prepared the dabigatran etexilate (1) base via two new intermediate salt forms (monohydrochloride ethanolate and dihydrochloride) of the amidine (2).
                Reaction scheme 7: Synthesis route of dabigatran etexilate (1) according to WO 2010/0459000
The base (1) is prepared with low yield by a process starting from the diamine (5) derivative and completed by the reaction sequence shown on reaction schema 5 and 7. This process is not economical.

Pharmaceutical intermediates and process for the preparation thereof

Abstract: or pharmaceutically accepted salts thereof.

EGIS GYOGYSZERGYAR NYILVANOSAN MUKODO RESZVENYTARSASAG


A specialized processing block on an integrated circuit is provided that performs pipelined floating-point accumulation operations. The specialized processing block may be configured to perform one accumulation operation and produce the result of the accumulation at every other clock cycle. Alternatively, the specialized processing block may be configured to perform two independent accumulation operations and produce the result of each of the accumulation operations alternating at consecutive clock cycles. The specialized processing block may include a dedicated three-input floating-point adder circuit. The specialized processing block may also fuse two independent two-input floating-point adder circuits to be configurable as two independent two-input floating-point adders or one three-input floating-point adder.

This invention relates to integrated circuits and, more particularly, to a specialized processing block with embedded pipelined floating-point accumulator circuitry in an integrated circuit.
Every transition from one technology node to the next technology node has resulted in smaller transistor geometries and thus potentially more functionality implemented per unit of integrated circuit area. Synchronous integrated circuits have further benefited from this development as evidenced by reduced interconnect and cell delays, which has led to performance increases. However, more recent technology nodes have seen a significant slow-down in the reduction of delays and thus a slow-down in the performance increase.
Solutions such as register pipelining have been proposed to further increase the performance. During register pipelining, additional registers are inserted between synchronous elements, which lead to an increase in latency at the benefit of increased clock frequencies and throughput. However, performing register pipelining often involves spending significant time and effort because several iterations of locating performance bottlenecks, inserting or removing registers, and compiling the modified integrated circuit design are usually required.
In recent years, floating-point operations are often being used instead of fixed-point operations because of the increased precision. Situations frequently arise where the floating-point operation which is implemented in a specialized processing block becomes the performance bottleneck of an application and register pipelining may increase the performance of some applications. However, pipelining may be problematic for specialized processing blocks with floating-point operations that are executed in a loop such as a floating-point accumulation operation, and the pipelining of a floating-point accumulator often requires a significant amount of additional logic, memory circuitry, and complex control structures.

Specialized processing block with embedded pipelined accumulator circuitry


An image pickup apparatus where a lens unit including an image pickup optical system including a focus lens is attachable, includes an image pickup element, a control unit that controls drive of the focus lens based on a focus signal, and an acquisition unit that acquires type information of the lens unit, and the control unit performs a first scanning operation of driving the focus lens in a first direction and perform a second scanning operation of driving the focus lens at a lower speed than a predetermined speed in a second direction after the first scanning operation, and determines whether to perform the second scanning operation based on the type information in a case where a drive speed of the focus lens when an in-focus position is detected based on the focus signal acquired during the first scanning operation is higher than the predetermined speed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image pickup apparatus that drives a focus lens to perform focus detection.
2. Description of the Related Art
A contrast autofocusing (AF) method has been conventionally known as a method of moving the position of a focus lens in an image pickup apparatus such as a digital still camera to focus on an object. The contrast AF method generates a focus evaluation value corresponding to the contrast of an image using an image signal from the image pickup element. The method performs an automatic focusing operation that acquires the focus evaluation value while moving the position of the focus lens to find an in-focus position that is the focus lens position at which the focus evaluation value reaches a peak.
In the contrast AF method, a focus speed needs to be set such that a sufficient number of the focus evaluation values for the peak determination are acquired when the focus lens is in the vicinity of the in-focus position. In contrast at a position distant from the in-focus position, the focus lens is moved fast to achieve a fast AF operation. For this, it is known that the focus speed is varied based on the focus evaluation value while the focus lens is driven. Japanese Patent Laid-open No. H7-7650 discloses an automatic focus video camera that calculates the rate of change in the evaluation value that is the ratio between the amount of change in the focus evaluation value and the amount of change in the lens position, and the video camera varies the change speed of the lens position depending on whether the rate of change in the evaluation value is increasing or decreasing. Japanese Patent Laid-open No. H8-29667 discloses an automatic focusing method of predicting the in-focus position (the peak position) based on the focus evaluation value and, in a case of a distant predicted in-focus position, moving the lens fast before setting a low speed.
When a velocity control is performed after determination that the focus lens is in the vicinity of the in-focus position of an object, however, such an AF method that acquires the focus evaluation value while driving the focus lens generates a time lag from the determination to the velocity control. The shape of the focus evaluation value varies with the contrast of the object, frequency, and settings of a stop, exposure, and the like. For this reason, when the peak position of the object is determined based on the shape of the focus evaluation value, the velocity is potentially unable to decrease to a predetermined velocity that allows a sampling interval ensuring an AF accuracy before the focus lens reaches the vicinity of the in-focus position. To solve this, it is suggested to perform scanning again (rescanning) when the focus lens fails to sufficiently slow down in the vicinity of the in-focus position, but the rescanning results in a longer time for focusing.
The configurations disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open No. H7-7650 and Japanese Patent Laid-open No. H8-29667 are not based on consideration of the time lag from the determination of the shape of the focus evaluation value to the velocity control.

Image pickup apparatus to which a lens unit with a focus lens is attachable and capable of performing accurate and fast focus detection, method of controlling image pickup apparatus, and non-transitory computer-readable storage medium


A silicon interposer includes a plurality of patterned metal layers formed on a silicon wafer portion and a plurality of through-silicon vias extending through the silicon wafer portion. The through-silicon vias have an interdiffusion conductive element.

For a given node technology, increasing integrated circuit (IC) size typically increases the functionality that can be included on a die. Unfortunately, defects often scale with die area. A large die is more likely to incorporate a defect than is a smaller die. Defects affect yield, and yield loss often increases with increasing die size. Various techniques have been developed to provide large ICs at desirable yield levels.
One approach to providing large ICs is to construct a large IC out of multiple smaller ICs (dice) on a silicon interposer, or to stack IC dice using through-silicon via (TSV) techniques. A silicon interposer is essentially a substrate to which the dice are flip-chip bonded after the silicon interposer has been processed to provide metal wiring and contacts. A silicon interposer typically has several patterned metal layers and intervening insulating layers connected to TSVs. Multiple IC dice are physically and electrically connected to the interposer with micro-bump arrays.
Stacked IC dice use TSV techniques to allow electrical connections to both sides of the parent die. For example, one side (e.g., front side) of a first die (the parent die) is bonded to a printed wiring board, package base, or other substrate, such as with a ball grid array, and the other side (the backside) has a micro-bump or other bonding technique that to which a second, frequently smaller, die is bonded. TSVs extend from the active portion of the first die to the backside of the die, and a microbump array or bonding pads are fabricated on the backside. TSVs are usually made conductive by sputtering a seed layer of metal and then using plating techniques to fill the TSVs with metal, such as copper. However, with sputtering or other conformal deposition techniques, voids can form that lead to incomplete metallization, particularly in conductive TSVs having a length:diameter ratio of 10:1 or greater. Plating process times can also be undesirably long.
Techniques for reliably filling TSVs with a conductive material with reduced manufacturing time are desirable, particularly high-aspect ratio TSVs.

Through-silicon vias with metal system fill


A battery unit is provided which includes an assembled battery module equipped with a plurality of cells, a control board on which a charging/discharging controller is mounted, a storage case in which the assembled battery module, and the control board are disposed, and a swell limiter. The assembled battery module includes a battery body in which the cells are stacked over a bottom plate The swell limiter is located on the opposite side of the assembled battery module than the bottom plate is. The swell limiter is separate from the battery body when any of the cells is not swelling and works to make physical contact with the battery body when any of the cells has swollen to suppress swelling of the cell.

1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a battery unit which includes an assembled battery module and is installed in vehicles such as automobiles, and more particularly to such a battery unit equipped with a swell limiter working to suppress swelling of cells.
2. Background Art
Japanese Patent First Publication No. 2011-216401 teaches how to pack an assembled battery module made up of a plurality of electric cells along with a control board to make a battery unit. This type of battery unit may experience swelling of each of the cells with use. Several techniques, thus, have been studied to suppress such swelling of the cells. For instance, a battery casing in which the cells are disposed has been proposed to have rigidity great enough to withstand the swelling of the cells.
Specifically, the battery casing is designed to be placed in direct contact with outer surfaces of the respective cells to suppress the swelling of the cells. Therefore, when they do not yet swell or have only swelled slightly, the cells will be subjected to mechanical pressure externally and adversely affected by heat or vibration.
For example, when the battery unit is mounted in a vehicle such as an automobile, mechanical vibration usually continues to be exerted on the battery unit during running of the vehicle. There is still room for improvement on the ease with which the cells are impacted by the heat or vibration.

Battery unit with swell limiter for cell


A resuscitator regulator is provided with an integral carbon dioxide detector for indicating the presence of carbon dioxide in a patient. The carbon dioxide detector is a conventional pH sensitive chromogenic compound that is positioned in the breathing circuit to permit a rapid indication. Additionally, a unique plug is provided for sealing the indicator from the atmosphere while in storage to prevent contamination and degredation of the indicator compound.

Manual resuscitators for use with patients either unable to breathe on their own or needing assistance are well known in the prior art. An example of a prior art a regulator for use with a resuscitator is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,774,941 to Cook. A typical prior art resuscitator comprises a resuscitator bag for mechanically forcing oxygen or air into the patient, a regulator for controlling the flow of inhalation and exhalation gasses, and a means for connecting the resuscitator to the patient such as a facemask or intubation tube.
A serious problem in the resuscitation of patients is the inability to determine whether the patient is respirating. It is difficult for the medical professional using the resuscitator to determine whether the patient is receiving an adequate flow of oxygen. For example, something may be blocking the patient's trachea preventing oxygen air exchange or, in the case of an endotrachial tube, the tube may be inserted into the patient's esophagus. Therefore, a need has arisen for an efficient and economical way of determining whether the patient being treated with a resuscitator is actually receiving oxygen.
One way of determining whether a patient is receiving oxygen is to detect the presence of CO.sub.2 in the exhalation gasses. The normal atmospheric concentration of CO.sub.2 is less than 0.5%. So, presence of CO.sub.2 in excess of that amount is generally a strong indication that the patient is receiving oxygen and performing some respiration. Carbon dioxide detectors using a chromogenic pH-sensitive indicator are well known in the prior art. An example of such an indicator is described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,728,499 and 4,994,117 to Fehder. These carbon dioxide indicators are of the type that need to be connected between the patient and the resuscitator. The medical professional is required to install the device before he or she can begin resuscitating the patient. The connection of the carbon dioxide indicator adds additional volume to the breathing circuit increasing the trapping of exhaled gasses and other material. In that instance, the patient is no longer receiving fresh oxygenated air but is rebreathing his or her own exhaled gasses. The carbon dioxide detector requires its own housing and connector ports.
Therefore, a need has arisen to combine a carbon dioxide detector in a resuscitator. This need has been long recognized by the medical profession and numerous attempts have been made to design a resuscitator that integrates a carbon dioxide detector. An example of such device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,945,918 to Abernathy. Abernathy device requires assembly by the medical professional. The indicator is not directly incorporated in the resuscitator and is not located in the direct breathing circuit. Because the carbon dioxide detector is not placed in the direct breathing circuit, the indicator may not be cleansed with fresh air after each resuscitation and therefore accuracy of the indicator may be sacrificed. Also, the indicator requires a four minute period to indicate whether carbon dioxide is present. The device of the present invention offers significant advantages over the prior art.

Resuscitator regulator with carbon dioxide detector


A sheet feeding device for feeding sheets from a tray one by one and an image forming apparatus having the same are disclosed. A tray loaded with a stack of sheets, a separating member for separating a sheet paid out from the tray from the other sheets, and a driven conveyor roller are sequentially arranged around a single pick-up roller. With this arrangement, it is possible to reduce to a load to act on the sheet being conveyed by the pick-up roller and conveyor roller, and to prevent accidental continuous feed or simultaneous feed of a plurality of sheets.

The present invention relates to a sheet feeding device for feeding sheets from a tray one by one, and an image forming apparatus including the same.
A printer, facsimile apparatus, copier or similar electrophotographic image forming apparatus has a photoconductive drum or similar image carrier for forming a toner image thereon. A sheet feeding device built in the apparatus feeds sheets one by one to the image carrier, so that toner images are transferred from the image carrier to the sheets. Generally, the sheet feeding device is made up of a sheet feeding and separating section and a sheet conveying section. The feeding and separating section feeds the top sheet from a stack loaded on a tray while separating it from the underlying sheets. The conveying section conveys the separated sheet to an image transfer station adjoining the image carrier. The problem with the conventional sheet feeding device is that the feeding and separating section and the conveying section are each implemented as an independent unit. As a result, the entire device needs a great number of parts and obstructs the compact design of an image forming apparatus. Moreover, an exclusive drive transmission mechanism must be assigned to each of the two sections, increasing the cost of the apparatus. In addition, it is difficult with the conventional device to reduce a load to act on a sheet being conveyed. Therefore, sure sheet separation and smooth sheet pay-out and conveyance are difficult to achieve.

Sheet feeding device and image forming apparatus having the same