An elevator apparatus is provided with an elevator path having a restricted height. Under a roping ratio of 1:1, a thin driving unit having a traction sheave 1 and a driving mechanism 2 is positioned between an inner wall 3a of the elevator path 3 and a space occupied by an elevator car 4 rising and falling in the elevator path 3. One end of a suspension rope 7 is fixed to the elevator car 4 in a position below a ceiling 4c of the elevator car 4. With the arrangement, the car 4 can move close to the ceiling 4c of the elevator car 4 effectively. Further, it is possible to reduce respective heights of the elevator path 3 and a building equipped with the elevator apparatus.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improvement of a traction type of elevator apparatus having a driving mechanism disposed in an elevator path (or hoistway) of the apparatus.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years, especially in urban areas, it has been required to make the effective use of buildings per se. For example, for even an elevator""s machine room standing on the housetop etc., the right to sunlight, the appearance of beauty, or the like have been taken into consideration.
Under such a situation, hitherto, there have been developed a variety of attempts to accommodate a control unit in the elevator path without establishing the elevator""s machine room in order to provide a compact elevator apparatus. For example, Japanese Patent No. 2593288 discloses a traction sheave elevator, as shown in FIG. 1. In the figure, a flattened driving mechanism 2 having a traction sheave 1 is disposed between a side wall 3a in an elevator path 3 and a space defined by projected planes of an elevator car 4 in the upward and downward directions. A hoisting (suspension) rope 7 is wound about a sheave 5a beneath the car 4 and a sheave 5b above a balance weight 6, while both ends of the hoisting rope 7 are fixed on a top wall 3b defining the elevator path 3. Note, according to the arrangement shown in FIG. 1, a pit 3c in the elevator path 3 is positioned under a level 3d of the first floor (1F).
The elevator of FIG. 1 does adopt a structure where the car 4 is driven like a movable pulley while winding the suspension rope 7 about the sheave 5a under the car 4. Owing to this arrangement, it is possible to reduce the capacity of a motor of the driving mechanism relatively and minimize a space occupied by the driving mechanism, together with the effective use of the space above the car 4.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (kokai) No. 9-156855 discloses another elevator apparatus shown in FIG. 2. In the apparatus, the flattened driving mechanism 2 is arranged in the upper space of the balance weight 6 and adapted so as to suspend the car 4 through turning sheaves 8a, 8b and 8c.
In this way, since the driving mechanism 2 having the traction sheave 1 is disposed between a side wall 3a in an elevator path 3 and a space defined by projected planes of an elevator car 4 in the upward and downward directions, the arrangement allows to minimize a space that the whole apparatus does occupy without providing the machine room on the roof, so that the elevator apparatus can be provided while exhibiting high efficiency in utilizing the space.
In the former elevator apparatus, however, since the velocity of the moving rope is twice as much as that of the elevator car due to the adoption of xe2x80x9cmoving-pulleyxe2x80x9d driving system in accordance with the roping ratio of 2:1, various problems would be raised in case of the requirement for a high-speed elevator. In addition, as the driving mechanism is accommodated in the space between the projected planes of the elevator car and the inner wall of the elevator path, a problem still remains in terms of the requirements for the mechanism having a large capacity.
While, in the latter elevator apparatus, the velocity of the suspending rope is equal to that of the elevator car owing to the provision of the turning sheaves. Nevertheless, there is remained a problem in terms of effective use of space in the elevator path because the apparatus requires a space for accommodating the turning sheaves on the upper side of the elevator path.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an elevator apparatus which is equipped with no machine room, so that it is possible to restrict the height of an elevator path from increasing and also drive an elevator car at high speed.
The object of the present invention described above can be accomplished by an elevator apparatus comprising:
a pair of elevator guide rails disposed in an elevator path;
an elevator car for rising and falling along the elevator guide rails in the elevator path;
weight guide rails disposed in an elevator path;
at least one balance weight for rising and falling along the weight guide rails in the elevator path;
at least one suspension rope having one end fixed to the elevator car and another end fixed to the balance weight; and
at least one driving unit for driving a traction sheave about which the suspension rope is wound;
wherein the driving unit is positioned between an inner wall of the elevator path and a space occupied by the elevator car rising and falling in the elevator path and the driving unit is constructed so as to become thin; and
wherein the end of the suspension rope is fixed to the elevator car in a position below a ceiling of the elevator car.
According to the elevator apparatus constructed above, the drive of the elevator car at the same speed as the suspension rope can be realized owing to the achievement of roping ratio of 1:1. In addition, with the arrangement where the elevator car is connected with the suspension rope in a position below the ceiling of the elevator car and there is provided no turning sheave etc. in a space above the elevator car, the upper area of the elevator path can be effectively utilized thereby to provide a high-speed and compact elevator apparatus.
In the present invention, preferably, the driving unit comprises a plurality of driving mechanisms each having a traction sheave and the suspension rope is wound about each traction sheave of the driving mechanisms and finally fixed to the elevator car and the balance weight.
In the present invention, more preferably, the driving mechanisms are arranged up and down in the elevator path, while the suspension rope is wound round the traction sheave associated with the upper driving mechanism with a plurality of turns.
Alternatively, it is also preferable that the driving mechanisms are arranged left and right in the elevator path, so that respective planes of the traction sheaves associated with the left and upper driving mechanism coincide with each other substantially.
In common with the above-mentioned preferable arrangements, since the driving unit is constituted by the plural driving mechanisms, it is possible to realize to provide the elevator apparatus with high-speed operation and large transportation capacity.
In the present invention, it is preferable that one of the elevator guide rails, which is disposed on the side of the driving unit, has a H-shaped cross section and is arranged so that parallel side portions constituting the H-shaped cross section are opposite to a side wall of the elevator and that the elevator car is provided with two pairs of rollers for guiding the elevator car, each pair of rollers interposing one of the parallel side portions between the rollers on left and right sides of the parallel side portion.
In this case, owing to the configuration of the specified elevator guide rail, the elevator apparatus is provided with great rigidity, so that it can travel more stably.
In the above-mentioned arrangement, it is more preferable that the elevator apparatus further comprises a L-shaped frame for mounting and carrying the elevator car thereon, the frame consisting of a vertical beam and a horizontal beam and that the horizontal beam is provided, at a tip thereof, with other rollers between which the other elevator guide rail disposed on the opposite side of the driving unit is interposed to guide the elevator car.
In this case, owing to the provision of the L-shaped flame, the elevator apparatus can rise and fall more stably and the elevator car can be carried with such a simple structure, strongly.
In the present invention, it is preferable that the suspension rope is divided into two routes of ropes whose ends are respectively fixed to different positions on opposite outer faces of the elevator car, while the different positions are symmetrical to each other in plan view of the elevator car. In this case, with the above structure and arrangement of the suspension rope, it is possible to provide the elevator car with its stable posture.
In the above elevator apparatus, more preferably, the driving unit is disposed in the vicinity of a first floor in the elevator path. In this case, owing to the positioning of the driving unit, it is possible to reduce the height of the ceiling of the elevator path to a minimum. Additionally, the arrangement allows a worker to execute the maintenance and inspecting operation for the elevator apparatus near the ground, whereby the burden on the worker can be lightened.
In the present invention, it is preferable that the weight guide rails are arranged so as to extend along opposite inner walls defining the elevator path and that the suspension ropes have respective ends fixed to the balance weights in pairs rising and falling under guidance of the weight guide rails and respective other ends fixed to the elevator car through the driving units in pairs. In this case, since the driving units in pairs are respectively connected to the balance weights in pairs, it is possible to provide the elevator apparatus having large transportation capacity.
Similarly, it is preferable that the suspension ropes in pairs have respective ends fixed on opposite outer faces of the elevator car and have respective other ends fixed on the single balance weight through the traction sheaves of the driving units provided corresponding to the opposite outer faces, the balance weight being attached along an inner wall of the elevator path behind the elevator car. Also in this preferable form, it is possible to provide the elevator apparatus having large transportation capacity.
In the present invention, preferably, the driving unit is attached on either one of an inner wall and a roof wall of the elevator path.
With the attachment of the driving unit on the side of the elevator path, the burden applied on the elevator guide rails is lightened thereby to reduce the weight of the driving unit.
According to the invention, there is also provided an elevator apparatus comprising:
a pair of elevator guide rails disposed in an elevator path;
an elevator car for rising and falling along the elevator guide rails in the elevator path;
weight guide rails disposed in an elevator path;
at least one balance weight for rising and falling along the weight guide rails in the elevator path;
at least one suspension rope having one end fixed to the elevator car and another end fixed to the balance weight; and
at least one driving unit for driving a traction sheave about which the suspension rope is wound;
wherein the driving unit is disposed in a pit of the elevator path; and
wherein both ends of the suspension rope wound about the traction sheave are fixed to the elevator car""s position below a ceiling of the elevator car and the balance weight through respective turning sheaves which are positioned above the elevator path.
Also in this elevator apparatus constructed above, the drive of the elevator car at the same speed as the suspension rope can be realized owing to the achievement of roping ratio of 1:1. In addition, with the arrangement where the driving unit is disposed in the pit of the elevator path and the elevator car is connected with the suspension rope in the position below the ceiling of the elevator car, the upper area of the elevator path can be effectively utilized thereby to provide the high-speed and large-capacity elevator apparatus.
The object of the present invention described above can be also accomplished by an elevator apparatus comprising:
a pair of elevator guide rails disposed in an elevator path;
an elevator car for rising and falling along the elevator guide rails in the elevator path;
weight guide rails disposed in an elevator path;
a balance weight for rising and falling along the weight guide rails in the elevator path;
a suspension rope for suspending the elevator car and the balance weight;
a driving unit for driving a traction sheave about which the suspension rope is wound; and
turning sheaves arranged on a side face of the elevator car and the balance weight;
wherein the driving unit is positioned between a side wall of the elevator path and a space occupied by the elevator car rising and falling in the elevator path and constructed so as to become thin; and
wherein the suspension rope is wound round the turning sheaves on both elevator car and balance weight,:while both ends of the suspension rope are connected to supporting members mounted on an upper end of the elevator path.
Similarly, the object of the present invention described above can be also accomplished by an elevator apparatus comprising:
a pair of elevator guide rails disposed in an elevator path;
an elevator car for rising and falling along the elevator guide rails in the elevator path;
weight guide rails disposed in an elevator path;
a balance weight for rising and falling along the weight guide rails in the elevator path;
a suspension rope for suspending the elevator car and the balance weight;
a driving unit for driving a traction sheave about which the suspension rope is wound; and
turning sheaves arranged on a back face of the elevator car and the balance weight;
wherein the driving unit is positioned between a back wall of the elevator path and a space occupied by the elevator car rising and falling in the elevator path and the driving unit is constructed so as to become thin; and
wherein the suspension rope is wound round the turning sheaves on the back face of the elevator car and the balance weight, while both ends of the suspension rope are connected to supporting members mounted on an upper end of the elevator path.
Similarly, the object of the present invention described above can be also accomplished by an elevator apparatus comprising:
a pair of elevator guide rails disposed in an elevator path;
an elevator car for rising and falling along the elevator guide rails in the elevator path;
weight guide rails disposed in an elevator path;
a balance weight for rising and falling along the weight guide rails in the elevator path;
a suspension rope for suspending the elevator car and the balance weight;
a driving unit for driving a traction sheave about which the suspension rope is wound; and
turning sheaves arranged on both side faces of the elevator car, a bottom face thereof and the balance weight;
wherein the driving unit is positioned between a side wall of the elevator path and a space occupied by the elevator car rising and falling in the elevator path and the driving unit is constructed so as to become thin; and
wherein the suspension rope is wound round the turning sheaves on the elevator car and the balance weight, while both ends of the suspension rope are connected to supporting members mounted on an upper end of the elevator path.
Similarly, the object of the present invention described above can be also accomplished by an elevator apparatus comprising:
a pair of elevator guide rails disposed in an elevator path;
an elevator car for rising and falling along the elevator guide rails in the elevator path;
weight guide rails disposed in an elevator path;
a balance weight for rising and falling along the weight guide rails in the elevator path;
a suspension rope for suspending the elevator car and the balance weight;
a driving unit for driving a traction sheave about which the suspension rope is wound; and
turning sheaves arranged on both side faces of the elevator car, a ceiling face thereof and the balance weight;
wherein the driving unit is positioned between a side wall of the elevator path and a space occupied by the elevator car rising and falling in the elevator path and the driving unit is constructed so as to become thin; and
wherein the suspension rope is wound round the turning sheaves on the elevator car and the balance weight, while both ends of the suspension rope are connected to supporting members mounted on an upper end of the elevator path.
Similarly, the object of the present invention described above can be also accomplished by an elevator apparatus comprising:
a pair of elevator guide rails disposed in an elevator path;
an elevator car for rising and falling along the elevator guide rails in the elevator path;
weight guide rails disposed in an elevator path;
a balance weight for rising and falling along the weight guide rails in the elevator path;
a suspension rope for suspending the elevator car and the balance weight;
a driving unit for driving a traction sheave about which the suspension rope is wound; and
turning sheaves arranged on both side faces of the elevator car, a back face thereof and the balance weight;
wherein the driving unit is positioned between a back wall of the elevator path and a space occupied by the elevator car rising and falling in the elevator path and the driving unit is constructed so as to become thin; and
wherein the suspension rope is wound round the turning sheaves on the elevator car and the balance weight, while both ends of the suspension rope are connected to supporting members mounted on an upper end of the elevator path.
Similarly, the object of the present invention described above can be also accomplished by an elevator apparatus comprising:
a pair of elevator guide rails disposed in an elevator path;
an elevator car for rising and falling along the elevator guide rails in the elevator path;
weight guide rails disposed in an elevator path;
a balance weight for rising and falling along the weight guide rails in the elevator path;
a suspension rope for suspending the elevator car and the balance weight;
a driving unit for driving a traction sheave about which the suspension rope is wound; and
turning sheaves arranged on a side face of the elevator car, a back face thereof, a bottom face thereof and the balance weight;
wherein the driving unit is positioned between either one of a back and side walls of the elevator path and a space occupied by the elevator car rising and falling in the elevator path and the driving unit is constructed so as to become thin; and
wherein the suspension rope is wound round the turning sheaves on the elevator car and the balance weight, while both ends of the suspension rope are connected to supporting members mounted on an upper end of the elevator path.
Similarly, the object of the present invention described above can be also accomplished by an elevator apparatus comprising:
a pair of elevator guide rails disposed in an elevator path;
an elevator car for rising and falling along the elevator guide rails in the elevator path;
weight guide rails disposed in an elevator path;
a balance weight for rising and falling along the weight guide rails in the elevator path;
a suspension rope for suspending the elevator car and the balance weight;
a driving unit for driving a traction sheave about which the suspension rope is wound; and
turning sheaves arranged on both side faces of the elevator car, a ceiling face thereof and the balance weight;
wherein the driving unit is positioned between a back wall of the elevator path and a space occupied by the elevator car rising and falling in the elevator path and the driving unit is constructed so as to become thin; and
wherein the suspension rope is wound round the turning sheaves on the elevator car and the balance weight, while both ends of the suspension rope are connected to supporting members mounted on an upper end of the elevator path.
In common with seven pieces of elevator apparatus mentioned above, there is no need to provide an extra space for the machine room etc. above and below the elevator path, thereby providing the space-saving elevator apparatus.
In common with seven pieces of elevator apparatus mentioned above, preferably, the weight guide rails are disposed on a side wall of the elevator path. This preferable arrangement is applicable to the elevator apparatus with an elevator path having a sufficient room in width.
In common with seven pieces of elevator apparatus mentioned above, preferably, the weight guide rails are disposed on a back wall of the elevator path. This preferable arrangement is applicable to the elevator apparatus with an elevator path having a sufficient room in depth.
In common with the latter five pieces of elevator apparatus, preferably, the turning sheaves on either side face or back face of the elevator car are arranged so as to be symmetrical about a gravity center of the elevator when viewed from an upside of the elevator car. In this case, it is possible to prevent an excessive bias load from acting on the elevator guide rails or the like.
In common with seven pieces of elevator apparatus mentioned above, preferably, the driving unit comprises a plurality of thin-type winders each having a traction sheave. In this case, it is possible to drive the large-sized elevator car under traction.
In the above-mentioned constitution, more preferably, the thin-type winders are driven by a single control device, synchronously. In this case, it is expected to simplify the structure of the elevator apparatus.
These and other objects and features of the present invention will become more fully apparent from the following description and appended claims taken in conjunction with the accompany drawing.


A drive unit of a magnet coupling pump, in which leakage of the magnetic flux to the outside and the effect of the external magnetic field are suppressed. The drive unit includes: a driving magnet (219) positioned at an outside of the driven magnet (19) of the magnetic coupling pump (100) with respect to a rotation axis (A) of the magnetic coupling pump (100) to face the driven magnet (19) with a gap; a cup tube portion (221) made of a ferromagnetic material and in a tubular shape centered on the rotation axis (A); a case main body (231) including a cup (220) in which the driving magnet is fixed inside of the cup tube portion; a motor (210) rotating the cup around the rotation axis, and a tube portion (232), which is tubular in shape. The cup is provided in the tube portion (232) with a gap.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a drive unit of a magnetic coupling pump in which an impeller provided with a permanent magnet as a driven magnet is rotated by rotating a permanent magnet which is a driving magnet. Also, the present invention relates to a magnetic coupling pump unit provided with the drive unit.
Priority is claimed based on Japanese Patent Application No. 2011-201851, filed Sep. 15, 2011, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a magnetic coupling pump unit, for example, there is one disclosed in Japanese Patent (Granted) Publication No. 4108054.
The pump of the magnetic coupling pump unit disclosed in JP Publication No. 4108054 includes an impeller and a fixing body. A hydrodynamic pressure bearing part, which rotatably supports the impeller around the rotation axis, is formed to the fixing body. A driven magnet made of a permanent magnet is provided to the impeller. In addition, the drive unit rotating the impeller of the pump includes a rotating magnetic field generating device, which generates a rotating magnetic field around the rotation axis magnetically coupled to the driven magnet of the pump.

Drive unit of magnetic coupling pump and magnetic coupling pump unit


A system for modular mobile flight simulator for an electric aircraft is presented. The system includes a simulator module include a concave display, a plurality of projection devices, a pilot interface, wherein the pilot includes a primary flight display and at least a pilot control communicatively connected to a sensor configured to detect a plurality of measure pilot data and generate a pilot datum. The system further includes a computing device configured to receive the pilot datum from the sensor, simulate an aircraft model of the electric aircraft as a function of the pilot datum, blend a plurality of images to be projected by the plurality of projection devices into a distinct image, display the distinct image onto the concave display, generate a feedback, and perform a physical feedback on the simulator module.

The rise of conventional use for electric vehicles pose the challenge of training new pilots for a relatively new and familiar mode of transportation. Electric aircrafts, such as electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircrafts, give rise to the challenges and dangers of operating an electric vehicle in the air. Aircraft simulators mimic the operation, environment, and sensation of an electric aircraft flight which can serve to train pilots in a realistic and safe mode. However, the functionality of aircraft simulators may be limited in their limited availabilities in numbers, accuracy of their representation of the aircraft and its flight, and their complex, heavy, and often stationary equipment.

Systems and methods for modular mobile flight simulator for an electric aircraft


The invention provides methods and compositions for the delivery of bioactive factors to the systemic skeleton. The methods of the invention allow targeted delivery of bioactive factors to bone using nanocapsules. Timed release of bioactive factors may also be used to increase the efficacy of treatment. The methods of the invention have wide applicability for the treatment or prevention of bone-associated maladies.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of medicine. More particularly, it concerns methods for delivering bioactive factors to bone.
2. Description of Related Art
Numerous pathological conditions are associated with abnormal bone cell function including osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, Paget's disease, osteohalisteresis, osteomalacia, periodontal disease, bone loss resulting from multiple myeloma and other forms of cancer, bone loss resulting from side effects of other medical treatment (such as steroids), and age-related loss of bone mass. Loss of bone mass in particular can lead to skeletal failure such that bone fractures can result from the minimal trauma of everyday life. Such fractures cause significant illness, or morbidity, inasmuch as there is insufficient repair or healing of the fractures.
Osteoporosis is the most common cause of bone loss and is a leading cause of disability in the elderly, particularly in elderly women. Osteoporosis is a progressive disease which results in the reduction of total bone mass and increased bone fragility. This often results in spontaneous fractures of load-bearing bones and the physical and mental deterioration characteristic of immobilizing injuries. The most widely accepted preventive agent for osteoporosis currently in use is estrogen therapy. However, systemic administration of estrogen is not a viable option in women at elevated risk for breast or endometrial cancers (estrogen dependent tumors) or for men (Cooper, 1994). In addition, recent studies have shown that estrogen replacement therapies (ERT's) have other deleterious side-effects, calling into question the long-term effects of these therapies.
Bisphosphonates have been effective inhibitors of osteoclastic bone resorption and have been used to advantage in treating osteoporosis (Parfitt el al., 1996). Bisphosphonates have been shown to increase trabecular bone volume and inhibit the decrease in cancellous bone mass in hindlimb unloaded rats compared to treated controls. However, the amount of cartilage in trabecular bone in these animals significantly increases, indicating that the modeling process is altered and mineralized cartilage fails to be resorbed and replaced by bone.
Vitamin D (1,25D), calcium and thiazide diuretics have also been used alone or in combination to prevent bone loss associated with corticosteroid treatment. The goal of such therapy is to improve calcium absorption and decrease urinary excretion of calcium thus, reversing secondary hyperparathyroidism (Joseph, 1994). Calcium supplements are widely used in managing established osteoporosis but there have been few satisfactory prospective studies of calcium supplementation on bone density or on the risk of future fractures (Cooper, 1994).
Bone damage, such as bone fractures, represents another common bone malady. Although repair, healing and augmentation of bone require a complex series of events that are not well defined, it is known that specific, naturally occurring factors are required to achieve these objectives. Such factors are released or migrate into the injured areas, and stimulate osteoblasts, chondrocytes, and odontoblasts in bone and cartilage to stimulate matrix formation and remodeling of the wounded area (ten Dijke et al., 1989).
New bone can be formed by three basic mechanisms: osteogenesis, osteoconduction and osteoinduction. Cancellous bone and marrow grafts provide viable cells for such processes. Transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-β) has been shown to stimulate proliferation and matrix synthesis of osteoblastic cells (Centrella et al., 1987) and to inhibit the formation and activity of osteoclastic cells (Chenu et al. 1988). Members of the bone morphogenetic protein family have been shown to be useful for induction of cartilage and bone formation. For example, BMP-2 has been shown to be able to induce the formation of new cartilage and/or bone tissue (U.S. Pat. No. 5,013,649).
Weightlessness during spaceflight has also been a cause of bone loss. Countermeasures for such bone loss have been of the skeletal stress type, such as cycling, simulated running, and rowing (Baldwin el al., 1996). Studies show that exercise-induced skeletal stress serves to maintain and increase osteoblastic activity. However, these methods alone are insufficient to prevent bone volume losses, primarily because it is not possible to generate forces of equal magnitude to those encountered on Earth (McCarthy et al., 2000; Baldwin et al., 1996). Electrical stimulation of selected muscle groups in hindlimb unloaded rats also increases osteoblast activity and osteoid surfaces, but does not prevent decrease in trabecular bone volume or metaphyseal apposition rate (Zerath et al., 1995). Bisphosphonates such as alendronate minimize bone loss during unloading by inhibiting osteoclastic bone resorption, but do not prevent the unloading-induced suppression of bone formation (Bikle et al., 1994). Thus, antiresorbing agents are not ideal countermeasures to bone loss when the primary defect is reduced bone formation (McCarthy et al, 2000).
Growth hormone (GH) treatment of hypophysectomized rats has been shown to increase bone mass independent of whether the animals are loaded or unloaded. However, unloaded animals still show lower bone mass relative to treated animals for the same treatment protocol. Pharmacological doses of GH of 500 μg/ml also failed to mediate skeletal defects in hypophysectomized rats in response to hindlimb unloading, including decreased trabecular bone volume and cortical bone apposition rate (Halloran et al., 1995). Although systemic factors such as GH and 1,25D may modulate the response of bone to unloading, factors that locally regulate bone growth may have greater utility as countermeasure molecules to prevent bone loss.
While the above described countermeasures have been successful in minimizing to some extent the morbidity associated with abnormal bone cell function, the efficacy of such treatments is limited by the ability to appropriately deliver the active ingredient to the site where needed. In addition, most of these treatments have serious side effects when administered systemically.
Therefore, the need for site specific targeting of therapeutic agents has been felt. However, site-specific targeting requires quantitatively distinct receptors that are unique to bone. A few researchers have demonstrated that the inorganic component of bone which is comprised of hydroxyapatite (HAp), occurs normally only in hard tissues. A bisphosphonate, methylene bisphosphonate (MBP), is known for its predilection to bone sites undergoing remodeling, has been used in combination with Technetium-99 m (99mTc) as a non-therapeutic diagnostic imaging tool in the study of bone pathology (Davis and Jones, 1976; Lantto et al., 1987; Cronhjort et al., 1999). MBP has been studied as a bone matrix targeting moiety for osteotropic drug delivery. Fujisaki, et al., (1995; 1996), conjugated various model materials and pro-drug candidates to MBP and demonstrated their targeting efficacy in vivo. Estradiol conjugated to MBP was taken up in bone and then released from MBP either by enzymatic or chemical hydrolysis of the ester conjugation linkage. Uludag, et al., (2000a; 2000b), demonstrated the osteotropic delivery of model proteins conjugated to MBP by similar chemistry.
In addition, several bone non-collagenous proteins, such as osteopontin and bone sialoprotein, are known to contain amino residue sequences that bind specifically to HAp (Nagata et al., 1991). Fujisawa et al., determined that a six-residue aspartic acid oligopeptide (Asp6) preferentially binds to the calcified matrix in vivo (Kasugai et al., 2000) and that this targeting ligand can deliver an estradiol pro-drug in vivo (Yokogawa et al., 2000).
Prior approaches for targeting bone that use simple molecules conjugated to bone-targeting ligands that preferentially accumulated in bone have serious drawbacks. First, conjugated molecules are systemically exposed and, therefore, are subject to rapid elimination or can have action on sites other than bone. Second, conjugation of the bone-targeting ligands to the therapeutic molecules can adversely alter their therapeutic activity. Lastly, release of the active molecule from the targeting ligand, and its subsequent activity, is dependent on the degradation kinetics of the conjugation linkage.
Nonetheless, the aging global population translates to ever-increasing demand for orthopedic countermeasures to skeletal deterioration resulting from the increasing fragility of skeletal structures with age. In addition, there is an acute need to find effective countermeasures for other bone conditions and ailments. There is, therefore, a great need in the art for novel therapeutic compositions that can be used to deliver therapeutic agents to targets in the bone for effective treatment of bone-associated maladies.

Targeted delivery of bioactive factors to the systemic skeleton


A lottery ticket is printed onto a conventional paper, card or similar substrate to provide game information printed on the substrate and game data printed on the substrate where some or all of the game data is covered by a removable covering which can be removed by the player generally by scratching a latex covering layer to expose the covered data for playing the game. In addition, a battery is printed on the substrate together with printed conductive paths, a powered element such lights or sound or a changeable ink formed on the substrate and a switch responsive to an action on the substrate by the player, generally scratching of the covering layer for conducting power from the battery to the powered element.

Lottery tickets are well known and widely sold and typically comprise a sheet material of paper or card stock on which is printed lottery information and various indicia for the playing of one or more games. Many such games are instant win type games where the player can play the game or games by scratching away an opaque latex coating to expose the game data.
Many attempts are being made at this present time to enhance the playing action of lottery tickets since instant win tickets necessarily must have a predetermined winning or losing condition. The tickets therefore need to provide sufficient pleasure and enjoyment for the player to encourage the purchase of further tickets but not to be so complicated that the average player is discouraged.
Much work is therefore being done to enhance the playing action by providing a series of steps that the player must undertake and modifying the conditions which are necessary for winning condition to be exposed.
Lottery tickets of this type are generally dedicated to a lottery situation in that the ticket carries substantially only information relating to the lottery and game data since the primary function is the winning and losing action of the player in the lottery game. However other fields of such tickets relate to promotional materials and fun games where there is often no monetary prize and the prizes concerned may relate merely to the promotion concerned, for example fast food or other consumer products. Other winning action may be merely of a fun nature for children where the winning of prizes in a gambling condition is unsuitable.
As an entirely different field in lottery and similar type games, there are many proposals for involvement of computers and other data communication devices by which the game playing is enhanced. However these arrangements move entirely away from the simple conventional printed ticket which is inexpensive and provides a simple playing action for the average player.
In one example Iowa Lottery authority in conjunction with Scientific Games have announced the release of a simple inexpensive computer device which carries a number of games and can be played by the player in the form of a simple calculator with keys and the like. This device is therefore entirely different from the conventional lottery ticket printed on a substrate and is directed to a different field of the market other than the average instant win ticket played by the average player.


A sensing device includes a light-transmissible substrate, a light-transmissible electrode unit connected thereto, including multiple electrically independent electrode lines, and a light sensing unit connected to the light-transmissible substrate and the light-transmissible electrode unit. The light sensing unit includes a plurality of light sensors for sensing a light transmitted from the light-transmissible substrate. The light sensors are confined within the light-transmissible electrode unit and are electrically connectable to an outer component through the light-transmissible electrode unit.

Image sensing technology generally utilizes an image sensor to sense a target object, followed by displaying the image of the target object on a display monitor. Take recently popular motion sensing games for example, a motion sensing device used for the games typically includes a visible light (or RGB) camera, an infrared light source and an infrared sensor to perform sensing and displaying of image information to achieve motion sensing.
In order to provide more variety to sensor displays and achieve more precise sensing outcome, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US 20100045811 A1 discloses an image apparatus that includes a plurality of light reception sensors that are directly formed on pixel areas of a display, such that the image apparatus possesses both displaying and sensing capabilities without needing to connect to an external sensor unit. Moreover, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US 20140092052 A1 discloses a touch device that includes force sensitive sensors and capacitive sensors to achieve multiple sensing modes and higher sensing precision. Furthermore, U.S. Pat. No. 9,589,170 B2 discloses an information detection and display apparatus that has capabilities of displaying and sensing. The information detection and display apparatus includes a protective layer, a display screen, and an optical sensor sandwiched therebetween. The optical sensor includes a transparent substrate and an optical fingerprint imaging array disposed thereon. The optical fingerprint imaging array includes a plurality of signal lines and a plurality of drive lines that cooperate with the signal lines to define a plurality of imaging pixels. Each of the imaging pixels includes a signal control switch device and a photosensitive device.

Sensing device and display apparatus including the same


An impingement sprinkler has a main body, a rotation guiding mechanism, a slant adjustment mechanism, a turning control component and a rotation limiting mechanism. The rotation limiting mechanism has a first limiting piece and a second limiting piece. The main body has a frame portion and a sprinkler head. The rotation guiding mechanism includes a torsional spring and a swinging piece. The swinging piece has a first contacting portion. The turning control component has a second contacting piece and a poking rod portion. The poking rod portion always contacts the stopping portions such that the first and second limiting pieces interfere with the poking rod portion.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an impingement sprinkler, and more particularly to an innovative one which, through the first and second stopping portions extensionally formed on the first and second limiting pieces, can substantially execute the turning action when the slanting angle of the main body is adjusted.
2. Description of Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97 and 37 CFR 1.98
Impingement sprinklers are widely used in large-area crop irrigation and gardening because impingement sprinklers are capable of recycling or reciprocating irrigation in a circular area coverage. To further enhance the utility of the impingement sprinklers, manufacturers have developed impingement sprinklers with an adjustable slanting angle. By adjusting upward or downward, the sprinkling angle of the impingement sprinkler can be changed (i.e., when slanting upward, the sprinkling distance of the parabolic water flow is large, while when slanting downward, the distance is small), so as to meet diversified requirements of the users. What is discussed in the present invention is to improve the turning mechanism of such impingement sprinklers with adjustable slanting angle.
The structure of a conventional impingement sprinkler is usually made up of a main body, a water connection pipe provided on the bottom of the main body, a swinging frame, a turning mechanism, and a slanting and turning structure arranged on the main body. The turning structure usually comprises two rotary limiting catches configured outside the water connection pipe and a poke rod configured on one side of the main body and extending downward to be between the two limiting catches. When the main body starts to rotate under the drive of the swinging frame, the poke rod will be driven to contact one of the limiting catches, so that the poke rod will deflect and drive the inner mechanism to turn the main body. However, as the poke rod of such a conventional impingement sprinkler is located between the two limiting catches, and there are no other limiting structures around the two limiting catches, when the main body slants upward, there is a possibility that the poke rod may go beyond the limiting catches and cannot touch each other, and consequently, the main body loses the turning function and cannot conduct the recycling irrigation. This will naturally cause uneven irrigation and the convenient and practical functions of the impingement sprinkler are greatly reduced.
Thus, to overcome the aforementioned problems of the prior art, it would be an advancement if the art to provide an improved structure that can significantly improve the efficacy.
Therefore, the inventor has provided the present invention of practicability after deliberate design and evaluation based on years of experience in the production, development and design of related products.


An electron beam apparatus with an aberration corrector using multipole lenses is provided. The electron beam apparatus has a scan mode for enabling the operation of the aberration corrector and a scan mode for disabling the operation of the aberration corrector and the operation of each of the aberration corrector, a condenser lens, and the like is controlled such that the object point of an objective lens does not change in either of the scan modes. If a comparison is made between the secondary electron images of a specimen in the two modes, the image scaling factor and the focus remain unchanged and evaluation and adjustment can be performed by distinctly recognizing only the effect of the aberration corrector. This reduces the time required to adjust an optical axis which has been long due to an axial alignment defect inherent in the aberration corrector and an axial alignment defect in a part other than the aberration corrector which are indistinguishably intermingled with each other.

As semiconductor device patterns have been increasingly miniaturized in recent years, an apparatus for measuring the dimensions of the device patterns with high accuracy, such as a critical dimension measurement SEM, has been requested to achieve a resolution of about 3 to 1 nm by using an electron beam with an acceleration voltage of 1 kV or less for the prevention of specimen destruction. To satisfy the request, it is necessary to converge the electron beam into a spot with a diameter not more than a desired resolution on a specimen surface. With such a low acceleration voltage, chromatic aberration in an objective lens presents a first problem. To reduce the chromatic aberration, various attempts have already been made by sophisticating the design of the objective lens.
In the 1990s, a retarding technology was introduced which increases an acceleration voltage for electrons by the magnitude of Vr to allow the passage of the electrons through the objective lens with a higher energy, while decelerating the electrons with the application of a voltage −Vr to a specimen to keep the energy of an electron beam low when it is incident on the specimen. The technology allows a reduction in chromatic aberration at the rate shown in Expression (1) where V0 is an electron acceleration voltage at an electron gun portion.
                              [                      Numerical                                                                          Expression                                                                          1                    ]                                                                                V            0                                              V              0                        +                          V              r                                                          (        1        )
If Vr is excessively large, however, the specimen is destroyed by an electric field so that the magnitude of Vr which can be applied is limited. The chromatic aberration is also reduced accordingly if an electron source which emits an energy with a small width is used. At present, a field emission electron gun (with an emitted-electron energy width of about 0.3 eV), a Schottky field emission electron gun (with about 0.6 eV), and the like are used and an electron source having a smaller emitted-electron energy width and excellent stability is still in the search stage.
Since such a new electron source has not been commercialized yet, the reduction of the chromatic aberration in accordance with the foregoing methods is currently approaching the limit.
Of various approaches made to eliminate the limit, two have drawn attention, which are the use of a monochrometer and the reduction of the chromatic aberration using an aberration corrector. In relation to the approach using the aberration corrector, a technology which allows the compensation of the aberration in an objective lens by composing an aberration corrector from a combination of multipole lenses was proposed by Scherzer in the year 1947. In the 1970s, a specific structure had already been disclosed in Non-Patent Document 1 or Non-Patent Document 2. Recently, the technology has been experimentally verified by using a quadrupole/octupole aberration corrector of electromagnetic field type (Non-Patent Document 3).
An outline of the operation of this type of aberration corrector will be described with reference to FIG. 4. An aberration corrector 10 is composed of a multipole lens 11, an electromagnetic multipole lens 12, an electromagnetic multipole lens 13, and a multipole lens 14 to generate quadrupole fields and octupole fields in superimposed relation. In the aberration corrector 10, the quadrupole fields cause a converging effect and a diverging effect in respective two directions (the x-axis and the y-axis) perpendicular to an optical axis (the z-axis), which separate paraxial trajectories. In FIG. 4, the trajectories of electron beams are schematically shown by the fine lines. The first-stage multipole lens 11 causes the electron beams emitted from a crossover 41 to have trajectories in the x-direction (the x-trajectories each having one arrow in the drawing) diverged and trajectories in the y-direction (the y-trajectories each having two arrows in the drawing) converged, which are separated from each other. A trajectory in an arbitrary direction can be considered as a linear combination of these x- and y-trajectories. The second-stage electromagnetic multipole lens 12 is capable of generating a quadrupole electric field and a quadrupole magnetic field that has been 45° rotated from the quadrupole electric field relative to the optical axis in an x-y plane and compositely applying the electric field and the magnetic field in the x-y plane. The first-stage multiple lens 11 is excited such that the y-trajectories cross in the vicinity of the center of the electromagnetic multipole lens 12. At this time, the x-trajectories are apart from each other at a maximum distance to form a line image 42 extending in the x-direction at the center of the electromagnetic multipole lens 12. The excitation of the quadrupole of the electromagnetic multipole lens 12 has been adjusted such that the x-trajectories cross in the vicinity of the center of the third-stage electromagnetic multipole lens 13. At this time, a line image 43 presents a linear configuration extending in the y-direction. The x-trajectories and the y-trajectories separated past the fourth multipole lens 14 join at a crossover 44. The aberration corrector 10 is operated such that the crossover 41 is stigmatically formed into an image at the crossover 44.
At this time, the electromagnetic multipole lens 12 can be excited in the aberration corrector 10 by varying the ratio among the respective intensities of the quadruple fields including the electric and magnetic fields under the constraint that a resulting force exerted on an incident electron with an energy serving as a reference is not changed. In this case, an electron with an energy shifted from the reference is different in speed from the electron with the reference energy so that the exerted force changes if the ratio among the respective intensities of the electric and magnetic fields changes and the trajectories are displaced. The displacement is large in the x-direction apart at a distance from the optical axis and the trajectories are hardly affected in the y-direction extending toward the centers of the multipole fields. When the electron passes through the electromagnetic multipole lens 13, the x- and y-directions in the foregoing relation are reversed. In other words, only electrons with incidence energies shifted independently in the x- and y-directions can have trajectories changed by changing the ratio among the respective intensities of the quadrupole fields including the electric and magnetic fields in the electromagnetic multipole lenses 12 and 13.
By using this, the respective trajectories of an electron with a higher energy and an electron with a lower energy are preliminarily shifted outwardly and inwardly, each by an amount which allows the compensation of the chromatic aberration in the subsequently disposed objective lens, whereby the compensation of the chromatic aberration is performed. By generating octupole fields by using the multipole lenses 11 to 14 in addition to the quadrupole fields, it is also possible to compensate for the spherical aberration as disclosed in the articles 3 and 7 of Non-Patent Document 3.
In these well-known examples, an embodiment which uses a dodecupole for superimposing the quadrupole fields and the octupole fields is shown. In these well-known examples, an electro-optical system is constructed with a view to reducing even high-order aberration occurring inherently in the aberration corrector. However, since extremely small probes should be formed, total axial alignment in an entire electron beam apparatus is difficult when the aberration corrector is incorporated into the apparatus.
[Patent Document 1] Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2000-195453
[Non-Patent Document 1] Optik 33 (1971), pages 1-24
[Non-Patent Document 2] Optik 83 (1989), pages 30 to 40
[Non-Patent Document 3] Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, A 363 (1995), pages 316 to 325

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Electron beam apparatus with aberration corrector


A method and structure for removing side lobes is provided by positioning first and second radiation transparent regions of respective first and second phases at a first plane with the first and second phases being substantially out of phase. Further, positioning the first and the second region to cause radiation at a second plane to be neutralized in a first region, not to be neutralized in a second region, and to have a side lobe in a third region. Further, positioning a non-transparent region at the first plane to assure radiation at the second plane to be neutralized in the first region and positioning a third radiation transparent region of the first or second phase at the first plane to neutralize the side lobes in the third region at the second plane.

Integrated circuits are now used in almost every type of electronic product ranging from toys to massive computers. These integrated circuits are all generally made by a photolithographic process, which involves manufacturing a template containing patterns of the electrical circuit as transparent and opaque areas. The patterned template is referred to as a "reticle" or "mask".
A radiation source, such as a light, is used to copy or "pattern" multiple images of the mask onto a photosensitive material, such as a photoresist, on the surface of a silicon wafer. Once features are patterned on the photoresist, further processing is performed to form various structures on the silicon wafer. The completed wafer is then cut (or "diced") to form the individual integrated circuits.
Engineers typically use computer aided design ("CAD") to create a schematic design of the mask. One technique, Levenson Phase-Shifting, also known as Alternating Aperture Phase-Shifting, is used to create small features on integrated circuits. Such small features are generated by a pair of areas in the mask called shifters separated by an opaque region.
The opaque region, typically made of chrome, does not allow radiation such as light to pass through. However, the shifters allow light to pass through and change the phase of the light. Two shifters can be used to shine light on the same region of a photoresist. When the light passing through one of the shifters is out of phase with the light passing through the other shifter, a feature is created on the photoresist that is narrower than the opaque region separating the shifters. By reducing the size of the opaque region, and thus the distance between the two shifters, very small features can be created on the photoresist. The width of the feature can be considerably less than could be produced by the same optical system without phase shifting.
When light from one shifter is 180° out of phase and overlaps with the light from the other shifter, destructive interference occurs and the light from the two shifters cancels. Controlling the phase of the light passing through the mask can be extended to the point where all of the opaque regions are created by destructive interference as opposed to blocking the light with chrome. A chromeless phase-shifting mask transmits 100% of the light and is used in a technique called phase edge chromeless off axis lithography ("PCO"), also known as chromeless phase lithography ("CPL").
However, the use of CPL can cause artifacts to appear. Artifacts are unwanted features in the photoresist created by areas of secondary light intensity. One type of artifact is a side lobe. Side lobes typically appear as small halos in the photoresist.
One technique used to prevent side lobes is the use of a chrome patch. When properly placed on the mask, chrome patches block light of secondary intensity and prevent side lobes from forming in the photoresist.
Unfortunately, shifters can limit the placement and dimensions of chrome patches. Furthermore, as photolithographic technology continues to advance and mask designs continue to shrink, the risks of chrome lifting increase. Chrome lifting is the loss of the chrome patch, or portions of the patch, during processes such as mask cleaning.
What is needed, therefore, are improved methods and configurations for preventing side lobes from forming while decreasing the risk of chrome lifting.
Solutions to these problems have been long sought but prior developments have not taught or suggested any solutions and, thus, solutions to these problems have long eluded those skilled in the art.

Method and apparatus for removing radiation side lobes


A drill, drill bit and staples for use in attaching staples to a support by driving two parallel screws in the same direction simultaneously, one held by each side of the staple, so as to secure wiring to the support using the staple. The drill bit includes a central gear and two planetary gears, which gears rotate a screw-driving tool. The drill bit is held by the chuck of a drill and, when its central gear is rotated, rotates the planetary gears that drive the two screws. A harness may used to attach the housing of the drill bit to the drill to prevent rotation of the housing when the central and planetary gears are rotating. The drill may be rotatable from horizontal to vertical, telescoping and permit the bit to be rotated 90 degrees.

Wiring is used for conducting electricity or electrical signals. Wiring includes any elongated and non-self-supporting electrical conductor, whether insulated or not insulated. In running wiring from place to place in a building, wiring may be supported by the surfaces of support members such as posts, beams, and the like. Supported wiring may be easier to find, to trace, and to protect from damage and may be less likely to cause tripping injuries. A way to attach wiring to a support surface is to fasten it with staples. A staple, which has two sharpened legs, can straddle the wiring and be driven into the support to hold the wiring in position.
A worker fastening the wiring to a support with staples may be holding the staple over the wiring and using a hammer to drive the two legs of the staple into the support. The worker may be working on a ladder or in cramped areas, and may have difficulty finding a position from which to drive the staples in position properly. Thus, there remains a need for a way to staple wiring to supports that is easier, faster and does not result in damage to the wiring.

Drill, drill bit and staples for use therefor


The invention provides the use of silicon particles as redox catalyst, an electrochemical device and method thereof. As electrocatalyst, the silicon particles catalyze a redox reaction such as oxidization of the redox reactant such as renewable fuels e.g. methanol, ethanol and glucose. The device such as a fuel cell comprises a redox reactant and a catalytic composition comprising silicon nanoparticles. The silicon particles catalyze the redox reaction on an electrode such as anode in the device. In preferred embodiments, the electrocatalysis is dramatically improved under low illuminance such as in darkness. The invention can be widely used in applications related to for example a fuel cell, a sensor, an electrochemical reactor, and a memory.

The present invention relates to the use of silicon particles as a redox catalyst, an electrochemical device including the silicon particles and method thereof. It finds particular application in conjunction with a redox catalyst, an energy-generation device such as a fuel cell, a sensor, an electrochemical reactor, and a memory, and will be described with particular reference thereto. However, it is to be appreciated that the present exemplary embodiment is also amenable to other like applications.
Fuel cell technology is viewed as an increasingly important alternative means for generation of energy. To utilize nature's renewable energy sources such as various kinds of organic fuel, new electrocatalysts, especially those with novel properties due to their dimensions on the nanoscale, need to be developed in order to meet the requirements imposed by fuel cell applications, as described in D. R. Rolison, Science 299, 1698 (2003); M. Valden, X. Lai, D. W. Goodman, Science 281, 1647 (1998); A. S. Arico, P. Bruce, B. Scrosati, J.-M. Tarascon, W. V. Schalkwijk, Nature Materials 4, 366 (2005); and G. Che, B. B. Lakshmi, E. R. Fisher, C. R. Martin, Nature 393, 346 (1998).
Platinum-based noble metals are currently used in commercial fuel cells as the anode material to achieve electro-catalysis (electro-oxidation) of methanol and ethanol. Publications such as W. Vielstich, H. A. Gasteiger, A. Lamm, Eds., Handbook of fuel cells—fundamentals, technology and applications, vol. 2 (John Wiley & Sons, 2003), pp and E. Reddington et al., Science 280, 1735 (1998) have disclosed the use of bimetallic electrocatalyst systems based on rare/precious metals such as the platinum-ruthenium (Pt—Ru) alloy, which have been widely used as the anode electrode for direct electro-oxidation of methanol in direct methanol fuel cells. According to M. Watanabe, S. Motoo, J. Electroanal. Chem. 60, 259 (1975), the binary alloys offer a "bi-functional mechanism", in which Pt breaks the C—H bonds of methanol and Ru promotes water discharge and removes adsorbed CO species in order to reduce electrode poisoning.
Although fuel cells based on binary alloys are commercially available, the high cost of precious metals and their limited supply make this kind of fuel cell economically unviable, as realized by S. G. Chalk, J. F. Miller, Journal of Power Sources 159, 73 (2006). Moreover, the acute and chronic toxicity of Ruthenium is not fully known. However, since oxidation of Ruthenium forms the highly toxic and volatile ruthenium oxide, the portable use and disposal of the alloy-based fuel cells will cause safety and environmental concerns. In addition, electrode poisoning is also a major problem affecting the performance of present fuel cells.
Enzymes are used for the construction of sensors. However, enzymes are not only expensive; their stability is also a major problem for long-term implantable applications.
Advantageously, the present invention provides the use of silicon particles as a redox catalyst, an electrochemical device comprising the silicon particles and method thereof, which overcome the afore-mentioned problem. For example, the electrochemical device uses silicon particles which are inexpensive and non-poisonous; and it uses particle-immobilized electrode that does not induce electrode poisoning.

Use of silicon particles as catalyst, electrochemical device comprising the particles and method thereof


A method of inducing the proliferation and/or differentiation of human adult pancreatic cells entails contacting primary cultures of such cells with Hepatocyte Growth Factor/Scatter Factor (HGF/SF), thereby inducing a proliferation of .beta.-epithelial cells, an increase in the number of .beta.-epithelial cells which form islet-like cell clusters, and an increase in insulin production per cell. The method is improved by culturing the cells on an extracellular matrix such as 804G in the presence of HGF/SF, and is further improved by reaggregating thus-treated cells and contacting said cells with an insulin gene upregulating agent such as a poly(ADP-ribose) synthetase inhibitor such as a nicotinamide or benzamide. The method provides increased numbers of functional islet-like cell clusters for transplantation.

The present invention relates to transplantation of human fetal or mature pancreatic cells to treat Type 1 diabetes mellitus. More particularly, the invention relates to the use of a human cytokine, hepatocyte growth factor/scatter factor ("HGF/SF"), to induce ex vivo the proliferation and differentiation of pancreatic cells prior to their transplantation into a diabetic subject.
Type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus is characterized, inter alia, by a loss of insulin-producing Beta (".beta.") cells and decompensation of metabolism following autoimmune aggression. Fisenharth, N. Eng. J. Med. 314: 1360 (1986); Sweane, Diabetologia 35: 193 (1992). Treatments of such patients have included primarily parenteral administration of bovine or porcine insulin or recombinant human insulin. This treatment, however, delays, but does not avoid, the pathological sequelae of this disease, and, in addition, requires multiple daily injections of insulin and/or the use of an indwelling catheter and an insulin pump.
Immunosuppressive treatment of patients, for example, with cyclosporin A or FK506, also has been effected, but with only limited success, on a theory that Type 1 diabetes mellitus is a disease of autoaggression. Immunosuppressive drugs have toxic side effects, including the potential for infection as the result of suppression of the immune system.
Recently, adult human pancreatic islets have been transplanted into patients in order to achieve independence from insulin injections. Scharp et al., Transplant. 51: 76 (1991); Warnock et al., Diabetologia 34: 55 (1991). Despite these advances, the limited number of organ donors, the inadequate islet masses obtainable from most mature pancreases, and graft rejection problems have conspired to limit the general usefulness of this approach. Ricordi et al., Transplant. 53: 407 (1992).
An alternate source of pancreatic islets for 5 transplantation is the fetal pancreas. This tissue is rich in undifferentiated .beta.-cells that can, at least in theory, grow and mature after transplantation. Tuch et al., Diabetes 35: 464 (1986). While the immature immune system of the fetus reduces the likelihood of fetal islet rejection by the recipient, problems relating to the limited availability of suitable fetal pancreases and to the immaturity of the insulin-producing cells in such tissues continue to hinder success in this approach. For a review, see Andersson, Transplantation Revs. 6: 20 (1992).
HGF, a 87 kDa two-chain glycoprotein cytokine first identified in rodent and human plasma and rodent blood platelets, is a potent hepatocyte mitogen. Rubin et al., Biochem. Biophys. Acta 1155: 357 (1993). HGF is apparently identical to a fibroblast secretory protein referred to as Scatter Factor ("SF") known to dissociate and increase the motility of epithelial cells. Gherardi et al., Nature 346: 228 (1990); Weidner et al., Proc. Nat'l. Acad. Sci. (USA) 88: 7001 (1991); Furlong et al., J. Cell Sci. 100: 173 (1991); Naldini et al., EMBO J. 10: 2867 (1991); Bhargava et al., Cell Growth Differ. 3: 11 (1992). For this reason, "HGF/SF" is used here as the abbreviation of the name of this cytokine. For reviews of the biology of HGF/SF, see Strain, J. Endocrinol. 137: 1 (1993), Furlong, BioEssays 14: 613 (1992), and Rubin et al. (1993), above.
HGF has been purified to homogeneity and sequenced, and its gene has been cloned. See Miyazawa et al., Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 163: 967 (1989); Rubin et al., Proc. Nat'l Acad. USA 88: 415 (1991); Weidner et al., Sci. (USA) 88: 7001 (1991); Nakamura et al., FEBS Lett. 224: 311 (1987); Nakamura et al., Nature 342: 440 (1989) Gohda et al., J. Clin. Invest. 81: 414 (1988).
Wolf et al., Hepatology 14: 488 (1991), identified HGF/SF in adult human pancreatic tissue by immunohistochemistry. However, the identifying signal was strong only in exocrine tissue, very weak in endocrine tissues, with no apparent differences between various cell types. In sharp contrast, Tsuda et al., Jpn. J. Cancer Res. 83: 1262 (1992), reported immunohistochemistry studies that identified HGF/SF in adult (human and rat) pancreatic, glucagon-producing A cells, but not in the exocrine pancreas. The authors concluded that this cytokine is primarily produced or stored in the A cells, and it was hypothesized that HGF/SF may act as a growth factor in a paracrine and an endocrine fashion. Yet, DeFrances et al., Development. 116: 387 (1992), demonstrated immunohistochemically the presence of HGF/SF in developing rat fetal pancreas with intense staining in acinar cells.
The need persists, therefore, for a means of providing clinically useful numbers of higly proliferating and differentiating islet-like clusters of fetal and mature human pancreatic cells. This need has been met by the invention described below.

Compositions and method of stimulating the proliferation and differentiation of human fetal and adult pancreatic cells ex vivo

The United States of America as represented by the Department of Health and Human Services

The Whittier Institute for Diabetes and Endocrinology


Polyimide optical waveguide structures comprising a core within a cladding wherein at least one of the core and the cladding is a polyimide containing 6FDA, BTDA, an aromatic diamine having bulky methyl groups ortho to the amine, and a co-diamine wherein the polyimides have the properties of low optical loss, low optical absorbance, controllable refractive index, and high thermal stability, and wherein the polyimides are photosensitive and solvent resistant.

The speed at which electrical signals can travel limits the speed at which data can be transferred. One solution is to convert the transfer of signals from the transfer of electrons to the transfer of photons which are capable of carrying high speed, high data rate computing signals (hundreds of MHz to GHz frequencies). These interconnects may be chip-to-chip, as in an optical multichip module, or connect single packaged chips on a printed circuit board.
Optical data transfer can be accomplished by an optical waveguide having a transparent "optical" core guiding material that is embedded in a cladding material. The optical signal is transmitted through the core material via total internal reflection. Optical waveguides are used at the printed circuit board level for clock distribution and interconnection of single chip packages and on silicon substrates for interchip connection at the multichip module level.
One requirement for the cladding material is that the refractive index of the cladding material be less than the refractive index of the core material. For passive guides, the cladding could be air, but polymer claddings are typically preferred so that the core material is isolated from any conducting (metallization) layers.
Useful optical waveguides must have low optical transmission loss, low optical absorbance, and controllable refractive index.
Another useful property is high thermal stability, which is necessary so that the waveguide will survive electronic packaging and assembly processes used in manufacturing. The optical multichip module would have to survive semiconductor assembly processes such as die attach, metallization, and wire bonding. The printed circuit board would have to survive reflow soldering and rework.
A particularly useful property is that either the core or the cladding materials can be photodefined into channels or ridges with smooth sidewalls using UV exposure techniques.
Still another useful property is that multilayer structures can be formed by overcoating one polymer layer over another. In other words, the first layer of the multilayer structure would be resistant to the solvent used in the subsequent "overcoat" layer.
Polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) is one photodefinable polymer that has been used for optical waveguides. However, PMMA has low thermal stability and cannot be used at the high temperatures needed for most electronic applications, for example, greater than 300.degree. C. needed for die attach and soldering procedures used in the manufacturing of printed circuit boards.
Photodefinable polyimides are typically not used as waveguides because many conventional photodefinable polyimides are not transparent. Further, although polyimides are known to have the thermal stability required for electronic and semiconductor applications, many semiconductor grade polyimides display a high optical absorbance in the near IR visible region. Since typical commercial laser and light sources emit in the near IR visible range (350 nm to 2,000 nm) a polymer having a high optical absorbance in this region is generally not desirable for use as a photodefinable waveguide.
EP 454,590 discusses low optical loss waveguides that are made from isotropic polyimides. The reference teaches that 2,2'-bis(trifluoromethyl)-4,4'-diaminobiphenyl is a necessary component of the invention. However, the polymers are not photosensitive. Further, an extensive multilayer resist process and an extensive dry etching process is taught in the examples as necessary to pattern these polymers.
Further, the European reference lists BTDA, among many dianhydrides, as one possible component of their waveguides. However, there are no examples teaching the use of BTDA and there is no recognition that BTDA must be carefully balanced to provide a useful photosensitive material for use as a waveguide. BTDA has a very strong absorbance maximum at 310 nm to 330 nm. Therefore, polyimide compositions incorporating large amounts of BTDA would be expected to have a very high optical absorbance loss, a property which is not preferred in an optical waveguide.
The EP 454,590 reference also teaches that the homopolyimides of their invention cannot be multilayered unless the first layer has been heat treated (cured) at a temperature of not less than 380.degree. C. This high temperature heat treatment is probably necessary because highly fluorinated polyimides are known to have a low solvent resistance. The polyimides of the present invention, however, are copolyimides that are photosensitive and that can be photochemically crosslinked. Crosslinking is believed to improve solvent resistance so that the polyimides of the present invention can be multilayered after a cure temperature of only 350.degree. C.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,912,197 discloses 6FDA/BTDA/DMDE polyimides. The polyimides are highly soluble, clear compositions that are photochemically crosslinkable. The reference does not address photosensitivity or photodefinability. However, the 6FDA/BTDA/DMDE polyimides have a high birefringence which causes them to scatter light (see Comparative Examples A-C).
The polyimides of the present invention provide a photodefinable polyimide that incorporates a co-diamine moiety which contributes to reduced birefringence. Birefringence is a measure of the optical anisotropy (i.e., wherein the properties are different in one direction, for example in-plane, than they are in another direction, for example, out-of-plane). The typical rigid rod polyimides that are generally preferred for semiconductor applications are highly oriented in the plane of the coating and thus exhibit a high birefringence. High birefringence measurements correspond to high optical scattering losses and irreproducibility of the refractive index.
Further, it is unexpected that the incorporation of a non-photocrosslinkable co-diamine in the polyimide of the present invention would result in a polyimide having high photosensitivity since the introduction of a co-diamine should reduce the concentration of the photocrosslinkable group in DMDE.
Moyer, E., PhD Thesis, Virginia Polytech Institute, 1989, (page 168) found that the reduction of the methyl substituted diamines greatly decreased photosensitivity. When Moyer replaced DMDE with 40 mol % of a co-diamine 1,3-bis(3-aminophenoxy-4'-benzoyl) benzene (DKEDA), his photosensitivity dropped from 188 mJ/cm.sup.2 to 1,388 mJ/cm.sup.2. However, we have discovered that certain co-diamines will provide a polyimide having reduced birefringence and that still retains high photosensitivity.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,657,832 discloses photosensitive polyimides where the diamine is substituted with alkyl groups but the disclosed polyimides do not encompass the use of the 6F dianhydride. Further, this reference does not teach the use of a co-diamine to reduce birefringence in the polyimide.
NASA Technical Support Package LAR-13539 and U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,595,548 and 4,603,061 disclose transparent aromatic polyimides derived from various dianhydrides, including 6FDA, and ether or thioether bridged diamines. However, these compositions are not photosensitive. Furthermore, the NASA Package teaches the use of aryl ether diamines such as OBA and BDAF to reduce charge transfer complexes and increase transparency. We have shown that OBA and BDAF containing polyimides are not sufficiently photosensitive for use in the waveguides of the present invention (see Comparative Examples D and F).
U.S. Pat. No. 4,705,540 discloses the use of 6FDA/DMDE as a gas permeable membrane. The disclosed compositions do not include BTDA and are not photosensitive. Also, this reference teaches the use of rigid diamines and co-diamines with hindered rotation. The rigid diamines would be expected to increase birefringence making the polymer unsuitable for waveguides.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,717,393 discloses auto-photochemically crosslinked gas separation membranes. The reference does not teach the use of a co-diamine to decrease optical loss.
The present invention provides an optical waveguide made from a thermally stable, low optical loss, low optical absorbance polyimide. The refractive index of the polyimides of the present invention can be controlled by changing the composition of the polyimide (for example, compare Example 1 to Example 7) or by substituting one co-diamine for another (compare Example 1 to Example 3).
The polyimides of the present invention are photosensitive and can be photodefined which affords their fabrication into the waveguide structures of the present invention by UV exposure. Further, the polyimides of the present invention can be etched or channeled by wet etch techniques.
The polyimides of the present invention are solvent resistant and can be fabricated into multilayer structures by overcoating one polyimide layer over another.
In addition, we have found that fluorinated co-diamines reduce absorbance at 1.3 microns, an important wavelength for telecommunications. Therefore, in the present invention, fluorinated co-diamines are preferred.


This invention pertains to draw tape equipment, and methods for incorporating draw tapes into plastic and like bags. In general, a continuous plastic web is slit at a slitting station to form layers, and respective free edges. The web then passes to a hole forming station where holes are punched in the top and bottom layers adjacent the free edges. After the holes are punched, edge regions of the top and bottom layers are separated from each other, followed by forming of hems in the separated layers at hem forming stations arranged in parallel with each other. Concurrent with forming of the hems, continuous draw tapes are fed to the hem forming stations and the hems are formed about the draw tapes. The formed hems, with the draw tapes incorporated therein, optionally pass through first temperature control stations where the temperature of the plastic web is controlled to a desired temperature before hem sealing. The formed hems are then sealed to the main bodies of the respective top and bottom layers. Narrow pressure wheels apply pressure to the hot seals to improve seal quality. The sealed hems optionally pass through second temperature control stations to cool the web. The edge regions of the layers are then rejoined, in face-to-face relationship with each other.

Plastic bags of the type described here are typically comprised of a bag body folded to form top and bottom layers which are typically cut and sealed at the side edges. The front edges of the top and bottom layers, located opposite the fold, define the mouth of the bag. A near margin at the bag mouth is typically folded inside the bag to form a hem which is ordinarily sealed to the bag body to form a channel holding draw tapes. Pulling on accessible portions of the draw tapes causes the bag mouth to constrict thus closing the bag at its top.
Draw "string" bags have long been utilized, and have taken many forms. While drawstring bags made of plastic have been utilized to some extent, such bags have been used mostly in the lower volume boutique bag market because bags using draw "strings" tend to be more expensive. Much of the reason for this limitation in the market area is the cost of producing a draw "string" bag.
Manufacturing a plastic draw "string" bag typically requires special processing steps related to joining ends of the string being used. The string must be knotted, provided with a metal fastener, or otherwise fixed together at two ends in each such bag. Such processes cannot be carried out by the equipment usually associated with fabrication steps used to form seals and cuts in the plastic webbing from which the bag is derived. Accordingly, additional equipment must be used to so manipulate the draw "string," at related additional costs.
Subsequently, draw "tape" bags have been developed, first mostly in the boutique bag area, but now more generally for the higher volume markets. Draw tape bags represent a major advance in that a thermoplastic bag (e.g. low density polyethylene or linear low density polyethylene copolymer or the like) is provided with a thermoplastic tape (e.g. high density polyethylene), the tape being heat sealed into the bag during the process of manufacturing the bag. While draw "tape" bags in general represent a substantial improvement over draw "string" bags, there are still numerous difficulties in the production of the draw tape bags.
In making a draw tape bag in the conventional art, plastic film material is generally obtained in parent rolls. The roll is unwound and fed to a draw tape machine. The draw tape machine forms hems at edges of the web which ultimately form the top edges of the finished bag, and incorporates draw tape material into the hems, in addition to cutting holes at the edges which form the top edges of the finished bag. The hem is sealed, securing the tapes in the formed hems.
In the alternative, the plastic film material may be received in-line, from an ongoing film extrusion process.
In effecting the tape insertion, one or two strips of tape material are unwound from respective parent rolls and fed to the formed hems of the respective top and bottom layers. Accordingly, a draw tape machine must handle at least the main web which is used to form the plastic bag, as well as the one or two tape webs being inserted into the hems. Normally two sets of sealing bars or the like are required for forming the heat seals at the respective two hems after the tapes are inserted.
Finally, after the draw tape insertion process is completed, the web is transferred from the draw tape machine to a bag-forming machine where transverse side seals, and corresponding cuts, are made across the width of the plastic web, forming side seals and cutting the continuous web into individual bags, using conventional heat sealing and cutting equipment and methods. The steps that form the side seals and cut the sides of succeeding bags from each other also seal the draw tapes, in the hems, to the bag material, itself, along the side edges of the bags, as well as cutting the tapes to a length corresponding to the full widths of the bags being fabricated.
This invention focuses on the draw tape equipment. Web material processed in this invention is subsequently transferred to bag making equipment for further processing as into the finished individual bags. The equipment of the invention could readily be incorporated into the bag making machine such that the draw tape apparatus and bag making apparatus might be incorporated into one common frame and driven by a single common controller, integrating the several steps of the overall process of both the draw tape operation and the bag making and cutting operation. While such is certainly feasible with the invention as disclosed herein, the description herein focuses on the novel aspects of such apparatus which is in general defined in the draw tape equipment.
Early bag-making equipment was designed on the basis of intermittent motion. Namely the bag-making equipment would stop the plastic web for performing bag-making steps, whether for making side seals in the bags, cutting the bags apart from the web, or for performing one or more of the earlier steps such as those associated with forming hems at the top edge of the bags, or inserting tapes into such hems. After the desired step(s) were performed, transport of the bag was again started and the bag advanced to subsequent steps. More recently, continuous motion processing equipment has been developed wherein bag-making steps are performed while the bag advances continuously along a processing line.
However, even the most modern bag-making equipment still includes a variety of problems. Of particular concern in this invention is the apparatus used to form hems and incorporate draw tapes into the hems. There is also the issue of controlling the temperature of the parent web both before and after the hem sealing step. There is also the issue of minimizing the amount of floor space occupied by the bag forming machinery while retaining the web being processed where workers can reach it from floor level. Finally, there is the issue of improving handling of the parent web during its traverse through the bag forming operation.
It is an object of the invention to provide draw tape equipment and methods for forming hems around the draw tapes, rather than inserting the draw tapes into already-formed hems.
It is another object to provide draw tape draw tape equipment and methods wherein holes are formed adjacent the free edges of the plastic web before the free edges are folded for incorporation of draw tapes therein.
It is still another object to provide draw tape equipment and methods controlling the temperature of the parent web material both before and after applying sealing heat to formed hems.
It is yet another object to provide draw tape equipment and methods, separating edge regions of the top and bottom layers of the plastic and forming hem seals on both the top and bottom layers along parallel paths.
It is a further object of the invention to minimize the floor space occupied by the draw tape equipment while maintaining the web being processed at a level which can be reached by workmen standing on the floor of the work place.
Another object is to stretch the web adjacent the formed hems, with the draw tapes therein, prior to forming the seals at the formed hems.
A still further object is to electrostatically pin the formed hems to an underlying support, and to carry the thus pinned hems along the processing line on an intervening belt, thus controlling the transverse positioning of the hem with respect to hem sealing apparatus, for forming the hem seals.
A further object is to provide an angled turning member for assisting in returning the edge regions of the top and bottom layers into surface-to-surface contact with each other after the hem seals are formed along parallel paths.


An endoscopic apparatus comprises: a movable lens that is movably built in an objective optical system arranged at an tip of an insert part of an endoscope; a piezoelectric-element drive mechanism that causes the movable lens to move forward and backward in an optical axis direction due to driving of a piezoelectric element; a control circuit that provides a drive pulse to the piezoelectric element; and a storage section that stores respective ones of drive-pulse count data for moving the movable lens forward and backward equally in amount, wherein the control circuit performs control of providing a drive-pulse count, different in between forward and backward movement, to the piezoelectric element of the piezoelectric-element drive mechanism so as to move the movable lens forward and backward equally in amount depending upon drive-pulse count data read out of the storage section.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to endoscopic apparatuses and more particularly to piezoelectric-element drive mechanism control to drive the movable lens, arranged in an objective optical system, through expansion and contraction of a piezoelectric element for the purpose of auto-focusing and zooming functions.
2. Description of the Related Art
For example, the electronic endoscopic apparatus has an electronic endoscope (scope), a processor unit, a light source, a monitor and so on. In the tip of the electronic endoscope, there are arranged an objective optical system (lenses), a CCD (charge coupled device) serving as a solid-state imager, and so on. Depending upon the illumination of from the light source, the CCD takes an image of a subject-of-observation. The image signal is video-processed in the processor unit, to thereby display a video image of the subject-of-observation on the monitor. The objective optical system is built therein with a movable lens for the purpose of zooming and focusing functions. It is a recent practice to use a piezoelectric-element drive mechanism in order to drive such a movable lens.
In the piezoelectric-element drive mechanism, the drive shaft coupled to a piezoelectric element is frictionally engaged with a moving body so that the moving body can be moved slightly by delivering the expansion/contraction of the piezoelectric element to the moving body through the drive shaft (JP-B-4-52070 and Japanese Patent No. 3,635,525). By controlling the waveform, etc. of a drive voltage to be supplied to the piezoelectric element, the moving body can be moved in forward and backward directions. Such a piezoelectric-element drive mechanism is advantageously arranged in the tip of an endoscope having a reduced diameter because of its easiness to reduce the size.
However, in the movable lens movement control based on the conventional piezoelectric-element drive mechanism, when drive signals are provided in pulse count to drive the lens forward and backward equally in amount in the optical-axis direction, there encounters a difference of movement amount in between forward and backward movements thus resulting in a problem of the lowed accuracy of movement amount control. Namely, a difference occurs in moving amount in between the forward and backward due to the structure of the piezoelectric-element drive mechanism, such as a piezoelectric element as a drive source, a drive shaft coupled to the drive shaft, a frictional engagement state of between the drive shaft and the moving body. The difference depends also upon the characteristic unique to the piezoelectric-element drive mechanism, i.e. individual difference.


A document reading device includes a document reading section, a sticky note image detecting section, a first determining section, a detection target image storage section, a consistent image detecting section, a second determining section, and a control section. When the first determining section determines that the position of a sticky note image in a document image of an original document is at a location in the document where a content is described and the second determining section determines that an image consistent with the sticky note image is located at a signature space in a second document image of the original document read by a different reading, the control section permits formation or saving of the second document image acquired by the different reading.

The present invention relates to a document reading device for use to digitize an original paper document and an image forming apparatus with the same.
Sticky notes, which are small paper slips capable of being attached on any place, are widely used in offices, homes, and other locations. Particularly owing to their capability of multiple detachment and reattachment, sticky notes are often used as notes of comments or the like in a manner that they are put on paper documents or the like.
In techniques for optically reading a document (original document) with a sticky note put thereon, it may be desirable in some cases, not to digitize the entire original document as it is, but to handle the sticky note given additional information and the body of the original document separately from each other. For example, a technique is disclosed in which in digitizing an original document with a sticky note put thereon, information given to the sticky note is digitized separately from the body and shared among a plurality of persons.

Document reading device and image forming apparatus


A water/air treatment system includes at least one water/air treatment unit, each water/air treatment unit including a water trough, a water pipe having a top end connected to a water source and a bottom end dipped in the water trough, and an expansion pipe suspending in the water pipe, the expansion pipe having a top end connected to a forced air source, a bottom end dipped in the water trough, and a plurality of air holes through the periphery for permitting forced ozone from the forced air source to flow out of the expansion pipe for mixing with water from the water source in water pipe so as to kill microbes and to exchange heat.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to water/air treatment systems which achieve the functions of (1) purifying air with water, (2) purifying water with forced air, (3) cooling waste hot water and recovering waste heat by using cold air, and (4) cooling waste hot air and recovering waste heat by using cold water.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In recent years, the application of machinery, motor vehicles, pesticides, etc., produces a variety of pollutants which pollute the environment. Various methods have been developed to purify water and air. For example, using wire gauge filter to filter water, using air filter element to filter air, using ozone and oxychloride to kill microbes in water and to remove smells from water and to reduce COD and BOD concentration in water. However, conventional water/air purifying methods are commonly not economic. Furthermore, conventional water/air purifying methods cannot recover waste heat from waste hot water or waste hot air.