A steam power plant is suggested having, parallel to the preheater passage (VW1 to VW4), a heat reservoir (25) which is loaded with preheated condensate in weak-load times. This preheated condensate is taken from the heat reservoir (25) for generating peak-load and inserted downstream of the preheater passage into the condensate line (19.2) resp. the feed water container (8). Thus it is possible to quickly control the power generation of the power plant in a wide range without significantly having to change the heating output of the boiler of the steam generator (1). A steam power plant equipped according to the invention can thus be operated with bigger load modifications and also provide more control energy.

Conventional steam power plant plants have a closed water-steam cycle. In the steam generator so much energy is added to the boiler feed water by combustion of a fossil fuel that it passes into the vaporous aggregate condition. This steam drives a generator via one or several steam turbines and afterwards is liquefied again in one condenser.
As it is not possible to economically store electric energy in big scope, there were already considerations in the past aiming at storing thermal energy in a steam power plant in order to thereby increase the flexibility resp. adaption to net requirements (peak load).
It is known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,003,786 to arrange a chain of heat exchangers parallel to the preheater passage of the steam power plant. Via these heat exchangers it is possible to exchange heat between a part of the condensate stream and a thermo-oil. This means that the heat exchangers are streamed through by condensate on the one hand and a thermo-oil on the other hand. Thus it is possible to confer heat from the condensate to the thermo-oil in times of low demand and to store this heated thermo-oil. When subsequently a high output is requested, it is possible to re-confer the heat stored in the thermo-oil to the condensate via the same heat exchangers and thus to reduce the demand of tapping steam for preheating the condensate. Consequently, the output available at the generator is increased and the demanded peak load can be met in a better way.
This known arrangement is very complex and requires a multitude of heat exchangers as well as two heat reservoirs. For this reason two different heat reservoirs are required, because both heat reservoirs are operated at different temperatures, i.e. approximately 190° and 520° C.
It is the object of the invention to provide a steam power plant which can provide peak load stream and control energy, wherein the apparative effort required therefor is to be preferably low. Furthermore the strengthening of already existing steam power plants is to be possible in a preferably simple manner and with small manipulations of the steam power plant process.

Steam power plant with heat reservoir and method for operating a steam power plant


A mixing head for a mold can receive two or more reactive synthetic resin components in a mixing chamber in which a mixing-chamber piston is displaceable to drive the residues into a first calming chamber communicating with the outlet of the mixing chamber. The first calming chamber also has a piston or plunger which can be advanced to drive the residues into a second calming chamber connected to the outlet of the first calming chamber. The second calming chamber has a second piston displacing the mixture into the mold cavity. Because the pistons of the first and second calming chambers can be retracted as the mixture flows through these chambers, a highly effective calming effect can be obtained for the turbulent mixture of the mixing chamber without throttling.

An apparatus for the mixing of at least two reactive synthetic resin components to form a hardenable or settable mixture which can be discharged into a mold, as described in German patent document DE-PS 23 27 269, has a cylindrical reaction chamber into which the synthetic resin components are injected and from which all residues of the reactive synthetic resin mixture ca be discharged by a reversibly movable mixing-chamber piston which can be displaced within this chamber.
This apparatus is provided with a cylindrical calming chamber into which the mixing chamber is discharged and which lies at an angle to the longitudinal axis of the mixing chamber, namely, a right angle, to form the turbulent mixture discharged from the mixing chamber into a quiescent mixture before it is discharged into a mold cavity. The calming chamber also is provided with a piston or plunger which is reversibly displaceable and can drive all residues of the mixture from this chamber into a mold cavity, i.e. through the outlet of the calming chamber.
Mixing heads of this type require control of the pressure in the mixing chamber by the throttling of the mixing chamber outlet as described, for example, in the German patent document DE-PS 31 20 482. In this system, the piston or plunger of the calming chamber forms an obstructing piece at its front end directly adjacent the mixing chamber outlet and in an intermediate position in which the calming-chamber piston can be arrested. A disadvantage of this kind of throttling approach is that the output rate, i.e. the flow per unit time, through the mixing head is restricted by the throttling operation.

Apparatus for mixing reactive synthetic-resin components


Catalysts consisting of. A) an alcoholate of the rare earths, a carboxylate of the rare earths, a complex compound of the rare earths with diketones and/or an addition compound of the halides of the rare earths with an oxygen or nitrogen donor compound, PA1 B) an aluminium trialkyl, a dialkyl aluminium hydride and/or an alumoxane, PA1 C) another Lewis acid and PA1 D) an inert, particulate inorganic solid with a specific surface of greater than 10 m.sup.2 /g (BET) and a pore volume of 0.3 to 15 ml/g. are eminently suitable for the polymerization of conjugated dienes, more particularly butadiene, in the gas phase.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a catalyst, to its production and to its use for the polymerization of conjugated dienes, more particularly butadiene, in the gas phase.
2. Description of the Related Art
Polybutadiene with a high percentage of cis-1,4-units has been produced on an industrial scale for some time and is used for the production of tires and other rubber products. The polymerization is carried out in the liquid phase using various catalyst systems. One particularly advantageous catalyst system for the production of polybutadiewne with a high percentage of cis-1,4-units is described in European patent 11 184. The catalyst system described in this document, which is used for the polymerization of butadiene in solution, consists of a carboxylate of the rare earths, an aluminium tri-alkyl and/or alkyl aluminium hydride and another Lewis acid.
The polymerization of conjugated dienes in solution has the disadvantage that, during the removal of the unreacted monomer and the solvent from the polymer formed, low molecular weight compounds can enter the environment through waste gases and wastewater and have to be disposed of accordingly.
It is also known that the polymerization of conjugated dienes can be carried out without the addition of solvents in the liquid monomers. Unfortunately, this process has the disadvantage that the polymerization reaction is accompanied by the release of a large amount of heat which is difficult to control and, accordingly, represents a certain potential danger. In addition, the separation of the polymers from the monomers again involves the risk of environmental pollution.
In recent years, the gas phase process has proved to be particularly advantageous for the production of polyethylene and polypropylene in particular and has been applied on an industrial scale. The environmental advantages of the gas phase process are attributable in particular to the fact that no solvents are used and emissions and wastewater pollution can be reduced.
Hitherto, there has been no known process for carrying out the polymerization of conjugated dienes, more particularly polybutadiene, directly from the gas phase. One reason for this may be that the Ziegler-Natta catalysts based on titanium, cobalt, nickel or neodymium used for the solution polymerization of conjugated dienes are not readily suitable for polymerization in the gas phase, particularly on account of the poor productivity, i.e. the small yield of polymer which can be obtained with a certain quantity of catalyst. Thus, the catalyst described in EP 11 184 is unsuitable for the polymerization of dienes, more particularly butadiene, in the gas phase to form polybutadiene with a high percentage of cis-1,4-units on account of the fact that its activity falls dramatically after only a short time in a gas phase polymerization (see comparison test).

Catalyst, its production and its use for the gas-phase polymerization of conjugated dienes


An image forming apparatus having a cover and a process cartridge. The cover has a movable lever and swings over the image forming apparatus to an open position and to a closed position. The cover swings to the closed position only when the movable lever is in a predetermined position. The process cartridge is detachably installed when the cover is in the open position and is secured to the image forming apparatus when the cover is in the closed position. The process cartridge includes a projection that moves the movable lever of the cover to the predetermined position.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for image forming, and more particularly to a method and apparatus for image forming that prevents the use of unsuitable process cartridges at a relatively low cost.
2. Discussion of the Background
Many image forming apparatuses such as copying machines, facsimile machines, printers and so forth, incorporate a so-called "process cartridge," which includes toner or ink as well as associated components for image processing. Typically, the process cartridge is detachably installed in the imaging forming apparatus in order to facilitate an operation for exchanging the cartridge or supplying toner (or ink) relative to the cartridge.
Each of these apparatuses is generally configured to accept a process cartridge which is specifically designed for it and to refuse other process cartridges. The reason for this is that the electrostatic image forming method using toner (or ink) requires techniques so delicate that the manufacturers of image forming apparatuses uniquely develop the toner, or the ink. Accordingly, by use of an incorrect process cartridge, (i.e., a process cartridge not specifically designed for use in a particular image forming apparatus) problems associated with quality of an image may arise, or the image forming apparatus may be damaged.
To avoid such a problem, many solutions have been developed. One exemplary technique is described in Japanese Laid Open Patent Publication No. 08-106207 (1996). This technique provides a toner tank portion of an image forming apparatus with projections corresponding to depressions provided to a specific toner cartridge so as to select only a specific toner cartridge. In this case, however, if the projections and/or the depressions are removed for any reason, the image forming apparatus may easily accept any cartridge even those which are incorrect.
Another exemplary technique is described in Japanese Laid Open Patent Publication No. 09-185254 (1997). This technique provides an image forming apparatus with a drive gear which meets only with a driven gear of a specific process cartridge so as to select only the specific process cartridge. In this case, however, the shape of the diverse gear for each type of the image forming apparatus is changed, and thus, the manufacturing cost may increase.
Therefore, it is believed that there is no image forming apparatus available which includes a reparable mechanism for preventing the use of unsuitable process cartridges at a relatively low cost.

Method and image forming apparatus for preventing the use of unsuitable process cartridges


In one aspect, a wireless system includes an encoder configured to encode data using a spinal code which uses a function over the message bits to directly produce a sequence of constellation symbols for transmission. The wireless system also includes a decoder configured to decode the spinal code. The function may be at least one of a non-linear function and a hash function.

As is known in the art, emerging technology and increasing demand for large-scale high-speed data communications have made it important for systems to achieve efficient and reliable digital data transmission and storage. In particular, an important goal for many wireless network protocols is high throughput. In communication networks, throughput (also sometimes referred to as "network throughput") may be defined as the average rate of successful message delivery over a communication channel.
As is also known, channel conditions affect network throughput. Many factors degrade channel quality, including signal attenuation, noise, interference, and multipath fading. Wireless channels vary with time, sometimes even at time-scales shorter than a packet time. Thus, to achieve high throughput, a protocol must not only operate at the best rate given a set of channel conditions but must also adapt to variations.
These problems are well-known, fundamental ones. Current wireless networks, including IEEE Standard 802.11 (Wi-Fi) and various wide-area cellular wireless standards, address them by providing a large number of physical layer (PHY) mechanisms, including a variety of channel codes, various parameters for these codes, and several modulations. The link and subnetwork layers implement policies to dynamically select and configure the discrete choices and parameters provided by the PHY. In 802.11 networks, for instance, this choice is generally made by a bit rate adaptation protocol by observing channel conditions, such as the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), interference-free bit error rate, dispersion in the constellation space, frame loss rate, or the time taken to successfully transmit a frame.

Rateless and rated coding using spinal codes


A method for focusing a charged particle beam, the method including: (a) altering a focal point of a charged particle beam according to a first focal pattern while scanning a first area of a sample and collecting a first set of detection signals; (b) altering a focal point of a charged particle beam according to a second focal pattern while scanning a second area that is ideally identical to the first area and collecting a second set of detection signals; and (c) processing the first and second set of detection signals to determine a focal characteristic; wherein the first focal pattern and the second focal pattern differ by the location of an optimal focal point.

Modem inspection, defect review and metrology tools use one or more charged particle beams in order to inspect, analyze and measure features or defects. The resolution of these systems is responsive to various parameters including the focus error, astigmatism and the like. Modem systems are also required to inspect, review or measure samples with an increased throughput. High throughput systems requires fast focal error detection methods.
As the size of features and defects gets smaller there is a need to provide an efficient method for determining focal errors.

Method and system for focusing a charged particle beam


The depolarizer utilizes a commonly available BK7 glass corner cube to transform linearly polarized light into depolarized light with 100% conversion efficiency. The low-cost corner cube is a unique optical element that greatly simplifies the means for producing completely depolarized light as compared to other current methods and techniques. The corner cube is irradiated uniformly, but at non-normal incidence for a tilt angle of about 9° with respect to the input light beam path. The polarization orientation angle of the input beam in combination with the tilt angle and tilt-axis orientation of the corner cube must be optimized in order to make the Stokes polarization parameters equal to zero, and thereby generating the depolarized light beam A bidirectional beam director steers the retro-reflected depolarized light beam from the corner cube to the output port of the depolarizer.

This invention is in the field of optics for implementing an optical depolarizer by means of a corner-cube.
Linearly polarized light launched into a fiber-optic invariably experiences birefringence as it propagates in the fiber. Birefringence effects transform linearly polarized light into elliptically polarized light that can compromise performance in signal processing, and in degrading performance in pumped optical amplifiers for long-haul communications systems. Depolarized light is not affected by birefringence, and thereby propagates without any polarization perturbations in the fiber. A depolarized light source is best described by the Stokes polarization parameters S1, S2, S3 having zero values.
Depolarized light sources are useful in minimizing adverse polarization problems of fading in signal processing. Also in fiber-optic communication systems depolarizers have become useful in pumped optical amplifiers. Most optical amplifiers are polarization dependent in gain which means, a polarized pump source enhances gain in signals having the same polarization state. Since the polarization state of the signal cannot be effectively controlled, non-uniform signal gain occurs due to the inherent time-varying changes in the polarization state of the beam in the fiber. For this reason a depolarized pump source is used for the amplifier because it provides uniform gain characteristics. Considerations have also been given in using a depolarized light source for the signal at the transmitter in communication systems thus eliminating signal polarization issues in the amplifier as well.
Many different types of depolarizers have been described in the literature with the aim in generating a sufficiently large number of polarization states in the output beam such that the sum of each Stokes polarization parameter cancels out to zero (except for S0=1). Depolarization can be performed by different methods as in 1) the electro-optic scrambler, 2) spatial averaging of a beam emerging from a retardation plate having phase gradient characteristics, 3) spatial averaging in quartz plate of the Lyot type, 4) re-circulation loop averaging by splitting and recombining light beams, and 6) spatial averaging of the retro-reflected beam from a high refractive index corner cube. Developments in various types of depolarizers will be reviewed and cited.
The polarization transformer as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,966,431 and 5,212,743 (Heismann, dated Oct. 30, 1990 and May 18, 1993, respectively) can be used as a scrambler, also called a pseudo-depolarizer. The device consists of an electrically-controlled integrated-optic waveguide structure in a LiNbO3 substrate. The scrambler speed has to be fast enough such that the scrambled polarization states are blurred together into a time-averaged depolarization state without showing adverse polarization effects. Other types of depolarization systems have also been described. For example, depolarization can be achieved in a birefringent medium by re-circulating a split-off portion of the output light back into the input of the birefringent medium as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,421,471 (Shen, Jul. 10, 2002). The output Stokes polarization parameters of the light beam averages to zero for a linear series of re-circulating loops, wherein the number of loops in the chain enhances the depolarization factor. The averaging scheme is entirely passive without the need for electronic drivers. Fiber loops in combination with a beam splitter/combiner can also be used for depolarizers as described in U.S. Patent Application No. 2003/0063833 (Gonthier, et al., Apr. 3, 2003) and in U.S. Pat. No. 6,735,350 B1 (Gauthier, May 11, 2004). A passive integrated-optics version of the loop type depolarizer is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,891,998 (Jones, May 10, 2005) wherein a waveguide structure on a planar substrate with ancillary microresonators simulates re-circulating loops that couple evanescently light between the waveguide and the microresonators. Polarization states of the recirculated light from a microresonator are added randomly to the main beam in the waveguide; thus, with a sufficient number of resonators the output light tends to a depolarized state. Another method described in U.S. Patent Application No. 2003/0007149 (Yamamoto, Jan. 9, 2003) uses a series of birefringent plate-pairs that are bonded together such that the optical axis of each pair section is orthogonal to each other. The junction along the optical axis between the pair section is angled geometrically at 45° in order to enhance the mixing or averaging of the polarization states. The depolarization efficiency can be enhanced by inserting additional plate-pairs in the beam path; however, this occurs with a loss in beam intensity. Another application of a birefringent plate pair is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,498,869 (Yao, Dec. 24, 2002) and U.S. Patent Application No. 2003/0112436 (Yao, Jun. 19, 2003), however, unlike Yamamoto's 45° angle junction between the plate-pairs, Yao uses a shallower angle between the plate-pair such that the phase gradient across the beam diameter is 360°. This allows the polarization states of the beam through the plate-pair to be mapped out spatially in a linear pattern symmetrically about the center-line of the beam. The beam is launched into a fiber which spatially averages the Stokes polarization parameters into a null thus resulting in a depolarized beam with only one birefringent plate-pair. Another depolarizer system has been described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,819,810 (Li, et al., Nov. 16, 2004) that utilizes 6 optical elements consisting of birefringence slabs, combiners, a Faraday rotor, and a mirror to retro-reflect a depolarized output beam from the optical ensemble for an initial irradiating polarized beam into the optical chain. It will be shown in the present invention that a far simpler method for generating depolarized light beam from a retro-reflected light beam is with a single optical element, namely, a corner cube.
A recent entry into the depolarizer category has been a corner cube as described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/763,529 (Kalibjian, Jan. 23, 2004) and also in a technical journal article (R. Kalibjian, Optics Communications Vol. 240, October 2004, pp. 39-68). The corner cube depolarizer is based upon spatial averaging of the six polarization states of the retro-reflected beam from the output hexads of the corner cube. In this case a circularly polarized input light beam is normally incident to a high-refractive index corner cube (uniquely at n0=1.76748 for 633-nm wavelength). The retro-reflected light from the corner cube is launched into a fiber which spatially averages the beam into completely depolarized light at the fiber output. In the above cited patents the output beam from the various depolarizers are temporally-incoherent; however, an exception is the corner cube depolarizer which has a phase-equalized beam-director resulting in a temporally-coherent depolarized beam. The corner cube depolarizer as compared to other types has the advantage of being deployed over the entire spectral range of the glass and having negligible degree of polarization in a 100-nm bandwidth.
In summary, current depolarization methods for narrow bandwidth lasers require scrambling the polarization states either by active means in an integrated-optic waveguide or by passive means in re-circulating fiber loops or in birefringent plate pairs. Ideally, the aim in depolarization for these devices is to create a sufficient number of polarization states such that the sum of each Stokes polarization parameter cancels out to zero. On the other hand, the corner cube depolarizer is based upon an entirely different concept because of the cube's unique polarization properties. It has the advantage of having a very small degree of polarization as compared to the other types of depolarizers. The corner cube depolarizer is noteworthy in reducing the complexity in packaging by utilizing only a single small-sized corner cube as compared to the packaging of multiple loops of fiber or birefrigent plate-pairs of the previously described depolarizers. The high-refractive glass corner cube can be obtained only on special order at a high procurement cost, whereas low-refractive-index BK7 glass corner cubes are commonly available at relatively low-cost. For this reason the present depolarizer invention has been developed in order to utilize a BK7 glass corner cube which is deployed in a slightly different manner than the high-refractive-index corner cube. The present invention can utilize glass corner cubes of arbitrary refractive index irradiated by a linearly polarized light beam as contrasted to the requirement for a circularly polarized light beam for the high-refractive glass corner cube.


A magnetic head is disclosed that has first and second substantially flat soft magnetic pole layers that are magnetically coupled together in a backgap region that is removed from the medium-facing surface; a soft magnetic pedestal having a leading edge and a trailing edge, the trailing edge adjoining the second pole layer adjacent to the medium-facing surface, the leading edge defining a throat area that is spaced from the first pole layer by a submicron nonferromagnetic gap and defining an apex area that is spaced from the first pole layer by a greater separation than the gap, the throat area meeting the apex area at a throat height; and a plurality of substantially parallel, electrically conductive sections disposed between the first and second pole layers, the conductive sections disposed in a single layer that is aligned along a plane that intersects the pedestal and the backgap region.

The present invention relates to inductive magnetic transducers, which may for example be employed in information storage systems or measurement and testing systems.
Inductive heads used for writing and/or reading magnetic information on storage media such as a disk or tape typically include electrically conductive coil windings encircled by a magnetic core including first and second pole layers. Portions of the pole layers adjacent the media are termed pole tips. The magnetic core is interrupted by a submicron nonmagnetic gap disposed between the pole tips to divert magnetic flux to the media during writing. To write to the media electric current is flowed through the coil, which produces magnetic flux in the core encircling the coil windings, the magnetic flux fringing across the nonmagnetic gap adjacent to the media so as to write bits of magnetic field information in tracks on the media.
The first pole layer may also serve as a magnetic shield layer for a magnetoresistive (MR) sensor that has been formed prior to the pole layers, the combined MR and inductive transducers termed a merged or piggyback head. Typically the first pole layer is substantially flat and the second pole layer is curved, as a part of the second pole layer is formed over the coil windings and insulation disposed between the pole layers, while another part nearly adjoins the first pole layer adjacent the gap. The second pole layer may also diverge from a flat plane by curving to meet the first pole layer in a region distal to the media-facing surface, sometimes termed the back gap region, although typically a nonmagnetic gap in the core does not exist at this location.
The curvature of the second pole layer from planar affects the performance of the head. An important parameter of the head is the throat height, which is the distance from the media-facing surface to where the first and second pole layers begin to diverge and become separated by more than the submicron nonmagnetic gap. Because less magnetic flux crosses the gap as the pole layers are further separated, a short throat height is desirable in obtaining a fringing field for writing to the media that is a significant fraction of the total flux crossing the gap.
In addition to the second pole layer being curved from planar, one or both pole layers may also have a tapered width in the pole tip area, to funnel flux through the pole tips. A place where the second pole layer begins to widen is sometimes termed a nose or flare point. The distance to the flare point from the media-facing surface, sometimes called the nose length, also affects the magnitude of the magnetic field produced to write information on the recording medium, due to decay of the magnetic flux as it travels down the length of the narrow second pole tip. Thus, shortening the distance of the flare point from the media-facing surface would also increase the flux reaching the recording media.
Unfortunately, the aforementioned design parameters require a tradeoff in the fabrication of the second pole tip. The second pole tip should be narrow and well-defined in order to produce narrow and well-defined written tracks on the rotating disk, but the slope of the second pole layer at the end of the throat height makes photolithography difficult. The second pole layer can be formed in two pieces to better define the pole tip; a flat pole tip layer and a curved yoke layer that are connected or stitched together. This solution, however, can actually require the throat height to be extended in order to have a sufficient stitched area for flux transfer between the second pole tip and the yoke. High-resolution photolithography, such as I-line or deep ultra violet (DUV) photolithography, may be useful for reducing feature sizes but has a more limited depth of focus that may exacerbate the problem of focusing on the sloped pole layer adjacent the throat.
In addition, several methods are known to form self-aligned pole tips. In one method, an ion beam etch (IBE) or other highly anisotropic process removes a portion of the second pole layer not protected by a mask, thereby creating the second pole tip, with the etching continued to similarly remove a portion of the first pole tip not covered by the second pole tip. The width of the pole tip layers are therefore matched, and walls of the pole tips are aligned, but the problem of accurately defining the second pole tip by photolithography for a short throat height remains. Other proposals include forming an electrically conductive gap layer, so that the second pole tip can be electroplated atop the first. A second pole tip directly plated on a conductive gap layer may have increased eddy currents that counteract high-frequency operation, however, and so has not been widely employed.
High-frequency operation may also be counteracted by self-inductance of the coil that is used to drive the magnetic flux. The number of coil turns may be reduced to reduce the self-inductance, but this generally results in reduced electromotive force. Larger coil cross-sections may be employed, but at high frequencies a skin effect may arise that limits electric current to the surface of the coil cross-sections. Other coil configurations can be employed but typically involve manufacturing difficulties.
FIG. 1 is a cutaway cross-sectional representation of an information storage system 20 that is disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/999,694, filed Oct. 24, 2001, which is owned by the assignee of the current application and is incorporated by reference herein. A magnetic head similar to that shown in FIG. 1 has been commercially available for at least one year prior to the filing of the present application. A portion of an electromagnetic head including a merged inductive and MR transducer 22 is depicted in close proximity to a relatively moving media such as a spinning disk 25. The transducer 22 has been formed in a plurality of adjoining solid layers on a wafer substrate 28 that may remain affixed to the transducer 22. A media-facing surface 33 of the solid body that includes the transducer 22 may be formed with a desired relief for fluid and solid interaction with the disk 25, and the body may be termed a head or slider.
The disk 25 may be conventional and includes a self-supporting substrate 35, an underlayer 34, a media layer 37 and a protective overcoat 39. The disk 25 is spinning in a direction indicated by arrow 31 and has a surface 32 adjacent the media-facing surface 33 of the head.
Atop the slider substrate 28 a first low-coercivity, high-permeability or "soft magnetic" shield layer 30 has been formed, for example of Permalloy (Ni0.8Fe0.2) either directly or atop a seed layer, not shown. A first layer of nonmagnetic, electrically insulating material has been formed on the shield layer, followed by a magnetoresistive (MR) sensor 44. The MR sensor can be any sensor that utilizes a change in resistance associated with a change in magnetic field to sense that field, which may be measured as a change in current or voltage across the sensor, including anisotropic magnetoresistive (AMR) sensors, spin-valve (SV) sensors, spin-dependent tunneling (SDT) sensors, giant magnetoresistive (GMR) sensors and colossal magnetoresistive (CMR) sensors.
A second layer of nonmagnetic, electrically insulating material has been formed between the MR sensor and a second soft magnetic shield layer, which also serves as a first pole layer 46 in this example of a merged head. The first and second layers of nonmagnetic, electrically insulating material are indicated together as region 40. The MR sensor 44 may be electrically connected to the shield layers 30 and 46 in some embodiments, such as spin-dependent tunneling sensors.
A first electrically conductive coil layer 52 has first coil sections 55 that are separated from the first pole layer 46 by additional nonmagnetic, electrically insulating material 45. A second electrically conductive coil layer 57 has second coil sections 59 that are separated from the first coil sections 55 by material 45, but may be connected to first coil layer 52 in an interconnect not shown in this cross-section. For example, first coil layer 52 may spiral in a clockwise direction and second coil layer 57 may spiral in a counterclockwise direction with the center sections of the coils interconnected, so that current in coil sections 55 is parallel to current in coil sections 59. Second coil sections 59 are isolated from a second soft magnetic pole layer 60, the second pole layer coupled to the first pole layer 46 by a soft magnetic stud 62. Additional coil layers may also be formed. A protective coating 80 is formed on a trailing edge 82 of the body, while another protective coating 88 is formed on the media-facing surface 33.
Although the above-described magnetic head has been successfully employed, several issues remain. The fabrication of the dual coil layers can be complicated and time consuming. The photoresist that remains between the coil sections has a greater coefficient of thermal expansion than surrounding materials, and tends to enlarge due to resistive heating by the coils, which can cause pole tip protrusion. Also, the leading pedestal can sometimes magnetize the media to the sides of the desired track.

Magnetic head with stitched top pole layer and single layer coil or solenoidal coil


A method for detecting and responding to disturbances in a HVAC system using a noisy measurement signal and a signal filter is provided. The method includes detecting a deviation in the noisy measurement signal, resetting the filter in response to a detected deviation exceeding a noise threshold, filtering the noisy measurement signal using the signal filter to determine an estimated state value, and determining that a disturbance has occurred in response to the estimated state value crossing a disturbance threshold. In some embodiments, the method further includes performing one or more control actions in response to the detection of a disturbance.

The present invention relates generally to the field of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. The present invention relates more particularly to systems and methods for detecting and responding to a disturbance in a HVAC system in the presence of a noisy data signal produced by a measurement device.
HVAC control systems are typically used to monitor and control temperature, humidity, air flow, air quality, and other conditions within a building or building system. HVAC measurement devices (e.g., temperature sensors, pressure sensors, flow sensors, etc.) can produce noisy data signals. Noise in a data signal can hinder the operation of a HVAC controller and may prevent the HVAC system from achieving optimal control. For example, noise in a data signal can delay or prevent a controller from recognizing a real disturbance to the system.
Some HVAC equipment is configured to automatically collect, analyze, and report performance data. One potential problem in HVAC systems is that aging or damaged components (e.g., contactors in a compressor unit) can cause the supply line voltage to decrease or "sag." If the supply line voltage drops below a minimum necessary value, the HVAC equipment may begin to turn on and off intermittently. This behavior can cause other problems in a HVAC system including equipment damage or inaccurate diagnostic results. Noise in a measured voltage signal can delay or prevent recognition of a disturbance in the supply voltage, providing one example of a challenge caused by noisy measurements.
Various signal processing techniques have been used to reduce or eliminate noise in a measured signal. However, conventional noise reduction techniques are computationally expensive and often produce a signal which "lags" behind the measured values, providing challenges to the process of disturbance detection. In the presence of a noisy measurement signal, it is challenging to detect and respond to disturbances in a HVAC system.

Systems and methods for rapid disturbance detection and response


Provided are a method and device for configuring a carrier indication field (CIF) for a multi-carrier. A method for allocating a CIF in a carrier aggregation system includes: transmitting carrier aggregation configuration information having at least one secondary component carrier to a terminal through a primary component carrier; allocating a CIF value to the primary component carrier and to the at least one secondary component carrier; and maintaining or removing a CIF value allocated to a deactivated secondary component carrier when the secondary component carrier having the allocated CIF value is deactivated.

As an example of a mobile communication system to which the present invention is applicable, 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (hereinafter, referred to as 'LTE') and LTE-Advanced (hereinafter, referred to as 'LTE-A') communication systems are briefly described.
One or more cells are present in one Base Station (BS). A cell is set to use one of bandwidths of 1.25 MHz, 2.5 MHz, 5 MHz, 10 MHz, and 20 MHz to provide a downlink (DL) or uplink (UL) transport service to several UEs. Different cells may be set to provide different bandwidths. The BS controls data transmission/reception for a plurality of UEs. The BS transmits DL scheduling information with respect to DL data to inform a corresponding UE of a data transmission time/frequency domain, coding, data size, and Hybrid Automatic Repeat and reQuest (HARQ)-related information. In addition, the BS transmits UL scheduling information with respect to UL data to a corresponding UE to inform the UE of an available time/frequency domain, coding, data size, and HARQ-related information. An interface for transmitting user traffic or control traffic may be used between BSs.
Although radio communication technology has been developed up to LTE based on Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), demands and expectations of users and service providers are continuing to increase. In addition, since other radio access techniques continue to be developed, new technical evolution is required to secure future competitiveness. Decrease of cost per bit, increase of service availability, flexible use of a frequency band, simple structure, open interface, and suitable power consumption by a UE are required.
Recently, 3GPP has been establishing a standard task for a subsequent technique of LTE. In this disclosure, such a technique is referred to as 'LTE-A'. One of the main differences between an LTE system and an LTE-A system is system bandwidth and the introduction of a relay node.
The LTE-A system is aimed at supporting a broadband of a maximum of 100 MHz and, to this end, the LTE-A system is designed to use a carrier aggregation or bandwidth aggregation technique using a plurality of frequency blocks. Carrier aggregation employs a plurality of frequency blocks as one large logical frequency band in order to use a wider frequency band. A bandwidth of each frequency block may be defined based on a bandwidth of a system block used in the LTE system. Each frequency block is transmitted using a Component Carrier (CC).

Method and device for configuring a carrier indication field for a multi-carrier


A method of diverting a hunting function of a PSTN central office switch is provided. The method diverts a hunting function in the event a channel within a hunting group is available but a call can not be completed. The method comprises detecting a status of a plurality of user channels to determine whether all user channels associated with the hunting group are in use and providing a hunting diversion message to the PSTN central office switch in response to determining that all user channels associated with the hunting group are in use. The method also comprises detecting at least one user channel associated with the hunting group is available for an inbound call and providing a hunting enable message to the PSTN central office switch in response to determining that at least one user channel associated with the hunting group is available for an inbound call.

For many years voice telephone service was implemented over a circuit switched network commonly known as the public switched telephone network (PSTN) and controlled by a local telephone service provider. In such systems, the analog electrical signals representing the conversation are transmitted between the two telephone handsets on a dedicated twisted-pair-copper-wire circuit. More specifically, each of the two endpoint telephones is coupled to a local switching station by a dedicated pair of copper wires known as a subscriber loop. The two switching stations are connected by a trunk line network which in the early systems comprised multiple copper wire pairs. When a telephone call is placed, the circuit is completed by dynamically coupling each subscriber loop to the trunk line network such that a circuit is completed between the two subscriber loops.
More recently both the trunk lines between central offices and the subscriber loops have been replaced with digital transmission systems. More specifically, multiple twisted pair trunk lines have been replaced a high bandwidth transmission medium such as fiber optics and a computing device on each end of the transmission medium utilizes a time division protocol to create multiple 64 kb communication channels coupled to the other computing device. Each 64 kb "point-to-point" communication channel is adequate for emulating a twisted pair circuit for audio communication.
Similarly, businesses that utilize a private branch exchange (PBX) system for their internal telephone network often utilize one or more ISDN lines for coupling to the central office rather than multiple twisted pair subscriber loops. The PBX system and the corresponding systems of the central office utilize a time division protocol to creating multiple 64 Kb "point-to-point" communication channels and a signaling channel.
Unlike the "point-to-point dedicated channel" structure of the PSTN, the Internet transmits frames of digital date between two endpoints utilizing a frame switched protocol. The Internet comprises multiple routers interconnected to each other by broadband transmission mediums. Each data frame includes complete addressing information that enables it to be transferred from its origin endpoint to its destination endpoint by the routers and independent of any other data frames that may be addressed from the same origin endpoint to the same destination endpoint.
Advances in packet switched communication technologies, audio compression technologies, and Internet network capacity have made it possible for telephone calls to be provided over the packet switched structure of the Internet.
To enable Internet telephone service to interoperate with a customer's traditional PBX system and with the PSTN central office, Internet gateways have been developed. Referring to FIG. 1, The Internet gateway 10 is coupled to the customer's PBX 12 by one or more traditional ISDN lines 24a and 24b. The gateway 10 is also coupled to a PSTN central office by two or more traditional ISDN lines 18a and 18b and to the Internet by an Internet communication link 22.
The PBX manages a private network 14 that interconnects the PBX 12 to a plurality of telephones 16. In operation, when a call is placed outbound from the PBX 12, the IP gateway 10 selects whether to complete the call to its destination utilizing the PSTN or the Internet. When a call is placed on the PSTN to a telephone number associated with the all of the multiple ISDN lines 18a and 18b (e.g. a pilot number), the PSTN central office will hunt for an open channel first on line 18a and then on line 18b to complete the call. The PSTN central office will only return a busy signal to the caller if all of the open channels within the hunt group are in use. In turn, the gateway 10 will hunt for an open channel first on line 24a and then on line 24b to complete the call to the PBX 12.
A problem exists in that if several calls are in progress over the Internet, it is possible for all of the media channels on lines 24a and 24b to be in use while one or more of the media channels on lines 18a or 18b remain open. In which case, the central office will not provide the applicable busy signal to the caller, but instead will attempt to signal the call for one of the open media channels of lines 18a ore 18b. In this situation, the gateway 10 can not connect the call because the media channels of lines 24a and 24b are all in use. This situation can cause a hunt failure in which the PSTN central office will not hunt the failed channel for future calls. This is a problematic situation in that it disrupts the useful hunt function offered by telephone service providers.
As such, there exists a need for an Internet telephony gateway system that includes a mechanism for deactivating channels to the PSTN central office from time to time such that the PSTN central office does not attempt to hunt and complete calls on such deactivated channels and enable re-activating channels when the channels are available for hunting and completing calls.

Internet telephone system with hunting diversion


A method for analyzing particles includes concentrating the particles in an interior region of an air stream, generating a thermal gradient to deflect the concentrated particles from the interior region of the air stream to a peripheral region of the air stream, receiving orientation information, and adjusting the thermal gradient in response to the received orientation information. The particles may be concentrated in the interior of the air stream with at least two heater elements positioned near a periphery of the air stream and configured to cooperatively force particles away from the periphery and towards the interior region of the air stream. The orientation information may include gravity vector component information or angular rate component information in one, two or three substantially orthogonal directions relative to the air stream. Various systems for airborne particle detection with orientation-dependent particle discrimination are disclosed.

The presence of airborne and other gas-borne particulate matter (PM), alternatively referred to as aerosol particles, can contribute to poor air quality and potentially adverse health effects. These particles can penetrate into human and animal lungs, contributing to lung disease, heart disease, cancer, and other illnesses. Such particles may be produced by many sources, including industrial and agricultural processes, fossil-fuel combustion in power plants and vehicles, fires, smoking, and other natural and manmade causes.
Airborne particles with a diameter of 2.5 microns or less (often termed PM2.5) tend to be particularly problematic. These finer sized particulates can remain suspended in the air for long periods of time and can penetrate deep into the lung alveoli. Airborne particles under 0.1 microns in diameter can pass through the lungs and enter the body, causing damage to other organs. Particles of intermediate sizes, such as between 2.5 and 10 microns (often termed PM10), although not as potentially toxic as the smaller PM2.5 particles, are also medically problematic because these can also penetrate into at least the outer portions of the lungs. In contrast, the larger sized particles, such as particles over 10 microns in diameter, tend to be less problematic from a health perspective. This is because such larger particles do not penetrate as deeply into the lungs and tend to settle out of the air relatively quickly. The impact of nanoparticles in the range of 0.01 microns to 0.1 microns is relatively unknown and is an active area of study, although significant adverse health impacts are suspected.
Monitoring and controlling airborne particulate matter is of intense interest due to potentially adverse health and environmental effects. Various health, legal, government, scientific, industrial and commercial entities have considerable interest in methods of monitoring airborne and other gas-borne particulate matter. Methods that can further distinguish between various sizes of particulate material are particularly valued. Current systems for monitoring particulate matter tend to be relatively bulky, complex and expensive, which generally render them unsuitable for mass-market use.
Larger and heavier airborne particles generally settle under the influence of gravity more quickly than smaller and lighter particles. Airborne particles in air samples for measurement purposes can also be influenced by gravitational and other inertial forces during particle fractionation and collection. While stationary lab-based instruments may be factory calibrated for gravitational effects, portable wireless devices and wearable air-quality sensors may suffer from device movements during sampling that may limit general use.

Airborne particle detection system with orientation-dependent particle discrimination


A moisture monitoring and control system comprising: 1) a plurality of moisture sensors; 2) one or more local or remote control stations capable of monitoring and controlling each of the individual elements of the moisture monitoring and control system; 3) at least one water control valve capable of turning off the water supply to all or at least one water supply zone and powered by an aerogel capacitor; and 4) a plurality of non-interfering RF communications devices at each of the sensor, control and water control valve locations.

The threat of damage from water to a structure whether it be a commercial building, multi-family residence or private home is one that has and continues to be a significant concern to owners and occupiers of such structures. While it is virtually impossible to protect against flooding due to natural occurrences such as hurricanes, torrential rains that cause stream flooding etc., many systems have been developed and marketed for the protection of structures against water damage due to, for example, freezing or breaking pipes, leaking appliances and the like.
Such prior art systems generally comprise: multiple battery powered or hard wired with battery back-up RF communicating moisture or water sensors; hard wired, battery powered or hard wired and battery backed-up water shut off control valves; a hard wired, battery powered or hard wired and battery backed-up central console capable of receiving information from the multiple sensors and transmitting instructions to a central water shut-off valve and passing information to one or more remote monitoring systems.
Representative of such prior art systems are those described in the following U.S. patents and patent Publications: U.S. Pat. No. 6,123,093; U.S. Pat. No. 5,038,820; US2005/0275547; U.S. Pat. No. 6,025,788; and US 2002/00332759 as well as many commonly available publications and safety websites such as that produced and distributed by State Farm Insurance relating to Water Detection Systems at its website.
While these prior art systems have proven highly satisfactory in many applications, a common weakness shared by all of them is the inability of the property owner or occupier to monitor, control, activate/deactivate, modify, and overall operate and customize the operation and configuration of each of the individual elements of the system individually to meet specific, generally temporary, requirements such as deactivating a specific sensor because of maintenance being performed on a specific appliance or deactivation of the central water control valve operating mechanism during similar operations.
Additionally, such prior art systems often utilized RF communication systems that could interfere with other neighboring systems such as might be found in an apartment or condominium setting, or had to rely on hard wiring of the valve control hardware or the use of very powerful high amperage battery systems because of the inability of conventional battery power to deliver the peak power required to activate a water control valve driver.
There thus remains a need for a water/moisture detection system and control system that, while performing the sensing and control functions of prior art devices, allows for complete operator control and monitoring of the entire system from one or more control elements, provides RF communication between the various elements of the system without the potential for interference with neighboring systems and permits the use of relatively small yet powerful power sources for meeting the relatively high peak power demands required for the activation of water control valves.


The present invention provides an organic fluorescent whitening pigment composition having an excellent hiding power as well as high whiteness, that inorganic pigment compositions cannot achieve, that is, comprising, as a pigment component, a complex salt (compound) represented by the following General Formula:

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an organic fluorescent whitening pigment excellentin hiding power and more particularly, it is concerned with an organic fluorescent whitening pigment which can be utilized as coating agents for papers, coloring matters for aqueous or oily inks and inkjets, pigment components, for paints, etc., and which is capable of exhibiting excellent properties when applied to a use, in particular, needing high hiding power as well as high whiteness, for example, a coating agent for surface coating of a paper such as photographic printing paper.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Up to the present time, as a pigment component of a white pigment, there are mainly used inorganic materials, for example, titanium oxide, calcium carbonate, zinc oxide, clay, kaolin, talc, etc. On the other hand, there are no organic whitening pigment components having hiding power comparable to or more excellent than that of these pigments components. As a white organic pigment, alkylenebismelamine derivatives have been proposed as disclosed in JP-A-6-122674, which, however, are excellent in hiding power but insufficient in whiteness because of having no fluorescence.
White pigments consisting of inorganic materials of the prior art are excellent in hiding power, but when using these pigments for coating papers, for example, the whiteness of coated papers is not sufficient. Thus, in order to complement this insufficiency, various fluorescent whitening agents such as of bistriazinylaminostylbene type are ordinarily used, but this has some limitations, because the fluorescent whitening agents often meet with such a particular phenomenon as concentration quenching, i.e. that even if using in a concentration of more than certain value, not only more whitening effect cannot be obtained, but also a yellowish hue is rather given. Accordingly, the fluorescent whitening agent can only be used with a very low concentration.
Generally, inorganic pigment components naturally have large densities and when preparing dispersed compositions therefrom, the pigment components tend to be separated and settled, so that a uniform and stable dispersed composition is hard to be prepared. This is not preferred from the stand-point of the storage stability of the pigment dispersed composition. Further, when such a pigment composition is coated onto a paper, for example, the weight of the coated paper is increased. In addition, the inorganic pigment generally has a disadvantage that its compatibility with binders and other reagents required for preparation of the pigment composition is inferior.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an organic fluorescent whitening pigment having an excellent hiding power as well as high whiteness, that inorganic pigment compositions cannot achieve, whereby the above described problems of the prior art can be solved.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a coating agent for coating a surface of a paper, containing an organic fluorescent whitening pigment having an excellent hiding power as well as high whiteness.
These objects can be attained by an organic fluorescent whitening pigment composition having an excellent hiding power, comprising, as a pigment component a complex salt (compound) represented by the following general formula:
in which X represents same or different hydrogen atom, methyl, ethyl, methoxy, ethoxy, sulfo group or chlorine atom, R1 represents an alkyl, alkenyl, aralkyl, aryl or cycloalkyl group, and R2, R3 and R4 independently represent hydrogen atom or R1, two or three groups of R2, R3 and R4 being capable of forming a heterocyclic group with nitrogen atom in each case.
The inventors have made various efforts to solve the above described disadvantages of the inorganic white pigments and consequently, have found that a complex salt obtained from some fluorescent whitening agent and quaternary ammonium compound has very excellent properties as an organic white pigment component. The present invention is based on this finding.
The features of the present invention and embodiments thereof will now be summarized below:
(1) An organic fluorescent whitening pigment composition having an excellent hiding power, comprising, as a pigment component, a complex salt (compound) represented by the following General Formula:
in which X represents same or different hydrogen atom, methyl, ethyl, methoxy, ethoxy, sulfo group or chlorine atom, R1 represents an alkyl, alkenyl, aralkyl, aryl or cycloalkyl group, and R2, R3 and R4 independently represent hydrogen atom or R1, two or three groups of R2, R3 and R4 being capable of forming a heterocyclic group with nitrogen atom in each case.
(2) The organic fluorescent whitening pigment composition having an excellent in hiding power, as described in the above (1), wherein the pigment component is a complex salt (compound) represented by the following formula:
The above described complex salt of the present invention is a substantially water-insoluble fluorescent complex salt, represented by the following general formula:
in which X, R1, R2, R3 and R4 have the same meanings as described above, which can be obtained by reaction of a bis-stilbenesulfonic acid derivative or its water-soluble salt, in particular, an alkali metal salt, whose anionic component of the fluorescent whitening agent is generally represented by the following General Formula (I):
in which X represents same or different hydrogen atom, methyl, ethyl, methoxy, ethoxy, sulfo group or chlorine atom, with a quaternary ammonium compound represented by the following General Formula (II):
in which Y represents a colorless, non-fluorescent, water-soluble anion or OHxe2x88x92, R1 represents an alkyl, alkenyl, aralkyl, aryl or cycloalkyl group, R2, R3 and R4 independently represent hydrogen atom or R1 or R2, R3 and R4 can form a heterocyclic group with nitrogen atom in each case.
Furthermore, an organic fluorescent whitening pigment excellent in hiding power can be obtained, consisting of this complex salt as a predominant component.
Other embodiments of the present invention are coating compositions for fluorescent papers comprising the above described fluorescent complex salt mixed in coating compositions for papers, or fluorescent white ink compositions for ink jets comprising the above described fluorescent complex salt mixed in white ink compositions for ink jets, processes for the production of the same, methods of using the same, various materials using the same, in particular, coated papers having excellent hiding power and high whiteness, for example, photographic printing papers (photographic papers), etc.
In white pigment compositions for coating papers or plates, clays, calcium carbonate, titnaium oxide, etc. have hitherto been used as a white pigment component. This is mainly due to the excellent hiding power that these white pigments have.
As a result of our studies, it is found that the organic white pigment of the present invention has more excellent hiding power than the inorganic white pigments consisting predominantly of the above described materials. Further, the white pigment of the present invention is so fluorescent that when using the pigment, a higher whiteness that the prior art cannot reach can be obtained. In addition, this fluorescent property does not exhibit concentration quenching that appears in ordinary fluorescent whitening agents (such a peculiar phenomenon to fluorescent whitening agents that when using a fluorescent whitening agent with a concentration higher than a certain value, the whitening effect is rather lowered to render yellowish sometimes). Thus, the white pigment of the present invention can be used in such a high concentration that cannot be considered in the prior art.
The fluorescent whitening pigment component of the present invention has a smaller density, because of being organic, than inorganic pigments. Accordingly, in the case of forming an aqueous dispersion, for example, the pigment component is hard to be settled and the storage stability is good. In addition, a paper coated with the whitening pigment of the present invention has a smaller weight than papers coated with the above described inorganic pigment, thus resulting in reduction of the transporting cost.
The whitening pigment component of the present invention will be illustrated in detail. In the anionic component of General Formula (I), X can be same or different hydrogen atom, methyl, ethyl, methoxy, ethoxy group, chlorine atom or sulfo group. Above all, the most suitable one is represented by the following General Formula (III):
As the cationic component of General Formula (II), R1 is an alkyl group such as methyl, ethyl, propyl, butyl, dodecyl or octadecyl group, an aralkyl group such as benzyl group, an aryl group such as phenyl group, an alicyclic group such as cyclohexyl group or a five-membered or six-membered heterocyclic group formed with N atom, such as pyrrolidine, piperidine, morpholine or pyridine group, R2, R3 and R4 are independently hydrogen atoms or groups represented by R1 and Y is a quaternary ammonium salt of a halogen atom, preferably chlorine atom, examples of which are represented by the following formulas:
Preferred examples of the white pigment component according to the present invention are shown in the following Table 1 with specified combinations of groups of General Formulas (I) and (II):
The pigment component of the present invention can, for example, be prepared as follows. A sodium salt of a bis-styryl-biphenyl represented by the foregoing General Formula (III) is added to a suitable amount of water and is then subjected to heating and dissolving at about 60xc2x0 C. with agitation, in which an equivalent or excessive amount of the above described quaternary ammonium compound, dissolved in a suitable amount of water, is poured. Immediately, a white precipitate is deposited and the mixture is heated and stirred at the above described temperature for about 1 hour after the pouring to comlete the reaction. Then, the deposited precipitate is filtered, adequately washed with water and dried at at most 100xc2x0 C. to obtain a pure white powder of the object complex salt.
The thus obtained white pigment component is provided as a white pigment composition in known forms, for example, in the form of a powder, aqueous dispersion, organic solvent dispersion or paste. The organic solvent used herein includes alcohols, esters, ethers, halogen compounds, hydrocarbons, ketones, etc, illustrative of which are butyl alcohol, ethyl acetate, Cellosolve, trichloroethylene, xylene, turpentine oil, solvent naphtha, methyl ethyl ketone, and the like.
The grain diameter range of the pigment component of the present invention is preferably 1 to 2 xcexcm for paper coating, plastic additives, textile printing, etc., 0.5 to 1.0 xcexcm for photographic papers, ink jet inks, etc., 0.5 to 2.0 xcexcm for baking finish and at most 5 xcexcm for synthetic leathers.
Preparation of the pigment compositions in these forms is generally carried out by dry or wet process using known pulverizers, for example, ball mills, sand mills, speed line mills and jet mills. If necessary, the pigment composition is converted into an aqueous dispersion with a surfactant and water using the above described pulverizers and then subjected to spray drying to prepare a powdered dispersion composition.
During the preparation of the above described dispersion composition, a suitable known surfactant is generally used. Depending on the variety of the form or the use of the composition, a suitable one is mainly selected from anionic and nonionic active agents, but in particular, nonionic active agents are preferably used. Furthermore, during or after the preparation of the dispersion composition, commonly used known additives for such pigment compositions, for example, antigelling agents, protective colloids, antiseptics or wetting agents can be added thereto. In the preparation of the dispersion, a suitable pigment concentration is 5 to 50%, preferably 20 to 35% in water or organic solvents.
The important feature of the white pigment composition according to the present invention consists in excellent hiding power as well as high whiteness. For example, when, using a pigment composition shown in the following Preparation Example, an aqueous dispersion composition (pigment concentrations=25%, average grain diameter=0.5 xcexcm) was prepared and another aqueous dispersion composition of titanium dioxide as a pigment component, having the same concentration and same composition were coated and dried under the following conditions:
The whiteness and hiding power of the thus resulting black board paper and Kinshapaper (commercial name) were compared to obtain results as shown in Table 2. In Table 2, the larger is the numerical value, the more excellent is the whiteness. The numerical value of Whiteness (W) shown in Table 2 was obtained from values of Y and Z, measured by means of a color difference meter of SZ-xcexa3 90 type (commercial name), manufactured by Nippon Denshoku KK, by which any five sites of an object were taken and subjected to measurement and an average value was obtained.
As is evident from Table 2, the Kinshapaper and Blackboard Paper having the whitening pigment composition coated according to the present invention are all more excellent in whiteness than those using titanium oxide. This teaches that our whitening pigment composition is also excellent in hiding power.
Another feature of the pigment composition of the present invention consists in that the density of the pigment component composing it is smaller than that of inorganic pigment components because of being organic. This means, for example, that when preparing an aqueous dispersion using the pigment composition of the present invention, grains of the pigment component are hard to be settled and the storage stability of the pigment component is improved. The present pigment composition-coated paper has a smaller weight than papers coated with inorganic pigment-compositions, resulting in reduction of transporting costs and mailing costs. Comparison of the densities of the pigment composition of the present invention, for example, represented by the following structural formula:
and inorganic pigment components is summarized below:
As apparent from Table 3, the pigment component of the present invention has a density of at most xc2xd times as large as clay having the smallest density of inorganic pigment components. The densities shown in Table 3 are measured by a method using a specific gravity bottle of the solid specific gravity measuremnt methods according to JIS Z 8807.
Another advantage of the organic pigment component of the present invention is that it is excellent in miscibility with various binders such as gelatin, styrene-butadiene type, polyvinyl acetate type, acryl-styrene type (co-)-polymers, acrylic acid esters polymers, etc., gelling inhibitors, protective colloids and preservatives. Thus, the pigment components of the present invention are suitable as a base for coating agents of surface-coated papers, in particular, photographic printing papers or coated papers.

Organic fluorescent whitening pigment composition having an excellent hiding power


The present invention provides a method of transcriptionally modulating the expression of a gene-of-interest. The method comprises contacting a cell which is capable of expressing the gene with an amount of a molecule effective to transcriptionally modulate expression of the gene and thereby affect the level of the protein encoded by the gene which is expressed by the cell. Molecules useful in the practice of the invention are characterized as follows (a) do not naturally occur in the cell, (b) bind to DNA or RNA or bind to a protein through a domain of such protein which is not a ligand binding domain of a receptor which naturally occurs in the cell. Additionally, this invention provides a method for determining whether a molecule known to be a modulator of protein biosynthesis is capable of transcriptionally modulating expression of a gene-of-interest.

Throughout this application, various publications are referenced by Arabic numerals within parentheses. Full citations for these publications may be found at the end of the specification immediately preceding the claims. The disclosures of these publications in their entireties are hereby incorporated by reference into this application in order to more fully describe the state of the art as known to those skilled therein as of the date of the invention described and claimed herein.
The expression of a specific gene can be regulated at any step in the process of producing an active protein. Modulation of total protein activity may occur via transcriptional, transcript-processing, translational or post-translational mechanisms. Transcription may be modulated by altering the rate of transcriptional initiation or the progression of RNA polymerase (28). Transcript-processing may be influenced by circumstances such as the pattern of RNA splicing, the rate of mRNA transport to the cytoplasm or mRNA stability. This invention concerns the use of molecules which act by modulating the in vivo concentration of their target proteins via regulating gene transcription. The functional properties of these chemicals are distinct from previously described molecules which also affect gene transcription.
Researchers have documented the regulation of transcription in bacteria by low molecular weight chemicals (42, 36). Extracellular xenobiotics, amino acids and sugars have been reported to interact directly with an intracellular proteinaceous transcriptional activator or repressor to affect the transcription of specific genes.
Transcriptional regulation is sufficiently different between procaryotic and eucaryotic organisms so that a direct comparison cannot readily be made. Procaryotic cells lack a distinct membrane bound nuclear compartment. The structure and organization of procaryotic DNA elements responsible for initiation of transcription differ markedly from those of eucaryotic cells.
The eucaryotic transcriptional unit is much more complex than its procaryotic counterpart and consists of additional elements which are not found in bacteria. Eucaryotic transcriptional units include enhancers and other cis-acting DNA sequences (30, 19). Procaryotic transcription factors most commonly exhibit a "helix-turn-helix" motif in the DNA binding domain of the protein (29, 37). Eucaryotic transcriptional factors frequently contain a "zinc finger" (37, 12) or a "leucine zipper" (24) in addition to sometimes possessing the "helix-turn-helix" motif (26). Furthermore, several critical mechanisms at the post-transcriptional level such as RNA splicing and polyadenylation are not found in procaryotic systems (21, 35).
In higher eucaryotes, modulation of gene transcription in response to extracellular factors can be regulated in both a temporal and tissue specific manner (22). For example, extracellular factors can exert their effects by directly or indirectly activating or inhibiting transcription factors (22, 28).
Modulators of transcription factors involved in direct regulation of gene expression have been described, and include those extracellular chemicals entering the cell passively and binding with high affinity to their receptor-transcription factors. This class of direct transcriptional modulators include steroid hormones and their analogs, thyroid hormones, retinoic acid, vitamin D.sub.3 and its derivatives, and dioxins, a chemical family of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (12, 38, 9).
Dioxins are molecules generally known to modulate transcription, however, dioxins bind to naturally-occurring receptors which respond normally to xenobiotic agents via transcriptionally activating the expression of cytochrome P450, part of an enzyme involved in detoxification. Similarly, plants also have naturally occurring receptors to xenobiotics to induce defense pathways. For example, the fungal pathogen Phytophthora megasperma induces an anti-fungal compound in soybeans. Such molecules which bind to the ligand binding domains of such naturally occurring receptors are not included on the scope of this invention.
The clinical use of steroid hormones, thyroid hormones, vitamin D.sub.3 and their analogs demonstrates that agents which modulate gene transcription can be used for beneficial effects, although these agents can exhibit significant adverse side effects. Obviously, analogs of these agents could have similar clinical utility as their naturally occurring counterparts by binding to the same ligand binding domain of such receptors.
Indirect transcriptional regulation involves one or more signal transduction mechanisms. The regulation typically involves interaction with a receptor, the receptor being part of a multistep intracellular signaling pathway, the pathway ultimately modulating the activity of nuclear transcription factors. This class of indirect transcriptional modulators include polypeptide growth factors such as platelet-derived growth factor, epidermal growth factor, cyclic nucleotide analogs, and mitogenic tumor promoters (18, 1, 2).
It is well documented that a large number of chemicals, both organic and inorganic, e.g. metal ions, can non-specifically modulate transcription.
Researchers have used nucleotide analogs in methods to modulate transcription. The mechanism involves incorporating nucleotide analogs into nascent mRNA or non-specifically blocking mRNA synthesis. Similarly, researchers have used alkylating agents, e.g. cyclophosphamide, or intercalating agents, e.g. doxorubicin, to non-specifically inhibit transcription.
Moreover, chemical inhibitors of hydroxymethyl-glutaryl CoA reductase, e.g. lovastatin, are known to modulate transcription by indirectly increasing expression of hepatic low density lipoprotein receptors as a consequence of lowered cholesterol levels.
Signal effector type molecules such as cyclic AMP, diacylglycerol, and their analogs are known to non-specifically regulate transcription by acting as part of a multistep protein kinase cascade reaction. These signal effector type molecules bind to domains on proteins which are thus subject to normal physiological regulation by low molecular weight ligands (10, 39).
The specific use of sterol regulatory elements from the LDL receptor gene to control expression of a reporter gene has recently been documented in PCT/US88/10095. One aspect of PCT/US88/10095 deals with the use of specific sterol regulatory elements coupled to a reporter as a means to screen for drugs capable of stimulating cells to synthesize the LDL receptor. PCT/US88/10095 describes neither the concept of simultaneously screening large numbers of chemicals against multiple target genes nor the existence of transcriptional modulators which (a) do not naturally occur in the cell, (b) specifically transcriptionally modulate expression of the gene-of-interest, and (c) bind to DNA or RNA or bind to a protein through a domain of such protein which is not a ligand binding domain of a receptor which naturally occurs in the cell, the binding of a ligand to which ligand binding domain is normally associated with the defined physiological effect. The main focus of PCT/US88/10095 is the use of the sterol regulatory elements from the LDL receptor as a means to inhibit expression of toxic recombinant biologicals.
The use of molecules to specifically modulate transcription of a gene-of-interest as described herein has not previously been reported and its use will bring surprise since available literature does not propose the use of a molecule, as described, in a method to specifically modulate transcription. Instead, the available literature has reported methods which define domains of transcriptional regulating elements of a gene-of-interest.
Further, the practice of using a reporter gene to analyze nucleotide sequences which regulate transcription of a gene-of-interest is well documented. The demonstrated utility of a reporter gene is in its ability to define domains of transcriptional regulatory elements of a gene-of-interest. Reporter genes which express proteins, e.g. luciferase, are widely utilized in such studies. Luciferases expressed by the North American firefly, Photinus pyralis and the bacterium, Vibrio fischeri were first described as transcriptional reporters in 1985 (8, 11)
A method to define domains of transcriptional regulating elements of a gene-of-interest typically has also involved use of phorbol esters, cyclic nucleotide analogs, concanavalin A, or steroids, molecules which are commonly known as transcriptional modulators. However, available literature shows that researchers have not considered using a transcription screen to identify specific transcriptional modulators. Apparently, success would be unlikely in doing so, however, we have demonstrated herein that this is not the case.
There is utility in developing the method of transcriptional modulation of a gene-of-interest by using such molecule as described herein. This method will allow the development of novel pharmaceuticals and circumvent many of the problems associated with the therapeutic use of recombinant biological factors.
Problems associated with the therapeutic use of recombinant biological factors include the technical difficulties of large scale protein purification, the high costs of protein production, the limited shelf-life of most proteins and in some cases a short biological half-life of the administered protein in the organism. Additionally, therapeutic delivery of proteins normally requires injection and frequently induces an immune reaction in situations where chronic administration is required. The method described herein provides a means of up-regulating the expression of proteins, e.g. membrane receptors, which are not readily amenable to administration as injectable biologicals.
Furthermore, chemical molecules specifically regulating the activity of one member of a group of closely related proteins are difficult to produce. Molecules, structurally related at the protein level, may possess distinct regulatory elements at the DNA level which control their expression. Thus, molecules such as the chemical transcriptional modulators defined herein can provide a greater opportunity for specifically modulating the activity of structurally related proteins. One example is the ras oncogene family, where the H-, N- and K-ras proteins are highly related but wherein the three genes have distinct structures.
Finally, the molecules described herein may also serve to mimic normal physiological response mechanisms, typically involving the coordinated expression of one or more groups of functionally related genes. Therefore, determining whether a molecule can specifically transcriptionally modulate the expression of a gene-of-interest and the ultimate clinical use of the molecule provides a therapeutic advantage over the use of single recombinant biologicals, or drugs which bind directly to the final target protein encoded by the gene-of-interest.

Methods of transcriptionally modulating gene expression and of discovering chemicals capable of functioning as gene expression modulators


A display apparatus for a bicycle includes a movable member that changes position in accordance with the state of a bicycle transmission, a sensor that detects the position of the movable member without contacting the movable member, and a display mechanism operatively coupled to the sensor for displaying indicia corresponding to a state of the bicycle transmission.

The present invention is directed to a bicycle display apparatus and, more particularly, to a display apparatus that can be attached to a movable component of an existing bicycle.
Display devices that display the shift position of a bicycle transmission by means of the position of an indicator needle, a rotating disk, or another such movable component have existed for some time. For instance, FIG. 7 is an example of a conventional display apparatus that indicates the shift position of a bicycle transmission. A shift knob 3 is attached so as to allow rotational operation to a position next to the grip 2 attached to the end of the right handlebar 1. Rotating the shift knob 3 operates the bicycle transmission via a gear change cable 4. The shift position of the bicycle transmission can be confirmed by means of a display device 5 whose display changes in conjunction with the shift knob 3.
FIG. 8 is a diagram of the members that make up the display device 5. A rotating disk 51 is provided inside the display device 5, and the rotating disk 51 rotates in conjunction with the rotation of the shift knob 3. However, the rotational axis of the rotating disk 51 is roughly perpendicular to the rotational axis of the shift knob 3. A plurality of detents corresponding to the shift positions are provided in the rotation of the shift knob 3. A plurality of numerals that indicate the shift position of the bicycle transmission are provided to the surface of the rotating disk 51, and the specific numeral corresponding to the detent position of the shift knob 3 can be seen through a window 53 provided to a panel 52.
FIG. 9 is another example of a conventional display apparatus that indicates the shift position of a bicycle transmission. With this example, the bicycle transmission is operated and the shift position is changed via the gear change cable 4 by means of a shift lever 31 instead of a shift knob. A display device 7 is provided at an intermediate position of the gear change cable 4.
FIG. 10 is a cross sectional view of the structure of the display device 7. The center portion of the outer cable 41 of the gear change cable 4 is removed, but the outer cable 41 is connected to a cylinder member 71 by a connection member 73, and the removed portion in the center of the outer cable 41 is covered by the cylinder member 71. The cylinder member 71 is made of a transparent material, and a display scale 72 is engraved into the outer surface thereof. An indicator member 74 is engaged by frictional force to the inner cable 42 of the gear change cable 4, and it moves in conjunction with the movement of the inner cable 42. The rider can confirm the current shift position of the bicycle transmission from the positional relationship between the indicator member 74 and the display scale 72.
Because the display component is small with a conventional mechanical display apparatus that uses a movable component, some riders feel the display is difficult to read. This problem is particularly pronounced at night. Also, the display configuration and the like of the display apparatus may not necessarily meet the requirements of the rider, and even if a rider does not like this display apparatus and wants to replace it, such replacement is not necessarily possible.


A spraying device rinses recyclable or reusable containers by inverting the container over an open end of a rigid, tubular member. The rigid, tubular member is of substantially uniform diameter with openings of smaller diameter than the tubular member at its open end. A water stream flowing through the tubular member is controlled by hand-operation of a valve member or by valve actuation using the weight of the container and/or the pressure by a user holding the container which depresses a lever initiating the water stream. Therefore, either single-handed or two-handed operation for cleaning or rinsing containers may be performed.

The present invention generally relates to an apparatus for rinsing or spraying containers. More specifically, the invention relates to the cleaning of interior walls of recyclable or reusable containers, such as carbonated beverage bottles or cans, milk or juice cartons, baby jars, baby bottles, or any other container to be rinsed for recycling or reuse.
Generally, water faucets are designed for aerating water in a downward direction. To clean containers with a downwardly directed stream of water, it is necessary for a user to place the container under the stream of water such that the container collects water which in turn cleans the interior walls of the container. This requires a significant amount of water for rinsing and possibly requires scrubbing of the container by the user.
Spraying devices are also common which typically include an extendible tubing coming from a water source to a hand-operated spraying device such that water may be directed as desired by an operator of the device. Such a spraying device may be directed in any angular position as governed by the operator of the device.
Two prior art devices are known, such as in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,570,635 and 3,101,174, which divert the normal downward stream of water to an upward stream. Each of the devices is particularly contemplated to be used as both a drinking fountain and as an ordinary faucet for drawing water by controlling a valve to direct the water stream appropriately.


A flexible cable may include an elongated shaped strip helically wound around itself to form a generally tubular body having at least one interior passageway and at least one conductor at least partially disposed within the interior passageway. The elongated shaped strip may include a non-rectangular cross-sectional thickness having a central portion disposed between a first and a second end portion. The first and second end portions may extend generally outwardly from the central portion from generally opposite sides. At least a portion of the central portion may include a cross-sectional thickness TC which is less than a maximum cross-sectional thickness TM of the elongated shaped strip. The first and second end portions may include a first and a second cross-section thickness TS1, TS2, respectively, wherein at least one of the first and second cross-section thicknesses TS1, TS2 is greater than the cross-sectional thickness TC.

Flexible metallic conduit may be used for a variety of purposes. In one configuration, flexible metal conduit may be provided as a sheathing covering several electrical conductors in an armored cable. For example, flexible metal conduit may be produced by forming a metallic strip into an interlocking geometry and helically winding the strip.
A metallic strip may also be used in the construction of a heat exchanger tube. In a heat exchanger tube, the metallic strip may be helically wound around and exterior surface of a metallic tube. In known constructions, the tube may have a circular cross-section and the strip may be a solid construction of rectangular cross section. The fin may be integral with, or secured to, the outer surface of the tube.
The cost of flexible metal conduit, heat exchanger tubes and other metallic constructions may be reduced by reducing the amount of metallic material, e.g. aluminum or copper, in the metallic strips from which they formed. The amount of metallic material in the strips, however, may be balanced with mechanical performance requirements, e.g. related to pull strength and crush resistance, imposed by various regulatory adjacencies and organizations such as, but not limited to, Underwriters Laboratories (UL). Reduction in the amount of material in the strips can affect the mechanical properties of the cable and/or heat exchanger to the extent that it will not pass UL requirements.
It is important to note that the present disclosure is not intended to be limited to a system or method which must satisfy one or more of any stated objects or features of the present disclosure. It is also important to note that the present disclosure is not limited to the preferred, exemplary, or primary embodiment(s) described herein. Modifications and substitutions by one of ordinary skill in the art are considered to be within the scope of the present disclosure, which is not to be limited except by the following claims.

Metallic strip and methods and structures incorporating the same


In a liquid developer in which toner particles are dispersed in an insulating liquid, the toner particles have a core-shell structure that first resin particles containing a first resin are attached to or cover surfaces of second resin particles containing a second resin. The second resin particles further contain a pigment and a dispersant for pigment, and solubility of the dispersant for pigment in the insulating liquid is not higher than 10 mass % at 25° C.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid developer and a method for manufacturing the same, and suitably to a liquid developer useful for various applications such as a liquid developer for electrophotography, a liquid developer for electrostatic recording, an oil-based ink for ink jet printer, or an ink for electronic paper and a method for manufacturing the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a liquid developer, toner particles are dispersed in an insulating liquid. In using such a liquid developer as a liquid developer for electrophotography, a liquid developer for electrostatic recording, an oil-based ink for ink jet printer, an ink for electronic paper, or the like, toner particles are desired to achieve both of fixability at low temperature and heat-resistant storage stability.
In a case where toner particles contain a pigment, a dispersant for pigment, and the like, however, the dispersant for pigment may elute into the insulating liquid. Consequently, lowering in fixability of toner particles, lowering in heat-resistant storage stability of toner particles, or the like may be caused.
It has been proposed to design a resin to be contained in toner particles by using resin particles having a core-shell structure. For example, according to Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2009-96994, by designing a resin to be contained in toner particles by using resin particles having a core-shell structure, a particle size of the resin particles can be controlled and heat-resistant storage stability of the toner particles is improved.

Liquid developer and method for manufacturing the same


There is provided a portable liquid filtering apparatus for filtering liquid used in a container, such as cooking oil in deep fat fryers. The apparatus includes a mounting bracket that attaches to a portion of the container. The mounting bracket supports a liquid pump. A filter assembly including at least one filter element is removably disposed in the container, and is connected to the pump inlet by a suction tube. The pump draws the liquid through the filter element and suction tube and propels it into a discharge tube connected to the pump outlet. The discharge tube discharges the filtered liquid back into the container for reuse. The mounting bracket is adjustable for attachment to various sized containers. The suction tube and the discharge tube are shaped to conform generally to the shape of the container.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to liquid filtering apparatuses, and, more particularly, to a portable liquid filtering apparatus for use with deep fat fryers.
2. Description of the Related Art
Cooking oil is extensively used in the food industry to cook various comestibles. Animal fat or other suitable material may sometimes be used as the cooking material in lieu of cooking oil. The term "cooking oil" is used herein to designate any such material.
Frying is frequently accomplished in relatively deep containers with the comestible to be cooked immersed in the cooking oil. In cases where quantities of food are regularly cooked in such a manner, the cooking oil becomes contaminated with various particles of food or other impurities, and charred food particles produce an odor, which adversely affects the taste of foods cooked therein.
Wire mesh strainers have been long known and used to remove particulate matter from cooking oil. Strainers have not been effective, however, to remove sufficient particulate matter to provide particulate-free cooking oil, and have been demonstrated to only slightly prolong the usefulness of the cooking oil. To beneficially control free fatty acids in the cooking oil, suspended particles of the size of two (2) microns and larger should be removed from the cooking oil.
Conventional systems and apparatus for filtering cooking oil require that the cooking operation be interrupted to filter the cooking oil or to clean continuous filtering systems. A disadvantage of conventional methods of filtering cooking oil is that such methods require that the cooking operation be ceased during the period that the cooking oil is filtered. This results in significant downtime.
Overbeck, U.S. Pat. No. 2,635,527, discloses a deep frying strainer to be located at the bottom of the cooking oil container to strain food particles from cooking oil as the strainer is lifted from the container and the liquid is forced through the strainer by the action of gravity. Although beneficial to remove much particulate matter, the invention disclosed does not effectively remove smaller particulate contaminants.
U.S. Pat. No. Re. 34,636, reissued on Jun. 14, 1994, to the present inventor, describes a cooking oil filtering apparatus which can be used to effectively remove particulates from the cooking oil. Such particulates may include coatings from fried objects, seasonings and the like. The cooking oil is drawn through wire mesh screens by applying suction at the filter interior. As the cooking oil is drawn to the wire mesh screens, the screen serves to remove particulates from the cooking oil. The particulate-free cooking oil is then drawn into an outlet and drawn through the tank to a pump. The pump passes the cooking oil back into the tank. This process is carried on until particulate matter is removed from the cooking oil. A filter powder may be dispersed in the cooking oil to accumulate on the outer surfaces of the wire mesh screens. The subject apparatus eliminated the need for filter paper.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,404,799, issued on Apr. 11, 1995, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,486,370, issued on Jan. 23, 1996, both to the present inventor, describe cooking oil filtering apparatuses and methods which can be used to effectively remove particulates from the cooking oil. While effective, these apparatuses and methods require a specific fryer system, or mechanical modification of an existing fryer system.
Miles, et al, U.S. Pat. No. 2,760,641, discloses a portable filtering apparatus for use in cleaning cooking oil or other liquids. According to the Miles, et al. disclosure, the contaminated cooking oil is first drained from the cooking reservoir into a draw-off container. The filter is then submerged in the oil in the draw-off container. The oil is then pumped by the pump motor through the filter and pump. The pump discharges the oil through a discharge tube and into the cooking reservoir. This apparatus does not permit cleaning the cooking oil while it is still in the cooking reservoir, or cleaning the oil while cooking.
Not shown is a truly portable liquid filtering apparatus that permits filtering liquids in the same container in which they are used or stored. Nor a a portable filtering apparatus will permit filtering the liquids without downtime for cooling such liquids. Nor an apparatus that will further reduce downtime by allowing the liquid to be filtered while it is in use, such as during the cooking of foods therein.