A power head for an outboard motor includes an improved construction that can includes a compactly arranged tilt relay unit of a hydraulic tilt and trim system. The outboard motor includes a drive unit comprising an internal combustion engine. A bracket assembly is adapted to be mounted on an associated watercraft. The bracket supports the drive unit for pivotal movement about a generally horizontally extending tilt axis. A hydraulic tilt system is arranged to tilt up and down the drive unit. The tilt system includes a hydraulic pump and an electric motor actuating the hydraulic pump. A tilt relay unit supplies electric power to the electric motor based upon a control signal. The relay unit is disposed generally between the engine and the bracket assembly.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a power head of an outboard motor. More particularly, the present invention relates to an improved arrangement of engine equipment.
2. Description of Related Art
A typical outboard motor comprises a drive unit and a bracket assembly. The drive unit primarily includes a power head, a driveshaft housing and a lower unit. The power head incorporates an internal combustion engine surrounded by a protective cowling. The driveshaft housing depends from the power head and supports a driveshaft that is driven by an output shaft of the engine. The lower unit depends from the driveshaft housing and carries a propulsion device such as a propeller. The propeller is attached to a propulsion shaft that is driven by the driveshaft. The propulsion shaft extends through at least a portion of the lower unit.
The bracket assembly normally comprises a swivel bracket and a clamping bracket. The swivel bracket supports the drive unit for pivotal movement about a generally vertically extending steering axis. The clamping bracket is mounted on an associated watercraft and supports the swivel bracket for pivotal movement of the outboard motor and the attached swivel bracket about a generally horizontally extending tilt axis.
The bracket assembly can include a hydraulic tilt and trim system that is provided between the swivel bracket and the clamping bracket to tilt the drive unit up and down about the tilt axis and also to adjust a trim position of the drive unit. The trim position affects the angle of attack of the propulsion device (i.e., the propeller) within the body of water in which the outboard motor is being operated. The hydraulic tilt system has a hydraulic pump that is usually actuated by an electric motor. The electric motor requires a tilt relay unit that supplies electric power to the motor from a power source such as a generator or a battery. The relay unit generally is relatively large.
The relay uniforms but one of a number of electrical components used in internal combustion powered engines. These electrical components are supplied with power from a battery, a generator or a combination of the two components. Each of the circuits supplying the power generally pass through at least one fuse to reduce the likelihood that a current spike flowing through the electric circuit will damage the electrical components. In the event a fuse blows, the fuse must be replaced for proper operation of the electrical components. For this purpose, a fuse puller often is provided within the confines of the outboard motor. For instance, the fuse puller can be mounted in an electrical equipment case in which the fuse puller is concealed from normal viewing. Thus, the user or service person may have search for the concealed fuse puller, which searching increasing servicing time and increases the frustration of a casual watercraft operator that simply needs to replace a fuse without a great deal of technical watercraft knowledge.
The engine is surrounded by the protective cowling assembly as noted above. As can be appreciated, the size and configuration of the outboard motor, which is often determined by the sizing of this cowling assembly, affects handling of the associated watercraft, among other things. For instance, an unduly wide outboard motor increases air resistance during movement of the watercraft through the water. However, the interior of the cowling assembly could be a suitable place for mounting the tilt relay unit because of the enclosed compartment that it forms. In other words, the tilt relay unit can be well-protected from splashing water by mounting the tilt relay within the cowling assembly.
On the other hand, positioning the rather large tilt relay unit within the cowling would seemingly increase the size of the power head, which preferably is as small as possible for the reasons discussed above. Placement of the tilt relay unit within the current cowling adjacent the current engine configuration would appear to be difficult because the reduced power head size results in minimal free space between an outer surface of the engine and an inner surface of the cowling assembly.
A need therefore exists for an improved outboard motor construction that can be provided with a tilt relay unit of a hydraulic tilt and trim system in good arrangement balance. In outboard motors featuring counter-flow engine configurations (i.e., those featuring an air intake passage and exhaust passage that communicate with a combustion chamber on the same side of the engine), another need exists for an improved outboard motor construction that better structures the components along the engine surfaces such that voids between the engine and the cowling can be reduced. For instance, the relatively empty space defined in the side of the engine opposite the intake and exhaust passages can be significantly reduced. A further need exists for an improved outboard motor construction that accommodates a fuse puller in a readily accessible and/or visible location
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, an outboard motor comprises a drive unit and a bracket assembly. The drive unit has an internal combustion engine. The bracket assembly is adapted to be mounted on an associated watercraft. The bracket assembly supports the drive unit for pivotal movement about a generally horizontally extending tilt axis. A hydraulic tilt system is arranged to tilt the drive unit up and down. The tilt system includes a hydraulic pump and an electric motor that is capable of actuating the hydraulic pump. A relay unit supplies electric power to the electric motor based upon a control signal. The relay unit is disposed generally between the engine and the bracket assembly.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, an outboard motor comprises a drive unit and a bracket assembly. The drive unit has an internal combustion engine. The bracket assembly is adapted to be mounted on an associated watercraft. The bracket assembly supports the drive unit for pivotal movement about a generally horizontally extending tilt axis. The engine includes an air intake passage through which an air charge can be introduced to the combustion chamber. An exhaust passage receives exhaust gases from the combustion chamber. Both the air intake passage and the exhaust passage are disposed on the same side of the engine. At least two engine fixtures are disposed on the opposite side of the engine. The two engine fixtures comprise a large fixture and a small fixture. The small fixture is positioned closer to the bracket assembly than the large fixture.
In accordance with a further aspect of the present invention, an outboard motor comprises a drive unit and a bracket assembly. The drive unit has an internal combustion engine. The bracket assembly is adapted to be mounted on an associated watercraft and supporting the drive unit for pivotal movement about a generally horizontally extending tilt axis. A cover member covers over the engine at least in part. The engine includes a fuse unit arranged to contain at least one fuse. A fuse puller with which the fuse can be replaced is detachably affixed to the cover member.
In accordance with a still further aspect of the present invention, an outboard motor comprises a drive unit and a bracket assembly. The drive unit has an internal combustion engine. The bracket assembly is adapted to be mounted on an associated watercraft. The bracket assembly supports the drive unit for pivotal movement about a generally horizontally extending tilt axis. The engine included at least one combustion chamber. An air induction conduit communicates with the combustion chamber. A control valve is disposed within the air intake conduit. The control valve is adapted to adjust the air charge flow rate. A valve actuator is connected to the air intake conduit and is adapted to actuate the control valve when the atmospheric temperature is lower than a preset value.
For purposes of summarizing the invention and the advantages achieved over the prior art, certain objects and advantages of the invention have been described above. Of course, it is to be understood that not necessarily all such objects or advantages may be achieved in accordance with any particular embodiment of the invention. Thus, for example, those skilled in the art will recognize that the invention may be embodied or carried out in a manner that achieves or optimizes one advantage or group of advantages as taught herein without necessarily achieving other objects or advantages as may be taught or suggested herein. Further aspects, features and advantages of this invention will become apparent from the detailed description of the preferred embodiment which follows.


This invention relates to a method of monitoring cancer development by determining the abundance of alpha-enolase protein wherein increased abundance is an indication of the severity of cancer. In another embodiment, the invention relates to a method of detecting cancer malignancy by determining the abundance of alpha-enolase antibodies in a sample wherein low levels of such antibodies indicates the malignancy of cancer. Also provided is a method of suppressing tumor growth by inducing the anti-ENO1 immune response.

Tumors result from aberrant, unrestrained proliferation of a single cell, generating a clone of transformed cells (47). Cancer is characterized by tumor cells' autonomous growth and metastasis to distant sites (48).
Tumor cells may express unique antigens that can be recognized by the immune system. Tumor-associated antigens include, but are not limited to, mutated oncogenes, mutated normal cellular proteins, aberrantly expressed cellular proteins, abnormal cell-surface proteins, and oncogenic viral proteins (49). Ideally, the immune system views these tumor-associated antigens as non-self, eradicating the tumor cells while sparing the healthy cells. Thus, identification of immunogenic tumor-associated antigens promotes clinical prognostic or therapeutic applications for cancer.
Such malignancies may be indicated in pleural effusion, excess fluid in the space between the lung and chest wall (50). Lung carcinoma, breast carcinoma, and lymphoma cause about 75% of all malignant pleural effusions (50). Malignant pleural effusion may be enriched with lymphocytic infiltrates and tumor cells. Tumor-associated immune complexes (1-3) or autoantibodies such as anti-p53 (4), antinuclear (5), and anti-L-Myc (6) antibodies have been found in effusion fluids and are associated with poor prognosis. Several lung tumor-associated antigens have also been identified in malignant effusion, including, cytokeratin 19 fragments, neuron-specific enolase (ENO2), squamous cell carcinoma antigen (7), and soluble HLA-I (8) etc.

Alpha-enolase specific antibody and method of use


The invention relates to methods and systems for removal of pathogens from blood or blood products. The invention further relates to methods and systems for treatment and diagnosis of infection in the blood and/or sepsis in a patient in need thereof.

Sepsis is a severe systemic inflammatory response to an infection. It results from an individual's immune system response and is associated with fever or hypothermia, rapid breathing, elevated heart rate, and/or edema and may lead to cardiovascular collapse and multiple organ failure. The pathophysiology of sepsis is due to the host inflammatory response rather than to the pathogen. Sepsis is characterized by the activation of multiple host defence mechanisms including the cytokine network, leukocytes, in particular neutrophils and monocytes, and the complement system. Sepsis is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in intensive care units, where it has a mortality rate of from 30 to 60%.
Sepsis occurs when an individual's immune system is unable to efficiently counteract an infection and remove pathogens from the blood stream resulting in an uncontrolled systemic inflammatory response. In most of the vertebrates platelets are responsible for binding and transporting pathogens in the blood to the reticulo-endothelial system (RES) where they are cleared from the blood. In humans and other higher primates, Red blood cells (RBCs) are responsible for binding and transporting immune complexes by using complement receptor 1 (CR1, CD35). CR1 interacts with all the opsonic complement fragments: C1q, mannose-binding lectin, C3b, and C4b. This way, once harmful particles such as pathogens are opsonized with complement fragments they are bound by RBCs. Once bound, the RBC transports the harmful particle to the sinusoids of the spleen and liver, where resident macrophages remove the RBC cargo, leaving the RBCs itself intact. This process is called immune-adherence clearance (IAC) and is critical for host defence and for continuous protection of the vascular wall from inflammation. Animal studies in primates and mice (using human CR1 transgenic mouse erythrocytes) have shown that immune adherence (IA) can be enhanced through CR1 expression. It has further been shown that when complement-opsonized pneumococci are injected intravenously (i.v.) with CR1+ mouse erythrocytes into wild type mice, they are cleared faster than opsonized pneumococci similarly injected with wild-type mouse erythrocytes and that the i.v. injection of pneumococci into CR1+ mice also results in more rapid clearance than in wild-type mice. Hence, immune adherence via CR1 on erythrocytes plays an important role in the clearance of immune complexes and pathogens.
Current medical treatment of sepsis mainly relies on antibiotics which is generally unsuccessful. An alternative to treatment with antibiotics is the purification of blood of a patient suffering from sepsis by apheresis. Apheresis is a process of withdrawal of blood from a donor or patient, whereby a part of the blood (e.g. plasma, leukocytes, platelets or RBC, etc.) is separated extracorporeally and retained and the remainder is re-transfused into the donor or patient. Different forms of apheresis are leukapheresis, plasmapheresis, thrombocytapheresis, etc. For instance, plasmapheresis is used to control the progress of sepsis. This process involves filtering blood through membranes to separate a patient's cells from their plasma so that pathogenic toxins as well as the host's inflammatory cytokines are removed, the plasma may then be replaced with plasma from healthy donors. A disadvantage of such method is that it is expensive, in part due to the need of donor plasma, and non-selective. The removal of host defence components may result in a risk of infection. In addition, there is a risk of an immune response of the host's immune system to donor plasma or its components. An alternative method is removing pathogenic toxins and cytokines from the blood by adsorption to compound that specifically bind thereto, such as antibodies against e.g. TNF-α and IL-Iβ and lipopolysaccharide (LPS). These methods are, however, costly due to the use of large amounts of specific antibodies and would need to be combined so that both pathogenic toxins and inflammatory cytokines are removed in order to sufficiently counteract sepsis. In addition, a further disadvantage of such methods is that pathogens are not removed from the blood but returned to the patient. Another method that does not have this disadvantage uses apheresis to remove pathogens from the blood by targeting the specific pathogen. An advantage of such method is that the removal of pathogens from the blood usually results in a quick inhibition of the host's inflammatory response. However, a major disadvantage of targeting the pathogen is that it is specific for one or a group of pathogens because the pathogen are captured using a ligand that is able to bind a specific pathogen. For instance, sepsis can be the result of infection by any kind of pathogen, i.e. bacteria, but also fungi, viruses, and parasites. For each type of pathogen multiple species or subgroups exist for which specific binding ligands need to be provided. This inevitably also means that it is necessary to diagnose the pathogen causing the infection before pathogen removal by apheresis can be performed. Since immediate treatment is essential in sepsis, diagnosis of the infecting pathogen may cause an unacceptable delay.

Methods and systems for the detection and removal of pathogens from blood


A method for examining a visual field of a subject includes the steps of stimulating the subject eye movement reflex to an off field visual stimulus and mapping the subject visual field based on a positive reflex to the stimulus. An apparatus (20) for evaluating the visual field of a subject (22) includes a subject affixation mechanism (24) for affixing a portion of the apparatus (20) to the subject (22), an eye tracking mechanism (26) operatively connected to the subject affixation means (24) for tracking eye movement of the subject (22), and visual field stimulus generater (28) operatively connected to the affixation mechanism (24) for generating a visual stimulus.

The measurement of a subject's visual field or visual field examination is one of the most basic and widely used tests in ophthalmology. The measurement of a subject's visual field is important in the diagnosis and assessment of various diseases or conditions including glaucoma and those neurological diseases which affect the visual system and brain.
A visual field is generally defined as the portion of space in which objects are simultaneously visible to the steadily fixating eye. Abstractly, the visual field can be thought of as somewhat more than one half of a hollow sphere situated before and around each eye of a subject. Within this portion of the sphere, objects are perceived while the eye is fixating, on a stationary point on the inner surface of the sphere. Objects that are visible on the inner surface of this portion of the sphere stimulate various portions of the retina and are then conducted through nerve fiber bundles and eventually stimulate the visual cortex of the brain. Visual field testing can reveal the amount of damage created by trauma or disease along the visual pathway from the retina to the visual center in the brain.
Traditional methods of testing and measuring visual field have required a great deal of concentration from the subject being tested. The test subject was required to subjectively respond, either visually, physically, or by means of an indicating device, that he has or has not sighted a target at a particular location in his visual field.
The delay between stimulation of the retina and the response of the person being tested results in a loss of spontaneity and creates both false positive and false negative results. The traditional methods of testing and measuring visual field require the subject to fixate on a central point while an examiner either moves objects through the subject's field of vision or various lights or stimuli would be presented within the subject's field of vision to which the subject would be asked to respond to. From these methods, plots of the location of each point seen by the subject are obtained, from which, the subject's field of vision can be mapped.
The primary difficulty associated with these traditional methods of measuring a subject's visual field is that the subject is required to fixate or gaze toward a central fixation point while the stimuli are presented within the subject's visual field. This requirement that the subject must fixate or gaze on a central fixation point leads to a great deal of fatigue, inaccuracy, and lack of repeatability due to false-positive or false-negative responses due to the natural tendency or reflex of the human eye to move towards a new stimuli within its visual field. When a stimulus enters the visual field of a subject, the subject has a tendency to move their eyes toward the new stimulus and away from the central fixation point or reference point.
In order to overcome the uncertainties and difficulties in the foregoing testing techniques, attempts have been made to utilize the natural characteristic voluntary or involuntary eye movements which results when a target is presented to a subject within his visual field. Such methods and apparatuses are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,827,789 to Molner et al., issued Aug. 6, 1974, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,059,348 to Jernigan, issued Nov. 22. 1977. The Molner et al. patent describes a method and apparatus for measuring a subject's visual field by presenting a target consisting of a spot of light at a series of selected locations within the subject's visual field and monitoring and interpreting the subject's resulting eye movements and positions. However, the Molner et al. patent teaches that in order to ensure accurate test results, it is essential that the subject be looking directly at a known reference or central fixation point on a screen at the time that the target is presented to the subject on the screen. When a spot or dot of light suddenly appears, the subject's eyes respond to the sudden appearance of the dot of light by directing the gaze and fixating on that target.
The Molner et al. patent teaches an apparatus which is employed to measure the subject's visual field and to make a permanent photographic image thereof including the targets which the subject sees as determined by an eye movement monitor and its associated logic on circuitry. However, the method disclosed in the Molner et al. patent requires the subject to fixate on a central fixation point which, as described above, has certain disadvantageous properties associated therewith. Furthermore, the method disclosed in Molner et al. merely detects eye movement and not actually tracking the position and location of the eye in response to a stimulus. By relying only on eye movement as an indicator of those points or stimuli, the method disclosed in Molner et al. only allows for a yes or no answer regarding the subject's departure from the fixation point to a newly presented target stimulus without giving an actual anatomical point on the retina which has been stimulated thereby facilitating exact mapping of the retina and subject's visual field.
Therefore it would be advantageous and desirable to have a method and apparatus for evaluating the visual field of a subject which eliminates the disadvantages set forth above and which provides more accurate and versatile test data which may be used for other applications.

Method and apparatus for evaluating and mapping visual field

Ramot-University Authority for Applied Research and Industrial Development, Ltd.


A unitary pharmaceutical package according to this invention includes two primary components: a tubular sleeve-like carton or housing, and a medication card typically in the form of a blister pack in which multiple pre-formed pockets each enclose a pill. The medication card or sleeve has at least one upturned lip or flange along a longitudinal end of the card. The end walls of the carton are composite end walls formed by flaps which extend from the top, bottom, front and back panels. The unitary package of this invention easily and conveniently secures the medication card to the surrounding carton. After the carton sleeve is erected but prior to closing at least one of the composite end walls, the medication card is inserted longitudinally through one of the open ends of the carton. Some of the end flaps are folded inwardly so that they are tucked inside the carton on the interior of the upturned flange on the medication card. The bottom end flap is then folded upwardly to be juxtaposed in face-to-face relationship with the outer face of the upturned flange on the medication card. A strip of adhesive is then applied to the outer faces of the exposed portions of the upturned flange on the medication card and the lower major end flap. The remaining end flap is then folded downwardly to adhere to the exposed portions of the upturned flange and the lower major end flap. As a result, the carton is closed and sealed with the medication secured to the carton to avoid accidental removal of the card from the carton and inhibit intentional removal of the card.

This invention relates generally to packages and, more particularly, to packages containing a blister pack of medicine.
Generally, boxes or packages containing solid dose formulations of medicine contain several internal units in which the medicine is sealed, for example, in blister packs. A separate leaflet with instructions for use, contra-indications, dosing and other information will also be included for reference by the end-user on the correct use of the medicine. In many cases, such information is also contained on the carton. The cartons are often bulky and the blister packs may be removed by the end-user to facilitate transit of medicine, for example, in a handbag or wallet. In some instances, pharmaceutical companies provide samples to physicians in such packages and the blister pack is removed from the carton and stored while the carton is discarded to minimize storage space requirements.
Pharmaceuticals must be prepared in accordance with Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) and this practice extends to the packaging of the end product. This is because a pharmaceutical product may be prepared to the required standards but if an error occurred where the product went into packaging for a different pharmaceutical, a patient may take a dose of their prescribed medication, for example, where the patient has an attack of asthma or angina, and if the medicine is wrong as a result of incorrect packaging, the dose will not relieve the symptoms. This could have serious repercussions and even be life threatening. So it is extremely important that medicines are packaged correctly in every aspect.
A pharmaceutical package incorporating a blister pack may provide useful instruction, information and advertising space for the manufacturer of a pharmaceutical composition contained therein. One major problem with pharmaceutical packages in which the blister pack or medication card is loose in the surrounding carton is that the medication card is often removed from the carton either accidently or intentionally. This can be quite problematic since the user loses the benefit of drug warning labels and other medication information contained on the carton as well as dosing requirements, drug interactions and other important information provided by the pharmaceutical company on the carton.
Accordingly, when the medicine is no longer located in its original packaging, which would provide greater protection than the blister pack alone, the safe and proper administration and use of the product is comprised. While a wide variety of packaging schemes are available, existing equipment and machinery often provide limited options for the expedient and economic packaging of blister packs.


A device is loaded in a test chamber. The device is positioned for support on a chuck in a non-test position in the test chamber. The device is tested in the test chamber. The chuck is positioned in a test position in the test chamber to place the device in electrical contact with a test apparatus. Coolant is delivered to a heat sink supported by the chuck near the device prior to testing the device and while testing the device. Coolant is delivered to the heat sink through flexible tubing coupled to the chuck as the chuck moves from the non-test position to the test position.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of integrated circuit (IC) testing. More particularly, the present invention relates to the field of thermal management for IC testing.
2. Description of Related Art
As part of the manufacturing process, integrated circuits (ICs) typically undergo a variety of tests, including an environmental test where the electrical performance of each IC is monitored in a temperature controlled chamber by a test apparatus. A chuck is typically used to position the IC within the chamber relative to the test apparatus such that one or more contact areas of the IC are placed in electrical contact with the test apparatus. Information pertaining to the electrical performance of each IC is gathered during the test and then used to separate good ICs from bad ICs and to categorize the ICs according to their respective operating frequency. This process is commonly referred to as binning out.
As the junction temperature of an IC rises, the frequency at which the IC operates decreases. Accordingly, ICs tested at varying temperatures may not be appropriately separated or binned. If the IC is tested at too high of a temperature, the IC may be unnecessarily downgraded into a lower frequency bin. If the IC is tested at too low of a temperature, the IC may be improperly upgraded into a higher frequency bin.
Typical environmental tests use forced air convection techniques to cool the chuck while in a retracted or non-test position. Cooling the chuck in this manner helps cool the IC prior to testing and therefore helps avoid the junction temperature of the IC from rising too high while being tested.
A device is loaded in a test chamber. The device is tested in the test chamber. Coolant is delivered near the device prior to testing the device and while testing the device.

Direct to chuck coolant delivery for integrated circuit testing


A method is provided for removing heat from an integrated circuit package. Fluid coolant is provided from a fluid inlet of a fluid routing device through channels in the fluid routing device to absorb heat generated by first and second integrated circuit dies in the integrated circuit package. The fluid routing device is mounted on a surface of each of the first and second integrated circuit dies. The fluid coolant is provided from the channels to a fluid outlet of the fluid routing device. A flow of the fluid coolant through the fluid routing device is adjusted to reduce a temperature of the first integrated circuit die in response to an increase in a workload of the first integrated circuit die.

In a semiconductor device assembly, multiple integrated circuit (IC) dies may be mounted on a packaging substrate or interposer. As logic and power density of IC dies increase, cooling has become a more significant concern. Conventional cooling techniques, which depend on heat sinks on the backsides of IC dies to transfer heat into streams of forced air, may not be able to meet the needs of power-hungry devices, especially in packages that provide more processing power in less space within IC dies. The power generated during high volume operation by such IC dies may reduce the overall cooling efficiency, and create localized regions of high temperature (i.e., hot spots), which may adversely affect the overall performance and reliability of the IC dies.

Techniques for fluid cooling of integrated circuits in packages


A method for detecting a narrow road includes calculating relative heights of points from a distance measuring sensor to a ground based on distance information. A left boundary point and a right boundary point, at which a difference in relative heights from adjacent points becomes maximal, are acquired. A road boundary line of a driving road is acquired based on the left boundary point and the right boundary point depending on a movement trajectory of the vehicle when a difference in relative heights at the left boundary point and the right boundary point is more than or equal to a reference value. A road width of the driving road is calculated based on the road boundary line. It is detected whether the driving road of the vehicle is a narrow road based on the road width.

Recently, an advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) has been greatly drawn attention in vehicle industries. The ADAS is a system which senses dangerous situations occurring while driving a vehicle by using sensors mounted in a vehicle and cope with the dangerous situations to assure driver's safety and provide convenience to the driver.
When driving a vehicle on a protruding narrow road, a driver may not differentiate a road boundary well, such that it is difficult for the driver to drive a vehicle and the risk of accidents is increased.

Method, apparatus and system for detecting narrow road


A method of measuring fiber material while being processed by fiber processing components of a carding machine, includes the following steps: measuring fiber length and nep number at an outlet of the carding machine; applying measured values of the fiber length and nep number to a control and regulating device; forming, in the control and regulating device, optimized machine setting data for the fiber length and the nep number; and applying the optimized machine setting data to at least one of the fiber processing components affecting fiber length and nep number.

This invention relates to a method and an apparatus for its practice, integrated in a carding machine. The apparatus is of the known type in which the staple (fiber length) and nep number are measured at the output of the carding machine and regulation is effected based on the sensed signals.
In a known process as disclosed in published European patent application Ser. No. 0 410 429, at the output of the carding machine the fiber length and nep number are measured; the measured values must correspond to precisely defined criteria. If it is not feasible to maintain such values within the predetermined magnitudes by regulating the carding machine, an attempt is first made to improve such values by setting the fine cleaning machine anew. If again, such an attempt is unsuccessful, it is necessary to change the mixing ratio which has to be performed by an appropriate control of the bale opener; this also affects the bale stock.
In such a method the individual magnitudes, that is, the value of nep number and fiber length are measured and a new setting of the carding machine is effected based on the individual magnitudes of nep number and fiber length. By virtue of a certain card setting either the nep number may be reduced or, by means of a different card setting, the fiber length may be changed. Although a significant reduction in the nep number might be obtained by changing the setting magnitude of, for example, a card setting, a substantial negative change of the fiber length may simultaneously occur, or conversely. Conventional processes are based on the assumption that an improvement of both individual measuring magnitudes, namely the reduction of the nep number and the improvement in the staple (fiber length) may not be achieved merely by setting the carding machine, but rather, the mixing ratio of the fiber material must also be changed.

Method and apparatus for measuring fiber length and nep number in a carding machine


The present invention provides an oscillating liquid level measuring apparatus includes a liquid level measuring unit 10 having: a floating member 3 floating on a surface of liquid 1 in a tank 2; a variable resistor 4 arranged o the top of the tank 2 for measuring a perpendicular displacement of the floating member 3; a transmitting member 5 extending from the floating member 3 and through the top of the tank 2 for transmitting the perpendicular displacement of the floating member 3 to the variable resistor 4; and holders 6 arranged to sandwich the transmitting members 5 for restricting the movement of the floating member 3 only in the perpendicular direction. A connection portion between the transmitting member 5 and the variable resistor 4 has a predetermined allowance 9 in the displacement direction 8 of the floating member 3.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid level measuring apparatus and in particular, to a liquid level measuring apparatus for measuring liquid level displacements by using fine oscillations.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various liquid level measuring apparatuses have been suggested. For example, Japanese Utility Model 6-69276 discloses a liquid level measuring apparatus for optically measuring a liquid level. Moreover, Japanese Patent Publication 11-30544 discloses a capacitance-type liquid level measuring apparatus capable of measuring a liquid level in a tank continuously and in real time. Furthermore, Japanese Patent Publication 11-153471 discloses a liquid information measuring apparatus.
Utilizing a single acoustic wave oscillator to measure a liquid level as well as an acoustic wave propagation time.
Moreover, Japanese Patent Publication 63-67545 discloses a specific gravity measuring apparatus shown in FIG. 7. Referring to FIG. 7, in this specific gravity measuring apparatus, when the specific gravity of liquid 103 is changed, the buoyancy functioning on a floating member 102 and a reference member 111 is changed. This displaces the floating member 102 in relation to the reference member 111. That is a specific gravity change is converted into a vertical displacement of the floating member 102. This displacement is detected by a differential transformer 114 and an electric signal corresponding to the displacement is output. This electric signal is used to determine the specific gravity of the liquid 103. This specific gravity measuring apparatus can be applied to an oscillating liquid level measuring apparatus.
Since the liquid level measuring apparatus using the floating member and the differential transformer is costly, there has been developed a liquid level measuring apparatus using a contact-type variable resistor instead of the differential transformer.
However, the contact-type variable resistor has a problem in that the contact surface is worn away by repeated slide motion and the variable resistor cannot maintain linearity. In general, it is said to have a service life of 100,000 to 1,000,000 cycles. However, there is a problem in that when an oscillating liquid level is measured continuously, the variable resistor repeats sliding motion locally and that portion alone experiences extreme local wearing.
The conventional liquid level measuring apparatus uses a number of parts, each of which is expensive, increasing the total cost.
Moreover, in the case of the liquid level measuring apparatus using the contact-type variable resistor, its service life is shortened when the liquid level to be measured is oscillating. This is because while the liquid level is oscillating, the variable resistor repeats sliding motion at a particular location, which is easily worn away.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an oscillating liquid level measuring apparatus having a long service life at a reasonable cost.
The oscillating liquid level measuring apparatus according to the present invention comprises a liquid level measuring unit for measuring a displacement of a floating member floating on a liquid surface while ignoring displacement changes not greater than a predetermined amplitude.
Moreover, the liquid level measuring unit includes: a floating member having a specific gravity smaller than that of the liquid and floating on a surface of liquid in a tank; a displacement amount measuring unit arranged on the top of the tank for measuring a perpendicular displacement of the floating member; a transmitting member extending from the floating member through the top of the tank for transmitting the perpendicular displacement of the floating member to the displacement amount measuring unit; and holders arranged to sandwich the transmitting members for restricting the movement of the floating member only in the perpendicular direction, wherein a connection portion between the transmitting member and the displacement amount measuring unit has a predetermined allowance in the displacement direction of the floating member.
Furthermore, the predetermined allowance may be equal to the predetermined amplitude to be ignored.
Furthermore, the displacement amount measuring unit may be composed of a variable resistor.
Furthermore, the displacement amount measuring unit may be composed of an encoder.
Another aspect of the present invention provides a liquid developing apparatus using the liquid level measuring apparatus according to the present invention.

Oscillating liquid level measuring apparatus


A fluid delivery method and apparatus implementing active phasing to actively restore the substantially exact mechanical positions of driven components in a delivery system in order to precisely reproduce the mechanical signature and hydraulic characteristics of the system from run to run without perturbing output flow. The delivery system is configured to intelligently drive pump pistons to a known position and to deliver fluid(s) at a known pressure, and includes a plurality of pump modules each including motor driven syringes having respective pistons configured to reciprocate under control of a control mechanism. Pump phasing is accomplished through a mechanism of compensation delivery of the syringes. An independent, motor-driven syringe of any given pump in a plurality of pumps in a system has the ability to act as a delivering syringe to maintain a prescribed output flow while one other syringe of each of the plurality of pumps is repositioned under load. With the delivering syringe maintaining output flow, the syringe which is repositioning, i.e. being phased, can substantially simultaneously arrive at a destination position and at a destination pressure.

High-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) solvent delivery systems are used to source either single-component liquids or mixtures of liquids (both known as "mobile phase") at pressures which can range from substantially atmospheric pressure to pressures on the order of ten thousand pounds per square inch. These pressures are required to force the mobile phase through the fluid passageways of a stationary phase support, where separation of dissolved analytes can occur. The stationary phase support may comprise a packed bed of particles, a membrane or collection of membranes, or an open tube. Often, analytical conditions require the mobile phase composition to change over the course of the analysis (this mode being termed "gradient elution"). In gradient elution, the viscosity of the mobile phase may change and the pressure necessary to maintain the required volumetric flow rate will change accordingly.
Other analytical conditions may require that the mobile phase composition remain fixed over time (this mode being termed "isocratic elution"). However, the fixed composition may result from the mixture of multiple components, and often the relative amounts of the components must be controlled to fractional per cent levels in order to achieve the separations goals.
In liquid chromatography, the choice of an appropriate separation strategy (including hardware, software, and chemistry) results in the separation of an injected sample mixture into its components, which elute from the column in reasonably distinct zones or "bands". As these bands pass through a detector, their presence can be monitored and a detector output (usually in the form of an electrical signal) can be produced. The pattern of analyte concentration within the eluting bands, which can be represented by means of a time-varying electrical signal, gives rise to the nomenclature of a "chromatographic peak". Peaks may be characterized with respect to their "retention time", which is the time at which the center of the band transits the detector, relative to the time of injection (i.e. time-of-injection is equal to zero). In many applications, the retention time of a peak is used to infer the identity of the eluting analyte, based upon related analyses with standards and calibrants. The retention time for a peak is strongly influenced by the mobile phase composition, and by the accumulated volume of mobile phase which has passed over the stationary phase.
The utility of chromatography relies heavily on run-to-run reproducibility, such that standards or calibrants can be analyzed in one set of runs, followed by test samples or unknowns, followed by more standards, in order that confidence can be had in the resulting data. Known pumping systems exhibit some non-ideal characteristics which result in diminished separation performance and diminished run-to-run reproducibility. Among the non-ideal pump characteristics exhibited in known pumping systems are, generally, fluctuations in solvent composition and/or fluctuations in volumetric flow rate.
Volumetric flow fluctuations present in known HPLC pumping systems disadvantageously cause retention time(s) to vary for a given analyte. That is, the amount of time that an analyte is retained in the stationary phase fluctuates undesirably as a function of the undesirable volumetric flow fluctuations. This creates difficulties in inferring the identity of a sample from the retention behavior of the components. Volumetric flow fluctuations can result in fluctuations in solvent composition when the output of multiple pumps are summed to provide a solvent composition.
Fluctuations in solvent composition present in known HPLC pumping systems can disadvantageously result in interactions with the system's analyte detector and produce perturbations which are detected as if they arose from the presence of a sample. In effect, an interference signal is generated. This interference signal is summed with the actual signal attributable to the analyte, producing errors when the quantity of an unknown sample is calculated from the area of the eluting sample peak.
The prior art is replete with techniques and instrument implementations aimed at controlling solvent delivery and minimizing perturbations in the output of delivery systems for analytical instrumentation. Myriad pump configurations are known which deliver fluid at high pressure for use in applications such as liquid chromatography. Known pumps, such as one disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,883,409 ("the '409 patent") incorporate at least one plunger or piston which is reciprocated within a pump chamber into which fluid is introduced. Frequency and stroke length of the plunger reciprocating within the pump chamber is controllable to control the flow rate of fluid output from the pump. However, the assembly for driving the plunger is an elaborate combination of elements that can introduce undesirable motion in the plunger as it is driven, which motion makes it difficult to precisely control delivery system output and results in what is termed "noise" or detectable perturbations in a chromatographic baseline. Much of this noise does not result from random statistical variation in the system, rather much of it is a function of a mechanical "signature" of the pump. Mechanical signature is correlated to mechanically related phenomena such as anomalies in ball and screw drives, gears, and/or other components used in the pump to effect the linear motion that drives the piston(s), or it is related to higher level processes or physical phenomena such as the onset or completion of solvent compression, or the onset of solvent delivery from a cylinder
Typical systems known for delivery of liquids in liquid chromatography applications, such as disclosed in the '409 patent and further in U.S. Pat. No. 5,393,434, implement dual piston pumps having two interconnected pump heads each with a reciprocating plunger. The plungers are driven with a predetermined phase difference in order to minimize output flow variations. Piston stroke length and stroke frequency can be independently adjusted when the pistons are independently, synchronously driven. Precompression can be effected in each pump cylinder in any given pump cycle to compensate for varying fluid compressibilities in an effort to maintain a substantially constant system pressure and output flow rate.
However, in such systems known in the prior art there is no guarantee that from one piston stroke to the next, or from one chromatography run to the next, that significant physical events such as the onset or completion of fluid compression or fluid delivery, occur at precisely known pump mechanical positions. Further, in such systems known in the prior art there is no guarantee that from one piston stroke to the next, or from one chromatography run to the next, that attainment of precisely known mechanical positions occurs at prescribed and repeatable points in successive chromatographic runs.
With known delivery systems, at the termination of a chromatographic run each of the active pumps in a system can reside at a seemingly arbitrary mechanical position or phase. If a new run commences directly from an arbitrary mechanical phase, the mechanical signature of the system will differ, negatively affecting the results of the chromatographic analysis.
This is of particular relevance to the gradient mode of chromatography, where system pressure has to vary dynamically to maintain constant flow while solvent viscosity changes. The hydraulic characteristics of the system, particularly the system hydraulic capacitance, vary as a function of the pump mechanical phase. A variation in the system hydraulic capacitance will change the time-constant of the system hydraulic response. Therefore, the tracking of the delivery pressure profile, and the actual volumetric delivery, will not be precisely repeatable from run to run. Over multiple chromatographic runs, relative motion occurs between a chromatographic peak and features in the surrounding baseline which negatively affects the precision of determining peak areas and retention times, and therefore negatively affects the ability of the chromatographer to quantitate the sample amount and to infer the identity of the sample.

Active pump phasing to enhance chromatographic reproducibility


A fiber optic cable including an inner guard layer surrounding a core containing at least one optical fiber; and an outer guard layer surrounding the inner guard layer; wherein the inner guard layer includes at least one metal tube with at least one optical fiber inside the tube; and wherein the outer guard layer includes at least one metal tube with at least one optical fiber inside the tube.

1. Field
The invention is related to a fiber optic cable, and more particularly to a highly tamper sensitive fiber optic cable.
2. Related Art and Background
When optical fiber cables came into the market, it was deemed that they were tamper proof as someone could not tap into the core of the fiber to get to the data being transferred. Unfortunately, this is no longer true. The fiber can be tapped into to obtain the data that is being transmitted through splicing in a splitter or with a device that bends the fiber enough to create some leaking of the signal from the core. With the right equipment, this leaked signal can be captured.
The need for secure communication is critical for a variety of entities ranging from the banking industry, government, military and industry. Typically the signals can be encrypted which improves the security but some risk remains as hackers are becoming more sophisticated.
Therefore, there is a need for a system that can monitor if the cable is being tampered with. There are sophisticated interrogation systems that can measure vibration on an optical fiber using coherent Rayleigh processing or interferometic sensing technologies which also can measure vibration. If someone created vibration on a fiber optic cable while trying to access the fibers, these technologies would sense the event very well.
However, if no vibration or minimal vibration was created, for example, by using chemicals/acids to eat away the cable structure to get to the communication fibers, the information being transferred could possibly be compromised. Therefore, there is a need to have a cable structure that can provide additional layers of tamper resistance.


The invention relates to processes for the preparation of electrode compositions, especially those intended for use in supercapacitors. A process is provided for preparing lithium sulphite comprising the steps of:—a) introducing H2SO3 (aq) into a reaction vessel; b) reacting the H2SO3 (aq) with an aqueous suspension of Li2CO3 in the vessel to form an aqueous solution of Li2—CO3; and c) evaporating the solution to recover Li2CO3(s), wherein at least steps a) and b) are conducted under an inert atmosphere. Preferably, in step b) H2SO3 (aq) and Li2CO3 (aq) are reacted with each other in substantially equimolar amounts. There is also provided a process for forming an electrode material comprising a complexing step of causing lithium sulphite to form SO3 complexes at active N sites of a nitrogen-carbon structure, in the presence of a selected amount of a sink that absorbs the liberated lithium, so as to form the N:SO3 complexed electrode material. Preferably, the nitrogen-carbon structure is thermally restructured polyacrylonitrile (TR-PAN) or a copolymer thereof.

Batteries can store lots of energy but have low power, taking a long time to charge or discharge. Conventional capacitors have enormous power but can usually only store tiny amounts of energy. Supercapacitors offer a unique combination of high power and high energy. When a supercapacitor is charged, there is no chemical reaction, rather energy is stored as a charge or concentration of electrons on the surface of a material. Supercapacitors can therefore charge and discharge at high rates since only charge transfer is involved, and can undergo a large number of cycles without any apparent degradation (e.g. >100,000 cycles).
Supercapacitors, also known as ultracapacitors, or electrochemical double layer capacitors (EDLC) use a double layer of high surface area carbon separated by an exceedingly thin insulator to achieve high capacitance. In a paper entitled "Novel Supercapacitors", p 68, Proceedings of the 40th Power Sources Conference, Cherry Hill, USA, Jun. 10-13, 2002 (hereinafter referred to as the "2002 paper"), one of the present inventors, inter alia, disclosed a new type of supercapacitor where, in addition to the double layer capacitance, additional capacitance or "pseudo-capacitance" was obtained using nitrogen-containing carbon polymers where complexes had been incorporated at certain nitrogen sites, migration of solution species towards and away from these sites giving rise to this pseudo-capacitance.
In the 2002 paper, polyacrylonirile (PAN) was used as a cheap and readily available polymer. Pyrolysis of PAN leads to increasingly complex, conjugated and cyclised molecules containing nitrogen in pyridine-like rings, but it was found that N content decreases with increased heating, as illustrated in FIG. 3 below. Steps were therefore taken to obtain a pyrolysed PAN with a sufficient N content but also with a suitably high surface area, open, porous structure that would permit complex formation and ion species migration. The pyrolysed PAN was then combined with lithium sulphite, Li2SO3, with the aim of subsequently forming N:sulphur trioxide SO3 complexes at the nitrogen sites. The 2002 paper describes lithium sulphite as being incorporated in the pyrolysed polymer and then provided as an electrode in a cell where, upon charging, the lithium sulphite was electrolysed to form sulphur trioxide, which subsequently complexed with nitrogen in the pyrolysed PAN. Supercapacitor cells made from those modified electrodes were found to have increased capacitance as compared with unmodified PAN electrodes (i.e. without complexed N sites).
One of the authors of the 2002 paper also filed two patent applications published as GB2266179 and GB2335073, respectively. GB2266179 teaches secondary cells in which the cathode (positive electrode) composition consists of a solid complex of sulphur trioxide and a polymeric tertiary amine (the complex being formed by a previous chemical reaction) and the anode is lithium. GB2335073 describes GB2266179 as disclosing electrochemical cells with low energy densities due to the high ratios of carbon to nitrogen functionality. GB2335073 itself is directed to improved secondary cells with similar light metal anodes and similar cathodes of N—C polymers complexed with sulphur trioxide except that these polymers have conjugated imine functionality, preferably formed by thermally restructuring nitrile containing polymers. GB2335073 teaches that charging of the secondary cells causes lithium to be electroplated at the anode and discharging causes recombination of lithium with the SO3 complexes: hence, it states that SO3 acts not only as polymer dopant but also as sites for the reversible redox electrochemistry of Li2SO3.
Journal of the Chemical Society, pages 2245-8, (1928), describes a method for synthesising lithium sulphite in which a mixture of hydrogen and sulphur dioxide is passed through lithium carbonate solution until effervescence ceases, and the flask is then heated while passing through dry hydrogen (to prevent oxidation) until anhydrous lithium sulphite is produced. Since sulphur dioxide is a corrosive gas, and hydrogen is a flammable gas, this process is not ideal.


A liquid blow molding method molds a bottomed tubular-shaped preform into a liquid containing container. The method includes a nozzle engaging step of engaging a blow nozzle with a mouth of the preform; a molding step of molding the preform into a container of a predetermined shape by supplying a pressurized liquid from a pump into the preform; a suck-back step of sucking back a predetermined volume of liquid out of the container into a supply path; a nozzle closing step of closing the blow nozzle by a sealing body; and a discharge step of discharging a liquid in the supply path by a predetermined volume from a discharge port by operating, after the nozzle closing step, a pump in a positive direction with the discharge port connected to the supply path opened.

Resin containers, typical examples of which are polypropylene (PP) bottles and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles, are used to hold a variety of liquids, such as beverages, cosmetic products, pharmaceutical products, detergents, and toiletries including shampoo, as the content liquids. Such a container is generally produced by blow molding a preform formed by a thermoplastic resin material as mentioned above in a bottomed tubular shape.
Further, as a blow molding for molding a preform into a container, a liquid blow molding in which, instead of pressurized air, pressurized liquid is used as a pressurized medium supplied into a preform is known.
Patent Literature 1, for example, describes a liquid blow molding method for molding a preform into a container of a predetermined shape conforming to a cavity of a mold. In the method, a preform heated in advance to a temperature at which stretchability is achieved is placed in a mold for blow molding, and while the preform is longitudinally stretched by a stretching rod, a liquid pressurized to a predetermined pressure is supplied into the preform through a blow nozzle. According to the aforementioned liquid blow molding method, content liquids, such as beverages, to be held in a container as a final product are used as the liquid to be supplied into the preform. Thus a liquid-containing container in which the content liquid is held is molded easily by molding the container simultaneously with filling the content liquid into the container, and the process of filling the content liquid to the container after molding may be omitted. Accordingly, the production process and the configuration of production line (apparatus) can be simplified.


An ESP/separator assembly (10) is positioned downhole in a well on a tubular string (18) to pump downhole fluids to the surface. The assembly includes an electric submersible pump (12) and an electrically powered motor (20) positioned below the pump. An electrical cable (22) extends downhole past the motor and to the pump. A generally cylindrical shroud (26) is positioned circumferentially about the pump, the motor, and a portion (24) of the cable extending past the pump and to the motor. A separator (60) is provided at the lower end of the shroud, such that the shroud supports substantially the weight of the separator.

Various types of pumping systems have been devised to pump fluid from a downhole formation to the surface. One such pump is an electric submersible pump (ESP) which is powered by an electric motor positioned downhole for powering the pump, with an electrical cable conventionally extending downhole past the pump and to the motor.
In many applications, solid particles (e.g., sand) or gas bubbles may significantly detract from the efficiency of the pump, and may lead to pump damage. While various types of desanders and gas separators have been devised for removing sand and gas from downhole fluids before entering a pump, such equipment is conventionally operated by merely suspending the separator from the pump and motor, so that fluid passes through the separator before bypassing the motor and entering the pump.
The disadvantages of the prior art are overcome by the present invention, which discloses improved techniques for assembling and operating an ESP/separator assembly.


The present invention relates to an improved method that permits the differential isolation of mouse mammary stem cells and colony forming cells (CFCs). The method involves depletion of non-epithelial cells from freshly dissociated mouse mammary tissue by incubation with an antibody composition containing antibodies specific for CD45, Ter119, CD35 and optionally CD140a. After formation of conjugates between the non-epithelial mammary cells and the antibodies specific for CD45, Ter119, CD35 and optionally CD140a, the cell conjugates are removed and the remaining epithelial cells are then incubated with an antibody composition containing antibodies specific for CD24 and CD49f or CD24 and CD14. After formation of conjugates between the epithelial cells and the antibodies specific for CD24 and CD49f or CD24 and CD14, the mouse mammary stem and the luminal-restricted CFC cells can be differentially isolated. The invention also relates to kits for carrying out this method and to the cell preparations prepared by this method.

The mammary gland is a compound tubulo-alveolar gland that is composed of a series of branched ducts that, during lactation, drain sac-like alveoli (lobules). In the rodent, the mammary epithelium is embedded within a mammary fat pad rich in stromal (non-epithelial cells). The mammary epithelium is composed of two lineages of epithelial cells: the luminal cells (which make milk during lactation) and basal positioned myoepithelial cells. Generation and maintenance of the mammary epithelium is via the mammary stem cell (MaSC), which is defined here as that cell that can generate both the ductal and lobular structures of the mammary gland, can generate all the cell lineages of the mammary epithelium and can self-renew. The MaSC is of interest to the breast cancer biologist since cancer theory suggests that it is the stem cell, and possibly some of its more immediate descendants that have decreased stem cell potential but still have proliferative potential that are the targets for malignant transformation. As well, recent publications in the literature demonstrate that malignancies themselves have a stem cell component that propagates the tumor (Al-Hajj M, Wicha M S, Benito-Hernandez A, Morrison S J, Clarke M F. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2003; 100:3983-8). This has huge implications in the treatment of cancer since it suggests that in order for cancer to be successfully contained or eradicated, it is the tumor stem cell component that has to be the therapeutic target. The ability to identify and purify mammary stem cells as well as mammary cells with high proliferative capacity but not necessarily having stem cell properties would be invaluable to the study of breast cancer and epithelial cell tumor biology.
In 1998 an experiment was performed which definitively demonstrated that a cell exists within the mouse mammary gland that fulfils the criteria of a MaSC (Kordon E C, Smith G H. Development 1998; 125:1921-30). Our own experiments involving transplantation of freshly isolated non-cultured mammary epithelial cells obtained from adult female mice into recipient mice indicates that MaSC occur at a frequency of about 1 cell in 1,300 total mammary cells and that there are approximately 1,400 MaSC per gland in the mouse.
There have been a number of in vitro studies trying to characterize the cells with proliferative potential in the human, mouse and rat mammary glands in a hope to identify the mammary stem cell. These experiments typically involve seeding phenotypically distinct subtypes of mammary cells at clonal densities in culture dishes in order to identify cells with growth potential by their ability to form colonies. Cells with the potential to form colonies in vitro are termed colony-forming cells (CFCs), and these assays detect all cells that have growth potential, regardless if they are stem cells or not. The inventors research data has demonstrated that the majority (>90%) of CFCs are not stem cells, but cells with growth potential that reside lower in the cellular hierarchy than stem cells. CFCs themselves can be subdivided into different subtypes such as luminal-restricted CFCs (which can only give rise to luminal cells) and bipotent CFCs (which can generate both luminal and myoepithelial cells). In the mouse mammary gland, approximately 90% of all CFCs are of the luminal-restricted type. The phenotypes of mammary CFCs isolated from different species are summarized in Table I.
These in vitro studies to characterize CFCs are limited because colony assays, in their current state, are unable to identify MaSC and to discriminate between MaSC that generate colonies from other CFCs that are deficient in stem cell properties.
The first insight into the phenotype of MaSC was reported by Welm and colleagues who demonstrated that expression of the cell surface molecule Sca-1 enriches for MaSCs that generate ductal-lobular outgrowths when transplanted into the cleared mammary fat pads of recipient mice (Welm B E, Tepera S B, Venezia T, Graubert T A, Rosen J M, Goodell M A. Dev Biol 2002; 245:42-56). However this is a crude enrichment strategy since approximately 20-60% of all mammary cells express Sca-1, and thus MaSC are far from being purified in Sca-1+ enriched subpopulations. To date, there has been no description of a method in the prior art that permits the isolation to high purity of stromal, luminal, myoepithelial, CFCs and MaSC subpopulations of mammary cells. The current method of invention satisfies this need.

Method for the discrimination and isolation of mammary epithelial stem and colony-forming cells


A system and method for accessing an Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) namespace nodal tree in a computer platform employing an ACPI-compatible implementation is disclosed.

The ACPI specification is a computer architecture-related standard developed to establish industry common interfaces for enabling robust operating system (OS)-directed motherboard device configuration and power management of both devices and entire platforms. The ACPI specification evolves the existing collection of power management BIOS code, Advanced Power Management (APM) Application Program Interfaces (APIs), Plug and Play Basic Input/Output System (PNPBIOS) APIs, and Multiprocessor Specification (MPS) tables, into a well-defined, integrated power management and configuration interface specification. From a manufacturing and implementation perspective, the ACPI specification enables different computer platforms to implement common motherboard configuration and power management functions. From a power management perspective, it promotes the concept that platforms should conserve energy by transitioning unused devices into lower power states. For example, computer platforms employing ACPI-compatible implementations are able to optimize processor clock speed, control motherboard and peripheral device power consumption, and place an entire computer platform into a low-power or sleeping state.
Centralizing power management and related directives in the OS has made it practical and compelling for computer hardware implementations to support and exploit ACPI-defined interfaces. In general, to implement ACPI-defined interfaces and take advantage of the functionality offered by them, the ACPI-related modules are first systematically initialized and utilized by the OS via an ACPI namespace which provides a hierarchical tree structure in OS-controlled memory that contains named objects relating to hardware implementation and configuration details. In particular, during bootload, the OS accesses the ACPI namespace to load ACPI-hardware implementations. Similarly, during the operation of the computer platform, user space applications and kernel space applications implement ACPI-defined interfaces by accessing objects, such as package objects, control method objects, data objects, bus objects, and device objects, for example, in the ACPI namespace.
The existing ACPI architecture, however, is not without limitations. As the ACPI specification continues to become more accepted, the number of ACPI-compatible implementations continues to grow and the functionality of existing ACPI-implementations continues to increase. Accordingly, the number of objects in the ACPI namespace and the size of the ACPI namespace continues to expand. During hardware initialization and operation, the ACPI namespace is traversed to access a named object to initialize or utilize, respectively, a particular ACPI-compatible implementation. Due to the increasing size of the ACPI namespace, accessing named objects in the ACPI namespace for the initialization or operation of ACPI-compatible implementations consumes an increasing amount of system resources.

System and method for accessing an advanced configuration and power interface (ACPI) namespace nodal tree

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


A plastic overmold aluminum extrusion including at least one plastic overmold and aluminum extrusion. The aluminum extrusion is formed with sufficient cross sectional properties and features such as an internal web to help prevent undesirable collapses under injection or compression molding pressures. This improves part geometry and strength while minimizing weight. A plurality of protrusions and/or local deformations on an outer wall of the extrusion can be used to create strong mechanical interface to the plastic. Localized deformations can result from a combination of the applied plastic pressure under injection or compression molding pressures and the proximity of outer gaps of the internal web structure. A process of making the plastic overmold aluminum extrusion includes inserting at least one aluminum extrusion into a mold without mandrels and delivering plastic forming the plastic overmold.

The use of a steel structure enclosed by plastic for improving part strength of components used in transportation vehicle structure is known. Generally, enclosed structures can be used in applications such as cross car members. Typically, a tube such as a hollowed steel tube is used to provide additional structure for the system. The steel tube is inserted in a compression mold and mandrels are inserted into the ends of the tube prior to compression in order to prevent collapse of the tube during the molding process. The mandrels are typically removed during compression and the steel tube remains enclosed by the plastic. This process results in a slower cycle time for molding and a relatively heavy product. It is known that if mandrels are not used the steel tube structure can be crushed or otherwise disadvantageously compressed during injection molding under pressure from at least about 12,000 psi to 20,000 psi.
Therefore, there remains a need in the art to replace the heavy and expensive steel tube with an aluminum extrusion with sufficient cross sectional properties to help prevent collapse with plastic overmold for improving part geometry and strength while minimizing weight, and a process of plastic overmolding of the aluminum extrusion without the use of mandrels.

Plastic overmolding of aluminum extrusions


It is known that perturbations caused by scattered-radiation in an x-ray image can be partially avoided by employing a scattered-radiation grid. A device for further improvement of an x-ray image, in that real-time correction of scattered-radiation effects is achieved, is provided according to the invention. Behind x-ray absorbing parts of the scattered-radiation grid only scattered-radiation appears, whereas both scattered-radiation and primary radiation appear behind transparent channels of the scattered-radiation grid. The scattered-radiation grid gives rise to a high-frequency intensity modulation in the x-ray image. From the high-frequency component of the corresponding video signal produced by the x-ray detector, selection signals are generated by a double pulse generator for distinguishing signal amplitudes of the video signal, corresponding to intensities behind absorbing parts and transparent parts, respectively, of the scattered-radiation grid. The selection signals are supplied to a synchronous detector to split the video signal from the x-ray detector into separated video signals corresponding to scattered-radiation and primary radiation and to scattered-radiation only, respectively. A video signal corresponding to a corrected image is obtained by subtraction of the separated video signals.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention pertains to an x-ray examination apparatus, including an x-ray source, a scattered-radiation grid, an x-ray detector for converting x-ray intensities constituting an x-ray image into a video signal containing information for producing a visible image, which x-ray examination apparatus also includes means for correcting scattered-radiation effects in an x-ray image.
2. Description of the Related Art
An x-ray examination apparatus of said kind is described in the European Patent Application EP 0 358 268.
In the known x-ray examination apparatus, a digital image signal originating from the x-ray detector is converted into an image matrix of intensity values. By convolution of the image matrix with a point spread function a transformed image matrix is formed. A scatter image matrix is formed by multiplication of each matrix element of the transformed image matrix by a weighting factor. For each matrix element of the image matrix a relevant weighting factor is in fact the ratio of a scattered intensity and of a detected intensity. It was recognised in the cited reference that weighting factors are functions of intensity values of the matrix elements of the transformed image matrix. Finally, a corrected image matrix is formed by subtracting matrix elements of the scatter image matrix from corresponding matrix elements of the image matrix.
The x-ray examination apparatus as disclosed in the cited reference has inter alia as a drawback that weighting factors required are co-determined by imaging parameters of the x-ray examination apparatus. Employing a multitude of sets of weighting factors or simple parametrisations of weighting factors yields only a partially satisfactory solution to this problem.

X-ray examination apparatus having means for correcting scattered-radiation effects in an x-ray image


A method and apparatus for creating a bivariate histogram with a plurality of variables using impulse noise data is disclosed. The bivariate histogram describes the joint statistics between at least two of the variables. Also disclosed is an impulse noise monitor (INM) in communication with an impulse noise sensor (INS). The INM receives error data from the INS and creates a bivariate histogram with a plurality of variables using the error data. Included is a method for providing a bivariate histogram with an impulse noise length (IL) and an impulse noise inter-arrival time (IAT) for a plurality of impulse noise events. The IL and the IAT are each measured in integer multiples of discrete multi-tone symbols, and the bivariate histogram is used to determine a minimum impulse noise protection.

Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) technologies, such as Asymmetric DSL (ADSL) and Very High Speed DSL (VDSL), provide a large amount of communication bandwidth using existing twisted-pair telephone subscriber lines. When transmitting data over the subscriber lines, DSL technologies typically use a Discrete Multi-Tone (DMT) line code that assigns a number of bits to each tone or sub-carrier. The DMT may be adjusted to various channel conditions that may occur during training and initialization of the modems at each end of a subscriber line.
Data signals transmitted over subscriber lines may be significantly degraded by impulse noise interferences generated by external sources. For example, refrigerators, hairdryers, dimmers, and other electrical equipment at the customer premises generate impulse noises when they are turned on or draw additional power. The electrical interference generated by these impulse noise events may cause burst errors in the DSL data transmissions. To ensure reliable data transmission, the various DSL specifications define certain levels of impulse noise protection (INP). Higher INP levels provide lower error rates, but at the cost of reduced transmission rates.

Bivariate histogram for impulse noise monitor


The invention relates to a multi-stage charging device for a battery of a battery operated electrical motor. The multistage charging device comprises a buck converter, an intermediate circuit and a boost converter in order to generate a suitable direct charging current from a (one or three-phase) alternating current provided by a power connection. According to the invention, components of the electrical drive are used for the boost converter and the intermediate circuit: the electrical motor functions as an intermediate circuit and the drive converter functions as a boost converter. According to the invention, the coupling of the electrical motor to the network-side buck converter occurs so that at least half the charging current flows through at least one of the at least three coils of the electrical drive. The invention further relates to a corresponding method and to a corresponding use of the drive components.

The present invention relates to a method and a device for charging a battery of an electric drive using components of the electric drive.
Electric drives are frequently supplied with energy by batteries or accumulators. Such batteries typically provide a DC voltage, which are frequently converted into an AC voltage with the aid of a drive converter or a DC/AC converter for operating the electric drive. The electric drive then converts the electric energy, for example, into a rotary motion or the like.
To charge these batteries, charging devices are often used which are independent of the drive and are implemented with the aid of separate electrical components. In electrically driven vehicles, the charging devices are often integrated into the vehicles in such a way that the vehicles must simply be connected to an electrical power supply network with the aid of electrical plug connections or the like. The bulk of the charging electronics is thus, for example, integrated into the vehicle.
If an AC voltage is provided by the power supply network, this AC voltage must be converted by the charging device into a DC voltage which is suitable for charging the battery. To implement charging devices of this kind, multistage circuit structures are therefore often used which, for example, may include a line filter, a step-down converter, an intermediate circuit, and a step-up converter.
In this context, when implementing a battery charging device, it is known from the publication WO 2010/103063 A1 to use the drive converter of the electric drive instead of a step-up converter provided specifically for the charging device, and to use the inductors of the electrical motor instead of an intermediate storage provided specifically for the charging device.

Method and device for charging a battery of an electrical drive using components of the electrical drive


A method for creating a high density electronic module including the steps of coupling a die to an interposer for form a chipset, mounting the chipset to a substrate, coupling a wafer to the substrate so that the chipset is within a window formed in the wafer, filling the window with encapsulant to encapsulate the chipset, removing the substrate to create a reconstructed wafer, and providing an interconnection structure on the interposer to form the high density electronic module.

High density electronic modules have been designed and fabricated to satisfy the increasing demand for high levels of functionality in small packages. Products that may be made from the modules include memory, digital logic, processing devices, and analog RF circuits, sensors, and the like.
Conventional fabrications of electronic modules can incorporate a chipset (e.g., a chip and a corresponding interposer) via surface mounting technology (SMT). The interposer is an electrical interface for routing between one socket or connection to another. The purpose of an interposer is to spread a connection to a wider pitch or to reroute a connection to a different connection. A chipset can be mounted to a printed circuit board (PCB). However, surface mounting the chipset to a PCB results in a non-planar topology and fails to include front-to-back electrical connections thereby limiting three dimensional stacking.
Other fabrication techniques include removing the interposer from the chipset and mounting the remaining chip directly to an embedded wafer level package (eWLP) module. However, once the interposer is removed, the complexity of connecting to high density pads that remain on the chip is a tedious process and can prove time consuming, costly, and even damaging if improper connections are made.

Method for embedding a chipset having an intermediary interposer in high density electronic modules

The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Inc.


A towing device for towing a motorcycle comprising a base having a first end that slides horizontally into a receiver hitch of the vehicle; a platform extending outwardly from a second end of the base; an arc-shaped cradle for cradling a front wheel of the motorcycle; the cradle is divided into a front portion attached atop the platform and a ramp pivotally attached to the front portion of the cradle via a hinge, the ramp'can pivot to an up position and a down position, wherein the down position allows the front wheel of the motorcycle to be rolled into the front portion of the cradle, the ramp can be secured in the up position via a securing means; and a side support component extending upwardly from the platform, the side support component functions to support the front wheel of the motorcycle when in the cradle.

A variety of motorcycle towing devices have been designed previously. The present invention features a novel towing device for motorcycles. The towing device of the present invention is compact and very easy to use.
Any feature or combination of features described herein are included within the scope of the present invention provided that the features included in any such combination are not mutually inconsistent as will be apparent from the context, this specification, and the knowledge of one of ordinary skill in the art. Additional advantages and aspects of the present invention are apparent in the following detailed description and claims.


A rolling or convoluted boot for a constant velocity universal joint has at least one pressure balancing aperture (19, 19a) located in a pressure balancing region (13, 13a). When the shaft (12) is in a stationary position, the pressure balancing region (13) tightly adjoining the shaft (12), during shaft rotation, the pressure balancing region radially lifts off the shaft as a function of the speed or pressure differential. Thus, the boot balances pressure between the joint space and the surrounding atmosphere.

The invention relates to a rolling or convoluted boot for a constant velocity universal joint. The constant velocity joint includes an outer joint part and an internal inner joint part with a rotatable shaft. A joint space is formed between the boot and joint parts. The space is sealed towards the outside by the rolling or convoluted boot. Pressure is balanced between the joint space and the surrounding atmosphere by the boot.
Constant velocity universal joints transmit torque in the drive shafts of motor vehicles engine-driven amphibian vehicles and machinery. The joints include a permanent amount of lubricating grease. The joint space is sealed by a convoluted or rolling boot whose purpose is to prevent escape of lubricant and entrance of foreign particles, such as dust or water.
As a result of the heat caused by friction in the course of the operation of the joint, the joint temperature increases, which, in turn, causes an increase in the pressure in the joint space sealed by the convoluted or rolling boot. This increase in pressure leads to boot deformation and, in extreme cases, to the destruction of the boot. To prevent destruction, it is essential to accurately balance the pressure between the joint space and the surrounding atmosphere. Normally, this pressure balance is achieved via an axially extending, permanently open channel. The channel is integrated into the small boot diameter and extends between the boot and the shaft. Such a pressure balancing assembly has proved itself. However, with wading or amphibian vehicles and with road vehicles driving on wet surfaces, there is a risk that as a result of the permanently open aperture, water or dirt may enter into the joint space.
It is the object of the present invention to provide a rolling or convoluted boot for constant velocity universal joints of the initially mentioned type in which a pressure balancing aperture may be closed. According to a first solution, the objective is achieved by a rolling or convoluted boot with at least one pressure balancing aperture located in a pressure balancing region. The pressure balancing region is adapted to be tightly adjoining the shaft when the shaft is at rest, and to lift off radially during shaft rotation as a function of the rotational speed or being supported by a pressure differential between the sealed area and the ambient pressure. An equivalent second solution provides the rolling or convoluted boot with at least one pressure balancing aperture located in a pressure balancing region, with a tightly adjoining sealing element adapted to lift off the shaft during shaft rotation as a function of the speed or being supported by a pressure differential between the sealed area and the ambient pressure. The sealing element is pulled over, or integrally formed with the pressure balancing region.
By introducing these measures it is possible to provide a constant velocity universal joint in which, at low joint speed occurring when the vehicle wades or drives through off-highway territory or is completely stationary, e.g. when the vehicle is afloat, the pressure balancing region tightly rests against and seals the shaft. At higher speeds which occur under normal road conditions the centrifugal force of the boot increases and the sealing element and the boot or the sealing element is lifted off the shaft in its pressure balancing region. At the same time, the centrifugal force prevents water spray or foreign particles from entering the joint space. These measures in accordance with the invention are not restricted to being applied to constant velocity universal joints; they may be applied to all rotating shafts which are surrounded by a boot and which require pressure balancing measures.
In order to ensure that the pressure balancing apertures open and close without fail and as a function of the joint speed and pressure differential without being adversely affected by the grease filling, it is proposed that the pressure balancing region be located axially adjoining the boot fixing region. In the case of the first solution, the pressure balancing region itself effects opening and closing, whereas in the second solution, opening and closing is effected exclusively by the sealing element.
The sealing element functions independently of the boot design and may therefore be used for joints fitted with a convoluted boot and for joints fitted with a rolling boot. It is irrelevant whether the sealing element is connected to the convoluted or rolling boot by a tensioning strip or whether it is a fixed part of the boots. It is advantageous for replacement that the sealing element be designed as a separate component.
From the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and subjoined claims, other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art.

Rolling or convoluted boot for a constant velocity universal joint with pressure balance being ensured in the joint space


A discontinuous fiber-reinforced composite material including a discontinuous reinforcing fiber aggregate of a discontinuous reinforcing fiber having a number average fiber length of 3 to 100 mm and a matrix resin, the discontinuous reinforcing fiber aggregate including a plurality of discontinuous reinforcing fiber bundles having a predetermined number of unidirectionally-bundled single yarns of the discontinuous reinforcing fiber, wherein the discontinuous reinforcing fiber bundle has a cut surface inclined at a predetermined angle with respect to an orientation direction of the single yarn of the discontinuous reinforcing fiber bundle and has different fiber bundle lengths defined as a distance between both ends along the orientation direction of the single yarn of the discontinuous reinforcing fiber bundle, and the longer the fiber bundle length of the discontinuous reinforcing fiber bundle is, the smaller a tip angle defined as an acute angle at an end of a two-dimensional plane projection of the discontinuous reinforcing fiber bundle is.

A fiber-reinforced composite material comprising matrix resin and reinforcing fibers has been increasingly used to produce various shaped products in various fields year by year because of its high mechanical properties.
A composite material comprising carbon fibers specifically having excellent performance among reinforcing fibers can generally be formed by an autoclave molding method in which semi-hardened intermediate base materials called "prepreg" made by impregnating continuous carbon fibers with matrix resin are laminated to be heated and pressurized with high-temperature and high-pressure pot to harden the matrix resin of a continuous fiber-reinforced composite material. Recently, for the purpose of improvement of the production efficiency, RTM (Resin Transfer Molding) method in which continuous fiber base material preformed in a shape of member in advance is impregnated with matrix resin to be cured has been employed. The carbon fiber composite materials provided by those molding methods have excellent mechanical properties derived from continuous fibers. The continuous fiber having a regular layout and a small variation of mechanical properties can be designed to have necessary mechanical properties by placement of the base material. However, a complicated shape having a three-dimensional shape or the like cannot easily be formed with continuous fibers while a member in a flat shape can easily be formed.
Complicated shapes such as three-dimensional shapes can be formed with an SMC (Sheet Molding Compound) or a stampable sheet. SMC shaped product may be prepared by heating and pressurizing a semi-hardened sheet-like base material (SMC) by using a heating type pressing machine, wherein the sheet-like base material is made by impregnating the chopped strands made by cutting carbon fiber strands into 25 mm of fiber length with thermosetting matrix resin. The stampable sheet shaped product may be prepared by cooling and pressurizing a sheet-like base material (stampable sheet) in a mold at a predetermined temperature after heating the sheet-like base material by using an infrared heater or the like above the melting point of the thermoplastic resin, wherein the sheet-like base material is made by impregnating chopped strands cut into about 25 mm or a nonwoven fabric mat or the like with thermoplastic resin.
In many cases, SMC and stampable sheet cut into a size smaller than that of the product shape before pressurization are placed on a mold and drawn out (as being flowed) in the form of shaped product by pressurization to perform molding. Therefore, it is able to follow a complicated shape such as three-dimensional shapes by the flow. However, the nonwoven fabric mat or chopped strand might have uneven distribution and uneven orientation in the process of making a sheet of SMC or stampable sheet to decrease or vary the mechanical property. The uneven distribution and uneven orientation might cause a sink mark, warping or the like, specifically for a thin member.
To reduce the defects of the material described above, for example, WO 08/149615 discloses chopped fiber bundle and its molding material having a section in which the number of reinforcing fibers increases in the orientation direction of the reinforcing fibers toward the center of the chopped fiber bundle from starting points at both ends of the reinforcing fibers in the orientation direction, although sufficient study has not been accomplished about arbitrarily changing the cutting angle according to length of reinforcing fiber bundle.
Accordingly, it could be helpful to provide a discontinuous fiber-reinforced composite material that can achieve both high fluidity and high mechanical characteristics during molding at a level higher than that could be achieved with a conventional fiber-reinforced composite material comprising reinforcing fiber and matrix resin so that excellent uniformity of fiber-reinforced composite material, excellent flow-molding fluidity and excellent mechanical characteristics are achieved.

Discontinuous fiber-reinforced composite material


The present invention relates to a refillable tape cassette for accomodating a supply of printable tape. In order to avoid the need for different tape cassettes for different tape widths the tape cassette is capable of selectively housing supplies of tapes of different widths. Alternatively or additionally, the tape cassette can have a housing comprising a base on which the tape supply can be releasably fixed, and a lid fixed to the base, wherein the lid is pivotally mounted to the base by means of a hinge, Further, according to the invention, the windings of refill tape units are held together by means of a strip of adhesive or by means of wax on the axial ends of the units, or by scuffing the backing layer of an image receiving tape which is broader than the image receiving layer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cassette for a tape printer.
2. Background Art
Known tape printing apparatus of the type with which the present invention is generally concerned are disclosed in published European Patent Applications EP-A-0 322 918 and EP-A-0 322 919 (Brother KK) and EP-A-0 267 890 (Varitronic). The printers each include a printing device having a cassette receiving bay for receiving a cassette or tape holding case. In EP-A-0 322 918, the tape holding case houses an ink ribbon, a transparent image receiving tape and a double-sided adhesive tape which is secured at one of its adhesive coated sides to the image tape after printing and which has a backing paper peelable from its other adhesive side. With both these apparatus, the image transfer medium (ink ribbon) and an image receiving tape (substrate) are in the same cassette.
The present invention was developed as a different type of tape printing apparatus which is described for example in U.S. Pat. No. 5,456,545. In this printing apparatus, the substrate tape is similar to that described in EP-A-0 267 890 (ie. comprises an image receiving layer and a releasable backing layer) but is housed in its own tape holding case while the image transfer ink ribbon is similarly housed in its own tape holding case.
In all of these cases, the image receiving tape passes in an overlap manner with the ink ribbon to a print zone consisting of a fixed print head and a platen against which the print head can be pressed to cause an image to transfer from the ink ribbon to the image receiving tape. There are many ways of doing this, including dry lettering or dry film impression, but the most usual way at present is by thermal printing where the print head is heated and the heat causes ink from the ink ribbon to be transferred to the ink receiving tape. Alternatively, the print head may be in direct contact with a thermally sensitive image receiving tape whereby when the print head is heated, an image is defined on the image receiving tape.
A disadvantage of the known tape cassettes is that once the supply of tape housed in the cassette is printed, the user needs to buy an entirely new cassette, while the empty cassette is discarded. In order to avoid wastage of material, it has thus been proposed to have refillable cassettes, into which the user can insert new printing tape and/or ink ribbon. Such cassettes are described eg. in European Patent Applications EP-A-0 625 427, EP-A-0 629 509, EP-A-0 630 756, EP-A-0 633 141, EP-A-0 635 375, EP-A-0 694 415, EP-A-0 704 311, EP-A-0 734 878, EP-A-0 790 134, and German Patent DE-U-295 20 421.
Such cassettes allow the user to use one tape cassette with a multiplicity of image receiving tapes and/or image transfer tapes (ink ribbon). A disadvantage is however that the refillable cassettes known in the prior art only allow inserting certain width of tape. Thus, a user needs a relatively high number of tape cassettes, since this number equals the number of different tape width which are intended to be used.