A heat-developable photosensitive material includes at least a photosensitive silver halide particle, a nonphotonsensitive organic silver salt, a developing accelerator, a reducing agent and a binder on a support, wherein the photosensitive silver halide includes silver iodide at 5 mol % to 100 mol % and the average particle size of the photosensitive silver halide is 5 nm to 80 nm. A heat developing method for the heat-developable photosensitive material is also disclosed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a heat-developable photosensitive material and an image forming method using the photosensitive material, and particularly to a heat-developable photosensitive material suitable for medical diagnosis, industrial photographs, and COM, and to a heat developing method using the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, there has been a strong desire for decreasing the amount of waste from the viewpoint of environmental protection and space saving in the medical diagnosis film fields and photographic plate-making film fields. As a result, technologies for heat-developable photosensitive materials that are used for medical diagnosis films and photographic plate-making films, which can be efficiently exposed using a laser-image setter or a laser imager, and can form a distinct black image having high resolution and definition, are required. According to the heat-developable photosensitive material, a heat developing system which requires no solution type processing chemical, and which is simple and does not damage the environment, can be supplied to customers.
Though in the general field for image forming materials there is the demand, images for medical diagnosis especially require high image qualities having excellent definition and granularity, because fine drawings are required for medical diagnosis. Further, images having a cold black tone tend to be preferred from the viewpoint of medical diagnostic easiness. At present, a variety of hard copy systems utilizing pigments and dyes such as ink jet printers and electrophotographs are distributed as general image forming systems. However, none of these systems is satisfactory as the output system of medical images.
On the other hand, a heat image forming system utilizing an organic silver salt is described in, for example, respective specifications of U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,152,904 and 3,457,075 and in B. Shely, "Thermally Processed Silver Systems" (Imaging Processes and Materials), Neblette, No. 8 edition, edited by J. Sturge, V. Walworth and A. Shepp, page 2, 1996.
Particularly, a heat-developable photosensitive material generally has a photosensitive layer comprising a reducing agent, a reducible silver salt (e.g., organic silver salts), a photocatalyst (e.g., silver halide), in an amount to be active as a catalyst, and as required, a color tone controlling agent for controlling the tone of the silver. These materials are dispersed in a binder matrix in the layer. The heat-developable photosensitive material is heated at a high temperature (for example, 80° C. or more) after image exposure, and a silver image having a black color is formed by an oxidation-reduction reaction between the reducible silver salt (functions as an oxidizer) and the reducing agent. The oxidation-reduction reaction is facilitated by the catalytic action of a silver halide latent image generated by exposure. Accordingly, the silver image having a black color is formed in the exposed region. The heat-developable photosensitive material is disclosed in many documents such as U.S. Pat. No. 2,910,377 and Japanese Patent Application Publication (JP-B) No. 43-4924. Further, the Fuji Medical Dry Imager FM-DP L, which is a medical image forming system using a heat-developable photosensitive material, has been put on the market.
In a heat type image forming system utilizing an organic silver salt, there is a method in which production is carried out by applying a solvent, and a method in which production is carried out by applying a coating solution containing polymer fine particles comprised as a main binder and dispersed in water, followed by drying. The latter method does not require the steps of recovering the solvent and the like. Therefore, production equipment for the latter method is simple, and the method is advantageous for mass-production.
The image forming system utilizing an organic silver salt does not include a fixing step. Therefore, the system has a large problem concerning image preserving ability after developing, particularly, concerning deterioration of the printout when exposed to light after development. As a method for improving deterioration of the printout, a method utilizing AgI, which is formed by converting an organic silver salt, is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,143,488 and EP No. 0,922,995. However, such a method in which the organic silver salt is converted using iodine as disclosed in the above cannot obtain sufficient sensitivity and it is difficult to form an actual system.
In addition, there are descriptions concerning photosensitive materials utilizing AgI in WO 97-48014, WO 97-48015, U.S. Pat. No. 6,165,705, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 8-297345, Japanese Patent No. 2785129 and the like. However, none of these photosensitive materials can attain a sufficient level of sensitivity and fogging and is fit for practical use as a photosensitive material to be exposed with a laser. Therefore, the development of a method in which a silver halide containing a large content of silver iodide can be used has been desired.

Heat-developable photosensitive material and heat-developing method using the same


An optical device includes a carrier that holds a specimen and has a reference mark, an image capturing means that picks up the image of the specimen and the reference mark formed by an objective lens, a moving mechanism that moves the relative positional relation between the carrier and the objective lens, divides the imaging region into a plurality of regions so that adjacent regions partially overlap each other to enable the image of the specimen and the reference mark in each region to be captured by the image capturing means, and an image processing section that composites images of the plurality of regions captured by the image capturing means so as to match the same reference marks appearing on the overlapping portions.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical device such as a microscope system and an imaging method that can correctly generate a single image without incongruity from a plurality of divided observed images.
Priority is claimed on Japanese Patent Application No. 2003-401429, filed Dec. 1, 2003, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference, and Japanese Patent Application No. 2004-101603, filed Mar. 31, 2004, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of Related Art
Gene sequences of many living organisms, including humans, are now known due to recent advances in gene sequencing technology. In addition, the causal connections between gene products such as sequenced proteins and diseases are slowly beginning to be understood. Furthermore, various visualization methods and devices employing cells are beginning to be conceived for exhaustive and statistical analysis of proteins, genes, etc. In particular, to perform such analysis, it is necessary to obtain desired information while cultivating cells over a long period. Doing so requires an apparatus that allows incubation and observation of cells under a microscope.
One such apparatus is known that uses a transparent thermostatic incubator for microscopy (for example, see paragraphs 0004 to 0007 and FIGS. 1 to 4 of Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. H10-28576).
This transparent thermostatic incubator for microscopy (hereafter, simply referred to as an incubator) is constituted to allow the setting of various incubation conditions for cells. For this purpose, the incubator has a pair of transparent exothermic plates, a carbon dioxide supply port and a carbon dioxide exhaust port, and an evaporation dish. Here, the temperatures of the transparent exothermic plates can be controlled to predetermined values by a thermostat. The carbon dioxide supply port and exhaust port control the carbon dioxide gas concentration in the space. The evaporation dish maintains the humidity in the hermetically sealed container.
In observations using the incubator, the temperature, carbon dioxide gas concentration and humidity in the container can be controlled, thereby enabling observation during cell culturing. Specifically, changes in the cell incubation state over time can be observed, for example, from the lower side of the transparent exothermic plates by observation with an objective lens.
Another cell observation method is fluorescence imaging. In particular, the liposome method, gene gun method and microinjection method, etc., are methods of observing fluorescence in a living material.
With these methods, technology for observing dynamic changes in cells and the like in which genes have been introduced has made rapid strides. In recent years, with the striking progress of green fluorescent protein, techniques of continuous fluorescence observation under a microscope of temporal and spatial changes in the subject of observation are attracting attention. The aforementioned subject of observation includes various behavior of materials in organelles in living cells and proteins.
When employing such observation methods, the need arises for high-resolution and wide-field observation of fluorescence from a microarray. This microarray comprises a large number of spots, ranging from several hundred to several tens of thousands, on a plastic or glass dish, plate or slide glass. During observation, this microarray is disposed in the incubator.
When observing a specimen with a microscope, the field that can be observed at one time is primarily determined by the magnification of the objective lens. Therefore, the higher the magnification of the objective lens, the narrower the field of view, which restricts the observed field to only a small portion of the sample. Until now, for example, microscopic image outputting methods (for example, see page 3, upper right column, line 5, to page 6, upper left column, line 6, and FIGS. 1 to 4 of Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. H03-209415) and methods based on microscopic systems (for example, see sections 0015 to 0087, and FIGS. 1 to 13 of Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. H09-281405) have been known as methods for obtaining a high resolution and wide field microscopic image.
In these microscopic image outputting methods, scanning is performed by changing the relative positional relationship between the stage on which the specimen is mounted and the illumination, and partial images dividing the imaging region into a plurality of regions are recorded. Then, the partial images are composited so as to be tiled to produce an image of the entire specimen.
Methods based on microscope systems are methods of reconstructing an entire image of a specimen by image compositing. First, the entire specimen is divided into small regions so as to have a plurality of mutually overlapping portions. Then, the image of each small region is captured with a microscope, and detection of positional deviations is performed by comparing the overlapping portions of each captured image. The images are then composited after correcting the position of the image of each small region based on these positional deviations. In this way, a wide-field high-definition image of the specimen is produced.


Step S1 is carried out to lower, at the beginning of erasing operation, a voltage across a drain of a memory cell below a positive voltage applied to a source for erasing and then step S2 is carried out to open the drain. At the beginning of the erasing operation, step S3 is carried out to apply the positive voltage to the source and then step S3-1 is carried out to apply a negative voltage to a gate. To complete the erasing operation, step S4 is carried out to force the gate to be at the ground level and then the source to be at the ground level.

The present invention relates to a method and a device for erasing a non-volatile semiconductor memory. The erasing method and device of the present invention is particularly suitable for a semiconductor memory such as a flash EEPROM that carries out write-in operation by using hot electron injection and is erased by FN (Fowler-Nordheim) tunneling.
Electrically erasable and programmable read-only memories (EEPROMs) are well known as an example of the non-volatile semiconductor memory. In the non-volatile semiconductor memories of the type described, a plurality of memory cells form a memory cell array. Each memory cell has a floating gate that is electrically insulated between a control gate of an MOS transistor and a silicon substrate.
Electrons trapped in the floating gates in the non-volatile semiconductor memory can be discharged by applying a zero voltage or a negative voltage and a positive voltage (e.g., +12 V) for electron discharge to the control gate and a source, respectively, with a drain of the memory cell being in a floating state. A high electrical field is generated from the source of the memory cell toward the floating gate, providing an FN (Fowler-Nordheim) current from the source of the memory cell to the floating gate. As is well known in the art, electrons travel in the opposite direction to electrical current does. Thus the electrons are discharged from the floating gate. The positive voltage is generally supplied through a source voltage control circuit for the electron discharge applied to the source of the memory cell for the electron discharge operation.
Examples of memory erase operation for such non-volatile semiconductor memories are disclosed in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,077,691 (hereinafter, referred to as a first conventional example) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,485,423 (hereinafter, referred to as a second conventional example). Briefly, the first conventional example opens a drain (column line) of a memory cell during erase operation. A positive voltage (e.g., +5 V) and a negative voltage (e.g., -12 V) are applied to a source and a gate, respectively, of the memory cell to erase data. The second conventional example opens a drain of a memory cell during erase operation. A constant positive voltage (e.g., +5 V) is applied to a source of the memory cell. Simultaneously, a negative step-shaped voltage that is gradually decreased is applied to a gate of the memory cell.
If the drain in the first conventional example is opened with the column line carrying the voltage, a ratio of capacity (across the gate and the source) varies partially (line by line) increasing erase variation upon the erase operation due to the residual voltage. In addition, the timing to apply the voltage across the gate and the source may change operation mode into a channel erase mode.
The second conventional example has the effect of reducing the electrical field across a tunnel film. However, this second conventional example has the following drawbacks. The negative step-shaped voltage that is gradually decreased is controlled according to a time during which it is applied to, without detecting the voltage actually applied across the gate. The effect of the reduction of the electrical field thus depends on an erase rate, which is not considered to be sufficient. In addition, the problem of the erase variation is not solved as in the first conventional example.

Method and device for erasing non-volatile semiconductor memory with smaller erase variation


The present invention provides a configuration to improve a heat-radiating effect of an optical subassembly having a co-axial package and a plurality of lead pins arranged in an arrayed shape. The heat generated inside the subassembly may be dissipated through the heat-radiating fin attached to a flat surface, not a curved side surface of the subassembly such that the lead pins provided in the subassembly pass through the slot provided in the heat-radiating fin. The heat-radiating fin has a slab portion attached to the cover of the transceiver, when the subassembly is installed within the transceiver. Thus, the heat generated in the subassembly can be easily and effectively dissipated to the cover.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical assembly (hereinafter denoted as OSA), in particular, to configuration for heat dissipation thereof that installs a device generating a large heat.
2. Related Prior Art
The OSA installs an optical semiconductor device therein. A semiconductor laser diode and a semiconductor photodiode are well known as the optical semiconductor device. The OSA installing the laser diode is called as a transmitting optical sub-assembly (TOSA), while the OSA installing the photodiode is called as a receiving optical sub-assembly (ROSA). Recently, as the tramsmission speed of the optical communication increases, the optical semiconductor device must be operated in high speed, which inevitably enhances the heat dissipation of the semiconductor device. Therefore, the TOSA or the ROSA should require the configuration by which the heat generated thereof effectively dissipates to the outside of the TOSA or the ROSA.
United States patent application published as US 20030021310A1 has disclosed various configurations for the heat dissipation of the OSA with a co-axial shape. FIG. 1 of this application has illustrated a radiating fin 140 having an opening mating with the stem of the OSA. The radiating fin 140 is extended from the header 104 and attached to the heat sink 146. FIG. 3 of this application has illustrated another arrangement in which a member 306, fitting to the outer shape of the stem 312, touches thereto in one end thereof, and the other end is extended from the stem 312 and attached to the heat sink 304. Further, a metal member 404 surrounding the stem 410 directly touches the heat sink 406 in FIG. 4 of this application.
Generally, the OSA is used as one of components for an optical data link or an optical transceiver. The arrangement of the heat dissipation of the OSA should take the structure of the data link or the optical transceiver into account. Moreover, from the material point of view, a cost saving material such as alloy of copper and tungsten (CuW) should be avoided even if such material has good thermal conductivity.
Based on the background described above, one object of the present invention is to provide an OSA and an optical transceiver using the OSA with an effective heat dissipating arrangement and without using a cost ineffective material.

Optical subassembly with a heat-radiating fin and an optical transceiver installing the same


A system and method includes obtaining and storing video frames from a series of video frames on a computer readable storage device, calculating probability estimates for target locations in each frame for targets in a constrained environment, and determining candidate target locations in each frame.

Target tracking is utilized in scene understanding/situation awareness systems. Often, a sensor providing target location information for such system is a video camera. Examples of such systems are video surveillance systems used for safety, security, person or asset tracking and others. Ordinary algorithms providing video based target tracking are based on Kalman filtering or particle filtering or related methods.

Vision based target tracking for constrained environments


A resist composition comprising a base polymer and a sulfonium or iodonium salt capable of generating a brominated benzene-containing sulfonic acid offers a high sensitivity, minimal LWR and improved CDU independent of whether it is of positive or negative tone.

To meet the demand for higher integration density and operating speed of LSIs, the effort to reduce the pattern rule is in rapid progress. The wide-spreading flash memory market and the demand for increased storage capacities drive forward the miniaturization technology. As the advanced miniaturization technology, manufacturing of microelectronic devices at the 65-nm node by the ArF lithography has been implemented in a mass scale. Manufacturing of 45-nm node devices by the next generation ArF immersion lithography is approaching to the verge of high-volume application. The candidates for the next generation 32-nm node include ultra-high NA lens immersion lithography using a liquid having a higher refractive index than water in combination with a high refractive index lens and a high refractive index resist film, EUV lithography of wavelength 13.5 nm, and double patterning version of the ArF lithography, on which active research efforts have been made.
As the pattern feature size is reduced, approaching to the diffraction limit of light, light contrast lowers. In the case of positive resist film, a lowering of light contrast leads to reductions of resolution and focus margin of hole and trench patterns. For mitigating the influence of reduced resolution of resist pattern due to a lowering of light contrast, an attempt is made to enhance the dissolution contrast of resist film.
Chemically amplified resist compositions comprising an acid generator capable of generating an acid upon exposure to light or EB include chemically amplified positive resist compositions wherein deprotection reaction takes place under the action of acid and chemically amplified negative resist compositions wherein crosslinking reaction takes place under the action of acid. Quenchers are often added to these resist compositions for the purpose of controlling the diffusion of the acid to unexposed areas to improve the contrast. The addition of quenchers is fully effective to this purpose. A number of amine quenchers were proposed as disclosed in Patent Documents 1 to 3.
With respect to the acid labile group used in (meth)acrylate polymers for the ArF lithography, deprotection reaction takes place when a photoacid generator capable of generating a sulfonic acid having fluorine substituted at α-position (referred to "α-fluorinated sulfonic acid") is used, but not when an acid generator capable of generating a sulfonic acid not having fluorine substituted at α-position (referred to "α-non-fluorinated sulfonic acid") or carboxylic acid is used. If a sulfonium or iodonium salt capable of generating an α-fluorinated sulfonic acid is combined with a sulfonium or iodonium salt capable of generating an α-non-fluorinated sulfonic acid, the sulfonium or iodonium salt capable of generating an α-non-fluorinated sulfonic acid undergoes ion exchange with the α-fluorinated sulfonic acid. Through the ion exchange, the α-fluorinated sulfonic acid thus generated by light exposure is converted back to the sulfonium or iodonium salt while the sulfonium or iodonium salt of an α-non-fluorinated sulfonic acid or carboxylic acid functions as a quencher.
Further, the sulfonium or iodonium salt capable of generating an α-non-fluorinated sulfonic acid also functions as a photodegradable quencher since it loses the quencher function by photodegradation. Non-Patent Document 1 points out that the addition of a photodegradable quencher expands the margin of a trench pattern although the structural formula is not illustrated. However, it has only a little influence on performance improvement. There is a desire to have a quencher for further improving contrast.
Patent Document 4 discloses a quencher of onium salt type which reduces its basicity through a mechanism that it generates an amino-containing carboxylic acid upon light exposure, which in turn forms a lactam in the presence of acid. Due to the mechanism that basicity is reduced under the action of acid, acid diffusion is controlled by high basicity in the unexposed region where the amount of acid generated is minimal, whereas acid diffusion is promoted due to reduced basicity of the quencher in the overexposed region where the amount of acid generated is large. This expands the difference in acid amount between the exposed and unexposed regions, from which an improvement in contrast is expected. Despite the advantage of improved contrast, the acid diffusion controlling effect is rather reduced.
As the pattern feature size is reduced, the edge roughness (LWR) of line patterns and the critical dimension uniformity (CDU) of hole patterns are regarded significant. It is pointed out that these factors are affected by the segregation or agglomeration of a base polymer and acid generator and the diffusion of generated acid. There is a tendency that as the resist film becomes thinner, LWR becomes greater. A film thickness reduction to comply with the progress of size reduction causes a degradation of LWR, which becomes a serious problem.
The EUV lithography resist must meet high sensitivity, high resolution and low LWR at the same time. As the acid diffusion distance is reduced, LWR is reduced, but sensitivity becomes lower. For example, as the PEB temperature is lowered, the outcome is a reduced LWR, but a lower sensitivity. As the amount of quencher added is increased, the outcome is a reduced LWR, but a lower sensitivity. It is necessary to overcome the tradeoff relation between sensitivity and LWR.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Resist composition and patterning process


Autotrophic nitrogen fixation genes and an autotrophic nitrogenase expression cassette for plants and uses thereof are disclosed. Nitrogenase related genes of nitrogen fixation gene cluster from Paenibacillus sp. are specifically optimized by plant expression patterns through synthetic biology, to obtain autotrophic nitrogen fixation genes, which are then constructed into plant constitutive expression units. The expression units are assembled in a plant expression vector by isocaudarner cloning method and transformed into plants, thereby realizing autotrophic nitrogen fixation of the plants.

Nitrogen is one of the most important components of living cells. 60% of total fixed nitrogen from all natural and industrial sources on the earth comes from biological nitrogen fixation (BNF), that is, N2 in the atmosphere is converted to NH3. However, BNF only occurs in a limited species of bacteria and archaea.
Plants cannot directly use N2 in the atmosphere. Dependence of crop growth on N2 has led to build many nitrogen fertilizer manufacturing plants in the world to meet its growth requirements, while only approximately 50% of the nitrogen fertilizer applied is used by plants, excessive nitrogen fertilizer has caused surface and groundwater pollution and soil acidification around the world, thereby endangering human health and sustainable agricultural development.
Scientists have always dreamed of cultivate plants that can be nitrogen-self-sufficient/semi-self-sufficient. With development of biotechnology, possibility of creating plants capable of authigenic nitrogen fixation has become increasingly clear. Currently, there are following two methods are mainly used for cultivating authigenic nitrogen-fixing plants.
The first method is through symbiotic interaction between non-legumes and nitrogen-fixing bacteria, so that the non-legumes form rhizobia that the same in legumes, then a symbiotic nitrogen fixation systems between the rhizobia and the legumes are formed by steps of: mutual recognition of the rhizobia to plants, successful infection of the rhizobia, formation of bacteroids, and establishment of relationship between nodulation and nitrogen fixation.
Therefore, at least three problems need to be solved to achieve symbiotic nitrogen fixation in the non-legumes: (1) the non-legumes should have signal transduction genes that recognize nodulation factors, (2) rhizobia should establish a stable interaction with plants, and (3) an anaerobic environment for nitrogen fixation is required. A plenty of evidence shows that the signal transduction genes that coexist with the rhizobia of the legumes are very conserved in non-legumes such as arbuscular plants and cereals. Through evolution, non-rhizobia may be transformed into strains that can initiate nodulation formation and new hosts infection, or can improve nodulation ability of the rhizobia. However, due to complexity of plant-microbe interactions, this method is extremely difficult to implement, and interaction mechanism between plants and azotobacter and their symbiotic characteristics must be fully revealed.
The second method is to directly introduce bacterial nitrogen fixation genes into plants, so that the plants express nitrogenase and fix nitrogen, and the nitrogenase further catalyzes nitrogen into ammonia.
It is known that the nitrogenase is composed of two components: one is an Fe protein containing a γ2 homodimer, and the other is a MoFe protein involving an α2β2 heterotetramer. Where the Fe protein is encoded by nifH, and the MoFe protein is encoded by nifDK. In addition to the genes for these two structural proteins, a dozen other nif genes are extremely conserved in free-living and symbiotic diazotrophs for the processing of nitrogenase metalloclusters and catalytic stability (nifMZ, nifW and nifUS) and the synthesis of a specific Mo cofactor (FeMo-co) bound to the MoFe protein (nifB, nifQ, nifENX and nifV), and so on.
Few studies have attempted to express the nitrogenase in plants. Ivleva et al. discloses that nifH and nifM genes are expressed in tobacco chloroplasts, and an active Fe protein can be detected, indicating that the chloroplasts can be used as a place for expression of the nitrogenase (Ivleva et al., PlosOne 2016, 11: e0160951). Buren et al. find that NifB protein as a cofactor at the active site of the nitrogenase provides a key metal cluster intermediate NifB-co, which can be expressed in tobacco and accumulate as a soluble protein, and participated in FeMo-co synthesis in vitro (Buren et al., Frontiers in Plant Science, 2017, 8: 1567). Allen et al. find that 16 Nif proteins required in the formation of the nitrogenase in Klebsiella pneumoniae can be individually expressed and targeted to mitochondria in tobacco (Allen et al., Frontiers in Plant Science, 2017, 8: 00287).
The minimum number of nif genes required to produce a functional nitrogenase in plants and the optimal expression levels of various genes required to produce a high-efficiency nitrogenase are still unknown. Yang et al. construct fourteen gene systems with five fusion genes such as nifH{hacek over (o)}D{hacek over (o)}K, nifE{hacek over (o)}N˜B, nifU{hacek over (o)}S, nifJ{hacek over (o)}V{hacek over (o)}W and nifF{hacek over (o)}M{hacek over (o)}Y; which exhibit 72% nitrogenase activity, and an obtained Escherichia coli transformants could use N2 as the sole nitrogen source and grow slowly (Yang et al., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2018, 115: 8509-8517). Yang et al. also construct a minimal FeFe nitrogenase system including 10 proteins required to sustain nitrogen fixation in E. coli (Yang et al., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2014, 111: 3718-3725). Among 10 proteins required by the microbial nitrogen fixation system, the bacterial electron transfer system encoded by nifJ and nifF could be functionally replaced by plant-sourced electron transport chain (Yang et al., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2017, 114: 2460-2465).
In addition, NifU and NifS are involved in the assembly of iron-sulfur cofactors, and can be substituted in the mitochondria of yeast or tobacco. NifV, which catalyzes the formation of homocitrate, may be produced by some eukaryotes. Thus, in theory, as long as six microbial core proteins such as NifB, NifE, NifN, NifH, NifD, and NifK are expressed, a nitrogen-fixing plant could be developed.
Currently, most studies have focused on the expression of nitrogenase in plant mitochondria which contains many oxygen-consuming enzymes to allow oxygen-sensitive enzymes play a role. Expression of Nif protein in the mitochondria is a serious challenge because transit peptides that precisely targets protein to the mitochondria may affect accumulation of the Nif protein, the goal of directly introducing nitrogen fixation gene (hereafter referred to as nif, herein the term "nitrogen fixation gene" and "nif" are used interchangeably) into plants has not been achieved.

SHANGHAI ACADEMY OF AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES


A stringed-instrument slide system includes a cylindrical finger ring having an inner diameter sized to be received on a finger of a human hand, and a slide sleeve rotatably engaged to the finger ring. The slide sleeve includes a cylindrical slide sleeve base overlying the finger ring, a semicylindrical slide sleeve body affixed to the slide sleeve base, and a rotational engagement between the slide sleeve and the finger ring.

This invention relates to stringed musical instruments, and, more particularly, to a slide system worn on the fretting hand of the player of a guitar.
In conventional guitar playing, the player holds the guitar and uses the picking hand to pluck or strum the strings and the fretting hand to press appropriate strings against the frets of the instrument to raise or lower their pitch. Alternatively, the player may use the slide hand (which otherwise would be the fretting hand) to contact a solid object to the strings to modify their pitch, instead of pressing the strings against the frets. The solid object, known as a "slide", generally has the effect of a movable fret whose position along the length of the string determines the pitch of the string, but there are important differences. The slide allows a continuous range of sounds to be produced from each string, rather than the fixed sounds obtained when only a fret is used.
Various types of slides which are worn on the slide hand have been developed. These slides usually take the form of a ring or other structure that is worn on one finger of the slide hand, with a projection from the ring which is controllably contacted to the strings to perform the slide function. In a basic form, the slide projection is simply a tube, but this version prevents the player from playing in the conventional manner unless the player stops to remove the slide projection from the finger. More advanced slide implements, which allow the uninterrupted alternating use of the slide and conventional playing, are disclosed in, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,638,525; 3,854,368; 4,817,488; and 5,492,046, whose disclosures are incorporated by reference. In some approaches, the slide is relatively stationary on the hand of the player. In others, as shown in FIGS. 11-16 of the '046 patent, the slide implement may be rotated to different positions around the circumference of the finger to permit the slide implement to be used in various ways or moved out of the way and not used, depending upon the playing requirements of the moment.
While the slides described in the referenced patents and available commercially are operable to various degrees, they all are rather inconvenient to use. The tab 40 found on the slide of the '046 patent aids in rotating the slide implement, but it is somewhat awkward to use during actual playing of the instrument and requires the use of a second finger to effect rotation. Other slides require the use of two fingers to support and stabilize the slide, also reducing the number of fingers available to perform other functions such as damping of the strings.
There is, accordingly, a need for an improved approach to the structure and use of a slide employed in the playing of a stringed instrument. The present invention fulfills this need, and further provides related advantages.

Slide system for a stringed musical instrument


A coated toner transport roll containing a core with a coating thereover of transporting molecules dispersed in a binder and an oxidizing agent selected from the group consisting of ferric chloride and trifluoroacetic acid. These oxidizing agents can be selected in an amount of from about 1 to about 50 weight percent. Also, the coating possesses a relaxation time of from about 0.0099 millisecond to about 3.5 milliseconds, and a residual voltage of from about 1 to about 10 volts.

This invention relates generally to overcoatings for ionographic or electrophotographic imaging and printing apparatuses or machines, and more particularly is directed to an effective overcoating for a donor member, such as a donor roll, preferably with electrodes closely spaced therein to form a toner cloud in the development zone to develop a latent image. The present invention in embodiments is also directed to suitable charge relaxable overcoatings, especially for the toner transport means in, for example, scavengeless or hybrid scavengeless development systems, reference for example U.S. Pat. No. 4,868,600, U.S. Pat. No. 5,172,170, and copending patent applications U.S. Ser. No. 396,153 (now abandoned) and U.S. Ser. No. 724,242, the disclosures of which are totally incorporated herein by reference.
Overcoatings for donor rolls are known which contain a dispersion of conductive particles like carbon black or graphite in a dielectric binder, such as a phenolic resin or fluoropolymer, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,505,573 to Brewington et al. The desired resistivity is achieved by controlling the loading of the conductive material. However, very small changes in the loading of conductive materials near the percolation threshold cause dramatic changes in resistivity. Furthermore, changes in the particle size and shape can cause wide variations in the resistivity at constant weight loading. The desired volume electrical resistivity of the overcoating layer is in the range of from about 10.sup.7 ohm-cm to about 10.sup.13 ohm-cm. Preferably, the electrical resistivity is in the range of 10.sup.9 ohm-cm to about 10.sup.11 ohm-cm. If the resistivity is too low, electrical breakdown of the coating can occur when a voltage is applied to an electrode or material in contact with the overcoating, and resistive heating can cause the formation of holes in the coating. When the resistivity is too high (.about.10.sup.13 ohm-cm), charge accumulation on the surface of the overcoating creates a voltage which changes the electrostatic forces acting on the toner. The dielectric constant of the overcoatings used in the present invention ranges in embodiments from about 3 to about 5, and is preferably about 3. The problem of the sensitivity of the resistivity to the loading of conductive materials in an insulative dielectric binder Is avoided, or minimized with the coatings of the present invention.
Generally, the process of electrophotographic printing includes charging a photoconductive member to a substantially uniform potential so as to sensitize the surface thereof. The charged portion of the photoconductive surface is exposed to a light image of an original document being reproduced. This records an electrostatic latent image on the photoconductive surface. After the electrostatic latent image is recorded on the photoconductive surface, the latent Image is developed with a developer material. Two component and single component developer materials are commonly used. A typical two component developer material comprises magnetic carrier granules having toner particles adhering triboelectrically thereto. A single component developer material typically comprises toner particles. Toner particles are attracted to the latent image forming a toner powder image on the photoconductive surface. The toner powder image is subsequently transferred to a copy sheet. Finally, the toner powder image is heated to permanently fuse it to the copy sheet in image configuration.
Trilevel, highlight color xerography is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,078,929 (Gundlach). This patent discloses trilevel xerography as a means to achieve single-pass highlight color imaging wherein a charge pattern is developed with toner particles of a first and second colors. The toner particles of one of the colors are positively charged and the toner particles of the second color are negatively charged. In one embodiment, the toner particles are presented to the charge pattern by a pair of magnetic brush development systems wherein each system supplies a toner of one color and one charge.
In highlight color xerography, the xerographic contrast on the charge retentive surface or photoreceptor is divided into three levels, rather than two levels as is the situation for conventional xerography. The photoreceptor is charged, typically to -900 volts, and is exposed imagewise, such that one image corresponding to charged image areas (which are subsequently developed by charged-area development, CAD) remains at the full photoreceptor potential (V.sub.cad or V.sub.ddp). The other image is exposed to discharge the photoreceptor to its residual potential, for example V.sub.dad or V.sub.c (typically -100 volts) which corresponds to discharged area images that are subsequently developed by discharged area development (DAD) and the background areas exposed such as to reduce the photoreceptor potential to halfway between the V.sub.cad and V.sub.dad potentials, (typically -500 volts) and is referred to as V.sub.white or V.sub.w. The CAD developer is typically biased about 100 volts closer than V.sub.cad than V.sub.white (about -600 volts), and the DAD developer system is biased about 100 volts closer to V.sub.dad than V.sub.white (about -400 volts).
The viability of printing system concepts such as trilevel and highlight color xerography usually requires development systems that do not scavenge or interact with a previously toned image. Since several known development systems such as conventional magnetic brush development and jumping single component development, interact with the image receiver, a previously toned image will be scavenged by subsequent development, and as these development systems are highly interactive with the image bearing member, there is a need for scavengeless or non-interactive development systems.
Single component development systems can use a donor roll for transporting charged toner to the development nip defined by the donor roll and photoconductive member. The toner is developed on the latent image recorded on the photoconductive member by a combination of mechanical and/or electrical forces. Scavengeless development and jumping development are two types of single component development. In one version of a scavengeless development system, a plurality of electrode wires are closely spaced from the toned donor roll in the development zone. An AC voltage is applied to the wires to generate a toner cloud in the development zone. The electrostatic fields associated with the latent image attract toner from the toner cloud to develop the latent image. In another version of scavengeless development, isolated electrodes are provided within the surface of a donor roll. The application of an AC bias to the electrodes in the development zone causes the generation of a toner cloud. In jumping development, an AC voltage is applied to the donor roll for detaching toner from the donor roll and projecting the toner toward the photoconductive member so that the electrostatic fields associated with the latent image attract the toner to develop the latent image. Single component development systems appear to offer advantages in low cost and design simplicity. However, the achievement of high reliability and easy manufacturability of the system can present a problem. Two component development systems have been used extensively in many different types of printing machines. A two component development system usually employs a magnetic brush developer roller for transporting carrier having toner adhering triboelectrically thereto. The electrostatic fields associated with the latent image attract the toner from the carrier so as to develop the latent Image. In high speed commercial printing machines, a two component development system may have lower operating costs than a single component development system. Accordingly, it is considered desirable to combine these systems to form a hybrid development system having the desirable features of each system. For example, at the 2nd International Congress on Advances in Non-impact Printing held in Washington, D.C. on Nov. 4 to 8, 1984, sponsored by the Society for Photographic Scientists and Engineers, Toshiba described a development system using a donor roll and a magnetic roller. The donor roll and magnetic roller were electrically biased, and the magnetic roller transported a two component developer material to the nip defined by the donor roll and magnetic roll. Toner is attracted to the donor roll from the magnetic roll, and the donor roll is rotated synchronously with the photoconductive drum with the gap therebetween being about 0.20 millimeter. The large difference in potential between the donor roll and latent image recorded on the photoconductive drum causes the toner to jump across the gap from the donor roll to the latent image so as to develop the latent image. Various other similar types of development systems have been devised.
The following prior art is also mentioned:
U.S. Pat. No. 3,929,098; Petentee: Liebman; Issued: Dec. 30, 1975
U.S. Pat. No. 4,540,645; Petentee: Honda et al.; Issued: Sep. 10, 1985
U.S. Pat. No. 4,565,437; Petentee: Lubinsky; Issued: Jan. 21, 1986
U.S. Pat. No. 4,809,034; Petentee: Murasaki et al.; Issued: February 28, 1989
U.S. Pat. No. 4,868,600 Petentee: Hays et al.; Issued: Sep. 19, 1989
U.S. Pat. No. 5,144,371 Petentee: Hays; Issued: Sep. 1, 1992
U.S. Pat. No. 3,929,098 describes a developer sump located below a donor roll. A developer mix of toner particles and ferromagnetic carrier granules Is in the sump. A cylinder having a magnet disposed therein rotates through the developer mix and conveys the developer mix adjacent the donor roll. An electrical field between the cylinder and donor roll loads the donor roll with toner particles.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,540,645 discloses a development apparatus using a magnetic roll contained within a nonmagnetic sleeve. A two component developer is supplied on the outer peripheral surface of the sleeve from a developer tank to form a magnetic brush. The developer material is brought into sliding contact with the photosensitive layer to develop the latent image with toner.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,565,437 describes a development system in which a photoconductive belt is wrapped about a portion of a first developer roller and spaced from a second developer roller. Each developer roller uses a magnet disposed interiorly of a nonmagnetic sleeve. The sleeves rotate to advance two component developer material into contact with the photoconductive belt to develop the latent image recorded thereon.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,809,034 discloses a developing device having a nonmagnetic developing sleeve. A magnetic roller is incorporated in the developing sleeve. A toner supply roller transports toner to the developing sleeve from the toner reservoir. The electrical potential on the supply roller is lower than that on the surface of the developing sleeve so that toner is attracted to the developing sleeve forming a brush of toner thereon. The developing sleeve conveys the brush of toner into contact with the photoconductive drum to develop the latent image recorded thereon.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,868,600 describes a scavengeless development system in which a donor roll has toner deposited thereon. Electrode wires are closely spaced to the donor roll in the gap between the donor roll and the photoconductive member. An AC voltage is applied to the electrode wires to detach toner from the donor roll and form a toner powder cloud in the gap. Toner from the toner powder cloud is attracted to the latent image recorded on the photoconductive member to develop the latent image recorded thereon. A conventional magnetic brush with conductive two component developer can be used for depositing the toner layer onto the donor roll. To prevent shorting between the conductive core of the donor roll and the AC biased wires or conductive magnetic brush, a resistive overcoating is usually selected.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,338,222 describes conducting compositions comprising an organic hole transporting compound, and the reaction product of an organic hole transporting compound and an oxidizing agent capable of accepting one electron from the hole transporting compound.
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for developing a latent image recorded on a surface. The apparatus includes a housing defining a chamber storing a supply of developer material comprising at least carrier and toner. In embodiments, there is provided a donor member with an improved coating thereover comprised of, for example, a charge transporting aryl diamine type monomer, reference U.S. Pat. No. 4,265,990, the disclosure of which is totally incorporated herein by reference, dispersed in a resin binder like a polycarbonate, such as LEXAN.TM., MAKROLON.TM., or MERLON.TM., and wherein an oxidant's molecularly dispersed in the aforementioned composition, and which roll is spaced from the surface and adapted to transport toner to a region opposed from the surface. In a hybrid scavengeless system, developer material containing toner, for example of resin particles such as styrene acrylates, styrene methacrylates, styrene butadienes and pigment particles, such as carbon black, contained in a housing, is used to apply and maintain a toner layer on the donor roll. The developer roll and the donor member cooperate with one another to define a region wherein a substantially constant amount of toner having a substantially constant triboelectric charge's deposited on the donor member. The donor roll can contain isolated electrodes within the surface which are overcoated with the aforementioned coating. The isolated electrodes are electrically biased to detach toner from the donor member so as to form a toner cloud in the space between the donor roll and latent image member, which detached toner forms a toner cloud that develops the latent image.
Pursuant to another embodiment of the present invention, there is provided an electrophotographic printing machine of the type in which an electrostatic latent image recorded on a photoconductive member is developed to form a visible image thereof. The improvement includes a housing defining a chamber storing a supply of developer material comprising at least carrier and toner. A certain coated donor member is spaced from the photoconductive member and adapted to transport toner to a region opposed from the photoconductive member. Developer material containing toner is used to apply and maintain a toner layer on the donor roll. The developer roll and the donor member cooperate with one another to define a region wherein a substantially constant amount of toner having a substantially constant triboelectric charge is deposited on the donor member. The donor roll contains isolated electrodes within the surface which are overcoated with the coating. The isolated electrodes are electrically biased to detach toner from the donor member so as to form a toner cloud in the space between the donor roll and latent image member, and which detached toner forms a cloud that develops the latent image.
In embodiments of the present invention, there are provided overcoating components for electrophotographic development donor rolls wherein an oxidant, such as FeCl.sub.3 or hydrated FeCl.sub.3.6H.sub.2 O, is molecularly dispersed in a hole transporting matrix of an aryl diamine, such as N,N'-diphenyl-N,N'-bis(3-methylphenyi)-[1,1'-biphenyl]-4,4'-diamine, which diamine is dispersed in a resin binder like a polycarbonate such as MAKROLON.RTM., or a polyethercarbonate (PEC), reference U.S. Pat. No. 4,806,443, the disclosure of which is totally incorporated herein by reference, to enable, for example, conductivity control, and provide for the desired charge relaxation time constant for said rolls.
In copending application U.S. Ser. No. 937,836, the disclosure of which is totally incorporated herein by reference, there is illustrated a coated transport roll comprised of a core with a coating comprised of a charge transporting polymer and an oxidizing agent.


Self-heating containers comprise a reaction chamber and a heating chamber. The heating chamber is sized to contain a substance to be heated. The reaction chamber contains reactants which, when contacted, exothermically react. The reaction chamber is divided into a first compartment and a second compartment with a barrier therebetween. The barrier comprises a first barrier portion and a second barrier portion. The first barrier portion is attached to a reaction chamber wall and has an opening sized to allow reactants to flow through from one compartment to the other. The second barrier portion is attached to the first barrier portion to close the opening. The barrier can be opened by moving an actuator into engagement with the second barrier portion to dislodge the second barrier portion from the first barrier portion and thereby open the barrier.

1. Field of the Inventions
The present inventions generally relate to self-heating systems and methods, and more particularly to self-heating systems and methods for rapidly heating a comestible substance.
2. Description of the Related Art
In today's on-the-go consumer society, there is increasing demand for a convenient and effective container which may be used by consumers to heat consumable products, such as coffee, tea, milk, soup, and many other types of beverage or food products, at any time and any location, without having access to any conventional heating means, such as a coffee maker, microwave, cook top, etc. Self-heating technology based on an exothermic reaction between different reagents is often used in such containers. Typically, two or more reagents are initially separated by a breakable partition in the container, and when heat needs to be generated, the partition is broken to allow the mixing of the reagents, thereby creating an exothermic reaction for heat generation. Typically, the reagents employed for generating the heat include at least a solid material, such as calcium oxide, and a liquid material, such as water.
The prior art self-heating systems, however, have many shortcomings. For example, the speed for heating larger volumes of beverage or food to temperature is generally slower than desired, especially in today's on-the-go consumer society. Moreover, the temperature of the beverage or food typically cannot be maintained for an extended period of time after the exothermic reaction. Further, the self-heating containers are often not designed for effective separation, deployment, and mixing of the chemical reactants therein. Thus, there is a need for an improved or alternative self-heating system and method for heating beverage and food.

Self-heating systems and methods for rapidly heating a comestible substance


A coating apparatus including a slit die 4 for applying a liquid to a surface of a resin film. The slit die 4 ha a die body which is rotatable between an operating position whereat an injection nozzle 13a of the slit die 13 faces a back-up roller 2 for feeding the resin film 50 and a rest position where the nozzle 13a is spaced from the resin film or foil 50. A cleaning device is provided having a roll 40 of a cleaning sheet 41, a take-up roller 23 for taking up the cleaning sheet, and a cleaning roller 24, on which the cleaning sheet moves. The cleaning sheet 41 on the cleaning roller 24 faces the injection nozzle 13a of the slit die when the latter is in its rest position for executing a cleaning operation. After an application of the liquid to a front surface of the resin film, the liquid is also applied to a rear surface of the film, so that the applied layers 50a on the front surface are registered with the applied layers 50b on the rear surface. Sensors 38 and 39 are provided for detecting ends of the layers 50a and 50b, so that a positional deviation, measured between the layers 50a and 50b, is used for correction of the timing of an application and interruption of the feed of the liquid to the rear surface, thereby maintaining a registration of the applied layers 60a and 60b between the front and rear surfaces of the resin film.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a coating apparatus for applying at a predetermined spacing to a surface of an object a liquid such as a synthetic resin or a paint. The present invention relates also to a coating apparatus wherein it has a slit shaped die which is subjected to cleaning each time when the coating operation is interrupted. Furthermore, the present invention relates to a coating device for applying, to an article having a first surface already applied with a liquid, a liquid at the opposite second surface at locations which are aligned with the locations where the liquid is applied at the first surface. The present invention can be suitable for applying a liquid synthetic resin to an aluminum or copper foil which is used for producing a re-chargeable battery such as a lithium ion type.
2. Description of Related Art
Known in a prior art is a coating apparatus for applying, at a predetermined spacing, a liquid such as a liquid synthetic or a paint on an object to be applied, such an endless sheet of a synthetic resin or paper or foil, or lengths of sheets of glass or wafer, which device is provided with a conveyor for obtaining a horizontal movement of the object to be applied with the liquid and a slit die located above the conveyor and formed with a liquid injection nozzle. The coating device is further provided with a drive mechanism such as a fluid cylinder for generating a movement of the slit die vertically or horizontally with respect to an object on the conveyor in such a manner that the liquid injection nozzle is moved between a liquid applying position (operating position) and a rest position.
This type of the coating device is defective in that, during an application process of the liquid, some of the applied liquid, in the shape of droplets, is likely to be attached to a tip end of the liquid injection nozzle. The droplets are, together with the liquid from the nozzle, applied to the surface of the object, which makes it difficult to obtain an uniformly applied layer of the liquid.
To overcome this difficulty, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication 7-80386 discloses a cleaner for removing the droplets of the liquid attached to a tip end of the liquid infection nozzle. Namely, this cleaner is provided with a cleaning mechanism arranged at an end of the conveyor. When a cleaning of the liquid injector is necessary, the slit die is, first, raised from the operating position, by a predetermined amount, to a rest position and is, then, moved horizontally toward the cleaner.
The above-mentioned construction for making the slit die to be moved vertically or horizontally is disadvantageous in that the movement of the slit die must be slow in order to prevent a large impact force from being generated when the slit die is stopped.
Furthermore, in the prior art wherein the vertical and horizontal movements of the slit die are repeated, the impact forces as generated upon the stoppage causes variations to be generated in a vertical spacing between the liquid injecting position of the slit die for executing the application operation as well as in a horizontal position of the slit die with respect to the object, thereby generating unevenness in the thickness of the applied layer of the liquid as well as a deviation of the liquid applying position from the desired position.
Furthermore, the prior art is also disadvantageous in that the cleaning operation of the liquid nozzle of the slit die requires a mechanism which allows the slit die to be moved in both the vertical and horizontal directions, which makes the mechanism to be complicated, on one hand, and, on the other hand, makes the stoppage time, for executing the cleaning operation, long and which reduces the production efficiency.
The coating apparatus is used also for applying liquid on both surfaces of a resin film. In this case, an application of liquid is, first, done on the first surface (front surface) of the film, so that spaced applied layers are formed on the first surface. Then, an application of the liquid is done on the opposite surface (rear surface). The timing of the application of the liquid to the rear surface is controlled so that the applied layers of the liquid on the rear surface are in a registered condition with the opposite layers of liquid is on the front surface. In order to do this, a sensor is provided at a location upstream from the slit die for detecting a position of a length of applied liquid on the front surface of the film. A calculation of the timing for starting and stopping of the application of the liquid (for rotating the liquid feed pump) is done based on the rotating speed of an electric motor for feeding the film, i.e., the speed of the movement of the film. The operation of the feed pump at the calculated timings cause a length of the liquid to be formed on the rear surface of the film.
This register control is however defective in that a slippage of the film fed by a roller mechanism as well as an elongation of the film, which are inevitable, cause errors to be generated in the positions for the commencement and or the interruption of the application of the liquid and, thereby, liquid layers to be misregistered between the front and rear surfaces, which causes the product quality to drop.


Can carriers are provided with upwardly protruding can-receiving members having oppositely paired can-receiving recesses and can-stacking platforms. The can-receiving recesses each are defined by an annular locking ring is joined to a protective inverted cup-shaped cover wall sized and configured to closely correspond to the top bead of a conventional can. The locking ring thus seats below the top bead of the can thereby removably locking the can to the can carrier. A camming surface downwardly and radially outwardly extends from the locking ring and assists during the forcible insertion of a can into the can-receiving recess by urging the locking ring to bend and/or flex radially outwardly a sufficient amount to allow for the diametrically larger top bead to pass thereby. Once the top bead is seated in the can-receiving recess, the locking ring will again resiliently return to its normal state. Paired finger openings are preferably provided in association with a raised pad region. Structurally reinforcing rib elements may also be provided with the pad regions.

Carriers for containers (e.g. beverage cans or the like) are presently configured in the form of an integral array of resilient rings corresponding to the number of containers to be supported. Each of the individual rings in the array has an internal shape which is smaller than the external diameter of the container to thereby create a relatively tight (but releasable) friction fit so as to support the can around its neck at a position below the can's upper bead or chime.
One problem associated with conventional ring carriers is that they provide little protection for the cans from the environment in which they are stored. Oftentimes, unsightly dirt and debris from warehouses, stores or the like, collect on the tops of the cans creating a potentially unsanitary condition and a displeasing aesthetic effect for the consumer. This may lead the consumer to make another selection thus resulting in a lost sale and the perpetuation of the unsightly cans in the retailer's display. Of course if a consumer selects a package having dirty and/or soiled tops, the consumer must first clean the container before the contents in the can may be enjoyed.
Another problem associated with these conventional ring carriers is that they are typically quite flexible and oftentimes do not adequately stabilize the cans when carried. In this regard the cans carried by conventional ring carriers may splay outwardly when the package is lifted. Therefore, when stacking the cans (e.g. for display purposes at a retail store) both hands usually must be used to ensure the package of cans is seated properly on top of the preceding package of cans in the stack. In addition, when a consumer carries cans supported by a ring carrier, the ring carrier may be subjected to external stresses caused by the normal swinging and swaying associated with natural walking movements. These stresses can (and oftentimes do) cause the rings to stretch and expand thereby loosening the friction fit which is exerted against the cans. A condition is thus created whereby one or more cans may separate from the ring carrier. In addition, after the cans have been removed from the ring carrier, it is quite difficult to reinsert the cans so as to enable the consumer to reuse the carrier, for example, to allow the cans to be more easily transported to a recycling center.
One solution that has been proposed in the art (as represented by U.S. Pat. No. 3,200,944) is to thermally draw a thin plastic film around the tops of the containers to provide a sanitary covering. However, this thin plastic film may not provide sufficient strength or support when the containers are transported from one location to another as there is no reliable means locking the cans to the carrier. In addition, no specific structure is provided which enables the cans of subsequent packages to be stackably seated upon a preceding similar package of cans. Therefore, the cans in the stack of packages may shift and slide relative to one another increasing the possibility that the stack of packages will collapse.
Another solution which has been proposed in the art (as represented by U.S. Pat. No. 4,911,290) is to provide a series of rings (corresponding to the commercial unit to be sold) and apply a plastic film over the top of the ring array thereby forming a flat laminate. The cans are inserted into the openings so as to allow the chime or bead to rest upon the upper portion of the ring. The plastic film that is applied over the top of the ring array serves to hold the cans securely against the rings in addition to providing a sanitary covering for the tops of the cans. However, the carrier appears to have sacrificed the traditional interlocking nesting features of the cans in order to provide a sanitary covering.
What has been needed in the industry, therefore, is an improved can carrier which provides not only a measure of sanitary protection for the can tops, but also has enhanced structural integrity so as to insure that the cans will not become detached inadvertently from the carrier, while providing means whereby the cans may reliably be nested, and thereby stacked one upon the other.

Sanitary can carriers and multiple beverage can packages including the same


A system and method for enabling high-speed, low-latency global tree network communications among processing nodes interconnected according to a tree network structure. The global tree network enables collective reduction operations to be performed during parallel algorithm operations executing in a computer structure having a plurality of the interconnected processing nodes. Router devices are included that interconnect the nodes of the tree via links to facilitate performance of low-latency global processing operations at nodes of the virtual tree and sub-tree structures. The global operations performed include one or more of: broadcast operations downstream from a root node to leaf nodes of a virtual tree, reduction operations upstream from leaf nodes to the root node in the virtual tree, and point-to-point message passing from any node to the root node. The global tree network is configurable to provide global barrier and interrupt functionality in asynchronous or synchronized manner, and, is physically and logically partitionable.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the field of distributed-memory message-passing parallel computer design and system software, and more particularly, to a novel method and apparatus for interconnecting individual processors for use in a massively-parallel, distributed-memory computer, for example.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
Massively parallel computing structures (also referred to as "ultra-scale computers" or "supercomputers") interconnect large numbers of compute nodes, generally, in the form of very regular structures, such as grids, lattices or tori.
One problem commonly faced on such massively parallel systems is the efficient computation of a collective arithmetic or logical operation involving many nodes. A second problem commonly faced on such systems is the efficient sharing of a limited number of external I/O connections by all of the nodes. One example of a common computation involving collective arithmetic operations over many compute nodes is iterative sparse linear equation solving techniques that require a global inner product based on a global summation.
While the three-dimensional torus interconnect computing structure 10 shown in FIG. 1 comprising a simple 3-dimensional nearest neighbor interconnect which is "wrapped" at the edges, works well for most types of inter-processor communication, it does not perform as well for collective operations such as reductions, where a single result is computed from operands provided by each of the compute nodes 12, or efficient sharing of limited resources such as external I/O connections (not shown).
It would thus be highly desirable to provide an ultra-scale supercomputing architecture that comprises a unique interconnection of processing nodes optimized for efficiently and reliably performing many classes of operations including those requiring global arithmetic operations such as global reduction computations, data distribution, synchronization, and limited resource sharing.
The normal connectivity of high-speed networks such as the torus are simply not fully suited for this purpose because of longer latencies.
That is, mere mapping of a tree communication pattern onto the physical torus interconnect results in a tree of greater depth than is necessary if adjacent tree nodes are required to be adjacent on the torus, or a tree with longer latency between nodes when those nodes are not adjacent in the torus. In order to compute collective operations most efficiently when interconnect resources are limited, a true tree network is required, i.e., a network where the physical interconnections between nodes form the nodes into a tree.

Global tree network for computing structures enabling global processing operations

International Business Machines Corporation


The subject invention includes methods and apparatus for joining treads. Such methods include the step of providing a first tread portion and a second tread portion for forming a joined tread, each tread portion comprising a section of tire tread extending lengthwise from a terminal end. Additional steps include providing a first fixture configured to retain the first tread portion and a second fixture configured to retain the second tread portion and securing the first tread portion into the first fixture and securing the second tread portion into the second fixture, each of the first and second fixtures being arranged within the first and second fixtures such that the terminal end of each tread portion is in communication with a joining side of each fixture. The methods further include directing the terminal ends towards each other and into forceful engagement with an elastomeric joining material arranged between the terminal ends.

Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to methods and apparatus for forming joints along treads, and in particular instances, joining tire tread portions to form joined tire treads, such as tread rings, for tire manufacturing operations.
Description of the Related Art
It is known to apply treads to new and used tire carcasses. Treads are applied to green tire carcasses in new tire manufacturing operations. Treads are also applied to used tire carcasses during tire retreading operations. In retreading operations, for example, treads may be formed and joined to form a ring about the tire carcass.
Current retreading methods include arranging elastomeric material between opposing ends of the tread and filling a gap between the ends to form the joint. In such instances, the opposing tread ends may be stapled together to maintain the ends in a closed arrangement for curing operations. The retreaded tires are then inserted into a flexible curing membrane and cured under vacuum pressure in a curing vessel. Subsequently the staples are removed. The resulting tread joint is often readily noticeable to an observer. This is in part because the joint comprises a noticeable gap filled with elastomeric material that is generally unconstrained during the curing process, whereby an uneven or non-smooth joint is formed. Further, the cured tread typically includes markings indicating the prior use of staples.
A current splice joint method may also be employed to join treads, whereby ends of a tread are joined by placing elastomeric joining material between the tread ends and subsequently placing the joined tread into a flat mold. In such methods, the tread joint is simply encapsulated by the mold and formed by pressure generated by compressing the tread joint within the mold. Because the mold is a typical mold used to originally form the tread, no unique features are provided for the joining operations, and therefore, joining material is unable to escape the mold. Therefore, any excess joining material is consumed and molded into the tread, which creates an oversized portion of the tread. Accordingly, the resulting tread joint may not be aesthetically pleasing as it varies is size and shape from the remaining portions of the tread. This is due to the inability to sufficiently control the formation of the joint.
Another current method of retreading includes forming a jointless, continuous tread ring using a molding process. The ring is then applied to the tire carcass and cured in a curing membrane within a curing vessel. Because the tread is free of any joint, this method provides an aesthetically pleasing tread. However, because this method employs a tread ring mold, the method can be very costly.
Accordingly, there is a need to provide a joined tread ring that is similar in cosmetic quality to molded tread rings by employing improved tread splicing methods and apparatus without the excessive costs associated with tread ring molds.

Methods and apparatus for joining treads

Compagnie Generale des Etablissements Michelin


A collapsible hanger used for garments having a hanger hook with a pair of oppositely disposed support arms pivotally secured thereto. Deployment control cable straps extend from the respective arms for folding and use deployment of the hanger arms via a central slidably disposed lock and release knob on a central support shaft in the preferred form of the embodiment. An alternate form is also available which shows an automatic spring-urged deployment system in which the hanger arms are retracted under spring tension and then released via an access button into full horizontally disposed use position.

1. Technical Field
This invention relates to closet hangers that are used to hang garments in a wrinkle free storage position by a central hook.
2. Description of Prior Art
Prior art devices of this type have been directed to folding and collapsible garment hangers in which the hanger arms are hinged to a central support element or to one another, see for example U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,717,053, 5,690,257, 6,540,121 and U.S. Publication 2006/0054646 A1.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,717,053 a foldable hanger can be seen having a pair of independent pivoting hanger arms on a central hook support bracket.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,690,257 discloses a folding hanger for garments having a pair of arms pivoted together at their base with one arm having an integral hanger hook extending therefrom.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,540,121 claims a collapsible garment hanger with spring elements extending to a pair of pivoted arms.
U.S. Patent Publication 2006/0054646 A1 is directed to a rotary folding hanger configuration with a planetary gear engageable on and between geared hanger arm elements for annular rotational deployment of arms in co-vector orientation.


A shift register and a corresponding driving method, a gate driving circuit and a display device, the shift registers includes an input and reset circuit, a first output circuit, a second output circuit, a first pull-down circuit and a second pull-down circuit; the first output circuit and the second output circuit output gate driving signals according to potentials at a first clock signal terminal and a second clock signal terminal respectively, the first pull-down circuit and the second pull-down circuit reset potentials at a pull up node, a first output terminal and a second output terminal according to potentials at a first pull-down node a second pull-down node respectively.

As a main driving circuit in the display, performances of the gate driving circuit (GOA) directly affect the liquid crystal display's quality. In the case of onboard display device, reliability requirements for GOA are more demanding. In recent years, liquid crystal display (LCD) panels have become larger and larger in size, more and more integrated, and more and more complicated in terms of circuit structure. The demands for reducing power consumption and increasing system stability or the like have also increased, and low power consumption and stability have become the focus of attention in the field of GOA technique. With relatively few switching components, enhancing driving control capability of the single-stage shift register and improving reliability of the display driven by the GOA are useful to realize a narrow-bezel onboard display product.

Shift register and corresponding driving method, gate driving circuit and display device

ORDOS YUANSHENG OPTOELECTRONICS CO., LTD.


A reel stand has a main frame consisting of a rod, a connecting member and a standing frame. The rod is connected in the connecting member with its lower portion. The standing frame connected with the connecting member has a T-shaped rod and a wheel axle. The T-shaped rod includes a horizontal rod and a longitudinal rod connected vertically with the horizontal rod. The rear portion of the longitudinal rod is bent upwards to form a free end for connecting with the connecting member. The wheel axle is connected with the longitudinal rod on the bent portion of the longitudinal rod to parallel with the horizontal rod, and fitted with a wheel at its two ends respectively. The standing frame carries the band reel to stand on the ground and can be moved around.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a reel stand, particularly to its main frame.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Commonly, as shown in FIG. 1, a traditional reel stand includes a main frame 10 consisting of a rod 11, a connecting member 12 and a standing frame 13. The rod 11 is bent vertically near its top end to form a handle 111 and connected fixedly in a groove of the connecting member 12 with its bottom end. The bottom end of the connecting member 12 is connected with the standing frame 13 that is provided with a U-reversed vertical longitudinal rod 131 and a U-reversed horizontal rod 132 having its two ends connected with the U-reversed vertical rod 131 respectively near its two ends. The U-reversed horizontal rod is penetrated with an axle 133 through its two ends, so that each end of the axle 133 can be fitted pivotally with a wheel 134, enabling the reel stand to move freely. But, with the standing frame 13 formed of U-reversed vertical rod 131 and the U-reversed horizontal rod 132, the handle 111 is actually unable to push the traditional reel stand so conveniently, especially when making a turn.


A method for treating a coagulation deficient patient comprises administering an amount of polyP to the patient sufficient to reduce the PT Test value or Dilute PT Test value of the plasma of the patient.

A schematic of the clotting cascades is shown in FIG. 5(A). In the figure the various clotting factors are indicated by their Roman numeral (i.e., factor VII is indicated by VII). The intrinsic pathway (also referred to as the contact pathway of blood coagulation) is initiated when contact is made between blood and certain artificial surfaces. The extrinsic pathway (also referred to as the tissue factor pathway of blood coagulation) is initiated upon vascular injury which leads to exposure of tissue factor (TF) (also identified as factor III). The dotted arrow represents a point of cross-over between the extrinsic and intrinsic pathways. The two pathways converge at the activation of factor X to Xa. Factor Xa has a role in the further activation of factor VII to Vila. Active factor Xa hydrolyzes and activates prothrombin to thrombin. Thrombin can then activate factors XI, VIII and V furthering the cascade. Ultimately, the role of thrombin is to convert fibrinogen to fibrin, which forms clots.
Fibrinogen is the most abundant coagulation protein in blood. The formation of a fibrin clot from fibrinogen is the terminal step in the coagulation cascade. Soluble fibrin monomers, which are created when thrombin cleaves fibrinogen, spontaneously polymerize to form a three dimensional network of insoluble fibrin fibrils. Clotting of fibrinogen by thrombin is one of the few steps in the clotting cascade that does not require calcium ions. The resulting fibrin clot structure can be further stabilized via covalent cross-linking of the fibrils through the action of the transglutaminase enzyme, factor XIIIa (FIG. 5 (B)) [18].
Hemorrhage is a major complication of both naturally occurring factor deficiencies such as hemophilia, and anticoagulant therapy. Hemorrhagic episodes can result in significant patient morbidity and in rare cases, mortality. Even in patients with well-controlled stable anticoagulant therapy, emergent circumstances may arise that necessitate immediate reversal of anticoagulant status.
Rapid normalization of abnormal coagulation has generally relied on either replacement of missing factors or administration of specific antidotes [1]. A major limitation of this approach is that transfusion with human-derived products has the potential for transmission of infectious disease. Furthermore, most anticoagulant drugs, including most newly approved anticoagulant drugs, as well as some in development, lack effective antidotes [2]. In vitro studies of the effects of recombinant factor Vila (rFVIIa) [5-7] and off-label use in vivo [8-11] have indicated that rFVIIa might have a role as a general method of reversing anticoagulant therapy. Use of rFVIIa may be associated with thromboembolic adverse events [12,13]. Currently, the primary factors limiting use of rFVIIa as a universal procoagulant agent are the potential liability associated with off-label use, and the extreme expense associated with this drug.
Heparin is a naturally occurring sulfated polysaccharide. It functions as an anticoagulant by indirectly inhibiting the enzymatic activity of factor Xa and thrombin through its ability to enhance the action of the plasma anticoagulant protein, antithrombin. Heparin is widely used as a clinical anticoagulant for such indications as cardiopulmonary bypass surgery, deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary thromboembolism, arterial thrombosis, and prophylaxis against thrombosis following surgery. Therapeutic plasma concentrations of heparin are generally 0.2-0.7 units/ml. The effects of heparin can be rapidly reversed using the specific antidote protamine [1].
Low molecular weight heparins (low MW heparins), such as enoxaparin, are widely used anticoagulant drugs. Low MW heparins are size-fractionated to obtain preparations in which the heparin polymers are shorter and less heterodisperse than unfractionated heparin. Low MW heparins act primarily as factor Xa inhibitors, as they enhance antithrombin's anticoagulant effect toward factor Xa to a much greater extent than toward thrombin. Low MW heparins are widely used for longer-term anticoagulant therapy to prevent deep vein thrombosis and have certain advantages over unfractionated heparin. Therapeutic plasma concentrations of low MW heparins are generally 0.2-2 units/ml. Low MW heparins have plasma half-lives of 4-13 hours, resulting in prolonged anticoagulation even if the drug is discontinued when bleeding occurs. There is no generally accepted antidote available to reverse anticoagulation with low MW heparin.
COUMADIN® (warfarin sodium) is an oral anticoagulant drug that reduces the effective concentration of several coagulant proteins in plasma. It is widely used as long-term therapy for prevention of arterial and venous thrombosis. The most important adverse effect of COUMADIN® therapy is hemorrhage, particularly into the central nervous system. COUMADIN® therapy is typically monitored by a plasma clotting test whose readout is the International Normalized Ratio (INR). For patients receiving COUMADIN®, anticoagulant status can be immediately reversed with plasma transfusion should serious bleeding occur, but this therapy is expensive and carries risks of transfusion reactions and transmission of infectious diseases. The anticoagulant effect of COUMADIN® can be more slowly reversed with Vitamin K therapy [1].
Argatroban is an oral anticoagulant drug that is a small molecule inhibitor of thrombin. It is approved for anticoagulant therapy in patients at risk for thrombosis who cannot be treated with heparin. Therapeutic plasma concentrations are about 1 μg/ml. There is no available antidote to reverse anticoagulation with argatroban.
Rivaroxaban is an experimental anticoagulant drug under development. It functions as a small molecule inhibitor of factor Xa. It is used for prevention of thrombotic complications of orthopedic surgery. It has a plasma half-life of 7-10 hours [21]. There is no available antidote to reverse anticoagulation with rivaroxaban.
Hemophilia A is an inherited or acquired deficiency of coagulation factor VIII (FVIII) and is associated with risk of severe bleeding. Patients with hemophilia A who develop a serious bleeding episode can be treated with purified human FVIII, but this therapy is quite expensive, costing thousands of dollars per episode [3]. About one-third of patients who receive repeated doses of human FVIII will develop inhibitory antibodies to the drug, which may prevent its further use in that patient. Bleeding episodes in hemophilia patients with such inhibitory antibodies may be treated with high doses of recombinant human factor Vila (rFVIIa); treating one bleeding episode with this drug can cost in excess of $70,000 [3,4].
Hemophilia B is an inherited or acquired deficiency of coagulation factor IX (FIX) and is associated with risk of severe bleeding. Clinical presentation and treatment are similar to that for Hemophilia A, except that injection of purified FIX is used to treat bleeding in these patients [3].
The Prothrombin Time (PT) test is widely used to monitor oral anticoagulation therapy by COUMADIN®, as a general screening test for the blood clotting system, and as the basis for specific Factor assays. Clotting times obtained with the PT are primarily dependent on the plasma levels of the vitamin K-dependent coagulation Factors II (prothrombin), VII, and X, and on the levels of two non-vitamin K-dependent proteins, Factor V and fibrinogen. The PT test is accomplished by mixing citrated plasma samples with a thromboplastin reagent and measuring the time to clot formation. The ISI value of a thromboplastin reagent is used to calculate the International Normalized Ratio (INR) for patient plasma samples; the more sensitive a thromboplastin reagent is to the changes induced by oral anticoagulant therapy, the lower its ISI value. The INR is calculated by first dividing the patient's PT value by the mean PT value for 20 or more normal plasmas. This PT ratio is then raised to the ISI power, yielding the INR value, which in turn, is used by the treating physician to adjust the drug dose. The introduction of the INR reporting system has vastly improved the standardization of monitoring of oral anticoagulant therapy, and can be credited with decreasing bleeding complications for oral anticoagulant therapy [20]. Normal plasma is defined as an INR of about 1.0. Therapeutic INR values are generally in the range of 2.0-3.5.
Polyphosphate (polyP) is a negatively charged, linear polymer of phosphate units linked by high energy phosphoanhydride bonds [14]. Dense granules of human platelets contain millimolar levels of polyP (with chain lengths of approximately 75 phosphate units) [15]. PolyP is released from platelets in response to stimulation by thrombin [17] and is cleared from plasma presumably due to degradation by plasma phosphatases [17]. We recently reported that polyphosphate is a potent hemostatic regulator, accelerating blood coagulation by activating the contact pathway of blood clotting, promoting the activation of factor V, and abrogating the function of tissue factor pathway inhibitor (TFPI) [17]. These combined effects result in a shift in the timing of thrombin generation without changing the total amount of thrombin generated. Polyphosphate also delays fibrinolysis through a thrombin-activatable fibrinolysis inhibitor (TAFI)-dependent mechanism, presumably as a consequence of an earlier burst in thrombin generation [17].
Polyphosphate, radiolabeled with 99mTc, administered by injection, has been used as a radiopharmaceutical for skeletal imaging [16].

Anticoagulant antagonist and hemophilia procoagulant

The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois


A disk drive controller establishes an active region on a disk that corresponds to a region of the disk wherein effects of mechanical shock to the disk drive during read and/or write operations are mitigated by a motion limiting element. The controller stores data in the active region based on frequency and/or recency of access of the data.

Hard disk drives that are used in mobile computers have to be designed to withstand the rough usage typically seen in the mobile environment. The shock robustness of such drives has improved primarily in the ability to withstand large shocks during the nonoperating mode. Unfortunately, the ability of these drives to withstand rough handling during operation has not seen similar gains. Indeed, the operating shock specifications have typically lagged behind non-operational specifications by about a factor of four.
As a consequence, it is not unusual for a drive in a mobile environment to be rather easily damaged during use. Damage typically is non-catastrophic but results in the loss of data. As recognized herein, this damage by a lower magnitude shock event during operating conditions occurs by a slider-to-disk contact resulting from a disturbance in the air bearing due to the shock forces. Such an event is usually not accompanied by irreversible mechanical damage. However, for higher magnitude shock events, other mechanical components can start touching each other and this eventually can result in much more severe damage.
The present invention understands that the forces from the shock event will cause the mechanical components of the drive to vibrate and thereby may cause the suspension to start flapping up and down. The slider at first is not highly likely to contact the disk when the suspension moves down toward the disk because the slider is capable of withstanding significant forces that act normal towards the disk surface due to the restoring air bearing pressure beneath the slider, which increases exponentially as the slider is forced closer to the disk surface. However, when the suspension moves away from the disk, the preload it applies on the slider will be decreased proportionately. At some level of movement the preload will be overcome and the suspension will then attempt to pull the slider away from the disk surface. At some point it can be anticipated that the air bearing will be disrupted and the slider lifted off the disk. Subsequently when the suspension whips the head back towards the disk a few milliseconds later, the slider orientation is not likely to be optimally positioned to generate the air bearing instantly and so prevent a corner of the slider from touching the disk. This is when the slider-disk contact will occur.
As further recognized herein, many sliders use a negative pressure air bearing design in which pockets in the air bearing surface generate a vacuum that pulls the slider down towards the disk surface. The stable fly height of these sliders is the position where the suspension pre-load and this downward vacuum pull is balanced by the upward acting pressure under the air bearing portion of the slider. Having made the above critical observations, the present invention is provided.

Method and apparatus for limiting shock damage to hard disk drive during operation

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Netherlands, B.V.