A novel type A botulinum toxin preparation is provided. A neuromuscular transmission blocking agent comprising as an active ingredient a highly purified type A botulinum toxin from Clostridium botulinum as infant botulism pathogen and a medicament for treating a disease with a muscle overactivity comprising as an active ingredient said toxin. In particular, the medicament of the present invention, as compared to the conventional known botulinum toxin preparations, has rapid efficacy of potential and is less diffusive and thus, having a broader safety margin, may be used as therapeutic medicament for decreasing local, muscle overactivity in a disease with a muscle overactivity.

A botulinum toxin produced by Clostridium botulinum, anaerobic Gram-positive bacteria, is the most lethal neurotoxin on earth. It is classified into seven types, A, B, C, D, E, F and G, and the property of each type has been elucidated. The types are distinguishable from each other by respective type-specific neutralizing antibodies. Depending on the types, a botulinum toxin may vary in animal species it may affect, severity of paralysis it induces, duration of time of its action, and the like. An active center protein of a botulinum toxin has a molecular weight of about 150 kDa (NTX) as common in all the known seven types.
Any botulinum toxin, when produced from Clostridium botulinum, is a complex composed of NTX and relevant nontoxic proteins. A type A botulinum toxin is produced in a molecular form of either 900 kDa (LL toxin), 500 kDa (L toxin), or 300 kDa (M toxin) (FIG. 1). These botulinum toxins are separate to release NTX and NTNH (a nontoxic protein) under alkaline conditions (pH 7.2 or higher). By utilizing this property, it is possible to isolate NTX of 150 kDa (an active center protein that endows a neurotoxin with the activity; also called "S toxin") alone. These LL, L and M toxins are called a botulinum toxin complex or a progenitor toxin. These botulinum toxins are, upon absorption in the upper small intestine, separate to release nontoxic proteins and a neurotoxin in a lymphatic vessel. The released neurotoxin is then bound to a receptor at the nerve end at its C-terminus of a heavy chain and taken into neurons via the receptor. Then, it specifically cleaves a protein in the presynaptic membrane through a light chain zinc methaloendopeptidase activity and inhibits a calcium-dependant release of acetylcholine to thereby block neuromuscular transmission at the synapse (Non-patent reference 1).
Although a botulinum toxin is a neurotoxin that may lead human to death in botulinum intoxication through blockage of systemic neuromuscular transmission, it may also be utilized as a remedy for treating a disease with a muscle overactivity such as e.g. dystonia by positively making use of its activity and by administering directly into the muscle of a patient suffering from the disease so that a local muscular tension may be relieved (Non-patent reference 2). For instance, a type A botulinum toxin complex (Allergan Inc., BOTOX; registered trademark) has been approved as a medicament for treating blepharospasm, strabismus, hemifacial spasm, and cervical dystonia, and for treating wrinkles at the middle of the forehead by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). A seritype B botulinum toxin complex (Elan Pharmaceuticals, MYOBLOC; registered trademark) has also been approved as a medicament for treating cervical dystonia by FDA. It is said that a type A botulinum toxin has a higher potency and a longer duration of action as compared to types other than a type A botulinum toxin. An average duration of action of a type A botulinum toxin from its single muscular administration up till amelioration of symptoms is typically about 3 to 4 months.
In recent years, the action of botulinum toxin has been proved at (1) the neuromuscular conjunctions, (2) the ganglions of the autonomic nerves, (3) the terminal of the postganglionic parasympathetic nerve, (4) the terminal of the postganglionic sympathetic nerve, and (5) the pain receptive fibers. For the neuromuscular conjunctions of the skeletal muscles, the terminal of the muscarinic acetylcholinergic nerves is the main active site. Among the ganglions of the autonomic nerves, it is conceived that a direct action to the ganglions of the parasympathetic nerves is related to a clinic action. It is also reported that the action to the peripheral autonomic nerves causes inhibition of release of ATP, VIP (vasoactive intestinal polypeptide) or substance P or inhibition of the action of NO (nitric oxide) synthetase. It also became known that botulinum toxin is useful for alleviating pain. In this action, it is reported that botulinum toxin inhibits release of glutamic acid, substance P and CGRP (calcitonin gene-related peptide) (Non-patent reference 2). As such, botulinum toxin is a useful neuromuscular transmission blocking agent that inhibits release of various neurotransmitters at various nerves.
Currently, a biological potential of a therapeutic preparation of a botulinum toxin such as a type A botulinum toxin is indicated as a mouse LD50 unit. One LD50 is defined as LD50 which is, based on intraperitoneal administration to mice, defined as an amount with which a half number of mice tested dies. Namely, a potential is quantified with a level or an amount of a neurotoxin with which mice die as a consequence of respiratory muscular relaxation. One LD50, i.e. one unit, in mice of commercially available type A botulinum toxin complex (Allergan, Inc., BOTOX; registered trademark; containing 100 units) is about 50 pg.
Therapeutic preparations of botulinum toxin are available from Allergan Inc. (U.S.A.), Ipsen Limited (U.K.) or Elan Pharmaceuticals (Ireland). These commercially available therapeutic preparations of botulinum toxin consist of a purified botulinum toxin complex (LL toxin) alone in a molecular structure bound with relevant non-toxic proteins. In recent years, type A NTX preparations (Merz Pharma, Xeomin (registered trademark), Germany) comprising no non-toxic proteins were sold in 2005, similar other preparations underwent clinical trials in the U.S.A. and development of next-generation preparations has actively been done.
The currently commercially available therapeutic preparations of type A botulinum toxin, i.e. BOTOX (registered trademark) from Allergan Inc. and Dysport (registered trademark) from Ipsen Limited, are consisted of a botulinum toxin complex (LL toxin) comprising as its component Haemagglutinin (HA) protein such as HA17, HA34, and HA70 (HA-positive).
On the other hand, a botulinum toxin isolated from patients suffering from infant botulism in 1990, though belonging to type A, is consisted of M toxin with no HA proteins (HA-negative). Type A Clostridium botulinum that produces M toxin with no HA protein has been first identified in Japan in 1986 from patients suffering from infant botulism (Non-patent reference 3). The clinically isolated strains include Kyoto-F, Chiba-H, Y-8036, 7I03-H, 7I05-H and KZ1828. When compared with the other types A to G of botulinum toxins, a botulinum toxin from Clostridium botulinum that causes infant botulism is a peculiar neurotoxin distinct from any types of these toxin molecules.
From the genetic point of view, a genetic mechanism of Clostridium botulinum as infant botulism pathogen is different from those of the other types of botulinum toxin. Most of the conventional botulinum toxins, typically type A botulinum toxin, has been seen as a botulinum toxin complex having Haemagglutinin (HA) protein as a component thereof. Genes coding for HA proteins such as HA17, HA34 and HA70 are included in neurotoxin genes of types A, B, C, D and G Clostridium botulinum but are completely absent in those of Clostridium botulinum as infant botulism pathogen. Also, genes of Clostridium botulinum as infant botulism pathogen include a regulator gene such as p47 (Non-patent reference 4). Besides, it was shown that a sequence of the NTNH protein of botulinum toxin produced by Clostridium botulinum as infant botulism pathogen is a miscellany, i.e. a mosaic, of non-toxic non-HA protein NTNH genes of type C and type A (Non-patent reference 5).
Furthermore, when botulinum toxin produced by Clostridium botulinum as infant botulism pathogen is compared with the conventional type A botulinum toxin comprising HA proteins, biochemical properties of the purified botulinum toxins are remarkably different from each other. The conventional type A botulinum toxin comprises the NTNH protein and at least three HA proteins (HA17, HA34 and HA70) whereas botulinum toxin produced by Clostridium botulinum as infant botulism pathogen comprises the NTNH protein alone but lacks the HA proteins (Non-patent reference 6). As for neurotoxin molecules per se, a molecular weight is distinct from each other in that a heavy chain of the conventional type A botulinum toxin is 93 kDa whereas botulinum toxin produced by Clostridium botulinum as infant botulism pathogen is 101 kDa. They also show different protease reactivity (Non-patent reference 7). The amino acid sequences of these two isotypes of the botulinum toxins are different by 89.9% as a whole and, in particular, there is great difference in the heavy chain regions, 109 among 847 amino acids (difference of 13%). On the other hand, it is reported that the light chains are different by 95.1% (Non-patent reference 8).
On the other hand, a problem has been presented that repetitive administration of botulinum toxin may diminish its efficacy. This phenomenon is thought to be due to production of antibodies against the toxin. It is pointed out that, as one of the causes, Haemagglutinin (HA) contained in therapeutic preparations has an adjuvant activity for antibody production (Non-patent reference 9).
For a highly purified botulinum toxin, it was formerly reported by Tse C K., et al. (Non-patent reference 10) and also in WO1996/11699 (Patent reference 1) as to a process for purification (p. 6, line 9 to p. 7, line 2) and pharmaceutical compositions (p. 11, Table 2).    Patent reference 1: WO1996/11699    Non-patent reference 1: Jankovic J. et al., Curr. Opin. Neurol., (7): p. 358-366, 1994    Non-patent reference 2: Ryuji Kaji et al., "Dystonia and botulinum therapy", Shindan-To-Chiryosha, 2005    Non-patent reference 3: Sakaguchi G. et al., Int. J. Food Microbiol., 11: p. 231-242, 1990    Non-patent reference 4: Kubota T. et al., FEMS Microbiology letters, 158: p. 215-221, 1998    Non-patent reference 5: Kubota T. et al., Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun., 224(3): p. 843-848, 1996    Non-patent reference 6: Sakaguchi G. et al., Int. J. Food Microbiol. 11: p. 231-242, 1990    Non-patent reference 7: Kozaki S. et al., Microbiol. Immunol. 39(10): p. 767-774, 1995    Non-patent reference 8: Cordoba J. et al., System. Appl. Microbiol. 18: p. 13-22, 1995    Non-patent reference 9: Arimitsu H. et al., Infect. Immun., 71(3): p. 1599-1603, 2003    Non-patent reference 10: Tse C K. et al., Eur. J. Biochem., 122(3): p. 493-500, 1982

THE CHEMO-SERO-THERAPEUTIC RESEARCH INSTITUTE


An all-terrain vehicle (ATV) includes a straddle-type seat mounted on a frame of the vehicle generally above and between left and right rear wheels. A left rear fender of the ATV is disposed over the left rear wheel and includes a left surface extending alongside a left side of the seat, the left fender surface may be disposed flush with or above a seating area of the seat. A right rear fender is disposed over the right rear wheel and includes a right fender surface extending alongside a right side of the seat, the right fender surface may be disposed flush with or above the seating area of the seat. The left and right rear fenders may each further provide a resilient interface for an operator shifting over the left and right sides of the seat, respectively.

Typical ATV's are configured with a straddle seat positioned rather high on the vehicle, with the intent to give an operator or driver straddling the seat an enhanced line of vision and to allow the operator freedom of movement to shift his or her body weight for balancing the vehicle when traversing rough and/or sloping terrain. Operators who are not accustomed to such an interactive riding style may have a sense of instability straddling these rather high seats. Accordingly there is a need for an ATV that is configured for an adult operator and providing a lower seating position so that the operator may feel more stable. It is desirable that such an ATV be further configured to provide additional stability, along with a comfortable and ergonomic seating position for the operator. It should be noted that the term 'adult operator' is used herein to distinguish from relatively smaller youth operators, and embodiments of the present invention are directed toward ATV's generally sized to accommodate an operator being of a size approximately corresponding to that of a standard adult operator or driver.


A method, storage system and non-transitory computer readable medium. The method may include receiving or generating, and for each storage entity out of multiple storage entities of the storage system, a storage entity distribution of cache hits over a caching period related to cached data associated with the storage entity and determining an allocation of quotas of the cache space to the multiple storage entities. The determining may include: (a) for each storage entity, determining a hit score indicative of a number of cache hits per a caching sub-period of the caching period related to the storage entity; (b) simulating, in an iterative manner, an allocation of quotas of the cache space to the storage entities that substantially maximizes the number of cache hits; and (c) allocating quotas of the cache space to the storage entities of the multiple storage entities, based on an outcome of the simulation.

Cache memories (hereinafter—cache) are used for storing active data so as to shorten data access times and reduce latency of I/O operations. A cache stores data that is likely to be accessed, for example the most frequently used data, the most recently used data, and data determined to be accessed according to access patterns detected by prefetch algorithms.
The efficiency of storing data in the cache can be measured by monitoring the number of hits towards the data, i.e., the number of access requests towards the data, that found the data in the cache, rather than needing to read the requested data from the permanent and slower storage device.
The number of hits towards a specific stored data may change over time that the data is cached, and may show different behavior of distribution of the hits over time towards data units that belong to different storage entities.

Hit-based allocation of quotas of a cache space of a cache memory


A toy water pistol for discharging a volume of liquid temporarily stored under pressure in an expandable bladder. The water pistol includes a reservoir containing liquid which is initially supplied from the reservoir to a charge cavity upon manipulation of a piston. The liquid in the charge cavity is then provided to the bladder, in a pressurized state, through further manipulation of the piston. A trigger is provided for selectively controlling the flow of liquid in an output conduit, which is connected to the bladder, to regulate the liquid expelled from the bladder and output from the water pistol upon user activation of the trigger.

I. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to toy guns and in particular to toy water pistols. More particularly, the present invention relates to a toy water pistol having a refillable chamber wherein a supply of pressurized liquid is maintained prior to discharge.
II. Background Art
Water pistols have existed for many years. Typically such water pistols consist of a barrel, a reservoir in which water is kept, and a trigger. The trigger is connected to a plunger-type mechanism which interacts with water contained in the reservoir such that when the trigger is moved by a particular amount, the plunger forces an amount of water into the barrel for immediate discharge.
A drawback associated with such prior art water guns is that the amount of water discharged for each movement of the trigger is limited to the amount of motion imparted to the trigger. In other words, the amount of liquid discharged from the pistol is proportional to the trigger movement.
Other types of water guns operate on air pressure wherein a water chamber is pressurized by operating a plunger to increase the air pressure in the chamber. When the trigger on the gun is depressed and as long as it remains depressed, liquid in the chamber is expelled through the gun barrel until the air pressure in the chamber reaches an ambient condition. To re-fire the gun, the chamber is re-pressurized by again operating the piston.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a water gun wherein a predetermined amount of liquid is injected into a flexible chamber which maintains the injected liquid under pressure so that when a trigger is activated, the chamber pressure expels the liquid from the gun. It is a further object of the present invention to provide a toy gun wherein a bladder is reloadable with liquid contained in a reservoir and wherein when liquid is loaded into the bladder, the liquid is maintained under pressure until discharged by activation of a trigger mechanism.

Water gun with refillable pressurized bladder chamber


A safety glove for use in the oil and natural gas extraction industries whereas a unique design on the dorsal portion of the glove is provided, the dorsal portion comprising a plurality of raised protective members extending substantially along the entire length of the finger and thumb portions of the glove.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention provides a glove construction particularly adapted to protect the hands and fingers of workers in the oil and natural gas extraction industries.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Workers in the oil and gas extraction industry often handle large pipes and heavy tools, such as steel wrenches. These items are typically handled in the presence of mud, crude oil, lubricating fluids such as a mixture of diesel fuel and mud, and other natural and synthetic lubricants. These lubricants assist in drilling for and extracting petrochemical compounds. The difficulty of gripping pipes and tools in the presence of such lubricants creates a working environment susceptible to impacts occurring to the dorsal, or back, side of the hand. These impacts have historically resulted in a large number of hand injuries to workers. The injuries are typically expressed as simple or hairline fractures to the following group of bones: metacarpals, proximal phalanges, intermediate phalanges, are distal phalanges; injuries can also occur to the distal interphalangeal joints, the proximal interpalangeal joints and the metacarpophalangeal joints.
Gloves typically used in oil and gas extraction are common knit gloves with raised polymer dots on the palm side. Although these gloves provide a grip function, they have a short lifespan and lack protection from dorsal impacts.
Recently, several companies have developed fitted gloves for sport or work with molded polymer rubber elements on the dorsal side. These gloves, however, are not optimized for impact protection to selected bones and joints. Further, the gloves are not optimized for impact protection to the entire nail bed of the fingernails.
Sport gloves for goalies in the sports of soccer, lacrosse and hockey have dorsal hand protection provided by segmented thick foam padding on the dorsal side of the glove. However, the gloves are not optimized for the dexterity required by oil and gas extraction workers and have no protection for the hand joints noted above. The foam padding does not taper at the distal phalanges and is not designed to protect against sharp blows from metal objects. Fitted gloves for sport or work consist of one or more molded plastic or carbon fiber elements located over the metacarpophalangeal joints but do not protect other hand joints or substantial protection of the above-listed bones.
What is desired is to provide a glove for use in the oil industry and natural gas extraction industries which protects the back portion of the worker's hand while maintaining a high level of hand dexterity.

Glove for use in the oil and natural gas extraction industries


The present invention provides an elastase-inhibiting protein isolated ("Guamerin") from a Korean leech, Guameri (Hirudo nipponia) and a process for preparing the same. Guamerin is a protein of a molecular weight of 6,110 Da which is composed of 57 amino acid residues, whose active site is composed of 36-methionine and 37-isoleucine, which retains an inhibiting-activity highly specific to elastase, and which shows stability against heat as well as strong acids and alkalies. Guamerin of the present invention can be applied in the treatment of diseases associated with an excess level of elastase, such as rheumatoid arthritis, emphysema, and psoriasis.

Elastase is a serine protease capable of degrading mainly elastin and also connective tissue proteins such as collagen, cartilage, and fibronectin(see: Reilly, C. et al., Biochem. Biophys. Acta., 621: 147-167(1980); Mainardi, C. L. et al., J. Biol. Chem., 255: 5436-5441(1980)). Human leukocyte elastase is stored principally in neutrophils and the stored elastase is released, when neutrophils encounter foreign pathogens or antigens in blood, to degrade them so that body is protected from the harmful factors(see: Weisemann, G. et al., New Engl. J. Med., 303: 27-34(1980)).
However, uncontrolled secretion of elastase which frequently results from aging of the cells or genetic defects may cause non-specific proteolysis and trigger destructive processes associated with various chronic diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, emphysema, and psoriasis(see: Glinski, W. et al., J. Invest. Dermatol., 75: 481-487(1980); Snider, G. L., Med. Clin. North. Am., 65: 647-666(1981)): Rheumatoid arthritis is an inflammatory disease resulting from an excessive release of elastase which causes abnormal degradation of cartilage at joints of the knee and the finger in human; emphysema is also an inflammatory disease caused by the degradative action of elastase excessively released from neutrophils which have come into the injured site of the lung tissue to prevent intrusion of pathogens from air; and, psoriasis is one of the representative skin diseases caused by elastase, which is characterized by distinct, reddish, slightly raised plaques-with adherent silvery scale.
In medical field, for the treatment of said diseases, strenuous efforts have been made in developing an agent which can effectively suppress the activity of elastase which is released abnormally in excess in the tissues of joint cartilage, lung, and skin. As a consequence, elastase-inhibiting proteins have been isolated from a variety of biological sources such as birds including turkeys or ducks, european leeches, and human skin (see: Schalwijk, J. et al., Br. J. Dermatol., 1512: 181-186(1986); Wlodow, O. et al., J. Biol. Chem., 165: 14791-14796(1990); Hochstrasser, K. et al., Hopps-Seyler's Z. Physiol. Chem., 362: 1369-1375(1981); Seemuller, U. et al., Hopps-Seyler's Z. Physiol. Chem., 361: 1841-1846(1980)), which were found effective for the treatment of said diseases, especially when a medicine containing the protein as an active ingredient was administered directly to the affected parts.
However, the elastase-inhibiting proteins of prior art, except the one isolated from human skin, have had trouble for the use as a medicine, since their specificity for elastase is so low that the activities of other enzymes are possibly inhibited. Moreover, since the said elastase-inhibiting proteins including the one from human skin have an extremely high molecular weight, a problem has been frequently encountered that the proteins can be easily denatured by heat, which decreases their activities rapidly.

Elastase inhibitor and process for preparing the same

Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology


A resonance ionization imaging device (RIID) and method for imaging objects using the RIID are provided, the RIID system including a RIID cell containing an ionizable vapor including monoisotopic atoms or molecules, the cell being positioned to intercept scattered radiation of a resonance wavelength .lambda..sub.1 from the object which is to be detected or imaged, a laser source disposed to illuminate the RIID cell with laser radiation having a wavelength .lambda..sub.2 or wavelengths .lambda..sub.2, .lambda..sub.3 selected to ionize atoms in the cell that are in an excited state by virtue of having absorbed the scattered resonance laser radiation, and a luminescent screen at the back surface of the RIID cell which presents an image of the number and position of charged particles present in the RIID cell as a result of the ionization of the excited state atoms. The method of the invention further includes the step of initially illuminating the object to be detected or imaged with a laser having a wavelength selected such that the object will scatter laser radiation having the resonance wavelength .lambda..sub.1.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a resonance ionization image detector system incorporating single photo-electron and photon detection principles, and a method for detecting and/or imaging using such system.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
The present invention provides a spectrally selective imaging optical detection system based on resonance ionization in an atomic vapor. The system provides improved spatial, spectral and temporal resolution compared with currently available techniques. The system finds application in the imaging of ultrasonic fields, high energy particle detection and optical communications.
The current trend in imaging science, i.e., spectrally resolved imaging detectors and filters, continues to attract the increasing attention of researchers from many different fields of applied optics and spectroscopy [Schaeberle et al, Anal. Chem., Vol. 67, "Raman chemical imaging: noninvasive visualization of polymer blend architecture," pages 4316-4321 (1995); Malonek et al, Science, Vol. 272, "Interaction between electrical activity and cortical microcirculation revealed by imaging spectroscopy: implication for functional brain mapping," pages 551-554 (1996); and Morris et al, Appl. Spectrosc., Vol. 50, "Liquid Crystal Tunable Filter Raman Imaging," pages 805-811 (1996)]. Imaging with even higher spectral resolution, limited only by the natural atomic linewidth, can be achieved using atomic resonance imaging spectrometers and filters. As a result, atomic imaging detectors have a very limited spectral range corresponding to the absorption frequencies of a few easily volatile elements. Nevertheless, as will be demonstrated herein, even with such a limited spectral range, atomic resonance imaging detectors and filters can have a surprisingly broad range of useful applications.
A limited number of concepts and applications for imaging atomic filters and detectors have been described in the literature. Ultra narrowband atomic resonance ionization image detectors were first suggested for the detection of single atoms and molecules in the presence of strong background radiation [Matveev, J. Appl. Spectrosc. (Russian), Vol. 46, "Atomic resonance spectrometers and filters," pages 359-375 (1987)]. An imaging atomic resonance monochromator with atomic Cs vapor [Korevaar et al, Proc. SPIE, Vol. 1059, "Imaging atomic line filter for satellite tracking," pages 111-118 (1989)] has been suggested and experimentally verified for space communication satellite tracking. A promising and interesting application for atomic and molecular filters is the detection of images of aerodynamic flow fields [Forkey et al, AIAA Journal, Vol. 34, "Demonstration and characterization of filtered Rayleigh scattering for planar velocity measurement," pages 442-448 (1996); Smith et al, AIAA Journal, Vol. 34, "Application of absorption filter planar Doppler velocimetry to sonic and supersonic jets," pages 434-441 (1996); McKenzie, AIAA Paper 95-0297, "Measurement capabilities of planar Doppler velocimetry," pages 1-5 (January 1995); Finkelstein et al, AIAA Paper 96-2269, "A narrow passband, imaging, refluorescence filter for non-intrusive flow diagnostics," pages 1-5 (1996); and Finkelstein et al, AIAA Paper 96-0177, "Cavity locked, injection seeded, titanium: sapphire laser and application to ultra violet flow diagnostics," pages 1-9 (1996)]. Prospects for applications of atomic and molecular Faraday filters for imaging purposes appear to be very promising. Presently, non-imaging variations of the Faraday atomic filter have found many useful applications for free-space and underwater communications systems, atmospheric temperature measurements and laser lidar [Chen et al, Optics Letters, Vol. 18, "Sodium-vapor dispersive Faraday filter," pages 1019-1021 (1993); Yin et al, Proc. SPIE, Vol. 2123, "Stark anomalous dispersion optical filter for doubled Nd: YLF lasers," pages 455-457 (1994); Chen et al, Proc. SPIE, Vol. 2123, "High-sensitivity direct detection optical communication system that operates in sunlight," pages 448-454 (1994); Hemmati, Proc. SPIE, Vol. 2629, "Laser communication component technologies: database, status and trends," pages 310-314 (1996); and Chen et al, Optics Letters, Vol. 21, "Daytime mesopause temperature measurement with a sodium-vapor dispersive Faraday filter in a lidar receiver," pages 1093-1095 (1996)]. Other promising applications for atomic high spectral resolution image detectors can be found, for example, in the detection of images of Raman and Rayleigh spectra of scattered radiation from micro and macro objects [Shimizu et al, Appl. Opt., Vol. 22, "High spectral resolution lidar system with atomic blocking filters for measuring atmospheric parameters," pages 1373-1381 (1983); and Smith et al, Optics Letters, Vol. 15, "Experimental demonstration of a Raman scattering detector based on laser-enhanced ionization," pages 823-825 (1990)].
In order to compare the relative merits of the different types of narrowband image detectors for the solution of a wide variety of practical problems, several characteristics must be specified:
(1) quantum efficiency--q (dimensionless) PA1 (2) intrinsic noise of the one-bit spatial element (pixel) of the image detector--N (usually electron/sec or electron/pulse) PA1 (3) active working area--A (cm.sup.2) PA1 (4) optical acceptance angle aperture--.DELTA..OMEGA.(sr) PA1 (5) spatial resolution--.DELTA.x (mm) PA1 (6) spectral bandwidth--.DELTA..lambda. (nm) or .DELTA..nu. (MHz or GHz) PA1 (7) spectral working range--S (GHz) PA1 (8) instrument function--I(.lambda.) PA1 (9) temporal resolution--.DELTA..tau. PA1 (1) detection of moving objects by Doppler shift of scattered radiation, e.g., aerodynamic or hydrodynamic flow, nuclear fusion, low temperature plasmas, products of combustion and explosions, wind flow, moving missiles, aircraft, automobiles, tanks, projectiles and even people; PA1 (2) vibration and oscillation characteristics, such as in the aerospace and automobile industries, and in measurement of oscillations in the Earth's crust; PA1 (3) detection and imaging of ultrasonic fields; PA1 (4) detection of single atoms or molecules in the atmosphere, flames, plasmas and other environments; PA1 (5) detection of high energy ionizing particle tracks (x-rays, .gamma.-rays, high energy electrons, protons, neutrons and elementary particles) using liquid or gas targets; PA1 (6) optical communications systems where high spectral and temporal resolution are needed; PA1 (7) deep UV microscopy (50-59 nm) for direct, non-scanning imaging detection of 3-D images; PA1 (8) satellite tracking; PA1 (9) mapping and range imaging; and PA1 (10) detection of moving objects.
It is an important object of the present invention to provide a narrowband imaging detector and a method for narrowband imaging that produces superior results, as evaluated in accordance with the above factors, to imagers or detectors that are currently available.

High resolution resonance ionization imaging detector and method


A CMOS image capture device includes an array of pixel elements configured to convert an image received as light at a surface thereof into analog output signals. An image processing circuit is also provided. The image processing circuit is configured to generate digital output signals from which the image can be recreated in response to the analog output signals. The image processing circuit has self-adjustable gain characteristics. The image processing circuit includes a ramp signal generator having an integration circuit therein with an adjustable RC time constant. The integration circuit includes an operational amplifier and a resistor array and/or a capacitor array electrically coupled to the operational amplifier. This resistor array and/or capacitor array enables the adjustable RC time constant.

Some image photographing devices may be classified as complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) image photographing devices or charge coupled image-photographing devices (CCD). CMOS image photographing devices convert optical signals, which are input when a subject is photographed, into digital signals and reproduce images of the subject on a screen using the digital signals.
FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of a conventional CMOS image-photographing device 101. Referring to FIG. 1, the CMOS image-photographing device 101 includes a pixel array 111 and an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) 121. The pixel array 111, which includes a plurality of pixels, outputs an optical signal from an external source as an analog signal AN1. The ADC 121 includes a ramp signal generator 131. The ADC 121 converts the analog signal AN1 into a digital signal D1 in response to a ramp signal Vramp (see FIG. 2) generated by the ramp signal generator 131 and outputs the digital signal D1.
FIG. 2 is a circuit diagram of the ramp signal generator 131 illustrated in FIG. 1. Referring to FIG. 2, the ramp signal generator 131 includes a resistor 211, a capacitor 221, and an operational amplifier 231. The operational amplifier 231 integrates an input signal Vin from an external source using a resistance of the resistor 211 and a capacitance of the capacitor 221 and outputs the integrated value as the ramp signal Vramp. Here, the ramp signal Vramp determines the gain characteristics of the ADC 121 of FIG. 1.
When fabrication/process margins are insufficient or there are dramatic manufacturing changes, the resistor 211 and the capacitor 221 may not be formed as designed. As a result, the gain characteristics of the CMOS image-photographing device 101 of FIG. 1 may be adversely influenced by process variations and this may result in lower device yield for the device 101.

CMOS image capture device with self-correcting gain characteristic


In a wireless communication system having a plurality of base stations connected through a control line and a plurality of mobile terminals, one of base stations (a master base station) informs a carrier frequency hop timing to the other base stations (slave base stations) through the control line. Each slave base station generates a wireless communication frame used inside of each cell and switches the carrier frequency of the wireless communication frame in synchronous to the timing indicated by the master base station. Each movable terminal receives an identifier of a frequency hopping sequence from a control information field of the wireless communication frame, hops to one carrier frequency selected among a frequency hopping sequence corresponding to this identifier, and transmit or receive the data through the field following the control information field of the wireless communication frame.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wireless communication system and communication equipment, and more particularly to the frequency hopping wireless communication system which is arranged so that a base station can manage communication control timings and transmission rights for plural communication equipments and the wireless communication equipment which applies to the system.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has been conventionally proposed a wireless communication system which is arranged to communicate data between wireless terminals through the application of "a frequency hopping spread spectrum" for changing a carrier frequency for each cell formed by a base station, based on a predetermined same hopping sequence and hopping period. As such a wireless system, a system for hopping a carrier frequency at each wireless communication frame (called as a prior art 1) has been known in IEEE 802.11 Working Document, IEEE P802.11/92-39, "Medium Access Control Protocol for Wireless LANS" (Publication 1), for example.
The prior art discussed in the publication 1 describes that a wireless communication frame (simply called as a communication frame) is composed of a first field used by the base station for broadcasting data for all the communication equipments (mobile wireless terminals) included in the cell, a second field used by a wireless terminal inside of the cell for sending data for the base station though the data may conflict with another piece of data sent by another wireless terminal inside of the cell, and a third field used by a wireless terminal inside of the cell for sending data according to an indication given by the base station. The length of each field is adjustable to each kind of system. The information indicating the length of the field is placed in the first field of each frame.
The base station transmits control information indicating a carrier frequency of the next wireless communication frame by the first field of the current communication frame, so that each wireless terminal inside of the cell hops the carrier frequency at each frame. The publication 1 suggests that a carrier frequency possibly conflicts with another carrier in an overlapped portion between the adjacent cells if any.
On the other hand, as one system for accessing a wireless channel, there has been conventionally known "split-channel reservation multiple access method". In this method, a wireless communication frame is divided into a control information transfer field and a data transfer field. The control information transfer field is divided into a transmission request field composed of plural slots and a reply field for each transmission request field. Each wireless terminal requests a data transmission right of the base station through the transmission request slot and the base station gives back the reply (transmission right) to the request through the reply field.
The concrete arrangement of the foregoing split-channel reservation multiple access method is discussed in "Access Control Method for Wireless LAN" in IEICE (Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers) Technical Report, RCS 92-37 (Publication 2) or the foregoing publication 1.
As indicated in the publications 1 and 2, a wireless terminal trying to transmit data inside of the cell to which the terminal itself belongs or another wireless terminal trying to register for the cell to which the terminal does not belong uses any slot defined in the control information field of each communication frame for issuing a transmission request or a registration request to the base station through the effect of the Slotted ALOHA method (called as the conventional system 2).
Further, encipherment of data to be transmitted on a wireless channel and obtention of security of data by compressing the transmission data (called as the conventional system 3) has been known in Nikkei Communications No.148, 1993, 30 to 31 (Publication 3).
In the frequency hopping spread spectrum system described in the publication 1, if the adjacent cells partially overlap with, the received data may become erroneous, because a probability exists that the carrier frequencies may conflict with each other in the overlapped portion. The error rate of the received data is presumed to be about 0.5.
In this case, the use of an error correcting mechanism disallows correct data communication. Hence, the communication efficiency is made lower by a conflict time against the overall communication time.
The probability that the foregoing conflict of the carrier frequencies takes place in each cell is, in general, made higher in proportion to the number of adjacent cells and in inverse proportion to the number of hops of a carrier frequency in a hopping period. For example, the use of a Read-Solomon sequence as the hopping sequence, in any two sequence, allows the carrier frequencies to conflict with each other once at one period at maximum. Hence, if interference takes place among n cells, each cell of which uses n frequency hops, the carrier frequencies may theoretically conflict with each other in all the time zones.
Further, if as described in the prior art 1 the system for reporting a next carrier frequency to be hopped in each wireless communication frame brings about a transmission error, thereby disabling to receive the carrier frequency information, disadvantageously, each wireless terminal disables to correctly receive the subsequent communication frames unless the communication frame is re-synchronized.
On the other hand, in the prior art 2 arranged to use the Slotted ALOHA method for the control information field of each wireless communication frame, each wireless terminal enables to transmit data having any content to any slot. Hence, no restriction is placed on the number of the wireless terminals to be located in each cell. It means that only that slot is used for the obtention of the transmission right and the request of registration for the cell. The use of the Slotted ALOHA method, however, involves the following inevitable disadvantage: That is, the increase of the wireless terminals for transmitting data to a slot (enhancement of a utilization rate of the control information field) leads to the increase of the re-transmissions resulting from contention of transmissions from plural wireless terminals on the same slot, thereby lowering a throughput.
Further, compression of the transmission data is realized by converting the transmission data train into another data train having a small amount of information according to the predetermined conversion rules. As the conversion rules for data compression, the public rules are applied. Hence, only the application of the prior art 3 disallows data transfer efficiency to be improved and positive security of transmission data to be obtained.

Frequency hopping wireless communication system and communication equipment


An agricultural chemical composition which enables a wide range of herbicidal compounds including ones showing phytotoxicity to crop plants, etc. upon mere application to exhibit a sufficient herbicidal effect and to show reduced or no phytotoxicity to the crop plants. The agricultural chemical composition comprises (A) a herbicidal compound selected from the group consisting of sulfonylurea compounds, sulfonamide compounds, chloroacetanilide compounds, thiocarbamate compounds, pyrimidinyloxy(thio)benzoic acid compounds, tetrazolinone compounds, pyrazole compounds, cyclohexanedione compounds, phenoxycarboxylic acid compounds, oxazinone compounds, and difluoromethanesulfonylanilide compounds or salts thereof and (B) a compound selected among benzoic acid compounds.

It is known that herbicidal compounds in known herbicides such as sulfonylurea compounds, sulfonamide compounds, chloroacetanilide compounds, thiocarbamate compounds, pyrimidinyloxy(thio)benzoic acid compounds, tetrazolinone compounds, pyrazole compounds, cyclohexanedione compounds, phenoxycarboxylic acid compounds, oxazinone compounds, and difluoromethanesulfonylanilide compounds represented by the general formula:
wherein R1 is a hydrogen atom, an alkyl group, or an alkoxyalkyl group, or a salt thereof have high herbicidal effects at low doses on annual weeds such as Echinochloa crus-galli, Cyperus difformis, Monochoria vaginalis, and Ammannia multiflora, and perennial weeds, such as Eleocharis acicularis, Sagittaria pygmaea, and Sagittaria trifolia or, in particular, paddy weeds, and have broad herbicidal spectra (see Patent Document 1).
However, these herbicidal compounds may be sometimes phytotoxic to rice, and such phytotoxicity is more severe in a bad environment such as a high temperature environment, sandy soil, or a water-leaking paddy field, and in a shallowly planted seedling or a seedling immediately after transplantation or seeding. Further, these herbicidal compounds may be phytotoxic when applied in excessive amounts unwillingly or accidentally.
Accordingly, more selective herbicidal compounds, or safeners to make herbicidal compounds more selective are now under way of development. Examples of safeners practically used include fenclorim for pretilachlor as a chloroacetanilide compound, and chlorazol for fenoxaprop-ethyl as an allyloxy compound. There has also been proposed an attempt of using a benzoyloxime ether compound as a safener for a sulfonylurea compound (see Patent Document 2). However, these safeners are used only for a particular herbicidal compound, and cannot be widely used.
There has also been proposed an attempt of attaining both of a high herbicidal effect and safety on rice crops by use of a herbicidal compound represented by the above-given general formula in combination with another particular herbicidal compound such as pretilachlor or butachlor (see Patent Document 3). However, a technique of attaining both of a high herbicidal effect and safety on rice crops without using a plurality of herbicide compounds has not been established yet.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2000-44546 (claims and elsewhere)
Patent Document 2: European Patent Application No. 122231 (claims and elsewhere)
Patent Document 3: Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2000-281513 (claims and elsewhere)


The present invention relates to an apparatus for producing sterile ice slurries for medical cooling applications. The apparatus is capable of producing highly loaded slurries suitable for delivery to targeted internal organs of a patient, such as the brain, heart, lungs, stomach, kidneys, pancreas, and others, through medical size diameter tubing. The ice slurry production apparatus includes a slurry production reservoir adapted to contain a volume of a saline solution. A flexible membrane crystallization surface is provided within the slurry production reservoir. The crystallization surface is chilled to a temperature below a freezing point of the saline solution within the reservoir such that ice particles form on the crystallization surface. A deflector in the form of a reciprocating member is provided for periodically distorting the crystallization surface and dislodging the ice particles which form on the crystallization surface. Using reservoir mixing the slurry is conditioned for easy pumping directly out of the production reservoir via medical tubing or delivery through other means such as squeeze bottles, squeeze bags, hypodermic syringes, manual hand delivery, and the like.

The present invention relates to an apparatus for producing medical grade, highly fluid, sterile ice slurry capable of being delivered at high ice particle loadings through specially designed medical delivery tubing and insertion devices. Appropriate slurry delivery tubing and insertion devices are described in co pending patent application Ser. No. 11/038,570 entitled "Phase-Change Particulate Ice Slurry Coolant Medical Delivery Tubing and Insertion Devices" filed on Jan. 1, 2005, the entire teaching of which is incorporated herein by reverence.
Inducing hypothermia has been used as a technique for improving neurological and cardiovascular function following medical emergencies such as cardiac arrest, stroke, myocardial infarction, and the like. Cooling an organ reduces its metabolic demand, which dramatically enhances the ability of cells to survive severe oxygen deprivation, ischemia. Application of phase change particulate ice slurries to targeted organs has proved to be an effective method of inducing protective hypothermia. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,547,811 and pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/162,442 filed Jun. 3, 2002 both entitled "Method of Inducing Hypothermia," and both incorporated herein by reference, teach the use of ice slurry to cool parts of the body in order to induce protective hypothermia during for example medical emergencies. Recently the application of protective organ cooling has been expanded to surgical procedures and other medical uses. For example, co-pending patent application Ser. No. 11/140,500 entitled "Ice Slurries and Method Using," filed May 27, 2005, the teaching of which is also incorporated herein by reference, discloses a number of applications where induced hypothermia through targeted cooling of various organs provides significant medical benefits. In the surgical setting, inducing hypothermia to counter the damaging effects of ischemia provides a viable option for protecting targeted organs, such as the brain, heart, kidneys, liver, or pancreas against oxygen deprivation resulting from obstructions in blood flow.
According to the invention describe in the "Ice Slurries and Method of Using" patent application, hypothermia is induced in targeted organs by delivering a two phase ice slurry directly to the targeted organ via specially designed tubing and injection devices. Because of the inherently higher amount of energy required to melt ice (heat of fusion for phase change 80 cal/g) rather than to warm chilled water (1 cal/g° C.), the cooling capacity of highly loaded ice slurry is many times greater than that of conventional chilled single-phase saline coolants. This reduces both the volume of coolant and the amount of time necessary to cool organs to the desired temperature. Furthermore, once fully melted in the body, ice slurry resembles basic medical-grade saline solution with a standard 0.9% salt concentration.
In order to successfully deliver the ice slurry to the targeted organs or other areas of the body the slurry itself must possess a number of important characteristics. First, the ice particles within the slurry must be small (<0.1 mm) and relatively smooth. Rough dendritic particles tend to become tangled up with one another leading to clogging in the delivery tubing or the insertion devices. Secondly, the saline solution from which the slurry is produced must be biologically compatible and sterile. Medical drip bag saline is preferred. The ice slurry must also be highly fluid and easily pumpable to avoid plugging delivery tubing and pumps. And finally, in order to achieve the most efficient cooling with a minimal amount of slurry, to avoid over loading of organs and other subsystems with coolant, high ice particle loading concentrations are desirable.
The present invention provides an apparatus and method for efficiently producing medical grade ice slurries for cooling targeted organs and other areas of the body.


A shelf system includes a support member that accommodates an associated object for display and dispensing. The support member includes a front end and a rear end. A mounting portion is disposed adjacent the support member rear end. The mounting portion includes a first member which connects to an associated upright and a second member which is operatively connected to the support member. A pin is connected to one of the first and second members and a sleeve is connected to the other of the first and second members, wherein the sleeve selectively accommodates the pin. A fastener is provided for selectively securing the pin in the sleeve.

The present disclosure concerns a product dispensing system employed in point of sale merchandising. It particularly pertains to shelving systems which feed containers forward. More specifically, it relates to modular gravity fed shelving systems for fragile products, such as individual thin wall containers of, for example, a refrigerated dairy product.
Many products of this type are available, including yogurt, cottage cheese, cream cheese, sour cream and the like. Such products are typically sold in individual cups or containers in supermarkets and the like. Dairy product containers of this kind normally have planar bases and planar tops so that they can be stacked atop each other. Traditionally, such dairy products are sold in refrigerator cases, including generally horizontal shelves upon which the dairy products are held.
Gravity feed systems are known to move products towards the front of display or storage cases. While it is now known to feed dairy products such as yogurt by gravity towards the front end of a refrigerated display case, the currently known retainers positioned at the front end of such display trays or shelves are not optimal. In addition, conventional display shelving systems require more vertical spacing between adjacent shelves in order to allow restocking of the dairy products on the shelves because of clearance issues. Specifically, the merchant cannot allow products on a shelf which is pulled out for restocking to contact the shelf immediately above it. This mandates a minimum shelf spacing in a storage case. It is a particular problem for slide out shelving which conventionally needs to be tilted as it is slid forward to the restocking position.
Further, current shelving designs do not allow for a secondary shelf to be placed atop the primary shelf to provide additional displays of product. Such a design is useful for providing more product selection without the need to replace the entire shelving system. It would be desirable to provide an adjustable mounting structure for shelving systems so that the shelves can be accommodated in the supports or stanchion designs of several different stanchion manufacturers which each have a somewhat different design for their respective stanchions or supports. It would also be desirable to provide a better locking system for pull out shelving to retain a slide out shelf in the use position. Thus, a need exists for a shelving system which overcomes the deficiencies of prior shelving systems as outlined above.

Adjustable mounting structure for a shelving system


A stack-on panel assembly for panel-based partition systems includes a connector bracket with a first portion shaped for connection with the top of an associated base panel, and a second portion upstanding from the first portion and having a first latch member. The stack-on panel assembly also includes a stacker panel having a bottom portion shaped for abutting support on top of the base panel, and a vertically extending slot disposed along one side to receive and retain therein the second portion of the connector bracket. A second latch member is disposed within the stacker panel at a location adjacent to the slot, and automatically engages and positively locks with the first latch member on the connector bracket when the stacker panel is lowered into place on top of the base panel to positively, yet detachably, connect the stacker panel on the base panel in a vertically stacked relationship.

The present invention relates to office partition panel systems, and in particular to a stack-on panel assembly that provides quick and easy on-site installation.
Versatile office floor plans have become increasingly important as building costs continue to grow. Modular furniture systems have been developed which are readily and easily erected and can be reconfigured in little time to accommodate the ever-changing needs of a large company or the divergent needs of several smaller companies occupying adjacent floor space. Movable or portable partition panels that are detachably interconnected and designed to partition office space into individual workstations and/or offices have proven useful. These partition panel arrangements are structurally sound and are capable of supporting worksurfaces including desks, shelves, and overhead cabinets. In addition, these partition panels have an acoustical sound-absorbing configuration that promotes a quiet and pleasant work environment.
In an effort to increase the versatility of the already adaptable partition panel systems, stacking panel arrangements have been developed that permit the height of a partition to be extended for a given application. Known stacking panel arrangements are often difficult to install, require multiple fasteners, and may have constructions that interfere with the routing of communication and/or power lines that travel through the partition system. Additionally, many known stacking panel arrangements have a multitude of parts, making construction tedious and time-consuming. Accordingly, a stack-on panel assembly that solves the above-identified problems is desirable and would be considered an improvement in the art.


Provided is a lifting mechanism for a shade including a plurality of continuous slats and two lift cords. The mechanism comprises a winding assembly, and a hoisting assembly fixedly attached to an inner surface of a lowest slat, the hoisting assembly comprising an elongated, hollow member of rectangular section including a bottom rectangular opening and two holes on its upper surface proximate both ends of the opening, and a channel fitted in the hollow member, the channel including a plurality of rollers across two raised walls thereof. The winding assembly is fixedly attached to an outer surface of the lowest slat. Either lift cord has one end terminated at a left (or right) portion of a topmost slat and the other end terminated at the winding assembly by passing left (or right) portions of the slats.

Conventionally, a shade is raised or lowered by pulling a lift cord. The lift cord is disposed externally of the shade. Thus, it is possible that the lift cord may tie children's necks for playing. This is very dangerous since the child may be hung accidentally. As such, the lift cord is typically concealed in a lifting mechanism in a lowest slat for safety reason.
FIG. 1 shows a window shade B incorporated a lifting mechanism A disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,024,154. The lifting mechanism A is comprised of many components. As such, its components are mounted in a lower slat B1. This inevitably increases the size of the lower slat B1. Moreover, it increases the manufacturing cost, the weight of the lower slat B1, and winding force exerted on spring means of the lifting mechanism A, resulting in shortening the useful life of the shade. Thus, the need for improvement still exists.


A method and system for analog beamforming in wireless communication system, is provided. Analog beamforming coefficients are constructed by performing an iterative beam acquisition process based on beam search training, and determining optimized beamforming weighting coefficients based on the iterative beam acquisition process.

In wireless communication systems including transmitters and receivers, antenna array beamforming provides increased signal quality (high directional antenna beamforming gain) and an extended communication range by steering the transmitted signal in a narrow direction. For this reason, such beamforming has been widely adopted in radar, sonar and other communication systems.
The beamforming operation can be implemented either in the analog domain (i.e., before an analog-to-digital (A/D or ADC) converter at the receiver and after a digital-to-analog (D/A or DAC) converter at the transmitter), or in the digital domain (i.e., after the A/D converter at the receiver and before the D/A converter at the transmitter).
In conventional multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) wireless systems, transmit and/or receive beamforming is implemented in the digital domain. Specifically, in such systems digital beamforming is implemented before an inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT) operation at the transmitter, and after a FFT operation at the receiver.
Though digital beamforming improves performance, such improvement is at the cost of N radio frequency (RF) chains and N IFFT/FFT operations, wherein N is the number of antennas. For digital beamformed MIMO OFDM systems, beamforming vectors are obtained separately for each and every subcarrier, which generally involves a decomposition operation on each subcarrier. Further, singular value decomposition, or eigenvalue decomposition is normally needed. The complexity of the operations further increases as sampling frequency increases.

Method and system for analog beamforming in wireless communication systems


A resource is obtained from a resource provider (RP) for a resource requester (RR) operating on a computing device. The RR has an identity descriptor (id) associated therewith, where the id including security-related information specifying an environment in which the RR operates. A code identity (code-ID) is calculated corresponding to and based on the loaded RR and loaded id. The RP verifies that the calculated code-ID in a request for the resource matches one of one or more valid code-IDs for the identified RR to conclude that the RR and id can be trusted, and the RP responds to the forwarded request by providing the requested resource to the RR.

In many computer scenarios, a first computer-type entity provides some sort of computer-type resource to a second computer-type entity. As may be appreciated, each of the first and second entities may be a hardware or software entity, such as a computer program or executable, a computer storage device, a computer data server, or the like. Likewise, the resource may be raw data, a file with the raw data therein in some organized fashion, or the like.
Especially in the case where the resource is of especial value or is to be handled in accordance with pre-defined rules, the first entity or 'resource provider' may only provide the resource to the second entity or 'resource recipient' if the second entity or an associated entity proffers authentication information to the first entity and the first entity authenticates the second entity based thereon. For example, if a server at a banking institution (the first entity) is providing a security key (the resource) to a banking program at a user's computer (the second entity) by which the user can conduct banking transactions at the computer, the server may demand to have some assurance that the banking program can be trusted to employ the security key in a manner amenable to the bank.
That is, the server wants authentication information either from the banking program itself or an authenticator on behalf of the banking program that the banking program is of a certain type, running in a certain environment based on certain variables, and/or the like. Thus, the server in fact provides the security key to the banking program only after authenticating same based on the provided authentication information. Of particular importance, the server in authenticating the banking program based on the authentication information wishes to ensure that the banking program has not been altered in a way such as for example to misuse the security key, and also wishes to ensure that the banking program is operating is not operating in an environment where the security key can be diverted to or read by a questionable entity such as a thief.
A need exists, then, for a method and mechanism by which a computer program, executable, or other resource recipient can be provided with authentication information by which the resource recipient can be authenticated by a resource provider that is to provide a resource thereto. In particular, a need exists for an identity descriptor for describing the identity of the resource recipient to the resource provider, where the identity descriptor includes among other things a set of variables that describe the environment of the resource recipient and an authenticating signature or the like.

Securely identifying an executable to a trust-determining entity


A hanger loop of rope material provides for the suspension of innumerable articles in various industries, but is particularly well suited for use in underground mining, where it may be used to support electrical cables, pneumatic and hydraulic lines, air ventilation ducts, etc., above the floor of the mine drift. The hanger loop is preferably formed of a braided synthetic fiber which has been treated to provide flame retardant properties and which is also electrically non-conductive. Treated, braided polypropylene is a suitable material for the present rope loop. The closed loop is formed by passing the first end of the rope diametrically through its opposite end portion, and then coaxially through that same portion to secure the first end therein and to form a smaller closed loop. The second end is then inserted coaxially into the body of the main loop to secure the second end within the body of the main loop. This construction results in a braided rope loop in which the interconnected portions are pulled more tightly and securely together when tension is applied to the loop, thus producing a more secure loop which cannot slip when tension is applied. One or more article supports (S-hooks, snap hooks, etc.) may be installed on the loop at the time of manufacture, or later as desired and according to the type of support. The hanger loop may also be provided with bright, contrasting colors for better visibility in areas of low light, as in the mining environment.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to article supports, hooks, loops, and etc., and more particularly to a closed loop which is formed of a length of preferably flame resistant and electrically non-conductive flexible material. The loop is used to support and suspend articles such as electrical cables, pneumatic and hydraulic lines, ventilation ducts, etc. in the mining industry, and has further applications in many other industries such as suspending parts being painted from an overhead conveyor system, as well as other applications where good strength and resistance to flame and industrial chemicals is required.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many industries require some means of temporarily supporting or suspending various articles for various purposes, and often have need of a simple yet durable strap or loop which may be used as a hanger for various parts and components. Accordingly, various such devices have been developed in the past, but all have had one or more deficiencies which have rendered them unsuitable for use in demanding industries such as underground mining, where flame resistance, electrical non-conductivity, resistance to chemicals, and good strength, durability, and reliability are absolutely required.
In the past, the various devices manufactured for such purposes have not included all of the above properties, and moreover were not necessarily formed of highly visible materials providing for ease of visibility in darkened areas such as mines land the like. Moreover, such hanger loops, when formed of twisted or braided rope material, were often closed using means which were prone to slippage or damage, thus allowing the loop to open and release any articles being supported thereby. The present hanger responds to each of the above problems and deficiencies by using a suitable material, and forming a closed loop using that material, which is completely resistant to opening when strain is placed upon the loop. A discussion of the related art of which the inventors are aware, and its differences and distinctions from the present invention, is provided below.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,686,848 issued on Aug. 29, 1972 to Robert Miller et al. describes a Highly Resilient Polypropylene Yarn which is particularly suited for carpeting and upholstery. No mention is made of the flame resistance or other industrially desirable properties of the material, and no disclosure is made of any specific rope or loop construction using the Miller et al. yarn.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,690,057 issued on Sep. 12, 1972 to Alan H. Norris describes Anti-Static Yarn And Fabrics wherein at least some of the yarn filaments are coated with a film including an electrically conductive metal. This teaches away from the material of the present invention, which is preferably electrically non-conductive.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,738,958 issued on Jun. 12, 1973 to Henry N. Paul 3rd describes a Synergistic Flame Retarding Composition For Polypropylene Of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5-Pentabromo-6-Chlorocyclohexane, Tetrabromophthalic Anhydride And Antimony Trioxide. While the present invention may utilize polypropylene rope material treated with the above or similar flame retardant chemicals, the Paul 3rd disclosure is silent regarding the application of the chemicals to fiber materials other than carpeting or the like. No disclosure is made of the formation of closed hanger loops using polypropylene rope material, as provided by the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,949,451 issued on Apr. 13, 2976 to Hugh Bunn describes a Safety Hook Snap Assembly comprising a spring loaded closure which serves to close two areas of the device simultaneously. While the present hanger may utilize such a device, as well as other snap hock, D-ring, etc. devices, Bunn does not disclose any form of closed rope loop to which his device may attach.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,257,221 issued on Mar. 24, 1981 to Arthur L. Feinberg describes a Fire Resistant Fiber Blend wherein a fire resistant yarn is woven with a polyester or other yarn material. While the resultant material may be suitable for use in clothing, it is not suitable for the production of rope and other elongate materials requiring high tensile strength, as in the present rope hangers. Moreover, Feinberg is silent regarding the formation of his yarns into rope, or a rope hanger according to the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,534,262 issued on Aug. 13, 1985 to Richard C. Swenson describes a Safety Mooring Line comprising an outer wrap of Nylon (tm) and two concentric inner lines of Kevlar (tm). The inner Kevlar core is formed to provide supplementary strength if the outer Nylon load bearing component breaks. No particular formation of a rope hanger loop is disclosed by Swenson.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,930,194 issued on Jun. 5, 1990 to Jean P. Frechin describes a Snap Hook For Use In Climbing, Pot Holing Or Similar Activities. The device comprises a D-ring with a specially formed connecting end between the hinged link and its adjacent ring member when the ring is closed. While the present rope loop may make use of the Frechin device, Frechin does not disclose any rope or other line or loop to which his device may be secured.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,116,681 issued on May 26, 1992 to Perry H. Lin describes Anti-Static Yarns Containing Polystyrene. The material includes a polypropylene or other material which is blended with electrically conductive carbon. This teaches away from the present, preferably electrically non-conductive material from which the present rope hanger loop is formed.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,130,069 issued on Jul. 14, 1992 to Raymond F. Tietz et al. describes a Process For Producing Dyeable Hot-Bulked Polypropylene Fibers Modified Wlth A Copolyamide. While the present invention preferably utilizes a polypropylene material and may include strands of specific color(s), Tietz et al. are silent regarding the use of their fibers in forming a closed loop hanger, as provided by the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,329,728 issued on Jul. 19, 1994 to Glenn A. Ray describes a Plant Pot Hanger comprising an open metal clip adapted to secure to the edge of a hanging plant pot or drain saucer for such a pot. The device is not suited for use with the present invention, nor is any closed rope loop disclosed in the Ray patent.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,521,003 issued on May 28, 1996 to Ying-Cheng Lo et al. describes a Flame Retardant Composition comprising a blend of polypropylene with ethylene and propylene. No fibers produced from the material are disclosed, nor is any form of rope, or any means of forming a closed loop from such rope, disclosed.
U.S. Pat. No. D-303,212 issued on Sep. 5, 1989 to William G. Crowle illustrates a design for an Interlocking Snap-Hook Unit, comprising two interlinked flat components. No closed rope hanger loop is disclosed, and no means is disclosed to secure the unit to another article.
U.S. Pat. No. D-303,493 issued on Sep. 19, 1989 to William J. B. Jacobs illustrates a design for a Hanger Unit For Cable Or Similar Articles, comprising a closed rope loop having an S-hook depending therefrom. While the external appearance of the design is similar to the appearance of the present hanger invention, the Jacobs design patent does not disclose any means of forming such a loop, nor is any disclosure made of the materials, flame retardation, electrical conductivity, or coloring of the device, each of which properties are provided for in the present invention.
In addition to the above patent publications, the inventors are aware of several products which have been manufactured for the mining industry, and particularly for the coal mining industry in West Virginia, to perform essentially the same function as the present invention. Elk Sales & Service Co., Southern Safety Sign & Manufacturing Co., and Shawnee Hills of Danville, W.Va., each produce a braided polypropylene loop in which the two ends are each spliced into the opposite hollow core to form a closed loop. No knotting of any of the strands of the rope about other strands, is apparent, while such knotting is used in combination with an interweaving of the two rope ends in the present rope loop hanger invention.
Adams Distributors, McJunkin Corporation, and Mine Cable Service Co. each manufacture a rope loop of twisted (not braided) material, with the two ends being crimped together using a hog ring, split washer, or similar metal attachment. And finally, Bailey Brothers produces a braided rope loop in which an S-hook is an integral part of the closure, with the two ends of the loop each being passed around the body of the hook and inserted back into the hollow core of the braided material. The two ends thus formed are only connected by the S-hook, and do not connect directly together, as in the knotted and interwoven ends of the present rope hanger loop of the present invention.
None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singly or in combination, is seen to describe the instant invention as claimed.


A prosthetic denture precursor includes at least one artificial tooth having a root portion; and a photopolymerizable denture base material holding the root portion of the at least one tooth, the photopolymerizable denture base material being deformable so that a dentally operative position of the at least one tooth in the denture precursor is adjustable, the photopolymerizable denture base material irreversibly hardening upon exposure to light so that the at least one tooth is rigidly fixed to the hardened denture base material. A method for manufacturing and using the precursor is described. This method simplifies conventional procedures of making a denture device by omitting steps of making a wax denture.

The present invention relates to a prosthetic denture precursor and a method for manufacturing and using the prosthetic denture precursor.
A currently used prosthetic denture device has a denture base formed of a resin material, and a set of individual teeth are set onto the resin material. An acrylic resin is common among possible resin materials for a denture base.
According to a conventional method for making a denture device, a custom mold of a patient's mouth is prepared from an impression. A wax denture is made on the custom mold, and the wax denture is then embedded in an embedding material in a flask. After the embedding material hardens in the flask, the wax is removed by hot water to leave a cavity having a shape of a denture base. Into the cavity was added a doughy mixture of acrylic monomers and acrylic polymers, which resins are then polymerized and hardened upon heating. During the polymerization step the resin in the cavity may be pressurized to give a better conformity of the resin. A denture device made by this conventional method can give an accurate, detailed shape, especially when a suitable wax material is used.
To form a denture base consisting of an acrylic resin by this method, however, involves many steps, and the method is troublesome for a dentist. A patient also may find this method inconvenient because the method may require frequent visits to a dentist.


An ink quantity detecting device includes a plurality of ink chambers for containing inks, displacement members each provided for a corresponding one of the ink chambers and capable of being displaced in accordance with a quantity of a corresponding ink, a coupling member for coupling a plurality of displacement members, and a detecting unit for detecting displacement of at least one of the displacement members or the coupling member. The coupling member can be displaced in accordance with a quantity of at least one ink.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording apparatus for use in, e.g., a copying machine, a facsimile system, a video output printer, and a word processor and, more particularly, to an ink quantity detecting device of a recording apparatus using different types of ink.
2. Related Background Art
Recording apparatuses such as a printer or a facsimile apparatus can be classified in accordance with a recording system into, e.g., a thermal system, a wire dot system, and an ink jet system.
In the ink jet system (ink jet recording apparatus), an ink is supplied to a recording head having at least one small orifice as a discharge port, and an energy generator provided in correspondence with the orifice is driven on the basis of printing data, thereby forming bubbles by a film boiling phenomenon of the ink in the orifice. Ink droplets are ejected from the orifice upon expansion and shrinkage of the bubbles, and the ejected ink droplets are adhered on a recording member such as plain paper or a thin plastic plate, thereby forming dot patterns.
In an ink jet recording apparatus of this type, an ink is supplied to the recording head from an ink container called an ink tank or an ink cartridge mounted in the apparatus or a carriage via a tube or the like. Since the ink capacity of the ink container is limited, however, the supply of ink remaining becomes small to interfere with subsequent recording when a recording operation progresses to a certain degree. Therefore, the apparatus is arranged such that a decrease in the supply of the ink remaining to a reference quantity is detected by a certain method to alarm an operator before the ink is used up, thereby demanding the operator to replenish the ink or replace the cartridge.
An optical system or an electrode system is conventionally known as a typical ink quantity detecting means for an ink container. The optical system is suitable for an arrangement in which the ink container has a surface which can be opened by a cover. In the optical system, a detection signal is generated by utilizing an event in which light emitted from a light-emitting portion reaches a light-receiving portion when the ink liquid surface is lowered. In the electrode system, a pair of electrodes are horizontally arranged near a predetermined liquid surface level with a predetermined interval therebetween, and a signal is generated by utilizing an event in which an electric resistance abruptly rises when the electrodes are exposed to the air.
In addition to the above systems, a pressure detecting system is available. In the pressure detecting system, a pressure sensor is arranged in an ink bag such as an aluminum laminated bag, and the supply of ink remaining is detected on the basis of a pressure change.
The present inventors found, however, that when such an ink quantity detecting device is applied to a recording apparatus using at least two different types of ink, the following technical problems to be solved arise.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,719,475 discloses an arrangement in which electrodes arranged in a plurality of ink tanks are connected in series with each other to detect an ink quantity.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 60-32667 discloses an arrangement in which light is radiated on a transparent portion formed in an ink tank and a quantity and a color of light transmitted through a light guide are observed to detect an ink quantity.
In each of the above conventional ink container ink quantity detecting devices, however, if the optical system or the electrode system is used as the detecting means, the stability of ink may be degraded over a long time period, i.e., the quality of ink may be degraded especially when the ink is left to stand at a high temperature.
In this case, the quality of an image is degraded when recording is performed in a color recording apparatus for a long time.
Especially in the above arrangement in which electrodes are connected in series with each other, in order to select a resistance range which can be sensitively detected, a voltage must be increased since resistive components are increased due to an ink. As a result, the above-mentioned influence on the ink is enhanced.
The pressure detecting system has no influence on ink performance. However, if a pressure sensor is arranged for each color in order to apply the system to a color recording apparatus, the size of the apparatus is increased, and manufacturing cost of additional mechanisms is increased.

Ink quantity detecting device and recording apparatus with the devie


The present invention provides a novel fluorine-containing rubber composite material having both of excellent fuel impermeability and excellent cold resistance, a fuel impermeable sealing material comprising the composite material and a process for preparing the composite material. The fluorine-containing rubber composite material comprises crosslinked particles of fluorine-containing silicone rubber dispersed in a fluorine-containing rubber. It is preferable that the fluorine-containing rubber comprises a vinylidene fluoride/tetrafluoroethylene/perfluoro vinyl ether copolymer, and the composite material has cold resistance of not more than −35° C. and fuel permeability of not more than 500 g·mm/m2·day. The fuel impermeable sealing material comprises the composite material. The process for preparing the composite material comprises a step for co-coagulation of a fluorine-containing rubber emulsion and an emulsion of crosslinked fluorine-containing silicone rubber.

Fluorine-containing rubbers are excellent in characteristics such as fuel impermeability, sliding property, heat resistance, chemical resistance, weather resistance and electrical properties, and are used in various fields such as automobiles, industrial machinery, office automation equipment and electrical and electronic equipment.
For example, in the field of automobiles, fluorine-containing rubbers are used as a sealing material for an engine and peripheral equipment thereof, automatic transmission, fuel system and peripheral equipment thereof and the like. However as a result of recent strict control of environmental regulations, regulations on SHED (Sealed Housing for Evaporative Determination) have been made more rigorous, and especially development of rubber materials for fuel system having fuel impermeability is demanded. Rubber materials for fuel system are required to have various characteristics such as processability, oil resistance and cold resistance in addition to fuel impermeability, and fluorine-containing rubbers are not satisfactory enough to meet such requirements because they are inferior in cold resistance though fuel impermeability is excellent.
Further in the case of engines for cars, strict conditions for use thereof are demanded, for example, injection of high pressure air-fuel mixed gas directly into a combustion chamber is carried out for the purposes of increasing specific fuel consumption and reducing exhausted carbon dioxide. As a result, when a fluorine-containing rubber being inferior in cold resistance is used for high pressure sealing, there is a problem that when a temperature is lower than a glass transition temperature, rubber elasticity is lost and sealing of a high pressure fuel gas becomes difficult.
In order to solve this problem, various studies have been made with respect to composite materials prepared by combining a fluorine-containing rubber being excellent in fuel impermeability and a silicone rubber being excellent in cold resistance. Those two kinds of rubbers have property of making up for disadvantages of each other, and therefore it is expected that a new material can be provided if they are well combined in the form of a blend, an alloy or the like.
For example, JP-A-1-198646 discloses a rubber composition obtained by dynamically crosslinking a silicone rubber (I), an elastomer (II) which is not crosslinked only with an organic peroxide, a co-crosslinkable elastomer (III) which is co-crosslinkable with the silicone rubber (I) with an organic peroxide and co-crosslinkable with the elastomer (II), and an organic peroxide. In the case of the rubber composition disclosed in JP-A-1-198646, by crosslinking the silicone rubber (I) and the elastomer (III) to be added as case demands simultaneously when mixing, a system is fixed while a satisfactory dispersed state is maintained, and then the elastomer (II) is crosslinked at molding. In this method, since the crosslinking of the silicone rubber is carried out during mixing, a shape of the silicone rubber hardly becomes spherical, which makes it difficult to maintain continuity of the matrix phase and enhance fuel impermeability. In addition, studies are not made concretely by using cold resistant fluorine-containing rubbers.
Also JP-A-1-242650 discloses a fluorine-containing rubber composition comprising a fluorine-containing rubber and crosslinked silicone rubber particles having an average particle size of not more than 10 μm. However, there is no disclosure as to crosslinked fluorine-containing silicone rubber particles. In the method disclosed therein, the crosslinked silicone rubber particles do not have a functional group, interlayer adhesion is not satisfactory and a sufficient tensile strength is not obtained. In addition, studies are not made concretely by using cold resistant fluorine-containing rubbers.
As mentioned above, there have been no fluorine-containing composite materials having both of improved fuel impermeability and improved cold resistance.

Composite material comprising flourine-containing rubber, fuel-impermeable sealing material comprising same, and process for preparing composite material


An air bag system is provided in which an air bag stored in a folded state in a vehicle is adapted to be inflated by a gas supplied from an inflator through a diffuser so as to protect an occupant of the vehicle. In the air bag system, the diffuser is disposed on one side of the inflator such that the diffuser and the inflator are substantially aligned with each other, and the diffuser includes a gas feed portion that is exposed to a gas inlet formed in a generally middle portion of the air bag as viewed in a longitudinal direction thereof.

1. Field of Invention
The invention generally relates to an air bag system installed in a motor vehicle and a diffuser used in the air bag system, and more particularly to an air bag system in which an air bag, which is stored in a folded state in a certain portion of the vehicle, is adapted to deploy by using gas supplied from an inflator via a diffuser, in order to protect a vehicle occupant or occupants.
2. Description of Related Art
In a known air bag system of the above type as disclosed in, for example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 11-301394, a diffuser (connecting line) having a great length is disposed in front of an inflator so as to extend in a curved form in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle. The diffuser is inserted in the air bag through a gas inlet port formed in a longitudinally end portion (i.e., rear end portion) of the air bag. The inflator supplies a gas into the air bag via gas supply ports (a large number of gas outlets) formed in the diffuser.
The diffuser of the known air bag system as described above is located ahead of the front side of the inflator that is disposed rearwardly of the air bag. With this arrangement, while gas may be guided from the inflator into the air bag with high accuracy, it is difficult to guide the gas from the inflator to inflatable chambers formed in middle and front end portions of the air bag within a sufficiently short period of time, because of relatively long distances from the inflator to the middle portion and front end portion of the air bag. It is thus difficult to complete deployment of the air bag within a sufficiently short time.
Furthermore, the known diffuser having a large length may cause various problems, such as reduced handling ease at the time of, for example, loading into a plant or installation of the air bag system in the vehicle, increased cost and weight, and increased loss of space upon installation of the system on the vehicle. The cost of the diffuser may also be increased because multiple gas outlet ports are formed in the long diffuser in different cutting processes.

Air bag system having diffuser structure


In examples, a filter used to denoise shadows for a pixel(s) may be adapted based at least on variance in temporally accumulated ray-traced samples. A range of filter values for a spatiotemporal filter may be defined based on the variance and used to exclude temporal ray-traced samples that are outside of the range. Data used to compute a first moment of a distribution used to compute variance may be used to compute a second moment of the distribution. For binary signals, such as visibility, the first moment (e.g., accumulated mean) may be equivalent to a second moment (e.g., the mean squared). In further respects, spatial filtering of a pixel(s) may be skipped based on comparing the mean of variance of the pixel(s) to one or more thresholds and based on the accumulated number of values for the pixel.

Ray tracing is an approach used to render images by tracing a path of light in a virtual environment and simulating the effects of the light's interactions with virtual objects. Ray tracing techniques may be used to simulate a variety of optical effects—such as shadows, reflections and refractions, scattering phenomenon, and dispersion phenomenon (such as chromatic aberration). When rendering soft shadows using ray tracing, conventional approaches to shadow tracing may cast any number of shadow rays from a location in a virtual environment to sample lighting conditions for a pixel with respect to a light source. The ray-traced samples may be combined and applied to the pixel. In a penumbra (a region of a shadow where light is partially occluded) some of the shadow rays may be visible to the light source and others may be occluded. A large number of shadow rays may be needed in order for the combined lighting conditions to converge to an accurate result. To conserve computing resources and reduce rendering times, the shadow rays may be sparsely sampled, resulting in noisy render data. The noisy render data may be filtered using denoising techniques to reduce noise and produce a final render that more closely approximates a render of a fully-sampled scene.
A spatiotemporal filter may be used in denoising to combine spatial information from a current frame with temporally accumulated information to increase the effective sample count by leveraging information from previous frames. To avoid over blurring, conventional shadow denoising filters may be guided using ray-hit distance, where the filter radius is adapted based on distance to an occluder of a light source. This approach requires bandwidth for storing hit distances and denoising the hit distance data to account for its stochastic nature. Variance in color luminance has been used to guide a spatiotemporal filter that denoises color luminance in global illumination. While global illumination can provide shadowing to a render of an environment as part of accounting for direct and indirect illumination, conventional techniques are typically significantly more expensive than shadow tracing.

Spatiotemporal self-guided shadow denoising in ray-tracing applications


An exhaust gas treating catalyst further improved in denitrification performance is provided. It is an exhaust gas treating catalyst containing a complex oxide represented by the general formula ABO3, where the A-site is composed of a lanthanoid (La) and barium (Ba), and the B-site is composed of iron (Fe), niobium (Nb) and palladium (Pd).

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an exhaust gas treating catalyst and an exhaust gas purification apparatus using it. More particularly, the invention relates to an exhaust gas treating catalyst which is effective when used in removing nitrogen oxides, hydrocarbons, and carbon monoxide in an exhaust gas discharged from a diesel engine or the like; and an exhaust gas purification apparatus using the exhaust gas treating catalyst.
2. Description of the Related Art
Exhaust gas treating catalysts for removing nitrogen oxides in an exhaust gas discharged from a diesel engine or the like include, for example, those having a carrier coated on a honeycomb-shaped substrate, the carrier supporting a precious metal and an occluding or storage material for occluding or storing NOx. Examples of the precious metal are platinum, rhodium, and palladium. Examples of the storage material are alkali metals such as potassium, and alkaline earth metals such as barium. Examples of the carrier are alumina, ceria, zirconia, and titania.
Nitrogen oxides in the exhaust gas are removed by installing such an exhaust gas treating catalyst in an exhaust pipe of a diesel engine or the like. That is, when the exhaust gas is in a lean state (a state where the oxygen concentration is high (3% or more)), NO and oxygen react on the precious metal to form NOx, and this NOx is occluded or stored in the storage material.
Another practice is to spray the exhaust gas treating catalyst with an organic compound or a fuel, which will serve as a reducing agent, or increase the injection volume of the fuel in the engine, thereby creating a reducing atmosphere with the exhaust gas in a rich state (a state where the oxygen concentration is low). By so doing, NOx stored in the storage material migrates onto the precious metal. This NOx, hydrocarbons and CO react to generate water, nitrogen and carbon dioxide, and these substances are discharged. With the exhaust gas treating catalyst, therefore, the storage of nitrogen oxides and the discharge of the stored nitrogen oxides as nitrogen (regeneration of the catalyst) are performed repeatedly.
However, the basic metal (alkali metal, alkaline earth metal) as the above-mentioned storage material is poisoned by the sulfur content in the fuel to decrease in storage performance for the nitrogen oxides. The sulfur-poisoned storage material is exposed to a reducing atmosphere at a high temperature, say, a temperature of 650° C. or higher, to desorb and remove sulfur. The reducing atmosphere can be created, for example, by the injection of fuel or the elevation of the exhaust gas temperature, but such an operation worsens fuel economy. Also, the exposure of the catalyst to the high temperature causes heat deterioration. Moreover, the active metal is sintered, so that the performance of the exhaust gas treating catalyst degrades. Furthermore, if a diesel particulate filter (DPF) for removing particulate matter (PM) contained in the exhaust gas is installed in the exhaust pipe, PM trapped by the DPF is burned off, thereby increasing the chances of the exhaust gas treating catalyst being exposed to high temperatures.
Among denitrification catalysts such as NOx storage catalysts, various perovskite-type catalysts, namely, so-called complex oxide-containing exhaust gas treating catalysts, have been developed as the catalysts having high resistance to sulfur and high resistance to heat (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

Exhaust gas treating catalyst and exhaust gas purification apparatus using the same

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ADVANCED INDUSTRIAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY


The present invention features homologous recombination methods and systems. The methods and systems promote highly efficient homologous recombination in cells (e.g., in prokaryotic cells). The methods and systems are useful, for example, in pharmaceutical drug development, vaccine development and cloning.

A new method for engineering bacterial chromosomes has emerged in recent years that takes advantage of the high proficiency of bacteriophage recombination systems acting on linear DNA substrates (for review, see Court et al., 2002). The λ Red recombination system, consisting of Bet (a ssDNA annealing protein) and Exo (a 5′-3′ dsDNA exonuclease) promotes gene replacement of electroporated linear DNA substrates into the Escherichia coli K-12 chromosome at a very high efficiency (Murphy, 1998; Murphy et al., 2000). Inactivation of host RecBCD exonuclease activity, either by mutation or production of the anti-RecBCD λ Gam function, is required for efficient Red-promoted recombination with linear dsDNA substrates (Murphy, 1998). Zhang and co-workers (Zhang et al., 1998), using the E. coli rac prophage RecET recombination system, recognized that PCR-generated substrates with as little as 40 bp of homology could serve as efficient substrates for gene replacement in E. coli. The use of such substrates has also been demonstrated with the λ Red system, with Red and Gam being supplied from either a prophage (Yu et al., 2000), a low-copy number plasmid (Datsenko and Wanner, 2000), or from a ΔrecBCD::Ptac-gam-red chromosomal substitution (Murphy, 1998; unpublished observations). The high efficiency of Red and RecET-promoted recombination with such short regions of homology has allowed E. coli geneticists to perform oligo-directed gene replacements that yeast geneticists have performed for years (Baudin et al., 1993; Lorenz et al., 1995; Wach et al., 1994).

Reagents for recombinogenic engineering and use thereof