The invention provides the identification and characterization of a disease and cancer-associated antigen, KID24. The invention also provides modulators of KID24, including a family of monoclonal antibodies that bind to antigen KID24, and methods of diagnosing and treating various human cancers and diseases associated with KID24.

In addition to their known uses in diagnostics, antibodies have been shown to be useful as therapeutic agents. For example, immunotherapy, or the use of antibodies for therapeutic purposes has been used in recent years to treat cancer. Passive immunotherapy involves the use of monoclonal antibodies in cancer treatments. See for example, Cancer: Principles and Practice of Oncology, 6th Edition (2001) Chapt. 20 pp. 495-508. These antibodies can have inherent therapeutic biological activity both by direct inhibition of tumor cell growth or survival and by their ability to recruit the natural cell killing activity of the body's immune system. These agents can be administered alone or in conjunction with radiation or chemotherapeutic agents. Rituximab and Trastuzumab, approved for treatment of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and breast cancer, respectively, are two examples of such therapeutics. Alternatively, antibodies can be used to make antibody conjugates where the antibody is linked to a toxic agent and directs that agent to the tumor by specifically binding to the tumor. Gemtuzumab ozogamicin is an example of an approved antibody conjugate used for the treatment of leukemia. Monoclonal antibodies that bind to cancer cells and have potential uses for diagnosis and therapy have been disclosed in publications. See, for example, the following patent applications which disclose, inter alia, some molecular weights of target proteins: U.S. Pat. No. 6,054,561 (200 kD c-erbB-2 (Her2), and other unknown antigens 40-200 kD in size) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,656,444 (50 kD and 55 kD oncofetal protein). Example of antibodies in clinical trials and/or approved for treatment of solid tumors include: Trastuzumab (antigen: 180 kD, HER2/neu), Edrecolomab (antigen: 40-50 kD, Ep-CAM), Anti-human milk fat globules (HMFG1) (antigen>200 kD, HMW Mucin), Cetuximab (antigens: 150 kD and 170 kD, EGF receptor), Alemtuzumab (antigen: 21-28 kD, CD52), and Rituximab (antigen: 35 kD, CD20).
The antigen targets of trastuzumab (Her-2 receptor), which is used to treat breast cancer, and cetuximab (EGF receptor), which is in clinical trials for the treatment of several cancers, are present at some detectable level on a large number of normal human adult tissues including skin, colon, lung, ovary, liver, and pancreas. The margin of safety in using these therapeutics is possibly provided by the difference in the level of expression or in access of or activity of the antibody at these sites.
In addition to cancer targets, antibody therapeutics have also been shown to be effective against chronic inflammation and other immune disorders. An example of an antibody therapeutic approved for treatment of immune disorders is Infliximab (antigen: TNFα).
Another type of immunotherapy is active immunotherapy, or vaccination, with an antigen present on a specific cancer(s) or a DNA construct that directs the expression of the antigen, which then evokes the immune response in the individual, i.e., to induce the individual to actively produce antibodies against their own cancer. Active immunization has not been used as often as passive immunotherapy or immunotoxins.
Several models of disease (including cancer) progression have been suggested. Theories range from causation by a single infective/transforming event to the evolution of an increasingly "disease-like" or 'cancer-like' tissue type leading ultimately to one with fully pathogenic or malignant capability. Some argue that with cancer, for example, a single mutational event is sufficient to cause malignancy, while others argue that subsequent alterations are also necessary. Some others have suggested that increasing mutational load and tumor grade are necessary for both initiation as well as progression of neoplasia via a continuum of mutation-selection events at the cellular level. Some cancer targets are found only in tumor tissues, while others are present in normal tissues and are up regulated and/or over-expressed in tumor tissues. In such situations, some researchers have suggested that the over-expression is linked to the acquisition of malignancy, while others suggest that the over-expression is merely a marker of a trend along a path to an increasing disease state.
An ideal diagnostic and/or therapeutic antibody would be specific for an antigen present on a large number of cancers, but absent or present only at low levels on any normal tissue. The discovery, characterization, and isolation of a novel antigen that is specifically associated with cancer(s) would be useful in many ways. First, the antigen could be used to make monoclonal antibodies against the antigen. An antibody would ideally have biological activity against cancer cells and be able to recruit the immune system's response to foreign antigens. An antibody could be administered as a therapeutic alone or in combination with current treatments or used to prepare immunoconjugates linked to toxic agents. An antibody with the same specificity but with low or no biological activity when administered alone could also be useful in that an antibody could be used to prepare an immunoconjugate with a radio-isotope, a toxin, or a chemotherapeutic agent or liposome containing a chemotherapeutic agent, with the conjugated form being biologically active by virtue of the antibody directing the toxin to the antigen-containing cells.
One aspect desirable for an ideal diagnostic and/or therapeutic antibody is the discovery and characterization of an antigen that is associated with a variety of cancers. There are few antigens that are expressed on a number of types of cancer (e.g., "pan-cancer" antigen) that have limited expression on non-cancerous cells. The isolation and purification of such an antigen would be useful for making antibodies (e.g., diagnostic or therapeutic) targeting the antigen. An antibody binding to the "pan-cancer" antigen could be able to target a variety of cancers found in different tissues in contrast to an antibody against an antigen associated with only one specific type of cancer. The antigen would also be useful for drug discovery (e.g., small molecules) and for further characterization of cellular regulation, growth, and differentiation.
The ADAMs (A Disintegrin and Metalloprotease Domain) are a family of proteins thought to be important in a wide range of biological processes such as cell adhesion, cell fusion and proteolysis. In general, they are transmembrane proteins having homology to snake venom proteins that have the ability to degrade basement membrane component and bind to integrins, thus disrupting cell-matrix interactions. Because of the similarity in function to snake venom proteins, ADAMs are also known as MDC proteins (Metalloprotease-like, Disintegrin, Cysteine-rich).
MDC9 or ADAM-9 (Meltrin γ) is a member of the ADAM/MDC protein family. The protein sequence has been described in U.S. Patent Application Nos. 20040091473 and 20020042368. ADAM-9 expression has been found in rat kidney and also been shown to be up-regulated in hepatocellular carcinomas using protein microarrays, however the significance of this finding to cancer progression is unclear. ADAM-9 has also been shown to be involved in the shedding of heparin-binding epidermal growth factor (HB-EGF), in the processing of the amyloid precursor protein, and as a ligand for several integrins. Although it is highly conserved between mouse, human and Xenopus and it is widely expressed in different tissues, a knock-out mouse lacking ADAM-9 shows no evident pathological abnormalities. Polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies against ADAM-9 have been used in the identification of novel proteins associated with hepatocellular carcinoma in protein arrays (Tannapfel et al., J of Pathology 2003; 201: 238-49) and also in atherosclerosis models using venous vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) to assay for ADAM-9 expression (Al-Fakhri et al. J Cellular Biochem (2003)89: 808-823), however the significance of ADAM-9 as a marker is unclear. This prior art does not teach or suggest ADAM-9 antibodies as therapeutic agents, or that the expression of ADAM-9 plays a causative effect in cancer.
What is needed are novel targets on the surface of diseased and/or cancer cells that may be used to diagnose and treat such diseases and/or cancers with antibodies and other agents which specifically recognize the cell surface targets. There exists a further need, based on the discoveries disclosed herein, for novel antibodies and other agents which specifically recognize targets on the surface of cells that can modulate, either by reducing or enhancing, the disease-promoting activities of ADAM-9. It is an object of this invention to identify antagonists of human ADAM-9 that are capable of inhibiting its disease-associated activities. It is another object to provide novel compounds for use in the assay of ADAM-9, and for use as immunogens or for selecting anti-human ADAM-9 antibodies.
As will be described in more detail below, the present inventors have made discoveries concerning the known polypeptide, ADAM-9, which we refer to herein as KID24, identified as the antigen target of the novel antagonists, modulators and antibodies provided herein.
All references, publications and patent applications disclosed herein are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.


The invention relates to a wiring harness having a plurality of electrical wires and a tubular shielding member capable of accommodating the plurality of electrical wires as a whole therein. The wiring harness includes a plurality of electrical wires; and a tubular shielding member configured to receive the plurality of electrical wires as a whole, and coupled to a shield part of a device side via a tubular terminal portion thereof. The tubular shielding member includes a shielding body portion disposed over a bundled portion in which the plurality of electrical wires is bundled as a whole, and a shielding terminal portion disposed over an enlarged portion which gradually enlarges from the bundled portion in conformity with terminal arrangement of the plurality of electrical wires or a shape of the shield part of the device side, and continuous with at least one end of the shielding body portion. The shielding body portion is formed of metallic film and the shielding terminal portion is formed of braid.

JP 2003-197037 (A) discloses a plurality of electrical wires and a tubular shielding member capable of accommodating the plurality of electrical wires as a whole therein. The tubular shielding member is asserted to be a tubular braided member formed by weaving or knitting a fine element wire having electrical conductivity. The above tubular shielding member is employed for imparting electromagnetic shielding properties to the plurality of electrical wires.
JP 2007-213868 (A) also discloses imparting electromagnetic shield properties to a flexible printed cable having a plurality of circuits. Specifically, aluminum film is wound around the flexible printed cable.


A solid composition for bleaching an exposed and developed silver halide color photographic light-sensitive material and processing method thereof. The composition contains at least one kind of ferric complex salt and is in the form of a tablet having a bulk density of 1.0 to 2.5 g/cm.sup.3. The composition provides excellent solubility and preservability.

The processing steps for silver halide color photographic light sensitive materials are basically comprised of a color developing step and a desilvering step. The desilvering step is comprised of a bleaching step and a fixing step or a bleach-fixing step. Other processing steps, such as rinsing steps and stabilizing steps may be added as additional processing steps.
Silver halides exposed to light are reduced to silver in a color developing step, and at the same time, an oxidized aromatic primary amine developing agent forms a dye upon reaction with a coupler. In the desilvering step, the reduced silver, oxidized in the color developing step, is then dissolved out in the form of silver ions into a processing solution.
As light sensitive materials are continuously processed, the bleacher becomes fatigued by the color developer brought into from, for example, the preceding tank. Where a continuous process is carried out using an ordinary automatic processor, means are taken to replenish the replenisher to keep the processing characteristics constant. When replenishing the replenisher, a large amount of overflow is inevitably produced and discarded, raising serious problems from both economical and pollutive viewpoints. For reducing the above-mentioned overflow, many proposals have been made and put into practical application, including a method in which a regenerant is added into the overflow so that the resulting solution may be used as a replenisher and a method in which a small amount of a concentrated replenisher is added to the processing solution.
Among these proposals, the method of regenerating an overflow requires a space for a stock tank or the like and photofinishers are required to carry out complicated operations. Particularly it is difficult to introduce this regeneration method into the increasing number of small-scale photofinishers such as on-site photofinishers (so-called mini-labs.) In contrast to the above-mentioned method, the method of replenishing with a small amount of a concentrated solution is satisfactory for small-sized photofinishers, such as mini-labs, because space is saved and extra apparatus is not needed. However, this method also has some defects.
Problems exist when dissolving a bleacher in a small amount of water to prepare a concentrated replenisher. No constant processing characteristics can be displayed, and filters provided in the circulation line become clogged with the deposition of the bleacher component or the replenishing pump is damaged because the solubility of the bleacher is low.
Further in the conventional replenishing systems, the disposal of plastic bottles commonly used is a serious problem. In Europe and America, legal limits are being imposed. For example, use of any plastics are forbidden, plastics must be recycled or decomposable plastics must be used.
To try to solve the above-mentioned problems, Japanese Patent Publication Open to Public Inspection (JP OPI Publication) No. 3-39739/1991 discloses a technique for granulating a bleacher. However, there is a high possibility the solubility of the granulated bleacher will deteriorate when aged in storage, or workers' health may be affected by dispersion of the fine powder of the granulated bleacher during dissolution.
JP OPI Publication No. 51-61837/1976 proposes a tablet-shaped processing composition capable of displaying the advantages of a dried composition. An inherent defect of a tablet-shaped composition is that the solubility thereof is inferior to granulated compositions. However, this patent discloses a technique whereby an expansion-cracking aqueous colloid is contained in a tablet-shaped chemical, to enhance the solubility of the tablet in water. However, when the macromolecular polymerized colloid was used, the bleaching characteristics of the tablet deteriorated under current rapid-processing conditions. It has, therefore, been difficult to use conventional techniques to provide any solid compositions having excellent solubility and rapid bleaching characteristics.
Another problem is that the above-mentioned conventional solid bleaching compositions have a low degree of moisture tolerance and, when stored for a long period, moisture must be shut out by sealing with vinyl, plastic or aluminum foil. This provides not only problems of discarding the packaging materials used which still remain unsolved, but also requires special air-conditioning systems for the manufacturing of the compositions and the packaging steps.

Solid bleacher for silver halide color photographic light sensitive material and the processing method thereof


A cooling fan is rotated to cool an irradiation lamp and a read sensor during the reading operation and the standby period both. Although an airflow from the cooling fan is maximized during the reading operation, the airflow is reduced to the extent that a temperature rise originating from the self-generation of heat on the part of the read sensor in the standby condition is suppressed. Thus the temperature of the read sensor is kept constant and the characteristics of the read sensor are prevented from fluctuating. The airflow from the cooling fan can also be regulated by controlling the operating voltage to be applied to a motor for rotating the cooling fan and placing movable airflow regulating plates in the passage of the wind blown from the cooling fan. Thereby, accurate reading can be conducted in any color image reading apparatus since it is possible to minimize variation in the temperature of a read sensor for a certain time after the image reading operation is started.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image reading apparatus for reading by means of a read sensor an image on the original exposed to light by an irradiation lamp, and more particularly to an image reading apparatus so designed as to prevent the deterioration of reading characteristics due to variation in the temperature of a read sensor.
2. Description of the Related Art
In image reading apparatus, an image on an original is read out by using an irradiation lamp to expose the original to light and to cause the light reflected from the original to focus on the imaging face of a sensor. Incidentally, image reading in this specification includes reading a white reference plate for shading correction, reading by pre-scanning for deciding the size of an original and whether the original is monochromatic or color and so forth in addition to the operation of reading an image on the original.
In this image reading apparatus, the irradiation lamp is turned on during the time an image is read. In consequence, the irradiation lamp generates heat during that time, which raises the temperature in the casing of the image reading apparatus and also causes the temperature of the read sensor to rise. A curve P of FIG. 27 shows variation in the temperature of the irradiation lamp.
Moreover, a CCD (Charge Coupled Device) image sensor is generally employed as the read sensor. During the image reading operation, a sensor driving circuit for driving the CCD image sensor is actuated and a clock signal is supplied from the sensor driving circuit. Therefore, the read sensor generates heat more than when it is on standby and raises its own temperature.
When the temperature of the read sensor rises, there may arise various problems: the sensitivity of the read sensor varies; the focal position of an image forming system shifts as members constituting the read sensor become deformed by thermal expansion; and the read position changes.
Accordingly, it has been a common practice to cool the irradiation lamp for the original and the read sensor by installing a cooling mechanism in the casing of the image reading apparatus. In order to simplify such a cooling mechanism in this case, one cooling fan is normally charged with cooling both the irradiation lamp and the read sensor during the image reading operation. With the cooling mechanism, the temperature of each of the members including the read sensor is kept remaining close to a predetermined temperature level during the image reading operation.
In the case where the read sensor is driven only during the image reading operation as noted previously, the reading characteristics of the read sensor may become unstable immediately after electric power is supplied thereto, that is, while the read sensor remains in low-temperature condition. Therefore, the driving voltage is always applied to the read sensor to obviate the instability of the reading characteristics of the read sensor immediately after the power is supplied thereto. Notwithstanding, the temperature of the read sensor still continue rising gradually even during the time no images are read, that is, in the standby condition.
In the conventional image reading apparatus, the cooling fan is rotated during the image reading operation to cool the read sensor as well as the irradiation lamp. Since the driving voltage is applied to the read sensor even in the standby condition as set forth above, the temperature of the read sensor rises because of the self-generation of heat as shown by the curve Q of FIG. 27, the read sensor together with the irradiation lamp is cooled when the reading operation is started and its temperature lowers and settles down to a constant temperature T.sub.1 a predetermined time t.sub.1 after.
On the other hand, parameters for use in forming images in the image reading apparatus are usually set in an area S where temperatures are stabilized. Thus the sensitivity of the read sensor and the configuration of the read-sensor fitting member are caused to vary until the time t.sub.1 (sec) is stabilized. Even when the same original is read, the image data varies with the lapse of time in the course of processing the image by subjecting the image signal thus read to A/D conversion.
In the case of a monochromatic image reading apparatus, any readout image is set free from being badly affected even though the sensitivity of a read sensor varies because the output of the read sensor is normally subjected to a black-and-white binary process.
In contrast with the monochromatic image reading operation, colors are each read by multiple gradations, for example, 256 gradations in a color image reading apparatus, whereby variations in the sensitivity of the read sensor appear as variations in the gradation of an image to be read. Particularly in the color image reading apparatus, the tone of the image varies with the change of gradation of each color.
In other words, as shown by the curve Q of FIG. 27, the temperature as a basis in setting each parameter may differ from the actual temperature during the period t.sub.1 (sec) from the start of the image reading operation until the temperature of the read sensor settles down to the predetermined temperature T.sub.1. Consequently, there arises inconvenience in that an image different in coloring from the original image is read for the duration of time t.sub.1 (sec).

Image reading method and apparatus with read sensor temperature control


Disclosed is a light source module including a first light emission unit having a first laser light source, and a first cooling part on which the first laser light source is mounted; a second light emission unit having a second laser light source, and a second cooling part on which the second laser light source is mounted; and an insulating member provided between the first light emission unit and the second light emission unit. The first light emission unit and the second light emission unit are constructed in such a manner that the first laser light source and the second laser light source are disposed close to each other, and the first cooling part and the second cooling part are disposed away from each other.

1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a laser module, an illumination device, and a projection display device, and more particularly to an arrangement suitable in attaining high luminance using multiple laser light sources.
2. Disclosure of Related Art
In recent years, development of a projection display device (hereinafter, called as a "projector") incorporated with a solid-state laser light source such as a semiconductor laser has progressed. A laser light source has an excellent performance in rendering a wide color space with high luminance and high precision, and has been noticed as a light emission source for a next-generation projector.
Despite the above demand, the laser light source has a large total heat generation amount, as compared with a lamp, and an output change with respect to a temperature change may easily occur. In view of this, in the case where a laser light source is used, improvement for cooling efficiency and strict temperature control are required. Heretofore, various methods for cooling a laser light source have been proposed. For instance, a laser light source may be cooled by using a heat sink, a Peltier element, or a liquid cooling system.
Also, as a demand for a large-sized screen has been increased in recent years, an increase in light amount has been demanded in an illumination device to be loaded in a projector. The light amount of an illumination device can be increased by arranging laser light sources two-dimensionally or three-dimensionally.
In the case where an edge-emitter semiconductor laser is used as a laser light source, the solid angle of output beam is significantly increased. In view of this, it is required to properly convert laser light into parallel light by a cylindrical lens or a like element to satisfactorily guide the laser light to an optical system (such as a fly-eye lens) provided posterior to the cylindrical lens or the like element. In the above arrangement, since a divergent angle of light in a direction of the longer axis of beam (hereinafter, called as "longer beam axis direction") is large, it is necessary to convert laser light into parallel light at least in the longer beam axis direction.
In the case where an illumination device is constructed by arranging multiple laser light sources, the distance between the laser light sources may be increased in view of a point that a cooling part is mounted to the laser light sources as described above. Therefore, for instance, as shown in FIG. 2B, if illumination light is generated by converting laser light from each laser light source into parallel light by a cylindrical lens or a like element, the size of the generated illumination light may be significantly increased. As a result, an Etendue value of illumination light for incidence onto an optical system provided posterior to the cylindrical lens or the like element may be increased. The above arrangement may cause a drawback that satisfactory projection of illumination light onto an imager (such as a liquid crystal panel) is obstructed, and light use efficiency is lowered.

Laser module, illumination device, and projection display device


When industrially separating and purifying poly-3-hydroxyalkanoic acid produced by a microorganism, to obtain poly-3-hydroxyalkanoic acid agglomerates having an arbitrary volume mean particle diameter with favorable productivity and with decreased amount of an organic solvent used is enabled while decreasing contaminants derived from constitutive components of cellular bodies. According to the present invention, agglomerates of poly-3-hydroxyalkanoic acid are obtained by adjusting the pH of an aqueous poly-3-hydroxyalkanoic acid suspension to fall within an acidic region.

Poly-3-hydroxyalkanoic acid (hereinafter, abbreviated as PHA) is a thermoplastic polyester produced and accumulate in cells of many microorganism species as an energy storage material, and has biodegradability. At present, non-petroleum plastics have attracted attention owing to increased environmental consciousness. In particular, biodegradable plastics such as PHA which are incorporated in material recycling in the natural world and thus the degradation products do not become harmful have drawn attention, and to put them into practical applications has been desired. Particularly, since PHA formed and accumulated by microorganisms in cellular bodies is incorporated into the process of carbon cycle of the natural world, lower adverse effects on the ecological system have been expected.
Since PHA produced by a microorganism usually forms a granular body and is accumulated in the cellular bodies of the microorganism, a step of separating and recovering PHA from inside the cellular bodies of the microorganism is necessary for utilizing PHA as a plastic. In addition, for using PHA as a plastic, it is desired to increase the purity of PHA, and to lower the content of contaminants of constitutive components and the like of cellular bodies, and the like.
As a method for degradation and/or removal of components other than PHA derived from an organism, a method in which components other than PHA derived from an organism are solubilized and removed by a physical treatment, a chemical treatment or a biological treatment was proposed. For example, a method in which a treatment of disrupting cellular bodies of a PHA-containing microorganism and a treatment with a surfactant are combined (Patent Document 1), a method in which a heat treatment after adding an alkali is followed by carrying out a disruption treatment (Patent Document 2), and the like may be exemplified. In addition, a method for obtaining PHA in which aqueous suspension of cellular bodies of a microorganism is subjected to a treatment with sodium hypochlorite or an enzyme to solubilize components other than PHA derived from an organism (Patent Document 3) was also proposed.
Also, as a means for recovering PHA from an aqueous suspension obtained by disrupting cellular bodies of a PHA-containing microorganism or solubilizing components other than PHA derived from an organism, separating operation such as centrifugation or filtration, or drying operation such as spray drying may be exemplified. However, when PHA particles produced by cellular bodies are directly recovered as primary particles, fine powders increase, and thus a problem of handling as a product to be difficult may be involved.
It is generally known that addition of a salt or the like enables solid powders in a fine slurry solid-liquid dispersion liquid to be aggregated. However, it is extremely difficult to allow only target PHA to be aggregated from an aqueous suspension containing cellular components leaked from disrupted cells, such as proteins in addition to PHA, and there has been no example of such findings. Even if aluminum sulfate, which has been widely used in activated sludge treatments, etc., or the like is used, it is impossible to allow only target PHA to be selectively aggregated since almost all components in the aqueous suspension are aggregated. In addition, even if PHA can be selectively aggregated with a polymeric coagulant or the like, quality as a polymer material may be affected since separating these additives from PHA is difficult.
As a method conducted without using a coagulant, a method in which a PHA suspension is heated (Patent Document 4), a method in which heating and cooling are repeated (Patent Document 5), and the like have been known. In any of the methods, lowering of the molecular weight of PHA upon heating has been concerned since heating to around the melting point of PHA is carried out.
On the other hand, a method in which after PHA is dissolved in an organic solvent, an organic solvent having low solubility or water is added thereto to allow thus dissolved PHA to be deposited has been known. Since a PHA solution can be purified according to this method, it has enabled to obtain PHA having a highest purity. As such a solvent extraction method, an example in which a lower ketone or the like is used as an extraction solvent (Patent Document 6), an example in which tetrahydrofuran is used (Patent Document 7) and the like were reported. If a poor solvent is added to an organic solvent including PHA dissolved therein, deposition of PHA is enabled, and it has been possible to comparatively arbitrarily control the shape and size of the deposit, depending on the solvent to be added, and conditions of addition such as a temperature and amount of addition, as well as stirring conditions during the addition, and the like.
The capability of controlling the shape and size of the deposited matter by thus allowing PHA to be deposited from an organic solvent has been very advantageous in view of problems of PHA purified using a water soluble solvent that it includes a large amount of fine powders. However, this process has involved fundamental problems of: use of a large quantity of organic solvent in extraction; lowering of the molecular weight of PHA during the purification step as PHA originally being highly degradable is heated for dissolving the same; and the like.
Accordingly, when PHA produced by a microorganism is industrially separated and purified, there have been problems of failure in obtaining PHA particles having an arbitrary volume mean particle diameter with favorable productivity while decreasing contaminants derived from constitutive components of cellular bodies, taking into consideration the environmental aspects. Furthermore, since the parameter dominating over agglomeration of PHA particles has been unclear, it has been still further difficult to propose means for solving these problems.

Method for producing poly-3-hydroxyalkanoic acid and agglomerates thereof


A process for preparation of silica pigment by mixing sea water and an aqueous solution of sodium silicate is disclosed, in which no acidulating agent is used and the amount of sea water is 50-500 times of the sodium silicate by weight.

The present invention is related to a process for preparing silica pigment, and in particular to a process for preparing silica pigment by mixing sea water and an aqueous solution of sodium silicate.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,202,525 discloses a process for forming silica pigment from an aqueous medium containing sodium silicate, in which sea water is added to the aqueous medium in the portion of from about one-half liter to about fifteen liters per mole of alkalinity, calculated as Na.sub.2 O, of the sodium silicate during the addition of an acidulating agent. According to the teaching of this prior art the acidulating agent is indispensable for forming the silica pigment as a precipitate. Moreover, the effect of the mixing ratio of sea water and sodium silicate on the yield of the silica pigment has not been discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,202,525, in Example II of which the mixing ratio of sea water and sodium silicate was about 26.4 by weight.

Fl. 1st, No. 35, Alley 20, Lane 284, Wu-Hsing St.


A storage control apparatus includes: a detector configured to detect a failure in one of a plurality of storages, each of a plurality of cabinets coupled in a cascade and having the plurality of storage units; a mover configured to move data in one or a plurality of first storages accommodated in a first cabinet including a failed storage having the failure detected by detector to one or a plurality of second storages accommodated in a second cabinet included in the plurality of cabinets; and a connection controller configured to control a first connection between the first cabinet and the plurality of cabinets other than the first cabinet and a second connection between the plurality of first storages in the first cabinet and the plurality of cabinets other than the first cabinet.

Components constituting a storage control system include drive enclosures (DEs) that stores a plurality of disk drives in which information is stored. The plurality of disk drives forms a redundant array of inexpensive disks (RAID) group.
Related technologies are disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication Nos. 7-325674, 2007-87039, and 11-184643.

Storage control apparatus, storage control system, and storage control method for failure detection and configuration of cascaded storage cabinets


In a motorcycle including a vehicle body frame, an engine supported by the vehicle body frame, an air cleaner box arranged above of the engine, and an ABS module capable of decompressing brake pressures of front and rear wheels, the ABS module is arranged at a position above the engine, rearward of the air cleaner box, in proximity to the left inlet port and a right inlet port of the air cleaner box for sucking outside air, and in suction routes of the left inlet port and the right inlet port. Therefore, a cooling effect with respect to an ABS module to suppress a thermal influence on the ABS module can be secured.

In recent years, in association with a reduction in size and price of antilock braking system (ABS) modules, the ABS modules are mounted on various types of motorcycles. For example, in JP-A-2011-88631, a motorcycle including an ABS module mounted thereon is disclosed. In the motor cycle disclosed in JP-A-2011-88631, a mass concentration is achieved by arranging the ABS module in an upper part of a crankcase of an engine.


Embodiments relate to a thin film solar cell backside contact. A planar substrate is provided and an associated backside of the substrate is modified to form one or more pedestals. The modified substrate is layered with multiple layers of material, including a conducting layer, a reflective layer, and a passivation layer. The layered backside substrate is polished to expose portions of the conducting layer at discrete locations on the backside of the substrate. The exposed portions of the conducting layer maintain direct electrical communication between an absorber layer deposited on the layered backside substrate and the conducting layer.

The present embodiments relate to a thin film solar cell. More specifically, the embodiments relate to a thin film solar cell backside contact.
A solar cell is a solid state electrical device that converts light energy into electrical energy by a photovoltaic effect. In order to lower the cost of electricity below the costs of electricity from fossil sources, it is necessary to improve solar cell efficiency. There are different forms of solar cells, including, but not limited to, silicon solar cells and thin film solar cells. One form of thin film solar cell is referred to as CIGS, Cu(InGa)Se2, which has a high efficiency for a thin film solar cell. However, even with the current levels of efficiency provided by the CIGS, there is a need to further improve the efficiency and to reduce losses.

International Business Machines Corporation


The present invention provides compounds of Formula (I): as defined in the specification and compositions comprising any of such novel compounds. These compounds are Factor VIIa inhibitors which may be used as medicaments.

Factor VII is a plasma serine protease involved in the initiation of the coagulation cascade. It is present in human blood at a concentration of approximately 500 ng/mL, with about 1% of the total amount in the proteolytically active form factor VIIa (Morrissey, J. H. et al., Blood, 81:734-744 (1993)). Factor VIIa binds with high affinity to its cofactor, tissue factor, in the presence of calcium ions to form a complex with enhanced proteolytic activity (Carson, S. D. et al., Blood Coag. Fibrinol., 4:281-292 (1993)). Tissue factor is normally expressed in cells surrounding the vasculature, and is exposed to factor VIIa in blood by vessel injury or atherosclerotic plaque rupture. Once formed, the tissue factor/factor VIIa complex initiates blood coagulation by proteolytic cleavage of factor X to factor Xa, factor IX to factor IXa and autoactivation of additional factor VII to VIIa. Factor Xa, generated either directly by tissue factor/factor VIIa or indirectly through action of factor IXa, catalyzes the conversion of prothrombin to thrombin. Thrombin converts fibrinogen to fibrin, which polymerizes to form the structural framework of a blood clot, and activates platelets, which are a key cellular component of coagulation (Hoffman, M., Blood Reviews, 17:S1-S5 (2003)). In addition, there is evidence that tissue factor is present in blood, likely in an encrypted form that is de-encrypted during clot formation. (Giesen, P. L. A. et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., 96:2311-2315 (1999); Himber, J. et al., J. Thromb. Haemost., 1:889-895 (2003)). The tissue factor/factor VIIa complex derived from blood borne tissue factor may play an important role in propagation of the coagulation cascade (clot growth) and in thrombus formation in the absence of vessel wall injury (i.e., stasis induced deep vein thrombosis or sepsis). The source of blood borne tissue factor is an area of active research (Morrissey, J. H., J. Thromb. Haemost., 1:878-880 (2003)).
While blood coagulation is essential to the regulation of an organism's hemostasis, it is also involved in many pathological conditions. In thrombosis, a blood clot, or thrombus, may form and obstruct circulation locally, causing ischemia and organ damage. Alternatively, in a process known as embolism, the clot may dislodge and subsequently become trapped in a distal vessel, where it again causes ischemia and organ damage. Diseases arising from pathological thrombus formation are collectively referred to as thrombotic or thromboembolic disorders and include acute coronary syndrome, unstable angina, myocardial infarction, ischemic stroke, deep vein thrombosis, peripheral occlusive arterial disease, transient ischemic attack, and pulmonary embolism. In addition, thrombosis occurs on artificial surfaces in contact with blood, including catheters and artificial heart valves. Therefore, drugs that inhibit blood coagulation, or anticoagulants, are "pivotal agents for prevention and treatment of thromboembolic disorders" (Hirsh, J. et al., Blood, 105:453-463 (2005)).
Because of its key role in the coagulation cascade, researchers have postulated that inhibition of factor VIIa could be used to treat or prevent thrombotic or thromboembolic disease. (Girard, T. J. et al., Curr. Opin. Pharmacol., 1:159-163 (2001); Lazarus, R. A. et al., Curr. Med. Chem., 11:2275-2290 (2004); Frederick, R. et al., Curr. Med. Chem., 12:397-417 (2005).) Several studies have confirmed that various biological and small molecule inhibitors of factor VIIa have in vivo antithrombotic efficacy with a low bleeding liability. For instance, it has been demonstrated that a biological factor VIIa inhibitor XK1, comprising a hybrid of Factor X light chain and tissue factor pathway inhibitor first kunitz domain, prevents thrombus formation in a rat model of arterial thrombosis, with no change in bleeding time or total blood loss (Szalony, J. A. et al., J. Thrombosis and Thrombolysis, 14:113-121 (2002)). In addition, small molecule active site directed factor VIIa inhibitors have demonstrated antithrombotic efficacy in animal models of arterial thrombosis (Suleymanov, O. et al., J. Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, 306:1115-1121 (2003); Olivero, A. G. et al., J. Biol. Chem., 280:9160-9169 (2005); Young, W. B. et al., Bioorg. Med. Chem. Lett., 16:2037-2041 (2006); Zbinden, K. G. et al., Bioorg. Med. Chem., 14:5357-5369 (2006)) and venous thrombosis (Szalony, J. A. et al., Thrombosis Research, 112:167-174 (2003); Arnold, C. S. et al., Thrombosis Research, 117:343-349 (2006)), with little impact on bleeding time or blood loss. Moreover, the biological factor VIIa inhibitor recombinant nematode anticoagulant protein c2 (rNAPc2) is currently under clinical investigation for treatment of acute coronary syndromes. Results of initial clinical trials demonstrate that rNAPc2 prevents deep vein thrombosis in patients undergoing total knee replacement (Lee, A. et al., Circulation, 104:74-78 (2001)), reduces systemic thrombin generation in patients undergoing coronary angioplasty (Moons, A. H. M., J. Am. Coll. Cardiol., 41:2147-2153 (2003)), and reduces magnitude and duration of ischemic events in patients with acute coronary syndromes (Giugliano, R. P. et al., World Congress of Cardiology, Barcelona, Poster #3897 (2006)).
U.S. Patent Publication No. 2007/0208054 A1, published Sep. 7, 2007, discloses a series of macrocyclic factor VIIa inhibitors of the following formula:
wherein ring A is phenyl or a pyridyl isomer defined by replacing one of CR1, CR2, CR3, or CR4 in ring A of the above formula with N;
ring B is phenyl or a pyridyl isomer defined by replacing one of CR8, CR9, CR10, or CR11 in ring B of the above formula with N;
M is —CONH—, —SO2NH—, —NHCO—, or —NHSO2—;
X is O, S(O)p, or NR16;
Y is O or NR16a;
Z is NH, O or S;
W is substituted with 0-2 R14 and is selected from:
and
L and other variables are defined therein.
It is desirable to find new compounds with improved pharmacological characteristics compared with known factor VIIa inhibitors. For example, it is desirable to find new compounds with improved factor VIIa inhibitory activity and selectivity for factor VIIa versus other serine proteases, i.e., factor Xa, XIa, FXIIa, thrombin, tissue kallikrein (HK1) and activated protein C (APC), etc. It is also advantageous for the new compounds to exhibit improved inhibition of clot formation and better membrane permeability to facilitate oral bioavailability. It is also desirable to find compounds with advantageous and improved characteristics in one or more of the following categories:
(a) advantageous dosage regimes (e.g., lower dosages and/or once-daily dosing);
(b) improved pharmaceutical properties (i.e., solubility, permeability, amenability to sustained release formulations);
(c) factors which decrease blood concentration peak-to-trough characteristics (i.e., clearance and/or volume of distribution);
(d) factors that increase the concentration of active drug in plasma (i.e., reduced protein binding; reduced volume of distribution; avoidance of P-glycoprotein substrates);
(e) factors that decrease the liability for clinical drug-drug interactions (cytochrome P450 enzyme inhibition or induction, such as CYP 2D6 inhibition, see Dresser, G. K. et al., Clin. Pharmacokinet., 38:41-57 (2000));
(f) factors that decrease the potential for adverse side-effects (e.g., pharmacological selectivity beyond factor VIIa); and
(g) factors that improve manufacturing feasibility (e.g., difficulty of synthesis, number of chiral centers, chemical stability, and ease of handling).
It is especially important to find compounds having a desirable combination of the aforementioned pharmacological characteristics.


Method for the detection of dormant cryptobiotic microbes by detection of electromagnetic radiation emitted from intrinsic alkali earth metal pyridine dicarboxylic acid salts in the 710 nm to 860 nm region when excited with electromagnetic energy in the 610 nm to 680 nm region. Utilizing the novel lower energy emission of intrinsic calcium dipicolinic acid salts makes it possible to quickly detect bacterial spores, fungal spores and oocysts without the need for any added reagents, sample processing, or contact with the sample.

Determining the presence of bacterial endospores by detecting the presence of pyridine-2,6-dicarboxylic acid (dipicolinic acid) has been used by those skilled in the art for some time. This compound comprises a significant portion of viable spores, and is otherwise rare in nature (R. Lundin and L. Sacks, "High-resolution solid-state 13C nuclear magnetic resonance of bacterial spores: Identification of the alpha-carbon signal of dipicolinic acid," Appl. Environ. Microbiol., vol. 54, no. 4, pp. 923–928, 1988). Various analytical methods are used to detect dipicolinic acid to indicate the presence of spores, including derivative spectroscopy (A. Warth, "Determination of dipicolinic acid in bacterial spores by derivative spectroscopy," Anal. Biochem., vol. 130, no. 2, pp. 502–505, 1983); intrinsic fluorescence (A. Alimova, A. Katz, H. E. Savage, M. Shah, G. Minko, D. V. Will, R. B. Rosen, S. A. McCormick and R. R. Alfano, "Native fluorescence and excitation spectroscopic changes in Bacillus subtilis and Staphylococcus aureus bacteria subjected to conditions of starvation," Appl. Opt., vol. 42, no. 19, pp. 4080–4087, 2003); luminescence following the addition of lanthanide salts (D. L. Rosen, C. Sharpless and L. B. McGown, "Bacterial spore detection and determination by use of terbium dipicolinate photoluminescence," Anal. Chem., vol 69, pp. 1082–1085, 1997); mass spectrometry (M. B. Beverly, K. J. Voorhees and T. L. Hadfield, "Direct mass spectrometric analysis of Bacillus spores," Rapid Commun. Mass Spectrom., vol. 13, no. 23, pp. 2320–2326, 1999); Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (H. Y. Cheung, J. Cui and S. Sun, "Real-time monitoring of Bacillus subtilis endospore components by attenuated total reflection Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy during germination," Microbiology, vol. 145, pp. 1043–1048, 1999); Raman spectroscopy (U.S. Pat. No. 6,040,191 and H. Shibata, S. Yamashita, M. Ohe and I. Tani, "Laser Raman spectroscopy of lyophilized bacterial spores," Microbiol. Immunol., vol. 30, no. 4, pp. 307–313, 1986); and plasma chromatography coupled to gas chromatography (U.S. Pat. No. 6,672,133 B1).
Detection of endospores through the presence of calcium dipicolinate has been utilized in U.S. patents through detection of either the calcium and/or the dipicolinic acid. U.S. Pat. No. 6,498,041 B1 describes capture of spores based upon a molecular recognition of spore coat components followed by detection of Ca2+ by way of addition of fluorescent calcium-binding dyes excited by light in the visible spectrum. U.S. Pat. No. 6,599,715 and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/355,462 teaches detection of dipicolinic acid by way of luminescence from terbium dipicolinate when excited with ultraviolet light.
Furthermore, the presence of dipicolinic acid (or other pyridine dicarboxylic acid analogs with closely related chemical structures) has been reported for other cryptobiotic microorganisms. (Cryptobiotic describes microbes capable of achieving a dormant state). Specifically, dipicolinic acid has been utilized to detect Clostridium spores, (M. W. Tabor, J. MacGee and J. W. Holland, "Rapid determination of dipicolinic acid in the spores of Clostridium species by gas-liquid chromatography," Appl. Environ. Microbiol., vol. 31, no. 1, pp. 25–28, 1976); Sporosarcina spores (C. A. Loshon and P. Setlow, "Levels of small molecules in dormant spores of Sporosarcina species and comparison with levels in spores of Bacillus and Clostridium species," Can. J. Microbiol., vol. 39, no. 2, pp. 259–262, 1993); Sarcina spores (R. S. Thompson and E. R. Leadbetter, "On the isolation of dipicolinic acid from endospores of Sarcina ureae," Arch. Mikrobiol., vol. 45, pp. 27–32, 1963); and Metabacterium spores (S. Stunkel, J. Alves and I. Kunstyr, "Characterization of two 'Metabacterium' sp. from the gut of rodents. Heteroxenic cultivation and proof of dipicolinic acid in 'M. polyspora,'" Folia Microbiol. (Praha), vol. 38, no. 3, pp. 171–175, 1993). Pyridine dicarboxylic acid compounds are found in these and other cryptobiotic (spore-forming) microorganisms.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/054,419, filed Jan. 22, 2002, and incorporated herein by reference, discloses a method and apparatus for the detection of microbes on non-living surfaces and samples in which samples are exposed to electromagnetic radiation of numerous specific energies capable of exciting fluorescence from various metabolites, cofactors and cellular and spore components. Thus, the microbial cells and spores to be sampled (and more specifically the excited metabolites, cofactors and other cellular, viral and/or spore components) contained therein emit fluorescence that can be measured. The collected fluorescence signals (associated with the signals emitted from the cellular/viral/spore components) are analyzed with a method capable of (1) removing any background and/or reflected and scattered excitation signal, and (2) comparing the relative fluorescent signals of metabolites, cofactors and spore components to known physiological ranges. Specifically, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/054,419 teaches the detection of spores by excitation of calcium dipicolinic acid with ultraviolet electromagnetic radiation (light) in the 270 nm–290 nm and 310 nm–330 nm ranges (singly or concurrently), with detection of fluorescence energies in the 460 nm–480 nm and 400 nm–430 nm regions, respectively. The aforementioned application also teaches the detection of spores by excitation with electromagnetic radiation (light) in the 610 nm–670 nm range with detection of light energies in the 730 nm–800 nm region. This novel emission was observed in emission spectra from aqueous bacterial spore samples and in a non-viable Bacillus thuringiensis cell sample as illustrated in FIG. 3F of the aforementioned application. Utilizing these novel lower energy excitation and emission ranges for the detection of spores is beneficial as (1) there is little interference and/or overlap from other microbial fluorophores, (2) background interference from biologically-derived organic surfaces is greatly reduced, and (3) greater excitation penetration depth into the sample can be expected. This current specification demonstrates that the beneficial lower energy excitation and emission signals arise from calcium dipicolinate and teaches the benefits of using these excitation sources for the detection of spores.
As is known to those skilled in the art, fluorescence is a form of luminescence. [Fluorescence and phosphorescence are defined as types of photoluminescence spectrometry (J. D. Ingle, Jr. and S. R. Crouch, Spectrochemical Analysis, pp. 438, 1988, Prentice-Hall, Inc.).] The primary difference between fluorescence and phosphorescence is the emission lifetimes (I. Tinoco, Jr., K. Sauer and J. C. Wang, Physical Chemistry: Principles and Applications in Biological Sciences, pp. 577, 1995, Prentice-Hall). (Fluorescence refers to emission lifetimes that are in the microsecond and shorter range; phosphorescence refers to emission lifetimes are typically in the millisecond or longer range.) Thus, without data of emission lifetimes, phosphorescence and fluorescence are experimentally indistinguishable using traditional emission spectroscopy. In this case, the 'apparent fluorescence' from the intrinsic chromophores (chemical components that absorb excitation energies and emit radiation of lower energy) may arise from either phosphorescence or fluorescence. Detection of apparent fluorescence from intrinsic microbial components confers the ability to detect dormant cryptobiotic microbes (1) without making physical contact with the sample, (2) very rapidly, and (3) without the use of any added reagents.
As can be readily appreciated, it would be very useful to be able to determine the presence of dormant (cyrptobiotic and/or spore-forming) microorganisms in hospitals, food preparation areas, water supplies, buildings and on the battlefield as these microbes require the greatest effort to eradicate. This method and apparatus, as an object of the invention, should be operated inexpensively and rapidly in, for example, food production facilities.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method for detecting the presence of dormant cryptobiotic microorganisms


A vehicle seat moving device may include first and second longitudinal moving mechanisms and a lateral moving mechanism. Each of the longitudinal moving mechanisms has a longitudinal slide rail that is attached to a vehicle floor and a longitudinal slider that is associated with a vehicle seat. The lateral moving mechanism has a lateral moving path that is attached to a vehicle floor and a lateral moving element that is movably attached to the lateral moving path. The lateral moving path is disposed between the first and second longitudinal moving mechanisms so that the lateral moving element can move between the first and second longitudinal moving mechanisms. The longitudinal slider is arranged and constructed to slidably engage to the longitudinal slide rail. Also, the longitudinal slider is arranged and constructed to be engaged with and disengaged from the longitudinal slide rail or the vehicle seat. Further, the lateral moving element can support the vehicle seat thereon when the longitudinal slider is removed from the longitudinal slide rail, thereby permitting lateral movement of the vehicle seat.

The present invention relates to vehicle seat moving devices. More particularly, the present invention relates to vehicle seat moving devices that can move a vehicle seat in the longitudinal direction (i.e., the forward and rearward direction) and the lateral direction (i.e., the widthwise direction) of a vehicle in order to rearrange or reposition the vehicle seat.
Various types of vehicle seat moving devices are already known. Such vehicle seat moving devices are taught, for example, by Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2002-120604.
In the known vehicle seat moving devices, a vehicle floor is provided with a slide groove that is formed therein in a continuous grid-like pattern. The grid-like slide groove is arranged so as to extend in the longitudinal and lateral directions of a vehicle. Conversely, vehicle seats are respectively provided with engagement legs. The engagement legs of the vehicle seats slidably engage the slide groove so that the vehicle seats can move along the slide groove. As a result, the vehicle seats can freely move on the vehicle floor in the longitudinal and lateral directions of the vehicle. Thus, the vehicle seats can be positioned or arranged on the vehicle floor in a wide variety of patterns.
However, in the vehicle seat moving devices thus constructed, the vehicle seats are supported only by the engagement legs. Therefore, it is technically difficult to design the vehicle seats in a manner such that the vehicle seats can be reliably supported on the vehicle floor even if a large load is applied thereto due to a vehicle collision or other such accidents. Generally, in order to increase the support strength of the engagement legs, the engagement legs must be additionally provided with a high-performance locking mechanism or other such rigidifying mechanisms. As a result, the structure of the vehicle seats is complicated. This may lead to an increased manufacturing cost.


A hot air oven for food preparation, with a housing, with a cooking chamber that is defined by side walls as well as a bottom wall and a covering wall, with a blower for generating a hot air current in the cooking chamber, with a basket for the food, which basket can be inserted into the cooking chamber, wherein the basket can be rotated around a rotational axis and in operation, is penetrated by the hot air current, and is particularly easy to clean because, at least in sections along its circumference, the basket has a wall that is made of sheet metal and is provided with openings in its wall.

Hot air ovens of this kind are known, for example, from U.S. Pat. 4,155,294. Hot air ovens are being used in increasing quantities for the preparation of deep-frozen foods, e.g. french fries, because the usual preparation in a deep fryer is meeting with increasing disapproval due to the high fat content of the prepared food. In contrast, preparation in a current of hot air is advantageous, insofar as the fat content of the finished food is concerned, but it also produces a resulting improvement in flavor.
In the known hot air ovens, a basket for containing the food is inserted into the cooking chamber, which basket is made of a stainless steel wire mesh welded into a frame made of angled sections so that a block-shaped basket is produced, which has a square cross section in the direction of the rotational axis and is open on one end. This basket can be removed from the hot air oven for filling, can then be loaded via its open end with the food to be prepared, and reinserted into the oven, wherein a covering sieve closes the open upper end of the basket so that the food cannot fall out when the basket is rotated around its rotational axis. These wire baskets have serious disadvantages. The cleaning of this kind of basket is very difficult since food residues and other encrustations can adhere between the wires of the wire mesh that rest against each other at a crossing point, and can only be removed from there with difficulty. Furthermore, impurities adhere chiefly in the corners of the block-shaped basket because the wire mesh is welded into the angled sections there, resulting in a device that is very difficult to clean. This problem leads to the fact that the cleaning of the basket, which is required from a hygienic standpoint, is neglected.
A further problem in hot air ovens is the preparation time. In particular in snack bars, a particularly rapid food preparation is sought. For this, it is required that the hot air in the inner chamber of the hot air oven can flow favorably through the basket in order to effectively cook and roast the food. The through flow occurs approximately in the radial direction of the basket, so that the open cross section of the wire sieve or wire grating used should be noted. Since the flow does not always occur perpendicular to the wire grating, but also at times at a certain angle due to the rotation of the basket, the free cross section should also be considered at this angle of 45.degree. for example. In the course of this, it is determined that the free cross-section of a wire sieve drops relatively quickly when there is a deviation from the perpendicular

Basket for a hot air oven for the preparation of foodstuffs


A antenna switching apparatus for a dual-mode transceiver which includes a transmission and reception antenna, a transmitting circuit, a receiving circuit, and a separating filter of large insertion loss is connected to the transmission and reception antenna, the transmitting circuit, and the receiving circuit for separating a transmission high frequency signal and a reception high frequency signal having different carrier frequencies, in which transmission and reception in the digital mode of the transmission and reception switching system and the transmission and reception in the analog mode of the simultaneous transmission and reception system is possible further includes an analog-to-digital change-over switch which changes-over mutual connections among the transmission and reception antenna, the transmitting circuit, the receiving circuit and the separating filter in response to the analog or digital mode, a blocking filter of low insertion loss for blocking a high frequency band of spurious signals caused by the switching of a transmission and reception change-over switch which changes-over the transmission and reception in the digital mode and a bandpass filter of low insertion loss for passing therethrough the reception high frequency signal in the digital mode, so that power consumption in the digital mode is reduced considerably.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an antenna switching apparatus for a dual-mode transceiver for use in a mobile telephone of a mobile telephone system.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A dual mode (digital mode and analog mode) mobile telephone system is available in the U.S.A., and a time division multiple access (TDMA) system is employed in the mobile telephone system.
The TDMA system will be described below.
Initially, a plurality of channels in which one frame each of is 40 milliseconds are set and each frame thereof is composed of 6 slots (slots 1 to 6). Each slot has a length of 162 symbols (=324 bits). In the first service, 2 slots (slots 1, 4; slots 2, 5; and slots 3, 6) disposed with an equal interval at every frame are employed as one channel of the full rate traffic channel and 3 channels are multiplexed on the existing high frequency one channel. In the future, for the half rate traffic channel, any one slot within each frame is employed as one channel of the traffic channel and 6 channels are multiplexed on the one high frequency channel.
In the mobile telephone, the transmission and reception frame timing is determined on the basis of the interval of one time slot+44 symbols and the transmission has a priority over the reception. This reference position is referred to as a standard offset reference. The transmission timing of the mobile telephone is controlled by the base station such that it may become earlier than the reference position by the time alignment and is adjusted so as not to conflict with other slots upon reception in the base station.
Accordingly, in the slots 1 to 6 of one frame, for example, a mobile telephone A carries out between it and the base station transmission (slot 1), reception (slot 2), idle (slot 3), transmission (slot 4), reception (slot 5), idle (slot 6), and a mobile telephone B carries out similar transmission, reception and idle of slots 1 to 6 with a delay of time of one slot from the mobile telephone A. Further, a mobile telephone C carries out transmission, reception and idle of similar slots 1 to 6 with a delay of time of one slot from the mobile telephone B. These processes are subsequently sequentially repeated.
A slot format of the mobile telephone relative to the base station is composed of guard time, lump time, data, sync. slow, associated control channel, coded digital verification color code and data, in that order. On the other hand, a slot format of the base station relative to the mobile telephone is composed of sync. slow, associated control channel, data, coded digital verification color code, data and auxiliary area. Incidentally, the data is employed as the user information area.
From the foregoing description, it is to be understood that the telephone system of the digital mode is based on the transmission and reception switching system, while the analog mode telephone system is based on the simultaneous transmission and reception system.
As the carrier frequency, the frequency band of 824 to 849 MHz is allocated to the transmission (for reception at the base station) in the mobile telephone and the frequency band of 869 to 894 MHz is allocated to the reception (transmission from the base station) at the mobile telephone, respectively. Each of these bands is divided at the interval of 30 kHz and one high frequency channel is allocated to each of the divided bands.
An example of a conventional transmitter and receiver circuit for a mobile telephone in the dual-mode mobile telephone system available in the U.S.A. will be described with reference to FIG. 1.
Referring to FIG. 1, it will be seen that a transmitting circuit 1 and a receiving circuit 2 are connected to a transmitting and receiving antenna 3 via a duplexer 20. The duplexer 20 might be a dielectric filter which is composed of a reception side bandpass filter of high Q which passes therethrough a received high frequency signal, the carrier frequency of which is, for example, 880 MHz and a transmission side bandpass filter of high Q which passes therethrough a transmitted high frequency signal, the carrier frequency of which is, for example, 835 MHz. An insertion loss of the duplexer 20 is about 2.0 dB on the transmitting side and about 2.7 dB on the receiving side.
A circuit configuration of the transmitting circuit 1 will be described. As shown in FIG. 1, a modulated audio signal applied to an input terminal 28 is supplied to and frequency-converted by a mixer circuit 26 in a frequency converter 25. The frequency converter 25 is comprised of the mixer circuit 26 and a local oscillator 27. Then, the thus frequency-converted modulated audio signal from the mixer circuit 26 is supplied through a bandpass filter 20 to a high frequency power amplifier 12 and is thereby amplified. The transmission high frequency signal from the power amplifier 12 is supplied through a circulator 11 and the duplexer 20 to the transmitting and receiving antenna 3, from which the transmission high frequency signal is transmitted.
A circuit configuration of the receiving circuit 2 will be described next. As shown in FIG. 1, a received high frequency signal from the duplexer 20 is amplified by a high frequency amplifier 9 and then supplied through a bandpass filter 8 to a mixer circuit 22 of a frequency converter 21, in which it is frequency-converted. The frequency converter 21 is comprised of the mixer circuit 22 and the local oscillator 27 which is commonly used by the transmitting circuit 1 and the receiving circuit 2. The frequency-converted modulated audio signal from the mixer circuit 22 is fed to an output terminal 24.
In the example of the conventional transmitting and receiving circuit, since the transmitted high frequency signal and the received high frequency signal are passed through the duplexer having large insertion loss in the digital mode, an amplification factor of the high frequency amplifier for amplifying the transmission high frequency signal must be increased and an amplification factor of the high frequency amplifier for amplifying the received high frequency signal must be increased, which unavoidably causes power necessary for transmission and reception to be increased by the amount of the insertion loss of the duplexer.

Dual-mode transceiver that switches out a large insertion loss filter during transmission


A device to convert energy having exterior and interior rotors where the number of legs (Λ) of an interior rotor divided by the number of chambers (X) defined by the fins of the outer rotor is equal to the effective radius of the inner reference circle ri divided by the effective radius of the outer reference circle ro (i.e. Λ/X=ri/ro). Where the surface of the fins of the outer rotor and the toe and heel portion of the interior rotor allow for a sealed chamber for a finite amount of rotation of the inner and outer rotors.

Reciprocating motion of piston engines and positive displacement compressors have mechanical limitations on their maximum rotations per minute due to the stresses and wear incurred by reciprocating motion. Other rotary motion positive displacement devices that have rotors on parallel axes of rotation such as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,850,150 employ a plurality of interior rotors, however, the spurs of the interior rotors are not adapted to engage either end of the recesses of the outer rotor simultaneously for more than a single point of rotation. Therefore it is not possible to have a sealed displacement chamber in the recesses of the outer rotor.
The disclosure of U.S. Pat. No. 726,896 discloses a positive displacement inner and outer rotor scheme that utilizes a geometry of 2 to 1 for the outer and inner effective radii. This results in linear walled chambers that are parallel to reference radii of the outer rotor. This is possible only with a 2 to 1 aspect ratio which is discussed thoroughly in the disclosure below. As discussed below in the preferred embodiment, a multi-interior rotor scheme with an outer effective radius of the outer rotor greater than twice the value of the effective radius of the inner rotors can not use a linear shaped surface arrangement on the outer rotors and the feet of the inner rotors.
Other references do not disclose a proper chamber tangential width that is a function of the radial distance. When the chamber walls of an outer rotor are parallel such as in U.S. Pat. No. 728,157 the pistons can not possibly maintain a seal for any duration of rotation where the aspect ratio of the outer and inner rotors is greater than 2 to 1 but is 37 to 15 (37 pressure chambers to 15 inner pistons. Alternatively, interference will occur when the circular member of the spade shaped pistons radially extend into the pressure chambers. As described herein such a converging surface of the chamber widths allows for a seal for more than a single point of rotation.


In order to cover a connector housing and to interlock the connector housing with a mating connector, there is provided an integrated turning and interlocking mechanism having connecting elements arranged on the lateral surfaces of the connector housing wherein said connecting elements are guided on pins and connected to a pivoted housing cover that is arranged on the connector housing and provided for interlocking with the mating connector.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention pertains to a connector housing with a pivoted housing cover that is attached to the connector housing and serves for closing the connector housing or for interlocking the connector housing with a compatible mating connector connected thereto.
A thusly designed connector housing is required in plug-type connections that are not utilized continuously in order to protect the electric contacts in the connector housing from environmental influences by means of a protective cap or, if the connector housing is connected to a corresponding mating connector, to interlock the plug-type connection by means of this protective cap.
2. Description of the Related Art
DE 195 08 605 C1 discloses an electric plug-type connector with interlocking hooks that are respectively arranged opposite of one another on the narrow sides, wherein one connector half is provided with locking pins that engage with rocker-like interlocking elements on the other connector half in order to interlock the two plug-type connector housings.
Such an interlocking mechanism, as well as other variations with an interlocking hook, are merely provided for interlocking a connector housing with a corresponding mating connector, wherein a separate protective cap is required for closing the connector housing.


An anchoring apparatus is provided for securing a first beam to a structural member, including a first plate having a middle section, two end sections, and two ends, each end section being divided into adjacent strip portions by at least one cut extending to one end, a first strip portion at each end section being bent essentially perpendicular to the middle section, for receiving between the first strip portions the first beam, a second strip portion, and a structural member engaging portion extending essentially perpendicular to the middle section oppositely from the first strip portion, for engaging the structural member; a second plate having openings for receiving the second strip portions, and extending adjacent to the first beam, and a mechanism for fastening the second plate to the first plate. Where the structural member is a concrete member, the second strip portion is bent to form the engaging portion, for insertion into the cement of the concrete member before the cement cures, to anchor the first plate to the concrete member. Where the structural member is a second beam positioned essentially perpendicular to the first beam, and the middle section has outer edges two engaging portions are provided and include two essentially parallel, spaced apart plate sections, each plate section extending from one outer edge, for receiving between the plate sections the second beam, and a fastener extending through at least one of the plate sections for securing the first plate to the second beam.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of anchoring devices for securing structural building members together, and more specifically to an anchoring device for securing the bottom member of a truss to the top of a wall, a first embodiment serving to secure the bottom truss member to a concrete wall top edge, including an elongate first plate, positioned in a horizontal plane for purposes of discussion, and having a solid middle section and two end sections, each end section being divided by two parallel, longitudinal cuts into three parallel and adjacent strip portions, the two outer strip portions of each end section extending outward from the middle section to a certain distance to form level segments each including a nut resting on its side and welded to its upper surface, and then bending perpendicularly downward, the downward segments of the outer strip portions having anchoring barbs, for insertion into uncured cement at the top edge of a wall to anchor the first plate to the wall, the middle strip portion at each end section being bent upward adjacent to the middle section and perpendicular to the middle section for receiving between the middle strip portions the bottom truss member, and including a separate, second plate having parallel slots for perpendicularly receiving the remote ends of the two middle strip portions, and corner ports for perpendicularly receiving bolts to fasten to the welded nuts so that the second plate is secured to the first plate and against the bottom truss member; and to a second embodiment for securing the bottom truss member to a plank standing on a side edge along the top of a wall, the outer strip portions of which exclude the downward segments of the first embodiment and instead have parallel plate sections extending perpendicularly and downward from the outer edges of the outer strip portions for receiving between them the wall plank, and nails driven through holes in the plate sections and into the wall plank.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There have long been anchoring devices for securing beams to concrete structural members, and alternatively to perpendicular beams. The concrete anchors have often been large bolts, each bent at a right angle and placed in cement prior to curing. These bolts are typically heavy and expensive, concentrate the anchoring load on a single line, and fail to provide a secure and convenient coupling structure for attachment to a beam. The perpendicular beam anchors are typically straps and truss plates with ends bent a quarter turn relative to each other around their longitudinal axes, to present properly oriented faces for nailing onto perpendicular beams. A problem with these bent straps and truss plates is that they only attach to one face of each beam, so that two of them must be used to achieve balanced and secure anchoring. The additional number of skilled man hours necessary to fasten two separate anchors to each beam makes this option expensive. Another problem with the straps in particular is that they can pivot on their fasteners and permit a dangerous range of play between the beams.
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide an anchoring device for joining beams to concrete structural members, which each fasten to two faces of the beam for secure and economical connection.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide an anchoring device for joining two perpendicular beams together, which fastens to two faces of each beam for secure and economical connection.
It is another object of the present invention to provide such an anchoring device which includes a coupling structure for easy and fast attachment to beams.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide such an anchoring device of the first type which has multiple, spaced apart concrete anchoring elements for a more secure, distributed load.
It is finally an object of the present invention to provide such an anchoring device which is inexpensive to manufacture.


Methods and systems for video segmentation and scene recognition are described. A video having a plurality of frames and a subtitle file associated with the video are received. Segmentation is performed on the video to generate a first set video frames comprising one or more video frames based on a frame-by-frame comparison of features in the frames of the video. Each video frame in the first includes a frame indicator which indicates at least a first start frame of the video frame. The subtitle file associated with the video is parsed to generate one or more subtitle segments based on a start and an end time of each dialogue in the subtitle file. A second set of video frames comprising one or more second video frames are generated based on the video frames of the first set of video frames and the e or more subtitle segments.

Users who view stored videos such as movies, television shows, recorded sporting events and online videos typically have limited options for accessing information about the videos and for searching the content of the videos. At present, users may have options to search videos based on broad categories such as genres, cast, directors, etc. However, a user may wish to search for specific content in the video.
A conventional approach to facilitate searching of video content has been to separate a video into several temporal partitions (e.g., segments), using conventional computer vision techniques, and apply a scene label to each video segment. The video content may then be search based on the scene labels applied to the video segments. Each scene label is generated for each video segment based on the visual features of the video segment, using scene recognition algorithms. However, conventional scene recognition algorithms have inaccuracies. For example, certain shooting styles or video effects in the video may be mistaken for a scene change, resulting in too many video segments that are labeled with scene labels that do not accurately correspond to actual scenes in the video. Inaccurate video segmentation may also result in video segments that start or end in the middle of a dialog in the video, which is also undesirable.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a solution for performing more accurate segmentation of a video, which may enable more accurate labeling of scenes of the video to facilitate searching for content in the video.

Method and system for video segmentation


The present invention relates to novel compounds from Antrodia camphorata and the use thereof.

The fruiting body of Antrodia camphorata (Polyporaceae, Aphyllophorales) is well known in Taiwan as a traditional Chinese medicine. It grows only on the inner heartwood wall of the endemic evergreen Cinnamomun kanehirai (Hay)(Lauraceae) in Taiwan. It is rare and has not been cultivated. The fruiting bodies have been used for treating of food and drug intoxication, diarrhea, abdominal pain, hypertension, itchy skin, and liver cancer. Very few biological activity studies have been reported hitherto.
Antrodia camphorata, also known as "niu-chang-chih" or "niu-chang-ku" in Taiwan, was recently reported as a new fungus species characterized by the cylindrical shape of its basidiospores appearing in fruiting bodies, weakly amyloid skeletal hyphae, bitter taste and light cinnamon resupinate to pileate basidiocarps, as well as chlamydospores and anthroconidia in pure culture. The growth of this new fungus species is extremely slow and restricted to an endemic tree species, Cinnamomum kanehirai Hay (Lauraceae), as the only host. The detailed characterization and taxonomic position of Antrodia camphorata were described in Wu, S.-H., et al., Antrodia cinnamomea ("niu-chang-chih"), New combination of a medicinal fungus in Taiwan, Bot. Bull. Acad. Sin. 38: 273-275 (1997).
In Taiwanese folk medicine, the fruiting bodies of Antrodia camphorata are believed to have certain medical effects. According to the traditional way, the fruiting bodies are ground into dry powder or stewed with other herbal drugs for oral uptake to treat conditions caused by poisoning, diarrhea, abdominal pain, hypertension, skin itches and liver cancer. However, few pharmacological or clinical studies in these aspects have appeared in literature to date. Because of the stringent host specificity and rarity in nature, as well as the failure of artificial cultivation, "niu-chang-chih" is very expensive in Taiwan. In recent years, the fruiting bodies of this fungus with high quality have been sold at an extremely high price of around U.S.$ 15,000 per kg.
Oxidative stress including the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) can be implicated as a cause of hepatic fibrosis (M. Chojkier et al., Stimulation of collagen gene expression by ascorbic acid in cultured human fibroblasts, A role for lipid peroxidation, J. Biol. Chem. 264 (1989), pp. 16957-16962. and I. Shimizu, Antifibrogenic therapies in chronic HCV infection. Curr Drug Targets Infect Disord 1 (2001), pp. 227-240). It has been reported that hepatocytes, which are undergoing oxidative stress, release ROS that stimulate hepatic stellate cell (HSC) proliferation and transformation into α smooth muscle actin (α-SMA)-positive myofibroblast-like cells (G. S. Baroni et al., Fibrogenic effect of oxidative stress on rat hepatic stellate cells, Hepatology 27 (1998), pp. 720-726). These HSCs are referred to as activated cells and are responsible for the abnormal extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins during hepatic fibrosis to cirrhosis. Transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) is a major fibrogenic cytokine, regulating the production, degradation, and accumulation of ECM proteins in hepatic fibrogenesis (A. Casini et al., Regulation of extracellular matrix synthesis by transforming growth factor β1 in human fat-storing cells, Gastroenterology 105 (1993), pp. 245-253). This cytokine induces its own expression in activated HSCs, thereby creating a self-perpetuating cycle of events, referred to as an autocrine loop. TGF-β gene expression correlates with the extent of hepatic fibrosis (A. Castilla et al., Transforming growth factors β1 and α in chronic liver disease. Effects of interferon α therapy. N. Eng. J. Med. 324 (1991), pp. 933-940.), and an increased production of ROS such as H2O2 in fibrotic livers is associated with the up-regulation of TGF-β (E. R. Garcia-Trevijano et al., Transforming growth factor β1 induces the expression of α1(I) procollagen mRNA by a hydrogen peroxide-C/EBP β-dependent mechanism in rat hepatic stellate cells, Hepatology 29 (1999), pp. 960-970).
Fibrotic diseases are characterized by excessive scarring due to excessive production, deposition, and contraction of extracellular matrix. This process usually occurs over many months and years, and can lead to organ dysfunction or death. Examples of fibrotic diseases include diabetic nephropathy, liver cirrhosis, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, rheumatoid arthritis, fibrosarcomas, arteriosclerosis, and scleroderma (systemic sclerosis; SSc). Fibrotic disease represents one of the largest groups of disorders or which there is no effective therapy and thus represents a major unmet medical need. Often the only redress for patients with fibrosis is organ transplantation; since the supply of organs is insufficient to meet the demand, patients often die while waiting to receive suitable organs.
Oxidative stress is associated with liver fibrosis and activation of hepatic stellate cells either directly or through paracrin stimulation by injured hepatocytes. Factors increasing reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation may also be involved in stimulation of excessive matrix production in vivo. Increase in hydrogen peroxide production leads to activation of a potent profibrogenic mediator TGF-β, supporting the idea that oxidative stress has important roles in fibrogenesis (Mehmet R. M., et al., The effect of taurine treatment on oxidative stress in experimental liver fibrosis, Hepatology Research, 28, 207-215 (2004).
TGF-β induces fibroblasts to synthesize and contract ECM, this cytokine has long been believed to be a central mediator of the fibrotic response TGF-β1 triggered enhancement of α-SMA and collagen type I expression.
The discovery in 1987 that nitric oxide (NO) accounted for the bioactivity of endothelium-derived relaxing factor rapidly led to an explosion of information on the physiological and pathological roles of this molecule. Although most well known for its physiological roles in vasorelaxation, neurotransmission, inhibition of platelet aggregation, and immune defense, NO also acts as an intracellular messenger for various cells in almost every system in the body (Peeyush and Chandan, Lancet Oncol 3:149, 2001).
Nitric oxide, this highly reactive free radical agent is synthesized from L-arginine by nitric oxide synthase. It acts in both the intercellular and extracellular environment and is believed to be a regulatory molecule in a variety of soft tissues including articular cartilage, ligament, tendon, skeletal muscle and bone. It is induced during tendon healing in vitro.
It appears that there is a dose-dependent effect upon its contribution to fibroblast production of collagen. There is also a site-specific effect with the anterior cruciate ligament-derived fibroblasts capable of producing more nitric oxide than from cells derived from the medial collateral ligament. Manipulation of nitric oxide production has been thought to help accelerate repetitive overuse tendon injury and tendinosis. The role of nitric oxide in the incorporation of an ACL graft remains under investigation through studies using transfection of cDNA for nitric oxide synthase (Deehan et al., J Bone Joint Surg 87(7):889, 2005).
Nitric oxide (NO) is integral to many biological processes including the control of blood pressure, protection against microbial infection and neurotransmission. Additionally, it appears to be a potent cytotoxin to tumor cells. Among its mechanisms of action on malignant cells, nitric oxide appears to inhibit DNA synthesis and mitochondrial respiration in vitro. It induces programmed cell death or apoptosis in these cells. Unfortunately, NO itself is difficult to administer as it is a highly reactive gas. It also causes hypotension if administered systemically. These limitations have prevented its use to date as an antineoplastic agent.
Generation of nitric oxide (NO) by inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) is a cardinal feature of inflamed tissues including those of the gastrointestinal tract. iNOS overexpression with high levels of NO generation provides a plausible link between inflammation and cancer initiation, progression, and promotion. NO is involved in a number of biological actions including cytotoxicity of phagocytic cells and cell-to-cell communication in the central nervous system. NO is also involved in the immune response (inducible NOS or iNOS), smooth muscle relaxation (endothelial NOS or eNOS), and neuronal signaling (neuronal NOS or nNOS).
Treatment of overuse tendinopathy using transdermal nitric oxide-generating agents is disclosed in U.S. Patent Application Pub. No. 2005171199. Use of nitric oxide scavengers to treat side effects caused by therapeutic administration of sources of nitric oxide is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,596,733. Use of products that release nitric oxide in vivo to treat or prevent infectious diseases in humans or animals is described in Germany patent application Pub. No. DE10303196 A1. Nitric oxide (NO) synthase inhibitor to treat or prevent Type II diabetes is described in Australia patent application Pub. No. AU4865800 A. Use of nitric oxide-releasing agents to treat impotency is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,290,981. Modification of nitric oxide activity to treat fas-induced pathologies is mentioned in PCT publication no. WO9903462 A1. Combined use of angiotensin inhibitors and nitric oxide stimulators to treat fibrosis is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,139,847 A. Blocking induction of tetrahydrobiopterin to block induction of nitric oxide synthesis is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,274,581.


A metal precursor powder, a method of manufacturing a conductive metal layer or pattern, and an electronic device including the same, are provided, and in the metal precursor powder, the Gibbs free energy change of hydrogen removal at a temperature range of −25° C. to 25° C. is −100 kJ/mol to 300 kJ/mol.

(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a metal precursor powder, a method of manufacturing a conductive metal layer or pattern, and an electronic device including the same.
(b) Description of the Related Art
Metal electrodes have been utilized in various technical fields. Of these metal electrodes, as an example, an aluminum (Al) electrode is excellent in view of several electrical properties, such as electrical conductivity and work function, and is economical, and thus aluminum (Al) is utilized as an essential electrode material for various electronic, electric, energetic, and environmental devices.
More specifically, aluminum has the forth best electrical conductivity in metals on the earth, following silver, copper, and gold and has a very low work function, so that aluminum is very largely used in an electrode material requiring ohmic contact as well as an electrode material for charge transfer. Further, aluminum is very inexpensive. Therefore, aluminum may be a very attractive material as a next-generation electrode material.
However, since aluminum has high reactivity to moisture and oxygen, it is very difficult to subject aluminum to wet coating and printing. Currently, thin film types of electrodes are formed only through a vacuum deposition process other than in a technology according to which an electrode having a thickness of several micrometers or larger is formed by coating a paste on a rear electrode of a silicon solar cell through a screen printing process, the paste being composed of a micrometer-sized aluminum powder, and conducting heat treatment at a high temperature of 800° C. or higher.
The vacuum deposition process is very effective in implementing a pure aluminum layer having a desired thickness, but has problems in that the vacuum deposition apparatus is very expensive, the time and energy needed for maintaining a vacuum state are respectively long and high, and 70% or more of raw materials are lost. Considering these problems, in the case where large-area electrodes are needed like in 7th and 8th generation display devices, a vacuum chamber having a volume appropriate for the area is needed and the time and energy needed for maintaining a vacuum state of the vacuum chamber are further increased. Therefore, the vacuum deposition process may be very inappropriate in view of economic feasibility.
However, the wet printing and coating processes have an advantage in that an electrode with a desired shape can be formed in a very short time under a normal pressure atmosphere. Recently, many efforts to replace all technologies through the vacuum deposition process by the wet printing and coating process have been made.
However, most inks used in the wet printing and coating process are composed of an expensive gold or silver powder, of which the size is very large at a micrometer level, so that a high-temperature heating process is needed for contact and connection between powder particles.
As mentioned above, the paste composed of the aluminum powder having a 10 micrometer-level particle diameter is used. However, the aluminum powder, unlike gold or silver powder, has very large oxidation property and thus an oxidized film is formed on a surface of the aluminum powder. Therefore, in order to manufacture an electrically conductive layer by using an aluminum paste, it is necessary to conduct a heat treatment process at a high temperature of 800° C. or higher to thereby break the oxidized film on the surface of the aluminum powder and connect pure aluminum powder particles, which come out from the surrounding aluminum powder through the broken oxidized film.
That is, it is necessary to conduct heat treatment at a high temperature of 800° C. or higher in order to manufacture a conductive layer by using an aluminum paste. Therefore, it is impossible to apply aluminum as an electrode material in fields of recent organic electronic devices, flexible electronic devices, stretchable electronic devices, and the like, employing a substrate or an organic functional material, which is venerable to high temperatures.
In order to implement an aluminum layer having high electrically conductivity at a low temperature, recently published Korean Patent Registration Nos. 10-1021280 and 10-1195545 disclose developments of technology of realizing an aluminum layer having high electrical conductivity at room temperature to 150° C. by using a solution in which a material having various organic substances attached to an aluminum precursor, for example hydrogenated aluminum (AlH3), is dissolved in a particular solvent.
However, since the hydrogenated aluminum has very low solubility to the solvent, a significant amount of the aluminum precursor, hydrogenated aluminum, is precipitated from the aluminum precursor ink prepared according to the above patents in a very short time. Therefore, the concentration of the aluminum precursor ink cannot be maintained in a uniform state for a long time and thus the thickness of the finally formed aluminum layer is difficult to uniformly maintain, thus failing to uniformly maintain electrical characteristics of all the prepared aluminum layers.
Accordingly, there is need for a method of manufacturing a high-conductivity aluminum layer through wet printing and coating, the method being capable of solving the above problems and securing an aluminum precursor ink that is physically/chemically stable for a long time.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.

Metal precursor powder, method of manufacturing conductive metal layer or pattern, and device including the same

KOREA INSTITUTE OF MACHINERY & MATERIALS