An outboard motor has a powerhead; a supporting cradle supporting the powerhead, the supporting cradle having port and starboard sides extending alongside opposite sides of the outboard motor; a resilient mount coupling the powerhead to the supporting cradle and being configured to absorb vibrations of the powerhead; and a tie bar mounting bracket having a head portion located aftwardly of the supporting cradle and further having port and starboard arms extending forwardly from the head portion alongside the opposite sides of the outboard motor and being coupled to the port and starboard sides of the supporting cradle, respectively. A cooling system conveys cooling water through the outboard motor and has a telltale outlet that discharges cooling water through the tie bar mounting apparatus.

The present US patents are incorporated herein by reference in entirety:
U.S. Pat. No. 9,969,475 discloses a system for mounting an outboard motor propulsion unit to a marine vessel transom, including a support cradle having a head section coupled to a transom bracket and a pair of arms extending aftward from the head section and along opposite port and starboard sides of the propulsion unit. A pair of upper mounts is provided, each upper mount in the pair coupling a respective arm to the propulsion unit aft of a center of gravity of a powerhead system of the propulsion unit. A pair of lower mounts is also provided, each lower mount in the pair coupling the propulsion unit to the transom bracket. The pair of upper mounts is located aft of the pair of lower mounts when the propulsion unit is in a neutral position, in which the propulsion unit is generally vertically upright and not tilted or trimmed with respect to the transom.
U.S. Pat. No. 9,963,213 discloses a system for mounting an outboard motor propulsion unit to a marine vessel transom. The propulsion unit's midsection has an upper end supporting a powerhead system and a lower end carrying a gear housing. The mounting system includes a support cradle having a head section coupled to a transom bracket, an upper structural support section extending aftward from the head section and along opposite port and starboard sides of the midsection, and a lower structural support section suspended from the upper structural support section and situated on the port and starboard sides of the midsection. A pair of upper mounts couples the upper structural support section to the midsection proximate the engine system. A pair of lower mounts couples the lower structural support section to the midsection proximate the gear housing. At least one of the upper and lower structural support sections comprises an extrusion or a casting.
U.S. Pat. No. 9,701,383 discloses a marine propulsion support system including a transom bracket, a swivel bracket, and a mounting bracket. A drive unit is connected to the mounting bracket by a plurality of vibration isolation mounts, which are configured to absorb loads on the drive unit that do not exceed a mount design threshold. A bump stop located between the swivel bracket and the drive unit limits deflection of the drive unit caused by loads that exceed the threshold. An outboard motor includes a transom bracket, a swivel bracket, a cradle, and a drive unit supported between first and second opposite arms of the cradle. First and second vibration isolation mounts connect the first and second cradle arms to the drive unit, respectively. An upper motion-limiting bump stop is located remotely from the vibration isolation mounts and between the swivel bracket and the drive unit.
U.S. Pat. No. 9,403,588 discloses systems for cooling a marine engine that is operated in a body of water. The systems can include an open loop cooling circuit for cooling the marine engine, wherein the open loop cooling circuit is configured to convey cooling water from the body of water to the marine engine so that heat is exchanged between the cooling water and the marine engine, and a pump that is configured to pump the cooling water from upstream to downstream through the open loop cooling circuit. A heat exchanger is configured to cause an exchange of heat between the cooling water located upstream of the marine engine and the cooling water located downstream of the marine engine to thereby warm the cooling water located upstream of the marine engine, prior to cooling the marine engine.
U.S. Pat. No. 9,376,191 discloses an outboard motor to be coupled to a transom of a marine vessel, including a midsection housing having a front side configured to face the transom, a back side opposite the front side, a left side, and an opposite right side. A powerhead having a powerhead block is mounted directly to and supported by the midsection housing. A driveshaft is coupled in torque transmitting relation with a crankshaft of the engine, and a portion of the driveshaft is located exterior to the midsection housing. An exhaust pipe that conveys exhaust gas from an exhaust gas outlet of the engine downwardly away from the engine is also located exterior to the midsection housing. In one example, the midsection housing serves as a sump for engine oil.
U.S. Pat. No. 9,365,274 discloses an outboard marine propulsion device having an internal combustion engine with a cylinder head and a cylinder block and an exhaust manifold that discharges exhaust gases from the engine towards a vertically elongated exhaust tube. The exhaust manifold has a plurality of inlet runners that receive the exhaust gases from the engine, and a vertically extending collecting passage that conveys the exhaust gases from the plurality of inlet runners upwardly to a bend that redirects the exhaust gases downwardly towards the exhaust tube. A cooling water jacket is on the exhaust manifold and conveys cooling water alongside the exhaust manifold. A catalyst housing is coupled to the exhaust manifold and a cooling water jacket is on the catalyst housing and carries cooling water alongside the catalyst housing. A catalyst is disposed in the catalyst housing.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,512,085 discloses a tie bar apparatus for a marine vessel having at least first and second marine drives. The tie bar apparatus comprises a linkage that is geometrically configured to connect the first and second marine drives together so that during turning movements of the marine vessel, the first and second marine drives steer about respective first and second vertical steering axes at different angles, respectively.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,500,501 discloses an outboard marine drive having a cooling system drawing cooling water from a body of water in which the outboard marine drive is operating, and supplying the cooling water through cooling passages in an exhaust tube in the driveshaft housing, a catalyst housing, and an exhaust manifold, and thereafter through cooling passages in the cylinder head and the cylinder block of the engine. A 3-pass exhaust manifold is provided. A method is provided for preventing condensate formation in a cylinder head, catalyst housing, and exhaust manifold of an internal combustion engine of a powerhead in an outboard marine drive.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,207,854 discloses a tie bar arrangement that uses a rod end cartridge assembly that provides relative rotate-ability between an associated rod end and a coupler tube. The provision of a connecting link and steering arm adapter associated with the rod end cartridge assembly also provides relative rotation about first and second axes which allow sufficient flexibility to avoid placing the tie bar arrangement under excessive stress when one marine propulsion device is tilted relative to another marine propulsion device.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,913,497 discloses a connection system for connecting two or more marine propulsion devices, which together provides a coupler that can be rotated in place, without detachment from other components, to adjust the distances between the tie bar arms. In addition, the use of various clevis ends and pairs of attachment plates on the components significantly reduces the possibility of creating moments when forces and their reactions occur between the various components.

Outboard motors and tie bar apparatuses for coupling an outboard motor to an adjacent outboard motor


A method for calculating the number and moving direction of pedestrians is provided. in which feature points of a current frame image are extracted; the feature points of the current frame image are compared with those of a selected historical frame image, to obtain moving feature points of the current frame image; directional weighted counting is performed on the moving feature points of the current frame image to obtain the moving direction of the pedestrians; and edge points of pedestrian images are extracted from a foreground image of the current frame image, and performing joint weighted counting on the edge points of the pedestrian images and the moving feature points of the current frame image according to correction coefficients of locations of the respective points, to obtain the number of the pedestrians. A device for calculating the number and moving direction of pedestrians is also provided.

Along with the development of the economic society, the continuous increase of social activities of people and particularly the promotion of an urbanization process, urban population density increases. Therefore, population density estimation has a broad application prospect and high research value.
At present, a population density estimation method is to acquire images for a certain time period by virtue of intelligent video monitoring equipment, analyze the acquired images to obtain multiple image features and establish a regression model by virtue of the obtained image features; and during the real-time monitoring of the intelligent video monitoring equipment, a current frame image is analyzed to obtain an individual feature of the current frame image as an input, the number of people is calculated by virtue of the regression model, and then population density is calculated by virtue of the number of the people.
However, in the population density estimation method, when the regression model is established and the number of the people is calculated, there are many image features to be extracted, which may increase complexity in calculation and cause influence on a calculation speed; and moreover, during intelligent video monitoring, angle influence on an erection position of the monitoring equipment is not taken into account, so that the established regression model is not so accurate when the extracted image features are directly used for analysis, which further causes inaccuracy of the number of the people calculated by virtue of the regression model.
It can be seen that the population density estimation method in an existing technology is lower in calculation speed, and moreover, calculation results are inaccurate.

Method and device for calculating number and moving direction of pedestrians


Shaving razors and cartridges are featured that include one or more shaving aid portions. In some instances, the razors and cartridges include a shaving aid holder, configured to allow the shaving aid portion to deflect when pressure is applied to a surface of the shaving aid portion during shaving.

Razors for wet shaving typically include a blade unit carried by a handle, the blade unit including an elongate blade with a rectilinear sharpened edge, or a plurality of such blades with parallel edges. The blade unit may be fixedly mounted on the handle with the intention that the entire razor be discarded when the blade edge or edges have become dulled. Alternatively, the blade unit can be detachably connected to the handle to enable replacement of a used blade unit with a fresh blade unit. Replaceable blade units are commonly referred to as cartridges.
Some shavers, in particular women, use this type of razor in the shower. For example, when shaving her legs a woman will often apply a film or lather of soap to an area of skin to be shaved, shave that area, apply soap to another area, and shave that area. This process is repeated until shaving is complete. Shaving in this manner may be difficult and frustrating, as it generally requires the shaver to hold a wet bar of soap in one hand while wielding a razor in the other hand, often while standing in an awkward position on a slippery shower floor.
Attempts have been made to address this problem by providing soap mounted on a razor. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,584,690 describes a razor that carries a shaving preparation, e.g., in the form of a solid cake of soap that surrounds the cartridge.


An apparatus for sensing the presence of an auxiliary battery connected to a cellular telephone is disclosed. An internal battery and a removable auxiliary battery are connected to the power system of the cellular telephone through first and second switches respectively. Connection of the auxiliary battery creates a current flow that is detected by a current sensing circuit which generates a current signal indicating the detection of current flow. A voltage sensing circuit determines whether the auxiliary battery can provide a predetermined voltage level and generates a voltage signal indicating the results of this test. A processor then utilizes the signals from the voltage sensing circuit and the current sensing circuit to control the pair of switches to connect the main and auxiliary batteries to the power circuitry of the cellular telephone.

1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to means for extending the battery life of portable electronic devices such as cellular telephones, and more particularly, to a switch capable of sensing the presence of an auxiliary battery and switching the power circuitry of the electronic device to the auxiliary battery.
2. Description of Related Art
The battery pack is the main power source for portable electronic devices such as cellular phones. The portable nature of cellular phones are limited by the fact that their battery power will not last forever. After a period of time the batteries become discharged and the cellular phone must be plugged into a charger in order to recharge the battery. In order to achieve more battery power (longer battery life), typically the size of the battery cell must be increased. This presents a problem for cellular telephone designers due to the conflicts between a desire for longer talk time and standby for the phone (i.e., longer battery life) and the desire for smaller, lighter telephones.
Existing solutions for the problems of shortened talk time and standby have been limited to the development of high capacity batteries for cellular telephone units. These batteries suffer from the limitations of size and weight mentioned previously. The conflict between size and power is made worse by the development of next generation telephones which are becoming smaller and smaller. Other solutions involve the use of improved battery technologies that increase the charge per volume and charge per weight ratios of existing battery systems. However, these improvements have not been sufficient to keep up with the smaller sizes of cellular telephone units that are possible using existing components and technologies. Thus, what is necessary for meeting the presently existing market needs is a means for increasing a cellular telephone's battery life while at the same time leaving the size and weight of the cellular telephone unchanged.


Organisms such as bacterial spores are analyzed and/or characterized based on based on peptide fragments of a set of selectively solublizede proteins. Libraries of protein and gene sequences may be utilized for comparison to and identification of proteins and unknown organisms.

(1) Field of the Invention
The invention relates to analyzing organisms such as bacterial spores based on their soluble polypeptides and more particularly to the identification of organisms such as bacterial spores based on peptide fragments of their soluble polypeptides.
(2) Description of Related Art
A number of approaches have been used in the past for applying the analytic power of mass spectrometry to microorganisms (Fenselau and Demirev, Mass Spectrom Rev 20, 157). Among these, electrospray ionization and matrix assisted laser desorption mass spectrometry have provided access to cellular proteins as biomarkers. In many cases proteins have first been isolated from other bacterial material for subsequent analysis by enzymatic, chromatographic and mass spectral procedures (Harris and Reilly, Anal Chem 74, 4410, 2002; Cargile, McLuckey and Stephenson, Anal Chem 73, 1277, 2001; Zhou et al, Proteomics 1, 683, 2001; Krishnamurthy et al, J. Toxicol. Toxin Rev 19, 95, 2000; Xiang et al, Anal Chem 72, 2475, 2000; Arnold and Reilly, Anal Biochem 269, 105, 1999; Holland et al Anal Chem 71, 3226, 1999; Yates and Eng, U.S. Pat. No. 5,538,897; Dai et al, Rapid Commun Mass Spectrom 13, 73, 1999; Liu et al, Anal Chem 70, 1797, 1998; Despeyroux, Phillpotts and Watts, Rapid Commun Mass Spectrom 10, 937, 1996; Cain et al, Rapid Commun. Mass Spectrom 8, 1026, 1994). Isolated proteins were cleaved to peptides, the peptides were partially sequenced by tandem mass spectrometry, and the parent proteins were identified by standard protein and genome database searches. The bacteria species were characterized from the database as the source of the proteins. In other cases researchers have undertaken to analyze protein biomarkers without a separation step (Claydon et al Nature Biotechnol. 14, 1584, 1996; Demirev and Fenselau PCT/US 99/27191; Holland et al, Rapid Commun. Mass Spectrom 10, 1227, 1996; Krishnamurthy, Ross and Rajamani, Rapid Commun. Mass Spetrom 10, 883, 1996; Krishnamurthy U.S. Pat. No. 6,177,266). The sample is lysed on the mass spectrometry sample holder (in situ) and proteins are desorbed directly by matrix assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI). The spectrum of the mixture of proteins detected can be matched to a carefully prepared library of microbial mass spectra (Conway et al, J. Mol. Microbiol Biotechnol. 3, 103, 2001; Jarman et al, Anal Chem 72, 1217, 2000), allowing distinction of the species, or the microorganism can be characterized by matching the masses of the suite of proteins observed to protein masses predicted from the genome (Demirev et al, Anal Chem 73, 4566, 2001; Pineda et al, Anal Chem 72, 3739, 2000; Demirev et al, Anal Chem 71, 2732, 1999; Demirev and Fenselau PTC/US99/27191).
More recently enzymatic cleavage of proteins on the sample holder for direct analysis of peptides (Yao, Demirev and Fenselau, Anal Chem 74, 2529, 2002; Yao and Fenselau, Rapid Commun Mass Spectrom 16, 1953, 2002) has been proposed to provide a simple rapid analysis of simple viruses. Applying this strategy to more complex microorganisms (Escherichia coli and Erwinia herbicola) has revealed that indiscriminant enzymatic digestion of proteins in a microorganism, without a fractionation step, produces a large mixture of peptides, poor signal to noise ratios, poor sensitivity for tandem mass spectrometry (sequencing) experiments, and poor reproducibility. Also see "Rapid Microorganism Identification by MALDI Mass Spectrometry and Model-derived Ribosomal Protein Biomarkers" Antoine et al., J. Lin, Anal. Chem. 75 (2003) pp 3817-3822; U.S. Pat. No. 6,558,946 to Krishnamurthy and U.S. Pat. No. 6,177,266 to Krishnamurthy et al.; and U.S. Patent Application 20030027231 to Bryden et al.
Among the microorganisms, spores of the genus Bacillus are monitored as important targets in battle spaces, subways and buildings, counter-terrorism activities, and in some medical diagnosis. Direct desorption of biomarker proteins from spores has been challenging, as the outer spore coat is strongly resistant to solvents. Abundant proteins, however, are present within the spore core. These proteins can be extracted from spores by treatment with 1N H; 1 HCl, and hence they are referred in the art to as small, acid-soluble proteins (SASP). Their sequences are different for different spores (Hathout et al, Applied Environ. Microbiology 69, in press, 2003).
Also see WO 02/40678 A1 to Fairhead for a detailed description of small acid-soluble spore proteins, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

Analyzing and distinguishing organisms such as bacterial spores by their soluble polypeptides


The present disclosure relates to methods and systems for providing and executing semi-autonomous web applications within browsers. Examples of the disclosure include creating a runtime interpreter that can be executed by a browser, to allow complex, semi-autonomous and stable web applications to be constructed and deployed on user devices. The runtime interpreter is received from a first server at a browser executing on a device that receives an instruction set from a second server. The received runtime interpreter is executed within the browser and executes the received instructions set.

There have been many models for software distribution. Familiar methods have included physical distribution on paper tape, magnetic tape, and optical media such as CDs and DVDs. There are also distribution methods which operate on-demand, usually via the Internet.
There are trade-offs to each method, and factors to optimise, for example:                Cost of distribution: physical preparation and transport of media or cost of Internet bandwidth;        Time to availability: physical delivery or Internet latency; and,        Required sophistication of the user: knowledge of how to load packaged software or how to update software via the Internet.
Current techniques centre around the means and methods of Internet distribution.
One of these is the App Store model. Some clearinghouses (e.g. ITUNES or GOOGLE PLAY) maintain a curated list of available software for download. ITUNES apps are all written in either the Objective-C language or the SWIFT language. GOOGLE PLAY apps are all written in the Java language. These "native" apps then run on their respective target, or client, devices. Separate code bases must be maintained for each family of devices, and yet other code bases for other targets, or clients, including WINDOWS PCs, MACINTOSH OS X PCs, and LINUX PCs.
More interesting is the universal distribution made possible by the World Wide Web.
In the case of the World Wide Web, the simplest methods involve sending markup (formatting) instructions from a server to a browser. There is a well-defined communications protocol: Hyper-Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and a well-understood markup language: Hyper-Text Markup Language (HTML). These are mature technologies and are codified by independent international bodies in an effort to make them universally available and useful. In this standard model, the browser's only job is to interpret the stream of HTML commands into visuals on the screen, and to allow input to be sent back to the server, also in HTML via HTTP.
In this basic model, nearly every set of interactions, and all navigation from page to page, requires one or several round-trip communications between the browser and the server, which creates latency, or delay, which is perceived by the user as slow responsiveness.
Early in the evolution of web browsers, NETSCAPE posited that it would be useful to give the browser some capability for autonomous behaviour. The first examples of this behaviour were visual effects, such as a scrolling marquee sign. More useful functions included the ability to check the completeness or validity of data entry fields and provide local guidance before wasting a round-trip sending incomplete or invalid data to the server. This was the genesis of JAVASCRIPT, a language supported by NETSCAPE, which has now matured and is universally supported, with varying dialects, by all modern browsers. JAVASCRIPT is capable of directly manipulating the Document Object Model (DOM) which is the browser's way of storing the state of the displayed web page. JAVASCRIPT is often referred to as JS.
Subsequently, Håkon Wium Lie at CERN noted that formatting information (e.g. font size, colour, margins, etc.) could be specified through the use of hints aimed directly at the browser. The browser could take the markup information in HTML and combine it with these hints to render the finished visuals in a more sophisticated manner. These hints were collected in Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), and that is now another universally applicable specification supported by all modern browsers.
As the sophistication and complexity of data gathered by and delivered to browsers increased, there were several competing standards for a loosely specified data format to group, clarify and validate this data. XML (X for "generic" Markup Language), a related generalisation of HTML is one. JSON JAVASCRIPT Object Notation (JSON), based on the notation of "hashes" or key:value pairs in JAVASCRIPT (JS), is another. For many reasons, including its ease of composition and parsing, for most applications, JSON has become most widely used, though XML is still applied where strict validation is required.
Modern JS includes a number of standard, universally supported means of storing bits of data in the browser. These include localStorage and sessionStorage, which are similar means of storing key:value pairs of data in the browser, and this data is saved by the browser on the local disk for persistent availability. There are further complementary, competing standards with support that is less universal, such as WebSQL (for which governing body work has ceased, and it is therefore a deprecated capability) and IndexedDB (potentially the eventual universal standard, but not yet universally supported). WebSQL provides a Structured Query Language-based method of storing and retrieving information on the local disk. IndexedDB is another key:value store on the local disk.
More recently, the standards bodies have settled on an agreed specification of a means for instructing a browser to cache, or store locally, some collection of HTML, CSS, JS, and supporting assets (e.g. graphics files: PNG, JPG, SVG, etc.) This capability is called the applicationCache, and the specification is called the application manifest. The application manifest tells the browser which resources to keep in its cache, and when the content of the manifest changes, tells the browser to reload all the cached resources from its server sources. This makes possible simple "single page web apps" where the page description is downloaded in HTML and cached in the browser for repeated access.
This combination of HTMUJS/CSS/JSON/localStorage/applicationCache has provided fertile ground for experimentation.
There are many JS "frameworks" now available to increase the degree of sophistication, and/or to reduce the latency of interaction, and/or allow for some activity to take place in the browser when an Internet connection is temporarily unavailable.
Examples are numerous, and include, but are not limited to:    1. Angular.js, which makes use of "templates" which are more Java-style programming objects including classes, constructors, and HTML views. These templates are "compiled" into the web app's JAVASCRIPT (JS) and HTML code. This is an example of a JS library or "framework" loaded as part of the site.    2. Bootstrap.js, which is a library of pre-configured components that enhance front-end development. The Bootstrap.js library includes JS and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) which make it easier for developers to lay out a grid of components on a screen. While this grid allows some measure of "responsive" design, it does not allow dynamic re-sizing or intelligent selection of components at runtime.    3. RUBY ON RAILS, which runs entirely in the "cloud". Business logic is contained entirely on the server side.    4. JQUERY, which is a library which supplements the standard syntax of JS and provides a bit of abstraction. Browsers from different manufacturers may support subtly differently subsets of JSt, and JQUERY was developed to make cross-browser development easier. It is a library for use by developers.    5. COFFEE SCRIPT and TYPE SCRIPT, which are extension languages which "compile into" JS. They provide language extensions (variable types, simplified syntax, etc.) and are merely tools for developers.    6. METEOR, which is a collection of open-source tools that deliver bespoke JS web apps to the client and handle the communications between the client device and cloud.    7. REACT, which is "a JS library for building user interfaces". It provides a parallel Document Object Model (DOM) so that rendering can take place on the server.
With all of these, there is an assumption that the server will send a "page" to the browser, which is then rendered with enhanced interactions. Links from page to page require communication with the server, and the "state" is stored on the server.
There is a desire for a web application deployment system which provides for more complete client-side execution bringing greater responsiveness, similar to that of native apps. It would also be desirable if the development process for web applications could be made simpler for use by less specialist developers.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method and system for providing and executing web applications which overcome the disadvantages of the prior art, or at least to provide a useful alternative.

Method and system for providing and executing web applications with runtime interpreter


An hermetically sealed joint cover for fibre optic cables which does not require the use of mastic and/or miscellaneous sealants, the hermetic seal being achieved by a seal gasket which is provided with at least one through hole partly open outwards and embracing each cable or series of cables entering and/or leaving the joint cover, and which is insertable into seats formed in apertures for the entry and exit of the cables into and from the joint cover.

This invention relates to an hermetically sealed joint cover for fibre optic cables, comprising substantially a cable-joining box element and at least one entry aperture and one exit aperture for the cables, said cable entry and exit apertures being provided in a base connectable to a cover along respective connection surfaces to form said box element, within said apertures there being provided a seal gasket of elastic material provided with at least one through hole and deformable so as to fill the apertures as an interference fit when said cover is connected to said base.
The hermetical seal is a main feature for the correct operation of the above joint covers.
In known types of joint cover this seal is obtained using mastic spread along the connecting surfaces of the base and cable. However, with mastic the pressure under which the constituent elements of the joint cover are fitted together is decisive for proper sealing.
If the joint cover has to be reopened, the application of new mastic for resealing has to be preceded by the removal of all traces of mastic remaining on the connected parts. This requires time, and in addition the necessary sealing of the joint cover cannot be ensured.
Moreover in known joint covers it is difficult to insert more than one cable while maintaining the seal gaskets in place between the base and cover.
The object of the present invention is to obviate these drawbacks by means of a simple joint cover structure which is easy to assemble and install.

Hermetically sealed joint cover for fibre optic cables


A magnetic head assembly includes a slider on which a magnetic head is mounted, a spring arm having a gimbal portion on which the slider is mounted, a wiring pattern provided on the spring arm and electrically connected to the magnetic head, and an insulating member provided between the slider and the gimbal portion of the spring arm.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a magnetic head assembly having a thin-film or MR type magnetic head used for a magnetic disk drive.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, in conventional magnetic disk drives, monolithic type magnetic heads have been replaced with thin-film or MR type magnetic heads.
FIG. 1A is an exploded view of an example of a magnetic head assembly (which can also be referred to as a magnetic head suspension unit) having a thin-film type magnetic head used for the conventional magnetic disk drives. FIG. 1B is an exploded view of a part of the magnetic head suspension unit shown in FIG. 1A. In the present specification, the magnetic head suspension unit refers to an assembly of a spring arm having a magnetic head mounted on an end of the spring arm. The other end of the spring arm is adapted to be mounted on a member of a magnetic head positioning mechanism.
Referring now to FIG. 1A, one end (a base portion 1a) of a spring arm (suspension) 1 formed of an elastic plate is mounted to a member of a magnetic head positioning mechanism (not shown in the figure) via a plate-like spacer 2. A gimbal 3 is mounted on another end 1b of the spring arm 1. The gimbal 3 is mounted, as shown in FIG. 1B, on the spring arm 1 by means of laser welding at positions indicated by x. A core slider (head slider) 4 of a magnetic head h is mounted by adhesive on the gimbal 3.
Two magnetic head elements 5 are formed on a rear side surface of the magnetic head, the magnetic head elements 5 being connected by lead wires 6 which lead to a read wire 8 covered with an insulating tube 7 fixed to the spring arm 1. The lead wire 8 is lead to a recording/reproducing circuit 9 shown in FIG. 2.
The spring arm 1 is slightly bent near the base portion 1a so that a bent portion 1c is formed so as to generate a spring force.
FIG. 2 is an exploded view of a conventional magnetic disk drive in which two magnetic head suspension units shown in FIG. 1A are used.
Two magnetic head suspension units are mounted on a driving arm 13 which pivots about an axis 12 so that a magnetic disk 10 accommodated inside the magnetic head drive is sandwiched between two of the core sliders 4 mounted on the respective spring arms 1. Each of the core sliders 4 is pressed to a respective surface of the magnetic disk 10 by the spring force generated by the bent portion 1c.
When the magnetic disk 10 is rotated at a high speed, the magnetic heads h float, if the magnetic heads h are of the floating type, on the respective surface of the magnetic disk 10 due to an air flow generated by the rotation of the magnetic disk 10. If the magnetic heads h are contact type magnetic heads, the magnetic heads h do not float, but instead slide on the respective surfaces of the magnetic disk 10. The magnetic heads h are moved to respective target tracks on the surfaces of the magnetic disk 10 by pivoting the spring arms about the axis 12.
FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a thin-film type magnetic head. FIG. 4 is an enlarged cross sectional view of the thin-film type magnetic head shown in FIG. 3 taken along a line 4--4 of FIG. 3.
The thin-film type magnetic head shown in FIG. 3 comprises the slider 4 and head elements 5. The head elements 5 are formed by means of a film deposition technique and lithography. Terminals 15a and 15b for recording/reproducing coils are provided near the head elements 5.
Each of the head elements 5 comprises a lower magnetic pole 16, an upper magnetic pole 17 and a thin-film coil 19 wound around a connecting portion 18 between the lower magnetic pole 16 and the upper magnetic pole 17. A gap insulating layer 20 is provided between the lower magnetic pole 16 and the upper magnetic pole 17 so that a gap G having a predetermined width is formed between the two poles. The gap G faces the surface of the magnetic disk 10 to perform an magnetic recording/reproducing operation.
In the construction of the magnetic head suspension unit shown in FIG. 1 in which the lead wire 8 is covered with the insulating tube 7, the insulating tube 7 occupies a relatively large space to prevent miniaturization of the magnetic disk drive. Additionally, the insulating tube 7 makes an assembling operation difficult, particularly an automated assembling operation. Further, there is a strong possibility that the lead wire 8 will pick up noises, resulting in degradation of a S/N ratio of a signal sent via the lead wire 8.
In order to eliminate the above-mentioned problems, a method for forming a signal transmitting line on a spring arm is suggested in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 4-21918. In the method, a signal line is formed of a pattern of a conductive layer on an insulating layer formed on the spring arm. However, the method has a problem in that the signal transmitting line formed of the conductive layer is easily damaged or broken during a process for forming the bent portion 1c shown in FIG. 1A.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 4-111217 discloses a magnetic head suspension unit in which a flexible printed circuit board is attached to a spring arm, and a portion of the flexible circuit board corresponding to the above of the spring arm bent portion is not adhered to the spring arm. Instead, in this construction, the portion of the flexible printed circuit board corresponding to the bent portion of the spring arm is free, and thus there is no bending stress applied to the flexible printed circuit board. However, this construction cannot be applied to a highly miniaturized spring arm such as a spring arm having a thickness of a few microns and a 4.6 mm width.
There is another problem in that the ability of the insulating layers 21 and 22 of the magnetic head element 5 to withstand dielectric voltage is very low because they each have a thickness of only 1 to a few microns. Accordingly, if a relatively high voltage of about 100V or more is applied between the thin-film coil 19 and the poles 16 and 17 due to a generation of static electricity, the insulating layers 21 and 22 may be easily damaged due to electric discharge.
If the insulation between the thin-film coil 19 and the poles 16 or 17 is damaged, an electric discharge may occur between the core slider, which is made of a conductive material such as Al.sub.2 O.sub.3 TiC, and the magnetic poles 16 or 17, resulting in the gap G or the floating surface of the core slider 4 being damaged. Additionally, when the magnetic disk drive is in operation, an electric discharge may occur between the magnetic disk 10 and the magnetic poles 16 or 17, resulting in the magnetic gap G being damaged. When the core slider 4 is damaged, the floating characteristic of the magnetic head is deteriorated, which condition causes a generation of noises in the recording/reproducing signal. If the magnetic head is a contact type head, the damaged surface of the magnetic head may scratch the magnetic disk 10.
Problems similar to the above-mentioned problems may occur when the core slider is miniaturized. That is, when the magnetic head is heated, the magnetic head tends to expand due to thermal expansion, but a portion of the core slider attached to the gimbal or the spring arm by adhesive cannot expand in accordance with the expansion of the magnetic head. This creates bending of the core slider, and thus the floating characteristic of the magnetic head may be deteriorated.

Thin film magnetic head and assembly configured to reduce risk of discharge between the coil and the core slider


A sheet folding device includes a first folding unit, a retreat path, a sheet retaining mechanism, and a second folding unit. The first folding unit forms a first fold in a sheet. The retreat path is entered by the sheet having the first fold formed by the first folding unit, and has a stop portion to be contacted by the first fold. The sheet retaining mechanism moves a movable member with respect to the sheet that enters the retreat path, and regulates movement of the sheet in the retreat path in a direction of thickness of the sheet. The second folding unit forms a second fold in the sheet having the first fold while allowing the sheet that has contacted the stop portion to exit the retreat path.

The present disclosure relates to a sheet folding device that folds a sheet having an image formed thereon, a sheet post-processing apparatus including the sheet folding device, and an image forming apparatus.
A sheet folding device including a first folding roller, a second folding roller, a conveying path, and a third folding roller is known. The first folding roller and the second folding roller perform a first folding process on the paper (sheet). The conveying path has a stopper that is contacted by the sheet that has been subjected to the first folding process. The second folding roller and the third folding roller allow the sheet, that has been subjected to the first folding process, to enter the conveying path, and perform a second folding process on the sheet. The sheet that has been subjected to the first folding process is tightly folded in its center, and is gently curved and bulged at both ends. Therefore, the conveying path (retreat path) is narrowed at a portion from which the center of the sheet enters. This can stabilize the behavior of the sheet that enters the retreat path.
The sheet folding device described above does not take into account the fact that the overall thickness of folded sheets varies depending on the number of sheets that enter the retreat path. For example, if the retreat path is set to a thickness that allows entry of one sheet that has been subjected to the first folding process, the retreat path cannot therefore accommodate two or more stacked and folded sheets. Also, the sheet folding device described above does not take into account the fact that the thickness of the sheet itself varies from time to time.
Additionally, when the space inside the retreat path is set to accommodate the maximum thickness of sheets that will enter the retreat path, if a thin sheet enters the retreat path, the thin sheet that has been folded may bulge inside the retreat path, or the first folded portion of the sheet that contacts the stopper may move randomly (i.e., behave unstably) inside the retreat path. If this sheet is then subjected to the second folding process, the position of the second fold of the sheet may deviate or the second fold may be skewed.

Sheet folding device having sheet retaining mechanism


A saw grinding apparatus comprises a saw blade mount for mounting a saw blade thereto; a tool rack comprising multiple tool bays each for storing a grinding tool; and at least one computer numerically controlled (CNC) multiple axes grind wheel manipulator which uses each grinding tool to perform a saw grinding operation. The manipulator includes a spindle connectable to a grinding tool and is movable to a grinding position wherein a grinding operation can be performed on a saw blade mounted to the saw blade mount. The manipulator is also movable to a tool change position wherein the spindle can engage a grinding tool stored in a tool bay and can deposit a grinding tool in an empty tool bay.

Computer Numerical Control (CNC) grinding machines are becoming increasingly common with the recent advances in computer controlled machinery. One type of CNC grinding machine is a CNC saw grinder. These machines are used to sharpen saw teeth on saw blades, and there are a number of types: face and top grinding machines; side grinding machines; steel relieving and profiling machines; and shape plunge grinding machines.
CNC face and top grinding machines use a grinding wheel that is controlled by a CNC multiple axes manipulator which orient and move a grinding wheel against a saw blade tooth in order to sharpen a face and a top of a tooth. Similarly, side grinding machines move a grinding wheel against a saw blade tooth to sharpen a side of the tooth. Side grinding machines known as dual side grinders use a pair of grinding wheels to simultaneously grind both sides of a saw tooth. A steel relieving machine will remove some steel from behind the tooth tip in order to allow for more sharpening without needing a new tip; while a profiling machine will in addition grind the gullet and body of the tooth as well. A shape plunge grinding machine uses a shaped grinding wheel, e.g. V-shape, to make that shape on the top of the tooth.
In order to perform a complete sharpening, each saw blade must be first sharpened by one of the face and top grinding machine and the side grinding machine, then removed and transferred to the other of the two machines to complete the sharpening process. This means that each saw blade must be loaded into two separate machines. It would be desirable to reduce this two step process into a single step, in order to achieve one or more of: faster processing times, reduced machinery cost, and a reduced footprint of machinery.

Computer controlled multiple axis grinding machine for grinding saw blades


An optical fluid analyzer tool may have an evaluation flowline which receives a flow of fluid from a geotechnical formation and may have a cleanup flowline which receives another flow of fluid from the geotechnical formation. A flow routing system may be connected to the evaluation flowline and may be connected to the cleanup flowline. The flow routing system may establish isolated flow or commingled flow for the evaluation flowline and may establish isolated flow or commingled flow for the cleanup flowline. A sample chamber may be connected to the evaluation flowline and may be connected to the cleanup flowline. A first pump module may draw the fluid from the geotechnical formation, and an optical fluid analyzer connected to the cleanup flowline and the evaluation flowline may analyze the fluid.

Optical fluid analyzers are used to analyze fluid obtained from downhole environments to aid operators in drilling and hydrocarbon recovery operations. A reservoir is a subterranean formation which has porosity and permeability which enable the formation to store and transmit fluids. Downhole fluid analysis may provide real-time information about the composition of a subterranean formation and/or fluids in a subterranean formation. Such real-time information may be used to improve or optimize the effectiveness of formation testing tools during sampling processes in a given well. For example, downhole fluid composition analysis may reduce the number of samples obtained and sent to the surface for further analysis.
More generally, accurate data about the characteristics of a formation fluid, such as a reservoir fluid, enables predictions about the subterranean formation. Thus, the accuracy of the data impacts reservoir performance, such as, for example, production, quality, volume, efficiency and the like.
It remains desirable to provide improvements in optical fluid analyzers and methods of using optical fluid analyzers.

Sampling tool with dual flowline architecture


A rotation support has improved thrust-bearing for rotors of electric motors of synchronous pumps. The rotation sup: a stator of the electric motor, in which a hollow body is housed for supporting and containing a permanent magnet rotor, an impeller being kinematically coupled with a shaft of the electric motor, as well as opposite supports of the shaft, one of which is provided with axial thrust-bearing. Advantageously, the support provided with thrust-bearing comprises a bush of antifriction material facing a side of the rotor and which has an axial abutment placed directly in contact with this side of the rotor.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a rotation support with improved thrust-bearing for rotors of pump electric motors, i.e., a new way of supporting the axial thrusts generated in the fluid circulation pumps in order to make the production easier and to make the use and maintenance functional.
More in particular the invention relates to a rotation support for pump motors comprising a stator of the electric motor, in which a hollow body is housed for supporting and containing a permanent magnet rotor, an impeller being kinematically coupled with a shaft of the electric motor, as well as opposite shaft supports, one of which is provided with axial thrust-bearing.
2. Description of the Related Art
As it is well known to the technicians in the field, fluid circulation pumps comprise an electric motor whose rotor is keyed to a shaft, which carries, kinematically connected with an end, the impeller of the pump.
The pumps can have impellers of various form and scope of propulsion of the treated fluid; in the case of impellers with curve vanes of the centrifugal type, the pulse given to the fluid generates an axial thrust due to the pressure gradient which generates between the suction and delivery areas of the impeller. For the conformation of the pump, exactly of the centrifugal type, the above areas are always placed with the suction area belonging to the impeller in axis with the rotation shaft and the delivery in an annular region external to the diameter of the impeller and coplanar thereto.
This arrangement generates an axial thrust acting on the impeller, resulting from the axial component of the difference between the pressure field exiting upstream and downstream the impeller, such as to approach the suction mouth of the impeller towards the conduit which feeds the fluid.
In the typology of the motor pumps for fluids at issue in the present invention, motor pumps are known wherein the electric motor is of the synchronous type and the permanent magnet rotor is housed in a hollow body within the stator pack and the windings. The pack with the windings is separated and insulated from the hollow body for ensuring the electrical insulation, but the rotor is housed inside the stator pack in a extractable way for allowing an easy assembly and possible extraction for the maintenance.
In the technique, supporting the rotor with supporting bushes of antifriction material is known: the bush on the impeller side also supports the axial thrust transmitted from the impeller to the rotor by means of the driving shaft. The contact between the axial abutment of the supporting bush and the rotor occurs by means of a thrust-bearing disk of hard, abrasion-resistant material inserted between said axial abutment and the side of the motor. This disk is normally placed by means of an annular seat inserted and made integral with the driving shaft: the seat and the disk are axially blocked on the shaft in a suitable position for centering the rotor on the stator.
This disk, in a realization of Askoll Holding S.r.l., the assignee of the present application, is preferably placed by means of an annular cup of elastic material provided with a central convexity for allowing the adaptation of the disk to the abutment of the bush. The cup is further provided with engaging toothed edge of the external edge of the thrust-bearing disk.
The assembly of the disk and of the cup is housed in a suitable chamber realized on the side of the rotor by means of an extension of the plastic skirt of the rotor itself.
Therefore, in the state of the art, the support of the axial thrusts is known by means of the interposition of a suitable element, exactly the thrust-bearing disk, and of further accessory parts such as the containing annular seat and/or the annular cup of elastic material.

Rotation support with improved thrust-bearing for rotors of pump electric motors


An interior door lock assembly includes a casing secured to an inner side of a door plate and including a central hole and two diametrically disposed holes. A switch button has a stub extended through the central hole to engage with a tail piece of a lock core to rotate therewith. A press button assembly is mounted to the switch button and includes a seat securely mounted in a compartment defined in the switch button. A spring-biased press button is partially, slidably mounted in the seat. When the switch button is in a latched position, the press button is pressable to engage with one of the holes of the casing to prevent from unlatching of the interior door lock assembly from outside of the door plate.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an interior door lock assembly with a safety device to improve security.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 5 of the drawings illustrates a typical door lock assembly which includes an exterior lock assembly 41 mounted to an outer side of a door plate (not labeled), an interior lock assembly, and a latch bolt assembly 43. The exterior lock assembly 41 includes a lock core (not labeled) with a tail piece 411, and a casing 42 is mounted around the exterior lock assembly 41 and constitutes a part thereof. The latch bolt assembly 43 includes a linking plate 431 having a rotating wheel 432 mounted therein through which the tail piece 411 is extended to rotate therewith for moving a latch bolt 433 upon rotation of the tail piece 411. The interior lock assembly includes a casing 44 secured to an inner side of the door plate by means of extending screws 443 through holes 441 defined in the casing 44. A switch button 45 includes a stub 451 formed on a side thereof and extended through a central hole 442 defined in the casing 44. The stud 451 includes a groove 452 defined therein for engaging with the tail piece 411 (a C-clip 453 is used to retain the tail piece 411 in position) to rotate therewith. In use, when a proper key is inserted into a keyway of the lock core from outside, the door lock can be unlatched under rotation of the key. The door lock assembly can also be unlatched from inside under rotation of the switch button 45. In some cases a chain lock 5 is provided to prevent the door from being opened from outside. Installation and use of the chain lock 5 is inconvenient. The present invention is intended to provide an improved interior door lock assembly to achieve the purpose of preventing the door from being opened from outside without the use of the chain lock.

Interior door lock assembly with a safety device


A collapsible container for making and transporting cheese is made with four interlocking wall panels. Each of the panels is molded from a resin material with ribbed construction and with locking elements for engaging adjacent panels. The locking elements provide mechanical interlocks against relative movements of the panels along two axes that extend normal to the panels and frictional interlocks against relative movements of the panels along a third axis that extends normal to the other two axes. The mechanical interlocks also transmit a preload torque that resists angular diverging movements between the panels about the third axis. The preload torque bows the panels toward an interior space of the container before the container is filled with cheese.

Cheese is made within block-shaped containers that are also used to ship or otherwise transport the cheese for further processing. Some of the containers are made of stainless steel with permanently joined sides, and others are made with plywood sides that are temporarily held together between metal corners by banding. These containers have approximately 80 gallons (i.e., 304 liters) of capacity for making blocks of cheese weighing nearly 700 pounds (or about 315 kilograms).
The sides of the containers are assembled together to constitute a so-called "cheese hoop", which is used independently of a base and cover of the containers during the cheese-making process. The cheese is pressed from both the ends of the hoop to remove whey from the coagulated part of the cheese. The compressed cheese exerts large outward pressures against the cheese hoops, and the sides and joints between the sides of the cheese hoops must be especially strong to resist these pressures.
Finished cheese is extruded in large blocks from the stainless steel containers for further processing, whereas the sides of the plywood containers can be taken apart to remove the blocks of cheese. Once removed from the containers, the blocks of cheese are further processed by forcing the blocks through a matrix of wire cutters for cutting the blocks into a number of smaller chunks. Any departure of the blocks from squareness and flatness, such as bowing, produces waste that is trimmed from the exterior of the blocks and discarded.
Accordingly, the cheese containers must be made to exacting tolerances and be especially rigid. In fact, the containers are generally required to hold dimensions of the finished cheese blocks to within 3/16.sup.ths of an inch (or approximately 5 millimeters). However, the stainless steel containers tend to become dented with repeated use and produce increasing amounts of scrap. The dents also make extruding the blocks of cheese from the stainless steel containers more difficult. The plywood containers are much cheaper than the stainless steel containers and resist denting; but the plywood poses sanitation problems, and the containers are difficult to assemble. The plywood is waxed for sanitary reasons and must be refurbished before the container can be used again to make cheese.


A urinary collector for women comprising a urinary collector body formed of soft, flexible water-proof material, the collector body including a first or upper portion forming a water-permeable skin contacting face having a cup-like member associated therewith for fitting snugly to the vulva and receiving a urinary flow. The cup-like member is formed of a flexible water permeable material so as to allow urine to pass therethrough. The collector body also includes a second opposite or lower portion forming a urinary flow chamber, the urinary flow chamber being separated from the skin contacting face by a water impermeable membrane. A moisture absorbent material is located between the water impermeable membrane and the skin contacting face. The urinary flow chamber is packed with a hydrophobic material having a plurality of passages therethrough and is also provided with a urinary discharge outlet, the packed hydrophobic material maintaining the shape of the device when fitted for use. Urine discharged into the cup-like member passes therethrough into the urinary flow chamber. Once in the urinary flow chamber, the flow of urine through the urinary flow chamber is buffered by passage through the hydrophobic material and is thereafter discharged from the urinary flow chamber through the urinary discharge outlet.

1. Field Of The Invention
The present invention relates to a urinary collector for women and, more particularly, to a collector device which can be worn discretely under clothing and undergarments to receive urinary discharges and comfortably, yet snugly fits directly around a user's vulva and urethral meatus, such that the rest of the surrounding pelvic area is not exposed to urine. The present urinary collector device buffers the flow of urine from the urethra without the urine backflowing and accumulating around the vulva such that the vulva can remain relatively dry and sanitary, and the device smoothly and evenly discharges the urine directly to other urine receiving and holding means such as a urinal bag or the like. The present collector is particularly adaptable for use on women who, for instance, have a urinary incontinence condition such as due to injury, disease and the like, women who are bedridden or are not sufficiently mobile or ambulatory to walk to a restroom or latrine such as due to advanced age, or physical handicaps, and women who suffer from dysuria (dysuriacs), which is a difficulty or pain in discharging urine.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Known urinary collector devices for women include catheter type devices including a tube which is inserted into and fixed in position in the urethra; diaper type garments wherein an absorbent material is fitted around the vulva region for receiving and absorbing urine therein; polyethylene bag type appliances wherein the polyethylene bag is adhered to the vulva using pressure sensitive adhesives and the excreted or discharged urine is introduced therein and received thereby; and molded type appliances wherein a rubber or plastic member is molded in a boat or cup shape, attached securely to the vulva by means of a supporter and also connected to a urinal collector bag or other receiving means, such as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. Hei 2-31754, Japanese Examined Patent Application Publication No. Hei 2-21812, and Japanese Examined Utility Model Application Publication No. Hei 3-27623.
Such prior art devices, however each have important limitations and shortcomings. For instance, risk of fungal infection, such as urethral infection, nephritis cystitis and the like, prevents long-term application of catheter devices unless under direct physician control. The diaper and diaper-type devices expose a wide area of the pelvic area to urine for a long time after urination which causes discomfort and makes the wearer susceptible to dermatitis and infection. Also, the attachment and removal of the diaper requires substantial effort for bedridden patients. The polyethylene bag type of collector reduces fecal contamination related infections since the vulva can be fitted independent of the anus, however, the device has troublesome problems associated with the shaving of pubic hair, dermatitis caused by adhesives, and urine leakage which cannot be completely prevented because of the complicated structure of the vulva. Use of a molded plastic collector appliance secured with a supporter includes a risk of urine leakage because the whole appliance cannot be uniformly fixed to the body when the user moves or reclines and also raises a risk of harm to the vulva from the hard plastic appliance.
Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Application No. Hei 2-30320 discloses a urinary collector comprising a skin contacting portion and a urine receiving bag-shaped portion, the skin contacting portion including a skin barrier portion which covers the pelvic region from approximately the mons pubis region to the perineum region, and having an opening positioned so as to correspond to the location of the urethral meatus. The urinary receiving portion of the collector is made of soft material and is connected to the skin contacting portion so that the urinary receiving portion surrounds the opening under the skin contacting side. This prior art collector as a whole is compact and flexible, and urine seldom leaks due to its close proximity to the wearer's skin. But this prior art device still enables urine to remain in direct contact with the wearer's skin because the material comprising the collector's skin barrier retains the urine and does not effectively transport the urine away from the wearer. In addition, excreted urine is not transmitted promptly from the collector to the urinal bag through the discharge outlet and can backflow toward the urethral meatus, which may cause dermatitis and fungal infections. Still further, increasing the adhesiveness of the skin barrier portion to avoid these problems is counter-beneficial due to the discomfort associated with removal of such adhesive in contact with the pubic hair.


A prism sheet having a concave pentagonal structure is disclosed. The prism sheet comprises a base layer, and a prism array disposed on and supported by the base layer. The prism array is composed of a plurality of prisms aligned in parallel and one beside the other. The transversal cross-section of each prism has a shape of concave pentagon, which is symmetrical about a vertical line passing the apex. The interior angle α of the apex is 30°≦α≦120°, the exterior angle β formed by the upper slant side and the lower slant side is β<180°, the interior angle γ of the lower vertex formed by the lower slant side and the base is 5°≦γ≦85° and the length w of the base is 30 μm≦w≦100 μm. Preferably, the interior angle α of the apex may be 40°≦α≦100°, the exterior angle β formed by the upper slant side and the lower slant side may be 160°≦β≦179°, and the interior angle γ of the lower vertex formed by the lower slant side and the base may be 30°≦γ≦60°. Preferably, the length w of the base may be 40 μm≦w≦60 μm.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a prism sheet, and more particularly to a prism sheet in which each individual prism constituting a prism sheet has a concave pentagonal structure, thereby improving luminance and expanding the viewing angle thereof.
2. Background Art
A Liquid crystal display (hereinafter, referred to as a "LCD") is one of image display devices, and has quickly replaced other display devices such as a cathode ray tube (CRT) due to various advantages, for example, its thin thickness and low electric power consumption, as compared with other display devices. In contrasted with the CRT, the LCD does not spontaneously emit a light ray and thus needs a back light unit, in addition to a liquid crystal window.
Conventional backlight units are categorized generally into an underneath type, an edge type and a taper type. The underneath type comprises at least two lamps arranged in parallel at the lower part of a light guiding plate (will be hereafter described), and the edge type has two lamps, but which are provided at both sides of the light guiding plate respectively. In the taper type, a single lamp is provided at one side of the light guiding plate, the lower part of which is slanted. Accordingly, the energy consumption increases in the order of the taper type, the edge type and the underneath type.
FIG. 1 is a perspective exploded view of a conventional taper-type backlight unit. FIG. 2 illustrates a perspective view of the construction of a conventional prism sheet. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a reflective plate 4, a light guiding plate 2, a diffusion plate 5, a lower prism sheet 6, an upper prism sheet 7, and a protection plate 8 are stacked in sequence above a mold frame 9. Although not illustrated, a liquid crystal panel is placed above and spaced apart from the protection plate 8. A lamp 1 is disposed at one side of the light guiding plate 2 and enclosed with a lamp reflector 3.
On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 2, the conventional backlight unit comprises the upper prism sheet 7 and the lower prism sheet 6, which are stacked one above the other. The lower prism sheet 6 consists of a plurality of elongated projections 6a, which are arranged in parallel. Each of elongated projection runs in the same direction and has a transversal cross-section of isosceles triangle, thereby forming a prism. Similarly, the upper prism sheet 7 has a plurality of elongated projections 7a thereon, which have the same configuration as the lower projections 6a, with exception that the upper and lower projections 6a, 7a are arranged perpendicularly to each other.
In the conventional backlight unit having the above-described construction, a light ray emitted from the lamp 1 passes the light guiding plate 2 directly or after reflected on the reflector 3, and then, via the diffusion plate 5 and the prism sheets 6 and 7, enters the liquid crystal panel, where resultantly a desired image is formed. At this time, the light ray emitted from the lamp 1 enters the light guiding plate without leaking outside by means of the reflector 5, and is uniformly scattered therein. The scattered light ray is made more uniform while passing the diffusion plate 5. The light ray emitting from the diffusion plate 5 is refracted at a specific angle when pass the prism sheets 6 and 7, and finally enters the liquid crystal panel. In particular, the light ray is uniformly aligned at the orientation of 90 or 180 degrees and amplified while passing the orthogonal projections 6a, 7a of the prism sheets 6, 7. The conventional backlight unit described above is exemplified by Koran Patent Publication No. 58166 (published on Jul. 5, 2001), and other type of backlight unit is disclosed in Korean Patent Publication No. 55377 (published on Jul. 4, 2003).
However, the conventional prism sheet is structured such that each individual prism has a cross-section of isosceles triangle, in which only two oblique sides (legs of the isosceles triangle) can make contribution to the increase in luminance, thereby resulting in a limited efficiency of increasing the luminance.


A wall assembly includes at least two panel elements which are configured for contiguous placement adjacent to one another. Each of the panel elements defines a hollow internal passageway. The panels are configured to permit a contiguous placement whereby the respective passageways of the panels are brought into registration with one another. A connection element is positioned within one of the passageways. The connection element is accessible through a slot defined within the sidewall of the panel wherein the connection element resides. The connection element is slidable whereby it may be displaced partially into the second panel element. The connection element is thereafter actuatable whereby its lateral dimension is increased to form a pressure fit union with the interior sidewalls of the two passageways. In its spatially expanded configuration, the connection element provides a means of interconnecting the two panel elements together.

1. Field
This invention relates to assemblies of panel elements and methods for their assembly. More specifically, the invention is directed to an assembly of panels which may be utilized to form a wall or other structural member together with methods of constructing same.
2. State of the Art
Various structural constructions are formed by the interconnection of various smaller structural elements. While an integral structure may present certain structural advantages, oftentimes the limitations in manufacturing and handling techniques and capabilities dictate that a structure may only be constructed by manufacturing smaller elements and thereafter associating those elements one with another to construct the large structure. Furthermore, the limitations imposed by transportation of the finished structure also in part determine the approach to be taken in constructing a large structural construction.
The construction of a wail assembly is one example wherein such constraints are evident. For example in the construction of wall assemblies for rooms designed for manufacturing computer componentry, hereinafter "clean rooms", the wall assemblies must oftentimes exceed fourteen feet in height. Conventional manufacturing equipment for fabricating the elements of such rooms, e.g. metal bending presses, is typically suited for forming structures having a maximum height or length of much smaller dimensions, e.g. twelve feet. It follows that such wall assemblies are typically constructed of a number of individual elements which are associated together to form the desired dimensioned wall assembly.
Due to the specialized use of the room, unconventional building techniques are oftentimes utilized to construct such rooms. For example, presently clean room walls are manufactured using "panel on stud", construction. This type of construction uses a considerable number of individual parts to fabricate the various connections and joints which form part of a conventional wall assembly. Due to the requirement for very low particulates within the room, all panel joints require batten closures to be positioned on both sides of the wall. The need for such closures further increases the number of wall components and hardware required for a conventional construction.
Present construction techniques create several significant problems for clean room construction and maintenance. Oftentimes, clean rooms are constructed with an open grate flooring system. During the construction phase of a clean room, small components of the clean room may inadvertently be dropped onto the floor system. This typically results in the components falling through the floor and out of reach of the installer. Not only is this very inconvenient but furthermore in some instances this can be hazardous.
Due to the potential revenue of an operating clean room, the room must be constructed to ensure minimal downtime. A principal cause for downtime is routine cleaning. Rooms having edges or other surfaces which collect particulates, such as dust, can increase the time required for cleaning operations. Batten closures are recognized as creating cleaning problems in view of their creating surfaces on which dust may collect.
In conventional clean rooms the upright walls of the room are typically formed of two or more vertically positioned panels, one atop the other. The uppermost panel is oftentimes installed first by hanging it from a preformed ceiling structure. Thereafter, equipment to be housed in the room is installed and only then is the remainder of the wall constructed around the installed equipment. It should be appreciated that in many of these installations, the wall is formed around the perimeter of the equipment with many pieces of equipment actually extending through the wall itself.
In rooms of the height mentioned, being composed of multiple panels, serious problems are created with regard to the structural integrity of the wall system itself. The interconnection of two or more panels extending over such a height oftentimes results in a wall system having a tendency to bend or otherwise deflect from a vertical orientation. Prior efforts to rectify this problem have included the placement of reinforcement batons over the various joints of adjacently positioned panels. The use of these elongate reinforcement batons has not been altogether satisfactory. First, the batons are time consuming to install in that each joint must be measured and a respective batons cut to order to meet the particular measurements of a particular joint. Secondly, the batons have oftentimes proven less than satisfactory in providing the desired degree of structural integrity to the joint. Lastly surface mounted stiffeners are often unattractive and they create shelves for particulate (dust) to collect on—a feature that is unacceptable in a clean room.
There exists a need for a wall assembly for use in clean room construction which avoids or resolves the various problems identified above. Specifically, it is envisaged that a wall assembly system with fewer loose parts, having a simplified installation procedure would provide a significant advantage in the industry. Furthermore there continues to exist a need for a means of structurally enhancing the joints between adjacently positioned panels in a wall assembly. This need is most apparent in the environment of wall assemblies designed for use in a vertically upright position.

Wall panel assembly and method of assembly


There is provided an improved antiparasitic composition comprising an antiparasitically effective amount of an organic amine salt of closantel optionally a macrocyclic lactone and a non-irritating solvent system consisting essentially of an alcohol and a glycol derivative. Also provided are a method for obtaining increased levels of closantel in the blood of a homeothermic animal and a method for the enhanced protection of said animal from parasitic infection.

Parasites, such as helminths, are found in many animals, particularly grazing animals, and are responsible for significant economic losses throughout the world. Among the helminths most frequently encountered in grazing animals such as cattle, horses, goats and sheep are trematodes, i.e., flukes, for instance, Fasciola hepatica, and nematodes such as Haemonchus contortus. A valuable tool for the treatment of homeothermic animals suffering from such parasites is closantel (U.S. Pat. No. 4,005,218 and Merck Index, 13th Edition).
Closantel is known to demonstrate little or no capacity for transdermal penetration at present, so the most effective means of administering closantel involves parenteral or oral administration. Commercially, Closantel is sold as its sodium salt, under Flukiver® for subcutaneous administration and Seponver® as an oral drench. Although the use of the sodium salt of closantel in a topical liquid composition is described in WO 97/13508, there still remains a need for closantel compositions which exhibit improved transdermal penetration properties, as well as increased bioavailability. It is apparent that, not withstanding high safety margins, a lower but effective dosage is always preferred.
Therefore, it is an object of this invention to provide improved antiparasitic compositions which, when administered to a homeothermic animal, increase the levels of closantel in the blood of said animal.
It is another object of this invention to provide a method for the enhanced protection of a homeothermic animal from parasitic infection.
It is a feature of this invention that the improved antiparasitic compositions may be administered to a homeothermic animal by topical, as well as parenteral, application, and whether alone, or in combination, with other antiparasitic compounds.


Microbial cells and/or a preparation thereof of a microorganism is allowed to act on ester of .gamma.-halogenated-acetoacetic acid, and its carbonyl group at .beta.-position is stereospecifically reduced to produce ester of (S)-.gamma.-halogenated-.beta.-hydroxybutyric acid in a short period of time at a highly accumulated degree and at a high yield, the microorganism being selected from the group consisting of those belonging to the genera Phoma, Nectria, Pseudonectria, Spondylocladium, Melanospora, Metarhizium, Gliocladium, Pestalotia, Pestalotiopsis, Curvularia, Hormonema, Sydowia, Sarcinomyces, Dothiora, Xanthothecium, Dothidea, Pringsheimia, and Selenophoma.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for producing ester of (S)-.gamma.-halogenated-.beta.-hydroxybutyric acid. In particular, the present invention relates to an efficient method for producing ester of (S)-.gamma.-halogenated-.beta.-hydroxybutyric acid having a high optical purity, based on the use of a microorganism belonging to a specified genus or a taxonomic unit.
2. Description of the Related Art
Optically active ester of .gamma.-halogenated-.beta.-hydroxybutyric acid is useful as a raw material for synthesizing optically active compounds or synthetic intermediates thereof, to be utilized for various pharmaceuticals and agricultural chemicals. For example, the optically active ester of .gamma.-halogenated-.beta.-hydroxybutyric acid can be converted into side chain moieties of optically active hydroxy acid derivatives which are common to various HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors (therapeutic agents for hyperlipemia) such as compactin and pravastatin. In order to produce the optically active ester of .gamma.-halogenated-.beta.-hydroxybutyric acid, investigations have been hitherto made to utilize microbial abilities to effect asymmetric reduction. There have been a large number of reports on the production of optically active ester of .gamma.-halogenated-.beta.-hydroxybutyric acid based on such a microbial process.
These, for example, methods include: (1) a method based on the use of microbial cells of a yeast belonging to, for example, the genus Candida, Debaryomyces, Saccharomyces, Pichia, or Hansenula (Japanese Patent Publication No. 4-7195); (2) a method based on the use of a culture liquid or separated microbial cells of a mold belonging to, for example, the genus Stemphylium, Alternaria, Corynespora, or Preussia (Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 6-38776); (3) a method based on the use of microbial cells of a bacterium belonging to, for example, the genus Brevibacterium, Escherichia, or Lactobacillus, or a yeast belonging to, for example, the genus Kluyveromyces, Saccharomycopsis, or Stephanoascus (Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 6-209782); and (4) a method based on the use of an enzyme of a yeast or a mold belonging to, for example, the genus Rhodotorula, Fusarium, Paecilomyces, or Verticillium to make a reaction in a two-phase system of water-organic solvent (Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 63-309195).
However, in any of the production methods described above, there is a limitation on the type of microorganisms which can be used. Certain microogranisms cannot be used since they involve problems in that (1) the reaction velocity is small, and it takes a long time to perform the reaction, (2) the concentration of an accumulated product cannot be increased, and (3) only a product having a low optical purity can be obtained. In view of such circumstances, there is a need to establish a production method which is excellent ecconomically and which makes it possible to produce optically active ester of .gamma.-halogenated-.beta.-hydroxybutyric acid having a high optical purity, at a highly accumulated concentration and at a high yield.

Method for producing ester of (S)-.gamma.-halogenated-.beta.-hydroxybutyric acid


An optical fiber has a cladding glass layer surrounding a glass core, in which a region (preferably annular) of the optical fiber partially overlapping the cladding and/or the core is formed of photosensitive glass.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to optical fibres and optical fibre devices such as, for example, optical fibre Bragg gratings and single frequency optical fibre lasers.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Optical fibre Bragg gratings are periodic refractive index modulations impressed in either the cladding or the core (or both) of an optical fibre. In order to write the grating, a suitable fibre usually has a photosensitive core and/or a photosensitive cladding. A glass is photosensitive when its refractive index can be modified (usually, for these purposes, substantially permanently) by optical radiation.
A uniform fibre grating reflects light only at a certain resonant wavelength (the Bragg wavelength) characteristic of the grating pitch, fibre parameters and the transverse field distribution of the guided light. As a narrow band device, it has many applications such as reflectors for fibre lasers, band-stop filters, band-pass filters, or sensing elements in optical fibre sensors. An important application of fibre gratings is in single frequency fibre lasers.
A single frequency fibre laser can be constructed in two different ways. In the first implementation, a distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) laser, two reflectors are placed a short distance apart in a doped fibre (typically a few centimeters apart). One of the reflectors is a fibre grating which only reflects a narrow wavelength band of light around the Bragg wavelength; the other one can be a fibre grating or a broad band reflector such as a metal coated mirror. When the cavity length is in the other of few centimetres, the longitudinal modes of the cavity are spaced far apart. If only one of these longitudinal modes lies within the reflection spectrum of the narrow band reflector, the laser operates at single longitudinal mode. The laser can be tuned either by heating, stretching or compressing the fibre grating or gratings to change their reflection response publication reference 1!.
In a second implementation, a distributed feedback (DFB) laser, a single grating is written in which the refractive index modulation has an abrupt .pi./2 phase shift at a point along the grating's length. This implementation potentially offers more stable mode operation.
A very common fibre for implementation of single frequency fibre laser is erbium-doped germanosilicate fibre, typically co-doped with aluminium. The erbium doping gives a lasing wavelength around the telecommunication system operation wavelength of 1.55 .mu.m (micrometers), and the germanium content gives the fibre photosensitivity which allows gratings to be written in this fibre easily. The laser is typically pumped by a readily available 980 nm (nanometer) semiconductor laser diode. However, this arrangement has the disadvantage that even with the highest possible erbium doping level available in this type of glass fibre, only a small proportion of the available pump light can be absorbed. This gives a low efficiency and only a small output power from the laser, typically less than 1 mW (milliWatt). This is not sufficient for most applications. A master oscillator post-amplifier (MOPA) arrangement can be used to increase the output power, in which the unabsorbed pump (emerging from the laser with the laser output) is used to pump a section of the fibre downstream of the laser, to act as an amplifier to give a few mW of total output power 2,3!. However, the low output power of the master oscillator laser means that the noise of a MOPA device is usually high.
An alternative is to use an erbium and ytterbium doped fibre. The ytterbium ions can be pumped at approximately 980 nm, but with some two orders of magnitude larger absorption than that of an erbium (only) doped system. The pump energy absorbed by the ytterbium ions eventually transfers to erbium ions which in turn lase at approximately 1.55 .mu.m. This provides a very efficient single frequency laser of few centimeters long with output power in the range of tens of mW. An efficient energy transfer from ytterbium to erbium requires a high phonon energy glass host. The best efficiency demonstrated so far is achieved in phosphosilicate fibre doped with some aluminium.
However, the erbium/ytterbium fibre has the disadvantage that useable gratings can only be written in such fibres with hydrogenation.sup.1 which, although efficient, makes the writing more difficult and reduces the laser efficiency by introducing a background pump absorption 4!. FNT .sup.1 A low temperature hydrogen loading technique allowing very strong gratings to be written. A pre-fabricated optical fibre is placed in a high pressure hydrogen cell at room temperature for a few days to a few weeks to allow hydrogen to diffuse into the core region of the fibre. A grating is written in the fibre before the hydrogen diffuses out.
Co-doping of erbium/ytterbium doped fibres with tin has also been attempted, which does allow gratings to be written 5!, but the photosensitivity is still not strong enough to allow gratings to be written with ease, nor to allow very strong gratings to be written for laser implementations. Another disadvantage of using tin doping is that it affects the optimal glass composition for efficient energy transfer from ytterbium to erbium ions. A reduction of laser efficiency has been seen 5!.
A further problem with lasers based on previously proposed fibre gratings is that the output at the two different polarisation modes from a laser are at different wavelengths due to the birefringence of the cavity (so that the different polarisation sees a different effective refractive index, and therefore a different optical cavity length). This is normally not desirable, as it introduces an extra wavelength component in the laser's output spectrum, broadening the spectrum.
It is an object of the invention to provide a fibre which allows a strong grating to be written to provide an efficient laser, but without the difficult fabrication steps of hydrogen loading or the detrimental effects of certain other co-dopants.


This invention provides compounds and methods for treating inflammation. The compounds modulate the core 2 oligosaccharide-mediated binding of inflammatory cells, such as neutrophils, to endothelial cells and other myeloid cells. Significantly, the of the invention methods block inflammation without affecting lymphocyte trafficking. In some embodiments, the compounds inhibit the activity of a core 2 GlcNAc transferase that is involved in synthesizing the core 2 oligosaccharides.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to the field of treating inflammation. Compounds and methods for modulating an inflammatory response without significantly affecting lymphocyte trafficking are provided.
2. Background
A mammal often responds to cell injury, infection, or an abrupt change in a tissue by inducing an inflammatory response. Typically, an inflammatory response is initiated by endothelial cells producing molecules that attract and detain inflammatory cells (e.g., myeloid cells such as neutrophils, eosinophils, and basophils) at the site of injury. The inflammatory cells then are transported through the endothelial barrier into the surrounding tissue. The resulting accumulation of inflammatory cells, in particular neutrophils, is followed by generation of toxic oxygen particles and, release of neutrophil granules which contain acid hydrolases and degradative enzymes such as proteases, elastase, and collagenase, which contribute to local tissue breakdown and inflammation. Neutrophils can also release chemoattractants and complement activators that amplify the inflammation.
Although the inflammatory response can play a role in the healing process by destroying, diluting, and isolating injurious agents and stimulating repair of the affected tissue, inflammatory responses can also be harmful, and indeed life-threatening. Five symptoms often characterize the inflammatory response: pain, redness, heat, swelling, and loss of function. For example, inflammation results in leakage of plasma from the blood vessels. Although this leakage can have beneficial effects, it causes pain and when uncontrolled can lead to loss of function and death (such as adult respiratory distress syndrome). Anaphylactic shock, arthritis, and gout are among the conditions that are characterized by uncontrolled or inappropriate inflammation.
Inflammatory responses differ from immune responses mediated by T- and B-lymphocytes in that an inflammatory response is non-specific. While antibodies and MHC-mediated immune responses are specific to a particular pathogen or other agent, the inflammatory response does not involve identification of a specific agent. Both inflammatory responses and specific immune responses, however, involve extravasation of the respective cell types from the blood vessels to the site of tissue injury or infection. Moreover, several of the receptors that mediate extravasation of lymphocytes are also involved in extravasation of inflammatory cells. In particular, lymphocyte trafficking to lymph nodes under normal circumstances is mediated by selectins that are expressed by cells of the vascular endothelium in response to cytokine induction. Selectins are also involved in the recruitment of neutrophils to the vascular endothelium during inflammation (reviewed in Kansas (1996) Blood 88: 3259-87; McEver and Cummings (1997) J. Clin. Invest. 100: 485-91). Three types of selectins are involved in the interaction between leukocytes and the vascular endothelium. E-selectin (also called endothelial-leukocyte adhesion molecule-1, ELAM-1) and P-selectin are expressed on activated endothelium. P-selectin is also present on activated platelets, while L-selectin is found on lymphocytes. Selectin deficiencies result in varying degrees of impaired lymphocyte trafficking, reduced neutrophil recruitment to sites of inflammation and decreased leukocyte turnover (Arbones et al. (1994) Immunity 1: 247-260; Johnson et al. (1995) Blood 86: 1106-14; Labow et al. (1995) Immunity 1: 709-720; Mayadas et al. (1993) Cell 74: 541-554).
Binding of leukocytes to selectins is at least partially mediated by oligosaccharide ligands that are displayed the surface of the cells. The oligosaccharide ligands are generally attached to glycoproteins and glycolipids. The types of oligosaccharides that carry the physiologically relevant selectin ligands are largely undefined at present, with a variety of possibilities existing among N-glycans, O-glycans, glycolipids, as well as proteoglycans (reviewed in Varki (1997) J. Clin. Invest. 99: 158-162).
A major ligand for P-selectin is reported to be a protein known as "P-selectin glycoprotein ligand-1" (PSGL-1; Li et al. (1996) J. Biol. Chem. 271: 3255-3264; Norgard et al. (1993) J. Biol. Chem. 268: 12764-12774). PSGL-1 is a membrane mucin that is disulfide-linked dimer of two 120 kDa subunits. Each subunit of PSGL-1 contains about 70 extracellular serine and threonine residues that are potential sites for O-glycosylation and three potential sites for N-glycosylation (Norgard et al., supra.). Site-directed mutagenesis of PSGL-1 supports a role for tyrosine and threonine residues in the adhesion of PSGL-1 to selecting, thus suggesting that an O-linked glycan is involved (Li et al. (1996) J. Biol. Chem. 271: 3255-3264).
Serine/threonine (O)-linked oligosaccharides are diverse structures that are prevalent on cell surfaces and secreted proteins. For example, sulfated, sialylated O-linked oligosaccharides on the high endothelial venules (HEVs) of secondary lymphoid organs are ligands for L-selectin. These ligands are also present on various selectin counter-receptors including CD34 (Baumhueter et al. (1993) Science 262: 436-438, GlyCAM-1 (Lasky et al. (1992) Science 262: 436-438), MAdCAM-1 (Berg et al. (1993) Nature 366: 695-698), Sgp200 (Rosen and Bertozzi (1994) Curr. Opin. Cell Biol. 6: 663-673) and the podocalyxin-like protein (Sassetti et al. (1998) J. Exp. Med. 187: 1965-1975). Other reported selectin counter-receptors in which O-glycosylation does not appear to be essential include E-selectin ligand-1 (ESL-1)(Steegmaier et al. (1995) Nature 373: 615-620), CD24 (Aigner et al. (1995) Int. Immunol. 7: 1557-1565), as well as heparin proteoglycans (Norgard-Sumnicht et al. (1993) Science 261: 480-483). Moreover, glycolipids contain selectin ligands that function in vitro (Alon et al. (1995) J. Immunol. 154: 5356-5366); Larkin et al. (1992) J. Biol. Chem. 267: 13661-8); Stroud et al. (1996) Biochemistry 35: 758-69).
Widespread expression of C2 GlcNAcT activity among most tissues may explain why the majority of mammalian O-glycans are of the core 2 subtype (FIG. 1)(Brockhausen (1995) "Biosynthesis of O-glycans of the N-acetylgalactosamine-α-Ser/Thr linkage type." In Glycoproteins, Montreull et al., eds. (Elsevier Science) pp. 210-259. Schachter and Brockhausen (1989) Symp. Soc. Exp. Biol. 43: 1-26). Core 2 oligosaccharides are common components of mucins, which are glycoproteins for which the majority of their mass is attributable to O-linked oligosaccharides. Mucins are considered to be essential for respiratory epithelium, the gastrointestinal tract and the immune system, by providing a protective function to cell surfaces and regulating cell-cell interactions (reviewed in Hounsell et al. (1996) Glycoconjugate J. 13: 19-26; Strous and Dekker (1992) Crit. Rev. Biochem. Mol. Biol. 27: 57-92).
Core 2 O-glycans are biantennary and may be diversified by glycosyltransferases that add N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc) and galactose (Gal) monosaccharides in β1-3 and β1-4 linkages, thereby generating lactosamine disaccharide repeats termed polylactosamines. These can be further modified with sialic acid (Sia) and L-fucose (Fuc) linked at terminal positions. Such modifications to core 2 O-glycan biosynthesis can provide the oligosaccharide ligands for the selectin family of leukocyte adhesion molecules (FIG. 1)(reviewed in Lasky (1995) Annu. Rev. Biochem. 64: 113-139; Lowe (1997) Kidney Int. 51: 1418-1426; Springer (1995) Annu. Rev. Physiol. 57: 827-72). Both lymphocyte homing and neutrophil recruitment in inflammation require the α1-3 fucosyltransferase VII (FucT-VII) enzyme (Maly et al. (1996) Cell 86: 643-653), thus suggesting that a fucosylated oligosaccharide is involved in selectin adhesion. The FucT-VII enzyme can act on N- and O-linked glycans, as well as on glycolipids.
A key branching enzyme that controls O-glycan structural diversity in the synthesis of mammalian O-linked oligosaccharides (O-glycans) is the core 2 β1-6 N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase (C2 GlcNAcT)(Bierhuizen and Fukuda (1992) Proc. Nat'l. Acad. Sci. USA 89: 9326-9330); Williams and Schachter (1980) J. Biol. Chem. 255: 11247-11252). Kumar et al. reported that transfecting a gene that encodes the core 2 β1-6 N-acetylglucosaminyl-transferase into Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells that also express PSGL-1 and the fucosyltransferase resulted in high affinity binding to P selectin (Blood (1996) 88: 3872-3879).
Core 2 O-glycan synthesis is also reportedly involved in regulation of lymphoid cell physiology and immune responses (Tsuboi and Fukuda (1997) EMBO J. 16: 6364-6373). Antigen-mediated activation of peripheral T and B cells is characterized by upregulation of core 2 GlcNAc-T activity and branched O-glycans on CD43 (Baum et al. (1995) J. Exp. Med. 181: 877-887); Pilleretal. (1988) J. Biol. Chem. 263: 15146-15150). Core 2 GlcNAc-T has also been implicated in Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome (WAS)(Higgins et al. (1991) J. Biol. Chem. 266: 6280-6290); Piller et al. (1991) J. Exp. Med. 173: 1501-1510), AIDS (Fox et al. (1983) J. Immunol. 131: 762-7), and leukemia (Brockhausen et al. (1991) Cancer Res. 51: 1257-1263; Saitoh et al. (1991) Blood 77: 1491-9).
Leukocyte extravasation, lymphocyte trafficking, and other processes thus apparently involve oligosaccharide structures that require core 2 GlcNAc transferase. This has hampered the ability to develop treatments that are effective against chronic and otherwise undesirable inflammation but do not compromise the body's ability to mount an effective defense against pathogens and other agents. Ideally, such treatments would interfere with the inflammatory response at an early stage, while not having an adverse effect on the lymphocyte-mediated immune responses. The present invention fulfills this and other needs.

Use of core 2 G1cNAc transferase inhibitors in treating inflammation

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